A/N: Starting to touch on Iron Man 2 in this story, but only parts. Now I'm really starting to mess with things and the timeline, but it should be fun. I brushed over some parts because they would have been identical to the movie, (like Pepper becoming CEO, and Tony seeing Natalie Rushman and hiring her under Pepper's nose), so I went right to the good stuff. Next chapter might be longer, some fun stuff is going to happen!

Seriously, everyone is awesome! Your comments make my day when I read them! I read each one, and I'm gong to try and start responding to everyone as well.

Unbeta'd, and Marvel owns more of this than I do.

Also, if you go to my Tubmlr page (megaranoelle. tumblr. com) you can catch some behinds the scene stuff about the fic. No spoilers, promise. Maybe you can influence the story.

April 2010

"Hey, Mary, can I ask you a question?" Steve grabbed the punching bag to stop it from swinging, looking at Mary who was next to him. The SHIELD training room was generously supplied, and they had put up some special equipment just for Steve, stuff that he couldn't break as easily. Or at least very often.

"When you say it like that, I get the feeling that it's going to be personal." Mary stopped, her hair pulled back, practicing some hand-to-hand on a dummy. "I don't think it's about Peter, and you're not blushing, so not about my love life."

"You love trying to rile me up, don't you?" Mary smirked at him and he rolled his eyes, a little smirk. "Does Tony not like me?"

Mary tilted her head a little, looking over at him, catching her breath. "Tony? Did he do something? I mean, yeah, he can be an ass some times." Steve stared evenly at her. "Okay, so most of the time. But you help with Peter, and he loves Peter, possibly more than himself. Which is a major improvement from like, three years ago."

"He didn't do, or say anything," Steve said, thinking about his limited interactions with Tony, but also thinking about Mary's words as well. "I guess that's the problem. He comes off, kind of," Steve paused, trying to think of the right words.

"Dickish?" Steve wrinkled his nose at her choice of words and she chuckled lightly. "Stand offish?"

"Like, he doesn't want to be around me, but he doesn't say anything because Peter likes me." Steve frowned. "I don't think he's ever actually said my name. He usually calls me, Neighbor"

"Ah," Mary said, a little wrinkle between her eyes. "I don't think there's any hiding it anymore, not that he was trying to in the first place." Mary grabbed her towel and wiped her forehead, and faced Steve. "Tony is jealous."

"Jealous?" Steve's eyes widened in surprise. "Of what?!" What could this man Possibly be jealous of? From what he knew he had plenty of money to make sure that Peter never wanted for anything, and he had Peter as an amazing son. He had Mary's loyalty and friendship, and a steady job, and was extremely smart. Except when it came to cooking.

"You get to see Peter more than he does," she said simply with a shrug of her shoulders. "If I'm working late you get to pick him up from school, and you're teaching him art."

"Well, it's not a problem," Steve said, trying to downplay it. He just wanted to help out Mary, he liked to consider her a friend as well as his Handler. She was really good at her job. "It's not like there's something that keeps me constantly busy right now-"

"Exactly," Mary said, looking at him. "Tony can't go out and pick up Peter last minute, and Tony is wonderful with electronics, and science in general. "We've decided that a lot of it is stuff that we don't want Peter experimenting with until he's at least eight or nine. I'd prefer thirteen, but Peter is extraordinarily smart." Mary grabbed a water bottle, throwing one to Steve, and grabbing one for herself. "Tony's company keeps him busy, a lot of the time. So, when Peter suddenly starts talking about the new neighbor,..." She trailed off, letting Steve finish the thought.

And it did start to make some sense. Did Tony think that he was trying to take Peter from him? Peter talked about Tony all the time, though, he adored his father. Steve didn't have much time with his father, and his mother for that matter, but these were different times.

When Steve got back to his apartment he went to his study, the files on the desk. Peggy's file had been moved to the side. He had gone through her file just after Christmas, which really wasn't the best time of year, but he couldn't help himself. He had needed time to really digest what he had read, happy that she had had the chance to have a family, to live her life, but it was still hard. He hadn't been able to go through the other files yet, not sure if he could handle it. Today though, he was going to try again.

Steve pulled out the chair to the desk, sat down and reached for the first file on top, and opened it. 'Howard Stark'. There were a few pictures under a paperclip, and he pulled them out. On top there was a picture of the Howard Stark that he had met, young, cocky, and so confident about everything he did. Underneath was a picture of him with Peggy, the founding of SHIELD. And under that was a picture of him with another woman; flipping the picture over someone had printed 'Howard & Maria '68.'

It seemed that the others had been able to make a family after the war, and Steve was happy to see it. Howard's wife was beautiful, dark hair and green eyes. Steve looked back at the file, reading through the file, skimming until he got to what had happened after the war. Howard had been integral to the Allies victory, but Steve wondered at what cost. Stark Industries had helped America in the arms race, making new weapons, and propelling his business. Howard had also had a son, Anthony, but there was no picture attached. Anthony wasn't mentioned much through out the rest of the file. And then something as simple as a car accident had claimed their lives. He wondered what Howard would think he was alive today, Steve wondered how it would feel to have a familiar face around as well. Maybe, soon, he might look for this Anthony. Maybe it wouldn't be too weird to speak with an old friend of his father's. Maybe.

Tony sucked in a breath, trying to breath after it felt like he had deposited most of his internal organs into to the toilet, again. "J," Tony wheezed out, pulling himself over to the sink to grab the washcloth that was there. "More labs." He grabbed the washcloth, putting it over his head, and let out a little breath as the coolness hit the fever he had started to run. Tony was deftly trying to ignore the possible red he saw in the water, and was more focused on why he felt like absolute shit when he had done nothing but eat an actual meal, and go to bed earlier than two in the morning.

Tony flushed the toilet and pushed himself up, carefully, and waiting for his feet to be able to hold him up with having to think about it. Jarvis opened every door that he could along the way, So Tony could keep pulling himself along the wall, pausing when he felt that he might be getting too dizzy, or that his stomach might try to rebel again.

Pepper was supposed to come over to bring him the paperwork to sign for the Stark Expo, and his latest idea, so it could be delivered to the Board for approval. He could not look, or feel, like this when she got here. She'd rat him out to Mary, and she'd be over here to check on him, and if he was contagious he didn't want Peter to get sick because Mary had caught whatever he did. Tony was sure that wasn't what was happening, that would be too simple.

Tony slumped into the chair by his computer station, taking a few deep breaths, closing his eyes. He was starting to feel like this more often, and there had to be something happening, and now he needed to find out. What if it was genetic? What if it could have been passed down to Peter? He had to be prepared, to get on top-

"Sir?" Tony opened his eyes at Jarvis's voice. He saw that the computer screens were lit up with test results. When had Tony taken the blood sample? He glanced at his arm and saw that there was a little gauze square with a little spot of blood on it. Huh.

"These the results?" Tony pulled himself up a little to look at the screen.

"I'm afraid so, Sir." Tony didn't like it when Jarvis spoke like he was sorry. "The palladium levels in your blood appear to be increasing, with the increased use of the arc reactor and the Iron Man suit." Tony rubbed his face with one hand as he listened to Jarvis. "Unfortunately, the device that is keeping you alive, is also killing you."

"Yeah, kind of figured that out," Tony breathed out. "Alright, so, how do we fix this?" Tony leaned in towards his computer, closing his eyes briefly from a wave of dizziness. "First, something to counteract this, because I can't keep feeling like this if I haven't ingested copious amounts of alcohol."

Tony's fingers tapped on the reactor in his chest as Jarvis started to bring up windows of information around him. He would need to make a new reactor piece for his chest, one with a more accessible core. He would need to keep replacing the palladium core, in an attempt to stop the build up of the heavy metal in his system. He couldn't eliminate it, not yet, but he needed to buy himself more time. He'd also need an easier way to check the palladium levels in his blood, he couldn't keep coming down to the lab for a full workup.

He could tackle this, as well as get going on the Stark Expo, and build up a prototype for new energy, run Stark Industries, and be a more constant role in Peter's life. He was Tony Stark. But maybe, there were a few too many things on his plate, maybe there was a way to make things a little easier. He needed more time, and he'd have to make it somehow. Tony watched Pepper coming towards the lab, and a few more ideas started to pop up, to play out, and take form.

Tony knocked on Mary's door, trying his damnedest not to look behind him where he knew The Neighbor's door to be. He wasn't sure if the man was home, but he didn't want anymore awkward encounters. Since Valentine's Day he had seen Steve six more times, and all but two had been with Peter. He and Steve had practically run into each other when Steve was coming back from his morning jog. Tony was forced to be up early for a meeting with Pepper, and he told Mary that he could take Peter to school. As he got out of his car, not only did he almost hit Steve with the door, he stepped out and almost face planted into the taller mans chest. (Not that he would have minded, for a few seconds at least.)

The second time that Tony had seen Steve without Peter, he was heading towards SHIELD to meet with Mary and Coulson. Tony had luckily been dressed casually, jeans, a t-shirt, and leather jacket, and had thought enough ahead to cover the glow from the arc reactor. He saw Steve coming out of the building and quickly changed his trajectory to make it look like he wasn't about to head in. It was too late to get away from Steve, as was evidenced when Steve walked over to him.

"Tony?" Tony glanced over at Steve, nodding a little, shaking his hand when the blonde extended the formality. Wow, did he had a hell of a grip.

"Yeah, hey," Tony nodded a little, looking around a bit, not letting Steve's eyes settle on anything. "Fancy seeing you around here, getting out of your apartment and all that. Have a meeting or something?"

"I was actually wondering the same thing about you," Steve said, and Tony noted that he hadn't actually answered Tony's question.

"Yeah, well, I work around here, and I just got out of a zoning meeting," Tony continued, shrugging a little.

"For that project you were working on, right?" Seemed Steve had a good memory. That or Peter kept talking about it; could be either honestly.

"Yeah, gonna be big stuff, real proud of it. Hey, listen, don't wanna hold you up, I'm sure we'll see each other around, again." Tony pat his shoulder with his hand and started walking again. He could just circle around and take the back entrance to the building.

"Come on in, Tony." Mary opened the door, leaving it open for him. He could smell some food in the oven. Closing the door he dropped the glasses and hat on the table, and saw Peter jump up from his seat at the table.

"Hi Daddy!" Peter ran over, jumping up, wrapping his arms around Tony's waist, his legs around Tony's leg.

Tony stumbled back a little, chuckling, ruffling Peter's hair. "Hey, kiddo! How's homework going?" Tony took steps, shaking Peter as he walked, making him giggle. "Mama! I've got something stuck to me!"

"Looks like it's boy shaped," Mary said from the kitchen.

"I thought the apartment was supposed to spray for this stuff, I'd get your deposit back." Tony shook his leg out, making Peter squeal. "It's stuck tight, I don't know what to do."

"I don't have anything for that." Mary smirked a little, looking over at them. "I think maybe, you have to give it a hug."

"What's if it's sticky?" Tony made an exaggerated face. "What if it gets all over me?" Tony held onto the table, and lifted the leg with Peter on it. "You just want me to go ahead and do this?" Tony reached down, grabbing Peter around the waist with his arm, hefting him up under his arm. He spun Peter around a little and pulled him into a big hug.

"Yes, that's exactly what I want you to do!" Mary said over Peter's laughing. "See, now it's not stuck to your leg anymore."

Peter wrapped his arms around Tony's neck, and his legs around his waist. "Now it's stuck to my chest!" Tony laughed and dropped into a chair, arm catching Peter so he could sit in his lap. "How was school, kiddo? Get all your homework done?"

"It was okay." Peter pulled his notebook over with one of his school texts. "I'm almost done."

"You can stay in my lap, if you keep working on that while I talk to Mama, okay?" Tony turned Peter around in his lap, so he facing the table and his notebook now. He kept an arm around Peter, to keep him steady in his lap as Mary came out to sit by them. Peter nodded and started to work on his homework again.

"What's so important that you wanted to talk in person?" Mary put a glass of water in front of Tony, with her own glass in front of her.

"I'm thinking of making Pepper CEO," Tony said as he took a drink of water. Mary's eyes widened a little and she looked at him. "It's not like she doesn't make a lot of the decisions anyway. She'd be getting the title and pay for the work she actually does, and won't be stuck babysitting me anymore." Mary leaned forward and put the back of her hand to his forehead. Tony was secretly glad that he hadn't left the house without drinking the chlorophyll that he and Jarvis had some up with. He might have looked crappier than he did. "I'm not sick."

"No, but what's coming out of your mouth, it sounds like responsibility." Mary narrowed her eyes at him a little, studying him.

"Well, I was making a list," Mary's eyes narrowed a little more, "and I realized that there's a lot on my plate right now. So, I needed to make it smaller."

"Making it smaller means giving away your job?" Mary leaned back in her seat, watching him closely. Tony had to remember that she used to work the FBI, and now worked with SHIELD; he couldn't give anything away.

"Well, I've got the Expo coming up," Tony said with a little one armed shrug. "It's not going to be ready by the time I wanted it to be, but that's alright. It's still going to take a lot of effort. And I've got this new project, where I am going to be involved in almost every detail."

"What's it going to do?" Mary asked, taking the notebook from Peter, handing him another one as he switched homework subjects.

"It's a prototype," Tony started. "It's going to be a tower, one that runs off of clean energy." Mary tilted her head, curious. "Not connected to any power grid, self-sustaining."

"You have something that can do that?" Mary asked. Her eyes widened a little in recognition when he tapped his chest, nails tapping the glass covering of the arc reactor. "But, doesn't that run off of heavy elements? Damaging ones, for the earth?"

"I'm working on that, actually," Tony said. It wasn't just the earth that the arc reactor was dangerous for. "There was the large one back in Malibu, and that generated power, and it was safe enough to be near. And if I can make this in a cave, who's to say that I can't make another one that can generate enough energy to power a building, and eventually a city block in New York, or even an entire city?"

"If anyone can do it, it's you, Tony." Mary said, then pulled Peter's homework up to read over it. "But you can't hand over the Expo to Pepper? Or the construction part of this tower to her? It has to be CEO?"

"She's good, she's been doing this for years, honestly." Tony looked over Peter's shoulder, watching him do his math homework. He smirked a little, proudly, as his son was working through them like it was elementary- well, like it was nothing for the little boy. "And, it frees me up enough to be there, more, for you and Peter," Tony added quietly.

"Tony-"

"Listen, we all know that next month is my birthday," Tony said, quickly changing topics. "And, SI has sponsored a vehicle in the Monaco Grand Prix." Mary raised an eyebrow at him over the notebook. "I want to take you and Peter with me to Monaco, to celebrate." Now Mary's eyes widened. "It's like a family vacation, kind of, thing. Those happen, right? For birthdays?"

"Where's Monaco?" Peter asked, looking over at Mary.

"It's in France, sweety," Mary told him, then looked back up at Tony. "You just want to up and go to Monaco?"

"Grand Prix," Tony reminded her. "F1 races, all that fun stuff. Really, it'll be all kinds of fun. I'll talk to the school-"

"I will talk to the school." Mary stopped him. "It'll be all over the news if even one of those secretaries recognizes you."

"So that's a yes, then?" Tony smirked, leaning in a little. Peter had looked up at Mary now, smiling, adopting the same hopeful look that Tony had on his face at the moment. "Please?"

"Please, Mama?" Peter parroted. Mary looked between the two of them.

"You're both going to be the death of me. Fine, okay, we'll go!" Mary shook her head, smiling a little as Peter whooped, hugging Tony. He didn't even know what was going on, but all he knew was that he was going to some place with his Mama and Daddy, all for Daddy's birthday.

May 2010

In the end, all Tony had to do was talk Pepper in circles until he sprung it on her that he wanted to make her CEO. She was shocked, he knew she would be, but had accepted. She also managed to get out of him that he had wanted to spend more time with Peter, and she could almost forgive him for selling off their private art collection.

The day before they all left for France, Tony was called to DC for a senate hearing, no doubt about the Iron Man armor again. Steve was showing Peter how to blend some of the colored pencils that he had when he caught the headline on a news station.

Steve glanced up, and saw the back of a man with brown hair, looking at the people behind him, ignoring the Senators who were trying to get his attention. The headline at the bottom of the screen said "Anthony Stark - Former CEO Stark Industries", and Steve could see the similarities already to Howard. That was Howards' son alright, even the cockiness that rolled off of him. Steve rolled his eyes a little, grabbed the remote and changed the channel before the man turned around. It was obvious that the man would make a circus of the hearing.

Everything he had read about Anthony Stark online pointed to him being a Grade A, well, ass. Steve hadn't needed to read much more after seeing a history of wild parties, drinking, some drugs, and lots of women. He couldn't believe that that was how Howards' son had turned out; nothing like the man that he had known back in the war. Steve wondered if this Anthony's parents were turning in their graves at how he acted. The Howard he had known would be.

There was a knock on the door and Mary walked in after a second. Both Peter and Steve looked up, smiling at her. "Hi Mama."

"Hey, baby," she smiled, kissing the top of his head as she walked over. As Steve's front door swung shut, he saw a red headed woman walking by, towards the exit of the apartment. "How's your drawing?"

"Almost done," Peter grinned. "Is Daddy back from DC yet?"

"Not yet." Mary sat next to Steve, and he raised an eyebrow at her. She was about to dismiss it until Peter continued.

"Daddy said he had to go talk to some old men, who didn't know what they were talking about." Peter said, going back to his drawing. "Even Mr Steve turned the channel."

Mary blinked and looked at Steve. "It was Howards' son, I didn't stay on the channel."

"Ooh," Mary said, making her mouth a little 'o'. "Peter's dad works for Stark Industries, so he would be down there, too. While his boss deals with that, Tony is getting the rest of his project off the ground." She felt a little bad lying to Steve, but she really didn't know how Steve would react to Tony being the same Anthony Stark, and she didn't want Tony or Peter knowing that Steve was Captain America. Steve was doing really well, and he hadn't decided on if he wanted to get back into any kind of field work or not yet. He was going to decide when they got back from Monaco.

"Does he know Mr Stark?" Steve couldn't help but asking. He had thought about going to get an appointment with Anthony, before he did his limited research, but thought that it might be weird, for both of them.

"Probably," Mary admitted, looking over at Peter's drawing. "He's head of several projects, so I'm sure that they've talked business before. He doesn't really talk about that much with us. Are you going to show that to Daddy?"

Peter nodded. "Yup, it's his birthday present." Mary smiled and ruffled his hair a little. Steve leaned over, helping Peter blend the colors again, ("It's a special pencil from Mr Steve!"), and she watched them with a small smile. Mary almost wished that she could bring Steve with them, she had a weird feeling about going to Monaco.

What was Tony thinking? Oh, getting out of the restaurant, away from Pepper and Natalie Rushman, that was easy. Getting over to the Grand Prix, checking in on Mary and Peter up in one of the VIP boxes? Childs play. Going down to the cars, putting on a Stark racing suit and declaring that he was going to race? Tony was going to blame all that on the palladium. It was obviously making him sick, clouding his judgement.

Starting the F1 vehicle was nothing, he checked the screen the technicians were showing him, and nodded. He was Tony Stark, he already knew how this vehicle would perform, and he knew how he could get it over the finish line, preferably in first place. He was supposed to be watching the race with his son, but they had the rest of the weekend as well. The vibration of the vehicle all around him felt amazing, gave him a rush almost like the Iron Man suit, but it was different. He could practically feel Pepper's anger with him now, but this was his birthday, it was his time, with his family... Possibly his last.

Of course he wasn't expecting the man in the middle of the track when he came around the bend. Was that electri- And then he was in the air, with the car. He tumbled int he air, unable to get out of the vehicle, his brain working in slow motion, along with the rest of time. Tony's body jerked as he landed, letting out a shout when his head, thankfully protected by the helmet, scraped against the ground.

His head was hammering in his chest, his head was pounding, and he got a body shivering sensation of fear. The man was coming towards him, that man was after him! He pulled the helmet off, and wriggled around, grasping for the restraints that kept him in the vehicle. The car tilted a bit, unsteady, and Tony thought that he could still use that to his advantage to get out.

There were other cars around that had been, cut?, by whatever weapon this man had. It was a good thing his legs didn't want to work with him just yet, cause Tony needed to keep close to the ground. He skirted around the damaged car parts, watching the man walk past him, eyes only on the F1 racing car that he had just been in. Tony grabbed part of a red car, watched the man slice through his own car with his whip, pushed down the fear, and swung at the mans head.

It connected, but the man barely budged. He turned around, looked right at Tony, and Tony was already moving backwards. The man brought his arm up, and Tony dodged. He brought his other arm up and Tony moved to the other side, losing his footing. An electrified whip came down on the ground and Tony spread his legs, feeling heat uncomfortably close to body parts he really rather liked.

He scrambled up, turning and throwing himself forward. Unfortunately, one of the mans' weapons caught his leg, throwing him forward into an overturned car. He grunted, then shouted when his head connected with the underside of the car, and he flopped back onto the ground. Tony must have been imagining it, but he sword he heard two shouts when he landed on the ground. Two different names, but both for him. There was no way that Mary or Peter would have down here, not with this happening.

Tony saw the gas leaking from the car that his body, and head, had just become intimately familiar with, and saw the man moving closer int he broken mirror. He had a shot. Those whips were conducting electricity, and they were making sparks as they dragged across the ground. Tony saw the chest piece, something that looked frighteningly familiar, and he was already working out how the set-up worked. He had to time this just right.

The man started to wind the whips around, he was aiming up for a good strike. Tony moved as he saw the mans up start to go up. He jumped to his feet, and as the whip came down on the car, Tony was tucking and rolling across the ground, his body groaning in protest. He came up to his feet, the car exploding, fire and heat blasting onto his back, and moved back up to his feet.

"Tony!" Tony whipped around, and saw Mary above him in the stands.

"What are you doing? Get out of here!" Was she crazy? Where was Peter? Tony quickly patted at his arm when some flame licked his cheek. How did he not notice that he was on fire sooner.

Tony jumped back as the man cut through the burning car, pushing him closer to the fence. "Pepper gave me this!" Mary shouted again, pulling up a red suitcase. Bless Pepper and Happy. Tony jumped up on the fence, climbing up as far and as quickly as he could. Mary tossed the suitcase, Tony reached out for the handle, and the fence was suddenly falling backwards as a whip sliced through the links.

Tony fell hard, twisting, with the suitcase, and gasped as his chest, and arc reactor, landed on top of the suitcase. Tony's vision swam a little, but he didn't have time to be reminded that he was a mortal, he needed to get into the suit.

Jumping up, Tony kicked the case, and it opened up. He slid his hands into the holds, pulling it up as he turned so that he could face his enemy. The man was looking over at Mary, who was backing up, but a look of determination on her face, and Tony's suit assembled around him.

"Hey!" Tony shouted, aiming his hand up as the man turned around. "I'm over here." The whining charge of the repulsor was the only warning the man had before Tony shot. And apparently the only one he needed. The man used the whip to deflect the shot, but Tony fired again. To the same result. A whip wrapped around Tony's wrist, then his neck, and threw him to the ground.

"Tony!" Mary was still there. Tony couldn't let this man hurt her, or get to Peter. The electricity was starting to short out the suit, the HUD was flickering, and there was a lot of red in his vision. This had to stop.

Tony started to wrap the whip around his arm, then around his body. He could feel the electricity moving through him now, the suit becoming a nice little conductor, which shouldn't have been possible. He moved closer and closer to the man, until he was right there, in front of him, with no more room to move his whip. Tony swung his left fist, hitting the mans side, then swung the ride, hitting his jaw, and his left again to connect with his gut. Tony threw the man to the ground, the whips becoming loose enough to slid off, and he walked over, grabbing the power supply from the mans chest.

The HUD was still flickering, but he was able to get an analysis. This man had built an arc reactor. Tony crushed it in his hand, looking over towards Mary. He was about to enter a shit storm, again.