It was around mid-morning and Tony was resting when he was startled awake from the ringtone of his phone. He wiped away at his chin before quickly grabbing his phone out from his pocket and answered with a drowsy hello. It was Bruce.

Tony was so glad Bruce had finally called back at this state of emergency. "Tony, yes, I heard what happened. I was in Brazil for some undercover Shield science work and right when I received news, I left straight away back to New York. I'm on my way to the hospital right now to examine the problems. Meet me at the front doors, I'll be wearing a blue jacket and a hat and glasses so I don't get the public's attention." 

Tony listened to what Bruce was saying and was relieved that he was coming. He still didn't want to allow himself to think that there was any hope because he didn't want to get worked up for nothing. He had to be prepared for the worst. As he put his phone down. He thought back to Bruce's last sentence before hanging up, "... so I don't get the public's attention."

Tony completely forgot they were in a public hospital and knew that if he walked out of that room, there were bound to be at least some reporters throughout the hospital just waiting for any news. He stood up and stared down at Steve, peacefully at rest with a normal pulse. He then just turned around and went to leave the room. He was meeting Bruce near the front and was certainly not in any mood to talk to the press. He took a deep breath to exhale the anxiety that was building inside him before he opened the door. As he walked out, he was surprised and glad that there were no reporters or press, only agent Coulson. Tony gave him a confused glance before Coulson turned to him and spoke, "Mr. Stark. Glad to see you've come out. We thought you never would. Shield has cleared the hospital of any press entering once soever. Bruce is on his way over and should be here any minute." 

Tony just looked around the halls before meeting Coulson's eyes again and slowly nodded. He turned the other way and walked to the front of the doors. As he walked through the main hall, he saw people staring at him. He saw Natasha, Clint, and Sam whispering in a group but stopped when they saw Tony. Tony avoided contact with any of them and just looked up towards the doors. Bruce had arrived and was making his way through the doors. 

Tony met up with Bruce around halfway from the door to where he was standing.

"There's not much press here. I'm surprised." Bruce whispered as they walked back to Steve's room. Tony simply nodded his head in agreement. The pain Tony was holding back was an incredibly heavy burden, especially with his anxiety. It seemed that at any moment, he could just collapse in tears but he just acted as if it was just a small little problem and shut everybody out.

As Bruce and Tony entered Steve's hospital room, Tony just kept his arms crossed and stood near the door, looking down while Bruce walked over to Steve. "It would be a lot easier in the Shield hospital but moving his body could set anything off so we'll have to work with what we have." Bruce said looking back up at Tony, who was unresponsive. "Okay, well. Where are the doctors? I'll have a talk with them." Bruce asked walking over. "They.. I don't know." Tony replied quietly. "I'll be back soon with a report on what we can do." Bruce said and left the room. Tony let the door slide closed slowly and took a deep breath before walking back over to Steve's beside.

He missed Steve. The warm hugs, the cuddling they always did, Steve's expressions, when they slept with each other, the funny little arguments they had, the little wrinkles by Steve's eyes when he laughed, Steve's personality in general, everything. As Tony slouched down into the chair near the bed, he let the memories replay through his mind. He couldn't hold in the pain any longer, the tears started running down his cheeks. He just leaned down on the bed and cried.

For awhile, Tony kept that position, crying and stressing through the pain of heartbreak. Losing Steve would break him. As his head rested on the side of Steve's bed, Tony heard someone walking down the hallway. He did not want anyone seeing the state he was in so he quickly sprang to his feet and ran into the bathroom and got a towel, wetting it down with the sink. He patted around his eyes, hoping to wipe away the redness. He heard the door click open and closed again. "Tony?" It was Banner. 

Tony walked out from the bathroom and knew his eyes were still red and saw that Bruce could obviously tell too. "Yeah, um, sorry. I.. my contacts were bugging me." Tony lied trying to act extremely casual. "Oh. I didn't know you wore contacts." Bruce replied holding a manila folder in his hands. Tony nodded his head, "Yeah, yeah. Hell of a lot better than glasses, if you ask me." 

"Alright so I've done a complete analysis on Steve's brain. I have news, it's unknown if you'll determine this good news, or bad news." Bruce started to explain as Tony walked over back to the chair and sat down. 

"It appears that the brain system is rejecting help from his super soldier serum in his blood and he's slowly dying." Bruce paused letting Tony understand. "How the hell is this good news?" Tony quickly asked before Bruce continued talking. "Because," Bruce continued, "I searched every single possible operation from Shield and I think I've found one that could work, repairing his brain completely. The operation was buried deep in the Shield archives. Skye hacked into it for me- that's why I never found it before-"

"Let's do it then!" Tony immediately said, standing up. Bruce lifted up his hands, settling Tony down, "Hold on... there's something more important to the operation that you need to know. It's the reason the whole operation was shut down in the first place." Tony gave Bruce a confused glance, looked at Steve, and then glanced back towards Bruce. He slightly tilted his head in confusion.

"The operation." Bruce began slowly, "The reason it was shut down.." Tony was very impatient, "Spit it out for God's sake!" 

"The reason they shut down the operation was because the patient has to be awake during the process!" Bruce said all at once, raising his voice. Tony's hopeful face sank low again.

"No. Definitely not. I can't do that to him." Tony replied quickly and looked down. 

"Tony. You must understand this, there's no other way. This is his only chance." Bruce said in a quiet voice.

"Bruce! I can't!" Tony yelled rubbing his forehead. Bruce just looked down and out the window of the room. "Okay." he said nodding his head. "Well, if you change your mind. Give me a call." Bruce straightened his position and left the room, leaving Tony alone.

Tony stayed alone by Steve for the whole rest of the day and all the following night. If Steve was really going to die, Tony would spend the rest of his time with him until the last. Tony would never be able to fix the hole that Steve would leave there after he was gone. Broken, was what was going to become of him.

As Tony stayed in the hospital room that night, he had put on Steve's jacket he grabbed from the house before they left when Steve got his headache. It was big on him because Tony was so much smaller than Steve but he didn't care, it kept him warm.

As he crouched in the chair next to Steve's bed, restless, he slid his hands into Steve's jacket pockets. He couldn't sleep, all he could think of was Steve. He wanted to stop thinking of the memories between them so randomly switched his though to Steve's jacket. 'How long has he had this? Does he ever even wash it?'

He remembered that Steve hadn't worn the jacket since his memory was wiped of all their memories. As Tony's hands were in Steve's leather jacket pockets, he moved them around slightly. He was startled when he felt his hand grasp something in the left pocket. Tony sat up in the chair and pulled out the object his hand had touched. "What the hell?" Tony mumbled as he reached for the small lamp near the bed. He switched it on and stared at the small little box clutched in his hand. For a few seconds, the only noise was the heart monitor that was hooked up to Steve's body.

Tony looked at all angles of the small box before he decided to open the front. 

He flipped open the top, and his heart froze. As he held the small little box, his mouth dropped open and the tears instantly streamed continuously down his face. He covered his mouth with his hand and just closed his eyes and cried, and cried. 

Clutched within Tony's hand, was a shining golden engagement ring, engraved with the words:

'Steve & Tony'

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AUTHOR'S NOTE

omfg... I'm sorry if I made you emotional...

Steve was going to ask Tony to marry him before everything went wrong!

I'm emotionally unstable I think...

I need some ice cream.... 

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