The Final Initiative

44.

Somewhere in that hallway encounter with the director of SHIELD, Jessi had lost sight of her old Captain. With the napkins pressed against her shirt to soak up the coffee, she vigilantly wended her way around the people in the hall, keeping her eye out for her father or for Steve. She went the only way that she knew, and that was towards the exit doors at the other end. After tossing the napkins in a trashcan, her hands pushed open the main doors that led her back outside into the sun. Every army soldier, every worker, and absolutely everything there was foreign.

Now that she was alone and without her family, nothing seemed to make sense. Her mind had been completely jumbled. This sudden anxiety caused for her heart to beat rapidly. A few soldiers walked passed her, one of them accidentally knocked against her shoulder. She lost balance on her feet, and fought to hold herself up against a metal column that connected with roof above and to the sidewalk. With this new view angle of the base, and with a stroke of luck, she had the availability to catch the familiar face of her father. He was crossing the center of the bustling camp holding the tesseract's brief case, and he wasn't alone. Jessi remained at the pole, but squinted to see who he was conversing with.

      "I have a little girl" Tony told Howard Stark as they strolled together by the trucks. Although Howard didn't realize that this Tony was actually his son from the future, who came back to retrieve the tesseract in order to restore his universe. Tony had awkwardly introduced himself as Howard Potts, his brain imploding in the heat of the moment. He didn't think that he'd actually run into his father here in the past "two, actually" he corrected quickly, holding up his fingers "Although" he chuckled "one of them is not so little anymore"

"Were you scared?" Howard paused, asking Tony genuinely.

"About what?"

      "About your children being born?" Howard at this point was roughly the same age as Tony was. This question struck him in the chest slightly as he listened to his own father ask him these types of questions.

"Widely" he nodded.

"Do you have any regrets?"

"Regarding them" he thought of Morgan and Jessi, and the corner of his lip went up in a smile "absolutely not" But-" he breathed "there is one. Long story short... I wasn't there for my oldest when she was born" he explained, sounding almost ashamed to be saying it out loud "I was about nine years too late actually. Didn't even know she existed, and now, well, nothin' seems right in life without her" he admitted as Howard looked him attentively between the eyes "My one regret is that I wasn't there to hold her when she was born, to watch her grow, and to watch her learn. It bothers me every day"

"Hey, come on, you're a good dad, Potts. I can tell" Howard patted him warmly on the arm.

      Jessi couldn't believe it. She couldn't hear the conversation, but that was undoubtedly Howard Stark. Her very own Grandfather whom she never had the chance to meet before he died. He had worked side by side with Captain America, aided in kickstarting SHIELD, and created a widely-known billion dollar company that shares her last name.

      She thought of that time long ago in Siberia when she learned that a brainwashed Bucky Barnes had murdered him, along with her lovely grandmother. The pain following that realization was unbearable. She won't ever forget the hollowed look in her fathers eyes as he watched that video recording. The cold mountains outside could not compare to the ice that had grown in his chest then. As Jessi became lost in her own memory, a hand reached out and gripped her elbow. She gasped, snapping her head to see Steve standing next to her, still hiding under his hat and sunglasses "God, don't do that!" she calmed her frantically beating heart.