Chapter 18
After a quick stop at Darren's home to pick up his things, Coulson escorted them back the mansion. As soon as they walked through the door, the mess from earlier greeted them. Tony stood there fixated on the overturned items from the entry table and the files that Darren had brought. All he could think about was JC lying in the very spot where he now stood, how for just a moment he had thought she was…No. He couldn't think like that, couldn't imagine her being dead.
"Stark?" Darren said, pulling him from his thoughts.
"Sorry," he said quickly, picking up the few items from the floor and set them haphazardly back on the table. "The spare room is upstairs. Come on." He passed by the files on the floor and quickly shuffled them into a pile and picked them up to be put on the living room table. "Happy will be by in the morning to take you to school and he'll pick you up after," he said as he made his way up the stairs.
"I could just drive myself, you know."
"Even if I was willing to take the risk of letting a sixteen year old drive off in a six figure car, there is still the fact that I don't trust you to actually go to school." He stopped at the door to the guest room. "If I were in your shoes, I'd be off the first chance I got."
"What's to stop me from doing that as soon as your driver leaves?" he asked, arms crossed over his chest.
"I would hope the prospect of walking across town would be enough to deter you, but we both know you're smart enough to figure out a ride of some sort. In light of that, you should know that Happy will be staying at the school making sure you don't make it off the premises until after your last class."
"I could probably still find a way around him."
"Happy might not be as creative as your mom, but he's not an idiot either. Coulson will keep me updated on her condition. If anything changes, I will call Happy and he'll get you immediately. You have my word on that."
They stared each other down for a long moment before Darren finally walked into the room and dropped his back pack on the floor. Satisfied that there would be no further argument for the evening, Tony left him to get settled in and changed for bed. He knew he was only going to get a few hours rest before the press conference, and he wanted to make the most of them.
Not that it made any difference. As soon as his head hit the pillow he fell into nightmare filled sleep. Each dream was only one horrible variation or another of what happened, each one leaving JC bloodied and broken, and every time Tony was helpless to stop it. When he finally startled himself awake, there was still another hour yet before he was supposed to be getting ready. Letting out a groan, he rolled over and tried to get back to sleep.
"Sir," came the voice of JARVIS.
"Whatever it is, it can wait," he mumbled groggily.
"Sir, I thought you should know that your new house guest is accessing my security archives."
"If you're that worried about it, lock him out."
"I can't, sir."
That was enough to get his attention. Few things could get around JARVIS. "Where is he?" Tony asked as he tossed the covers away.
"In the garage."
Rubbing the sleep from his eyes Tony made his way down to the basement. As he got closer he could hear the sound of screams coming from the monitors that he recognized too well as himself and then JC. He couldn't imagine what Darren would want with any of that footage, but he was going to find out. Creeping quietly down the stairs he stopped just short of the door and watched as Darren stared at the screen filled with various angles from the security cameras. When the footage from that evening finally came to a finish, Tony finally spoke up.
"Not many people can find a way to lock JARVIS out."
It barely startled the boy as he turned slowly toward him. "Given a few more minutes, he probably would have gotten around my code. It's pretty basic stuff. Didn't even think it would work. Besides, you said I could have unrestricted access to your tech."
"I forgot to tell JARVIS that. Was going to do it in the morning since I didn't think you'd go after it so soon. Besides, he still probably would have locked you out since that falls under Private files. What is it you were looking for anyway?"
He leaned back in the chair and averted his gaze. "I thought by taking your offer I might find a way to make your life hell for a bit. Thought I might find something useful from the nights Mom spent here. But it's hard to put a guy through hell when he's already living it. You hide it well."
Tony crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the doorframe. "Your mom hid it much better. When I came to your house that night after we got back, she knew immediately there was something wrong. Even when we were prisoners she never let on how bad off she really was."
"Is it true what you said before? That you had to carry her through the desert?"
"Yeah," he answered as he thought back to that day. He wasn't sure how much detail he should go into with Darren, but if JC didn't make it, he deserved to know everything. If Tony didn't tell him, he would probably just hack his way through to those records, if he hadn't already. "We were both hurt pretty bad from the escape. We were lost, and she had nothing left. She told me to leave her behind, said I'd have a better chance of making it without her slowing us down."
"Why didn't you?"
Tony moved closer and took a seat across from Darren. "At that time I was okay if I died. No one was waiting for me, probably no one shedding a tear, except for Pepper, but she would recover, be just fine, if I never made it back. But your mom still had you. Take this as you will, but you and I aren't too terribly different. I was smart, had a bright future when my parents died. I don't know how different things might have turned out if they were still around, but I suppose I was afraid that without your mom, you might turn out to be another Tony Stark. That's not what the world needed. If you were going to turn out to be anything remotely close to me, I wanted you to have the chance to be a force for good. Does that sound totally hokey?"
"It sounds a bit unbelievable, considering what you did to her in Japan. Was that all true, too?" He gaze turned cold as he stared daggers at Tony.
Tony shifted uncomfortably before deciding how best to answer. "I was not the same person then. I was angry, thought I knew better. I thought your mother was being overzealous in her protective measures, so I ran off, got drunk. I don't remember anything that happened after that. I woke up in my bedroom covered in bruises. She never told me exactly what happened until after we escaped. After she beat me into unconsciousness she tried to kill me. I can't even blame her for it. Part of me wonders if it wouldn't have been better if she had. And I wonder what Stane would have done with me out of the way, how much worse things would be." He stared levelly at Darren. "I can't change what happened in the past. I wish I could take it all back, but I can't. I've been doing everything I can to prove that I've changed, that I want to do better. Your mom helped me do that, forgave me for what happened. She should have abandoned me a long time ago, but she chose to stay, and somewhere along the way, as insane as it might be, we fell in love. If I do nothing else, I want to do right by her."
Darren looked down at his hands, fidgeting as he thought over Tony's answer. "I was old enough to remember what mom was like before dad died. She was still a stubborn hard ass even back then, but she had more moments when she was…soft, I guess you could say. She would sing while she was doing housework when she thought no one was listening. It wasn't perfect by any means, but I always knew it meant she was happy, in a good mood. After dad died, she didn't sing anymore. She didn't have her soft moments anymore. When she came back from the desert, I thought it would be even worse, and for a while I thought I was right. Then one night when I got back from a friend's house, I found her in her studio. She had her headphones on, so she didn't hear me come in, but I heard her. She was singing for the first time in years." He looked up to Tony with a small smile. "I'm not going to try to understand what there is between you two; there's just no way. You make her happy, Stark. It's all I've ever wanted for her for a long time. So I won't get in the way if you still want to pursue her. But know this: if you do anything to hurt her, I will break you. Clear?"
After his conversation with Darren, Tony hadn't gotten much sleep, which was doing nothing to help get through the media circus that greeted him at his office. Rhodey was to present first to explain what had happened, and Tony was supposed go on and corroborate his story with an alibi provided by Coulson. There was just one problem with that plan.
"JC is Iron Man? You've got to be kidding me."
"Nowhere in the official statements does it say JC is the one in the armor," Coulson said.
"No, just a member of my personal security, which most of those journalists believe comprises solely JC and Happy, and I highly doubt any of them are going to come to the speculation of Happy being in the suit."
"Let them speculate whatever they want. There are plenty of people who are going to want to get their hands on that suit. The only way to keep you protected is to make it someone else in the armor."
"And in the meantime, those vultures will go looking for JC, and when they can't get to her, they'll go after Darren. The last thing he needs is to get caught up in this anymore than will already happen. Think of something else," Tony fumed as he tossed the cards on to his desk.
"Colonel Rhodes has already told the world it was a member of Stark Industries. There's no turning back now. Just stick to the cards and soon, this was all be behind you. You've got ninety seconds." With that, he strode out with Pepper not far behind to escort him.
Tony looked over the cards again and scowled. If he went through with this, it would ruin JC's life. That is, if she ever woke up to start living it. The only update that he had gotten was that she was out of surgery, but they were still doing further scans and tests to determine any further damage. The only good thing they could say was that she was stable, but that did nothing to alleviate his nerves. Now Coulson wanted to pile this on as well.
"Tony?" came Pepper's voice. "It's time," she said as she held up his suit jacket.
Gathering up the cards he finished dressing and headed towards the conference room. Of course, Christine Everheart was sitting in the front row with a smug smirk on her bruised face. Judging from the bandage on her nose, JC must have broken it the other night. There would be no better time for her to get some sort of revenge than now.
Tony stared at the cards for a long hard moment. Whatever he said in the next few minutes would change JC and Darren's lives forever. No matter the ultimate outcome, the two of them would never know peace, not just from the media, but from all the psychopaths that would think she was the one with knowledge and access to the suit. He had made a promise last night to Darren that he wouldn't do anything to hurt JC. If he did as told, it would hurt them both. There was only one logical solution.
So just like that, he told the world in no uncertain terms that he was Iron Man.
In the hours that followed Tony finished the press conference only to be bombarded by Coulson and his agents. To say they were livid would have been an understatement, but Tony regretted none of it. Despite the chastising and threats, Coulson still allowed Tony to return to the medical facility to see JC.
The sight before him in the recovery room brought back the terrible memory of when he saw her in the hospital after the incident in Japan. There was an IV line in her arm, a brace around her neck, bandages around her head, and her right arm in a sling. She had also been intubated and hooked up to a machine that was breathing for her.
"What is her condition?" he demanded of the doctor.
"We've been able to repair most of the damage. She has plates on her ribs and we were able to repair the damaged muscles in her shoulder. There's not much we can do for the pelvic fractures except for bed rest. The worst of it is the cranial fractures. To put it mildly, she's lucky a bone didn't puncture her brain. She's stable but in an induced coma to–"
"I'm sorry. Did you just say coma?" That was the last thing he wanted to hear.
"Due to the damage and the resulting swelling from her injury, we didn't have a choice. This coma allows her the chance to heal. It's much safer than it sounds, Mr. Stark. Safer than letting her be awake right now."
"She's in a coma! There is nothing safe about that!" He let his temper get the better of him, but quickly reined it in. "How long will she have to stay like this?"
"I can't give you an exact answer. Head injuries are unpredictable at best. It could be a few days or a few weeks. Worst case scenario, and I don't believe she falls into this category at all, people have been kept safely in an induced coma for up to six months. I wish I could be more precise, but I can't."
"Doc, you don't get it. This," he said, pointing toward JC's prone form, "is her worst nightmare. Do you understand what I'm saying? This is a literal definition of Hell for her."
"She is completely unaware of anything, Mr. Stark. The procedure is similar to that of general anesthesia. Once the swelling goes down, we reverse the drugs and she'll come out of it. She won't even realize what's happened."
He didn't get it. He didn't understand that she had been in this position before. She might not be aware of what was happening around her, but Tony had a decent idea of what was going on inside her head. And there was nothing he could do to help her, or make the moron of a doctor understand what was really going on with her.
"Can you at least say if there's any permanent brain damage?"
"I wish I could tell you, Mr. Stark. We won't know anything for sure until she wakes up. I can tell you that she will most likely have some retrograde amnesia. It's not uncommon with these types of injuries and is usually temporary. However, she may never regain full memory of the attack or anything that happened in the hours before."
Tony doubted she would mind never having to relive that night ever again. Even now he could still vividly see her lying in the front entry lying so still he was sure that she was dead. This, he thought, was even worse than that.
When the doctor finally left them alone, Tony laid a hand over hers. "I know you probably can't hear me," he said softly. "But if you can, I need you to know how sorry I am, JC. This…all of this is my fault. I should have let you go a long time ago. I knew I needed to, but I couldn't. I kept you for selfish reasons, and now you're…" He took a steadying breath as his voice began to crack. "If I could switch places with you, I would do it in an instant. But I can't. I can promise that no matter what happens, I will take care of your son. Whatever it takes, whatever he needs, I'll do it." He squeezed her hand tightly, wishing she would give some sign that she heard him, understood him. But there was nothing.
Pulling up a seat near her bed, Tony pulled out a tablet computer and went to work. He had just put a big target on his back, and he was going to need a better suit to tackle whatever was certain to come.
