Intergalactic

The moment Rhodey said Carol, Tony couldn’t help but stare at the blonde walking towards them, her hair a little flat after taking off the helmet or at least he thought it was a helmet he wasn’t entirely sure, she had a scowl on her face her eyes looking everywhere as if in search of someone. Tony remembered his best friend’s once crush on a woman named Carol, he remembered seeing her during a visit to the base, before she all but vanished from their lives. Tony had only met her once or twice, he couldn’t remember for certain, those years were a little hazy and there were too many regrets there, but he also remembered that Rhodey had pinned for the woman but never did anything about his feelings, it mostly had to do with another woman at the time. He remembered that it was one of a few times in their friendship where his best friend had gotten shitfaced drunk about the relationship he couldn’t have.

“They’re so good together,” Rhodey had said looking at Tony with this glassy eyed look. “I can’t get between that, and there’s a kid, they’re happy, so I’ll drink to my crush, and I’ll let it die.”

Tony was never sure about how much Rhodey remembered from that day, but he had let go, dated some random girls for a while that suspiciously looked like Carol and tried to move on. It wasn’t until he had heard about her dying that the man broke down crying once again, he was glad that she had had a happy life. Tony tried his best to be there for him for that, because he had been there for him when his parents died, and even more when Jarvis had died. That was when Rhodey had lost the happiness inside of himself and threw everything he could into his work. He had even become friends with Maria Rambeau and her daughter, who had been his last links to Carol Danvers. Even with only the memory, Tony remembered that there were times that Rhodey would just disappear, he would visit the Rambeau girls bringing them gifts and they would hang out, Rhodey usually helping out around the house, or at least that’s what he had told Tony.

Before Tony himself had become Iron Man, he remembered the day that Rhodey had gotten a frantic call from Monica Rambeau, her mother had gone missing during a mission, like with Tony, Rhodey searched for Maria, she had become a sister to him and he didn’t want to let Monica down, the woman’s body had been recovered soon after. He had lost a friend after that, and Tony had been so involved in himself that he hadn’t been there for Rhodey. Tony wasn’t sure what had happened to Monica after the snap, but the reappearance of Carol Danvers was going to throw so much of the man’s equilibrium out of place that Tony wasn’t sure about how his friend was going to survive this new development.

She looked different than Tony remembered, but he really didn’t remember much from the time, he had just started running Stark Industries and was dealing with so much loss. He was lucky he remembered anything that happened in the early nineties, he was sure that there had been some kind of explosion on the highway or something, but he really couldn’t remember. Something about a huge fight happening between an old lady and some woman, but it was before cell phones were really a thing, so no one really knew what had happened. Tony had just brushed it off, he had had bigger things to worry about.

Just as she walked towards them, Rhodey was about to launch himself towards the woman as fast as his mechanical legs could take him, but Tony was wary of new visitors, stopping his best friend from moving forward. They didn’t know if this was the same woman that Rhodey had known all those years ago, she could be someone that Thanos had sent. Tony just stood there, holding Rhodey back, Nebula on his other side, she looked over at the new arrival with caution

“What happened,” he heard Steve said as the man rushed out of the building still holding onto those glove shield things that apparently T’Challa had given him. Which only made Tony feel a little guilty for still having the shield down in his workshop. He needed to take the chance and give it back, they needed to move forward in all of this if they were really going to try and fix everything.

“It looks like we have another visitor,” Tony motioned to Carol who looked at them warily. “I honestly don’t know where she came from because last, I heard she had died in the nineties, but if Fury can find you then, I guess anything is possible.”

Tony couldn’t help but look over and see the man standing next to him, his clothes were a little looser, not the same tight shirts they had all made fun of over the years, the beard was still a sight to see, but Tony missed the clean shaved Captain America he had come to know. Steve’s depression beard was just another reminder of what had happened between the two of them in the last few years. Tony as much as he didn’t want to have a fight with Steve, was still holding onto some of the resentment over it all. He had the urge to tinker, he needed a moment where he wasn’t overwhelmed by how many people were around them, how much had changed, or the fact that there were a lot of people missing from their lives.

Even now he still couldn’t get a hold of Pepper and Happy and he wasn’t sure what to do about that, he didn’t know if he could deal with anymore loss. Instead of saying anything else, he tapped Steve’s shoulder and walked off in search of Bruce, with the need to help Vision’s recovery along a little more. He knew that he was leaving behind Steve to deal with whatever the hell was happening out there, he knew it wasn’t the best to just walk away but he couldn’t stop thinking about everything, even after a good night’s rest and waking up wrapped up in a super soldier, there were still so many things he needed to get off of his chest, but he didn’t want to tip the balance over whatever for of peace they had gained. Too many were gone, their friends and family were hurting, he didn’t want to have that conversation he just wanted to let it go, and if the only way he could do it was to walk away at that moment and collect his thoughts, well that’s what he was going to do.

Steve stood there watching as Tony walked off, he wanted to follow the other man, but instead he opted to greet their new visitor, Rhodes and Nebula next to him, Nebula looking at Tony’s retreating figure like she wanted to follow him as well. There had been something in Tony’s eyes just before he walked away, and Steve couldn’t bring himself to ask what was wrong. It was still all too fresh in their minds, and he was sure that somewhere he still wasn’t forgiven for all the wrongs that had happened between them. That morning had been a surprise, the fact that Tony had felt comfortable enough to relax around him after Siberia, after the decimation around them, but it was still a fragile bond and one he didn’t want to push too far.

Their new visitor was walked over to them, Steve couldn’t help but look at Rhodes who was smiling like he had just won the lottery, the man was beaming as if the sun had just risen in front of him, “Where’s Fury?” she asked him directly. Nodding at Rhodes before she addressed him, which meant that there was something bigger at play.

“Gone,” he said wondering why she hadn’t asked Rhodes about Fury when it looked like they knew each other, but pushed it aside. “How do you know Fury?”

“We met the last time I was here, he helped me and I helped him, I told him that if he ever needed me to send me a message,” she said and he could see a twinge of sadness in her eyes before it was gone.

“I guess it was something he did before Thanos killed half of every living thing on this planet, and the universe as a whole,” he said to her before turning towards Rhodes. “How do you two know each other?” asking the question that was on his mind from the moment he saw the smile on the other man’s face.

“Air Force, we trained at the same base a long time ago,” Rhodes answered, a hint of something more there, but Steve knew that it wasn’t his place to ask, instead he nodded his head and motioning for them to follow, Nebula walking towards the far end of the conference room that they had been working out of until Tony had come back, Sharon and Nat were working on finding out who lived amongst the heroes that they knew. Behind him Rhodes and their newest arrival talked in hushed tones, before putting quieting as they approached the table.

“Did Fury leave anything behind,” Steve asked looking over at the continuing images of everyone they had lost just weeks before.

 “Ross said that Fury left something next to his car, something that was beeping,” Sharon said looking at the woman standing next to Steve. “I’m guessing she was the one on the other side of that considering her outfit.”

“What do you mean?” Steve was honestly confused but it’s been a very trying time for all of them, so he didn’t know what was up from what was down.

Sharon instead walked over to one other the other workstations and pulled out a machine that he hadn’t ever seen, “This was where we found Fury’s car, when we found it, well it was on and there was a symbol on it, the same one that’s on her outfit.”

“There’s more to SHIELD than what Fury told us,” Nat said to him while the holoscreens worked in front of her. “I feel like even when we dug up all of their secrets that there were things that had been deliberately left out.”

“It was probably a good thing that Fury was so paranoid then,” he said, even though he hated the secrets that Fury had kept when everything had happened.

“The real question is who exactly are you?” Sharon had asked looking directly at the woman standing at the center of all of the questions they currently had. “And where have you been all of this time?”

“My name is Carol Danvers, or Captain Marvel if you want the other identity I go by and I’ve been out there working with other planets over the years, Fury could have contacted me at any time, but he didn’t until now and I want to know why, considering how you’re all working at this moment, why didn’t he call when everything was at its worse.”

Because Fury had the Avengers, and Steve knew that, except they were too stupid to actually listen to anyone and instead found themselves split up. Steve could feel the churning in his gut, the feeling that he had messed up the moment he had made one decision. And even if Tony could forgive him, he knew for a fact that they still had to work through a lot of what had happened.

“Because he didn’t need you, or at least he thought he hadn’t needed you,” Steve said knowing just how much of this was truly his fault.

“That’s a conversation for another day,” Natasha said her eyes looking at picture after picture of everyone they’ve confirmed to be dead, she wanted to stop him from saying any more, but the guilt had been building up for weeks along with the anger that he had been holding in against Thanos. “Right now, we just have to worry about how to reverse the effects of what Thanos did, and if you can help that’s fine by us, if not I don’t really care.”

Steve knew that Natasha was a natural leader, more so then he felt most days, he could lead the Avengers until he was blue in the face, but look where it got them, and he didn’t know if he had it in him to try again. “You work together and figure out the next steps in whatever it is we’re doing, I’m going to check in with Tony and Bruce and see if there’s anything we can do to find out where Thanos had gone off too.”

He didn’t wait for a reply, he just walked off, just the thought of him not being able to be a real leader anymore, the thought that he had let this all happen all because he hadn’t told Tony about his parents, that he hadn’t listened to Tony at all after the whole Ultron incident. He needed to make amends with it all, but he also needed to forgive himself for his past mistakes and he knew that it was going to take a long time to do so, and that wasn’t something that they really had a lot of.

Tony walked into the lab where Bruce was working on Vision’s vital signs, Shuri long gone after passing out from working too much without sleep. They had all lost something, but she had lost her brother and Tony understood how that kind of pain was going to drive her, hopefully in a better direction than his own pain had driven him when he had found out the reason why he had lost his mother.

“Is there anything we can do to speed this along?” he asked wondering if what Vision really needed was the stone, or a variation on the stone itself.

“I don’t know, by all means he should have woken up by now, but he hasn’t and I’m not sure why, maybe he needs the mind stone, but we don’t have that and there’s no way to get it either,” Bruce said putting together another calculation on the screen. “You wouldn’t know where we could find another stone do you?”

Tony knew that it was a joke but they needed that stone, they needed Vision, and mostly he needed to hear that something was going right for once, “Think we could make one,” he said knowing that it was a long shot, but he had been thinking about finding a way to synthesize something for Vision. “I mean, I did create an element in the basement of my Malibu house so who knows what we’re capable of right now.”

“Are you looking for something to do?”

“Yes, and honestly I don’t know where to start Big Green, I really don’t know,” he sighed before sitting in the chair next to Bruce. “When I had to get here, when it was just me and Nebula, there was a million things to worry about, a million things to do, and now I feel a little lost about where I should start.”

“It’s because you do too much sometimes, but right now it’s more about where do we go from here,” Bruce looked over at him with a small sad smile. “We lost Tony, we really lost and in the only reason nothing we did worked was because we were all trying so hard to keep everything together that in the end, we were so broken that it couldn’t be fixed.”

“I thought that you weren’t that kind of doctor?”

“Funny,” he said but sighed as he pulled away from the calculations he had been running. “I’m not, but I guess maybe it’s what we need right now.”

“Yeah well our resident therapist got dusted so we’re going to have to deal with everything on our own,” Tony said feeling guilty as he said it, he wasn’t close to Sam Wilson, he wishes that he had been closer to the man, but the divide was already there between his world and Steve’s. As he thought about it all he looked at the stillness inside of the cradle, Vision inside, but nothing was truly working. “Do we still have the notes on the stone?”

“Yeah, they’re on one of the screens,” Bruce said pointing towards the mixture of screens all around them, “but I’ve been looking at everything for so long and nothing makes any sense, so I really don’t know where to start.”

“We start at the beginning... well without accidentally creating a murderbot,” he said heading over to the holoscreen that held all of their notes that they had collected about the mind stone, from before Vision came to be, even some that Tony had gotten from him after he had come to life. He wondered if there was a way to make everything work. Pulling up the notes from the element that had once powered his heart and working on calculations about the powers of the stone, Tony and Bruce worked on every calculation they could think about. Nothing was working, and Tony knew that Bruce was a little frayed at that point. The battle of New York felt like a million years ago, that first conversation in the lab when they were on the helicarrier, everything felt like a horrible dream that led to this.

They were at it for a little while before the cradle sent a shock through the system, Tony thought it could have been an aftereffect of Thor’s powers, but it ended up electrocuting Bruce, and sending out the Hulk for the first time in weeks. The problem with that was the Tony had been right next to him when it had happened, and Bruce had knocked him into the wall on the far side of the room. He didn’t hear the doors open, all he knew was that one moment he was trying to breathe again, and the next Steve was standing in front of him.

“What did I tell you about pushing Bruce too far with your jokes?” Steve said, and Tony couldn’t help but want to push the man away again. They had lasted one day without a fight, he was still staring at this bearded version of Captain America and it felt like nothing had actually changed between them, like nothing was ever going to change, they would fight and fight over anything even when it wasn’t Tony’s fault.

“Yeah well now we have a Hulk, so it shouldn’t really matter,” he said, even though it wasn’t his fault that it had happened. Well except that he probably broke something when he was sent flying.

“It matters when one moment you two are fine and the next you’re next to a broken wall because he sent you flying across the room,” Steve huffed at him. “You need to learn to think before you do something stupid.”

The Hulk stood there for a moment, it was the most normal thing that Tony had ever seen, almost like Bruce had him in control, but the moment was gone when the Hulk smashed his way through one of the glass walls, grumbling about being woken up. From the other side Valkyrie and Nebula followed the Hulk after rushing over from the sound, Hulk acknowledging the Asgardian as if they were friends before pushing his way down the hallway.

“You want to have this fight then have at it Rogers,” Tony said not having the urge to call the man Steve because he couldn’t bring himself to remember the night before. The flair of hope for something more. “We’ve been brewing towards it for how long now,” Tony couldn’t help but feel the push of his ribs against his chest, the Hulk had done a number on him and he knew he was bruising at that moment. Hoping his ribs weren’t broken he looked up at the eyes of the man who had been a part of his life, whether dead or alive.

Tony heard the tell tale sounds of footsteps, he knew that their friends were there looking at what had happened but all he could do was look at the paragon of all that was good and holy in his life and want to punch him. It was always one step forward and three steps back with the two of them, and it felt like there was never going to be a common ground no matter how hard they tried.

“You know what kills me is that you’re angry at me for something that wasn’t my fault, that for some reason if I defended myself against what had happened you wouldn’t have listened to me,” he said, his ribs hurting as his breath left him. “Even with what happened with Thanos, I saw it coming, I saw that god damned mothership on the other side of the wormhole, I saw it in the vision that Wanda had given me, I wanted us to stay together, but no you had your own agenda.”

Steve looked at him like Tony had physically punched him in the face, for some reason it reminded him of the first time the mind stone had messed with them, “I needed you, I needed my family with me, I told you all that this was coming, and nope no one listened to me, Bucky was more important, your freedom was more important, I wanted to put a suit of armor around the world and protect what was precious to us, because that’s what we needed.”

“Well, that didn’t work out now did it,” Steve said and it almost felt like he was going to fight back, as the other man stepped closer to him. Tony was so tired of fighting but it was just another reminder of what they were going to be to one another no matter what.

“I said we’d lose, you told me that we’d do it together, and guess what we lost Steve,” he said his voice getting louder, and he knew that everyone behind him could hear him and he didn’t really care. “You weren’t there on that stupid planet galaxies away after some madman all but threw a moon at me and took everything away from me. But that’s what we do, right? Our best work after-the-fact? We’re the Avengers? We’re the A-vengers?! Not the Pre-vengers? Right?”

Tony could feel the air leaving him, he was fighting against Steve again and it hurt more this time because they had lost so much, he didn’t want to lose anything else, “I’m done fighting Steve,” he said because he couldn’t do it anymore. “I’ve got nothing left.”

Steve stood there, seeing nothing but hurt in the other man’s eyes, and he didn’t know what he could do, he didn’t know how it had gotten this far so quickly, they had only been together one day, they hadn’t work towards anything, and now he was standing there once again fighting against Tony.

“I’ve got nothing for you, Cap. I got no co-ordinates, no clues, no strategies, no options. Zero, zip, nada,” Tony said looking at him as he clutched his side before the cradle holding Vision sparked, sending out an electrical current, that was when he knew that he had made a mistake, he had fought against Tony for something that wasn’t the other man’s fault. He was guilty of so much it hurt him.

“Tony,” he was going to say that he was sorry, but before the words could leave him Tony collapsed into his arms, his breath wheezing out of him.

“Tony,” someone yelled but Steve felt everything muffle around him, all his saw was Tony’s still form in his arms. “Shit, get a stretcher,” the voice said Steve felt like everything had gone backwards so fast and he couldn’t stop it. The cradle sparking again next to him this time sending a shock towards him.

Everyone worked quickly around him, Tony was taken away leaving Steve sitting on the ground next to Vision’s lifeless body, the one thing they had hope for. It felt hopeless, they had no way of making sure that Vision would wake up, they had no way of knowing if they were going to be able to change everything, all they had was hope and for Steve that hope was slowly dwindling.

“You know I was certain that with everything going on that the two of you would get you heads out of your asses and not fight for once,” someone said as they stood over Steve. Looking up he saw Rhodes standing over him. “But I think you two have so much that you need to get through that it would take a while before anything went back to normal.”

Steve looked down at where Tony’s body had been, a question on his lips that had been there since after that first fight with one of Thanos’ minions, “Why did you forgive me so easily?”

“I didn’t really, I just knew that there was something bigger that we had to deal with, I know you and Tony have your issues, hell Tony’s issues could fill three hundred books and still not be enough, but I knew that we needed to start somewhere,” he said to Steve and he knew that it was the truth. “Honestly speaking, you two can’t function without the other, the fighting was inevitable, but in the end you both end up gravitating towards one another.”

Rhodes started walking towards the door, the sound of his braces reminding Steve of everything the man had lost, “Listen Steve,” he said as he stood at the other end of the room. “I forgive you, honestly, I know you and I have been on different ends of everything involving Tony, but I also know that without you he would work himself to death, and without Tony you wouldn’t have the motivation to keep going. It’s one of the reason I’m certain of this, that you have that stupid beard, you don’t forgive yourself for any of it, but eventually you’re going to shave and Tony is going to blow something up, and you’ll both move on, because it’s what you do, but this time just follow your heart.”

“I tried that last time.”

“No, you didn’t, you just wanted what you thought was right, even if it wasn’t, but that’s in the past, follow what your heart is telling you right at this moment, because right now that where all the hope in the world is for you.”

Rhodes left the room, the fading crunching sound of glass was the only indicator that the man had been there in the first place. Steve sat on the ground thinking about what the man had said, about where his heart was telling him to go, all he knew was that he wanted to be there with Tony. He thought back to that first real conversation that they had had when Tony had gotten back to earth, about how good it felt just to banter about some inane thing like how they looked.

“You need a haircut by the way, but then again I do like the little curls that are forming at the ends of your hair.”

“Look who’s talking, when was the last time you had a haircut,” Tony had said to him with a smile. “You look like Kurt Cobain with a beard.”

“Hey, I understood that reference,” Steve had told him while smiling back.

“Who taught you about Cobain? And do I have to shoot them?”

“I looked him up when I was reading about the 1990’s, plus everyone recommended some kind of music to me, it was Wanda that told me to listen to Nirvana.”

He wanted to face Tony again, but not as this Steve Rogers, but as the one that got along with Tony Stark, as the one that had been friends with him long before the fight in Siberia, without what Tony had dubbed his depression beard. So, instead of heading towards medical, Steve made his way towards his room, ignoring the laughing coming from the common area, ignoring those in the kitchens as they called out to him. He locked the door of his room and looked at the one place he had left behind, his home, it had been something that Tony had given him, something tangible in this new world. He had made friends here, a family, and even though he had constantly denied it, he had also fallen for the wayward genius.  

The razor was sharp against his skin, but he hadn’t really noticed, it was strange that what he was seeing for the first time in a long time was what the journey had done to him. Even when the beard was gone, and his face looked as it once had, he saw that he had aged. He was older in so many ways, even though Tony would tell him that he had a baby face, he knew that he was no longer that boy from Brooklyn, the man out of time, he had found his place in his new world, all that was truly keeping him back was himself and he hated it. He hated that small part of him that had tried to hard to hold onto something that no longer existed, Bucky had been his link to the past, so had been Peggy, but he didn’t need them to remember who he had once been. He saw it in the way he had carried on for the last few years, but he needed to move on, the past was just that in the past and all the was left was an uncertain future.

When he finished cleaning up, he dressed quickly and walked towards the med bay, seeing Tony through the glass window on a hospital bed. The Hulk must have done a number on him, and Steve felt guilty for insinuating that Tony had asked for it. He stood at the door, not really sure if he was welcomed in the room, but he was fine with that, he needed to gain the man’s trust once again, he needed to move forward. It was just one step at a time. He needed to see Tony for who he was, to listen without reacting, to just be there for the other man.

“I can hear you thinking over there,” Tony said from the bed, his voice hoarse as his eyes stayed close. “I’m in pain but I’m not stupid enough to not know when you’re standing there.”

Steve sighed before moving forward. “Tony, I’m sorry.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“Don’t brush it off, you were right about a lot of what you said, I let you down, I let everyone down, I’m not good a being a leader. Tony, All those things… All the things I said and did… I’m… I’m so so sorry,” he said as he stood over the bed where the other man lay. “I know that’s not enough, but I hope that you will allow me the chance to earn your friendship back,” Steve knew that it was all he could even hope for at the moment. “I don’t deserve it… I just hope you let me. I’m not half as good at… at anything as I am when I’m doing it next to you. And that’s the truth.”

For the first time since he had entered the room, Tony opened his eyes, there were tears forming, but the man laughed them off, quickly wiping them away. “You know you’re really good at that,” he said with a laugh. “The speech thing,” he wiped the tears away before opening his arms for a hug that Steve took gladly.

In that moment Steve cried as well, they had been friends once upon a time, even with everything that had happened, he still wished for more, but he didn’t want to push the boundaries on their fragile bond. “This time,” he said whispering into Tony’s ear, “When I say together, I mean we’re in this together, even if we fix everything, I won’t leave your side, I promise.”

“I’ll hold you to that,” Tony said, neither of them making the move to let go. It was a comfort that he was willing to take.

There’s a visible change in their relationship after that, Tony knows this, he understands this, but it’s still a little strange. Especially since he opened his eyes and saw a beardless Steve Rogers in front of him, chiseled to perfection. Steve had always been good at giving speeches, especially when things were going south fast, he hadn’t said much when Tony was yelling at him, but he made up for it in spades at that moment. Now, he was just Steve Rogers, that guy he got to know over the years, his friend, and while Tony wished for more he was just going to take what he could get.

“Oh, look who’s up,” he heard Rhodey say from the door.

“You know you two should just kiss and make up already, it’s bad for team moral if you keep fighting because you want to get into each other’s pants,” Natasha said walking in past Rhodey, which only made Tony laugh before he finally let go of Steve, only to see the other man blush. That was a new development.

“We found Pepper and Happy, they’re on their way here,” Rhodey said pulling Tony out of his thoughts.

“Where?” he said happy to hear that he hadn’t lost everyone.

“They were trapped in one of the underground parking lots at Stark Industries out in California, apparently the snap caused a plane to fall, luckily they got back into the building but couldn’t get out until crews started digging,” Natasha told him as she sat on one of the plastic chairs next to the bed. “We’re finding people, and the ones connected to us are being brought here.”

“Peter’s Aunt?”

“She’s on her way, she knew that he went with you.”

“She must be angry at me about that whole thing,” he said remembering the feeling of Peter fading in his arms. “I’m angry about the whole thing.”

“We all are,” Steve said to him the blushing Captain gone. “We’ll find him don’t worry, until then we just have to stick together.”

“Also, you have to stay in that bed for the rest of the day,” Rhodey said which made him groan. “I know you hate it, but the Hulk broke two of your ribs, and while I know that you think that you’re invincible Tones, you’re not so stay put.”

“Fine whatever,” Tony said throwing his hands up in the air, which in all honesty was the worse idea because it only made his chest hurt more. “How’s our new guest?”

At that Rhodey looked to the ground, if it were possible for the man to want to hide, it was at that moment, “She’s fine, we caught up a little, there’s a lot to unpack.”

“Like how she got those powers of hers,” Natasha said.

“From the tesseract,” Rhodey said causing both Steve and Tony to look at him. “I read up on your first battle together, and when I asked her while you two were having your little fight, she told me about an explosion from a battle and a blue light.”

“That’s how Wanda got her powers too, well not from an explosion, but from one of the stones,” Steve said to the group. “How is it possible for the stones to give people powers like that?”

“We don’t know, I mean it gave Vision some advanced powers too, but that’s something we never got to the bottom of, we only really had two stones in our possession,” Tony told them, wondering just how much power those stones had, they’ll never know until they find Thanos.

“Why does it feel like when we think we’ve seen it all there’s always something there to pull the rug out from right under us?” Steve said looking over at the group.

“We have to keep looking at it like a puzzle, we don’t have all of the pieces, but when we do we’re going to have the chance at fixing everything.”

He tried to move only to have them all telling him to sit back, all he did was slump down in defeat, he hated being in medical, but it was nice to have them worry about him. He noticed that behind Rhodey others had joined. Barton was standing next to Nebula and the racoon, next to them were the Zandarians, and behind them was Thor.

“We have something,” Clint said looking at them.

“No rest for the wicked,” Tony said and made to move again only to be pushed back by Steve. “Come on Steve, we need to work.”

“Fine but you’re going in a wheelchair and you can’t complain about it either,” Steve told him before standing up and grabbing the wheelchair that Tony swore hadn’t been there before. Before he could move to get into it, Steve picked him up and slowly put him in the chair, blanket and all. “No complaining.”

“Okay, I get it,” he said but for some reason it felt nice to be taken care of by Steve. “Let’s see what our team found,” he yawned before point towards the door, “Onward my loyal steed.”