“Depends. You offering me a job, Stark?”

— is the tongue-in-cheek question in return, probing around safer territory, even as Stephen does genuinely chew over that idea. And then admits, “I’ve been mulling over Forces versus Research. But as much as I can still conjure a sword and stab someone with it, I probably have to face the fact that I’m not the Sorcerer Supreme here, I’m just another mage.”

Which rankles a little. (Or a lot. That professional pride is stinging, rolling over in its grave.)

But even as a neurosurgeon, he’d put more of his time into research and studies and writing papers, rather than the day-to-day work of scalpels and blood. Considering himself advancing the big picture and the field as a whole, rather than saving one life at a time. It had been a constant point of contention between him and Christine. So, of all things, it seems he’s facing that very question again: where can Stephen Strange be of the most use? Where can he help the most people? Where are his skills best utilised?

And, with a kind of dawning realisation, he finds himself having to swallow the inherent discomfort of asking Tony Stark to join his team.

“I’d be useful in Research,” he says.