The Other Stark

Chapter 26

When Tony arrived at the penthouse, everybody seemed scared of what he was about to say, but as everyone saw the slight smile on his face, they knew it was something good.

"What happened?" Wanda asked, taking a step closer to him.

"Nurse said she'll be up in some hours, probably. She moved her hand, and her eyes are reacting to the light."

Suddenly, the room was lighter, all of them breathing again. The only one who was tense was Bucky, who isolated himself on the corner of the room, listening close. His mind screaming for him to run, get out of the Tower, never look back. But he didn't want too, even though he feared Tory would never look at him the same way again.

...

The team had decided that not all of them would visit Tory at once, so who stayed on the room as the woman's bed was surrounded by nurses and doctors was Steve, Tony, and Nat, the trio observing every move that was made.

Neither of them could really see Tory, all the heads hiding her as they took the feeding tube from her mouth, so they didn't see if she was awake or not, but the dry cough that came from that direction told them she was conscious.

"Here, take this. You'll have a sore throat for a couple of days," one of the nurses said, giving her a glass of water and some pills, most likely, painkillers. As the sight was cleared, and only two nurses were left on the room, they saw her hissing, pulling a face, as she tried to get comfortable on the bed, the pain evident on her expression.

"I'll call Dr. Cho to check your wounds."

Both women dressed in white left, leaving the four of them alone. Tory placed the cup on the side table, every move she made hurting a new part of her body. Before looking at the three pairs of eyes that watched her closely, she took a deep breath.

"Hey," the woman said, her voice coming rough and low. Tony was the first one to step closer, with a caring smile, sitting on the end of the bed, trying not to shift too much.

"How are you feeling?" he asked carefully, not really knowing what to say.

"Like someone dropped a building on me," Tory answered slowly, supporting her head on the pillow that was placed behind her neck, closing her eyes.

"Is everyone okay? How long was I out?"

Steve and Natasha stepped closer as well, observing the state the woman was in. She breathed slowly and deeply, probably trying to control the pain she was feeling.

"We are all good, just worried," Nat asked quietly.

"And you've been out for two long weeks."

Tory heard the voice closer to her and peeked from one eye, seeing the woman standing closer than before. She spared a glance at Steve, closing her eyes again, nodding in response.

"We won then? Any casualties? Official proclamation against us? Are we the bad guys or the good guys this time?"

She asked question after question, but the only one Tony and Steve were waiting was something about Bucky. Both of them didn't know how she would react to what happened.

"Well, we won. No casualties. Some people are in the hospital for intoxications, but nothing major," Nat explained, giving Tony and Steve a weird look.

"The Queen actually thanked us officially, so I think we are the good guys on this one. And we kept the fight in a small area, so there wasn't too many things destroyed or anything. We're good."

"Yeah. Yeah," Tory answered groggy, feeling the effects of the pills come like a bomb, her body going numb in minutes, the pain pulling her into unconsciousness.