Chapter 16
Tony woke slowly to the sound of a heart monitor and the quiet murmur of conversation nearby. His chest didn't feel like it was shredding itself anymore and there was a weight gone. He already knew, from the lack of weight alone, that the reactor had been taken out. Either he had less than a week to live or Stephen pulled off a miracle and got the shrapnel removed at the same time.
Tony vaguely remembered the scramble to set up a surgery area in his lab. He hadn't countered Jarvis' initiative to let them in, not when he heard why while being carried. The lab was the only place with proper sensors to feed into the holographic displays on a level that would be needed for human surgery. He knew that and he had planned to have Stephen test them because Tony was already plotting to build him a surgery room for any future patients. He just hadn't expected to need it himself much less so soon.
"Back on the bed with him, now," a gruff and grumpy voice barked out.
"I'm going, I'm going, I'm going," Stephen's voice said defensively. "Master Rand, you don't need to push."
"Be glad the child was willing to stay nearby while you had your shower," Mr. Grumpy, presumably Master Rand, growled.
Tony felt Stephen get onto the bed next to him. This drew his attention to the fact that it actually was his oversized bed rather than a hospital bed as would be normal after any normal surgery.
"Dad is awake but he's in pain," Peter's voice pipped up from the direction of the top right ceiling corner. He must be sticking to the ceiling or he set up a web hammock as he had done in the past at the tower.
"Peter," Tony rasped in a groan. He still didn't open his eyes, they were gummed closed and he could barely breath through the pain.
"Shh, he's fine," Stephen said soothingly as he carefully fed Tony some water and wiped gently at his eyes to clear them. "We avoided painkillers because with your healing boost we don't know what standard ones would do. You were knocked out for the surgery 36 hours ago. It took 12 hours with your new healing to dig everything out. You're still healing in general but you now have a natural port for any future reactors and a mostly healed sternum and ribs connected to the sternum. Your body sort of ate a piece of Starkium which it integrated with your new port and the sternum. I'm not entirely sure how the piece of metal even landed on you but it was absorbed almost immediately by your body through your skin. We were mostly focusing on the actual surgery so I don't know that anyone aside from Jarvis or Friday can answer anything about it."
"Huh, was the healing magic taking cues or something?" Tony asked, opening his eyes once Stephen's fingers were clear. "Since we got back I always get the feeling now that I have to have a reactor installed even if I swap it out for a new model at times."
"In a manner of speaking," Stephen grimaced. "The adoption ritual affected our ability to heal. I don't know what sent yours into overdrive but it allowed me to adjust it slightly as the surgery proceeded. So while I played control on your healing boost the others worked on you. The reactor was the first thing that had to come out since we didn't have the time or resources to get non-metallic tools. Jarvis thought ahead and had certain materials already purchased and in storage elsewhere. We just had to fetch them through a portal."
"Okay," Tony said, suddenly tired. "Underroos, make sure you're eating enough with that enhanced metabolism of yours, listen to Stephen, and don't break anything."
"Okay," Peter chirped from the ceiling. Tony didn't hear him. He was out like a light.