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 7
John send down another smile at the boy, "Let's go," He asked the security man to stop a cap for them. It didn't take long before they were seated. He gave the address to the driver and buckled Alan in wondering if he would get in trouble since the little boy didn't have a car seat. Meanwhile he tried to have a conversation but the kid was too shy or afraid to say anything. Questions about hobbies, favourite food or colours were answered by strangely familiar wide blue eyes staring up at the platinum blond.
Finally they arrived and John made sure to keep Alan close while he paid for the tickets. He took the kid's hand again and walked with him through the security and into the heart of the museum.
John kept up the conversation by telling Alan everything he knew about the planets and the research done about them.
When Alan was too small to see the exhibit, John picked the shy kid up so he could see through the telescope. Seeing the stars and hearing the story behind them made Alan smile which made John smile too.
In the middle of the tour, they stopped for a snack and something to drink. John lifted Alan on the chair and placed a small bag off cookies and an apple juice in front of him.
"I've been waiting to see this museum for ages." Said John sipping his coke. "It's as good as I imagined."
"Why didn't you go before?" asked Alan softly surprising John.
Glad that Alan finally opened up John continued. "I had no-one to go with, my brothers don't like museums, and I go to a special school in Los Angeles so I'm not home very often."
"What special school?" asked Alan further, plopping an animal cookie in his mouth.
"A boarding school for gifted kids. I'm pretty good at studying and normal schools bored me quick. Do you go to school? You're six right?"
"Six and seven months." Said Alan, putting importance at the seven months. "And I get home schooled. Dad wants to find a safe school for me because my breathing trouble and he doesn't know in what grade I end up. Before dad made me my breathing pack, there wasn't much I could do but read so I'm ahead of my classes. No-one wants to play with the sick kid."
"I can't imagine not being able to play while I was a kid." John said sympathetically. "Even though I enjoyed reading, I played a lot as well, how could I not with all those brothers."
"Don't know better, I've been like this since I was born. Dad is the first one to treat me normal, he even build a whole playground indoor so I could play safely on the slide and swing and monkey bars and a lot of other things. It's really fun and dad lets me play as long as I be careful. Dad is the first one to let me play. Not even my mom let me go, she was always worried."
"I know what you mean, I used to have another little brother." Confessed John, Alan stilled and looked up at him. "He had a weak heart and my mom never let us play with him, always worried that something would happen to the little guy."
"What happened to him?" Alan asked raspy.
"After the accident that claimed my mom his lungs were pierced on top of his heart condition, he died shortly after."
"Died?" whispered Alan.
"Yeah, dad was really broken up about that. It was suddenly you see, he went to the hospital and came back saying Walter died, at the time we were upset and I don't believe we even went to the funeral. It was too hard so short to my mother's funeral."
Tears started to stream down the pale cheeks, John quickly went over to him to brush them away. "Hey, what's with the water works? It's okay, he's happy now with my mom, I got over it a long time ago."
Alan refused to speak for an hour after that.
Not really knowing what to do with Alan alone, John called his two younger brothers. Virgil and Gordon met up with the two at an indoor playground. Alan made his shyness known by hiding behind John's legs during the introduction, this made John smile fondly happy that the six year old saw him as a protector.
Virgil didn't even pulled his earphones off, just looking uninterested at Alan before he followed Gordon to the basketball court where more kids their age were.
With slight disappointment watched John as his brothers walked off, they weren't that much help after all, he should have known. He turned around and kneeled before Alan. "Come on Alan Anthony, let's see if we can beat this maze."
The maze, John was talking about, was four storeys high. There were slides and wall climbing, robes to swing across ball pits and other obstacles with all soft material, shoes had to be taken off. It was built for children from four to ten so John had to crawl at some points since he was too big but he didn't mind.
The sixteen year old found it actually fun to do, especially when he heard Alan laugh while trying to overcome an obstacle.
Suddenly, when Alan was running ahead and turned around to look at John, the elder blond looked at the twinkling blue eyes with the blond hair and realised just how much the little guy looked like his mother, from the rose cheeks to the small round nose. Then he wondered if Walter had survived, he would have done this with his baby brother or would Walter have been too weak for something like this.
"Are you coming John?" the soft voice called out.
"Off course," John crawled through the hole and hurried after the giggling boy.
When they found the way out, John tied Alan's shoes back on and guided him to the basketball court. The teenagers had left, probably because they had to head home for dinner around five and since John had to be home at six, they still had an hour left. "Gordo, pass me the ball." John requested, catching the orange ball the redhead threw at him. "Okay Tony 2, show me what you got."
Alan tried to shoot like he saw the other two do but didn't even make it half way. Pouting he looked up to John who ruffled his blond hair.
"Doesn't matter, Virg, Gordo, could you too watch him for a second so I can get a bathroom break?" John asked not waiting for a replay and hurrying over to the bathroom.
Virgil shrugged his shoulders before shooting again, the ball bounced from the ring and Alan ran after it. Gordon did too and pushed Alan away before the youngest could grab the ball. Alan landed on his back, crushing his breathing pack between him and the floor.
"Keep out of my way." Growled Gordon, turning back to his brother.
Alan sat upright, feeling the tears form in his eyes again, he angry brushed them away. He had promised himself he wouldn't cry anymore about them.
When John returned, Alan was still at the same place. Hurrying over, he kneeled by the blond. He didn't need to ask what happened, Gordon never liked younger children since they make him remember the youngest brother, Gordon never forgave Walter for taking his mother away and Virgil probably couldn't care less. The only things the fourteen year old cared about were his music and studies.
"Are you okay?" John asked, looking Alan over for injuries.
"I want my daddy." Snuffled Alan, brushing tears away. "I want to go home. I want Koda."
John had no idea what or who Koda was but he picked Alan up and sat on the bench with the small boy on his lap. "We can't go back yet. Our daddies are still working. We need to wait a little bit longer."
"I want my dad." Pressed Alan, his sobs getting louder as he started to cry in earnest now. His breathing became raspier and the familiar blackness started to creep up in his eyes. "My bag, it's..." he gasped before the blackness won out and he became limp in John's arms.
Tony Stark was used to suck ups and hated them with passion, but even he had to admit that the plans Jeff Tracy laid on the table for new military vehicles were good ones, even if they were half finished.
They talked about it for a few hours and Tony was ready to sign the deal after speaking with Pepper, the remaining paperwork could be done by mail.
Politely refused Tony the offered whiskey and accepted a glass of soda, after making dinner plans to celebrate the almost done deal, the adults settled for a light conversation which Jeff started by asking what kind of School Alan Anthony went too.
Tony explained the situation and Jeff bowed forward. "John is going to a school for gifted kids like Alan Anthony. It allows children to learn at their own pace, it has a complete program from primarily to high school and its part of a university. John is working on engineering, math and literature at university level, three classes on senior level and his remaining lessons on his age level. His teachers give lectures on different subjects and have question hours, John also has study hours with tutors were he can work on his course work."
"How do they know when he's ready for the next level?" questioned Tony interested.
"The students can request a test to see if they're ready for the next year, if they don't get at least eighty percent on that they aren't allowed to go to the next level and need to wait at least four months to request another test. If they pass, the student can choose to request another test for any other subject whenever they wish."
"That maybe a solution for Tony 2 schooling but I don't like him to be so far away from me. With his health troubles."
"The university John goes to is CalSci Los Angeles, that's an hour, maybe an hour and a half away from Malibu? Or you could go for the online program so you only have to make the trip when Alan Anthony has to make a test."
"I'm going to ask my assistant to gather more information about it before I commit to anything." Tony said. "But I'm going to take this seriously into consideration."
"I would do it, if my other sons were as hard working on their studies as John was then they would all have gone to CalSci junior." Said Jeff nodding.
"I didn't know you had other sons, how much?"
"Four in total." Jeff said proud. Tony paled slightly at that but telling himself that it must be coincidence.
"Four, Mrs Tracy must have her hands full." Tony said with a forced smile.
Jeff looked at his glass, turning around in his hand. "My wife died four years ago in an avalanche. It's just me and my boys now."
Could still be coincidence?
"I'm sorry to hear that." Swallowed Tony. "What are their names if I may ask?"
"Off course." Jeff pulled out his wallet showing four boys sitting in a convertible with Jeff standing next to it. "The eldest is Scott, then John, Virgil and the youngest is Gordon."
Jeff didn't have time to question why Tony turned a greenish tint before his phone went off. "I'm sorry, it's my son." Holding the phone against his ear Jeff looked worried at Stark. "Virgil, are you coming back?" The Tracy father turned even paler that the Stark father. "Where are they taking him?" there was second of silence before Jeff jumped up his feet. "Stay there, we're on our way." He hang up and turned to Tony. "Alan Anthony has been admitted at Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital with respiratory problems. We need to get over there now."
Tony was shocked for a moment but quickly followed Jeff. They didn't talk while they shared a cap and Tony run up to the main ask leaving Jeff to take care of the cost. "Alan Anthony Stark." Gasped Tony. "He's been brought here, I'm his father."
"Yes sir," the nurse looked at her screen. "He's in ER 6 waiting for the doctor to arrive, just around the corner."
The billionaire immediately rushed through the door.
Alan was laying in John's arms, the elder blond was seated on the bed with his legs stretched out. Half of Alan's face was covered by a breathing mask and his fist were holding John's shirt as he blinked tiredly. "Daddy." It was a muffled whisper but Tony heard it.
"What happened?" demanded the father to know as he lifted Alan from John's arms. Taking a seat on the bed after John moved, Tony started to rub circles on Alan's back who had placed his head on Tony's shoulder. Jeff also entered the room looking around in concern.
"Gordon..." John said in a low voice.
The red head looked at his hands. "I… I pushed him and he fell on his back. It think his backpack must have broken somehow. Then he started crying and I don't know what to do when they are crying so I left him there for John when he came back from the bathroom. And when John did, the kid passed out on us, he even stopped breathing! I didn't mean too. I didn't know I broke his bag."
"Gordon." Sighed Jeff, "Just, wait in the waiting room. And let me guess, Virgil you didn't do anything to stop him?"
"I helped John afterwards." Defended the brunet teen himself.
"Well a little too late. Waiting room, I'll deal with you too later." Jeff pointed out the door and the two left. "Tony, is there someone I could call, a doctor or assistant?"
"Uhm, please can you see if you can reach my bodyguard Happy. I gave him the afternoon off but he adores Tony 2 so he might want to know that we're here. For the rest it's just the two of us."
"How about Uncle Rhodey?" asked John, recalling the names from stories Alan told him. "Or Aunt Pepper?"
Tony smiled sadly at the blond, it seemed that Alan liked him so right there Tony decided that this Tracy might not be bad news. "Rhodey is a Lieutenant Colonel in the air force. He can't just take a day of because his nephew is admitted. And Pepper is running my company in my absence, someone has to be there and Pepper is the only one I trust."
"I'll call your bodyguard and off course repay for the damage Virgil and Gordon did to Alan Anthony's breathing pack. I'm very sorry this happened." said Jeff.
"Me too." John said. "I just went to the bathroom for a minute, I should have known that Gordon wouldn't… he never liked kids more than three years younger than him."
"I don't blame you." Tony looked reassuring at the sixteen year old.
John placed his hand on Alan's shoulder. "I hope you feel better soon Tony 2, I'll make sure to come and visit you when I'm in L.A. okay?"
"Please stay." Mumbled Alan but the doctor came in and Jeff used this distraction to pull John out.
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