A Helping Hand

Sarah learns Tony is a man of his word

Sarah would not have known there might be trouble at work if she had not had to wait in line at the gas station and seen Tony's face splashed across dozens of tabloids.

She had known about the interview, of course. Tony had left early in the morning with James and she had spent the day studying Roman architecture in preparation for Howard's book report on Julius Caesar- he wanted to build a scale model of the Senate.

"I don't know why Dad's doing this thing. He's just going to say something stupid and then beat himself up over it for days. Grown-ups can be dumb sometimes."

Sarah had shook her head, "Yeah, I don't know either. You think he'd avoid it, since everything just gets blown up by the press. He says 'bless you' when someone sneezes and the next thing you know the rags are saying he's found religion."

Howard had laughed so hard he snorted, "It's true! It's true!"

And they were right. She picked up a magazine and thumbed through it while she waited. Quotes in colourful text punctuated the article with as little context as possible. A large headline blared "TONY STARK ADMITS TO STRUGGLING WITH SUBSTANCE ABUSE!" and a subheading speculated that Howard was left alone for long stretches of time while his father was stone drunk. An inset article titled "TROUBLE IN THE STARK HOME?" said Tony was unfit to parent the boy and someone should investigate his welfare. She tossed the magazine back on the rack and paid for her coffee and gas.

The house was eerily quiet when she arrived. Howard came from the library to greet her.

"Dad's a mess today. He said I don't have to go to school if I don't want to."

"Do you?"

"Not really- I mean, Bobby's going to have a field day with this. But the teachers might catch him and then it'd finally be over."

"Think, too, about if you need some time away from the house."

He grabbed his backpack, "Got it. Yeah. Let's go."

"Do you want to say goodbye to your dad?"

"He won't notice if I do."

They were on the road before Sarah asked just how bad the morning had been. Howard had found Tony passed out in the bathroom between the toilet and the tub. He wished her luck dealing with the mess.

When Sarah returned to the house, she found Tony in the bathtub, bottles lined up along the side. He was sitting in the warm water completely dressed.

"That bad of a night, eh?" Sarah asked as she entered the room, bucket of soapy water and washrags in hand.

"Yeah. That bad. And messy. You might just want to wait. It'll likely be worse tomorrow."

"And that's exactly why I'm not waiting. It's the same as shovelling snow- if you keep up on it as it comes down, you don't end up digging yourself out from under two feet of the stuff at once."

"Two feet of vomit would be impressive."

"And really gross. Once I'm done in here, you're going to get yourself dry and dressed. You have a big press conference tomorrow and I'm guessing you'd like to feel somewhat human for it."

"Nah, I'll be fine. Piece of cake. And speaking of cake, that sounds good. Or maybe pancakes. Can you make them?"

"I don't want to have to clean them up in half-digested form later."

"Deal."

From the way Tony devoured the pancakes, she guessed that he had not eaten yet. Not long after he had finished breakfast, he opened another bottle of bourbon and Sarah washed dishes while he stared at the television without turning it on.