Chapter 7: One Secret coming out and hiding another
Hi! As promised Chapter 7! But because I'm currently writing on Chapter 12 (it might become a 13 Chapter story after all...), I'm giving you guys chapter 8 too! See it as an apology that I can't give you an update for 3 weeks.
You all would make me really happy if you left reviews so that I can read them all when I get back from my vacation. :)
"I will tell him. He deserves to learn it from someone and not like I did!"
"You will do no such thing Tony. When the time comes I will tell him myself."
"Oh and when?! When he stumbled across it and will think himself as some kind of monster?! Why? Why didn't you tell us? Were you so disgusted with what we truly were that you kept it from us too? Tell me father, why you did that to my brother and I! You took us for a purpose, what was it? Tell me!"
"I will tell him when the time is right and you have no right to question your king. But I will tell you why I took you; I thought we could unite our kingdoms-" Tony began to laugh, bitter tears running down his face. "We weren't more than trophies then! By the nine, …I have to get to my brother."
He took a step forwards but was blasted back. "You will do no such thing!" Tony jumped up, tears still running down his face and he screamed in anger as he ran towards the man he once called father.
The feelings of anger and betrayal followed Tony into the waking world and he fell from the couch he had been lying on. Trying to regain his heavy breathing, he heard concerned voice close to him.
"-ny? What is it? Are you alright?"
"Boss do you need something?"
"Tony?"
A hand touched his shoulder and Tony slapped it away in fright, crawling backwards till he hit the couch.
When his vision cleared, Tony saw Nick who had been the one to touch him and was now frowning – or as much as he could with only one visible eyebrow – and Phil, Yinsen and Happy were standing behind him, all three looking concerned.
"You alright now son?" Nick asked with his gruff voice but the concern was obvious to those that knew what they were looking (or more listening) for.
"Y-yeah, sure. Everything peachy Nick."
Nick gave him the typical don't-bullshit-me-look (typical for Tony) and the other three didn't look convinced either.
"Yeah well maybe it would be more convincing if you weren't shaking like a leaf and hadn't tears streaming down your face." Tony touched his face and saw his hand shaking as he did so. He tried to bring himself back under control but seeing that it didn't work, Fury didn't hesitate to close the distance between them and close his arms around Tony.
Tony grabbed the older mans clothes and really tried to get himself under control while Fury whispered comforting words into his ear just like he had done years ago when Maria and the older Jarvis had died.
After a few minutes Tony regained control and Nick let go of him, the later turning around and said: "If this" (meaning the fact that Nick Fury had feelings and had openly showed them) "ever gets out I will make your lives a living hell."
They all nodded in understanding and Phil stepped up to help Tony back onto the couch who accepted the help gladly. Happy hurried to the kitchen and came back with a tray full of mugs with Hot Chocolate. 'Seems like Jarvis rebooted and already thought of such things.' Happy held out one mug. "Thanks Hap." "No problem Boss."
They sat around in silence, everyone a mug of Hot Chocolate in hand – even Fury – after some time Tony's eyes travelled over the dark stains on the floor and broke the silence. "So what story are we going to tell the world?"
"He's on vacation. Small planes have such a high crash rate." Phil said normally as if they were talking about the weather.
"Good, okay…"
Silence settled again and after a few minutes Yinsen broke the silence this time. "If it is all right to ask; what is your relationship with Tony, Director? I mean… uhm…"
Fury sighed and exchanged a quick glance – which you would miss if you blinked – with Tony who just shrugged. "He is… my godson, kind of. His mother asked me to keep an eye on him should something happen to her but since I'm the Director of SHIELD and have thus a few enemies that would love to get their grabby fingers on any kind of leverage, we decided it would be best to hide this connection between us. And it would be better if it stayed hidden." The threat in his voice wasn't hidden when he said that and he immediately got replies to it.
"I would never spill out secret, especially not if they are about the boss or if they might endanger him!" "I think Yinsen and I agree with Happy's statement, we wouldn't do anything to endanger our friend. Isn't that right?" "That's correct Phil."
Fury looked at all three of them and saw the sincerity in their eyes and body language. 'Seems like Tony has the best friends one could hope for at his side.'
"Good. Now Tony, you mentioned a suit. Care to show me?"
The big smile he got in return was answer enough and together they went down where Tony explained his ideas more thoroughly while showing of his armour to his 'godfather' and if the other four always kept Tony in their line of sight to ensure that everything was alright, and if not, well they would make it…
Iron Man was introduced shortly after the enouncement of Obadiah's 'tragic death in a plane crash' and even though the world was wary at the beginning they quickly learned to love their new hero.
Meanwhile Tony as Iron Man cleaned up the mess his weapons had made and outside his armour worked harder on things that would really help the world like new medical equipment and clean energy.
He still met as often as he could with Phil even though the other man was also extremely busy but since he now had taken the unofficial role as liaison between Iron Man and SHIELD they at least had these official meeting to look forward to.
Yinsen stayed with Tony as his personal doctor and Happy still stayed as his bodyguard but now he and Tony would box together to train Tony's reflexes for when he was in and out of the armour.
As time went by Tony realised that the palladium of the arc reactor was slowly poisoning him and he tried to find another metal to replace the palladium with Jarvis, without any success. So he tried to use his magic to help him out but it together with the chlorophyll he drank was only slowing the poisoning but didn't stop it (not that it was that surprising after all the source of the poisoning sat in his chest).
After that he slowly retreated from the others, wanting to spare them the sight of him slowly dying (again), especially Phil who after the thing with Obadiah always tried to make sure if Tony was okay be after a mission or when he just stayed to long in the lab without rest (Yinsen and Happy would call Phil, who call Tony and berate him for being so careless with his health).
Yinsen and Happy of course realised this and tried to get him to talk about what was wrong (Yinsen had a guess but he wanted to be sure) but Tony just deflected their worried enquiries and retreated even more – which wasn't that easy if you lived with two of four people that could read you pretty well. Jarvis pleaded with him to tell the others but Tony couldn't bring himself to.
When after a month of avoiding Yinsen, Happy, calls from Phil, Nick and even Clint (who had heard from Phil who had heard from Yinsen about Tony's behaviour), the five had enough and ganged up on Tony, which meant that they all stormed the lab (Jarvis had opened the doors for them since he had Tony's best interest in mind).
Tony sat slumped over his desk, movements sluggish. Phil was the one to approach him – the others hot on his heels – and tapped Tony on the shoulder to get his attention. Tony jumped on his seat, almost falling from the chair – which would have been a funny sight had it not been for the paleness and the dark lines on Tony's skin.
Yinsen immediately stepped forward and looked at Tony with a critical eye. "Jarvis, please give me Tony's medical record."
"With pleasure Yinsen."
A holoscreen lit up and showed the fact that Tony was suffering from Palladium poisoning, which Yinsen told the others. "Why didn't you tell us Tony? We could have helped you."
"I…" Tony looked away from them and then said quietly: "I didn't want you to worry…"
"Of course we would worry you dumb tin man!" Clint shouted. "We are family, we always worry. So it's no reason to hide something like this from us!"
"I didn't want you to see me die slowly!" Tony shouted back and thus halted Clint perfectly before he could say more. "I tried every possible metal and metal combination! Nothing is working and I couldn't just let you all see how I slowly die…"
Tony raised a hand to his head and hid his eyes. He was getting a headache…
Suddenly arms wrapped around him from all sides and when he let his hand fall limply in his lap he saw that everyone – except Fury – was standing around him, hugging him. Instead of joining the little hug moment Nick crossed his arms over his chest and said in his gruff voice: "We will find a cure. Maybe there is something in the records Howard left with SHIELD before his death."
Tony slowly nodded in acknowledgement and the others let go of him one by one until only Phil was left standing behind him, hands still on Tony's shoulders.
"Okay… I'm sorry-"
"Save it boss. You should have told us but since we now all know what's going on we should concentrate on finding a cure instead of the mistakes you made while dealing alone with it."
Happy said before turning to the stairs and exclaiming. "I'm going to order some food since that will take time. Yinsen do you want to come with me?"
"Sure."
They left the lab and this left Tony with the SHIELD Agents/Director alone, the later also leaving to get everything shipped here that Howard left in SHIELD's care.
Phil grabbed a chair and sat down besides Tony while Clint sat down in a clear spot on the table.
"No worries Tony, I'm sure we will find something and then you can back to annoy us with your techno babble." Clint said lightly, no trace of his outburst from before left.
"If you say so bird brain."
They both squabbled a bit like they always did in each others presence (but never really meaning what they said) and Phil just looked on with interest. After some time he interrupted Tony who was just trying to make his point clear to Clint why his repulsors were cool.
"You know, none of you two ever told me how you know each other."
Clint and Tony turned to Phil, the former having almost forgotten the presence of his superior.
"Ah, well you see, that was shortly after my mother's, Jarvis' and Howard's deaths. I went to visit Nick in the HQ – disguised of course – to get away from Stane who was nagging me about the latest weapon designs. But Nick was busy and so I just strolled around till I came to the shooting area were everyone was training their shooting skills and there was only one guy that didn't use any kind of gun but bow and arrow and looked to be around my age."
"And the curious idiot he was, he entered the shooting range and stepped behind me, I had been so concentrated on my training since I was new and one of the youngest. Tony just started talking behind me and made me miss my target."
"'Miss your target' is nicely phrased! You shot in the ceiling but since you didn't use a normal arrow in this shot it bounced back and nearly hit one of the guys on the range. The poor guy nearly pissed himself!" Tony said laughing – but grapping the table for support – and Clint just scratched his head.
"Yeah, well even if I had hit him, it wouldn't have been such a lose. Always disliked that guy."
"Why didn't I hear about that incident?"
"I think you were off base during that time. But anyway I turned back to give the one who had ruined my shoot a mouthful when I saw this guy" Clint jabbed his finger at Tony who just grinned "laughing his ass of at the sight of the other Agent's face. Then Fury suddenly turned up and said 'Kid get your ass out of here before you cause anymore trouble.'" Clint tried to imitate Fury's voice but failed greatly. "Curious of who the one was that had ruined my shot and that would cause Fury to go so gentle on him – he didn't make him take a special training course for this stunt after all – I followed them through the vents."
"Nick brought me to his office and I gladly took of the stupid wig and sunglasses. He asked me what was wrong, why I would come to him personally instead of just calling. Told him that I just needed to see someone that didn't want something from me, even if only for a moment. Caused Nick to let out a long-suffering sigh, he even mumbled something about 'Stupid Stane' and other things. We talked for a few minutes about different things and then I made my way back to my home. While feeling the whole time like someone was stalking me. Called Happy whom I had just hired recently to pick me up when Legolas came out of nowhere."
"Your face was just great especially when your sunglasses fell down and you stared wide-eyed at me!" Clint laughed and Tony would have hit him playfully if he had the strength for it.
"Well after that one thing followed another and Clint of course figured out who I was, but promised not to tell anyone. We hit off right away and stayed in contact. That's it basically. Anything to add feather brain?"
"Nope tin can."
They talked some and after a while Happy and Yinsen returned with food and Nick with some Agents carrying a few boxes.
The Agents were dismissed and together they looked through notes, pictures and other things they found. Clint let out a small cry of triumph as he dug out an old film roll. "Maybe there is something on it that could help!"
Happy quickly dug out the film projector and they let the film roll – Tony not really interested in what Howard had to say, kept looking through the notes while the others concentrated on the screen.
It were cuts from the video Tony showed at the opening of the Expo that was taking place and after some time the others lost hope that anything useful until suddenly the scene changed again and Howard said: "Tony. I know that I wasn't the best father when Maria came one day with you in tow. The suddenness of your presence threw me of the track and I distanced me even more… You are too you young to understand this right now so I thought I would put it on film for you. I built this for you. And someday you will realise that it represent a whole lot more than just peoples inventions. It represents my life's work. This is the key to the future. I'm limited by the technology of my time. But one day you will figure this out. And when you do, you will change the world. What is and always will be, the greatest gift given to me… is you!"
The film ended and no one except for Tony, Jarvis and Nick really understood what Howard had meant when he said that 'Maria came one day with [him] in tow' and not what the others were thinking, that Maria's (supposed) pregnancy hadn't been planned.
Tony mentally revised the words Howard had said 'key to the future', 'limited'… And suddenly it clicked in Tony's head. He shakily stood up and the others followed him when he went to one of his cars. "Where are you going?"
"I need to go to SI HQ, the solution is there."
Happy and Clint accompanied Tony while the others cleared some space. Once the model was at Tony's home, one thing followed another and suddenly Tony wasn't dying anymore. The celebrated that evening and if Phil and Tony hovered closer around each other that evening, well, no one was going to comment – not even Clint…