Never been more prouder of you.
Chapter 7
Never been more prouder of you.
It was nearly an hour after the press conference when they left Stark Industries.
As they sat the back of the Phantom, Steve instructed Happy to take them to the Malibu mansion.
The mood in the car was tense.
Steve knew that something had to have occurred between Tony and Obadiah. Throughout the duration of the trip, Steves phone rang constantly due to the press and SI PR management.
He could see the outline of worry on Tony's face, but Steve did not concern himself with it. He had to settle fires that were thrown in his direction and he had to do them as soon as they occurred.
"So," Tony began, " On a scale of 1-10 how mad are you at me."
Steve gave a dubious look and sighed, " Tony. I'm not mad, just a little shocked but at the same time I know you and a shocked as I am, I’m not totally surprised. You always saw weapons manufacturing as a way to continue the legacy that Stark Industries was built on. I know that you said that you wanted to put your own priorities first but I never knew that it would have been this drastic." In a sad sombre tone, he carried on, "What happened their Tony. I know that you said the things about the soldiers but what happened to you personally?"
Starring out of the window Tony said, " When you stuck in a place with a minimum chance of escaping, you begin to realize all the mistakes, faults and problems you have either influenced or just straight up caused," pausing he turned to look at directly into Steve's eyes and continued, " I realized that I have more to offer to this world other than bombs, guns, warmongering and shit like that."
Steve had a look of admiration as he stared at Tony
"Tony," he said quietly, " I've known you for 10 years. And in that decade I've seen you at you best and worst, and there's been some bad shit thought the years, but today is the first time I can honestly say that I've never been more prouder of you. But I have to know," he started with a gleam, " anyway, how pissed off was Obadiah."
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When they arrived at the mansion, Steve called Tony doctor and asked him if he would be there within 30 minutes.
He began to order Chinese food from P.F. Chang's for the both of them, since Happy had already left to go home to his wife, Pepper.
As Tony was getting checked out by his on-call practitioner, Dr William, Steve sat in the chair opposite him and he could not help but stare in wonder over how Tony actually survived.
Tony honestly looked like shit.
There were scars littering his face, and whenever he moved his face would always contour into a slight shift of pain. ‘Just how much did Tony have to endure there in Afghanistan?' Steve thought.
He also noticed the slight discomfort Tony showed when Dr Williams wanted to check out his chest. Tony had a look of dejection when he voiced, "Steve, is it possible that you may leave the room... Please?
"Of course, Mr Stark. Just tell J.A.R.V.I.S when it okay for me to return. Okay?"
With a hint of a smile, Tony replied, " When you return, do me a favour? Return with a steaming cup of coffee?"
With an aspirating, he replied "Double shot of espresso? Or an Americano? But anyway by the time I return the food should be here. I'll see you then… oh and Dr Willams, if Tony says he's alright, just ignore him as it always ends up being the opposite. "
Nearly twenty minutes after he left, Steve returned with a steaming cup of coffee and a takeaway from their favourite Chinese food restaurant.
Walking into the room he heard Tony's voice murmur to J.A.R.V.I.S, “That wouldn't be necessary as he said, I wasn't in any immediate danger… oh and please make sure that you send Doc a message that says he could expect his payment within the next few minutes since his service was done”.
Tony looked at the P.F Chang's bag with a smile, " Back to old traditions again, I assume?"
Well, Mr Stark, I for one need to eat and to be frank, I really think you need to eat something other than cheeseburgers ."
“How dare you," Tony replied in disbelief, "cheeseburgers are the food of the gods."
"Really Tony?" Steve rolled his eyes, " I didn't take you as a religious person?"
"When it comes to food… my favourite food might I add, I take any insult to it as blasphemy," he responded with a smug look.
Steve sighed, " Tony take this carton of fried rice and eat. Then you can hurry down to your lab like a hermit."
"That's what I plan on doing Stevie," he retorted and with a delighted look, he headed straight towards his lab that was located downstairs in the garage.
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Arriving at tony's home the next morning was chaotic.
He had arranged with Obadiah to give Tony the week off. It was nearly an hour since he had arrived before Steve was startled by the voice of Tony, through J.A.R.V.I.S.
“Hey, Steve, uh, how big are your hands?"
"What!" answered Steve and he began to get up from his seat, "why the hell do you need to know the size of my hands?"
Tony replied swiftly, "Get down here, I need you."
With that, Steve made his way towards the garage but was startled when he saw Tony laying on a makeshift hospital bed.
Steve looked at Tony with awe and asked, " So… that the thing that keeping you alive, huh?"
Tony turned to look at Steve, " Well its actually the old model, which I need to replace. Anyway, let me see your hands," to which Steve raised and waved his left and right hand, " Jesus, those are small… borderline tiny, but thank god since they will do the job perfectly. And anyway, don't worry is totally harmless… I think but think of it like it's that board game ‘Operation'. "
Steve walked towards Tony and began to follow Tony's instructions which consisted out of reaching into the chest cavity and finding the copper wire while extracting it gently until, Steve could not help but voice his opinion, " Oh… ah… eww! Tony is this pus?"
To which Tony replied, " Uh… It's actually not pus. It's an inorganic plasmic discharge. It's from the device, not my body."
Steve glared at him, " Can you also answer the question of why does it smell?"
“Oh shit, it really does,” Tony chuckled, “I'll just have to give you an added bonus on top of the one you will get at the end of the year." Rolling his eyes Steve attempted to continue the mini operation with Tony's instructions, "Okay now, the copper wire - you got it?"
Steve nodded, "Yeah, I've got it."
Tony instructed, "Now pull it out, gently, and just make sure you don't touch the s...
That when shit the roof.
He heard the shocking ‘buzz' and array curse words Tony was able to say. Steve, with an anxious expression, he asked "What… what the hell is happening. Why the fuck is there a buzzing noise?"
"AH! - i-i-i-des!"
Flabbergasted Steve said, “Shit… shit…shit…shit… fuck, sorry, I'm sorry!"
Ignoring Steve in the state that he was in Tony replied, "Don't touch the sides, that's what I was trying to tell you before. Now, just gently pull that out, and whatever you do, don't pull out the…"
Steve ripped out whatever was at the end of his hand when Tony slowly uttered, "The magnet at the end of it. See, that was it. You just…"
"What? I just did as you told me to, Tony!" Steve voiced, eyes as wide as saucers.
Sighing loudly Tony responded, "What I was trying to tell you," he stopped mid-sentence as Steve tried to place the magnet back in the chest cavity, " no, don't put it back in! Just put it over there, we have to hurry…"
"Why? What's wrong?" Steve asked with a look of concern.
“Oh, nothing, I'm just going into cardiac arrest, because of you…"
"What!" Steve expressed, "I thought this was safe! You told me this was safe Tony! This is very much not safe… not safe at all.”
"Well yes, it was until… until you just yanked it out like a trout! And how many times will you say the word ‘safe', "came the swift reply from Tony.
"Don't you dare," Steve said with no room for argument while he took the new Arc Reactor out of Tony's hand to place it in. After a slight electrocution that had happened inside the metal casing, the beeping noise disappeared as Steve twisted the new Arc Reactor into its place
As always Tony found this extremely hilarious as a "YAAA-OOOOOW…! Was that so hard? That was fun, right?" Left his mouth.
Steve leaned on the table and looked up at Tony with a glare, "What the hell Tony! That was stressful as fuck" He then stood up while saying, " Don't ever, ever, ever, ask me to do anything like that, ever again!"
As Tony turned to get out of the bed he looked at Steve and replied, " I don't have anyone but you."
Steve sighed but had a small smile on his face and looked down at the old reactor, " So what do you want me to do with this?"
Tony looked at it, " That? Destroy it or better yet incinerate it."
"So you don't want to keep it," Steve asked
Tony, who was making his way toward the coffee machine he said in a small voice, "Steve, I've been called many things. Nostalgic? Ya, that's not one of them."
As Steve made his way to the glass door he turned his head slightly and said, "Next time you decide to make the garage/workshop a makeshift hospital, get some damn gloves, my hands smell like pus, and purell can only help so much."
Tony gave a light chuckle, "You might not want to admit this but you loved the thrill of that,"
Steve rolled his eyes and said, " Well If you say so, however that will have to make do for a later conversation. So, will that be all Mr Stark?"
Tony smirked and said, "So eager to go home?"
"Well," Steve began," with a boss like mine, you never know what a day can hold in. And unlike you, I need to get to bed, there will probably be a hell of a lot of fire's to put out again in the morning with Obadiah returning from the Shareholders board meeting. So I will actually advise you to put away all your work toys and go to bed. We are going to have a long day ahead of us tomorrow. So I will leave and say goodnight, Mr Stark. See you tomorrow.”
"Goodnight Steve," he heard as he was ascending the stairs.