Work Text:
Tony is aware of what Strange is doing.
After his rescue—Tony couldn’t call it anything else, as much as he’d like to say he contributed to an escape—Strange brings him to the Sanctum Sanctorum and installs Tony in his own bedroom, moving himself to a guest room. He calls healers, swears them to secrecy, and sternly instructs them to fully explain any spell they would like to perform and acquire Tony’s explicit permission to cast it before proceeding. When Tony balks at some of the more intense healing magics, Strange portals in a doctor instead, a trauma specialist who seems to know Strange personally and who consents (with an eye roll) to a spell ensuring Tony’s confidentiality.
Strange provides Tony with a laptop and a cell phone just one week into his recovery. “I’d apologize for the delay, but we both know you’d have stressed yourself into complications if I’d done this sooner,” he says forthrightly. “The healers would prefer I continued to restrict access to the news and, knowing you, to work, but I don’t want you to feel trapped.”
Of course Tony searches for reports on his capture. He finds reports of his death, despite the lack of a body. The Avengers were eyewitnesses. His funeral and the public memorial both look quite tasteful in the pictures. Pepper’s work, no doubt. Six weeks later—not even as long as he was in Afghanistan—Stark Industries is doing well, the Avengers have recruited a new heavy hitter, and the paparazzi are speculating on Pepper’s relationship with Rhodey. Apparently, grief has brought them closer together.
Tony scrolls through article after article in which everyone who ever knew him seems to have grieved, moved on, and forgotten him while surrounded by Strange’s warm consideration. He knows what Strange is doing.
It’s working anyway.