Bend Around the Wind by Scyllaya

Chapter 57: Welcome Home, Mr. Stark

Chapter Fifty-Seven

Welcome home, Mr. Stark

Milky Way Galaxy

Sol System

Nine Realms / Planet Earth

J.A.R.V.I.S. CU001 05-04-18 UTC0355

Incoming signal...

UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS

Initiating security protocol 00.57.. OVERRIDE

ACCESS GRANTED

Incoming data...

... ... ...

Welcome, Mr. Stark

x-x-x

'Look, Martin, I don't want to do more public appearances,' Rhodey sighed into the phone. He could feel the headache coming up already and the phone call was only going on for five minutes.

'But you know how much we need the good publicity, especially considering the piss-poor job we did in Sierra Leone,' Martin kept rambling.

'It's not my job to make sure the US Government and the Armed Forces have a good public image,' Rhodey interrupted. 'I'm not a mascot, I fight on the field, okay? And I intend to keep doing that.'

'But-'

'No, you can't just rope me into things every time Steve Rogers refuses to make a circus monkey out of himself. We both know this is what it's about.'

Cap was pretty damn selective about whom he supported in front of the media nowadays, but that was understandable. If Rhodey would be in his shoes he would stay so far away from the political game as possible. He was the most popular national icon everyone wanted to have on their side. There was still two years left till the next elections, but everyone was trying to get on a photo with him already. Sometimes it was a friggin' nightmare. Rhodey knew from his brief stint as "Iron Patriot" that it was the worst job in the world. He was fine being "War Machine", fighting the good fight instead of posing in front of cameras, thank you very much.

'Come on, James,' Martin literally whined. That was a new low.

'No,' Rhodey repeated simply.

'Don't make me call your superior officers, James,' Martin said in a clipped tone. Rhodey didn't know whether to snort or sigh.

'Yeah, good luck convincing General Paulsen,' he said. Martin sighed and gave up finally. 'Have a nice day, Martin.'

'Oh, shut up,' the man sighed and hung up.

Rhodey had only been on the Mountain Home Air Force Base for a week, but he was already itching to get back to the Stewart base in New York. It was not that he hated Idaho, but in his experience some shit always went down on the East Coast whenever he was away. It was like a rule by now. To make things worse he knew that only Steve and Bruce were in New York City at the moment, so something was bound to happen. He was not paranoid, he just knew it, he had a sixth sense for these things. He was planning to fly back in two days, so he hoped things stayed calm until then.

His phone started ringing again and he really hoped it was not Martin again, because Rhodey was running out of polite ways of saying no.

When he glanced at the display he blinked in surprise, because usually he was only contacted from The Avengers Tower directly through JARVIS, but there was "JARVIS CA" on his phone and no one lived in Malibu right now.

'Hello?' he picked up.

'Good morning, Colonel Rhodes,' JARVIS greeted. Which, what?

'JARVIS?'