Since the Beginning

Ch 19: The Waiting Game "Finale"

Chapter Nineteen:

The Waiting Game

~*~ Finale ~*~

Bruce

Bruce stepped into the dark hospital room, his steps as silent as he could make them. The room felt void of life with its cool temperature and gloomy atmosphere. Toni had been unconscious now for nearly seven hours after her emergency surgery following the events that just took place with Hammer. Her chest was stitched back up and healing, but her skin was clammy and cold to the touch. She felt dead and that sent a shiver through Bruce who could never imagine his lively sister so...so uncharacteristically still. It made him edgy.

"Toni", he whispered flopping into the chair nearest her bed, "please...wake up soon. I..." he swallowed, "I know you told me not to blame myself, but... I should have stopped him. I should never have trusted him as much as I did and... I just... I'm sorry Toni."

Bruce reached out, gently touching her arm before sliding his hand to her wrist. A dull throb met his fingertips and he smiled. A pulse... she still had a pulse and so long as she continued to have one, he would trust in her strength and will as a fighter.

Natasha

Nat walked into the hospital room. It was now going on the eleventh hour since Toni coded and everyone could barely close their eyes without thinking of Toni's small and frail form. According to Bruce, Toni was now twelve years old due to her last de-ageing.

The sight of their arrogant, brilliant Toni Stark now lying so pale and still in a hospital bed with the body of a child... it was not a reassuring scene for the team who could still picture the smiling face of their Toni.

God they missed her.

"Toni, zvyozdochka...little star," she whispered in Russian, "We need you...please...please Toni, come back to us."

As hard as Natasha was praying, Toni didn't move. Not a muscle flinched at the assassin's voice and the red head sighed in disappointment before she began to sing. The song was a classic nursey rhyme from her days as a child at the orphanage. It wasn't often she heard it, but one woman there in particular had sang it when a new child was born and it had stayed with her up to this day.

"Zvyozdochka, zvyozdochka, you who sleep so fair. I pray you wake and come back to those who care for you. You who are a treasure, a gift so rare. I see that twinkle in your eye, a star like a diamond pair. A world without you is merely a song; a song with no melody to be played along. Little star, little star, I miss you my friend. You were always my hope should the world come to a close. Now that I rest, awake near the end; I pray that as I sleep and a new day will begin."

Thor

Thor stepped into the hospital room, the second day of Toni's coma, silently making his way close to the bed where his friend laid still and unmoving. In Asgard, death was an understood factor concerning earthlings, yet now that he was on earth among them, he had never realized how permanent it was and how agonizing waiting for what might possibly be, to come to pass.

Thor had never had friends like these before and while at times he missed the glory that was Asgard, he would never trade a second of his precious time among these courageous warriors of Earth. To him, they had become as precious as the rarest Asgardian gem stone and he treasured them. Each of them. In their own way.

"Fight woman of Iron", Thor stated staring at the pale little girl before him, "We await your return, grand warrior of Midgard. Your time to meet the keepers of Valhalla has not yet come, so fight Toni Stark. The team needs you."