“That’s called karmic reparations.”
Tony rubbed his hands together and resisted the urge to check the time again. Tony was early, he knew that, but he was also annoyed and anxious to get the little meeting over with.
It had been Sam that suggested Tony talk with Steve at the VA. Sam was able to contact Steve, Tony bought breakfast for Harry’s support group as usual, and then he went outside to wait for Steve to arrive.
The last thing that Tony wanted to do was ask Steve for anything. It irritated him more than cold coffee to even reach out. Steve could be traced back as the root problem that was Barnes. If Steve had turned him in to the proper authorities from the start, Barnes never would have been free to stalk and abduct Harry.
For such a ‘we have to follow the laws, Tony’ kind of guy, Steve really screwed the freaking pooch with Barnes.
Tony didn’t have to wait long, Steve was Mr Punctual and pulled up on the black motorcycle Tony used to love right at eight. Tony watched with carefully expressionless eyes as Steve put it on the kickstand and walked toward Tony by the entrance.
“Hey,” Steve said evenly, with a hint of a smile. “I’m glad you called.”
“I didn’t,” Tony said flatly, refusing to cave to the politeness of small talk. “Sam did and he only called because you need to talk to Barnes.”
“What?” Steve had his hands in his pockets and he rocked back on the heel of his boots. “I thought this was about us?”
“Us?” Tony repeated, barely holding back a laugh. “Steve, there is no us. We were co-workers and now we’re not.”
Some things in a colleague and friend could be patched up. If Steve got drunk and broke Tony’s TV, sure. But Steve hid away a psycho, had him in his hands post-stalking Harry, then let him go again. And Steve covered for the psycho in question even knowing that he killed Tony’s parents.
There was no patch in the world big enough to fix that.
“You need to tell Barnes to take the deal MACUSA offered him,” Tony said, sticking to why they were there before Harry’s group ended and he began looking for Tony.
It was kind of cute, they were like besties lately. Tony drew up interior models of the new house while Harry did his homework. Harry chatted about his geek while Tony tried to care at all about the business he was meant to be running. It was kind of like what Tony wanted his relationship with Howard to be when he was a kid… except it was reality.
Reality was 3000 times better than a childhood dream.
“Bucky said that he’s got his head on straight now,” Steve said. “There’s no reason for him to be locked up, Tony. He’s better now.”
“And? That means he shouldn’t have any repercussions?” Tony asked. “Twenty years is a hell of a lot less time than the eighty years Harry’s going to be living with one leg.”
“That wasn’t Bucky’s fault,” Steve said quickly. He really had an excuse for everything for his buddy, must be nice to have Captain America justifying every decision someone made.
Tony wouldn’t know what that was like though.
Tony had to take a slow breath to keep from screaming. “Steve, he kidnapped him and left an injury untreated. It’s a crime. This isn’t some personal vendetta—” though Tony did have a personal vendetta against Barnes “—this is the law. He did it, he’s guilty. Tell him to take the deal and spare Harry a trial.”
“Bucky was sick,” Steve said. When he lifted his chin and crossed his arms, tony knew it was a lost cause. Steve was loyal to the end, just not to Tony or Tony’s family. “He thought he was saving Harry!”
“AND HE DAMN NEAR KILLED HIM!” Tony yelled, losing his patience. Tony took a deep breath again and tried to reign in his temper. When Tony was mostly confident he wouldn’t continue screaming, he leveled Steve with a glare.
“I don’t care that he was sick and neither will a jury,” Tony told Steve. “He’s looking at a few decades in prison either way. Personally, I’m hoping for the maximum life sentence, but Harry is fifteen, Steve. He shouldn’t have to go testify and go through all this shit again.”
Harry had enough crap in his life to deal with. He had the totally normal things, like a history report and dates with his geek, then he had the completely horrible things like the horcrux inside of him and Strange dragging his feet on removing it.
“There’s no world where any jury finds Barnes innocent,” Tony told Steve, pleading as much as he could for his kid. “Tell him to take the deal, Steve. It’s a good deal. He’ll be out in twenty years if he takes it.”
Tony didn’t like to think that Harry would still be around in twenty years when Barnes would be released, but it was better than nothing if the jury bought in the insanity defense.
“If it were switched, what would you do?” Steve asked genuinely, his blue eyes pleading just as hard as Tony was. “If Harry were the one who made a mistake, what would you do?”
Tony would back his kid. Tony backed his kid almost eight months ago and Tony thought he was on the run from the law and Tony would back his kid for the rest of their lives.
Family was family.
Tony didn’t answer and Steve nodded. Steve uncrossed his arms and gave Tony an unhappy frown.
“I’m all he has left,” Steve said in the face of Tony’s silence. “If there’s even a small chance that he can get the freedom he deserves then he should take it.”
It was an incredibly tiny chance. It was the slimmest odds in the world that the ‘Soldier Who Slayed’ gets off scot-free after crippling the ‘Boy Who Lived’.
It was the reminder of Barnes’ lawyer being so confident in his insanity defense that had Tony yelling at Steve’s back when he turned around to leave.
“YOU SHOULD BE ON TRIAL BESIDE HIM!” Tony yelled at the man that had once been something like a friend to Tony. “IF YOU HAD GOTTEN HIM THE HELP YOU THOUGHT HE NEEDED, THIS WOULDN’T HAVE HAPPENED!”
Steve paused and he looked over his shoulder at Tony. There was a moment when Tony felt like they were both thinking of the friendship they struck up, the petty fights they had, and the overshadowing cloud of all Steve kept from Tony. There was a chasm between them that was bottomless and too volatile to ever cross.
“I am sorry, Tony,” Steve said quietly. “Harry’s a good kid, he didn’t deserve this. But Bucky’s a good man, he doesn’t deserve this either.”
“Barnes deserves to rot in prison and you deserve to watch him,” Tony said coldly. Tony stuffed his hands in his pockets to keep from acting on the violent urge to throw a punch at Steve. “If it isn’t clear, consider yourself off Sirius’ team.”
It was childish, kicking Steve from the Avengers, but they weren’t really the Avengers anymore. With Sirius leading the team and SHIELD down for the count, they were just a group of people who hung out together and kicked ass when they were needed.
“Fine,” Steve said evenly, unbothered by Tony’s taunt. He turned to walk away again and Tony just wanted to hurt him somehow. Tony wanted to crack Steve’s calm demeanor and make him as angry and hurt as Tony was.
“Oh, and your shield’s gone too.”
Steve whipped his head around and Tony finally got to see some emotion from him. Steve didn’t look pissed, he looked shocked.
“You threw away the priceless vibranium shield that Howard made?” Steve demanded.
“You mean the shield that my dad made? My dad that your buddy killed? No.” Tony grinned and felt his own anger soothing some as he knew he finally found the button to hit to irritate Steve. “I melted it down, made Harry a leg. I think that’s called karmic reparations.”
Steve still walked away, but Tony saw the hurt in his eyes before he did.
It didn’t keep Harry from having to go to court, but it did make Tony feel a little bit better about it all.
“Piss off.”
“It will help with the jury.”
Harry looked at Tony, but it was Pepper who responded.
“I believe that Harry said piss off,” she said sweetly to the prosecutor. The three of them had hardly stepped in the magical courthouse in West New York before the prosecutor cornered them. It took even less time for her to piss Harry off by suggesting he remove his prosthetic and sit in a wheelchair during his testimony.
Tony could see the draw of it, immediately sway the jury to the side of the crippled child. But Tony wouldn’t do it and he wasn’t surprised that Harry refused as well. It was hard enough to get Harry to take it easy, he was going on almost daily runs with his geek and their new friend Flash, convincing himself to use a wheelchair when he had just started his timer for time on his prosthetic was a lost cause.
“I understand,” the prosecutor said, as if she had any options. “Al Saud has cleared the gallery and we’re ready for Harry now.”
Sirius have Tony a rundown on the magical expectations in courtrooms. For the most part, it was pretty standard. They had different ways to enter evidence, but two lawyers playing ‘who tells a better story’ was universal. The one irritating difference was that Pepper couldn’t enter the courtroom with Tony and Harry.
Supposedly it was already a stretch to let her attend, but it was a hard limit to let her sit in on a magical trial during a minor’s testimony.
“You’ll do fine,” Pepper reassured Harry before he was taken in the room by the prosecutor. “Just Look at your dad and stay calm, okay?”
It was a sweet moment in the middle of a frustrating situation. Pepper fussed over Harry for a moment before he brushed her off and rolled his eyes.
“I know,” Harry said. He gave Pepper a quick and sideways hug to take the sting out of his terse voice.
“Don’t do anything stupid,” Pepper warned Tony once Harry followed the prosecutor in the courtroom. “This isn’t the Tony Stark Show.”
“It’s always the Tony Stark Show,” Tony said. He kissed Pepper quickly, already sweating over Harry being out of his sight. “Love you.”
“I love you.”
The inside of the courtroom was average enough. There was a boxed off segment to the side where thirteen normal-looking witches and wizards sat. The judge over the case sat in the front center of the room. Tony was relieved that all of the benches were empty- they had promised Harry privacy during his testimony but Tony had been skeptical over it. There was a metal bar that separated the gallery from the procedural area that Tony stepped over to take a seat beside Al Saud.
Tony didn’t give a damn about any courtroom rules, if his son was going to be on the other side of the metal bar, sitting up at the witness stand, then Tony would sit his incredibly-unhappy-ass at the table with the prosecution team so Harry could see him the whole time. They already barred Pepper from the room, Tony would be damned if they tried to stick him in the gallery.
Harry looked at Tony, just like Pepper instructed him to, and Tony hated seeing his son’s fingers twitching when the judge made him swear to tell the truth. Tony didn’t think he imagined the irony on Harry’s face when Harry raised his scarred left hand to swear to tell the truth.
It was messed up, because Tony wanted Harry down from that stand immediately, but Tony was brimming with pride for his kid. Harry looked nervous with his twitching fingers and eyes that kept almost moving to Barnes before he caught himself and refocused on Tony, but his voice was confident when he said his name and address for the court.
The prosecutor led him through a series of questions on what Harry had been doing the day that Barnes took him. Tony played it in his mind as well- the flying, the racing, the way he felt like he was bonding with his kid.
And then Harry said he was sick, he snuck off to help Peter and Barnes—
“Then I felt something hard hit me in the head.” Harry was looking at the prosecutor then who strategically placed herself in front of Barnes, blocking him from Harry’s view. “And everything went black.”
“When you were conscious next, where were you?”
“In the back seat of a car, with Bucky. Er… with Mister Barnes.”
Tony turned his head just enough so he could see Barnes from the corner of his vision without losing sight of Harry. Barnes might have been dressed up and made to look like a choir boy with his haircut and perfectly apologetic expression, but he wasn’t truly sorry.
If he was, then he wouldn’t be forcing Harry to testify when they all knew he was guilty.
“Had you ever met the defendant before that day?”
“Yeah.” Harry straightened himself up and Tony nodded subtly when Harry looked toward him.
It really didn’t matter what Harry had done before that day, Harry was the child. It was on Tony’s conscious that he didn’t keep better track of his kid and on Barnes’ conscious for befriending a teenager.
“I felt bad for him,” Harry said, looking back at the prosecutor. “My dad, er… Tony Stark—”
Tony grinned.
“—told me that Mister Barnes was dangerous, but I thought he was wrong.”
“As most teenagers do,” the prosecutor said in a sly way, reminding the jury of Harry’s age that excused his incredibly poor decisions. “What did you and the defendant do when you were together before the day he kidnapped you?”
“Objection! I thought we were here to determine that to be fact or not?”
“I’ll rephrase,” the prosecutor said smoothly. She could rephrase all she wanted, the jury wouldn’t forget it.
Tony knew it, she knew it. She was damn good.
“Before the day you were flying with your father, what did you do on the occasions you met with the defendant?”
“We talked,” Harry said with a shrug that Tony knew would only make Harry look more like a child to the others. “Sometimes he’d be a bit confused, he would think he was working a mission, and one time he accidentally broke my arm.”
Tony made a fist with his left hand at the same time Barnes’ lawyer called for an objection. Harry never told Tony that before, Barnes broke his arm?
Tony should have shot him in the head when he had the chance.
The lawyers approached the stand at the judges order and Harry looked at Tony with his big sad eyes.
‘Sorry’, Harry mouthed.
Tony shook his head, Harry didn’t need to be sorry.
“You’re doing great,” Tony whispered to him before the prosecutor leaned over the stand to whisper with Harry.
“The jury is to be informed that if the next witness, Mister Sirius Orion Black, verifies Mister Potter-Stark’s statement that a charge of second degree assault will be added,” the judge ruled. He nodded to the prosecutor as Barnes’ lawyer sat back down. “You may continue.”
If Sirius knew that Barnes had broken Harry’s arm and never told Tony… Tony actually didn’t know what he would do because it wasn’t like Sirius didn’t keep much worse secrets about Harry from him.
Clearly Sirius never learned that secrets didn’t make friends.
Harry went on with his story, pausing occasionally when asked a question, and Tony made himself envision it all as Harry described it. If Harry had to relive it all, Tony would as well. It was another odd time to feel pride, but Tony was so god damned proud of the way Harry stayed calm, polite, factual.
It wasn’t even bias, Tony just knew he had the best son in the world. It made him feel bad for those other parents with their substandard children.
It wasn’t until the prosecutor played a memory of what had to be Sirius’ that Harry shrunk in his seat. Tony touched his finger to his ear, the sign they agreed on beforehand.
‘Do you need a break?’
Harry shook his head and kept his eyes on his lap while the memory began playing.
The prosecutor entered exhibit C and everyone in the room got to watch the surgery where Strange removed Harry’s leg with quick and measured movements while Sirius followed behind him with his wand, sealing the wound. It was so much more graphic and bloody than Tony expected. Seeing the leg all over again, the black necrotic tissue from the clots that formed at the break, it made Tony wish they had waited until Sirius testified to play it. The prosecutor only wanted it to play with Harry on the stand to ensure victory with one swift wave of sympathy. How could anyone see the actual child on the stand and watch the memory and not want to do what they could to give him justice?
“STOP! Fuck, stop, please!”
It wasn’t Harry who begged for the memory to stop playing, it was Barnes.
Tony looked over at Barnes the same time Harry looked up at him and they both got to watch as Barnes and his lawyer got in a quick and heated whispered argument.
“Your honor, may we request a brief recess?” Barnes’ lawyer eventually requested. As soon as it was granted, Harry flew off the stand and only stumbled once before reaching Tony’s side.
“What was that?” Harry asked him thickly.
Tony watched Barnes’ lawyer lead him from the room and shook his head. Barnes was crying, working to earn his own sympathy probably.
“No idea.” Tony put his arm around Harry’s shoulders and forced a smile. “Come on, let’s go find your favorite future step-mom.”
Tony, Pepper, and Harry sat the room that had been sequestered for Harry during the recess. Al Saud sent a silver swordfish to tell them that he would talk to them as soon as he could.
“We should have eloped,” Pepper suddenly complained. Tony and Harry both looked at her, giving her the same bemused expression. They had been quiet so far, both Starks were thinking of the trial they weren’t allowed to discuss outside of the courtroom until it was all over. Tony had no idea what prompted Pepper to say that, but he never missed an opportunity to tease her.
“We are in a court house,” Tony said with a grin. “Harry’s even in a suit.”
“A bloody uncomfortable one,” Harry complained, pulling a face while he tugged on his collar.
Pepper had her legs crossed and one professional black heel was tapping the floor with her usual ‘I can’t wait for this meeting to end’ type of impatience.
“It’s too late now,” she said with a huff. “I’ve missed the bulk of Harry’s testimony.”
“Hear that?” Tony looked over at Harry and winked. “She’s only marrying me to get to you.”
“Understandable, I’m the superior Stark,” Harry quipped. Tony could tell his heart wasn’t really in the banter though, not with the way he too was tapping his foot on the floor and his eyes were on the door.
“You know what we need?” Tony decided. “A vacation. Kid, Spring Break is coming up, right?”
“In March,” Harry said absently.
“March eighteenth,” Pepper clarified.
Tony looked from where his fiancée stared at the door to where his son was.
Yeah, they all needed a vacation. And, if Strange didn’t get off his ass and fix the pesky soul issue he swore on his life that he would, it would be a one way trip to Aoshima Island.
After what seemed like an eternity of waiting, Al Saud finally entered the room by himself. Al Saud was dressed as impeccably as usual, but there was a smug look in his dark eyes to go with the whole ‘I eat defense attorneys for breakfast’ ensemble.
“Barnes is willing to accept a plea,” Al Saud said, shocking the hell out of Tony.
“Why now?” Pepper asked sharply, the same question Tony had.
“His lawyer is citing a guilty conscious,” Al Saud scoffed. “My money is on Barnes knowing he’s going to be found guilty.”
“So it’s done?” Harry asked with a twinge of hope. “We can go home?”
Al Saud cleared his throat and Tony knew it wasn’t going to be that easy.
“Barnes is asking for a contingency to the original plea agreement,” Al Saud said slowly, looking at Tony directly. “He is willing to accept an additional five years in exchange for being granted permission to have a single visit with Harry.”
Tony and Pepper were of the same mind,
“No.”
Harry was not,
“Done.”
“Kid,” Tony rubbed the spot between his eyes hard, trying to physically push away the sudden migraine he could feel building, “no, okay? Just no.”
Tony didn’t care if Barnes wanted to face his accuser, try and make some crap apology, or what. There was no reason good enough or length of additional prison time long enough that would make Tony want to let Harry have a conversation with him.
Al Saud nodded and made to leave the room when Harry told him to wait. Harry looked at Tony and Tony could just see himself at Harry’s age, stubborn to the end.
Tony wondered if Howard or Maria ever suffered from chronic migraines. It was typically a genetic condition, one that managed to skip Harry so far.
Until Harry had his own kids one day that Tony kind of hoped gave him as much sass and sarcasm as Harry did Tony and Tony had his parents.
“I don’t care if Bucky wants to talk to me, I have things I want to say to him,” Harry said, perfectly earnestly. It was really well done, the twitch of the prosthetic, the big green eyes.
“You can write him a letter,” Pepper said decisively.
“Or I have one conversation with him and attempt to move on from this extremely traumatic experience,” Harry deadpanned. “I’d rather not be pen pals.”
Al Saud and Pepper looked at Tony, leaving the no-win decision in his hands. Either Tony denied his kid the chance to face Barnes on his terms or he gave in to Barnes’ ridiculous demands.
Eight months ago Tony might have made a different decision. Eight months ago Tony thought he was the expert in any situation and that he knew what was best for his kid.
But Tony was a different man after a crash-course in parenting and with all the other shit Harry had dealt with, Harry was a different person too. Gone were the defensive sneers and prickly wariness. Harry sat in the room and looked at Tony and was asking for one thing-
Not for documents to get to Russia, but for a chance to close the door on a part of his past.
Tony held Harry’s eyes as he nodded, “Okay.”
Harry didn’t smile, he was mature enough to see that it wasn’t a victory. It made Tony overflow with bittersweet pride; Harry had grown and matured so much that Tony felt he could see the type of man Harry would become. He’d be a better man by far than Tony ever was, Tony just wished he’d stay a child for as long as possible.