Chapter 3 Recounts of Events
The day after I discovered I was dying Pepper and I got married. It wasn't an expensive wedding or extravagant, but really just simple and that's exactly what we wanted. Rhodey was my best man and one of Pepper's friends was her bridesmaid, but I honestly can't remember who she was because I was so nervous. We didn't go anywhere special for our honeymoon because I was going back to college in a few days and Pepper had her exam for getting into Harvard to prepare for. Even so, it was still a good honeymoon.
Later on, Pepper and I discovered we were expecting a baby which was something I had been expecting and no one else had, which was rather strange. It didn't really help that we were both knee deep in studies and I had several exams coming up. We were both rather worried about what might happen, Pepper started going to private tutors for her subjects and at her own time since she was heavily pregnant and struggling to keep up with some of her classes and I ended up studying a lot harder to make sure I'd at least be able to have a decent education for a job and support and look after her as the pregnancy became harder.
Things began to get easier, especially when my parents started helping Pepper with her studies since I couldn't visit her very often, and we were starting to feel more excitement as the due date came closer and my parents offered to help look after the baby when it was born. However things changed when Pepper went into labour on February 2nd 1991. We hadn't been able to get a scan of the baby because it never stayed still, so it came as a surprise to us when we suddenly found ourselves with twins, a boy and a girl.
And let's just say things became a lot more complicated than they needed to be.
After a lot of discussion *cough, arguing, cough* we eventually came to the conclusion that both of us would after one baby each whilst we're studying and then swap over every six months until we'd both finished studying.
This was definitely difficult for me since I was studying engineering and a lot of other hands-on subjects with very few non-practical subjects so I ended up hiring a nanny or having one of my parents look after TJ for me. TJ is the older twin by three seconds-and don't ask me how that happened I have no idea-and his name is actually Anthony Edward Stark Junior, but we thought it would become rather confusing if he grew up being called Tony or Anthony when that's what Pepper, Rhodey, and my parents generally call me, so I came up with the idea of calling him TJ.
His sister's name is Maria Aliza Stark, after both of our mother's, that made both my Mum and Pepper cry when I suggested calling her after our mothers. I was actually praised by Dad for the idea (which was a nice surprise). TJ was generally a quiet baby and thankfully managed to get used to the noises coming from my workspace, though I kept him as far away from it as possible to ensure safety and prevent him from becoming deaf at an early age, because hey, it can happen. He was easy to look after and the quiet was peaceful, except for when I came home, he'd be practically crying every time I came home from school and wouldn't calm down until I'd pick him up.
Pepper and I tried to see each other as often as we could, although that wasn't always possible. Whenever it was a weekend and we were both free of work we'd take the babies to my parents who'd babysit for us whilst we had a date night. We really didn't want to break up due to not seeing each other, especially not this early into our marriage. Rhodey would sometimes babysit for me as well when we were at MIT and I had too much work to do, I'd tried paying him for it but he refused and so I paid him back by helping him with some of his studies which was rather interesting to do when there was two of us trying to look after a three month old baby.
At some points in our study/babysitting nights, when the usual babysitter was unavailable, we would be just too exhausted from lack of sleep for our own good, because we'd always wake up the next day on the floor with TJ rolling around on my chest whilst trying to eat our work and then discover we were late for class by about two-three hours. I'd later have to spend 20-30 minutes explaining to our teachers that we'd been working all night and had suddenly ended up with a babysitting job for a friend whilst they went to the hospital for an emergency operation that we'd taken them to. It was a good explanation and not all of it was a lie, plus if our exhaustion and TJ climbing all over me didn't provide enough evidence I could always bribe someone to cover for us. This excuse worked for a while until it started happening more frequently and I'd always have to adjust what was going on with the 'friend' since I always had the same baby each time.
Fortunately, nothing was ever said about this to the press and I had a feeling that was my Dad's doing (though some of my colleagues began to think I was a playboy and that I just got Rhodey to look after the baby for me because the mother 'didn't want him') and things were starting to get more exhausting when, on my 17th birthday, my parents introduced me to my new brother Clint Francis Barton-Stark who was about 12 and then Pepper told me that she was pregnant again.
This was all extremely overwhelming for me and I ended up passing out three times-once when I met Clint and he seemed completely shocked that I'd fainted when I woke up, and then twice when Pepper told me she was pregnant. It took me a few minutes to accept both of these things, and Pepper-somehow thinking I'd recovered-told me that it was twins again. So, I don't really remember much of that day since I passed out multiple times later on as well and they weren't generally due to surprises.
During the two weeks we stayed at home with my parents and new brother, and I spent most of my time with the babies since they were twins-they are nightmares-and Pepper needed a break due to the pregnancy. Clint was rather quiet and looked quite out of place when I was with them, clearly unsure of what to do. I didn't really know what to do with him, my parents were generally out and so I ended up letting Clint come and play with me and TJ and Maria and then explained my marriage to Pepper to him after he asked.
I hadn't been quite sure what I thought of Clint until I saw him interacting with TJ and Maria so well and getting along with Pepper and Rhodey. I taught him how to cook (and yes I can cook, and very well thank you very much) and played some games with him as often as I could. I quite liked him and we got along really well, playing pranks on Dad our favourite one being the time we replaced all of Dad's liquor with cooking oil, his face was priceless and we had everyone in stitches including him, and so I decided to shift into the Leopard in front of him with Pepper on standby and the twins in their cot.
To say he was shocked is an understatement, he was practically terrified of me and hid behind Pepper until she managed to calm him down and explain what I was and that I wasn't going to hurt him. I'd gone up to him then and let him stroke me whilst I purred and he soon forgot his fear. Later, when I'd shifted back, Pepper told him she was a Were too, but resisted shifting since we didn't know what it would do to the babies inside of her. After that, Pepper and I returned to school, deciding to switch babies a few months earlier so they'd recognise both of us, and thought of nothing but 'how am I going to study and look after the baby, and see my wife/husband and brother/in-law?'.
That was when I remembered my 'death sentence' and I only remembered it after I had my stroke.
I'd been sat in class writing notes and keeping an eye on TJ, who was playing with some toys at my feet, when I suddenly started having trouble with my senses, everything seemed to be blurring together, I couldn't see or hear what the professor was asking me to do. I couldn't tell what was going on until the whole left side of my body went numb and my voice disappeared from my throat. As I fell off my chair onto the floor I remember hearing a long high pitched noise before darkness took me.
I woke up in a hospital bed with a heart monitor beeping and IVs stuck into my skin. Pepper and Rhodey were sitting on either side of the bed fast asleep, my parents at the bottom and the babies in a cot sleeping next to the bed. Clint was the only one awake in the room. He'd stayed up all night watching over me, making sure I was okay. When he realised I was awake he got up immediately and asked me if I was okay. I tried to speak, but my voice box almost felt... empty and I couldn't seem to remember what words to use. I tried several times to reply before Clint, realising the problem, woke everyone up and sent Dad to go get a nurse.
I don't remember much of what was done when they tried to figure out what the problem was, but they eventually came to the conclusion that I had a case of receptive aphasia and a rather strong case of speech dyspraxia. The receptive aphasia was discovered when they asked me to write something down and asked me to read it out after I got my voice back. I knew what I'd written and could read it in my head, but when I tried to read it out loud the words seemed to swirl together and I couldn't read it, and when someone else wrote something down I had no idea what it said. The speech dyspraxia left me unable to pronounce words clearly, although sometimes it was completely fine, and I got frustrated when I kept trying to pronounce 'babies' and couldn't and ended up groaning in frustration-when I could that was, at some points I couldn't speak at all which sent me into a panic for a full 10 minutes. I don't remember what the doctors' said had caused the stroke as I was quite healthy with a lot of muscle (due to being a Leopard and having to lift heavy machinery on an almost daily basis) and didn't appear to have had any blood clots in my brain or artery ruptures. In their analysis it seemed to just come out of nowhere and that my recovery could take decades.
I'd stopped listening after that, my Father and I sharing a glance as we all knew what had caused it (Clint had been told about my birth prior to me waking up) and tried not to get depressed as I thought of what the press would do to me if they found out-they were told I'd passed out from exhaustion, which had happened a few times before-and what could I do about a cure? I couldn't think of anything to help myself with, but I had exams and projects to work on and so for the next few months I remained undepressed except quieter due to my stroke until the second set of twins were born and my parents died a few weeks later in a car crash.
I'd been happy when the second set of twins was born, some of my mild depression had gone and Clint was making me laugh even if I couldn't fully vocalise it. They were boys this time who were born on December 6th 1991 and we called them Howard Walter Stark and Daniel John Stark after our fathers this time (Pepper's Dad's name was actually Daniel but went by his middle name John) and we decided to worry about what we'd do for careers and maybe any further study after Christmas was over-I'd recently graduated from MIT and Pepper had amazingly managed to complete all of her studies and graduated just a few weeks after I did.
That was when Dad told Clint and I that they'd be leaving on the 16th with a delivery for SHIELD. I'd growled loudly when they mentioned SHIELD, I still hadn't forgiven them for threatening my Dad, and we'd all been surprised that the Leopard hadn't been affected by the stroke I'd had when I accidentally shifted when SHIELD was mentioned thinking they were here again. Dad had managed to calm me down and I was upset that I couldn't spend more time with him before he left due to more appointments at the Hospital for the babies and for checkups with Dr. Storms who'd been told about my condition as soon as I'd had the stroke.
I'd said goodbye to Dad who told me that the delivery was another super soldier serum. He knew it wasn't safe to get back into that sort of business, but he was hoping that if he found one that worked he could heal me. I hadn't wanted him to get into it, but he was stubborn and wouldn't cave in so I'd said goodbye with a long hug, hoping that they'd have a safe journey to the airport and gave them their Christmas presents early which they'd unwrapped so I could see their reactions.
I'd made Dad a watch that could be used as a timer and alarm clock and also had a mini AI I'd created to remind him of a deadline or to keep calm when the press was annoying him. We'd all had a good long laugh at that before Mum opened her present which was a metal rose that I'd made at a blacksmith's as I knew she admired their workmanship. Then I opened my present that they'd given me, it was a memorial bracelet that held a single white blue gem I'd found on a beach when I was 3, I felt tears well up in my eyes before I hugged them for the longest time. Then I'd received a long hug and a kiss on the cheek from both-well Dad didn't kiss me, that would've been weird-and then watched them leave after sincerely expressing that I loved them.
It was later that night when I was sleeping that there was a loud knock on the door that somehow managed to wake everyone up including the four babies. I'd gone to the front door carrying Maria and wearing only a pair of black shorts and an MIT shirt with Clint and Pepper behind me, both in pyjamas similar to mine, holding the other babies. I'd been surprised to see a few police cars and officers standing outside. The two at the door were also surprised at seeing me carrying a ten and a half month old baby.
It took me asking what the problem was, as there's always a problem when there's police at the Stark Mansion, to knock them out of their reverie. They had only begun saying that there was an accident on a road before I came to the conclusion that my parents dead and said it aloud. They seemed shocked that I'd come to the conclusion so fast but confirmed my statement. That was the last thing heard before all of my hopes of spending more time with my parents after they got back came crashing back down on me in an overwhelming depression and I almost fell to the floor when I passed out. I say almost because one of the police officers saw me going faint and caught onto me whilst the other grabbed Maria as I passed out.
I don't know how long I was out for, but when I woke up everything was brighter and I was laid on a couch in the living room. The officers who I had been talking to outside and the ones in the car were all in the room, either talking to Pepper, Clint, and Rhodey-who had arrived earlier-or keeping an eye on everything going on in the room. Clint had clearly been crying, but was managing to control it somewhat as he tried to get Daniel to go back to sleep and Pepper was still crying as an officer spoke to her about who knows what. It took them a while to realise I was awake and I was actually rather glad as it allowed me to think over what had happened.
As soon as they realised, however, they sent officers over to me who started telling me what had happened to my parents which only made me pass out again though for not as long. This time I woke up with Dr. Storms listening to my heart through a stethoscope, Rhodey had called him in panic, as my condition hadn't been great the past few weeks, thinking I was having another heart-attack or stroke. I'd recently had another minor stroke and a minor heart-attack with no lasting damage save another five years delay in voice recovery.
After he'd listened to my heart for a few beats longer and determined I had passed out from shock the officers seemed to silently agree to take things slower with me. They told me that the board had directed Obadiah Stane to take over the company until I decided I was ready to take over and that he'd arrive in a few minutes. I simply nodded as my voice had gone again and I silently asked Pepper why the officers were still here. She came over to me and placed TJ in my arms and I held him close as she explained they were here to protect me and keep an eye on us as we were supposed to go into the city and consult with the Board and Obadiah and that they were to escort me and push back the press when they arrived.
One of the officers had looked at me strangely then, as though to say 'does he seriously think he's so high and mighty that he can't talk to us?' causing me to glare angrily at him and I could feel a growl building in my chest as I realised some of the other officers were expressing the same thing. Dr. Storms, clearly sensing my sudden change in attitude towards the officers, quickly had Pepper, Rhodey, and Clint take me to my room using the excuse of me needing to get ready and compose myself so that the officers wouldn't follow us.
Instead of taking me to my room, though, they took me to the Leopard's room where they let me literally rip out of my clothes-taking TJ out of my arms first though-and shift roaring in anger and grief before they take the babies out of the room. I don't know how long I was in there for when Dr. Storms comes in, but it's long enough that I've destroyed the little furniture that had been in the room and foam animals. When he comes in I immediately go to him, rubbing my head against his waist whilst still crying. He shifts and I recognise his scent which fits his name. Soft-Cream-Puff, who thankfully doesn't smell like the Hospital. He's bigger than I was since he's older and is a black panther. He sits down and I curl in on myself close to his chest as he cleans my fur with his tongue and eases my grief somewhat, that in itself allows me to calm down enough to shift back when Pepper comes in with some fresh clothes for me to put on as I wasn't wearing anything due to my clothes ripping when I shifted. I found it difficult to go back into the room where Obadiah was waiting for me along with the officers to escort me into the city to discuss what will happen with the company, but I forced myself to do it.
After some debate, they agreed to allow me to take over the company when I turned 18, which was rather complicated at first since I have a three day birthday since I was born on May 26 but took my first breath on May 29-Dad decided I should have a three day birthday because of that, though Obadiah doesn't know. But since it isn't publicly known when my date of birth was although they know that it's towards the end of May, they just tell me to come in when I hit 18. I do as they tell me and when I'm 18 I go in and sign the papers that allows me to fully take over the company.
I continue making weapons and allow my grief and knowledge of my seemingly inevitable death to take over most of my actions. Pepper and Rhodey try to help me through it, but I still struggled and started to close into myself and stopped shifting as often, but I still helped Pepper look after the two sets of twins as she had become my PA for the company as I kept annoying all the others to death and caused them to quit. Our marriage is still unknown and my depression is hidden from the public with ease with Pepper's help. Towards the end of the year I managed to get rid of my depression somewhat but became hardened and very narcissistic and it wasn't until my weapons demonstration in Afghanistan that I truly changed for the better
Thanks for the reviews, I didn't realise I made a mistake on Tony's birthday but thanks for the review. Sorry I have written anything in a while, I am currently doing two internals for Biology and Science which are taking up a lot of my time as well as writing other Avengers Fanfics that haven't yet been posted.