NOTE: We've reached the end, thank you everyone for the time you've spent with this project of mine! As always, the clothing mentioned has visual links at the AO3 version of this story under the username Darsynia.
Chapter Thirty
'Cause you're a sky, 'cause you're a sky full of stars
I'm gonna give you my heart
'Cause you're a sky, 'cause you're a sky full of stars
'Cause you light up the path
.
I don't care, go on and tear me apart
I don't care if you do, ooh
'Cause in a sky, 'cause in a sky full of stars
I think I saw you
.
'Cause you're a sky, 'cause you're a sky full of stars
I wanna die in your arms
'Cause you get lighter the more it gets dark
I'm gonna give you my heart
~Sky Full of Stars, Coldplay
"It's a good thing I have a tower full of empty apartments," Tony whispers to Leigh as they stand in a large group of returned and remaining Avengers. Steve's doing his thing, thanking everyone for their hard work, asking for each group's leader to ensure that anyone without accommodation has a place to sleep and lick their wounds.
"As for New York-"
"Yeah, we've got you covered," Tony steps forward with one foot, leaning far forward before moving his other foot beside the first. "My giant tower of overcompensation has plenty of space."
A mini cheer goes up. Steve holds out his hands, smiling with his Bureaucracy Face firmly still in place. "Time enough for that. Tony, can we have an all hands meeting at the tower sometime tomorrow? Say, 1:00?"
"What if we push it back? I think I can arrange for some food. It's one thing to find a place to sleep, but it's another to have food stocked, and a place to cook it. One fewer meal to worry about would be great for morale," Leigh says.
"America's Mom, right there," someone shouts from back in the crowd.
"The universe's Mom, you mean," another says.
Leigh meets Tony's eyes and sees pride there as the crowd of people cheer again, louder than they had for Tony's offer of a bed. 'Sorry," Leigh mouths to him. He shrugs, points at her, and mouths, 'mine.'
Tony's good for her morale, anyway.
"Good idea, thanks Leigh. So that's the plan, folks. Those who want to stay in New York, group up by the Starks. Everyone else, find your region leader, and we'll have a representative from Kamar Taj touch base with them to ensure everyone makes it to the meeting tomorrow at 12, in Stark's tower," Steve says. "Thank you again, everyone."
A tall man with a goatee similar to Tony's cuts through the group forming near Leigh, Nat, Steve, and Tony. He's got a fantastic red flowy cape on, and the way he comes right up to Tony tells Leigh that he's someone important.
"It's late. There are two ways we can do this. One is a group portal similar to the ones used earlier today. The other takes longer, but there's less small talk."
"I'm listening," Tony says.
"We portal to your tower, you head straight to empty apartments, which I then portal individuals or groups into. No large crowd milling around, no lost parties on the elevators," the man says, smiling wryly.
"What's in it for you?"
Leigh stops just eavesdropping and walks over, on hearing the suspicion in Tony's voice. It's more jovial than antagonistic, but it's also not not antagonistic.
"I saw what I saw. I think if I looked at outcomes fighting Thanos now, I'd see two realities where we won," the man says. He watches her slide her arm around Tony, and holds out his hand. "Leigh Lauren Balci Stark, I presume?"
She's a little taken aback, but shakes his hand anyway. Suddenly, she realizes who he has to be. "Strange! Doctor Strange, right? You gave up the Time stone. God, he was haunted by that for years."
Tony interrupts before she's able to add more of her recollection. "No need to tell him that, honey." He does tip his head to the side to look at Strange. "Knowing your whole name, though. That's odd."
"Ten minutes or so before Banner came flying through my ceiling, you showed up and threatened to use your talent for being obnoxious against me unless I searched all possible universes for versions of one woman."
"That universe has since diverged," Leigh says, smiling politely.
"I'm grateful for that fact. Now he can spend his time annoying you instead, with the bonus that he won't need a time machine configured for alternate universes in order to do it," Strange says. His tone is acerbic, but still somewhat friendly.
He and Tony seem like they get on like oil and water.
"Strange!" A stout man wearing robes calls out.
"Excuse me, this shouldn't take long," Strange says, inclining his head toward her. As he walks away, his cape furls out close to her, even though there's no wind. It grazes along her hand in an action that feels for all the world like a kiss. Leigh walks after him a bit, trying to see if the cape actually is somehow magical, or if there was a specific way he'd furled it that caused the odd interaction.
"Tony," a woman says, approaching him. Leigh recognizes her as the person she'd saved during the time Thanos's ship had been firing its terrifying blue lasers. She's wearing a silver Iron Man suit, and for the first time, Leigh wonders where she got it from, and why.
"Pepper," Tony says. His voice sounds closed-off, like he'd had to swallow back some amount of emotion in order to even be able to say her name.
Leigh suddenly feels very weary.
"What you did, both of you…" The woman's helmet is retracted, and her strawberry blonde ponytail is neat as a pin despite everything they've all just gone through. She looks awestruck, nodding in both of their directions, even though Leigh's several feet away by now.
"I'm really glad you're back. It was… it was a shock," Tony's saying.
Leigh sees that he's holding a hand behind him, wide and reaching. Her heart soars, and she drifts backwards, trying not to be obvious. When their hands meet, Tony clears his throat, and his voice is much more clear as he answers a question she hadn't quite been able to hear Pepper ask.
"-every last bit of it, set up in an apartment like you were on a business trip or something. I couldn't take looking at your things and knowing you weren't coming back, but I couldn't get rid of them, either," Tony says earnestly.
Leigh's a little stuck. She doesn't want to disrespect this woman who very clearly still cares deeply about Tony, but there's simply no way to stretch out her right hand to shake her hand without obviously displaying the 'Tony' that's inscribed there, in his own handwriting, no less.
Tony, as always, is on top of things. He's holding her right hand, and when she gently tugs it so she can be ready for the introduction he just… doesn't let go.
"There's no good way to do this," Tony's saying, turning toward Leigh.
"I can help. Hello. I'm Pepper Potts," she says, reaching out a hand to shake Leigh's.
Leigh can't get free of Tony, and she doesn't want to make a spectacle about it, so she offers her left hand, instead. "I'm Leigh, nice to meet you."
"Leigh Stark," Pepper corrects with a sad but steady smile. "It's okay. There was that whole… thing, in front of Thanos. Something I would never have been able to do in a million years, by the way."
"Don't sell yourself short," Tony says.
"I prefer to think of it as valuing my mental health. And you don't have to do that," Pepper says, nodding briskly at their joined hands, barely visible behind Tony's hip. "I borrowed someone's phone and did a search. I know about the name on your wrist."
"I'm so sorry, Pepper," Tony says, his voice rough.
"So am I," she whispers. "But soulmarks weren't the only thing I googled. You've taken Stark Industries to places I am so proud of, Tony-"
"In your honor," he interrupts.
"-so when I've had some time to adjust, I'd love to still be a part of that somehow." Pepper lifts her chin, manages a thin, delicate smile, and then turns away from them and starts walking over toward a knot of people who call out to her in greeting.
Tony lets out a breath.
"Do you need a minute?" Leigh whispers.
"No. I need a lifetime. With you." He reaches over and taps her hexagonal power source to retract her armor, and then pulls her close with arms that grip her too tight yet somehow just right. "I almost lost you. A lot of me is still tied up with her," he says, his voice wavering between a whisper and a quiet sigh. "I don't want to imagine what kind of misery I was in that I spent six years searching for a way to save you instead of stepping back into the life I had before."
Leigh wraps her arms around Tony and holds him with a grip as tight as his.
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Her husband is a tactile person with her, Leigh knows, but not as much with other people. This makes his reaction to seeing a young man wearing a red skintight costume and a delighted expression even more touching. Tony practically runs to him, grabbing the kid into a huge bear hug.
"Mr. Stark! That thing you did was so cool! I'm sorry I passed out or whatever when we were on that planet. When I woke up, that Doctor Strange guy said you needed us, and he made an actual portal right to here! Do you think there's a way I could learn how to do that?"
"I'm sure you could do anything, Peter," Tony says, his voice choked with emotion.
Peter. Leigh understands, now.
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It turns out that Leigh's Iron Man suit- which Tony has taken to calling the 'Honey' suit, a nickname he is inordinately proud of for its double meaning -had been set to record everything, meaning that there's a direct record of her confronting Thanos. Hers isn't the only such record, but it is subpoenaed by the government as part of the official record of what they're calling the Battle for Earth.
Someone leaks the footage, which thanks to the included comm messages from Rhodey, Barnes, and Steve reveal the 'trick' that their team played on Thanos. It's a sensation. By a week after the event, five separate videos from various vantage points are released, three of which show Tony and Leigh's 'last, fierce stand' against Thanos.
The nickname 'America's Mom' catches on like wildfire, as does 'America's Daughter' for Ember. 'America's Dad' doesn't trend for Tony, but that's because 'World's Sexiest Dad' ends up being more popular.
Tony is insufferable about it, which Leigh privately finds annoyingly attractive, even though the whole thing is kind of sexist, if you examine it closely.
In the end, the Secret Service ends up being employed to protect them, not because there are Thanos apologists (though Nat thinks they're inevitable), but because so many people from all over want to express their gratitude.
Because the governments of the world all want to know exactly what happened and how, their team of eleven is very busy over the first week. Their images are ubiquitous on nearly every newspaper, website, and news program, but Leigh and Tony initially refuse all media interviews. It seems, though, that this choice will rapidly become untenable, so Chuck stops by the tower apartment on day eight to talk to them about next steps.
Somehow it's only when he walks in wearing a fantastic suit and a brilliant grin that Leigh realizes that 1) he's been MIA for a reason, and 2) that reason is that his husband is back.
"Oh my God, Chuck, how is Diggory?" she says when he steps out of the elevator at the penthouse level.
"Perfect," Chuck says without missing a beat. "He says he's fairly sure he'll meet the now-requisite background check that he'll need to come with me one of these days to meet you."
"Only pretty sure? I like him already," Tony says, coming across the room to shake Chuck's hand. "Thanks for coming in."
"You've got it, though I'm going to need to get your help with some tech, I think. It's public record I'm your PA."
That's all he needs to say for Leigh to understand his dilemma. Pretty much anyone associated with them has been completely mobbed with media requests and desperate, grateful people dropping off gifts and letters. It's completely fucking overwhelming.
Leigh doesn't even want to imagine what would happen if the media were to find out about her goodbye letter to Ember. Tony's been joking (she hopes it's a joke) that they should save it for the one-year anniversary of the event and sell access rights to it for a billion dollars. It's only been eight days (a time period that will probably remain painful for the rest of her life), but given the sustained frenzy about their actions, Leigh's not that sure Tony's number is as ridiculous as he seems to think it is.
A sweet but painful subset of all of the attention is the fact that Leigh's alive at all. Yes, there's the furor over time travel, the speculation about alternate universes, but the fact that both were used by her husband to alter space and time to make sure he got her back? It's being named the Most Romantic Act Of All Time.
It's a lot to live up to.
"You okay?" Tony asks, squeezing her hand.
"Sorry, I'm still just…" With both hands, Leigh mimes an explosion going off over her head. "There are so many facets of what's happened, and all of them are too much to comprehend."
"Oh, I get it," Chuck says sympathetically. "Even the little things, right? Diggory came to on the side of the road in the city after having gone to the ATM after work. He was one of the only people in the huge group of Returned with actual money that worked. Pretty much everyone else all had credit cards that had been deactivated by then."
"Here's hoping he found you quickly?" Leigh asks.
Chuck nods. "Kept the phone number. And all of his things, for that matter. Even his stupid ugly chair." He looks up at the ceiling for a second, a completely goofy grin crossing his face for a few seconds. "But, I should show you this." Chuck hands Tony a folder.
Tony opens it, and Leigh peeks over his shoulder at it.
"Top page is just the influx of emails to give you a glimpse of what we're dealing with. I only included legitimate, reputable publications and programs."
"Shit, Chuck," Tony says. "What size font is this?"
"Ten point."
The page is a solid block of interview inquiries, split into two halves. Tony turns to page two and laughs. "You have a filter just for threesome requests?"
"You are making that up," Leigh says, reaching over to grab the page. Tony is not making it up.
"That page is for the more amusing stuff," Chuck says with professional understatement. "The point is, I think this is your life now. I don't want it to be my life, though, so the third page is a list of applicants who took it upon themselves to offer their services as a correspondence screener. I vetted all five from a list of about twenty, if you can believe that."
"I don't doubt it at all," Tony says, leaning back on the couch. "I assume you saw the lobby and sidewalk." Both are a field of flowers, signs, and gifts. "Happy's sick of dealing with it. Only took five days. The first two days were taken in by the Secret Service on a just in case basis."
"I heard about that," Chuck nods. "I think you can safely say you're both the most famous celebrities on the planet right now. And knowing what we do about some of the worlds that are out there, I would not rule out the possibility of neighborhood visitors." He spreads out his hands in an apologetic gesture. "Bottom line? You need to give, a little. Not because of your own image, but out of- and I know this sounds crazy -kindness to your fellow man. Let them love you."
"Chuck," Leigh says, doubt arcing like electricity through her expression and her tone.
"The White House is on the list, there. They're going to host an unprecedented number of foreign leaders at a state dinner for the eleven of you. Ember is specifically invited, too. Their letter includes an exhortation that they don't want to have to put pressure on both of you to be more available to journalists."
"What right do-" Tony starts to say, but Chuck winces and holds up a finger.
"Their people are getting the overflow. They've had to hire two staffers to deal with it. Official feelings are going to start getting hurt, and it's all goodwill, sir. Hell, I started to cry on the elevator on the way up here, and I know what you're actually like," Chuck admits, smoothing his hand down his tie. "This has the potential to bring the world together. In the way that we always see in science fiction movies. It's also wholesome as fuck."
Tony turns and stage whispers in Leigh's ear, "I love when he swears."
The elevator dings. All three of them look over in slight trepidation, given the subject they've been discussing- but as soon as the doors open, Ember comes bounding out.
"Mama! Daddy! Ganpa yikes BEES!" She stops and frowns in the process of climbing up onto Tony.
"Likes?" he suggests gently. "LLLLLLLLL?"
"LLLLL-yikes," Ember says definitively.
"Sorry for the lack of warning," Miriam Balci says with a rueful chuckle. "Your AI is basically wrapped around her little finger. Get her on an elevator and she doesn't have to be tall enough to reach the button for the penthouse!"
"I'm sorry that the three of you have had to stay in for the whole trip so far," Tony says, standing up with Ember in his arms.
"We'd have had to stay in at home, too. Missy says the police have cordoned off the road leading up to the farm! Frank and Lacey will be up shortly. They always watch to the end of movies now, just in case the filmmakers add something hidden."
Leigh goes over to hug her mom. "Ember is definitely not complaining about having family around so much."
"I hate to be 'that guy,'" Chuck says, but Tony interrupts him.
"You love to be 'that guy.'"
"Either way, I think if you do some of the events I've picked out in the folder, you might find that the collateral damage will lessen. People are desperate," Chuck says.
"Oh, go soak it up!" her mom says, stepping back but keeping one arm around Leigh's waist so she can see both of them. "You've made your privacy point for a week. If you don't loosen up, people will sneak around taking pictures of my granddaughter for the rest of her life, because that'll be the only way to get them."
"In my experience, they'll do that anyway, but fair point. What do you think, Em? You want to go meet the President?" Tony says, looking down at their daughter in his arms.
"Which President?" Miriam asks.
"All of them."
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Leigh's fretting over her hair when there's a knock on the bathroom door.
"I promise I can restrain myself long enough to zip the dress this time," Tony says.
Leigh smiles at herself in the mirror. She'd started dressing for their evening a full hour early knowing that he absolutely would not be able to restrain himself (and neither would she). The resulting intimate experience as Tony had tried to make sure they wouldn't be late for the dinner across town (but also show her exactly how much he loved how she looked in the dress before he'd taken it off of her) had been thoroughly satisfying. It had been completely worth changing the clocks in the room and getting FRIDAY to alter the ones on their technology.
Post-coital Tony had been impressed at her ingenuity.
"I already got the zipper. You can come in," Leigh says. Tony opens the door, steps in, and does a little twirl so she can appreciate how he looks. "Oh, Leigh," he says, his eyes rich with admiration. "It's stunning. You're stunning. On the hanger it looked completely different, maybe even lifeless, in comparison."
"Thank you," Leigh says. Her dress is gold, a touch toward rose gold, even, body-hugging to the knees in front, with many gathers at the back. It's made up of multiple layers, the top-most of which is sheer, but generously scattered with drips and trails and branches of pure gold. They look halfway between paint and budding honeysuckle twigs. The designer had been completely gracious, altering the original sleeveless design to be more White House friendly, with multiple gold threads making up straps to hold up the low straight neckline. The true glory of the dress, though, is the cape/train that falls from the elastic at the neckline all the way across her back. Its sheer panel hangs with the same rich, scattered gold embellishments all the way to the floor and beyond. When she spreads her arms out with the train caught against them, it looks like Leigh is standing in front of a hundred golden weeping willow branches.
She'd fallen in love with the dress, not just for how completely gorgeous it is, but because no one could look at a woman wearing that and think, 'Yeah, the first adjective I'd use to describe this woman is 'Mom-like.''
Leigh likes being considered a good mom. She's even okay with being 'America's Mom.' But there have always been things about the mom stereotype she hated even before she was one, and that's the idea that you're either sexy or a mom. It's her goal to break that association tonight.
"You're not happy with something," Tony observes perceptively.
"I don't know what to do with hair this short," she admits. Chuck had arranged for a hairdresser to come in and fix the hack job she'd done on Vormir. It's an attractive cut, but she hadn't had hair reaching to her shoulders and not beyond for many years. Something that doesn't help is the fact that Ember hates it.
He laughs. "That's 'long' for practically everyone else." With a loving, gentle touch, Tony slides his fingers through it, his hand warm on her upper back when he's done. "Leave it down. It's part of the story, isn't it?" Then he grins, devilish and handsome. "If anyone wants to criticize you over how you wear your hair, I'll just threaten to turn them into dust."
Tony's been making comments like this for days, and Leigh knows she shouldn't laugh. "Tony!"
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Rocket and Nebula have both bowed out of (or in Rocket's case, refused, with a string of expletives at the idea of the whole spectacle) the state dinner, but given his role in the final destruction of Thanos, James Barnes was easily subbed in. Ten is a more satisfying number for the press anyway.
Ember's white dress with goldenrod and white embroidery panels on the front, back, and sleeves captivates everyone, especially because a florist had seen an article written on the designer who had donated the dress, and sent along a flower crown that matches it perfectly.
Tony has been really kind to her, Leigh realizes, when it comes to her stressing out over the amount of really lovely but expensive and high quality gifts people have been sending them. It had already been hard for her to come to terms with his extreme wealth, but this? It's been really hard. But Tony has let her complain and fret in private while expressing gratitude and incredulity in public, and hasn't said a word in complaint.
Because Chuck is Chuck, he leaks that story, too. The general consensus in response to the article/Leigh's concerns is that she's a really lovely, down-to-Earth person, and it's a legit worry when it comes to raising a child in the midst of all of that.
Leigh wasn't even smug to either men about it.
After the dinner itself (during which Leigh was slightly mortified to find that Ember had whispered that she'd rather have chicken nuggets to one of the servers, who had promptly managed to find some and served them to her), there's a period of mingling time that is humbling and overwhelming. Everyone clusters around their table, world leaders and diplomats and their spouses. After a half hour of it, Tony stands up and holds out his hand for her.
Leigh kisses Ember's head, and the man she'd been speaking to, Justin Trudeau, offers to take her.
Ember likes him because he has 'More beahd (beard) than Daddy!'
"What?" Leigh says, after they're both standing and quite obviously the focus for the entire room.
"Dance with me," he says, leading her out into the mostly empty space between all of the tables.
"Tony, no one else is dancing!" she hisses, but he's inexorable. The music is live, and while yes, it's currently some kind of a romantic, swaying number, Leigh is acutely aware that they're probably inconveniencing the musicians at the very least.
Tony pulls her into the very center of the space and then steps back a second, bowing. Leigh's heart is entirely full, seeing how handsome he is, how smug and stubborn the look on his face is. She sinks into a low curtsey once he's standing, and his grin is as wide and proud as she's ever seen. Her heart pounding, Leigh gathers as much of her dress in her left hand as she can, so she won't trip over it. Tony pulls her closer than propriety allows, but she's pretty sure no one in the room would be surprised.
The music fades for a second, and Leigh's face flames. Tony leans in and kisses her, something she's not sure a person is even allowed to do at a White House state dinner. The music starts up into a stately waltz, right as they break apart. It's almost like it was scripted, but the surprised, pleased look in her husband's eyes tells her that it wasn't. He wouldn't have been able to avoid looking smug again, otherwise.
Leigh risks a look over at the corner where the musicians are sitting, mouthing a thank you. Then, Tony says her name, and they're dancing, her feet following his as if Stephen Strange is hiding somewhere directing them to do exactly the right steps. It's been forever since she'd done this, and the literal eyes of the world will be on them, but the love on Tony's face is carrying her through it.
"Thank you," Tony whispers.
"For?" she asks, smiling up at him. "You haven't even stepped on my cape yet, so there's no thank you for my forgiveness necessary."
"Yet?"
"Yet," she grins.
"No, it's for still being you in the midst of all of this. I think your biggest frustration is a combination of hoping it doesn't go to Em's head and hating being pigeonholed into a mom role."
"And the gifts. And I can't visit my siblings. And my parents and sister can't go see anything in New York because of all the attention, and, and, and," Leigh reminds him, her lips twisting into a rueful smile. "But you're the one to thank."
"You've already-"
"And I will again. Forever," Leigh interrupts. "That other you knew he wouldn't be the one to live this life of ours. I could see it on his face. Tony, don't ever, ever let someone try to tell you that you don't know what it's like to be selfless. Unless…" she trails off, having thought of something that makes her eyes widen and her lips spread into an incredulous smile.
"What?"
"Do you think part of why you did it was because someone told you that you couldn't? That you shouldn't?"
"Obviously," Tony says. He twirls her without any warning, and she somehow doesn't trip. The action reminds her that they have an audience, though, and it's an audience. Cameras are flashing, some of the people who lead countries of their own have cell phones out filming them, and everyone's smiling indulgently. It's enough to go to a girl's head.
"So instead of a Spite Fence, you have a Spite Happy Ending? Who gets the honors as the prime instigator, then?"
Tony dips Leigh as the music swells, and right before he kisses her, he whispers, "You already turned him into dust."
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America's Heroic Stark Family
on the Legacy of Love, Loss, and Laughter
60 Minutes sits down with Tony and Leigh Stark in their first interview since defeating Thanos. Stay tuned for the full family interview tomorrow at this same airtime.
(interview transcript, page 2)
Lesley: Just like the rest of us, you've been handed the dilemma of how to deal with pre-existing relationships from before the Snap. Tony, you suddenly have twelve new in-laws! Leigh, your husband's fiance has reappeared. How are you coping?
Tony: The Balci family has been great. They're under a lot of stress, too- their house has been assigned a police guard thanks to all the collateral attention. Besides, I'm not sure whether there's anything more I could do to earn their trust as an in-law! (he laughs) If they don't like me now, I'm out of ideas.
Lesley: That's a very good point. Now, Leigh, the producers have whispered in my ear about something they've just discovered. Is it true that your daughter's middle name is in honor of Pepper Potts? (her tone is incredulous)
Leigh: Ember's middle name is Virginia, yes. Though to be fair, Tony and I met in West Virginia, so I don't deserve that much credit!
Lesley: (as an aside, to Tony) Does she realize how charming she is? I have to confess, Anderson Cooper told me that he thinks it's all real, and I was doubtful. You have quite a reputation for womanizing, and I just couldn't believe someone that earnest would have lasted this long!
Leigh: (interrupts) Where does that put Ms. Potts? (she and Lesley look at each other for a few seconds)
Lesley: All right, I'm convinced. (very clearly scratches out a line on the notes in front of her)
Tony: If you're looking for flaws, I have enough for the both of us. I admit, I pushed back on the name at first. I didn't want it to hurt Leigh at some point in the future, when she was past the first rosy months of baby raising.
Leigh: He'd obviously not read anything about the first few months of baby raising at the time.
Lesley: (laughs) So what are your plans for the near future? The Secret Service has confirmed that they've been granted money by Congress to upgrade your West Virginia lake house for your safety and security. There have been questions about whether the heroic actions you took to save your wife imply that the mere knowledge you hold about time travel should be legally restricted in some way. After all, you brought back your wife's parents from the dead. What's to stop you from bringing back your own parents? The world could benefit from Howard Stark's great mind, even here in 2023.
Leigh: When the 2029 Tony Stark saved my life, he went back to a world where I still didn't exist. If my husband went to 1987 and saved Howard and Maria, Ember would still only have one set of grandparents living. Actions like that create a separate, new universe with the new timeline.
Lesley: (joking) Would you two consider teaching a class on how to understand all of this stuff?
Tony: Give our daughter another eight years and she might be able to.
Lesley: Has all of the fame gotten to her head yet?
Leigh: It's been two weeks, Lesley.
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"FRIDAY, activate Lift Ticket Protocol," Tony says after the elevator doors close behind them. They're done with the day's interviews, and Leigh had been about to take off her high heels. Tony's expression is pleased, nearly predatory, but nothing about the elevator or the AI seems to be changed after his command, except for the fact that FRIDAY hasn't responded at all.
"What is the Lift Ticket Protocol?"
He walks up to her and starts unbuttoning her blouse. "FRIDAY doesn't tell anyone where we are, this elevator stops halfway between floors, and it is marked as both off the tower grid, and malfunctioning." He leans down to swipe his tongue across the skin his unbuttoning has revealed. "Your lace bra was ever-so-slightly visible from the chair I was sitting in during that whole interview," he groans. "And we never have gotten the chance to have elevator sex."
Leigh grins and starts on his buttons, too. "Isn't part of the allure of elevator sex the fact that someone might catch us at it?"
"We've got an eighth of the world's population gathered around the tower, and FRIDAY reports that, every ten minutes, some scrub programmer tries to hack into our systems." Tony breaks off to unzip her skirt so it can fall into a puddle at her feet. "There's still a chance."
"Good enough for me," Leigh tells him, ripping his belt out of its loops with ferocity.
"Besides," Tony teases, nuzzling at her breasts. "An unauthorized sex tape would really destroy the whole 'America's Mom' image you find so irritating. If you like, I could-"
"Don't you dare."
Leigh makes sure that Tony's so completely at her mercy that he'd never in a million years let any recording of their elevator activities go public.
And even if it does, she knows someone who can build a time machine.
THE END
Epilogue, 2029
Tony considers flying around Vormir until his suit is nearly depleted and his emotional distress is more distant, but he doesn't have the strength to deal with the damned specter of the stone's guardian again.
He'll have to go home to an empty bed at some point. It might as well be now.
The basement room is dark, when he lands back on the Tunnel platform. Tony shuts everything down and unplugs it, unwilling for Ember to somehow manage to get it working and turn what's already going to be a rough adjustment period without Fianna into a living nightmare.
He's always been a little concerned about that, despite her intelligence and pragmatism even at nine. Ember is impulsive, just like he is, and she has access to some pretty scary technology.
He really ought to cut the cords, but that action carries some miserable implications for him right now.
Tony pushes the hidden door closed and latches it at the top where Em can't reach it, which makes him feel better. He moves up the stairs, pulling the ARC reactor off of his chest to leave it on the kitchen island. The house is dark, cold, and lonely. Pushing the door to his bedroom open after climbing the stairs, Tony's only thought is that he'd thought he had left the light off.
Then he sees her.
"Hi," Fianna says. She's standing in the middle of the room, wearing the same Black Sabbath shirt she'd put on to go to Vormir.
Tony falls back against the door, closing it. "What-"
"I woke up," Fianna says, her eyes luminous and tear-filled. "I was back on the platform, but it was empty, and that skull thing was there. He said that his quest for the stone had led him to be forced to guide others to it. Then he said that whatever magic had acted on him to turn him into a specter as punishment had chosen to reward my actions with a second chance. The next thing I knew, I was standing here."
He remains stock-still and pressed against the door. Tony can't allow himself to believe what he's seeing, because when the bubble of joy bursts, he'll be left with the splattered remains of what used to be his heart. At least right now, his heart is withered but intact. "You're a hallucination."
Fianna starts slowly walking towards him, her advancing steps halting, as though she's trying to reel him in but being pulled out to his sea, instead. "What would prove it isn't a hallucination?"
Tony closes his eyes. "Why would I want to prove that? If it's a hallucination, you're here with me. I want to live in that reality, set up my tent there and stay forever."
"What if it's real?" the image of Fianna asks him. Tony's so far gone into this lucid dream that he can feel her warmth as she moves closer. "Tony? Trust me."
That's the only thing that gets him to change his mind. Even an imaginary Fianna deserves to know he loves and trusts her, Tony tells himself. His eyes shut, he reaches toward where her voice is coming from. Her hand catches his and presses it against her face, and he opens his eyes, gulping desperate breaths to steady himself. Fianna's crying, and he pulls her to his chest and slides down the wall in a tangle of limbs with her.
"Please stay real," he says.
"How about better than real? I think the cancer's gone. I had a persistent ache in my lungs and I can take a full, clear breath now. Which is good because I can't seem to stop crying," she laughs, swiping the tears away with hands that tremble.
"I love you," Tony says. "If this moment is all I get, great. Anything more is an unexpected windfall."
"It's real. Which is good; I have a feeling you're stubborn enough to spend another six years fighting fate, and you've fought enough."
"Never," Tony says, kissing her hair. "I'll just shift focus. Wasn't your father saying he wants to tear down the old horse barn, and your brother Kent is against it? Pick a side, we'll either reinforce it with the most durable metal known to man or set it on fire with space lasers. Say the word."
"Translation: I, Tony Stark, need a new hobby." Her tone is fond and very slightly censorious.
"Well you just trashed my old one!" he stretches out his legs and brushes her hair back away from her wet face.
"Which was?"
"Keeping you alive."
"How about you amend it to 'keeping me happy?'" Fianna asks, kissing his chest and moving to straddle him so she can see his face.
"Well now you're just asking for the impossible," Tony teases her. She's one of the most easily content people he's ever known, and they both know it. Her narrowed eyes of mock outrage swiftly turn to calculating ones of loving revenge, and Tony finally, finally releases his grip on 'What If I Fail,' lets the words splinter into letters and become meaningless. Before they fall out of sight in his mind's eye, Tony sees a single word coalesce: FAITH.
He could spend their days worrying that some unseen force will take Fianna away from him again, or he can have faith that their fight against fate and time is at an end. It's his choice.
Her lips touch his, and he revels in their warmth, as always. When she lifts her head, Tony sees the light and life in her eyes.
"Welcome home, honey."
"I'll never leave again," she promises, throwing her arms around him and resting her head on his shoulder.
He'd meant her heart at home in his, but there's time enough to show her that. There's time.
NOTE: There are two schools of thought that I've come across about the Red Skull specter on Vormir. One was that he had been banished to Vormir to be punished by being a ghost with his 'villain' face, trapped and forced to explain the rules of the Soul stone acquisition. However, there's a short answer given by the Russo brothers available as a tweet, explaining that Red Skull was stuck on Vormir without someone to love and thus unable to obtain the stone.
Frankly, I find the second answer short-sighted and unsupportable, despite the fact that it's endorsed by the creators. He's not in his physical body, so clearly *something* has affected him in a supernatural sort of way. He also, if I recall correctly, states that he's 'forced' to guide others to that which he cannot obtain. It's the idea that there's a magical governing body punishing him for his misdeeds which I've drawn on for the epilogue. If Red Skull can be punished for his actions, Fianna can be rewarded for hers. Leigh's reward is to benefit from Fianna's sacrifice, IMO. They both get their Tony.