Okay, I'm feeling better now, so hopefully, I can type an author's note that actually makes sense!


Tuesday, August 1st, 1995

The ambulance arrived no less than fifteen minutes after Rhodey was connected to the police. It would have come as a relief if it wasn't closely followed by a sea of reporters. Some of the paparazzi liked to keep an ear on the local police scanners in case someone of note was arrested or – as in this case – taken to the hospital. When Tony's address came over the feed, everyone started scrambling over there, wanting to be the first to break the story. Luckily, thanks to the high-profile nature of many of its residents, both the Malibu police force and the EMTs were used to and trained on keeping the media away from a person having a medical emergency. The police forced the reporters back down to the bottom of the hill while the EMTs got Tony loaded into the ambulance safely. Once they were ready to go, the police gave them an escort to the hospital, mostly to ensure that the paparazzi continued to stay back.

The hospital that Tony was taken to was just as well-versed in maintaining the privacy of their more well-known patients. By the time Rhodey arrived in his car, they had security guards posted at all the entrances and ID had to be shown along with a statement of your purpose in being there. Rhodey showed both his driver's license and his military ID, and given his position within the armed forces and the fact that he was a regular member of Tony's entourage and therefore recognizable as someone who actually knew Tony, he was let inside.

Once in, Rhodey used a payphone to call Happy. He updated the other man on what had happened and as soon as he said the words "taken to the hospital" Happy was declaring that he was on his way there, despite the fact that he didn't give Rhodey a chance to tell him which hospital they were at. He would have tried to call him back if his attention wasn't stolen by a none-too-pleased Obadiah Stane storming into the hospital's main lobby.

Tony had Stane listed as both his next of kin and as the person who could make medical decisions on his behalf should he become incapacitated. So, naturally, he was called as soon as Tony was admitted to the hospital. While for the most part, Stane seemed angry about the situation, it didn't seem like he knew why Tony might have done this to himself in the first place.

Despite the apparent onslaught of media coverage, Stane wasn't aware of the tape's existence. In fact, as he let out a long, continuous rant at Rhodey about the whole ordeal of being called to the hospital, the thing he seemed the angriest about was the fact that his ex-wife refused to take the kids and as a result had to pay the nanny overtime. (A cost which only added up to pennies on the dollar, but was apparently the equivalent to the king's ransom the way Stane griped on about it.) Honestly, that came as a slight relief to Rhodey.

According to Tony, Stane had been one of the more homophobic members of his father's circle, often making jokes that upset Tony when he was younger, but now just irritated him as an adult. While Tony did not think that Stane would be openly hostile to him if he came out about his sexuality, he still clearly feared his reaction.

Stane did not know yet, and that kept one problem at bay for now. It was still likely he'd find out through less than preferable means thanks to the pack of wild vultures outside, but it was still one less thing that needed to be dealt with right away and Rhodey absolutely appreciated that as he didn't want to be the on the receiving end of the potential fallout. Then again, he did not want Tony to be either – especially when he was not conscious and could not defend himself – so it was really a lose-lose situation. Regardless, Stane did not know yet and Rhodey would take the blessings he could get.

One of those blessings was – strangely enough – Stane's arrival. Since he was listed as Tony's next of kin, the doctor could update him as to Tony's condition, which was done as soon as Stane and Rhodey arrived in the waiting area they had been instructed to go to.

All things considered; the doctors were quick to assure that this was one of the better situations Tony could have ended up in. Although, yes, the five-hour delay in getting help was far from ideal, it did not appear that he stopped breathing at any point, nor did his heart stop. He was just very heavily intoxicated and in a deep sleep. While that was preferable to a lot of the ways this could have gone, there was not much the doctors could do for Tony outside of pumping him full of fluids and waiting for him to regain consciousness. That was frustrating, but still better than the alternatives – most of which were so scary, Rhodey did not even want to think of them.

Once the doctor finished explaining everything, Stane asked if there was any reason he legally needed to be there. The word "no" did not even finish coming out of the doctor's mouth before Stane turned on his heel, grumbling about wasted money. Rhodey just hoped no one asked him about the tapes before he made it off the premises.

With Stane gone, Rhodey was the only person left there for Tony. With no other choice but to wait for him to wake up, he sat down and tried to keep his thoughts from becoming too bleak. Thankfully, a suitable distraction came nearly an hour later in the form of Happy finally showing up to the right hospital.

Rhodey updated Happy on everything that happened since he arrived at the hospital, while Happy reported on how the media was reacting to the tapes. It was not well. The one silver lining was that due to FCC regulations, the tapes could not be played on any of the major news networks. However, that was not enough to stop them from talking about it.

The heavy hitters were the Hollywood tabloid-style talk shows. If they were not looking through Tony's past trying to find any signs, they "missed" that indicated that he was gay, then they were making inappropriate speculations about his personal life and health. They questioned if any of Tony's male friends were secretly his lover. They wondered if the women he had been with before knew, or if he had even been with them at all. Most disgustingly, they hypothesized that since Tony had been having relations men, that had to mean he was HIV positive.

The entire notion of that made Rhodey feel six different kinds of sick. Firstly, it implied all gay or bisexual people were diseased, which could not be further from the truth. Secondly, it made Tony sound like a complete idiot. Tony was very aware that AIDS was an epidemic and took great care to use protection with all his partners – men and women. In addition to that, he got tested as often as he could, and followed every recommendation expert could give on preventing the transmission of the disease. In short, he was careful and to imply otherwise was simply ludicrous. However, the truth was that no one should expect the media to be anything but ludicrous. So really, it should not have been a surprise.

Rhodey and Happy stayed for as long as they could before they got kicked out. At around nine o'clock, a petite yet intimidating nurse named Clara informed them that visiting hours were over and unless they wanted to check themselves into the emergency room, they were going to have to leave. Both men knew better than to try arguing with her, the two men did as she ordered.

They were both reluctant to leave Tony behind. Rhodey was especially so as he was keenly aware of the fact that Tony had been left at the hospital way too many times at way too young of an age. However, they really had no other choice. Both Rhodey and Happy had to work in the morning. (Although, Happy's work was probably going to consist of waiting for the hospital to release Tony.) So, they had to get home to get some rest.

Outside of the hospital, the media circus had thinned a bit, but that meant little as it was still a considerably large crowd. However, hospital security and the police were doing a good job of keeping them back leaving a path to the parking lot clear. So really, all they could do was shout at them as they walked by, and both Rhodey and Happy could easily handle that. Still, it was hard not to think about the kinds of things they would be shouting at Tony in just a few days' time.

Parting ways in the parking lot, the two men got into their respective vehicles and headed to their homes. When Rhodey reached his, he made a point of running that tape over one more time as he pulled into the driveway. After getting out of the car, he swept the pieces up, took them out to his backyard fire pit, and set them ablaze.


Thursday, August 3rd, 1995

Shortly after Rhodey arrived to work that morning, he got a call from Happy telling him that Tony had woken up. It happened around three in the morning and apparently, he had been quite a bit out of it when he did. Astoundingly, he had still shown signs of being under the influence despite all the fluids they had been pumping into him. However, within a few hours he was throwing up and experiencing other detox symptoms.

They had him on a few different drugs to ensure that he was at least semi-comfortable, but there was nothing they could do to stop the vomiting. After all, his body needed to purge itself of the toxins and unfortunately, puking was the best way of doing that.

Happy had explained all of that in a long, frantic ramble of words that Rhodey was just barely able to follow. Since he was at work, Rhodey could not stay on the line long or rush over there, but he was quick to assure Happy that he would be over to see Tony as soon as work let out. Once the call was over, Rhodey set about his work as usual, albeit giving a little more focus to the clock than he normally would.

As soon as he got off work at five, Rhodey raced right over to the hospital. The crowd of reporters were still there, but so were hospital security and the police, so they were standing just clear enough for patients to be able to safely enter and leave the hospital. Rhodey parked closer to the building this time, hoping to limit the length of his walk past the paparazzi. It worked to keep his head cool to some extent, but he had to bite his tongue to keep from snapping back at a particularly pushy reporter who managed to clearly shout a question about Tony's HIV status over the din of the crowd. That was hard to walk away from.

Rhodey did his best to calm himself down on the elevator ride up to Tony's floor. He did not know what state Tony would be in when he got there and regardless, he did not need to have to deal with the stunts the media was pulling right now. In fact, he did not need to have to deal with half of the stuff he always had to deal with, but life never really got to be fair like that.

A nurse caught up with him before he made it to Tony's room. She did not give him any compromising medical information – as she wanted to keep her job – but did disclose that Tony was still exhausted and out of it and asked him not to freak out if he threw up. She led him to the room and opened the door, only to be surprised by what she saw.

"Mr. Stark!" Tony looked up from where he was messing with his IV tube and gave a sort of half-dazed smile.

"Hey," he said. "Look at this. If I squeeze the tube like this, blood comes out of me and goes back up into the bag." He attempted to give a demonstration as he said that, but the nurse rushed over and pushed his hands away.

"I'm going to have to ask you to refrain from doing that," she said in a rushed tone.

"Why?" Tony asked.

"Because if you don't, I'm going to have to restrain your arms." Tony raised his eyebrows suggestively.

"That actually sounds like a fun time," he said.

"Well unfortunately for you, I know I'm not your type."

The way Tony's face fell at that remark told Rhodey all he needed to know; Tony had found out about the sex tape that was going around. He fell uncharacteristically quiet as the nurse finished setting the IV bag back to normal. Once everything was reset, the nurse promptly left the room, only telling Rhodey to make sure Tony did not mess with the IV bag again.

Rhodey shut the door behind her, knowing that the biggest thing Tony needed right then was privacy. Sauntering over to the man's bedside, Rhodey noticed that Tony would not look up at him and that was not a good sign. Realizing he was going to have to be the one to break the ice, Rhodey took a deep breath and kept his tone of voice careful.

"Tony," he said. "You realize this wasn't your fault, right?" Tony let out a dismissive scoff.

"I think it is," he said. "After all, it was my idea to mix substances."

"I meant the tape being made in the first place," Rhodey said. "It wasn't your fault." Tony's face fell further.

"You know about that?" Rhodey solemnly nodded.

"One of my work buddies passed it on to me. He didn't tell me what was on it." Tony shook his head and let out a very forced laugh.

"Unbelievable," he said. "My life is over."

"No, it's…"

"No," Tony said forcefully, cutting Rhodey off. "No. You're not the one this is happening to, so you can't tell me that the world isn't ending, because it is." Rhodey lowered his head and let out a sigh.

"You're right," he said. "I don't know what it's like. I've never been through anything close to this, but I know it's not worth taking your life over." Tony squeezed his eyes shut and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"I feel like I've explained these fifty different times today." He pulled his hand away from his face and looked Rhodey in the eye. "I wasn't trying to kill myself. I just wanted to sleep." Rhodey raised an eyebrow to that.

"You mixed Ketamine and alcohol because you wanted to sleep?" All attempts to keep any note of incredulousness out of his voice failed. Tony shook his head.

"I thought it was Xanax," he explained. "The bottle said Xanax, but I guess what inside wasn't Xanax."

"You guess…" Rhode had to try hard not to go on a tirade right then and there. Instead, he focused on the more pertinent question; how had this happened? "The fact that you were willing to mix Xanax and alcohol isn't that much better, but regardless, how did you get ahold of a bottle of Xanax in the first place?" Tony shrugged.

"I just found the bottle on the floor of my bathroom," he said. "Someone must have dropped it at a party or something…" Rhodey did not exactly look convinced, so Tony let out a noise of frustration. "Look, I don't know what to tell you. That's the best answer I've got."

"JARVIS was able to identify it as Ketamine," Rhodey pointed out.

"I must have muted him," Tony said. "I was already three bottles gone, so I wasn't going to listen anyways."

"Yeah," Rhodey said. "JARVIS mentioned that, too. Why'd you take pills when you knew you were already intoxicated?" Tony could be an idiot when he was drunk sometimes, but he was not actually stupid enough to mix drugs like that. At least, that is what Rhodey hoped. To his relief, Tony was able to offer up some sort of explanation.

"I told you," Tony said. "I wanted to sleep. Alcohol wasn't working, so I thought I'd try something else." Rhodey frowned, still not entirely convinced by that explanation. Tony was still leaving something out. He could feel it.

"And why did you want to sleep so badly?" Tony let out a sigh, this one more defeated than anything.

"Because I've been up for two days panicking about that video," he reluctantly admitted. He kept his head down so Rhodey couldn't see his expression, but from the sound of his voice, he could tell that he was trying not to cry. That was something he'd only seen Tony do twice in his life. The first time was four years prior when Tony's parents were killed in a car accident, the second was when the man who practically raised him – Edwin Jarvis – passed away earlier that year. While the fact that he was currently detoxing probably had something to do with it, showing such outward emotion spoke volumes about how affected he was by this. He truly thought his life was over, and that made Rhodey's heart sink. Gently, he put a supportive hand on Tony's shoulder.

"How did you find out?" Tony tried to snort like he had just heard a funny joke, but his nose was starting to run, so it just came out sounding pathetic.

"Trying to watch porn," he said. "That's how I found out." He had to take a moment to wipe at his face before continuing. "One of the X-rated channels got ahold of it. I just happened to be trying to jerk-off when it came on." He let out a completely humorless laugh. "God, I'm an idiot."

"Never thought I'd hear those words come out of your mouth," Rhodey tried to joke but failed miserably. He gave Tony's shoulder an apologetic rub and a comforting squeeze. "But you know that's not true." Tony shook his head and let out a strangled gasp of air.

"No, it fucking has to be," he said. "Because I don't see any other way, I could've let this happen."

"You didn't let anything happen," Rhodey assured. "Someone went behind your back and did this. Did you even see the beginning of the tape?"

"I saw myself getting fucked by Ty in more ways than one," Tony said. "That's what I saw."

"So, he did do this." Tony nodded.

"When I called off our little arrangement, he told me that he'd expose me to everyone if I left," he explained. "He said he could prove it; that he had videos. I thought he was bluffing. I mean, I thought I would've noticed that I was being filmed…"

"It's not your fault," Rhodey said. "You couldn't have noticed. That jackass was keeping your focus on him, and he completely avoided looking at the camera to keep himself from being exposed. He did this to hurt you. You couldn't have known."

"Yes, I could have," Tony said. "I could have listened to you, or Happy, or Jarvis… None of you liked him. All of you felt the need to warn me away from him, and I didn't listen."

"So?" Rhodey said. "That still doesn't mean he should have gone and done this to you. I mean, fucking hell, he was too much of a coward to show his own damn face. That tells me he knew what he was doing was going to hurt you and that he did not want to suffer the same consequences. Christ, even now no one thinks it is him. I've heard these tabloids throw out a dozen possible names as to who that could be and not once have, I heard the name 'Tiberius Stone.'"

"He probably paid people off to keep from speculating about him," Tony said. "It wouldn't surprise me." Tony let a moment pass to get his emotions under control; taking a few calming breaths. "What are they saying about me?" he asked as soon as he felt composed enough. Rhodey shook his head.

"You don't want to know." Tony looked down, frowning.

"Who else knows?" he asked.

"Everyone, to say the least," Rhodey said. "In fact, I was hoping you could enlighten me on that." Tony sucked in a breath.

"Stane knows." Rhodey tried his best to hide his grimace.

"Oh yeah?" he said. "And how did that go?"

"Uh, better than I expected?" Tony winced. "I mean, he didn't verbalize how disgusted he was with me, so that seems positive." Rhodey could not help but be disappointed in how low his friend's bar for "positive" was set, but at the same time he could not blame him. "He also did try to warn me that the board might oust me for this, so…" Rhodey's nostrils flared almost as much as his anger.

"That's illegal," he pointed out.

"I know," Tony said. "And I will fight it if they try something, but still, it's nice to get the warning, even if it isn't surprising…" Rhodey nodded, fully knowing that there were people at Stark Industries who had wanted Tony gone from the moment Howard Stark was officially declared dead. They would use any means they thought possible to try to get him out of the position of CEO and would not hesitate to use his sexuality against him, no matter how illegal or immoral it was. Rhodey truly felt for him on that.

Still, no matter how sorry Rhodey was feeling for Tony right then, Tony was feeling ten-thousand times sorrier for himself. Just to exemplify that, Tony wiped at his face while trying to suck as much snot as he could back up into his nose. It did not work too well.

"God, Rhodey," he said. "What am I going to do? There's no way out!"

"I don't know," Rhodey sadly admitted. "I don't know what you can do."

"My life is completely ruined."

"Don't say that," Rhodey said. "It's not completely ruined."

"Seriously?" Tony questioned. "Why don't you go and say that to the buzzards outside?" Rhodey frowned and knelt so he could be more eye-level with him. Tony refused to look at him, causing Rhodey to let out a sigh.

"Tones," he said. "Look at me, please." Tony stubbornly refused for another few moments before relenting and meeting Rhodey's eyes. The amount of hurt and pain Tony's brown eyes held was truly haunting.

"You can't tell me this is all going to be alright, Rhodey," he said. "Because I know it's not." Rhodey shook his head.

"I know it's not going to be alright," Rhodey said. "We don't live in a world where it can be alright. I can't fix that, but I need you to stay in this world with us, because otherwise things will never be alright again."

"I wasn't trying to…"

"I know you weren't trying to kill yourself." Rhodey was not sure how much he believed that, but he was willing to give Tony the benefit of the doubt. "Even so, mixing substances like that was unbelievably reckless and stupid, even for you." Tony shrugged.

"It is what it is," he said. "I can't deny that."

"No," Rhodey said. "But you can promise me you won't do that again, no matter how tired or distressed you feel."

"Why?" As bad as he felt for Tony, Rhodey could have smacked him right then and there for asking such a stupid question.

"Because you could have died," Rhodey said. "And there are people here that would have missed you if you went."

"Oh yeah?" Tony scoffed. "Like who?"

"Like me, and Happy, and…" Just like that, Rhodey was out of people, causing him to frown again. "You know, it doesn't matter the amount of people," he quickly saved. "What matters is the impact you have on them, and personally, you've had a huge impact on me." Tony's eyebrows raised in surprise.

"Seriously?" Rhodey smiled.

"Yeah," he said. "I don't know where I'd be today if I hadn't been assigned to room with the skinny fourteen-year-old kid-genius all those years ago. Probably would not have been nowhere near as fun.

"Probably? Just admit it, you'd be a wreck without me." For the first time since he walked into the room, Rhodey could see a coherent and genuine smile cross Tony's face.

"That is true, that is true." Slowly, Rhodey's face started to grow more somber. "Seriously though, Tony, we're here for you no matter what. Even with all this bullshit, we're here. So please, stay with us." Tony nodded, albeit a bit reluctantly.

"I wasn't planning to go anywhere anyway," Tony felt the need to point out.

"I know," Rhodey said. "But I need to hear you say it." Tony took a couple of deep breaths.

"I won't go anywhere," he said. "I'll stay right here with you and Happy. I promise." Rhodey started to smile again.

"Glad to hear that," he said.

"Now can we be done with all of this sappy bullshit?" Tony asked. "Because this detoxing thing has me really emotional and if I cry again, I'm going to be pissed."

Rhodey agreed and changed the subject. They did go back to the topics of the tapes and the overdose again, but it was much less emotional with Tony continuing to give Rhodey assurances of his mental stability. That probably should have worried Rhodey more than it did, but instead he chose to believe what Tony was telling him. It was an easier pill to swallow than accepting the idea that his friend might be suicidal.

It would be a long time before Rhodey would question Tony's mental state like that again. In that time, Tony would have publicly acknowledged his bisexuality and put those tapes far behind him. The name "Tiberius Stone" would become forgotten to the distant past, and Tony would learn to roll with the punches and grow a thicker skin about what the media had to say about him. He would get kidnapped across the world, have an electromagnet placed in his chest to save his life, be betrayed by the man whom he had come to consider a father figure and a friend, and become a superhero. It would not be until Rhodey caught a glimpse of dark lines crawling up Tony's neck and watched him carry out the most reckless behavior he had ever seen that Rhodey would let the thought haunt him again. Even then, he would struggle to accept it.

However, all of that would not happen until years later. On that day in 1995, Rhodey just held out hope that Tony was okay and that he would be able to hold it together through the oncoming storm. Even if he could not, Rhodey promised himself that he would be there to help Tony out, because he had to. He just had to.


Friday, February 10th, 2012

Steve needed a moment to process everything Rhodes had just explained to him. Essentially, what happened was that Tony was publicly outed as a bisexual in the worst way possible by a scorned ex-lover, and in response Tony had attempted to kill himself. (Like Rhodes, Steve was not quite convinced that Tony's overdose had been as accidental as he claimed.) His heart was breaking as his blood boiled in his veins. He really wanted to hit the guy who did that to Tony; hard.

"Where is he now?" Rhodes looked up, confused.

"Who?"

"Tiberius Stone. Where is he?" Steve was not sure how, but Rhodes somehow managed to look completely surprised and unsurprised at the same time.

"He's hiding out in the Bahamas," he explained. "He got involved in a money laundering scheme that came to light after the housing crisis struck. He is wanted for dozens of counts of fraud and will be arrested if he ever sets foot on US soil again. It's also not worth the four-hour flight just to go down there to beat him up, so I'd leave it be, Cap." Steve let out a heavy sigh.

"Is there anything else that he did to Tony?" he asked. "Anything that I should know about?"

"After that tape was released, Stone made the wise decision to steer clear of Tony at all costs," he said. "Personally, I think it was to protect his own reputation. If he and Tony were seen together, it wouldn't be hard for someone to put two and two together."

"No one knows it was him?" Steve asked, incredulously.

"No," Rhodes said. "He faced away from the camera the entire time. The only reason I knew it was him was because I was with Tony that weekend. The only people who know are Happy, Pepper, and now you."

Steve sat in silence for another moment, letting the weight sink in. The only people who knew about this horrible man and what he did to Tony were Rhodes, Pepper, and Happy; the people closest to him. Now, that list included Steve. That was a huge burden to take on, and it left his heart feeling weak.

"Why tell me this?" he asked. "Why now?" To his surprise, Rhodes smiled.

"You're here for the long haul, right? You're not going to abandon Tony at the first sign of trouble?" Steve was baffled as to why he would even have to ask that.

"Of course not," he said. "Unless Tony tells me to go, I'm not going anywhere." Rhodes' smile widened.

"I'm glad to hear that," he said. "I just needed you to know that story, because for the longest time I thought that was Tony at his lowest, but apparently he can fall much lower than that."

"I'm sorry," Steve tried to say, but Rhodes shook his head.

"You don't need to apologize," he assured. "We all failed him there. Besides, you also need to know that it's not going to be that way for you when you come out."

"Are you kidding?" Steve questioned. "After hearing what Tony went through, it just scares me more."

"But it's not going to be that way for you," Rhodes said. "Gay rights are more understood and accepted now. Yes, you will be dragged through the dirt, but nowhere near as bad as you would have been twenty years ago. Besides, you have things that Tony didn't have back then."

"Like what?" Steve asked.

"You have a strong support system," Rhodes said. "Tony only had me and Happy back then, but now the two of you have us, the other Avengers, Pepper, Conroy – even if she is an asshole who threatens people." Steve could not help but chuckle at that. "You also have something that Tony could only dream of having back then; a loving, supportive partner who understands just what you're going through and will easily jump into the media's line of fire for you any day." A soft, sad smile crossed Steve's lips.

"He shouldn't have to do that, though," he said.

"But he would for you," Rhodes said. "I don't doubt that for one second." Steve nodded, a tight warmth growing in his chest.

"Thank you, Col. Rhodes," he said. Rhodes laughed.

"No need to be so formal," he said. "After all, you're practically my brother-in-law." Steve laughed, but honestly, he did not mind the idea at all.

"Thank you, Rhodey," he said.

"Don't mention it," Rhodey said. "Now, if you don't mind, I think I need to have a little conversation with someone about bad ideas and shutting her mouth."


Special thanks to DiveTooDeep on AO3 for the comment! It really means a lot!

Alright, now that we're done with our little detour, it's back to the main story! I appreciate everyone sticking with me as we take this little side route! Next chapter will focus more on Tony and Carol, so get exited!

Remember kids, friends will be friends right 'till the end!


Originally posted to FFN on 1/4/21.