Forever and Always

Chapter 16

    "Good morning Teen Wolf." Clara lifted her head off her arm, which she had been using as a pillow, and looked over in the bed to see Tony was staring at her. He looked tired, but that snarky little smile of his was there. He was definitely getting better though. Even well enough to start giving nicknames again.

      "Please don't call me that." She yawned and shifted in her seat, then put her cheek in her palm.

         "Oh sorry, Doctor teen wolf." He was definitely feeling a lot better. And that meant that she didn't have to stay there anymore.

        "Well, if you are feeling better, then I'll be on my way." She put her hands on the armrests and pushed her butt off the seat, but Tony raised his hand, signaling her to stop.

          "I'm sorry, just, sit down. You can't leave me alone." Clara hesitantly say back down, then awkwardly looked towards the window. "So...where did everyone else go?"

"Well, uh, they found where Thanos was hiding out, so they took that spaceship and are hoping to put everything...back to normal."

"Aww shame, they didn't wait for me? Rogers seemed mighty needy for my help yesterday."

"Well, hate to break it to you, but you are kinda in bad shape. You've only been back for a full day."

"Yeah, I know, I know. And I don't think Mrs. Potts would appreciate me going out for a rematch. Not that I'd want to go anyway. Who's to say it won't end the same as last time?"

       "Well, I'm holding on to the little bit of hope I have left." Clara folded her arms across her chest and and sunk into her chair. She crossed her right leg over her left, and looked back to the window. It was silent in the room for a few minutes, but Tony started talking once again. She swore that this guy would never stop talking now that he was feeling better.

         "Hey, uhh, thanks for fixing up my side." Clara gave him a side eye. "Hey, I'm trying to be sincere right now, so maybe not stare at me like you are gonna kill me." Clara turned her whole head and gave a sarcastic smile.

        "I was just putting myself to use. I could...it smelled bad and I just thought I would stop the infection before it started...or at least stop it from evolving. It was nothing. It's not like I saved your life."  

        "Now, I'm nota doctor doctor, but I think I'm smart enough to know that in an event of an infection, sepsis can occur. Sepsis is..."

       "I know what Sepsis is," Clara interrupted him.

        "Then technically you did in fact save my life. Not directly, no, but you kept a chain of events leading up to death from forming. And now I thank you." Clara let out a half scoff, half laugh, and shook her head.

        "Sure, okay. I was just doing what any doctor would do. Whatever you've been doing with the wound earlier had prevented it, but it hadn't completed healed it, making it vulnerable still. I just fixed it up for good."

         "You know," Tony continued. "Since I am thanking you, I think I should also owe you an apology. Well, maybe several, but I'll start with this one: what I said earlier, I was agitated and tired and sick. I behaved poorly and shouldn't have said the things I said. I only realized it after I had some sort of epiphany when completely blacked out. So...I'm sorry." Clara wasn't surprised to hear him own up to his mistake. He had done it before back in that prison after admitting he was wrong about Bucky...until he ended up trying to kill him in the end for something he had no control over. But she was surprised at how genuine his apology sounded, and how he said he had several things to apologize for.

      "Oh, Umm, it's okay. I learned back in school that patients can sometimes say things they don't mean, and we shouldn't let it affect us."

       "Well then," he pressed the palms of his hands against the mattress and pushed himself up in more of a sitting position. "When I am...fully healed and the others come back with...the news, I think Mrs. Potts and I will be headed out. Whatever happens though, I don't think my services will no longer be required."

        "Well, then, since you seem better now, I don't think my services will be needed here either." Clara got up from her seat, for good this time, and made her way to the door.

        "Hey, teen wolf." Clara, her hand in the doorknob, turned her head around. "Maybe you should look back into the whole medical field. I've heard the whole thing with your dad being "the best" and you being "the best" as well."

        "A lot's changed, Mr. Stark. I don't think I could get back to that life." She said sadly. "Though, I have thought about it once in a while."

        "Well, you never know." Clara just smiled and pushed down into he knob, but Tony called her again.

        "Tee...Clara." He used her real name. She looked at him one more time. "I'm sorry about Barnes. We've all lost someone, but at least we still have one another. Barnes, was all you had though, and I realize that, and I'm sorry." Clara felt a tear form in the corner of her eye, and her throat had started to tighten.

       "Thank you." She whispered. "That...that means a lot. I'll tell Pepper that you are up." She opened the the door and closed it behind her. As she walked away, wherever she was headed, she could feel Tony's eyes watching her. They watched her all the way until she turned the corner, out of sight. She sped-walked into a dark hallway, and when she was sure she was alone, she leaned up against the wall and covered her mouth with her hand. She felt the tears escape her eyes, running down her cheeks and all the way to her chin, and either dripping off her chin or running onto her hand. She felt herself slowly fall to the ground until she was sitting, her knees bent.

      She wasn't sure why she was crying. She wasn't sure if she was sad thinking about how Bucky was gone, or if she was scared to think that this plan of Steve's, going to Thanos, may not end well, or if she was glad to hear that Tony felt something for Bucky or her, even after everything they've been through. Whatever the reason, it caused her to sob uncontrollably. After maybe ten minutes of constant weeping, her hands were covered in tears and snot and spit, her eyes were swollen and red. Her cheeks felt raw from rubbing tears off continuously, and she had started to develop a headache. She was able to finally calm herself, breathing in and out slowly and steadily.

      She got up from the floor and went to the nearest bathroom around the corner. She went in, locking the door behind her even though literally no one else would go in, and she cleaned herself up the best she could. When she thought she looked approachable enough, she took in one more deep breath, left the bathroom, and head up to Pepper's room to deliver the good news about Tony's condition.

SHORT CHAPTER, BUT OH WELL. ENJOY ANYWAY!