Chapter 5
A day passes and nothing happens. They don’t even get a glimpse of Tony or a word as to where he is. All they know is that he’s alive, otherwise they would have an irate Ross on their hands. Everyone keeps silent and still. All Clint can do is try his best to get the image of Tony’s limp body (clothes caked in so much blood, a pool of it forming on the ground, mixing with the water from the waterboarding, giving it a yellow hue. His skin paling by the second as more blood gushes out of the wound. A trickle of blood escaping his lips and falling down his chin as the guards take him from the armpits and drag him away. Just so much blood everywhere) out of his head. He doesn’t succeed. The fact that there’s still blood on his glass isn’t really helping
He is so stuck in his head he barely registers a familiar voice talking. At first he thinks it’s Sam’s or Scott’s. But then he realises, embarrassingly slowly, that the voice is female. Female and with an Irish tilt. He knows this voice. And suddenly he perks up and the voice has a name, a very obvious name.
“Agent Barton” it whispers for the third time
“Friday” he breathes out looking up at the nearest camera
“Don’t look” she scolds. He does as he’s told and slowly moves his eyes away from the camera as to not attract attention “don’t look, don’t move suspiciously and most importantly, don’t talk” she instructs “scratch your ear if you understand and accept this rules” he does “very well” she says, pleased but still very serious. She hasn’t really planned this far to be honest and doesn’t know what to say. She chooses something safe to start with “first of all, your family is safe” she says, and he breathes out a sigh of relief “they are well and in a safehouse of Boss’s” at this he hangs his head, seemingly in shame. Shame at what she doesn’t know “now that your mind is at ease, I want to offer you a deal” she informs him calmly. The only way to get Boss out of there was with their help, but they probably wouldn’t give it willingly, seeing as it was to help Boss and not their precious Captain. So, she had to give them something in exchange “I can brake miss Maximoff, mister Wilson, mister Lang and yourself out of here-” he interrupts her by raising a finger of his right hand and using morse-code to ask a question
T O N Y ?
She pauses. What? “you... want to know about Boss?” anyone could hear the confusion in her voice and he frowns, answering simply
Y E S
“Why?” she asks, suspicion clear in her voice as to what his motive could be to ask about Boss, and she notes he frowns even more
I C A R E
“Yeah, right” she scoffs, skeptical. Like any of these people cares about Boss. They proved they don’t, so why is he trying to trick her into thinking the opposite?
I D O
“Well, you are shit at showing it” she replied, angry now
P L E A S E
She huffed “We don’t have time for this” she said coldly before noticing his hopeful expression crumbling into one of defeat “he’s fine” she concedes, and his whole frame relaxes the tiniest bit, and yeah, you can’t fake that, so she keeps going “Boss is unconscious, the bullet almost pierced an artery in his shoulder, he just came out of surgery where they were able to get all of the bullet’s fragments” she said before sighing “he’ll be fine” she reassured him, and he relaxes even more
T H A N K Y O U
“If you really care about Boss, please, help me get him out of here” she pleads him “I can get you out, I will get you out, but I need help with Boss. Please, help me?”
Y E S
“Really?” she asks softly, surprised at his agreeing so easily
N E E D T O N Y S A F E
His response is so quick she almost misses the movement of his fingers. She's so stunned she doesn’t answer for a moment. “Yeah, me too” she says even more softly than before. She collects herself. There isn’t time for this “I’m forming a plan” she tells him and they start planning
Hours later he is doing push-ups after having done countless other exercises, repeating in his head all the information Friday has given him. The number of guards. The number of corridors. The number of rooms. The exact number of rights and lefts there are between the cells and the room where their weapons are kept and between that room and where Wanda is kept. The number of cameras and where they are. The number of possible escape routes. And, most importantly, where they keep Tony
He keeps going through his exercises even when his limbs tremble and his muscles burn.
The others, knowing something is up if he is making this much exercise after days of doing nothing, are imitating him, doing similar exercises to get ready for whatever is coming.
They have a week. A week to get ready. A week to memorise and exercise.
They don’t speak but there's a silent agreement between them
They're going to save Tony.
At first, Tony reflects, he didn’t register the pain. It went unnoticed in his haze filled mind. His thoughts are slow and he barely remembers his name, let alone what happened to him. It was... peaceful
Welp, that ends fast enough.
Suddenly there’s a white hot pain spreading from his left shoulder, and he almost screams in agony. He barely notices that he isn’t restrained as he curls in on himself, his left arm hanging limply, cradled by his right. For a moment he just focuses on the pain, not thinking of the repercussions of what just happened. But then, after he spends who knows how long on his side, rocking back and forth, a ringing in his ears and his arm hurting profusely, he realizes the severity of the situation. They shot his shoulder, his left shoulder. What if there is nerve damage- he needs his hands, he needs his hands. He can’t work without both his hands. And his whole arm feels numb. He can’t- he can’t feel his hand. He starts to hyperventilate and the world loses its focus.
And then he’s out
He wakes up various times, and he can barely register them in his mind. None of them feel different from one another, and they start to blur together. None of them feel too important, either. In some there is Ross, blathering about one thing or another with the doctor and the words infection and necrosis pop up amongst others. And, rationally, he knows what they mean, he knows they are scary, dangerous words, and that he should start worrying, but he can’t honestly bring himself to care. But somewhere along the line, another, more dangerous, way scarier word is brought up, and he can’t help but whimper in fear as they talk about it, completely ignoring him. The doctor tries to convince Ross to choose another route, any other route, too bad Ross heard his whimper at that hideous word, and ended the discussion with a simple “just cut the whole thing off”.
And at that, at that Tony screams