Gone, and forgotten

Preceding Tony's Demise

Tony POV

In 2011, life was great for Tony Stark. His company was booming, the bar was stocked, and Pepper hadn't quit yet. Everything was going perfectly, he couldn't have asked for anything more. (besides getting rid of his crippling depression, anxiety, and PTSD, and possibly asking out the gorgeous Pepper Potts) It all began to go downhill on a fateful day Tony dubbed "the ice fishing catastrophe".

During this catastrophe, what little remained of his father's search party had found what appeared to be missing world war two vessel. Within this vessel, the search party discovered what Tony would soon call, a great pain in the ass. 

Since his father was long gone, the search party had asked Tony for directions on what to do with the man who, according to his identification, was Captain Steve Rogers. At first, this request shocked him, why would I want anything to do with a Capsicle? I mean really he was the CEO of the worlds leading technology company, he was in no dire need of corpses. He practically had people dying just to be his test subjects.

That's where he was wrong. ( A rare occurrence but still) 

As the head of the search party boarded his plane, he could tell by the shocked expression they wore that something wasn't as it seemed. 

"What is it?" Tony asked quizzically "Surely he's not the only dead body you've found frozen in these parts."

"With all due respect Mr. Stark, he isn't dead"

"How the he-?"

"We aren't sure, that's why we summoned you."

Tony then watched as an attendant rolled in a large coffin-like bin that was rolled into the room. The attendant quickly plugged it into one of the monitors to the left and departed. He scanned the vitals that appeared on the screen before him. He wouldn't be playing football anytime soon, but this man was definitely alive. How was the bigger mystery.

"Alright," Tony said keeping his voice even "I'll take him." He then turned to the search party, "How much do I owe you?"

"Nothing Mr. Stark." The leader said with a slight smile "Your father specifically wrote in his will that if a man known as 'Steve Rogers' was found, that he should be delivered to him immediately. But that is no longer possible due to him being six feet under, so I leave him in your care."

Right as the man began to walk away the leader turned around, "And you don't owe us anything because your father had delegated the necessary funds to this mission prior to his demise."

The man then spun on his heels and preceded to leave the room. Leaving Tony alone with the frozen man that meant something to his late father. He had never gotten along with the old geezer, but he at least owed it to him to get this man out of the water. He snickered at his own joke and then proceeded to pour himself a glass of Irish cream whiskey, it had always been his favorite.

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After about two months of defrosting in the best medical facility on the planet, courtesy of Tony, Captain Rogers was in a stable condition and if things went smoothly would wake up soon.

Tony arrived at the facility treating the thawed out Captain. After running some tests on him, he was able to deduct that Rogers survived as long as he did due to a serum that had made him into some sort of super-soldier. After attempting to conduct an in-depth study into the serum, he was contacted by SHIELD (AN: I'm not wasting 20 seconds of my life adding periods between all of the letters, but I'll waste it here writing something no one reads). They explained the situation based on their founder, Peggy Carter's, notes. Apparently, she had been there to witness the injection of the serum. The notes explained that the serum musn't be replicated under any circumstances due to the remains of Hydra or whoever took their place, knowing of its existence. He would be reluctant to follow government rules but he briefly recalled reading something similar in his father's notes a little over a year ago. Tony cross-referenced this with his fathers' notes and found that not only was the research SHIELD provided correct but Peggy Carter, like Captain Rogers, was a close friend of dearly departed dad. He was disgusted with the idea of owing that man anything, so he made a silent vow that he would help Steve integrate himself into the modern era and call his debt even.