The Other Stark

Chapter 31

He hadn't talked yet, instead, staring blankly at the wall, making everyone think that maybe everything had gone wrong. Nat watched Buck from a distance, standing on the corner of the room, not saying a word, waiting for Tory to arrive with Bruce and whoever was following them.

When the door burst open, Dr. Banner and both Starks came in, Steve following on toe. The brunette walked slowly to the bed, with no abrupt movements

"Do you know your name?" Tory asked sitting on the empty chair, trying to draw the man's attention to her. Rogers and Tony joining Romanoff.

"James Buchanan Barnes," Buck answered, his gaze shifting to the brunette that sat in front of him with a serious stance. But yet, he was more relaxed than she had ever seen him.

"And I'm sure you don't need to ask me all those questions you're probably going to, like I just lost all my memories, again."

She laughed at his straight to the point answer, relieved.

"Why did you do that? I thought we had screwed up with everything!" Tory yelled, slapping him on the arm playfully, her face lighting up with happiness.

"So you remember nothing about the trigger words? Just like that?"

"Yep. I have no idea."

"Do you feel like there's a gap in your memories? Somewhere things don't connect? Make no sense?" Bruce asked, taking his glasses off.

"Well, I know what they did, and everything I did, but the moments they command me to do so, it's kind of empty. I understand what happened, I know what happened, but it's like I just forgot something that wasn't really important?" Barnes answered with some doubt, trying to explain what he felt, putting his thoughts into place, after everything the man had to see again, inside his head.

"So the little witch really did a good job," Tony said stepping closer to them, a smug smile on his lips.

"Then you're free to walk around with no worries, Manchurian Candidate."

Tory smirked at the new nickname. No one was officially an Avenger until Tony Stark came up with a nickname, and there it was, the confirmation there wasn't any enmity between both of them anymore.

"We'll do some tests on you, just to make sure there's no permanent damage, but you'll be alright," Banner added. All of them staring at the long-haired man, waiting for a confirmation.

"Sure. Nothing like good old precaution," he answered before following Dr. Banner and Tory to the elevator, the trio that's was left behind staring at each other with raised eyebrows, finding it funny the way Bucky had just excepted on entering the lab on his own will.

...

Tory was almost inside Bruce's lab when F.R.I.D.A.Y spoke up, talking to her.

"Ms. Stark, Peter is waiting on the lobby, said he came up with a decision and needed to talk to you."

She stopped on the balls of her feet, looking at the ceiling with raised eyebrows. It had been a week since she made him the offer, and she wasn't expecting an answer anymore, thinking the kid had just given up.

"Tell him to meet me in my lab," she answered, following the two men that were already starting with the checkup.

"I'll be there as soon as I can. And warn him to not touch in anything."

"Copy that," the AI responded, with silence following, confirming there wasn't anything else to be told.

"I will start with a resonance, can you turn the equipment on, please?" Bruce said, ordering her around, as she did what she was told.

...

"You're all good. Your brain activity is normal and just the same as the last time we checked. You're free to go," Bruce said to Buck, looking over the monitors, studying the results.

The former soldier nodded in confirmation, leaving the room with Tory by his side, both laughing at a silly joke the long-haired man had just told.

"I'm seeing Peter right now, but what about a celebration later? I'll talk to the team. I was thinking maybe a bar? Or we can just sit around playing drinking games," Stark said before Bucky headed to the elevators, the woman walking some feet ahead, before stopping in front of her lab door.

"Good afternoon, Peter," she said, stepping in, looking around for the kid.

"Peter?"

"Round here. How can you build this thing? Do you use the sensor to work with them like this? It's awesome! This nanotech is way advanced than the ones people have researched on. Like this is all new! You built it yourself, right? And the suits! The Lady Iron suit, and one of the first Iron Man's suits! That's awesome!" Parker geeked his thoughts a mile an hour. The prototype of the Iron Man suit was left hanging on its glass pod, that stood in the middle of her workshop, the wall behind it held all the new suits and gears she was developing.

"Yeah, I di... Wait, what did you just call me?" she asked, stopping midway of taking her lab coat off, walking closer to the boy, who still had his mouth hanging open, eyes moving from one suit to the other.

"Lady Iron? It's what people call you when you're not been billionaire Tory Stark and all that. All the Avengers have a superhero name, so people came up with one for you," Parker explained as if it was obvious. The woman liked that someone had given her a name, it was just like the time Iron Man was first written on the papers, she was just surprised.

"Yeah... I like it!" she responded, a smile on her lips.

"So, you wanted to talk to me?"

"I'm in!" he told her with excitement, his full attention on the woman that watched him with adoration.

"I still need to come up with something to tell May about this, though. Whatever 'this' is..."

"I can talk to her if you want me to. I'll start training you first, before putting you out on the field. I'll ask Steve for help, or Nat. You leave school at three, right?" Tory asked, holding back a laugh at the pure look of disbelief the boy held on his face.

"Hum... yeah," Parker confirmed, nodding his head yes.

"Then you can meet me here on the Tower at four every day for the next month if you're not occupied with school stuff. I'll tell F.R.I.D.A.Y to give you a free pass to ride the elevators to the labs up. You're not allowed on the office floors. I hope you're okay with the team knowing your identity?"

Peter stopped for a moment, thinking it over. They would all know who he was eventually, but he didn't want everyone to know right now. He hadn't begun doing anything at all, yet.

"For now, can we keep it to a minimum?" the boy asked, fidgeting with his fingers, waiting for an answer.

"Sure. So Steve will know cause it will be hard to train you with that suit on, and Tony, I'll need to explain to him eventually what I'm trying to do," Tory mumbled to herself, even though the teen could hear everything clearly.

"We have a deal, then?"

"We have a deal."