The Other Stark

Chapter 22

The ramp went down as the jet was turned off, four nurses ushering in and leaving pulling the two hospital stretchers that Tory and Bucky were on.

"Take her to my lab and start the procedure for surgery. We need to start now. Get him on casts and stitch him up, check if there's any broken rib. He'll be awake in about 3 hours," Dr. Cho said, looking for Stark's pulse, walking along with her team, giving them the orders.

Tony tried following them but was pulled back by Clint, as Pepper got near them, with red puffy eyes. The sight telling them she'd been crying.

"I need to get in there with her!" he said, uselessly trying to get free from Barton and, now, Sam's hold.

"You can't. You'll get checked up, take a shower, eat something, and after that, we can wait until she's set in a room, okay?" Pepper said, her hands on both sides of her fiance's face. He nodded, giving up on fighting.

She took him on her arms, and they walked to the glass doors that led to the elevators. Steve came out of the jet with an upset look all over his face, holding his, Buck and Tory's duffle bag.

"What you're going to do, Steve?" Nat questioned, following him down the path to the doors, holding her sides in pain.

"You're not standing outside Cho's lab, waiting for her to give you any news on both of them, while you're bleeding, needing medical attention and guilty, are you?"

He stopped on the balls of his feet, shoulders falling. That was exactly what he would do. Of course, she knew.

"If she was here, she would make you clean yourself up, and not stand there, worrying," Wanda said, helping Romanoff put some sense inside Rogers' head. If he didn't do this now, Steve would only get away from the hospital wing when Tory herself woke up and ordered him to, or when Bucky closed himself from everyone, 'cause he surely will.

"Let's go, man, they'll inform us when everything is done," Sam said, hands on his friend's shoulders, guiding him out of the hangar.

"Take your own advice and don't go in that waiting room until you have yourself patched up and clean, with a cast in that arm," Clint said to the redhead, following the two women to the infirmary.

...

Two hours later, Steve sat on a chair on the end of Buck's hospital bed, waiting for any news from Dr. Cho, or anything that would help everyone calm down.

One of the nurses assured him his friend would wake up in about an hour, and he didn't want to stand on the waiting room where everybody was worried, standing in front of a glass window, showing Helen working on Tory. So he hid from everybody on his best friend's room, close enough for anyone to just burst in and tell him something happened.

A light knock on the door brought him out of his thoughts, back to the room. He looked over to the direction of the noise and found Nat coming in, with a cup of coffee in hand, right arm immobilized, wearing sweats.

"How is he?" she asked, handing him the steaming drink, standing beside his chair, looking at the bit down man on the hospital bed.

"Nurse said he's waking in about an hour," Steve told her, taking a sip of the drink in his hands.

"What do you think happened there, Nat? For them to be like this?" he asked, looking up at the redhead.

"Well, Rumlow was there, so we can assume he was triggered, from there it's possible to have an idea about what happened," she responded, flashbacks of the time, she too, had to fight the Winter Soldier.

"We gave him to Hill, you know. I think she'll handle him with Fury."

None of them wanted to talk about work right now, it wasn't a good time, so she didn't get into the details about the man who started all of this.

"Wanna grab something to eat? Breath some fresh air? I can be here with him if you want," Nat said, hand on his shoulder.

"You don..." he was about to reply, when the door opened, Sam popping his head into the room with a slight smile of relief on his face.

"She's out. Cho is waiting to tell us how she is," he informed, both of them staring at him with wide eyes.

"You're coming?"

Nat spared a look at the blond and nodded. Steve got up from the chair with a deep breath, walking to the door. The woman sat on the now empty seat, putting her legs up on the bed.

...

Tony looked hopefully to the Dr. getting out from the operation room, her team getting his sister ready to go to a room, everybody expectedly looking at her. Out of a sudden, the door opens and Steve walks in with Sam just behind him, a worried expression on his face. Stark new that lost puppy look, he did the same with Pepper when she went through all that trouble with Extremis, he looked at her with that same face. He felt like his sister wasn't alone, and that took a weight he didn't know he had off of his back.

"She's stable. Nothing major that won't heal with time. Three broken ribs, almost punctured lung. Right leg is broken too. The knife didn't get into any vital organ." Cho explained, taking her gloves off. As everybody took in the news, the room got lighter.

"Other stuff are some knife cuts, bullets, and bruises. She's gonna have some trouble to eat as her trachea heals from been chocked."

All of them had relieved expression on their faces, even though she had awful wounds around her body. The only person who wasn't so sure was Steve, who studied the Dr. with attention. He knew there was something more to what she was telling them, it wasn't all "good" news. The blond was about to ask when Helen herself answered the unspoken question.

"I know you were expecting bad news guys, but not all things I have to say are good. She beat her head really hard in some wall, on the floor, don't know, but I'm not sure when she's waking up, so, for now, she's in a coma. It's not that severe, but I'll keep doing tests on her every day."

Tony looked at her again, the happiness he felt moments ago, vanished. She didn't tell his sister was dead, but they didn't know when she was waking up if she would wake up.

"Can I see her?" he asked, hope on his eyes.

"Sure. She's settled on the room beside Barnes'. When he's awake, call a nurse to check him up."

Dr. Cho excused herself, leaving all the Avengers standing there looking at each other. Slowly, the room got empty, each one leaving to do something or nothing, knowing Tony would be in that room for a long time, and they were all sure he wanted to be alone.

"Can someone call Rhodey? I think he should know what's happening in here," Pepper said before Sam and Clint left the room. Barton nodded, before leaving.

"I'll make sure the media doesn't know anything about this. Call Happy, let him know and..." she tried to continue. Steve looked at her and hugged her when she sobbed.

"You don't have to do any of this stuff now Pep. Let Happy handle things. I'm sure Rhodey can help too. You need some time to rest," he reassured her, knowing how close the woman was with Tory. She just nodded, unable to answer with words.

Eventually, there was only Steve in the room. All the weight he always felt on his shoulders heavier than ever, knowing the two closest people on his life were in a hospital bed, and he felt it was his fault. He didn't make the right call, the right plan. Wasn't sure of everyone's capabilities, but Rogers forgot he wasn't the only one who gave the orders on the team, he forgot he wasn't the one who decided to go on that tunnel with Bucky, and he didn't know Tory knew all the risks for taking the Winter Soldier with her, but she took him anyway, because Victoria Stark felt Bucky Barnes disserved another shot to fight the ones who turned 70 years of his life into hell.