Find me

Alive

"Wait what?" Natasha asked Maria over the phone, "steve is... He's what!?" She shouted.

"He's alive, he's in surgery right now and you guys should all get here now" she said. "I'll fill you all in when you're here.

"Okay, okay. Oh my god okay. We're leaving now." She hung up and looked to everyone standing up around her, itching for an explanation. "Steves alive." She said in complete shock.

They all erupted in questions "wait what?" "He's alive?" "How?" "Where is he?" "Where was he?" "Is he ok?"

"I don't know, I don't know!" They all quieted down, "but we need to get there now!" She shouted and they all ran to the spare jet in the hangar.

They all piled in and Clint sped the jet to the helecarriers location in Europe. For most of the trip, they were all either pacing or asking themselves and each other what they missed along with scenarios on how he managed to survive that. Needless to say, they were all star struck and overjoyed that he was alive.

When they landed, they were all greeted by a few agents that led them to the gallery fury was waiting with Maria.

They rushed in one by one, walking up to the large window. "It's him..." Natasha said in disbelief.

Maria nodded, "somehow, he survived the fall."

"And we didn't find him." Clint added. The sight of steve motionless on the table while surgeons rummaged around made him angry. "We gave up..."

"Stop, everyone." Thor started. "We have found our brother, he is a great warrior and will be just fine." He put a hand on clints shoulder and squeezed. "Our friend is home." Clint smiled slightly against the tears forming in his eyes and the god pulled him into a hug.

"Where's tony?" Bruce asked.

Fury exhaled loudly. "Lab. He locked himself in again."

Bruce sighed, "I'll be right back." He started walking out, looking at steve and the monitors to make sure he was stable first.

"He won't let you in." Maria added, she knew because she tried already.

"Yes he will." He said, and before anyone could protest he was gone.

"What happened to him?" Natasha asked.

"Broken leg, broken ribs, cracked skull, and multiple contusions..." Maria glanced at fury before adding "and a gun shot wound to the shoulder and chest"

"Gun shot?!" Clint shouted and turned to her and fury.

Maria glanced at fury with a painful look and he took over. He turned to them and leaned back against the window. "As you know, agents were going down to clear out the basement of the base. They were notified that someone was inside the building and an order was given to shoot whatever moves."

"You gave the order to shoot him!?" Natasha shouted, completely outraged by this.

He shook his head, "I didn't." He crossed his arms across his chest, "tony did" Clint paces around in his spot and rubbed his face with his hands. "They all thought it was a hydra agent—"

"I don't care!! They shot him!" Clint shouted and threw his arm out gesturing to steve through the window.

"After debriefing, we informed that he was unrecognizable and was acting threatening before the shots."

"Are you serious!? That's it! So they shot him and you're just letting it slide by!?" Natasha shouted.

"Nothing is sliding by! This is being handled and the agents involved are being terminated."

"What about tony?" Wanda asked.

"He shouldn't have been there" fury shrugged his shoulders, "and they knew he was under influence but followed his order. He won't be going on any missions for some time but I don't think he's going to want to anyways."

They all got back to their places in front of the window and watched over steve and his surgeons like a bunch of hawks.

•••

Bruce turned the corner to the hall with the lab and started looking for tony through the windows but he wasn't in sight. He made it to the door and started fidgeting with the handle but, like fury said, it was locked.

He knocked on the window and scanned the room for him but saw nothing but scattered papers all over the lab and a flipped table. "Tony!?" No response. He pulled his phone out and scanned the pin pad, hopefully tony forgot to deadlock the lab.

He got the password and punched it in, as he turned the knob the door opened and he exhaled in relief. He walked in slowly and closed the door behind him, "tony?" He said again.

He walked around the lab slowly and finally spotted tony in the corner around the filing cabinets. He hadn't spotted Bruce yet and he was finishing off a bottle of liqueur. His hair was ruffled, his cheeks were pink, and his eyes were swollen. "Tony..."

Tony turned his attention and turned away promptly, "go away Bruce." He grumbled and opened another bottle from a stash he had in the bottom drawer of one of the cabinets. Bruce walked over to him and kneeled down in front of him, "dammit Bruce *hiccup* I said go away". From up close he could see that he'd already gone through two bottles.

"I'm not going to do that—" tony rolled his eyes, "tony he's alive." He said, "he's going to be okay" he said softly, trying to comfort him.

Tony grimaced "no thanks to me..."

"Tony this isn't your fault," he ignored him and started drinking more, "okay you need to slow down in this—" he reached for the bottle but tony swatted him away.

"Yes it is!" He exclaimed, "I'm the one who told them to shoot! Did you know that!?" Bruce put his hand down, "I'm the one who told them to shoot... my husband" his voice broke and his eyes starting watering until a waterfall formed under his eyes.

Bruce took a few seconds and sat down next to him, "I didn't know that" he said quietly, "but I know you would never do that knowing it was him." He tried to comfort him. Tony brought his knees to his chest and held back screams. "Tony this isn't your fault" he put a hand on his shoulder, "you would never do this to him, I know that and so does he"

Tony sobbed and finally put the bottle down and leaned into Bruce who wrapped his arm around him while the other moved the bottle to his side, "this isn't your fault... and steve came back to us, to you tony." Before he even realized it he was crying too. For that week and a half of thinking steve was dead— it was just horrible, he had lost one of his closest friends and the best leader he could ever have for the team. "He's alive" he repeated and squeezed tony tighter, hoping for him to finally calm down.

Once he did, Bruce let go and grabbed all of the bottles as he stood up, he placed them on top of the cabinet and held out a hand to tony. "Come on, lets get you cleaned up"

"I'm really drunk" tony snorted and grabbed it.

"I'll also get you a banana bag" Bruce added and pulled him to his feet. He hadn't quite realized how drunk he was until he lost his balance and almost fell over. "Oh, okay..." he threw tony arm over him and wrapped his arm around his back to support him as they walked through the hall to the closest room. They'd usually bunk up there if they had to spend the night and each one was assigned and reserved.

Bruce got him to the bed and he sat down, he turned on the water and Bruce stepped back out of the washroom. "Okay, you hop in the shower and I'll go get your banana bag to help you sober up." Tony looked at him and nodded. "Okay I'll be back in 20." Tony nodded again and watched as Bruce left.