Hope you guys enjoy this next installment!
The next Day
"Okay, let's do this right. Start mark, half a meter, and back and center." Tony announced as he stepped onto the grid laid out on the floor of the workshop.
"You kinda look like a spaceman in those boots." I commented.
"How on earth do I look like a spaceman in these?" Tony asked incredulously pointing to his bare boned Iron Man boots that were strapped to his feet. I just shrugged in reply.
"Dum-E, look alive. You're on standby for fire safety." Tony said getting back on point, ordering the robot. "U, roll it." The camera bot followed Tony's every move as he prepared himself for the test.
"Okay. Activate hand controls." He turned on the handheld devices to turn on the boots. "We're gonna start off nice and easy. We're gonna see if 10% thrust capacity achieves lift." He took deep breaths as the boots came to life.
"And three," Jiggling around a bit as he counted off. "Two, one."
He took off straight up, rolled over, feet up, in the air, crashed against the wall behind him, and landed onto the floor with a loud crash. Then Dum-E sprayed him with the fire-extinguisher.
"Tony are you okay." I asked running over to his side and kneeling down next to him.
"Yep, I'm fine. I'm fine." He groaned rolling on his side. "Gonna need something to stabilize flight." He muttered sitting up.
"I'll go get you some ice." I said moving to the small kitchen in the workshop. It didn't have much but it did have ice.
"Thanks." Tony said as he sat at his desk taking off his boots and placing the ice pack on his head.
I was unable to reply as a vision suddenly over took all of my senses.
I saw a plane. Why was it always planes!? My sight narrows through one of the windows till I'm face to face with Mary and Richard Parker, Peter's parents. They were talking to each other, I can't hear what's being said. They look excited to be going home. Then all of a sudden, my vision shifts and I'm looking at the outside of the plane once again, only to see it begin to shake violently. The plane is out of control and begins to plummet rapidly to the ground. Within moments it hits the side of a mountain and bursts into flames. Everything goes black.
The vision ended to find me face to face with Tony and tears streaming down my face. I tried to speak but no words came out, Tony seemed to understand and pulled me to his chest without hesitation.
"What did you see?" He asked gently rocking me back and forth.
"Oh Tony, it… was h…horrible…" I cried, my tears seemed to be a never-ending river at this point. "I saw them die! I saw all… of them die." I hiccupped.
"Shush, it'll be alright. It's okay now, it's over." Tony soothed rubbing his hands over my back.
"Peter's parents… Tony, they're… they're… dead." I gasped. I felt Tony go ridged against me. "They're gone! Gone!" I sobbed.
"It'll be alright Elynea, we'll get through this, don't worry." Tony soothed.
Tony held me until I had no more tears to shed and simply hiccupped against him.
"Why don't we go upstairs? Get some coffee, we can talk about this." Tony suggested, pulling me to my feet. I could only nod in response.
We slowly made our way back upstairs and into the kitchen.
"What am I going to do?" I muttered as I sat down at counter. Tony moved to get us some mugs and fill them with hot coffee.
"Doesn't he have an Aunt and Uncle who could take him in?" Tony asked as he set a cup down in front of me.
"Yes, but they are away remember?" I reminded him.
"Yeah, right you told me." Tony muttered suddenly remembering.
"They won't be back for a while, plus they have no experience in raising a kid. They barley spent any time with them when he was growing up." I ranted in frustration, throwing my hands in the air.
"So, what are you going to do?" Tony asked as he sat in the stool next to me.
"I'll become Peter's legal guardian." I resolved. "I'll have to quit my job, do something less dangerous. Maybe I should move. My apartment might be too small a seven-year-old kid to live in indefinitely." I thought aloud, these were going to be some real-life changes for me. But Peter was worth it.
"Doesn't your job pay well enough? I mean I know that horse racing is more of a gambling game but you're working for me here, and it's not like I'm not swimming in dough." Tony asked.
"No, it's not the money that's the problem. I'm probably getting more money out of it than any other job I'd get." I sighed heavily leaning my head against my hands. "But it is a risk. Horse racing is not a safe sport by any means. But I will miss it."
"Then don't give it up." Tony insisted.
"But Tony…"
"No," He interrupted. "I've heard all your points, and I find them to be valid points, but just hear me out on this."
I nodded silently, so he continued.
"You don't have to move out of your apartment, that place is big enough for just the two of you. And you don't have to set aside racing forever, sooner or later Peter is going to be old enough to take care of himself but until then, yeah, you should take a break from the actual racing but that doesn't mean you get a completely different job." He paused. "How long have you been in the horse business?" He asked.
"Fifteen years." I answered automatically.
"Fifteen years is a lot of experience, for anyone really, and you can use that to train someone else or horses if you'd like. And I can guarantee you a position on my team." Tony insisted taking my hands in his.
"If I didn't know you any better I'd say that you were trying to get me to stay near you." I said slyly.
"That neither here nor there." He dismissed. "Do you or do you not accept my offer? Please say yes." He practically begged.
"Alright, alright you convinced me." As he started to pout at me. "But I better be paid double." I warned pointing my finger in his face.
"Done." He said with an ear-splitting grin on his face before pulling me in for a deep kiss.
I could get used to this.
"Can your reactor really power everything?" I asked as he screwed the braces around his arm. We moved back down to the workshop after finishing our coffee.
"Of course it can." Tony scoffed.
"I've been buzzing didn't you hear the intercom?" Pepper asked coming into the workshop. "Who are you!?" She asked suddenly taking notice of me sitting across from Tony.
"Turned it off, it was annoying us, this is Elynea." Tony greeted finishing screwing up the gauntlet. "What do you want?"
"Obadiah is upstairs." Pepper answered eyeing me up and down.
"Great!" Tony answered sarcastically as he aimed it at the other end of the room.
"Aim a little higher Tony, you might hit Dum-E." I warned.
"Might do him some good." Tony grunted.
"I thought you were done making weapons." Pepper butt in.
"I am." "He is." We both said.
"This is a flight stabilizer." Tony explained ignoring Pepper's look of astonishment at our one mindedness. "It's completely harmless." He assured us pressing a button before firing it. It sent him flying back against the wall with a loud bang.
"I didn't expect that." Tony said in a small, surprised voice as he lay on the floor.
"I did." I admitted helping him up.
"Why didn't you warn me?" He asked looking scandalized.
"Thought it would be funny, and it was."
"Tell Obie that I'll be up there in a minute." Tony told Pepper when he noticed her still standing in the lab looking at us in astonishment.
"Alright." She answered before going back upstairs, still eyeing me in suspicion.
"Looks like Peter fell asleep on your couch." I pointed out once Pepper disappeared up the stairs. "I'm surprised the blast didn't wake him up."
Happy had dropped him off at the mansion after school and Peter had been ecstatic to help Tony with his Iron Man suit. And had been more than willing to sit on the couch and fiddle with one of the broken boots. Said boot was currently laying on the floor next to his outstretched hand.
"He's wearing some earplugs I gave him." Tony grunted as he sat in the stool once more, this time to remove the flight stabilizer. "Told him it could get loud in here." He explained with I looked at him in question.
"Thank you, Tony."
"It was no problem." He dismissed. "I'll be right back, got to face the warden." He teased before dashing up the stairs.
I was covering Peter with a blanket when Tony came back down in a bit of a huff. He sat down at his desk, throwing the slices of pizza in his hand to the side, and began to work on the designs for Mark II.
"What happened?" I asked slipping my arms around his neck as I came up behind him. He relaxed ever so slightly under my touch.
"My board of directors are filling for an injunction, they want to lock me out of my own damn company!" Tony spat, now no longer fiddling with his schematics. "Claiming post-traumatic stress, my ass." He hissed under his breath.
"They are all idiots. And they only care about money." I reassured him running my hand through his hair.
Tony just scoffed.
"Hey, listen to me." Spinning him around to face me. "You did a good thing when you shut down the weapons factory. Listen you did," I said placing my hands on either side of his face when he started to protest, "you knew that your weapons were getting into the wrong hands and you stopped it. You did the right thing Tony, and don't let anyone tell you different." Looking him dead in the eye.
We stared at each other for a moment before Tony blinked.
"Yeah, you're right, you're right. I did it for a reason and I'm sticking to it." He resolved taking a deep breath. "Thank you for believing in me."
"I'll always support you, no matter what." I promised kissing his forehead.
"I'll hold you to that." Tony response latching onto me.
'I'll hold me to that too.' I thought to myself in a silent promise.
I have nothing further to add to this!
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