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“Wait. He’s alive?” Maria asked. “As in he has brain function?”
“He is. There’s no telling what his brain will do once he’s been removed from the ice, but I’m getting some sort of reading off of him,” Jean said. “I can try to help him through it.”
Fury sighed. “I had hoped he was dead. Though at the same time…”
“He is an icon,” Jean agreed.
“Don’t let Phil know,” Maria said.
“How long will it take to defrost him?” Fury asked.
“If it was anyone else I’d get him on a transfusion of Warren’s blood, but since he’s undergone his own genetic modification I won’t suggest it. At a safe estimate, I’d say four to seven days.”
“Alright. Nobody tell Colson,” Fury said. “Hill, start prepping for his awakening and a way for him to catch up.”
“He’s alive? Seriously?” Clint asked. “And if we know…”
“Phil knows,” Natasha finished. “And he’s probably staring at him now.”
Phil Coulson was indeed outside the medical wing Captain America was in. He wasn’t pressed against the glass like they had expected, but it was a close thing. Instead he was pacing anxiously back and forth in front of the glass.
“We have been here for an hour and a half,” Carolyn sighed. She was sitting in a chair, laptop balanced on her knees. “Bossman told me to babysit him.”
“I don’t need babysitting,” Phil grumbled.
“Do you feel like your marriage is threatened?” Clint asked.
“So much. My marriage is very threatened by this,” Carolyn sighed. “Phil, you’re sleeping on the couch tonight.”
“I love that couch,” he said. “I will gladly sleep on it if you all leave me alone.”
“You are such a fanboy,” Clint said. “What are you even doing?”
“I’m supervising,” Phil said.
“I’m pretty sure the doctors are supervising just fine,” Natasha said. “You have better things to be doing.”
“Maria wants you to work on a program to get him up to speed if he wakes up,” Carolyn said, typing away at her computer. Clint perched on the edge of her chair. Nothing on that screen had anything to do with work. It was in fact filled with pictures of cats and dogs being rather adorable.
“Really?” Phil asked. “Wait. If he wakes up?”
“Jean said there wasn’t a guarantee he wouldn’t be a vegetable. And I’m not saying that to hurt you,” Carolyn said. “But she was getting something off of him, not actual concrete thoughts. She’s going to try and help him through the defrost process, but there’s no guarantee.”
“Then why isn’t she here?” Phil asked.
“School got a new student. Some telepathic leanings and very, very wigged out by her powers. She’s more comfortable around Jean than the Professor,” Carolyn explained.
“So I get to work up a plan for acclimating him to the 21st century?” Phil asked.
“Yup,” Carolyn said.
Phil rushed off, muttering about documentaries and the history channel and all sorts of other stuff.
“Did Maria actually say that?” Natasha asked.
“Nope.”