Infinite ★ Steve Rogers [6] ✓

Thirteen

The night passed, and by the morning  Tony was awake and in a wheelchair, a  drip attached to it. As soon as he woke he went to Ashley's room, finding George sat in already with Cooper the dog laying near his feet. Cooper sprung up as soon as he saw Tony and went up to him, licking his hand.

"She'll be glad to know you're okay, bud." Tony said to the dog, patting his side.

"Same can't be said for everyone else though." George spoke from his seat.

"Yeah. Pepper told me." Tony then wheeled himself to be next to Ashley's bed, taking her hand that laid by her side. She looked so peaceful and like she was asleep, her heart rate and blood sugar on the monitors looking better than it did yesterday. She had improved which put a lot of relief into everyone, especially Tony. "Where's Ollie?" Tony asked George.

"Sleeping. I couldn't bring myself to wake him up. I could hear him crying at 2am last night."

"I'm sorry about Vicky and your brother. There was nothing we could do, George."

"I know. I don't blame you. Either of you." George said, leaning foreword to take Ashley's other hand. "You tried your best and almost died in doing so. I couldn't ask anymore of you. But I know I'm gonna have to tell her who we lost when she wakes up. I don't know if I can, Tony."

"If you want me here with you when you do, just ask." Tony spoke softly.

"Thanks." George gave a weak smile.

"Tony, you should be resting." Bruce appeared in the doorway and walked over to check Ashley's monitors.

"Can't rest easy until I know Ashley's okay." Tony replied, looking over her and giving her hand a squeeze. "How could she deprive herself of food for me? She knows if she died I would be a broken man. More than I am already. Why would she be willing put me through that?" Tony looked to the two other men in the room, hoping they had some sort of explanation. "Well?"

"Tony, I don't have the answers. The only one that does is Ashley." Bruce pointed out as he double checked her vitamin and blood pressure levels.

"I know you said she'd wake up soon but is there any chance something could go wrong?" George asked Bruce, stroking Cooper as he came to stand near him.

"She's on track to recovering. As long as we keep an eye on her and make sure her levels don't spike or drop to the floor, she'll be fine." Bruce reassured, patting George on his shoulder. George sent a weak smile to Bruce and sat back in his chair. "She seems to be on the right track." Bruce told them, putting the blood pressure reader away. "We're about to go through a briefing with the rest of the team, Tony. If she wakes, the computer will tell us." He reassured, but it didn't really reassure Tony that much. Anything could happen at any second. But Tony nodded and lifted Ashley's hand to kiss the back of it before Bruce helped him wheel out the room and to the main area, where most of the team were. Thor was sat off to the side, glancing over to Ashley's room every now and again.

Bruce wheeled Tony to sit at the top of the table, a plate of food and a drink already waiting for him.

"It's been 23 days since Thanos came to Earth." Rhodey spoke, as holograms of all the lost people were shown. They included many that weren't even fighting, like Dr Selvig and Sharon Carter. As Tony watched the people missing filter through, he knew that telling Ashley would be the hardest part of it all. She'd only just got Bucky back and hadn't seen him since they woke him up last year. Him being gone would hurt her more than the rest.

"World Governments are in pieces. The parts that are still working are trying to take a census and it looks like he did...." Natasha took a pause in her speech, seeing Tony become agitated when Peter Parker's face was shown. He looked away from the hologram and rested his face on his hand. "He did exactly what he said he was going to do. Thanos wiped out..."She paused again, seeing Carol stiffen at the sight of Nick Fury's picture. They had been friends for years, apparently. And she too knew Ashley. It was quite a shock for Carol to hear that both were missing when she landed on Earth only yesterday. "..50% of all living creatures."