Obadiah
The screen became blurred for a second and then it fired up again.
It was the same house. Peggy, Ana and Tony were sitting in the living room. The women were talking about a book and the boy was once again staring at the wall. Suddenly the doorbell rang. Ana stood up and said:
“I’ll get it.”
She came back a few minutes later with a bald man. He was carrying a big box that he put down on the couch next to Tony. Then he kneeled in front of the boy and put himself in his view. Tony seemed to recognize him because his eyes focused on the man’s face.
“Hey Tony. I heard you got yourself in trouble a while ago.”
Tony nodded.
“You wanna talk about it?”
A frantic head shaking. The man raised his hands up.
“Hey. It’s all fine. You know you are safe now right?”
A slight hesitation but then Tony nodded slowly. Peggy and Ana were completely still. They seemed surprised that the man had so good communication with Tony. Meanwhile the man glanced down to the boy’s hands.
“You lost it?”
A small nod. The man sighed. Then he reached over to the box and opened it. Inside were metal parts, tools, cables, lights and much more. Tony’s head turned so that he could see the inside of the box. A small flicker of something like happiness flashed in his eyes but it disappeared as soon as it appeared. He looked back to the man who was watching him.
“You know I thought that you might want to do something to keep your mind and hands occupied. You could build something. If you want.”
It was quiet for almost five minutes. Under that time Tony was looking back and forth between the man and the box. In the end he seemed to make a decision because he reached over to the box and dumped all of the things on the carpet. Then he slid down from the couch and sat down in between the metals. He took a deep breath and lifted up one of the pieces. Then he slowly looked over to the man and opened his mouth. He seemed to have trouble getting the sound out but after a few tries he managed to rasp out:
“Thanks Obie.”
The man ruffled his hair and stood up.
“I’ll go to the kitchen to get some coffee with Miss Carter and Mrs. Jarvis. If you need anything just come there and tell me all right?”
Tony nodded but he seemed to not pay that much attention to the man anymore. He was looking around to find some tool. Peggy, Ana and Obadiah went out and into the kitchen. As soon as they got there Ana turned to the man.
“How did you do that? He has been living here for two years and neither me or Peggy has gotten any reaction out of him. And now suddenly he even speaks.”
Obadiah smiled.
“You seem to forget Mrs. Jarvis that I knew Howard. And if he was upset all you had to do was to give him something to do and he would forget what happened. Tony was much the same. On the days when Howard was not home he would get something from Howard’s workshop and tinker with that. It is his defense mechanism. He locks himself into himself and tinkers. But if he tinkers he sometimes forgets about the world and it is easier to reach him then.”
Before they managed to respond the door opened and Tony went in. He headed straight to Obadiah and said slowly:
“I don’t have enough tools.”
Obadiah looked over to Ana who seemed to understand immediately. She quickly smiled towards Tony and said:
“Well, I don’t use the basement. It was never used. We could put up a nice workshop down there.”
Tony turned to her with big eyes. But he didn’t say anything. Obadiah smiled to Ana and then turned towards Tony again.
“Why don’t we do it this way. You and Mrs. Jarvis go down there and prepare some furniture and so on. Meanwhile me and Miss Carter will go and get more tools and materials for you. What do you think?”
Tony nodded quickly. It was evident from his face that he had not expected to get a whole basement to change into a workshop. Obadiah stood up.
“All right then. We better get going then. Do you want me to buy you some food while we are out there Mrs. Jarvis?”
Ana quickly shook her head.
“I’ll cook something later. What would you like to eat Tony?”
He glanced towards the wall but then seemed to realize what he was doing because he looked over to Ana and asked slowly:
“Can you do pizza Ana?”
It was obvious that he had trouble with getting the sound out but otherwise he seemed to be feeling a bit more comfortable. Obadiah smiled towards him. Then he ruffled the boy’s hair again and headed towards the exit. Ana quickly ran after him and said:
“You are welcome to stay for some time Mr. Stane. I see that Tony likes you very much and I think that your presence will help him get better.”
He smiled at her again.
“I would be honoured to stay here Mrs. Jarvis.”
Ana rolled her eyes.
“Please. Call me Ana. Mrs. Jarvis sounds so damn formal.”
“Obadiah then.”
She smiled. It seemed that she was very pleased with how things were going. That was when Peggy and Tony came out to the hall. Peggy put on a jacket and looked around for her shoes. Tony stretched his hand out towards them, almost as if he wanted to use his powers. Then he froze for a second and quickly pulled his hand back. Peggy acted as if she wanted to go over to him but catched Obadiah shaking his head so she stepped towards her shoes and put them on. Then she turned towards Tony again.
“We’ll be back soon darling. Good luck with the basement.”
He looked towards her and then his eyes moved towards the side to fix themselves on the wall. But once again he seemed to realize what he was doing because he turned towards Ana. She smiled while she closed the door behind Peggy and Obadiah.
“So downstairs now. We should have some old sofa down there that we could put in your workshop. And some tables. The things we don’t need we’ll just put next to the stairs and Obadiah will help us to get it up and out of the house if it’s not needed at all.”
Tony nodded and they headed towards the door to the basement.
Bruce was smiling.
“I’m not surprised that he was so happy to get his own workshop. I mean, Tony is like a child before Christmas when he is in the workshop.”
Bucky nodded.
“Yeah. I remember when he finally felt comfortable enough to get out of our room. He was in the laboratories all the time. Pointing out every little wrong that those scientists did. And he never let anyone close to my arm. He said that they would screw it up because they were all idiots. Drove some of them crazy. A few actually had to be moved to a different base because they couldn’t functionate with Jamie in the same place. It was quite fun to watch. Him bossing them around since they never could say anything against him. He had my protection and was Pierce’s favorite.”
Wanda was looking down at her hands and moving them the same way Tony had done in the clip. Then she looked up and asked:
“Do you think that they took all of it? I mean… Maybe he still has some left. Maybe he can somehow reach it again. In some way.”
Bucky turned to her with hope in his eyes.
“You think that is possible?”
She shrugged.
“After I was injected with this I kept using it and it kinda replaced itself all the time so that it never ends. Maybe Tony’s power is still there but he is so used to not using it anymore that he has repressed it without realizing it. Maybe there is a way to unlock it.”