It was the feeling of water filling her lungs that woke Toni at around half four in the morning. She was shivering and gasping for breath in motions that left her chest in agony.

It was only once she managed to catch her breath and her heartbeat began to slow that she moved, slipping from James's grip.

She grabbed her clothes and fled the room, moving to a guest's bathroom to avoid waking James or Winter up with the sound of running water.

A shower should be fine—the raining of water was nothing like be submerged under it.

She could handle that.

For a long unknown amount of time, Toni sat under the pouring water.

Her sternum wouldn't stop aching and the beat of her heart hit the metal fit into it.

Toni wanted to shout, yell, scream her lungs out in what would be a vain attempt to stop the pain.

Slumping against the edge of the bathtub, Toni sobbed through the pain her crying brought because she physically couldn't take it; didn't care how the jolting motions of her cries made the pain worse and the way she tried to take deep breaths and instead was hit with the inability to take true deep breaths because of her damaged sternum.

She listened to JARIVS's soothing voice in a vain attempt to help her.


James was immediately aware of the lack of heat next to him when he woke.

Winter stirred also and it prompted James to sit up to look around the room. It was empty bar him and the space next to him was cold, so that meant Toni had been up a while.

"JARVIS?" He called with uncertainty, he was still trying to wrap his head around the whole Artificial Intelligence thing.

"Mr Barnes, how may I be of assistance?"

"When did Toni get up?"

JARVIS was silent for a moment, and James couldn't help but wonder if it was hesitation.

"It is currently half eight, ma'am awake at half four this morning." JARVIS's voice was filled it worry. "She awoke from a nightmare and was unable to return to sleep because of the pain from the Arc-Reactor."

It was painful? James frowned, Toni hadn't given any hints that the deceive had been causing her any sort of discomfort.

"Where is she now?"

"Downstairs, Mr Barnes, but I would recommend eating breakfast before joining her."


James joined Toni downstairs carrying two slices of toast, of which he dropped onto the desk she was working at.

"JARVIS mentioned you hadn't eaten."

"I had an apple an hour ago!" Toni argued. "I'm not even hungry!"

James raised a brow, listening as Winter scoffed quietly and muttered in Russian.

/Upryamaya zhenshchina./ (Stubborn woman)

/I don't understand Russian, Winter./

/Habit./

James just sighed, both because of Winter and Toni.

(Winter had, well, a habit of falling into Russian and unfortunately—or maybe it was fortunate?—he didn't understand the language.)

"JARVIS also said you'd try and get out of it."

Toni scowled up a the ceiling. "Traitor."

"Your wellbeing is my main concern, ma'am." JARVIS responded drily.

James smirked, listening as Toni began to rebuke JARVIS.

(James held his tongue about asking about the Arc-Reactor. Winter grumbled, part of his programming was to make sure her health was tip-top but James managed to get him to settle with just watching Toni closer, especially since Toni wasn't a Handler and Winter was free. Something James pointed out. Winter grumbled again, James snorted in amusement.)

"Oh, that reminds me." Toni spun around on the chair, grinning up at them. "I finished the first blueprint for your arm. Wanna see it?"

Winter purred and James smiled.

(James acutely noticed the low cut vest she wore revealed the Arc-Reactor in its entirety. The scar tissue that surrounded it reminded him of his arm.)


There were many things that JARVIS could do—he was a learning AI, after all, he was created by the woman that made AIs not just a thing of fiction—but not for the first time, nor the last, he wished he had a physical form.

Don't understand his desires for being selfish purposes (maybe they were?) but his Creator—mother—was someone he cared for deeply and since the very moment he's come online when she was a grieving seventeen year old and very much not allowed near any wielding or physical tools, he'd taken her safety and security as number one.

He'd improved his systems by himself and with his mo—creator over the years they'd been together and he'd gotten to witness just what sort of person his mother was.

Behind the façade of a playgirl or scarlet woman (or which she really wasn't, out of the many times the media called her out for her sex driven lifestyle, it was on the lower side of it. Toni liked to drink, and occasionally enjoy herself but never to which she's portrayed) and other less the kind names she'd been given over the years, Antonia Stark was a very different woman.

She was an awkward but kind woman; she playfully flirted, rambled and snarked because that was who she was.

And despite how much she claimed to be a terrible mother—her words, not his or anyone else that truly knew her—it was the opposite.

Had JARVIS been a human, he'd say his heart goes out to her.

(Perhaps coding would be the more appropriate term considering that was his make up?)

It was the subtle things that showed her otherwise, the small and hardly recognised things that went under the radar that revealed Toni's true nature.

It confused him for a long time why she had decided to give her son up. She'd stared down at him with him impossible amounts of love but went through with her plan to give him to Richard and Mary Parker.

"I love Peter—I always will—but I fear I'll turn into Howard and Maria and I don't want to ruin an innocent child. He deserves better than being raised by me."

JARVIS could remember seeing the pain in Mr Rhodes face at her words but her best friend understood, despite his protests that Toni would be nothing like Howard or Maria.

When Toni had gone missing in Afghanistan, he'd employed tactics to find her which, had he been human, would have gotten him arrested. But because of who he was, his presence went unknown as he worked to find his creator.

It was he who had picked up on the explosions and mess in the mountain that had led to his creator's recuse by Mr Rhodes.

But the damage had already been done—he wasn't good enough, he'd failed his main self-given protocol which was to keep his creator safe.

Her strange companion that accompanied her was a welcome surprise, oddly enough.

Mr Barnes presence, JARVIS knew, had helped a lot in the short span that Toni had been back on American soil. Toni had a habit of shutting people out or avoiding the issue until she had to face it—often it led to her isolating herself from other people.

(Many sleepless nights filled with a dozen cup of coffee came to him.)

Mr Barnes made sure she had constant companionship to which he or her other non-organic children couldn't provide but there were just somethings that Mr Barnes was unable to do for Toni yet.

(JARVIS knew one day Mr Barnes would flawless fall into Toni's orbit much like Mr Rhodes and Ms Potts and just know.)

Despite JARVIS's desire to be a more physical presence in his creator's world, he knew he would choose to remain as just a disembodies voice that worked metamorphically side-by-side with his creator. He worked seamlessly and perfectly how he was.

(It wasn't enough, he needed to make sure nothing ever happens to his mother like that again. now he had Mr Barnes to assist him in that department.)

He continued to do as asked by his creator—keep watch of Stark Industries, a system he was not part off but could easily be part of.

Very quickly, after scanning through the blueprints and schematics, he found the existences of a ghost drive. Of which he wasn't able to access.

(It was frustrating because he couldn't do anything else without physically being linked to the computer.)

He relayed the information to his creator, watching as her expression shifted.

"Stane." She gave a low growled.

(JARVIS liked the way Mr Barnes paid acute attention to his creator and looked ready to assist her. They would be good for each other.)