The Child Who Changed Tony Stark's Life

The Aftermath..

“That’s not looking so good.”

“I’ve been worse.” The billionaire raised his cup to his lips as a female approached the table and spoke. 

“We’ve secured the perimeter but I don’t think we should hold it for too much longer.” The voice sounded familiar as Tony continued to sip his drink and slowly lowered his cup.

“You’re fired.” Tony gazed over his sunglasses and spoke upon seeing that the newcomer was his assistant Natalie.

“That’s not up to you.” The redhead sat down next to the director of SHIELD and crossed her arms on the table, inserting herself further into the conversation.

“Tony, I want you to meet Agent Romanoff.”
 
“Hi.” At this point, Tony took off his glasses and switched resting arms, his head now resting on his left hand, while Natalie explained her position..

“I’m a SHIELD shadow. Once we knew you were ill, I was tasked to you by Director Fury.” The queen glanced at Fury then back at the man in front of her as the billionaire began to speak.

“I suggest you apologise.” Now, Tony didn’t trust the woman who had taken his son yesterday and his eyes were glued to her, eyes narrowed. He didn’t want his son exposed to any of this business, let alone a man who is seemingly stalking him.

“You’ve been very busy. You made your girl your CEO, you’re giving away all your stuff. You let your friend fly away with your suit. Now, if I didn’t know better…” Suddenly, images from last night filtered in and the billionaire restrained himself from slamming his fist on the table right then and there.

“You don’t know better. I didn’t give it to him. He took it.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa. He took it? You’re Iron Man and he just took it? The little brother walked in there, kicked your ass and took your suit?” Fury was now having fun with it and turned to the agent next to him. “Is that possible?”

“Well, according to Mr Stark’s database security guidelines, there are redundancies to prevent unauthorised usage.” Tony Stark was exhausted, strained, and unsure if he could keep up his facade any longer. He was regretting last night and hoped this would be over soon so he could visit his son and possibly apologize to his best friend. 

“What do you want from me?” 

“What do we want from you? What do you want from me?” Agent Romanoff left as Tony’s head fell back into his metal hand and Fury continued. “You have become a problem, a problem I have to deal with. Contrary to your belief, you are not the centre of my universe. I have bigger problems than you in the southwest region to deal with. Hit him.” Agent Romanoff returned and stuck Tony with an injection, causing the billionaire to jerk upright in his seat.

“Oh, God, are you gonna steal my kidney and sell it?” The rash on his neck began to go down as Natalie grabbed his chin and turned his head for a better view. “Could you please not do anything awful for five seconds? What did she just do to me?”

“What did we just do for you? That’s lithium dioxide. It’s gonna take the edge off. We’re trying to get you back to work.” Fury explained, but Tony’s gaze was still on the redhead who was now beside him.

“Give me a couple of boxes of that. I’ll be right as rain.” He was now looking down as Natalie turned her attention to him and supplied a response this time.

“It’s not a cure, it just abates the symptoms.” 

“Doesn’t look like it’s gonna be an easy fix.” Tony turned his attention back to the agent as Fury spoke again and his face went blank when he looked at the director.

“Trust me, I know. I’m good at this stuff. I’ve been looking for a suitable replacement for palladium. I’ve tried every combination, every permutation of every known element.” All emotions were kept from escaping in his voice and if you were to see inside his mind, you’d wonder how he did it so well.

“Well, I’m here to tell you, you haven’t tried them all.”

******* Sorry It’s Been So Long, Life Fuckin Sucks **********

“What did you tell eyepatch about my son?” Tony was facing the spy with masked concern and the redhead raised an eyebrow.

"Excuse me?" It wasn't really meant to have an attitude, but the billionaire had grabbed her hand and she had to restrain herself from flipping him over her shoulder.

"Well, seeing as you're a spy, I need to make sure you didn't spill any unwanted information." His eyes held a glare and the Russian spy removed his hand from her wrist, glancing around before deciding to respond.

"I haven't told anyone about your son, that is not why I was there. I draw a line with kids, Stark. You may not like that I'm a shadow agent and was assigned to watch over you, but don't ever assume I would endanger a child; let alone the spider you have." With that, she walked away and the billionaire was left to his thoughts. It was a little past noon and he was unsure what to do, so he took off to his best friend's house. 

The billionaire stood in front of Rhodey's house with mixed emotions and didn't know how to approach his long time friend who was a brother to him. On a normal day, he'd fly over to chill and share a drink. However, he couldn't form an apology that would cover this falling out and he didn't know how to face his kid after he was sent to a nearly complete stranger's house for the night. After contemplating for a full 10 minutes, Tony sighed and decided to leave. He didn't want to address Rhodey in his state of mind and he also couldn't bear seeing his kid considering Peter was most likely informed of his extended stay at his Uncle's house. Instead, he told Jarvis to hold his calls and took off to his messy house. He'd have someone come in tomorrow for work, but he wanted to be alone for the rest of the time. Once he arrived, he sat on the chair in his lab with his head in his hands and subconsciously rubbed the back of his neck in stress. 

"God, I'm sorry kid.."

^^^^^^^^^ Uh… How Y'all Doin?? ^^^^^^^^^^^

"You know, you've always been shitty at apologies." It was a voice Tony had not been expecting to hear and his eyes stayed glued to the project in front of him. "It'd be easier to just hire a professional to fix that-"

"Rhodey, what are you-" His voice was one the colonel hadn't heard quite often and the man smirked.

"Your kid is fine, by the way. He's currently with Pepper at her hotel for a sleepover." The billionaire finally looked up and his face said it all, but Rhodey decided to have fun. "The craziest thing happened earlier.. Someone who looked just like Tony Stark showed up at my doorstep." The mechanic stayed silent as he watched his best friend walk towards him and a smirk was tugging at the colonel's lips while he attempted to keep it suppressed. "Which I knew couldn't have been you, because the Tony I know doesn't wait around indecisive for ten minutes when his son is at my place and he definitely doesn't leave without seeing him." 

"About last night-"

"Yea, yea, you're sorry. I got it man." Tony was mildly surprised, not because he had expected Rhodey to not accept his forgiveness; he still wasn't sure how he was going to even apologize. No, what surprised him was that the colonel was quick to push it aside and was here now. "For real man, what's up with you? Since Peter came into your life, you've barely been drinking and last night you went overboard. So what's going on?"
                     Word Count: 1,969

Short update cause life has been rough lately, but for those of you who read my other story... my nephew is getting better! It's been a rocky week or two and though it was really serious, he's becoming his old self after the fall. Thank you to all of you who have shared your wishes of good luck! Also, this update is to let y'all know I am working on updating this story again! So sorry it's been a while..