girl genius ¹ ≫ young tony stark

sixty seven

POST-SNAP, 2023

UPSTATE NEW YORK

Shelby had known grief her entire life. She'd lost almost everyone she'd ever loved.

Her mom died in childbirth.

Her dad spent most of her life in prison.

Her gran, to Alzheimer's.

Her mentor, lost in space.

Each time Shelby had gotten over one loss, she thought she knew how to handle it. The next time it happened, she'd be able to manage it. She'd know what to do, how to bounce back. Yet, each time it happened, she felt lost. The wind knocked out of her. Her feet swept off the ground. Her world crashed down.

Sixteen some years ago, she laid in a hospital bed, holding a tiny, red-faced, bald creature, wrapped in a pink blanket. She'd swore in that moment that she'd let nothing happen to that little swaddle: her daughter.

They were in New York when it happened. Tony had been going off on adventures in his bionic super suit as Iron Man for years when a big purple alien made a promise to Planet Earth that he would destroy it. At that point, aliens had long lost their appeal to the former NASA astronaut. It seemed every year Shelby's husband was racing off with his superhero gang to fight some alien or another. Yet, this one was different. He was more powerful than anyone had seen before.

And he won.

They called it The Snap now, the moment when Thanos, the big purple alien, snapped his fingers with the magic of six Infinity Stones and destroyed half of all life in the universe, and that included Shelby's daughter.

Tony was in space when it happened. Shelby was in their penthouse with Mary. They were playing Scrabble, nervously awaiting Tony's safe return to New York. Shelby stood up to refill their bowl of popcorn, and when she came back, Mary was gone, her Scrabble word half laid out on the board.

A-L-I-E-N.

How fitting.

Shelby had always considered herself an optimist, but in that moment, everything changed. She'd lost her daughter. There was nothing that would fill the void in Shelby's chest.

Tony came back eventually, after being stranded on some desolate planet in a foreign solar system. She was relieved, yes. She hugged Tony tight upon his return, tears springing from her eyes. He was safe. But Mary wasn't.

Five years later, Shelby was still half a woman. She and Tony sequestered to a cabin in the woods, away from New York, away from the noise, away from the people. Certainly they still knew how to function as just the two of them, as husband and wife, as best friends. But it was different.

Even though Mary had never lived in the cabin, Shelby still woke up every morning expecting to hear her blasting Harry Styles or Shawn Mendes far too loudly through the Bluetooth speaker that accompanied her everywhere. She waited to find hair ties hidden behind the couch when she cleaned. She expected a pile of dirty clothes heaped in the corner of a bedroom, just next to the hamper, because why would a teenager actually use a hamper?

And they didn't even get to say goodbye. There was no body. There was nothing but the memories that plagued Shelby's sleep every night.

"Do you want some coffee?"

Shelby's eyes drifted from the TV screen, having long glazed over as she watched a rerun of a television show she'd seen hundreds of times. They landed on Tony, who was holding out a mug to her.

"Shelbs?"

Shelby frowned and took the mug silently, bringing it to her lips. Coffee didn't even taste the same.

It'd been five years, certainly she should have been over it by now. Tony was, kind of. He wasn't, but he'd adjusted. He'd grieved. He'd grieve for the rest of his life, but he'd managed to move on. At least, more than Shelby had.

"I thought we could drive into the city today," Tony offered. "I know everyone's getting sick of seeing us over a Zoom call, and it'd be good to get out of the house."

What Tony meant was, it would be good for Shelby to get out of the house.

Shelby shook her head. She didn't feel like leaving the comfort of their cabin.

"Okay." Tony cleared his throat. "Well, uh, Wendy called. Maybe you could call her back this time?"

Shelby's father had also been lost in The Snap. As had Robbo. And Donna. And Maggie.

Her stepmother had somehow survived the snafu, and while Shelby knew her anger was misdirected, she couldn't help but feel mad that Wendy had survived, and her father hadn't. Not that she didn't love Wendy -- she did -- but she survived. And everyone else hadn't.

"No."

Tony sighed and sat down next to her on the couch. "Okay. What about Lisa?"

Lisa was still out in California, working for Apple. Apparently, there was still a very large market for iPhones, even though half of the population had been wiped out.

"She's really busy."

Tony let out another sigh, this one more irritated. "Shelby. You have to get out of this house."

"I do get out of the house," Shelby replied, gesturing to the garden that laid beyond the picture windows that surrounded their living room. She'd gotten really into gardening. It was oddly therapeutic.

"You know that's not what I mean."

The Old Shelby would have relented and told Tony that he was right, and apologized.

The New Shelby did no such thing. Instead, she rose silently and walked outside, leaving Tony to sit alone on the couch.

New Shelby got angry easily and redirected the anger at innocent people, and she didn't want to do that to Tony.

She wandered into her garden, where there was a bench dedicated to Mary's memory. She ran her fingers along the nameplate, tears pricking at the corners of her eyes.

MARY COLEWELL STARK

BELOVED DAUGHTER
WORLD-RENOWNED SMARTASS

JUNE 6, 2001 - APRIL 23, 2018

A bittersweet smile filled Shelby's face. The smartass was Tony's idea, as Mary had been more of a smartass than even her father. She was the picture of Tony, both in looks and personality. Dark hair, dark eyes, a mischievous smile. Buckets of sarcasm and jokes and a fondness for greasy foods and music much older than she was.

She ran her fingers over the letters, M-A-R-Y. The name had been Tony's idea, though originally, Shelby supposed, her idea. Mary, after their robot, the one they'd built together in college. Their first child. The original Mary. They used to joke that their human Mary was actually Mary 2.0, new and improved. Though, she'd been made with significantly less vibranium and significantly more alcohol.

The sound of tires on gravel filled Shelby's ears and she turned quickly, trying to see who it was. They didn't have many visitors, besides Happy and Pepper sometimes. The car looked like one of the ones Stark Industries used, so she sighed and turned away, figuring it was either Happy or Pepper, needing their bosses' attention on something. Though, Tony did most of the CEO-ing at that point. Shelby didn't know if she'd really helped on any projects at all in the past five years.

"Hey, Shelby."

She turned, coming face-to-face with blond hair, blue eyes, and entirely too much muscle for a person to have. It wasn't Pepper. It certainly wasn't Happy.

"Mind if we join you?"