Too Little Too Late

James Rhodes

Colonel James Rhodes was something of the past. He wasn’t in the Air Force anymore. Honourably discharged after his injuries in Germany. But they sent him in the compound anyway. Because he knew all the Avengers, they said and it would make their transition easier. Not his. The fact that nobody could reach Tony was left unsaid. There was a time when Rhodey would have looked everywhere for his little brother. Now the family was broken. He was broken. The ex-military man was waiting in his stupid wheelchair for that jet to land. Some other military personnel and U.N. officials were standing tall next to him. God knows he hated all of this. The captain and his team were taking their sweet time landing that jet. It almost felt like Wakanda wanted to show their advance technology off. What for? That he couldn’t fathom. Tony wasn’t there. No need for that with the regular lambda people.

Rogers got outside first and walked immediately to him. He stopped and stood there mere centimetres in front of him making himself tall. Was he doing it on purpose? Rhodes was not a threat anymore if he ever was. No need to go full flex muscles and all here. What a dick really. The colonel knew how to school his expression. He stayed calm and collected. 48 hours with them. That was the deal. But after not even five minutes, he wanted nothing more than going home. He had had an eventful life within the military and all those years alongside Tony Stark. It was no doubt going to be the worst two days in his life. Of course, Rogers asked immediately about Tony’s location. Even before Rhodes could answer, the captain started joking with the rest of his team. Stark had probably spent the whole damn year down in his lab. Because without his “family” looking out for him, the engineer would completely forget about the basic necessities. Like eating and sleeping.

                “Considering we’ve been gone a year,” Clint joked again, “he’s probably dead by now. Dum-E is playing with his bones like a good doggy.”

                “Do you think he buried them in a hole in the compound?” laughed Wanda.

That made them laugh. Most of them. Wilson and Barnes faces looked as choked as he felt. Unbelievable. Not even a shred of human decency. The committee members seemed so dumbfounded that nobody knew how to react to that. The Rogues were bitter after a year away, after being called criminals. Rhodey could understand the reasons behind the resentment but they were taking it way too far. They had broken the law one way or another. On their own. Not the accords. They hadn’t signed those back then. No, they went against regular laws in different countries all other the globe. Resisting arrest, destruction of public property, attempted murder, murder… and that was just the tip of the iceberg. Steve moved his hands inviting them to move forward inside. The guy never really cared about Tony. He felt already at home as if he was the owner of the place.

Everybody sat in the shared aera. They had to talk about the new rules and responsibilities they would have now. Vision was doing his best not to look at the massive hole that once was the kitchen. Rhodey was wandering if Tony ever came back here. To see what Wanda had done to his son. Where was he now? Was he even still alive? James had so many regrets over that last conversation. Over that last year really. The great colonel was really just a coward. The courage had finally come to him but, by then, it was too little too late. All his phone calls went to voicemail first and then stopped connecting all together. During that year, he realised that he had to apologise for more than the last time they talked. He had often put his career before his friendship with Tony. But he couldn’t do that. Tony wasn’t letting him. A year had gone without even a tabloid picture of him. That only should have scared them all. The media always loved to hate Tony Stark more than anything in the world. And God, they did. Some lowlife photographer would at least get a blurry photo from afar of the billionaire doing this or that. Or maybe a fan or a hater. As his best friend, or ex one, he should have been worried at the lack of fighting back against everything that happened. That wasn’t him. Tony hadn’t been Tony for a while. What a shitty friend he was.