Iron Wolf

Chapter 11~ Family Crisis

Melody's POV

"What do you mean 'he's in the hospital'?" I screamed into the phone.

"Happy's in the hospital. He's not doing so good, Tails," Dad repeated.

"I will be right there," I said, hanging up the phone and grabbing my things. I ran to the hospital and found my way to Happy's room.

"How is he?" I asked, taking a seat on my dad's lap.

"He's not great." We sat in silence, and eventually, I shifted into my wolf form, laying at my dad's feet. This was a nightmare. An actual nightmare.

A little while later, a nurse entered the room and checked on Happy before noticing the TV was on.

"Hi," Dad said.

"Oh," The started nurse said, turning to face dad.

"Uh...mind leaving that on?" He asked, referring to the TV.

"Sure," The nurse said, a little nervous and dad stood up. I lifted my head and he gave me a pat on the head.

"Sunday night's PBS 'Downtown Abbey'. That's his show, he thinks it's elegant," Dad sadi before taking a moment. "One more thing...make sure everyone wears their badges. He's a stickler for that sort of thing, plus my guys won't let anyone in without them."

"Of course," The nurse said turning to leave.

"Dad?" I asked, shifting back.

"Yeah?"

"He's going to be ok," I said and dad smiled.

"Sure, Tails."

"No, seriously dad. He's going to wake up and be just fine." My dad said nothing, he just sat back down and watched his best friend sleep. What he didn't realize was I was casting a spell to make him fall asleep. He needed the rest.

I snuck out of the hospital and teleported to Stark Tower in New York. It didn't take me long to find who I was looking for.

"Melody? What are you doing here? Does your dad know you're here?" Steve asked.

"No, he's sleeping in the hospital," I answered. "I snuck out."

"He's in the hospital?" Steve asked.

"Oh, shit. He's fine. Happy is in the hospital and dad is there visiting. And then I knocked him out with a spell. Sorry, I'm not really with it right now," I said, tears finally falling down my cheeks.

Steve's POV

It blew my mind that Melody had come here alone. And she looked so broken, what with the tears making patterns all over her face. It hadn't occurred to me until now that Melody had been taking care of everyone in her life the way that they should have been taking care of her. But now that I thought about it, there had been several instances where she had forced Tony to eat or shower or go to bed. She rarely let Happy drive her anywhere because she hated inconveniencing him. She opted to take care of some of Pepper's work just so that Pepper could relax a bit. I had walked in on Colonel Rhodes venting to Melody about confidential things a few times. She took care of everything she could just to make the adult's lives easier. And no one saw how it was killing her.

But now, having her in front of me with no one else to turn to I saw it. Just how drained she was. How scared and tired of fighting she was. Just how broken she felt.

"Come here," I said, hugging her small form against my own.

"I'm so scared of losing them," She whispered, and my grip tightened on her. No teen should ever take on all this responsibility one there own. No teen should be taken for granted like this.

"I know, sweetheart. I know. Let it out," I said, picking her up and taking her to my room. I sat her on the bed, and she curled into herself. I situated myself before pulling her into my embrace again.

"You really do take care of everything, don't you?" I asked, wiping her tears away.

"If I don't, who will?" She asked and my heart shattered.

"Your dad should," I answered and she laughed.

"Have you met my dad? I have more responsibility in my pinkie nail than he has in his whole body." She was right, but Tony really should be taking care of things and hiding them from her. He should be giving her the chance to be a kid, instead of him carrying out his childish whims. Their roles should be reversed.

"And speaking of 'my father is a child'," Melody said, pointing to my TV which had Tony walking outside bound to do something stupid on a news channel.

"We're awaiting the arrival of Tony Stark. We're hoping he'll give us the reaction...his reaction to the latest attack." Tony walked out and all the reporters swarm toward him. "Mr. Stark! Mr. Stark! Our sources are telling us that this is another Mandarin attack. Anything else you can tell us?" For once, Tony acted like an adult and ignored the reporter.

"Hey, Mr. Stark! When is somebody gonna kill this guy? Just sayin'." And just like that, Tony the child made an appearance.

"Is that what you want? Here's a little Holiday greeting I've been wanting to send to the Mandarin. I just didn't know how to phrase it until now. My name is Tony Stark and I'm not afraid of you. I know you're a coward, so I've decided that you just died, pal. I'm gonna come get the body. There's no politics here; it's just good old-fashioned revenge. There's no Pentagon; it's just you and me. And on the off-chance you're a man, here's my home address: 10-8-80, Malibu Point, 9-0-2-6-5. I'll leave the door unlocked," Tony said, looking straight at the camera. "That's what you wanted, right? Bill me," He told the reporter, smashing his phone against a wall.

"Just like I said. Have you met my dad? But why the hell would he give out our address?" Melody groaned, her body going limp against me.

"I hate to say it, but your dad is a genius idiot," I answered, hugging her. She melted into the embrace and sighed.

"Yeah. But he's my genius idiot. And now I have something else I need to fix."

"Why don't you stay here? Let your dad clean up one of his own messes for once?" I asked, not ready to let her go.

"Because at least one Stark should be an adult," She answered.

"Does it have to be you?"

"Based on that display, unfortunately, yes it does. I'll call you, ok Steve?" She said, standing up and teleporting out of my room. I groaned. Tony really didn't deserve Melody.