I hop down the stairs of my new wood home, heading towards a small tent where I can hear laughing. I clap my hands together.
"Chow time!" I say. I receive no response. "Mongoona?" I coo out. I sit on the tiny chair next to the tent and I pick up a stuffed puppy from the ground.
"Morgan H. Stark, want some lunch?" I ask. A small figure appears from the tent, wearing the blue Iron Man helmet I'd been working on for Pepper for our anniversary. On the small hand is a glove with a little light on it.
"Define lunch or be disintegrated." The small voice says adorably.
"Okay. You should not be wearing that, okay. That is part of a special anniversary gift I'm making for your mom." I say, giving her a small kiss on the cheek before removing the helmet.
"There you go." I brush the hair out of her face. "You thinking about lunch? I can give you a handful of crickets on a bed of lettuce." I tease her.
"No." She argues smiling lightly.
"That's what you want. How did you find this?" I ask holding up the helmet.
"Garage," Morgan responds innocently.
"Really? Were you looking for it?" I ask her.
"No, I found it though." She responds.
"Hmm. You like playing in the garage huh? So does Daddy." I smile and pick her up with a grunt. She's almost too big for me to keep picking her up.
"It's fine actually. Mom never wears anything I buy her." I walk her back to the house when I see a silver Audi roll into the yard. Stepping out of the car and putting his hands in his pockets is Steve Rogers. I turn away from them and head back up the porch, Morgan's small head on my shoulder. I turn back around and Natasha nods her head at me in greeting. I nod back before taking Morgan inside.
"No, trust me. We know what it sounds like." Scott says as I pour them some smoothies Pepper made earlier.
"Tony, after everything you've seen is anything really impossible?" Steve asks me.
"Quantum fluctuation messes with the plank scale which then triggers the Deutsch proposition, can we agree on that," I mention, acting as if everyone in the room knows that. I hand Steve his cup.
"Thank you." He takes it from me gently.
"In Leymans terms, it means you're not coming home," I explain.
"I did," Scott tells me. I shake my head.
"No. You accidentally survived. It's a billion to one cosmic fluke. And now you wanna pull a... what do you call it?" I look at Scott.
"A time heist?" He questions. It seems as if he just made it up on the fly.
"Yeah, a time heist. Of course, why didn't we think of this before? Oh, because it's laughable, because it's a pipe dream." I tell them.
"The stones are in the past. We could go back, we could get them." Steve tells me.
"We could snap our own fingers, we can bring everybody back." Natasha agrees.
"Or screw it up worse than he already has, right?" I counter.
"I don't believe we would," Steve argues.
"Gotta say I sometimes miss that giddy optimism. However, high hopes won't help if there's no logical tangible way for me to safely execute said time heist. I believe the most likely outcome will be our collective demise." I sit down in my chair across from Scott.
"Not if we strictly follow the rules of time travel. That means, no talking to our past selves, no betting on sporting events-" I interrupt him.
"I'm gonna stop you, right there, Scott. Are you seriously telling me that your plan to save the universe is based on Back to the Future?" I ask, skeptical.
"No." He reassures me.
"Good, you had me worried there, cuz that'd be horseshit. That's not how quantum physics works." I explain.
"Tony. We have to take a stand." Nat tells me.
"We did stand, and yet here we are." I counter.
"I know you've got a lot on the line. You got a wife, a daughter, but I lost someone very important to me. A lot of people did. And now, now, we have a chance to bring her back, to bring everyone back, including Samantha, and you're telling me that you won't even-" The mention of Sam softens my face, but it's still damn near impossible. I do miss her. I miss Peter, but there's no safe way for me to pull this off.
"That's right Scott, I won't even. Got another kid." The door opens next to me and my daughter comes out.
"Mommy told me to come and save you." Morgan crawls onto my lap.
"Good job." I say picking her up and resting my head on her back, "I'm saved. I wish you were coming here to ask me something else, anything else. I'm honestly happy to see you guys. Oh, and the table's set for six." I stand up and come level to Cap.
"Tony, I get it, and I'm happy for you, I really am. But this is a second chance." Steve says. I shake my head, my daughter is my world, of course, so was Samantha.
"I got my second chance right here, Cap. I can't roll the dice on it. If you don't talk shop, you can stay for lunch." They don't stay for lunch, unfortunately.
YOU ARE READING
Genius Runs In The Family
Fanfiction"I'm a Stark, being a genius kind of runs in the family." Samantha Bailey Stark is the oldest and only daughter of Tony Stark. She inherited his quick witted remarks, his sarcasm and his brains. She also earned his temper. When she was old enough, T...
