Chapter 107
Toni Stark-Rogers was nervous. She was trying very, very hard not to be. Today was the day her husband would become Captain America. Today was the day that would forever change the course of their lives.
She was sitting beside him in the car as they headed towards where the experiment would be held, as Peggy sat in the front seat of the car.
"I know this neighbourhood," Steve said, a bit excitedly. She looked around, wondering if she would recognize any of the places from the future, or if all the stores were long gone in her time. She could make out a few places that Steve had taken her to, reminiscent of his childhood. It was nice seeing the world that he grew up in, without the years of history that had occurred.
"I got beat up in that alley," Steve pointed out, "And that parking lot. And behind that diner."
"Did you have something against running away?" Peggy asked, drily.
She winced, "You never did back down from a fight," she muttered, too quietly for either to hear.
"You start running they'll never let you stop. You stand up, push back. Can't say no forever, right?" Steve said, ever the braveheart.
"I know what that's like," Peggy sighed, "To have every door shut in your face."
"Tell me about it," she commented, knowing the feeling all too well.
"It must have been tough," Steve told them, sympathetically. "Especially as beautiful dames. I mean just dames. Woman! Not that you're not both beautiful. I uh-"
Peggy looked amused, "You have no idea how to talk to women do you?"
"Not in the slightest," Steve admitted, "Women aren't exactly lining up to dance with a guy they might step on."
"You must have danced?" she asked him, knowing that he and Peggy had had their tragic love affair where he'd promised her a dance.
"Well, asking a woman to dance always seems so terrifying. And the past few years just didn't seem to matter that much. Figured I'd wait," Steve said.
"For what?" Peggy asked.
Steve glanced over at Toni, "The right partner."
She didn't comment on that, and as the car approached an antiques store, Peggy got out of the car and she followed suit.
"This way." Peggy said, ending the conversation.
"What are we doing here?" Steve asked in confusion, but Peggy simply gestured for them to enter the store.
"Wonderful weather this morning isn't it?" the female owner asked them, and Toni recognized it to be some sort of code.
"Yes, but I always carry an umbrella," Peggy responded, and the owner didn't say a word as she instead walked over and pressed a button under the counter. They walked through the curtain, as iron doors opened, and they entered a lab.
Steve looked confused and nervous as they entered a circular lab. She could see the scientists milling around heavy machinery below them, and everyone stopped talking as they saw Steve enter.
Peggy glanced at them both, and they moved down the stairs towards the lab. The scientists began working once more, and Toni looked around the technology in wonder. How advanced for their time.
"Good morning!" Erskine said, as he shook Steve's hands. A photographer took their photograph then, and it was a scene she'd recognized from one Peggy had shown her while growing up. The moment before Steve became the legend.
"Please, not now," Erskine said, unimpressed. "Are you ready?"
Steve nodded, unsurely, and she wanted to slip her hand into his once more as they used to. But it would be inappropriate.
"Good. Take off your shirt, your tie, and your hat," Erskine said, and Steve looked nervous to do so.
Peggy turned away, half self-consciously, and Toni shot Steve a gentle smile before following suit.
Once he had finished, he laid down inside the pod.
"Comfortable?" Erskine asked her, and Steve laughed a bit wryly.
"It's a bit big," he said, and she could sense his nerves, "You save me any of that schnapps?"
"Not as much as I should have," the scientist said, "Sorry. Next time. Mr. Stark, how are your levels?"
She turned to see her father walk up to them. Howard shot her a smile, and Peggy rolled her eyes. She tried not to tense up at the younger version of him, especially given the conversation she'd had with her Aunt the day before.
"Levels at 100%," Howard said, and Erskine nodded, "We may dim half the lights in Brooklyn, but we are ready as we'll ever be."
He didn't sound as sure over the last part, and it was strange to her to see him not sounding completely sure of himself. The father she'd know would never have admitted such a thing. Yet here he was, unsure over the very project he'd claimed to be his legacy.
"Agent Carter?" Erskine asked, "Ms Rhodes. Don't you think you would both be more comfortable in the booth?"
She wanted to protest. She was a scientist. If something went wrong, she'd be able to help.
But now was not the time for her. Now was for Steve.
She looked down at the man.
"Everything's going to be just fine," she told him, and he gave her a nervous smile.
"I know," Steve said, sounding less than confident.
"Of course," Peggy said, as she glanced at Toni, "We'll make our way up."
She shot Steve one last look as she walked up the stairs towards where the senator and generals were standing.
Erskine tapped on his mic, "Do you hear me? Is this on?" he asked, before continuing, "Ladies and gentlemen, today we take not another step towards annihilation, but the first step on the path to peace. We begin with a series of micro injections into the subjects major muscle groups. The serum infusion will cause immediate cellular change. And then to stimulate growth, the subject will be saturated with Vita-Rays."
She could see heavy machinery be pressed against his chest.
"Serum infusion beginning in five, four, three, two, one," the Doctor counted down, as the Serum was ejected into Steve. The pod began to move upright, as it enclosed his body. She watched with bated breath, nervous about what was happening.
It was one thing to see the footage. It was another to see it up close.
Her father began turning the wheel to increase the Vita-Rays, and a bright light began to fill the chamber.
Steve's screams filled the chamber, and she wanted to lurch forward to put a stop to it. They were hurting him!
She ran out of the chamber, as Peggy quickly followed behind her.
"Shut it down," she tried to command, and it seemed Erskine had the same idea.
"Kill the reactor, Mr Stark! Turn it off! Kill it! Kill the reactor!" Erskine gave the order.
"No!" Steve protested, "Don't! I can do this!"
"Eighty," she heard her father continue, "Ninety. That's one hundred percent."
She could see the machinery begin overload around her, and she ran to go to one of the computers beside her father and began to type to try and keep levels stable.
The machinery went off in the room, and her father released the pod.
She watched as Steve emerged from the cocoon, body transformed into the one she knew from the future.
Darwin if she wasn't attracted to her husband.
His muscles glistened, as Erskine and her father helped him down.
"How do you feel?" she asked him worriedly, trying to steady her breathing from nerves and adrenaline.
His voice had gotten deeper as well.
It wasn't to say that she preferred the other version of him any less.
But this was setting him one step closer on the path towards meeting her.
"Taller," he said simply, trying to catch his breathe.
"You look taller," she said, as she reached out to stroke his chest, before Peggy caught her eye.
She quickly pulled her hand back, to Peggy's amusement, as her Aunt handed him a shirt.
She was sad to see him put it on.
Before Toni could say another word, a bomb exploded above them, and Steve covered her with his body.
Shit.
"Stop him!" Erskine shouted, as she struggled to get her bearings.
"Are you okay?" Steve asked her quickly, but she didn't have time to answer as three shots went off, straight into Erskine's chest.
Peggy drew her weapon and shot the man escaping, as a bullet pierced his arm.
Steve kneeled over Erskine, who was unable to say anything. He simply poked Steve's chest, as if to convey a message, and she felt her heart break for her husband. She knew how much the scientist had meant to him.
Steve stood up, and took off running after the man, and she sighed, before trying to following suit.
"Where do you think you're going?" Howard asked, as he grasped her arm.
"I can't let him go alone," she said, and Howard looked her over, before handing her a spare gun.
"We better go then," her father said, and she nodded at him as the two of them chased after Steve and Peggy.
She exited just in time to see a yellow car barrelling straight towards her aunt, as Peggy stood right in front of it.
Steve tackled her to the ground at the last moment, and she yelled at him.
"I had him!" Peggy screamed, as she helped her aunt up. But Steve had taken off running.
She'd never tried running with her husband, in all their years of marriage. They'd had an agreement that he was welcome to his morning runs as long as he always came back and joined her in bed, unless something urgent came up.
And seeing him run, using his newfound powers, well, it was no surprise to her why she didn't run with him before.
"Get in!" Howard said, as he pulled up a car, and she and Peggy got in with her father as he drove after Steve and the assassin. She knew they wouldn't be able to stop what was about to happen from happening, but she couldn't stop them from trying.
After all, there was no more super serum. It was why her father had tried so hard to recreate it. To the point where he'd been assassinated over it. Because they hadn't been able to recover the last vial.
Still, she grabbed onto the car tightly as Howard drove swiftly.
It occurred to her then that she'd never been in a car driven by her father.
Only ever Jarvis before his death, and her aunt or uncle after, until she had learned how to drive herself.
And well, it was clear to her where she'd gotten her ability to drive reckless came from.
They approached the pier just in time to see her future husband dive straight into the water.
"Steve!" she screamed out.
He surfaced seconds later, as he threw the assassin to the ground, shattering the final vial of the serum.
And there went all of Erskine research.
"The first of many," the man said with a laugh, "Cut off one head, and two more shall take its place. Hail HYDRA."
She felt herself have chills all over, as the man popped open a fake tooth and bite into it. His mouth began to foam, as he died in front of them.
The ride back to the camp was silent. Howard had taken one car, loading in the body and Steve as she and Peggy took another.
"You knew he would die," Peggy said, and she looked out the window.
"Yes," she confirmed.
"And you didn't say anything," Peggy remarked.
"If I had, then he might not have died," Toni said softly. "Look, Steve is the only successful super soldier that Erskine ever created. If that changed, well, it could have unspeakable consequences for the future."
"Including the fact that he's your husband?" Peggy asked her, and she looked over at her aunt in shock. "Don't look so surprised. You've been lusting after him since the first moment we saw him, and seeing your face today after he changed, it was as if he seemed familiar to you. The rest of us were all shocked about the transformation, but you knew what he'd look like. So either you're interested in having an affair, but given the way you talked about your eagerness in getting back to your husband and children, I'd suspect that he was your husband."
"You always did see right through me," Toni sighed.
"I don't understand how," Peggy said, "Not when you're from nearly seventy-five years in the future."
"I can't tell you that," Toni said, "But I know him as well in my future. And you're right. He is my husband. And I want nothing more than to get back to him."
"Then I think you need to consider your options, Toni," Peggy told her gently, and she looked over at her aunt. "Look, we could have gone in the other car. I asked Howard to give us some time to talk."
"About what?" she asked, glancing at her Aunt driving the car.
"You know what the best way to get home is. Even with all your genius, it's going to take you a while to recreate this time machine so you can get back to your own time. You need more hands. And you need someone with a brain nearly as brilliant as yours who can help you. I know you don't like him, but I think you need to seriously consider talking to Howard and telling him the truth. He has access to more resources than anyone else in this time, plus he's your best chance of finishing this machine in a reasonable frame of time so you can get back to your son and daughter. And your Steve. Because like it or not, this one isn't yours. And if you stay here, he won't ever become yours."
She sighed, painfully.
She hated to admit it, but her aunt was right. She could do it herself. She could build a machine to get her back to 2018 on her own. But without her father's help, it would take considerably more time. And that was something she didn't want.
"You're right," she said as they pulled up to the camp. "Peggy, there is one more thing. Colonel Phillips isn't going to see the use in keeping Steve around, now that there is no more making super serum. But you cannot send him away. Please promise me you'll do everything in your power to keep him here. I need him here."
"Okay," Peggy said, "He won't like it. Steve was supposed to be the first of many. But I'll talk to him and see what we can do."
"Thank you," she said. She knew how much her husband had hated the tours they made him do. And well, it made her feel better to keep him close by, even if he wasn't hers.
It was how she found herself waiting outside her father's lab, nervous for what she was about to do.
Peggy had offered to come with her, but she'd declined. This was something she had to do by herself. One way or another, she needed to talk to her father.
The man who spend half his life hating her. The man who never wanted her in his life.
She took a deep breath, and she entered the lab. Howard was fiddling with a screwdriver over a circuit board.
"I wondered when I'd catch you in my lab," Howard said, as he looked up at her, "That was quite the sight wasn't it? Seeing Steve turn into a Super Soldier. And seeing you fiddle with the keyboard in the lab. I think you were the only thing that stopped the entire thing from going up in smoke."
"I'm sure you would have managed without me," she said, feeling slightly uncomfortable.
"Nonsense," he grinned at her brightly, and she wondered if she was in some in some sort of twilight zone where her father was capable of being a nice person. "Now, what brings you into my lab? Finally going to let me take a crack at your suit?"
"No," she said, swallowing, "But I did want a chance to talk to you about something. I need your help."
"Oh?" he said, sounding intrigued. "What with?"
"Going home," she said finally. "I'm not from here, Howard. I'm from 2018."
He dropped his screwdriver.
"No way," he breathed as he walked over to the other side of the table. "How did you get around the EPR Paradox?"
"I had some help from some very powerful Stones," she said, and he blinked at her.
"I'm sorry?" he asked, unsure of what she was saying.
"It doesn't matter too much," she said, "You'll come across one soon enough. The Tesseract. But these stones were created before the dawn of the universe. They had the power to manipulate the energies around them. And the two I used readings from were the Time and Space stones to create a time travel machine. It wasn't how I landed here, but if I can create the same machine I can get back to my own time. And I need your help."
"To make this time machine," he clarified, and she sighed as she nodded. This was a terrible idea. She wondered if it was too late to turn around and walk out of the lab.
But Peggy was right. Like it or not, she needed help.
"Look, I know you're busy, but I really could use your help to do this. Otherwise I don't know how long it will get back to my own time. And I might be one of the smartest minds to exist, but you were a genius in your own right."
"You knew me," he studied her. "It's why you dodged all my attempts to get to know you. Because you already knew me. Who was I to you?"
She didn't say anything.
"My mother looked an awfully lot like you," Howard commented after a moment. "I brushed it off at first, because I couldn't see any way we'd be related. Both of my parents were only children and I had no other family. You're my daughter."
"Yes," she said, letting out a breath. "My name is Toni Stark. And you're my father."
"I have a daughter," he breathed, sounding dazed, and she couldn't help the ugly sneer that filled her tone.
"Why, upset that it wasn't a son?" she asked, and he looked at her in surprise.
"Of course not!" he said, sounding indigent. "Look at you! You're absolutely brilliant! And clearly smart enough to have created a suit of your own. What was it for? Fighting? Does everyone in the future have some sort of suit like that? You have to tell me everything about yourself. Where did you grow up? I can't ask you who your mother is, because that would change too much, wouldn't it?"
She suddenly felt very overwhelmed, and she took a seat. Her father had never shown that much interest in her life, ever. Not when she made her first circuit. Not when she went to MIT as a teenager. Not when she graduated.
He'd never as much as asked her how her day went.
"I see," Howard said, looking at her. "We weren't close, were we? I can see from the way you tense up every time I as much as look your way. I wasn't a good father to you."
"No," she swallowed. "You weren't. You wanted a son for your legacy and instead you got me. You made it clear on multiple occasions how unhappy you were that stuck with me. Mom never could have any other kids, so instead you decided to focus your legacy on something worthier of your name."
He was shaking then with anger, and she felt herself grow small.
She wanted to berate herself.
She was older than the last time she saw her father. She should be immune to this now. She shouldn't be afraid anymore.
He took a deep breath, "I can't imagine a world where I'd be stupid enough not to realize what a blessing it was to have you as my child," he told her.
And she froze.
"Look at you, Toni. You're absolutely brilliant. I bet you've accomplished some rather incredible things in your time, haven't you? You're probably far smarter than I ever was. How can I not be in awe of you? You're brilliant."
She swallowed, finding herself unable to breath.
"I don't know what must have happened to me in the time from now 'til I had you. But I promise you that I won't let that happen this time around," he said, as he cupped her face. "You're going to be my entire world."
She didn't say anything. Because what could she say? She didn't want to believe him. She wasn't sure she could believe him. Because she knew what kind of childhood she'd had. The one where her father hadn't loved her. And he made no effort to. So she couldn't get her hopes up.
He looked at her sadly, knowing she didn't believe him.
"So you have a husband, huh?" Howard said, changing the subject. "Anyone I'd know?"
She wanted to laugh. Because Peggy had already figured it out, so what was the point from keeping it from her father as well.
"Steve," she said, and he looked shocked.
"Rogers?" Howard asked. "Isn't he too old for you?"
"The contrary," she sighed. Perhaps telling her father what happened wasn't the wisest idea. But she had already started opening up to him. "Something happens and he becomes frozen for several decades. When he's found, I'm older than him. We got married a few years ago."
"Children?" he asked, as he digested that piece of information.
"Two. A son and a daughter," she told him.
He nodded as he took in that information. She knew that if she said the wrong thing then Steve never would have ended up in the ice. But she also knew that this version of her father seemed to tolerate her. So she was hopeful that he wouldn't do anything to jeopardize that.
"This is insane," he laughed to himself, "I'm having a conversation with my future, grown up daughter. I know I push the boundaries of science every day but to think that such a thing is even possible in the future. This is everything I've ever wanted. To know that I'll succeed in life. How can I not when I have a kid like you?"
"It's not common place," she said, unable to accept his compliment, "Time Travel. I invented it with some help so we could win a terrible war. Same with my suit. I created it after I was kidnapped and held hostage. We do have many technological advancements between now and 2018, but those were both something I created."
"Of course you did," he beamed proudly at her. "My daughter. The inventor of time travel. I'm already so proud of what you'll accomplish."
She smiled smally, feeling a bit of warmth rush over her. It was hard not to when having a good relationship with her father had been something that she'd craved for years. And here he was, offering her praise and warmth and everything that she'd ever wanted. It was almost too much to handle.
"So these specs for this time travel device. I'm sure you've drawn them up already?" he asked her, and she nodded. She rolled out a large piece of paper where she'd drawn up what they'd used in the future, filled with the readings she'd used from the Time and Space Stone. Accessing the quantum realm would be difficult, but Hank had done it in the seventies, so she was hopeful that they had a shot.
"Looks like some of these parts might be hard to get," he studied it, "But I think between the two of us we should have no issues creating the device. I'll put in an order a first thing."
"Thank you," she said with a smile.
"Now, I'm trying to finish up a new riffle model for the military," he said, "The firing range on the last one is far too short. Do you want to help me out with it?"
She nodded, as she began to make some modifications to his design. He looked at it and let out a whistle.
"This will do wonders," he remarked, and he handed her a screwdriver as she started to work on the model with him.
It was strange, to be like this, working alongside her father. But it was also nice to finally do what she'd wanted to for years. And this man may not have been her father. But he was the closest she was ever going to get to having a good relationship with one.
So she'd take advantage of that fact while she could.
