Back at the Stark mansion, Bruce had been abandoned upstairs to greet Steve by the time he had returned.

"Thank god you're here," he calmly said as he flipped through the latest edition of Science Mag, "Tony's locked himself in his lab... again."

Steve was tempted to roll his eyes, but considering the circumstance... "What is he doing down there?"

Bruce did not lift his eyes from his magazine. "Who knows," he licked his finger and flipped another page, "but there's a reason I'm not down there-the big guy may not like it if Tony exploded something again."

Steve sat across from Bruce. "I suppose that makes sense..." For a moment, he analysed the room. "Hey, Bruce..."

He looked up from his magazine.

"Where's..." Steve cleared his throat; he wasn't sure if he would ever ask this, "what did they do with Howard?"

Bruce dropped his magazine and his eyes widened in panic. Steve shot up out of his chair.

"Bruce..." Steve said, a pathetic attempt to calm him down.

Steve could tell that Bruce's mind started to race, searching desperately for an answer. "I-" Bruce took a deep breath, and then a wave of realisation-and relief-washed over him. "Oh yeahhh... the SHIELD (I think that's right...) agents came and took him away in a heli-carrier?-not too long before you showed up."

"Oh," Steve sat down in relief, "that explains it. I think my uncle works for them-it-whatever you want to call SHIELD.

Just then, they heard the purr of Coulson's SHIELD-grade car coming up the driveway, and the engine shut off. Bruce resumed his reading, and Steve ran to the door to care for his uncle.

"So, turns out that your company-SHIELD, right?-came over and took Howard's body. I guess they're going to prep it or something," Steve reported to Coulson as he stepped into the foyer.

"That's... odd," Coulson replied, though he silently smirked to himself about how wonderful a person Director Fury really could be.

"Yeah," Steve responded, moving back to the sitting area and expecting Coulson to follow. "I guess, since Howard was involved with your company... maybe they have a funeral going for him or something?"

"You're probably right," Coulson muttered, distracted with the elegance of the mansion, "not that I've known SHIELD for providing life insurance benefits before. Where's Tony?"

"Lab," Bruce responded before Steve could.

"God knows what he's doing down there," Steve added. Coulson just shrugged and sat down.

"You know," Bruce sat up, putting his magazine down and sitting up properly, "you should probably get him out of his lab and into the real world again."

Coulson and Steve both looked at Bruce in slight confusion.

"Come on," Bruce put his serious face on, "think of all the shit that he's had to deal with in the past two days. He got blown up-I hulked out, but come on, that's not as big of a deal-and some random guy dressed in leather and a cape stabbed his father."

Steve looked down and wove his fingers together behind his back. "What do you suggest?"

"Shakespeare!" Bruce threw his hands in the air excitedly.

"...Shakespeare?" Steve looked confused.

"There's a Shakespeare production going on at the school on Friday this week. Tony could do with some classic literature."

Steve laughed. "I don't know if he can understand classic literature."

"You'd be surprised," Bruce said, and stuck his nose back in the magazine, laying back down on the couch.

After exchanging a glance with Coulson, Steve headed to the labs. He was positive Tony would have already heard him coming, what with the door clicking behind him, but as he came around the corner, Tony was still hard at work.

"Hey, Tony?" Steve asked, knocking on the lab's door as he entered.

No response.

"Look," Steve said, as though speaking to a brick wall, "I know everything recently has been really hard, but I was thinking, maybe later this week..."

"No, you don't know." Tony got up from his chair slowly, turned around, and faced Steve. His tired eyes were difficult for Steve to look directly into. "You don't know what it's like to lose a father. You don't know what it's like to have to pray and hope every day that a little blue circle of light doesn't give out, because it's the only thing keeping you alive. No," he took a moment, and sat back down in his chair, "you don't know, Steve. You. Just. Don't."

Steve looked down dejectedly. "Actually, I do. No parents, remember? None. Both were in the most recent war-the army's how they fell in love. They both died in the battlefield. So Coulson took me in. It's simple, but I have no parents."

Tony's face was blank, detached, and unfeeling.

"I see," Steve muttered to himself, and turned. "I hope you know," he started, "that we are going to see the school's Shakespeare on Friday. And you're coming. Be ready for that."

Tony sat at his desk again, tinkering away, as Steve went upstairs. He looked at his little calendar and carefully circled Friday in a red pen.