Oliana Stark:

Young Jax Stark:

Oliana Stark was sitting down with Young Jackson "Jax" Stark at a piano, singing to him, playing the piano. "Try to remember the kind of September / When grass was green..."

Tony Stark / Iron Man walked closer, picking Young Jax up in his arms. "Jax."

Young Jax laughed. "Daddy!"

Tony smiled. "Hey, buddy."

Oliana looked at Tony, smiling. "Hey."

Tony smiled, leaning closer. "Hi."

Tony and Oliana kissed.

Young Jax covered his eyes.

Howard and Maria Stark walked in. 

"Lovely family moment," Howard told them. "Hoping that we could continue this later."

"This is why I love coming home for Christmas," Tony told them.

Young Jax held his hands toward Maria. "Grandma."

Maria smiled, taking Young Jax from Tony. "Hello, dear."

"Do me a favor, Oliana," Howard told her. "Make sure Tony doesn't burn the house down before Monday."

"Okay, so it's Monday," Tony told them. "That it good to know. I will plan our toker party accordingly."

Oliana smiled a small smile. "Where are you going?"

"Howard's flying us to the Bahamas for a little get away," Maria told them. 

"We might have to make a quick stop," Howard told them. 

"At the Pentagon, right?" Tony asked. He looked at Maria. "Don't worry. You're going to love the holiday menu at the commissure."

"You know, they say sarcasm is a metric for potential," Howard told him. "If that's true, you'll be a great man some day." He looked at Maria. "We should be getting ready to leave."

Maria nodded, looking at Young Jax in her arms. "I'll be right back, okay?"

Young Jax grinned, laughing quietly.

Oliana took Young Jax from Maria, holding him close to her.

Maria and Howard walked out of the room, leaving.

Oliana walked toward Tony, holding Young Jax. "They do miss you when you're not here. And, frankly, you're going to miss us. Because this is the last time we're all going to be together. Your mother's sick, Tony. And your father's not doing much better. You know what's going to happen. Say something. If you don't, you'll regret it."

Howard and Maria walked in.

"Mom, I love you," Tony told her. "I love you, Dad. And I know you did the best you could." Howard and Maria nodded to them, walking out, leaving. Young Jax watched them go eagerly. Tony looked at Oliana. "You're not that far behind them, are you?"

"Sadly, no," Oliana answered. "Duty calls."

"Right," Tony told her. "The job that you keep a secret to me. Seriously, what is it? CIA? FBI? Mafia?"

Oliana smiled a small smile. "It's better if you don't know. It's safer. I love you."

"I love you, Oliana," Tony told her. 

Oliana leaned closer to kiss Tony on the cheek, holding Young Jax between them.

Present-Day Tony and Present-Day Jax Stark / Gold Strike were standing behind the hologram of Past-Tony, Oliana and Young Jax.

"That's how I wished it happened," Tony told them. "By merely Augmented Retro Framing or 'BARF'... God, I got to work on that acronym."

"I don't know," Jax told him. "Could be kind of fitting."

Tony smirked. "An extremely costly method, of hijacking the hippocampus to clear... traumatic memories. And to show my son the memories of his mother and his grandparents that he was too young to remember." The holographic memory started to fade. "It doesn't change the fact that my parents never made it to the airport, or the fact that my wife, Oliana, Jax's mother, died on the secret job that we would one day come to find out was being an agent for S.H.I.E.L.D."

Jax looked at the audience watching them. "Plus, 611 million dollars for this little therapeutic experiment. No one in the right mind would ever funded it. Help me out. What's the MIT admission statement? To generate, disseminate and preserve knowledge, and work with others, to bring to bear on the world's great challenges. Well, you, or the others. And quiet as it's kept, the challenges facing you are the greatest mankind has ever known. Plus, most of you are broke." 

The crowd chuckled.

"I'm sorry," Tony told them. "Rather, you were. As of this moment, every student has been made an equal recipient of the Inaugural September Foundation Grant. As in, all of your projects have just been approved and funded." Everyone applauded. "No strings. No taxes. Just... reframe the future. Starting now." 

Tony read the teleprompter.

Now I would like to introduce the head of the foundation, Pepper Potts.

Tony froze, looking sad.

Jax noticed, knowing what was wrong. He looked into the crowd. "Go break some eggs."

Everyone stood, applauding and cheering.

Tony and Jax walked offstage toward a man.

"That, uh..." the man trailed off. "That took my breath way. Tony, Jax, so generous. So much money. Wow, I... Out of curiosity, and... will any portion of that grant be made available to faculty? I know, ooh, gross, but hear me out. I have got this killer idea for a self cooking hot dog. Basically, chemical detonator embedded--"

Jax pointed down the hallway. "The restroom this way, yeah?"

"Yeah," the man answered. "Embedding in the meat shaft."

A blonde woman walked closer. "I am so sorry about the teleprompter. I didn't know Ms. Potts has canceled. They didn't have time to fix it."

"It's... fine," Tony told them. "I need some air."

Tony walked away, leaving.

Jax walked away toward the restrooms, into the hallway.

A woman was standing nearby, in front of the elevator. "That was really sweet." Jax stopped. "What you and your father did for the young people."

"Oh, they deserve it," Jax told her. "Plus, it helps to ease consciouses."

"They say, there's a correlation between generosity and guilt," the woman told him. "But, you got the money. Break as many eggs as you like. Right?"

Jax noticed that the elevator button was not pushed, and that the woman wasn't waiting for the elevator. "Are you going up?"

"I'm right where I wanted to be," the woman told him, reaching into her purse.

Jax grabbed her wrist to stop her. "Okay, okay, hey. I'm sorry. It's my occupation hazard."

"I work for the state department," the woman told him. "Human resources. I know it's boring. But it enabled me to raise a son. I'm very proud of what he grew up to be." He pushed a picture into Jax's chest. "His name was Charlie Spencer. You murdered him." Jax looked at her in confusion. "In Sokovia. Not that it matters in the least to you. You think you fight for us. You just fight for yourselves. Who's going to avenge my son, Stark? He's dead. And I blame you."

The woman walked away.

Jax was stunned speechless with guilt.

      ✯     

Steve was in a room at the Avengers compound, watching the TV.

A newswoman was giving a report. "11 Wakandans were among those killed during a confrontation between the Avengers and a group of mercenaries in Lagos, Nigeria last month. The traditionally reclusive Wakandans were on an outreach mission in Lagos when the attack occurred."

King T'Chaka of Wakanda appeared on the screen. "Our people's blood is spilled on foreign soil. Not only the cause of the actions are criminals, but by the indifference of those pledged to stop them. Victory at the expense of the innocent is no victory at all."

The newswoman continued her story. "The Wakanda king went on to--"

Steve turned off the TV.

      ✯     

Wanda was in another room, sitting on the bed, watching the news.

A newsman was giving his story. "What legal authority does an Enhanced individual like Wanda Maximoff have to operate in Nigeria?"

Bree walked in, turning the TV off.

"It's my fault," Wanda told her.

"That's not true," Bree told her.

"Turn the TV back on," Wanda told her. "They're being very specific."

"I should've grabbed that bomb vest long before you had to deal with it," Bree told her, walking toward Wanda. "Rumlow said Bucky, and... all of a sudden, I was in Flushing Meadow Park in Queens the night he proposed to me in front of the huge, hollow globe, for everyone to see." She sat next to Wanda on the bed. "Then he brought up Alec, and all I could think about was the last best memory I had of the three of us and my brother together. In the train station, when we said goodbye before they set off for World War II." She sighed, looking down. "People died. It's on me."

"It's on both of us," Wanda told her. 

Bree sighed. "This job... we try to save as many people as we can. Sometimes that doesn't mean everybody, but, if we can't find a way to live with that, next time... maybe nobody can be saved."

Vision walked through the wall.

"Vision, we talked about this," Wanda told him. 

"Yes, but the door was opened," Vision told them. "So, I assumed... Star Mistress wished to know when Tony and Jax Stark were arriving with the rest of the team."

"Thank you," Bree told him. "We'll be right down."

"I'll... use the door," Vision told them, walking toward the door. "Oh, and apparently, Tony's brought a guest."

"You know who it is?" Bree asked.

"The secretary of state," Vision answered, walking out, leaving.

Wanda and Bree looked at each other in confusion.