Out of Time ★ [1] ✔

A Broken Promise

I stood at the threshold of Stark's workshop. Scientists and engineers worked efficiently. Soldiers tested strange inventions. Women in army uniforms filled out paperwork. And Stark was nowhere to be seen.

I was going to strip the workshop bare. I was going to search every nook and cranny for it. And I was going to break some laws in the process. I needed to do it without anyone noticing.

I held my hand out in front of me. A golden ring of power emitted out of my palm, enlarging as it encircled the room. 

Everyone slowed and, eventually, froze. Time froze. I was the only person in the room that could move. 

And so my search began.

I went through boxes of parts. I looked behind and under the larger machines. I checked inside equipment, pulling them apart and briskly putting them back together with no luck in my search. I even broke into the vault where the precious inventions and materials were kept.

I scratched my head. How could it be this hard to find? I sensed it in the workshop. It was there. It was there somewhere. I knew it was.

I squinted. There was one place I hadn't looked. And it seemed like the kind of thing he'd keep in there.

Stark's office was a mess. Papers were strewn all over the place. The bookshelf in the corner was so full that books were stacked on top of the rows. Photographs of Stark with inventions and other inventors and maps decorated the walls. Models adorned his oaken desk.

And there it was, hanging on the wall above the chair.

The Shard. 

How he had it in his possession all this time was a question that stumped me. How he had it period was an even more curious question. I couldn't believe I hadn't noticed it before. I'd sensed it every time I stepped foot into the workshop. How could I have missed it?

I stared at it. I had to admit, the 1940s was growing on me. I didn't really want to leave. I had to be honest, I didn't want to leave because of Steve. He was growing on me. He was like that childhood friend you didn't want to leave when you and your family had to move elsewhere. And it made my heart ache. I rarely developed attachments to the people of a period I visited. I wasn't supposed to. This time was special somehow. I couldn't put my finger on what I felt.