Italian to English Translation

Antonio, stai bene? - Antonio, are you alright?

buona notte -good night


"What kind of dad is he?" Outraged on the behalf of Tony, Peter could barely keep himself from pacing current Tony's mindscape let alone keep himself quiet. Those memories had severely shaken him.

Mr Stark couldn't have been older than Ten years old judging by how small he was.

Holy crap.

"A really fucking awful one," Rhodes snarled not bothering to restrain himself from pacing; his face was set in a deep scowl which gave his face the appearance of aging five years.

"I agree, no wonder Stark's messed up." Clint crossed his arms trying very hard to not think about how his kids would act in that sort of situation. It sent a shiver down his spine.

How could Howard act so cold?

Wanda, Scott and Sam made various motions of agreement.

Re-evaluating at least part of her judgement on Tony, Wanda's eyes were distant as she agreed with Clint, but despite this her hostility didn't lessen.

A lot has obviously changed from childhood till adulthood but clearly some of the blame has to go to Stark's father for that.

He's still responsible for the death of my family.

Steve paused before deciding to speak, " Being," The Illuminate faded back into existence, giving him an piercing stare. "How old was Stark when the last memory happened?"

I really don't want to think the worst of Howard but I have to know.

The Being grimaced, "Tony was eight years old."

"EIGHT?!" Peter squeaked clamping his hands over his mouth, he knew Tony must've been young but it was worse than he thought.

Bucky growled as the Soldat flashed behind his eyes.

Howard let his own kid be tortured? Well, I'm glad I hit him in the face a few times, don't you agree, Bucky? Or are you still cut up about killing your friend?

"So let me get this straight," Bruce bit out tensely, his eyes shone emerald as they strained with effort while the Hulk fought against the Beings magic," he was Eight years old when he had his arms dislocated, wrists snapped, toes dislocated, nose broken, ribs cracked and leg broken while kidnapped and chained. He also had to hear his father constantly refuse to save him at the same time then get jeered at for reacting like a normal human."

"I believe so," Vision breathed. Although he tried, he could only bring himself to say only a brief summary of Howard Stark's reasoning in his defence. "Howard Stark didn't pay the ransom to avoid a repeat occurrence of a similar style of kidnap."

The green in Bruce's eyes gradually faded as Bruce internally explained the logic in Visions point to the Hulk.

TIN MAN HURT! TIN MAN FATHER DO NOTHING! TIN MAN FATHER BAD!

Natasha nodded as Vision said his point but kept her face deliberately blank. Sharply, she pushed away the initial stab of sympathy for both Tony and Howard on instinct; training for the red room had taught her to block out her emotions easily.

He is-was- your friend, it's OK to feel sympathy for him. We've suffered similarly. A part of herself, Natalia argued but the Widow in her mind pushed that half away. Discovering Natalia had survived through the Widow program came after she defected to SHIELD because of Clint. It was during that time she developed a sort of softness for him. That's when she realized that the red room had failed to brutalize, smash or otherwise tear the softness, weakness that was part of the old her before the Red Room out. However it was due to this treatment that the Widow still instinctively shoved Natalia away to protect her, that method was too ingrained in her mind to stop now.

Being emotionally constipated seems to run in the Stark family. To-Stark will have to be wary of that if he ever has children of his own.

"I know man," Sam sighed "but I really want to punch him in the face right now."

"I do too." Bucky agreed. Steve gave Bucky a very sharp and wary look, unsure if it was his friend or the Soldier talking.

"The All father has behaved in a similar manner but he knew Loki and I were of an age and experience where we could fight ourselves out of any situation." Thor sighed as he twirled Mijonir between his fingers, "I know not of Stark Howard but he appears cold and unfeeling to his sons suffering." Thor walked over to Steve and Bucky clapping them on the shoulder, with a small smile on his face as he turned to the others. "Do not judge hastily, there may be more yet to redeem your old comrade, friend Steven and the Winter of Soldiers."

No one had any answer to that so the Illuminate took this as its cue to change the memory and disappear once more.


"Ow," Tony tried to lift himself up off the bed but cringed due to the pain bouncing around his body.

They all gasped when they got a look at the casts now coating his wrists as well as his leg, dark violet and navy bruising was smeared across his nose and eyes which starkly contrasted his pale white face.

"We saw a memory where he looked like this before remember." Natasha reminded the others and herself sternly, this shook them out of their shock at his appearance, remembering that she was right.

"Young sir, you've got to learn to be more patient," Fondly reprimanding him Jarvis walked into the room, pushing a wheelchair with Ana and Maria in tow, "we were just coming back with the Wheelchair Mr Stark revamped for you before he left. Mr Stane also wishes you a speedy recovery, Sir and he regrets not being able to come back and support you at this time."

Jarvis looked anything but regretful that Mr Stane couldn't make it; both Rhodes and Vision couldn't help but grin at each other.

"Turns out the original Jarvis didn't like him either, huh." Rhodes nudged Vision who smirked in return, remembering his predecessors dislike which morphed into a vicious hatred for the late Mr Stane after Afghanistan.

"Tesoro, you get to come home today," Maria beamed as she carefully hugged her son, careful not to touch his cracked ribs.

Tony blushed, "Madre, I've only been here a couple of days," Tony smiled at her before looking to the chair with a perplexed grimace. "How am I going to get into this thing?"

"Jarvis, can you give me a hand please?"

"Sorry Sir this will hurt."

"What do you-" Tony yelped as both Maria and Jarvis moved him from the bed into the chair as fast but as gently as they could.

"Understatement of the century Jarvis," Tony groaned rubbing his ribs as they felt the pain course around that area sharply.

"It would have to be done sooner or later, cracked ribs take roughly three weeks to heal, you can't stay in bed for all that time. I know you want to but you'll get bed sores and you don't want those do you? That injury will be relatively temporary compared to the others."

"What about the others then?"

"Your wrists should take about eight weeks, your dislocated shoulders should be alright in 12 weeks at maximum and your leg should take six months to heal properly," Tony groaned, "but your toes should be alright in a couple of weeks."

"We know how much you hate hospitals, matok sheli so we thought it would be less stressful if we brought you back home to recover."

"Didn't the Doc's-?" Tony cut himself off as he noticed Maria's dark brown eyes gleam with a fond mischievousness that was so similar to the adult Tony that many of the Avengers startled.

"They didn't like it but money does wonders to change someone's opinion."

"Miss Maria!" Jarvis spluttered, "You told me the Doctors were alright with Sir being discharged today."

"I trust you to take care of my son more than them." Maria affirmed stubbornly, "Besides you haven't left Tony's side since the whole ordeal and you were beginning to smell."

"I wasn't-"

"Sorry Edwin," Ana shrugged apologetically, "I'll have to agree with Maria on this."

Scandalized, Jarvis's jaw dropped as he turned to Ana a faux expression of betrayal etched on his face.

Bursting into laughter Tony grabbed his ribs, rubbing them to try and sooth the irritation the movement of laughter caused, only to cause a several stabs of agony to pierce his arm.

Oh right, shoulders and wrists too, great.

"Your face then J, was a picture." Tony frowned at his ribs, letting out a quiet "Ouch," before continuing in a louder voice upon seeing their concerned faces looking down at him, "Thanks for taking me home today; I'd be bored stiff if I was stuck here for longer."

"Tesoro," Maria knocked on the door of Tony's temporary downstairs room before entering with two strange looking mechanical ovals that were mostly obscured by her hands.

The room was painted a warm cream with a wooden paneled expensive floor however it was clear that someone had worked hard to bring some patriotic theme they saw in Tony's room to this one; with the same Captain America poster they recognized from the circuit board memory hung across the wall by the bed and a Cap toy perched by Tony's side as he sat on his bed. They all spotted a couple of Captain America comic books lent by Jarvis's feet but the Butler was fully asleep leaning his head on one hand on the bedside table. Glowing, the gold and beige lamp on the other side of the table lit the room with a warm, cozy, content aura that most of the Avengers didn't realize they missed until this memory.

Amused, Tony's eyes twinkled as he smiled at Maria, "I don't think my copy of Science America agreed with him."

Maria smiled, they did too when they heard the laugh in her voice. "No I think he loves it," moving across the room and kicking her heels off as she sat on the bed.

"What's that?" Tony nodded at the mechanical objects in her hands, she placed them by him so he could take a closer look.

The Avengers moved closer too to look at two smooth metal ovals with a glowing red circle in the center each end had two small steel pinchers poking out of the small holes they came from.

"They look a lot like the machine he made for your legs." Steve noted as he looked to Rhodes legs; he felt guilt crash into him upon recognizing that Tony must've looked back on these machines Howard made shortly after the Civil War.

That would've been extremely painful for him.

"I found these in the lab; Howard made them to perfectly fit your shoulder joints. Now they will be painful, more so than a sling would be but they would mean you would be able to move your arms and they should make the recovery of your shoulders quicker."

"I'll be alright, I've been through worse," recognizing the truth of that statement Maria and several of the Avengers wince, "how do I wear these?"

"You need to wear them every day and night under your clothes. But they need to avoid contact with water."

She slid his top over his head before pulling the metal circle up to his shoulder.

Worriedly glancing at her son, she swallowed as she pressed down on the glowing red indented circle in the centre of the contraption; two thin metal arms erupted from each end, two latched themselves around his chest and back to pull the joint up whilst the two that came from the bottom end circled Tony's upper arm, latching on the opposite part of the other side.

"Antonio, stai bene?"

"I'll be fine," He responded through gritted teeth as a muscle in his jaw twitched, "do the other one."

Maria gave him a doubtful look as she pressed the next one in place.

At this one he shut his eyes and grimaced.

"I'm fine."

"If they get too uncomfortable take them off, Howard will understand." Tony stifled a snort at that.

She kissed him on the cheek then slipped off the bed.

Nudging the book from Jarvis's hand, Maria placed it on the table by Jarvis's other arm.

"Edwin, come on wake up." Maria grinned as she shook his arm.

"Oh! Mrs Maria, I'm sorry I was just resting my eyes." Yawning widely, Jarvis stretched out his arms like a cat that had just woke up.

"You need to get some rest Edwin. Come on, Tony's asleep now," Tony took the hint, shutting his eyes and resting his head against the pillow, just before Jarvis looked over. "You're sleeping next door with Ana, if Tony needs you, he knows you'll be right there."

Reassured slightly, Jarvis nodded and softly slid him down so Tony was lying comfortably, smoothing the covers flat.

"Sleep well, young Sir."

Maria turned back to see Tony open his eyes and wink at her as Jarvis left.

"Buona note Antonio." Leaning forward from the door frame she flicked off the light, vanishing into the black.


"Do not do that again Sir you almost gave me the fright of my life," Jarvis scolded a wheelchair bound Tony with a worried but stern frown planted on his face.

"You have to admit those tricks were awesome though." Tony's fake smile slid off his face as he slumped slightly in his wheelchair. "I'm so bored, J. Other kids my age are outside this time of year; climbing trees, playing with their friends but I'm stuck in the mansion for roughly half the year so the Paparazzi don't get wind of this," he looked downwards at himself, "and I've only really got you guys as my friends."

Ana and Jarvis exchanged an uncomfortable look between them.

"We are honored." Ana smiled as she crouched to his level, "why don't we go to the garden Tony? Edwin can bring some his favorite books down."

"Fictional stories?" Tony asked sounding excited at that prospect in comparison to other children that age. "Cool I haven't read that type of book before."

Perplexed, both Jarvis and Ana stilled.

"What do you mean sir? You have those Captain America comics and stories that I read to you."

"Dad allows those because they're based on fact," Tony trialed off as both Ana and Jarvis's faces soured, Jarvis in particular looked like he swallowed a lemon. "He says fiction won't be useful-"

"Not useful? Imagination is important Tony, I for one strongly disagree with how Mr Stark-" Jarvis cut himself off when Ana shot him a warning look, "I'll be back in a moment Sir."

"Did I make Jarvis mad?" Staring after Jarvis who had just disappeared from view, Tony's expression became visibly upset.

"Don't worry it's not you he's mad at, come on let's get settled outside."


Ana sat cross legged in the bright, healthy, grass of the Stark garden, running one hand through it as the other idly picked assorted strawberries, grapes from the bowls and popped them into her mouth, her eyes however were fixed on Jarvis sat opposite her; he was the only one of them using the maroon and navy tartan picnic blanket, having piled a thick selection of books directly to his left and a teapot wrapped in a tea cozy with two teacups to his right. Both of them, Natasha and Bucky noted, subconsciously sat slightly in front of Tony as if to guard him from whoever might next walk into their garden. Tony's eyes were fixed on the elaborately illustrated,thick gold rimmed copy of Narnia laying in Jarvis's lap, his face showed the sort of elation that reminded Bruce of whenever Adult Tony finally figured out the answer to a complex problem he was trying to solve.

"Maybe your right about this imagination stuff, J." Tony continued as Jarvis allowed himself to appear a little smug at that remark, "There's whole worlds in here, literally like in the case of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, that's my favorite one so far."

Raising an eyebrow at Jarvis, Ana asked "Who's your favorite character, Edwin?"

"You asked that because you knew how hard it would be for me to choose, didn't you?" Jarvis's eyes twinkled as he smiled fondly at his wife who winked.

"Yup," Unashamedly, she popped some grapes into her mouth before passing a few to Tony.

"Aslan." Jarvis nodded to himself after a few moments of thinking.

"It's because he's a talking lion isn't it?" Grinned Tony, "I have to admit that's the main reason I think he's pretty awesome."

"No, young sir," Jarvis inspected the cover of the CS Lewis book as his voice took on an analytical tone, "It is because he sacrifices himself to save Edmund from the Witch. This shows a great amount of love and loyalty to a human, who he saw was worth saving. What's more is that Aslan is written as a symbol for Jesus and his role in the bible as the Savior of Humanity despite our flaws. I admire how clever CS Lewis was to weave in that symbolism so effectively."

"Once again Edwin you manage to impress me with your reasoning." Jarvis's cheeks flushed a rosy pink which he tried to hide by sipping his tea, "What about you, Tony?"

"I know you lot are going to think me weird but I really like Edmund." Steve had to bite his lip to keep his snide remark about how alike he saw Edmund and Tony to himself. "He has flaws and the witch manages to lead him astray at first but he eventually realizes his mistake and fights for the good guys in the end. Personally, I prefer a hero that's made mistakes and learnt from them, not been portrayed as perfect like Peter, Susan and Lucy. Peter, especially, I mean imagine having a measuring stick like him that you..."

Tony pursed his lips. He didn't have to imagine what growing up with the perfect older measuring stick was like.

"One of the reasons I look up to Mr Stark is because he is more human..." Peter tried the word out on his tongue, unsure if that was the right word to describe him. Holding his hands up in universal gesture of 'no offense' when he felt everyone's attention drawn to him. "The rest of you seem untouchable and unknown in a lot of ways to the general public; living legends," Peter waved his hand to Steve and Bucky, "Super spies," He gestured to Natasha and Clint, "Demigods." Thor nodded, "But Mr Stark lays most of his flaws for the world to see and he made it on to the Avengers when the only 'super' thing about him was his mind."

"Tony, my boy," Tony, Ana and Jarvis's heads turned to Obadiah who strolled out to meet them on the grass, "I'm sorry this is only a quick stop, I just had to see how you were after everything I was so worried." Obadiah knelt down by Tony's wheelchair and clasped his neck gently with one hand, Natasha, Peter and Bucky noticed Jarvis's eyes narrow cuttingly at the bald headed man but Tony and the others remained oblivious.

"I'm fine Obie."

Obadiah beamed, "That's the spirit," he patted Tony's good leg before straightening up and turning his attention to Ana and Jarvis. "I see Ana and Jarvis kept you well entertained all day, what were you reading?"

"The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe," Jarvis smiled pleasantly at Obadiah but it didn't reach his eyes, "we were discussing our favorite characters, mine was Aslan not just because of the symbolism behind him; he was the one who saved Edmund and tore the Witch apart for attempting to kill him. I think we all want a friend like that, don't you agree?"

"Indeed but the Witch was foolish to attempt anything whilst the Lion was alive. It would've been smarter for her to wait until the Lion was out of the picture. She would've succeeded if she were to possess or poison the boy as soon as he met her. After all the prophecy couldn't be complete without King Edmund? Could it? Villains with too much or too little patience never get anywhere in these stories," Obadiah smiled, shark like with all jagged edges, "where do you keep the good decanters? I'm due back at work in a few minutes and I'm parched."

"Right this way, Mr Stane." Ana peeled herself off the grass and led Obadiah back inside to the kitchen.

"If you take one thing from this CS Lewis's tale," Tony turned to Jarvis whose eyes were fixed on Obadiah and Ana who they could see preparing the drink in the kitchen. "Sir take this, appearances can be misleading-"

"-like the Witch?"

"Precisely, Sir evil people are not always plain to see but they can grow like a weed around a flower when they find a good person to lead astray. Don't let yourself be led astray."