Chapter Text
It took seventeen days, thirteen breakdowns, and six iterations before he had a pair of braces he thought were worthy of Rhodey.
The braces were light weight, easy to carry, but still bulky—they were meant to fit the frame of a full-grown man, after all. Tony clung to them like a baby with their blanket as he stepped into the compound that the rest of the Avengers had called home for the last year.
“FRIDAY?”
“Colonel Rhodes and the Vision are in the rec room,” FRIDAY told him.
Tony took a deep breath, but moved in that direction. His steps slowed the closer he got and he stopped just outside the doorway. He could see Vision and Rhodey talking, a movie paused on the screen behind them, though Tony didn’t recognize what it was. Rhodey was in a wheelchair, while Vision was across from him, not looking directly at Rhodey.
”—not your fault,” Rhodey was saying. “I know we’ve talked about this, but I’m getting the sense that it’s not quite getting through to you.”
“I allowed myself…” Vision paused. “I allowed myself to be distracted. I had not realized I could be distracted in such a way.”
“Just proof that you’re alive beneath all that metal of yours, Viz,” Rhodey said, voice gentle. “Speaking of people who aren’t to blame…” his gaze flickered up and Tony stilled, every muscle in his body going tense. He hadn’t realized Rhodey had noticed him showing up. “You know, it’d have been nice for you to drop by before.” There was a hint of recrimination in his voice, a note that said that Tony had hurt him.
Tony swallowed. “I made you braces,” he said. “A bit of rehab and some exoskeletal support and you’re going to be walking again.”
Rhodey stared at him for a long moment, then sighed. “Tones. I could have used you here,” he said. There was something in his voice. Tony wanted to shrivel inside. “I had my world turned upside down, it’d have been nice to have a friend nearby.”
“Not much of a friend, am I?” Tony asked. “When I’m the reason you’re paralyzed in the first place.”
Rhodey rubbed a hand over his forehead. “Tony,” he said quietly. “Just come here.”
Tony forced his legs to move, stepping into the rec room. The braces were five pounds, but at the moment they felt painfully heavy in his arms. “I got a neurosurgeon to look at the plans,” Tony started. “He thinks they’ll work, but obviously—”
“Tony,” Rhodey interrupted. “Just… not right now, okay? Just… we’re not talking about my injury, and there sure as hell aren’t going to be any more apologies from either of you. I just… I need you to be here for a bit, okay? It’s been over a month, and I haven’t seen you during any of it. The hospital? Okay, because apparently you were in the hospital yourself and we’re going to have to talk about how that happened. But after…” He took a deep breath. “So be here, okay? That’s all I need right now.”
Tony swallowed down what he wanted to say—he needed to do what Rhodey needed, not what Tony wanted—instead he obediently put the braces on an open couch and moved to Rhodey’s side. He hesitated, but then leaned down and hugged Rhodey.
Rhodey’s grip was still strong and sure where he hugged Tony back. The words I’m sorry stung on Tony’s tongue, but he kept them held back, remembering the rules. Rhodey let him go, rolling back a little. “Now take a seat, okay? Because we’re going to be watching this movie and then we’re eating dinner and then maybe we can talk about those braces.”
Tony sat in the seat, watching as the movie was turned on. Mission Impossible 1, he realized after a moment. He grimaced at the entirely outdated technology and tried to focus, but his gaze kept flicking from the screen to Rhodey and then over to the braces. He could see Rhodey’s jaw tightening a little, clearly aware of Tony’s preoccupation, but pretending to ignore it. Tony’s fingers twitched. He clenched his fists, digging his nails into the palm of his skin and focused intently on the movie, failed as the endeavor was in distracting him.
His phone rang, startling him.
Tony jumped a little but reached for his phone. Strange’s name stared up at him. He glanced at Rhodey, who was looking at him. “You can pick it up,” Rhodey said exasperatedly. “It’s probably important if FRIDAY actually let the call go through.”
That was true, his baby girl did a great job at keeping the annoying people from bothering him.
He answered the phone. “What’s up?”
“I thought you would appreciate an update,” Strange said. “The Council of Masters—”
“You have a whole council?” Tony asked. “How big is your group anyways?”
Strange ignored his question. “—has come to a decision. It is impossible to determine what aid we can fully provide, given our lack of certainty over the when and what of the threat we’re facing. I will be maintaining possession of the time stone for the time being. But there will be a set number of masters on call specifically to protect the stone once the threat arises.”
“They’re keeping that thing with you?“ Tony asked. “Not setting it in some nice storage box deep under the ocean except for when needed? Because I’m telling you, the Mariana Trench would be a great hiding spot.”
Strange laughed at him. Tony hadn’t been joking.
“No, I’m serious. You just open a mini portal to a nice big box under the ocean when you need it—don’t worry, I’ll account for potential changes in submarine box air pressure for portal opening purposes—” which might actually be a fun challenge, ”—and just take it out for those emergencies that include threats trying to subsume the earth showing up—” Vision and Rhodey both looked at him strangely, but Tony ignored them. ”—then stick it back in once the threat is gone. Only you guys can get to it and—”
“Stark,” Strange interrupted. “Perhaps you would appreciate joining me as I research protection spells?”
Tony paused, sensing Strange was going somewhere with this. “Great, we can put those on the box. You know, the one that will be at the bottom of the ocean and away from where any threats can get to it?”
“Particularly the strongest of those spells, which all include tying the protection to a specific bearer so that it cannot be removed or used by any except that bearer.”
“There’s this thing called ‘taking it from your dead body’,” Tony pointed out. Really, he’d think Strange would have considered that.
Rhodey’s eyebrow was slowly creeping up his forehead, making Tony think of a caterpillar.
“I will send you the address to the Sanctum,” Strange said, ignoring Tony’s point. “You can come whenever you finish with those braces for your friend.”
Tony glanced at the braces on the couch, glanced back at Rhodey. “Finished those this morning.”
“Excellent, then you can come tomorrow. But, I’ll have you know now, I won’t let the Sanctum let you in if you haven’t slept at least three hours in the twenty-four hours before you show up.”
Tony noted the strange turn of words. What did that mean ‘let the Sanctum let him’? He decided not to think about it, he’d figure that out later. No, the real problem was that meant Tony actually had to sleep tonight. That just seemed like a rude condition to impose on Tony. “I won’t be manic,” Tony defended himself. “That was a one-off, not a common occurrence.”
“Forgive me if I don’t believe that,” Strange said. “But I promise, Stark, as much as I like your ‘bury the time stone at the bottom of the ocean’ idea, that there are far better ways to protect it.”
“I could absolutely build you a box that wouldn’t implode on itself,” Tony added, just in case it was giving Strange pause. “It’s simple physics.”
Strange laughed at him again, the sound warm and easy. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Stark. Please sleep before then, or I won’t let you in.”
“I sleep,” Tony protested. “Seriously.” He paused, then smirked. “You let yourself buy something nice with your little consultation fee, yet?”
“Goodbye, Stark.”
Strange hung up the phone.
Tony couldn’t quite help the laugh that escaped him at Strange’s reaction—Strange really didn’t like losing, and the consulting fee was a battle of wills Tony had definitely won—the amusement didn’t last long.
Tony dropped his phone onto his lap and sighed. He’d really liked the ‘bury it at the bottom of the ocean’ idea. Kind of unfair that Strange wouldn’t even consider it. He tapped his fingers against the face of his phone, mind rotating around the problem the way he hadn’t let it the past seventeen days when all he could focus on was Rhodey.
A year to three years. Sure, in the grand scheme that narrowed things down. But in real life, that was a tremendous amount of time to plan around. But if Strange really was insistent on keeping the stone with him, then Tony wanted to see those protection spells. He shuddered a little at the thought of getting involved in magic, but he was involved, now, no changing that.
“So,” Rhodey said, and Tony belatedly realized the movie was still paused and that Vision and Rhodey were staring at him. “Something you want to tell me? Because the half of that phone call we could hear had some very interesting, though entirely bizarre, implications. What are we trying to bury at the bottom of the ocean?”
Tony froze. “Oh. Uh…” He ran his hand through his hair. “That’s… complicated.” He glanced at the movie, then the braces, then Rhodey. “I got the feeling you wanted tonight to be um… stress free? This is pretty much the exact opposite of that.”
Rhodey stared at him, brows furrowed. He glanced at the movie, then sighed. “FRIDAY, keep playing, please.”
The movie turned back on and Tony tried to pay attention to it; he failed, sure, but at least he tried. The only bright side to Strange’s call, at least, was that now Tony wasn’t driving Rhodey up the wall by hyper-focusing on Rhodey and the braces. Instead he was focused entirely on the whole ‘unknown threat with unknown purpose’ staring down the barrel at them.
If they put protection spells on the time stone and on Strange, could they put the same spells on Vision and the mind stone? He glanced at Vision, biting his lip as he examined the mind stone in his head. It looked so… innocuous. He’d seen it in action enough to know that it wasn’t, not really, but it certainly looked that way. And someone was coming for it, was going to use it to… to what?
He scowled at the still missing answers. Why the hell would Time go to the length to warn Strange to go save Tony’s life, but wouldn’t go so far as to tell them what they needed to prepare for? That just seemed patently unfair.
The anxiety twisted in his chest and he tightened his hold around his phone. In some ways, the time stone had given him the absolute worst amount of information. Enough to know that something was coming, that he could do more, but not enough to know what he needed to do, what he needed to prepare for.
In his head, he could see the nightmare from Sokovia clearly, Steve dying—the rest of his team already dead around them—could hear Steve demanding to know why Tony hadn’t done more to save them. Now here he was again, knowing he needed to do more, but with nothing distinct to build on.
He tapped his phone again, opening a text to Strange. What’s wrong with my bury the time stone at the bottom of the ocean plan?
He didn’t entirely expect an answer, but it was only a minute before a text came in. Would you like the list alphabetically or from least aggravating reason to most aggravating?
Tony snorted. How about we skip out on the list and you give me a summation.
Strange responded immediately. Impractical.
Impractical, huh? That’s what makes it brilliant.
You don’t like people telling you no, do you? Strange asked.
Tony rolled his eyes. Does anyone like being told no? he asked, practically. Because of course he didn’t. But this isn’t about being told no. I just need to know what’s wrong with the plan so that I can make sure future plans don’t have the same flaw.
Strange took a moment longer to respond, this time. And this can’t wait until you see me tomorrow?
It probably could, but Tony wasn’t good at the sitting there doing nothing part of plans. I hate doing nothing.
The next text was nothing more than a link. A moment later FRIDAY verified that the link was safe to follow and he tapped on it.
He arched an eyebrow, it was to an online language library. He returned to the text. I presume there’s a reason for this.
Strange responded quickly. Sanskrit, Nepali, Latin, and Greek are all common languages for our texts to be written in. You might as well pick up on the basics now. And it will keep you from building prototype containers to drop in the bottom of the ocean.
As though Tony were that predictable. …okay, he had totally planned on making prototype containers. Fine, he typed back. I can tell when I’m being distracted, by the way.
I’m not trying to be subtle, Stark. Strange didn’t seem all that apologetic. Now, is there anything else you need, or am I allowed to get back to my reading?
No one’s stopping you, Tony pointed out. But I love how you expect me to learn four languages overnight.
Strange didn’t respond immediately and Tony glanced back up at the movie, trying to figure out where they were in the plot. He’d watched the movie once, but he didn’t remember being overly enthralled with it then, and couldn’t for the life of him remember where in the plot he was, now. Strange’s response drew him back before he could try to figure out what the train had to do with anything. You’re getting the English books tomorrow, regardless, Strange said. This is me being proactive.
Tony considered that. Does that mean you’re inviting me back after tomorrow?
We’re trying to stop some unknown threat from causing untold amounts of damage, Strange pointed out. As far as I’m concerned, we’re in this together until then.
Something in Tony’s chest seized a little, and he had to take a few minutes to breathe through the emotion. Not alone. He and Strange were working together. Gotcha, he said, not sure what else to say. I’m going to blow your mind with my language expertise come tomorrow.
I’m sure you will, Strange replied. Now start studying. I’ve got work to do.
Tony didn’t bother to respond to that, opening up the language library again. He flipped through the site for a minute. It wasn’t a standard .gov or .edu website, instead it looked like a private online library of sorts. Huh. Was this a link to Kamar-Taj? Did Kamar-Taj use the internet? Weren’t they a bunch of wizards holed up in some magical castle somewhere? He fought back the need to see what would happen if he tried to trace the site back to its server. Strange had sent him this in trust, and Tony didn’t need to know anything more than that right now, no matter how hard it was to restrain his curiosity.
He skimmed through the courses, before flicking to one on Sanskrit and started studying. Language was, at its base, pattern recognition and memorization. Tony was pretty damn good at patterns, if he said so himself, and his memory wasn’t too shabby, either. And he had enough secondary language practice that he wasn’t starting at zero.
The sound of the movie faded into the background and Tony focused fully on language acquisition. Strange probably didn’t really think Tony could learn. But joke was on him, Tony had learned thermonuclear astrophysics in a night, once. True, Tony’s Hindi wasn’t great—the closest language he had to build off of—but it was one of the top five languages used throughout the world, Tony was a global businessman, obviously he’d learned the very basics. Admittedly, not much beyond the basics… But basics were still better than no basics.
“Tony.”
His name jarred him out of his studying and he looked up. The movie was off and Rhodey had wheeled so that he was in front of Tony, expectant look on his face.
Tony winced. “Hey, Platypus.”
Rhodey arched an eyebrow. “You going to tell me what you’re up to?”
Well, that was an easy question to answer, at least. But he suspected it was going to be leading to other, far less easy to answer questions. “Learning Sanskrit,” he said, honestly.
He could tell the answer had caught Rhodey off-guard. “There a reason for that?” Rhodey asked, adapting to the answer with the aplomb of someone who’d dealt with Tony’s eccentricities for a long time. “Or are you suddenly into dead languages?”
Tony tapped at his phone debating with himself. “Stress-free night?” he double checked. Cause this… this did not classify.
Rhodey examined him for a long moment. “Is this end-of-the-world bullshit?” he asked, clearly expecting Tony to say ‘no’. Clearly wanting Tony to say no. The thought was enough to stop Tony from telling Rhodey the truth. Rhodey needed to heal, and he couldn’t heal with problems like this hanging over them.
Tony shrugged. “I don’t know,” he said honestly. Mostly honestly. After all he didn’t know just how bad whatever Time had warned Strange about was. …yeah, he figured world ending was on the list. But he couldn’t know that for sure. He put his phone away. “Just… I won’t be distracted the rest of the night,” he said. “What do you want? This evening is yours.”
Rhodey almost looked grateful, which only reaffirmed for Tony that he was making the right decision. “Dinner,” Rhodey said. “You’re cooking. That pasta recipe you refuse to share.”
For a second pain sliced through his heart. His mom’s cacio e pepe. His mom had never been much of a cook, but her cacio e pepe had been divine. His throat constricted, breathing suddenly difficult as the Siberian bunker appeared in his mind’s eye and he could hear his mom calling out for Howard, he could see the Winter Soldier moving around the car, reaching through the window to strangle his mom.
“Tony?” Rhodey’s voice jarred Tony out of the memory.
“What?” he asked, word coming out a little strained. “Sorry.” He shook his head, focusing on Rhodey who was looking at him, brow furrowed in concern. “Pasta.” The word came out strangled. “I can do that. Might need to send Vision out to buy some Pecorino. Or maybe have FRIDAY order it in. Doubt you guys have that stocked.”
Rhodey wasn’t distracted. “Tony, are you okay?”
Tony pushed himself to his feet, moving towards the door that’d get him to the kitchen, grateful at the natural chance to hide his expressions from Rhodey. “Yep,” he said, tone coming out even and relaxed, with the few extra seconds of preparation. “Just tired. Brain got lost there for a second.”
He knew Rhodey didn’t believe him, but it wasn’t like Rhodey had even the slightest idea of what had happened in Siberia. What Tony had learned. What wounds had been ripped open and left to bleed.
Tony planned to keep it that way.
A part of him wanted to tell Rhodey the truth. Ached for it. Rhodey had been the reason Tony had gotten through things when he’d first lost his parents. Rhodey would understand. But Rhodey had far too much on his plate right now, had his own grief and pain to work through. Tony couldn’t possibly ask for Rhodey to take on Tony’s grief too.
He made it to the kitchen, focusing on finding what he needed for cacio e pepe. It was an easy, four ingredient meal, but he had been right, they would need some Pecorino. He scoured the fridge and pantry. He could add a chicken side and some salad. He put together a quick shopping list for FRIDAY to have delivered.
He heard Rhodey wheel into the kitchen as he started on the chicken.
Rhodey didn’t say anything and Tony pretended to be entirely focused, even if, just perhaps, the food didn’t actually require that much attention.
“What happened after I fell?” Rhodey asked, breaking the silence. “No one has been able to tell me.”
Tony paused, considered what to say. “Wilson came down when you fell. He was concerned about you.” He grimaced. “I might have repulsored him pretty roughly. Which…” He shouldn’t have done, maybe, but Tony wasn’t going to pretend he’d been rational or fair, then. “Natasha had let Steve and Barnes go. So she had to go on the run to avoid Ross. Any excuse to get control, and… well, she’d given him reason. The others were taken into custody. I don’t know if you remember, but Steve had said something about a threat. So… I looked into it.” He sighed. “Maybe, I should—”
“Steve Rogers had a cell phone,” Rhodey interrupted. “He called Barton, Maximoff, and that giant dude for help. If he’d had information that could have changed things, then he could have called. And if not you or me, he could have called Natasha.”
It was enough of a point that Tony didn’t argue it. “Anyways, turns out the psychiatrist had actually been murdered and the person who showed up was someone with a grudge against the Avengers. So I went to where the others were being kept.” He pursed his lips. “And we’ve got to do something about that.” Probably should have, already, if Tony was honest, but… There’d been a lot going on. He’d start working on the legality of the situation tomorrow.
A flash of memory of Maximoff in a shock collar hit him.
Tonight. Damn it.
He pushed on. “The others weren’t happy with me.” Rhodey scoffed at that; Tony ignored him and kept talking. “They blamed me, of course. But I convinced Sam to tell me what was going on. There were a bunch of super soldiers, apparently, in some bunker in Siberia that Zemo was going to set loose. And we’ve seen how much damage a super soldier can do.” The words came out far more bitter than Tony intended.
He hoped Rhodey didn’t notice.
“And you went after them. Alone.” Rhodey did not sound impressed by that particular choice. Which… fair enough.
Tony shrugged. “Yeah. Sam wouldn’t tell me unless I promised to go alone and as a friend.”
He’s my friend.
So was I.
He flinched at the echo in his mind, turning away from Rhodey to hide it, pretending to look through the spice cabinet. “So I did.”
Rhodey let out a heavy sigh. “And three of you against a bunch of super soldiers… Especially when Barnes could be triggered again. Damn it. You got them all?”
Tony moved from the spice cabinet and focused on the chicken again. He’d never given a specific report on the location of the bunker and Siberia was a very large place. It was unlikely anyone would find it soon and the evidence of the truth. T’Challa had only brought Zemo in without saying more about what had happened. Zemo had, for some reason, not told the truth to anyone… yet.
No one knew.
And Rhodey’s assumptions were as good an explanation as any.
“They’re dead,” Tony said. “In the aftermath, Steve had to get Barnes out of there.” Let Rhodey assume it was because of the trigger. “I don’t think anyone realized I was as injured as I was. And hey, I’d gotten there under my own power and in theory should have been able to call for help if for some reason I couldn’t. No one realized I’d lost communications.”
Rhodey let out a pained noise at the acknowledgment of Tony’s situation. “How’d you get out of there and to Metro General?” Rhodey asked. “Who got you out?”
“I was unconscious when it happened,” Tony admitted. “I woke up in that hospital with absolutely zero clue how I got there.” Not a lie. He knew now, but he hadn’t known then.
“We’re going to need to figure it out,” Rhodey murmured, almost to himself. “I don’t know why they’d have kept saving you a secret, but we don’t want them to try to use it as some sort of ‘you owe me’ later down the line.”
Tony didn’t think Strange would. True, he’d been very straightforward about needing Tony. But there had been no sense of ‘I saved you; you owe me’. No, Strange’s assertion had been that it was simply who Tony was that when potential danger lurked on the horizon that Tony would be involved. Would do whatever it took to help.
And… well, Strange wasn’t wrong, no matter Tony’s initial reaction in the hospital. Tony would.
Eventually he was going to have to tell Rhodey about Strange and the threat that Strange had told him was coming. But… He just couldn’t do that, now. Rhodey needed to heal; he didn’t need something like this lurking on the horizon. He needed to be able to focus on himself and his own needs.
Sure, Rhodey would be pissed when he found out Tony hadn’t told him immediately, but… Strange had come to Tony. He wouldn’t be so self-absorbed as to say that this was ‘his’ problem. But it wasn’t an immediate problem.
One to three years before the threat came. He’d give Rhodey a few months, and then maybe…
He shook the thought away. “They could just be shy,” Tony said. “Or it could be whoever saved me is trying to avoid Ross’ attention. Sure, I haven’t had to deal with him much since I’ve gotten out of the hospital, but I’ve got zero doubt that he’s been sniffing around for answers. When he doesn’t find them, he is going to be on my case. Again. I’d want to avoid that, too”
At least with Strange, Tony didn’t think there was any way for Ross to have found any answers. Now that was someone Tony hoped they could stonewall for the entirety of the situation. Ross excelled in causing more problems than he solved and somehow still coming out on top. It was impressive, in some ways, and thoroughly depressing in others.
“Maybe,” Rhodey agreed, but he didn’t sound convinced.
“Boss,” FRIDAY interrupted, “the ingredients have arrived.”
Tony did his best to hide his relief, excusing himself to go get them. Vision met him halfway there, groceries in hand. “I have tipped the delivery driver,” Vision informed him. “I hoped to help.”
“Thanks Vision.” Tony took the ingredients, turning back to the kitchen. The escape hadn’t lasted as long as he’d hoped, but it still seemed to have been enough to break the momentum of the conversation and Tony listened as Rhodey and Vision talked while he finished cooking, not quite able to bring himself to join the conversation himself.
It wasn’t until after they ate that Rhodey broached any of the more painful subjects that lurked between them all. “I’ve got a physical therapist coming out tomorrow morning,” Rhodey said. “I’d like you to be there.”
Tony nodded, mentally rearranging his schedule. He was going to go see Strange tomorrow to help with research, but he could do that in the afternoon. “I can show the therapist and you how the braces—”
“Not just for the braces,” Rhodey said quietly. “Just… I don’t want to go through this alone.”
Tony froze, staring at Rhodey, reading beneath the words to what it meant. He nodded, firming his resolve. He could do that. He could be there for Rhodey. “Tell me when,” he said. “I’ll be there.”
Rhodey smiled, small but genuine. “Thanks, Tony.”