Rhodey's Phone Call
Rhodey was largely left to his own devices, despite his mother and Vision’s constant presence and fussing. Vision was still feeling guilty over the whole “My Beam Left You Paralyzed For Good” thing and refused to leave him alone, although he could barely meet his eyes.
After his tests had been completed, he had finally been given some peace of mind and access to the Internet - granted, his phone took a while to charge but it wasn’t like he had anywhere else to go.
It was a bad idea to go online, though - a memo Rhodey got a little too late. Every article spoke of Tony’s death and speculations of what caused his injuries, every YouTube video was a debate on the “Avengers Civil War” business, consolation flowers were left at SI’s doorstep…
The world was a mess and now Rhodey didn’t even have Tony, let alone his legs.
After Pepper had left, before sunrise, he had spent the whole day thinking about his college days, with Tony - how the young genius was always trying to figure out philosophical questions such as the reason for his existence, how he answered every question in his class and made his peers hate his brilliance, how devoted he was to his robots, how stressed he was when exam week came around even though he aced each of his exams with flying colors…
Needless to say, he spent his day bawling his eyes out, much to the concern of his mother and the discomfort of Vision, although they understood (on a different level).
In another situation, he would have insisted he cried in a very manly way.
But his best friend was gone - he wouldn’t have a genius to force to eat three times a day whenever he could, he wouldn’t be able to force Tony to go to bed after spending too many hours in the workshop, he wouldn’t have someone to get drunk with, someone to tell his secrets, someone to be his wingman, someone to pat his back and laugh as he threw up in the toilet after getting drunk the night before, someone to fight next to him (Iron Man and Iron Patriot, fighting against the bad guys)…
Screw that name, War Machine sounded MUCH better.
He wasn’t coping, but he wasn’t in denial. That was something, right?
He was a soldier - he wasn’t a stranger to death or to injuries. That meant he could accept the fact that Tony was dead, that didn’t mean he wasn’t grieving and hurting.
Tony was in a better place, he said to comfort himself.
The next day wasn’t much better - he repeated the same pattern until the CEO of Pym Technologies, Hope Van Dyne, called him.
He had been browsing YouTube for something interesting to watch that wouldn’t remind him of Tony (few things didn’t, since the man practically had his fingers in almost every pie), when he received the call.
Caller ID: Private Number
He was tempted to let it go to voicemail, but he cleared his throat and answered after the fourth ring. He saw Vision leave the room silently from the corner of his eyes.
“Yes?”
“Hello, Colonel Rhodes. My name is Hope Van Dyne and I was hoping we could talk for a few minutes, if that’s okay with you?” Something in her voice reminded him of Pepper - strong, confident yet polite.
“Of course… I must say, it’s a surprise to hear from you. Being Tony Stark’s best friend meant contact with Pym Technologies was very limited at best.” He frowned.
“Yes, well, that’s the feud between my father and Mr. Stark. I hope I didn’t call at a bad time - I just wanted to offer my sincere apologies for Ant-Man’s involvement in the Leipzig/Halle Airport battle and my condolences for your… grave injuries and for Mr. Stark.” Hope said all of this calmly yet with emotion. Loss and regret were the main ones, as far as Rhodey could tell.
“You’re not to blame. And… thank you, I suppose.” He cleared his throat. He hated not knowing what to say and how to respond to the woman’s words. “I mean no offense but … what is it that you need?”
“Excuse me?” Ms. Van Dyne was either confused or offended - Rhodey could only hope it was the former.
“What is the real motive of your call? The War Machine suit? The Iron Man suit?” He asked. “No offense.” He added as an afterthought. Diplomacy was never really his thing - he was a soldier, not a politician.
“None of those. I’m afraid that if I wanted those things, I would talk to Ms. Potts, who is, if you recall, the CEO of Stark Industries. Those suits are, after all, property of Stark Industries.” She had a nice laugh, Rhodey had to admit.
“Oh…” He didn’t know what else to say. “Well, thank you for calling…”
“Of course.” She was amused. “Goodbye, Colonel,”
“Goodbye, Ms. Van Dyne.” He quickly hung up.
Well, that was weird. Vision slowly drifted back into the room and Rhodey couldn’t stifle his laugh.
“You know that just gave away the fact that you were listening to my phone call, right?” He chortled.
Vision looked affronted, although he still didn't meet his eyes. “I did my best to not listen to your conversation.”
Rhodey laughed again. It was nice, he supposed. He hadn’t thought he could laugh again, after Tony, but here he was….
He knew he wouldn’t ever move past Tony’s death, but he could certainly move forward in his life.
Something Tony would’ve wanted him to do.