"I always knew Howard was going to change the world,"
Lottie's fingers brushed over the old photo of Howard. He looked so much older, standing beside his wife, Maria. She couldn't help the smile that crossed over her lips as she looked down at him, seeing what he had become.
"Too bad I didn't know the same Howard you did,"
Tony was leaning over the blueprints of Howard's arc reactor plans, his eyes moving down to see Anton Vanko's name written in the corner. Lottie looked over to Tony, rising from her seat and leaning on the table next to him, looking down at the plans laid out on the table. She smiled again as Tony watched her, her fingers dancing over the pages of the blueprints.
"This is going to change the world one day, Howard,"
Howard Stark smiled, clapping a hand down on Lottie's shoulder as he grinned down at her. She smiled back at him before they both looked down to the blueprints before them.
"Too bad I don't have the resources, or the technology to make it work," Howard sighed, rolling the blueprints up and placing them off to the side of the table. He leaned back in his seat, looking over at Lottie. "It's all just a fantasy."
"And someday, it's going to be a reality," Lottie told him, grinning over at him with confidence. "I mean, you've made me a super genius. If that's possibly, who knows what else could be."
"I really hate when you're right, and unfortunately that's all the time now," the pair laughed as Howard rose from his seat. "Come on, there's this place on Bellford Street that apparently has fondue to die for."
"How did it happen?" Lottie's voice came out in a whisper as she looked up at Tony. He swallowed the lump in his throat, looking back down at the blueprints and the box before him.
"December 16th, 1991," Tony said lowly, folding the blueprints back into the box and digging through the rest of it to find more information, hopefully. "Car crash, both him and mom didn't make it."
Lottie only nodded, watching as Tony grabbed two notebooks out of the box, throwing them onto the table before stumbling upon two reels of film sitting at the bottom. She raised an eyebrow as she watched his eyes light up for a moment.
"Jarvis, can you tell me where I keep that old film thing..."
Lottie cocked her head, confused as to who Tony could be talking to as he moved around the room with the film in hand.
"Of course, sir. It should be in the storage cabinet by the lab doors,"
"What the hell was that?"
Tony grabbed what he needed from the storage cabinet, turning with wide eyes to look at Lottie. She was looking around the room frantically with a startled expression on her face, and it clicked in Tony what was happening.
"Relax, it's my AI," Lottie raised an eyebrow at this. "Artificial Intelligence, on the small scale of course. His name is Jarvis, he's hooked up to the internet, all the software of the house, and in my suits. You ask, he does."
"Internet?" Lottie mumbled, but Tony was too busy shoving a notebook in her hands to care.
"That's a conversation for later, I'd like to not die of Palladium poisoning first please,"
◼ ◼ ◼
"Everything is achievable through technology. Better living, robust heath, and for the first time in human history, the possibility of world peace. I'm Howard Stark, and everything you'll need for the future can be found right here. City of the Future? City of Tomorrow?"
Lottie and Tony sat across from one another, each flipping through Howard's notebooks in hopes of finding anything that could be remotely useful in helping Tony, all while the video reels that Tony had found were playing on the screen before them.
So far, neither of them had found anything of use in the notebooks. All that Lottie seemed to gain was a better understandings of Palladium, as Howard had recorded all of his information and findings in her notebook. She also got a glimpse into his life after her and Steve, everything he had been able to accomplish and create. But none of that was going to save his son's life.
"City of... I'm Howard Stark and everything you'll need in the future can be found right here. So, from all of us at Stark Industries, I would like to personally... Tony, what are you doing back there? What is that?"
Both Lottie and Tony looked up at the screen before them, seeing Howard scolding a young Tony, who had grabbed something off the EXPO model on the table. It was comforting, in a way, seeing that years after Lottie and Steve had attended Howard's expo before joining the war it still went on, and that Tony himself carried on the tradition.
"Put that back. Put it back where you got it from. Where's your mother? Maria? Go on. Go, go, go, go. I'm just going to start from the top."
The pages of Lottie's journal ran blank as she closed it, allowing it to sit on her lap as she looked over at Tony. He was staring at the screen, a hard and unreadable expression on his face before looking down at the notebook before him.
"Tony," both of their heads shot toward the screen, Howard speaking in a softer tone than he had been before. "You're too young to understand this right now, so I thought I would put it on film for you. I built this for you. And someday you'll realize that it represents a whole lot more than just people's inventions. It represents my life's work. This is the key to the future. I'm limited by the technology of my time, but one day you'll figure this out. And when you do, you will change the world. What is and always will be my greatest creation is you."
Lottie let out a shaky breath, reaching her hand over and placing it on top of Tony's. She could feel him shake, didn't need to look at him to know that what Howard had said resonated in him. It took a moment, but Tony softly squeezed her hand back.
The moment was fleeting as the next second, Tony was out of his seat and throwing a jacket on. Lottie turned, confused as she stumbled from her seat.
"Tony, where are you going?"
"There's something I've gotta do, you're staying here," Tony called back to her, moving toward the door of the lab.
"And what am I supposed to do?" Lottie called back as he was running out the door.
"Talk to Jarvis, reminisce on old times, I don't know I'll be back!"
Lottie let out a heavy sigh as the lab door slammed shut, Tony rushing up the stairs beyond it. She turned, looking around the room for a moment as she tried to find something, anything she could possibly do in a day and age she did not understand.
"Jarvis," Lottie called out hesitantly, not entirely sure how this worked.
"What can I do for you, Miss Watson?"
"Call me Lottie, first of all," she shot back, taking a few steps around the room. "Is there anything I can do while Tony is gone?"
"There is a computer to your left side that you can use,"
Lottie raised an eyebrow, looking to her left to see the device that Jarvis had called a computer. She hesitantly sat down at the chair in front of the computer, staring at it as if it was from another world all together.
"Would you like some assistance?"
"That would be nice, actually," Lottie mumbled. The computer turned itself on, a page with the word Google appearing before her. "I'll get the hang of it if I watch you walk me through it once or twice."
"Of course, what would you like me to look up for you?"
"I have no idea," Lottie whispered again, staring at the computer before her in absolute, utter confusion. She knew once she was shown how to work it, it would become second nature to her in under a minute, but her brain was having a hard time processing this right now.
"Your SHIELD file says that you have an extraordinary memory, that you can memorize and learn on the spot," Lottie looked up to the ceiling where Jarvis' voice was coming from. "Why don't I pull up articles on Palladium, maybe even robotics, so that you can keep up with Mr. Stark?"
"I...guess that's a good starting place?" Lottie questioned, watching as the computer screen switched over to an article on Palladium. "Guess we're jumping in the deep end instead of taking it slow."
"That's the only way Mr. Stark knows how,"