Life in Brooklyn

Chapter 12

The doctor sighed and creased his eyebrows as he began to shake his head. Tony collapsed into tears, knowing what he was going to say. "She had a severe break in her neck and lower back in several places along with a variation of internal bleeding and bruising. She died in surgery a little past 1:30. I'm so sorry."
Tony covered his face with his hands and leaned into Steve who's arms wrapped around him completely and dug his face into his hair and was also on the vers of crying. He only met her once, but she seemed so nice, so caring, so loving. It was also the middle of the night when he met her, so he didn't expect to love her so much that night, yet he did.
"Mr. stark, your father. In the accident, he sustained a massive head injury. Our neuro surgeon did everything in his power to save him but I'm afraid he's brain dead. He's on life support in our intensive care unit."
Tony cried harder. His mom was already dead, dad was practically dead, yet he isn't. And now, he's going to have to pull the plug on him. He just wanted to see him first and have more time to process.
"Can I see him?" He asked between sobs.
"Of course." They followed the doctor to his fathers room and he just stood outside for a moment before stepping in and taking a seat.
Steve let tony be for a while, and just sat in a chair in the hallway, keeping an eye on tony, seeing his chest heave with sobs often, and him rub his face to either wipe away tears or maybe to snap him out of it, he definitely hoped this was a dream.
He obviously still cared about his father, even if his father doesn't show much in return, and steve couldn't blame tony. He was never abused, verbally or physically, but he knows some people who was, in the war. They'd have deep conversations over beers, personal conversations. But those conversations stayed in that room and over those beers. They practically took an oath to never speak of it again, and they never did.
A hand on his shoulder snapped him out of it. He looked up to see their doctor. "Are you family too?"
Steve shook his head. "No, not really. I'm tonys boyfriend. I just figured he could use some time alone with him." He shrugged and sounded glum and saddened by the situation tony was in. "We were waiting for them to show up for hours and hours. Almost got kicked out of the restaurant because we didn't order." Steve trailed off and bit his lip. "I thought his father was being the jackass I see him as and backed out again. I wasn't expecting- thinking, this was the situation." Steve glanced at tony again, he was holding his fathers hand and seemed to be babbling about something to the unconscious man. "And his mother, she was great. I only met her once, but she was so nice, gently, happy. I just can't even believe it." He shrugged.
"You should go in, comfort him, when it's time to pull the plug."
Steve sighed and nodded. He stood up and walked into the room. After slowly and quietly walking in and sliding the glass door shut, he pulled up a chair next to tony and grabbed his free hand. Tony glanced at him with his red and swollen eyes for a quick second before looking back at his father.
Steve wanted to tell tony it was going to be ok, that he'll be ok, but he knew that wasn't what he would want to hear right now out of both common sense and experience.
A few hours later, the doctor came in and asked tony to sign the papers. He did, teary eyed and sniffling. And only a half hour later, he was let go.
Tony sobbed and sobbed.
•
After a few days, they had the funeral. It was a big one. His parents knew a lot of people and had a lot of money. And even in the hundreds of people who attended, steve stuck with tony. Why wouldn't he?
Bucky and Natasha came when they found out steves boyfriend's parents died. This was the first time they met him too, at his parents funeral, although they never really introduced each other. Only an exchange of 'I'm sorry for your loss' and a nod in return.
After that, it was like he disappeared. Tony for that matter. He'd driven back to his place, where he didn't know was and didn't answer steves phone calls or texts.
Steve tried talking to Thor, find out if he had any idea where tony might've gone.
Steve didn't know where he was, and he was worried. He didn't know if he was even alive. And of course his mind went straight to wondering if he was still alive.
So his daily routine turned into waking up, leaving a voicemail, walking around town a few times before going to work, when he'd probably leave another voicemail, then walk around town some more.
Almost a week passed and tony still hasn't answered his phone or appeared anywhere. Steve was going to call the police soon. But two men walked up to him one day, recognizing him from a file they once read.
"Are you... steve Rogers?"
Steve studied them for a minute before answering. "Maybe. Who are you?"
"I'm James Rhodes. This is Bruce banner. We're tonys friends."
Relief and terror overfilled his body. They probably know where he is. "Oh my... do you know where he is?" He blurted. Steve didn't even care about how they knew who he was. He thought he might have recognized them from the funeral, but he wasn't worrying about remembering faces at the time.
"We think so, but he won't let us in." Rhodes said softly.
"Take me there." They stood there. "Now." He ordered and followed them.
He just thought that maybe they were lying and he just got in a car with strangers, wow. Mom always shoved this down my throat. "Don't go with strangers." She'd say.
"So, you're tonys friends?"
"Yeah, since we were kids actually." Bruce said while driving. "He's always had family issues, he started drinking a lot at one point."
"Which is what we're afraid hes doing right now, but we can't get in." Rhodes finished.
Steve shook his head and sighed. They were driving down a pretty empty road with no houses to be seen until a mansion appeared in the distance.