𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐮𝐩𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐝𝐨𝐰𝐧

༻ ❁ ༺

ONE HOUR AND fifty-three minutes later Tony burst through the main doors of the emergency department of the hospital, with Happy in tow.

The sight that greeted the pair when they were shown to the private examination room was hard to take in.

Sitting on an uncomfortable plastic chair, Pepper was positioned by the bedside, her hand encasing Charlotte's small hand, being mindful of the dozens of wires and tubes that were surrounding the child.

Tony swallowed the lump in his throat as he looked at his daughter lying asleep in the bed. Her skin was now a transparent shade of grey, yet her cheeks were flushed with heat; a sheen of sweat covered her body and her breathing seemed wheezy and shallow.

"Pep," Tony spoke quietly, not wanting to startle his wife, who seemed to be falling asleep herself.

"Tony," Pepper sighed, and stood from her seat. As she moved across the room to her husband, Happy walked around the couple and took a seat by Charlotte's bedside, a hand resting on her head in concern.

Tony opened his arms for Pepper to fall into, her head tucked under his chin and his arms wrapped securely around her body, keeping her pulled close to his body, "I'm sorry it took so long. The storm slowed us down."

"You're here, that is the main thing."

"Mr. Stark. Mrs. Stark," A doctor approached them with caution, not wanting to intrude on their sentimental moment. "We've managed to bring your daughter's fever down slightly, so it is much more manageable, however, we are going to have to conduct further tests."

"Why? What do you think is wrong with her?"

"Truthfully, we aren't one hundred percent sure, that is why we need the tests. But at first inspection, we suspect that she has a viral infection of sorts. They're very common among young children, especially at her age, but we just want to double-check and be safe."

"What about her leg?" The doctor seemed puzzled as if he had no idea what she was talking about. "She was complaining of her leg hurting, and she couldn't stand up properly or put any pressure on it. I did tell the nurse when we checked in."

"Hmm." The doctor flipped over the clipboard and examined the papers. "There is nothing in Charlotte's notes about pains in her legs." He explained, looking perplexed at the chart he held in his hands.

"Well, why wasn't it in her notes?" Tony asked, his brows pinched in frustration.

"I'm unsure." the Doctor flipped through the clipboard of notes. He grew increasingly flustered with every turn of a page. "I can only apologize, but it appears that the nurse forgot to include this in Charlotte's notes."

"The nurse forgot?" Tony snapped, glaring at the doctor.

Bashful and clearly embarrassed and intimidated, the doctor hustled past them and back to Charlotte, who was still sound asleep despite everything that was happening around her.

"Which leg was it?" He asked.

"Her right one." Pepper explained. She closed her eyes for a brief second as she recalled watching Charlotte crumble to the ground in pain as her leg just seemed to give way beneath her. Tony ran a comforting hand along her back, gently squeezing her hand as they watched the doctor flit around the bedside. "While she was vomiting, she tried to walk to her bathroom but as soon as she stepped off her bed, she just started screaming and fell to the floor."

"Has she had an accident recently, that could have caused any damage?" The doctor asked and Pepper shook her head in response.

The doctor frowned and as he raised the blue blanket from Charlotte's legs, his face dropped, as did Tony and Pepper's. Their daughter's right leg, from her toes to her knee, was a vibrant mixture of purple, red and blue; the skin looked wet as it was so swollen and taunt.

Happy, who had moved to the side to give the doctor space, was now standing back near the door, his gaze trained on the Stark's as they took in the sight before them.

Pepper gasped, her hand covering her mouth as tears streaked her cheeks. "It was not like that when we got here."

She turned to Tony, his jaw was set strong and his eyes were focused hard on Charlotte's leg. Neither of them could believe what they were seeing, and they did not get a second to question what was happening as the doctor's composure changed.

He seemed to spring into action as he slammed his hand on the red emergency button by the head of the bed.

"What is happening? What's wrong with her?!" Tony barked, his arm tightening around Pepper as an alarm blared in the room; a red light pulsating above the bed and outside the doorway.

The room seemed to shrink in size as another doctor and a nurse rushed into the room, and in a split second Charlotte was being whisked away from her parents, the wheel of her bed squeaked as she was rolled down the corridor.

All Tony could do at the point was hold onto his wife as she crumbled against his body as cries racked through her.

༻ ❁ ༺

They had been sitting in the private waiting room for almost an hour before anyone came forward to give them an update. It had been the longest hour of their lives, as it would be for any parent.

For the first twenty minutes, Tony had remained calm and was trying his best to comfort Pepper; all she could think of to do was hold Charlotte's stuffed animal in her hands and run her thumb over its plastic eye.

It had now been over an hour, and all calmness that Tony was feeling had long disappeared and he was now pacing back and forth around the waiting room, trying to catch the attention of any doctor or nurse who could tell them what was happening.

Happy had decided to wait outside of the hospital with Pepper's driver, a patient at the hospital had noticed the Stark's presence and had posted an update on social media. There had not been any instructions by the press as of yet, but Happy decided to take the precaution of heading any of them off at the main doors - he wanted to give the couple as much privacy as possible.

Another ten minutes passed and they were still no further forward. For the first time, Pepper looked up from the stuffed animal in her hands and glanced at her husband as he continued to pace, his feet landing heavily on the floor.

"Tony." Her voice was all but a whisper. "Come and sit down, please."

"Why isn't anyone telling us what is happening?"

"I don't know." She sighed, sitting back in her seat so her head was leaning back against the cold wall.

"This is ridiculous. Our daughter is somewhere in this hospital and we're supposed to be okay with that?"

"They'll tell us something when they actually know what is wrong with her."

"Jesus, Pep, you saw her leg. That was not normal, it was not a viral infection."

"Tony, will you just stop it!" Pepper snapped, she could not take it anymore. Of course, she was worried about Charlotte, what mother wouldn't be? "There is nothing that we can do at this moment besides sitting here and waiting for someone to come to us."

The couple fell back into the silent routine of waiting.

For another fifteen minutes, they sat in silence and waited, their nerves shredding by the second.

Finally, the same doctor as before came into the waiting room, he seemed pale and visibly nervous as he approached the couple.

As much as neither of them wanted to admit it, there was something about the doctor's appearance and disposition that did not give them hope; unknown to his wife, at this moment, Tony had prepared himself for the worst-case scenario.

"Is someone going to tell us what is going on?" He asked before the doctor reached them.

"Mr. Stark, Mrs. Stark. I think you need to follow me."

༻ ❁ ༺

Tony and Pepper felt as though their world was crashing down around them. Pepper sat in the chair by Charlotte's bed, numb as they listened to the doctor explain what they had discovered.

"Meningitis?" Tony asked in disbelief, his shoulders sagged as he stood by Charlotte's bedside, holding her small and pale hand in his own. "Are you sure?"

"At first we thought it was a stomach infection that was causing the vomiting, but her temperature peaked at one hundred and two degrees." The doctor explained, "Her internal body temperature became so hot that her body could not handle it, and caused her to vomit profusely."

"Oh my god," Pepper whispered, running a hand over Charlotte's head. She was still incredibly warm and sweating, even with the cooling blankets surrounding her.

A tear rolled down Pepper's cheek as she observed her daughter - she seemed to be sleeping peacefully, but Pepper knew that even with all of the medication and sedatives she was on, Charlotte was incredibly sick and no doubt was in a lot of distress.

"We've managed to stabilize her temperature, and we've given her a sedative that will help her sleep. We are fairly confident that her body will fight the infection over the next few days."

The doctor was trying to be reassuring, but Tony could see that there was something he was not telling them. There was something in his posture that told Tony that there was more to her sickness than a fever.

"However, the discoloration and swelling of her leg is a result of venous thrombosis - a blood clot brought on by the rapid progression of meningitis."

"What does that mean?" Pepper asked, her voice cracking as she looked away from Charlotte for the first time since entering the room.

"We have a surgical theatre prepared, however, we just needed your consent."

"Wait, surgery? What are you talking about?" Tony placed a hand on Pepper's shoulder as she visibly started shaking at the dramatic update.

"The blood clot is too developed to be treated with natural medications or thinners, and it is dangerously close to rupturing. If we have any chance of saving Charlotte's leg, we need to operate immediately. I should advise you both, that there is no guarantee that the surgery will be successful."

The tension in the room was thick and sat heavily on everyone's shoulders.

"What are her odds?" Tony looked at his daughter, his eyes prickled with tears as he observed her shallow breathing, and the grey-green hue her skin had adopted over the past hour.

"At the moment, we believe that we have a thirty percent chance of being able to successfully remove the clot and save the leg."

"And the other seventy percent?" Neither of them wanted to know the answer.

"We can't save her leg. The clot may be too far evolved, and embedded into the muscle and tissues, that it may be too dangerous to try and remove it without causing unimaginable damage to Charlotte. The only option may be to remove the infected area entirely."

Silence fell upon the room once more, as the Stark's took in the news they had just received.

"Amputation?" Pepper gasped, fresh and hot tears spilled down her face now as she grabbed Tony's hand that was resting on her shoulder; she held onto it tightly as her world tumbled down around her.

The doctor nodded solemnly. The couple was stunned into silence. At just four years old, their daughter had contracted not one, but two life-threatening illnesses.

And now they were faced with an incredibly difficult decision for any parent, but in their minds, there was only one option.