If They Knew All About You

Paved with Good Intentions

Tony had waited till the last possible moment, till he was already decked out in his suit ready to get going. First, he had wanted to tell his boy the night before but then he couldn't. Hadn't wanted him to go to bed crying so he chickened out. He hadn't wanted to ruin breakfast either, so he had waited. And waited. And waited. Now he had not just his crying baby boy in front of him but also a pissed PA who'd have to deal with the wreckage Tony left behind. As usual.

"Said no work!"

"I know, baby. I'm sorry. I really am." Aiden was sitting on the couch in front of him, arms crossed, head turned away from Tony in protest. "I would cancel it if I could, Addy, but I can't. I'm sorry."

"Said all day! All. Day!"

Tony sighed as the boy pushed himself off the sofa and stalked towards Pepper. He slung his arms around her legs and buried his head in the fabric of her pants. She quickly bent to kneel and pulled the little guy close, eyes on Tony in a mixture of sadness and reproach.

This was on him. He had messed up. Messed up big time. Had confirmed the meeting with Obie and forgot to tell her. He never usually confirmed any dates but they had postponed this meeting three times already, which was why Obie had approached him personally in the first place. Tony had been sure that they had been talking about Friday in three weeks, not two weeks. Could have sworn he had said March not February. Pepper would have been able to fixed this, he was almost certain. If he hadn't forgotten to tell her, she could have likely fixed this. But now people had flown in from around the country, a couple even from Europe and Asia. Board members, department heads. By the time Tony realized the mistake, it had been too late to fix it.

Now his kid was crying on his birthday and this was the last thing Tony had wanted. He had wanted this to be the best day ever. Had wanted to spend all morning with his boy, play around the huge garden grounds of the club until his friends would arrive for the party in the afternoon. The only hope he had was that Aiden was young enough that he would simply forget what a huge disappointment his dad was. Tony's only hope was that he'd do better next time.

He walked over to where Pepper still comforted his son and sat down on the carpet in front of them. One of his hands came to rest on his boy's back and stayed just like that while Aiden still clung to her. It took less than a minute till the boy wiggled himself out of Pepper's hold, turned around and fell right into Tony's open arms.

"I'm sorry, buddy. I'll be as fast as I can be, alright?"

He'd never felt like a bigger asshole and he probably never had been a bigger asshole. What kind of father made his son cry on his birthday?

It took a few more minutes till Aiden calmed down and let Tony wipe the tears off his face.

Pepper had been observing them, but now checked her watch. "You have to go, Tony. You're going to be late!"

"I can drop you off at the club. How about that?" His attention was on Aiden and the boy's eyes widened at that idea.

Pepper was less impressed. "You'll hardly make it on time for that meeting as it is! The club is in the opposite direction."

"Please, Pepper!" Aiden had shuffled around in his arms, big brown eyes turned against her now, his bottom lip positively quivering.

"Yeah..." Tony did his best to copy his son's puppy dog expression. "Please, Pepper."

She raised her eyebrows at Tony and then made a point to crouch back down and talk to Aiden directly. "Here's the thing, honey. If your daddy is late for his meeting, he will have to spend some time to argue with Uncle Obie and then he has to stay at the office a lot longer and when he has to stay longer he might miss your party."