starkingenuity | (no subject)

"Yep, actually, I did hear you, Doc. I'm just ignoring you." Don't be a buzz kill. Stark is riding high from that last fight. "It's just a cut. I've gotten a lot of cuts. Some bactine and some bandages and a little kiss over it from Jarvis here and I'll be just fine." The tall, leggy blond at his side doesn't even bother to roll his pale blue eyes. He's worked with Stark for years, too long really. He knows how the man acts.

"Sir."

That always makes Stark laugh and he lightly pats Jarvis on the back of his drivesuit. "Not your boss anymore, Jarv," he reminds him gentle. Or maybe he's just trying to drown out the mousy little guy following him. And that's when it hits him, halfway down the corridor, through the cheering crowds and the crews trying to get his Jaeger back into one piece. He knows that mousey little man follow him. "Shit. You're Doctor Banner! Well hey, nice to meet you finally! Man, we studied your tactics against Onibaba for months after that attack in Tokyo!"

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From:

aggravated

Bruce has a sheet of paper in his hand, clutched to his chest, as he walks across the room slowly to stand at Stark's side. The man looks sallow and pasty and far removed from the bright, warm, decidedly insane man Bruce has come to know over the two weeks or so. He stands beside him, silent, before his eyes flicker over to the battery beside him.

"I don't know where Yinsen is, or what his skill set is, but I have a suggestion." He unfolds the paper, and spreads it out for Jarvis to see. It's easier than the guilt that's creeping up hotter and hotter inside. It's one of Tony's drawings of the device he'd been building, the one Bruce had first spoken to him about and respected the ideas of.

"Stark can't lug that battery around forever, but this, maybe he could." He can't stay. He can't.

From:

starkingenuity

Jarvis has seen the design before during drifts and he knows it well. "The arc reactor?" he asks, looking perhaps a little confused before he stands up abruptly. "It's an electromagnet. He's been working on a way to miniaturize it, to stabilize the design that way and-- You're bloody brilliant!" It's not like Jarvis to look excited over anything.

He takes the paper with shaking hands and holds it up and out.

"We'll need... We can do this. Well, you and he. We need to tell Marshall Fury. If it works for Mr. Stark, it could be used to power the Jaegers and--" Oh. Ahem. Pardon him. He clears his throat, somewhat embarrassed by his outburst. "Forgive me. I believe you should present this to the Marshall. You might end up saving all of our lives, Doctor."

From:

aggravated

Watching the normally stoic Jarvis get so very excited makes Bruce feel like this is the right thing to have done, after several wrong choices, and there is something warming about it. Still, he has to clear up a misconception. "Jarvis, I can't stay. Whether or not I want to speak to Fury, I'll have to. I'll tell him about this, and he'll undoubtedly take it from there. If I don't end up court marshaled, I'll be lucky."

His smile is achingly sad. "I studied the arc reactor's design before I came here and after talking with him, even further. I know it isn't complete, but if anyone can manage it, he can. I'm not an engineer by any means, but hopefully Doctor Yinsen will be able to help him get it implanted."

From:

starkingenuity

"This isn't the military," Jarvis says gently. "You won't be court marshaled. And I very much doubt that you'll be fired, Doctor. You have only tried to help."

He lightly smiles and hands back the paper. "And I really do not want to deal with Mister Stark if he finds out you've been terminated. I can almost guarantee that no one else does either. But if you feel the need to leave, please do so after he wakes. You can deal with his arrogance. I've done so for years."

From:

aggravated

Too many years with the Army to not think of the consequences in those terms. "I only caused a few million dollars in damage to the Shatterdome and one of its prime Jaeger, nevermind one of their best pilots. I'm not blind to the fact there will be consequences."

Bruce takes the paper, folding it up carefully. "It might not be my choice, you realize. It's out of my hands, what happens. I'll try to stay, because I promised to help you and... I owe Stark to try and make sure the right people are helping him."

His eyes go back to Stark's face, wishing for a heartbeat he could drift like the pilots could to make Stark know he's going to find a way to make sure he can pilot again."

From:

starkingenuity

When Stark finally wakes up, he puts a hand to his head immediately to block out the heavy overhead lights. "Jarvis--" But his co-pilot isn't there. They'd told him Stark would take about two hours to wake up completely, to shower, shave, and have a little him time. Of course, Tony never does anything on schedule and not twenty minutes after Jarvis' departure do his eyes open.

He sees someone in a labcoat instead with mousey brown curls and tilts his head towards him to get a better look at what he's doing.

"One little cut on my hand and all this, Doc?" he jokes blandly. He doesn't really remember what happened.

From:

aggravated

Bruce actually is a little started, mostly because he'd been expecting Stark not to wake up for quite some time, either. He's staring down at the design in his hands, the arc reactor, waiting for Fury to figure out where he is and come in like his namesake, or to be told to leave, or something similar.

"...hey." Very soft, putting the blueprint aside and being ready in case Stark tries to sit up or anything that foolish. "You really need to stop hurting yourself to get me to see you. This one wasn't as cute as a little cut on the hand."

From:

starkingenuity

"Oh, that asshole, telling my secrets," Tony says. He's been out for some time, several days in fact. Medically induced comas don't sit too well with him, he's decided. Yinsen has been in and out, thought Banner's idea was brilliant, and there's a butt mark in the seat next to him that probably matches Jarvis to a tee. "But I'm not sure what I did this time, to be honest. Unless that cut festered-- Shit, I didn't lose my hand did--" A glance calms him down. "No. Good. I might have been really pissed. I like my hands."

He doesn't try to sit up but he does take another look around the room. The wires leading to his chest aren't going to standard medical equipment and his eyes roll under the blink of his lids a moment later.

"Ah hell."

From:

aggravated

"...you chased the R.A.B.I.T," Bruce says softly, "because you found out Jarvis is sick. Even disconnected from your Jaeger, it kept moving without any pilot. They're still trying to figure out how." No, he won't bring up the Other Guy at all. He didn't save anyone - Stark almost died, and would without the battery. "You survived, Jarvis is fine, but there's shrapnel, so tiny and so close to your heart they can't remove it. Doctor Yinsen managed to figure out a way to save you via the battery you're hooked up to and a magnet."

From:

starkingenuity

Wait a second. Banner, if you're close enough, you're going to have a very famous playboy hanging off of your arm right now. His grip might be weak but yanno what? He's doing the best he can here and he needs a touch stone. "I have a magnet stuck to my chest because there's shrapnel playing taps against my heart? Okay...okay. So we can figure out how to connect two people by their thoughts through a giant metal machine that walks and kicks ass but we can't get shrapnel out of my heart?!"

Those last few words? That's a growl. A growl coupled with terrible morning breath. Sorry about that. He's a little stale.

From:

aggravated

"I wish I knew what to tell you, Stark, but I'm not a surgeon." Bruce lets start hold on to him, knowing that right now he probably needs to be grounded more than anything else. "We have a plan that we think is going to work, but it all hinges on you being able to finish the arc reactor." Bruce feels the odd urge to touch Stark'a hair like he would a crying child.

From:

starkingenuity

Maybe because Tony does actually come off a lot of the time just like a crying child so-- So maybe it would be appreciated. Or maybe he'd be pissed off. It's so hard to tell with a man whose personality seems so geared on being something larger than life. Even if, pale and depressingly alone right now, he's anything but.

"The arc reactor. Because it's an electromagnet. But-- Well. Damn. I need a digital pad. And some breath mints, man, I'm killing myself here. And water. And Jarvis. And like...two really hot nurses."

From:

aggravated

"How about I bring you what you need to brush your teeth? Jarvis will be back soon; he hasn't left your side in the last few days and needed a shower and to eat. Ill bring you a pad." Bruce's hand unthinkingly touches Stark's hair, so gentle. "I won't leave until he's back."

From:

starkingenuity

When's the last time he had someone stroke his hair? Hm. The Jenkin twins. Couple months back after the Apostle brought down her first Kaiju. Man, that had been a night! Jarvis hadn't wanted one and Tony was too much of a gentleman to let them go unescorted. No need to fuel sisterly rivalries right? He'd been very good to make sure that they were even by the end of the night too.

His eyelids flutter shut and he sighs through his nose. "It's weird, you know? When I thought it was me with the radiation sickness... All I could think about was what he'd do without me. And now... I can't stop thinking about what I'd do without him. I'm a selfish piece of shit just about all the time, Banner. It's not really sunken in yet but-- How is he?"

From:

aggravated

"He's handling it all well." Surprisingly well. Bruce's hand is slow and steady, even when he doesn't feel either. "Very well. I'm going to make sure he doesn't die. I... I've spent so long trying to figure out a cure for myself, and for Kaiju blue, I think I can find a way."

From:

starkingenuity

Tony just nods. He needs to spend more time with Jarvis, not just.. Well, whatever they do. Together but not together. He takes him for granted. "Thanks," he says, almost glumly, not once chiding Bruce for the coddling.

From:

aggravated

Bruce goes silent, his eyes closing. What could he say? He had made a decision, and because of it, all of this had happened. If he could manage this, to get Yinsen to work with Stark on the arc reactor, then they would be the better off.

He waits for Jarvis to return.

From:

starkingenuity

"So you're one of those guys that blames himself for everything, huh?" It's been a few minutes of silence and now Stark's decided it's time to talk again? He's in a little bit of pain, he's afraid...and maybe he's a little bit desperate. "Must be. Because you keep trying to atone for everything. So...if you're blaming yourself? How about you help me get to a lab. I've gotta get started on this. And you're going to help me."

From:

aggravated

"Not until your doctor gives you a release," Bruce says quietly, but not fighting the accusation of blaming himself. In this case, he knew it was true. So, of course, he offers, "you can have my lab, Stark."

He is sure of what the outcome of all of this will be.

From:

starkingenuity

"Huh, did I lose the memo where you stopped being a doctor? Get me up. I have shrapnel in my chest, Banner. I get a pass on following the rules." He wiggles his fingers around. "You can pet me later." Maybe...maybe he should hold his tongue sometimes? "C'mon. Please." He'll beg-- well no he won't. Maybe he will. It depends on the way Banner reacts to that. He wriggles his fingers again. "Up up up."

From:

aggravated

Bruce, no surprise, immediately jerks his hand away and looks off to the side. "I'm not your doctor, Yinsen is. You'll have to wait for him. I gave him the idea about the arc reactor, and hopefully, it'll work." He steps back, hands coming up and wringing over one another.

From:

starkingenuity

Yinsen. He's met the man before, briefly. "He's not my doctor. He's my surgeon. You're my doctor. I get to pick don't I? It's still America. Free country. I won't be denied my basic freedoms. Now help me up."

Oh Stark knows he's embarrassed the man but he's done that for a reason. He can't be having moments because Jarvis will just make fun of him. And sure, he really does owe Jarvis a whole lot for that freak out but Banner is something different. And Stark wants to protect him. Even as he bosses him around.

"Now please. Help me up. I need my shoes. My hair look all right?"

From:

aggravated

"Stop- Stark stop it!" Bruce says more firmly, and actually uses a gentle grip on Stark's shoulder to try and keep him from getting up. "You need to stay down-"

"You need to stay the fuck in bed, Stark," came a totally different voice from the doorway. Bruce's hand tightened hard on Stark's shoulder for a moment as he recognizes the voice, and his heart sinks down into his stomach which churns hard. He quickly pulls his hands away as he realizes that the grip might become brutal if he's not careful.

He turns slowly and looks at Fury, who stands very straight in the doorway, hands together behind his back, glaring at both of them. "Banner. You need to come with me. We need to talk." That last word spoke of more than its four letters.

Bruce swallows, audible to Stark, and reaches over to pick up the piece of paper with the arc reactor's design. He looks back to Stark and says softly, "you're free to my lab, when Yinsen says you're allowed up. Make Jarvis set up shop before someone else does." His smile is entirely false; he believes he knows how this will go.

From:

starkingenuity

"Hey, this is kidnapping! Doctor-napping! Whatever, it's still bad and I'm going to get my lawyer on this," Stark protests but no one's listening to him because he's bedridden and maybe, just maybe, if he moves around too much, his heart will overthrow the magnet attached to the plate over his chest and it's Good Night Kaiju, forever. With Fury's hand commanding him to lay his ass down, again, Tony does what he's told and glares metaphorical daggers at the back of the one-eyed man's noggin before he and Banner exit through the door.

At least Fury waits until they're behind closed doors before getting into the arguing. "Just what the hell were you thinking, Doctor?" he asks as Bruce is left to shut the door.

His hands are on his hips and though he wears the Ranger's uniform, he's certainly managed to make it look more imposing. Probably that long leather trenchcoat does the trick. He waits for Bruce to open his mouth to talk and immediately talks over him again.

"Did I not say this would happen? Did you not hear me say the words to you that the bond between pilots is incredibly possessive? Stark's most of all? You wanted to help, Doctor, but we have ways in place. You might have cost us our best pilots before we could retire them."

From:

aggravated

Bruce feels like he's reverted back ten, fifteen years and there before him is General Ross, snapping at him like he was a child, like his father had before Ross. Slow, steady breaths in, out, focusing on each one as he listens to Fury's words, not meeting his eyes or even looking at his face, but more at his collarbone. There might be the power to destroy this whole place or even take on a Kaiju contained within him, but nothing about how Bruce act suggests that.

"You have 'ways' in place that would have kept Pilot Jarvis in the dark as long as possible, when every Human being has the right to know that they're ill," he says tightly. They'd already fought about this, but he'd gone and done it anyway. "I'm a doctor, and I'm not about to forgo the oath I took to keep some man in the dark from his own health issues."

Another breath in. Out. On this, he won't back down, even after the damage it caused, even though he's bearing the guilt of it. He never dreamed it would go as far as it did, and he regrets Stark being harmed (they could repair the Shatterdome, even the Mammoth), but Jarvis deserves better than lies. "You wouldn't want to be lied to either, Marshall. And what would you have done when Jarvis started to get physically ill? Stark would have found out then, and been even more angry that we'd lied to him and kept both of them in the dark!"

Okay, that has more snap to it than he wants to let out right now. He knows the Other Guy came out, thanks to both Jarvis' recounting of the incident and the familiar loss of time and memory. He wishes he could remember why, exactly. Either way, he doesn't want to toe that line again, not right now.