Back To Being The Daddy's Boy

Chapter 06

The lab doors slamming open startled Julian making the, now even younger boy, jump looking on in worry as to why there'd need to be a rush to get in. Immediately Tony looked Julian over again, frantically as if looking for something, but all Julian knew was he didn't like it.
After ensuring to himself Julian hadn't gotten any younger while he had stepped out, the boy even managed to erase the teary eyed look he had beforehand. Seeing he hadn't, he slowly stepped back over to Bruce who too was eyeing the young boy.
"Ok, explain this to me again, slower," Bruce coaxed but kept his voice soft partly from distraction, partly from not wanting Julian to hear, the boy was confused, and by the looks of it scared, as was. It'd seem rather cruel to not try to prevent from it bothering him anymore.
Tony sighed a tad shakily to calm his adrediline, not having the courage to look at his child again, for now at least, not until he had himself calmer, he needed to be the adult here and not frighten him further, "Well, as you know, Cap and Ju stepped out to watch their movie and I join him. Blah blah blah but when Cap walked away he started looking tired so I had him lay his head down, no big deal until he says that everything burned so I rush him in here and when I sit him down he's.... that," he nodded his head back towards the child.
Bruce nodded slowly, "Get some of his blood and we'll test it, see if its in his blood stream," he assured,
Tony nodded hesitantly turning and walking towards his son kneeling in front of him gently taking his hands in his own, "Hey sweet boy, can we play doctor a minute?"
The boy eased at the question and beamed nodding, "Yeah! What do I gotta do?" Tony smiled softly, glad to at least no longer see fear in the little boy's eyes.
"Now hang on. I need you to promise me you'll be a big, brave, good boy for me, can you do that?" the child's expression didn't move at all as he nodded gleefully, "Yes daddy! I can!" he chirpped, Tony chuckled gently ruffling his hair.
"Awesome! I knew I could trust you buddy!" he praised, "What you need to do for daddy is hold your arm out so I can see your forearm," the child did so.
"Like this?"
"Exactly like that, perfect, great job, now you gotta grab my hand with your free one and shut your eyes, ok?"
"Is it gonna hurt daddy?" the seven year old whimpered out worriedly, Tony hated that he could see a small spark of fear in his eyes and was quick to try and fix it.
"Just a little, you're gonna feel a pinch sweet boy..... like..... this!" giving the boy hardly any warning he pinched his sides, obviously not harshly, enough to earn the giggle he was wanting and that only encouraged him to do it another 5 times, it was worth it seeing happiness instead of fright in the hazel brown eyes.
"It's gonna feel just like that?" he asked in awe to which Tony nodded with a small smile. The father noticed Bruce ready with the needle, wanting this to be figured out as soon as possible, he grabbed Julian's hand giving it a small, comforting squeeze as he did. Taking the hint, the little boy tightly shut his eyes.
Now knowing he wouldn't be able to see what the needle was doing, that being his biggest concern as needles never scared Julian much, he nodded Bruce to go ahead and draw the blood. Bruce nodded injecting the needle into the vein and taking out some of the boys blood, once it was done, he carefully set the needle aside and grabbed a bandaid applying it over where the needle had been moments before but the two adults couldn't breathe easy just yet, not until they had the results, still, Tony didn't see why that would mean Julian couldn't though, he was only a kid, now at least.
"Hey buddy, great job!" he praised offering as much of a smile as he could right now. Julian let his eyes open, a delighted giggle leaving him. He looked to the bandaid a moment or two before back to Tony with a bright, happy smile.
"You were right daddy! It didn't hurt really that bad!"
Tony smiled softly, "Of course bud, I wouldn't ever lie to you, I have no reason to," he assured softly though his words punched him in the gut, he'd already promised Julian he'd never let him get hurt, impossible and unrealistic but he liked to think he did a good job given the circumstances, until now.
He couldn't let Julian know that though, he didn't remember anything of how it'd normally be, he'd be goingto the movies or bowling with his friends right about now but the boy didn't know that, couldn't had known that, not anymore, Tony sighed ruffling the boy's hair making a silent promise to fix him, he didn't dare say it out loud though.
"Tony?" Bruce called pulling the billionaire from his thoughts, "You might wanna look at this."
Tony sighed telling himself that no matter what the results said, he needed to know and see them. He pulled himself to his feet and helped Julian off the bed like item, "Go on upstairs, I'll get Happy to play with you, sweet boy," he coaxed lightly pushing the child on. With a pouty groan he did so, Tony pulled his phone out yo contact Happy with the promise of explaining later but for now to keep the little boy entertained before walking over to Bruce looking at the screen.
"Good news is it is something in his blood but all the cells have copied it so we can't just get rid of it," he started then pointed to a batch of cells that appeared smaller than the rest, "If I'm understanding this rift, those cells, once they multiply will make him even younger in other words-"
"We're just getting started Tony finished with a sigh rubbing his face.