I don't know where this came from it just sort of flowed out of me. This is a seventeen year old Tony that had lost his parents six months before.
Digging around in the desk of a man he never really much cared for was a task Tony never really wanted. But yet here he was.
He gotten word six months ago that Howard Stark had died in a car accident with Maria Stark is ever so lovely mother.
She wasn't a bad mother she had at least attempted to have a relationship with her son; whilst his father would always look guiltily at him.
But back to digging around in man he had called father's desk. He had found something a fake cover over a drawer. Interesting. Tony Stark always did love a good mystery. What could dear old dad be hiding in this desk that he spent most of his life sitting at?
So what was Tony Stark to do with a desk that had a secret compartment that he couldn't open it appeared to be a drop box, put said desk in his Camaro and take it home with him.
Sitting in his lab with all of his overly expensive mechanical tools that he had just had to have. A plan came into fruition. He would saw open the drawer.
He spent several hours trying to open the damn drawer, to no avail.
He was getting pissed the damn thing just would not budge for anything. Frustrate he threw the drop box down on the ground to poor himself a glass of whiskey to calm his nerves.
Whatever daddy dearest had in there he didn't want anyone finding out about it. Which meant daddy dearest was hiding a damn good secret.
Going back to where he threw the drop box on the ground not realizing with the force of his anger the box had opened and shattered to million little pieces.
What he found inside was something he had never expected. Several pictures of Howard Stark with arms wrapped around a beautiful red headed woman with green eyes and matching green dress that only brought out her eyes even more.
It hadn't been lost on Tony that his father looked genuinely happy. Smiling whilst standing next to this beauty. A look that Tony never once saw on his father all the time that he knew the man.
The next photo is what threw Tony for a loop. There she was the very same red head from the picture before, but with a swollen belly and beautiful blue dress. His father once again with arms wrapped around this very beauty hugging her close as if he was afraid she'd disappear.
When he looked at the back of the photo to find any sort of information on said woman all he saw was a year 1973 the year he was born.
Tony's first thought was perhaps his father had a love child out there somewhere, but given that there was never any photos of his actual mother pregnant with him.
He didn't want to believe in the other possibility that perhaps he had mother out there alive somewhere in the world, but what about his actual mother Maria Stark had that all been a fake.
For the first time in his life Tony Stark didn't know what to believe.
Sitting on the floor picking up the pieces of the drop box to put in the trash Tony had noticed something with a silver tint had managed to roll itself underneath his work bench. Reaching over to pick it up to only realize that it was a wedding band with the inscription Love you forever and always – Harry.
Quickly Tony glanced over the photos that he just found to make what he suspected to be true. Tony loved being right and he was so very right on this account. In each one of the pictures it seemed dear old dad was wearing the very same ring.
So, the mysteries red head finally had a name Harry.
What Tony didn't realize was it would be nearly twenty years before he'd learned the truth and boy was he in for a shocker.