Avengers Stories //Oneshots//

Arc Reactor Attack

This title is horrible. Ugh.

Anyway, this idea was suggested to me by: Teamarcreactor

Idea: Would if one day the pain of the reactor was so bad that Tony had to take some prescription medicine, but the rest of the team thinks he is abusing it.

I hope I got close to what you wanted!

Warnings: prescription drug use (not abuse), and a reference to past drug abuse (not graphic). Please don't read if you are not comfortable. I made it as non-graphic as possible.

Tony could usually power through the pain of the reactor, but sometimes it just got too much for him to brush off or fix with an hour or two of laying down with a hot water bottle. Pepper would usually help him - he could hide nothing from his girlfriend - but she was out of the city, halfway across the world overseeing the natural energy plant in China for a month. She still had two weeks to go and video calls were not enough to ease his pain.

The pain had been intensifying for the past week. At first, he had been ignoring it. The reactor usually ached a little after strenuous activity and the Avengers, yes he was an official member now, had been facing villains on the biweekly basis recently. But it just kept growing until a hit during a mission had him blacking out for a few seconds, which sent Jarvis into a full out panic.

The hit had striked him in the chest, jarring the reactor painfully. The already damaged breastplate had begun to cave in on itself, limiting Tony's ability to breathe and sending his pain far passed what it had been. Thankfully, it hadn't been noticed by the team and he'd been able to make it back to the tower without questions.

It had taken him five hours to be able to get up from his bed after that battle, his chest on fire and he himself drifting in and out of conciousness. The skin around the reactor was rubbed raw and it may have been just him, but the palladium posioning scarring seemed deeper. He had missed the debrief, which effectively got him a stern lecture when he made his way down to the common floor to make an appearance. He put on his best smile, threw out a quip or two, and then headed to the lab after allowing Bruce to check him for injuries. There was no reason for him to show him his chest, meaning Bruce gave the team the all clear.

Unbeknownest to him, Bruce had followed him dowm the stairs and had seen when Tony suddenly stumbled, landing on his knees on the lab floor and gripping his chest. He'd been the one to hold the near unconcious billionaire as wave after wave of agony flared up, from his chest to his toes. His eyes were clenched shut so tightly that he didn't see Bruce's worried expression, his battered heart so loud in his ears that he didn't hear the concerned voice, his body so consumed in pain that he only dimly felt the way his friend held him like fine china.

He would have been embarrassed if he'd been able to see straight.

Eventually, he succumbed to unconsciousness for an unknown amount of time. When he came to, the pain was still there, if a bit less than it had been before. He was laying in his bed, on his back with the blankets pulled up to his neck, with Bruce sitting at his side, reading a book and new worry and stress lines around his eyes.

He didn't know what time it was, as the windows had been blacked out and a lamp was on in the corner, giving only enough light for him to see half the room clearly.

Tony tried to move, but pain flashed through his torso. He wouldn't hold back the pained hiss that escaped him, causing Bruce to jump and look at him. He dropped his book, not seeming to care as it crashed to the floor. "Tony," he said, standing.

"Hi," he croaked, head tilted back on the pillows to stare up at his friend. He hadn't been in this much pain since he was hooked up to a car battery. It wasn't as bad as when Yinsen - it still hurt to think about him - performed surgery on him, but he was sure that if he tried to sleep on his own will and not pass out, he would be having nightmares of that night. He hadn't had any yet, but that was mostly because he avoided, or, well, couldn't sleep when his chest was in pain.