A mile in my shoes

Chapter 03

A baby was crying. It woke him up immediately, the noise being so foreign to him. The cries, whimpers at first, were getting louder and louder, forcing him to get out of bed. He wasn't in his room but he didn't have the time to really process anything. The baby was vocally demanding attention and for all that he knew, he was the only one around. He was at least the only one in the bed. And that wasn't his bed.

Tony just had to go across the hall that was definitely not in the tower or even the compound. The baby was in the crib moving around in his discomfort. The genius picked it up in his arms, putting the little guy against his chest trying to soothe him, rocking him. He was probably hungry and maybe the nappy was full. Tony had never been very comfortable in that kind of situation, something that hadn't been happening very often in his life. Even if his knowledge about parenthood was very little, Tony knew the basics. The little boy was looking at him almost curiously while Tony was humming an old song he vaguely remembered his mother singing to him. The nappy change wasn't perfectly done but that would do.

The baby in his arms, Tony went to look around a bit. He had recognised Clint's farm by now but the explanation as to why he was there wasn't coming forth. The events of Ultron were done by now. Captain and his friends - Not Tony's quite obviously - were all hiding in Wakanda right about now. Even Natasha. He had no reason to be at the farm anymore. Laura probably hated him anyway. That was the consensus right now apparently, not only the rogues or anybody close to the events of the Civil War. Yet here he was. Why was he there then?

The baby, Nathaniel Tony though his name was, didn't seem too bothered being in a complete stranger's arms. Perhaps some infants weren't that afraid of people not part of their inner circles. Tony needed to find a bottle and formula somewhere anyway. Despite what people thought, Tony knew where his priorities should be. Whatever was happening to him was not more important than the need of a baby. Laura was probably somewhere around. She would not appreciate her son to have been left alone. More than his personal uncomfort, Tony was very worried he was about to harm the baby one way or another. The genius was capable of precision when it came to engineering but living things were a whole entire different matter. Everything he needed was thankfully waiting for him in the kitchen, on display on the counter, as if someone had left it on purpose.

Baby Nat was taking his bottle like a champ or maybe more accurately like a hungry stomach on tiny legs. Tony liked babies and children a lot more than what he was letting on. His own father, Howard, had done such an awful job raising him. The idea that history could repeat itself, even a little, was too much to even think about. The genius really wanted to believe that he would do the exact opposite of what had been done to him but he never trusted himself all that much. Nobody should go through his kind of childhood. Steve Rogers had been really vocal about his thoughts regarding Howard. Stark Sr was a war hero, what people called a good man. Years must have changed him a lot then.

Tony was wandering throughout the ground floor of the house while holding the bottle to the baby in his arms. Everything was as he remembered. Conserving the apparent age of the baby, around a month had passed since Ultron. So, before the Accords and General Ross. Before the Civil War. If the timeline was right, he was in the past. Because it was scientifically impossible, he was in a dream or a vision. Those were the only logical explanations. His guilt and his need for a family had merged into that fucked up illusion. Clint's family was the one he knew. God, sometimes his brain really worked in shitty and weird ways.

Everything felt so real though, especially the baby in his arms. Tony had a good memory but even for him, this was very detailed, almost too much. At least, for once, nightmares weren't plaguing him. Seeing all his ex teammates getting killed on a strange planet could have been fun after the event of the Civil War. Tony was all that happy with them, he was not going to lie but even now, it was not what he wanted for them. He wouldn't mind some consequences going their way of course. The Avengers needed to stay alive or the rest of Earth's fate would be doomed. Since the alien's attack on New York, Tony had been trying so hard to protect everybody from the armada he had seen on the other side of the portal. And then he made Ultron...