NEW JERSEY - 1970
"Clearly, you weren't actually born here, right?"
"Seriously, Tony?" Audelia questioned him with a glance, adjusting her skirt as she avoided eye contact with all those that they passed at Camp Lehigh.
"The idea of me was,"
"Right, so," Tony glanced around at the base. "Imagine you're SHIELD, running a quasi-fascistic intelligence organization. Where do you hide it?"
"In plain sight,"
"Tony and I are heading down to the labs, Pym should be on level 6," Audelia whispered to the pair as they eyed up the bunker.
Steve led the pair over to a bunker in the middle of the camp, Audelia secretly using FRIDAY to hack into the door and allow them access to the secret elevator. Inside, the three were alone with another woman that eyed Steve suspiciously as Tony placed Audelia in her line of sight to 'inconspicuously' block her.
The elevator dinged onto their floor as Tony cleared his throat, taking Deli's hand and looking to Steve.
"Good luck on your mission, Captain," Deli had to refrain her eyeroll at his idiotic comments.
"Good luck on your project...doctors,"
As the elevator doors shut behind them Deli sighed, slapped Tony lightly on the back of the head before taking off toward the direction of the labs written on the signs.
"What the hell was that for?"
"Being a dumbass, now less talking and more walking,"
Sneaking down into the empty labs was the easy part, locating the exact position of the Tesseract on the other hand wasn't easy. Tony used the way, utilizing FRIDAY built into his glasses to analyze the heat signatures as Audelia followed along behind him, the pair racing against the clock to find that damn cube.
"That one," Tony called out, pointing to the large storage container up ahead.
Deli ran ahead, tapping her necklace as she utilized a piece of her suit on her hand to cut open the box, revealing the Tesseract sitting inside for them. Tony and her shared a smile as she reached out, grabbing onto the cube and placing it in the briefcase Tony had found lying around.
"Back in the game,"
"Arnim? You in there?"
Tony immediately shut the briefcase at the third voice in the labs, spinning on their heels to face that man now walking toward them. Deli's eyes went wide as he stepped into the light.
"Holy shit,"
"Doors this way, guys," Howard Stark spoke to the pair, approaching them cautiously. "I'm looking for Doctor Zola, you seen him?"
"Yeah, no, Dr. Zol– No, I haven't seen a soul," Tony stumbled over his words, speechless at the sight of his father as Howard raised an eyebrow at them.
"Do I know you two?"
"No," Audelia quickly spoke, not wanting to hear Tony's lame excuse. "We're visitors from MIT. I'm...Virgina Potts. This is my husband-"
"Howard Potts," Tony quickly threw in as Deli closed her eyes, trying not to lose it on her husband.
"MIT...well your name will be easy to remember, I'm Howard Stark," he reached out his hand as Tony shook it, only grabbing onto his pointer finger instead. "Shake that, don't pull it."
Tony and Audelia both couldn't help but laugh, remembering how many times he had done that to them as children.
"Howard! My god, there you are," Audelia sucked in a breath as Tony gripped her hand with the one not holding the briefcase tightly. Elizabeth Motter rounded the corner of the room, throwing her hands up into the air as she neared Howard. "I have been looking all over for you, Arnim is upstairs but...I see you've made some friends."
"This is Howard and Virginia Potts from MIT," he introduced the pair. "This is Elizabeth Motter, known to most as my right hand woman."
"Try best friend, that's a better fit," Elizabeth shot back as she eyed the pair. "Your new friends look a little green around the gills here, Howie. Let's walk, get some air."
Tony and Audelia were in no place to deny their parents a walk outside of the base, quietly going along with them as they quickly discussed work related things before turning their attention to the pair beside them.
"So, when did you two meet?" Elizabeth questioned the pair as they made their way through the lab doors and back out into the busy hallways.
"We've known each other since we were kids, actually," Audelia decided on only partially omitting the truth. Better to tell her own mother the truth then to lie. "Best friends, I guess it was always destined."
"Thank god we never turned out like that," Howard commented, casting a glance at Elizabeth. "The thought of us...yeah, let's not go there."
"Real mature, Howard,"
The four of them laughed, albeit Tony and Deli awkwardly as they entered the elevator to take them back up. Tony looked down to Howard's hands, gesturing toward them.
"So, flowers and sauerkraut. You got a big date tonight?"
"My wife's expecting," a small smile crossed Deli's face as she realized that it was Tony, that they had transported themselves to a time before they were both born. "And, uh– Too much time in the office."
"How far along is she?"
"Oh, uh..." Howard made a vague gesture. "She's at the point where she can't stand the sound of my chewing. I guess I'll be eating dinner in the pantry again."
"Maria can never stand the sound of your chewing, and she's almost nine months Howard. She's due next month for Christ's sake," Elizabeth rolled her eyes as she turned to the pair, the elevator taking them up. "When I eventually have a child, I want them as far away from his as possible. Do you two have children?"
"We have two little girls," Tony told her, hugging Audelia in close to his side.
"A girl would be nice, but I think it's a boy," Howard commented as Elizabeth laughed.
"I want a girl, but if you're having a boy then lord I don't want them anywhere near one another. Last thing I would want is them falling in love or something,"
Audelia swallowed the lump in her throat as she looked at her mother, remembering that same conversation that was had with her throughout her younger years. Now here she was, married to the man her mother didn't want her to be with.
"What would be so wrong with that?" Deli ventured to ask as her mother turned to her.
"Sweetheart, let's just say that the greater good has rarely outweighed his own self-interests," Howard rolled his eyes at her comment. "Would you want one of your daughter's marrying a man that acted like him?"
"I don't believe it's our place as mother's to choose," Deli told her as she felt Tony's grip on her hand tighten, as she spoke the words she had wanted to tell her mother forever. "We don't choose who we love in the end, they choose us. As long as our children are happy, I think that's what truly matters."
The elevator went quiet for a moment before Elizabeth let out a laugh, looking over at Howard.
"My god, she's like a mini Benjamin, isn't she?"
"She sure is,"
The four exited the elevator, back outside as a car pulled up awaiting both Howard and Elizabeth as they walked over to it.
"So, where are you at with names?" Tony questioned his father as Elizabeth and Audelia stepped off to the side to speak.
"Did you mean what you said?" she questioned Deli. "About how its not our place to tell our children who to be with?"
"We can guide them, but love chooses us," Deli looked back to Tony, a small smile on her face. "I tried not to choose him, but it was inevitable. I was with someone else before him, the kind of man my mother wanted me to be with, but I didn't love him the way he loved me."
"My husband and I have discussed the idea of children, but we're not sure yet," Elizabeth confided in the stranger. "I don't know if I'm cut out to be a mother."
"You'll piece it along as you go, just like we did," Deli's smile dropped slightly as she looked at her mother, remembering what her fate was. "Just enjoy the time you have, and don't take a second of it for granted. You never know what the future holds."
Elizabeth nodded, smiling at the woman before her.
"We do have a named picked out if we have a girl. Audelia, it means noble and strong, everything I would want my little girl to be."
Deli couldn't help but pull her mother into a hug as she felt tears well in her eyes, savoring the feeling of hugging her mother as she believed that she never would again.
"It's beautiful,"
Audelia found herself tucked back into Tony's side as their parents walked off with final waves to them. She held him tightly in her embrace, desperately needing him in that moment as she watched her mother walk away from her one last time.
Steve frantically waved them over from behind one of the buildings as the pair remembered that they were on a time crunch. Tony placed a kiss on her forehead as he led the pair over to their friend.
"When all of this is said and done, I want to make Nathan a formal Avenger," Deli spoke softly to Tony as they walked. "We owe him so much, I feel like it's time he's officially recognized as the hero he is."
"...I think you're right,"
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Ohhhhhh this next one is gonna hurt to write I can already feel the pain