17605/Proof that Tony Stark has a heart.
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Proof that Tony Stark has a heart. | |
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Date of Scene: | 08 April 2024 |
Location: | Avengers Mansion - Medical |
Synopsis: | And now so does Pepper. Things should get interesting. |
Cast of Characters: | Tony Stark, Pepper Potts
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- Tony Stark has posed:
There was a lot of fallout from the UN attack, people hurt, people missing, loads of chaos. After fighting off the heavy units outside the UN, Tony remembered that Pepper was supposed to be somewhere in there. Without a second thought he violates about a dozen privacy laws by having the StarkPhone system feed him her location.
Shedding the Hulkbuster armor and sending it back to the Tower, he heads inside. Emergency personnel will have a somewhat easier time getting in and out on the path he takes, because debris, fallen statues and columns and anything else blocking the most direct path to her are swept out of the way by low power repulsor beams.
Finally finding her among the debris, the helmet retracts into his armor as he kneels down, really hoping the blood on her clothing isn't hers. "Hey Pep, are you with me here?" He runs a scan, popping up her vitals and other health info on one of the vambrace displays. Trying to keep the result out of his voice, he adds "You're safe now, it's all over" while tapping the control for an emergency pickup by Avengers Mansion medical.
- Pepper Potts has posed:
It's a gruesome scene, the inside of the UN building. Holes in walls made by both heroes and villains alike. Corridors with holes in the walls, blackened with soot and blood. Doors torn off their hinges by booted thugs looking for their prizes. Anything not on their 'shopping list' became simple collateral damage.
Like the four women piled in a corner, laying in the same place where they'd been after the grenade exploded, destroying their world. Pepper lying on the end, ostensibly shielding the other women with her own body. Her own small heroic effort.
Pepper doesn't respond; blood drips from her ears from the concussive blast, green eyes closed, and the shrapnel has done her body injury. She looks a great deal smaller, frailer, and paler.
If she hears him, it's a difficult time to respond. The only thing, really, that even suggests that she knows it's him is the grand attempt to even open her eyes. But, it's there. If there was any fight left in her to prevent her being taken prisoner or something worse, it's gone. Again, a subtle, silent acknowledgment that he's there. It's him, and she knows it.
Safe.
The sound of the rescue teams aren't far off, clearing the rubble, the debris, looking for any and all survivors in the tangled mess that is the UN building.
Avengers Medical chimes in their presence, asking, "Status?" They need to know what to expect, after all!
- Tony Stark has posed:
The helmet closes around his head again so that he can relay the info without Pepper hearing it. She doesn't need to hear that she's in bad shape right now. A positive attitude, even if a mostly unconscious one is important in these situations.
"I've got Miss Potts here, badly injured, sending the initial scan now. Three other women as well, not checked yet. Get here and extract all four of them two minutes ago, and the FAA can bite me if they don't like the sonic boom over the city."
Message sent, the helmet flows back into the suit again, leaving one slightly panicked looking Tony Stark revealed. There's still more of the job to do though, and he scans the other three women and forwards their info as well. He may be a jerk sometimes, but not enough of one to only have Pepper picked up and leave three injured women lying there until some other EMT finds them.
That done, he returns the suit to his watch band and sits down beside Pepper, taking his shirt off and folding it up to cushion her head. He then takes one of her hands in his and awaits the arrival of the medics.
- Pepper Potts has posed:
Extraction. The biggest problem is 'scene safety', which means the rank and file Emergency Services aren't yet allowed in. The tactical medics, however, have had boots on the ground and pick up the message of yet another small group of injured that need to be evacuated.
New York's heroes, FDNY, appears and is ready to do emergency carries out. "Sir," and they pause, if only for a heartbeat when they realize who it is that is sitting there, waiting. In true New York style, however, it's move to the rear and it's all business as if the hesitation never occurred. "Let's get them up. We'll need to know name, allergies, any history of injury or disease that might make it harder to treat." Get the man talking, give him something else to focus on. "Sir."
Beyond the UN, ambulances are ready, including one that is landing in a parking lot. Medivacs are useful things, even if they're painted black with a stylized SI along side, with that red cross.
- Tony Stark has posed:
Tony looks up at the first responders as they address him, then shakes his head and reaches into a pocket, pulling out a StarkPhone. "HOMER, put the scan of the three women who aren't Pepper into this, will you?"
"Of course sir. It's done."
Tony offers the phone to the man who spoke to him. "That's a full injury scan of these other three ladies. I have medical personnel incoming for Miss Potts here, so you don't need to worry about her. I can also take the other three if needed, I know the hospitals are going to be overflowing with injuries from this whole mess."
And speak of the devil, a group of medics wearing the SI logo come trotting up the hallway, equipment in hand. They nod greetings to the FDNY personnel, then get to work on Pepper. Tony is persuaded to release her hand and let the medics do their thing, so he instead hovers around the edges of the work they are doing. Pepper is bandaged to at least slow any bleeding and transferred carefully onto a stretcher than then hums to life, repulsors raising it up from the floor so that one person can easily move it.
Considering the situation, the FDNY responders hand the phone to one of the medics, saying "You're probably right about the hospitals. They'll get quicker care if you take them." With that, the other three are triaged and lifted on repulsor stretchers as well. Tony reclaims Pepper's hand as all four stretchers are guided out of the building and onto the SI medevac. As soon as they are secured, it lifts into the air and makes a beeline for Avenger's Mansion.
"HOMER, get all of our medical vehicles and personnel except the ones at the Mansion to the UN and hand them over to whoever's running things there. We're maybe two minutes out, so have staff ready."
"They already are sir, just awaiting your arrival."
The medevac slows and lands on the pad beside the mansion, which descends to the second sublevel where medical personnel take all four women into treatment rooms.
- Pepper Potts has posed:
The moment the helicopter lands, there is a flurry of activity, all of it controlled and organized. Every order, every move is orchestrated. Every medico has a job to do; trauma shears to determine extent of damage to provide a visual to correspond with Tony's electronic, EKG, a life-pack with defibrillator just in case her heart decides to give out en route, kept on to monitor her vitals as she's brought downstairs to the high tech Medical facility.
The trauma surgeon and his team is waiting, and his expression is grim. "Mr Stark, we're going to do what we can, but there's a lot of damage done. I'm particularly concerned about the couple of pieces that are lodged in her lungs, near her aorta. It might stay still, it may not, but the only way I can tell what's what is when," not 'if', "I go in." Signatures, permissions.
"We'll do everything we can for her, sir."
Pale, frail.. and is that a tear that drops along the side of Pepper's face? Knowledge, acknowledgment, or a base unconscious understanding as to what is going on around her.
- Tony Stark has posed:
Signatures and permissions are taken care of. Tony knows the quality of the doctors he's hired, so if anyone can take care of Pepper, it's them. If the other women are unconscious, he directs the doctors to treat them as well. A quick check of their ID and their names and current location are added to the database of wounded that is being kept by the city so that next of kin and the like can actually find them.
Tony gowns and masks up, following Pepper into the operating room. He's worried, very much so, but isn't stupid enough to get in the way. He just needs to be there. The doctors get to work on Pepper, starting with the removal of shrapnel that's safe to move, as well as stitching any wounds that can be safely closed.
Minutes stretch into hours as the work continues, and finally the lead surgeon turns away from her to say "Mr. Stark, I've done everything I can. Most of the shrapnel is out, her wounds are closed, but... those fragments by the aorta are a problem. One of them is actually touching it, and I'm not sure they can be removed without puncturing it." He shakes his head, "It's almost a twin to your situation, to be honest. it can't be removed, but it also can't be allowed to move or it will kill her."
Tony closes his eyes as the surgeon speaks, and that may be a tear rolling from the corner of his eye to be absorbed by the mask a moment later. When the surgeon compares Pepper's situation to his own however, his head snaps up and he says, "Keep her stable, I'll be right back!" He literally runs out of the room, suit forming around him as he gets to the landing pad. A quick command opens the ground level doors, and Iron Man rockets out and into the sky. He will probably be hearing from the FAA about the sonic boom he makes while setting a speed record from the Mansion to the Tower.
The secure doorway in the side of Stark Tower that leads into his workshop opens in time for him to fly in, grab something off his workbench and fly back out.
He's going to be paying for a _LOT_ of window replacements as he breaks the sound barrier again on his way back. He drops though the still open landing pad doors, suit retracting as soon as he hits the ground. Another full speed run back to the operating room and he hands one of the nurses the device he brought back with him. "Get this sterile and ready for implantation." Turning back to the surgeon, he pulls up the schematics of the device up as a hologram.
"This was supposed to be my new node, but I think she needs it more than I do. It'll go in just like mine, so tell me what info you need and you'll have it."
About twenty minutes later, the surgery team has looked over not only the device, but scans of Tony to show where it sits and what it attaches to, as well as having footage from his latest replacement at hand. It's faster than they want to go, but they can't keep Pepper on the table indefinitely. Tony returns to hovering around the edges as the team goes to work.
And hours later, the last suture is in place and Pepper's vitals stabilize as the R.T. Node lights up and goes to work. Tony walks alongside her as she is wheeled into recovery, pulling a chair over to sit beside her.
- Pepper Potts has posed:
Blood is hanging, IV access is gained through a central line in her neck. The red blood is a stark contrast to the paleness, almost ashen tone of her skin. The doctors are, of course, the best that can be gained; Harvard, Yale and some extremely talented but less credentialed others. They're a conservative team when it calls for it, but willing to push the envelope when called to save a life.
Such as in this case. Forget FAA, it's the FDA that'll have Tony on the Congressional carpet for putting an untested medical device into someone. But, that's later.
For now?
Pepper is fully prepped; a tube down her throat, and all breathing is done via the ventilator. Her heart and lungs are paused by another large machine that does the job for her, the ECMO. Once everything is ready and Pepper is stabilized enough, Tony is back.. with something in hand.
"Mr Stark, are you su-" The question falls away when the lead surgeon sees the look in those dark eyes; the need to do something, anything that could save a life. Pepper's life. A sigh exits the man and he nods to a tech, "Get that ready and in." He's looking over the specs offered him, nodding as he checks the connections, looking as to placement. "She's smaller than you are, so..." pause, "No, no. It'll be okay."
Those twenty minutes may seem like an eternity, but in and out, thanks to initial scans and XRay. Robotic surgery is the wave of the future!
Everyone is holding their breath as the R.T. Node comes online. It is a mass exhale as it does, sounds of relief and nervous energy released. Some laugh in the victory, some are cautiously optimistic.
Once Pepper hits the recovery area, still with everything flowing, the soft light of the array is a continuous pulse, a beacon. Proof, once again, that Tony has a heart, and it's been given to a particular redhead.