(no subject)

[starkingenuity]

"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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[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.

[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."

[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."

[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."

[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.

[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.

[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."

[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."

[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?"

[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."

[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.

[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.

[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."

[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.

[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."

[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.

[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?"

[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.

[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."

[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.

[starkingenuity]

That right there? That is a smirk. Fury doesn't have the look about him that would bespeak his namesake either. "Well said, Doctor," he agrees, though the corns of his lips immediately turn down. "But for your information, this has happened before. Will be happening soon with Coyote Tango's crew. One more battle, one more Kaiju, and the team gets retired." That really can't be the answer, but it's all they've got. "Which is why you're going to figure out how to shield our pilots before the next attack, got it?"

He's not playing games anymore, and the flip of his coat as he settles behind his desk.

"One other thing, Doctor. We know that during your incidents you don't remember what a fool you are, but we have video. I'd like for you to take a look at your leisure and tell us what, if your best estimate, the other guy was doing saving Tony Stark's idiot self from the conn-pod, all right?" He pushes the disc towards Banner. "And then I want you two to get us that arc reactor. Do we understand each other?"

Is there any other response but yes?

[aggravated]

Bruce's eyes lift, just enough to catch that smirk, and it honestly confuses him so strongly that the flip back into stern-Fury doesn't even rock him like it should. Why the smirk? ...Was he... pleased? Bruce has no idea what to even do with that thought-

Until Fury smacks him back down with that deadline, which makes Bruce's eyes go wide. They all somewhat know the timeline of the next attack, but Bruce has to point out, "sir, if we have any training which has them anywhere close to the-"

Wait. Wait. Wait. Bruce's entire thought process crashes as the reality of something specific comes to the forefront, and he asks, quietly, "...you want me to stay?"

But, after all of that? Is it because he's that badly needed, then? It must be. There's no greater expert on radiation, so- yes. That must be it. Settled in the logical, he ignores his own question and nods. "Yes, sir, we do, loud and clear." But he still eyes the disc like it's poison. He's seen, once or twice, 'himself' on TV as the Other Guy, and it is the most deeply unsettling thing one could imagine. And the thing Fury wants him to look for?

He has no idea. The concept still has him stunned. Slowly he reaches out and takes the disc, then steps back. "You'll have the arc reactor first, as it's the more pressing need." Even though he knows that'll be mostly on Stark's shoulders as he's no engineer, and he'll have to get people to help with the issue on the shielding as why it isn't strong enough yet in the Mark II's-- and then about the Coyote Tango team.

"I'll be working on something to help counter the issue as well, of the radiation. There may very well be a way." For the Coyote Tango team, considering how long they've been in action, it might be too late. But for Jarvis... maybe not.

[starkingenuity]

Isn't it sad that two years is considered a long time for pilots? Most are killed after only a few attacks. The Tango has almost five kills under her belt during that short time. It's the best record anyone's got to date.

Fury's hands spread apart and he nods. "Then I leave it in your capable hands, but Doctor? Let's try to keep a lid on it for now. No one was killed but I don't need one more thing to worry about on top of everything else." He turns in his chair, thus dismissing the scientist to go back to-- Well, not to Tony. Tony Stark has decides to take himself for a walk. Well, he's manages to flirt his way into having a redheaded nurse take him for a push in a wheel chair. Thankfully, none of the doors on this level of the Shatterdome are raised submarine doors like they are in some of the other sections. They need to allow trolleys to be pushed through, after all, and so getting himself situation in Bruce's lab?

Actually pretty easy.

"Decaf coffee, all right? I don't need a racing heart. And altoids." Someone needs to learn patience. Someone needs to learn not to go out of his way to freak people out that expect him to be curled up nice and tight in bed being pampered.

When Stark's life is in danger, he certainly doesn't need any further incentive.

[aggravated]

Bruce will freak out just a touch when he arrives back in the hospital room and it's empty. Just a touch. Not that he shows it in any way other than his hand tightening on the door, but in his mind he knows Stark somehow figured out how to lug that battery along, get out of the room- no way it was on his own two feet, too weak for that- and where is he now?

Bruce's mind answers him immediately. There's only one place that Tony would go after their little discussion earlier. And I petted him.

Ignoring that.

Quickly he turns and heads down for his own lab, trying to keep himself from wanting to yell at Stark because he understands why Stark would be doing this, but it could kill him to be up and about this quickly! The man has no respect for doctors, does he? Or more specifically, their orders.

So when he comes into his lab, seeing a young lady walk out he recognizes as one of the nurses, he doesn't even bother with a greeting. No, instead, he calls out, "you're getting nothing but male nurses from now on, you know that, right?"

[starkingenuity]

Oh good, his new babysitter is back. Stark doesn't even look up from what he's doing, he just continues to separate metals as he tests a new conduction theory. He probably needs a spot welder too but he'll ask for it later. Besides, he doesn't want to accidentally spot weld the battery he's got in his lap right now to anything important. He sort of needs that to survive the next few days or weeks. Days. He likes to give himself impossible schedules.

"I can work with guys too," he all but purrs. Yes, it's to make Banner give him that slightly shocked, slightly scrunched up face. Yes, he wants it to happen even if he's not looking. Yes, he's asking for trouble here and Jarvis is totally going to rake him across the coals.

Stark prefers women nine times out of ten but there's just something fun about picking on, teasing, and being around Bruce Banner and his tiptoe tightrope walking.

And he hadn't been lying about his eyes either.

"But enough about that. Do you have static resistant gloves? I have a charge to me now and that's either going to get me electrocuted or just a really nice new hairstyle. Or give me the power of flight. Actually-- Uh, maybe later. I still need altoids though." Be a darling, Banner. Get him breath mints. You'll thank him. Honesty.