Infinity

Chapter 88

Marlie's POV

About an hour later Tony lands the quinn jet on the landing pad at the tower and Nat and Bruce quickly wheel Clint out. They're met by Dr. Cho who immediately begins giving orders. Thor takes the scepter, which just leaves Steve, Tony, and me in the jet. Tony and I were both sitting in the cockpit, while Steve was off to the side organizing the gear.

"Lab's all set up, boss." Maria says to Tony walking onto the jet.

"Actually, he's the boss." Tony says pointing to Steve, who looks up at him. "I just pay for everything and design everything and make everyone look cooler." Tony says sarcastically and I hit him in the arm.

"And what do I do?" I ask him sarcastically.

"You my dear have the very important job of being my inspiration." He says trying to be cute but I'm having none of it.

"You know what else is inspirational?" I ask him as an inch closer to him pretending to go in for a kiss.

"Hmm?" He hums back.

Right when our lips are about to touch, I whisper. "The couch." And then pull back.

"Now that's just cruel." Tony says trying to bring me back.

I end up falling back into one of the chairs and Tony blocks me and kisses my nose and my lips. I just chuckle at his playfulness. "You know I was just teasing. I'd be lost without you." Tony says after pulling away.

"And don't you forget it." I say.

Tony then sits down next to me. I look around and realize that we're alone. I lean forward placing my elbows on my knees and study Tony. He looks tired and definitely stressed, but there's something else too. The tension in his shoulders. His well-placed charismatic guard. And the fact that when I woke up from my trance, he didn't even ask what happened, all leads to the same conclusion.

"She got to you too. Didn't she?" I say, catching him off guard.

He nods. "Yeah, she did."

I can see the haunted look in his eye. "You want to talk about it?" I ask him.

"Do you?" He asks back in the same gentle tone.

"No not really, but I think we should. If yours was anything like mine, it shouldn't be kept inside." I say back looking him in the eyes.

He reaches over and takes my hand. "I saw the worst-case scenario. Everyone dead, even you." His voice cracks here but he just clears his throat. I squeeze his hand, letting him know that I'm here. "Everyone was dead except me, and I just stood there helpless as I watched the Chitauri head to earth." He then pauses a moment. "The worst part was... the worst part was that I could have done more. Should have done more."

I get up from my seat now and kneel in front of him pulling him in for a hug. After a minute I pull back and sit back down in my seat. "Alright, I showed you mine, now you show me yours." He says trying to lighten the mood. I smile at the joke.

"Mine was similar to yours, but it was more about my powers. Tony there's a lot more to my powers than we thought, and I think they're trying to warn me about something." I say on the verge of tears.

Tony reaches over and pulls me off my chair and onto his lap and lets me cry. I've been more emotional lately and I can't seem to figure out why. My best guess is the stress and lack of sleep are catching up with me.

After a few minutes I stop crying and just lay there in his arms. I think he needs this just as much as I do. "When this is all over, we need a break." I say.

"Yes, and I think I promised you a future a while back. I'm gonna have to make you Mrs. Stark pretty soon." Tony says with a smile.

"Yeah." I say bittersweetly.

"Hey, what's up?" He asks concerned.

"It's just we both just saw visions of an awful future; how can we plan on settling down with that looming over us?" I say.

Tony leans in and kisses me. "We'll figure something out, we always do." He reassures me.

I then help Tony finish shutting down the quinn jet before we both head to Banner's lab to check on Clint.

Tony and I walk in and see Clint laying on the table with Dr. Cho's machine slowly creating tissue to close up the wound. I've never had much interest in Bioengineering, but this is fascinating. I go over and stand by Nat as Tony goes to talk to Cho.

"You alright?" Nat asks me.

I just nod, because there is something in this room that in making me extremely nauseous and I'm afraid if I speak, I'm going to throw up.

"You don't look so good." Nat says to me, this time a little louder catching the attention of Clint and Doctor Cho. Thankfully Tony had already left the room to go make drinks for everyone.

I suddenly can't take it anymore, as another wave of nausea hits me like a truck and I quickly grab the nearest container, that happens to be a trash can and throw up. Nat quickly grabs my hair and rubs circles in my back as I lose the contents of my stomach. When I'm done, there's a small sheen of sweat along my brow.

"You alright?" Nat asked me. I just nod and start to get up. Nat offers me her hand which I take.

Dr. Cho comes over to me. "Have you been feeling sick lately?" She asks me.

"No, just stressed." I say. She looks me and doesn't seem convinced. "I did get whammied with some psychic blast from the enhanced during the mission." I say without thinking.

"What?" Nat and Clint say at the same time, but I just ignore them.

Dr. Cho looks at me in surprise. "When we're done here, I'd like to run a couple of tests. Who knows what side effects that could cause?" She says to me.

I just nod and look at the three of them. "Don't tell Tony." I warn them. He already has enough on his plate to worry about and there's no sense in giving him one more thing. Especially, when it's probably nothing."

They all reluctantly nod, and we all turn back to Clint. "Are you sure he's gonna be, okay? Pretending to need this guy really brings the team together." Nat says thankfully changing the subject.

Just then Bruce enters the lab and goes over to watch the machine work. "There's no possibility of deterioration. The nano-molecular functionality is instantaneous. His cells don't even know they're bonding with simulacra." She says excitedly.

"I have to say doc I would love to learn more about your work. This is amazing." I say in awe.

"She's creating tissue." Banner says equally as excited.

"If you brought him to my lab, the regeneration cradle could do this in 20 minutes." She adds happy that we are so interested in her work.

Tony then walks into the room carrying smoothies. "He's flatlining. Call it. Time?" Tony says jokingly as he hands me a drink. I take one sip of it and think better of it. I can't determine if it will make me get sick again.

"No, no, no, I'm gonna live forever. I'm gonna be made of plastic." Clint says.

"Here's your beverage." Tony says handing Clint and then Nat their drinks. I just set mine down on the table nest to me and Nat walks over to me.

"You'll be made of you, Mr. Barton. Your own girlfriend won't even be able to tell the difference." Dr. Cho reassures him.

"I don't have a girlfriend." Clint retorts look over at me and Nat. I look over at Nat and see that we're both giving him the same knowing smirk.

"That I can't fix." Dr. Cho says with a chuckle, then turning to Tony. "This is the next thing, Tony. Your clunky metal suits are gonna be left in the dust."

Tony looks over at me. "That is exactly the plan." He says with a smile, which I manage to return. "And Helen, I expect to see you at the party on Saturday." Tony says turning back to the doctor.

"Unlike you, I don't have a lot of time for parties." She deadpans to him. I can't help but laugh at this, which earns me a look from Tony.

"Will Thor be there?" Dr. Cho then asks quietly and now I'm laughing for a whole new reason.