𝒩𝑜𝓌 𝐼 𝓀𝓃𝑜𝓌 𝓈𝒽𝑒'𝓁𝓁 𝓃𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓇 𝓁𝑒𝒶𝓋𝑒 𝓂𝑒 𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓃 𝒶𝓈 𝓈𝒽𝑒 𝓇𝓊𝓃𝓈 𝒶𝓌𝒶𝓎
Audelia Motter and Tony Stark had each other's backs through thick and thin. But after the abduction of the billionaire in Afghanistan by the Ten Rings...
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The lab was quiet. Tony Stark and Audelia Motter weren't used to quiet between then, there was almost always some sort of playful banter or stupid and insignificant fight going on between them. This time, it was silent.
"I'm sorry,"
Audelia raised an eyebrow at Tony as she watched him walk around the Stark Expo model that he had laid out on the table, JARVIS currently running scans on them. She took another look down at the papers in front of her, the ones claimed their attacker as Ivan Vanko, and his father as a designer of the arc reactor beside Elizabeth Motter and Howard Stark, before pushing it to the side.
"Is Tony Stark apologizing to me? Should we call you a doctor-"
"Dell, could you please just let me apologize?" the woman went quiet, Tony never looking up at her as he kept his eyes focused on the boards before him. "I'm a mess, okay? I second guess everything I do and frankly, I'm a dick most of the time. But at the party...I never should've kissed you. It was wrong and I shouldn't have done it so now I'm owning up to it-"
"You seriously think the kiss is the biggest problem?" Tony finally looked up at his best friend.
They stared back at one another for a moment as Audelia took in a shaky breath, looking back down at the paperwork in front of her. Tears were already forming in her eyes at the very thought of what she was about to say, the words she had tried so hard all her life to never mutter, the memory she tried so hard to suppress.
"Audelia-"
"I watched my mother die in front of me," she finally spoke, cutting in once again, her voice holding a rough edge to it as Tony could hear the shakiness behind it. "I had to watch those two men break in and murder her in front of me. Young Audelia had to watch them turn their guns on her next, watch her father almost die fending them off to keep her alive as her mother laid dead on the floor next to her. For countless weeks and months I cried in different therapists' offices because I couldn't save her, because I couldn't do a damn thing. And you know all of this, because you stood by my side through it all. Then, all the sudden, the Palladium in your heart is killing you, and you choose to keep it from me because you think you're sparing me, saving me from heartbreak. This time, I had a chance to help, a chance to save you, and you took that away from me. So no, Tony, I don't want to hear your apologies about the kiss. I want to know why you lied to me."
Tony let out a sigh, watching as Audelia tried to discretely wipe the tears from her cheeks. Allowing JARVIS time to work on the scans, Tony carefully walked over to the table his best friend was currently sitting at, placing himself on top of it as he looked down on Audelia where she sat.
"You are one of, if not the most, important people in my life," Tony confessed with a shrug. "Now, I don't do this sappy, emotional shit so I'm just going to make this short and sweet. I kept it from you because I couldn't find a solution, and I didn't want you to not be able to find one either and then blame yourself. So yes, I'm sitting here in front of you telling you I was wrong and that I'm sorry."
