Chapter 4
"Stay with me Harry," Tony cried, glancing into the rearview mirror as he sped into the deserted back parking lot of the hotel where his helicopter was landed.
Harry was curled up in the backseat, breathing labored and wheezy. He felt bad for getting blood all over Tony's expensive seats, but at the moment that was the least of either his and Tony's concerns.
"Tony!" Bruce cried, pushing a stretcher, as instructed by Tony over the phone. "What's going on?"
"Holy shit," Clint breathed, seeing Harry through the car window.
Without answering Clint nor Bruce, Tony hurriedly opened the back of the car and bundled Harry into his arms carefully.
"Stay awake, okay? We've got you kid," Tony murmured to Harry, lying him very gently on the stretcher, careful to mind the large gashes on Harry's back.
"What happened?" Clint asked, looking over Harry's body, taking in all of his injuries.
"We've got to get him back to Stark Towers immediately. Bruce, I need you to just trust me at the moment and help me fix him. If I told you what happened, I have a feeling the Other Guy would be making an appearance pretty quickly, and that wouldn't help matters."
"Just tell me what I'm treating," Bruce growled. Clint placed a protective hand on his shoulder to remind him to stay calm.
"This is Harry. What I know for sure is some semi to severe burns on the arms and legs as well as his right ear, a compound fracture of the left wrist, a compound fracture of the right tibia, but there may be more unseen fractures of these limbs. I'm guessing a concussion, and possibly some broken ribs. He's got several deep wounds in his back, a few looking infected, and a few look burnt. What I'm most concerned about, however, is the possibility of a collapsed or punctured lung."
"Jesus," Clint muttered, staring at the small kid on the stretcher.
"Let's go!" Tony shouted, guilt filling him when he saw Harry flinch.
Quickly but carefully, Tony, Bruce and Clint all worked to load Harry into the helicopter.
"I brought several supplies, but I don't have everything to stabilize him now," Bruce told Tony as they began to take off.
"Harry, don't close your eyes, kid. I know it hurts, but I need you to hang on," Tony ordered. Clint slid past him and placed an oxygen mask over Harry's mouth and nose. He then clipped a heart rate monitor on Harry's finger before gently sticking a few electrodes to Harry's chest and side.
"Okay Harry, I'm Bruce and this is Clint. I'm going to get an IV started, okay? Just a small poke and then you'll feel a rush of cold," Bruce warned, pulling packages open and tying a tourniquet around Harry's right arm to find a good vein.
"Alright, it's going in your hand. Three... two...one," Bruce walked him through what was going on. Quickly, he hooked Harry up to the bag of fluids.
Suddenly, Harry felt as if his throat had totally closed. It was if Uncle Vernon's hand was wrapped around his neck, constricting his airways.
"Harry?" Tony asked when he heard the boy make a small gasping noise. "Harry!"
Harry was now gasping for air, despite the oxygen mask. Everything around him was going dark around the edges, and he could hear Tony calling his name, but he couldn't do anything. His chest felt as if it was on fire as he tried desperately to get air.
"Tony," Bruce said quietly. "I'm going to have to put in a chest tube. I've given him a sedative and some morphine, but this is still going to hurt like a bitch."
Tony nodded, his eyes remaining on Harry the entire time. There was no reason for him to be so attached to the kid, but something about him made him feel very protective and caring.
"Hey kid," Tony said softly, stepping above Harry. "Don't panic. The more you panic, the worse it's going to feel. Just watch me, and everything will feel better in just a moment."
"Okay Harry, this is going to sting. I'm sorry," Bruce grimaced, sterilizing Harry's side.
"Just a little stick really quick," Bruce warned, sticking Harry with the needle and injecting the local anesthetic.
"Okay, here we go. Harry, just focus on Tony. He's going to tell you a story while I do this," Bruce said.
"That's right," Tony said, looking down at Harry's wide, panicking eyes. "Just focus on me."
"Clint, hand me the scalpel," Bruce said, and Harry's eyes looked down in fear.
"Nope, just on me. Don't worry about them," Tony told him in a soft voice. "So Pepper and I are getting married later this year.
"We're going to have a small wedding. Just us and our closest friends. Nothing too fancy. We don't want all of that fuss-"
Harry was focusing on Tony, but suddenly something sharp was being pressed along his side. He was still unable to breathe well, and his head was becoming fuzzy with lack of oxygen.
"Mind the turbulence please!" Clint hollered at the pilot as they hit a series of bumps, making Bruce stop for a minute.
"Harry, I'm really sorry," Bruce apologized. Before Harry could even wonder why Bruce was apologizing, a blinding pain shot through his side.
Bruce's heart dropped into his stomach as he watched Harry's body arch with pain, his hand grasping at the sheets, as he opened the incision wider to stick the tube between his ribs and into his chest.
"Clint, hand me the drainage system. Almost done buddy, you're doing a great job," Bruce said, feeding the tube into Harry's side before quickly hooking it up to the system. Carefully, Bruce placed tape over the tube to hold it in place.
"Shh, it's all done now," Tony whispered, stroking a piece of hair out of Harry's face.
The pressure that Harry had felt in his chest that had been preventing him from breathing had subsided now. Now, he just felt tired.
"I know you're exhausted Harry, but try to stay awake please. You might have a concussion, and we don't want you to go to sleep right now," Clint said, watching as Harry's eyes began to flutter shut.
"Harry?" Tony asked.
"I think he lost consciousness guys," Bruce said. "I don't blame him. Chest tubes hurt like a bitch. Just let him rest. I can't really do much else for him until we land."
"How much longer will that be, by the way?" Tony asked the pilot.
"We should be arriving in the next twenty to thirty minutes," the pilot responded. Even with the helicopter's insane speeds, the ride was still longer than Tony would have liked.
"Are you going to tell us what the hell happened to him?" Clint sighed, taking a seat near Harry's feet. "He's stabilized now, but the kid isn't out of the woods yet. Not by a long shot."
"I promise I'll tell you when we land, but as for right now, we just need to focus on getting him better."
"That bad?" Bruce asked, his glasses shifting as he wrinkled his nose. He knew that if Tony was refusing to tell them now that the Other Guy was for sure going to come out as soon as it was revealed.
"I've got to call Steve and tell him to get Natasha and meet us at Stark Towers," Tony said, sighing. "Jarvis, get call my personal physician and tell him to meet us at the Towers as well. And let him know it's urgent."
Tony knew that Bruce was way past his training when it came to helping Harry. As it was, he could tell how nervous he had been putting in the chest tube. His physician had helped Tony out with several situations in which he should have been in a hospital, but never went to the media. Tony was so opposed to going to hospitals for help that they practically had a full med center in both Stark Towers and at headquarters, equipped with the same supplies as a hospital.
Tony had been so lost in thought that he hadn't even noticed that they were beginning to descend. Quickly, Bruce, Clint and Tony all began preparing Harry for transport, careful not to jostle him or hurt him more.
"The first thing we need is to get an ultrasound of his chest and lungs, and then X-Rays of his entire body," Bruce ordered as the helicopter smoothly made contact with the landing pad on the roof of Stark Towers.
"Okay, lets lift him on three, two, one!" Clint yelled over the deafening sound of the propellers.
"What's going on?" Natasha asked, bursting through the doors and out to the roof. Her eyes widened, taking in everything that was going on, and she hurried to hold open the door for the three men and the small child, looking pale as a ghost lying on the stretcher.
"I'll explain later," Tony responded, hurrying to catch up with Bruce and Clint. He had just needed to tell the pilot to go and pick up Pepper from the same place, but even those twenty seconds away from Harry seemed wrong. He needed to be there for the kid- there was something special about him. It was like Harry was his own son.
Discarding the thought, Tony and Natasha raced towards the elevator where Clint, Harry and Bruce were waiting. The elevator dinged, and the metal doors opened to reveal Steve, looking disheveled. It was evident he had just come from a heavy training session in the gym.
"What the-?" Steve looked around in confusion. "Tony?"
Tony sighed. "Look, I'll explain everything later, but right now we need to take care of Harry!"
Steve nodded, understanding the importance of the situation. As everyone piled into the elevator, he hit the number for the med center floor.
When the elevator doors opened once more, Bruce and Clint rushed to get Harry transferred to the cot in the center of the room, careful to mind all of the tubes and wires he was connected to.
"Mr. Stark, what's going on?" A man's voice asked, entering the room.
"Dr. Morris," Tony breathed a sigh of relief to see his physician walking towards him. "This is Harry, and while I can't tell you much at the moment, I can give you a rundown of his injuries. I know for a fact that he has-"
Suddenly, several alarms from the heart monitors began beeping rapidly, sending everyone into a frenzy.
"Oh my God!" Natasha cried, clamping her hand over her mouth as she watched as Harry began seizing.
Dr. Morris flew past Tony and began barking orders at Clint and Bruce. Tony's heart wrenched as he watched the boy he had only known for a short period of time, yet come to care for deeply, shook violently.
A hand grasped at his, and he looked over at a teary eyed Natasha. She gave him a reassuring nod, and gave his hand a tight squeeze. Tony choked back a sob.
"Come on kid. Stay with us."