"Tony," Jarvis began to say. "you have a stab wound above your hip. Do you want me to call your regular?" Tony sighed, while also grimacing from pain. He had been involved with breaking up a fight between Peter and a robber. Usually that'd be what Peter would handle, but the robber pulled a knife, and Tony could not just sit back and watch.
"No, I fired the regular. C'mon Jarvis we've been over this." He scoffed. "Well, I'll certainly need to find you a new one. And fast." Jarvis decided, beginning to search millions of doctors available in New York City. "Doctor Young, skilled in many areas involving a specialty in Psychology." Jarvis began to list off "I need a doctor not a therapist."
"Same thing." Jarvis stated.
"Whatever," Tony grumbled back.
"How about Doctor Strange. One of the best doctors in the world, specialty is neurology." Jarvis stated, knowing Tony wouldn't pass up a doctor as skilled as Strange, knowing his doctor hunt would be over.
"He sounds good, put him on the phone Jarvis." And Jarvis did just that.
"Hello thank you for calling New York State Hospital how may I assist you?" A receptionist asked. "Doctor Strange. May I speak to him?" Tony asked, a sense of urgency lingering in his voice. He had already made it to the hospital, but decided to call so he didn't have to wait much longer to be treated.
"Why of course, one moment please." The receptionist said as she quickly placed Tony on hold. For a few moments he tapped his feet to the sound of the hold music, growing impatient as the shirt he tightly wrapped around his torso became damp with blood.
"Hello i'm Doctor Strange who is this i'm speaking to?" Tony sighed thankfully. "Doctor Strange I am Tony Stark. I've been stabbed and was hoping to be treated by you." Tony then heard a sharp inhale from the other line "Surprised you waited this long on hold to be treated. How far are you from the hospital?" Tony quicky answered "Just outside the Emergency Room doors." The line then went dead, not so long after Tony heard the wheels of a gurney being rolled from outside the door, and no sooner was he laid down on it, meeting eye to eye with Doctor Strange.
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Strange had piercing blue eyes with green flecks in them, Tony noticed as he was being rolled to an operating table. They were mesmerizing, the kind he could easily get lost in, considering his loopier state from the blood loss of course. He also had brown hair, that was lightly becoming more of a salt and pepper, Strange's grey hairs stuck out, but in an indescribably beautiful way. Tony could only see Strange from the eyes up due to his mask, but he already knew that he was one attractive man.
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It wasn't too long before Tony was off the table, he needed a good cleaning of the wound and a simple clean up. Nothing too crazy, nothing too extreme. Strange was able to stitch Tony up rather quickly, which he was grateful for.
He'd get his stitches removed within a week, which would be the best time to discuss Strange becoming his personal doctor. As soon as the operation was finished, he had left the room onto a case of a man who had a bullet lodged in his brain (at least, that's what Tony overheard).
So he went on his way, anxiously awaiting to go back to the hospital to see Doctor Strange. There was something about those green eyes that held his brain captive that week, something he just couldn't let go of. Even Peter began to notice.
" 'Sup Mr. Stark! Dude you wouldn't BELIEVE what happened today." Peter began to explain. Peter would visit Tony at least once a week, and always had the best stories. Tony was always really interested in them, but for some reason on all days to come, Tonys thoughts were held captive by that doctor.
"And usually I'd rescue cats from a tree but there was a PUPPY in the tree. How did he get up- hey Mr. Stark is everything okay?" Peter questioned, his eyebrows knitting together as they furrowed. "You seem... Distracted. What's up?"
"Oh nothin kid just, wondering how a puppy was able to get into a tree that's all." He responded absentmindedly. Peter then began to carry on about the puppy in the tree and the lady who gave him a churro again, and despite Tony's efforts to be fully engaged in what he had to say, it was no use. That doctor clouded his mind with thoughts he'd never really had in awhile, since everything between him and Steve happened.
Losing Steve had been hard. The Avengers splitting had been hard. He never really seemed to catch a break, to have one good thing in his life last. Lately his good thing had been Peter, but even that boys sunshine couldn't fully clear up a stormy day for Tony.
But he just couldn't let go of that doctor. He wouldn't leave his mind, and for the first time in awhile, Tony was okay with it.
It wasn't long too long until he finally went to get his stiches removed, but to Tony it felt like an eternity. He arrived at the hospital a few minutes early out of being eager to see Strange again, which was unusual of Tony. He was usually late for many things, even fashionably late for his own parties. But not today.
His leg anxiously bounced in the waiting room as he impatiently yearned for his name to be called. Sooner or later, the nurse finally announced "Tony Stark, Doctor Strange will see you in room 103. Down that hall, first on your left. You can't miss it."
He flashed her a grateful smile before heading in the direction she had mentioned, finding the door cracked, peering in to see the doctor picking up the room a bit more before Tony came. Tony took a deep breath before lightly knocking on the door. "Doctor Strange? It's me, Tony." Strange then pulled the door open wider for Tony to enter, watching as he cautionsly sat up on the doctors table.
"Why don't you take your shirt off so I can get to those stitches?" Strange said, breaking the silence between them. "Yeah, of course." Tony said immediately, slipping off his shirt revealing the stitches, and the elephant in the room, the light fixation in his chest. Which of course, caught Strange's eye once more.
"What is that for?" Strange asked as he slid on his gloves. "The thing in your chest."
"Oh it's an Arc reactor." Tony said, watching Stranges face for any confusion, which was there. "It's capable of great magnitudes of energy. I used to need it to keep shrapnel from a bad car crash from entering my heart and killing me but, now it's just there to power my iron suit." Tony then explained.
"So what you're saying is you don't need it anymore?" Strange continued to ask as he began to remove the stitches from Tony's lower stomach.
"Kinda do kinda don't. I could always put one in my suit to power it, and believe me i'm not one for sentiment but this bad boy," He began to say, tapping on the Arc Reactor "It's a reminder of how far i've come. I like it. It doesnt hurt anything."
Strange nodded, still carefully removing the rest of the thread from Tony's healed wound. He did it so precisely as if he were looking through a magnifying glass, but the man didn't even wear glasses.
"I've been meaning to ask, what are your thoughts on being a personal doctor?" Tony then asked, breaking the silence once more. "To be someones doctor at every beg and call? No thank you." Strange then replied with a snarky tone.
"What if the pay is good." Tony included to his offer, beginning to realize that Strange too was hard headed just by that one simple comment.
"Mr. Stark i'm not sure if you realize this, but I am the worlds top neurosurgeon, not some aid to camp of some superhero. My pay is good enough. I'm not leaving my work to be there when you get scraped up from fighting in the streets." Strange replied, as the rest of the stitches came out.
"That's not what i'm asking of you. Just a doctor I can rely on if I get more than just scraped up from saving everyones, including your, ass. Just a simple thing where you are my regular doctor I see to get stitched up. I'm not asking you to become my personal, follow me everywhere incase I fall and can't get up, doctor." Tony explained, his voice stern yet not stern enough to really scare Strange off. At least for now.
"Just someone I can rely on. Can I rely on you?" Tony asked, wrapping up his proposal.
"You bet your stubborn ass you can," Strange replied with a small scoff. "You have a deal, Mr. Stark." He said, extending a hand.
"Please, call me Tony." He said, taking Stranges hand into a firm handshake.
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NOTES:
hi everyone! so i've finally gotten around to figuring out a story and a ship and everything blah blah blah so here's this! this is just the prelude. there will be many more chapters to come of course, i don't have an exact updating schedule but i will be posting chapters as frequently as i can! i can't wait to see where this story grows and how tony and stephen will grow in this story. anyways that's all!
p.s. i'd die for ironstrange.
p.p.s. here's a link for a playlist to correlate with the story ! https://open.spotify.com/user/sleepysarr/playlist/0iN6a8VAG3h97Jp6C7YIFB?si=_g15itEeRRGgE1y51WsTCg
if you copy and look it up, you should be able to find it! but it you still have a hard time finding it - my spotify is sleepysarr