Isolated Incidents

Fire, Fire... All Around Me, Fire

**Enter Iron Man 1. Also, we're taking a slight diversion here as I try to shove my plot in next to the cannon stuff, okay? Okay. TW: violence and fire and explosions. Enjoy!**

Tony hated leaving the states, but Obie had insisted there was nothing else they could do. He had this sinking feeling in his stomach, like he knew something would go wrong while he was gone. Jarvis had shared Tony frustrations, but Obie wouldn't let it go. Tony had to go. He needed to reassure the partners that the company was still in the Stark family. Tony was good at the reassuring thing.

And Obie kept saying, with Howard, Maria, and Peter gone, Tony was the only one left.

He'd been wearing his press mask all weekend as he traveled through countless airports and countries. He knew that Jarvis had called him once or twice over the last 6 hours, but he couldn't respond yet.

It was going to be more "no news, sir," and "we are working on it," and Tony couldn't take that right now. It would only lead to his own destruction, and seeing the Stark heir collapse into tears over his illegitimate and secret child being kidnapped was definitely not reassuring.

"Where are we going?" Tony asked as he climbed into the jeep.

There was resounding silence.

"What, are you taking me out here to snuff me out?" Tony asked, trying to coax one of the soldiers into a laugh. "Seriously, we're just driving into the desert. At any moment, you could pull over and end it. What, are you not allowed to talk?"

"No, sir, we can talk," the soldier said, but it was stiff.

"So you just can't enjoy talking, is that it? Come on, kid, give me something to work with."

"They are intimidated by you, sir," said another soldier from the front of the truck. "And you are a kid yourself, sir. You're 16, right?"

Tony hummed. "Yes, indeed-y! But seriously, you shouldn't be intimidated at all. It's just Tony right now, none of the Stark nonsense."

One of the soldiers - the first one who had been so very quiet to begin with - gave a sudden grin and looked over at Tony in excitement. "Could I get a picture?"

"Sure," Tony said easily. "But I better not see it online. I'm only joking."

They snapped a quick photo, and the soldier in the driver seat looked back over her shoulder. Her shoulder. Tony startled for a second as he looked up at her. She was-

"Woah."

"What's going on back there?" she asked, looking at Tony in the rearview.

"Sorry, you just look a lot like an old friend of mine. Sorry. Uh-" Tony recomposed himself and got a flirty smile on his face. "Now that I know you're a woman, I can't stop looking at you. Very beautiful bone structure."

"Oh, God," she moaned. "That line might have worked on my sister, but not-"

She cut herself off and Tony looked over at the other soldier, the quiet one, and gave a questioning raise of his brows. The soldier leaned in close, undoubtedly trying to get close enough that they wouldn't be over heard.

"Her younger sister was real sweet, but ended up in the party scene recently. Totally vanished right after she had some guy's baby. They tracked her down to a shelter near Philly, but the baby is gone. She said she found the baby daddy and he has the tyke now."

Tony felt his whole body tense up. And shake. And his face was cold, why was his face so cold when it was so hot, was he crying?

The soldier in the backseat was pulling away, but now looking panicked as Tony began to cry harder.

He didn't get a chance to ask before the whole car blew backwards, intense heat and the screaming of an explosion plowing them over. Tony was grabbing over his ears, trying to lock out the noise and pain and-

The car rolled and Tony was flying through the ripped hole in the side of the jeep where the door once had been. His whole body was burning and screaming in agony, but it was the disorienting way that his ears rung and his vision blurred and his mouth went dry. He was totally sense-less, trying to blink his vision back and he opened his mouth to cry or scream or call for help.

The quiet soldier who had been sitting next to him was only a few yards away, his body limp and bent in an unnatural way. Tony tried to focus his eyes so he could see if the poor boy was breathing or moving-

Tony blinked and shook his head a little, trying to shake the ringing from his ears. All around him was the oppressive heat of fire as rubble from the convoy burned all around him. He let his eyes wander over the body of a soldier at the core of one of those fires, unable to process it just yet.

His eyes settled on the girl, the driver, still strapped into the car on it's side. There was a fire in the engine, but she was still moving around. She was trying to get herself out of the seatbelt so she could climb through the window and escape. He crawled towards her, ignoring the searing pain of sand digging into his wounds. He got close enough to grab her hand and she turned her head, but her eyes were unfocused.

"Soldier, eyes on me. Eyes on me," Tony panted, and she struggled to find his face.

"Mr. Stark?"

"Your sister. Is it Olivia? Is it Olivia Martin?"

The soldier nodded her head slowly, and Tony's brain reminded him that people with head injuries needed time to process. He waited.

"Olivia. She's- she's in re- recov-" the soldier panted. "She's doing better. Going to call the baby daddy so we can meet the- meet the baby. Still don't know who it was."

Tony smiled, all blood and tears. "She was working on a set, right? She was working on set for a movie, doing costume assistance. She went to a party with the producer and we met. It's me, I'm the-"

Tony coughed hard, a splatter of red painting the ground beneath him.

"Her son. Peter Stark. He's at home, waiting for me. Waiting for Olivia, too."

The soldier tilted her head a little. "Figures she- she got a rich boy. We alwa- always said she was pretty... enough."

Tony felt her hand go limp and his whole body spasmed with fear. He couldn't lose this woman, not when he was about to lose Peter and Rhodey and maybe Olivia.

Tony gripped her hand harder, but she didn't move.

The last thing he remembered was the fire in the engine suddenly popping, and the deafening boom of an explosion that threw him across the desert. He turned over in the sand.

And there was the remains of a Stark Industries missile to his side, peeking over a sand bank.

"Fucking... Obie."