𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐃 𝐓𝐎 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐈𝐑𝐄 ~ 𝐭𝐨𝐧𝐲 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐤

Part Twenty Two

You woke up in your bed and immediately felt a huge headache. With a groan, you turned around to the other side of the bed when the door slammed open and Tony walked inside, a huge grin on his face. "Good morning, sunshine."

"Get out." You said and grabbed a pillow, putting it over your face in an attempt to block out Tony's voice, but you could still hear him.

"No, it's time to get up." He moved the curtains to the side and you groaned.

Seeing as Tony wasn't giving up, you groaned and sat up in bed, instantly being met with the sun shining directly into your face.

You looked around the room and then back at Tony. "How did I get here?"

"I brought you here."

You glared at Tony. "Don't tell me we-"

"Nothing happened." Tony assured you. "Would it be so bad, though? We're married, it's normal for us to have sex. We had it, like, hundreds of times."

"Yes." You cut him off. "I'm still angry at you."

Tony rolled his eyes. "Right. How do you feel?"

"Like I'm gonna throw up." You said, rubbing your hand over your forehead.

"I brought you some medicine. It's on the table right there." He pointed to the pill he brought you earlier and a glass of water. "If you need anything, I'll be in the garage."

You nodded your head and Tony left the room.

A few hours later, your phone started to ring. You groaned and rolled over in bed to get it. You saw Tony's name on the screen and rolled your eyes before answering.

"Sweetheart, how big are your hands?"

"What?"

"How big are your hands?"

"I don't understand why... You know what, Tony, if this is another one of your jokes I'm gonna be seriously pissed. You woke me up."

"Damn, I gotta admit it. You're hot when you're angry. Get down here. I need you."

You rolled your eyes - again- before getting up from the bed. You walked down the stairs to the garage, where you found Tony lying shirtless on a chair." Hey. Let's see them. Show me your hands."You came closer to him and showed him your hands. Tony immediately noticed you didn't wear your ring anymore, while he wasn't taking his off. "Oh, wow. They are small. " Tony said and you noticed the change in his tone. "Very petite, indeed. I just uh.. need your help for a sec."

Your eyes fell on the blue, glowing circular device in his chest. "Oh, my God, is that the thing that's keeping you alive?"

"It was." Tony nodded."It is now an antique. This is what will be keeping me alive for the foreseeable future."He said before showing you the arc reactor of his own design."I'm swapping it up for an upgraded unit, and I just ran into a little speed bump."

"Speed bump, what does that mean?"You repeated.

"It's nothing. It's just a little snag. There's an exposed wire under this device. And it's contacting the socket wall and causing a little bit of a short. It's fine."As he was speaking, he pulled out the old device, handing it to you.

You made a disgusted face. "What do you want me to do?"

"Put that on the table over there. That is irrelevant."

"Oh, my God!" You let out as you set the old reactor on the table behind you.

When you turned around, there was a hole in Tony's chest and he spoke up."I want you to reach in, and you're just gonna gently lift the wire out."

You looked back at his eyes."Is it safe?"

"Yeah, it should be fine. It's like Operation. You just don't let it touch the socket wall or it goes beep."You gave him a look, and Tony waved it away. "It's safe, baby. Just gently lift the wire."

"If you say so."

"Okay? Great."

You looked at the hole in his chest, then back at him. "You know, I don't think that I'm qualified to do this."

"No, you're fine. You're the most capable, qualified, trustworthy person I've ever met. You're gonna do great. Is it too much of a problem to ask? 'Cause I'm..."

"Okay, okay."

"I really need your help here."

"Okay."You said one more time before you carefully slid your hand in the hole in Tony's chest. You felt around and gagged, making Tony look up at you."Oh, there's pus!"

"It's not pus. It's an inorganic plasmic discharge from the device, not from my body."

"Is that supposed to make it better?"You asked. "It smells!"

"Thank you for the compliment."Tony rolled his eyes."The copper wire." He reminded you. "The copper wire, you got it?"

"Okay, I got it! I got it!" You said when you gripped onto the wire.

"Okay, you got it?" He asked and you started pulling it up. "Now, don't let it touch-" He was cut off by an electric sound coming from inside the reactor and his body spasmed. "-the sides when you're coming out!"

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

"That's what I was trying to tell you before. Okay, now make sure that when you pull it out, that you don't..."He stared at the wire with the magnet attached that you just pulled out, and the medical equipment around you started beeping."There's a magnet at the end of it! That was it. You just pulled it out."

"Oh, God!" You were close to fainting. Tony put his hand on your lower back to keep you up.

"Okay, I was not expecting..."

"What do I do?" You looked at him.

"Don't put it back in!" He immediately said.

You saw the look on his face change."What's wrong?"

"Nothing, I'm just going into cardiac arrest-"

"What? You said it was safe!"

" 'cause you yanked it out like a trout... We gotta hurry. Take this. Take this. You gotta switch it out really quick."He handed you the new device and you took a deep breath.

"Okay. Okay. Tony?"

"What?" He looked up at you.

"It's going to be okay. Okay?"

"Is it?"

"It's gonna be okay. I'm gonna make this okay."

"Let's hope. You're gonna attach that to the base plate. Make s-sure you..."He groaned when you attached the new device and pulled out your hand. "Was that so hard?" He asked as he secured it in place. "That was fun, right? Here, I got it. I got it. Here. Nice." The pus pooled around his chest and stomach and he looked at you, only to see you were out of breath.

"Are you okay?" You asked.

"Yeah, I feel great. You okay?" He asked, letting out a laugh. You laughed along, feeling your stomach fluttering at the sound of his laugh.

"Don't ever, ever, ever, ever ask me to do anything like that ever again."

"I don't have anyone but you. Anyway..."He ripped the wires off and stood up.

"What do you want me to do with this?" You asked, holding Tony's old reactor.

"That? Destroy it. Incinerate it."

"You don't want to keep it?" You asked.

"Honey, I've been called many things. Nostalgic is not one of them."

You smiled and he smiled back at you."Will that be all, Mr. Stark?"

"That will be all, Mrs. Stark."