Chapter 5
Her stubborn ass brother refused the wheel chair when they landed instead choosing to walk down the lowered cargo ramp gripping her hand so tight his knuckles were white Rodney haunted their steps and she didn’t mind one bit, it meant her brother was better protected.
Tony and pepper exchanged words and then he called a press conference, she didn’t know what her brother had seen but she guessed it was horrible she saw the way his eyes darted around when they were alone.
After announcing that they were all sat or crouched down she refused, standing at her brothers back glowering at anyone that looked at him wrong and when he announced that they would no longer be creating weapons she put aside a mental note to ask about it then covered her brother’s exit “as the majority shareholder my brother and I came to this decision and I stand behind it, if you have any questions you can direct them to our office and we will get back to you in time but as of today stark industries no longer takes place in the arms race, thank you all for coming today and have a safe trip home”
She followed the path her brother had taken as she herd the third wheel obadia talking trying to make it less apparent that this was a hair brain decision and there had been no discussion.
She found her brother in the factory looking at the arc reactor “so” she said as she leaned again the rail beside him
“So....”
She watched him for a minute “you gonna tell me what happened? Or what that glow is under your shirt?” she questioned.
Her brother heaved a heavy sigh then looked at her she knew that look she wasn’t going to like what was about to be said “nothing good, I was caught in an explosion on the way back to the base, by one of our weapons, shrapnel decided it wanted to take a better look at my insides, not all of it got taken out” she gaped at her brother it was a very lousy summary of what happened but shed make due “what, are you alright?” he turned to face her “that's where the glow comes in, I will be so long as I have this” he unbuttoned his shirt enough to show a glowing circle she immediately recognized
“My god tony” she reached out to touch the skin just outside of the metal circle in her baby brother’s chest “it’s an arc reactor?” she questioned and he nodded “its keeping the shrapnel out of my heart”
She looked straight in her brothers brown eyes to see if he was joking and saw he wasn’t she breathed out a curse and threw her arms around him fingers in his hair “I can’t believe how close I came to losing you” she whispered and felt him smile against her shoulder.
“seriously Lizzy I'm good now, this is what we need to do” she looked at him pulling back “whatever you decide I stand behind you tony, you know I got your back” he smiled widely at her “I know”
Why did she have a sudden uneasy feeling about the glint in her brother’s eyes?
Two weeks went by until tony came to her asking her for help she smiled pushing her glasses up her face “I was wondering when you'd come to me” she stood putting down her papers and walked ahead of him to the work shop
“JARVIS bring up the file in my server labeled h-183 please” the file popped up in midair photos and schematics glowing in the hologram “and open the mark 2 as well” she could hear tony sputtering
“You knew?!” he finally demanded and she turned and smiled at her brother “I’m your older sister, I know everything”
This was why after his first test flight in full suit a month after they started working together she yelled at him for an hour.