The Secrets of Petra (Parker) Stark

3

2008 (Still)

When Tony got out of the car, he was immediately greeted by Obadiah Stane. "Tony! We were going to meet at the hospital." Stane gave him a warm hug, which Tony pulled away from as soon as he could.

"No, I'm fine," Tony responded subtly avoiding Stane's eyes by looking around.

Happy stepped out of the car and offered Tony the Burger King bag for him to put the wrapper of his previous burger in and grab another. Tony did so.

"You had to have a burger, yeah?" Stane commented. "Well come on. You get me one of those?"

"Uh, there's only one left. I need it."

Pepper was practically glued to Tony's side as they walked into the building, partly to support him because he was still very weak and injured, and partly because she needed to know he was alright. When they got to the area where the press was gathered, she let him go and watched from the side. He hid his injury well, but she could still tell it was there.

"Miss Potts?"

Pepper looked to her right to see a man in a suit smiling friendly at her. "Yes?"

"Can I speak to you for a moment?"

"Oh, I'm not part of the press conference, but it's about to begin right now."

"I'm not a reporter," the man said. "I'm Agent Phil Coulson, with the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division."

"That's quite a mouthful."

"I know." Agent Coulson handed her a business card. "We're working on it."

"You know, we've been approached already by the DOD, the FBI, the CIA-"

"We're a separate division with a more specific focus. We need to debrief Mr. Stark about the circumstances of his escape."

"I'll put something in the book, shall I?"

"Thank you." Agent Coulson walked away.

Stane stood at the podium. "Uh..."

Pepper began to panic when she could no longer see Tony. Then she saw Stane look over the podium and heard Tony's voice saying, "Hey would it be all right if everyone sat down? Why don't you just sit down? That way you can see me, and I can... A little less formal and..."

A hundred or so reporters sat down as if they were kindergartners getting ready for story time and Pepper caught sight of Tony taking a bite of his cheeseburger. Even Pepper sat down.

"What's with the love-in?" Rhodey asked quietly, sitting next to Pepper.

"Don't look at me. I don't know what he's up to."

Tony began his speech. He had been quiet on the ride over, and Pepper guessed that this was the reason why. "I never got to say goodbye to my father. There's questions that I would have asked him. I would have asked him how he felt about what this company did. If he was conflicted, if he ever had doubts. Or maybe he was every inch the man we all remember from the newsreels."

Pepper tilted her head, wondering where Tony was going with this. A quick glance at Rhodey proved that he was wondering the same thing.

"I saw young Americans killed," Tony continued, "by the very weapons I created to defend and protect them. And I saw that I had become part of a system that is comfortable with zero accountability." This caused a murmuring in the crowd.

"Mr. Stark?" One man in the front row raised a hand.

"Yeah, Ben." Tony must have recognized the man from a previous interview... Or he read the man's nametag.