Thank you to everybody who read or reviewed the last chapter. You are so wonderful. We are back in the beta timeline again.

This conversation begins shortly after the last Beta timeline conversation and then stretches out over a day or two. We are moving forward in time.

You're probably wondering why you're getting an update on a Thursday. My personal computer is going into hard drive failure. I'm taking it into the shop tomorrow for repairs. I don't know when I'm getting my computer back (or the insurance kicks in, and I get a replacement.) So I thought it would be best to post today. I'm not allowed to upload chapters on my work computer because the site is blocked. I hope it won't take more than two weeks to fix the issue, but we'll see.

Conversation 46: Exercises in getting closer and moving forward

Cuddle bunny: Hey, just letting you know that we landed safely in Brooklyn.

Tony: Good to know.

Cuddle bunny: I can't believe you actually have a place where we can park the Quinn jet. It is only a block and a half from my apartment. That seems weird for somebody who's retired.

Tony: I've always believed in being pragmatic. It's not a bad thing to have a Quinn jet/helicopter pad near the current Director of Shield's home.

Cuddle bunny: It would if you weren't retired from being a superhero. Apparently, you're a real estate mogul now.

Tony: OK, the real reason is so we can take the Quinn jet to play dates. I even put in a car seat. Did you ever question why we could be there so often even though we're like a four-hour car ride away at the cabin?

Cuddle bunny: So that's the real cover for your real estate buying.

Tony: There's a 50-50 chance I might own your apartment building. I'll have to ask Hunter.

Cuddle bunny: Why Hunter?

Tony: I haven't had an assistant since Kevin switched over to the Pepper side after losing his wife. Since I am mostly retired except for the real estate stuff and the occasional consulting, Hunter handles keeping track of things for me.

Cuddle bunny: Like reminding you when you have a play date with us.

Tony: I always remember when I get to see you, buttercup. Pepper always said that I needed a nanny more than an assistant. I just proved her right.

Cuddle bunny: Glad to know you enjoy the pleasure of my company. Which you love so much that you bought somewhere near me where you could land Quinn jet so you could see me more often. Really?

Tony: Of course.

Tony: Hey, I have to go eat dinner. Natasha brought pizza. Then Brucie bear and I will go through more of the Simmons notes. Well, the translations. She's quite brilliant when she's not spending quality time with José Cuervo.

Cuddle bunny: She is.

Tony: Oh, before I leave, please call Pepper Pot. I think she wants you to stay at the house because the baby misses you.

Cuddle bunny: Will do.

XXXX

Four hours later.

Agent Barton: You know, I think it's best for humanity that Virginia Potts never became a supervillain.

Agent Barton: She is forcing me to share a room with a variant of my estranged husband.

Agent Barton: Today has been awkward enough without that. There was a lot of crying at therapy. Clint needed it, but still lots of crying.

Agent Barton: I got to see baby bird. Steve and Melinda are doing a good job. However, I think the baby bird in my timeline is doing better, probably because they found a way to lessen the visions.

Agent Barton: I know that your relationship with the Wakanda government isn't as good as in my timeline, but they have some specialists that can really help the baby bird. I asked the princess to send some recommendations next time the window opens. Whenever that will be.

Agent Barton: Ana, is Tony in the creative zone?

Agent Barton: I mean Friday. Sorry, I'm not used to you not being a teenager here.

Friday: That's OK. I understand that you're used to a different AI.

Agent Barton: Ana thinks of herself as your little sister even though she's more like a child. The Princess, Fitz, and Leo modeled some of her programming after you, but they changed some things. She also has a Wakondan accent. Although so does Afia. Or it's more of a blend between your current accent and a Wakondan accent.

Friday: Do I like being an LMD?

Agent Barton: I think that's a question you have to ask Afia. But I believe that you do.

Friday: I will when the window opens Thursday afternoon.

Agent Barton: I thought they said it would be three days.

Friday: We had to recalibrate. We are still trying to determine if we can send one-sided messages outside of the main window.

Agent Barton: That makes sense. So I assume Tony is busy?

Friday: Mr. Stark thinks he found the key to re-creating what Dr. Simmons did to bring Deke to your timeline.

Agent Barton: That makes sense. Can I talk to him?

Friday: I'm sorry. Outside of an emergency, I am only to put Steve's text messages through to him.

Agent Barton: I am not the least bit surprised. Please tell me there's a protocol that pulls him out of there if he exceeds 12 hours?

Friday: Yes.

Agent Barton: Good.

XXXX

eight hours later

Cuddle bunny: Hey, I just wanted to let you know that we're leaving for Norway in half an hour. We are just having breakfast with the kids first. Pepper ordered pancakes.

Tony: Wait, it's morning already? Although I am glad that you got over to see the kids.

Cuddle bunny: You fell asleep in the lab, didn't you?

Tony: Yes. Hunter is busy with the girlfriend, so he wasn't around to drag me out when I hit the 12-hour mark.

Cuddle bunny: You went back there right after eating?

Tony: Actually, we may have eaten the pizza in the lab. But away from all the sensitive equipment because we don't want to damage any of that.

Cuddle bunny: Of course not.

Tony: Scott and Bruce left at some point, but I don't remember when.

Cuddle bunny: You really need to sleep, Tony. It's not good for you to push yourself this much.

Tony: I promise I'll sleep soon. I just had a breakthrough last night and had to see it through until I got somewhere where I could stop. Which I just did. BTW, How was the group last night?

Cuddle bunny: More productive than I thought it would be. Clint actually shared with the group. The last five years have been horrible for him. There was a lot of crying.

Tony: I'm sure they have been, but he opted not to come to us. We were always here for him.

Cuddle bunny: We didn't reach out.

Tony: Maybe you didn't, but I know Natasha did. So did I.

Cuddle bunny: When was that?

Tony: At least once a year for the last five years.

Tony: Friday figured out a pattern to who he took out over the years. At least once a year, I usually crash one of his missions and try to talk him into coming with me. It almost worked once until he found out about Morgan.

Tony: But I get it. He's lost everything. Seeing my happy child would just make it worse. Is Laura being there helping things or making it worse?

Cuddle bunny: I think helping. Although they shared a room last night, and she doesn't want to talk about it.

Cuddle bunny: I understand the Morgan thing. Last night, Clint wasn't comfortable around Robin until she showed him a picture of him back with his kids.

Cuddle bunny: Has Laura texted you? I feel like she would be more likely to share with you than me.

Tony: Possibly, but I may have been in the science zone, and only your messages are getting through right now.

Cuddle bunny: Good to know.

Tony: Let me know when you get to Norway. I'm going to bed.

Cuddle bunny: Who's dragging you off? I have $50 on Natasha.

Tony: You owe somebody money. Dr. Morales. It's hard to push back on a mom and a doctor.

Cuddle bunny: I'll pay Pepper later. Please sleep for at least six hours.

Tony: I'll try for you, sugarplum.

Cuddle bunny: That's all I ask.

Xxxxx

11 hours later

Tony: OK, you'll be happy to know that I managed to sleep for a full 10 hours.

Tony: That never happens. I thought someone may have given me a sleeping pill, but Friday promises no one did. Apparently, I was just really sleep-deprived.

Tony: I'm back in the lab now and ready to test my theory. Although we may have had to send somebody over to the lighthouse for more monolith particles. It's been mothballed since the confederacy blew a hole through the roof, looking for a certain element. I'm really glad I managed to blow up Talbot before he went completely off the deep end. Although I just love the fact I went from one alien invasion to the other.

Tony: BTW, Pepper postponed the wedding the first time because I went to help Coulson out after he lost Fitz 1.0.

Steve: May told me about the helping, not about the delayed wedding.

Steve: It was easier to run everything out of the compound afterward. Coulson was in charge until he got too bad.

Tony: I think he was still in charge when Carol brought me back. My hospital bed was next to his until he went to Tahiti. I don't remember much from those days except yelling at you. Sorry.

Steve: I forgive you. He left for Tahiti with May and Robin when we came back from killing Thanos. Sometimes I think he was just holding on long enough for us to get the stones and bring everyone back. He didn't live that much longer after telling him it was impossible.

Tony: That makes sense.

Tony: Are you in Norway now?

Steve: Yeah, but it's late here. We're waiting until morning to head over to New Asgard. Bruce arranged for Valkyrie to meet us for breakfast.

Tony: It would probably be best to talk to her before approaching Thor.

Tony: Besides, I don't think today is a good Thor day. He's currently getting in a fight with Friday. Maybe tomorrow will be better.

Steve:?

Tony: She plays Fortnite against him sometimes. He doesn't know it's her. Actually, he kind of hates her. But at least I have an idea of how he's doing due to Friday being his arch-nemesis.

Steve: I don't want to go and bring all the stuff back for him, but I also want May to have her daughter back.

Tony: Even if it's not your May?

Steve: Neither one of them is really my May right now. Melinda has probably had as many nightmares about losing Daisy as she has about losing Phil.

Tony: Breakups are always hard. Especially breakups where you have children and still need to be in each other's lives, no matter what.

Steve: And you understand that.

Tony: All too well. Pepper wasn't speaking to me for most of her pregnancy with Morgan. Actually, that's kind of how she got Kevin in the breakup. He took her side.

Steve: As he should have.

Tony: As I've said before, I was completely wrong. Have you and May talked at all since she said she wanted a divorce?

Steve: A little. I know I need to move on. I do want to move forward and build something with you. It's just I don't want to completely lose everything else. I cried on the way back to the Quinn jet after breakfast.

Tony: You still want that even though I've been scienceing hard for like the last day and forgot to eat? I'm a mess.

Steve: So am I, but I'm trying to do better for you.

Tony: That's all I really asked for. I will be by your side the entire time.

Steve: Thank you. It's easier knowing that I won't be alone.

Steve: Oh, Laura says to return one of her text messages as soon as you're done

Steve: Yeah, I'm not repeating the rest of that sentence.

Tony: She accused us of having text message sex?

Steve: Something along those lines.

Tony: Laura told me that your gamma timeline counterpart will not sext Tony.

Steve: Is this because he accidentally ended up posting his privates to Instagram?

Tony: No. Apparently, one of the reasons is that Steve realized how much the Tiberias incident traumatized me and never wants to accidentally put me in such a position again. Even though they are in a timeline where they have access to Wakanda-level encryption. Actually, we will too as soon as I finish reverse-engineering the software on Laura's phone.

Steve: Seriously, Tony? Shouldn't you be focusing on your time travel GPS or whatever you're calling it?

Tony: Friday's making me do it. Apparently, gamma baby bird said this was necessary, especially for Nebula. She sent me pictures and letters.

Steve: What? Why?

Tony: If we can't get all the stones in gamma 2018, we're going to have to go to other timelines. Without the encryption, the Nebula of that time could apparently pick up things. I'm hoping gamma 2018 will be a one-stop shop, but I doubt this is going to be that easy.

Steve: I don't think that's going to be necessary.

Steve: However, you wouldn't be you if you weren't planning for all possible outcomes

Tony: I wouldn't have even thought of this without the picture the gamma timeline sent over. Gamma Robin has been prolific. Actually, so is your daughter. Agent Piper has been sending me a lot of pictures since this morning.

Tony: We're at a crossroads. May said the last time this happened was after I killed Talbot. That resulted in Deke's timeline not happening.

Tony: Well, it happened, but we're not in that time branch.

Steve: I'm grateful for this.

Tony: I'm sending you a couple of pictures. I think they might be of you guys in Norway. The first one is from gamma, and the other one is from your daughter. That's the one I want hanging up in my study. Your drawing lessons have been paying off.

Tony: What do you think the picture of Thor and Clint drinking beers means?

Steve: That Clint should be the one to talk to Thor. Laura agrees with me, but Clint doesn't.

Tony: I'm going to trust you on interpreting your child's artistic skills. You're just gonna have to talk him into it.

Steve: Laura is trying. She says to text her tomorrow.

Tony: I will. I'm going to go science. I'll let you know if my theory works out.

Steve: Laura says you better. I'll talk to you later.

To be continued…