If I Got Everything That I Wanted (Book 2 of Love, Monsters and Magic)

Chapter 14

Morgan

“Morgan gains the lead,” chimed out JARVIS. Although Tony claims that the AI doesn’t have a personality, there was a distinct smug tone to his voice as he declared the fact. I promised Tony that I would kick his ass at Halo and although he insisted that he would win, he was nothing more than gun talk from a water pistol.

Tony let out a whine, “No fair, you can’t use a Wraith in one-on-one!” Doctor Banner laughed and was about to retort something but Clint cut in.

“I’m so videoing this, Stark, and this is going on Youtube. The famous Tony Stark gets his ass kicked by a girl at Halo. The girl genius is definitely great competition, keep up Stark.”

“Barton, zip it or I’m taking that Bugatti and donating it to the less fortunate,” Tony snapped.          

“Tony, don’t be such a bad loser,” Natasha put in. I laughed along with the others, Tony was really bad at this, there was no doubting that.

“Mr Stark have you even played this game before?” I teased and Tony made the fatal mistake of averting his gaze from the game to glare at me. I took this as an opportunity to drive an energy sword into his back and Stark turned back to see his player drop down to the ground.

“Nice shot, Morgan!” Natasha cheered.                                 

Even Steve made a comment, “You put up a good fight. You sure know how to put Stark in his place, ma’am.

“Yeah, Cap, you could take a few pointers from her. She has Stark bitched,” Clint said and with that Tony threw down the controller as the match was declared over.

"That match was won 32-19 by Doctor Reid, sir. Is a rematch in order?" JARVIS asked, his tone bitter and smug. Tony just huffed and threw up his arms. The room was in hysterics at Stark's painful loss.

"Woo, yeah, congrats. It was luck, that's all. Too much scotch on my part," Tony mumbled and sulked away to the bar at the back of the common area to drown his defeat in expensive scotch. I left the rest of the team and followed him and he slid a glass my way. “Well done, Doctor. That was a pretty impressive game.”

“Yeah, you too. You really aren’t so bad,” I commented taking the glass of golden scotch into my hands. Tony stared at me for a moment as if he was trying to get some kind of read on me. Something gave me the idea that he thought I was talking of something other than the game.

Tony

“Well done, Doctor. That was a pretty impressive game.”

“Yeah, you too. You really aren’t so bad,” Morgan said. That set me back for a moment. Were we still talking about the slayer match? She probably was. Gosh my head was spinning. It was too early in the evening to have a hangover and what’s the one great way to avoid a hangover? Don’t stop drinking. I threw back a glass of scotch quickly, savouring the burn before pouring another glass and throwing that back. Morgan watched with wide, inquisitive eyes. When I was moving to pour my fifth glass, Morgan put out her hand and placed it gently down on top of my hand which was cradling the bottle of scotch.

“Tony, you can’t drink things away. I’m not sure what is going on between you and Miss Potts but whatever it is, drinking an excessive amount isn’t going to solve the issue. Put the bottle down, try and sober up and go and see her. Something obviously needs to be talked about.” She said softly with a gentle squeeze of my hand.

“This isn’t you problem, Doctor Reid, you have nothing to worry about. You don’t know anything about it, don’t try to fix what you don’t know.” I said harshly. Morgan went wide eyed at my comment and physically recoiled, pulling back her hand. She threw back the glass of scotch she had been nursing before turning her attention back to me.

“I don’t know? I assumed you had read my file?”

“I’ve read the whole team’s files.” I retorted.

“Well there was obviously a huge section you missed because I highly doubt that they would miss out such an important part of my life. My parents were like you and Miss Potts, all for show,” she spat, “based on false trust and empty promises. But as long as they appeared happy in everybody else’s eyes, right? That made it better. But things got harder to hide, the whole relationship got harder to patch together after all you can fix a mirror if it’s broken but the cracks will always be there. My mum left, didn’t want me, didn’t care about my dad and my dad drank to try and drown the pain. It never made it go away, never made it better. He’d often wake up in his lab surrounded in empty bottles of god knows what. Like you, Mr Stark. Your life is a running commentary thanks to the press, we all know of your drinking problems, the whole world knows. But it never gets better does it? Never gets easier? I know what it’s like and unless you fix the problem, you’re just going to end up like my mum and dad. Goodnight, Mr Stark.” She pushed herself away from the bar and walked out. The rest of the team looked over, curious to what the heck just happened.

Fix the problem. How can I fix what I don’t know? I looked to the company, to Banner, only for a few seconds before he looked away unable to hold my gaze for long. He got up shortly after and left, Steve watching him go with an unrecognisable expression. There was something going on and the only way I was going to speak with Pepper.

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MERRY CHRISTMAS! Seasons greetings to all of you lovely people. I hope you are having a great time. I wanted to get a chapter up for Christmas. I hope you enjoy it. The next chapter will be Tony talking with Pepper and oh I can't wait for your reactions! Anyway I hope you enjoyed this and I wish you all the best for the new year.

~Louise