Chapter 1
“Hey, Pep, What’s this phone call about?”
“FRIDAY and I scheduled you a meeting at noon at Butterworth Psychology with a Doctor Julie Werner, it should only be thirty minutes long, and if you want, I’ll be there with you the whole time,” She rushes this in within thirty seconds.
“Oh, Pep, for the last-” Pepper cuts him off.
“No, Tony, everyone on the team is required to have one, just because they let you get off without somebody from S.H.I.E.L.D. doesn’t mean you won’t have a psychiatrist, this time I get to choose instead.”
“I’ve doomed myself to your control, oh dear, it’s not like you run my company and the rest of my life. Fine, I’ll go.”
“I’ll see you in two hours, Tony, I’m taking you to an early lunch.”
“Why do you do this to me, Pep?”
“You love me,” She says, and hangs up.
“Yes I do,” Tony says to an empty workshop, stretching upwards to get ready for his lunch, trying to decide between incognito or fancy suit.
Absently, he trudges to the elevator, “My room, FRI.”
“Already on it, Boss, would you like for Butterfingers to prepare you a suit?”
Butterfingers?
“FRIDAY, what is he doing in my room?” He asks, rolling on his feet.
“It seems he got a little… excited last night, Mr. Barton found the best solution in locking him in your quarters, Boss.”
Of course, Clint…
“Let him out and tell him he can get whatever revenge he sees fit, and no, I do not want him touching the suits I wear in meetings, I don’t want them spontaneously combusting in the middle of one.”
“Yes you do, Boss.”
“Yes I do, FRIDAY.”
;~:~:~:~:~:~;
“Clean this mess up!” Julie snaps once again, “We’re having a session with Tony Stark! Clearly, you do not know anything about him if you do not understand how much he has! How much he can offer us.”
“Of, course Doctor, so, so, sorry,” says Husk Bella, rushing to finish with the papers she was organizing.
“Ungrateful mutts,” The Doctor mutters to herself.
“‘Scuse me, Doctor, I’ve got a few questions about our most recent patient.” One of the more lively Husks pops up out of nowhere.
“It’s all in the file, I gave you, Jacob.”
“Ok!” He says, skipping away.
Julie smiles after him, faintly wondering why the others weren’t as thankful as him.
;~:~:~:~:~:~;
“Are you so shocked by the fact that I look decent?” Tony jokes after a solid ten seconds of staring.
“Huh? Oh, sorry I just forgot how hot you are,” Pepper says smoothly.
“How could you forget this face?”
He makes puppy dog eyes at her until she slaps him.
“Aw, Pep, not the face.” He bats his eyelashes at her. She just rolls her eyes.
“Get in the car.”
“Okay, fine, but only because I’m hungry.”
;~:~:~:~:~:~;
“Mr. Stark, what a pleasure to meet you, Dr. Werner will be in just a moment,” a tiny nurse says, keeping her head down.
“Thanks.” Tony nods to her in dismissal. He plops down on a bright blue couch, surveying the room. He’s only slightly put off by its colorful attributes. The walls are a deep orange, decorated by many abstract paintings hung around the room.
“We’re so happy to have you here with us, Mr. Stark,” he startles and looks up at the doctor to see nothing he expected, a tall woman with a brunet hair cut into a shoulder-length bob. She was wearing a tailored suit, standing even taller in her no doubt hundred-dollar heels, professional smile on her face.
He’s a bit wary of this place and subconsciously begins to asses any possible exits. He taps his StarkPhone three times to let Jarvis know to stay as alert as possible. He’s not even quite sure why he’s so on edge, either he’s paranoid or he’s noticed something he hasn’t realized yet.
“You seem a bit nervous, Mr. Stark, would you like a drink of water?”
“No, thank you, just a bit off today,” he smiles shakily.
“You’re very perceptive, Tony,” She says smoothly as alarms blare in his head.
She takes an intimidating step forward, smiling sharply at him.
“I imagine you’ve been through a lot in you’re life, yes?”
“Sure,” he says. He now knows for certain something’s up, something bad.
“Good.” She raises her arms sharply and suddenly.
“What-” His vision first goes black before visions of a musty cave come into view, visions of dirty water. Then it’s New York, aliens, a ship, larger than all their military forces combined, and the darkness of space. Then he sees that vision, his team, “You could have done more,” The accusing voice of Steve Rogers. The scene fades, cold, until he sees him again, this time standing over him, shield in hand. He sees Titan, red sky, filled with dust, he sees the kid, staggering, “I don’t feel so good.”
;~:~:~:~:~:~;
He wakes slowly, groggy still, not quite remembering anything yet not forgetting anything. He feels like peace, he feels like floating and dreams.
“Tony, it’s good to see you’re up. You might be confused for a bit, but the Doctor will explain everything.”
The Doctor, that registers, and as a seemingly natural reaction his brain thinks, ‘Serve the Doctor.’ He thinks, maybe, that is strange, but he doesn’t ponder it for long.
“Oh, Stark!” Julie skips into the room, she’s… better somehow, she seems happier, lighter on her feet, her whole presence seems to be glowing with joy.
“Thank you so much for everything you’ve done!” he doesn’t remember what he did, but whatever it was must have been impressive to make everybody happy. Vaguely, he wonders why he was sleeping at the psychiatrist’s office, but he feels distant and unbothered by this thought, so it must be fine.
“I’ll need you to infiltrate the Avengers for me, of course.” Doctor Werner says, calm and straight to the point.
Something in him screams though he’s not quite sure why. It seems a reasonable request after all the Doctor had done for him.
“It’d be my pleasure, Doctor.” this makes her smile, a mischievous, evasive smirk, “Well, go on then.”
;~:~:~:~:~:~;
Things didn’t change that much after the initial meeting, he still kissed Morgan goodnight and told her bedtime stories. He still did cookouts with the team (including old man Rogers) he still worked with Peter on Saturday and had brunch with May and Pepper on Sunday.
He simply had a new agenda, a new, more important priority, something he held above all others. It wasn’t so absurd, the Doctor was just worth more than his family.
;~:~:~:~:~:~;
“Hey, Tony do you want to try a different Psychiatrist or-?”
“No! No, I like the Doctor and I don’t want a new one.”
“Okay, Tony, I’ll schedule you another appointment with Dr. Werner, just calm down.
“Thanks, Pep!”
;~:~:~:~:~:~;
He’s working with Peter on a new suit with a new AI when he first suggests the idea.
“Halloween is coming up soon,” he comments.
“Uh, yeah, I thought I’d dress up as Captain America,” Peter says, fiddling with the hologram in front of him.
“Not me?” Tony gasps.
“I wanted to do something different,” Peter mumbles.
His head shoots up at this, shock evident on his face, “Is that to say you have dressed as me? Multiple times?”
“Well I did it like every year from the time I was nine to the time I was twelve, you were my hero, literally.”
He tilts his head at this, “What do you mean?”
“I would have died at that Stark Expo if it weren’t for you.”
Tony doesn’t want to dig into that, he doesn’t like anything to do with that annoying Justin Hammer.
“Well, if you want to come to my Halloween party you’re not dressing as Captain Wrinkles.”
“Party?” Tony chuckles, shaking his head at the how predictable the kid is, “Yeah, I was thinking we could have it at the compound Wednesday?”
“Oh, that sounds great!”
It’d taken months to rebuild the compound after they’d fought Thanos there, but now it was better than ever and certainly party-ready.
;~:~:~:~:~:~;
“I talked to the kid about it already, but is everybody available on Wednesday?”
“C’mon, Tones, when do we ever have anything?”
“Right, I forgot that none of you have lives,” Tony quips.
“What are you trying to rope us into?” Natasha cuts in.
“How would you guys feel about a Halloween party?”
“Sounds fun, can I bring the kids?”
“Well, obviously,” Tony rolls his eyes at Clint’s stupidity.
“Ouch.”
;~:~:~:~:~:~;
“Will all the Avengers be attending?” The Doctor askes, now that the plan is nearing.
“Aside from War Machine and Ant-Man.”
The Doctor snorts, “Well those are hardly Avengers at all.”
A defensive thought pops into his head but vanishes just as quickly.
;~:~:~:~:~:~;
“F.R.I.D.A.Y. I need you to do something for me.”
“Anything, Boss.”
“I’m gonna need you to shut down during the party.”
“Is there something wrong, Boss?”
“Nothing at all, I just thought it would make things more spooky.”
“...Of course, Boss,” The AI says reluctantly.
;~:~:~:~:~:~;
“Oh, I heard Wanda’s gonna get to the party like an hour late, so blegh bop,” Sam says.
“That’s fine, we’ll just make it an hour longer!” Tony said, gritting his teeth. Well, this isn’t going to ruin anything at all.
“This is gonna be awesome!” says Clint.
“And child-appropriate,” Tony warned.
“Right.”
;~:~:~:~:~:~;
“Who wants pizza?!” a random lady asks.
“Who is this, Tony?!” Sam screams, pulling a gun out of nowhere. Out from behind her come thirty normal looking people.
“Avengers, meet the Doctor,” Tony says, grinning. He launches himself at Clint and tackles him.
“Get the kids out of here!” Clint screams.
Peter speeds around the room, picking up all four children and running to the exit to find it locked.
“Crap!”
"You've done quite well, Tony," Says the doctor right before she is encased in a bright red.