Heart •IronMan 1+2

Chapter Eight

A/N: Bella is just so done with with Tony being a dumbass.

Enjoy!

****

Pepper and Bella clambered inside the car as Happy practically took off with the door open.

"Go, go!" Pepper shouted barely pulling on her seatbelt before he did. Bella yanked her seatbelt over her chest, her fingers griping onto her dress tight enough to rip it.

"Hang on!" Happy cried crashing through a barrier onto the track just as Tony's car gets hit by the electric whip.

Bella tuned out the rest of the conversation. Her mind running over field medicine over and over again until it was a constant loop burned into her brain.

Happy drove recklessly through the track before finally, finally coming to where Tony was, and ramming the man with the electric whips into the fence.

Tony ran around to the driver's side. "Are you okay?" He asked glancing over Happy then looking back to Pepper. The strawberry blonde was yelling at Bella as she jumps out of the passenger seat and ran to Tony.

"Oh, God! Are you okay?" She cried her eyes looking over her face while her fingers prodded his ribs. Tony squirmed trying to get ahold of her fingertips poked at his abdomen.

Finally getting ahold of them, Tony cupped her hands to his chest. "I'm okay, Bells," he offered her a very small soft smile before turning to Happy once more. "Were you heading for me or him?"

"You're never doing that again," Bella scoffed, yanking him into a tight hug, and crushed her face into his shoulder.

***

Rhodey followed after Bella into the garage, rolling his eyes at her comments.
"I'm not saying, I'm just saying," he shrugged."

Bella turned slightly, shooting him a sharp look and continuing toward the shiny red hot-rod that Tony sat in.

"Hey," Bella said softly. She leaned over the driver's side door to press a kiss to the side of Tony's head. He looked up at her and gave her a closed-lipped smile.

"Hey," he muttered.

"Tony, you gotta get a upstairs and get on top of this situation right now," Rhodey started making his way to the car. "Listen, I've been on the phone with the National Guard all day, trying to talk them out of rolling tanks up to the PCH, knocking down your front door and taking these," he gestured to the suits that wrapped around the garage.

"They're gonna take your suits, Tony, okay? They're sick of the games. You said nobody else would posses this technology for 20 years. Well, guess what? Somebody else had it yesterday! It's not theoretical anymore! Are you listening to me? Are you okay?"

Bella scanned over Tony's face, taking in the paleness of his skin and the shakiness of his fingers. Her face fell as she began backed up to the desk.

Tony popped open his door. "Let's go," he said getting out of the car. Standing on his feet didn't last too long as he fell almost as soon as he stepped out of the door.

"Tony!" Bella shouted quickly grabbing ahold of his arm. She pooped it over her shoulder. "Rhodey, grab the cigar box on his desk."

Tony steadied himself and griped onto the desk while Bella snagged the box to Rhodey and flipped it open-both of them totally ignoring Rhodey's questions.

Accepting a new palladium core from Bella, Tony removed the arc reactor and pulled the old core out of it. Smoke billowed off the sheet in waves.

"Is that supposed to be smoking?" Rhodey asked sounding panicked.

Bella shook her head. "In an ideal situation, it wouldn't be."

"If you must know, it's neutron damage. It's from the reactor wall," Tony explained pushing the reactor, with the new core, back into his chest. He opened his mouth to elaborate more but Bella cut him off.

"It's poisoning him and he won't go to the hospital." She shot a look at Tony, a tinge of bitterness in her voice. Rhodey frowned. Having not seemed them truly argue since they got back together, seeing even the tail end of a fight was strange.

"You has this in your body?" Rhodey made a brief face starring down at the destroyed and smoking palladium piece. "And how about the high-tech crossword puzzle on your neck?"

"Road rash. Thank you." He arched a brow and accepted the glass of thick green liquid Bella had slid towards him. Rhodey gave him a strange look. "What are you looking at?"

"I'm looking at you. You wanna do this whole line gunslinger act, with the girl at your side, and it's unnecessary. You don't have to do this alone."

"You know, I wish I could believe that. I really do. But I don't even really-truly-have the girl and you've gotta trust me. Contrary to popular belief, I know exactly what I'm doing."

***

Bella glared at the T.V. Screen, watching the news during the lull of her shift. Her hair was pulled back in a tight ponytail, and her face was basically clean from makeup.

Her blue eyes narrowed as she listened to what seemed like utter B.S. coming from the anchorman.

"So, this is what's going on in your world, huh?"

Bella shot her newest teammate, Quinn, a look. "Don't say a word."

Quinn chuckled throwing his hands up in the air as the blonde doctor turned back to the news channel.

A look of frustration crossed her face before suddenly Bella clicked the T.V. Off and slammed the remote down beside the monitor.

"Who's my next patient?" She asked harshly sucking in a deep, calming breath. "It would be nice if it could be something that could distract me with tediousness."

Quinn passed her a clipboard with a patient information sheet on top. "Twenty seven year old; male. Coming in from a club a few blocks away. The EMT's should be rolling in in about..." He shook his wrist to re-situate his watch. "Ten minutes."

"Alcohol poisoning?"

"Kid OD'd on some kind of party drug."

Bella looked towards the ceiling briefly. Working ER would always be where she wanted to be but sometimes a few of the cases she got were just a bit irritating considering all the anti-drug propaganda.

"Great. Can you get a bed ready?"