Tearing Relationships Apart (Book Eleven of The Bad Wolf Chronicles)

Chapter Two

So I was thinking it over today . . . I think I want to get this book done before I go on to another updating cycle. And before people start asking me why I don't want to get to the others, I do. I really do. I just want to make this book as good as all my other Doctor Who ones.

As you all know, some of the movie transcripts out there are . . . not the best. Literally, practically nothing was offered for the Lagos fight scene. The only big action cue in "Age of Ultron" for the big team-up scene was "they all fight Ultron." The transcript I have for "Civil War" is slightly better, but it's still not as good as the ones I have for Doctor Who.

So I want to get this done so I know it's a book I'll feel proud of. I've got stuff planned for this book, and Miss Gatiss - shavingforsherl0ck - can vouch for that. This is going to be a good book, but I also want this to be a great one.

That being said, this book is the one I'll be going through straight through, just like I did with "Turning The Tides." I think I'll feel better just doing Marvel for a while, too, especially since tomorrow, I'll be on a plane back to the United States, and it would be a pain to finish an episode and not have anything else to go on to. We'll also be traveling to South Carolina a few days later, so I feel like instead of constantly worrying about Doctor Who episodes - which when I write them, are constantly at least 6K words - I can write these chapters, which roughly average about 2K a chapter.

All right, enough of my jabbering. Enjoy chapter two!

***

"Try to remember the kind of September," an older woman sang at a piano. "When grass was green . . . " She turned to the figure sleeping on the couch nearby. "Wake up, dear, and say goodbye to your father."

"Who's the homeless person on the couch?" an older man asked as he entered.

The man sat up to reveal himself to be a younger Tony Stark. "This is why I love coming home for Christmas," he griped. "Right before you leave town."

"Be nice, dear," Maria Stark chastised her husband. "He's been studying abroad."

"Really? Which broad?" Howard Stark asked. "What's her name?"

"Candice," Tony answered.

"Do me a favor? Try not to burn the house down before Monday."

"OK, so it's Monday. That is good to know. I will plan my toga party accordingly. Where you going?"

"Your father's flying us to the Bahamas for a little getaway," Maria answered.

"We might have to make a quick stop," Howard added.

"At the Pentagon," Tony raised an eyebrow. "Right? Don't worry, you're gonna love the holiday menu at the commissary."

"You know, they say sarcasm is a metric for potential," Howard snorted. "If that's true, you'll be a great man some day. I'll get the bags."

"He does miss you when you are not here," Maria told Tony softly as Howard moved off. "And frankly, you're going to miss us. Because this is the last time we're all going to be together. You know what's about to happen. Say something. If you don't, you'll regret it."

Tony paused, then turned to his father. "I love you, Dad. And I know you did the best you could."

Howard and Maria walked off, Tony staring after them . . . and the Tony Stark of the present straightened from where he'd been leaning against the doorframe. "That's how I wished it happened," he said. "Binarily Augmented Retro-Framing . . . or BARF. God, I gotta work on that acronym," he wrinkled his nose. "An extremely costly method of hijacking the hippocampus to clear traumatic memories." He blew on one of the candles by the piano, and the room around him flickered. "It doesn't change the fact that they never made it to the airport, or all the things I did to avoid processing my grief, but . . . " The illusion faded, and Tony took off his glasses as he turned to his audience – a group of students from MIT. "Plus, 611 million dollars for my little therapeutic experiment? No one in the right mind would've ever funded it. Help me out, what's the MIT mission statement?" He spoke with the students. "To generate, disseminate and preserve knowledge. And work with others to bring it to bear on the world's greatest challenges." He nodded when they finished. "Well, you are the others. And, quiet as it's kept, the challenges facing you are the greatest mankind's ever known. Plus, most of you are broke." He chuckled. "Oh, I'm sorry. Rather, you were. As of this moment, every student has been made an equal recipient of the Inaugural September Foundation Grant. As in all of your projects have just been approved and funded!" The crowd cheered, and Tony grinned as he continued reading off the teleprompter. "No strings, no taxes, just reframe the future, starting now!" Tony opened his mouth to continue, but froze when he saw the next line.