Still Holding On

Chapter 56

Tony is really trying to stop moping.

He's been in his lab for the last couple of hours, trying to get his mind off Loki and onto something productive. He likes working on his suits. It shouldn't be all that hard. But still, he finds himself more often than not just gazing out into space, his mind preoccupied with thoughts of Loki and everything he ruined.

The first few times, Pepper tried to help. She would try to redirect his attention to his suit or show him a funny video on his phone or do something. But she's given up on that; now, she just sits in the corner of the room, looking up from her phone every few minutes to spare her friend a sympathetic look. Tony pretends he doesn't notice.

Pepper gives her phone a weird look, then puts it to her ear. Tony raises an eyebrow, and right as he's about to turn his attention back to working on his suits, Pepper walks up to him and puts her phone down on the table in front of him. She turns the speaker on and plays him a voicemail.

"Pepper Potts?" The voice makes Tony do a double take. "This is Steve Rogers. I hope you don't mind; I got your phone number from Natasha Romanoff."

Tony looks up at her and mouths, "What the fuck?"

Pepper silently gestures for him to keep listening.

"I've been trying to call Tony off and on for the better part of two hours and he's not picking up, so I was hoping you could pass on a message for me. I have Loki with me. He doesn't want to talk, but he's safe. If you or Tony have any questions, you can give me a call back."

Steve gives them his phone number — as if Tony doesn't have it saved in his phone and Pepper can't just call him back from this message — and then the voicemail ends.

"Call him," Tony says quickly. "Right now. Call him back."

Pepper locks her phone and slides it away from him. "Take a minute," she says. "Calm down. Figure out what you want to say. Then I'll call him back."

Tony narrows his eyes, but, admittedly, that probably is a good idea. He takes a deep breath. What does he want to say? He wants to talk to Loki, obviously, but it seems Steve was prepared for that, because he's already said that won't be happening.

What else does he want to say? He'll want to know what happened. He'll want to make sure Loki's not being held there against his will. He'll want to know what's going to happen to him. And, of course, he'll want to make sure Loki knows that he can come back. He'll want to apologize — again — even if Loki won't answer.

That sounds like a good plan, right? He thinks that sounds good. Now he just has to try to act like a normal person while he does this.

Tony takes one more calming breath. "Okay. Call him."

Pepper puts the phone back down on the table and does just that.

Ring.

Ring.

"Ms. Potts?" Steve answers.

"Hi, Captain," Pepper says. "You're on speaker. Tony's here, too."

Tony should greet him with some sort of calm, friendly salutation. He knows that. Instead, the first words out of his mouth are a rushed, "Is he okay?"

"He's safe," Steve replies — not quite the question he was asked. "I'm assuming you've seen the news?"

"What news?" Tony asks quickly. What happened? This sounds bad. This sounds really—

"Loki got arrested."

Tony's heart stops.

Loki got arrested.