Innocent Bystander | T. Stark ✔️

seventeen ▼ a hospital

The suit landed in the lab, startling a focused Juliet. When the suit didn't open, but simply stood still and silent, a lump began to form in her throat.

"Mr. Stark lost consciousness on the return flight. I detect cranial trauma and hemorrhaging," the voice of Jarvis answered her unvoiced questions.

Feeling her heart rate spike when her eyes fell on the state of the suit, Juliet's mind began to move faster as her mind fell into the familiar action of assessing an injured person. The chest plate of the crimson metal was dented inward in a jagged way; some of the damaged suit was cutting into the skin below Tony's collar bone, keeping the bleeding wounds open.

"Lay it down and open it," she ordered.

Jarvis followed her commands quickly. The suit opened once it lay flat on the ground to reveal a limp and lifeless Tony. His face was bruised and battered and dried motes of blood ran from various cuts.

Juliet knelt down beside him and took his wrist in her hand. The pulse was weak and his skin was cold to the touch. His lips were beginning to turn a shade of blue. "Not enough blood is getting to his tissues. Probably hypovolemic shock," she muttered to herself, a habit she had formed when working countless shifts in the emergency care department of her hospital. She had found that it helped her focus. "Jarvis, call 911."

The nurse shrugged off her jacket and did her best to wrap it around Tony's still bleeding chest. There was too much blood leaving the wound too fast; it would never form a clot and stop on it's own. As much as it pained her, that was all she could do without the host of equipment a hospital offered. He would need fluids to right the loss of blood in his body and a proper wrapping of the wound on his chest.

▼

The ride to the hospital passed in the blink of an eye. Emergency responders had arrived and listened as Juliet listed her observations while Tony was loaded into the ambulance. She followed closely, watching carefully as he was treated with an IV and monitored with a number of machines. When all that could be done had been, Tony and Juliet were left alone in a blindingly white hospital room that smelled so strongly of antiseptics that it burned her nose.

Waiting for him to regain consciousness proved a long and worrisome task. Juliet took to reminiscing to the days she had spent over forty hours a week working grueling shifts in a facility much like this one. She missed it. The critical thinking, the constant turning of the gears in her head.

She glanced to the bed where Tony lay next to her. Scooting her chair closer, she lay her hand over his. His skin had begun to regain color and warmth, a small comfort amidst the stress of the day.

As her palm rested on his hand she noticed a strange feeling in her fingers. The skin tingled near her pale knuckles. The tips of her bruised fingers, she noticed with a dropping feeling inside, were completely numb. She pressed her thumb and index finger together in hopes of feeling some sensation with no luck.

A sigh breezed past her lips. Dots began to connect in her head, though she wasn't sure any of it made more sense together than apart.

For nearly a week she had felt exhausted with the occasional spell of lightheadedness. She had dismissed it as nothing. That and the numbness in her fingers suggested something was wrong with her circulation, but she couldn't imagine what.

Tony stirred beside her, pulling her from her thoughts. His eyelids fluttered before opening completely. He groaned as his hand came up to cover his face.

"My head feels like it got beat in with a baseball bat."

"Did it?"

Tony looked at her through his parted fingers. "Oh no, it was much worse than a baseball bat. Turns out this Mandarin guy packs quite the punch."

"The fact that you came back unconscious in a suit that looked like a crunched soda can told me as much."

"How soon until I get out of here? The suit needs some modifications but I can get this twisted psycho." The hero made to sit up but was stopped by Juliet's hand on his shoulder.

"You were suffering from severe hypovolemic shock an hour ago. You aren't going anywhere until your fluid balance is back to normal."

"Gosh, I love it when you talk dirty to me."

Juliet felt the frustration mounting inside her. She was genuinely worried about him and he had the nerve to joke while he was sitting in a hospital bed recovering from serious injuries. "Stop acting like you're not worried about this guy because I know that you are. Put aside your pride so we can be afraid together!" She said, keeping her voice just below a shout.

Tony pursed his lips. "Of course I'm worried, Jules. But I gotta get this guy. It's that or millions of people die and I can't turn a blind eye to that or play it off."

"I understand that, I promise. But you can't run from the fact that this is terrifying. Jumping to action before the fear has time set in is going to end worse than this one of these days." She sighed, looking down at her shoes. "I want to help you, Tony. Let me shoulder some of the burden because no one should have to do it alone."

A smile touched his lips and he closed his eyes for a long moment. When he opened them, he reached out to pull her to him and left a soft kiss on her forehead. His lips lingered on her skin and she savored the feeling.

"I don't deserve you," he whispered, running a thumb along her cheek.

She shook her head. "I could say the same thing."

A wave of lightheadedness passed over her like a wave. She forced a smile, tucking her bruised fingers into her palms. She wasn't sure what was going on, though she suspected it stemmed from the unusual amounts of stress she'd been under the last few days.

"I'm going to go get you some water," she said before leaving the room. She would worry about Tony and then look into whatever it was that was going on.