nightcathedral | I won't find it fantastic or think it absurd, when the gun in the first act goes off in the third...

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I won't find it fantastic or think it absurd, when the gun in the first act goes off in the third...

Maya groans, tries to roll to her side, get her hands under her. She needs to get to her computer, she needs to- to-

She can't remember what she's trying to do, but there's a bullet in her gut and her blood's all over the floor and Tony needs to know, he...

Something tugs at her arm, and she blinks in confusion at it for a second until her eyes focus on the IV in her forearm, the medical gown and white sheets and the handcuff on her other wrist and...

Handcuff aside, she barks out a laugh, too harsh in her dry throat, and drops her head back against the thin pillow. Her stomach aches and burns, but it's somewhat dull, numbed by painkillers, not immediate and burning and like something's scooped out her insides and replaced it with molten metal, and the pain doesn't even matter. She's not dead. Whatever else she has to face now - Killian or Tony or the authorities or who the hell cares - that feels like a victory.

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Pepper has been waiting for Maya to wake up. Not always at the hospital - she has been plenty worried about Tony as well, and spending time with him has been deeply reassuring to her. But still, she's been worried about Maya. She's stopped in for a while every day, she's had the hospital instructed to inform her of any changes. And she just happens to be heading into Maya's room with a book and some paperwork when...

"Maya!" she gasps, and almost (almost) drops her things. She puts them down quickly. "Oh, thank god, you're awake. We were worried you might not pull out of it..."

"...Pepper."

It's honestly surprised. She hadn't even been sure whose custody she was in, but no matter what the circumstances... she hadn't thought Pepper would even want to see her again. Not after what she did, what she allowed to be done to her. She tries to pull herself into more of a sitting position, but the ache in her abdomen quickly becomes a sharp pain and she decides that's not the best idea. She'll just stay here and pretend she still has some dignity left.

"You were worried?" she asks, wry and somewhat disbelieving. Maybe Tony decided she'd earned the concern, but she didn't expect that to get in the way of any grudges Pepper might - justifiably - hold.

"Don't try to sit up, you'll pull your stitches." Pepper can be quite authoritative, and she pulls out her most "Tony, you do what I say right the hell now" tone for it. Once Maya's no longer trying for that, she smiles tightly, and sits down in the chair next to the bed.

"Of course we've been worried," she says. "Killian shot you, and for all we knew, you were going to never wake up and eventually die."

Pepper eyes the handcuffs for a moment. "Hopefully we'll be able to get that off of you shortly, they were very stubborn about making sure you couldn't 'get away' while you were in a coma."

"Yeah, that really foiled my escape plan..." It's dry, and half-distracted as she studies Pepper with a faint frown. She looks fine. That's something - surprising, really. She'd been half-convinced she wouldn't survive the adjustment period if Tony didn't step in to fix it, so either he did and Extremis is stable, or...

Or...

She's not sure what the other option is. Thoughts aren't connecting the way she should, which she's pretty sure she can blame on whatever's in the IV.

"How long... What happened?" Tony must be alive, or Pepper wouldn't be so calm. Hell, Pepper wouldn't be here. If Tony's alive... Killian's either dead or in jail. She's not sure where that leaves her.

"Killian shot you." Pepper starts with that because she's well aware of the fact that sometimes people forget the events that led up to their traumatic life-threatening injuries. "A lot of things happened, he tried to kill... a lot of people, actually." She smiles faintly, though. "He's dead. We beat him. About... god, almost a month ago now, I guess. Someone got you to a hospital, and we had you moved to New York as soon as you were stable enough for it."

Not everyone would be so comfortable in this situation given their brief history. But Pepper knows what she saw in Maya's eyes in the hotel, and she trusts her instincts on that, no matter what some of the more "official" people might say.

"The handcuffs are a precaution, if you can give me ten minutes, I'll get them off - I didn't think it was worth fighting while you were unconscious."

A month ago. Okay. Maya swallows hard, trying to wrap her head around that - that yeah, she almost died, that Killian's dead.. She might not have been entirely on his side, by the end, she knew he'd gone off the deep end and she couldn't trust him anymore and he shot her, but they'd still been working together for thirteen years, and it's...

It's kind of a lot to deal with.

For now, she's just going to focus on what's right in front of her. She tilts her head a little, raising her eyebrows. "I'm not under arrest?"

"By the police, no. SHIELD has delusions of authority in this situation, however." The way her lips press together speaks volumes about what she thinks about SHIELD's authority. "That won't be a problem, though. Being basically conned by a glorified cult leader is hardly something anyone can be held culpable for in your situation, especially given Tony's testimony on your behalf."

Okay, so some things may have been moderately exaggerated. She's helping, Maya - roll with it.

Maya's lips twitch a little, somewhere between amusement and annoyance at calling Killian a cult leader and the idea that she might have been conned by him. On the other hand, if it keeps her out of government custody, she'll go with it, and happily.

"I'll take your word for it. Thank you, Pepper." It's slow and a little uncertain, a half-deliberate echo of her words in the hotel room, and the memory makes her pause for a second, clear her throat. She tries to shift again, pushing herself into a more upright position as slowly and carefully as she can.

"About the hotel..."

"Wernher von Braun seems like he was a decent man that I probably would've enjoyed knowing." Pepper straightens and smoothes Maya's blankets a little. "I never heard about that in history class growing up."

It's water under the bridge. Kind of painful, traumatic water, but the bridge. It's under it.

"It's your choice, really - about SHIELD, I mean." Pepper lifts up her phone and waves it a little. "I know some people, but I may have to fight with them a bit to get them to stop being complete dicks about the handcuffs even when you're not physically capable of escaping undetected yet. They're largely irrational and paranoid about the least important things, as far as I can tell."

Maya manages a little smile as Pepper brushes off what... might have been an apology, if she'd actually gotten it out. She could protest it, but there's no energy or real willingness in her to do so - if Pepper says it's behind them, she's just as willing to move on.

She glances down to the handcuffs and grimaces a little. "If it's not too much trouble, I'd appreciate it if you could get these off me... but like you said, I don't think I'm going anywhere fast. I think I can wait a little."

"Hang on, I'll have it dealt with." Pepper smiles and stands, heading into the hallway as she pulls up a number on her phone. Maya will probably be able to hear her, after a moment, arguing with someone. The words "not responsible for Killian's choices" and "not a threat" might trickle in. There's a few moments of near-silence, while she speaks much quieter (and less angrily) on the phone with someone probably not her original call, and then the door opens again.

A man in a uniform unlocks Maya's handcuffs, though he doesn't look too pleased about it. He salutes Pepper, and then leaves.

Pepper is polite enough to wait until he's turned his back before she rolls her eyes.

"Sorry," she says. "They're a bit... over controlling. You just have to argue them into submission sometimes." And the fact that she can says a lot about how Nick Fury feels about her.

Maya can't hold back her smirk as the very official-looking man unlocks her, and turns to Pepper with a somewhat warmer smile as she carefully rubs her wrist.

"That was impressive. You'll have to teach me that trick some time."

"I'll do my best, but it involves being good friends and gossip buddies with a very highly-placed agent in the organization," Pepper says, after making certain the door is closed.

"Tony will be glad to hear you're awake, by the way. He's been fussing a bit."

Maya pauses for a moment, making sure she heard that correctly.

"Tony's been fussing." It's not really a question, but it has the quality of one, somehow. After a moment, she smirks, huffs out a half-laugh even though the breath hurts. "I can't believe he fell for the whole 'threatening suicide' thing... Any chance I can talk to him in here, or is he forbidden from hospital visits after the last incident?"

"He's forbidden from hospital visits because I'm not convinced he won't do something ridiculously inappropriate." Pepper doesn't entirely buy the 'I wasn't actually going to off myself' line, but she'll be kind enough not to call Maya out on that one.

"Now that you're awake, unless they find something seriously wrong, you'll be out in a couple of days. He can talk to you then."

Disappointing, but she can't argue with the logic. She nods a little, pauses thoughtfully... and finally the question tumbles out of her, like she can't keep it contained any longer.

"What happened to Extremis?" Yes, she knows it probably almost killed Pepper. She feels bad about that. But it was her baby for more than thirteen years, and she also feels justified in being concerned about it.

Pepper lets out a little exasperated puff of air, but it's mitigated by the faint smile. Scientists.

"Tony fixed it. Or, well, he says he did, and I'm not dead yet, so I'm going with 'fixed'."

Maya smiles, mostly relief mixed with some amusement at Pepper's reaction. At least she's not offended Maya still cares about it...

But mostly, she's glad it wasn't destroyed entirely.

"Good. I mean... that's great, really. Any side effects?"

Pepper can't help but chuckle a little at Maya's obvious relief, and shakes her head. "Not so far," she admits, "And Tony's tested it pretty thoroughly. Not on me," she adds quickly. "But as far as he can tell, he's managed to stabilize it."

She wrinkles her nose a little. "The first time I cut myself shaving was a very surreal experience, I won't lie."

"I'll bet," she says dryly. "Though honestly, I'm a little jealous right now."

She didn't take Extremis for a reason, and it wasn't just because of the glitch. It's unprofessional to experiment on yourself, impossible to be objective at that point... but it would be really nice if she didn't have to deal with a half-healed gut shot right now.

"I'll never understand scientists. I still wake up terrified that I'm going to be burning Tony or exploding or something, despite the fact that I've shown no signs of doing either since he fixed it, but I know you would take it in a heartbeat and love every second of it."

Pepper really really doesn't get it. She's not a scientist or an engineer or anything like that, and she just... can't understand how they think.

Luckily, she doesn't have to, and it doesn't usually bother her, just... baffles her.

Maya laughs, and instantly regrets it as a spike of pain shoots through her stomach. She grimaces, one hand curling into a fist, and waits for it to pass.

"I'm not sure I'm quite on Tony's level when it comes to ill-advised science... but yeah, you're probably right."

"I don't think anyone is quite on Tony's level," Pepper admits, grimacing a bit in sympathy. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you laugh. Can I get you anything?"

"Uhhh... morphine can be nice, if you can talk someone into it." It's said with half a laugh, but really. Morphine would be nice.

"I will do everything in my power," Pepper declares. Maybe a little tiny bit dramatically. She's been spending too much time around Tony. "I don't think it should interfere with anything, so I can't see why they wouldn't - as long as there's no medical reason to withhold it, you'll get some."

She stands and opens the door, so she can get out into the hallway and flag a nurse down. She has a brief, hushed conversation with him where she is clearly informing him that Maya is getting a morphine drip unless it is medically impossible for some reason, and taking no arguments from him.

She returns with a faintly smug smile. "A doctor should be here soon to verify you're not on anything that could interact with morphine and then set up a drip."

Pepper Potts gets shit done.

"You," Maya says, letting her head fall back against the pillow again, "are my hero."

She pauses, swallows, and then adds, "Okay, two more questions - well, maybe three - and then I'll stop. Can I get a glass of water, and do I still have an apartment? I mean, I've apparently been out for a while, so..."

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I won't find it fantastic or think it absurd, when the gun in the first act goes off in the third...

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