Hoping for a Hero - part II of II [COMPLETE]

Chapter 7: Dousing the Flame

Natasha and Scott sat in the back of the car as Steve drove us to Tony Stark's house. Steve's locked jaw indicated he disliked the idea of seeing Stark again. I watched out of the corner of my eye as his expression would change. First, it would harden. Then, he would try to relax but only end up tensing again.

"Tell me again how you know his address?" Steve asked.

I was on navigation duty. "Turn left here," I said and he turned on his blinker. "I did my research. He wiped every lead from the internet, but I found a couple loopholes he missed."

"Tony overlook something?" Natasha asked as she looked out the window. "Sounds uncharacteristic."

"One last right and it should be at the end of this dirt road."

My GPS didn't lead us astray. It wasn't long before we approached a house where Tony stood out on the lawn holding a little girl in his arms. When he saw us park and get out of the car, he raised his eyebrows but turned and walked calmly into the house. It was a moment he hoped would never come: when he would have to face his past and the remaining Avengers.

After leaving the girl inside, he returned with five cups and a pitcher of coffee. Maybe he would hear us out after all. As he poured us a drink, Scott pitched his idea.

"Now," he said. "We know what it sounds like."

"Tony, after everything you've seen," Steve prodded, "is anything really impossible?"

Stark shook his head. "Quantum fluctuation messes with the Planck scale which then triggers—"

"The Deutsch Proposition," I blurted. That had totally slipped my mind.

"Exactly," Tony nodded and placed a filled glass in my hand. "Can we all agree on that?" He took the silence as confirmation. "Thank you. In layman's terms, it means you're not coming home."

"I did," Scott argued.

Stark disagreed immediately, "No. You accidentally survived. It's a billion-to-one cosmic fluke. And now you want a pull a . . ." He looked at Steve and then at Scott with raised eyebrows. "What do you call it?"

"A time heist?" Lang suggested.

"Yeah," Tony still didn't approve, "a time heist. Of course. Why didn't we think of this before?" He let a moment of silence pass before faking a sudden discovery. "Oh! Because it's laughable. Because it's a pipe dream."

"Tony," I looked at him sternly as if to say 'knock it off'. He matched my hard stare as Steve re-entered the conversation.

"The stones are in the past. We could go back, we could go get them."

"We could snap our own fingers," Natasha spoke for the first time. "We can bring everybody back."

As more of the plan was revealed, I saw more and more loopholes. More and more places for mistakes to occur.

"Or screw it up worse than he already has, right?" Tony saw them too.

Steve was still as determined as ever, "I don't believe we would."

"Gotta say it. I sometimes miss that giddy optimism. However, high hopes won't help if there's no logical, tangible way," Tony lowered himself into a chair, "for me to safely execute said time heist."

I drank some of my coffee and leaned over the porch railing. The plan was starting to look even more farfetched, but there had to be some truth to it. I looked out over the lake as I pondered all of our options and tried to form new ones.

"I believe the most likely outcome will be our collective demise."

"Not if we strictly follow the rules of time travel," Scott argued. "All right? It means no talking to our past selves, no betting on sporting events."

Tony's hand shot up as if stopping a line of traffic. "I'm gonna stop you right there, Scott. Are you seriously telling me that your plan to save the universe is based on Back to the Future? Is it?"

"No," Scott shook his head.

"Good. You had me worried there. 'Cause that would be codswallop. That's not how physics works."

"Tony," Natasha looked up at him with misty eyes. "We have to take a stand."

"We did stand," he pointed out. "And yet, here we are."

I hated the direction this was going. My stomach churned and I felt my jaw tighten in frustration.

"Did you ever fall off a bike as a kid, Stark?" I asked without turning from my view of the lake. "Or get pushed over by a bully? How about accidentally trip over something?" I took another sip of my coffee and finally turned my head to look at him. "You didn't stay down, you stood back up. Tried again or fought back. What's any different about now? Are you just gonna keep sitting there on your rear because getting up seems like too much work?"

Something in his eyes softened then.

"I know you got a lot on the line," Scott said. "You got a wife, a daughter. But I lost someone very important to me. A lotta people did. And now, now we have a chance to bring her back, to bring everyone back, and you're telling me that you won't even—"

Tony's expression hardened again and I knew my last words had left his mind as soon as Lang raised his voice. "That's right, Scott," he interrupted. "I won't even . . . I can't."

At that moment, the little girl ran to him and climbed into his lap. "Mommy told me to come and save you," she said.

"Good job," he hugged her. "I'm saved." He then addressed us again, "I wish you were coming here to ask me somethin' else." He stood with the girl in his arms, on his way back to the house's door. "Anything else. I'm honestly happy to see you guys, it's—Oh, look, the table's set for six."

"Tony, I get it," Steve sighed. "And I'm happy for you. I really am. But this is a second chance."

This didn't get through to Stark. "I got my second chance right here, Cap. Can't roll the dice on it."

I wanted to argue with him, but I knew it wouldn't do any good. His mind was made up and he doesn't change it easily or often.

"If you don't talk shop, you can stay for lunch."

Naturally, we didn't stay. We should've, but we were too focused on our new mission.

On the way in, Tony set his daughter down so she could run back inside, but he quickly turned on his heel. He lightly grabbed my arm to keep me from following the others down the porch steps. "I shouldn't have given you my address," he whispered so only I could hear.

"We needed you, Tony," I hissed. "I can't work out all of those equations without you. Your big brain can take you so many places, but it seems like it can limit you from great things too."

His shocked expression showed how my words stung.

"You gave me your address as a friend for whenever I needed anything. I'm calling in a favor as a friend and you're turning four away." I realized that my words were unnecessarily harsh, but I couldn't and didn't want to take any of it back. "Listen, it was great to see you and it's awesome that you got your second chance. I hope you enjoy it as much as you can."

Having finished all that I wanted to say, I stood a moment awkwardly tapping my hands against the side of my legs. I thought he might have had something on his mind, but he didn't say anything, so I turned away.

"Hey, Amber?" Tony asked when I descended one step from the porch.

I turned.

"Are you and Cap?"

I raised my left hand in response. My wedding ring was all the answer he needed.

He nodded with a smile that was sincere, "Congratulations."

Despite butting heads again, it was nice to know that we were still friends and our relationship would always remain that way. "Thanks," I smiled back. "See you around, Stark."

And with that, we got in the car again to go back to square one.