Capítulo 1729: 5
Chapter 5: Truth to be Told [I]
Summary:
Tony's wondering just who the hell did he piss off in a past life to merit this mess, because dammit he's an engineer not a lawyer!
Dealing with the aftermath of the intel breach, part one.
Notes:
Kinda fillery chapter, and the next one's shaping up the same way.
For all I tried to avoid it, here, have some legal drama. [I need to set the stage somehow.]
But hey— on the bright side, Rhodey's made an appearance! Hopefully I did him justice.
No warnings other than the usual: unreliable narrator, mental health issues, HAL-like JARVIS, the works. Oh, and an attempt at an allusion to interservice rivalry [minor banter about Army v. Air Force], plus something inspired by tumblr: this time, about how Rhodey'd think of Captain America [read: not as highly as Howard would like]
Also, author's attempt at legal jargon, because of course the pre-med student needs to throw legal drama in here. Of course. [Sorry for butchering the United States' judicial system.]
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
The mess that was SHIELD's fall had Tony wishing his version of Extremis didn't automatically filter out most of alcohol's effects. He could use a drink. [Or five.]
On the plus side, Pepper and her half of the SI Legal department stepped up the the plate admirably, and apparently were setting precedents in international law with their masterful handling of the fiasco. JARVIS had been keeping him updated in that regard, because Tony was more focused on wrangling the new hires and the United States' court system with his own team of lawyers. Fun.
On top of that, he intelligence community was apparently considering him a formidable entity, because of what he'd allegedly done, and the Avengers were giving him a headache. For a spy, Natasha was incredibly bad at this— he'd done a better job, when he'd been messing around on his phone during a Congressional hearing, for crying out loud! Espionage charges were no joke, and Tony did not know how the hell she'd be sneaking out of this one of her own merits. Doubtlessly she would call in a lot of her super-secret spy favors to help, but…oh well.
At least Captain America's place in history shielded—ha, accidental pun— Steve from the brunt of it. Even so, Tony did not appreciate the man running out of the hospital and chase after a ghost. Defending a no-show was harder than it sounded, even if they were legendary for their exploits in World War II. Breaking and entering, larceny, and obstruction of justice were hard enough even without adding perjury to the list, after all. Tony took one look at the harried-looking lawyer on his case, and made a note to give her the biggest bonus he could manage for pulling through.
And this Wilson dude would have been charged with a laundry list of crimes as well, but Tony'd opted to not press charges over the stolen wings [even though one phone call would've meant they wouldn't have had to steal them in the first place, dammit]. But Tony felt charitable, when he saw the former PJ forcibly straightening his shoulders when he was first served. So, instead of just dropping the SI-related charges, he asked for a volunteer to take care of the man's relatively open-and-shut case. Hopefully, it'd help at least some of this mess blow over sooner.
Apparently the world thought the entire mess had been a team effort, because why the fuck not. Because, apparently, he'd been so on the ball, that 'it was obvious' and 'a masterful display of teamwork, history hadn't exaggerated Captain America's abilities at coordinating even wild cards', that the Avengers had been working together the entire time during the fiasco. Of course. [Meh. As long as nobody was looking too hard at JARVIS, Tony didn't care.]
It didn't come up much in Natasha's hearings. She had been the only one to stay and hear the start of the entire fallout, so all she'd done was quirk a eyebrow at the odd phrasing before continuing her attempts to defend her actions [badly] in front of a court. She had a lot of explaining to do, and Tony wasn't in the mood to ask some of his lawyers to take a break from their current case regarding the new hires for the one who'd started it all in the first place.
When his alleged involvement got brought up, Tony kept on smiling and didn't fight it. Last time he'd been in a courtroom, he'd hacked multiple governments' servers live on national television to prove a point— but his showboating had meant everyone'd thought it merely a parlor trick instead of a threat. So really, this was old hat to him.
Now if only everything else could be the same, like the additional hearings he'd signed up for the moment he'd started his rescue mission. But hey, better a few late nights and this current headache, than the constant regret of not having helped save as many as he could. HR was probably cursing his name at the moment, actually, because of the sheer amount of paperwork that must've come with some of the new employees' families; getting the arrangements all squared away for the dependents was always a major pain, and that was with all the documentation in order. [Goodness knew the mass 'pack your bags and go to ground' warning JARVIS had given hadn't been nearly as orderly.]
When he'd signed onto SHIELD as a consultant, Tony hadn't expected this. Any of it. He almost regretted it, now: his stress levels, according to JARVIS, were nearly as high as they'd been during the mess with the palladium poisoning. And politicking was so very much not his thing. He could do it, but he'd always locked himself in the workshop for hours before or after to make up for it, and nowadays he was lucky if he could have 6 hours of sleep to his name because of SHIELD.
Oh, and the HYDRA reveal did absolutely not help. At all.
Because now, for all his progress thanks to the AI-therapy regarding his PTSD [and whew, at least it'd worked enough for him to admit it even though he tended to avoid anything emotional like the plague], his trust issues now had trust issues, even more than before and he hadn't know that was possible. The realization he'd been working with and aiding and abetting them for years was bitter, with only the 'just a consultant' to ameliorate the blow.
Not to mention hearing Howard dragged through the mud, even inadvertently. Whenever Tony heard yet another commentator talking about "the poor man", and "good thing he didn't see this", and "our deepest sympathies and condolences for his family", he bit back a growl and a scream, that actually, no, Howard would not have wanted their pity. Tony knew firsthand that he would have thrown it back in their face before throwing back a shot and diving back to the workshop or office to 'get some work done', he should know, that was Being a Stark 101. But instead, he plastered on a smile for the cameras, and carried on and pretended he was okay. [As per usual.] As if he wasn't still reeling at the fact that, for all he'd sworn his creations were killing the people he'd tried to protect, years after he's sworn against it.
That'd been a mess, actually; JARVIS had resorted to cheesy therapy lines, once the immediate fallout of the intel breach had been taken care of, because Tony Stark and anything vaguely emotional did not belong in the same sentence. His father'd been very stringent on it, on 'being strong' and 'men don't cry' and now looking back the man'd clearly been quietly self-medicating to ignore his own issues, but at the time Tony'd only ever wanted his father to be proud of him [for once]. And now he had to contend with all of it, because apparently all his sins came to roost eventually, and some of his father's had tagged along for good measure.
Emotional train wreck aside, between Tony's trust issues, and this latest development, his latent paranoia was actually justified. Seeing the fallout, and defending some of his employees for having made the exact same mistake he'd done, only compounded it.
So, it's perfectly understandable, if, in the wee hours when nightmares refused to leave him alone, he focused on ensuring the safety of the only being that he knew he could trust and would never, ever, leave him alone. JARVIS got multiple upgrades, fueled by both nightmares and paranoia— and maybe, some nights, it might've even been one and the same, but in the end he didn't really care so long as he could trust his safety to be assured. Pepper had never needed him, Happy was with her and still recovering from the December fiasco. And Rhodey had his own life to live and not contend with his messes—
….and had perfect timing, Tony amended silently as he saw the small dot approach his Tower.
As it got larger, Tony didn't even bother hiding his amusement as he noticed that instead of the tacky red-white-and-blue paint job, Rhodey's suit was his usual sleek gunmetal-and-silver.
This was the man who'd been his friend since his awkward teenage years, had stood by him when his family'd died and he'd stopped being 'Tony, Howard Stark's Heir' and started being 'Tony Stark, Billionaire, Playboy, Philanthropist', and hadn't been deterred by all the shit he'd pulled over the years. Like always, Tony didn't realize just how much he'd missed his oldest friend until he saw him again.
As War Machine approached the landing pad, Tony felt lighter, and smiled. And for the first time in weeks, it was genuine.
"Did the focus groups change their minds?" He teased.
"Not exactly. But it turns out everyone kept calling me Captain America, even though I'm Air Force and he's Army. Which is already insulting enough, as is, even if he didn't get that for punching out an actor." Rhodey griped.
Tony shook his head. This never got old.
And then, Rhodey sobered. "…So, a little bird told me you're having a hard time."
"You've heard, haven't you." Tony gave himself a pat on the back for sounding so blasé about it.
"I'm getting all sorts of questions from the brass, Tones. You've done it again, I think it might even top Afghanistan at this rate."
"Well, it's not every day entire agencies get burned. The Nazis were really the thing to cap it off."
"Are you okay?"
"Been better, been worse. Just…Nazis. Dear old dad would've been rolling in his grave, especially if he found out it was a Russian that kicked it off, too."
"Howard was a piece of work, but I'm asking about you, Tony. You're not looking so hot."
"Why must you insult me so, honey bunch? J's kicking me off coffee if haven't slept in more than 72 hours."
Rhodey gave him a weird look, then started to shake his head slowly. "Tony… You know you're not alone, right? And if JARVIS is really doing that…if I didn't know you, and him, I'd be worried, you know that sounds like something from Terminator. And you didn't answer my question."
"I'm…tired. And I need a drink but I can't get drunk like I want to, because between Extremis and getting ready for the next hearing, and I'm running on fumes and I'm really lucky Pepper's on the case for part of it but this mess is still—" Tony abruptly broke off as he felt arms encircling him, and it took a second to realize that this was, in fact, a hug. [Hey, it's not his fault he hadn't had this much human contact in a while.]
"You'll pull through, Tones, I know you. You're not Atlas, and it's not all on you— you're not alone."
Tony wanted to believe him, he really did.
JARVIS was pleased to see that Col. Rhodes' visit coincided with a monumental drop in Sir's readings. Even though past evidence pointed to this being a relatively temporary drop due to the man's demanding career, it was still progress. Sir had very few friends, very few people he trusted, so getting support from one of them during such a stressful time was more than welcomed, and JARVIS made a note to bump the the colonel up in the priority rankings once more, and to find a way to arrange for more such meetings.
Ms. Potts' current preoccupation with dealing with the international fallout and Extremis meant she was not as available as before, Mr. Hogan was currently assisting her in this venture, and Mr. Keener was a teenager in the Midwest and likely would not be able to support Sir as necessary in this situation; while he understood their inability to provide emotional support at this time, it still did not mesh with his Primary Protocol, and so measures needed to be taken. If that meant JARVIS had to figure out a way to get Col. Rhodes as a consultant of some sort for the new Security Division, so be it.
Col. Rhodes' stayed for the weekend, and by the time of his departure, both he and Sir had readings closer to homeostasis than before, and several emotional breakthroughs had been experienced, including the acknowledgment of Sir's isolation, PTSD and his unique treatment. JARVIS was flattered by the colonel's assessment of his character, and made an additional note, this time regarding the expansion of the budget allocated for Christmas presents.
Sir saw his old friend off with more relaxed set to his shoulders, lowered stress levels, and a general bearing of contentment. War Machine took off, but not before making contact with JARVIS, this time with a message intended solely for him.
"Take good care of him for me, J."
JARVIS stored the soundbite alongside the same firewalls that housed his Primary Protocol. The recording supplemented it very well, after all.
Notes:
Another instance of unreliable narrator: Tony's thinking Natasha is being surprisingly bad at the legal portion of things. I don't think he's really taken into consideration just how far the genius thing goes; not everyone can learn thermonuclear astrophysics overnight, after all.
Plus, Natasha's used to having Coulson or just SHIELD in general covering her, and she hasn't realized yet that she's persona non grata with the ones Tony's rescued, and because of his taking in so many of them, the new SHIELD's more focused on trying to put itself together than a single burned spy among many, at this point.
Steve, here, went on his search for Bucky and completely ignored the fallout. Considering Civil War, I thought it was obvious the dude doesn't know much about the legal process, and is also operating under the assumption that someone else'll clean up after him, and that it'll blow over soon anyway.
Can anyone tell what JARVIS' Primary Protocol is?
Rhodey showed up late because a) his career's very demanding, what with being a colonel with ties to the industrialist, and b) if he'd shown up earlier, he would've realized just how off Tony's situation was, and derail the entire fic. [Because while going 'hey buddy, not that I'm complaining but why'd you feel the need to build a robot army?' is the rational and healthy route, this fic is...not that. Neither's canon, now that I think about it.]
The next few chapters are going to be just as non-action-packed as this one, setting the stage and whatnot.
This is partly because it's necessary, and partly because I'm trying to figure out just how I'm going to approach Age of Ultron. [Wish me luck]
My outline's got a very cathartic-for-me-but-maybe-not-some-fans scene set in Civil War, but it's more than a little tempting to go an alternative route. Plus, the problem of Ultron— most of the fixits for that arc are already set in stone, but...hmm...choices, choices...
If anyone's curious, I've got some headcanons and a tiny smidge of meta about this AU on my tumblr, dontcallmecarrie.
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