Thank you for the reviews! And sorry for misspelling Sabina's name! it was about one in the morning and I was in auto mode. Sabina isn't exactly a common name

Anyway, on with the story

Chapter 2

Tony grumpily pulled himself to bed, he still had nothing of practical use on Alex except he had disappeared just under a year ago after going to live with the Pleasure family. They had all died in a house fire when he disappeared.

Yawning he landed on his bed. Usually by now he would be in bed by request of Pepper, but she was in Europe securing a business deal. It didn't take long to fall asleep. But it didn't take long to wake up either.

He woke drowning in sweat. Slamming the switch for his bedside lamp he sat up, panting, grabbing for Pepper, forgetting she was in Sweden on a business trip. He groaned and wiped the sweat of his face. He was better, better than he had been. He only got nightmares some of the time.

"Sir, do you wish me to contact Miss Potts?" came the voice of his AI system. Miss Potts had insisted that Jarvis have a contact system to her for whenever Tony had a nightmare

Tony nearly jumped out of his skin, grabbing at the gun next to his bed. If he was on his own floor he probably would've accidently called a suit in his moment of panic. But Steve had been adamant that Stark couldn't keep any suits on his floors.

"No Jarvis. I'm fine."

"Of course sir"

"I just need to…" he left the sentence without purpose. He didn't need to do anything. He just had to go back to sleep after calming down. Like Pepper once said when she'd walked in on him avoiding the nightmares by fixing a robot 'you're not a machine Tony, you can't screw in a few bolts and be fine. Wounds heal with time, especially mental ones'.

He sighed and walked to the bathroom door, only to find it was locked, yay.

"Jarvis, unlock the door"

"I can't sir, Captain Rogers disabled all electronic locks on his floor and replaced them with key locks. I believe that the key is in your room, but the hallway entrance to this bathroom is open"

"Dammit Steve… thanks Jarvis"

"A pleasure sir"

Tony walked out into the room and into the hallway, still half awake. But snapping to alertness as a kids scream echoed in the hallway. He ran to the source and charged into the room.

Alex was withering on his bed, muttering and begging at some invisible force before whimpering and screaming. Tony approached with caution, he had to wake the kid up. He knew from experience that he shouldn't but he couldn't bare listening to this kid's pain. Avoiding a flailing arm he gently placed his hand on Alex's arm.

The next thing was quite a blur for Tony. He had a heel collide with his chin and somewhere in the process of being hit more and slammed into he ended up on the floor being strangled. He struggled against his attacker punching at the guys' chest. But his attacker, who he now remembered to be Alex, held strong. He would have attempted to yell for Steve but he could barely breathe.

Thankfully something grabbed Alex and Tony could breathe again. Gasping for breath he looked round to see Alex being held against a wall by Steve, who was saying something to try snap Alex out of his terrified state.

He stood up and heard Steve's voice.

"Alex, you're safe, look at me, I'm not your enemy, Tony is not your enemy, and we're not SCORPIA. You're at the avenger's tower in New York. I'm Steven Grant Rogers, you know me as Steve. He's Anthony uhhhhh…" Steve looked at him for help.

"Edward"

"He's Anthony Edward Stark, you know him as Tony. I cannot emphasise this more. You. Are. Safe."

Tony could see that throughout Steve's rambling Alex's breathing had been steadying. Steve had noticed it too.

"I'm got to let go of you know, ok?" He looked carefully at Alex, Alex nodded. "Ok".

Steve let go of Alex. The three of them stood in complete silence for a few seconds panting and looking at each other. Alex was the first to move. Groaning he slid down the wall he was still leaning on until he was sitting on the floor with his head in his hands.

"Please tell me I didn't hurt anyone" he questioned sadly pushing a hand through his hair.

"Well I might have a few bruises but, you didn't really hurt me." Said Tony, looking awkwardly at Steve. Not really knowing what they should do with the miserable teenager on the floor who had just groaned again.

"I'm so sorry"

"Don't sweat it, you had a nightmare. I woke you up. You responded the way your body felt it should to protect you." Said Tony dismissively. Trying to make the kid feel better.

"You're not the only one who suffers them here. I have PTSD from the war." Murmured Steve, tony looked at him with shock, he knew the captain suffered but never heard him admit it out loud to anyone.

"And I still get nightmares from flying that nuke through the portal" he said. Tony had no idea why he had said that, only Pepper and Rhodey knew and here he was telling Steve and a boy he had met the day before at two in the morning. "All of us have some mental wound from somewhere, maybe with the exclusion of Thor".

"I was kidnapped with my best friend just over 11 months ago. After she watched her parents get killed, they then tortured both of us and killed her as a way of getting at me. I only escaped 5 weeks ago. I thought I was still there, so I tried to kill you." Said Alex quietly, staring at the ground.

Steve and Tony stared in shock at Alex. Tony had known whatever happened was bad, but whatever those bastards had put him through for, 10 months, he probably would be dead by now.

"That's why I'm here, they want to finish what they started. You can't tell the others. Not even your family if you have one. Not the director either. I feel you deserved an explanation after I tried to kill you both. Promise on your life that you won't tell anyone, please."

Tony was almost scared at the stark difference between the Alex he had met earlier and this Alex. Then again, he knew how to wear a mask and pretend everything's fine, when really it's being torn apart. He could recognise what Alex was doing.

"Won't tell a soul." He said

"I promise" said Steve his voice was firm, almost like he was challenging someone to question him.

"Thanks" muttered Alex. "I'm going to get food"

Tony followed the kid out the room.

"You don't have to come with me."

"Sadly, I do. Babysitting duty, remember"

"Fine, but don't expect me to talk"

"Ok"

Tony went and sat on the sofa, switching on the TV as Alex made waffles.

Once he was done Alex came and sat on the other side of the sofa, curling up and chewing on his waffle.

They sat in silence for about 4 hours, communicating through nods and grunts when changing the channel.

Finally Tony switched off the TV and got up. Taking the waffle plate from Alex and walking towards the kitchen.

"Sabina"

Tony instantly stopped, turning to Alex, who hadn't moved from his place on the sofa.

"Her name was Sabina"

Tony nodded, unsure how to react, he wasn't good at emotions. Something he got from his dad.

"The others are going to be up in a while. The assassins will probably do some sparing down here. If you want to go grab a shirt. I keep some of mine in that shelf above the TV if you want to grab one" he said back.

"Thanks" answered Alex, Tony felt like he wasn't just being thanked for offering a shirt.