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“Do you think I would need a pocket square ?
It was a busy day in avengers household. the annual Maria stark gala was to be held in two days, and tony stark had only discovered that none of his fellow avengers had any proper formal wear .so of course he had taken them shopping for Armani blazers and stuff , and after buying them everything they had liked in the store , he had now taken it over himself to make sure that his friends looked charming and shining in their best looks.
As a result, he was patiently watching as Steve Rogers hopelessly struggled to adjust to the modern fashion styles. After talking him down form wearing his military medals, tony was now giving him a crash course on the do and do nots of formal dressings .
Natasha walked in gracefully with high heels and a beautiful black dress. “how do I look?”
Clint whistled . after playfully slapping him , Nat excused herself to go talk with pepper and help her manage the huge duty of organizing one of the best galas in US .
Tony watched as his teammates paced around the room, incredibly uncomfortable in their suits , and with a smirk he left the room to go tinker in his lab .
Steve watched him go .
“is it just me or did any of you guys notice pepper yelling at him today morning?”
“matter of fact , cap, I did too . I think it was something about tony not taking matters seriously enough and how pepper has to work too much because he doesn’t care .”
“I don’t know how she puts up with him, honestly . she has a patient of a saint .”
“whatever tony does , steve , he most definitely doesn’t deserve that lady.”
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The day arrived. The avengers assembled in front of the tower. Tony stark, looking strikingly handsome in his dark jacket and tie , the ole-razzle dazzle trademark Anthony Edward stark grin on his face . Steve rogers in his navy blue three piece , his back ramrod straight , Clint Barton in a dark grey shirt and a black suit jacket and Bruce banner in his typical purple shirt and cord blazer. Natasha looked dazzling in her black glittering dress , her hair beautifully done , and no one could ever guess that she had concealed a gun in there. Pepper , charming as always , greeted them in a magnificent blue dress , and politely asked the driver to bring around the limos for them to board.
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The gala was a blast. Steve watched in awe as he saw socialites roaming around , a lot of them shaking his hand , and the overall atmosphere reminded him of the time he and bucky had visited the stark expo the night before bucky left for his mission. Bruce hovered around awkwardly, mostly just sitting in their assigned table and sipping his sparkly water. Clint and Natasha was slipping in and out of crowds gracefully , smiling politely and generally being charming .
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finally the time came for tony to go up on the stage and address the guests . while everyone , including the avengers took their respective tables , he climbed up to the stage , pepper right behind him.
“ladies and gentlemen, I would like to thank each and every one of you for being present here with me today. The maria stark foundation gala , which aims to raise funding for the ones in need , is thriving ,thanks to all of your very generous donations . for that I would like to thanks you all once again . it is my pleasure to announce that –“
he faltered as his eyes locked on to something .
Tony stark had one of the sharpest minds in the 21st century. Therefore , the moment he looked down at the barrel of the gun raised at the stage , he understood what was about to happen. Being a weapon designer , he figured out where the gun was pointed to . calculations and statistics ran through his head , but none of the conclusions were optimistic .all this went through his mind in a fraction of a moment, he took a split second decision .
Iron man or not, tony stark was extremely athletic . he had fast reflexes . he braced himself , and lunged towards pepper , hoping against hope that he would reach her in time .
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It seemed like the time was decelerating around her . one moment pepper was smiling on the stage , and then suddenly tony was pushing her aside. she skidded to a stop several feet away . for a moment irritation flicked through her mind - tony was known for ill behaving in public but even then , him pushing away his girl friend and CEO was just too much . as pepper gained her balance , she silently swore that she and tony were going to have ‘words’.
three gunshots rang out in the pin drop silence .
pepper turned back towards the center of the stage . tony stood facing her , fear and relief both evident behind his eyes .
as if in slow motion , blood bloomed on his stark white dress shirt . red drops turned into spots and the spots turned into patches of blood that covered almost all of Tony’s torso .
pepper watched as tony muttered something, hands outstretched towards her , and then crumpled.
And the world erupted into chaos.
“NO!” pepper cried . she ran to Tony’s side . he was still awake , thank god, but his eyes were half lidded and clouded as she quickly undid his tie and started to put pressure on his wounds. Pepper usually kept her calm in situations like this – she was a CEO of a fortune 500 company , after all . but this time , she was on the verge of panicking because the body lying in a pool of blood in front of her was no one other than tony stark , the one person she coudnt live without.
When stark started speaking up on the stage , Steve couldn’t help but marvel at how much he was actually similar to his father . in the stark expo some seventy years ago , Steve had heard that exact same tone of excellent spokesman ship , no matter how much tony denied having any resemblance with his old man . Deja vu itched in his mind and he allowed himself to smile , but of course given his rotten luck , he should have known that it wouldn’t last . he saw tony pushing away pepper. simultaneously he heard gunshots. Someone yelled, “you bitch! You fired me ! do you have any idea how-“ the rest was cut off by grunts from the security guards of both stark industries and shield, who tackled him to the ground . Steve turned his focus back towards the stage. tony was on the ground, blood flowing from his chest while pepper tried to put pressure on the wound . he leapt over their table and sprinted to the stage , adrenaline pulsing in his veins. his team followed suit , and so did happy . the room was in chaos , people yelling and panicking.
Steve did not like what he saw when he reached tony . at all .
One look told him that all three bullets had hit him. One in the shoulder, and two in his chest. Judging by tony’s harsh breathing , one of them had pierced a lung . he shrugged off his suit jacket , and started to put pressure with it . Clint and Natasha did the same. years of experience in war told steve that tony’s chance of survival was very , very low.
“someone call 911!” bruce yelled.
“Already done,” granted happy. ”ETA 4 minutes.”
“keep him awake!” bruce instructed pepper.
She cupped his face in her hand . “stay awake , tony. Please honey , you gotta stay awake .for me tony , please.”
he blinked open his eyes and raised a shaking hand to peppers chick .”pep-“ he gasped out, “you –okay?”
“im fine tony,” she choked. “You saved me.”
Tony nodded , relief prominent on his features. His hand went limp and his eyes rolled back.
“no, dammit tony , STAY AWAKE!” clint slapped him roughly on the face , but tony’s head just lolled to the side , and he didn’t wake up .
Pepper grasped his hand and squeezed it . she felt like bawling like a baby , but instead she just cupped tony’s face and tried to wake him up , to no avail.
The paramedics arrived . A mask was pressed on tony’s face , and the team could only watch as expert hands worked over the body of one of their friends . soon, a gurney was roled in , and tony was being whisked off to the ambulance .
“two of you may come with us,” a paramedic informed them , so pepper and Natasha boarded the back the ambulance while happy brought around the car for the others .
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The ride to the hospital was a nightmare .pepper sat clutching Tony’s hand . it was cold , and limp . she stared at her lovers face , shuddering at how white and slack it was .
To be honest , they had expected it from day one .
They had always known it could have happened, haven’t they , it was one of the cons of being a celebrity, but never had pepper thought she was the one who was targeted . so no , it doesn’t really come as a surprise when someone comes after her . if tony had been one second late…… but maybe if tony had been a second late , he wouldn’t have been shot . pepper could deal with anything happening to her as long as tony was fine . but now , tony was lying on a gurney right next to her , and pepper’s hands had tony’s blood on them , both literally and metaphorically.
She was brought back from her gruesome reverie when tony started to choke . it was horrible , gasping wet hacks , and pepper cringed every time she heard them . and then when blood started to spurt out from tony’s mouth along with white foam , pepper almost lost it . she sat , unable to do anything as the paramedics hastily removed the oxygen mask from his face and tilted him to his side . red liquid drained from his mouth .
Pepper had seen tony injured more times than she could count . accidents in lab, Afghanistan , palladium poisoning , vanko , mandarin……it never got any easier for her to cope with the panic and worry churning in her gut . but It had been never this bad before . pepper knew that every minute was precious , and every second that was ticking by pushed tony a little closer to death . and the fact that it was because tony had tried to protect her definitely did not make it easy.
Apparently pepper had overloaded on worry. Now she sat, almost dejected , numb , starting at her boyfriends lifeless body as if nothing mattered anymore . but perhaps ‘boyfriend’ wasn’t the right word . over the years , they had grown so much closer that boyfriend or best friend didn’t cover it . tony was a part of her . sometimes an annoying part , sure , but it was something she couldn’t live without.
As if to test that theory , right that moment, all the machines screamed . alarms started ringing, and pepper couldn’t seem to manage to inhale as she gazed at the flat line displayed on the monitor………..
One of the paramedics replaced the oxygen mask with a ambu bag and started pumping . another hooked up a AED kit .
“ive got V-tach!” one of them announced . “preparing to shock!”
“Clear!”
All hands moved away and tony’s body jerked, but the monitor still displayed a flat line.
“Clear!”
Nothing .
“Clear!”
Pepper was vaguely aware of the super spy holding her hand , but when the grip tightened she looked at her , and was extremely surprised by what she saw. Natasha was biting her lips , pale with beads of sweat rolling down her temple .it wasn’t much , but it was the most concern Natasha had shown for anyone for as long as pepper knew her, and in that moment , she knew that Natasha did actually care for tony.
Said man was still lying lifeless on the gurney despite the desperate attempts of the EMTs to resuscitate him , but still , in that moment , pepper felt that tony had never looked to handsome before. There was so much she wanted to tell him , so many things were still unsaid, but tony’s heart wouldn’t beat , and his lungs wouldn’t breathe…………
“CLEAR !”
This time, the alarms subsided and monitor beeped in a very slow yet reassuring way.
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By the time they had reached the hospital , tony had gone into hypovolemic shock , and the resulting hypotension coupled with his arrhythmic and slowing heartbeats meant that they might have reached the hospital a little too late . as soon as the ambulance stopped , the team of doctors and nurses swarmed them and tony was whisked away , leaving pepper and Natasha to deal with paperwork .
Just minutes after the pair of redheads had settled into the uncomfortable plastic chairs , the door opened to reveal the very haggard avengers standing there , along with rhodey , happy and very surprisingly , fury .
“met the guys and fury in the parking lot,” rhodey panted as he hugged pepper, “How is he?”
Natasha answered.” We-don’t know , Rhodey . he is in surgery. But-uh…to be honest , I think its not too good.”
the vigil began . they all waited silently , occasionally coughing or clearing their throats.
Bruce watched as fury yelled at the agents who were on duty as gala ; banner actually felt sorry for the guys on the receiving end of fury’s fury .
It seemed cruel that they had spent the weeks preceding the gala continuously chattering, waiting , and in general being excited for this night , but the night itself was going on as one of the most morbid nights of his life.
Bruce had never thought that he would actually care for anyone after all he had been through , much less treat someone as his family , but here he was , sitting with people he considered his closest friends , while the best man he had ever seen , his ‘science bro’ was fighting for his life.
Fury hanged up and looked at them. “you will be pleased to know , that the guilty man is in our custody . maria is interrogating him right now. Apparently , from what he had sayed so far , he was a employee in stark industry ,but miss potts had fired him for misconduct with another female employee. After being jobless , he had gone through some family issues and had become borderline maniac. Oh , and the gun he used, its identified as a glock 43 pistol. I hope you will excuse me , I am needed elsewhere.”
The surgery went on for an hour . but for a group of people waiting outside, it feels like a lifetime .
they all stood up , hearts beating fast , panic swirling I their stomach. When the doctor offered them a small smile , they all released a breath they didn’t know they were holding .
“Mr. stark was on the OT for the last hour . he was severely bradycardic on the trauma table ,but right now he is more or less stable . the first bullet had lodged itself in in his shoulder, right over his collar bone . the second one missed his heart just by a few centimeters. The third one , however , caused more complications . it pierced his lung , which caused hemopneumothorax .the hypovolemic shock factor and hypotension is worrisome , I think his blood pressure will remain stable for now. we have intubated and sedated him for the time being , but if all goes well we are going to extubate him after a day or two. However , this two days are extremely vital and he is to be monitored around the clock. Please stay , positive. Three bullet wounds to torso usually are fatal , but he was very, very lucky so far. we shall try our best to make sure that he makes a full recovery .you may see him now . he is at room 507.
He looked peaceful. Pepper sighted as she stroked his hair with one hand , the other holding one of Tony’s still-cold palm. it was almost mid night, and around the dimly lit room , the avengers were all sleeping in the uncomfortable plastic hairs slayed around the bed .it had been hours since they had entered this room , and every single one of them had refused to leave it until tony wakes up . the room was pretty big , and no one asked them to clear out because they were in a private room, because of course , the patient in question was tony stark .
Pepper was scared at how limp he was , and how his lips were completely slacked against the endotracheal tube that was hanging from the corner of his mouth . his chest was covered with bandages and gauzes that made pepper feel so , so guilty. The TV was playing on mute and the only thing that was being displayed was iron man sacrificing himself for his girl friend over and over again . apparently it was the most romantic thing everyone had ever seen , but pepper saw beyond that , she saw the raw pained underneath . the one thing that made tony feel powerless was when he couldn’t protect his loved ones . pepper knew about his nightmares , his sleepless nights , and his immense guilt after tony had failed to catch pepper and she had fallen into a fire……….
But this was a whole new level shed never contemplated. Tony would sacrifice every earthly possession he had for her –and she would do the same for him , shed admitted that freely , but it went deeper than that . tony would die for her-and that was a power she couldn’t comprehend. He loved her enough that he would sacrifice his life if it meant that she was safe.
She kissed his hand , quietly sobbing , and whispered ,” thank you.”
Pepper was terrified. She was a smart woman , and despite what the doctor told , she knew that tony was still in the danger zone. ”lucky so far”. “stable for now”. Pepper knew hospitals well enough to understand that it was the doctor talk for ‘its critical, don’t get your hopes up.’ She wished she could just take his hand and make it right. She wished that she could create a time machine and prevent all this from happening. She wished that she had Sayed how much tony meant to her while he was still conscious. Pepper didn’t know if he was going to wake up again………….
She hadn’t realized when she had fallen asleep to the beeping of the heart monitor , her hand still entangled with his.
Bruce wake up to yelling people and almost hulked out . he had been slumbering fitfully , his back a dull ache even in his sleep . opening his eyes , he reached blindly for his glasses before realizing they weren’t on his bedside table in the tower, but already on his eyes.
The hospital! Bruce sprang up to see a couple nurses and a doctor moving frantically around the room , pulling out syringes and vials from the cabinets . Steve , half awake , was staring at them dumbfounded, as if he was stuck in a limbo between the 40s and the present . Clint , rhodey and happy were just statues on a corner , their faces were ashen gray . Natasha was – comforting pepper? Why was pepper crying? Bruce cursed his foggy brain viciously when he finally realized what was happening .
The doctors were pushing a vial of epinephrine into tony. epinephrine meant adrenaline . which was injected in cases of heart failure. Which meant tony’s heart had given out . again .
Internally screaming ‘oh my gawd no please no no this cant be happening ‘ bruce decided to join pepper and Natasha and watch as the doctors tried to manually restart tony’s heart .
He didn’t knew how much time had passed , but it felt like an eternity.
Finally, it was over . the doctors left the room, but not before explaining to them that it was expected .
Pepper described what happened.” I fell asleep , and then I woke up to-to alarms and they came in and I saw that his heart sto-stopped.”
“why didn’t you wake me up?” bruce demanded to his team , annoyed that he had been the last one to be aware of the situation .
“we know that tony is your best friend , and we didn’t want you to –uh – turn green.”
Understandable enough . he nodded . they all settled back into their chairs, though everyone knew that no one was sleeping that night , so rhodey and happy excused themselves to find some coffee and snacks for everyone .
Bruce sighted . it had been a close , close call.
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the first thing tony heard was the beeping . the annoying sound wont leave him alone . he tried to move his hand , to stop whatever was making the sound , but he could only muster the strength to just move his fingers a bit. That single movement made his bones ache, so he was about to give in to the pull of darkness and relax when a voice called to him .
“tony? Tony can you open your eyes? I need you to try, please.”
As if like magic , that voice opened up all his senses. He was suddenly aware of the soft bed under him , the beepings and murmurings around him , and a hand holding one of his. He knew that hand , he knew its soft texture, he knew that voice too-pepper! Wait, pepper. Everything came back to him in a flash-the gala , them on the stage , the crazy man with a gun targeted at pepper-he could identify from the beeping and the sterile smell that they were in a hospital-was pepper okay? Oh god , did she got shot?
He blinked and opened his eyes, and the first thing they focused was on the face of his beautiful pepper, looking right back at his face with tears on her eyes .
people around the room whooped.
But tony was only focused on the woman sitting beside her .
He tried to sit up , to check up on her , but he only managed to rise a couple inches before his chest felt like it was fire, and he collapsed right back . tony managed two words “pep—okay?” before the coughing fit began .
“shush, tony. Its okay . its okay . you are okay . its fine , honey .”
He felt a straw being navigated in his mouth , and in that moment he realized that he was really thirsty, so he sipped.
Pepper was overjoyed . after waiting for hours , tony had finally made his first voluntary movement. She felt tears form in her eyes, but this time they were from joy and relief .
When tony opened his eyes after being unconscious for a day and half , every one present in the room cheered . bruce , who had fallen asleep after being awake for the last 24 hours, almost fell down from the chair. Clint and Natasha whooped while steve clapped, and rhodey and happy hugged each other .
“Anthony Edward stark , if it wasn’t for the fact that stunt saved my life , i would have killed you by now. god, tony , I though you- that you were –“ pepper broke down sobbing onto his chest because at that moment , nothing else mattered, her tony was finally awake , and boy , was she relieved.
Half and hour later , when the doctor had given tony the all clear , the avengers had gone off to get some snacks , leaving pepper and tony alone in the room .
“its been 56 hours , tony . I was so scared…….it never gets easy to watch you in one of these beds , you know.”
Tony managed a small smile . ” when I saw the gun pointed at you , pep, all I knew at that moment was that I needed to protect the one thing I cant live without . the last time it was like this , I promised to catch you , to save you , but I failed , pep. I couldn’t catch you . fate returned you to me that time , but I couldn’t let it happen again . I kept my promise this time , honey . you are safe, and that’s all that matters to me . I love you.”
“I love you too, tony.”
and then they were kissing . it felt like a lifetime it had passed after the last time she had felt tony’s lip on hers . both knew the other was safe and sound, and every unsaid thing they expressed through their passionate and slow kiss.
They only pulled apart when someone cleared their through pointedly from the door way . rhodey stood with a smirk on his face , followed by all the avengers. Clint and Natasha snorted and bruce just smiled, but steve went all red faced and hastily tried to leave , only to run headfast into the door.
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Pepper forced tony to stay one full week in the hospital despite his wish to leave AMA , and when he could finally , finally , step into his tower , tony had to admit that it was really good to be back .he was still weak and needed help every now and then , but it was at least better than being stuck in a bed 24 hours a day.
that night , tony laid awake ,watching pepper sleep. Her hand wrapped around Tony’s waist as she snuggled in his arms. Without all the stress wrinkles, she looked angelic- tony thought. He softly touched her forehead with his lips.
“ I love you.”