A little too tired of just hanging on

Chapter 10

Friday had switched the TV on in the bedroom without his prompting. She obviously wanted for him to watch something she thought was important. He didn't have the will to turn around in his bed to watch it. All the duvets he could find in the house were stacked on top of him. Shivers were still wrecking his body. That feeling of cold was most probably in his head, he knew that. Tony was still feeling it.

Today was a very bad day. The week had not been that fantastic. The month, well let's not talk about the month. his sleep had been plagued by memories of Siberia lately. The low temperature, the snow, Captain America's shield, everything was fresh in his mind once again. Actually it felt even more detailed than the day it had been happening, thanks to his wonderful memory. Details that he didn't really pay attention to at the time, were resurfacing now vividly. Funny how the same memory could never bring backa birthday or his own social security number. Tony had always been the best at pulling himself down.

"Good evening. For those who wouldn't know who I am, my name is Christine Everheart."

Christine. Their relationship had been rocky to say the least. She knew the worst of Tony, the person who he was before Afghanistan. The journalist had been the last conquest of the man he had been before. She had also seen the birth of Iron Man and the good he was trying to do. They weren't friends exactly but he had thought she was at least fair with him in her articles. Christine had been for quite some time, until the Civil War. Then she had just been a face in the crowd, singing the same tune like any other media agency around the world but particularly in the USA. The genius had always been fair game for the journalists but now they just plainly hated him and everything he had done, bad or good alike.

When Christine did it as well, it actually hurt. She wasn't on his side per say. Truth was meant to be so important to her more than a scoop. Because of her Tony had started to doubt he had actually taken the good decision then. He was just deluding himself. The people of the world wanted to be listened to, just not by him. What difference did it make now? The genius didn't want to listen to whatever she had to say. Everything was his fault, they had made it clear, no need to listen to that tune one more time.

He didn't have it in him to say anything to Friday. Tony was just so tired. Sleep was not coming even though it was all he wanted now. Then again, the nightmares never let him rest. If only everything could stop now. He just needed a real moment of peace and quiet, even a short one. His own brain would never let him rest.

The tone of Christine's speech was different from the pieces she had done lately. She was acknowledging that the journalist hadn't done their jobs properly but that they didn't even care about it one bit. It was easy. The sales were probably reaching new levels never reached before. Everybody was doing it. Was it the truth?

The world knew now that it wasn't the case. it didn't take a genius to understand that Friday had been at work there. Christine was taking upon herself to actually apologize. That surprised Tony the most. She could literally ruin her career there. It didn't erase everything obviously. What was done couldn't be changed now. Tony was so used to the journalist dragging him in the mud that it actually felt more than he thought he would ever get.

"...Tony Stark... My most sincere apologies." Christine was concluding. "But as I am speaking those words, I come to realize that it's too little too late."

As good as it felt, it was, in a way, too little too late. things would never go back the way they were before. They shouldn't. Christine had growned during that last year but only because so;eone else had put the proof out there for her and everybody else to see. Had she been a real journalist, she would have looked for all of that on her own. Rogers and Romanov had made sure everything was out for anyone to see. Christine and the other journalists didn't have to dig that deep to find it.