Swim in the Thames
Tony stood like a deer in headlights. Barraling straight toward him was a massive robot, and his only potential allie had just slipped and fallen into a river. He had two options here, he could jump into the river and save the guy who had just beat the crap of him, and possibly freeze to death, or he could slide down the other side of the roof, jump on to the street and keep running. Tony only needed a second to make his choice, he wasn’t going to let his new potential allie drown (even though he wasn’t sure the guy wasn’t going to hand his ass to him again.) He slid down the roof, and dove into the river. The freezing water hit him like a wall of ice and blackness. He dove deep, reaching around in the freezing darkness until he felt a hand. He grabbed hold of the hand and swam along with the current, under the water for as long as he could before surfacing, to make sure the robot didn’t see them. Tony surfaced and spit out water. He could feel bits of snow and ice falling on his head. He managed to hold both their heads above water, but it wasn’t easy. Water kept splashing up into Tony’s mouth and making him cough and gag. Tony didn’t think he had the strength to swim back to shore, or fight the current, so he just let it tug them along. The ice cold water chilled him to the bones like claws digging into his skin and muscle. He had to get them out of the water. Tony tried to angle himself so the current would carry them to the shore. As they floated along Tony’s mind began to wander. A million worries flooded his mind, most them were about Pepper. Pepper…. He missed her, he hoped she was okay, and most importantly he hoped he could figure out how to get back before their child was born. He would never forgive himself if he wasn’t there when his first child was born. Tony longed to be with her, she was able to calm him down and make him feel safe and warm, but more importantly he really needed to be with her making sure she and the baby were safe. She had begged him not to go on the mission for shield.
"Tony can't you please just sit this one out?" Pepper pleaded as Tony made his way to the basement, "You don't owe them any favors."
"Look, Pep, I am not just doing this for them. I can bring the target in safely. If they try they will have to use guns, and things will go badly," Tony tried to reasure his stressed wife.
"What if it's not as safe as they say?"
"I'll be fine Pepper."
Boy had he been wrong; Tony tried not to think about it, he was doing everything in his power not to freak out and have a panic attack, and thinking about Pepper being alone and unprotected was not helping. A panic attack in the middle of a river, while trying keep both him and someone else afloat, could be a disaster. The more he tried to quash the rising panic, the more it clawed at him. Tony needed to get them to shore before this panic attack completely took over. He kicked his legs and angled himself toward shore. He mustered all of his strength, and started paddling slowly toward the shore. When they got closer to the banks of the river small waves pushed them along. There was a lot of debris floating in the river, and the small waves kept pushing debris into him, something sharp scraped his side, it stung. “Gah,” Tony gasped and almost let go of his companion. His foot scraped on the ground, and he stood up; the water came up to his chest, and he splashed through the water pulling his unconscious allie with him. He slipped and stumbled onto the shore. He gently lay the unconscious man down on the ground, and then flopped down next to him. He sank into about half a foot of wet cold snow. The cold stung his bare arms, snowflakes fell on his face, and stung as they hit the cuts. His side had a awful throbbing pain, and he sat up a little to look at it; there was long cut with blood slowly oozing out. Tony coughed and flopped back. He knew he should try to get them somewhere dry and warm, but he was maxed out, he was to maxed to even have a panic attack. He was spent. Tony closed his eyes, the urge to sleep was overpowering, but he fought against the looming wave of sleep trying to over power him. He heard footsteps crunching through the snow toward them, he tried to sit up and see who it was, but he was to cold and stiff to move. Someone knelt down next to him, a warm hand touched his neck, probably checking to see if he was still alive. Tony opened his eyes, everything was blurry, but he could make out the vague outline of a man with reddish blond hair kneeling over him. He said something that Tony couldn’t make out, and then stood up and moved away. Someone else came and sat Tony up, they wrapped a blanket around him, and picked him up. As Tony was being carried away from the river he closed his eyes and finally gave up and let sleep ingolf him.