" back in your arms is where I belong "

Chapter 13:

Not Her First Patient

Both Pepper and Annabeth were in the Stark Mansion, where Pepper was watching the news and the brunette was talking to her cousin, Sharon.

"Stark Industries! I've got one recommendation! Ready? Ready? Sell, sell, sell! Abandon ship! Does the Hindenburg ring any bells? Let me show you the new Stark Industries business plan! Look, that's a weapons company that doesn't make weapons!" The news spoke as Pepper frowned.

"Stop watching that shit, Pep," Annabeth commented, "It's gonna—"

Over the intercoms, Tony gracefully interrupted them, "Girls, how big are your hands?"

Annabeth's face turned into one of confusion.

"What?"

"How big are your hands?"

"I don't understand why..." The woman tried to reason but then this was Tony— he never listened.

"Get down here. I need you."

With annoyed looks on their faces, both Annabeth and Pepper entered Tony's workshop after putting in the passcode to find him lying shirtless on a chair.

Annabeth could run away then because she knew Tony would see right through her. Her cheeks reddened at Tony's bare chest and she really wondered if Dum-E was willing to commit his first successful murder.

"Hey. Let's see them. Show me your hands. Let's see them."

Annabeth held up her hands as she came closer, "Oh, wow— They are small. Very petite, indeed. I just uh.. need your help for a sec."

There was Tony with his arc reactor in his hand.

"Oh, my God, is that the thing that's keeping you alive?"

"It was," Tony said, "It is now an antique. This is what will be keeping me alive for the foreseeable future—" he held up another arc reactor, "—I'm swapping it up for an upgraded unit, and I just ran into a little speed bump."

"Speed bump," Pepper noted, "What does that mean?"

"It's nothing. It's just a little snag. There's an exposed wire under this device. And it's contacting the socket wall and causing a little bit of a short. It's fine."

"Oh my god, Anthony!" Annabeth winced knowing exactly what was about to happen. Tony pulled out the old device, handing it to her.

"What do you want us to do?" The strawberry-blonde questioned as Annabeth gave Pepper the arc reactor.

"Put that on the table over there. That is irrelevant," Tony directed, "Pep help Annie— Annie, let me be your first patient."

"This is dangerous, Tony," Annabeth replied, clearly shocked, "And I have already had my first patient, his name was Aldrich Killian and HE DID NOT WANT ME TO GO INSIDE HIS CHEST!"

"Oh, my God!" Pepper said setting the old reactor on the table, "I know an Aldrich— he keeps asking me out."

"Oh, back in London, there was this guy called Timothy who would never stop trying to get in my pants—"

"GUYS!" Tony interrupted the gossip session.

"Oh, sorry."

"Now, I want you to reach in Annie, and you're just gonna gently lift the wire out," the millionaire instructed as Annabeth did as asked.

"Is it safe?"

"Of course it's not safe Pepper!" Annabeth said as Tony replied.

"Yeah, it should be fine. It's like Operation. You just don't let it touch the socket wall or it goes 'beep.'"

"What do you mean, 'Operation'?" Pepper asked as she cleaned Tony's face which was filled with sweat with a cloth.

"You have seriously never played operation? I used to make Ton—"

"It's just a game, never mind. Just gently lift the wire," Tony simply loved interrupting people today.

"Okay."

"Okay? Great."

"You know, I'm not yet qualified to do this," Annabeth said as Pepper moved a little away from them— nauseous with the... well everything that seemed to be oozing out of Tony.

"No, you're fine. You're the most capable, qualified, trustworthy person anyone has ever met," Tony told her, "You're gonna do great. Is it too much of a problem to ask? 'Cause I'm..."

"Okay, okay."

"I really need your help here," Annabeth had been so focused on Tony being shirtless, she had forgotten that his face was too cute for her to admit.

Damn it.

"Okay," The Carter woman said as she slid her hand into the hole in Tony's chest.

"Oh, there's pus!" Pepper said.

"I told you to stop looking Virginia!"

"It's not pus," Tony tried to tell her, "It's an inorganic plasmic discharge from the device, not from my body."

"Oh lord, it smells!" Annabeth rolled her eyes, "Probably all the burgers you eat. And your freaking booze"

"Yeah, it probably is," Tony told her, "The copper wire. The copper wire, you got it?"

"Okay, I got it! I got it!"

"Okay, you got it? Now, don't let it touch—" Annabeth let it touch the side as she tried to bring it out, "—the sides when you're coming out!"

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

"That's what I was trying to tell you before. Okay, now make sure that when you pull it out, that you don't..." Annabeth pulled out the wire with the magnet attached and the medical equipment started beeping— "There's a magnet at the end of it! That was it. You just pulled it out— I THOUGHT YOU WERE TRAINING TO BE A DOCTOR, ANNABETH!"

"Oh, God!" Pepper freaked as Annabeth started hyperventilating.

"I AM SUPPOSED TO BE OPERATING ON HUMAN ORGANS NOT MAGNETS AND WIRES, ANTHONY EDWARD STARK!"

"Okay, sorry," Tony tried to calm his ex-girlfriend down, "I was not expecting..."

"Okay, what do I do?"

"Don't put it back in! Don't put it back in!" Tony instructed as Annabeth's eyes widened by the second.

"What's wrong?" Pepper asked.

"He is going into a cardiopulmonary arrest," Annabeth said as she reached for anything to stabilize him.

"Nothing," Tony said as he looked annoyed even though he might possibly even die, "I'm just going into cardiac arrest—"

"What? You said it was safe!"

"'cause Annabeth here—"

"no blaming, Stark!"

"—yanked it out like a trout... We gotta hurry. Take this. Take this. You gotta switch it out really quick."

"Okay. Okay. Tony?" Annabeth spoke— she was sacred she would mess this up and lose him again.

"What?"

"It's going to be okay. Okay?" She told him, a way of comforting herself was comforting him.

"Is it?"

"It's gonna be okay," Annabeth said as she attached the wire again, "I'm gonna make this okay."

"Let's hope. Okay, you're gonna attach that to the base plate. Make s—sure you..." Tony screamed went it attached, "Was that so hard? That was fun, right? Here, I got it. I got it. Here. Nice."

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I feel great. You okay?"

"It was actually... awesome."

Both Tony and Pepper frowned.

"What do you want me to do with this?" Annabeth asked holding Tony's old reactor.

"That? Destroy it. Incinerate it."

"You don't want to keep it?" Pepper asked.

"Pepper, I've been called many things. 'Nostalgic' is not one of them."

"Will that be all, Mr. Stark?" Annabeth asked as she and Pepper walked out of the lab.

"That will be all, Miss Potts, Miss Carter."