It didn't take Ray more than a day to recover from the trauma of going through that test on the lie detecting machine. It was a tiring experience but she was finally over it. After spending some time with Tony, also promising him that she would NEVER hide anything from him, and a long chat with Pepper on the phone it became easier. And next day when she woke up, she felt better. At least, that's what she looked like. The team was shocked how the teenage could recover from something so disturbing so quickly. Indeed she was strong!

But the thing that was disturbing her now was the fact that the next on that chair was Tony. Though he covered it up quite efficiently, Ray could tell, he was disturbed. He hardly had his concentration on his work and often end up writing wrong codes on his Stark Pad, his coffee intake had increased, and though he tried to hide it, she knew he was drinking again. Thank god it was to the extent of soberity. A drunk Tony Stark was normally hard to handel. She tried talk to him about it twice when he was alone in his lab, but the old treaty of "not asking him anything about his past" always butted it.

So, finding nothing else she could do she walked to Steve, who she was sure would be in the gym. "Hey Ray" Steve said as he was drinking water from the water sipper.

"Cap" she said dully making Steve flinch. She was normally a very chirpy person who would call him a lot of funny names like Capsicle, Iced Americano and so many more. Steve wasn't too fond of these names, but when she didn't use them, Steve got worried cause he knew something was wrong. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"Wow! You know me so well?" she half questioned.

"Well, if something wasn't bothering you I would have been greeted by a 'yo capsicle!'

"More like 'yo frozen meat with added preservatives'" she chuckled while Steve flinched. SERIOUSLY?!

"What's the matter?" he asked as Natasha walked in the gym in her sweat pants.

"He can't sit for that test." Ray sighed.

"Tony?" Steve asked as Ray nodded.

"Why? Did something happen?" Natasha asked seating herself beside Ray.

"Well, he's been disturbed." Ray pointed out.

"Really?" Steve asked. "Well, I...I didn't notice anything..."

"He's got a PhD in faking skills." Natasha said while Ray just shrugged her shoulders. It was true. "That adds up to..." Nat trailed, "...how many PhDs?" she asked.

"Eight" Ray said while Steve gave her a startled look. "Eight?!" he never knew Tony had that many PhDs.

"Yeah, seven plus one in faking skills." she said.

"And how many do you have?" he asked.

"Three" she replied. "But this isn't the topic of discussion!" she added.

"Hmm" Steve said.

"Well, according to my analysis of him, he's quite self destructive." she said.

"Which is quite accurate." Ray added.

"I wasn't aware of that." Steve said.

"Someone didn't do the reading" Natasha said in a sing-song tone.

"Oh come on!" Steve exclaimed. "I'm sure Tony didn't do it too!"

"As a matter of fact, he did." Ray informed making Steve look at her in shock. He didn't expect Tony could do so much reading stuff. "Yes, he may look like he doesn't care, but he does." she added.

Steve went silent for sometime before looking back at her. "So it's bad?" he asked.

"As far as I know, yes. Its pretty bad."

"Well, there's Howard Stark's bad parenting. And not to mention Afghanistan." Nat commented.

He sighed. "But what exactly happened? Is it something that they or we shouldn't know?"

Ray sighed loudly. "I don't know, Cap. All I know is that there are things in his past that he made me swore never to ask him about."


I had decided that I won't start writing this fic before I finish Past Present And Future but here I am. I couldn't stop myself from writing this. I love writing this fic!

ANYWAYS, THE QUESTION BANK FOR TONY STARK IS OPEN. IF YOU WANT TO ASK SOME QUESTIONS TO TONY ABOUT HIS LIFE, EVEN IF IT IS SOMETHING NOT FROM THE MOVIES OR COMICS, (LIKE SOME HEADCANNON) YOU ARE FREE TO ASK IT. ALL YOU NEED TO DO IS COMMENT DOWN THOSE QUESTIONS IN THE COMMENT SECTION AND TONY STARK WOULD REPLY TO THEM. ALSO, IF ITS A HEADCANNON QUESTION, IT COMPLETELY DEPENDS ON ME IF I WANNA ADD THOSE QUESTIONS TO THE FIC. BUT I'LL TRY MY BEST TO ADD THEM ALL!

THE NEXT UPDATE WILL COME REALLY SOON!

ImaginationsUnleashed