Faultlines

Aftermath

Uncle Tony exited the plane while her Dad was still holding on to her Mum. Just like her Dad, he looked a far cry from his normal, styled public persona. But he, too, smiled happily, when he saw her Mum. Although his way down the gangway was much slower and he was followed closely by a small, older man with glasses, who looked around warily. Emmy was pretty sure she had never seen him before, but once Uncle Tony had hugged her Mum, the four made their way over to the car together.

Hurriedly Emmy slipped back into her own seat, as if that was somehow important. Her Dad was the first one through the door. Not even stopping to sit down, he almost crashed into Emmy, pulling her down to the floor and hugging her as tightly, as only Dad could, while kissing the top of her head.

Yes, Emmy thought, breathing in deeply, this was right. He still smelt like Dad.

"I missed you, Margaret.", he told her softly, and Emmy thought she might cry out of sheer happiness. Finally.

"Hey Emmy.", Uncle Tony spoke so softly, Emmy almost didn't believe it was him. Maybe he really was hurt badly? She let go of her father and looked at her uncle with worried eyes.

"No hug for your old uncle?"

Carefully she inched closer, noticing the slight protrusion on his chest and eyeing it wearily.

There was an almost unnoticeable shift in Tony's face, as he noticed Emmy's stare, but he opened his arms nonetheless and Emmy decided that it really couldn't be that bad and fell into his arms, trying to be careful, but Tony was having none of that. He hugged her just as tightly as her father had. Those two simply gave the best hugs, Emmy was sure of it. Teddy's were pretty great, too. Starkmen.

"Emmy, this is my friend Yinsen. Yinsen, meet Margaret Stark."

"Nice to meet you.", Emmy told him politely, just as she had been taught.

"Likewise, Miss Stark."

"I brought the jet.", Ginny told them quietly, her worried gaze fixed on Tony and something akin to mistrust directed at Yinsen. She obviously didn't like the presence of a stranger anywhere near her family. They had all settled into seats now, with Emmy securely seated between both her parents.

"No. The army is flying me back home.", Uncle Tony gave Mum a weary look.

"What? No. I put in a request to have you treated in 's.

You need to come home with..."

"I am fine, Ginny, but there are things I need to do."

"Fine?! You have a hole...", her Mum stopped and Emmy could have cried out of frustration. For a bit she had hoped her Mum had forgotten all about her. No such luck.

She could feel her father's hand moving behind her to land on her Mum's back.

"I AM fine.", Uncle Tony repeated, but even Emmy didn't believe him, "And there ARE things I have to do right now."

"What could possibly be so important that you are willing to risk...", again she stopped. Emmy could hear her breathing carefully. Dad sometimes did that, too, when he got really angry or frustrated.

"Tony is a grown man.", her Dad said in a voice Emmy knew all too well. He used it on his kids, occasionally, when he was really angry but decided to explain instead. Uncle Tony seemed to recognize it, too.

"You said you understood. You wanted to help."

There was a distinct tone of betrayal in Uncle Tony's voice. Emmy could feel her father go rigid.

"I also haven't seen my family in a long time. Give me a week and I'll be there. Give yourself that week, too."

"No. I can't wait that long."

"Tony. I understand. Really, I do, but you can't just..."

"You were the one that never got involved in SI, because you don't like what we do. Now I wanna change that and you..."

"Stop it. Both of you."

Emmy flinched. She had come here to see her family again, not hear them fight. Her gaze wandered towards Yinsen. He looked almost as uncomfortable as Emmy herself.

Emmy could see her father's fingers drum on his left leg. Uncle Tony was rummaging through his pocket, painstakingly avoiding eye contact. Emmy was still trying to stay invisible, so she didn't dare to look up and see her mother's expression. Judging from her tone, though, the adults all seemed to be frustrated with each other.

"Tony, you have just been through a lot. Both Harry and I would feel better, if you would come and stay with us for a while. But Harry and I do know what it's like. So if you really need to do this right now then we will respect that.", Emmy couldn't believe it. Was her Mum really using her 'fighting kids' voice?!

Emmy could see Yinsen trying to hide a smile. Okay. He had noticed it, too.

There was loaded silence, before Uncle Tony finally said: "Two days. But then we will have to go and get SI in order."

There was another pause and Emmy suspected that her father must have nodded, because her mother pressed the call button next to her and told the driver to leave.

"Will they just let us go?", Yinsen spoke carefully, for the first time, since he had said hello to Emmy, "Don't they all want to debrief us?"

Still Emmy could not see her mother's face, but her tone was quite telling: "They did. I took care of it."