Prompt #32 Fill 1
Stephen has to perform emergency first aid/surgery on Tony in the middle of a battle.
Filled by @bad-puns-and-even-worse-magic on tumblr
“Oh shit,” Stephen said, watching as something thick and fast and made of spiked metal slapped the Iron Man suit out of the sky like it was a fly. “Tony! Tony!” The Cloak brought him up—but it was the Cloak of Levitation not the Cloak of the Peregrine Falcon so by the time Stephen reached the unmoving billionaire he was sprawled across the ruined street, asphalt cracked beneath him, the nanobots slowly receding as if they were in shock.
Broken bits of concrete and metal dug uncomfortably into Stephen’s knees as he kneeled, hands fluttering over Tony’s chest before he braced both above the other man’s shoulders and leaned down, ear over lips.
Nothing.
Nothing there was—there was nothing. His fingers scrambled for Tony’s neck, shoving the wind breaker out of the way until he could press into—
One Mississippi. Two Mississippi. Three Mississippi—
The artery jumped jerked against Stephen’s fingers, nothing more than a barely there pulse.
God, God, God okay. Fucking.
Cupping Tony’s chin, Stephen tilted the billionaire’s head back to check that nothing had gotten stuck in his throat even though he’d been in the Iron Man suit the entire time. There was nothing (of course there was nothing) and Stephen wiped his hands down his face, pressed one hand over where the arc reactor used to sit, and took a deep breath. “You’re gonna hate this,” he said.
Pressing the heel of his palm into Tony’s sternum, Stephen placed the other hand on top, locked his elbows and used the weight of his upper body to push down.
One, two, three, four—
The Cloak ripped away from Stephen flying off to go find another of the Avengers.
Ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen—
“Call an ambulance!” Stephen shouted at the people peeking through the windows. His hands were aching—the pressure on the bones like lightning shooting up through his arms.
Eighteen, nineteen, twenty—
He readjusted his knees, sitting back so his weight wasn’t on the unprotected bone and more on flesh.
Twenty-six, twenty-seven, twenty-eight, twenty-nine.
Thirty.
Stephen leaned over, plugged Tony’s nose, tilted his head back, and pushed carbon dioxide and oxygen into the billionaire’s body.
Tony’s chest rose.
Stephen didn’t lean too far away, gathering another lungful, and passed it along. The sun beat down on his shoulders as he placed his hands back down on the metal sternum, people gathering in slow, cautious circles. Some were on their phone, talking rapidly and quietly, others stayed a careful distance back.
One, two, three, four—
Something cracked in Tony’s chest, snapping like pine trees in a fire.
Ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen—
The Cloak returned and sweat dripped into Stephen’s eyes but he couldn’t wipe it away; he couldn’t couldn’t couldn’t—
Eighteen, nineteen, twenty—
Where the fuck was that ambulance?!
Twenty-six, twenty-seven, twenty-eight, twenty-nine—
Tony jerked beneath his hands and took a broken, shuddering breath. Stephen wrenched back, his fingers twitching, fire clinging to the iron rods, burning away at his bones and rubbing like sandpaper beneath his skin. Wiping the sweat away with his forearm, Stephen reached for the Billionaire and ignored his own, low moan of pain as he forced his hands to grip and pull and push until Tony was laying on his side.
“Jesus,” Stephen stumbled back, sitting down on the ground and looking up at the sky. He heard Tony’s wheezing, broken breathing and started trembling like an addict coming down from a high. “Jesus.”