AN~ Second chapter of the night :-)


Steve is quiet as he stews over the emotional dump Tony has just unloaded on him.

Tony opts to leave for a quick shower to try and relieve the tension.

'Jarvis?' he steps into the shower stall.

'Yes, sir?'

'Any chance Rhodey would let me off telling Steve about Jim on the basis I just raked open my childhood?'

'I suspect there is very little you might wish to do that Colonel Rhodes would not forgive you for,' Jarvis replies without answering the question.

'Are you suggesting I want to tell Steve? Because I'm quite sure I don't want to tell Steve.'

'You may not wish to tell him,' Jarvis knows him too well, 'but you do wish for him to know.'

'Maybe Pete could tell him,' Tony rubs shampoo into his hair.

'Wonderful idea, sir,' Jarvis replies dryly.

Tony laughs nervously,

'Just a thought.

'Do Hallmark do cards for 'Sorry, you're the father'?'

'I suggest,' Jarvis ignores him, 'that Captain Rogers may wish to have a picture of his son.'

This is why Jarvis is his favourite.

'Get one,' Tony agrees readily. 'Put it with the muffins. Are they here yet?'

'In the foyer, sir, ready to be put in the lift at my signal. I shall have an ultrasound style image placed in an envelope and attached to the basket.'

'Thanks, Jay,' he steps out from the spray and stares at himself in the mirror. 'I may need a pep talk when Pete goes down for his nap.'

'I shall do my best when the time comes,' Jarvis assures him.


Tony picks at his lunch but he can't really delay putting Pete down for a nap after the boy practically falls asleep in his plate.

'There you go, kiddo,' he tucks him into the bed in the master suite. 'We should probably try out your bed sometime, you know?'

He smoothes Pete's hair away from his face and presses a kiss to his forehead.

'Sir, you can do this; Captain Rogers is statistically unlikely to hit you.'

Tony sits up and grins,

'Jarvis, is that the best you could come up with?'

'I believed it touched upon the most important points,' Jarvis replies.

'Yeah, thanks, I feel so much better.'

'You are smiling.'

'Don't be smug. Alright, let's do this. Get the muffins on the lift,' he steps out into the main room to find Steve tidying.

Steve looks up and smiles,

'Hey, he went down ok?'

'Yeah,' Tony summons up a smile as he steps over to the lift.

It may have been a bit of a media smile as Steve's dims a little.

Ok, a hundred muffins is a very large basket of muffins.

'That's a lot of muffins,' he turns to find Steve looking baffled. 'We only just had lunch; what did you want muffins for?'

'They're for you,' Tony tells him and hands them over before taking several hurried steps backwards.

'Oh,' Steve holds the basket awkwardly for a moment before moving to place it on the table, 'thank you. What's the occasion?'

Tony's voice is stuck in his throat.

'Tony?' Steve has lifted the envelope containing the photo of their son, but hasn't opened it. 'What's wrong?'

'He's yours!' Tony finally manages to blurt and then mentally kicks himself.

'What?'

'Jim,' Tony drags a hand through his hair. 'He's yours.'

'He's my what?' Steve looks so honestly, trustingly, confused.

'He's your son,' his voice is finally steady and he keeps Steve's gaze.

All the better to see the ruination of their friendship played out across Steve's face.

At first he's still just confused but it morphs into shock. He then looks briefly delighted before returning to confused,

'Why would you say he was yours?'

'Because he is,' he stuffs his hands into his pockets to try and stop himself wanting a glass of something as a prop.

'I don't understand.'

'We found that AIM manipulated some of your cells to acts as...' Tony falters as Steve flinches and crosses his arms across his chest, 'to act as eggs. They injected my DNA.'

He watches Steve swallow heavily and look away,

'Why?'

'We don't know,' Tony admits. 'Their notes don't say why. I guess they hope the serum will be inheritable.'

Steve nods,

'Who knows?'

'Well, I think we killed everyone in the base,' Tony replies, confused. 'I guess one of the higher ups in AIM might...'

'I meant who knew before me,' Steve interrupts. 'You said 'we', so, who know before me?'

'Me, Bruce, Jarvis, Pepper and Rhodey,' Tony tells him promptly.

Steve nods again, still staring at the floor,

'Right,' he lets out a bitter sounding laugh, 'ok, fine.'

'Steve...'

'What?' Steve snaps, but when he meets Tony's gaze he just looks lost.

'I'm sorry,' Tony tells him. 'I just didn't want you to be tied down.'

'You've known the entire time,' Rhodey was right; Steve looks stricken.

'Yes,' Tony won't lie now.

'So these last few days with Pete...' Steve waves a hand vaguely, 'that was some sort of interview? To check if I'm good enough to be near your... our son?!'

'No! That's not...'

'Why wouldn't you tell me?' Steve stares at him.

'I didn't think you needed to know!' Tony blurts.

'I didn't need to know...' Steve repeats with a strange sounding laugh.

'I was doing ok and you clearly would have been ok spending time with him without knowing.'

Steve just stares at him.

'It's just genetics,' Tony continues weakly, 'you shouldn't have to be involved if you don't want to be.'

'And it was up to you to make that decision?'

'It's up to me to protect my son from having a parent who isn't interested,' Tony retorts.

'That's what you think of me?' Steve asks quietly.

'Steve...'

'I'm just going to... go...' Steve gestures to the lift.

'Take the muffins,' Tony tells him. 'I'll only throw them away.'

Steve visibly hesitates, but then his shoulders slump a little and he picks up the basket. Tony steps well out of his way as he moves to the lift and watches as he steps inside.

'I'm sorry.'

'Yeah, I get it,' Steve retorts and then the doors slide shut.

That could have gone better.