Title: Timelines
Author: Quietshade
Rating: PG-13
Pairings: Eventual Steve/Tony, Tony/Pepper, past Steve/Peggy, Howard/Maria, Clint/Natasha, Thor/Jane.
Universe: Movieverse (Earth-199999)
Beta: Doomsymphony (Saixkosmos)
Warning: Slash, M/M, Strong Language, World War II topics.
Disclaimer: All Marvel characters and reference belong to them not to me.
Summary: Tony is a man of the future who can't manage to accept his past and Steve is a man of the past who have a hard time accepting his future because of this they understand each other and help one another come in terms with their times.
Timelines
Chapter five
As soon as they arrived home Tony had gone down to his workshop, not even bothering to greet Jarvis. Steve tried once more to get the engineer to rest, even more now that the man's sneezes had turned into full fits of cough, but despise his many tries Tony had dismissed him and buried himself in the notes that Peggy gave him. He understood his's eagerness, he really did, but as interesting as Howard's work might be it was no excuse for Tony to neglect his needs and Steve knew that the engineer was pushing himself too far again.
That's how he came to find himself walking to Tony's workshop, once more with his hand full of food. He wouldn't leave the man alone until he had agreed to rest this time. He has had enough of Tony's negligence, he hadn't rested one bit since being kidnapped and even if the injuries on his legs weren't serious with the time he was giving them to heal it would take weeks for him to fully heal.
Carefully he opened the door to the workshop, imputing the codes with one hand and holding the tray on the other and smiled when he saw Tony resting his head on the desk, he couldn't believe that he was stubborn enough to fall asleep on the desk.
"Tony, are you awake?" He received no answer and he walked to the man, dropping the tray beside him. "Tony wake up." He shook the man gently and received a grunt and a cough this time. Tony was warm, really warm and he was sweating a lot. Steve first reaction to this was to put a hand on Tony's forehead taking his temperature and it didn't come as a surprise to him when he realized that the engineer had a high fever. "Really, you can be such a fool sometimes."
He considered his options for a moment, leaving Tony there was out of question and he didn't know if waking him was a good idea at all, because knowing the man, he would probably try to go back to work instead of resting and Steve wasn´t going to risk that. So he leaned and picked him bride style, as that was the most comfortable way for both of them at the moment.
"Please don't wake up now." He whispered, really wishing for it, as he moved to the door being extra careful to not wake up the man on his arms. Thankfully he made it upstairs without much inconvenient and as soon as he passed through the kitchen Jarvis ran to him.
"Oh no!" He said when he saw them. "He made for a horrible patient." Jarvis touched Tony's forehead, pretty much in the same manner Steve had before and grimaced a moment after. "Let's put him on his bed."
Steve nodded and followed Jarvis to Tony's room, it was the first time he entered the room and as expected the room didn't resemble Tony at all, it actually looked uninhabited and with the time the man spent on it you could say that was the case.
He laid Tony on the mattress with gentleness, still being careful of not waking him. He looked at him thoughtfully, Tony was having hard time just breathing and was coughing constantly, gently he brushed aside a few strand of hair from his damp forehead. He looked at Jarvis with worry, he had spent most of his life being sick and he knew how to treat someone with a cold but he wasn´t sure if his methods were still in use.
"We have to get his fever down." He told Jarvis as he looked back to the engineer, his gaze falling on the spot of light in the middle of his chest.
"Indeed we have. Wait here, I'll bring some medicines and water." Jarvis said before exiting the room. Steve looked around, searching for a chair and found one at the far end of the room, quietly he moved it to the bed's side and sat there looking at Tony's labored breath.
It wasn't long before Jarvis reappeared with some pills and a glass of water. He passed a hand through Tony's back and sat him lightly, making him drink the pills, Tony coughed a bit and Jarvis patted his back gently. Steve couldn't help but think that Jarvis looked really paternal at the moment and he wondered how many times he had done that same thing for Tony over the many years of his service to the Stark family.
"Let's go, there is not much we can do apart from this." Jarvis said as he put an ice pack on Tony's forehead. Steve stood and looked at him for a moment, the man didn´t look better at all, he then walked to the door and Jarvis followed behind, as Jarvis closed the door he sent Tony one last unsecure glance.
"Are you sure it's wise to leave him alone?" He was truly concerned, he didn't want Tony to wake up needing something, to find himself alone.
"He isn't alone Steve, JARVIS is checking on him and will tell us if anything happens." Jarvis smiled at him and patted his shoulder, and he blushed lightly with embarrassment, of course Jarvis wouldn´t leave Tony alone.
"Yeah, sorry I forgot about you buddy." He had a tendency for forgetting the A.I.'s existence and he felt ashamed for that, JARVIS had been a lot of help to them in the past week, it was unjust for him to be forgotten so easily.
"Don't worry Captain Rogers, I understand the fact that you aren't used to technology just yet." He smiled, Jarvis had all the manners that Tony lacked, and Steve sometimes though that Tony had made him like that on purpose.
"Thanks, you are really kind JARVIS." He smiled, not sure as if the A.I. could see him but the smile was meant for it.
"You're welcome Captain Rogers." Jarvis, the buckler, smiled at him and nodded as if he approved Steve's manners.
"I'm tempted to ask you Steve, if you would mind helping me in the kitchen?" Steve stared at Jarvis with surprise, up to that point the man had been really delicate with whom was allowed inside the kitchen, going as far as to ban Thor and Tony from doing anything apart from opening the fridge and the pantry.
"I would be honored to do so." Jarvis smiled at him and Steve knew that he had somehow become close to the man. "But I must warn you, I'm not much of a cook."
"Do not worry gentleman, I'm sure there is no worse helper than Master Tony." Jarvis turned around heading for the kitchen and Steve followed him, smiling at the comment. "Please remind me to tell you some of his misadventures in the kitchen. I am quite positive that you will have a good time hearing those." He was already looking forward to hearing it.
They had almost finished dinner when someone entered the house, someone really noisy to be precise, and Steve didn't have to look to know that Thor had arrived. What he wasn´t expecting was the fact that Bruce and Clint appeared right behind Thor. Clint used to visit them pretty often but this was probably the first time Bruce came to the mansion, but even that wasn't what got Steve surprised, it was the sole fact that both Bruce and Clint were carrying luggage, and judging by Clint's smirk he could tell what the man was about to say.
"We are moving in." Clint looked proud of his word; Bruce on the other hand looked really uncomfortable with that fact.
"I though Tony had made it clear that he didn't want you moving in." He didn't have anything against Clint moving in, in reality he would had been glad if the whole team lived together but that was his opinion and it was Tony's mansion they were staying at, and no matter how annoying the man could be at times, taking advantage of his generosity was something Steve wasn´t going to do.
"Come on this place have enough room for all of us and money is not an issue for the man, he is just being a spoiled brat." He glared lightly at Clint not approving of his language but said nothing about it. He knew it was a lost case to try to teach him and Tony manners.
"But you do have your own apartment don't you?" Clint sighed heavily at that and Steve got the feeling that he wouldn't like the man's answer.
"Not in New York, I was staying at the H.Q. meanwhile. I did plan to get an apartment here, but you see the Colonel kind of banned us from the dormitories." Steve frowned at Clint, somehow he didn't want to know what they had done for Fury to ban them.
"Steven you shalt talk to Anthony, I am partially at fault for their exile." Thor was practically pleading him and truthfully who could say no to a deity, his sorrowful face was enough to destroy any argument Steve could come up with, in fact he thought that having Thor do that face to Tony was a much better plan than having him talk to the man.
"I'll see what I can do for you." The three of them smiled at him, Bruce obviously more relaxed and that gave Steve the feeling that whatever they had done to Fury involved The Hulk.
"By the way where's the team's philanthropist?" Clint asked looking around for Tony. "Is he down in his hole?"
"Actually no, he is not. He is sick and sleeping and I must warn you that any disturbance coming from one of you will be severely punished." This time it was Jarvis who answered, pointing with his wooden spoon at Clint and staring at him with a face that meant he was being death serious.
"Ok, ok I got it, no bothering the sleeping beauty." Bruce sniggered lightly at the comment and Steve once again felt out of place not knowing what he meant by that, at least he wasn't the only one as Thor got the same confused face he had. "Anyways I thought that Stupid geniuses couldn't get sick."
"They do and they made for the worse patients." Jarvis frowned as he mixed some ingredients for the salad. "And I will hardly call Mater Tony stupid at all. Regardless of what others think, he truly knows what he is doing." There was a hint of reprisal on the man´s tone, it was so lightly that if it had been spoken by any other it would have gone unnoticed but coming from Jarvis it made a great difference from his usual neutral and calm tone.
They felt silent after that, Jarvis word hung heavy on the air and no one dared to break the silence for a while. Clint and Tony had a like for insulting each other, something that Steve really disapproved of even if he had once or twice made such comments at Tony before, but it seemed that Clint's small joke had somehow offended Jarvis. Steve knew that Tony was like a son to Jarvis and knowing the many hardships of Tony's childhood he understood the older man's need to protect and defend him, and that got him wondering how many times Jarvis had needed to protect Tony before.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to offend you." In the few months he had known Clint he had heard him apologize very few times and he could tell that apologizing wasn´t one of the man's favorites past times, so the awkwardness in his apology was really to be expected. "Anyways, why don't you show us our new rooms Captain?" Clint smiled trying to lift the mood in the room and Steve smiled back appreciating the gesture.
"Sure, just give me a second." He walked to the sink and washed his hands then he looked over his shoulders to Jarvis and the man nodded at him.
"Give them the rooms four and six." It surprised Steve how perceptive the butler could be, most of the time Steve didn't have to ask for the man to know what he wanted. He really wanted to know if that was an innate ability of him or if he had developed it after many years of serving Howard and Tony, as both men were really unexpressive when it came to their needs and wants. "And don't worry about helping me, I can finish this alone."
"Thanks Jarvis." The man nodded at him as he walked to the other guys. He patted Bruce's back reassuringly when he walked pass him, after all he knew that the brunette wasn't comfortable with the idea of moving to the mansion. As soon as he passed by him, Clint walked to his side looking at him with a devilish smile before asking.
"By the way Cap, since when do you cook?"
He closed the door in front of him being as quietly as he could, after showing Bruce and Clint their room they had ended in Thor's room as the Norse god proclaimed that he had the perfect thing for team bonding, unsurprisingly said thing was a barrel of some kind of Asgardian alcohol. Bruce had apologized himself and disappeared right before the godly blond could offer him a jar, Steve hadn't been so quick and Thor had enthusiastically thrust a jar in his hand, trying to put on prove if Steve really couldn't get drunk and while the jar hadn't made him drunk, he could tell that he wasn't sober either.
He took advantage of an argument between a really drunk Clint and a mildly drunk Thor to leave the room, before the blond god decided to give him anymore jars, he didn't believe that it would take many more jars before he was completely drunk and as much as he missed the feeling, with two of them drunk and Tony sick, he couldn't risk having Natasha and Bruce alone in case of an emergency, so he walked out of Thor room in direction to his own bedroom.
He had all intention of going to his room, he really did, but as he passed in front of Tony's room he couldn't stop himself from peeping inside. The room was dark save the gentle light coming from Tony's chest, and he entered the room not giving it much though, he just followed the light until he was at Tony's side. The man's breath was much calmer, he looked more in peace and truly asleep, not like before that he had looked as if he was in some kind of nightmare, the sweating was gone too and Steve touched his neck, confirming that the fever had gone down. Without thinking he found himself removing the icepack from Tony's forehead, some locks of hair got plastered on his wet forehead and Steve brushed them aside, his hand lingering on his friend's cold forehead. The touch was intoxicating, a mixture of the cold emanating from Tony's forehead and the warm coursing through Steve's hand.
He wasn't sure of what motivated him, maybe he was more drunk than he first thought or maybe it was how inebriating that simple touch had been, but as soon as he removed his fingers from Tony's forehead, before he could even realize what he was doing, his lips had descendent on the cold forehead and if he had thought that the touch from before was exotic and intoxicating, his lips on Tony's forehead felt like fire to his soul.
He pulled away reluctantly, not really wanting to think of the implication of his action or his motive to doing so, all he cared for was the fact that he was too tired and probably not very sober to be thinking about anything apart from the sweetness on his lips. He sighed deeply, deciding that he should be going to bed before he could do anything stranger than that. He placed the icepack back on Tony's forehead and stared at the engineer for a few more moments before leaving, his bed had never been more comfortable and warm to him.
After many thoughts on the subject he had decided that he was having a streak of bad luck and that he must have pissed some kind of deity, who he was inclined to believe was Loki, in order to have such a horrible week.
He had been forced to leave his home in order to avoid another argument with a certain blond, He had been harassed by a blonde reporter all week, He had been kidnapped by some crazy pro-Nazi group, he have had his legs dislocated, He had been interrupted twice in his sweet time with Pepper, He had been assigned a bodyguard/babysitter, he had been forced to use a stupid hat a whole day, He had been assaulted by an old lady and finally he had caught a stupid cold. There was so much he could label as coincidence and with the luck he had that week he was seriously considering going to some kind of sacred river or spring to purify himself, that or ask Thor advice on how to take away the curse or whatever thing Loki put on him.
Over the past three days and four nights he had been lying on his bed doing nothing apart from sleeping and glare at the ceiling. He had tried to go down to his workshop on the first day, only to have Steve drag him back to his bed and Jarvis locked him on his room with his override code and thus he was left with few things to do in order to entertain himself.
They hadn't even let him use his tablet and instead Steve brought him a book every day, and whiles he had already read all the books Steve brought him he was tempted to reread them just to not waste the man's effort, because he admitted that it was a kind gesture from Steve's part, even more knowing that the last book he probably read was from 1942 at best and that he was missing many years of good literature because really Tony would have been pleased if the blond had given him something from Isaac Asimov.
Slowly he Sat on the bed, his body was aching and reminding him how much he hated being sick, but he was indeed feeling better than before. He threw his legs to the side of the bed, his feet barely touching the floor, yet he felt a shiver crawl his leg as his feet reached the cold surface. Steve had took his walker after the first day and he didn't know how good his legs were, even so he placed his feet more firmly on the floor and slowly moved forward, tentatively standing from the bed, to his joy only discomfort awaited him, the pain from before gone.
He smiled broadly and took a step forward, his knees ached at that but it was bearable enough he probably wouldn't need the walker or the elbows crutches anymore, to tell the truth he even felt like walking.
"Jarvis please unlock the door." His voice sounded nasal and rasped, making it hard for him to sound menacing, ironic or remotely similar to what he usually sounded.
"Sorry sir, I was instructed by Mr. Jarvis to not let you came out of the room." Of course he already knew that but something like that wasn't going to stop him this time.
"Of course he did, but I'm feeling better now and having me locked here isn't healthy at all, so please dear don't make me use those codes on you and open the door." With how weird his voice sounded that statement didn't came out quite as he wanted it to sound.
There was a long pause and for a moment Tony though that JARVIS had decided to notify Steve or the other Jarvis of his attempt of escape, but to his delight the door in front of him opened after a moment.
He walked outside to the corridor and looked at both sides, half expecting Steve to materialize out of nowhere, but the hall was as empty as it could be, no sign of the blond or even the old butler. He made his way to the stairway, slowly because his knee were still weak and he was having a hard time readjusting to walking without support, there was a loud noise coming from downstairs and he could heard at least three people talking, apparently Barton was visiting.
He made his way downstairs, the way down being a little bit more troublesome than he expected, he walked past the kitchen and it surprised him that Jarvis wasn't there, but he was glad of it because that meant he could probably made it to the workshop without having someone to carry him back to his room. He peeked inside the living room from where the noises were coming from, being careful as to not reveal his position, and there standing in the living room were Thor, Clint and Steve.
He frowned at that, he wasn't fond of having S.H.I.E.L.D's agents running free around his house but he knew that the two blonds got bored easily but Tony didn't had the free time nor did he had the interest to keep them happy all the time and that's why he was fine with Clint visits, as long as Natasha didn't tag along.
He turned around as quietly as he could, making his way to the elevator, as soon as he was inside he collapsed on the nearest wall and went into a coughing fit, sighing heavily when it subsided. He hated being sick and as much as he needed to rest he had never learned how. When he was kid whenever he was sick or not it have been the same, he had to study and be the best, he had to look fine and be the proud heir apparent of the Starks, there had been no time for being normal and sleep through the sickness, and trying to do so now just feel out of place.
There was a low ring and the door slid open to his side, he made his way out of the elevator and cleaned the security to his workshop, smiling when he noticed that everything was where he had left it. He let himself fall on his work chair and reached for the notebook he had been reading before being interrupted.
When he entered MIT he had tried to find as much information about his father's researches as he could and to his dismay he hadn't find much of it, a few things about the Manhattan project but nothing deep, and despite his earlier interest and his childhood worship on his father, as the times passed he grew to despite the man more and more, and by the time Tony had graduated from MIT, he could no longer look at him without feeling a vile taste on his mouth.
He lost all respect he once felt for Howard, not just as a human being and as a father but also as a scientific and as an engineer, and that's why Tony had embarked Stark industries into a new path that surpassed Howard's whiles being different, and that's how he ended reconstructing an empire while knowing too little about the man that preceded him.
Even so now reading Howard's notes he couldn't help but be engulfed by them, every detail about the Manhattan project, every equation, every mistake and success, theories that never saw the light, some absurd, others interesting enough for him to request JARVIS to run a simulation of them, and slowly he started to submerge himself on a world of pure numbers, equations and complex algorithms, his brain shutting away anything unrelated to such world, until all he could hear was the voice on his head that unraveled and fed the theories, and all he could see were the numbers float and arrange themselves on the far wall.
That was the reason why he didn't heard Steve enter the workshop, he was too lost on his self, being surrounded by thoughts and numbers to notice the man until a hand had touched his shoulder and a voice broke the spell of numbers. He blinked as the numbers started to fall and disappear and he focused his self on what the blond soldier was saying.
"…tion on the team, I'm sure Natasha will be glad and surely would appreciate it more than you do!" He blinked at Steve, not being able to comprehend what the man was telling him from just that piece of sentences.
"What?" The blond growled and pitched the bridge of his nose in exasperation.
"You are impossible Tony, come let's get you back to bed." Steve grabbed his arm and tugged, trying to make him stand from the chair but Tony resisted, earning a frown of disapproval from Steve.
"I'm fine. Really I'm feeling much better now." The soldier looked at him in doubt, putting the back of his hand on Tony's forehead, Tony leaned a little into the touch, somehow the other man was always warm, warmer than anyone he knew and it felt good against his skin.
"At least the fever is gone." Steve eyes traveled down looking at the engineer's legs before going back up. "What about your legs?"
"Been thinking about singing in a triathlon." Steve smirked at that and reached for a chair, the same one he used a few days before, sitting beside Tony, clearly the blond was back on mother hem's mode. "You are still reading Howard's notes?" Tony nodded and smiled.
"They are fairly interesting." He reached the notebook from before, drawing Steve's attention to it. "This one have all details about the atomic bomb's development. Of course I already know how it works and the Arc Reactor is far more complex than it but seeing the entire process of development, the failed attempts and theories that gave birth to it, is more exciting than I imagined." He smiled with nostalgia remembering the first time Howard taught him physic. "It kind of feels like when dad used to teach me about Newton's and Einstein's physic, as if I'm seeing everything for the first time."
Steve was looking at him with a blank look, whatever he was thinking Tony couldn't tell and he looked away, somehow his gaze reminded him of Howard's and he felt as if the soldier could see right through his soul.
"What about the Nazi and Howard's death have you find anything about that?" Tony shook his head with a frown.
"Not like I've been given the chance to." Steve nodded, not taking the bait, either by blissful ignorance or by dreadful knowledge.
They fell in silence after that and Tony moved to the next notebook, one that was written after the war, the first pages were of diary entries that detailed some government projects and Tony passed through them not paying much attention to it until he came across a draw of a cube, it was a simple draw in black with plain shadow but it was detailed enough for him to tell that the cube was translucent and it emanated a soft light.
"Have you ever seen this?" He showed the draw to Steve, who looked unsure for a moment and then nodded.
"Shmidt had it on our last fight, he used it as some kind of power supplier for the ship, I hit it with my shield and it started shinning then Shmidt touched it and… I'm not sure what happened but it looked like the space above our heads and it disintegrated him." Tony was frowning and was running a hand through his goatee, looking between perplexed and disturbed. "Also Peggy told me that Howard found it whiles searching for me."
"He did? When did she tell you that?" He couldn't hide his surprise, the more he heard about the cube the more he believed that this cube was more important than they realized.
"She told me many things while you were gone, mostly about your father." Steve pointed at the notebooks. "She said those notebooks hold Howard's research about that cube, apparently he was obsessed with it."
Tony looked at the notebook on his hand and turned the page of the draw, looking briefly at the next page it was about the cube, and the one that followed and the one after that too. He returned to the page of the drawing starting to read what was written there and one phrase caught his attention.
"The Nazi used to call it The Tesseract." Even if he had said it out loud it wasn't meant for the blond soldier, Tony was once again beginning to lose himself in a world Steve couldn't follow him into. "Like the fourth dimensional equivalent of the cube."
"Does it mean something?" Tony shrugged, continuing to read the notes.
"It may, but I can't be sure at the moment." Steve didn't say anything else and instead dedicated himself to observe the engineer in silence.
They stayed like that for a long time, Tony reading Howard's notes lost somewhere far too complex for the Soldier, while Steve watched him read and sometimes mutter to himself. Somewhere along the third and fourth notebook Steve fell asleep but it wasn't until Tony finished the fifth that he noticed.
The blond had turned the chair around and his arm where resting on the chair's back, the man's eyes were covered by his bangs, making him look somber and yet he looked calm and inviting. Tony brushed the hair out of his face with a low chuckled, finding it too amusing. three years ago if anyone told him that he would find himself with the original Captain America as his personal bodyguard and sleeping in his workshop, he would have never believe it, yet it was amazing how much life could change in such a short time.
He returned his gaze to the notebooks feeling a rush of exasperation invade him. He was still missing a piece of the puzzle, he had read the notes with care, taking his time to analyze each equation, algorithm, expression and he was yet to understand anything. He sighed looking up to the ceiling, going through Howard's notes in his mind.
The Nazi had called it The Tesseract and used it as a way to power their weapons. Howard had dubbed it the cosmic cube, had been obsessed with it and somehow it was related to the Arc Reactor. Steve said that after being hit with his shield it had reacted, they saw the space and when The red skull touched it, it disintegrated him like a cloud of light. The notes had showed him complex theories and yet he felt as if he was seeing something old and familiar for the first time. He didn't see how all that could connect to make a logical statement.
He started rocking his chair on the back legs, balancing it with a foot on the desk as the other one hanged on the air, his free leg crossed over the other one and gaze never leaving the ceiling. He let the number wash him, the workshop was gone and instead a cascade of numbers and variables surrounded him, arranging themselves to create mathematical expressions that no one but Tony could see. Slowly his eyes slipped closed and the whitish background the ceiling provided was replaced by black as the number continued to roam free even as his consciousness slipped from him.
The numbers began to blur and the math began to mess, he felt himself begin to fade into unconsciousness as the background cleared until everything was blank and he could no longer hear the voice on the back of his head, then he felt like falling. His eyes opened in a jolt and he saw the ceiling moving in front of him as he fell and he realized that he had rocked himself too strong. He tried desperately to get a hold of something, but his hand grasped thin air and he saw the world move around him, waiting for the impact with resignation.
Gravity's always making fun of us.
Then it clicked like an epiphany and his eyes widened not from the impact but from realization. The sound made by the chair as it hit the floor startled Steve and he was up in a moment, looking dazzled and not quite awake. He looked down to Tony and frowned in confusion.
"What are you doing down there?" He extended his hand out to Tony and the engineer accepted it, letting the soldier help him up.
"I have it Steve! I found the lost piece." He smiled with eagerness, reaching for his chair as soon as he was up, he sat on it and started to input commands on the holographic keyboard.
"Wait, you found the missing piece?" Tony nodded eagerly as he continued to mess with the keyboard.
"I did. All along I had the feeling that everything seemed familiar as if I had seen all of this before and yet it was also new to me, which is a strange feeling. Then when I was falling I realized why when I thought about gravity, all those theorems, equations, names, damn it! How did I let it slip?" With all the clues that Howard had left on the notes, with everything Steve had said to him, he should have realized it a long time ago.
"Wait, wait, wait, go slower, you know because you are making so much sense right now." He looked perplexed at Steve, who despite his word looked more amused than annoyed.
"You used sarcasms…" Tony said as he let the numbers slip for a moment. "Oh god I'm rubbing on you, don't let Fury know I corrupted America's golden boy." Steve grinned at him and sat beside him once gain.
"Don't promise I won't. What were you saying about gravity?" The numbers were back.
"Ah gravity right. All the things I knew about the cube didn't make sense when put together as if the last piece of the puzzle was missing and gravity gave me the answer." Tony stood from the chair and supported his weight on the table looking intensely at the notebooks. "JARVIS please make a digital backup of the notebooks."
"Starting right away, sir." Came the voice of the A.I.
A blue light started scanning the notebooks as the engineer turned around and walked pass the blond soldier, said man followed Tony as he walked to a box that had his last name printed on it and Tony suppressed a fit of cough that threatened of attacking him. he knew that if he started coughing now the blond would drag him to his bed before he could even complain.
"I don't know if I can make it simple enough for you to understand, because I'm talking about hard physic here and that's probably why it took me so long to realize, anyways how much do you know about multidimensional universes and string theory?" Tony said while opening the box in search of something, but after a few seconds of silence he looked over his shoulder to look at the blond, who was staring at him with a blank face.
"Is that a trick question?" Tony sighed and resumed his search, wishing that it was Bruce who he was explaining it to.
"Of course you know nothing, you were in your capcicle state by the time String Theory came to existence." He could feel Steve glare on the back of his head and he smirked, he liked pushing Steve's buttons because the soldier always gave him amusing expressions. "Ah ha, here you are." He held a just found notebook above his head and tossed it with the others over the table. "Scan that one too, dear."
"Could you just tell me what you discovered?" Tony turned around to face the soldier and chuckled when he saw the frown the man was giving him, it was a mix of a pout and a glare.
"I'll correct you, the word is rediscovered." He wasn't happy admitting that but Howard had been once again a step ahead of him. "I rediscovered what this so called cosmic cube is."
"And?" He walked closer to Steve, going over ways to explain it to him without confusing him.
"It's an error or just what the Nazi called it, a tesseract and before you ask a tesseract is the four-dimensional analog of the cube. The tesseract is to the cube as the cube is to the square." He pressed a finger on thin air, a blue point of light appeared and he dragged his finger to draw a line.
"This line is an one dimensional object because it only exist on one plane be it X,Y,Z,W or whatever letter you want." He then dragged the line with two fingers to create and square. "Now this square is a two-dimensional object because it exist in two planes X and Y, X and Z, whatever." He then touched the square and dragged it to create the draw of a cube.
"It works the same way for the cube, which is a three-dimensional object." Finally he dragged the cube and created a tesseract. "Now this is a tesseract, a four-dimensional object."
"All right I got that, but I still don't get why it is so important." Tony sighed with exasperation, it was as clear as water now.
"We live in a three-dimensional universe Steve and yet somehow this four-dimensional object, that we call Cosmic Cube is here, we see it like a cube but it's not, it has a four dimension that we are unable to perceive because our universe doesn't have it and so it rips apart the boundaries of it." he turned around and extended his hand, the holographic keyboard appeared and then many holographic screen.
"The Nazi were able to use it like a battery because of the immense quantity of energy it releases as it rips apart reality and what you and the red skull saw was probably it overloading, it accumulated to much energy and then released it at once, messing the reality around it, which would explain why you saw the cosmos." It all sounded so simple now that he couldn't believe he was having such a hard time figuring it out. Yet there was something that was bothering him and if his math was right they were probably in lots of troubles.
"In short this Comic Cube, Tesseract or whatever is a powerful generator which can become really dangerous if overused?" He didn't even look up from the screen and shook his head, typing some more commands.
"Not really, if you would call it anything it would be the key to understanding our universe and the most important discovery in physic since Quantum Mechanics, I can't believe dad didn't publish this." He inputted some more command before pressing enter and then crossed his arms over his chest as if waiting for something. "Still I fear I might have overlooked something."
"And that is?" Suddenly the holographic screens in front of Tony exploded in a cloud of light, which dispersed all over the workshop and arranged as small particles of light that simulated stars. Where the screens used to be just in front of the engineer was some sort of light tube. "Oh wow, is just like when I fought Shmidt."
Tony didn't answer, a frown full of concern adorned his face and he was pressing his lips tight enough for them to look like a thin line, it was obvious that something was bothering him.
"I have bad news." His gaze was fixed on the wormhole simulation in front of him. "Shmidt might not be dead."
"What? How can he not be dead?" The blond soldier was at his side in a moment, frowning at Tony with a look that promised troubles if he didn't start explaining soon.
"Is complicated but like I said before what you saw was the cube messing up the reality, when Shmidt touched it, it might have acted as some kind of wormhole. We had a similar case with Loki, he was sucked by a black hole and assumed dead but he survived, yet he is an immortal god and I'm not sure how it would work for a human." The blond soldier looked devastated by that, his face contorted in shock. "What I mean is for all I know Shmidt could materialize here out of nowhere and at any moment, although the chances of that happening are almost null."
"Can't you tell if he is dead or not?" Tony shook his head and sighed.
"There are too many variables for me to make an algorithm of it, maybe if I had the cube, after all I'm just theorizing here." He turned to look at the wormhole again, he wouldn't be sure of anything he said until he was able to test it and for that he needed the cube.
"All you need is the cube?" He looked at Steve with curiosity. Was he keeping more secrets?
"Probably, but I can't be sure until I test it." Steve nodded and looked away.
"I think I know where the cube is." That send Tony over the edge and he grabbed the soldier's arm before he could think about it, his eagerness and surprise too big to hide.
"Really? Why didn't you say that before? Where is it?" Steve looked at him with a mixture of sympathy and worry, he didn't need to hear what the blond said in order to now the place, his look had given all away.
"S.H.I.E.L.D.'s headquarter." Tony grimaced, knowing that having Fury hand it to him was probably harder than looking for it all over the world and he sighed with indignation.
"Well I suppose Fury will get his report after all." He released Steve and moved for the door but a hand grasped his arm before he could go much farer. He turned lightly and looked at the blond, who had the same look he had all those time he had dragged Tony back to his bed. "Ah you gotta be kidding me! What part of materializing out of nowhere didn't you get?"
"If that happens I'll just have to defeat him again." Tony opened his mouth to protest but Steve didn't let him speak. "Tony we need you healthy again, the team needs Iron Man and I need you healthy for this, even more if Shmidt reappears and all this physic things are involved."
Tony gaze fell on the floor, he had never been good at resting but he knew that he wasn't going to get away with it, not with Steve hovering him. He could take this chance to read more thoughtfully the notes and probably find something about Howard's connection to the Pro-Nazi, after all Steve was right he couldn't keep Iron man away for much longer.
"Alright let's try it your way." Steve smiled openly at him, seemingly pleased by his decision, he walked toward Tony and put both hand on his shoulders pushing him gently toward the exit.
"Let's get you to bed." Tony couldn't help but smile at the soft tone on the soldier's voice and at the moment he was alright with it being Steve the one he had to explain everything to.
AN:
Happy new year guys! I hope this new year brings everyone happiness. I start the year with a new chapter let's hope that it is a good omen.