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 10
"What's wrong with you?" yelled Rhodey from the plane when Tony stepped out of the car.
"What?" asked the Stark CEO walking over to lift Alan from the car. Happy followed with the suitcases.
"Three hours."
"I horrible overslept and then there was Pepper's birthday." Tony kept a firm hold on Alan as he climbed the stairs.
"For three hours. For three hours you got me standing here."
"Sorry uncle Rhodey." Said Alan rubbing his eyes, making the airman melt. "I was still sleepy from last night."
Tony grinned and walked past the lieutenant colonel. "Waiting on you now. Let's go. Come on! Wheels up! Rock and roll!"
As always he kept Alan on his lap until the seatbelt sign went out. One of the flight attendance came over with a new Lego set and Alan was soon seated on the very thoroughly cleaned bed (that Tony used for other kind of playing before he got Alan) in the other room.
"What you reading, platypus?" Tony looked at his best friend.
"Nothing."
"Come on, sour patch. Don't be mad."
"I told you, I'm not mad. I'm indifferent, okay?" Rhodey said irritated
"I said I was sorry."
"Good morning, Mr. Stark." A different flight attended walked over.
Rhodey ignored the girl, still staring at his papers. "You don't need to apologize to me. I'm your man."
"Hi. I told him I was sorry, but he..."
"I'm just indifferent right now." Said Rhodey. He continued talking while the girl handed Tony and him a hot towel. "You don't respect yourself, so I know you don't respect me."
"I respect you."
"I'm just your babysitter. So, when you need your diaper changed, let me know and I'll get you a bottle, okay?"
"Daddy, do you want to play with me?" asked Alan suddenly appearing next to Rhodey making the military man jump. Not that he would ever confirm that.
"Yes I will, can you pick out a board game Tony 2, the nice lady knows where they are." Tony smiled as Alan took the lady's hand and followed her.
"We're not playing. We're working right now. We need to get over some documents."
"We can do that when Alan's asleep." Said Tony dismissive.
"You are unbelievable. Incapable of being responsible. I'm going to work now like an adult." Rhodes set back in his chair, holding up his file.
Five minutes later the colonel was seated cross legged on the ground. "Do you have any twos?"
"Nope." Grinned Tony, popping the p. "Go fish."
-tb-im-
Tony kept his promise of two stories and tucked Alan in for a nap. The days closer to the surgery, Alan would get more tired every day so the kid was chunked out three hours into the flight.
They worked while Alan slept much to Rhodey's satisfaction and before they know it they were landed at Bagram Air Base.
Tony send the pictures he made of Alan dancing with the ladies to Pepper and picked his son up to walk down the stairs.
"General." He walked over to the man. "I don't believe you met my son, Alan Anthony?"
"No I haven't. Welcome, Mr. Stark and young Mr. Stark. We look forward to your weapons presentation."
"Thanks." Smiled Tony, as he went to the next person to shake hands.
-tb-im-
"Is it better to be feared or respected?" Tony stood facing the camera, they had just finished the commercial in which Alan played his part. Now was the young Stark heir seated on his uncle's lap waiting for what Tony called the firework. "I say, is it too much to ask for both? With that in mind, I humbly present the crown jewel of Stark Industries' Freedom Line. It's the first missile system to incorporate our proprietary repulsor technology. They say the best weapon is one you never have to fire. I respectfully disagree. I prefer the weapon you only have to fire once. That's how Dad did it. That's how America does it. And it's worked out pretty well so far. Find an excuse to let one of these off the chain, and I personally guarantee you the bad guys won't even want to come out of their caves."
With that one of the missiles were fired.
Tony stood there with his arms wide as the missile turned in several smaller ones. "For your consideration, the Jericho."
The shockwave made him stumble forward a bit and his eyes immediately went to Alan who was enthusiastic talking with Rhodey. The lieutenant colonel was able to smile and nod at the right time. Walking to the Stark bar, which contained apple juice since Alan was adopted. Tony grabbed two glasses juice with ice and offered the open bar to the military man. "I'll be throwing one of these in with every purchase of 500 million or more. To peace!"
Before he could release Rhodey from babysit duty, he was called by his friend and mentor. "Obie, what are you doing up?"
The vid showed a half-naked Obadiah in bed. That was more than he ever wanted to see. "I couldn't sleep till I found out how it went. How'd it go?"
"It went great. Looks like it's gonna be an early Christmas." Said Tony.
"Hey! Way to go, my boy! I'll see you tomorrow, yeah?"
"Why aren't you wearing those pyjamas I got you? Alan Anthony could have been watching. Do you really want to scar my son for life?"
"Good night, Tony."
Tony grinned and walked to the Humvee waiting for Alan to join him.
"Dad!" Alan ran up to his father and jumped in his arms.
Rhodey followed. "Hey, Tony."
"I'm sorry, this is the 'fun-vee'. The 'hum-drum-vee' is back there." Said Tony making Alan giggle.
"Nice job." Sighed the air force man.
"See you back at base." Tony sat down with Alan rattling about the explosion.
"And then it went boom, and I saw the fire but then the wind and the sand. Uncle Rhodey pressed my face in his chest so I didn't get sand in my eyes but I felt the wind really hard. Did you feel it?"
"I did." Said Tony, "I almost fell over."
"Really?" asked Alan in awe.
"Yes really." Tony had placed his CD player and put the music on loud. While he and Alan were chatting, the others in the Humvee were sitting tensed. "I feel like you're driving me to a court-martial. This is crazy. What did I do? I feel like you're going to pull over and snuff me. What, you're not allowed to talk? Hey, Forrest!"
"We can talk, sir." A young soldier said.
"Oh, I see. So it's personal?"
"No, you intimidate them." Was said from behind the wheel.
"Oh yes, my son is very intimidating, look at the glare on his face. Be nice Tony 2. You scare the good man. O wait, Good God, you're a woman. I honestly... I couldn't have called that. I mean, I'd apologize, but isn't that what we're going for here? I thought of you as a soldier first."
"Dad she wears the same shield as uncle Rhodey."
"He's right, I'm an airman."
"You have, actually, excellent bone structure, there. I'm kind of having a hard time not looking at you now. Is that weird? Come on, it's okay, laugh." Tony poked Alan's sides so that Alan giggled and snugged to his father's chest.
"Sir, I have a question to ask." The man in front seat turned around.
"Yes, please."
"Is it true you went 12 for with last year's Maxim cover models?" the man asked.
"That is an excellent question. Yes and no. March and I had a scheduling conflict, but fortunately, the Christmas cover was twins."
"What did you went to with the models daddy?" asked Alan innocent.
Tony tensed for a second. "Well to a movie off course. They are my friends and we went to see an educational movie about the jungle."
"Can we watch it too?"
"Off course, I'll ask Pepper to pick it up from the store." Crisis averted, but Tony couldn't help but send a warning glare at the other soldiers who were laughing. "Any more questions?" the young soldier held up his hand, Tony raised an eyebrow. "You're kidding me with the hand up, right?"
"Is it cool if I take a picture with you?"
"Yes. It's very cool. Tony 2 can take it." Offered Tony.
"All right." The soldier handed a camera to the six year old.
"I don't want to see this on your MySpace page." The soldier lifted a peace sign. "Please, no gang signs. No, throw it up. I'm kidding. Yeah, peace. I love peace. I'd be out of a job with peace."
Alan clicked and at that moment the Humvee in front of them exploded.
Tony made a dive for Alan, who was clinging to his father's jacket and started crying. "What's going on?" asked the father in panic.
"Contact left!" the woman didn't even make one step before she was shot down.
The other man turned around to shout. "Jimmy, stay with Stark!" and left as well.
"Stay down!" the young soldier, Jimmy pulled him on the ground so that Stark was laying protectively over Alan.
The older soldier was shot down.
"Son of a bitch!" Jimmy yelled and got out as well.
"Wait, wait, wait! Give me a gun!" shouted Tony.
"Stay here!" but the man didn't get far. Bullet holes penetrated the Humvee and Tony did his best to protect his son from all the imagines of soldiers slaughtered. With Alan in his arms, he jumped from the Humvee and hide behind a rock. Trying to shush crying Alan, while trying to use is phone with his other hand a missile landed next to them.
Seeing the name of his company on the weapon, a small thought went through him. "How screwed are you when a missile lands next to you and it literally has your name on it."
That micro second was one to many, he tried to escape but he was blown away. Laying on his back, he tried to turn to Alan who was lying unconscious next to him. Blood was sibling through Alan's safety vest, looking down he saw his white shirt turning dark red as well. Then he fell into the darkness.
-tb-im-
When he woke up there was bag over his head. A language he didn't understand was spoken around him but he didn't care. He was worried about the weapons aimed at his head and where was his son? before he blacked out again.
-tb-im-
Someone was operating on him, pain, blood and everything turned black.
-tb-im-
Next time he woke up was suddenly. Something was in his nose for air supply and without second thought he pulled it out of his nose.
Looking around, he saw a man shaving in a mirror, not paying attention to him. he had to escape, he had to find his son. Then a memory of Alan lying next to him, bleeding and so still and pale. One tear escaped his eyes, his son was dead. His breathing pack had to be destroyed at impact, it was strong but not that strong. Without help he couldn't have last more than an hour. His boy…
"I wouldn't do that if I were you." The man said. "You might pull the wires."
Ripping the bandages away, he found a metallic thing into his chest. "What the hell did you do to me?"
"What I did?" asked the man, turning to something that some might call dinner. Tony moved to the edge of his bed. "What I did is to save your life. I removed all the shrapnel I could, but there's a lot left, and it's headed into your atrial septum. Here, want to see? I have a souvenir. Take a look." He gave a glass vial with scraps in it. "I've seen many wounds like that in my village. We call them the walking dead because it takes about a week for the barbs to reach the vital organs."
"What is this?" asked Tony pointing at his chest.
"That is an electromagnet hooked up to a car battery, and it's keeping the shrapnel from entering your heart." The man said. He zipped his vest up, looking around he saw a camera in the corner. "That's right. Smile." Nodded the man still steering the pot. "We met once, you know, at a technical conference in Bern."
Tony shook tired his head. "I don't remember."
"No, you wouldn't. If I had been that drunk, I wouldn't have been able to stand, much less give a lecture on integrated circuits."
Okay, he remembered the conference, or at least that he went to it. Everything went fuzzy during the flight. "Where are we?"
There was rumbling at the door and the man looked up with wide eyes. "Come on, stand up. Stand up!" pulling Tony upright by his arm. "Just do as I do. Come on, put your hands up."
Several men entered, heavy armed except the man in the middle who was clearly the leader. "Those are my guns. How did they get my guns?" asked Tony.
"Do you understand me? Do as I do." Sussed his fellow prisoner. The leader walked to him speaking what sounded like Dari. He gestured to the fellow prisoner to translate. "He says, "Welcome, Tony Stark, the most famous mass murderer in the history of America. He is honoured. He wants you to build the missile. The Jericho missile that you demonstrated." The leader held out a paper with a picture of the weapon. "This one."
"I refuse." He wasn't scared of dying. With Alan gone, he had left the paper work to leave the company to Pepper.
The leader shouted something, and from behind the door came a man pulling something small along. He too had an battery attached to his chest. His pale skin looked even more wither with blood coating the left side of his face. He stumbled but was pulled up by the back of his shirt. Alan!
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