Chapter 6
Scott is angry. Like really, really angry. Angry in a way he has never been before. It’s like this big, white hot rage burning him from the inside out. And the worry, god the worry. He can’t help it. Tony has been gone from what have probably been six days. And, yeah, he’s calling him Tony. Not Stark or anything else. In his opinion, it’s impossible to watch someone get tortured and not feel sympathy or empathy or something for the guy. He has no idea how the guards and Ross can just hurt him so… so easily.
And Scott has seen things, in prison. He really has. He has seen people get brutally beaten, stabbed, and even die in prison. But nothing could have prepared him for the torture he’d been witness to in the last weeks. He didn’t even know the guy, and yet he couldn’t help but scream as they tortured Tony, pleading them to stop. And when the others stopped, realising it wouldn’t stop no matter how much they yelled, he, throat hoarse and tears streaming down his face, didn’t. He couldn’t. It was the only way he could feel like he was doing something. The only way he didn’t feel so useless. So he didn’t. He kept screaming, yelling, crying and pleading, but nothing worked. Still, he didn’t stop. He couldn’t give up. Not on him. Not after hedidn’t give up. Not after looking at those eyes, those tortured, sad but most of all knowing eyes and becoming certain that Tony knew where Cap is. And yet he didn’t talk. Not after the torture. Not after the promise of food. Not even after the promise of water.
And now that Tony is gone he doesn’t even know what to do. So he tries to annoy the guards into tell him how he is. It doesn’t work, obviously. he tries with threats after that. That doesn’t work either. He tries to get the images of Clint’s sobs and Sam’s screams out of his head by digging the heels of his hands in his eyes. When that doesn’t work, he starts banging the back of his head against the wall. He only succeeds in getting a headache. He doesn’t even try to tell jokes to raise the mood as they would not only fall flat, but he also wouldn’t be able to go past the first word without choking up.
In the end he puts all his time and energy and anger into exercising. He knows something is coming, after all, for all his flaws, he isn’t stupid. He sees the way Clint has become determined to get ready for whatever is coming, and not only that, he had also noticed the morse code. Someone has talked with Clint and for some reason, Clint trusted them.
He doesn’t know how or when or anything really.
All he knows is that they’re getting out.
They are going to save Tony
It’s almost time, Sam thinks. He’s not sure, but Clint’s exercises have started increasing into a crazy rhythm that really can’t be healthy. But, to be honest, he’s been following suit, and so has Scott. So here they are, sprawled on the ground of their cells, sweaty and utterly destroyed by the long exercising. They’re all breathing heavily and, somewhere along the exhaustion, they have started talking about one thing or another, barely having enough breath to do so.
“What was he like, before, you know… this?” Scott asks
“What was who like?” Clint asks, stalling
Scott just looks at them, waiting
Sam looks at Clint, and he knows he’s not ready yet, so Sam starts. “I… I don’t really know him that well” he admits, and the hopeful expression on Scott’s face drops, so he keeps going “but, what I know, is that, for some reason, he is terrified of children” that gets a startled laugh out of Scott, and Sam smiles “and I mean terrified okay? As in hands shaking, wide eyes- the whole package, he is so afraid that this one time, about a month after I met him, I presented the whole team to my niece, and oh my god his face!” he laughs with Scott this time “He tried to play it cool, but we could all see his fear as clear as day! It got to the point where Kelly- my niece, went over him and asked ‘are you okay mister?’” he said mimicking Kelly’s high-pitched voice “he was so red! I thought he was gonna pop a vein or something!” they laughed softly
“you should have seen him with a baby then” Clint said lowly, and Sam snaps his head to the side to look at him, choosing to ignore the wobbly quality to his voice. He gives a huff of laughter, remembering something “I’ll always remember the face he made when I passed him Nathaniel the first time- he looked so scared!” he says giving a wet laugh, tears shining in his eyes “he kept him at arms-length, looking as if he was holding a bomb and- can you imagine the headlines? The fearless Tony ‘fucking’ Stark- Iron Man, defeated by an infant!” both him and Scott laugh with him, trying to imagine the scene. After a moment the laugh dissipates and Clint get serious, even though there is the slightest uplift to his lips “Tony is… a walking contradiction” Scott listens, interested “he… he would completely ignore a broken bone and yet make the most dramatic scene you would ever see if he got a paper cut. He would talk your ear off about stuff you couldn’t even understand and yet he would stay silent when it mattered the most. He would…” and so they talk, for hours they talk and laugh and cry about Tony. And, at the end, one thing is clear:
They are going to save Tony
Five hours. Five hours and the plan he worked so hard on will be put into fruition. Five hours and they’ll be free. Five hours and Tony will be safe.
That is all Clint can think about as he lays on his cot. He has to wait for Friday’s tiny signal, and then they are ready. The signal will be so tiny the guards won’t notice, as they have their backs to them. A simple blink in the red light of the camera. Then, once Clint gives a signal to the others, they’ll get up, and the glass of their cells will raise soundlessly, leaving them to deal with the guards. Then they’ll go through the corridor, and from there it will be a clear path to the weapons and then to the others. The guards will be stuck in a room or another, courtesy of Friday. She has passed the whole week delaying the opening of random doors enough that everyone will think it’s normal that their door is jammed and will think nothing of it. The cameras will be on a loop, apart for some which they’ll avoid. They’ll be gone before anyone knows it
Everything is ready, all they have to do is wait five hours
And then the alarm blares
And- what the hell! That’s not the plan. The others look at him seriously and he shakes his head. This wasn’t supposed to happen. The guards open their cells and grab them, cuff them and lead them away to a ‘secure location’ as a one of them called it. As they go they hear guns firing and people fighting, but before they can do anything, the guards inject them with something and his vision goes blurry. He comes in and out of consciousness and at one point, he finds himself laying on the floor of an airplane(?) or something, with Cap smiling down at him
He goes to smile but then he notices,
Tony isn’t there
And, for the first time he finds himself thinking
god, I hate that smile
For the first time in weeks, Steve is happy. He did it, he freed Sam, Clint, Wanda and Ant Man. He did it.
He saved them