Hush Now

Chapter Three

Regression

Initially, it didn't seem like such a big deal. Tony had amnesia but they figured it would fade quickly. He had ended up with a severe concussion that had nearly required surgery, after all. They didn't realize that most devastating part of Tony's condition was the regression his mind had initiated. They didn't understand exactly how much of himself Tony had lost. After two weeks in SHIELD medical in strange state of going between awake and comatose for days at a time, he'd woken up finally for more than a few hours and been moved back to the tower so Bruce could personally monitor his medical condition. After a week of that, Bruce was trying to figure out what was happening.

Fury stared at Bruce and blinked rapidly. "What do you mean he's regressed?"

Bruce rubbed his face. "Just what I said. He's got no memory, but more than that, he's regressed and lost life skills. I can't identify any significant brain damage to account for his loss of abilities, but every scan I do is inconclusive. He's forgotten how to do the simplest things. It's as though he's literally regressed into childhood. He can't remember how to do a lot of things. He can't even dress himself, but he can take apart anything mechanical."

Fury sighed, sitting back in his seat and turning to look outside the helicarrier. "Okay, well we've got Contrail locked up tight. His father has been throwing lawyers at us left and right, but he backed off once his lawyers got the recordings of the Heart Association assault and the incident on the balcony. I don't think the man knew what his son was doing to Tony."

"What do you want us to do about Tony?" he asked, frowning.

"What can you do?" he asked.

Bruce shook his head. "Nothing, to be honest. We wait. The amnesia and regression is trauma induced as far as I can tell, though there could be a brain injury I've been unable to detect so far. The brain is a mystery and Tony's brain even more so. I could be wrong, and he could never come out of whatever this is. Tony's brain isn't like anyone else's, Director, you know that much. And all the scans in the world aren't going to tell me what's really going on. The concussion triggered mild swelling, and in a normal person, they'd recover quickly. But the swelling may have done more damage than we know in someone like Tony."

Fury nodded. "Alright, let's set up everyone in Stark Tower to deal with this. I'll send Natasha and Clint to help out and pull them off regular SHIELD missions. The last thing we need is Tony getting in trouble in this state. He's dangerous with all his faculties; I can't imagine what would happen if someone got their hands on him like this."

Bruce nodded and headed back to the tower. He'd left Steve in charge of Tony while he was gone. He couldn't be left alone for a moment, they found out. The first time they'd both left him in the dining room for a moment to talk in the living room, they came back to find he'd completely disassembled the toaster, the blender, and the electric skillet with a butter knife and was trying to cobble together pieces to make something that he didn't have the words to explain. His vocabulary had become severely limited, and Bruce assumed that it was some of the swelling had affected Brocca's area.

The next time Bruce had run to the bathroom for no more than five minutes and came back to find him in the middle of trying to pull apart the door control for the elevator that they'd locked so he couldn't run all over the tower. Bruce was beginning to wonder what he'd been like as an actual child, because so far, this semi-child state he was in was maddening.

When he put in the code and came out he found Tony laying in the middle of the large living room watching TV, utterly entranced by whatever it was. Tony had to be dressed and watched while he did the most basic things, and thus far, Steve was having a good time putting him into the oddest outfits. Today he was wearing a pair of blue shorts and a black t-shirt. Bruce didn't think he'd ever seen Tony wear shorts in his life. Where Steve was coming up with these odd bits of clothing was beyond him. He was barefoot and laying on his stomach with his head propped up with his hands and kicking his legs back and forth. Steve was sitting on the couch with a self-satisfied grin. Bruce came over and sat down beside him and snickered.

"That's cheating," Bruce said.

"Nope, not at all. No more than a mom putting a toddler in front of the Disney channel to get a moment's peace. I was about to go crazy, so I thought I'd see if he'd watch TV and for the first time today he stopped talking when I turned this on. Two hours later, and the most I get is a random comment when one episode ends and another begins. And the best part? Marathon," Steve said with a smile.

Bruce snickered. "Well, got to hand it to you, this is genius."

There was a buzz and Bruce got up and went to the elevator and unlocked it to let Clint and Natasha in with their bags. "Hey, guys," he said with a smile.

Natasha and Clint nodded. "How's he doing?"

Bruce smiled and motioned them to the living room. "First time he's been quiet since we brought him back from the helicarrier last week."

Clint frowned and looked at the TV. "What in the world's he watching?" He didn't think he'd ever seen Tony watch TV before other than the news.

"How it's made. Steve's had it on for like two hours and he hasn't moved," Bruce said with a smile. "I mean, he may currently have the seeming mental ability of a five year old, but he's still Tony Stark. Even a five year old Tony Stark had to be hard to keep interested. Not to mention, he isn't really that age, so he's still got all his facilities, at least I'm hoping he does."

They headed into the dining area where they could look into the living area still. The current episode was ending and there would be a break.

"Steve! See that?" they heard from the living room.

"Sure did, Tony. Oh, look, that's cool," he said.

"Um hum," came Tony's voice and he was quiet again.

Natasha grinned. "Okay, so that's cute, even if he is a grown man."

Bruce sighed. "What isn't cute is him taking apart everything he can get his hands on," he said with a sigh. "I've started a box of parts, out of necessity. I have never seen anything like it in my life, and I've worked with a bunch of smart kids. Tony takes the cake."

He pointed to a huge box filled with a bunch of various electronic and mechanical items. "We've lost a blender, a toaster, the microwave, a mixer, the hair dryer, and almost lost the controls to the elevator so far. And that's not counting what happens that we haven't located yet. He never stops talking, seriously, he's always asking questions about everything and telling us all sorts of random things, it's like there's no filter between his brain and mouth, not that there was much of one to start with."

Natasha nodded, sitting down. "So explain to us like we're three ourselves what exactly is going on with him?"

Bruce nodded. "Okay, he's lost a lot of language, we don't know why, but it makes him very frustrated because he can't get things across. I say he has the mentality of a five year old, but I honestly don't know. He's insanely curious and mischievous. Think a five year old with grown up Tony's skills with mechanics. He's forgotten almost all self-care routines, which is unusual for amnesia, and that has me worried. People with amnesia forget their past, they forget things like that, they don't regress like this. I don't know if it is trauma induced or if it is something organic, but the tests I run are inconclusive. I fear we may be dealing with brain injury that I can't identify from the concussion."

Clint arched a brow. "Wow, so is he still Tony?"

"Somewhere in there. I can't find any damage to long term memory centers, and he seems to be encoding new memories fine. Just know he's Tony…." Bruce frowned looking around. "Tony hopped up on caffeine and sugar going without sleep for three days, only all the time."

Natasha nodded as there was a yelp from the living room and they all went around and saw that Steve was the source of the yelp.

Tony had been seemingly watching his show, but there had been a break again, a longer one, and Tony had gotten distracted, it seemed and Steve had fallen into a light doze on the couch. So, in typical Tony fashion, Tony decided to do something to entertain himself. Unfortunately, doing something to entertain himself had ended up being turning the phone, the TV remote and the lamp into a small explosive device and setting it off by Steve and nearly setting the couch on fire. Steve was currently patting out the smoldering couch and Tony was giggling madly and muttering unintelligible things.

Steve stood up and glared at him. Bruce grabbed him by the wrist. "Steve…he doesn't understand."

"We can't let him do this kind of stuff, Bruce," Steve said, glancing at Tony who had stopped laughing and was staring sideways at the TV again.

Bruce shook his head. "And what do you suggest we do?" he asked.

"If he's going to act like a child, treat him like one, that's our only option. I know it isn't his fault, and he's not acting this way on purpose, but we can't just let him run around and do things like this! There have to be boundaries, and we're going to have to figure out how to keep him from hurting himself and everyone else!" he said, rubbing a hand over his blond head.

"And what are you going to do, spank him?" Clint said with a smirk.

The look on Steve's face said that he was not opposed to the idea. "Wait, no," Bruce said, shaking his head. "You are not about to do that. There are other methods. I am not about to explain to Fury that you've taken to spanking Tony Stark as a form of punishment."

Steve shook his head. "It was good enough in my time," he said with a shrug.

"Well, this isn't your time, now is it?" Bruce said with a shake of his head. "He isn't really a child, remember?"

Steve rolled his eyes. "We'll do it your way, but if he keeps it up, I'm telling you now, I'll turn him over my knee without a second thought, and he's not going to get out of my grip."

Natasha snickered at the image in her head of Steve spanking Tony. The snicker turned into a giggle then a laugh. The sight was stuck in her head and she ended up running into the kitchen for a drink, still smothering her laughter. Clint followed her, biting hard on his lip because the same images were going through his brain. Steve frowned and watched them go. Bruce was still staring at him.

"I'm serious, Bruce, don't think I'm not," he said, turning and heading toward his room, leaving Bruce with the troublesome Tony.

Tony got to the end of his episode and looked up to see Bruce sitting on an un-scorched piece of couch. Tony giggled and jumped up onto Bruce's lap, surprising him and hugged him. "Brucie, missed you," he said, straddling his lap with his arms wrapped around Bruce's neck. He snuggled into him and Bruce wrapped his arms around his back. Dammit, why did he have to be so adorable and troublesome at once?

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

The next couple weeks didn't improve Steve's opinion on Bruce's methods of "discipline" of the troublesome man-child. He would often find Bruce attempting to reason with him and could tell obviously it wasn't working. Tony was smart. He was quickly able to figure out how to manipulate Bruce into doing what he wanted him to do. To be honest, he was a brat, Steve thought. He was demanding and selfish, and he kept making things explode randomly. The latest, and they had no idea how he managed it, he was playing with the ever increasing box of parts, and exploded something in the middle of the dining room table that scorched the ceiling. They didn't realize there was anything in the box that could explode. Leave it to Tony to figure it out.

It was honestly hard to remember at the time that he was a grown man and not a child. His language skills seemed to be improving, though, he'd progressed from one and two words to three and four word sentences. Bruce was confident that if they just waited it out, he'd start to improve more. Steve was beginning to think Tony was enjoying all the attention he was getting from everyone. He sat on the couch, a new one, thankfully, and watched the news as Tony crawled up beside him and pushed up under his arm.

"Stevie…" he said, frowning. "Mad at me?" he asked.

Steve smiled, petting Tony's hair gently. "No, Tony, I'm not mad at you. I'm just very frustrated about the explosion in the dining room this morning. You could have hurt yourself badly, you know," he said, giving Tony a stern look.

"I'm sorry. But it was fun," he said, big brown eyes wide and as innocent looking as anyone could want. Steve wasn't falling for it.

Steve ruffled his hair and shook his head. "I'm warning you, Bruce doesn't want it, but if you keep it up, I'm going to punish you, and you aren't going to like it."

Tony made a sour face. "Stevie, sorry," he said, ducking his head again against his chest and staring at the news on the TV.

Steve sighed. It had been a total of a month since they'd been basically babysitting the child-like Tony. He had no idea how someone as old as Tony could be so…annoyingly cute. He pulled him closer and he felt Tony adjust against him. One more incident and he really was going to spank him, whether Bruce said it was okay or not. He was seriously going to hurt himself at this rate.

Natasha came in with the groceries and Tony jumped up and ran into the kitchen immediately. Steve swore Natasha liked to spoil him because she always brought him something from the store.

"Natty, Natty!" he said with a grin, hopping from one foot to the other. "What you bring?" he asked with hopeful eyes.

Natasha smirked. "I don't know, Tony, I heard about your little explosion."

Tony frown. "Sorry, Natty," he said and Natasha ruffled his hair and he grinned.

She handed him a candy bar and Tony grinned, taking it to sit at the dining room table to eat it. At least they had managed to keep him to a few rules, though even that had been hard to do. He had a tendency to wander with food in his hands. Luckily, they had kept him out of the workshop. However, that was about to change.

Honestly, it wasn't really anyone's fault. It happened quickly, and it was because there had been a call from the director. Everyone was distracted for no more than ten minutes, and when they looked, Tony was gone. JARVIS wasn't able to trace him and indicated that Tony might have done something to his interface a few days previously because he was having trouble detecting bio-signs in the tower at all. So everyone decided to go about it the old fashioned way. Steve headed down to the shop, Bruce to the labs, Clint to the lobby, and Natasha to the roof. One of them would have to find him, they guessed.

That one turned out to be Steve, and just as he opened the door to the workshop, an explosion slammed him back out into the hallway. He gasped, running into the lab as smoke cleared and frowned as he saw Tony sitting in the middle of the floor looking extremely shocked and surprised and covered with soot and tiny cuts where debris had blown back over him. Luckily, the explosion had gone away from him and toward the door, so he hadn't been seriously injured. Steve snapped. He'd had enough. Tony could have killed himself after that. He stormed over and grabbed Tony up by the arm and drug him out toward the elevator without a word. Tony seemed too shocked by what had happened to say anything and went along without a struggle.

They reached the floor with Tony's room and he drug him into the bedroom and stood him in front of him. "Tony, you are going to hurt yourself. That blast would have killed you if it hit you. Do you understand that?"

Tony nodded and stared at Steve, obviously shaken by what had happened. He still didn't seem to be able to talk.

"And I'm done with you pulling these stunts. From now on, you do something like this, I'm going to punish you, understand?" he said sternly. Again, Tony just nodded, not really understanding at all what was going on.

Steve sat down on the bed and drug Tony over his lap in one fell swoop and swatted his ass hard, getting a surprised shout and squirm out of him. Steve opened his legs to support Tony's weight and pressed on hand on his back between his shoulders to keep him from getting off. He swatted his clothed rear again, and he gasped and whined, wriggling against Steve.

"Nope, you're getting ten swats, Tony Stark, no getting out of it," Steve said proceeding to lay eight more stinging slaps on his rear until he was sobbing against Steve's leg, grabbing the bed with one hand and Steve's leg with the other.

He then picked him up and held him against his chest, rubbing his back gently. "There, there, it's over, you did well, Tony, you did well, now are you going to do something like that again?" he asked, pushing him back and holding his face with both hands. He thumbed away the fresh tears that were flowing down his cheeks. Tony shook his head and Steve smiled, kissing his forehead. "Good, good," he said, pulling him to his chest again and then realized something extremely surprising. Tony was aroused, extremely aroused by the feel of the hardness digging into his stomach as Tony sat straddling his lap. That wasn't the idea at all, he thought to himself. Oh this was disturbing, he thought to himself, swallowing. All the blood in his body had just rushed south as well. Great.

He heard a knock at the door. Steve sighed, willing away the arousal that was threatening him. The door opened and he saw Bruce, who was frowning deeply.

"Why didn't you tell us you found him?" he asked, annoyed. "And why's he crying?" he asked, coming in and sitting down on the bed beside Steve, running a hand over Tony's head. He brought it back covered in soot and debris.

"Tony had a little accident down in his lab," Steve said, sighing. Bruce was going to mad at him for what he'd just done.

"Accident, is he okay?" Bruce said, looking over him, and noting some small cuts here and there, but Tony was curled up in Steve's lap and he couldn't see much. He'd buried his face in Steve's neck and had his arms latched around his chest tightly and he could hear sniffles and hiccups muffled by Steve's shirt. He looked up. "JARVIS let the others know we've got Tony and he's safe."

"Fine, the blast was aimed toward the hall; I got the brunt when I walked in and he was behind it. I think it really scared him though. It was enough force to have killed him easily if it had hit him though, so…" Steve trailed off from there.

"Steve, please tell me you didn't…you did. That's why he's so upset. I told you…" Bruce said, and Steve saw the greenish tint to his eyes.

"Okay maybe I shouldn't have, but I did it over his clothes, and not even half as hard as I could have, look," he said, pulling down the back of Tony's pants so Bruce could see there was barely a pinkish tinge to his rear. Tony still had his face buried in Steve's neck and was clinging to him and shivered when his clothes were moved. "But that's not the problem."

Bruce frowned. "What is the problem?"

"Huh, I think he um…liked it."

Bruce blinked. "What?" he asked.

Steve nodded. "Um, yeah. Like really, really liked it."

Bruce frowned, still not understanding, so Steve grabbed Bruce's hand and shoved it between him and Tony. Bruce's eyes went wide as Tony ground against his hand with a low moan mixed with a sniff and a hiccup. He pulled his hand back and looked at Steve. "Well, isn't that interesting."

Steve nodded, unsure what to do with the situation. "What do we do about it?"

Bruce looked at him. "Um, don't do that again, would be my suggestion."

Steve nodded, a dark blush rising to his cheeks as Tony continued to try and rub himself against Steve's lower belly. It was obvious he was looking for friction even if his brain was currently not working completely normally, he still had the same urges and needs the adult Tony Stark had. Considering they knew for a fact it had been a long time, it was no wonder he was seeking stimulation.

Bruce gave Steve a cockeyed grin. "You're hard too, aren't you?"

Steve's face reddened even further. It was enough of an answer for Bruce. He rolled his eyes. "It's okay; you know it isn't exactly totally under your control when your body gets aroused. And anyone would be aroused by someone writhing on their lap like that."

Steve gulped loudly as Tony started whining. "What should I do with him?" he asked frantic.

"I'd just let him handle it himself, Steve," Bruce said with a mild smile. "Then go take a shower and handle your own situation," he said with a shrug. "I can take him," he said, reaching for Tony and sliding him away from Steve onto the bed. He was still clinging to Steve and he looked at Bruce with a wide eyed expression.

"Tony, you okay?" Bruce said, gently. Tony nodded but looked unsure of what was going on. "Here, let's go take a bath to make you feel better, right? You're covered with soot and stuff, buddy," he asked.

Tony smiled. "Like bath time," He said nodding at him. Bruce nodded at Steve who stood and left in obvious discomfort.

Bruce led Tony to the bathroom and drew the bubble bath for him. He seemed to love the bubbles. He got him out of his clothes and into the tub and he was quickly distracted by the bubbles. He wondered what exactly it was about the bubbles that drew his attention. Knowing Tony's mind, it could have been anything. Bruce scrubbed out the dust and dirt from his hair and took the chance to check over his wounds. A few surface cuts here and there were the limit of his injuries from the explosion. He had to wonder what it was nearly as bad as Steve had said. He hadn't gotten a chance to look at him, but he would have healed already anyway.

Tony was surprisingly cooperative, though, and Bruce wondered why that was. He smiled to himself, considering that perhaps a little corporal discipline was indeed the trick to dealing with Tony. Of course, the side effect that it aroused him wasn't what Steve was looking for. Tony turned to look at Bruce and smiled.

"Daddy Brucie?" he said, surprising Bruce; that was a first. "Where daddy Stevie go?"

"Daddy Brucie and daddy Stevie? Is that our names now?" Bruce asked, helping him dry off. Thankfully, the bath seemed to have distracted him enough that the arousal had faded.

Tony nodded. "I like."

"Okay, Tony, whatever you like, let's get you in some dry clothes, how about that?" Bruce said, taking him back into the bedroom that he and Steve alternated nights sleeping in with him. He dressed him quickly in a pair of shorts and a t-shirt because he had a feeling he'd be falling asleep before long. It wasn't very late, but having an explosion nearly take off his head would certainly tire him out. He headed down to the common room where Clint and Natasha were watching TV.

"Birdie!" Tony exclaimed, leaping onto the couch by Clint. "What's doing, Birdie?" he asked.

"Even with the brain of a kid, you still gotta call me weird names," he said to him and smiled.

Natasha smirked at him. "How are you Tony? You smell like you just had a bath."

Tony nodded. "Had to cuz I covered in yuck."

Natasha looked at Bruce who rolled his eyes. "Someone found his way down to the workshop a while ago, that's where he disappeared to, and exploded something all over the place. He was quite a mess."

"Daddy Stevie was mad," he said to Natasha with wide eyes.

Natasha held back a giggle. "I bet. You could have hurt yourself. Wait, dad Stevie?" she said, looking up at Bruce who had a smirk on his own face.

"Apparently that's our names, daddy Brucie and daddy Stevie, according to Tony," he said with a sigh.

Natasha smiled. "That's sweet though, you guys do take care of him most the time."

Steve came into the room, still looking a bit rosy in the cheeks. Everyone turned and his rose blush turned a bit red. He ducked into the kitchen to strange looks from Clint and Natasha.

"He was a bit rattled and got some of the blast," Bruce said. He looked to Tony. "Don't you think you should say something to Steve?"

Tony nodded and got up, going slowly into the kitchen where Steve was pulling out things to make for dinner. Tony ducked his head shyly.

"Daddy Stevie," he said, looking up at him from under his lashes.

Steve turned at the phrase and looked at Tony, and almost got an instant hard on. How had he never noticed that Tony was so damn adorable? He swallowed. "Wh-what?"

Tony smiled. "I sorry about 'splosion. I didn't mean it," he said, and Steve was happy to see he was putting together somewhat coherent sentences now. Verbs were still an issue, especially be verbs for some weird reason. Other things were coming back slowly, almost as though he were going through the developmental stages like a real child would but rapidly.

"And I'm sorry about what I did. I overreacted, and I am just glad you're okay," Steve said with a nod.

Tony nodded, looking down and wringing his hands for a moment before looking back at Steve and smiling. "I love you," he said and turned and almost ran out of the kitchen, leaving Steve to stare into space with a pinched face and an extremely annoying problem once again.

Tony came out and jumped on the couch and hid his face in Natasha's bosom, surprising her and Clint both. "What are you doing?" she asked, trying to pry Tony's face from her cleavage. Had he been himself, he would have been tossed across the room already.

Bruce frowned, wondering what had happened. He didn't seem upset. He looked into the kitchen to see busy with dinner. He too had a blush on his cheeks still. Nothing bad, obviously, but something that had embarrassed them both. He went back to find Natasha had dislodged him from her breasts and he was not interested in a mystery diagnosis show. Steve called dinner and everyone ate and Bruce took the night with Tony. He took him back, very sleepy it seemed, after dinner. He got him into bed and Tony grabbed his arm.

"Daddy Brucie?" he said quietly.

"What is it, Tony?" he asked smiling as he sat down beside him.

"I love you too," he said with wide eyes and Bruce realized he must have told Steve that before.

Bruce smiled and leaned over kissing his forehead. "Well, that's good, because I've always loved you, Tony," he said quietly before getting up to change into his own pajamas. By the time he got back, he was deep asleep. Bruce smiled. He was completely innocent when he slept and looked just like Tony of several months ago. Bruce leaned over and kissed his cheek again before he laid down on the other side of bed and fell into a deep sleep of his own.

Something woke him and he realized it was the pinch of a needle in his thigh. His eyes flew open and the hulk was railing at the back of his mind. Everything was fuzzy around him and he felt someone's hands on him. Voices around him and he thought he heard Tony screaming for help and to put him down. Bruce couldn't get his arms and legs to work, and the hulk was furious that he couldn't get out to Tony. Bruce managed to roll off the bed and turn over to see the window was cut out and a dark figure, he couldn't make out who or even what it was, was holding Tony against him and then they were just gone. The world blacked out and spiraled away for a while.

"Bruce!" he heard. "Bruce, wake up!"

Bruce shook and his eyes fluttered open to bright lights. He winced and turned his head. He was in the medical bay. He groaned as he felt a terrible headache blooming behind his eyes. "Shh, Steve, don't yell," he muttered, sitting up and swinging his legs over the edge of the bed.

"I'm not yelling," Steve said, still sounding too loud to Bruce's sensitive ears.

"Okay, they took Tony, who were they?" Bruce said, pushing himself off the bed and stumbling to the computer.

Steve shook his head and steadied Bruce. "No idea, Bruce. Whoever did it hacked JARVIS, or rather, hacked around JARVIS. They knew what they were doing. They came in through the window, dissolved the glass with something, and injected you with something I've never seen before," he said as he watched Bruce go over the files.

"This is impossible, not even my hulk tranquilizer works this fast," he said as he looked over the formula for the stuff they'd used on him. "How long was I out?"

Steve shifted uncomfortably. Bruce stood up and saw that Natasha and Clint both stood in the background. "How long?" he asked quietly. The unspoken question was how long had Tony been missing.

"Two days, Bruce," Steve said quietly. "We've done everything we could to wake you, nothing worked, and Fury has SHIELD on high alert and every available team is searching for him. But…unless you can find some clues to lead us to him, we haven't found anything."

Bruce sat down on the stool heavily and blinked slowly. "There's been no ransom demands? Nothing?"

Steve shook his head. "They must want something from Tony other than money, but he can't even remember who he is, I… If they're trying to get some plans or something from him, he will have no idea."

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Tony was alone and very confused. He was sitting curled up on a cot of some sort inside a small room with a metal door on it. There was a little window in and every once in a while someone would peek inside. There was a small sink and a toilet and other than that there was nothing in it. Every noise scared him and he just wanted something familiar. The only thing familiar he had was the pajamas he was wearing when the men came in and grabbed him from bed. In the back of his mind, things that he knew he should know were trying to push to the surface, but somehow he just wasn't ready for them. And thinking about those things gave him such a headache…

Eyes came to the window again and he flinched away, covering his face and cowering in the corner. The eyes disappeared and he chewed on his knuckle while his heart beat rapidly.

Outside, the owner of the eyes turned to face several others in the larger room. "What the fuck is that?"

"T-tony Stark, sir," one of them said quietly.

"And what the fuck is wrong with him?" the first man asked. "He is barely functional."

"Um, sir, it says here that he suffered a severe concussion recently, and possible traumatic brain injury as a result, but it also might be post traumatic amnesia with no organic cause," one of the henchmen said, looking at a file.

The first man reached out and thumbed through the file. "Why didn't we know this before?"

"I…I got that from the Stark database while-while Sara and Jacks were breaking into to nab him upstairs," the henchman said, chewing his lip. "W-wasn't public record, sir, all tr-treatment was done by B-baner and Shield."

The first man crossed his hands behind his back, his tailored three piece suit impeccable even in the dingy underground bunker they were in. The dust and dirt didn't seem to touch it. He nodded. "Alright. We'll have to do something about it. Send for Dr. Malldrew. Tell him we'll need the elctrostimulus device, as well as the nanos were going to test on the inmates."

"Yes, sir," came the curt reply and the henchman took off.

The well-dressed man sat down and crossed his legs at the knee and steepled his fingers under his chin. Yes, perhaps if they couldn't get the information the old fashioned way, more invasive means would be necessary.