Chapter 2
As soon as Obadiah Stane left the house, James is on his feet and scowling. "That's the guy," he says, pacing towards the door as if he wanted to chase after Stane.
"What do you mean?'" Tony says, mouth half full of the pizza Stane had left behind. "I've known Obie my entire life."
"That's the guy that wanted to make sure you didn't leave Afghanistan."
Tony stares at him for a long moment and puts the slice of pizza down. "Are you sure? How do you know?"
"I don't remember," James says, frustrated. The gaps in his memory were like that, like the word that was on the tip of your tongue, aggravatingly close but not within reach. "I just know."
It takes three weeks and James has to break into Stane's home twice, but he finally finds it. He brings Stane's laptop to show Tony the video he found of Tony tied to a chair, still bleeding from a chest wound and surrounded by the Ten Rings. He tries to stop the video after he makes his point but Tony stops him; he watches it twice before he shuts the laptop with exaggerated gentleness. When he finally looks up at James his hands are shaking slightly and his eyes are bright with rage. "Let's find the son of a bitch."
They corner Stane in a Stark Industries warehouse surrounded by more evidence of his betrayal: the first prototype of the Iron Man armor, reassembled behind a security door with another version clearly in progress. When confronted with the evidence, Stane goes from denial to indifference.
"Since we're revealing everyone's crimes here," he says with a poisonous geniality, "did you tell him yours, James?"
"What are you talking about?"
"Check the other video file," he says, and starts to reach for the laptop. James tightens his grip and Stane stills. Tony pulls the laptop closer to him and opens the file Stane mentioned. James' stomach drops as Tony grows pale, dread making his fingers numb. He had never felt more aware of the holes in his memory, waiting to explode the fragile happiness he'd built with Tony. Stane, on the other hand, chuckles nastily. "It's ugly, isn't it? He did it with his bare hands, even."
"Did you know?" Tony says, his voice tight and carefully controlled. The dread in James's stomach turns into a ball of ice as Tony turns the screen to face him. The footage is in shades of gray and grainy, taken from a security camera. James' metal arm is easy to see as he beats an older man to death and then reaches into the passenger window for someone else. There's no sound, but somehow that makes it worse.
"That's his parents," Stane says helpfully. "All this time together and you never told Tony that you murdered his parents. You can't trust anyone, can you?" He shakes his head with mock sympathy.
James' heart is pounding and he feels queasy. "I didn't, Tony, I swear I don't remember, I don't..." he stops and swallows the desperate denials when he realizes that Tony isn't listening, he's just staring at the footage on repeat, face shuttered and unnaturally still.
"Where did you get this footage, Stane?" Now Tony's voice is low and dangerous.
The look on Stane's face says that he realizes he made a mistake. "I did some investigating when -"
"You're lying. Where did you get this footage, Stane?" Tony repeats. Then he is diving over the table between them, hands on Stane's throat as they fall on the ground. "You did this! You sent him after them the same way you sent him after me!"
James lets him get a few punches in, until Stane's face and his fists are bloody and raw before pulling Tony off. "You're going to die in prison," Tony hisses, brushing off James' hands. James can hear the sirens already; the police are probably only a mile away.
"Well, I'll have good company," Stane rasps with a wet laugh, gesturing at James. "You think they're going to put me in jail and let your boyfriend here get off scot-free, when they've got him on camera? Not a chance."
That makes the color drain from Tony's face again, and he staggers back to lean against the wall, burying his face in his hands. James wants to run, wants to kill Stane, wants to scream in rage but he's frozen.
"What's it going to be, Tony?" Stane taunts. "Justice or your new loverboy?"
Finally sick of hearing his shit, James knocks him out while Tony slides to the floor. "Tony-"
"Delete the video," Tony growls.
James goes the laptop and hesitates. "Tony, I-"
"Delete the video!"
James tightens his jaw and obeys, deleting the security camera footage and erasing it from the hard drive. He sits down heavily and stares at the table until the police storm in.