“Hey Mr. stark, am I invited to your wedding?” peter asked as he swung by.
“I think you will look good in a tux, kiddo.”
“woah! No way – I got to tell need that I’m going to be in iron man’s wedding – is it okay if I flex it a bit in front of flash, Mr. stark?”
Tony chuckled. “How about I pick you up after school tomorrow right in front of him? I bet his face would look very entertaining. We can get ice-cream.”
Peter gasped audibly. he was going to say something quippy, no wonder, but clint cut him off.
“there’s a bomb, tony.”
“What?! Where?”
“in front of a school. I can see it from the building I’m on top of. wait lemma see- yeah, it’s got a lot of kids in it- teachers too – at least 300. hurry up, man.”
It was almost too late when tony landed on the coordinates Friday had so kindly provided. he could see a timer; the countdown was in its last seconds. no time to defuse it, no time to evacuate. if the bomb went off in its near proximity to the school, the civilians’ chances of survival would be none existent.
Few of the kids were moving curiously towards the bomb.
“Don’t move,” tony warned them.
tony could see the kids. they were peter’s age – just as innocent and pure. he could almost imagine the kid and his nerdy friends in the crowd. god, if his kid was ever in a situation like this – he shuddered.
tony faced an impossible decision – tackle the bomb and go through hellish agony, or do nothing and hope for the best.
All this kids, they had a life in front of them. they were all someone’s ‘undergoes’. somebody was waiting for them back at home. he’d failed a lot of kids who looked up to him. he’d failed countless mothers.
“who’s going to avenge my son, stark?”
He was not going to fail them anymore.
Tony folded himself around the bomb and closed his eyes.
The bomb had a shockwave way bigger than anyone had expected. the force of it pushed clint quite a few meters back and left him on the ground, but not before he saw tony getting thrown back and slamming into a wall headfirst. That self-sacrificing idiot had hugged the bomb and used his body as protective layer to subdue the explosion enough to not instantly kill the kids. clint licked his cracked and bleeding lips and shakily stood up.
” Guys?” he called into his comms.” Everyone okay?”
“’m fine,” Steve grunted. “Peters with me.”
“Nat?”
“Got thrown back a couple of feet, but alive.”
“tony?” clint asked, even though he knew he wouldn’t get a reply.
“Can you see him?”
Clint craned his neck from his vantage point on top of a tower. “I saw him wrap his suit around the bomb. absorbed the primary impact to shield the kids. Went flying – crashed into the school wall.” When the dust cleared a bit more, he could get more visual on the scene. “Call a medic unit, Steve. tony doesn’t look good.”
And indeed, iron man was crumpled at the bottom of the school gate, its head sagging lifelessly on one side. students and teachers alike crowded nearby. some of them were crying, clint noticed as he zipped down across the street. none of them were completely unharmed. most of the had small breeders from the debris that had collapsed, but at least they were alive and not toast, thanks to the man lying Infront of them.
Steve, NaTasha and peter arrived as soon as he landed.
The moment peter saw Tony’s crumpled form, he screamed.
“MR. STARK!” Steve had to physically hold him back from lunging towards his fallen mentor.
“no no no this cant be happening –“ peter panicked . he couldn’t lose another father figure too. the sight of tony lying there motionless gave him horrible déjà vu about the day ben had bled out in front of him.
“Med evac in 50 seconds,” Steve announced.
Peter struggled against captain America to get to Mr. stark. His impulse to rush over and check him battled with his rational mind telling him that he wasn’t supposed to move tony in case he got spinal damage.
The medics arrived in a flurry of motion. dr. Cho as well as her group of handpicked assistants approached tony with a c-collar, backboard, and a bunch of other stuff peter didn’t know the name of.
Natasha and Steve helped them open the armor. As soon as Tony’s body was exposed, dr. Cho and her team played him down on the backboard, and peter got his first look at his mentor.
He watched as the doctors intubated and manually bagged tony. shit shit shit- that was so bad !
Dr.cho was getting particularly worried. Tony stark wasn’t responding to anything her team did to him, and that was a very bad sign.
“what’s his GCS?” she asked.
Not waiting for an answer, she grabbed the penlight from her bag and flashed it in the man’s eyes. they barely dilated. Helen poked a pen on his finger. nothing. not even a twitch.
She did the sternal rub but tony didn’t react. Cho sighted and asked her team to pack him up for transport.
Peter sat at Tony’s side in the ambulance, a hand on his mentor’s shoulder, trying not to look into his face. It’d only be a horrible reminder that this usual hell of a healthy man wasn’t even able to properly breathe on his own. The conversations failed to bring his thoughts away from that.
“stark’s getting increasingly non-responsive, pupils’ reaction sluggish.” One of the paramedics spoke into the communicator, the penlight still in his hand. They all knew what it meant without verbalizing it. tony was drifting closer to a comatose state.
Steve sat beside him, and so did the two assassins. NaTasha was on the phone with Rhode, explaining the situation to him and instructing him to meet them in the hospital.
“There has been massive bleeding and swelling in his brain. we did what we could to relieve pressure, but unfortunately the TBI so severe that we might suffer from permanent injuries. there is a high chance that he might be paralyzed from the neck down and have cognitive, speech and visual impairment. we are sorry, but e cannot say anything until for sure until he wakes up.”
“do we know when he will wake up?” Rhode had asked. derecho had shaken her head in response. “I’m to saying it’s his diagnosis, but people with GCS of 5 or less are usually declared to be in deep coma or vegetative state. I’m afraid we don’t know when he is going to wake up, and I’ll be honest with you, we don’t know whether he will wake up or not.”
Pepper had collapsed into her chair after that, and the bedside vigil had started. Peter has been sitting there for five hours now.
The room was full of machines that beeped and whirred keeping tony alive. along with Steve, Natasha, peter, Rhodes, and pepper those machines took up so much space that even though the room was pretty big, it felt somewhat cramped. None of them had moved from their seats.
It seemed cruel that their morning had started with so much fun and now they were sitting around Tony’s bedside with said man hovering between life and death.
“Want to have me get you something from the cafeteria, Pete?” Rhode had offered. they were taking turns staying in the hospital with tony and right now it was Rhodey and peters.
Peter nodded absentmindedly and Rhode left him alone in the room to go get something.
Peter clutched Tony’s hand.
“Hey Mr. stark, its peter. the scary looking doctor said that you might be able to hear us, so here I am. may said I could stay in the hospital after school for as long as I want and I was supposed to be with you right now anyway …. you had promised to go get ice-cream with me today.
everyone is worried, you know. they don’t know whether you will walk again or not, so wake up and prove them wrong, please.”
“Mr. stark?” peter buried his face on his mentor’s chest. “m’ scared.”
Tony woke up 10 days and 17 hours later. he was weak as a kitten and all he could do was choke and gag over the breathing tube still lodged down his throat.
But that was all. no recognition at the sight of his team and family, no reaction to the doctors’ questions or pepper’s calls. no movement either. those eyes which once shone with wit and humor were dull and expressionless.
It was somewhat expected, the doctors explained. it was most likely that Tony’s brain functioning had been severely impaired and he was just a shell of the man he once was, unresponsive and unaware of everything going on around him.
“Please don’t lose hope, miss Potts.” the doctor had added. “Temporary amnesia isn’t too uncommon and this could be a after effect of everything he’s been through in the last two weeks.”
Pepper had sat beside tony for hours after that, pleading, begging him to just look at her and just squeeze her hand. it could have been that she was talking to a wall, for tony hadn’t have any response to anything she or anyone else did. He had passed out once again, and now pepper was talking to Helen Cho in the room beside. as Tony’s medical proxy, she had a difficult decision to make – whether to let him go and end his pain or try and keep alive a man completely irresponsive to the outer world.
Peter count bear to hear that conversation anymore. he left the room and sat on a bench in the waiting area with his face in his palms.
There is such a thing as too much loss. Too much has been taken from you - taken and taken and taken, until there's nothing left but hope, and you've given that up because it hurts too much. Until you would rather die, or kill, or avoid attachments altogether, than lose one more thing.
Peter had lost his father. he’d lost uncle ben. he couldn’t lose tony, too.
Tony was his mentor, his guide, his father figure, his dad.
Peter couldn’t have tony taken away from him. a world without tony stark meant a world without happiness and joy.
Peter leant back and pulled his hood down on his tear-stricken face. he was tired and he gave into the pull of sleep and didn’t want to wake up again in this nightmarish world, because on the dawn tony stark wouldn’t be there to say good morning.
Peter woke up to someone shaking his shoulders. “Go ‘away,” he muttered groggily but the annoying person didn’t let go.
“Kid!” clint grunted. “Wake up!”
Peter peeked at the sweating, clearly excited face.
“What- “
“he’s waking up! they will take out the breathing tube, they are going to check how aware he finally is – hurry up!”
The room was overcrowded once again, full of excited and worried people sitting and standing in various poses, plus doctor Helen Cho was there.
Clint remained standing while peter took a sit beside the bed. a nurse was taking out the ube from the depth of Tony’s throat and another was injecting several vialfuls of drugs in the iv lines. tony was staring up with half leaded eyes like before, but this time peter thought recognition flashed through them, but that could’ve easily been his mind playing tricks on him.
When tony was deemed stable without the ventilator, Helen Cho stood in his eyesight.
“Hey,” she greeted. “Can you tell me your full name?”
Tony blinked at her and frowned, but didn’t tell anything.
“Can you tell me who you are?” Helen Cho tried again.
This time, Tony’s mouth worked. “S’ark,” he mumbled.
“Right, that’s your surname. What is your full name?”
“anth’ny -dward st’rk.”
“that’s very good, tony! can you feel me touching your hand?”
Tony nodded.
“Can you feel your fingers?” he nodded again.
“can you wiggle your toes?” Helen Cho peeled back the blanket from Tony’s legs and smiled.
“that’s amazing! you did really good, tony. do you know who I am?”
Tony grunted a yes.
“Do you recognise everyone in this room ?”
tony nodded again.
Dr. cho turned towards pepper Potts . “I think its safe to say that he’s completely okay. ill talk to you later about his recovery processes later, but feel free to celebrate this miracle right now. don’t worry if his groggy or uncoordinated, his drugged up to his gills on painkillers.” she left.
Everyone in the room cheered, whooped and grinned, but peter was focused on one small detail. tony had looked a him, but unlike with the others he hadn’t shown any recognition. was it possible that tony had forgotten him?
Peter approached his mentor slowly.
“Mr. Stark, do you remember who I am?” he asked carefully. tony didn’t reply, but the glare he shot towards peter told him that he was just being his stupid self again.
Peter grinned and tony grinned back. he beckoned peter towards him with the hand that wasn’t grasped by pepper.
Peter took the cue and jumped on the bed beside tony. he hugged his mentor-actually, strike that – father figure and smiled. his parker luck was good, for once.