Disclaimer: All characters other than some friendly nurses don't belong to me.
Warnings: I don't know for sure yet but there might be some swearing in the next few chapters so I'm rating it to be sure.
This fanfiction will be set in the Iron Man 1 movie, I hope I find the inspiration to continue it through the second movie and the avengers. If there are things unclear don't hesitate to ask me about them in a review, I'll always try to answer them.
So I now proudly present Life isn't always fair! Chapter 2
An anxious Tony was going over his paperwork. Pepper had delivered his work to his home so he wouldn't have to go to the office today but he took his laptop and paperwork and found himself working in the private waiting room of the hospital.
Miranda came in, carrying a large Starbucks. "You look like you could use this." She smiled patting his knee.
"Any news?" asked Tony looking up from his budget.
"Still on bypass." Miranda sighed. "But no complications of yet."
"Good." Tony turned back to his papers ignoring the nurse. He didn't need comfort, it wasn't that he was a nervous person who's loved one was going under major surgery. He just met the kid two days ago, Tony Stark didn't feel attached to anyone. He didn't need the kid.
Miranda left and Tony was all alone again. And he was glad he was alone, he liked being alone.
Oh what a liar he was.
IM-TB-IM
Tony was working on a program when Walter opened his blue eyes the next day. Moving forward the billionaire wetted the pale lips with a sponge smiling down at the really small six year old. "Hey Tony 2. How are you feeling?"
"Wha… wha are you doing here?" groaned the kid, used to waking up alone.
"Well waiting for you to wake up off course." Tony grinned. "And hiding from Pepper. She wants me to read some very boring papers."
Walter only hummed, holding the bear close to his chest, blue eyes closed as he fought sleep. "Read to me?"
"I only have some paperwork with me, let see what you got." Tony took a black notebook. It was damaged and old, clearly much read. Walter had marked what page he was the last. "What's this? A diary?" Tony frowned. "Dear dairy, Jeff and the boys still refused to visit Walter. The second surgery went well and we'll be able to go home soon. At times like this I wonder if I did the right thing by keeping my fifth son while Jeff clearly wanted an abortion. Then those blue eyes look up at me and he smiles and I feel so guilty that I even considered it. He's so small, and has no idea what the world has in store of him. The obstacles he has to…"
Walter had fallen asleep and Tony smiled sadly. This was clearly the kid's mother's diary, Tony knew it was wrong but his curiosity won and he settled to read through it.
It described the moment Walter was born and the fight she had over the boy's name, she wanted to call him Alan while Jeff named the boy Walter, until the third surgery and the family vacation. The last entry was of her watching Walter playing in the snow. From files he learned that Tony 2's mother died in an avalanche, the rest of the boy's family was classified since it was a closed adoption. Clearly Walter's father didn't really care about the little sick boy since he wasn't 'perfect' like the other four.
Tony ended spending another night at the young boy's bedside after going home for a quick shower and change of clothing.
IM-TB-IM
A week passed by and Tony visited the hospital at least once a day. Luckily the press hadn't found out yet.
From the door, Tony watched Walter working on his school work. The genius smiled at the image, while the two looked nothing like each other physically, their habits and everything was the same. Even when he was really sick the young Antony Stark would keep up with his schoolwork.
"CPS was here today." Miranda said, she was holding a tray with light foods since the six year old was still too weak to eat anything strong. "They found him a new foster family, the worker said there would be a lot of other kids there where he could play with."
"So soon?" Tony asked surprised. "How did he take it?"
"Not well." Whispered Miranda. "He stilled for a moment but continued with his schoolwork without looking up. He doesn't have good experience with group homes."
"I have a meeting to go to." Tony said after a moment of silence. "Can you give him this and tell him I said hi?"
"You don't want to come in?"
"No I have something to do." Tony left the hospital his heart broken. He knew he shouldn't have formed an attachment. Abandonment hurt.
IM-TB-IM
Tony hadn't left his garage since he fled there after leaving the hospital two weeks ago. Focused on is newest project he had just finished seconds ago. His cellphone bleeped, signaling the incoming text.
His eyes scanned over the letters before he dropped everything from his hands. Jumping in his car, he raced to the hospital. At the front desk he tried to catch his breath and ask for Miranda at the same time.
"Mr. Stark." The motherly nurse hurried over to him, "They're settling him in his room now, and he'll be fine in a few days." She reassured the man, guiding him through the halls. "It was touch and go for a while but he came through."
"What happened?" Tony demanded to know.
"From what I gathered, one of the older kids took away his oxygen tank and placed it on a high shelve just out of reach. He thought it was funny to see Walter jump for it. But then the foster mother called for dinner, the boy let Walter alone. Apparently skipped Walter dinner more than once so she checked up on him after the dishes and found him past out from lack of oxygen. He crashed for a moment in the ambulance but they got him back within seconds. We're keeping him for observation for a week so CPS can find a new home for him."
"Thank you for calling me." Tony said.
"I almost didn't. The poor child was heartbroken when you didn't came to say goodbye. You better fix this Mr. Stark, his heart is already weak, and I don't think it can handle being broken again."
On the bed lay Walter, his face pale with an oxygen mask covering most of it. An IV was attached to his hand while the other was holding one of the smaller stuffed animals Tony had given him, the billionaire recalled that the bear was named Koda, after a bear from a movie or something.
Bruises were covering his arms and cheek and when Tony asked about them, Miranda whispered that Walter bruised easily and this is how he was returned to the hospital almost every time. "You just have to grab his arm once, and most foster families have the tendency to be rougher on the children than their parents."
Pulling up a chair, Tony took one little hand in his and settled for another night in the hospital.
IM-TB-IM
Walter woke up in his familiar soft bed, groaning when the realization hit him. He was back at the hospital and didn't die.
He had been so sure that it was the end when the darkness crept up in his eyes but here he was again. "Come on Tony 2, I have breakfast or uh lunch or whatever. I know you're awake." A cheerfully voice said.
"Tony, what are you doing here?" yawned Walter as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes. In the morning the mask had been replaced with the nasal cannula.
"Visiting my favorite child in the world." Tony unloaded a bag with hot chocolate milk and a fruit salad. "I can't stay long, I have a meeting at two."
"You didn't came to say goodbye." Walter said, not looking at the lunch placed on his lap.
Tony rubbed the back of his neck. "I know, and I'm very sorry. I'm just not good in goodbyes. How can I make it up to you?"
A twinkle of mischief sparkled in the blue eyes. "Are you coming tomorrow?"
"Off course Tony 2, the whole day if you want me. We haven't finished the engineering book. We have time to do that tomorrow."
"Then I want to be Tony 1 tomorrow and you'll be Tony 2."
"Only if you finish at least half of your fruit salad." Laughed Tony, Walter only smiled and popped a strawberry in his mouth.
IM-TB-IM
Another week passed quickly and Tony wasn't able to visit as much as he would have liked. The day that Walter was released out of the hospital, Tony walked in with a dossier in his hands. Just in time to see the boy pack his bag and looking up to the CPS lady telling her that he was ready.
"No you're not. Nobody is ready until I say he's ready." Tony said loudly.
"You came to say goodbye." Blue eyes beamed up to him, making Tony feel guilty again that he hadn't done it the first time around.
"I came to bring you a present. Turn around and close those eyes." Ordered Tony. He handed the CPS lady the paperwork his lawyer and the judge had written out. The engineer placed a backpack on the small shoulders and removed Walter's nasal to replace it with a new one. "The bag has room for a few books but it also has a special oxygen tank that fills itself by cleaning air from around you. You don't have to carry that heavy tank again."
"Thanks!" arms were wrapped around Tony's neck and the billionaire breathed in the smell of Walter's shampoo.
Picking the child from the ground, the genius sat on the bed with Walter across of him. "Tony 2, I have to ask you something, and don't be afraid to say no." Tony started suddenly getting nervous. "Well, you see, I was never good in saying goodbyes. I don't attach myself to anyone but I find myself caring a lot about you. I want to protect you, make you smile and happy and all that touchy feeling stuff. I never had this feeling before and I believe it's called parental instincts. I never had much of a dad, he was always working and my mom wasn't around either so I don't know much about parenthood, you neither but I'm sure we can figure something out. So what I wanted to ask you, would you like me to adopt you? I've been working with the judges a lot this week and I got permission today to make it official. You only need to say yes."
"You want to adopt me?" Walter looked confused. "I don't understand."
"You don't have to call me dad if you want me but you would live with me and you know, we share meals and I make sure you go to bed at a decent time. You tell me when I'm too obsessed with a project and I'll grumble at your school grades. We do stuff together as going to the zoo, and you get angry at me that you yell from your room where I send you off too. O and we go to lots of parties where I get chewed out by Pepper because I brought my kid along who supposed to be in bed and stuff. If you like. And we could change your name to the one your mother wanted. Alan Sheppard Stark."
Walter sat there in shock before crawling over to the man and hugging Tony around his waist. "Alan Anthony Stark has a better ring to it, doesn't it?"
"Yes it does, because Tony is an awesome name." agreed Tony letting out a sigh in relieve. "So you want to go through with it?"
"Tony, I'm broken. I'll probably die and you'll be left alone again." Walter looked up. "You better adopt a healthy child to do all that stuff with."
"But I want you, with heart and all." Tony's arms tensed for a moment. "Give me a chance."
"Sure dad." Grinned Walter, soon to be Alan. The CPS woman had checked the papers with her supervisor and Tony wrote down Walter's new name and signed it.
Miranda brought in cake, a smile on her face which told Tony that she had known what the billionaire had been up to. With his new son on his lap, an arm loosely wrapped around the small waist, Tony fed Alan small bites, 'accidently' hitting the small nose smearing it with whipped cream. This earned him a hand filled with cake in his face.
Luckily Miranda broke it up before it went out of hand and send the boys out, first she wiped Alan's face clean before placing a kiss on Alan's head. "You be good for Mister Stark alright? And try to stay away from this place for a while. I wouldn't mind a visit when you have an appointment."
"Yes ma'am." Alan said, his smile melting the woman's heart.
"Now, if you go to the front desk, I'm sure Lisa has a Popsicle for you." The two adult's watched Alan race from the room. "That backpack, if it works might be the answer to a lot of Wal… I'm sorry Alan's problems. You better take care of him Tony Stark, or you'll have to deal with some very angry nurses who can hide a body in the morgue without anyone questioning it."
"I'll keep that in mind." Tony smiled charming. "And I'll make sure little Tony 2 will come by her to visit you, not for any treatment or whatever."
"I would like that." The nurse looked around. "Now I better clean this room from cake before I get in trouble."
Tony rubbed his neck. "Yeah, sorry about that."
"Don't worry about it. Now get your boy home."
His boy, strangely Stark liked the sound of that. Finding that said boy seated on the desk telling three b-e-a-utiful ladies his name was Alan Anthony now and he had a dad who was going to take him to zoo. The sticky water ice cream was smeared around his mouth making the man sigh and pulling out his hanky to wipe the child's face clean. "Come on Tony 2, we have places to be and shops to rob. Say goodbye to the pretty ladies."
"Bye." Alan allowed himself to be placed on Tony's hip and gave a small wave to the cooing nurses.
"Wait!" Lisa ran after them with the oxygen tank. "Please, take this just in case." She pleaded. "I have full trust in your invention Mr. Stark, but he needs air when he goes to sleep."
"Yes, off course, could you help me bring this to the car? I rather not put this monkey down, he's a runaway according to some gossiping nurses."
"I won't run away." Pouted Alan as his arms tightened around Tony's neck. Tony chuckled as he carried Alan out of the hospital, holding a light suitcase in his left hand. According to Miranda, the stuff in the case were the only things Alan had. And half of it was filled with stuff Tony had given him.
Outside Happy, his loyal bodyguard, was waiting against the car. Tony had been too nervous to drive and had finally asked his chauffeur to bring him to the hospital to pick something up. Which made Happy uneasy but he didn't ask any questions. "Look Tony 2, this is Happy. Happy, this is my newly adopted son Alan and one of his nurses Lisa."
"Alan Anthony." Alan corrected, his head rested on his father's shoulder as he studied the man. "Are you the one who drives my dad around to parties?"
Happy looked from Alan to Tony and back. "I am."
"Tony, uhm my dad likes you so I like you to." Stated Alan.
"Well, now we all know each other. We have a room to decorate and clothing to by. To the mall!" Tony shouted placing Alan on the back seat while Happy helped Lisa place the oxygen tank and suitcase in the trunk.
Lisa waved for a moment while the car drove off before she headed back inside with a smile on her face.
