Lithium shifted her weight as her consciousness slowly came back to her. Even in her early moments of rejoining the world, her body ached. The fall certainly hadn’t been pleasant. Small beeps sounded in the background, already irritating her with their routine sounds. “How droll,” commented a voice from across the room. “Are you certain we can’t give up hope and just harvest her organs already? It’s been a week. Do you know the odds of her waking up at this point?”

        “Absolutely not!” Answered two voices in sync, followed by an uncomfortable pause.

        A woman scoffed in apparent amusement. “Seems you’ve got two soldiers to face if you take a knife to that girl, Tony. I wouldn’t test your luck if I were you.”

        “It’s not my fault the formerly frozen dweebs don’t have a sense of humor. I guess their era didn’t aid in the growth of jokes.”

        “Not about taking someone’s life,” one of the other men replied firmly.

        “Calm down, Steve,” Tony replied smoothly. “I’m not going to hurt your little . . . uhm, friend? Girlfriend? I don’t know what to call her. You both seem quite odd about it. Do you have three-ways or something?”

        A loud crack sounded, followed by a stark silence that settled around the room. That is, until Sam exclaimed, “Damn Bucky! Nice one!” Everyone else proceeded to be in a stunned silence. Bucky had struck Tony Stark and sent the man sprawling to the floor. The playboy sat there a few moments longer, rubbing his jaw, absorbing the fact that he’d been struck. While he may have expected Steve to lash out simply because of their familiarity, he hadn’t expected a near-stranger to be the one to do it. Certainly not one who’d been a guest in his home for the past week.

        “Next time,” Tony warned as he stood up. “I won’t hesitate to get the suit out, and then we’ll see who’s taking punches.”

        Bucky said nothing, but stared at him with a burning in his eyes. He hadn’t done it for himself. He’d been defending Lithium and her honor, even if it was just an ill-suited joke in the presence of someone who wasn’t used to the billionaire’s sense of humor. He had done it to defend Steve’s honor as well. Steve was a gentleman, and Bucky didn’t want his . . . friend to be seen as anything less.

        While he was still getting used to trying to accept those thoughts, it was difficult to see Steve as more than an acquaintance. Bucky refused to do so for the fear that he would hurt Steve again. Hydra was still after them. If they were caught, if Bucky was put back under their control, he couldn’t live himself for re-entering Steve’s life, only to tear it to shreds again.

        In the back of the room, Lithium shifted her weight again, ever-so-slightly, groaning from the pain that rushed into her skull at the smallest movement. “Fuck,” she murmured quietly, her breath already starting to shorten. Waking up was both a blessing and a curse.

        Each set of the eyes in the room turned to the just-noticeably-conscious young woman. Steve, Bucky and Sam froze, each just sort of wondering who should visit her first. Who had the right to greet her back to the world of the living, rather than that of the comatose? Natasha looked at them expectantly as Lithium groaned again.

        Tony rolled his eyes at them. “You’re all a bunch of damn pansies,” he told them bluntly as he strode across the room, standing over the hospital bed that had been brought into his home for her personal care. “Lithium?” Tony asked plainly, looking down at her and the expression of pain that shot across her face in quick intervals. It seemed to be in time with the beat of her heart. “I’ll assume that you can hear me, and that perhaps you’ve already heard quite a bit. I am Tony Stark, and you are alive because your sorry excuse of teammates brought you to my home to be cared for without having to worry about those dreadful Hydra beasts coming after you.

        “For the past week, you’ve been in a coma. I hope you can remember the incident which caused you to be in that state. Thankfully, your teammates were able to fend off that freakishly quick young man. I’m sure you know who I’m talking about as it would seem he’s the one who caused you a fair amount of internal damage. If you’re following what I’m saying, nod yes.”

        Wincing at the effort, Lithium gave a small nod, the pain multiplying at the gesture.

        “Very good,” Tony continued. “Anyway, as I don’t have access to your medical records, do you have any allergies to medication of any sort? Penicillin, ibuprofen, that sort of thing?”

        Slowly, she shook her head, gripping the edges of the bed to bite down on the pain.

        “Excellent,” he replied in a disinterested tone. “Now, when I say so, bite down on that reflex of yours and keep it from activating so I don’t lose a needle in you. That won’t be pleasant for anyone, will it?” Lithium bit her lip, and Tony took that as her agreement. “That’s what I thought. But you don’t want to live in this pain much longer, do you?”

        Carefully, she shook her head again, trying to fight the pain that washed over her.

        “You’re well-trained, aren’t you?”

        “Damn it, Stark!” Steve called out. “Just give her some damn painkillers and stop playing with her!”

        “Rome wasn’t built in a day, Steve. I can’t rush it unless you want her to die of an overdose,” Tony replied easily. “Now, see what happened, as I’m sure you’re dying to know, is that your team managed to get there moments after you got knocked out. Somehow, they managed to get that ‘Flash’ dweeb incapacitated, and they got out of there while they could. Now, I’m certain that if you hadn’t taken out that girl with telekinesis, they wouldn’t have stood a chance. Quite impressive if you ask me.

        “Of course, everyone’s first thought was the obvious: that you’d taken too much damage, and you were now dead.” Tony fiddled with an IV system, inserting a small dosage of high-strength painkiller. “When you arrived here, my first thought was honestly about why they were bringing a dead girl into my house. You were barely breathing and utterly unresponsive. Upon examination, it was obvious your brain was still active. So you were hooked up. It soon became obvious you weren’t just knocked out, however. You were in a coma. So we prepared for an extended vegetable-like state. Bite down,” he said simply, transitioning the conversation without warning as the needle pricked Lithium’s skin, and it took all her willpower to keep the metal from shifting in her skin and trapping the needle inside.

        “Good girl,” Tony encouraged, his tone without care. “You’re doing well. Anyway, so you’ve been asleep the past week now, a little more, and now you’re awake. We couldn’t administer pain medication for fear that you would have a severely adverse reaction.” Tony leaned in closer, lowering his voice so only she could hear him. “Between you and me, those two men you’ve got looking out for you, they’re something else. Neither one wanted to leave your side while you were out. You’re lucky you’ve got them looking out for you. I certainly wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of their wrath. If they can’t take a damn joke, I can’t imagine how they’d react if someone actually hurt you and they had the time to beat the hell out of him.”