Chapter Text
Back in the present
When Helen Cho arrived at Avengers Tower in the morning, she was immediately greeted by Bruce and Tony. "Why didn't you call me much earlier?" she wanted to know as they walked down the corridor towards Steve's room. "Because we have good doctors here too and you've come a long way," Bruce replied. "You should have called me earlier anyway. Well, we can't change it now," said the doctor.
Tony knocked and they entered. Steve was pale and sweaty. He barely noticed that several people had come into his room because he could hardly keep his eyes open. "Steve, Dr. Cho is here. She wants to help you," Tony addressed his boyfriend, who nodded slightly. "Hello Captain, good to see you, although I would prefer other circumstances, of course," the young doctor greeted the super soldier, who smiled slightly at her and said: "Thanks for coming." " Of course, I've already told Bruce and Tony that I would have preferred to have been informed earlier. You really don't look well," she said and put a hand on the blond's forehead. "Oh dear, you're pretty hot." "That's what Tony always says, but usually in a different context," Steve joked and Dr. Cho rolled his eyes. "Well, at least you can still make jokes," Helen said. "But seriously, we have to cool you down, otherwise there's a risk of a febrile seizure," she added seriously.Tony watched anxiously as Dr. Cho tended to his partner. He blamed himself, because she had been right. They should have called her much earlier, then they could certainly have prevented Steve from getting so sick. Maybe he would have been back to his old self by then. Bruce seemed to know what Tony was thinking at the moment, because he nudged him and said: "You always know better with hindsight, but we have good doctors here Tony and we all thought they could help Steve. No one could have known it would come to this." "I'm going to fire them all," Tony muttered without taking his eyes off his friend. "Are you sure?" Bruce wanted to know and Tony nodded. "How am I supposed to trust them now?" "I understand, but maybe you should ask Dr. Cho first if there was anything she may have done differently during the treatment," Bruce said and Tony nodded. His friend was right. He couldn't start acting emotionally now.
He waited until Dr. Cho had treated Steve and they had stepped out into the hallway, then he asked: "Should he have been treated differently from the beginning so that this wouldn't have happened?" Dr. Cho sighed and replied: "I'm not a fan of criticizing my colleagues, but in this case I have to honestly say that Steve is doing so badly because he was treated incorrectly. His wounds should have been cleaned much better. Because that didn't happen, they became infected and he was on the verge of blood poisoning." "I'm going to fire them all!" Tony got upset. "But that could have legal consequences. They all have a contract with us and also with S.H.I.E.L.D., so you can't just terminate it like that," intervened Clint, who had just come out of his room. "I don't care about that. I'd do anything for Steve," replied Tony and stormed off.
"He's so going to get himself into trouble," said Clint, looking after him. "We know what he's like when it comes to people he loves. He'd die for Steve," Bruce said, shrugging his shoulders. "But he's right that the doctors should be dismissed. They made a terrible mistake that almost got Steve killed," Helen intervened in the conversation.