Chapter 8

We pulled up to the office. Stark Industries employees were lining the sidewalk, cheering on our return. Tony finishes his cheeseburger as Happy opens the car door, waiting with my wheelchair. Obadiah is standing outside the door, pulling Tony into a hug after he gets out. Tony pulls away quickly to give me his good arm and help me into my wheelchair.

Happy pushed me through the crowd of reporters as Tony and Obadiah led the way to the podium. I was parked right in front of the little platform with the podium. Tony sat down next to me, leaning on the front of the podium and pulling out another cheeseburger before addressing the room.

"Hey, would it be all right if everyone sat down? That way you can see me and I can… Little less formal…" I could tell he was doing this for my benefit and I gave him a grateful smile as he reached over to hold my hand.

"I never go to say goodbye to Dad. I never got to say goodbye to my father." Tony paused and you could see the confusion in the reporters faces. "There's questions that I would have asked him. I would have asked him how he felt about what this company did. If he was conflicted, if he ever had doubts. Or maybe he was every inch the man we all remember from the newsreels. I saw young Americans killed by the very weapons I created to defend them and protect them. And I saw that I had become part of a system that is comfortable with zero accountability."

There was an awkward silence until one of the reporters spoke up. "Mr. Stark!"

Tony called on the man. "Hey, Ben."

"What happened over there?"

I replied this time, "We has our eyes opened. We came to realize we have more to offer the world than making things that blow up. And that is why, effective immediately, we are shutting down the weapons manufacturing division of Stark Industries until such a time when we can decide the future of this company."

The room immediately erupts in a frenzy. Tony wheels me out of the room as Obadiah starts doing damage control behind us.

Tony and I head to the building housing the original arc reactor, Tony slipping of his suit jacket and tie as we go. He leans against the barrier blocking of the arc reactor. It's quiet for a minute, both of us contemplative, until Tony voices his thoughts.

"Are we doing the right thing?"

I wheel over to place my hand on his back comfortingly. "Absolutely." He looks over his shoulder at me. "I love you and nothing is ever going to change that."

"I love you more." He bends down to kiss me just as Obadiah walks in. That doesn't stop Tony from pressing a gentle kiss on my lips before turning to Obadiah.

"Well...that went well." Obadiah stated.

"Did we just paint a target on our heads?" Tony asks sarcastically.

Obadiah scoffs, "Your heads? What about my head?" He slings his arm around Tony's shoulder. "What do you think the over-under on the stock drop is going to be tomorrow?"

I rub a hand down my face and sigh. "Optimistically, 40 points." Tony and I knew that stopping weapons manufacturing was going to result in a giant clusterfuck but it needed to be done, no matter what other people thought.

I could tell Tony was trying to play off his worry. He let out a deep sigh before chiming in, "At minimum."

Obadiah was starting to get furrows in his brow and I knew he was getting annoyed by our nonchalant attitude. "Tony, we are a weapons manufacturer."

For once, Tony was serious. "Obie, I just don't want a body count to be our only legacy."

He was getting anywhere with Obadiah though. "That's what we do. We're ironmongers. We make weapons."

Tony was starting to get worked up so I grabbed his hand. "It's my name on the side of building. My family's name."

But Obadiah was stubborn and he wasn't getting what he wanted, "And what we do keeps the world from falling into chaos."

I spoke up from my chair, refusing to let Obadiah sway Tony on this. "Not based on what we saw. What we felt! Our weapons took my leg, Obadiah!"

Tony squeezed my hand, brushing his thumb across my knuckles to comfort me. "We can do better. We're going to do something else."

Obadiah just shakes his head, dismissing us. He was really starting to piss me off. "Like what? You want us to make baby bottles?"

Tony points to the huge arc reactor taking up most of the space in the room. "I think we should take another look into arc reactor technology."

A noise of disbelief comes out of Obadiah's mouth. "Come on! The arc reactor, that's a publicity stunt." Obadiah sees how serious we are about this. "Tony, come on. We built that thing to shut the hippies up!"

Tony only says, "It works." He had that look in his eye and I knew he was planning something.

Obadiah still spoke with a tone of disbelief, "Yeah, as a science project. The arc was never cost effective. We knew that before we built it. Arc reactor technology, that's a dead end, right?"

Tony just shrugs. Obadiah is still rambling, "Am I right? We haven't had a breakthrough in what? Thirty years?"

"Could you have a lousier poker face? Just tell me, who told you?" Tony finally cuts through Obadiah's bullshit.

"Never mind who told me. Show me." Obadiah slowly moves closer to Tony.

Tony starts to unbutton his shirt. "I know it wasn't Jasper so it's Rhodey or Pepper."

Obadiah just keeps demanding to see the reactor. "I want to see it."

"Okay, Rhodey." Tony finishes unbuttoning his shirt, letting the arc reactor show a little bit.

There is silence as Obadiah stares at the reactor for a few seconds until he nods. "Okay."

Tony raises his eyebrows as he starts re-buttoning his shirt. "Okay?"

Obadiah gives a little shrug, "It works." And that was that.