Duty (An Armorer/Paladin Story)

I've got lots of company on the rocks, but there's no booze

The night air felt cool and refreshing. The dogs were waiting outside, breaking off pursuit of some undoubtedly terrified critter to greet me. Sigurd looked from Cap to me, and pointedly put himself between us as we walked. Torburn marched ahead.

"Spit it out, Steve," I said wearily.

"I want to apologize for what happened last night. I wasn't planning on telling you like that; Tony's known about how his father was killed for awhile and I didn't expect him to go off like that."

"Tony's not the most emotionally stable Avenger," I note dryly. "I think only Bruce's alter ego is worse, and even there, it's pretty one note."

Steve shrugs in agreement. "I had no idea he had that information, the recordings. Are you ok?"

I stop. "Not really," I say. "The news about Mr Stark was upsetting. I don't like having my nose rubbed in the fact that my mentor wasn't perfect, but fundamentally...it doesn't really change much for me. I know what Mr Stark did for me in employing me, working with me and teaching me. He did things that are morally questionable at best, and that's something I'll have to think through later. But the onus is on his son. He's apparently let the research go on, and it sounded like it's...not good at all. He's apparently still employing that scum Steiger, knowing what he's capable of."

"Tony went personally to collect the information on the first man who had the skin thing," Steve assured me.

"Nick said he ordered him to do it," I said sternly. "It's not out of the goodness of his artificially stabilized little heart."

"You talked to Fury?" I nodded. "But the mutation isn't nearly as bad for you," he said encouragingly. "The Asgardians took care of it, anyway."

"Except they didn't," the words exploded from me. "It's coming back, and it's more extensive this time. It's affecting the muscles too." I blinked hard and bit my lip firmly to keep from blubbering.

Steve stopped, so I did, and because I did, the dogs did too. "I didn't realize," he said slowly. "You found out when you took Thor back?"

"Yep. They always do a scan to check. We didn't think it was that big a deal, but now...it's kind of terrifying."

After a pause, Steve offered tentatively, "But there were those years when you were down South where it was stable. The mutation might have just responded to the attempt to eradicate it. It might have just made itself a little more difficult to treat again. It doesn't mean that what happened to Grierson will happen to you." I nod.

"That's what they think on Asgard," I say finally. "But that was without the new information."

"The mutation doesn't care about information," Steve reminded me. "It just...is. It does its thing. And it sounds like it's thing is to be pretty stable." We started to walk again.

"Well, I 'm trying not to get too worked up about it until I know more," I said. "Plus I have to conserve my energy. I'll have to deal with Stark soon, and Thor, too. He's not going to be happy with me." I explain my conversation with Odin briefly. "But he's a big boy, he could have told his father no, that he was going to do his thing, or agreed to live up to his responsibilities. But Thor likes his prestige as Thor, Odinson, high and mighty of Asgard, footloose and fancy free." My voice was a little irritated. "He wants things to be easy."

"Don't we all?" Steve said mildly.

"Yeah, I think everybody would like that, but most of us understand that it isn't possible. There are always consequences  for doing the easy thing over the right thing, and leaving other people to clean up your mess isn't right." Steve quirked an eyebrow at me, and ahead, Torburn jumped up to snap at a moth. He was so big it was easy to forget he was still a puppy.