Names
The door closed behind Bruce and Tony turned to Wanda. She looked anxious so he smiled at her.
“Go on. Ask.”
Wanda suddenly didn’t feel so sure anymore. She looked down at her feet.
“I… Rhodes talked with us about… Well, you.”
Tony smirked.
“And what did that platypus tell you?”
Wanda felt even more uncomfortable. But she decided that if she had started then she would finish.
“He told us about Howard ca… About you not being able to have children.”
Tony paled. Some of the machines beeped and Bucky quickly looked over to them.
“Jamie. Breathe. Your heart is racing.”
Wanda felt bad for even taking it up. But then she decided that she had to keep talking.
“He told us that you wanted to have children and I… I thought that maybe I… I mean…”
Bucky sighed and said:
“To simplify it all, Wanda is asking if she can call you dad.”
Two pairs of eyes looked over at him. Tony’s confused and Wanda’s thankful. Then Tony looked back to Wanda.
“You want… But… Me?”
It took the girl a few seconds to understand but when she did she felt sadness. Tony Stark didn’t understand why someone would want him as a father.
“Bucky is right. That’s what I wanted to ask but I… I guess I didn’t think you would want me as a daughter after the fight on the airport. I am truly sorry for simply following Steve and not thinking it all through. I understand now that you only tried to protect me because you knew what others can do with people like us. I am so sorry. And I would be honored to be able to call you father. I will understand if you don’t want me to and I can accept that.”
Tony was simply staring at her. Then he slowly closed his eyes. When he opened them again they were brown. And Bucky understood. Tony trusted them. He trusted them enough to let his guard down around them. Tony ‘s hand moved and he placed it on top of Wandas.
“And it would be an honor for me to be able to call you my daughter.”
Then he smirked and added.
“If one more person tries to apologize to me today I will become crazy.”
Wanda cast a worried glance towards Bucky. But Bucky kept his eyes on Tony. It was really sad. That Tony blamed himself for so much that he couldn’t understand why people apologized to him. Wanda seemed to understand that she should drop it because she leaned more comfortably on the chair and asked with a light voice:
“So who is she?”
It took Tony less than a second to understand what she was talking about. He actually blushed at that.
“Well… I guess I could tell you. But you’ll have to promise you won’t tell anyone. And that means you too Winter.”
Bucky faked a hurt expression.
“Me? I would never.”
Tony raised his eyebrows.
“Really Jamie. I won’t.”
Tony looked at him for a while and then he said quietly:
“Nat.”
Both Wanda’s and Bucky’s eyes widened. They seemed shocked. Wanda was the first one to speak.
“I think you have a chance.”
Tony quickly turned towards her.
“What? How do you know?”
Wanda grinned.
“Well first of all I’m a woman.”
Both Tony and Bucky glared at her so she quickly continued.
“And I have noticed that Natasha was not really herself when you were in coma. And the way she was talking about you was too protective for a simple friend.”
A small smile appeared on Tony’s face. He looked over to the machines and his eyes changed to blue. Before they could do anything a blue power flew towards the machines and they all died. Bucky flew up from his chair.
“James!”
But before he could do anything more Tony sat up.
“I’m not going to stay in bed. I’m fine now. I want to move around a bit. To my floor. Shower. Change clothes.”
He had a few seconds staredown with Bucky and then the soldier nodded.
“Fine. But I’m coming with you.”
“Fine.”
Wanda stood up and moved a bit closer to the bed. She bent down and kissed Tony on the cheek.
“I’ll go and tell Nat that she should bring the food up to your room.”
She turned around and left. Tony swung his legs over the edge of the bed and slowly stood up. Bucky was at his side in a moment and helped him gain balance. Very slowly they made their way to the door but before they could leave there was a quiet whirring in the corner. Tony spun around so fast that Bucky lost his grip on him for a second. But by the time he wanted to grab him again Tony was already on the other side of the room using his power as stabilizers. Bucky was struck by how much it resembled how Tony was using the suit’s thrusters to stabilize his flight. And suddenly he understood why Tony had decided on a suit like that. It gave him a replacement for his powers. The way the repulsors fired was just like the way Tony had always fired his powers. Bucky slowly made his way over to where Tony was kneeling next to a big robotic claw. When Bucky looked closer he noticed that the claw moved so that it was resting on Tony’s shoulder. Tony had put one hand on the claw and the other on the base part of the robot. It looked almost as if they were hugging.
“I know boy. I’m sorry. But I’m fine now. I promise.”
Bucky kneeled down next to Tony and had to duck to get away from the claw that tried to hit his head. Tony burst out laughing.
“It’s fine Dummy. This is Winter. I told you about him. He’s a friend.”
“With all due respect boss. Winter did try to kill you and I failed at keeping that footage from the bots.”
Tony looked over to where he knew one of the cameras were.
“He saw that footage? And U and Butterfingers too? Damn. I’m so sorry Dummy.”
He was now talking to the claw again and Bucky had to ask.
“Why are you talking to a machine?”
Tony looked almost hurt.
“Dummy is NOT a simple machine. He is an AI. Artificial intelligence. His name is Dummy. Spelled DUM-E. Dummy. He has a brother. U. Just the letter U. And two sisters. Butterfingers and Friday.”
Bucky tilted his head.
“Where did you get those names?”
Tony’s face lit up with happiness and Bucky wondered if anyone had ever asked him about that.
“Well Dummy was the first one. Obie called me Dummy once. When I created Dummy and told Obie that AI’s were the future. Obie just said: ‘You don’t understand what the world needs you dummy.’ So I called Dummy for Dummy from that moment on. But I didn’t want anyone else to make fun of him so I spelled it DUM-E. U was next. It was almost the same story here. Obie screamed: ‘You should know better!’ I was finishing U then so I named him U and spelled it with just one letter. Butterfingers was next. I was drunk when I created her and I did some bad wiring. She was clumsy and was loosing the grip on things she picked up. So I called her Butterfingers as a joke and it stuck even when she was fixed later. Friday was created on a friday. So that one was easy.”
While he was talking Bucky had reached his metal arm out towards the claw. After a few seconds the claw closed around his hand and shook it lightly. Tony smiled.
“You see. He is nice.”
Bucky wasn’t sure if Tony was talking to him or to the robot so he simply let go of the claw and got up.
“Come on Jamie. You wanted to shower right?”
Tony nodded and slowly stood up, once again using his powers to keep his balance. They made their way to the door with Dummy wheeling behind them. Friday opened the door for them and they stepped out. They had to wait a few seconds for the elevator and when it opened they came face to face with Sam and Clint. Bucky felt Tony tense up next to him and heard Dummy make a small sound when he noticed his creators distress. Clint and Sam became completely still where they were standing. Tony’s eyes were still blue and the power was around him. Bucky moved a bit closer to Tony. Just in case.