Always Been You | Tony Stark

Captiolo (16) Sedici ~ Dying

"Yes, but the fundamentals of the company are still very, very strong despite the events in Monaco."

"Yes, of course, the AP wants a quote."

Natalie and I were helping Pepper with some work, the two of them on calls as I was writing emails. Morgan was thankfully asleep upstairs, so Natalie was able to be borrowed for some extra help.

"Don't tell him. Fax them..."

"Where is he?" Rhodey asked as he entered the house.

"He doesn't want to be disturbed."

"He's downstairs." I interrupted Natalie, not looking up from the screen.

"Avery come with me. I might need some backup." He waited for me as I quickly finished what I was working on, putting the laptop down and walking over to Rhodey at the stairs.

I put in my pin when we got downstairs, Rhodey holding the door open for me as I walked in.

"Tony, you gotta get upstairs and get on top of this situation right now. Listen. I've been on the phone with the National Guard all day, trying to talk them out of rolling tanks up to the PCH, knocking down your front door and taking these." Rhodey said as he walked closer and pointed to the Iron Man suits as I stayed near the door, arms crossed with my back leaning against the glass wall. "They're gonna take your suits Tony, okay? They're sick of the games. You said nobody else would possess this technology for 20 years. Well, guess what? Somebody else had it yesterday. It's not theoretical anymore. Are you listening to me?" He came up to Tony and nudged his shoulder, Tony's head lazily rocking to the side.

"Are you okay?" Rhodey got more on Tony's level, the question making me stand up properly and slowly walk over. Tony looked over at me when he heard my heels clicking, seeming to just now realize my presence.

"Um, yeah, yeah. Let's go." He started getting out of the car, Rhodey moving to the other side to meet him.

"Hey man," Rhodey got cut off by Tony collapsing on the ground. "Hey, hey!"

"Tony!" I panicked, rushing over.

"You all right?" Rhodey asked, helping Tony stand.

"Yeah, I should get to my desk. Peg, you see the cigar box?" I walked closer to the desk, the two coming towards me, and found what he was looking for, picking it up.

"Yeah, this?"

"Yep. It's palladium." Tony groaned as he sat on his desk chair. I opened the box to reveal a row of what Tony said was palladium.

"Is that supposed to be smoking?" I looked over to see Tony had taken out his reactor, part of it smoking as Rhodey pointed out.

"If you must know, it's neutron damage. It's from the reactor wall." Tony handed me the reactor, and for a moment I had a flashback of when I helped Tony with his first reactor.

"You've had this in your body?" I asked as I took the old palladium out, throwing it away and putting a new one in.

"And how about the high-tech crossword puzzle on your neck?"

"Road rash." Tony took the reactor back, putting it back where it was supposed to be. "What are you looking at?" He looked back at Rhodey and I's concerned faces.

"We're looking at you. You wanna do this whole lone gunslinger act and it's unnecessary."

"You don't have to do this alone, Tony."

"You know, I wish I could believe that. I really do. But you two have gotta trust me. Contrary to popular belief, I know exactly what I'm doing."

"I'm going to be honest Tony, I really don't think you do."

"Hey-"

"No, I'm talking, you listen." I interrupted, Rhodey letting out a hushed laugh that I ignored. "You are dying, Tony. I don't know how much time you have, but whatever it is, it is way too little. You have a little girl sleeping peacefully up there, who is expecting to be able to wake up and be able to talk to her father for another fifty-sixty years. You are not going to take that away from her just because you, you what? You're just giving up?"

"That's not what I'm-"

"No, but that's what it seems like to me, Tony! That you're just giving up."

"Avery I have tried everything. Nothing is able to replace the palladium. I've tried it all."

"Well, obviously not. There has to be something out there that you still haven't tried."

Suddenly I heard Rhodey's phone going off, Tony and I turned to stare at him as he searched for the device.

"I've uh, I've got to take this. You've got this, Avery?"

"Yeah, Rhodey." I sighed, nodding.

"Great. Colonel Rhodes." He answered the phone, leaving the room and going back upstairs.

I stared at Tony for a while as he seemed to zone out, eyes unfocused on the floor.

"I didn't want you to find out. Didn't want you to worry." He looked down at me.

"Do you really think I would have just never figured it out? Who do you take me for, Rhodey?" I crossed my arms over my chest.

"No, no. You're much smarter than him." Tony chuckled. 

"I have a question for you. Do you realize, how many people care about you? Who depends on even just your presence every day?" I softly spoke, almost afraid to be poking the bear.

"Um, probably just Morgan." I couldn't tell if he was joking or not at that.

"A lot, Tony, a lot. And it's not just Morgan but also Pepper, and Rhodey and your aunt Liv and even fucking Jarvis... but also me. I care about you, Tony. And I can't stand to see you just throwing everything away because you think you can't do something?" I meant that last part to sound more like a question, but the way it came out made it sound like I was super confused if anything. "Since when does Tony Stark give up?"

"Since now, Avery. I have made Jarvis run threw everything. Made him do all the experiments and the test runs and all that but it just doesn't, work, there is no way to fix any of this!" His voice got louder as he spoke, throwing his hands into the air at the end and landing on top of his head.

"I refuse to believe that. And deep down, I think you do too."

~~

Tony decided to still have his big birthday party. Pepper had Morgan at the apartment she had recently been renting, and I think Natalie might have been there too to help Pepper with her CEO work. Lately, she's been working as both Morgan's babysitter and another assistant to Pep.

I hope she was given a raise.

"Do you know which watch you wanted to wear tonight, Tony?" I asked, stepping into his room. Tony had asked me earlier to help him get ready, part of which was my adding makeup to his face and neck so he didn't look like... like he was dying.

"I'll give them a look." He said as I went over to grab his box full of different watches. "I should cancel the party, huh?"

"Probably." I turned around to see Tony already looking at me. His shirt was half open as he was staring at a screen being used as a mirror.

"Yeah. Cause it's, um..."

"Ill-timed." I filled in for him, walking over.

"Right, sends the wrong message."

"It's inappropriate." I held up the watch I grabbed. "The Jaeger. Gold face, brown band. What do you think?"

"Uh, yeah, yeah that will do." He went over to sit on the chair near us as I grabbed the makeup on the counter. "Why don't you..." Tony went silent as I sat on the arm of the chair he was on, carefully adding makeup around his face. "I gotta say it. It's hard to get a read on you."

"You've known me for how long and you still can't read me?" I smirked.

"Yeah well, you've always had a better poker face than Rhodey." He was quiet for only a moment before he filled it again. "Can I ask you a question, hypothetically? Bit odd."

"You can, though I know you won't mean it as a hypothetical." I closed the makeup lid.

"If this was your last birthday party you were ever gonna have," He rubbed his eyes. "How would you celebrate it?"

"Well, it's not my last birthday party, and it's not yours either." I stood from my spot, setting the makeup back on the counter.

"Come on, Peg just answer the question. Please."

I stayed standing with my back to the man, before sighing and turning around to face him.

"I guess I would do whatever I wanted to do, with whoever I wanted to do it with."

"Right."

"But Tony." I got his attention. "That would probably just mean me, you, Morgan, Rhodey, and Pepper going out to a dinner and movie. Maybe getting someone to watch Morgan when she goes to bed so we go out and do dumb shit."

"Yeah. Got it." He stared up at me.

"Please just don't do anything stupid tonight," I said, before walking out of the room.