Is this chapter 20? And we have made exactly no progress through the story of the actual movie. Wow. I apologize. This may have to split into multiple stories.

*watching television intently*

Taylor, you should read a book every once and a while.

I find that it consumes much of my time and gives no payoff. Movies are much more simulating.

Books actually make you think. They exercise your brain. Think of it like reading is eating, and watching movies is being fed mushy crap through a funnel and a tube.

...you like movies too.

I know. I'm trying to make a point. You want to watch Alien?

Hells yes!

Roll story.

Tyler was no stranger to multitasking. There had been many a day when he had helped his sister on her homework while simultaneously doing his own. On this particular occasion, however, he needed total concentration, because he was performing electronic surgery on his father's electronic heart. Luckily, this was quite a bit easier then it would sound to a casual onlooker. This is because Tyler was not only innately familiar with the workings of the Arc Reactor (a different model, which added a bit of difficulty, but the basics had stayed the same throughout its evolution. The only notable exception was the early inclusion of the paladium battery, which Tyler made a mental note to warm his father about later) and because he was a hereditary genius.

As a matter of fact, at the moment his only major obstacle was the somewhat loud distraction his sister was creating. "Oh, awesome!" she shouted behind him, eyes fixed on a holographic screen that Tony had apparently installed in his workshop just for the hell of it. It had probably been intended to project blueprints onto (or possibly porn) but it seemed to work just fine for the violent movies that Taylor loved. Right now she was watching some horror movie where the bad guy killed people in their dreams. Tyler made a mental note to later ruin that for her by telling her how sceintifically impossible it was.

He just had to block the output of the Arc Reactor for a moment, just long enough to solder the broken capacitors back in place. He held his breath as he broke the circuit, feeling a block of responsiblity crash down on him so hard he nearly forgot his task. He was saving his father's life. That was what he was doing. He made a couple quick fixes to the circuitry. It might not last forever, because they were improvised, but it would do for now. Later when his dad was not dead, he could fix them more permanently.

Taylor was bored. Watching Tyler perform surgery had been interesting for a while, but after a while it all started to look the same to her untrained eyes. Metal looked like wires looked like other wires. He didn't seem to care that she had no idea what was happening, either, which irritated her. He just made short requests for various tools strewn about the messy workshop. He didn't even say what he needed them for. This was very annoying for Taylor, who was an attention lover born and raised. Taylor decided that the solution to this problem would be to watch a movie. This was her solution to many problems.

This is why Taylor was sprawled on a very comfortable couch that she figured Past Tony probably slept on very frequently, watching Freddy Krueger murder the hell out of people in her sleep. When she was in a bad mood, she liked seeing people die gruesomely. It was not a habit that her brother approved of. This generally made her more eager to do it.

Tyler shouted from behind her, "Tay! Miniature screwdriver, stat!"

She scrambled up from her spot on the couch, paused the movie mid-murder, and located a box full of tiny screwdrivers. "Er- how miniature did you want?"

"Seven-eighths of an inch."

"Which one is that, exactly?"

Tyler sighed, never once looking up from the reactor. "Just give me the box. I'm almost done."

Taylor passed him the box, raising an eyebrow in disbelief when he cast a look at all of the nearly-identical screwdrivers in there and pulled out the apparently unique one that he needed. He was just adding onto the Arc Reactor's power capacitor so it wouldn't overload as easily (as a rule, Tyler liked to made sure bad things didn't happen twice) and tweaking the limitations on the connecting wires when Tony's eyes snapped open.

Uh-oh.

When Tony Stark woke up, the first thing he wondered was whether he had gotten very drunk to celebrate his escape from the terrorists and perhaps hallucinated some very strange things he could have sworn had happened. He felt sick and weak, symptoms he normally associated with a hangover, and he was slumped against a table in his lab. Okay, that could fit with his current theory. He'd gotten drunk down here before.

And his time-traveling son was wrist-deep in his chest cavity. Ooookay then.

Tony wanted to put his head through a wall. He then tried to struggle off of the table in order to do just that, jarring Tyler's hands and putting a long, shallow scratch along his chest muscle.

"Taylor! A little help please!"

The part of Tony's brain that wasn't freaking out thought that this was funny, because Taylor was a girl and probably couldn't restrain him and oh wow she was strong. Taylor swiftly pinioned Tony's arms to his sides, then slapped him twice across the face for good measure.

"Anti-psychosis treatment? I didn't know you knew that," Tyler said curiously.

"What? No, that was for the time he grounded me in order to hide his mistake from Mom."

"Which one?"

"Remember when all of a sudden JARVIS would only say swear words for a while?"

"Oh, yeah! It sounded so weird with his British accent."

"Dad did that when he was trying to get JARVIS to sing Christmas carols and celebrate the holidays and whatnot, but he accidentally fucked up the barrier in between words he can say and words he's not supposed to say. And we were having polite company over."

Tyler would have replied further and agreed with her on the injustice of the situation, but a panel on the wall began to vibrate and Pepper's face appeared on it. It took him a moment to recall the short-lived innovation that had been holographic wall-mounted phones. Although they worked very well, people didn't particularly like landlines anymore, and the StarkPhone was invented instead.

He tapped the ANSWER button. "Hello, this is Tyler."

"Tyler? Where are you? And where is your father? You're late to the stockholders gala!" Even over the phone, Stark Industries' amazing tech unfortunately clarified Pepper's staticy voice, so her murderous tone was crystal-clear.

Next chapter is the party, and I'll try to write Natasha and Coulson in too!

If you review, you get a holographic cookie. ~(::)~