*****************
(Reporter on TV)
“We interrupt our regular programs to give you a flash news: the billionaire Howard Stark has been found dead in his home this morning at dawn.
According to a preliminary report, the founder and owner of Stark Industries has hanged himself and he has been discovered by the housekeeper. A leak has also revealed that Mr. Stark was suffering from severe depression after the tragic loss of both his wife, Maria Carbonell-Stark, and their 12 years old son Tony.
As you might remember, the boy was kidnapped and raped before being left to die almost two years ago. For this horrendous crime, the police has immediately arrested Stark’s college roommate, Mr. James Rhodes, who is still detained waiting for his process. To date, no other suspects have been indicated by the prosecutor.
On Mr. Stark’s death, the Stark Industries’ vice-CEO Obadiah Stane is expected to deliver a press declaration late this afternoon concerning the passing of the founder of the company and the future developments of Stark Industries. A huge drop on the financial market is expected to take place.”
*****************
Jarvis has taken care of everything as always.
When that morning the phone has ranged, he already knew about the death of his boss and friend Howard Stark from the TV. On the other side of phone, though, Colonel Fury of the SHIELD was informing him that it was a real hanging, probably after Stark has watched some old family movies from the whole night. He had left the movie on in loop mode.
Jarvis has closed his eyes and breathed slowly: he knew those movies perfectly, since he recorded many of them, with both Howard and Maria at their first meetings, immediately after the weeding, the long times waiting for a child, and then the happy Sunday spent playing on the carpet with baby Tony. Their son… Jarvis’s son too, even if not biologically!
He remembered those moments in the kitchen, preparing the cake while Maria was playing the piano and Howard was showing Tony how to fix a robot car. He remembered when Tony jumped to him in the kitchen to proudly show his robot, and Jarvis lifted him and put him sit next to the sink while he kept on cooking. He remembered when the boy was tired but didn’t want to go to sleep, and Jarvis took him in his arms and cradled him softly by telling him a story until he has closed his eyes.
He remembered to have cradled him to sleep till the last time, in that hospital room, surrounded by those machines who made a weird “bip”, until his boy has closed his eyes forever.
“Mr. Jarvis?”
Fury voice broke him back to the painful memory he has fallen into. The same memory he kept dreaming night after night since that awful day when his world has been cracked apart.
“Mr. Jarvis, are you still here?” Fury repeated for the third time, his tone worryingly raising.
“Y-yes, I am” Jarvis managed to say by dry his eyes with one hand.
“I know it must not be easy for you” the Colonel continued after a pause. “But we have received very specific instructions from Mr. Stark. His last wishes were that you will take care of his burying next to his wife and son, and then proceed to dispose of his huge material estate following specific instructions. It appears Mr. Stark wanted all to be devolved to charity, but you are left in charge of deciding institutes and sums. A federal judge will give you more precise indications later. We’ll send you a car till the Mansion to pick up Mr. Stark’s clothes for the service, then agent Hand will escort you to the morgue. We’ll be there in 10.”
Jarvis replied with a plane “Yes”, but his mind was padded from the outside world. He didn’t even mind to wonder why a Colonel from SHIELD was so involved in a suicide case, because he knew that was all part of Mr. Stark’s plan. The same plan that has got his son Tony and later his wife killed, and now himself. The same plan Jarvis has known only after he and Howard Stark have closed the coffin with the body of their young boy inside: Tony has always appeared so calm and relaxed when he finally managed to sleep, and that time was not an exception. There were no doubts that his mother Maria has thrown herself over her son’s body, calling his name and asking him to wake up like he was really only asleep. She has kept calling and calling her boy’s name while her heart too was stopping to beat.
Now they were both resting together in the Stark family tomb in New York central cemetery, one in front of the other. Jarvis knew that there were two more places in that tomb, and that the one right under Miss Stark would soon be occupied by her husband. After all his fights and games, Howard Stark hasn’t survived the vastness of his loss.
Jarvis only hoped that Mr. Stark has managed to conclude what it was needed to be concluded. But by judging from Colonel Fury’s intervention there were still missing things that for sure Mr. Stark has left him to fix. Like always…
For the moment, though, Jarvis only managed to follow the lead of the agents till the Stark Mansion, to lose himself in the memories that have invested him right when he has put foot again in that house: the same house where he has served for many years, where he has seen Howard drunk, happy, angry, and in love with Maria and their son, where Tony was running around following Jarvis everywhere he went, where they had so many good times… but also the bad ones, like when Mr. Stark senior has started to raise his hands on both his wife and the boy, when Jarvis has tried to stop him, when Mr. Stark has shouted him “You’re not his father, son of a bitch! I am!” so many times he has lost count.
Jarvis had to grab to a wall because he was unable to proceed, especially when he heard Tony’s childish voice cheering from the living room. For a single painful moment, he believed that all of this has been but a nightmare and that he was finally awake, and everything was fine: now he would have turned that corner and he would have found everyone there, Tony on the carpet painting, Maria at the piano, and Howard reading his journal on the couch waiting for his Martini. They would have smiled at him and asked him where he went, why he has been so late.
Then he heard Tony’s voice saying: “Look, Jarvis, that’s an armored flying knight!”
And his own voice, albeit many years before, answering him: “I am afraid, my boy, but knights don’t fly!”
He remembered the astonished and lost look in his boy’s big brown eyes, while he looked alternatively from his painting to Jarvis. “Well, I suppose I should built an armor that makes them flight!” Tony had said, firmly.
“I’m sure you will, my boy…” present-time Jarvis muttered at the same time as the Jarvis on the recording. He too has watched those movies many times in the last two years.
“Shut down that damn thing, for God’s sake!” he heard Fury’s voice right before the Colonel himself marched outside the living room.
“Mr. Jarvis” he greeted him, by shaking his hand. If there was compassion in him, he didn’t let it through while he urged him to pick Stark’s clothes and what he needed to dress the body, because they would have to sigil the area.
“Do you happen to know if Mr. Stark has a panic room or a secret cave or… something to keep valuable things?” he asked, trying to sound nonchalantly.
“Bloody hell, Mr. Stark!” Jarvis screwed in his mind. The man has really left everything to do behind. But Fury didn’t know that the butler knew, and Jarvis really preferred to keep things like they were. He had other things to thing for right now.
“I’ll show you some places…” he replied instead.
He did what they asked, nothing more. He picked up Mr. Stark’s clothes, his favorite watch, the cufflinks, the handkerchief, the tie, the shoes, and some pictures of him, Maria, and Tony to be put in the coffin with him. He let his feelings overwhelming him again, when he was passing in front of Tony’s room and he noted that the door was opened and there were many things on the floor, including an empty bottle of scotch that surely didn’t belong here and wasn’t here last time he checked… directly before the boy’s funeral.
“Apparently Mr. Stark has got heavily drunk here and in his room before moving downstairs and put that video on” agent Coulson told him. “We will be more sure after the autopsy!”
Jarvis kneeled to collect some pictures that have fallen on the floor. They showed Tony with his first creations, side by side with his father, both smiling, or the kid on the piano with his mother. Jarvis remembered how Maria has shouted not to touch her boy’s body, not to dare to perform an autopsy on him, not to disturb his sleep or beauty.
After her heart has stopped too and she was lying cold beside her son, Howard Stark has authorized the autopsies on both, but he has imposed not to touch their heads and brains. There was a bit of a fight with the doctors and the federal officers in charge, but in the end they surrendered to this request. They didn’t let Jarvis in, so the butler has gone home to take the clothes and everything for dressing the bodies and prepared them for their last journey.
He remembered that Mr. Stark has watched the autopsy from a side window for the whole time, both of that. He remembered that he has then imposed to be one to prepare his wife’s body, by accepting help only by Jarvis. He remembered how he has remained silently aside, still with Maria’s hand in his own, while Jarvis was proceeding to prepare their boy, dressing him one last time like he has done for his whole short life. He remembered to have cried when he has finished, and to have raised Tony’s body like the lifeless puppet he was now, to have put his little head against his shoulder one last time, and to have just remained like that, inspiring the boy’s already disappearing scent one last time, until Howard has touched him on the shoulder.
“Let him go, old pal…” the man has whispered to him.
And they have put Maria’s in her black mahogany coffin, with a crown of roses and asphodels, symbol of love and regret, before putting Tony to rest in his white one, with his tech tools by his side, and also that mechanic book he has wanted for his third birthday. Then Jarvis has covered him with an extra big covert (“So the boy won’t feel cold” he has explained), and he has put on the roof of the coffin some stickers of stars glowing in the dark, like they have done in the boy’s room, since Tony was afraid of darkness. And Howard has only nodded, like Jarvis was saying the most rational thing, and then he has put another object inside: it looked like a light bulb, which was going to make light for decades alone; he has assembled it during the autopsy. Jarvis remembered to have kissed Tony’s forehead one last time, before Mr. Stark took him away again. He remembered to have turned and cried over Mr. Stark’s shoulder like he would have never allowed himself to do, while the funeral employee were closing the coffins, sigil Maria and Tony Stark inside them. Alone.
“Mr. Jarvis?” the agent’s voice took him back to reality once again. Jarvis noticed he kept jumping from the past to the present without really acknowledging.
“It’s better if we go away…” Jarvis murmured, but he needed help to stand and to reach the car.
______________________________________________________
By the time they arrived at the hospital, Jarvis has more or less reconnected with reality. The doctor who performed the autopsy confirmed to agent Coulson that Mr. Stark has hanged himself, without external help, and that he was heavily drunk while he did so, but perfectly aware of what he was doing. That matched with the last lines he has left on the table: “I’m sorry, I can’t… that’s simply too much! Apologies, old pal! We’ll keep waiting for you!”
Jarvis knew Mr. Stark was talking to him, but still he couldn’t refrain from being extremely mad at him for what he has done to himself, to his family, for what his pride has driven them all… for what his arrogance and lack of listening has caused to their baby boy. Jarvis remembered Howard telling him that he was but paranoiac, while Jarvis was starting to suspect that there was something strange in Tony’s behavior, that he has stopped laughing and that he didn’t want to spend time with his uncle Obadiah anymore. If only…
But when Jarvis found himself in front of Mr. Stark’s body, he forgot all his grudge and he felt only pity. That body in front of him didn’t resemble at all the cheerful and genial Howard Stark, the one beyond the creation of Captain America, among many other things, the playboy whose adventures have needed Jarvis’s intervention so many times the butler has lost count.
“As you said, Mr. Stark, resentment is corrosive and I don’t want any” he told the body, while he was proceeding to dress him (the funeral employee has already cleaned it). While the body was ready, Howard Stark resembled a bit more the entrepreneur that has been in life, the mind and leader behind Stark Industries.
“There must always be a Stark at Stark Industries” he used to say after Tony was born.
Not anymore, Jarvis guessed. But it didn’t mind. Now he only wanted to bury Mr. Stark’s body, and then do what Mr. Stark has left him to do.
“Mr. Jarvis?” agent Coulson called him while he was going home to rest, before disposing for the funeral. “The doctor said to have found a nickel inside Mr. Stark’s stomach… any clues of what it could mean?”
That was it! The last hint to finish the plan.
“No idea, my apologies” Jarvis replied.
_______________________________________________________
He knew that it couldn’t have rest that night, not when in a few hours he would have buried Mr. Stark above his wife at their family tomb. Before Jarvis would have seen again his boy’s last place of rest, with that hole behind him that, Jarvis now knew, was waiting for him. He only wished to short this agony, but he knew he couldn’t: there were things to be done to avenge both Maria and, most of all, Tony. And now that Mr. Stark was gone as well, the pawns have started to move again and Jarvis needed to fulfill his last duty for the Stark family. Then, he could have rest with them forever.
He has taken something heavy to sleep, so at the funeral service his senses were a bit padded. He remembered to have seen Obadiah Stane talking with everyone and in particular to the press, and that he invited him at the official party at Stark Industries, but Jarvis has declined. He has remained for long alone in the Stark’s family tomb, to pray like he wasn’t used to do in a long while, with his eyes raised to meet the bronze letter saying “Anthony ‘Tony’ Stark, aged 12”. He has noticed that there were always fresh flowers, and that the light was always on. He has asked (and generously paid) the guardian to make sure that the light was always on in that tomb, even if he had to put candles.
“My boy is afraid of darkness” he has remembered him once again. “And I’ve promised him that I’ll leave the light on until I will be with him again!”
“Yes, Mr. Jarvis, don’t worry for that! We will take care of the little Tony… and of his family!” the man has assured. He was a nice man, and, like many other, he has been touched by the destiny of the ‘golden boy’ as they called Tony back then.
It was a very cold day of February, but Jarvis made a long walk till home, because he needed to feel the wind on his face, and his skin crawling, and his feet and muscles hurting while his breath formed clouds in front of him. He needed to feel alive.
And it worked so well that he didn’t go home. Instead, he went to the National Bank and inserted the special code for the secret deposit. The code was simple and based on the riddle: two coins make 30 cents and one isn’t a nickel, what are the two coins?
“One isn’t a nickel but the other one was!” he remembered Howard has explained to 3 y.o. Tony, while the other was staring at him, confused and then upset.
“Jarvis, dad is cheating!” he has shouted to him, and Jarvis has pulled his head out of the kitchen where he was making the cake and has answered: “That’s why he’s so rich, my boy!”
And they have all laughed.
Jarvis didn’t know what there was in that deposit, but for sure he didn’t expect a small tape, and also another thing that seemed a bug. There was also a piece of chess, a white Bishop, a letter inside that said: “Use it well, old pal! P.s. tell Fury that the code to checkmate is D5F5F7 on the Bishop.”
Jarvis put everything in his pocket and went back home. He didn’t have dinner, but it wasn’t so unusual in the last two years. Instead he listened carefully to the tape, and, after having cried all the tears he had, he called Fury.
________________________________________________________
(Two years ago)
It was a wonderful sunny day and Jarvis wanted to go in the park to do Tai-Chi or simply to walk. Instead, while he was still on the porch, two police cars have stopped him and urged him to follow them.
Jarvis had no idea of what was going on, why they haven’t handcuffed him, of whether he was accused of some crimes, and where they were driving him, until he was forced to move to another car, this one owned by an international military organization named SHIELD.
And there a young agent named Philip Coulson has explained to him that someone has kidnapped Tony Stark from MIT, repeatedly raped him, and left him to die in an abandoned house in between Boston and New York. The 911 has received an anonymous call two hours before and they have brought the kid to the New York hospital. He didn’t have documents with him, but one of the officer has recognized him from the newspaper and his identity has been easily confirmed.
Mr. Stark senior was now questioned by the agent’s boss, a Colonel Nicholas Fury, and he would have lately joined the hospital together with Mrs. Stark, who for now knew nothing.
Jarvis remembered to have asked him to repeat, and to have remained like frozen in the eye of the hurricane, while his world was slowly fallen apart. And then everything has been crashed away when they’ve reached the hospital, and the doctor has told them that they’ve tried everything they could, but the boy had an internal bleeding and his respiratory conditions were worsened by a drug they must have injected in him.
“What- what does this mean?” Jarvis remembered to have asked, astonished, while his mind refused to understand the words, but most of all the looks and the body language of the doctor in front of him. He was in his 40, a bit fatty around the belly; he probably had children the same age of Tony.
“It means that we can do nothing” he repeated, shaking his head and trying to refrain his own emotions. “We’ve tried our best, but there’s nothing we can do to stop the bleeding… the boy was already dyeing when they brought him here. We’re giving him something for the pain, but a part from that… He will be gone in one hour, maybe two if he’s not lucky… at least he won’t die alone in the cold…”
And Jarvis has felt like everything else was vanishing, like a void was swallowing him and he was keeping falling down in its darkness. He didn’t know where he found the strength to ask to see the boy, and to remain with him until the end and beyond, until the boy’s parents would have arrived. He remembered to have followed the doctor like a robot, while every door was similar to the other, its own content of hope, pain or despair according to the case.
He has found Tony in an anonymous white room, with a nurse by his side checking the IV in his arm (“It’s morphine for the pain” the doctor whispered to him), while another machine made low “bip”, by measuring the boy’s heartbeats from a thing on his finger.
“He’s in pain, but soon it will be over… he knows…” Jarvis heard the doctor saying like a distant noise, while he rushed by his boy’s side, picked up his hand and called softly his name.
He watched as his furrowed forehead relaxed, and the boy opened his big brown eyes, and fixed him, at first in astonishment, and then with a mix of joy and sorrow.
“Jarvis…” he has murmured with a hoarse voice. Jarvis would have later noted the signs on his throat, but for now all that he noticed was that his boy was alive, he was recognizing him, consciously talking to him. How would it be possible that he was going to be death in an hour? That wasn’t true! That couldn’t be true!
“Jarvis…” Tony repeated. “I’m sorry… I- I’ve tried to stop him…”
“It’s okay, my boy, it’s going to be fine…” the man has told him, caressing his head like he did when the boy run to his bed and woke him up with a nightmare.
He saw as Tony’s eyes were filled with tears when he replied: “No, it won’t… I’m dying… I know... and it’s… it’s all my fault… I couldn’t stop him…”
“No, no, boy! No, hush, no! You’re going to be fine! You’re going…” but Jarvis knew he was lying to himself, and he saw as the boy shook his head.
He picked him up, and let his head rest on his shoulder, while he was hugging him like this was going to prevent death from catching him. And he felt Tony’s small arms moving up on his shoulders and hugging back at him, while he was murmuring something Jarvis was failing at getting, too wasted by contrasting emotions, to focused on that moment, and the growing fear and consciousness that there were probably going to be the last moments he was having with his boy.
He didn’t know how long they stayed like this, but Tony kept talking and talking, with his voice like a whisper, and Jarvis kept reassuring him that it was all right, it was not his fault, and he was safe now.
“I’m scared…” he heard him saying at last, while with his hands was grabbing at his shirt like he didn’t want to let go. “It hurts…”
“Where, Tony?” Jarvis asked, by moving a bit apart so that he could see his face. He has gasped for how grey he already looked like.
“Everywhere…” the boy has murmured, crying. “Jarvis… I’m so… so scared… it’s as he said! They will come… they will put me somewhere dark and cold… they will leave me there forever… I’m afraid of darkness, Jarvis!”
He was weeping like the child he was, and Jarvis knew how Tony has always been afraid of darkness, how he had to let a light on, and then to add glowing stars on his roof, so that it was like sleeping under the sky.
“Don’t leave me in the cold and dark…” Tony was begging him, ranting desperately.
“I won’t! I promise, Tony, I won’t!” Jarvis said, not knowing where he has found the strength to talk, and to sound so calm and reassuring while his heart was breaking into pieces. But Tony was looking at him with his big brown eyes open in hope, so the butler has said: “I will make sure that you have warm clothes, my boy, and I’ll put an extra covert over you. Do you remember that red one of wool?”
The boy has nodded slightly, his hiccup slowing, even if he was still grabbing at him.
“And the darkness?” he has asked, his childish voice like a whisper.
Jarvis remembered to have smiled and patted his head. “I make sure there’ll be always a light on outside your… your bed!” he added, while his voice was fading. He saw in the boy’s eyes that he knew, he was conscious of what was going to happen, he understood perfectly… and he was deeply afraid!
“It’ll be fine!” Jarvis tried his best to reassure him. “There’ll be always a light on, outside, right beside you. And maybe we could… we could put the stars too? The glowing ones you have in your room at home… Do you remember when I put you on my shoulders to attach them on the roof?”
Tony smiled a bit and nodded. “Okay…” he simply said, and he let go of him, exhausted.
Jarvis helped him down in the bed again, his body raised by the pillows they have put behind him, probably to soothe his pain.
They looked at each other without talking for a long while, hand in hand, by letting tears flew slowly down on their chins, and the sounds of their breaths covering all other sounds, including the ones from the machines.
“Jarvis…” Tony murmured again.
“Yes, my boy?”
“I- I don’t know how to do that…” the boy whispered.
“What, my boy? Do what?”
Tony has tried to force his voice out: “Dying… I- I don’t know how to die… I feel… I feel it… it’s so cold… I’m feeling cold… and it hurts… it hurts everywhere… But I’m scared… I- I don’t know how…”
And Jarvis has automatically covered him a bit more, while the boy was panting hard, pain visible on his face and his eyes opened in dread panic.
“Hush, hush… “ Jarvis said caressing again his face, and cleaning tears away. He has smiled tenderly at him: “It’s like sleep, my boy… just- just try to sleep… sleep and you will feel good again… no more pain, I swear!”
“Just sleep?” Tony has asked him again, in confirmation.
“Yes, my boy” Jarvis has nodded, without stopping to smile and to caress his face.
Tony has looked for long at him, while his breath slowed and he was calming down.
“I love you, Jarvis…” he said with a small yet warm smile.
Jarvis has felt like millions of sun were exploding inside him. “Me too, my boy!” he has replied, while tears flew freely from his eyes. “I have and I will always love you!”
And Tony kept smiling, like satisfied, and then with extreme effort he raised the arm with the IV in to touch Jarvis’s face and to caress him. Jarvis took his small and still puffy hand in his own, and kissed it tenderly, while with the other hand kept caressing his boy’s head. He noticed how he looked more relaxed, but how his chest continued to go up and down at a high speed, mirroring the pain he felt in his small body.
“Try to sleep, now, Tony” Jarvis said softly to him.
“Okay, Jarvis” Tony has replied, while his strengths were starting to fade away. “Could you… could you tell me a story? Like you told me every night at home…I always sleep well when you tell me stories…”
“Sure, my boy! Sure!” Jarvis has said. “Once upon a time, in a land full of magic and enchantment there lived a young knight in a solitary castle. He was very brave and kind, and he went on adventures with his loyal old squire…”
He watched as Tony’s head rested on the pillow, as his eyes remained fixed on Jarvis until slowly they started to close. They wouldn’t have opened again.
Jarvis kept telling him of the young knight going on an adventure to kill a ferocious dragon, only to find out that the dragon was hurt and in need of help, and that was because his roars were so tremendous to scare the people of the nearby villages; and the dragon was glad to the little knight for the help, and he forged for him a powerful golden armor.
Jarvis kept telling Tony the adventures of the golden knight, the ones they’ve read in his child books, and the ones they have invented by themselves through the years. He kept talking even when he felt Tony’s hand losing strength in his own. He kept talking while he saw the boy’s breath slowly down more and more, until his chest stopped moving, and the machine attached to his finger made a long and constant sound. A nurse that has remained nearby switched it down. But neither she nor the doctor that has come in dared to interrupt him.
And Jarvis kept telling his boys their stories, until he reached the last one, the one in which the knight met a young warrior lady with red hair and a shiny blue armor, and they fought together an evil tyrant, and they won with the help of many friends, and then they got married.
“And they lived together, happily… ever after…” Jarvis completed, his voice cracking on the last words.
He let out a cry and he finally let his despair flow, by hugging at his boy, lifting him in his arms, and cuddling his lifeless body, and kissing his head, inspiring the scent from his hair, until he felt he has no more strength himself.
A nurse helped him putting the boy down on the bed, and she removed his IV and the other machines around him. She said nothing while Jarvis covered him like Tony was really just sleeping, keeping his right hand in his own, and caressing every now and then his face while the boy’s skin started to turn cold and grey. He noticed that Tony looked so relaxed and fine now, no pain or sorrow menacing him anymore.
Jarvis didn’t know how long he stayed like this, nor when he has started again to tell his boy another story, maybe wondering that he could awake and break his finally found peace.
He only realized that Mr. and Mrs. Stark have arrived, when he heard their voices outside the open door, while he heard Mrs. Stark’s cry echoing in the hall, a cry of desperation and loss that seemed to freeze everything around her. He remembered to have seen Mrs. Stark running towards her son’s bed while she frantically repeated: “It’s impossible! You see, Howard? He’s sleeping! Jarvis is telling him a bedtime story and our boy is sleeping… he’s fine! Look! Look, Howard, how he is relaxed and fine! Our boy is not gone, he’s right here! He’s just sleeping, right, Jarvis?”
Then she has started to shake him a bit, gently, by calling: “Tony? Tony, sweetie? It’s me! It’s your mummy! Please, wake up, my boy! We go home! Please, Tony, wake up… wake up and we go home...”
“Maria…” Howard’s voice came from the deepest place on heart. He stood still in the entrance, not managing to come close to the bed, like he was incapable to react to the vastness of what has just happened. “Maria… he’s gone… Tony… Tony is dead…”
“No!” Maria shouted again, launching over her son and hugging him like a lioness with a cub. “No! Don’t say that! Why would you say something like that to our son?! Tony! Sweetie, wake up! Please! Please, wake up…”
Howard and a nurse had to intervene to separate her from the boy’s body, while her cries echoed everywhere. Jarvis only managed to put his boy back to rest in the same position as before, by smiling a bit at his calm and relaxed expression now that nothing could have touched his peace.
Then he heard as Maria was starting to shout at her husband that it was his fault, and she cried and she beat him with her hands, and she menaced everyone not to dare touch her son, not to put their instruments on his body, not to break his sleep or ruin his beauty. Howard Stark remained still like a marble statue, incapable or unwilling to react or to say a word, empty eyes fixed on his boy sleeping forever in front of him. He came back to his senses when Maria let out one last cry, and then she collapsed on the floor.
“Maria!” he called her, while the nurse called for help.
Three of them and a doctor stormed in and pushed Mr. Stark away. And then they picked Maria Stark and dragged her away. They heard them calling and working from the corridor, until all went silent again. Then the doctor came in and informed them that Miss Stark had an heart-attack… and she was gone.
That was when Jarvis let finally go Tony’s right hand, to reach the boy’s father and to sustain him before he fell to the ground.
“Tony… now Maria…” he murmured like a litany. “I’ve been arrogant… that’s all my fault… please forgive me, my love… Tony, son… I’m sorry… I’ve no one left…”
“I’m here, Mr. Stark!” Jarvis remembered to have said, helping him to stand.
Their eyes have met, and Jarvis has clearly understood that Howard Stark was broken.
_______________________________________________________________________
[Six months after Howard Stark’s funeral]
The journalists formed a big crowd outside the tribunal. The trial against James Rhodes for the brutal raping and homicide of the 12 years old Tony Stark has started a few days ago, and for now the only remarkable thing has been that the suspected homicide has cried his innocence on top of his lungs.
His lawyers were young but very qualified, and they had traced their line of defense by clearly stating that their client couldn’t have committed the facts, and they would have proven that the responsible was someone else. The prosecutor’s opening statement hasn’t seemed very powerful if compared to the ones of the young lawyers, but she has remarked the importance of this trial and to let even the smallest details coming to light. She has also anticipated the presence of a key witness and of extraordinary proofs.
Then they have heard the police reports, they have heard the anonymous call to 911: according to the prosecutor’s expert the voice was impossible to identify, but according to the defense’s expert the voice belonged to a young female girl, with a slight Indian accent traceable from her “r”. The judge Amanda Garmon has taken both reports for further considerations and has invited the jury to read carefully both of them without prejudices.
When Mr. Rhodes has testified, he has kept repeating that Tony was like a brother for him, that he called him “Little T.” and that it was Tony that has wanted to share the bedroom with him, because the senior students were making pranks on him, and once they have forced his door open and naked him in his bed. The prosecutor has kept asked how he knew, if he was among said students, if he has never wanted to touch Tony Stark in “that way”. And obviously where he was and what he was doing in the lab with Tony when he wasn’t supposed to be there, and what he has done after. And Rhodes told his truth: that he was in the lab because Tony liked to have his company and he was working on a robotic leg and he used him as a sort of guinea pig, and that his godfather, Obadiah Stane, has arrived in visit and has wanted to take him out for dinner. And he told that Tony was not exactly enthusiast to go, and that he has told him: “See you tomorrow, Rhodey!”. That has been the last time he has seen his friend alive.
He was asked to repeat the last sentence and he did. He was asked more triggered question by the prosecutor but his version didn’t change. Never. The journalists then wrote that Mr. Rhodes appeared shaken and wasted, but lucid and his words reliable. “If he’s lying” Ben Urich of the Bulletin wrote, “he’s either a professional liar or worth an Oscar for acting, because clearly James Rhodes is persuaded of his truth.”
Then they were summoned the college mates and the MIT professors. Everyone, including Mr. Hammer and professor Stern, confirmed that they have never seen something unusual or immoral in the relationship between Mr. Rhodes and the young Stark boy. Professor Pym confirmed that the Stark boy was fine, that he wasn’t fearing for his life or something. One of the professor went on by stating that Mr. Rhodes was like a servant for the golden boy, by making the jury frowned at the not so hidden racism of that statement. The other news was that the MIT director confirmed Mr. Rhodes’s version, by stating that he has left Mr. Stark with his godfather; he added to have told it to the police but to his knowledge Mr. Stark wasn’t going to spend the night outside the campus, so the director couldn’t explain Mr. Stark’s last sentence to Mr. Rhodes.
Obviously at this point the judge wanted to listen to Mr. Stane and the court had a one-day break.
During his witnessing, Mr. Stane played the role of the overcome godfather: he overtly showed his despair, and more than once implied that he couldn’t believe that a guy his boy has trusted so much has revealed to be such a monster! He confirmed to have picked up Tony without a formal authorization, but only because he wanted to spend some time with this stepson, since he couldn’t see him now that his father has dragged him at MIT at only 12 years old! He faked concern at Mr. Rhodes’s implicit accuses, and explained that maybe the boy was pissed to have been interrupted while he was working, because, you know, like father like son… but he was happy and fine during dinner, and he has driven him back at MIT that night. No, Mr. Rhodes for sure has understood badly: the plan has never been to spend the night outside, but to have dinner and then return the boy to the campus. Then Stane went on, and he self-blamed himself loudly by saying that it was his fault because he has left his boy at the main entrance, but he couldn’t have imagined… if only he had escorted him inside maybe…
The defense questioned him for long, but they only appeared to confirm his figure of a very wasted man, who in two years from that disgraceful night has lost his stepson, and then a lifelong friend and also his wife. Stane remarked to have been one of Stark’s best men at his wedding, and to have seen the boy being born.
“He run around the lab when he was only 5 and called me uncle Obie” he told the jury with tears in his bright eyes. “I- I wish to have justice served for what it has been done to my golden boy!”
Everyone was moved.
Surprisingly, the prosecutor also questioned Mr. Stane for long, by making him stating precisely every single moves he has done after he has left the boy at the MIT main entrance. He also asked him if he had a secretary of Indian origin, and Mr. Stane confirmed.
“Her name’s Kanma Chander” he has stated, perplexed. “But what does it -?”
“Thank you, Mr. Stane. That’s all!” the prosecutor has cut him off.
After Mr. Stane’s questioning was completed, the prosecutor asked to talk directly with the judge and his colleagues, and after a brief discussion, judge Garmon allowed a 1 hour break, and imposed that everyone, including the witnesses came back in court at 2 PM. Mr. Stane tried to protest by saying that he had a business to run, but the judge was inflexible.
“And don’t you want to have justice served for your stepson, Mr. Stane?” she asked.
During the break the lawyers, the prosecutor and the judge were seen retiring to debate in a separate room. They emerged one hour later, and when they entered the court, the journalists immediately noticed that the guards seemed to have doubled, that they were closing the doors, and that Mr. Rhodes appeared extremely nervous to have been left alone by his lawyers.
“What’s going on?” he asked when they came back.
“Just stay calm, James, it will be fine!” one of them said. They appeared tense.
Then the prosecutor stood and asked the permission to call her key witness: Mr. Edwin Jarvis, Stark’s butler and father figure, who has been the last one to see the boy alive in the hospital. A murmur run through the public and everybody stretched to see the tall man with grey hair who entered from a side door, escorted by two special agents. Mr. Jarvis has completely disappeared after Mr. Stark’s funeral, and after having disposed of Stark’s estate through charity associations as requested.
“Mr. Jarvis! I swear, it wasn’t me!!” it was heard Mr. Rhodes shouting.
“Silence!” the judge shouted back. “Keep your client silent, or I will force him outside!”
“Yes, your honor, apologies!” one of the two said. “Keep calm, James, please! Trust us!”
But they all saw Mr. Jarvis turning towards Mr. Rhodes and smiling paternally at him. Then, directly after having sworn to say the truth and all the truth, Jarvis told aloud: “Mr. Rhodes, I have never doubted that you are not responsible at all of what has happened to my boy!”
The murmur in the room was huge and the judge asked silence in court, and then to Mr. Jarvis to speak only when questioned.
“Actually, your honor” the prosecutor intervened. “Mr. Jarvis is here to make a declaration… well, not properly him!”
“Enough mystery, Walters! I’ve accepted your request after our consultation with your colleagues. So, Mr. Jarvis, what do you want to say to this court?”
“Your honor” Jarvis voice was calm and inflexible. “I wish to say that Mr. Rhodes is innocent and that I know who is the real guilty!”
He was asked to repeat three times and every time he confirmed that he could prove beyond doubts that the guilty was not Mr. Rhodes. And then he extracted a small tape with its recorder. The prosecutor and the defense confirmed to have never listened to that tape, that they’ve heard of it only the day before, and that they have both agreed to listen to the recordings in court and to put the recording among the proofs. The judge accepted by pointing out that was not exactly what they had discussed in private, and that she didn’t like these tricks.
“Apologies, your Honor, but it was necessary, and you’ll soon understand why” Jarvis said. Then he explained how he got that tape: “I knew that Mr. Howard Stark was paranoiac, but I didn’t know he had put a bug in every clothes I had, by hiding it in one of the buttons. I am a very methodic man so he probably knew which clothes I favor. When he died he left me a message by swallowing a nickel… that was a clue, because it was attached to a shared memory nobody knew apart from me, Howard… and T-Tony…”
They all noticed he stuttered a bit on the boy’s name: his grief appeared more realistic and painfully real than Mr. Stane’s one a few moments ago. And Stane appeared to be extremely nervous as he kept glancing at the doors where two agents per side were blocking every exits.
“By following Mr. Stark’s indication, I’ve found this tape” Jarvis was following. “It contained the recordings of my encounters between February and March of three years ago. It means that it includes my last moments with… my last moments with… Tony… in the hospital… apologies….”
He had to stop and he managed to control himself with difficulty. The flashes of the cameras hit him unmercifully, while they also got Mr. Stane trying to stand but being waved back by some agents.
“I’ve listened and made a couple of copies, but I brought to you the original” Jarvis’s voice said again. “If I might suggest, the part we are all interested in is after the first hour and 25’ … that is since when some police officers picked me up from my home in a sunny day, and, through agent Philip Coulson of SHIELD, brought me to the hospital when they’ve recovered my boy…”
He couldn’t manage to follow, and so the judge authorized the listening. They attached the recorder to a stereo, and set the volumes. The first minutes were a bit confused, with the voices of the agents, and Mr. Jarvis asking where they were taking him, then a young man’s voice telling what has happened to Tony Stark, and then the doctor telling him that the boy was dying from internal bleeding.
Present day Jarvis asked for a glass of water, and he remained sit like a marble statue while he heard once again his boy’s hoarse voice, the same voice he has heard the last time during that awful day, the same voice that he has recovered thanks to Howard’s paranoias only six months before.
He heard himself telling his boy that it was going to be fine, lying to him to reassure the kid but also himself. And then he heard again those parts he hasn’t heard the first time, too focus on his own sorrow and grief, on keeping the boy closed to him, feeling his warmth but incapable of listening to him, of decoding his murmurings. But the bug was on Jarvis’s button on the neck of his shirt, so right near the boy’s mouth. And the crowd held its breath while Tony’s childish voice resonated in the courtroom. With many pauses and a hard breath he had said:
“I’m sorry, Jarvis… Please, tell mom and dad that I’m sorry… I’ve tried to stop him… tell dad not to be mad at me… please! And mum too… I thought he was my friend… He always spanked me naked … since I was six… I guess he was the monster I was afraid of… I told him I didn’t want to do it anymore… there were fireworks… it was the New Year’s Eve… he naked me… and he raped me the first time… I-I didn’t want to! I was so scared and ashamed… but he forced me to… and then he told me he would have told everything to my father and they would have come and put me in a cold and dark place… and now he has come again, and he has forced me again… I’ve tried to run away, but his men have blocked me! He- he has chained me and hurt me… I- I’ve tried, believe me! Tell dad that I’ve tried to free myself, to stop him… but he’s too big… too strong… I’ve tried to tell him to stop… I told him “Please, uncle Obie, I don’t want to!” but he has forced me again… Please, forgive me… forgive me if I left Obie do this to me… I don’t want to die… but I couldn’t stop him… I’m sorry…”
The silent courtroom has practically exploded.
“You, son of a bitch!” they heard Mr. Rhodes’s shouting, and then trying to jump at Obadiah’s neck, since he was sitting right behind him. The agents were having a tough time to contain the crowd who wanted Stane’s head here and now. The big man now appeared extremely scared, while the agents have blocked him, handcuffed him on his back, and they were trying to force him towards the judge in a safe spot. Judge Garmon was shouting to restore the calm, and to drag Mr. Stane away, while they heard the classical ‘bang’ of a gun.
And in the general silence that has followed, Obadiah Stane fell on his knees in front of the witness’s spot and then down with the face on the ground, with a large blood stain on his chest. Right above him, with a strange white weapon melting in his hands, Edwin Jarvis stood silent and lethal like a vindictive fury.
They all saw him slowly dropped what remained of the weird gun down on the floor and raised his hands behind his head, before two agents arrived and secured him.
“Apologies for the stain on the wooden floor!” it was reported to have said to judge Garmon before the agents took him away.
__________________________________________________________
In the light of the recording produced by Mr. Jarvis, and also from other witnesses like Mr. Stane’s secretary, an Indian girl named Kanma Chander, who was the one making the call to 911, judge Garmon ordered the immediate release of Mr. James Rhodes, with a note of apology, and also a compensation to be provided by Mr. Stane’s heirs or the Stark Industries.
The investigation assumed another tone now that the principal responsible was three meters under the ground, thanks to Mr. Jarvis’s shot. But still, Colonel Fury and the SHIELD agents were at work against Stane’s associates and the case was not going to end quickly. They’ve made tons of arrests among politicians, law officers, attorneys, and also ambassadors, not to mention the minor pawns, thus including Mr. Stane’s wife and miss Chander. The girl was lately put under custody as witness and collaborator. She later changed her name and married a postman, or so the journalists speculated.
Mr. Jarvis has been detained in isolation for months, and during this period he refused to drink or eat anything hot, by accusing digesting problems. Even when questioned, when they offered him some tea or coffee to drink, he let it cool down before drinking it, usually lamenting the poor quality of the beverage.
He has written a long letter to Professor Pym and a longer one to Mr. Rhodes, in which he urged them not to blame themselves for Tony’s death. “It’s nobody’s else’s fault, but that monster that took our boy away from us” Jarvis wrote. “But now he is death too, and soon I will join Tony’s side again, and stay where I was always meant to be. With my boy!”
The letter caused an increased surveillance around him, because they believed he was going to commit suicide, like Mr. Stark’s did.
They also called Jarvis many times in a private parlor to make official depositions with SHIELD director Fury, or his agents Coulson or Hand, and with either judge Garmon or prosecutor Walters. Every time Jarvis was highly collaborative and told them everything he knew, he remembered or he has guessed, by always distinguishing among the three different situations to make his depositions more reliable. While weeks were passing by, they all noticed that he has started to talk of Tony Stark in the present tense, like he was still alive, and that he painfully switched to the past tense only when he was made noticing.
And then one day they asked him about Mr. Stane’s homicide, how he made a weapon pass the security controls, what he had in mind, and why he has wanted to do that so theatrically.
“I told you we were going to detain him forever, motherfucker!” director Fury has said.
Jarvis has looked at him and to judge Garmon, and then he has politely asked for a hot tea. A decent Earl Grey would have been nice, but he wasn’t so pretentious. Despite Fury’s objections, judge Garmon allowed it, and asked a police officer to provide a good quality Earl Grey tea for all, not that ‘disdainful water’ coming down from the machines.
“I’m deeply thankful, your honor” Mr. Jarvis has replied, then he has stopped talking of anything but small talk.
“You should try baking soda and Coke for those stains on the floor” he was recommending her like a good family butler when the tea arrived. He put only sugar, and then he took immediately a long sip before commenting: “Hot is way better. Thank you, your honor. I really needed it after all this time.”
He drank it all, by keeping the last sip in his mouth for long, in silence and with his eyes closed. Then he put the cup down and smiled at them.
“Now I’m ready to answer to all your questions for the last time” he said. “I guess we have twenty or thirty minutes, more or less. Mr. Stark has never been very good with timing.”
Judge Garmon and Director Fury looked at each other astonished, but the man was the first to reach the meaning of those words.
“What have you done, motherfucker?” he exclaimed, alarmed. “And, most of all, how?”
“Stark’s license PP345” Jarvis’s calmly replied. “Immediately after the war Mr. Stark was asked by the government to provide a reliable poison for his undercover agents. This one got then discarded because many agents forgot that it activates with hot food or liquids. We had too many casualties, but there were still some capsules that Mr. Stark left me.”
“You were avoiding hot foods and drinks for months…” judge Garmon completed, astonished and also admired by that cold-blooded man.
“Indeed, your Honor. Please, don’t waste time to call for help. We haven’t much time and many things need to be done!”
“Why now?” the judge asked, still astonished.
“I was waiting until our last hearing, then my work will be complete and I could finally reach my family again. I know my boy is waiting for me… I promised him...”
He managed to control himself, but a single drop has fallen from his eye.
“So you were planning this for the whole time, motherfucker?” Fury has stated, livid. “But why killing Stane?”
The look in Jarvis’s eyes would have killed instantaneously.
“Are you seriously asking me this, director?” he replied. “Well, I guess when you’d close the coffin with your boy inside, then you’ll understand why I had to kill that monster myself!”
“We got this, Mr. Jarvis… But why waiting till the hearing?” the judge asked instead. “Why doing all that scene and not simply run to Stark Industries and put a bullet in his chest why you discovered the truth? I’m pretty sure you could have still had access there…”
“Because of Mr. Rhodes” Jarvis calmly answered. “When I heard he was accused of that, I was certain he was not guilty. Mr. Stark said to have put two good lawyers by his side and that he would have been out soon… but then after two years nothing has happened. Except for Mr. Stark hanging himself! And when I listened to that recordings… after the first moments of pain I’ve realized that Mr. Stark has known or suspected for all that time but he hadn’t acted. That was because there was something bigger going on, something Mr. Stark shared with colonel Fury here, a complex plan to dismantle Stane’s network and to recover the weapons illegally sold outside or even inside the country. Now that this is over too, there’s no need of secrets: I’ve suspected everything since after Tony’s funeral…” he had to pause like always when he was talking of those moments. “Mr. Stark and I remained in the tomb for a while and he confessed me almost everything, he gave me codes and accesses, he told me what he was planning to do to lure him out… he didn’t know or he wasn’t sure that Mr. Stane was the direct responsible of his boy’s death, but he asked me to wait, not to make Tony’s and Maria’s sacrifice vain. I obeyed… as always… Then Mr. Stark’s hanged himself and left me the duty to end the work… another common trend in our professional relationship!”
He let out a sad smile and he followed. “When agent Coulson told me Mr. Stark has swallowed a nickel before hanging himself, I was a bit late at understanding the reference, but then I got it was another code. It was where I found everything, including the recording from the hospital and those secret codes for you, director Fury.”
“With those codes we were able to bypass the farewell systems at Stark Industries and to access the private correspondence of Mr. Stane, so we reconstruct the network” Fury remembered to the judge who waved him that she knew very well.
“Still, you haven’t answered my question” she said to Jarvis. “Why that scene in court?”
Jarvis’s eyes were cold and distant when he continued his story as nothing has happened, or like he was really telling them a bedtime story: “Mr. Stark’s plan was to lure Stane out, to dismantle his network and to restore the Stark Industries good name. My plan was to kill the man who has made my boy suffering! He was going to left him to die alone, cold and scared!”
He was shouting and he needed to calm himself before going on: “After Mr. Stark has listened to that recording, I’m sure he must have realized how tremendous his lack of understanding has been, what a hole in his plan has been not to consider his son as part of the equation. He must have felt so desperate to be once again incapable to see that other pawns were still playing the game, minor ones you might say, but still important ones. One of them was Mr. Rhodes, whose only fault has been to help our boy when he has firstly arrived at MIT, a 12 years old boy who looked younger, and with a genial mind, capable of solving professor Pym’s problem in three minutes but socially awkward and incapable to defend himself from bullies.”
He looked Judge Garmon’s in the eyes and said: “Let me ask you one question, judge Garmon, and I beg you to be honest with a dying man. If I had run to Stark Industries and simply shot Mr. Stane’s in the chest like I wanted to do since I’ve discovered what he has done to my boy… if I had killed him like this or more privately, maybe after torturing him like he deserved… how many more months would have Mr. Rhodes served in prison? How long would have justice taken before connecting the two cases, Stane’s homicide and Tony’s raping, and finally agreed that Mr. Rhodes was just another innocent victim of this sick game of chess?”
The judge observed him. And despite she wanted to reassure him, she knew the truth as well as he did.
“Justice would have prevailed, Mr. Jarvis” she simply said.
“I don’t doubt that. The only thing I’m questioning is justice’s timing, especially for a young black lad in prison for such a tremendous crime. All the public opinion was already against him and I know that Director Fury here has put an agent in prison with him to check on his well-being… please, don’t make that face, Colonel! Mr. Stark has discovered it and he also never believed Mr. Rhodes to be involved…”
He started to cough and looked at the clock over their heads. Then he glanced to a corner of the room and let out a single: “Oh!”
“What is it?” both the judge and Fury asked, by turning to the point the man was fixing.
“I guess it’s working…” Jarvis replied. “I was starting to doubt that, Mr. Stark!”
“My inventions always work!” Howard Stark replied, but only Jarvis could hear him. “First thing: hallucination. Then it’ll come coughing harder and difficulty in breathing, but it will be over soon. Finally, you will feel extremely tired and in need of sleep. It’s like you told Tony: death is like sleep…”
“Well, not for you…”
“I’ve always loved to make a show!” Howard replied with a smirk.
“Who are you talking to, Mr. Jarvis?” judge Garmon asked, by forcing Jarvis to turn towards her.
“Mr. Stark is over there” he replied. “I know… I know it sounds crazy, but it’s how the poison works… hallucination… So, I guess that if you have further questions you’re better asking now, because we are running out of time.”
“The gun” Fury asked. “We have never seen that model and it’s not recorded among Stark’s licensed inventions.”
“Because it was not his invention, but Tony’s” Jarvis calmly replied. He saw Howard’s eyes shining with proud. “The boy assembled it as a toy at the company when he was around 8. Then we discovered it worked like a real one. They have started to test it, but it didn’t pass the first phase. After one shot it became unusable and the Army wanted something more reliable. They discarded the project, but there was one full model left. I- I wish to imagine that it was the same Tony himself has assembled, even if I know that’s impossible…”
“Maybe yes, maybe not…” he heard Howard’s sarcastic voice.
Jarvis started to cough.
“We should call a paramedic!” judge Garmon stated, by raising and calling for help.
“It’s worthless!” Jarvis calmly replied, by recollecting his breath. “There’s no cure to this poison because it has never been produced… and I don’t want to be cured… so, if I may, could I beg your pardon and simply lay down on the ground… I- I feel very fatigued… and sleepy…”
Director Fury helped him down, while some other officers came in as well. They put a jacket behind his head, while judge Garmon was keeping on with the formalities concerning his last wishes and testimonies.
“I have left indications for my funeral… I wish to be bury behind my boy, in the Stark’s family tomb… I know Howard’s last wishes said the same…” Jarvis told, with his eyes already closed. “The house has been already sold… and so have my clothes and other stuff… I have some quotes of the Stark Industries and other companies. I have no heir, so I wish they’ll go to Mr. Rhodes… a sort of compensation for not having helped him before… and give him my apology… and Dummy…”
“Dummy?” the judge asked.
“Yes… Dummy… the arm-robot Tony built when he was 10… he’s at my house now… he kept me company… sometimes he reacted like there was someone else around… I know it’s my boy… I’ve felt his presence too… please, explain to Dummy that I’ve gone with his young master now, and that Mr. Rhodes would take care of him…”
He was breathing hard, and he knew that for the others around his words may appear weird. But he didn’t mind. He heard judge Garmon confirming to have recorded everything and Colonel Fury to swear to fulfill his last wishes.
“Thank you, your honor…Colonel…” Jarvis mumured.
He opened his eyes a bit and looked around until he met Howard Stark’s eyes. He wasn’t expecting him, to speak the truth.
“Where- where’s Tony, Mr. Stark?” he asked aloud to the ghost he was the only one seeing.
“He’s safe with Maria, old pal, don’t worry. He wished to come, but we were scared he was going to get lost… last time he visited you, he didn’t want to come back…”
“I felt him… He snuzzled against my neck while I was reading on the couch…” Jarvis remembered. “My boy… I’m coming…”
And with a smile, he let out his last breath.
_________________________________________________________________
He didn’t know how much time has passed, but it seemed like he has just fallen asleep when he heard Tony’s voice cheering him.
“Jarvis? Jarvis, wake up!”
And then Howard’s voice remarking: “Let me try, Tony! Hey, Jarvis! Wake up, sleepyhead!”
“Sleepyhead, Mr. Stark?” he replied by opening his eyes, affronted.
But he soon turned his humor. Because here he was: his boy was looking at him with his big brown eyes and a huge smile on his face. He should have more or less 6 years, and he was… well, all covered in flour.
“What- ?” Jarvis wanted to ask. But Tony didn’t let him speaking and launched on him, hugging him and snuzzling against his neck.
“I’ve missed you…” he said. Then he laughed and told him that he and his mum were making a cake, and they have made a bit of a mess with the flour, but everything was fine.
“And you know? I’m not sure you can actually burn the cake here… but I did! Twice!” he seemed so proud of himself.
But Jarvis couldn’t find words to reply, simply caressing his boy’s face, and looking at him and hearing his voice again.
“Do you want to remain on the floor, old pal?” he then heard Howard’s voice. He was younger too, like when they’ve just finished the war and he was running away with the help of only Jarvis and agent Carter. Mr. Stark gave him a hand to stand, and Jarvis found himself at the Stark Mansion, in the living room. Everything was in order as always, with fresh flowers all around the house. There was the sun coming from the windows.
“Welcome home, Jarvis!” a young Maria Stark told him with a huge smile. She had also traces of flour on her hair and face. “I know you’ve just arrived but could you please help us in the kitchen? We were trying to make a cake for you, but I guess we are making the usual mess…”
She passed him an apron he took gladly.
“Sure, Mrs. Stark” he said, as always, a bit astonished but his own voice. He looked at himself in the window and he too looked younger.
“Oh, Ana will join later!” Maria Stark told him. “She wanted to dress properly or so she said… but she will come as well. Ana and Tony are big friends!”
“It’s true! Your wife is amazing!” the boy confirmed. Then he took his hand and jumped in front of him towards the kitchen. “Come on, Jarvis! Let’s make the cake!”
Jarvis raised him in his arms, kissed him softly on the forehead and put him sit next to the sink.
“Which one do you prefer, my boy?” Jarvis smiled at him. “What do we put in the cake?”
“Blueberries!” Tony exclaimed with joy.
While he started to make the cake, he heard from the living room Miss Stark playing the piano. Mr. Stark should have sit in the couch reading his journal.
Jarvis looked happily at his boy who smiled back at him.
And everything was just perfect.
THE END