This is a fan made story. I don't own the rights to Captain America, any of its characters or any characters within the MCU… Much to my disappointment. This will have some violent content and possible triggers. Steve/Bucky Established Relationship. Constructive criticism is welcome but if you don't like it simply because you don't like the line of thinking, please don't attack me for it.
Chapter 15: Chaos Ensues
Once everyone woke the next morning, there was a brief debate on what to do with the five bodies in cryostasis. It took a half hour to decide to simply turn them over to the government along with their backgrounds provided by Bucky. Secretary of Defense Ross was almost gleeful to receive the call from Steve and informed them that he would already coming personally for other reasons but he would be happy to oversee their transfer into federal custody. When he arrived, he was disappointed to learn just how insistent the entire group was on them staying in cryostasis.
"I'm sorry, we have the most powerful group of individuals on our planet in this hanger. Why is it such a bad idea to take them out? It is ten times easier to transport them out of the cryopods than it is inside of them," Ross stated with an annoyed tone.
"This building is also housing our eight children, in case you had forgotten. In addition to that, these are also all enhanced individuals whom, from all the paperwork we found and the personal experience of Sargent Barnes, are extremely mentally unstable and are prone to violence regardless of their own safety. If you want to take them to the Raft, lock them in little cells and then let them out of cryo, be our guest so long as you take the proper precautions, but under no circumstance are you doing it on my property," Tony stated bluntly to Ross. He was sweating a bit, now well into the withdrawal from alcohol and irritable as a result.
"What is wrong with you? You seem off? Are you doing drugs?" Ross asked suspiciously.
"No, you really think I would get into drugs now that I've got a kid? I quit drinking. It's called withdrawal, Captain Ahab. Also, don't even think about coming back here for Bruce, he is under control, he has the Hulk under control. Now get the damned human popsicles and get out of here," Tony snarled the last bit before spinning on his heel and leaving the hanger, Steve and Natasha behind.
"Sorry about that, he decided to go cold turkey so it is a bit rough on him right now. He is trying to be a better father than his dad was so he was probably a bit offended that you implied he was getting worse rather than better," Natasha stated diplomatically.
"I see. So, Stark is finally growing up. I have to admit, that press conference had me a bit baffled. Ms. Potts has always been the one to reign him in, we were a bit concerned since she is now out of the picture," Ross shrugged before gesturing to his men to start wheeling the cryopods over to the freight elevator. "So, Captain, it must be nice to have an old friend back. That was another surprise from the press conference that has us all in the Defense Department a bit concerned."
"Bucky has regained his memories and the brainwashing and mind-control have been removed from his brain by Wanda. He isn't a threat, only an asset. Furthermore, you can't blame a POW under mind-control for actions out of his control. The moment he started to regain his memory, he escaped from Hydra and made efforts to stay out of Hydra control. We will fight you if you try anything," Steve's response was swift and defensive. It was clear how Steve would react if Ross tried anything.
"Oh, I wasn't suggesting him being taken into custody or anything. We know that he is going to be under your watchful eye, that wasn't our concern. The mind-control was, but if you say it is gone, well, I will take your word for it. Miss Maximoff is a talented young lady, I am sure she did her best to ensure that he was free of it. You are correct that he can't be held accountable for his actions while under Hydra control as well. If you have a phycologist speak with him, just to ensure it for an assessment, we can go ahead and arrange for a full exoneration for the incidents Hydra used him in," Ross offered, well aware that he had little legal ground to stand on in gaining access to Barnes.
"He will be getting an exoneration with or without a phycologist visiting, I think. After all, we don't prosecute our POWs for being victims of War Crimes, last I checked," Steve stated ice in his voice now. Just as he did, the last of the cryopods were wheeled into the freight elevator. "I think you've got what you came for. We will pass on scanned copies of the files we recovered from the Hydra base."
"Of course, I appreciate you coming directly to us with these pod people," Ross nodded before walking to the freight elevator and signing the paperwork a lawyer held out for him to prove chain of custody for the five, frozen people.
"I don't like his behavior. He gave in way too easily. He has something up his sleeve," Natasha stated as they walked back to the private elevator for the Avengers. "He also didn't mention his original reason for coming."
"I agree. He didn't push nearly as hard as I would have expected. He didn't even bat an eyelash over Bruce being mentioned or our refusal of access to Bucky," Steve responded.
"I'll look into it. You have work to do stabilizing a company," Natasha stated as the elevator moved up to the common floor.
Once they reached it, they found Helen giving Tony a sedative to get him to settle down and Laura was already neck deep into dealing with the masses of paperwork. Steve joined her on the couch and picked up a couple of tablets to get to work with the finance side of the business. Hill, Wanda, Pietro and Clint were all going through the ever-growing pile of applications for tutor positions.
Wanda and Pietro were having a bit of a field day with the process. Each time they recognized one of the applicants as a Hydra member, they flagged it and put the file into a folder marked for later attention. Around noon, Natasha found what Ross was up to, a contact of hers informing her of a secret collaborating being written between several countries being called the 'Sokovia Accords'. Tony, having awoken from his nap, and Steve reviewed a rough copy of it and began discussing how to head off the problems it could cause them and the potential implications it could have towards their children. If Ross thought he would be able to slip it under their radars, he had another thing coming. Certain aspects made them extremely uncomfortable as it almost made them political pawns. Tony immediately started calling up senators and allies that he knew had pull with to keep things from spiraling beyond their control.
All this came to a standstill when in the middle of the afternoon, Happy called Tony and directed him to turn on the news. Tony turned on CNN and was greeted with a helicopter view of the building that Pepper lived in in a blazing fire. He blanched visibly and then asked Happy what he knew. In a way, he was grateful that he had be facetiming with senators and billionaires because it gave him a solid alibi along with the security footage that proved that he had been in Stark Tower.
Natasha, after finding what Ross up to, had switched her search over to finding out who exactly Dr. Amelia Jenkins was. She had been hacking into systems for a few hours before she focused on the Caltech where the doctor had gotten her doctorate at. It took her a while but she had found a picture of the class the Dr. Jenkins had been in and blanched when she saw it.
"Tony, you need to see this," Natasha called over to him.
"Not now, I am trying to get ahold of Pepper. Hopefully she isn't there right now," Tony responded distractedly, his cell held in hand as he listened to it go directly to voicemail for the third time in a row.
"I don't think you're going to reach her. In fact, I have a pretty good feeling that you haven't spoken to the real Pepper in a while," Natasha responded blandly as she picked up the laptop she had been working on and shoved it in his face. It took Tony a second to realize what he was seeing and then he lost all color in his face as well and pressed end call on his cell phone.
"What is it?" Bruce asked, going over to them and looking at what they were. "Tony, was Pepper adopted?"
"Yeah, closed adoption. God, I should have noticed. Pepper was always so supportive of my being on the Avengers, she hated my being put at risk but she understood and she never once said a damned thing about hating kids. How did I not notice? How long has that bitch been pretending to be Pep?" Tony sounded utterly heartbroken as he slumped into the couch behind him. Natalia immediately climbed into his lap and patted him on his head in an attempt to comfort her upset daddy. "I need to contact Happy."
Before he could, the building that Pepper had supposedly been living in finally had the fire put out and more firefighters went into the building. He called Happy and told him to put any investigators into immediate contact with him. He also had Natasha e-mail the photo of Dr. Jenkins to Happy so he could provide it to the investigators when they started, what Tony could only assume was the inevitable murder investigation of one Pepper Potts. Tony told Happy to provide full cooperation with the authorities. He also had FRIDAY pull up all video footage of the imposter or Pepper since the Ultron incident as he figured that was about when the changeover occurred and send them to Happy as well to hand over to the police.
No one felt like cooking that evening so food was ordered, Steve and Natasha taking care to ensure that there were at least some semi-healthy options for the children. Just after dinner, Happy called to inform Tony that a body had been found in Pepper's condo. He asked if he was up for a video call from the lead detective assigned to the case. He managed to choke out a yes before going to the screen intended for video calls.
Happy's face appeared as soon as he turned the screen on, along with a serious looking woman in her mid-forties, "Mr. Stark, thank you for making time for me. I'm Detective Smith. I know it is getting late over there in New York so I will try to keep this as brief as possible for now. Mr. Hogan has provided us with the information that you gave him. I must admit, it is nice to not have to go through a battalion of lawyers for basic information."
"Pepper was family, for the past few days I was having my doubts on that but I am both horrified and relieved to know I was wrong. Dr. Jenkins had me fooled and that is really saying something. Are you sure the body is Pepper?" Tony asked, Natasha, Steve and Laura herding the children out of the room to clean up for bed to avoid the kids from being exposed from even more trauma.
"Yes, our killer might be a doctor of Physics but a skilled arson she is not. Ms. Potts's body was stuffed into a freezer that did a good job of insulating it from the fire. Our arson investigators say that the fire was started in her condo too. Our coroner could only tell us that though the fire thawed her a little, based on her still being pretty solidly frozen, it is likely that she was in there for a while so you wouldn't have even been much of a suspect. Mr. Hogan says that the possible motive for Dr. Jenkins taking the place of Ms. Potts was sabotaging your company. Do you know why she would want to do that?" Smith asked.
"The obvious answer? Stark Industries is a large source of income for me. I privately fund a global peacekeeping initiative in the Avengers. Dr. Jenkins was clearly a loyal Hydra operative. Take down Stark Industries and she could have crippled the Avengers. That would have been a major blow for Hydra. We have been systematically taking down every base and safe house with a rather brutal efficiency," Tony responded as straightforwardly as possible, even if his voice did sound a bit off. "Possible side reason, Pepper was adopted by great parents, had a successful career as the CEO of Stark Industries and was on the brink of my proposing to her before the Ultron incident. In contrast, Hydra, Dr. Jenkins's employer, was on the brink of collapse and from what Natasha has dug up so far, her childhood wasn't pleasant either. So, jealousy would likely be a contributing factor."
"Thank you, that is helpful," Smith nodded, writing down the information. "If there is any more information that you can think of, please get in contact with us. Is there any way to get ahold of you if we have more questions?"
"Happy can give you my number. I also had my AI compile all the video footage from the past six months from all my properties that contain either Pepper or Dr. Jenkins. Maybe it will help you narrow down when exactly the changeover occurred," Tony offered.
"That would be appreciated. Thank you again. I will let you get some rest now," With that Happy disconnected. Tony turned the screen off and looked over to see all the adults in what he now counted as his family watching.
"Well, that was awkward," Tony finally broke the silence.
"How are you handling this?" Steve asked gently.
"Well, a little under a week ago I learnt I was a father because of Hydra stealing my DNA, I suspect with the help of Dr. Jenkins, two days ago I learnt that Hydra had my parents killed, and a few hours ago I realized that Hydra stole from me the first meaningful relationship I have ever had. Granted, I probably would have still lost Pepper from stupidity eventually and I was moving on from it before this but it defiantly sucks. So, no, not handling it well. I am really hoping those files you guys collected turn up a lot of information because right now I want to burn down every Hydra facility I come across," Tony practically snarled the last bit while pacing.
"Well, at least we know he isn't going into shock or shutting down from emotional pain," Natasha stated blandly. "You still aren't allowed to drink."
"I KNOW THAT!" Tony snapped before picking up a vase from a random table and threw it at the wall. The others cleared out of his way while he tore apart the common floor, breaking everything that was breakable in the area.
The some of team watched in silence while he raged, Clint and Laura herded the children out of the danger-zone quickly though. When he finally stopped after throwing a chair at the wall, denting it, Helen moved forward and poked him with a dose of sedative before he had a chance to start working himself up into another rage. As he waivered, fighting against the suddened wave of exhaustion, Steve got behind him and caught him as he finally collapsed. He adjusted the much lighter man in his arms to carry him bridal style before moving towards the elevator. The group began discussing taking a watch and keeping Tony in bed for at least the night to give him time to recover. Natalia was put in the room with Rebecca and Sarah for the night. Natasha took the one free room in their suite and they rotated through the night who watched Tony.
Helen took special care during her turn to check his blood pressure and temperature too keep track of his withdrawal symptoms. As far as she could tell, the man had only moderate withdrawal symptoms so far and she hoped to keep it from getting worse. She noted that the blood pressure was getting high so she recorded the numbers and decided that if the numbers rose by the morning she would give him a small dose of medication to lower it.
However, when morning came, his blood pressure was back to normal and he was calmer, though that might have been lingering traces of the mild sedative she had given him. He did have a slight fever though so she made him lay on the couch where everyone could keep an eye on him, the common floor having been cleaned up by Wanda and Pietro.
Author's Note: For anyone wondering why I am putting such an emphasis on Tony's Withdrawal from alcohol, from what I have seen of the movies and comics, Tony has a big problem with it so it makes sense that it would impact his behavior. I decided that he would only go through moderate symptoms which include Insomnia (something he already struggles with so I imagine it would get worse), anxiety, mood swings (elevated by the emotional events in the story line) irregular heartbeat, high blood pressure, fever and mental disorientation. This is why Tony keeps completely losing his shit.