That will be enough

Have you ever wondered what you’ve done if you had known that one specific day you were going to lose all you’ve got?

Usually there is an easy answer to this question, because people normally don’t know when their lives are going to change forever, for the good or for the bad. Sometimes you simply find yourself in the middle of a un-announced hurricane and you have to work your way out, as the musical says.

Jarvis has wondered for long, after all the events have come to an end, what he would have done by knowing what that day was going to bring in his life. For sure he would have done many things differently. He regretted some of his decisions and actions. What he was never going to regret, however, was to have listened to his boy and to have decided to come back home when he was supposed to spend the evening with Mr. Stark senior for another mission to find Captain America.

But let’s go with order.

Edwin Jarvis has been Howard Stark’s butler and personal assistant for years, way before the billionaire and owner of Stark Industries has married Maria Carbonell, and many years before their son Anthony “Tony” was born. At the time, Jarvis was mourning the loss of his own wife, Ana, who has also become a close friend of both Howard and Maria. Kid Tony has provided Jarvis a way out of his pit of sorrow, by bringing again joy and color in his life: indeed, Tony has always been a kid full of energy and ideas, and the most difficult task was to keep his peace. Jarvis changed his diapers, cradled him to sleep, helped him with his first steps, together with Tony’s official parents. They also had a family portrait all together on the kid’s birthdays. It was not surprisingly if Tony has for long believed to have three parents, that is one mother and two fathers.

That the boy was a genius as or more than his father Howard it was immediately clear after his first year of life. At age 2 Tony knew how to read and write, even if his puffy kid’s hands made it difficult to do it properly. For his 3^rd birthday, Maria and Jarvis have brought Tony to a bookshop to buy him some child books and the kid has been very fascinated by tales of knights and monsters… but also by a huge book called “Advanced Mechanics” that Mrs. Stark has finally bought for him to the major astonishment of the shop owner. Howard read it to the boy on the carpet in the living room, while Maria was playing the piano and Jarvis was cooking the dinner.

Tony learnt to hold a screwdriver before he learnt to run. And when he did learn the last thing, it was common to see him running around the labs at Stark Industries, closely watched or tailgated by Jarvis, who stopped him from stepping, touching, eating or, in general, damaging himself or other things. After a while, usually Howard or his vice Obadiah Stane lifted him in their arms and proudly showed him what they were doing. “Uncle Obie”, as Tony called him, was so used to have the kid on his shoulder that it was common to hear him shouting at the Board meetings or at the selling departments with the boy on his arm like a pirate with a parrot.

“It’s okay, Jarvis, I’ve got him now!” Stane told him every time.

But, despite all evidences and the kid’s laughs, Jarvis didn’t trust that man completely: the first time he has met him his brain has pictured him the image of a shark with human greedy eyes… and from that moment on, that sensation has remained. However, Howard Stark trusted him, and so Jarvis has accepted that ‘uncle Obie’ could also be in charge of Tony’s watching, especially since Mr. Stark has started to go again on missions in Artic to find the burying place of his old friend Steve Rogers, Captain America. And, obviously, Mr. Stark went there together with Jarvis because, notoriously, when left alone Howard Stark always managed to miss things or forget something on his way.

That morning has started like every other mornings at the Stark Mansion. The only out of routine event has been that Jarvis has found a cracked plate in the sideboard, and, while he was checking if the others were okay, he has burnt his morning coffee, and he had to make a new one with another moka pot (luckily they had quite a number since Mr. Stark senior was fond of coffee).

“A burnt coffee, a ruined day” Jarvis mumbled, still wondering how a plate in the sideboard could have broken in half out of nowhere.

He quickly dropped the issue, because Howard Stark has entered the room already in a bad humor, like he hasn’t slept well or something.

“She felt pain in her limbs, and needed a massage… than the boy had another nightmare and he was screaming!” he mumbled.

“I knew, Mr. Stark. I’ve comforted the boy!” Jarvis replied.

Since he was 6, Tony has started to suffer from bad nightmares which usually involved a monster made of smoke who chase him and wanted to swallow him. They’ve all thought it was a phase, a child’s tantrum or something. To help him sleep well, Jarvis has put some stars on the ceiling above the boy’s bed: the stars glowed at night, so there was no complete darkness, since Tony was afraid of dark and cold places.

That night, like many other nights, the now 10 years old Tony Stark has woke up screaming for a nightmare. Since the first time his father has reacted very violently, the boy has learnt at his own expenses not to run to him, but to Jarvis, who was sleeping on the guest room since the kid was born to help the Starks managing him; after all, after Ana’s death, his own private house at the guardian’s post was not the same and made him sad every time. That night Tony has run to Jarvis, and slipped into his bed by spooning against him all trembling in fear. And, as always, Jarvis has reassured him and cradled him to sleep like he has done for ten years. When Jarvis’s has raised at 6 AM, the boy has mumbled: “Five more minutes, Jarvis…” and he has come back to sleep as always.

“He keeps having the same nightmare” Jarvis pointed out to Mr. Stark while the two men were having breakfast.

“It’s just a phase, he will go over this!” Howard mumbled as always, too focus on a bunch of paperwork.

Then he announced Jarvis that immediately after lunch they were going to take Stark’s private twin-engine to reach a base in Canada and, from there, a ship to the Artic. Jarvis knew without asking that it was another mission to find Captain America’s body and that pre-alert was not a thing Howard Stark was used to. However, he was a bit pissed because he has planned to go to the Science Museum with Tony to cheer him up a bit, and, even if he hasn’t told anything to the boy, he would have preferred this to playing Howard’s nanny in the Artic.

“What about Mrs. Stark?” he asked. “She’s supposed to have her therapeutic session with doctor Neuer this afternoon.”

“I’ll call doctor Neuer later and he’ll send a nurse to pick her up and bring her back after the visit, as we’ve already done.”

In the latter months, Mrs. Stark’s conditions have worsened. Despite the chemo, her liver cancer has attached the stomach and then the bones. They were trying every therapy, also the non-conventional ones: Mrs. Stark found very helpful doctor Neuer’s relaxing techniques with oils and hot stones, and, at least, they comforted her and softened the pain she constantly felt in her limbs. Each therapy session could last from three to six hours, according to the patient’s reaction; and that posed another problem.

“And Tony?” Jarvis asked. They couldn’t leave him alone at home, despite he was a very responsible and genial kid.

“Obadiah will come here and look after him” it was Howard’s plain answer. “After all, he could shout in his damn phone from here as he could do from work! And we’ll be back tomorrow at first lights… after all, it’s just a check on the instruments, I don’t expect to find anything… as always…”

And as always, Jarvis said nothing, even if he didn’t like that solution. It was not the first time they’ve done both things, but he didn’t know why that broken plate and burnt coffee have put it in a bad moon.

He prepared a tray with green tea, a fresh orange juice and some salty snacks for Mrs. Stark. It took it upstairs, perfectly aware that she was already awake in her bed, with her turban to cover her head turned bald after the first cycle of chemo, some years ago.

“Thank you, Jarvis!” she smiled as always. Jarvis noticed that under her make up the dark circles under her eyes were still a bit visible, and that she seemed paler than ever.

“I wish to inform you that Mr. Stark has asked me to go on mission in Artic with him. We’ll leave shortly after lunch, and be back tomorrow at dawn. Mr. Stark has asked doctor Neuer’s nurse to pick you up and bring you back home for your visit, while Mr. Stane was going to look after Tony.”

“Thank you, Jarvis, I’ve already been informed by Howard.” Her eyes turned sad while she said: “Every time I hope he finally found him… this way he could finally be at peace with himself. But every time it ended the same way…”

Jarvis was very painfully aware that every time they didn’t manage to find the Captain, Howard Stark became extremely angry. He was aware he has started to drink after those ‘missions’ and to occasionally raised hands on both Maria and Tony, with Jarvis in charge of stopping him every time. For the boy, this change in his beloved father’s behavior was greatly confusing and traumatic, and Jarvis was sure it was the reason why he kept having his bad nightmares.

He left Mrs. Stark with her breakfast and went to wake up his boy.

“Tony?” he called, by ruffling his brown hair. “Wake up, my boy!”

The boy stirred and yawned like a little cat, before opening his eyes and smiling. Jarvis smiled back, by remembering the first time he has seen those big brown eyes: Tony was born since more or less 15 minutes and, for sure, he was letting everyone knowing he has come to this world; but after Howard had failed at calming the screaming kid and he had awkwardly put it in Jarvis’s arms, Tony had immediately calmed down and opened his eyes on him.

“Hello, my boy” Jarvis had said for the first time.

“I guess Tony has his valiant knight now” Maria had said, exhausted and extremely proud of what she has managed to make despite her not so young age.

For Jarvis, Tony was always going to remain “his boy”, despite Howard kept pointing out on every occasion that he and not Jarvis was the boy’s father.

That morning, as always, Jarvis helped Tony washing his hair in the tub, and getting dressed before taking him downstairs for breakfast. Howard Stark left the room immediately after they’ve entered without even wishing his son ‘Good morning’. Tony was used to it, but Jarvis noted that he was always hurt by his father’s behavior and he perfectly knew what could have caused his bad humor.

“Another Artic mission?” he asked, while Jarvis was preparing his breakfast (eggs, buttered bread with blueberry jam, juice fruit, and hot milk).

“Indeed, my boy” he replied with a smile. “We’re going to leave after lunch. Your mother has a visit by doctor Neuer, and your godfather, Mr. Stane, is going to look after you until she came back, okay?”

“Uhm…” Tony only replied by eating his breakfast, already on bad humor himself. He has eaten only half of his breakfast, which was quite weird: despite he was still quite short and childish, Tony was always a very hungry boy.

“Do you really have to go?” he asked with his kid’s voice. “I mean, can’t dad go alone for once?”

“Well…” Jarvis started.

“The last time I’ve checked, Jarvis worked for me, not for you, kid!” Howard Stark said by entering the room, already dark on his face.

Tony frowned, a bit scared of his own father. “I know… sorry, sir…” he mumbled, with eyes down on his breakfast.

Howard awkwardly looked at him, like he wanted to apologize or something. Then he grabbed the journal that has left there and walked away without another word.

“Should we make a cake after you’ve finished your breakfast?” Jarvis asked, trying to cheer the boy up. As always, it worked.

Jarvis loved to cook with Tony sat on the kitchen counter space, passing him the ingredients and inventing stories of knights and monsters. Tony had his own hero in a flying golden knight with a red cape, and Jarvis has long stopped to remind him that knights didn’t flight: one day he was sure his boy would have made knights flying for real!

The morning run away in the blink of an eye, and after a sober and quick lunch, Jarvis helped Mrs. Stark downstairs, and then he prepared Mr. Stark’s stuff and put on his warm coat, ready to go. It was an extremely cold January day, and it was going to be colder where they were aiming to.

Mrs. Stark has already greeted them goodbye by taking her lift to the doctor for her therapy, and Howard was chatting with Obadiah Stane at the door with their usual bad jokes.

Jarvis was checking to have turned the oven off for the last time, while he felt Tony practically grabbing at his legs.

“Please…” he begged him with tears in his eyes. “Please, Jarvis, don’t leave me alone… don’t go away…”

He remained astonished because he has never seen him like this. He looked like when he woke up in the middle of the night and slipped into his bed because he was scared of monsters. Only that this time it was plain day and the boy was very awake.

But before he could manage to answer, the loud voice of Mr. Stane resonated in the room.

“If this isn’t my naughty boy!” he exclaimed. “Hi, Jarvis! Don’t worry, I’ll keep a good eye on him while you are away with Howie! Manage to not get hurt up there, though: it’s a long way, right Tony?”

Jarvis saw as Tony immediately let him go. With eyes on the ground, he didn’t resist to his godfather’s dragging him away, as always raised in his arms while talking about business. He didn’t know why but there was something painfully wrong in that scene, something that Jarvis couldn’t name but that itched at the back of his neck.

“Come on, Jarvis! I don’t have the whole day to wait for you!” Howard was shouting at the door.

Jarvis followed him to his car but he kept silently thinking of what it has happened. The hangar was more or less two hours from the Stark Mansion, but thanks to Howard’s speedy driving they arrived there in less than one. Only when they were about to climb on Mr. Stark’s private twin-engine, Jarvis shook his head by taking his decision.

“I’m coming back home” he said.

“What? What are you bubbling about now?” Howard replied, already in the cockpit.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Stark” Jarvis went on. “I- I didn’t feel right about leaving the boy with Mr. Stane… he seemed so scared!”

“It’s only a child’s tantrum, for God’s sake!” Howard exclaimed. “Don’t be paranoiac, Jarvis!”

He has almost persuaded him but then a wind blast hit the back of his neck. He had this memory of a cold wind blast hitting him many years ago, in Hungary, when he had to decide whether to let Ana being taken by the Nazis or do something illegal to save her…

“Why am I remembering this now?” Jarvis thought, astonished. He hasn’t thought of Ana’s escape from Europe since years. And mixed to that thought there were Tony’s big brown eyes opened in fear while he begged him: “Please don’t leave me alone…”

“Come on, Jarvis!” Howard was shouting at him again, by turning the engine on.

“I’m sorry!” Jarvis shouted back by jumping off the small plane and leaving an astonished Howard Stark screaming at his back something the wind and then the engine took away.

He saw him taking off and disappearing at the horizon, before reaching his car with the intention of using it to come back at the Stark Mansion. But, as he discovered, Mr. Stark has taken the keys with himself. Jarvis sighed and called a taxi.

_____________________________________________________

It took him more than three hours to finally manage to arrive at the big gates of the Stark Mansion. He paid the taxi while the wind was starting to blow stronger than ever: a storm was coming.

Since he reminded to have left the shutters opened in the back of the house, Jarvis made a detour and then entered from the kitchen. He left his coat and scarf over there, and looked for life signs in the big house. The only light came from the living room, whose door was strangely half closed. A regular sound came from the room, a sound that Jarvis was failing at identifying but he remembered him something painful like… like…

“Stay still or I’ll tie you again!” he heard the unmistakable voice of Obadiah Stane coming from the room. Only that it was not his normal voice, neither when he was greeting his ‘golden boy’ nor when he was shouting at the employees at Stark Industries. There was something else in his voice now, something malevolent and horrifying.

And then the weird sound started again only that this time Jarvis could heard also a muffled cry coming shortly after every repetition, like someone who was trying to shout but has been gagged.

Jarvis was still wondering what was happening when he arrived at the door and glanced through it. He could only see the piano and the small table on which a bottle of whisky has been left opened. Then Mr. Stane came into sight, while he approached the table and poured himself a generous glass: he looked wasted, with his shirt all covered in sweat and a greedy light in his eyes. But what made Jarvis frozen where he was what that in his other hand Mr. Stane was holding a belt.

That was the weird sound he has heard: the stroke of a belt. So the muffled cry…

“That’s what we’re going to do now!” he heard Stane saying by pointing the belt towards a point Jarvis wasn’t seeing. “Now I’ll remove that gag from your mouth and you’re going to scream for me! Scream well, naughty boy, and maybe I’ll spare you another round with the cane! And don’t worry about the volume: there’s no one but the two us! You could scream all the way you want, my favorite little toy!”

It was when Jarvis heard the next strokes and Tony’s acute voice screaming out his pain, that he came back to his sense. He slammed the door opened, with his heart rushing in his chest. But he wasn’t ready for what he appeared in front of him so he stopped there, an horrified expression on his face: on their big couch in front of Mrs. Stark’s piano, Tony was laying naked, in an awful position that made him fully exposed with his butt towards the big man behind him who was hitting him with his belt and touching him on his genitals. They both turned to face him in the same moment, but Jarvis only saw his boy’s big brown eyes opening in a dread panic, while from his mouth not a single sound managed to emerge.

“Oh! It seems we’ve got company!” Stane exclaimed, by throwing the belt down and moving a hand towards Tony’s neck. He grabbed his hair and raised him while he mumbled: “Shouldn’t we ask your butler to join us?”

Jarvis felt a fury he hasn’t thought to have while he shouted: “YOU STAY AWAY FROM MY BOY, YOU MONSTER!”

And then he charged him. He charged blindly, without other plan than to keep him away from his boy, to let him go of the kid… and, yes, also to kill him for what he has seen him doing to his boy, a child who called him ‘uncle Obie’ but didn’t want to be left alone with him…

To kill a man you need to be extremely unlucky (in case you didn’t mean to do it in the first place), or to have a good plan of action to manage to outmatch your victim, because, at it is known, victims usually fight back.

Jarvis has never killed a man and even the fishes or the animals he usually cooked for the Starks and himself arrived all wrapped up directly from the butcher. The only living beings he has managed to kill were flies and mosquitos, not to mention the random cockroaches slipping from the sink in the cellar during the hot summer. Once he had to kick a mouse out of the pantry and he had accidentally killed it: he has felt guilty for days.

So he wasn’t psychologically ready to face Obadiah Stane right now, especially with his mind all blurred by horror and fury. And he has never been a fighter either, so he didn’t know where to punch to knock out a man twice his size, a man that had a past in the special services and has gained a couple of medals by killing many “enemies of the country” (at least, at that time…).

Thus, it was not surprisingly that, after the first moment of surprise, Obadiah Stane has managed to block Jarvis’s next punches, and to throw him on the floor. He saw him taking off a small gun he had attached on his left leg, and only by a surviving instinct he kicked him on the nose. The weapon fell on the ground, but blood only turned the other man even more furious.

“Damn butler!” Stane grunted with his bleeding nose.

They both stood again and Jarvis was now back to his senses to know he was in an impossible fight, he had no chance at all to outmatch his opponent, he has been stupid and he was only going to die. But that thought gave him a strange calm: it didn’t matter him to die if he could manage to save Tony… but where was the boy?

He got distracted looking around and Stane’s blow hit him right in his stomach. He crawled on himself with a gasp of pain, and another blow hit him on his back. He hit the floor hardly, almost knocked out.

Then Stane wasted time to look for his gun, but Jarvis only managed to turn on his back to face him coming again with a huge Chinese vase in both his hands. He raised it over his head, but Jarvis was not thinking of his imminent death. The only thought in his mind was for that Chinese vase, which has been his and Ana’s wedding gift for the Starks.

“Are you sure they’re going to like… this?” Jarvis had asked. “It’s not original… it’s but a trifle!”

“Oh but it’s a perfect copy and nobody was going to dispute his originality once this is at Stark Mansion!” Ana had replied with her sunny laugh. “And the point is exactly this: this is a trifle but on the right spot it will highlight hypocrisy! It’s a joke, Mr. Jarvis, you silly! I’m sure both Mr. and Mrs. Stark will get the inside joke and take a laugh every time someone will pay a compliment on their fine taste!”

He smiled at the memory while Stane was shouting: “Die, damn butler!”

_________________________________________________________________

He heard the big door at the entrance opening and closing again. He knew it could only be one person, and he seriously hoped she was alone.

“I’m home!” he heard Maria’s Stark’s voice. He heard her closing the door: so, she was alone.

“Stay here!” Jarvis told Tony, but it was evident the kid wasn’t going to go anywhere. He has cleaned him and medicated him before rolling him in a covert on his bed, but the boy had his eyes fixed in the void and he was moving rhythmically by mumbling “…naughty boy… broken toy…” like an awful litany.

“Tony? Where are you, sweetie?” Mrs. Stark was calling again.

When Jarvis appeared at the top of the stairs, he saw her smile fading away why she was looking at his clothes. It was when he realized he was still all covered in blood.

“Tony is fine!” he immediately said to prevent her question. “This is not his blood… nor mine…!”

He glanced at the living room, whose door was still opened with the light on. No sound came from there. Jarvis saw Mrs. Stark moving with effort till there, making a few steps inside and gasping with horror, both hands on her mouth. She turned to Jarvis who has joined her side.

“What… what happened, Jarvis?” she asked astonished.

Jarvis glanced at the body of the former vice-CEO of Stark Industries: Obadiah Stane was now lying in his own blood, with his legs forming a strange angle, and his face on the ground, empty eyes staring a point in their direction. But there was no life in those eyes, and the blood has already stopped to flow from him. If it hasn’t drained was only because of the fire in the chimney right behind him.

“I’ve shot him” Jarvis said, calmly and plainly as he was stating that the spices needed to be ordered. “I’ve shot him in his chest with his own gun after I saw what he was doing to Tony!”

“What- what he was doing to my boy?” Maria asked, with an illegible expression in her eyes.

It was not easy but Jarvis told her everything by entering in his “butler-modality”, as Howard jokingly called it: he reported the facts he has witnessed, Stane’s words and then the fight… until when Mr. Stane has lifted the fake Chinese vase over his head and menaced to smash him on his head.

“That was when I’ve realized that the gun was near my hand” Jarvis followed. “I’ve taken it and shot him… he let off the vase that broke down behind him, and then he fell over me… that’s how I’ve stained my clothes!”

“It’s a pity”, he thought, “these were good and warm clothes!”

“I’ll recover Tony hiding behind the piano” Jarvis went on before Maria could wonder. “He’s in a deep state of shock. I’ve kept him upstairs, cleaned and medicated him but he’s quite far from being okay! I left him on his bed when I heard you arriving…”

There was a moment of thick silence.

“I guess we’ve finally found out who was the monster made of smoke he kept dreaming of” Maria mumbled, eyes still fixed on Stane’s death body and an expression of disgust curving her lips. Then he turned towards him and ordered: “Look at me, Jarvis!”

She stared in his eyes for a couple of seconds, then she stated: “You have never killed a man, Jarvis…”

Then she moved a few steps inside the room, up till the phone they had on the wall. She imposed silence to Jarvis while he was trying to ask what she was doing.

“Good evening, Colonel, this is the Lady” she said in the phone with a cheerful tone. “I need you to urgently contact the Player and sent him to hide. Now, if it’s possible. You should find him in the Canadian water ready to go on one of his nonsense mission in Artic!”

Jarvis couldn’t hear what the other man was saying, but he heard very well Mrs. Stark’s next words: “Colonel, please, this is a Pyrrhic. I repeat, we had a Pyrrhic checkmate: Queen against King. And the King is down… yes, Colonel, right here at my feet in this exact moment! No, I don’t think he was going to recover, because…”

She turned towards him and continued: “Because I’ve shot him, Colonel. I’ve shot him in his chest after he has tried to rape me!”

There were other words Jarvis failed at understanding because his mind was too focused on Mrs. Stark’s last sentence: wasn’t she taking the blame for this, was she?

“Jarvis, help me now! Quick!” she urged him when she put the phone down.

She stood in front of Stane’s death body and said: “We don’t have much time before the body freezes. Lucky for us he was in front of the chimney so he’s going to be still warm. Now, take him under his shoulders and raise him… come on! Do it now!”

Jarvis was too astonished to reply and, as always, he did as he was ordered.

“Keep him still!” Maria went on while Jarvis was trying to look somewhere else to avoid to face his present situation. He guessed that Mrs. Stark was punching the body despite her weakness. He looked down and he saw her taking one of Stane’s hand and by force making ‘him’ scratch her neck. Then she ripped a part of her shirt and put a piece in Stane’s fist, before closing it.

“They will find my skin under his nails, and a part of my dress in his hand” she explained. “They will take for good the story of the attempted rape. The journals were already gossiping around the way he looked at me at last party despite my obvious conditions… now that I think of it…”

She removed her turban and throw it on the ground.

“It couldn’t have remained at place during a fight… oh look! I’ve also some blood stains over myself now. Very well… now the most difficult part. Where’s the gun?”

She looked around and found it under the piano. She cleaned the weapon, took it with her left hand and aimed at Stane’s body. Jarvis frowned, but he didn’t dare to move.

“Uhm, too close… it’s going to hurt you as well…” she mumbled. Then she got an idea and said: “Put it down again, Jarvis! NO! Not so gentle: drop him like the dead body he is now! He didn’t deserve our kindness!”

Jarvis let him go and almost jumped at the awful sound Stane’s body made when he hit the ground again. His head was now facing the piano. Jarvis was all but glad he was not holding  him anymore, that he was surprised by the noise of a gunshot coming right in front of him.

“Now I’ve gun powder on my hands as well, and also the fingerprints… only mine obviously…” she mumbled.

“W- what…?” Jarvis finally managed to mumble.

She looked at him like he was asking something very stupid. “The gun powder, Jarvis!” she replied. “When you use a gun, the powder remains on your hands. This way, they’ll find all the proves they needed to match with the official version: I have killed Obadiah Stane after he has tried to rape me here in my own living room!”

Jarvis was astonished. “B- but you shot a dead body!” he objected. “The coroner will confirm Mr. Stane was already dead when the last shot hit him!”

“A good point… well, I’ll state I’ve believed to see him moving! That way they could add mental instability to the softening circumstances! Great idea, Jarvis, indeed! And I’ve heard that chemo and similar therapy could cause mental unbalance so it’s going to be super easy, barely an inconvenience!”

Jarvis couldn’t manage to share her positivity, and a part of him told that Mrs. Stark was lying.

Then, when he looked at the door he saw Tony standing there, hard panting and moving his eyes from one to the other.

“My boy…” he mumbled.

That made Mrs. Stark turned. She opened in a huge and warm smile while she exclaimed: “Sweetie! How’s my brave night?”

Then she pointed at the monster, gun still in her hand and added: “Don’t worry, sweetie! This monster is not going to chase you ever again…”

She dropped the gun some feet from her, right near the piano, and then went next to Tony. Jarvis saw as Tony didn’t retract from his mother’s touch, although he couldn’t keep his eyes off Stane’s death body.

“Stop looking at bad things, sweetie!” Maria Stark repeated by taking his face with her hands and forcing him to face her. “My brave boy…” she whispered by kissing him on his forehead.

Then she escorted him outside till the stairs where she sat, extremely fatigued. She put Tony on her lap, despite the obvious pain she was feeling in her body, and started to cradle him by mumbling him their favorite song: “It will come a ruler, whose brow is laid in thorn… smeared with oil like David’s boy, oh lei-oh lai-oh Lord…”

Tony closed his eyes while resting his head on his mother’s shoulder, in a way he did also with Jarvis.

“You’re really a brave boy, you know?” Maria repeated, by kissing his head.

Then she turned to Jarvis and said: “Jarvis, dear, I don’t have time to explain, but you must trust me now and do what I’m asking you to do. Would you, please? For Tony…”

Jarvis saw something beyond the fierce eyes of Mrs. Stark, something that closely resembled fear.

“I’ll do everything for Tony… or for anyone of you! You’re my family, Mrs. Stark!” he said.

She smiled with gratitude. “Then I need you to go upstairs, grab two suitcase and prepare your and Tony’s things. Bring only essential items! And, please, get change and throw that suits into the fire… I don’t care if they found it. Put on your best suit, like you’re going on holiday in a fancy hotel, okay? I’ll manage Tony till you’re back!”

“Yes, Mrs. Stark!” he said, rushing to attend at her every commands.

First he got change and throw the stained clothes in the fire, without daring to look at the body. He randomly took a note that the wooden floor was doomed and needed to be replaced. He saw something else in the fire, however, like a piece of half-molded plastic he didn’t get what it was from. It looked familiar though.

Since he didn’t have time, he dropped the issue and he rushed upstairs and put on his favorite tan suit, with his cufflinks and watch. In the room next to him he heard that Maria has come upstairs as well and she was helping Tony getting dressed. When he came there to pack the boy’s things he found him with a blue marine suit on, with a light blue shirt and a bow tie. He was looking good and he also shyly smiled at him, by showing how good he looked in his suit: Tony has always loved fancy clothes.

“Now, sweetie, take your toys” Maria was saying to him. “Where’s your rubber duck, honey? Where’s Duchy? And your Tench submarine?”

They both saw the boy freezing and then starting to mumble again his litany: “Naughty boy… broken toy… broken toys…”

While Maria desperately tried to comfort him and to make him stop, with more than a note of panic in his voice, Jarvis remembered where he has seen that molded piece of plastic before.

“Tony!” he called him by taking him by his shoulder and intercepting his eyes. As always, when he touched him, Tony calmed down enough to listen: “Tony, did Obadiah break your toys? Did he break your submarine today?”

The boy nodded with tears in his eyes.

“Now I got where Duchy was gone…” Jarvis mumbled by caressing his boy’s head and promising: “We’ll buy new ones, don’t worry. Take something you want to bring with you, okay?”

And Tony briefly disappeared under the bed and picked up his book of “Advanced Mechanics”, holding it like a plush to which he grabbed with all his strengths.

“Are you ready, Jarvis?” Maria was asking while they heard the main door slamming and then Howard’s voice calling aloud: “Tony? Maria? Jarvis? Where are you all? OH CHRIST!”

“He must have found the body” Maria said, pragmatically, holding her boy on her lap since he has started to tremble again.

“JESUS FUCKING CHRIST!” Howard continued to swear.

“Go to him, Jarvis” Maria told him. “Take the luggage down, we’ll reach you later! Sweetie, now you have to help me descending the stairs like you did when we went up! No, no, don’t worry for your father: he’s not going to touch you! We’re here for you!”

Jarvis rushed again down the stairs with his and Tony’s suitcases, by calling Mr. Stark aloud.

“What- what happened Jarvis?” he asked, pale as a ghost while he met him. “Is Maria all right? And Tony? Where are they?”

“Upstairs, they’re coming down as soon as Mrs. Stark manages… they’re fine. The boy is a bit shocked but in general is fine… he will be!”

Howard saw the luggage. “Yes… yes, it’s a good idea! You… you should take Tony and get away… I- I- have to give you the money and the keys… yes, the keys... jeez, why now? It’s not right! We’re not ready! How much time do we have?”

He has asked the last thing directly to Jarvis who didn’t know what to answer. “How much time do we have for what, Mr. Stark?”

But the other shook his head without answering. Jarvis has never seen him like this: it was like the brilliant mind of Howard Stark had suffered a short circuit and it was desperate trying to refresh itself. It was pretty scary to see a man like him in this state of mind… at the worst possible timing!

“How… how did you manage to come back so soon?” Jarvis asked, trying to bring the spell and taking him back to himself.

“I was at the ship already… it was malfunctioning and it was going to take more time than expected. I- I started to think on what you said… Tony was always so scared… and Obadiah… you don’t know what he’s capable of but I didn’t think he… I was already half-way back when Fury called me… He told me to hide, but I needed to see it… I don’t understand… he’s fond of the boy…”

“Yeah, I guess it’s the correct term!” Jarvis spitted. “Bloody pervert!”

If it was possible, Mr. Stark turned more paler than he already was.

“W- what he has done to my boy? W- what happened… did you… did you kill him Jarvis? For what he was doing to Tony? Where’s the boy?”

“I’ve killed him, Howard” Maria said at the middle of the stairs. She was panting heavily, leaning on Tony on one side and the wall on the other. Jarvis immediately rushed there to help her down, with the boy by his side, as far away from his father as he could.

“Maria?” Howard asked, coming closer to his wife. “What are you saying? You can’t… he…”

The slap was unexpected and yet so hard that made Howard’s head turning.

“Fond of the boy!” she spited on him. “You idiot! You and your idiotic game of chess with the Colonel! But now it’s over! Listen to me very well, Howard Stark: I’ve killed Obadiah Stane in my living room after I went back from my therapy. He tried a sexual approach, I negated, he became violent, smashed the Chinese vase and menaced me with his gun. He put his hand on me, I took the gun and shot him in his chest, then I’ll shot him again some time later because I’ve thought to see him moving. Jarvis was upstairs with Tony and they heard nothing. You… you’ve arrived now and found me there in a bad hysterical crisis. Is everything clear?”

Howard looked too astonished to manage to answer something with his usually sharp tongue. Instead he simply nodded and added: “It’ll be better if Jarvis goes away with Tony…”

“Who do you think these luggage belong? And I’ve already called a taxi!”

Howard nodded again, then turned to Tony. “I- I’m sorry, my boy… really, I…”

“Enough now, Howard!” Maria interrupted him. It was like a fury has taken place inside her. “We’ve already wasted enough time with you, and you know we don’t have any!”

“They would have known of his death by now… they will strike soon…” Howard mumbled. “Fury said they were coming… he had to run as well… we weren’t ready!”

Then he turned to Jarvis with a sense of urgency: “You have to disappear! Fake name, fake address, both you and Tony! Come with me, now!”

And he rushed to his office. Jarvis hesitated until Maria sat on the first step of the stairs, waved Tony to sit near her and then she told him: “Go with him, Jarvis! Take what he gave you… you’re going to need it. Then you’ll keep Tony safe from now on. And you, my boy, you need to be a brave knight like you’ve been tonight, okay? Good! Listen: bad men are coming to invade our castle, but you must promise me you’ll stay with your loyal squire… Stay with Jarvis and you’ll go on an amazing adventure! And when your journey is over, you will come back to your castle, okay? Promise me to be always brave and good, my boy! Oh, I love you so much, my little knight!”

Jarvis left them on the stairs and run into Howard’s office right on time to see him taking a huge amount of money out of his safe and put it in a briefcase. He passed him two passports with the order to put them inside his pockets and keep them safe.

“Never use your name or the Stark surname again!” he ordered, while he rushed from one drawer to the other swearing on some keys he wasn’t finding.

They heard the sirens approaching.

“Already?” Howard exclaimed like he has been hit by a thunder. He passed him the briefcase. “Jarvis, quick! Get yours and Tony’s jackets! It’s quite cold outside. Take one of my car and run away!”

While Jarvis passed in front of the stairs to recover his jacket and Tony’s one, he saw Tony with eyes closed and his head on Maria’s lap. She was singing at him while she was crying on his head: “Smeared with oil like David's boy, oh lei-oh lai-oh Lord… Smeared with oil like David's boy,…”

The sirens were so close but Jarvis couldn’t find his jacket until he remembered he has left it in the kitchen. Once there he saw the lights of the police outside their windows: they were too late.

One second later the main door was smashed open and cops and FBI agent rushed in by declaring Mr. and Mrs. Stark under arrest for homicide. Jarvis saw Maria been pulled violently away from Tony and pushed on the ground at his feet.

“Goodbye, my boy…” she managed to smile at him once more, before been dragged away by the agents with a violence Jarvis hasn’t imagined. She cried in pain but they didn’t stop.

“Let her go! You don’t have any rights! She’s sick, for Christ’s sake!” Howard shouted, before making his wife’s same end, pushed back on the ground, handcuffed on his back and took away screaming while Tony was witnessing at all of this with panic in his big brown eyes.

“Tony Stark?” Jarvis heard one of the agent asking in his radio as for confirmation. But when he saw him approaching his boy, he finally managed to move and to shout them to stop.

“Do you have a warrant of arrest for a 10 years old boy?” he shouted by putting himself between the boy and the agent.

“I… we don’t… who are you?” the agent asked, confused. They weren’t expecting someone else.

“I’m his caregiver! The boy is under my protection!”

“Sir, we’ve been instructed to take the boy safely with us!”

“Show me your warrant and I’ll give you the boy!”

That had an unexpected counter-effect: at his last sentence, Tony started to scream loud, hugging at his book, clearly on a hysterical crisis. Jarvis dropped everything he had in his hands to hug him and trying to calm him down enough to hear the agent saying: “Well, go away now! The house is under seizure with all it contains!”

Jarvis raised the boy and tried to take one of the luggage with him.

“This includes your luggage, old man!” the agent said.

Jarvis, still hugging Tony, was violently pushed outside from the house, where he noticed there were many cars illuminating the area like it was daylight. He stepped on his own feet and fell down, somehow managing not to end up over Tony.

“Are you hurt, my boy?” he asked him.

“Let’s see what you have there!” one of the agent said, by opening the two suitcases and throwing everything on the ground. “This is Stark Industries razor, confiscated! These suits are the boy’s one… Stark’s properties, confiscated! These…”

“These are my clothes!”

“A fancy pajama for an old man!” the other mocked him showing it around. Then he throw it on Jarvis’s face and menaced: “Keep it and get away from under my nose or I’ll swear I will throw you and your stupid boy in a cell so dark you’ll forget the daylight!”

Then he kicked at a book that has fallen down and, by pointing at another agent, said: “And, you, burn this piece of trash!”

That was when Tony, left alone by Jarvis who desperately trying to collect some things back, shouted aloud like a madman and took his book back from the astonished agent’s hands.

“What the fuck are you doing?” the boss shouted. “Take it back!”

But Jarvis took advantage of the confusion. He grabbed his boy still attached to his book, then he took the half-empty luggage he had and run away, managing to arrive at the opened gates before he heard the boss ordering to chase them and bring them back. He also shouted a new order that made Jarvis froze: shot the butler!

He saw the light of the taxi in front of them and he put unmercifully Tony and the luggage inside, before jumping in and ordering a very confused driver to take them as far away as possible and quickly. While they were getting away, Jarvis saw Tony with his small hands and his nose pressed on the black window, tears flowing from his eyes.

Jarvis turned as well only to see the Stark Mansion disappearing from their view.

“What… what happened?” he thought.

And then his mind froze.

___________________________________________________

He didn’t know how much he remained awake and yet unconscious at the same time, but he came back to his senses only because the taxi has taken a hole in the street and he has hit his head.

“Where… where are we?” he asked, by looking around. He didn’t recognize this part of the town and it was also quite late at least by judging on the quality of the people around.

“Well, you say take us away from here, but you don’t say where, so I simply drove you away…” the driver said. Jarvis look at the price and they were already past 500 dollars.

“Bloody hell!” he thought. He glanced at Tony who was like in trance, hugged at his book. He wasn’t fine, not at all. He needed to rest, and quick.

“Okay, listen!” Jarvis told the driver. “Do you know a good hotel in this part of the town? Like 4 or 5 stars? I’ll give you a good tip!”

“This part of the town… nah! But there’s one quite close… high-class, rest assured!”

“Okay, fine, bring us there and don’t tell it to anyone… 200 are fine for your silence?”

“Cash?” the driver asked. “Because I guess you’ll pay this with card…”

“Yes, okay. Taxi with card, and your tip in cash! Here, take the money!”

After he has put 200 dollars in his pocket, the driver changed directions a couple of times, and then he finally stopped in front of a huge hotel. The presence of a concierge already told Jarvis good on the quality. He paid the taxi with his card, and then he helped the boy out, by testifying how he was simply following his lead without a word. He was indeed wasted and he had all the reasons to be.

Jarvis took him by his hand, while with the other had their only luggage, and went to the reception.

“Good evening, madam” he greeted the receptionist. “I know it’s a bit late at night, but our flight has just landed… do you think it’ll be possible to have a room for me and my boy for a couple of days? We’re quite in need of a good sleep!”

He didn’t know if it was his acting, his high quality tan suit, or his very posh accent that came out when he was stressed, but the receptionist told him that there was no problem, that they still had one room free, obviously with a huge private toilet with a bath suite. They’ll provide also room service if they needed something, and there was a huge selection of teas and snacks as a welcome gift.

Jarvis kept his smile on while he thanked the girl and took the keys, before passing her their passports. He has checked them while the taxi was leading to the hotel: their fake identities were Elmonzo and Costanzo Zante, father and son of Italian immigrants. Jarvis figured out that a past in England could also justify his accent.

“Welcome, Mr. Zante!” the girl said. “And you too, little one. Do you want a lollipop?”

But Tony was so scared that he hide behind Jarvis’s legs.

“He’s really tired! It was a long journey!” Jarvis lied, but he took a lollipop for the kid. “I guess it’s better if I put him to sleep… it’s quite late! Don’t disturb anyone, I’ll manage alone. Goodnight!”

He took the elevator up to their floor, and he entered their large bedroom with gratitude.

He managed to change Tony, but the kid was still not talking and he started also to tremble hard while Jarvis was taking his clothes off.

“Bloody hell, he’s not recognizing me!” Jarvis realized.

He kept talking and talking to him, until he saw like a sparkle in the boy’s eyes.

“J- Jarvis?” he called, like he needed to be sure.

“Yes, my boy! It’s me! Don’t worry! There’s just you and me! Only you and me!”

The boy was looking around without understanding where he was, so Jarvis explained that they were in a hotel room, for now at least. He will get him a better room tomorrow or the day after, maybe a small little house with a garden and they could live there for a while, like they were on holiday!

He made him drinking a tea and then wrapped him in an extra sheet since he doesn’t have the boy’s pajama, and then put him in bed. As soon as he left him alone, Tony started to scream and to call him in fear, and Jarvis had to come back and assure him he was just going to the toilet. He had to leave the door open while he took a quick hot shower, and to talk to him for the whole time.

Then, he slipped in the huge king-sized bed next to his boy and hugged him. He told him it was all right, it was just an adventure of Tony the brave knight and his loyal squire, but this time it didn’t work fine.

Tony crying himself to sleep on Jarvis’s chest. And yet he kept awakening in dread panic various times during the night, and then on the following morning. He always shouted something in line of “Please don’t touch me… I don’t want to… please, please no…” until Jarvis managed to persuade him that he wasn’t Stane and that they were alone. He kept the lights on to reassure him.

They stayed in their room for the whole following day, too wasted to move, by ordering room service. Jarvis noticed that the guy with their food kept looking curiously inside, but it didn’t pay much attention to him.

By the end of the day Tony was getting better and at least he was managing not to have a crisis while he was awake. He has also started to mumble some words in answer to Jarvis’s questions, and that was good.

They watched cartoons on TV for the whole afternoon, and at evening Jarvis dared to left him alone to go take a hot bath (always with the door slightly open). While he was relaxing in the water, the man considered what has happened in that last crazy day. He frowned despite the water temperature was still quite warm: in the space of hours all his world, but most of all Tony’s world has been shaken to the ground.

He glanced from the water to his boy, ruffling his book on the carpet, while there were Looney Tunes on TV. To know that he has been abused for years, probably since he was 6 and started to fear monsters made of smoke made Jarvis screw to himself and his own blindness. And now they were there… what to do?

Well two things were clear: one, he needed to find a safe shelter for both himself and the boy because those orders “Take the boy” and “Shot the butler” kept echoing in his mind. Two, he has failed to protect his boy in the past, but he wouldn’t have for this moment on.

“I’m never going to leave you, my boy!” he promised him that night, while finally Tony has fallen asleep at Jarvis’s side. “I’ll never let anything harm or scare you again!”

Regarding the second promise, he was going to fail miserably like the day after…

_________________________________________________________________

Next morning, Jarvis hoped to cheer the boy up a bit by going together to the agency to look for a new fancy house. The girl at the reception told him that she got some complaints because of the screams, but Jarvis minimized by saying that the boy had a nightmare. She was very sympathetic and gave Tony a lollipop.

They walked hand-in-hand to a fancy estate agency with many different offers. Jarvis was considering a small house uptown, with a little garden, in a fancy neighborhood. The property was small but with a full furnished recently renewed kitchen, a living room with a joint dining room Tony could use for his works and to study, and two furnished bedrooms, one for himself and one for the boy. The house was completed by three toilets, two on each floors and a huge one with a large tub on the master bedroom. Tony was already looking with excitement at his new bedroom, with three windows that resembled portholes, while Jarvis was considering that the kitchen was really nice, with the large quartz counter space, and the five fires and two ovens. The color of the splashback panel didn’t meet his taste but he could live with it.

The price was reasonable and they pretended an advanced payment of the 30% with the remaining at the delivering of the keys, which Jarvis asked whether it could be done as soon as possible. He stated to be anxious to start his new life in New York with his boy, while Tony was taking another candy from the agent’s desk. She winked at the kid and gave him another one, while she prepared all the paperwork. Then she took Jarvis’s credit card for the payment.

But it didn’t work.

“Sometimes it happens” she said with a smile. “I’ll try again.”

Same result.

“Maybe I could pay by check?” Jarvis asked taking the checks out of his expensive suit.

“I beg your pardon but we aren’t allow to accept checks… by first clients!” she replied, still smiling. But Jarvis noted that the sides of her mouth looked tensed. And on the cube behind her, her colleague was accepting a check by welcoming the new clients.

He started to sweat, while he took back his credit card from her.

“I’m sure it’s but an inconvenience!” he mumbled, but he didn’t trust his own words.

“Oh, I’m sure it is! Why don’t you check at the debit card over there? This way you can pay the advance on cash, and then you can use a check for the remaining. I’ll keep a look at your boy!”

But Jarvis saw as she put the candies away.

He went at the debit card in the corner while his heart was bumping.

“Keep calm, old man!” he told himself. “It’s just a small inconvenience… there’s a reasonable explanation!”

But when he tried to put the code he got the message that the card has been blocked by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Jarvis felt the world around him like disappearing in a bubble, like he was living a nightmare and soon he would have woke up and everything would have been fine, he would have served Mrs. Stark her tea and baked the cake with Tony while waiting for Mr. Stark to come back from work.

The reality, however, was screaming in front of his face with the strength of an hurricane. And he was in its eye, in the quiet yellow sky in the middle of the storm. He needed to react, and quickly.

He came back to the agent with a forced smile.

“It seems there’s a problem with my card” he stated, by trying to sound as calm as possible. “I’ll go check with my bank immediately… it is probably just malfunctioning! I’ll be back after I’ve got a new one!”

“Of course, Mr. Zante! I’ll be here for when you’re ready!” she replied, by her smile was of the fakest kind.

“Come, Tony!” he called the boy, who took his hand and went away with worried eyes.

“What’s wrong?” he asked. “I liked those portholes!”

Jarvis was marching back to the hotel with a strange noise on the back of his head, a bumping alarming sound that made his sight blurring at the sides.

“Jarvis?” he heard the boy calling him again. He sounded scared.

He stopped and looked down at him: obviously Tony wasn’t getting what was going on, he wasn’t getting the amount of troubles they were already in, he wasn’t understanding why they haven’t bought that nice house with the windows like portholes and the kitchen with the quartz counter space. Jarvis forced himself to breathe and to act cool, not to scare his boy.

“That house… it wasn’t right for us now!” he stated. Tony looked skeptical at him. “No”, Jarvis thought to himself, “I don’t have to lie to him! I need him to trust me, trust things are going to be okay… I need to tell  him the truth without scaring him! He’s already quite scared and in shock!”

“The point is… that my credit card wasn’t functioning and so we couldn’t buy the house… for now. Until I’ll solve this problem, we have to remain in the hotel. But don’t worry: I have another one and this afternoon while you watched your cartoons I’ll go check what’s wrong. And maybe I’ll buy you some clothes… you can’t keep going around with this, can you?”

Tony smiled a bit, but still he was hesitant.

“Why shouldn’t we eat a big cheeseburgers with fries?” Jarvis proposed to cheer him up. It immediately worked.

“May I have a hot chocolate as well?” Tony asked by jogging along happily.

“Well, we’re still in January, so I guess it’s perfectly legit!”

He tried to pay their lunch with his other credit card, while the boy wasn’t watching, too focus on how the cream melt in his hot chocolate. He had to realize his second credit card wasn’t working either, so he paid by cash with a smile to the cashier.

“It’s probably just demagnetized” the cashier lad told him. “Once it happened to my uncle because he has left it near the microwave… one call to the bank and they change it!”

“I’m sure they will, thank you for your suggestion!” Jarvis replied, politely.

But he was sure he hasn’t put his cards near the microwave or any other devices. As well as he was sure he couldn’t go to his bank to ask for another card: first of all, he was under a fake identity, and secondly, it was probably going to be a trap to find not only him but also the boy. He remembered too well how one of the agents wanted to detain the kid under custody. Maybe they were on their tracks since then. Which meant they could track them here now because he has tried to use his credit card!

They needed to go away. They needed to disappear completely as Anthony Stark and Edwin Jarvis and really became the Zantes, father and son, second and third generation of Italian immigrants.

They’ve blocked their money, and confiscated all their things… which meant they couldn’t count on Starks’ money anymore…

“Bloody hell!” Jarvis thought, finally realizing the mess they were into.

He sat back in front of his boy, happily heating his chocolate, with his stomach full after the cheeseburger with fries. He looked so innocent and yet Jarvis knew how already damaged he was that it broke his heart the idea of his boy ending up poor and desperate.

The old butler swore to himself that at any costs he would have had his child eating fully and satisfying every day, with a balance diet to allow him to grow big and strong. It wasn’t Tony’s fault if they were in the present mess: Tony, among all of them, was the main victim of this! And in no universe would have Jarvis let him paying another price for Stane’s monstrosity! He has been blind once, he wouldn’t allow this to repeat!

They came to the hotel, while Jarvis was making up his mind. First, he needed to check how much money he has left. Secondly, discover how much that hotel costed and how many more nights they could allow themselves. Third, find a new refuge for himself and his boy, maybe a small flat with the living room, a small kitchen and one bedroom… since the kid was keeping sleeping by his side, it had no sense to pretend a three-rooms apartment!

He went back to the hotel tensed but positive: he has seen cash in his wallet, and for sure there was the suitcase Mr. Stark has given him before…

He stood as soon as he entered the hotel room, like it has been hit by a thunder: he remember Mr. Stark filling a suitcase with money, he remembered to have taken the suitcase from his hands, while the sirens were announcing that the cops were arriving and Maria was keeping singing at her boy; he remembered to have rushed at the main entrance behind Mr. Stark; he remembered Maria saying “Goodbye, my brave boy!” to Tony before being violently dragged away; he remembered Howard Stark shouting they didn’t have the authority before following his wife, his head heating the floor while they handcuffed him on his back; he remembered Tony starting to breath hard and then to scream when one agent has tried to take him as well… and he remembered to have dropped the suitcase to grab his boy, to have lifted him in his arms while shouting that he was his legal caregiver and they couldn’t have a warrant for detaining a kid. They have kicked them out one minute later, and, while their taxi was waiting for them, they’ve opened and inspected their luggage, threw many things on the ground by finally letting them go more or less with their clothes on and nothing more… apart from a small bag with the toothbrush, and Tony’s book of “Advanced Mechanics” because the boy has started to scream again when they’ve tried to take it from him.

Now Tony has jumped on the bed and he has switched on the TV, kicking with his small feet while the cartoon started.

Jarvis told him he needed to brush his teeth and closed himself in the toilet. He soon collapsed on the floor breathing hard: the suitcase with the money has remained at the Stark Mansion, and now it was probably gone, together with many other things! He couldn’t bring the boy back there. He couldn’t go back there himself or go to a bank to check why his cards weren’t working, because for sure they were waiting him to do such a dumb move. But, honestly, what else he could do?

“I need money!” he told himself. “I need money, a home for me and Tony… we couldn’t stay here without money! We need clothes, food… a work! I need to find a work!”

He didn’t know what cover Howard Stark has built for the fake Elmonzo “Edwin” Zante and his son Costanzo nicknamed “Tony”, but he hoped it included experiences as a concierge or something. He looked at himself in the mirror and saw only an old man: nobody was going to give a work to an old man like this. He made up his mind and with the razor contained in the “welcome setting”, he shaved off his grey moustache. He also fixed a bit his hair: he didn’t know if it worked, but at least now he looked more as the youngest version of himself in his fake identity card.

“You’re… weird!” Tony exclaimed when he asked him how he looked.

“Well, thanks for your support!”

“No, I mean… it’s weird! Since I’ve known you, you’ve got moustache… but I like this version of you!” the boy added, by coming closer and touching his face right where the moustache were. “I like this… you look younger!”

“That’s exactly the point, my boy!” Jarvis told him with a smile. He reciprocated, a bit hesitant though.

“Were you leaving me alone now?”

“Never again! Now I’ll leave only for a couple of hours, until I find a new place for us and also some clothes for you, okay? It’s quite cold outside, so you stay here, quiet, watch your cartoons, and don’t open the door to anyone, okay?”

Tony was a bit reluctant, but then he nodded and took shelter in the bed while the TV was airing some old episodes of “Tom & Jerry”.

_____________________________________________________

So the plan was to check for a work and a new apartment, but before he had to know how much this hotel was going to cost, because his wallet contained barely 100 dollars, some coins and his old wedding ring Jarvis always carried around there. That money would have been enough for a couple of days… but he needed to buy clothes for the boy, because he didn’t have any! “Lucky” for them they’ve gone out with their winter jackets, so at least they wouldn’t suffer from the bad weather. They were going to need a lighter one maybe… and a change of clothes for the summer… that was just too much.

As for the first thing, he kindly checked with the receptionist how much the room costed per night. He tried to hide his gasp of panic at the price, and to act cool, but he was pretty sure the girl at the desk has noted his embarrassment.

“It’s for a friend… I’ve suggested your hotel for a business trip, but maybe it doesn’t fit his budget! Thank you, by the way!” he said by taking the exit as fast as he could.

“You’re a bad liar, old pal!” he heard Howard Stark’s voice mocking him. He could also see Peggy Carter agreeing together with his wife Ana. “You can’t lie, Mr. Jarvis, you silly!”

But now they were all gone or not here with him and he could have just screwed up the only thing they had. The hotel costed three times more than he actually had in his wallet, so he desperately needed to find money, and quickly! And also a new accommodation for himself and the boy…

He wandered around for a while, actually looking for places to be rent or job offer, until he noticed to have reached a poor part of the neighborhood. And to mark the distinction between the rich and the poor, there was a shop at the corner named “Second hand – clothes for every occasions”.

Jarvis touched his fancy suit under his jacket. It has been the last gift of Ana before dying: she has bought him that fabric, and for many years it has remained in a corner of their former house. Jarvis’s has gone with that to a tailor years later, when Tony was just born and he needed a proper suit for the baptism (Maria has insisted on that, while Howard has commented it was ‘but a superstition’). All his life like turned around that suit, and maybe it was why it was his favorite, why he has put it on that awful afternoon when he got changed to remove Stane’s blood from his clothes. The love of his life has given him that suit. And now he was ready to say goodbye to it in order to manage the wellbeing of the person he loved the most in his life.

“Good afternoon, gentleman” he greeted at the entrance.

“Oh good afternoon to you, sir!” the man behind the counter replied, sugared by the clothes and attitudes of his new client. He was already evaluating him, Jarvis was sure of that. “May I help you somehow?”

“I’m looking for clothes, boy’s size, 10 years old, but he’s quite short. You know kids at this age change size quite frequently…”

The other smiled, gladly to have a buyer, and proposed him different pieces. Jarvis choose two pair of trousers which were maybe a bit longer but they could be adjusted for the boy’s actual size. “He will grow up in this” he thought with a stitch in his heart. This was a big change for Tony Stark, but if he managed the psychological side the boy wasn’t going to notice or give importance to it. He took also an hoodie, another sweater and some shirts on discount, other than the necessary underwear and socks. Shoes were fine for now, but way too fancy for going around and be left in peace, so he also bought him red sport shoes he was sure Tony would have adored.

“Together it’s 3,000 dollars, sir. Do you wish to pay by cash or credit card?”

“Actually,” Jarvis said. “I was thinking of a buying and selling…”

He saw the smile fading away on the other man’s face.

“What are you talking about?” he almost spitted.

Jarvis took off his winter jacket and also the upper part of his suit, and put it on the counter.

“This is a good Italian fabric, Ermenegildo Zegna’s design, I’m sure you knew the quality of their fabrics and clothes, since they’re quite top rank in the field of man suits… I offer you to buy the whole suit: it’s a unique design, well-preserved as you could check by yourself. Jacket, trousers, and gilet. What do you think?”

The other was studying the jacket with a critique eye. “It would take a while to sell it with this color…” he mumbled.

Jarvis noticed he was looking at the shop window so he casually added: “Well, I’m sure it would make a good impression in your window… especially with a nice label that signal its brand!”

The owner studied him with doubtful eyes: “Were you in the buying and selling business by chance?”

“More or less, yes.”

“Well, it seems you bet on the wrong horse!”

“I am more prone to declare it has been a matter of bad timing…” Jarvis replied.

It was partially true: what if he has come home later, what if Mr. Stark hasn’t arrived in that moment but together with him, what if Maria hasn’t come back home right on time to assume the guilt, and what if she hasn’t called that Colonel to self-denounce herself… what if they’ve all asked more about Tony’s nightmare since he was 6, and of that monster made of smoke he was so afraid of!

Too many variables, Jarvis didn’t want to even start to think about.

“What could you do for me, sir?” he asked the owner, directly. “What’s your offer?”

“I haven’t told you I’m interested…” the other replied. The ritual phases of a negotiation. “I’d say 5,000 all included. And I’ll discount the boy’s clothes at 2,000.”

Jarvis scoffed. “Only the jacket is worth 15,000. I guess we’re far away from a right price!”

“I’m sorry, but I’ve got the impression you were the one needing to do this affair!” the other sarcastically replied with a foxy smile. Jarvis swallowed without knowing how to reply, so the other went on: “And I’ve the impression you should also considered to buy something for yourself, or are you planning to go out in the winter only with your underwear and those fancy shoes?”

Jarvis swallowed his pride and started to bargain. He didn’t want to beg, but he wanted at least 15,000 dollars for his completed suit. They agreed on 10,000 (tartan tie included) to be paid cash, plus the boy’s clothes and shoes, a pair of jeans and a sweater for Jarvis. He gave him other 2,500 dollars for the Italian shoes he was wearing and a new pair of them. So, he had the clothes and 12,500 dollars cash now: a fair affair, all things considered.

“I could make you a good price for the parka!” he told him while Jarvis was getting change in the dressing room. “I can tell it’s quite expensive and, man, you don’t want to go down these streets with that on if you want to survive! I can give you a nice and warm one but more… sober!”

Jarvis was hearing only one word on two. He was looking at himself in the mirror with his new clothes and for a moment he was not recognizing himself… or, better, he was seeing like an aged version of another self, the one that went through the war, and immediately after he has deserted to save her and they were in hiding. He could hearing the bombs dropping, and then Ana’s voice complimenting him in his first new suit, and gifting him that fabric…

“Here!” the shop owner’s brought him back to reality. He was passing him a Kleenex inside the changing room. He kept talking to him with a softer voice than before, still remaining outside. “I know it’s hard the first time. These clothes may be just things but they are parts of our identity… how old is your boy?”

“10… almost 11 in a couple of months!” Jarvis replied with a knot at his throat.

“Uhm… I don’t know what happened to you, but remember that these are just things! And there are things you need and things you don’t at some point in your life!” he stopped for a while, then he added like an apology: “I’m doing a business, and with this business I have to feed my family as well. Four kids at home, the youngest one is turning 7 in June. That’s why I can’t do charity… it’s just business, you know? It doesn’t mean I have to like every aspects of my business… do you understand?”

“I do…” Jarvis replied, trying to cut him off. He didn’t want his or anyone’s compassion! “Give me one minute and I’ll be back to you!”

He fixed his suit on the hook, and he made sure they were on order, perfect fold in the trousers, perfect alignment of the gilet and the upper jacket, and he also buttoned up them. He put his tartan tie around the hook with a perfect Windsor knot, which he patted twice by refraining tears from falling down his eyes. He went out and gave all to the shop owner, who was inspecting his Italian shoes with a satisfied look.

“How are your new clothes, sir?” he asked him, politely.

“F- fine...” Jarvis managed to say. “The shoes are comfortable, and everything fits me perfectly.”

With a bit of extreme reluctance, he gave the hook with his old clothes to the shop owner.

“You’re doing the right thing for your boy!” the other told him while he was putting Jarvis’s other purchase inside a huge canvas bag. Then he inspected the suits, despite Jarvis’s gasp.

“It’s not a matter of thrust, sir, but of things being forgotten inside!” the other replied. With an expert eyes, he knew where to touch and he got out of one pocket a dollar, and also Jarvis’s handkerchief, the one embroidered by Ana with his initials.

“Here, you see? Do you want to sell this as well? It’s a good fabric, and the embroidery very well executed despite the initials could limit the clientele… I could make you a good price…” the owner asked.

“No… no please!” Jarvis replied, on the verge of broken apart. “I- I need this! This is my last… memory of… my wife…”

The owner said nothing more but he gave it back to him. Jarvis brought it at his heart, and then back in his new pocket, by trying to calm himself down while he wished the man a pleasant evening.

“If you ever need” the man told him. “There’s a place on the 11^th street, back down this alley on the right. They had apartments and rooms at a fair price… the lowest, in fact, around here. The landlord is a son of a bitch, but tell them Yussuf sent you, okay? He’s the only one to rent rooms without rats in this part of the town. And I suggest you to hide that watch and cufflinks, or to sell them as well: there’s a pawn between the 11^th and the 2^nd, run by a Mr. Cohen, my cousin on my wife’s side. He’s scrooge, so don’t try the pity card, but he’s fair! Don’t tell him I’ll send you to him… we’re not in good terms because of the Knicks, okay? Here it’s your new parka! I’ll give you other 2,000 dollars for it, are we okay?”

Jarvis absorbed all this information with a nod.

It wasn’t late in the evening but the sun has already disappeared. Jarvis cursed himself and rushed back to the hotel, barely aware that the receptionist was calling him for the complaints and also quite gasping for his change of clothes.

Jarvis rushed upstairs and used his card to open the door. Soon he had to duck because an ashtray has made his way towards his head.

“Go away!” Tony was shouting with his acute voice.

“Tony, it’s me!” Jarvis said, by dropping the bag down and closing the door. “It’s me! It’s Jarvis… your Jarvis! Don’t you recognize your Jarvis?”

Only his eyes emerged from the other side of the bed and they were opened in dread panic. At least he has stopped throwing him things, but Jarvis noticed that the room was a mess, and that the boy frowned at each steps he was making towards him. He stopped in the middle of the floor and kneeled.

“Tony, it’s me, Jarvis. I cut my moustache and changed clothes, but do you recognize my voice, don’t you? You said I look weird without my moustache, do you remember? We are in a hotel room somewhere around Hell’s Kitchen, New York. We’ve arrived two days ago, do you remember? Yesterday you were a bit… overwhelmed and we stayed here, but today we went out together and ate cheeseburgers with fries, do you remember?”

He saw his eyes changing expressions. “I also took a hot chocolate with cream…” he mumbled.

Then he exited, and one could tell he has had a bad time. He was wasted, and he has sweated a lot, but he seemed back to himself.

Jarvis dared to move close to him and saw how he didn’t retracted. When he finally touched him, the boy like collapsed in his arms.

“I feel asleep and when I woke up I didn’t know where I was” the boy told him. “Then they knocked at the door… I’ve thought to hear his voice… I was so scared…”

“Who? Who did you think to hear?”

Tony’s voice was low when he said. “Obie… I- I thought to have heard Obie’s voice!”

He started to scratch his arms violently while he started to mumble: “I’m a naughty boy… toys get ripped from naughty boys… naughty boy, Tony… broken toy…”

Jarvis recognized an attack when he saw one. Lucky for him, Tony allowed himself to be hugged by Jarvis, and remained there mumbling his litany, while the man whispered that he was fine, the monster was gone, he was safe now, they were together… it took more than 1 hour to calm him down.

Then Jarvis proposed to take a bathroom in that large hot tub, and then to have dinner in their room. Tony nodded and smiled a bit.

“Then we can try the new clothes I’ve bought you today… you’re going to like them! They’re perfect for a kid your age! Now, go prepare the tub at the right temperature, while I fix a bit around here, okay? And don’t forget the salts!”

He was fixing a bit around, realizing that by luck nothing has been crashed or broken, when they knocked at the door. Jarvis stood tense but it was the director of the hotel, or so he stated.

He was a bit astonished when he opened the door to face the man: he had the face like an angry mouse, with small glasses on the point of his nose, and a luxurious suit. By his look, Jarvis immediately realized how misery he must look in his actual clothes if compared to him… or to the previous self!

“We’ve received complaints” the other stated. He looked almost disgusted at Jarvis’s shoes and at the bag of clothes behind him on the floor, before continuing: “We are a respectable place with a selected high quality clientele, sir. We wouldn’t allow rumors spreading about one of our clients screaming during the night or in the middle of the afternoon! And for sure we have a strict police on regular payment!”

Jarvis swallowed heavily.

“Director, I offer you my humblest apologies for the noise, but…”

“I don’t know what to do of your apologies!” the other replied, acid. “I want you out of my hotel, now!”

Jarvis’s world collapsed under his feet. He didn’t want to, but he begged that despicable man to allow them to stay just for one other night, at least for the boy.

“No way! You’ve caused enough trouble… you and your sick boy! Now you come downstairs and pay your debts or I’ll call the cops! And be glad I won’t call the social assistants after what I’ve been referred your boy was shouting!”

“Please… it’s the middle of the night… the boy is sick…”

“It’s only 8 PM, so you’re plenty of time to find something else up to your… status! I’ll give you two hours, then I want you out of my hotel! And don’t you dare steal a bath towel!”

Jarvis was too wasted to reply that he has never stolen anything, even in his darkest hours during the war, on the Eastern front, when the lack of food was killing many soldiers. He closed the door and leaned against it for a while.

“The bath is ready Jarvis! Do you wish to go first?” Tony asked with a happy tune.

Jarvis cleaned tears off his face. “No, my boy…” he replied. “You... you take the first turn.. could you manage alone for a moment?”

“Yeah, but could you help me with my hair?”

“Sure! I’ll come back in a moment… now I have to go downstairs, at the reception… I’ll be back soon, don’t worry, okay? And don’t play the apnea in the tub!”

He heard him giggling.

“This isn’t fair… not for my boy!” Jarvis thought while he marched downstairs, fully aware of the haughty looks of the other clients, and of the director and the former nice receptionists.

They had the bill ready, which included a penalty for disturbance. Jarvis paid them by cash, by taking the money out of his “new” jeans, and counting every last cent in front of them.

“Is it-“ he tried to ask with a scrappy voice. “Is it possible to have a taxi ready for when we have to leave?”

The director allow it with a wave of the hand, by dismissing him. Jarvis barely heard the two receptionists trying to object that it was quite late, but it didn’t matter now.

When Jarvis went back to the room, he heard that the boy was singing in the tub. It was his mother’s song, because Maria loved to play it and Tony liked it because it talked of a soldier, a poet and a king that faced battles. There was also a biblical meaning nobody explained to him, but it was nice to hear him mumbling along with Maria.

Jarvis announced himself aloud not to scary him, before reaching him in the toilet. The boy was talking about a tool for making giant soap bubbles, and like having a bath inside one of them. Jarvis loved to help him taking a bath, to look how calmly he let him wash his shoulders, and his hair, how he relaxed under his touch.

“This kid trusts me completely!” Jarvis realized with death in his heart. “And I’m about to disappoint him… to betray his trust! Again!”

But it didn’t want to ruin his bath, maybe the last decent one he was going to have in a while. After they’ve finished, he wrapped him up by using many bath suits, even more than necessary and he arranged his hair in a nice turban only to make him laughing.

He looked at his watch while Tony was jumping again on the bed, by stating that he was hungry and looking at the menu for room service. Jarvis wanted to take a bath as well… he deserved it! But when he looked at the clock he saw it was already 9.15 PM.

He hated himself for what he was about to tell Tony, but he had no other way.

He tried his best to remain calm, while he sat next to him and told him they couldn’t have room service as he has promised. Actually, they couldn’t stay there for the night, and they had to pack their things and go away now.

Tony’s expression changed from astonished to perplexed, and then to horrified.

“It- it’s because of me, isn’t it?” he asked, already knowing the answer. “It’s because I’m a naughty boy that doesn’t deserve good things?”

“No! No! No!” Jarvis immediately stopped him. “It- It’s because of me, Tony! I’ve made a mess, and I have no longer my credit cards! So they believed we can’t pay and they’re kicking us out… It’s all my fault, Tony! I’m sorry…but, don’t worry! I’ve already found a place for tonight, okay, my brave knight? Your squire has made a mess but he will provide to your needs, including dinner, okay? We’ll take a pizza on our way, with ham and cheese as you like it, okay?”

Tony nodded, by he looked around a bit upset to be told they have to leave their shelter so soon. Jarvis knew this was a psychological bomb for him, especially after what they’ve had to endure. He saw him trembling.

“We knew this was going to happen, right?” he tried to cheer him up, while he was drying his hair and helping him getting dressed with the new clothes he has bought him.

He put the old ones together with the new and his own in their only bag, which also contained the boy’s book. Tony for a moment believed Jarvis was going to leave it behind and hugged at him like a plush, before the man reassured him on that point. Still, he wanted to keep it in his hands, and Jarvis thought it was a good way to calm him down. He checked to have picked up everything, and he put the money he had earned by selling his clothes partly in the luggage, partly on himself, and partly in Tony’s inside pocket of his jacket, together with his new ID.

“This is very important, okay?” he told him. “You must keep this money safe and don’t tell anyone you have it until we reached our destination. Do you understand, my knight?”

Tony nodded, but one could tell he wasn’t liking what was happening. Jarvis had almost to drag him physically outside the door, before doing one last check. He closed the door behind them and took the elevator down to the hall, hand-in-hand with his boy, and the luggage with the canvas bag on the other side.

“We left your room as we’ve found it, towels included!” Jarvis stated by putting the keys on the counter.

“Your taxi is waiting outside, sir!” the director almost spitted, especially on the ‘sir’.

Jarvis greeted them all politely, and took Tony outside and inside a taxi.

“Déjà-vu…” he thought, by remembering how they’ve been kicked off the Stark Mansion only a few days earlier. For sure, the boy was feeling the same, like he was living his trauma again and again. If it was allowed, Jarvis would have wanted to scream. Instead, he had to conceal, to remain calm for the boy and to drag him to safety in that cold January night.

“Where to, sir?” the taxi driver asked.

Jarvis thought a bit before making up his mind: “They talked me of a place on the 11^th which has rooms to rent…”

The taxi driver turned around a bit astonished by the request: for sure he was a bit confused since he has picked them up in front of a fancy hotel at a strange hour, and maybe he was expecting to bring them at the airport or similar. A glance to Jarvis’s clothes told him enough because he mumbled, by starting the engine: “I see… bad luck at the Stock Market? Or was it the betting vice?”

“I beg your pardon?” Jarvis asked, confused.

“Your clothes…” the man continued by looking at him at the rear window. “Did you lose all in one day, didn’t you? Jeez, and you also have a kid with you…”

Since Jarvis wasn’t answering, blushing for embarrassment, he turned to the street and turned the radio on. They heard jazz music for a while, then a special edition of the news started. And that was how they heard that the judge has confirmed the arrest for Maria and Howard Stark, both accused of terrorism, illegal weapon traffic, economic frauds, and also for the homicide of Stark Industries vice-CEO Obadiah Stane; all the estate of the Starks have been confiscated and put under custody for further investigation. The authorities were also looking for the boy, Anthony Edward Stark, to be put under social care, and for a Mr. Edwin Jarvis to be arrested for complicity in the Starks’ crimes.

Jarvis has listened without a word, pale as a ghost. When he turned to Tony he saw in his eyes the same dread panic he has seen before at the hotel. He has already started to mumble “naughty boy…”

“Can you imagine?” the taxi driver was commenting aloud. “That son of a bitch of Stark was a corrupted bastard! I’ll tell you, maybe we’ll discover he was also a Nazi or a Komi! Oh gosh, I bet he’s a secret Komi agent, what do you think?”

“How far are we from our destinations?” he asked instead, more worried for the boy’s on-going crisis.

“Uh? Ten minutes, more or less…”

“Okay, pull over here! We’ll cover the rest walking!”

“Are you sure? It’s quite cold in the night! If it’s for the money I’ll make you a fair price…”

“You’re very kind but we’re fine, thank you!” Jarvis replied by paying him fully, and helping Tony outside the taxi. He took his luggage and canvas bag by himself, while an astonished driver was mumbling something about ‘white people’.

“Stay close to me, Tony, okay?” Jarvis told him, taking his hand.

He has thought that walking would have helped the boy calming down, especially in the cold winter air.

He already regretted his idea after a few steps: they were in an unknown district, and they looked like the perfect target for robbers… gosh, they carried so much money with them, not to mention Jarvis’s fancy watch, and Tony… they could kidnap him and sell him to some pedophile network… he looked so cute and defenseless in his fancy coat and pompon hat!

He knew his panic was growing inside his head, distorting his perception of reality, but he saw dangers at every corner, and he knew for sure the boy was feeling the same… he couldn’t help him now, as well as he couldn’t help himself but only remain calm, not to answer to whistled provocation or general questions like “You got lost, old man?” or more frowning “How much do you want for the kid?”.

He hoped Tony was not hearing any of this, he was not perceiving Jarvis’s own growing despair, when finally he saw the sign of “Brogin – Room for rent”. He didn’t waste time inspecting the building or wondering if he was at the right place, but quickly jumped inside the front door, with Tony and his things. There was a light on at the concierges despite the hour, so Jarvis dared to ring the bell. A tiny man with a lazy attitude emerged one moment later, and it was quite surprise to see them at his door.

“Well, well, what has the night brought to my humble house?” he asked. Since they weren’t reacting, he stretched out a hand and said: “Bull Brogin, owner of this building, how may I help you?”

“We- we need a room, sir… a flat would be nice… Mr. Yussuf said you might have something….I- I’m sorry, my name’s Jar- Zante, Elmonzo Zante, by they called me Edwin normally!” he said, perfectly aware to have stepped at every words.

“Zante eh?” the other man was evaluating him. “Never heard of Zantes before… and you kid?”

Tony retracted behind Jarvis’s legs; he could feel him trembling.

“This is Costanzo, my son” Jarvis replied by somehow managing to regain control over the situation. “We have found ourselves in an… let’s called it unexpected situation! We are in urgent need of a shelter… as I said before, a small flat would be nice for the time being!”

“Uh, let’s assume I have a room for an old man and his kid arriving so late in a January night… especially if Yussuf sent you! I should have recognized the clothes, but I got distracted by the boy’s fancy jacket… How long do you plan to stay here?”

Jarvis had no idea, and for sure he couldn’t told aloud his fears with Tony already in panic behind his legs.

“I- I honestly don’t know, sir. It could be a couple of days, or maybe weeks…”

The other scoffed but he went inside to take a bunch of keys.

“Follow me!” he ordered, by taking the stairs without offering to help them with the luggage. They didn’t go past the first floor, though. “You’re lucky! The past tenant got away last week and I haven’t find a new one yet. It’s a nice and comfortable one-room flat, full furnished with the kitchen, a double bed, if you and your kiddo didn’t mind to share it, otherwise let me know and I will provide you an extra one. There’s obviously a private toilet, with shower. All towels, sheets, pans and plates are included: I’ve cleaned it right yesterday!”

From his words, Jarvis was expecting to find a nice even if small flat, fully-furnished as he has said, with a big bed and the smell of a clean floor to welcome them. He was already experiencing relief, when the reality once again hit him in his stomach in the form of the smell of mold and closed space.

And when the landlord switched the lights on the truth was even harder to digest: the flat was squalid, barely illuminated by the only bulb without chandelier pending from the ceiling over a small table with a nearby kitchen who seemed to come directly from one of Jarvis’s nightmare, with his single electric fire, the mini-fridge and also the limescale on the sink. And as his nose has told him, there were mold stains at every corners, especially near the only window which led directly on the wall of the alley. No couch, no TV, and a small toilet separated by a slim wall and a curtain.

“It’s the only one I’ve left, and I can assure you no one is going to offer shelter to you two at my price!” the other grinned behind his back. “It’s 200 a week, advanced payment of four weeks, plus the extras!”

“Weeks? But I’ve told you…” Jarvis tried to protest.

He was immediately shut down: “When people arrived at my door so late at nights, in their words days are weeks and weeks are months… so yeah, it’s 800 dollars, or that nice watch you have there!”

Jarvis was considering his chances with a padded mind and also an empty stomach only full of anguish. He briefly saw Tony’s big brown eyes opened in fear, while he was looking around on the verge of a crisis, probably wondering what they were doing there, how come they have ended up in a place like this.

“Take it or leave it, Mr. Zante!”

“I want to go home…” Jarvis heard Tony mumbled, before he fell on the floor, hard panting and starting once again to repeat: “Naughty boy… broken toy… naughty boy…”

“We’ll take it!” he said, by picking up his money in the pocket and giving that man the cash. He counted them in front of him, not minding the crying kid, before nodding that they were fine, and he would have provided their receipt by tomorrow. He also added something about extras, but Jarvis wished him good night and closed the door on his face.

He quickly went by his kid’s side, raised him from the dirty floor, and put him on his lap while he sat on the border of the bed.

“Hush… Hush… I’m here…”

“It’s all my fault, Jarvis!” the boy was crying on his shoulder, with an hiccup. “If I haven’t told you to stay with me… if I’ve haven’t wished you to come back…”

“Hush! Hush, my boy, it wasn’t your fault, okay? It’s not your fault at all!” Jarvis tried to console him, but he too was trying to control a growing crisis. He let it go only in forms of tears, while he kept hugging at his boy and whispering him that it was fine, it was going to be fine.

“Are we going to stay… here?” Tony asked, desperation in his childish voice.

That same morning he has been almost promised a little house with porthole windows and now he has been dragged away in the middle of the night from a 5-stars hotel to… this! It was something even an adult without recent traumas like Jarvis was hardly managing to afford. For the kid, after all he has been through, after having experienced a similar trauma only two days ago, it was going to be simply devastating.

“For the moment, Tony!” Jarvis told him, fiercely attached to his hope to manage things right. “This is… temporary, okay? We’ll stay here for a couple of days, maybe a few weeks, until I’ve managed to fix everything. I’ve encountered some issues, but it’s not your fault at all. It’s mine, okay? I’ve made a mess, but give me time to fix things for us, would you? And, please, remember that I’ll always be by your side! You know this, don’t you? Good! This… this is just another adventure! The knight and the squire have been kicked out from the tavern by a mean lord, and they found themselves in a strange town. The only shelter is an ugly tavern who smelled like trolls’ feet!”

Jarvis didn’t know how that came out, but he heard the boy chuckling a bit on his shoulder. He was slowly calming down, but when he looked around he was again quite scared by what he was seeing, and hide again on his chest, with eyes closed. To complicate things, from the upper floor they started to shout and smash things and some dust fell on their heads.

“Why can’t we go home?” Tony tried again, crying. “Jarvis, please… I want to go home…”

Jarvis sighed, and forced him to look at him in the eyes. “Listen, my boy: bad men have done bad things, and now they’re trying to blame your father and mother! Bad men like Obadiah, okay?” he knew he understood him. “Those bad men have taken your castle now, little knight, and they were looking for you as well… yes, for you, my brave little knight! So I, as your squire, have to keep you safe and hide in the most unlikely place! Do you think they will search for Tony Stark here?”

The boy nodded, with a sign of a tired smile while he replied: “I- I trust you, Jarvis! Will you… will you take me home when you could? Can you promise me that?”

“Of course, my boy!” he replied, immediately. “I promise I’ll bring you home as soon as I can!”

“Okay, then…That’s enough for me… It will be enough…”

Jarvis felt him relaxing in his arms, almost fainting: he was indeed extremely tired both physically but most of all mentally. While he was hugging his crying scared boy, Jarvis considered the damages Tony’s mind would have endured when they managed to come out of the present mess. Or if they managed…

He cursed himself because he has done what he had sworn never to do: he has lied to him! He has given him the illusion they were going home, sooner or later.

But while he was looking at the desolation of their future life (was that a cockroach emerging from the sink?), Jarvis started to seriously doubt things could have gone any better.

___________________________________________________________________ 

The following days were a bit problematic under different points of view, and the nights were even worse.

They haven’t slept much on their first night at their “shelter”, as they called it, and at first light the amount of their misery has hit them in plain face.

If “squalid” was the first adjective Jarvis has used, “awful, horrific, terrible, unappealing, shocking” and, finally, “disagreeable” were all things he stated aloud while he was checking their new shelter. He has also critically inspected the sheets and towels furnished and he tried not to retch in disgust. He declared themselves lucky not to have taken their clothes off before sleeping there, and he proposed also to clean their own clothes and themselves… only to discover that the so-called toilet was in an even worse state that the rest of the house, not only for its hygiene but also for its disposition: to put it simply, the shower was above the WC, so if you took a shower, you needed to sit on the WC and you were going to wet everything.

“Keep calm, old man… keep calm!” he imposed to himself.

Tony was looking at him, not talking again, all hugged at his book like an amulet. Jarvis would have wanted to run away from that ugly place, but he knew it was impossible. He has randomly seen the prices of the flats the day before and he has now already paid 1 entire month, so at least for the next 29 days they were stuck there. But in no universe he would have allowed his boy to sleep or live in the dirt!

Since he couldn’t and didn’t want to leave him alone, he didn’t have much choice but to ask Tony to help him while he put their sheets and towels into the canvas bag and brought them to an automatic laundry. He put the boy on guard there, even if he was scared to be left alone, but he told him he was his job as a brave knight. He went in the shop next to the laundry to buy products for cleaning, cockroach traps, and also toothpaste, two brushes, dental floss, soap and shampoo. He also took sponges, vinegar and baking soda.

“It’s for the mold stains, my boy” he explained to him while they were aiming to their shelter once again, both with hands quite full.

“O-oh! Springtime cleaning?” the landlord mocked them. “I knew you would have stayed!”

Jarvis didn’t pay attention to him, and he also instructed Tony not to talk with him or tell him anything, especially not his true surname.

“Don’t tell your name to anyone, my boy, okay?” he urged him. “From now on you are Costanzo Zante… we can always shorten it in “Tony”, okay? Good!”

He put all his errand on the dirty floor with the purpose of attacking it later.

“Now, Tony, I need you to stay sit on the table for a moment okay? Look, I’ll clean it first and you sit here: you’ve been nominated “towels guardian”, remember? Now your duty is to keep the sheets and towels inside the canvas bag and over your knees, could you? Perfect, now you’re going to see how a professional butler works!”

He was trying to be a clown on purpose, to cheer the kid up, because since the day before he hasn’t uttered a single word. The only sound that has emerged from his throat has been a scream when he has seen death cockroaches in the sink. Jarvis has feared rats could also climb up their toilet, so he has imposed Tony to keep it always closed.

He spent the whole morning and part of the afternoon cleaning, at some point also with Tony’s help: Jarvis realized that if the boy had something to do with his hands, he was less prone to have a crisis, and that was good… and it also explained while he suffered the most during the night.

Jarvis didn’t mind the waste of money when he ordered a huge pizza for lunch (they haven’t had anything the day before for dinner, and Tony needed to eat). When they finished the cleaning, he was satisfied of their living room-kitchen-bedroom and he heard Tony clapping his still puffy hands. Jarvis thought he was very cute; scared and damaged but cute… and smart! Because he has understood how that awful kitchen worked and he has instructed Jarvis on that electric fire, and also on not using the oven because it can explode.

So they hadn’t an oven, and also any couch, or television, or armchair. If they wanted to rest they needed to use the only bed in the room, which wasn’t quite large for two adults, but lucky for them Tony was still a boy, and also of the short kind. The heating system was malfunctioning, as the boy confirmed, and in general their shelter was quite cold and humid, so sleeping together could also be a solution to keep warm.

Jarvis left Tony on the table ruffling his “Advanced Mechanics” book, while he checked the mattress for insects. He feared the worst, but for once they were lucky: the mattress was packed inside a plastic bag and there weren’t signs of ‘suspicious activities’ (as he called it). He left the bag wrap around, just to be sure and he made the bed with the now really clean sheets. He wondered that he had to waste other money to buy new ones and maybe also an extra covert, since the only one they had was not going to be enough in that season. He would have costed a lot and they were running (already!) out of money, so he considered to sell or pawn his cufflinks and his watch. He was emotionally attached to both of them, but in the end, he thought, they were but things… and the watch was really attracting undesired looks so in the following days he was the first to be sacrificed.

For the moment, Jarvis put it, the cufflinks and his handkerchief on a drawer in the kitchen together with the money they still have; he has put also his wedding ring out from his wallet and in-between the handkerchief, to avoid to lose it in case of robbery. He instructed the boy not to touch that drawer, and also not to let anyone inside if Jarvis was not present.

Once the bed was ready, Jarvis asked Tony to test it, while in reality he wanted him to rest. The boy’s humor seemed on a rollercoaster since he kept switching from thrilled by the new adventure to deeply aware and scared because of their present situation. This switch from children to adult was already present in Tony’s behavior even before the past night, but now Jarvis wondered if it has worryingly worsened by the recent experiences.

He tried to cheer him up again by saying: “My lord knight, I’ll proceed with the attack to the toilet! Wish me luck against the giant trolls and the gnomes who could cowardly assault your valiant servant!”

“Good luck, Jarvis!” Tony wished him with a trace of a smile. Those were the first words he has uttered in the whole day.

Jarvis felt his eyes on his back for the whole time, so he kept inventing stories of dragons, gnomes and other creatures hidden in the toilet and that they have been defeated by the valiant squire to provide a safe shelter for his lord knight.

When he finished, he was more than wasted, but finally satisfied: it was still an horrible place, but at least now it was clean… up to his standards of clean! The mold stains were still there, and Jarvis knew it would be impossible to remove them completely if they didn’t remove their main cause, but at least he has contained them.

“We will fight with this mold monster again, my boy! But for now it has been defeated!”

While he was finally resting on the bed, with Tony taking a nap with the head on his lap, Jarvis considered how much money he has wasted to turn their awful shelter into something acceptable. He cursed himself, because he has been so focused on the imminent task to forget their overall situation and the other major expenses he should manage to afford immediately. He wasn’t used to count every coin and his life with the Starks has made him blind to the small necessities that he had to manage now like, for instance, the toilet paper!

To complicate things, from what he could tell of the sleeping boy by his side, Tony was still in a deep state of shock and confusion and he needed help, in forms of therapy or pills: the former wasn’t possible, and the second was going to be quite expensive. For sure, he would have benefit of psychological therapy also to go over the years of abuses… but that was unfortunately a thing they could afford at the moment! However, Jarvis was ready to sacrifice another important part of their savings to buy the kid a tranquillizer he knew Mrs. Stark also take and that, as he checked, was good for kids in the right dosage. He was only astonished by the ease with which he could buy this kind of drugs… and also by how much it costed!

He also spent other money to fill their pantry with long-life products like bean cans and similar he found at a discounted price at the market, but it was clear that from that moment on he had to drastically redefined their life-styles… well, his own in particular! For instance, no more fancy teas or breakfast for him: he would have allowed himself only a sober lunch and a dinner with soup. Average tea has also entered his pantry for the first time, with an awful gasp by his British self every time he took a sip of it. Conversely, he has maintained a full dietary plan for his kid also including red meat and fish even if only once a week. And he has managed to buy also a blueberry jam that has made Tony smile… and that was enough for him.

Obviously, he hasn’t told Tony about their financial problems, because he was already quite traumatized. At least with the drops of tranquillizers he was sleeping at night, waking up only once or twice if the neighbors were particularly noisy. And every time Jarvis needed a while to calm him down, so he wasn’t at all out of troubles.

But after a couple of days it was clear to Jarvis that he had to move to phase three of his plan: find himself a job.

So, next morning he woke both himself and his boy up quite early. As he expected, Tony protested on his side, but Jarvis needed him not to wake up alone to avoid a serious panic crisis. He has planned to go around the town with him to look for jobs, but that morning Tony was like afraid of living their shelter (he was like in need of a safe permanent nest, so Jarvis has already discarded the idea of looking for a possible other place to stay). Tony didn’t want Jarvis to go out either, because he had had a bad dream and he wasn’t fully aware to be awake. So Jarvis ‘wasted’ part of the morning to calm him down, also with the help of buttered bread with blueberry jam (for the kid only, obviously).

Jarvis had to go out, so he prepared him lunch, and then they reached a compromise: he gave Tony his watch (a used one, since he has sold his own) and he showed him that when it signed a certain hour he would have been back (despite his smartness, Tony still had troubles to read the clock). Jarvis also told him that when the watch signed another hour, Tony had to eat what Jarvis has left in the mini-fridge for him. Tony nodded and promised, but Jarvis saw him sheltering himself under the coverts once he was at the door. He cursed the lack of a phone, which could have been helpful.

He was positive that, because of his competences and educated talk, he would have managed to find a job by the afternoon. It was a cold but sunny day, so maybe he could have brought Tony out for a small walk and bought him something to celebrate his new job… a small cake would have been perfect!

Instead, he went through ten different job agencies, but the results were always the same: “It’s a bad period and you don’t have a known record, Mr. Zante!”, “You seemed quite old and this job requires strength…”, and the worst of all: “I’ll take your profile into consideration…”

“Damn, Howard!” Jarvis thought, without remembering that probably that wasn’t the situation Howard Stark had in mind while he was giving him papers with his wife shouting that the cops were at their door. And now obviously Mr. Stark didn’t know where they have disappeared or that they were extremely in need of money. And Jarvis didn’t dare to contact him or his lawyers either.

“Stop thinking about him!” he imposed himself. “No fairy godmother is going to appear and save you, so if you want to fix things, you should do it by yourself! Come on, old man, show them what you’ve got! For the boy!”

At the last agency, Jarvis made up his mind to do what he hated: he started to lie. He told the nice Irish lady named Rhane Sinclair at the other side of the table that there was not a record in the US because he has worked on cruise ships all around the world. He was a specialized concierge, and also an excellent cook, even if his specialties were Italian and French food, and he hasn’t completely mastered Chinese or Thai cuisine. But he prepared an excellent sushi or so his sensei told him. And in his life he has been a literature teacher, and a private tutor, able to manage also young babies, changing diapers and so on.

Miss Sinclair was indeed well-impressed by hearing him talking, but then, like the other, she started with the usual “Listen, Mr. Zante, I will take your profile into considerations but…”

And Jarvis knew exactly what words were about to go out from his mouth after the “but”. He had had enough.

“Please, Miss Sinclair, don’t start with the usual litany!” he interrupted her in the middle of her excuses based on his age. He sighed: “I need to be plenty honest with you. I’m here because I’ve lost everything! When my wife died I found myself alone, without a purpose in life… but then there’s our kid… my son, Miss Sinclair, I have a picture there… here he is! His name’s Tony and he’s really short and bossy around… since last month, more or less! He has turned lifeless and scared after his mother has been taken away in front of his eyes… everything scares him and I’ve needed to buy him medicines…”

“What- what’s your point, Mr. Zante?” she asked, but Jarvis noticed she was touching the cross on her necklace. She was a devoted Christian, then.

“Good” Jarvis thought, already despising himself, “It’s working! I could play the pity card…”

“The point is, miss Sinclair that I need a job… any job! I need to attend at my boys’ needs… do you know how much his medicines cost? Do you know that I have to choose between giving him food or to pay the bills? It’s not  a situation you want to find yourself into! But I can assure you one thing: I will live on water and nothing else to have my boy still eating well!”

He paused and looked at her, daring to stretch and take her hand. She didn’t retract.

“Please, Miss Sinclair” he continued his begging. He despised himself but he had no other choice. “I’m in desperate need of a work… any work, for real! I’ll do whatever you have got, literally! But please don’t let me go home empty handed and disappoint my child again! Don’t let them take him away from me if they thought I’m not able to provide at his needs…”

He hasn’t planned to, but he busted into tears, too wasted at the idea of his boy being dragged away by the social assistants as their awful landlords has insinuated if the boy didn’t stop his night crisis. That was when Jarvis has bought the tranquillizers, definitively compromising their finances. But now he had this fixed thought of social assistants taking his kid away that he couldn’t sleep. And he didn’t dare even to mention the possibility with Tony, even if he suspected that the boy has heard and understood everything!

“Please…” he begged her once again.

She was moved, for real, not just for empathy. She patted his hands, then she started to search on her computer.

“Let me see what I can do… for now I haven’t long term jobs, just day-by-day. Would it be good for you?”

“Fine, it’s fine! Literally everything…!”

“Everything?” she asked him again by passing him a paper. “Well, this is what I can offer you for now… but if you’ll come on Monday I may have something else!”

Jarvis glanced at the paper and swallowed heavily. But his mind was making the addiction and with those jobs he could pay everything, included the extra rates he has discovered their landlord has imposed over electricity and hot water, not to mention the malfunctioning heating system. If he could have taxed them for the mold, for sure he would have.

“Whatever it takes…” he thought.

“It’s fine for me, miss Sinclair!” he said aloud, by signing the paper. “What I have to do now?”

She counter-signed it and gave it to him together with a pass: “Present yourself at the address written there tomorrow morning at 7 AM. It’s not far from here. They provide you the custom and the flyers. Your turn lasted from 8 AM to 6 PM, with a small lunch break from 12 to 12.15. No other breaks allowed. At 6, give back your custom and the flyers you have left and they will pay you 20 dollars, plus an extra tip based on the amount of flyers you distributed. If they like you, you could take this job till the end of the week and come back here next Monday morning for new ones. If not… well, I guess we will meet again the day after tomorrow. In the meanwhile, I’ll take a look for something more up to your skills, but I dare to say it won’t be easy with this crisis… and now they will arrive all the unemployed from Stark Industries…”

“Thank you, Miss Sinclair!” Jarvis said, and he meant it. 20 dollars were a misery for those working hours but he could have bought food for the boy for the week if he managed well the everyday discount offer on expiring products.

In the following weeks Jarvis was going to learn a lesson on “humility and humiliation”.

But he was also going to see his boy eating fine and well, and, step by step, his mind was coming back to the world. The boy wasn’t so scared anymore, and slowly he has started to go outside even if only together with Jarvis.

Jarvis was only a bit worried for Tony’s cough, because the heating in their building has definitively broken at the beginning of February. Jarvis learnt it was a common situation in that part of the town.

While addressed on the issue by several residents, Jarvis included, the landlord badly joked on the fact that the funeral services were already preparing children’s coffins. Jarvis frowned inside and, for the first time in a lifetime, he prayed every Gods he knew to spare his boy.

Because, in the meanwhile, Tony’s cough was worsening.

_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________