A Reunion of Friends
Happy was confused, he was stressed, and his phone had been tapped. He knew he was probably being tracked so he drove away from the Parker house, not wanting to put them in any more danger than they already were. He heard voices throughout the city but tuned it out at the knowledge that it was the news. He had seen how bad things were effecting Peter but knew he would never be driven to anything like that. He was a good kid, and it was best to stick with that simple fact and ignore everything that said otherwise.
He ended up in an open parking lot to a shopping center that had been shut down. Happy pulled his phone out of the center console, which wasn't working properly anymore. There was a little notification showing that there was an unknown point of access into his phone, which had alerted him to start leaving in the first place.
Happy was about to open up his own window when there was a knock at the passenger side's door. He froze, and it was silent enough in the car with the engine shut off that he could hear the outside noises as well; at the moment, he heard heavy panting, like the person had been running for an extended amount of time. That could very well be since no one had any business to be out here unless it was the person who had been tracking him.
One thing that Happy noticed as he slowly reached for the gun was that the person had at least one arm that wasn't made of flesh and bone. It was a metallic blue, from what Happy could see through the shaded windows as the person reached up to knock again.
"Happy, I swear upon all the creepy-ass aliens in space, you better open this door right now."
Tony's face was suddenly pressed up against the window as his knocking had gone unanswered. Happy only had a moment of hesitation before he swiftly removed the handgun from its hiding place, opened the window, and aimed directly out. The ‘maybe Tony’ man stumbled back in surprise.
"Tony, as much as I hope this is true, you have to understand that there was a situation of illusions and I simply can't trust that this is real."
It took a few seconds for the supposedly-dead billionaire to process his friend’s words, but when he did, he made slow movements. His head was in front of the barrel again, but Happy could look into his eyes if he wanted to.
“Look, shoot me if you want because I really don’t want to go to press meetings about this now, but at least let me see my wife, my daughter, my boy, and get myself a cheeseburger before you blow my brains out,” After a beat of silence he added, “please.”
Happy’s hand shook as he lowered the gun and slipped it away. With a shaky breath, he unlocked the door, for it to be open and shut within a span of five seconds.
“Pepper and Morgan are at the Parker residence. No one had come looking for them by the time I got the notification on my phone and left. Peter got home safely just as I was leaving, and I’m sure he’ll keep everyone safe.”
“Thanks, Hap, you’re the best.” Without much thought on the matter, he added, “Can I see them?”
“Of course,” Happy responded, already starting the car again.
“Thank you, really, for everything,” Tony said once the car was in motion. When his friend opened his mouth to respond, he was cut off. “I died, let me be sentimental, ok? You should know, better than anyone except maybe Rhodey, how done I was with life for a long time. You guys helped me, and I didn’t realize just how much until I was thinking how much I didn’t want to die. It was… scary, to put it nicely. I’m sorry I couldn’t be there right away, and that you had to lose me. And… I’m sorry that I thought it would be better if you guys thought I was dead and moved on without me.” He paused to take a breather, to steady out his voice. “I know some people aren’t going to be happy about it, and we can talk about this later, but just… tell me the things I missed, that I wouldn’t find on the media. I wish I hadn’t been gone but I’ll do my best.”
Happy sighed and wiped at his eyes, believing he had a right to be emotional at that moment and that Tony wouldn’t make fun of him for it. He was correct when he found himself faced with the silence of his best friend and decided to answer to his request. “Pepper’s taken on drawing again. I’m amazed at the patience that woman has when she finds that her art had been colored over with crayons.” Tony let out a quiet, breathy laugh. “Peter called AC/DC ‘Led Zeppelin’.”
“Uncultured swine.”
“He did get himself a girl, though. He was out with her when this happened. Her name’s MJ, reminds me a bit of Pepper.”
The topics began to vary until they pulled up at the Parker residence. Happy promised to be waiting outside for Tony, because he was a chauffeur after all, and his boss had a press conference to go to.