Out Of Time

seventeen

The rest of the day, and into the next morning, wasn't exciting. JARVIS allowed Y/N access to the security cameras in every room of the house, whenever she wanted. Tony stayed in his workshop the whole night, with Y/N staying up most of it to watch him using the security cameras. By lunch time, Pepper had picked up food for everyone and was working on the couch while watching the news. The reporter was screaming about Tony's announcement at the press conference yesterday. Both women were cringing as they watched.

"Pepper," Tony's voice called over the intercom. "How big are your hands?"

"What?" Pepper questioned. Y/N and her shared a look of confusion.

"How big are your hands?"

"I don't understand why-"

"Get down here. I need you... You can come too, Barnes."

The two women made their way to the workshop, Pepper leading the way. When they arrived, Tony was laying, shirtless, on a chair.

"Hey," Tony said, giving them a small smile. "Let's see them, Pep. Show me your hands. Let's see them." Pepper held up her hands as she and Y/N moved closer to Tony. "Oh, wow. They are small. Very petite, indeed. I just uh.. need your help for a sec."

As the women moved closer, Y/N examined the metal in his chest and the other contraption he was holding. It seemed to be keeping him alive.

"Oh, my God," Pepper exclaimed. "Is that the thing that's keeping you alive?"

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

"Speed bump, what does that mean?"

"It's nothing. It's just a little snag." Tony twisted the device on his chest. "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."

After pulling out the old device, Tony handed it to Y/N, leaving a hole in his chest. She examined the device carefully. The way it was put together she could clearly see that Tony had welded it together when he was kidnapped. He definitely was his father's child.

"What do you want me to do?" Pepper asked.

"Barnes, you can put it down on the table. It's irrelevant."

"Of course, Sir." Y/N replied, doing as she was told.

"Okay, Pep, I want you to reach in, and you're just gonna gently lift the wire out."

"Is it safe?" Pepper questioned.

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

"Operation?" Both women questioned.

"It's just a game, never mind. Just gently lift the wire."

"Okay," Pepper agreed.

"Okay? Great."

Y/N watched as Pepper went to reach her hand into the hole in Tony's chest but quickly retracted it.

"You know, I don't think that I'm qualified to do this," she nervously stated.

"No, you're fine. You're the most capable, qualified, trustworthy person I've ever met. 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."

"I just don't think-"

"I'll do it," Y/N offered.

"Yes," Pepper quickly responded as Tony said, "No." Pepper quickly glared at Tony.

"Fine," the man gave in. Y/N and Pepper swapped places. "Okay, just like I told Pepper, gently lift the wire out without letting it touch the socket wall."

"Don't let it touch anything, got it." Y/N carefully slid her hand into the hole, trying to feel for the wire. "Is that pus?"

"It's not pus. It's an inorganic plasmic discharge from the device, not from my body."

"It smells!" Pepper added from the side.

"Yeah, it does. The copper wire. The copper wire, you got it?"

"Okay, I got it!" Y/N said, grabbing the wire and beginning to lift it out. "I got it!"

"Okay, you got it?" Now, don't let it touch-" Just then, Y/N accidentally let the wire touch the socket wall. "-the sides when you're coming out!"

"I'm sorry, How- I'm sorry, Mr. Stark." Y/N didn't miss the look of confusion that Tony gave her due to her mistake.

"That's what I was trying to tell you before. Okay, now make sure that when you pull it out, that you don't..." Before he could finish, Y/N had accidentally pulled out the wire with a magnet attached to it, causing the medical equipment Tony was hooked up to to began beeping. "There's a magnet at the end of it! That was it. You just pulled it out."

"Oh, God!" Pepper exclaimed.

"Okay, I was not expecting..."

"Mr. Stark, what do I do?" Y/N asked, the monitors still going crazy in the background. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, I'm just going into cardiac arrest-"

"What?" The women both yelled.

"You said it was safe!" Pepper shouted.

"-'cause Miss Barnes here yanked it out like a trout... We gotta hurry. Take this. Take this." Tony pushed the new device into Y/N's hands. "You gotta switch it out really quick."

"Okay. Okay." Y/N nodded, nervously. "Mr. Stark?"

"What?"

"It's going to be okay. Okay?"

"Is it?"

"It's gonna be okay," Pepper added. "Y/N's gonna make this okay."

"Let's hope," Tony said. "Okay, you're gonna attach that to the base plate." Y/n quickly began working as Tony slowly began to lose consciousness. "Make s-sure you..." As soon as Y/N attached it, Tony let out a scream. "Was that so hard? That was fun, right? Here, I got it." He swatted Y/N's hands away from his chest. "I got it. Here. Nice."

"Are you okay?" Y/N asked.

"Yeah, I feel great. You okay?" He chuckled, looking at Y/N.

"Don't ever, ever, ever, ever ask me or Y/N to do anything like that ever again," Pepper said.

"I don't have anyone but you," Tony says, looking straight at Pepper. "Anyway..." Began ripping the wires off of him as he stood up. Y/N glanced as the old device. She needed to get some scans of it and send it to Coulson.

"What do you want me to do with this?" Y/N asked, picking up the device.

"That? Destroy it. Incinerate it."

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

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

Pepper sighed. "Will that be all Mr. Stark?"

"That will be all, Miss Potts." Pepper then turned and walked away, Tony's eyes careful watching her before shaking out of his thoughts and talking to the robot near his desk. "Hey, Butterfingers, come here. What's all this stuff doing on top of my desk?"

"I'll go dispose of this for you, Mr. Stark."

"Thank you, Miss Barnes."