Girl Erased

Our Final Night Alive

"Hey, man! Make love, not war!" A man yells, driving past the Camp Lehigh army base

"Clearly, you weren't actually born here, right?" Tony asks, referencing the sign that says 'birth place of Captain America' as they walk through the base.

"The idea of me was."

"Right. Well, imagine you're SHIELD, running a quasi-fascistic intelligence organization. Where do you hide it?"

"In plain sight." Steve says, looking a few yards in front of them. They get into the elevator in the munitions building and ride it down to their floor, with a SHEILD employee.

"Good luck on your mission, Captain." Tony says to Steve as he walks out of the elevator

"Good luck on your project... doctor." Steve says, waiting for a few more floors down.

"You new here?" The Sheild employee asks

"Not exactly."

Tony walks the floor, looking for a lab until he finds an unlabeled metal door and makes a quick assumption that that's what he needs. He wanders through the ailes of desks and paperwork, finding a case, safely holding the tesseract.

"Gotcha." He says, using the glasses to scan thhe container, "Back in the game." He says, using an Iron Man sleeve to grab the cube.

"Arnim, you in there? Arnim?" A man calls out, walking up to where Tony is, "Hey! Door's this way, pal." He says to Tony, watching him try to walk the other way.

"Oh, yeah." Tony says, seeing that it's his father.

"I'm looking for Dr. Zola. Have you seen him?"

"Yeah, no, Dr. Zol– No, I haven't seen a soul." Tony bumps into a chair and turns back to it, to excuse himself. "Pardon me."

"Do I know you?"

"No, sir. I'm a– a visitor from MIT."

"Huh. MIT. Got a name?"

"Uh– Howard." Tony says, immediately rrealizing why that was a mistake.

"Well, that'll be easy to remember."

"Howard– Potts." He says, coming up with Pepper's name.

"Well, I'm Howard Stark." Tony's dad says, holding out his hand.  [Holds out hand to shake.]

"Hi." Tony grabs onto his finger

"Shake that, don't pull it."

"Yeah–"

"You look a little green around the gills there, Potts."

"I'm fine. Just, long hours."

"Wanna get some air?" Howard asks, Tony doesnt answer, trying to soak in these last few moments he'll have with his dad, "Hello, Potts." Howard asks

"Yeah. That would be swell."

"That way." Howard points toward the door Tony walk in.

"Okay." Tony says, setting down the briefcase and walking away

"Need your briefcase?" Tony shakes his head in embarrassment and walks back to pick it up.

"You're not one of those beatniks, are ya, Potts?"

A phone rings a couple floors up and a young Hank Pym picks up, looking around his lab.  "Hello. Dr. Pym?" Steve's voice comes over the phone.

"That would be the number that you called. Yes."

"This is Captain... Stevens from shipping. We have a package for you."

"Bring it up."

"Well, that's the thing, sir. We can't."

"I'm confused. I thought that was your job."

"Well, it's just– Sir, the box is glowing and, to be honest, some of our mail guys aren't feeling that great."

"They didn't open it, did they?"

"Yeah, they did. You better get down here." Pym slamms the phone down and begins running down the hallway to shipping.

"Excuse me! Out of the way!" Steve steps out of an office on the same hallway and heads to Hanks office. He walks in quietly latching the door and looks over every little thing yuntil he comes across the extra particles. He stares for a second, in disbelief, and then smiles. He grabs four tubes in one and and tries to make a quick escape.

Tony and Howard get onto a elevator heading up to the ground level.

"So, flowers and sauerkraut. You got a big date tonight?" Tony asks, gesturing to the items in Howards hands.

"My wife's expecting. And, uh– Too much time in the office."

"Congratulations." Tony stutters out after realizing the couple is expecting, him.

"Thanks. Hold this, will you?" Howard hands him the flowers and food and strta to fix his tie

"Yeah, sure. How far along is she?"

"I don't know– Uh– She's at the point where she can't stand the sound of my chewing. I guess I'll be eating dinner in the pantry again."

"I have a little girl."

"A girl would be nice. Less of a chance she'd turn out exactly like me."

"What'd be so awful about that?"

"Let's just say that the greater good has rarely outweighed my own self-interests."

Steve leaves the office and turn right, just to find the lady he met on the elevator with Tony, and he hears her describe Tony's beard. He leans his head back and his body following as he turns to the closest door behind him. He steps into the room and and leans against the door, feeling safe for a moment. He glances down at the desk and sees a picturer of himself pre-serum. He walks to it and picks up the frame, slowly reaalizing who's office he just walked into. He turrns to the door and sees the name 'Margaret Carter' and his shoulders fall. He hears someone talking and looks through the window in her office to see an aged Peggy dicussing something with another SHEILD employee.

"So, where are you at with names?" Tony asks Howard as the elevator lurches at the ground level.

"Well, if it's a boy, my wife likes Elmonzo."

"Huh, Might wanna let that stew awwhile. You got time."

"Let me ask you a question. When your kid was born– were you nervous?"

"Wildly. Yeah."

"Did you feel qualified? Like you had any idea how to successfully operate that thing?"

"I literally pieced it together as I went along, I thought about what my Dad did, and" Tony looks past Howard and sees Steve give him a very poorly hidden thumbs up.

"My old man, he never met a problem he couldn't solve with a belt."

"I thought my dad was tough on me. And now, looking back, I just remember the good stuff, you know. He did drop the odd pearl."

"Yeah? Like what?"

"No amount of money ever bought a second of time."

"Smart guy."

"He did his best."

"Let me tell you. That kid's not even here yet, and there's nothing I wouldn't do for him." Steve looks a Tony confused as to why hes stalling and he lifts the breifcase and points to it, explaining that he found the cube. "Good to meet you, Potts." Howard says, collecting his flowers and saurkraurt.

"Yeah, Howard– Everything's gonna be all right." Tony says, shaking his hand. And then hhe reaches for a hug. "Thank you– for everything– you've done for this country."

"Jarvis, have we ever met that guy?" Howard asks, his assistant as they get in the car and Tony walks away.

"You meet a lot of people, sir." Jarvis says, brushing it off

"Seems very familiar. Weird beard."