Alive

Chapter 11 - Worth a shot

Andrea POV

Thank god we're here.

I have been in this car for over 30 minutes, and Stark hasn't stopped talking, at first, I was concerned that he wasn't breathing until I wanted to cause a crash just for him to shut up.

The second he stops the car I sprint out and run into the hospital before I have to listen to him for another second.

"Hey Andrea, how was your week off?" Greta was waiting at the door for me with my doctors coat and to greet me with a hug.

"Great, we went shopping, took a trip to the zoo, and got multiple gifts from Tony Stark because he knows I was responsible for saving the Avengers and wants me to be their personal doctor. Lets talk about that." Greta turns sheepish and attempts to run away before I grab her to keep her in place.

"Look I'm sorry, Mr Stark wanted to know who was responsible for saving Romanoffs life, what were we supposed to do?"

"Lie! Always lie!" I reply while putting the coat on and handing her my bag.

"I'll keep that in mind for next time, but for now you have patients. Up to ICU."

I would stay to argue, but I have missed working and my patients. Another reason why I don't want to work with the Avengers.

On the way up, every doctor I see welcomes me back and gives me a pat on the shoulder, and around half of my colleagues that pass me are just as qualified for the job I am being offered.

So why the hell can't Stark ask one of them, they would take that job in a heartbeat.

"Dr Collins, Mr Stark has given me access to the hospitals files to make your job easier." I put in one earphone to hear him without people staring.

"Your first patient is Clint Barton, he was just woken from a medically induced coma, you need to examine him for any problems." Seriously, another Avenger?

"Ok, thanks." I enter Mr Barton's room to see Steve sitting in the chair next to the bed.

"Dr Collins, good to see you again. How are you?" He stands to shake my hand.

"I'm fine, and you? Have you healed properly?"

"Good as new, are you here to look at Clint? I can wake him up if you'd like?"

"Yes, I'm here to examine Mr Barton, if you could wake him it would be appreciated. You can leave or stay." I read up on his chart while Steve woke him up.

"Hmm, what's going on?" After being in a coma for a week, thought you'd be against sleeping.

"This is Dr Collins, she needs to examine you, are you ok if I stay?"

"Sure, Doctor can I be asleep for this exam?"

"No."

"Worth a shot, what do I need to do?" Steve returns to his seat while I run some standard tests, he's already had a CT scan and MRI, and his body is fine but the brain has some small irregularities so I have to check to see if he's not got anything wrong up there.

I update his chart to his changes and order another brain scan, better to be safe than sorry.

"Are you the doctor that operated on Natasha?" I have been dreading that question ever since I found out they are best friends.

"I am." The gurney arrives to take Mr Barton to his scan.

"Are you the one that saved her life?"

"Well, there were a lot of doctors than contributed to her survival." I'm being as vague as possible as I help him onto the gurney.

"Please, she singlehandedly saved Nat." Horrible timing, Stark walks in with a smile on his stupid face.

"Not true."

"Yes true."

"If it weren't for the other doctors she would've been gone by the time I got there." I try to reason.

"And if it weren't for you she would've been gone because the other doctors weren't good enough." There is no arguing with him.

"Another reason why I want you to be our doctor."

"Wait you're replacing Cho?" Barton butts in.

"She's moving to Spain for research or something, I don't know but we need a new team doctor and-" he points at me, "she is perfect, already saved half of us."

"I have to get Mr Barton down for a brain scan, excuse me." I tell the nurse she can go and that I'll transport him, anything to get away from the relentless Stark. He is too much like his father.

Good thing Barton isn't too heavy or I'd be screwed pushing him alone. We reach the lift and it is awkward silence that fills the air.

"So you're the reason she's alive." Well, now it's just awkward.

"As I said, lots of people kept her alive."

"But you finished it."

"Maybe, but I'm confident that the other doctors would have saved her." That may be a lie, and technically even I let her die, so really no one could've helped her.

The lift doors open and I push him into the scanner room and a nurse is there and waiting to help, so I step out and let her do her thing since I know this will take a while.

"Nurse Greta has asked for you to check on Jonah Morris, his chemotherapy has stopped working."

"Shit." I quietly curse and fast walk up to Jonah.

Once I'm about to enter a nurse comes out and I question her about his condition, his cancer has gotten too bad and the chemo is no longer working.

"Hey, Jonah." He looks pale, weak, and like he has generally given up on everything.

"Dr C, hi." He breathes out. "It-it's not working anymore. Why isn't it working?"

"I'm afraid your cancer has gotten worse, but there are other forms of treatment such as radiation or palliative. I'm just trying to say that you have other options, this is just a small problem. You will start radiation in the morning, in the meantime, you should rest, I'll call your mum and inform her of this new development." He nods and with a wave, sinks down the bed and closes his eyes.

I shut the door behind me and ask Jarvis for any new cases Greta has for me.

"All the staff have been called into the locker room for an emergency meeting."

"Why wasn't I told about this?" I question as I make my way down to the locker room.

"It was only called 7 minutes ago, but most of the staff are there already." I make my way down faster.

Once I enter the room all the staff are crammed together in this relatively small room, and standing in front of them is the director of this hospital and next to her is Tony Stark.

I go to stand next to Gigi and ask her what the hell is going on and she doesn't know.

"Well it seems all of you are here, I have some exciting news, Tony Stark has bought Angels hospital."

What.

The.

Fuck.

"Yes, and I'm warning you, there will be some staff changes." He looked directly at me while talking.

Son of a bitch.