Out Of Time

seventy

Exhaustion set in as Y/N trudged up the stairs of The Bus. Without Tony, sleep was hard to get. And she let things get dug up inside her for this mission. Once she got into the small area she called her room, Y/N flopped onto the bed and reached for her phone, dialing Tony immediately. She hoped that just by hearing his voice, she would be able to fall into a peaceful sleep.

"You better be calling to tell me you're on your way home," Tony's voice filled her room.

"Nope," she replied. "Just to tell you that I missed you."

"You sound tired, honey. Have you gotten any sleep?"

"Not really... I don't sleep well without you."

"That settles it then! You're coming home tonight."

"Tony..."

"I'm serious here. For your mental health, I'm ordering you to come home. I'll call Fury if I have to."

"I'm fine, Tones, really. I'm pretty sure that just hearing your voice is doing the trick."

"Are you telling me that talking to me bores you so much that you fall asleep?"

"No," Y/N chuckled. "But right now it's the closest thing I have to being with you. So it's helping me." She moved to her side, setting the phone next to her. Her eyes were slowly growing heavier. "What have you been up to?"

"Oh, you know, the usual. Spending time in the lab with Bruce, driving Pepper nuts with company things. But mostly just missing you. What have you been up to? Enjoying the sites?"

"Just your average saving the world type day," Y/N yawned. "And no, don't have time for site seeing."

"Shame. Maybe when you get back, we can head out on a vacation? Just you and me."

"That sounds nice." Y/N let her eyes close.

"Where to you want to go? I can get it all planned and ready. I have an apartment it Italy I haven't been to in a while. Or there's Hawaii, nice and tropical. Or we could rent a cruise ship and go wherever with that. You know, maybe I should just buy a cruise ship. I'm going to look into that. It might be nice for the Team too. I think that-wait. Y/N? Are you even listening to me?" No answer. "Honey? Did you just fall asleep on me?" Again, no response. "J? Can you tell?"

"With the lack of answer coming from Agent Rogers," JARVIS started, "I would assume that she has fallen asleep."

Tony chuckled. "Sweet dreams, Y/N/N. I love you." Then he hung up.

~~~

In the morning, Coulson and Skye left to drop of Mike's son at his relatives until Mike was finished getting help. The rest of them were in different places around The Bus, minding their own businesses, when a call came in. Ward answered the call and hurried to gather the rest of them.

"There's an 0-8-4," he stated, "HQ wants us to go in and confirm it."

"Get Coulson on the line," Y/N responded. Simmons quickly did.

"Go," Coulson responded.

"Sir, we've got an 0-8-4."

"Is that confirmed?"

"They want us to go in and confirm it," Ward replied.

"What's an 0-8-4?" Skye asked from the other side of the line.

"You've got exactly ten minutes to decide if you really want to know," Coulson told her, right before the call dropped.

"He's not serious is he?" Ward asked, looking at Y/N for an answer. "She can't join the team."