Secrets Don't Make Friends

Chapter 7: You look like a mechanic

Chapter Seven:

Tony wasted no time in making all the technological improvements he had been longing to make for weeks. He just couldn't help himself. Ideas had been percolating in his brain for ages , filled with potential, and his fingers had practically cramped in an effort to keep them away from that damn touch pad. The second the Alphas were out of the house? All bets were off.

He and Jarvis worked through the rest of the day updating the pack's security system, Tony reclined back in one of those fancy swivel chairs in the war room, legs propped indolently up on the table while he munched on an apple. It took a few hours but he let his decryption program do the work while he worked on security protocols for the cabin. They combed through SHIELD's database (the idiots had left a backdoor...but it still took a few hours) and added a few extra protocols to the cabin, beefed up the Avenger's security so to speak. Tony couldn't help but look up his file on the SHIELD server.

Prior to his coming out as Omega, there had been no hint to indicate that they had suspected his second gender. There was, however, a whole file on the possible identity of Iron Man. The scientist Dr. Arty Noth, his education and work profile, all the projects he had or was suspected to have his fingers in, and his subsequent disappearance when Iron Man came on the scene was all there to be found.

Tony had to give Natasha credit, it was impressive what information she had been able to ferret out of his company. He consoled himself that it had only happened because he had stepped down as acting CEO. It wasn't as if he had trusted her with any vital information. Tony's entire life had been built around a lie. Secrecy was the name of the game and so far he was undefeated. He spent a little time cruising through the team's profiles, then on to Pepper's and Rhodey's. There was nothing in here that he didn't already know. But it was always nice to keep tabs.

"Apparently I'm volatile, self obsessed, and I don't play well with others." Tony bit into his apple viciously. "What do you think, J?"

"I'm certain I couldn't say, sir."

It felt good to have Jarvis in the house, to hear the comforting droll tones of his favorite AI, even if he was a sarcastic little shit.

It was getting late, and Tony was starting to feel the weight of the day, hell the month, bearing heavy down on his shoulders. Stifling a yawn he slid his feet off the table, wincing slightly when he jarred his sprained ankle.

"Well, I think I'm going to call it a night, J."

"Goodnight, sir."

Tony walked out of the war room, the door hissing shut behind him. He limped his way over to the couch, bypassing the stairs that would lead up to his closet, cough, bedroom. He wasn't in the mood for stairs, he told himself stubbornly. It had absolutely nothing to do with Steve and the rest of the packs' scents being strongest in this room. The lights dimmed as he settled onto the couch. Pulling the throw blanket over himself, he curled up with his face pressed deep into the pillows, and drifted off into a fitful sleep.

Tony tilted his head back to stare up into the rafters of the old barn. Stale hay and a musty earthy scent filled his nostrils as dust motes drew lazy circles in the air. Sunlight splintered in through the gaps between the boards, striping the walls and floors with golden light. There was a fine layer of dust coating the entire place, as if it had been years that anyone had set foot inside the barn. The floors were made of packed dirt and covered with rushes that were in desperate need of a change.

The barn had clearly housed horses at some point if the dilapidated stalls off to the left were anything to go by. There was a rickety looking ladder that led up to a loft that Tony wasn't sure he trusted. The wood was old, the planking ancient, and termites or wood rot was a real concern. An old tractor, eroded in some places and covered in a sheet of rust so encompassing that Tony couldn't tell what color it had been originally, was left abandoned in the middle of the barn.