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Chapter 11 – A Mad Idea

Tony and Pepper popped to New York to put on something warm. Tony wore a nice suit. Pepper, unsure of where they were going, put on a simple brown dress with a wool coat. Exton then joined them when they went downstairs and got into a limo. The limo drove for a while, outside of the city.

Pepper held Tony's hand and they talked about all sorts of things on the way there. Exton drove, so they had the backseat to themselves. She noticed that Tony only drank water the entire drive up.

"I spoke to John last night. Well, this morning. He had been up all night with Legate. He broke the hell out of his leg." Tony told her.

"Legate? Didn't he just get shot in the leg, too?"

"He's accident prone. I'm glad it's not just me."

She smiled, "But, you are alright."

"I feel better than I have in years." He told her and kissed her hand.

She smiled, "Legate is okay?"

He nodded, "Yeah. But, John had an idea that I need to talk to you about. That's where we're going."

"Oh God. You and John's ideas are usually completely insane."

He laughed, "This could be the craziest idea either one of us have had."

"Well, what is it?"

Tony shook his head. "Nope. I'll explain that, later. Oh. I think we're here."

They went down a long, dirt road. They appeared to be in the middle of nowhere. Then, the car stopped and Tony opened the door. "I've got it, Exton."

Exton smiled, "Right. I'll meet you inside then."

Tony helped Pepper out of the car and closed the door. She looked to see that they had arrived at a beautiful stone mansion. It had snowed and was extremely cold after being on the island and the warm car. The car was parked under covered area that led to a doorway into the house.

Even though everything was covered with snow, Pepper could see that the home was beautifully taken care of. Four stories tall, it looked like a castle sitting in the middle of the snow.

Tony took her hand and they walked to doors. Tony opened them and held the door for her. He smiled and took off his coat. He hung it on a coat rack that stood in front of him and then took hers. Pepper saw another set of doors in front of them. The top part of them was some sort of ornate glass. Carved woodworking was everywhere.

After Tony had hung up her coat, he took her hand and opened the door for her again. She walked inside of a grand entryway. It was breathtaking. Tony held her hand tightly as he yelled, "Hey! Hey! It's me!"

She smiled at him. "Who are you shouting at?"

He grinned, "Habit. I always say that when I walk though those doors."

"Where are we?"

"This wasn't in my True Hollywood Story?" he teased.

She looked around. "Apparently, not."

He unbuttoned his jacket and started up some stairs. He didn't let go of her hand. "Come up here. You can see everything better."

The room was surprisingly warm. She walked with Tony, still hand in hand, as he got to the top of the staircase. The walkway was open. She could see through a large picture window that there was a huge courtyard outside. A beautiful fountain was frozen.

Tony let go of her hand and leaned on the banister. He looked down into the sitting room below them and she saw book shelves, paintings and beautiful furniture.

"Well, what do you think?" he asked her.

She stood beside of him. "This is beautiful. It looks like castle."

Tony chuckled, "A castle. I don't see that. It's not…..cold."

"Where are we?"

He looked back at her. "This is where I grew up. I haven't been here in years."

She looked around. "Really?"

He shook his head. "I grew up in a castle. Huh. I've never thought of that. Soli would love that."

"When was the last time you were here?"

He looked back at her and took her hand. He led her to a room at the end of the hallway. There was a large, white baby grand piano in the middle of the room. A lounge chair sat next to it. He smiled and sat down on the bench. Pepper sat next to him.

He took a deep breath and looked back at her. "I was sitting right here, playing the piano that night. Obie came to tell me that Mom and Dad had been in a car accident. He took me home with him and I stayed there until after the funeral. Jarvis packed a suitcase for me and brought it Obie's. I wanted returned to Europe as soon as I could. There was a girl."

She smiled, "But, that didn't work out."

He shook his head, "No. Thankfully, it didn't. I returned and had the home in Malibu built. Jarvis lived here for his remaining years, and took care of the place."

"Jarvis died years ago. How is it still so clean?"

"He hired people to come in and keep everything….as it should be. I didn't want it to fall apart. I didn't want to live here, but…" He rose his eyebrows.

"You haven't been home since that night?"

Tony shook his head. "No. I never wanted to return."

She rubbed his thigh.

"Dad and I were always at one another's throats. That night, I had argued with him about…something. I don't remember what." He pointed at her, "And I know what you are you thinking. I really don't remember. Those few days are….fuzzy."

"I'm sure they are."

"They left to catch a ship, and never made it. All I think about when I think about this place, is him."

She nodded and looked around the room. "This piano."

He smiled and looked at it. "It's mom's. I learned to play on this one. I've spent a lot of time on this bench."

He opened the keyboard cover and pressed a key. "This really needs to be tuned."

"There are things of hers here. Things of yours. It's not just him."

He looked around the room. "Yeah." He stood up and helped her off of the bench. They walked slowly around the house. He would point at something and explain what it was, or tell her a memory he had. All the while, holding her hand. She imagined it was hard for him to be back there, and he needed to hold onto her.

They walked into a room with a small, four poster bed. A bookshelf was built into the wall, completely full of classics. A desk was littered with drawings and plans. She smiled, "This is your room."

He grinned, "Now, what makes you think that?"

She smiled, "The messy desk. All of these books?"

He walked over to the desk and looked at the plans. He grinned. "I should give this another look." He rolled up the papers and tapped the desk with it.

She smiled at him. "Why are we here? What's going on?"

He held his finger up. "Hang on." He called, "Exton? Are you close?"

Exton walked down the hallway and looked in on them. "Do you need me?"

He pointed at the shelf of books. "Could you transport this to Lewis' flat? He probably needs something to do while he's recovering. "

Exton nodded, "Sure. Put a transport target on it. I'll do that."

Tony reached in his pocket and pulled out a transport remote trigger. He pulled out a small disk, and sat it on the shelf. "Oh! And there is a boxing ring downstairs, near the sun room. Could you go see if you can find a small pair of gloves for Soli?"

He nodded. "Sure. I'd be happy to." Tony thanked him as he walked away.

Tony took Pepper's hand and they walked back down the long hallway, until they came to a room that was used for a casual sitting room. The furniture looked more worn and Tony relaxed more than he had the entire time he had been there. He sat in a window seat looked outside. He could see into the sun room from this angle. Pepper sat next to him.

"So, this is why I've brought you here." He began. "This…..is technically, ours. Yours and mine."

"Ours?" Pepper asked.

He rolled his eyes. "Well, of course. Mrs. Stark."

She smiled at his teasing. "That's the reason you sent Exton away. You needed to talk about that."

He shook his head. "No, this is what we need to talk about. The question is: Do you ever see us, living here? Honestly."

She turned and looked around the room. "This place is beautiful. But…"

"But?" He asked.

"You haven't been comfortable since you mentioned you needed to come here this morning. So, I'm saying no."

"If Soli is going to stay with us, I want him to have a place where he can run and play outside."

"He has that on the island." Pepper reasoned.

Tony nodded, "Yeah, he does."

"And we could always get another place. It doesn't have to be here. Start over."

He grinned. "Start over."

She smiled, "It's something I do. I suppose."

He looked back out of the window. "A new castle for my princess."

She stood up and walked around the room to look around. "Tony, this is so beautiful. But, you will always see this as your parents' home. Never ours."

He sighed and nodded. "I'm glad you get it."

She continued to look around the room as she walked around.

He looked at her, "Can I ask you something?"

She smiled, "Oh geez. If you are asking permission, I might say no."

"Do you see the winery as yours?"

She closed her eyes and shook her head. "No. I really don't. That's why I left. That's why…" She looked back at him.

He nodded his head. "Why you don't want to return. I get it."

She looked at a shelf and ran her fingertips across the books. "These are strange."

He chuckled, "They're not strange. They are in French. The ones in my room are the only ones in English."

She smiled and looked back at him. "You should bring them to read to Soli."

"He needs to hear more English. Maybe he'll start to speak more of it and we can stop depending on that damn universal translator."

"Or….you can learn his language. Have you thought about that?"

He rubbed his hands together. "Ugh. I hate it here. I even sound like my old man. He's….possessing my head! Ugh! I'll have to go back to New York and….burn sage or have a soul cleansing. Bathe in holy water."

She rolled her eyes at his complaining. "Or, I'll just smack you until you start sounding like yourself again."

He stood up and smiled. "That could work. Yes. Never, let me sound like him."

She watched him walk to her and look at the shelf. She took a photo album and opened it. Written in lovely, script, cursive handwriting was something Pepper couldn't read. "Is this in French?"

Tony looked over her shoulder and read it. He laid his chin on her shoulder. "Wow."

She turned around and looked at his surprised face.

"Just. Wow. Huh. I probably do need to take a closer look of things in here."

Pepper closed the album. "Secrets of the universe?"

He exhaled slowly. "It's Mom's handwriting. It says….ummm…. 'A troubled person is a person to love. Not a person to fix. And people often change slowly and struggle deeply.'"

Pepper looked at the album. "Wow."

He grinned at her. "Good wedding advice."

She smiled, "You don't need to be fixed, Tony. You are alright."

He was distracted, looking at the books on the shelf again. "Yep. My Doctor who is treating me for PTSD would completely agree with you." He pointed at a book. "And that one is, 'Treasure Island'."

"Tony. You are getting better. I can see it."

He nodded his head and pointed to a table in the corner. "And right there, is where Mom and I would do lessons together."

She looked at the table. "I thought it looked familiar. Lots of learning happened in this room."

He nodded. "Which brings me to the discussion me and John had last night."

She looked back at him. "What was it?"

"John has a crazy idea to start a school."

"A what?"

"A school. For aliens. For kids with….superhuman abilities. A place where they can be safe. Away from everyone that would hurt them. He says there are a lot of them here, and on other planets."

"Like that kid you were telling me about?"

He nodded. "The spider kid. Yeah. He is someone John is looking at putting here before he gets his ass killed."

She shook her head. "You're not serious."

He shrugged his shoulders, "I think he's watched X-Men too much."

She laughed under her breath and shook her head. "So, he wants to start a school. That's why we're here?"

"This could be the school. Well, some of it. He can copy this house or build onto it. Whatever. I could donate it for that. For him. It's not being used."

She smiled, "As crazy as the entire thing sounds, I have to say that I really like this idea."

He put his hands in his pockets and rocked on his feet. "Possibility the craziest idea ever!"

"What about everything in here?"

"Well. I don't want it."

"Tony. You don't now, but there might be things-"

He closed his eyes and shook his head. "No. There's nothing here. Just, toss it all out and-"

She pointed forcefully at him. "You wouldn't dare do that!"

He rose his eyebrows at her. "Why not?"

She rolled her eyes. "I just don't believe you."

"I've been called a lot of things, but sentimental isn't one of them."

"Mental, might be." Pepper insisted. She crossed her arms and walked around the room.

He groaned. "Pepper."

A framed black and white picture had caught Pepper's attention. It was sitting on the mantel of the fireplace at the edge of the room. It was of a small boy, who was about four years old with long untidy hair. He was looking back at the camera and smiling with the same goofy grin she had seen so many times.

She picked it up and smiled, "This is you."

He walked over to her and looked at the photo. He tapped the frame. "Yeah. That's me. Mom said it was her favorite picture of me."

"You still make this face."

He smiled, "I can't help it. It's the same face."

She rolled her eyes. "You know what I mean." Pepper held it to her chest and walked around the room, looking at everything as she thought.

Tony watched her and put his hands in his pockets. "Are you sure about this? I can tell John to go get his own damn-"

She smiled. "It's really alright. I was just thinking how we'll do this."

"Do what?"

She looked back at him. "There are some personal things here, I'm sure. We'll store those. Until you're ready to look at them."

He groaned and sat down in a chair. "That day may never come."

"There are a few things we'll leave. Well, like the furniture and such. They can use that. Your Mom's piano…."

He propped his head on his fist and watched her as she thought. "Just toss it out."

She looked shocked, "I wouldn't dare! I'm going to call Randy over at the Smithsonian."

"The where?" He couldn't believe his ears.

"The Smithsonian, Tony. They would love to get their hands on this stuff. Maybe your Dad's desk."

He pointed, "That's downstairs."

She nodded. "I'm sure you can probably think of some other things they would like."

He snapped his fingers. "That damn flying car! That's downstairs."

"A what?"

He looked back at her. "It was a crazy idea the old man had back in '42. He used repulsor, antigravity technology….similar to what I have on my suits. I want that. It's down there. I'll transport it to Malibu. No one needs to see how that works."

She shook her head in surprise. "Alright. See, already, you've found something."

He snapped his fingers and stood up. "And another thing. I haven't thought about this until now. Come with me."

He stopped at the door and held his hand out to her. She joined him, still holding the photo. He looked surprised at her. "Taking the picture of me?"

"Of course I am."

He grinned and kissed her lips quickly. They walked together downstairs to the kitchen. Off to the side, there was a bar. Tony let go of her hand and walked behind the bar. He sat several bottles on top of the bar and then laughed, "Ah-ha! There is one!"

Pepper saw him stand back up. He was holding an unopened bottle of Scotch that was covered in dust. "This was old when I was a kid." He grabbed a bar towel and wiped it off.

"You're drinking that?"

Tony looked at her and shook his head. "No. It's John's birthday party tonight. This would be a great gift for him."

Exton walked into the kitchen, holding a small pair of boxing gloves. "Were these the ones you were thinking about, Tony?"

Tony looked up, "Yep. That's them. Thanks. We'll just leave the car here, and pop back to the island. Soli alright?"

Exton nodded. "He's fine. He's playing with the other children. Lance has asked me to have you ring him when you have a moment. Something has happened."

Tony immediately pulled his phone out of his pocket and dialed a number. "Hey, man. What's wrong?"

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