Avengers Stories //Oneshots//

The Barn (Part 2)

10:57 PM

Me: Tones?

11:04 PM

Me: hellloooooo

11:12 PM

Me: you're worrying me

He sent a series more of text messages, calling over twenty times until midnight. Laura was anxiously packing up their things for leaving in the morning, but it was looking like they might return tonight.

1:03 AM

Me: alright, we're coming home

/

Tony heard his phone vibrate over and over, but he just couldn't pull himself off the floor by the tractor.

He was shivering hard, curling into himself as best he could, holding his cut arm to his chest. He knew he shouldn't work while sleep deprived, but nothing ever happened in his lab at home. Though part of the reason was Jarvis.

But he had became dizzy while working on top of the tractor. Before he knew it, he was falling off and to the floor, arm cut by a piece of metal sticking out. His head had hit the floor and he blacked out. For how long, he didn't know.

He hadn't looked at the cut really, just wrapped his jacket around it. The inventor was going to get up when he realized just how cold the barn was now and how cold he was. Just raising his head made him dizzy. Sleep pulled at his eyelids and a fog had settled over his usually sharp brain.

He closed his eyes, listening at the phone busses against the nearby table. Slowly, he dragged himself up into a sitting position. The world spun when he opened his eyes and he started to tilt, barely catching himself.

Shaking his head a little to try and clear the fog, he surveyed the burn to see if he could find something to help him.

Finding nothing, he got shakily onto his hands and knees and started to move forward. It was slow going, but he made it to the table.

Using the end of it, he hauled himself up, leaning on it heavily. He grabbed his phone, seeing all the text messages and missed calls from Clint. It was 4:06 AM. Fumbling with it, he called the archer.

It picked up on the first ring. "H-hey..." he said, trying to sound casual and failing.

"Tony, this is Laura. Are you okay?" She sounded anxious.

"N-never better," he grunted as his shaky knees gave out on him. Shivers wracked his body, but he tried to keep his teeth from chattering. "A-alls good."

"You're shivering," she called him out, obviously hearing his teeth chatter. He'd failed. "Are... are you outside?!? It's below freezing there!"

"N-not out-outside. I-in the barn."

"That's not any better! Why are you outside?? Why don't you go inside?"

"F-f-fell."

"You fell? On what? Off what?"

"Off-f the tr-tractor. G-got cut-t. B-blacked out." His brain is moving so slow that it takes him a minute to register that he did not want to say that. He cursed himself.

Her voice was far away for a moment. "Clint, step on it!" Her voice came through the phone normal again. "We're coming, Tony."

"Y-you sh-should st-stay at th-the beach."

"Not happening. We'll be there in fifteen minutes. Leave the phone call connected."

"O-okay." He slumped against the leg of the table, head pounding.

He lost consciousness to Laura calling his name.

/

Tony woke up, finding himself in the guest bed. He groggily opened his eyes, glad that the shades had been drawn over the windows. He blinked into the dim room as his senses slowly caught up with him.

His injured arm was bandaged tightly and laid on top of the navy blue duvet, the rest of his body tucked under the covers up to his neck, making him pleasantly warm with the occasional chill.

The Arc Reactor glowed beneath the blankets, another thing he was thankful to see. He rolled his head to the left, looking to the nightstand beside him. His head pounded in at the back of his skull and he winced. 

A tempature checker, his phone, and a glass of water sat upon it. Slowly, he pushed himself up, the blankets falling. He was wearing pajamas that weren't his own, thick and fluffy. A beanie was tucked over his head and he pulled it off, reaching to smooth his hair only to find bandages around his forehead.

He wondered who did the bandages on his head and arm, something in his chest warming at the thought someone might have willingly took care of him.

Tony pushed away the blankets and threw his legs over the side of the bed, ignoring his chill. He could hear the drone of the heater in the room, going on full blast.

He walked to the bathroom, making sure his steps were light so not to disturb anyone. It was light outside, as far as he could tell, and he didn't want to alert anyone he was awake.

Turning on the light of the bathroom, he squinted for a few seconds as his eyes adjusted, looking at himself in the mirror.

Gently, he pulled the bandages from his head. He knew it was a bad idea, but he usually did stupid stuff anyway.

His head was bruised, but miraculously not healing from a bleed. Tony threw the bandages into the trash and looked to see if there might be some concealer around. Somehow, there was.

He covered the bruise, but there was nothing he could do to hide his arm besides long sleeves. Tony went back to the room and found his bag in the corner, just where he'd put it at the beginning of all this.

He'd failed in watching the Barton's house. It didn't burn down, but he caused them stress and to come home early.

Changing quickly, he folded the borrowed pajamas on the bed. He had changed into a band t-shirt, jeans, and a flannel jacket. It wasn't as thick as he'd like, but anything more would both make his arm uncomfortable and worry them that he was cold.

Which he was.

But if he could play it off like he wasn't, maybe he could ease their worries. He planned to do as kucy as he could in the next hour or two before he left, it was the least he could do.

Sighing, he ran his fingers through his hair once more. Why did he have to fall? Why did he have to leave his phone on the table and not in his pocket?

Quietly, he left the guest room. All the lights in the house were off, but sunlight came through the windows. The family was asleep, most likely, from their night drive to get to him.

Tony grabbed cleaning supplies out of the closet. Time to get to work.