“I know you got a lot on the line. A wife, a daughter, but I lost somebody very close to me and-“
“Scott-“ Cap began to try and stop Scott from digging his own grave but Tony beat him to it.
“Your girlfriend right? I’m sorry about that, I don’t know how it feels but I can imagine. I lost somebody very close to me as well. My son Peter dusted away in my arms while crying “dad, no, please, I don’t want to go.” Tony paused and stared straight at Scott, “He was 15. I had to come home and look at my wife while telling her that her child was dead. I lost everything when that thing snapped his fingers but my wife was pregnant and I had a duty to protect my wife and child better than I had before. I’m not losing another child. I’m not taking that risk.”
Scott sighed and closed his eyes, “I’m sorry, I didn’t know. I understand but-“
Nat looked at Tony with all the meaning of the world in her eyes and spoke gently, “Tony, you have a chance to bring Peter back. Don’t you owe it to him to at least try?”
“Nat I owe everything to him. But he’s gone, he’s been gone for five years and I can’t relive that grief. I can’t get my hopes up just to lose him again. I won’t,” Tony sniffed and attempted to blink the water away from his eyes. He rubbed a hand across his face and watched as the little girl with her mother’s face and father’s hair came running out and jumped into his lap.
“Mommy told me to come and save you,” she spoke hesitantly and glanced over to the three strangers nervously.
“Good job. I’m saved,” Tony smiled sadly and stood with his daughter in his arms, “I wish you’d come here to ask me something else, but I’m honestly happy to see you guys.”
“Oh! Look, the table is set for six,” Tony began walking back inside but was stopped by Cap.
“Tony I get it and I’m happy for you I really am but this is a second chance,” Steve tried to reason with the man, his eyes pleading.
“I got my second chance right here Cap, can’t roll the dice on it.” Tony smiled sadly and turned away again, “if you don’t talk shop you can stay for lunch.”
Tony knew they wouldn’t, he was honestly glad they didn’t. He wouldn’t have been able to bear it if they had. The grief of losing a child was like an illness, Tony had come to discover. There were good days and bad days. He tried to push the interaction out of his mind, tried to breathe through it. He tried to remind himself that it was a pipe dream. He couldn’t get his hopes up. He couldn’t help but get his hopes up, that maybe, just maybe, he could get his little boy back.
Tony Stark solved time travel that night.