Let Your Heart Decide

While on any other day Tony would happily lounge in bed hours after sunrise, the rest he was forced to endure during his recovery was making him restless. Every time he tried escaping his room to wander the house, Jarvis triggered an alarm, guilting Tony back to bed before Pepper could come and tell him off. There was very little to entertain Tony in his room; he’d updated his laptop about a dozen times, fine tuned his television at least three times, and reorganized his closet more times than he could count. Pepper told him his only entertainment should be sleep, since he was still recovering; true, at times he felt weak and dizzy, but overall much better than when Pepper had found him after his confrontation with Loki.

Still, he wanted out.

Pepper wouldn’t even let him attend his own charity event, despite his many attempts at escape. Hours later, he had finally admitted defeat, lazily tucked into his bed with his television flashing random images around the dark room without his really paying attention.

“Jarvis, is it possible to actually die of boredom?” Tony wondered aloud, subconsciously tapping his arc reactor.

“I don’t believe so, sir,” Jarvis dutifully responded, sounding as bored as Tony felt. Tony sighed and closed his eyes, nestling deeper into his covers. He was vaguely aware of the creaking of the door opening, but assuming it was Pepper, he childishly pretended not to notice. When he didn’t immediately hear her bickering or lecturing, he curiously glanced to the door, and his heart stopped.

The lights from the hallway blurred his vision, but he was able to make out the figure of a woman standing before him. She was wearing a gown of the lightest blue, which gently blew around her as she stepped in. Her hair shielded her face, cradled by the majestic light behind her.

“Jarvis, you’re a liar. I’ve died and there’s an angel in my room,” Tony groaned, then became puzzled. “Wait…I made it to heaven? This must be a dream.”

Caprice rolled her eyes and closed the door behind her, carefully flicking the light switch as she glided in. Tony winced and shielded his eyes at the sudden attack on his cornea. “Never mind, I’m in hell,” he muttered, pitifully looking up at Caprice from under the covers.

“I’m not sure if I should take that as an insult,” she chuckled, cautiously sitting on the very edge of his bed. It felt weird to be so close to him in so intimate a space.

Tony raised an eyebrow, feeling the awkward tension as well. “How’d you get in here? Jarvis, security breach!” He flashed Caprice a cocky grin, showing her he was kidding. “Didn’t think I’d see you anytime soon,” he added quietly.

Caprice shifted uncomfortably. “I heard you got hurt,” she shrugged, avoiding his eyes. “I…I was worried—“

“You were worried about me?” Tony asked eagerly, searching her eyes for confirmation.

She blushed. “You’re my boss. Of course I’d be concerned. You front my pay check.”

“Oh.”

The silence that consumed them was suffocating. Both awkwardly looked away, neither knowing what to say. Caprice silently cursed herself for impulsively coming to check on him, but was relieved to find him pretty much intact. Tony was touched at her concern, but hurt by her refusal to acknowledge it.

“So…what happened?” Caprice asked, wiping away the anxious moisture forming on her palms.

Tony blinked, surprised to hear her speak, and shrugged. “Oh, you know, I just got injected with a chemical rapidly moving through my bloodstream. It’s slowly shutting off all my major organs before it stops my heart.”

Caprice felt her jaw slack and her heart stop. “W-what?” she stuttered, feeling herself reach for him helplessly.

Tony observed her, pleased with her reaction, before backtracking. “I’m just kidding. It just temporarily paralyzed me. I’ll be fine.” Caprice choked on the air as it rushed back into her lungs, feeling her cheeks redden with embarrassment and annoyance. She swatted at his arm.

“Tony!” she scolded, pausing when he sat up and caught her hand. Again she felt that familiar jolt, intensified as his eyes latched on to hers, warm and full of emotions long forgotten. It felt like their touch was creating a spark, and out of the corner of her eye Caprice noticed a bright blue light. Alarmed that she was losing her mind, she glanced down, and muffled a scream with her free hand.

“Tony…oh my God, Tony…” She felt her words catch in her throat as she stared, mortified, at Tony’s arc reactor. She had heard rumors that he had come back from Afghanistan changed, and that the Iron Man suit was powered by something extraordinary, but she had no idea just how drastically different her high school sweetheart now was with a hole in his chest.

Tony followed her gaze and sighed, tapping the reactor with his free hand. “Oh, yeah. That. That actually is preventing things from entering my heart and killing me. I’ve got shrapnel lodged in my chest, close to my heart.” Caprice turned her face away, and for a moment Tony thought she couldn’t bear to look at his deformed body. His fear was instantly alleviated when she quickly turned back to him, fresh tears in her eyes.

She opened her mouth to say something, offer sympathy, anything, and was mortified when a sob escaped instead. It pained her to see him like that; to know that he was constantly in pain, that he had come so close to death, that he had almost disappeared again. Tony’s eyes softened and he reached out for her, unsurprised when she shook her head and shied away.

“I’m sorry, I don’t mean to…It’s just that…oh, Tony…” She furiously tried wiping the tears away before he could see them but to no avail.

She was a pretty crier, with no puffy eyes or blotchy cheeks, just gentle streams of tears gliding down her rosy cheeks. Tony focused on that rather than how her emotions affected him. “You really do look like an angel,” he blurted out pitifully.

Caprice hiccupped out a laugh. “Yeah, well you look like you’ve been through hell.”

Tony grinned. “Capri, you’ve no idea.” He wanted to say something else funny, hear her laugh again, give her reason to stay, but she stood up. She wiped her face clean of tears again and sighed.

“Guess I’ll get going then,” she sniffed. She glanced back down at the rumpled covers she’d left. “You…don’t go getting any more holes in you.”

“So the idea of ear piercings is out?” Tony asked, his attempt at maintaining a straight face tainted by the curve of his lips at her expression. She offered an amused smirk, but behind her eyes he could see she was beyond serious. Her concern was endearing, and almost made him question the cool front she had been putting up recently.

“Goodbye, Tony,” Caprice said. She turned for the door, dragging her nails across the wooden frame as if hesitating, waiting for something. Tony remained quiet, and when it became apparent he wasn’t going to speak, she forced herself out, leaving Tony alone in the dark once again.