Wizards and Geniuses [IronStrange]

Cold Stitches |17|

"He has metal shrapnel in his chest." Tony heard a doctor say. He was almost unconscious, but was well aware of the outside voices. He was laying on a hospital bed, he was sedated due to the surgeries that were performed on his body. He had the right side of his face stitched up, as well as a surgery on his punctured lung.

He could feel the pain slowly take over it's course as the numbness went away. A doctor stood beside his bed, looking down at him, while mumbling something to a nurse. Tony blinked multiple times, and attempted to sit up straight, "Mhgh..." He groaned, trying to choke words out.

"Tony, we're going to have to perform another surgery on you. Don't worry, it's the last one." He calmly told him.

Tony hoarsely sighed, "For what...?"

"You have metal shrapnel lodged into your chest, if we don't get it out in a few days, you won't make it." The doctor put transparent gloves on.

"Shrapnel...?" Tony doesn't remember anything that could've cause that. However, there were a bunch of torture methods used on him, and he has no memory of half of them.

"Yes, we're going to have to sedate you again. Hang in there, it'll be over with before you know it."

——

Stephen went back into his room, plopping down into his bed, while happily crying into his pillow. He was overwhelmed, and happy that his boyfriend is safe. He was worried at how dilapidated Tony looked; he remember seeing blood stream down the side of his face, and his body had scars and bruises everywhere, he was in rough shape.

He was alerted that two of the surgeries went well, he has one left. It shocked him that Tony needed surgeries at all, whatever happened to him must've been a horrible experience. He knew that once Tony comes back, he'll shower him with love, kissing every inch of his body, he'll give him any kind of food that he desires, he'll wake up to AC/DC, he'll do everything he can to make Tony forget about his horrible time.

He wasn't sure if the others knew about Tony's arrival, he jumped out of bed and rushed into the living-room. It was just Loki and Mobius sitting on the couch, comforting each other. "Hey, any news yet?" Mobius asked, it was clear that he was crying. His eyes were puffy, his nose was red, and yet he still managed to fake a smile.

"They found him! He's at the hospital right now, getting surgeries done. I don't know any details on what happened to him, but the police said he was kidnapped. He didn't run away, Mobius. He's safe now..."

Mobius and Loki jumped up in excitement. "Really!? Oh!" Mobius pulled Stephen in for a hug, sighing in relief. "How the hell did they find him?" Loki asked.

Stephen pulled away, "My mentor provided me his location. All thanks to Christine, it was her idea to contact my mentor in the first place."

Mobius facepalmed, "Why didn't we think of that before!?"

"I know right!" Stephen dialed Christine's number, "I'm going to call her real quick and let her know about the good news." He went into his room.

"Hey Stephen, did you contact your mentor?"

"Oh my God Christine, you have no idea how thankful I am. You just saved a man's life! Okay, first, yes I did contact her. She was able to track Tony's location. Second, Tony is safe now, he was supposedly kidnapped, I don't know many details about it. And third, he's in the hospital getting surgeries done. Thank you so fucking much, if you hadn't called, he'd probably be stuck in there still."

"I..." Christine sniffled, "I'm so glad to hear that! Wow... he didn't run away..."

"No... I'm happy that I stuck to my intuition, nobody believed that he didn't run away."

"And that's a big part of being a good sorcerer, you must listen to your soul, not people's thoughts." She said as she broke into a smile.

Stephen softly snickered, "Yeah... Tony and I... we're very close. I can't imagine my life without him..."

"He's an incredible guy... he's smart and brave, he has talent like no other, he's the definition of perfect. Take care of him for me, okay?"

"I will. I'll make sure nothing bad ever happens to him again."

——

"Hey Tony."

Tony's eyes shot open, his vision was blurry for a second, but the clearness came back to him. He saw a man standing in front of his bed, staring down at him with a grin.

This man looked familiar, he wasn't the doctor, he was...

"Gelid?" Tony muttered out in pain. He was perplexed, why would Gelid be in his hospital room? Tony glanced over at the doorknob, it was burnt to prevent any usage. "What are you doing here?" Tony let out an anguished cry as he sat up.

Gelid laughed, "I must be a really good actor if you still haven't caught on."

"I... I'm confused."

"It's really simple." Gelid slipped on gloves and grabbed ahold of a syringe. "Tony, I'm going to need you to build that missile."

Tony's eyes widened, "You... you're a part of this?!"

Gelid shrugged, "I mean, I thought that was obvious, considering that my family looks a lot like me."

He remembered the people who kidnapped him had red hair, and red eyes, following up with pale skin. They didn't have the same blue aesthetic Gelid did.

"So... Tony." He teased the syringe on top of Tony's wrist. "Let's make a deal okay? You build me the missile, and I won't kill your friends."

Tony gasped, he couldn't jerk his arm away from the syringe due to feeling weak, he had to stay still. "Leave them out of this, I'm the one you want, not them."

"If you want them to stay alive, you're going to work with me and build that goddam missile. You won't tell anybody about my involvement, and if you do, your friends and family will painfully die."

"And whenever I build you the missile, what are you going to do with it?"

Gelid took the syringe off of his arm, "That part is confidential for me, it's for my family to decide. I'm the one who helps out with getting their assets."

"... and how do I know you're not bluffing about killing my friends?"

"Tony, you and I are the only ones in this entire building. The cops are about to arrive, so I don't have much time, do you accept the deal or not?"

He swallowed, maintaining his eye contact on Gelid, "I'll do it... now stay the fuck away from my friends."

Gelid clapped his hands, "Excellent! Remember not to tell anybody about me, alright?" He jabbed the syringe into Tony's skin, "This is to help convince the cops that somebody is going after you. We wouldn't want them to think that you're the one who killed the doctors."

Tony yelled in pain. He set down the syringe, "Also, you're welcome. My father inserted shrapnel into your chest with his magic, but I took it out. Thank me later. Bye bye." He disappeared in thin air.

He heard people busting into the hospital, it was the police. "I'm in here!" Tony managed to yell out, slowly falling into a deep sleep.

"Somebody... please... help me..."