Always Been You | Tony Stark

Captiolo (36) Trentasei ~ Proud

"You sure about this?"

"Are you?" Tony shot back at me.

The two of us were in a large operating room, each of us laying on a surgical table with nurses scurrying around.

"Yeah. It's not the first time I'll lose this leg. Hopefully, it'll be the last, though."

"And I've had surgery on my chest before. Though this time they'll hopefully be able to get all the pieces."

Both of us looked over to the glass window upon hearing a knock, looking to see Morgan peeking through the glass, Pepper, and Rhodey standing behind her.

I smiled at all of them, waving my hand and chuckling when Morgan frantically waved hers back.

"They're talking her out of the room before we start, right? I don't really want her seeing this." I mumbled to Tony.

"Yeah, Pepper's taking her to see Happy. Don't worry about it."

"I'm trying, but I'm just so worried something will go wrong."

"You've done this before. And you can't doubt the reversal serum since I'm the one that made it." Tony moved his head to look at me.

"I'm not worried for me, I'm worried for you. They're getting so close to your heart, Tony. I'm terrified something will go wrong and you end up dying on the table right beside me." I looked back at him, tears in my eyes.

"Peg, trust me. I'll be perfectly fine. When this is all over, I'll have no more shrapnel in me, and you won't have that leg."

"I hope your right."

"Mr. Stark? Miss Lynn? We are ready to begin." One of the nurses told us as the doctors started entering the room.

"Are we ready to proceed?"

"Yeah,"

"Let's do this." Tony and I said.

"Alright, let's get started."

The anesthesiologist came up to us, gently placing a mask over our faces.

"I need both of you to count back from ten."

Tony and I both did as instructed, looking at each other as we counted back.

Before I knew it, we were out like a light.

~~

The doctors told me that everything went just fine with Tony and my surgeries. They told me that Extremis is what was keeping the appendage functioning, and without it, the leg lost blood flow almost instantly, making them have to quickly re-amputate it. They also informed me that some of the worse burns on my back came back a bit, but the most it would do is leave a large scar and it shouldn't hinder any of my movements like it did before.

Tony was still out when I woke up, but the doctor told me they were able to get all of the shrapnel out of his chest, and that there weren't any complications.

"Avery!" Morgan yelled, running into the room with Pepper and Rhodey hot on her tail.

"Hey, monkey!" I gave her a tiered smile, holding my arms out for her to come up and hug me as she jumped onto the bed.

"Careful, Morgan! She just went through surgery." Pepper scolded.

"She's fine, Pep. How's Happy doing?" I chuckled.

"He just woke up, actually. The nurse thought it was the funniest thing when the first thing he did was point out Downtain Abby with the tube still down his throat."

"That sounds like Happy." I heard a deep voice chuckle beside me.

"Dad!"

"Tony." Morgan and I said at the same time.

"So what, now there's a party going on while I'm unconscious? Real nice." He sarcastically said as Morgan climbed off my bed, and went to her father's. "So, how did everything go?"

"Everything went according to plan, man. Your shrapnel free and Avery is leg free." Rhodey said, walking over to the chair by Tony's bed, Pepper copying his actions and sitting in the chair by me.

"That's good. And Happy's doing okay? He's awake?"

"Yes, Happy is going to be just fine."

"Awesome. So, when do we get to leave?" Tony asked, groaning as he started sitting up.

"Hey, man take it easy." Rhodey stood, trying and failing to push Tony back down.

"Stop it, I'm fine. Just, just help me up. Come on." Tony rambled. Rhodey rolled his eyes, looking over at me.

"What? You don't need my permission to help him up."

"Yeah, but you can help convince him that it's a bad idea." Rhodey shot back at me.

"Tony, you'll bust open your stitches if you sit up, and Morgan doesn't need to see blood coming out of your chest." I rolled my eyes.

"Fine, fine. I'll just suffer down here with you, then." Tony groaned again as he lay back down, rolling his eyes.

"Um, unlike you, I can sit up if I want to. I had surgery on my leg, not my chest." I smirked, easily sitting up in my bed.

"Show off." Tony glared at me as I playfully stuck my tongue out.

"Alright children," Pepper gained our attention. "I have to take Morgan home for bed. We'll come back sometime tomorrow."

"Yeah, I better get going too. Got some meetings overseas that I have to leave for early in the morning. I'm glad you two are good. I'll call for updates." Rhodey said, patting Tony's shoulder and then coming over to give me a hug before he walked out.

"Bye, dad." Morgan hugged her father, who hugged back while ruffling her hair.

"Bye munchkin. I'll see you later, alright?" Morgan nodded her head, then walked over to my bed.

"Bye Avery. I'm sorry you got hurt again." She hugged me tightly.

"It's okay, Monkey. I'm all better now not thanks to your dad." I glanced over to Tony, who held a small smile on his face.

After Pepper said her goodbyes, the two left, leaving Tony and me by ourselves.

"I'm proud of you, you know." I looked back over to the man in the bed beside my own.

"You should always be proud of me, but okay." He playfully rolled his eyes, making me scoff.

"I'm proud that you finally took the step to getting the shrapnel out. I know that was hard for you."

"Yeah, well. It had to be done at some point." Tony shrugged off.

"Well, thanks for doing it at the same time as my procedure. I think having you there beside me, even with you being unconscious, helped." I admitted.

"Same here." The two of us didn't say anything for a moment, just staying in comfortable silence.

"So, are you going to just stay in that bed, alone, or are you going to hop over here and hog all the covers like you usually do?"

"I do not hog the covers!" I gasped with a smile.

"Oh, honey you definitely do. Just like I snore, but I claim I don't. Now come on, hop along." Tony moved to the left side of the bed.

"If you don't go to the other side I'm gonna have to climb over you." I pointed out as I carefully got out of bed.

"Just make sure you don't hurt the chest."

I rolled my eyes, using the chair in between our two beds to help steady myself as I hopped over to Tony's bed. When I got there I sat down at the edge, bringing my right leg up and moving it over Tony's body so I was almost straddling his lower half.

"As much as I love where this looks to be going, I thought what I was implying was sleep." Tony grabbed my hips as he smirked up at me.

"Oh, shut it." I playfully hit his hands off as I rolled off and onto the space beside him, purposefully taking all of the blankets.

"Oh yeah, just like at home."

"I hate you."

"I love you too."