Fic: Tin Man (7-8/10)

[eumelia]

Title: Tin Man (7-8/10)
Author: Mel (eumelia)
Disclaimer: Marvel owns it all, I just like to play with other people's toys and get no money from it.
Rating: PG-13, here be some language and violent imagery
Fandom: Iron Man (Movieverse) - this happens approx. a month after the events of the movie.
Characters: Tony Stark, Pepper Potts, James Rhodes
Previous Chapters: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5 and Part 6


Part 7

Being self aware didn't stop the feeling that he was drowning. That his head was being held under liquid, unable to move, paralyzed by the memory of what had happened to him in captivity.
They hadn't just dunked his head in water a few times.
"I think you need a little pick up, don't you, Mr. Stark" Raza said as he pulled him out of the viscous liquid. He was holding the familiar car battery.

Through the small window Pepper and Rhodey could see Dr. Medina treat Tony. Trying to get his heart to function again, which had just moments ago had gone into distress.
Pepper turned away, Rhodey pulled her into a hug, unable to watch either.
After a few moments the door to the suite opened and the whole team was wheeling Tony out.
"Where are you taking him?" Rhodes asked, he and Pepper following them.
Dr. Medina walked and talked fast "We're taking him into surgery; we have to get that thing out of his chest if we can treat him"
Pepper's eyes widened "What!?" she caught the doctor's arm "You can't do that! That's the electromagnet that's keeping the shrapnel away from his heart!"
"Well, this will be a chance to get the shrapnel out and get him to live a normal life" the doctor replied tersely.
"The shrapnel can't be removed! It's lodged in the outer wall of his heart!"
"So you've informed us and it will be dealt with-"
"How?" Pepper interrupted.
Dr. Medina ignored the question; "That thing is hindering our treatment; we can barely see anything in the x-rays because of that apparatus. The CT is useless and certainly the MRI"
Pepper stared at her. For a split second, she was conflicted. If they operated and removed the arc reactor Tony would be normal again. He wouldn't be able to put on a gold-titanium alloy exoskeleton suit and fly around the globe, putting himself in danger. More danger than when he'd been in captivity. But she knew of his determination to make things right, to direct arc reactor technology for good and the whole of Stark Enterprises to business that didn't have to do with the murder of innocent people, known as "collateral damage".

Tony hadn't just built a suit.

His hope, mainly for himself but also for others around him, was founded on the electromagnet that kept his heart safe from his own manufactured destruction.

"No"
The doctor stared at her "What?!"
"I said no" Pepper replied with vehemence "Do what you need to do to fix him, but if you remove the arc reactor you will be going against your patient's wishes and that will incur a law-suit of such magnitude you won't be aware of how much of your ass it bites" Pepper's blue eyes were icy, her voice was as hard as steel.
Rhodey stared at her as though she'd lost her mind.
"Are you crazy?" hissed Medina and Rhodey together.
"No, I know what Tony would want" Pepper said "I also have power of attorney over Mr. Stark's medical decisions at a time in which he is incapacitated, which he obviously is"
The doctor was about to reply when one of the nurses shouted that Tony was crashing again and that they needed to open him up.
Medina gave one last glance at Pepper and ran after her patient.
Pepper bit her lip and frowned after her. She was whiled around by Rhodey.
"Pepper"
"Happy" she said to the body-guard who had been watching the proceedings with his regular stony countenance "please make sure it's the authorized staff dealing with Tony"
"Of course, Pepper" Happy replied and jogged to follow the disappearing gurney and medical staff.
"That was stupid" Rhodey said as she returned her attention to him.
"Then it's exactly what Tony would have done. Come on, they're not opening Tony up without me there to make sure they do exactly why I said"
"They might need to remove it in order to actually treat him"
"Jim, if they remove it, Iron Man will be defunct" she replied softly.
Rhodey frowned and shook his head. She was walking, following the team that had just vacated the hallway.

As they approached the operating room, Rhodey understood what Pepper meant.
Despite "Iron Man" being a moniker the press invented, Tony's whole mode of operations was different.
Ever since he had his eyes opened about the role he and his company played in the way the world was running.
Ever since he fought with Obadiah on the roof of the arc reactor generator.
Ever since he saw the "ransom" video in which the mercenary was telling Obadiah that he hadn't paid them enough to kill a Prince.
Prince of War.
Merchant of Death.
Mass Murderer.
Names he used to enjoy because he thought they were hyperboles.
Those names were who Tony used to be.
Iron Man was who he had the potential to become.
A Hero.

Tony cried as he was shocked over and over again. Raza was still smiling at him. The sadism in his eyes frightened Tony. That Tony was aware of the fact that he was causing himself this pain didn't stop it from distressing him.
He couldn't breathe.
He couldn't think.
His logic, intellect and rationale gone, all he could do was weep as the pain coursed through him.
"Big strong man" Raza taunted "Despite your wealth, power and tin suit… you're still an indulgent little prince".
"Stop. Stop, please"
Raza pulled him by the hair and shoved him onto the ground; it was cracked and dry. The cracks were seeped in blood and it spread around Tony. He lifted himself to his hands and knees and saw that the crimson was gushing out of a hole in his chest. He brought his hand to his eyes and saw it was caked brown with blood.
"This isn't mine" he muttered.
"Has it registered yet, Tin Man, the amount of death you caused… how much death you still manufacture" Raza grabbed his throat and threw onto his back.
Tony's eyes widened.
Raza hand was a giant robotic arm, which belonged to –
"Hello, m'boy" said Obadiah's distorted voice "Happy to be home?" Iron Monger lifted Tony like a rag doll and threw him across the landscape.

Further down and further out.

The landing was softer than he anticipated.
He was naked, his head was cushioned and his body molded against the softness; he was warm and felt oddly comforted; the horror of his previous location fading.
He lifted his head and wasn't so surprised to see Pepper, her hair spread out like fiery water, her skin ivory and dotted with golden freckles, her eyes were open and alert and looking right at him, blue as the Pacific, filled with keen intelligence and tenderness.
"Hi" she smiled.
"Hi" he replied.
She stroked his hair, cheeks, bearded chin and mouth with the back of her hand.
He was beginning to feel groggy.
She brought his head back down to her softness "Rest a little. You still have a long way to go"
He sighed, closed his eyes and mumbled against her skin "Thank you Pepper".
He heard her say "You're welcome, Tony"



Part 8

The arc reactor's receptacle was situated right in the middle of Stark's sternum. The titanium casing obstructed a fifth of each of the lungs, making Dr. Medina ponder just how much oxygen Stark had been getting on a regular basis over the past few months.
The thoracic surgeon and team (to be retroactively signed on the confidentiality agreements) were staring at Tony Stark's chest in awe.
In one respect it was a pinnacle of medical technology. In another, it was the most intrusive body modification they'd ever seen, crucial to survival or otherwise.
It glowed a cerulean blue, the rubber gloves of the entire team seemed to shine, reflecting the light back.
All these musings look less than a few seconds, because Tony Stark was in cardiac and respiratory distress and his entourage of Personal Assistant, Military Liaison and Body Guard were trying to keep as much of this under wraps wouldn't be able to deny anything if the hospital had to issue a death certificate.
The orange antiseptic was rubbed over his thorax.
Dr. Medina looked up at all the masked people: "All right. It's show time"
The thoracic surgeon took a deep breath and brought the scalpel down to Stark's flesh. The knife moved smoothly in the surgeon's hand and after the flesh was cut, he was handed a small saw, the whirring sound echoed throughout the room. The spreader was placed in the groove and with a harsh crack, Stark's chest were opened.
The first thing that struck them was the smell.
"What the fuck is that!?" cried the surgeon.

Dr. Medina's eyes widened as she looked into the chest cavity of her patient. She could see tissue scarring that a living person shouldn't be able to handle, she could also see why Stark never got the shrapnel removed.
One was lodged, as they knew, in the epicardium (the outer heart wall) and it's removal would indeed cause more harm, especially when there was an apparatus keeping it from actually damaging the organ.
Another piece of shrapnel was stuck right in the bronchus at the bottom of the trachea.
All this she could see through the clear, blue tinted viscous mucous that was floating around the chest cavity. With a frown she touched the mucous and said: "This is what we've been draining out of his lungs for the past eight hours"
"It looks like that shrapnel has created a cavity" said the surgeon, trying to breathe through his mouth as the smell coming from Stark was nauseating.
"Suction" Dr. Medina said and they began to draw out the viscously liquid.
As the chest cavity cleared and they prepared to remove the shrapnel from the bronchus the surgeon frowned and said: "Is that thing supposed to look like that?"

Tony was lying on his side with Pepper wrapped around him.
He was wrapped around her as well.
The landscape was that of sand as soft as talcum and the sun was low enough to create a comfortable warmth and light that didn't exist in the harshness of reality.
He was trailing his fingertips over Pepper's hip and as he rested his head at her neck he breathed in the scent of cinnamon and rain.
"Tony"
"Mmmm"
"You have to go"
"No"
"Tony"
"I like it here"
"I know, but you can't stay here forever"
Even in his hallucinations Pepper was practical and thoughtful.
"Why not?"
"You'll die"
"I don't mind"
A platypus scuttled along the sand and gave Tony what he could only describe as a glare. It quickly scuttled away and Tony looked to Pepper who was wearing a high collared shirt, a conservative knee length skirt, her hair in an up-do, her bangs fluttering in the breeze.

Her feet were bare.
Tony was still naked.

"Tony"
"Pepper"
"You have to get your heart"
"I want to stay here with you"
"Tony… this isn't real"
"It's real enough!" he shouted.
Pepper gave him a sad look and stroked his soft chest. He looked down and saw that the wound was beginning to open again.
"I know it's painless here. The deeper and further out you go the less pain there is"
He nodded. The blood was dripping down his stomach, thighs, and legs and was beginning to pool at his feet.
He looked up and they were in the living room of the estate.
Jarvis-the-Man and Rhodey was sitting on the couch and playing backgammon with nuts and bolts.
The broken piano pieces were floating all over the place.
Tony turned to Pepper who was standing next to him: "Please take us back to the sand"
"Only you can take us anywhere, Tony" she gave him a gentle kiss on the lips and as she moved away Tony caught her wrist and brought her into his arms.
"Don't leave me" his voice cracked against her lips.
Pepper kissed him again and pushed him away, her blouse stained red and pale blue.
As he moved backwards he bumped into something solid.
He turned and the Iron Monger stood, huge and grey.
"Tony, Tony, Tony" the harsh sounds of cogs filled his ears as Obadiah moved after him as he stumbled away through the desert of cracked and scorched earth.
No soft sand for comfort.
"You're like a cockroach you know. Just won't die, no matter what you throw at it" Obadiah's distorted voice carried through the landscape. He easily caught Tony and lifted him into a death hug.
There was no armor this time and Tony gasped as he felt his breathing being cut off by the crushing robotic arms.

This was probably the most unprofessional moment of Dr. Medina's career, but in this instance she really had no choice.
She walked out of the OR with a vile of the mucous. In the waiting room eschewed of all unauthorized people, sat Pepper and Rhodey. The bodyguard that replaced Happy was standing discreetly away. The two weren't talking. They sat very close together. Pepper's head was on his shoulder and his arm around hers.
They looked up as she walked in and stood up.
"Well?" Pepper asked and stood. Rhodey stood right next to her.
Dr. Medina began: "When we opened him up we realized that there was no way to remove the shrapnel from his heart without causing more damage".
Pepper nodded impatiently and gestured for her to keep going.
"We did find shrapnel embedded in his bronchus, which is the lowest part of his trachea – his wind pipe"
"Oh my god" said Pepper.
"That's very bad isn't it?" Rhodey added.
"It is. The shrapnel created a cavity that enabled fluid to enter his lungs and cause him respiratory arrest. As we speak my team is working on fixing that" Dr. Medina tried to smile encouragingly.
Pepper and Rhodey weren't convinced.
"If that was all it was you wouldn't come out while he was still under the knife" said Rhodey.
"Is there a complication?" Pepper asked, her voice was steady, but she anxiously squeezed Rhodey's hand.
Dr. Medina sighed and said "Look, we have no idea how to deal with the titanium apparatus, especially because it seems to be broken"
"What?!" Pepper yelled "What do you mean broken? How could it be broken? What are you talking about?" Pepper demanded.
"That thing is situated in his sternum, and it goes in deep, one can put a hand half way through his chest with that thing!" Dr. Medina exclaimed.
"I know" said Pepper.
"You do?" Dr. Medina looked shocked.
"Yes, I've had my hard in there when he needed help plugging in the reactor" she replied, Rhodey looked extremely impressed.
Dr. Medina blinked a few times and asked "Why didn't you tell us that when we took his history? You only mentioned his wounds during the explosion at Stark Industries"
Pepper thought furiously "I don't know. I didn't think anything could happen to the actual receptacle"
"Tell me, does the device have any side effects?" Dr. Medina enquired.
"You mean other than power Iron Man, I assume"
"Yes"
"Well, there's this pus?"
"Pus?" Dr. Medina held up the vial of blue tinted viscous "This kind of 'pus'?"
Pepper was surprised and took the vile and gave it a cursory sniff and nearly gagged.
"Yes, that's the pus… inorganic plasmic discharge, Tony said it was" Pepper said.
"That's why the lab couldn't analyse it" Dr. Medina said and she made a doctor's face which appeared when they had solved one part of a puzzle, but still had to arrange the rest of the pieces.
"Is that the gunk that's been filling his lungs?" Rhodey asked.
"Yes" replied Dr. Medina "It would seem that the titanium receptacle that holds his electromagnet in place has sprung a leak".

Tony, naked and vulnerable, pushed against Iron Monger. But to no avail, as the more he struggled the stronger Obadiah seemed to be in comparison.
"Oh, Tony… all the years they called you a heartless war monger, never though it would be literal, did you?" Obadiah taunted.
"Shut. Up" Tony gritted.
"Why don't you make me?" Obadiah let him go for a split second and caught him by the abdomen and threw him onto the desert earth. Tony scrambled to get up, but Obadiah caught his legs with the robotic foot.
He dragged Tony back.
Tony saw the trail of crimson and pale blue, seeping into the dry earth.
"That's your life, right there, m'boy. Draining as you sink deeper and deeper out" he lifted him in the air again and smashed him into the hard earth.
Tony considered surrendering.
He was so tired.

Pepper had been scrubbed and walked into the OR with Dr. Medina. She nearly vomited at the sight of Tony's open chest, his ribcage cracked, the arc reactor looking as though it was floating among all his internal organs.
She swallowed stiffly.
"I know it looks gross. Just ignore the blood and his insides" Dr. Medina said calmly.
Pepper wondered how you were supposed to ignore the fact that things known as "insides" were out there in front of her face.
Pepper walked slowly towards Tony, her mask thankfully filtering the smell of the discharge that was being constantly suctioned.
Though the metallic smell of blood reminded Pepper of pennies when they were placed under the tongue was present.
Dr. Medina turned to the thoracic surgeon and asked "You fixed his bronchi?"
"Yes" he replied "The no more fluid in the lungs, though it won't be much good if he can't expand his chest cavity because of that… discharge".
Pepper felt encouraged.
Though she didn't know why it had to be her to tell them if the arc reactor was leaking, she wasn't a tech, or engineer.
Rhodey said she had the most experience with handling the reactor other than Tony… and in any event her hands were small.
Small hands were all the rage when it came to miniature electromagnets that were needed to keep Tony Stark alive.
She approached the table and glanced at Tony's face. He was gaunt and pale, looking worse than she'd ever seen him.
He looked dead.
She looked into his open chest.
Nearly threw up and turned away.
She quickly composed herself, brought forth the mindset of efficiency and dedication to her job. This was just one more thing Miss Potts had to do in order to make Mr. Stark's life easier.
She looked at the cracked chest again.
There was a glint, a small metal sliver.
She almost gasped at the realization that she was looking at Tony's heart. And that is she didn't figure out what was wrong with the arc reactor it would all be for nothing. She let her eyes travel a few inches away from the heart and lungs and saw the receptacle. She looked closely and saw exactly what was wrong.
"I think… I think I know what's causing the leak" she said softly and put her hands on the glowing light, which made Tony's crimson heart look a royal purple.

TBC in Part 9
Previously

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Feddback is ambrosia and comments are nectar.

To my readers who don't read fanfic, I apologize for my LJ being slightly "off" over the past few days... I just couldn't stop :)

Comments

[takumachi.livejournal.com]

What is it? What's causing him to die!!!

I need the next chapter!!!! ;.;

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

Soon, soon.

I'm feeling the need for the next chapter myself.

[wm-law2003.livejournal.com]

What, what is it? I need to know!!

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

Two more chapters!

I can't wait either!

[downeyfan1.livejournal.com]

OH MORE MORE PLZ

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

Two more chapters.

Thank you for reading :D

[ancarett]

Just caught up on the last two postings and, wow!, this is heart-stopping for the readers, let alone for Tony. Way to go with problem-solving Pepper, too. Can't wait to see how this winds up!

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

Yayz!
I'm glad you're enjoying this.

[quicksilvermad.livejournal.com]

OMG... I've been reading this for a while now and I have to say it's incredibly intense. I cannot wait to find out what happens next.

Poor Tony!

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

I've finished the story and I will not leave us hanging. Believe me, I know how you're feeling!

I know. I'm evil.