Chapter Text
His brow furrowed in concentration, Steve stared down at the crossword puzzle in his lap, as if glaring at it intently would make the words appear magically. A nine-letter word for an ‘abnormally high respiratory frequency’. Gnawing his lip, he tried to think of the correct answer. Maybe it was supposed to be the medical term?
Steve sighed. “I wish Bruce was here,” he thought. “He’d probably know.” But since he and Tony were the only Avengers present in the tower right now, he didn’t have the chance to ask the scientist. Well, he could ask Tony – he would probably know too, being his genius self – but Steve certainly wasn’t going to run down to his workshop and bother him with some crossword puzzle. He could already imagine the billionaire’s amused snort and cocked eyebrow as he asked him who the hell was still doing crossword puzzles nowadays, with pen and paper and everything. Jarvis wasn’t an option either at the moment – Tony had told him half an hour ago that the AI would be offline for a major update for some time.
With a shrug, Steve focused on his crossword puzzle again. There were still enough words to think about.
***
About twenty minutes later, he was torn from his thoughts by a bodiless voice. “Captain Rogers.”
Steve jumped at the sudden words and accidently dropped his pen. After the few weeks he had been living at the tower now, he still hadn’t gotten used to Jarvis speaking up out of nothing and without anyone prompting him. Well, at least he knew now that the AI was back online.
“I am sorry to interrupt you, but it seems like Mr. Stark requires your assistance,” Jarvis continued. He sounded almost… urgent? Steve frowned as he got up. Tony had never before asked him for help with his work. And quite frankly, why would he? Steve was the last person – apart from Thor maybe – who might be of any help when it came to Tony’s inventions. “Sure, I’ll be right down,” he said as he headed towards the elevator, his voice sounding as surprised as he felt. “What am I supposed to help him with?”
“Mr. Stark is currently lying in the workshop unconscious,” Jarvis replied as if that answered everything.
“He- what?!” Steve called in disbelief as the elevator started to move. “Unconscious? What for Heaven’s sake happened?”
“I’m afraid I don’t know, Captain Rogers. I was offline for 41.38 minutes of which I have no data. I only came back online and learned of Mr. Stark’s state when my update was finished barely a minute ago.”
Steve cursed inwardly, waiting impatiently for the elevator to come to a halt. When the doors slid open, he quickly punched in his access code and all but rushed into the workshop. “Tony?” he called as he looked around frantically, not even realizing that his fellow Avenger wouldn’t be able to hear him, much less answer him in his current state.
Before Steve could ask Jarvis for Tony’s location in the large room, he found him: He was lying on the floor next to one of his vintage cars, facedown and unmoving. Dum-E was hovering over his creator, his claw prodding at Tony’s t-shirt as if trying to wake him up. The scene would have warmed Steve’s heart if he weren’t so concerned about his friend. Dum-E made a whirring noise as Steve fell to his knees next to Tony. His heart was hammering in his chest. “Tony? Oh God, Tony, can you hear me?” When he received no answer, the super soldier carefully turned his friend onto his back, reaching out to take his pulse. As his fingers touched Tony’s neck, he found the skin there slick with sweat. Still, Steve sighed in relief when he felt a steady pulse against his fingertips. Quickly, he scanned the unconscious man for obvious injuries, grateful when he couldn’t find anything except what looked like a bruise at the side of his forehead. Carefully, Steve pushed sweat-soaked brown hair aside to take a closer look. It didn’t seem to be too bad, but the super soldier was well aware of the fact that bruises and lumps on the head usually took their time to develop.
He became aware of Dum-E’s presence again when his claw/head/whatever appeared next to him, a sad-sounding noise erupting. Steve, still worried, but also relieved his friend didn’t seem to be hurt too badly, didn’t have the heart to tell him off for being in the way, so he gently pushed the robot aside, saying, “He’s gonna be okay, Dum-E. If you want to help, you can go find him a blanket, all right?”
The robot bleeped excitedly, probably happy to help, and rushed off to accomplish his new mission.
With Dum-E gone, Steve carefully shifted his friend into the recovery position, not wanting to risk moving him somewhere else when he couldn’t make sure Tony didn’t have any internal injuries. It didn’t take the robot long to come back, excitedly whirring as he did so. Gratefully, Steve took the offered blanket out of Dum-E’s claw, splaying the dark red fabric over Tony’s unconscious form and tucking the edges under him to keep him warm. When he was done, the billionaire still didn’t show any signs of waking.
“Jarvis?” he asked, looking up to the ceiling.
“Yes, Captain Rogers?” the AI replied smoothly.
“Do you think we should call an ambulance?”
There was a short pause before he got a reply. “Past experiences show that Mr. Stark will probably not agree with being taken to a hospital. If you want my opinion, I would still wait.”
Steve nodded hesitantly. Tony had probably programmed his AI not to call an ambulance in case something like this happened, but Steve knew Jarvis’ top priority was to keep his creator save. And that had to outweigh everything else, right? “Okay, but I’ll at least call Bruce. He’ll know what to do.” Jarvis didn’t reply to that, so Steve took his phone out, quickly tapping Bruce’s contact before pressing the device to his ear, all the while keeping a watchful eye on Tony.
It didn’t take the scientist long to answer the call. “Bruce here.”
“Hey Bruce, it’s Steve,” the super soldier began. “Listen, I just found Tony unconscious in his workshop, and Jarvis told me not to call an ambulance for the time being. Can you come over?”
There was a stunned silence. “Of course, I’ll come as quickly as possible. What happened?” Bruce sounded about as concerned as he felt himself.
“I don’t know,” Steve replied, shaking his head as he looked down on Tony’s pale face helplessly. “Jarvis was offline for some update, and when he came back online, he told me he found Tony like this. He’s got a lump on his head, that’s all I can tell. There are no signs of an-” He cut himself off when he saw Tony’s face twitch. “Bruce, he’s waking up, I gotta hang up. Please hurry!” Steve tapped the red phone symbol and tossed the device aside, leaning over his friend. “Tony, can you hear me?” he inquired carefully. Receiving no reaction apart from a furrowed brow, he touched his fellow Avenger’s shoulder lightly. “Tony?” he called louder.
“Shuttup,” Tony finally groaned, his speech slurred. “Lemme sleep!”
Steve felt so relieved he let out a breathless chuckle. Tony Stark was the only person who managed to make him laugh after having regained consciousness only seconds ago. That he had already proven after the Chitauri incident. This time, however, it was obvious he was in pain, so Steve quickly turned serious again. “I’m sorry, Tony, but I need you to stay awake for a bit. Can you open your eyes?”
The billionaire blinked a few times, his eyes still narrowed as they met Steve’s. “Fuck, is it always this bright in here?” he muttered, probably more to himself than to anyone else. Still, the lights dimmed the second the words left his mouth. “Thanks, J,” Tony slurred, but his eyelids were drooping again.
“Hey.” Steve placed a hand on his comrade’s shoulder once more. “Don’t fall asleep.”
“’m not sleeping, jus’ resting my eyes…”
Steve’s lips twitched in a half-smile. “Well, if you say so.” He paused. “Tony, what happened to you? When Jarvis told me you were lying down here unconscious, I thought you had done some reckless experiment on your suit again or blown yourself up or something like that.”
Tony blinked up at him, staring into Steve’s eyes for a long moment before an emotion he couldn’t quite identify shadowed the billionaire’s face. “I… I can’t remember,” he eventually said, breaking the eye contact and trying to push himself up into a sitting position. Steve was just about to open his mouth to stop him, but then Tony was talking again, already much more lucid than just a minute ago. “Even got a blanket for me, Cap. You take such good care of your team,” he commented teasingly.
“Actually, Dum-E brought it for you,” Steve corrected with a nod towards the robot who was hovering nearby. He was aware that the sarcasm was brought up like a protective wall right now. Tony hated being seen as weak, and this situation was bound to be uncomfortable for him, so Steve decided to pretend he didn’t notice. However, he was aware of another thing as well: He was a hundred per cent sure Tony had been lying when he’d said he couldn’t remember what had happened.
“You sure you should be sitting up already?” Steve focused on his struggling friend again, gripping his upper arms to support him as he tilted sideways again. Tony didn’t grace him with an answer, instead slumping against the car at his back and blinking rapidly with unfocused eyes.
Steve frowned. “Tony? You okay?”
Tony met his gaze and swallowed thickly. Then, he nodded, the small movement barely visible. “Just felt kinda sick and dizzy for a second there,” he replied, obviously trying to give it a casual note, but the pallor of his face and the stark contrast of the bump on his brow all but ruined the effect.
Steve studied him intently for a moment until a whirring sound caught his attention. Dum-E had rolled up next to them, carrying a trash can which he was now bumping into Tony’s chest. The billionaire eyed it for a second, perplexed, then he looked up to glare at the robot. “Hey, I don’t need that! Just because I said I felt sick for a moment doesn’t mean I’m gonna puke all over the place!”
Steve couldn’t help but laugh at the indignant expression on his friend’s features as he pushed Dum-E’s claw away. “Well, he knows he’d be the one on cleaning duty,” he shot back with a grin before taking the trash can from the robot and putting it on the floor. “Thank you, Dum-E, that’s very helpful of you.” Dum-E bleeped happily before rolling back again.
“Don’t encourage him,” Tony grumbled, still shooting glares at the robot. “Wrecking years of good education…”
Steve shook his head, the grin still on his lips. He was just glad that his friend felt good enough to have nonsensical conversations like this. “If you call that ‘good education’, I’m sorry to tell you you’d make a terrible father,” he mused with mock disappointment.
Tony’s eyebrows shot up. “You’re one to speak, Capsicle! If you had children, they’d no doubt be threatened with going to bed hungry if they didn’t sing the Star-Spangled Banner every morning, or if they swo-” Tony cut himself off with a hiss, one hand flying to his head.
All at once, every humor left Steve. “Shit, Tony? What’s wrong?” He put both of his hands on his friend’s shoulders again, stabilizing him as he sagged forward. “Watch your l-language, Cap,” the billionaire managed to get out between clenched teeth, eyes squeezed shut as he pressed his hand to his temple. As much as he appreciated Tony’s sarcasm – right now, Steve could have slapped him. “To-”
“Fuck, this hurts! Why does it hurt so much? A second ago it wasn’t this bad!” the Avenger rambled on, fingers clenched in his hair in pain.
Steve was at a loss of what to do. He had no medical training apart from what he had learned in the army, so he had no clue how to help. Rubbing a hand soothingly up and down his friend’s shoulder, he said, “Listen, I called Bruce before you woke up, and he’ll be here in a few minutes, okay? He’ll know what to do. Just take a deep breath for now, I’m sure it’s gonna pass in a minute.” At least his voice was steady and didn’t show his worry, Steve thought. He knew his affirmations were probably utterly useless, but the least he could do was try and comfort his friend.
Tony didn’t acknowledge his words, but to Steve’s relief he began to breathe slowly and deeply, for once listening to an advice. The next few moments passed in silence. Steve spent them watching Tony closely with a worried crease in his brow, his hand never stopping to rub his shoulder comfortingly.
Finally, after what felt like ages but couldn’t have been more than a couple of seconds, Tony let his hand sink to his side again. His eyes remained closed as he leaned his head against the car.
“Better?” Steve inquired concernedly, and Tony nodded faintly. “Holy shit, that was intense,” he said eventually, his voice hoarse. His lips pulled into a grin that resembled a pained grimace more than anything else. “Think I’ve got a concussion,” Tony concluded, making it sound like it was the most usual thing in the world.
‘You don’t say,’ Steve thought sarcastically. Aloud he said, “I think we should leave the diagnosis to Bruce. He should be here any minute now. Is there anything I can do for you?”
Tony shook his head lightly. “Nah, I’m good, Cap. Although… Can we move somewhere else? The floor is kinda cold and uncomfortable.”
Steve hesitated. “I don’t think you should move at all until Bruce took a look at you.”
Unsurprisingly, Tony rolled his eyes. “Oh come on, Steve! My head hurts and I’m a little dizzy, that’s all. And you wouldn’t let me fall on my pretty face, would you, oh great American hero?” he grinned teasingly.
Steve sighed, remembering the way his friend had been suffering from an attack of intense pain just a minute ago. “Fine,” he agreed reluctantly. “But don’t blame me if anything goes wrong.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it, princess,” Tony grinned, satisfied. Expectantly, he held his hand out to the super soldier in a non-verbal request to be helped up.
‘Well, if he’s back to ridiculous nicknames, he can’t feel that bad,’ Steve decided, gripping the other Avenger’s hand and wrapping his free arm around his back before slowly pulling him upright. Tony swayed for a moment, blinking repeatedly as he leaned on Steve.
“You okay? We can still-”
“Nonsense, Cap, I’m fine. Let’s get going.”