At the door of Stark Tower

[justakidfrombrklyn]

He doesn't really have a phone anymore, at least not one that isn't a burner on the end of it's life, and that phone never had the number he needed in it, so he didn't call ahead. Instead, he's just there, heading for the front desk to see if perhaps, just maybe, he has a friend here. Or at least an ally.

"Steve Rogers for Tony Stark, please?"

Comments

[justakidfrombrklyn]

"Where's it coming from, if you don't mind me asking?"

[actuallyhasaheart]

"Allow me to show you." JARVIS doesn't wait, just pulls up a holoscreen, that first shows a map detailing the proximity of the place to the tower, followed by an exterior shot, and then a menu that will take him to the restaurant's website, their Yelp reviews, and a few other similar options.

[justakidfrombrklyn]

He's a little overwhelmed, but he knows it's not JARVIS's fault. It gets a laugh out of him.

"Don't think I've ever been there, so this should be interesting."

[actuallyhasaheart]

"It's relatively new sir, only about four years old, but I'm told their burgers are, to quote, 'fucking amazing', endquote."

His imitation of Tony's tone is, of course, perfect.

[justakidfrombrklyn]

That gets another laugh out of him.

"You're a card, JARVIS. I'm sure it'll be great."

[actuallyhasaheart]

"Thank you sir. I'll let you know when it arrives. In the meantime, believe it or not, there is actually a library here, if you'd like something to take your mind off of matters."

It's not much of one, given that Tony prefers to read on his tablet, or have things read to him while he works, but there are others who don't share his taste for all things cutting-edge.

[justakidfrombrklyn]

That has him sitting up.

"Can you tell me how to get there?" He pauses, though, since he doesn't want to be a bad guest.

"Will Tony mind?"

[actuallyhasaheart]

"Turn right out the door, and it will be the second door on the left," JARVIS replies. "And I doubt he'll mind, since he was the one who reminded me to inform you."

[justakidfrombrklyn]

He winces a little, since he really hates to be a bother, but he's up and pulling on his socks before JARVIS can say anything else to pad towards the library.

[actuallyhasaheart]

"Enjoy, sir."

If he takes a glance the other way down the hall, he'll see Tony, futzing with a holodisplay, and poring over the spread-out papers of the file. He never even glances up.

[justakidfrombrklyn]

He's really curious about the library, but he's also curious about what Tony's working on. He decides to split the difference by keeping his time in the library at a minimum, picking up a familiar volume to tuck under his arm before heading back to Tony. He walks in quietly so as not to disturb him.

[actuallyhasaheart]

Tony rotates a holoscanned piece of the blueprint in the z-axis, and fits it against another piece, before sliding the whole thing into a third bit.

"Try that one."

[justakidfrombrklyn]

"Is there a reason why you're trying to work out the mechanics of Bucky's arm?" he asks, and it's not exactly upset but it is confused.

[actuallyhasaheart]

Tony looks up, not at all startled thanks to JARVIS.

"Hey, well. It's part of what they did to him," he explains. "It's all connected. And if I can figure out how it works, it'll help. ...and it's really cool. I mean, I am seriously disturbed by how they did this. It shouldn't've been possible."

[justakidfrombrklyn]

"The whole thing shouldn't be possible," he says matter-of-factly, "not that I'm complaining."

And nearly dying included, he's really not. He just wants his friend back.

[actuallyhasaheart]

"Well, okay, but there are degrees of impossible here, Steve," Tony says. "There's-- There's normal people impossible, and then there's me saying something should be impossible."

[justakidfrombrklyn]

That actually makes him smile just a little.

"How's that saying go? 'There's more things in heaven and earth, Horatio'?"

[actuallyhasaheart]

"That play is incredibly depressing," Tony replies. "But yeah, that about sums it up. I just wanna know where the hell HYDRA got some of this shit."

He gestures sharply at the holodisplay.

"We didn't even have the capability to produce some of this stuff back then. I mean, yeah, they had the tesseract, but, hell, you'd know more about how that shit went down than I would, fuck."

Tony drags a hand down his face, and stares off into space for a few seconds, lost in thought.

[justakidfrombrklyn]

"Howard had a lot of notes about the stuff that we recovered," he offered.

"Do you know where any of that stuff might be?"

Unfortunately, the only location he knows of any of it being held was summarily carpet bombed.

[actuallyhasaheart]

"I've got some of them. Been sorting through them whenever I have time, but it's kind of a giant mess." He looks over at Steve. "Fury dropped a few more fileboxes on me when he came to chat about the repulsors, but I haven't had time for those yet. The rest... Where do you think?"

He shrugs.

[justakidfrombrklyn]

"I think I saw them get blown up. Up close and personal, unfortunately."

[actuallyhasaheart]

"...Damn. Well, I guess we can just hope that Fury got me all the important stuff. He did last time." That last is spoken under his breath, mostly to himself.

[justakidfrombrklyn]

"We could always look," he says thoughtfully. After all, there could definitely be something in the rubble.

"It's not that far away. New Jersey, in fact."

[actuallyhasaheart]

"So that's what that was about. All right, sure, why not? Tomorrow sound good to you?"

Sifting through the rubble of his father's work, sure, why the hell not?

[justakidfrombrklyn]

"Tomorrow," he agrees, lifting the book.

"And I'll just head on back to my room and give this a gander."

There's a slightly concerned expression as he turns back to Tony, though.

"Try and get some sleep."