Author's Note: This chapter is going to have a bit more dialogue in it


Later that week, Howard and Miss Potts were standing on the Air Force's tarmac, waiting for the arrival of Tony.

Whenever he heard a plane in the sky he looked up to see if it was plane that Tony was on. After about an hour passed the estimated landing time, the plane that Tony was on, had arrived.

Howard watched as the back of the plane opened. The first glance at his son in what seemed like forever was a happy one. That was until he noticed some visible, yet healing, bruising on his son's face, the sling that has holding his arm at a ninety-degree angle, the fact that Rhodes was helping him keep balanced as they exited the aircraft.

He then pushed all those thoughts aside and to stepped toward his son.

"Dad," was the first thing Tony said to him as they got closer to each other.

Howard was beyond relived, when he heard his son's voice for the first time in a long.

"Tony," Howard said in return as he embraced his son.

At first Tony tensed and the sudden gesture, but quickly relaxed and put his good arm around his father.


Howard stood by Tony's side during the press conference.

When he heard Tony tell the press that he was no longer making weapons, he wasn't the least bit fazed. He was always hoping for the day when his son made this announcement.


Howard found his son and Stane talking next to the arc reactor prototype. He walked in just as Tony was showing Stane something on his chest. The thing had a faint blue glow to it. He never got close enough to see what it really was though.

"Is this where you like to brainstorm, Tony?" Howard asked stepping into the conversation.

"Most of my brainstorming is done in my lab at home," Tony replied as he grabbed his jacket, tie and the sling he had taken off. "Why don't we get out of here and I'll show you my lab."

"Sounds good," Howard agreed.


Howard and Tony sat in Tony's lab as Tony regaled his time spent in an Afghan cave. Howard knew that no one else will hear these memories for a while. The only reason Tony was telling him, was because he would never dare spill these stories to anyone, no matter what.

"What about the thing in you chest," Howard asked after a while.

"Who told you?" Tony asked, in surprise.

"No one told me. I caught a glimpse of it when you showed Obie," Howard explained. "What is it?"

"An arc reactor," Tony replied, solemnly. "There's a bunch of shrapnel in my chest, heading to my heart, and this thing is keeping it away."

Howard said nothing. He was just shocked and amazed that his son was able to build a fully functional arc reactor in a cave with just a bunch of scraps that came from his own weapons.

"I'm going to need to build a new one soon though," Tony stated. "This one won't last much longer."

Howard picked up on the tone in his son's voice. It was almost as if he saying it was normal to put an arc reactor his chest even though he knew that it was impossible.

"How'd you escape?" Howard asked.

"I built a suit out of what ever weapons and scraps were in the cave. I used it to get out of the cave," Tony said, with sadness in his voice.

"Did something go wrong?" Howard asked.

"I used it to save myself. I couldn't save Yinsen though," Tony replied. "He lost his life to protect me, when I was the one who should of protected him."

Howard watched as his son started to pace and listened as anger and hurt filled his voice.

"Want to know what the last thing he said to me was?" Tony asked as he looked at Howard.

"What did he say?" Howard asked.

"He told me not to waste my life," Tony replied. "I have no idea what he meant by that."

Howard could tell that his son was getting emotional. Which was very rare. The last time Tony was like this was at Maria's funeral. He knew that at any minute Tony was going to lose all self-respect and breakdown completely.

Howard got up from where he had been sitting and walked over to his son saying, "Maybe he meant for you to do good and help stop the people who did this."

"But how do I do that?" Tony asked as a lump formed in his throat.

Howard placed a hand on Tony's shoulder and said, "Build something that will stop them."

That was the last domino, Tony crumpled to the floor and broke down.

Howard got down on his knees and pulled his son into a hug. He didn't care that he was old. He was a father first. Being old came in second.

Tony had probably been holding all this emotion in since he was kidnapped and now that he knew he was safe, he just let all the emotion spill out of him at once and break down.


Howard and Tony stayed the way they were for a good long hour. When Tony had finally calmed himself down to speak in full sentences he said, "I'm sorry."

"Why are you sorry?" Howard asked.

"Because you always taught me to never let my emotions show," Tony replied as he wiped away the remaining tears. "Correction, you drilled it into me."

"Well I guess it's a good thing I didn't drill you to hard, otherwise you would have held back all those tears and let your anger get the better of you," Howard remarked.

"I had just been so scared of what they might do to me once they figured out I wasn't building them a Jericho Missile," Tony stated. "I knew that I had to come off as strong and unafraid. I knew what they were capable of even without my weapons."

"Do you know how they got your weapons?" Howard asked.

Tony stood up from the spot on the where they had been sitting and said, "I don't know, but I plan to find out. Yinsen told me that they were my most loyal customers. I intend to find out what that means."

Tony then helped Howard up off the floor. Then both of them headed upstairs, via elevator.


Author's Note: I swear to you I never planned on having Tony breakdown. That part just wrote itself.