Narrator's POV

"Clearly, you weren't actually born here?"

"The idea of me was."

"Right. Well, imagine your shield running an intelligence organization." Tony said, walking by an office and peeking in. "Where do you hide it?" He asked.

He and Steve were disguised.

"In plain sight." Steve told him, nodding toward a small building.

Tony watched as two men entered the small building. He tapped his glasses, scanning the building and finding an elevator going underground.

He turned to Steve, and lead him toward the building.

They both joined a woman in it. She looked up at them.

Tony stepped in front of Steve.

The elevator dinged.

"Good luck on your mission Captain." Tony told Steve as he got out of the elevator.

"Good luck on your...project, doctor." Steve told Tony.

Tony gave him one last look before letting him go.

///0///0

Tony sneaked around the under ground laboratory, searching for a specific vault.

"Come on." He looked around.

He scanned the vaults with his glasses.

Aha! He had found it.

"Gotcha." He whispered.

He grabbed a briefcase from near by, activated the a small torch in his hand and opened the vault.

He sighed in relief. "Back in the game."

He took the Tesseract and put it in the briefcase.

"Arnold you in there?"

He heard.

"Arnold?"

He quickly shut the case as a man appeared to his left.

The man turned to him.

He recognized this man. This man was his father. He turned away from him and began to walk away.

"Hey." The man called.

Tony froze.

"Door's this way, pal." The man said.

"Oh, yeah." Tony turned to him.

"Looking for Dr. Zol. Have you seen him?" The man asked.

"Yeah, now Dr. Zol, no I haven't, haven't seen a soul." Tony said, coming face to face with his father. He bumped into a chair. "Pardon me."

"Do I know you?" His father asked.

"No sir. I'm a visitor from MIT." Tony said, removing his glasses and picking up his ID.

"Huh, MIT." His father said. "Got a name?"

Tony stood there for a minute. "Howard." He answered.

"Oh, that'll be easy to remember." His father said, coming close to him.

"Howard..." Tony thought. "Strange."

"Well, I'm Howard Stark." Howard stretched his hand out for Tony to shake.

"Hi." Tony gave him a sloppy handshake.

"Making sure they don't pull off?" Howard asked, taking Tony's fingers.

"Yeah." Tony nodded.

"Lookin' a little green around the gills there, Strange." Howard told Tony.

"Oh, I'm fine. Just, long hours." Tony said.

"Wanna get some air?" Howard asked him.

Tony staid quiet.

"Hello, Strange."

"Yeah." Tony answered. "That'd be swell."

"That way." Howard pointed to the door.

"Okay." Tony began to walk away.

"Need your briefcase?" Howard asked.

Howard turned to Tony and handed it to him.

"You not one of those big hits, are you Strange?" Howard asked.

///0///0

"The flowers and sauerkraut, big date tonight?" Tony asked Howard as they exited an elevator.

"Uh, my wife's expecting." Howard said.

Tony looked up.

"And uh...too much time in the office." Howard finished.

"Congratulations." Tony said.

"Thanks. Hold this, will ya?" Howard asked Tony, handing him the flowers and the sauerkraut. He fixed his tie.

"Yeah, sure." Tony took took them. "How far along is she?" Tony asked Howard.

"Uh...I don't know. Uh..." Howard moved his hand about. He confined to fix his tie. "She's at the point where she can't stand the sound of my chewing."

Tony smiled at him.

"I guess I'll be eating dinner in the pantry again." Howard said.

"I have a little boy." Tony said.

"A girl would be nice." Howard said. "Less of a chance she'd turn out like me."

Tony looked up at him. "What'd be so awful about that?"

"Let's just say the greater good is rarely outweighed my own self interest." Hoard said.

He patted Tony on the shoulder.

///0///0

"And so, where're you at with names?" Tony asked as Howard and he were outside the base now.

"Well, if it's a boy, my wife likes Almanzo." Howard said.

"Ah." Tony nodded.

"Might wanna change her mind while you still got time." Tony said.

"Let me ask you a question." Howard stopped Tony. "When your kid was born, were you nervous?"

"Well..." Tony said. "Yeah."

"Urgh..." Howard groaned. "Did you feel qualified?" He sighed. "Any idea how to successfully operate that thing?"

"I literally pieced it together as I went along. I thought about what my dad did and..." Tony saw Steve waiting for him.

"Ugh, my old man never met a problem he couldn't solve with the belt." Howard said.

"I thought my dad was tough on me, and now looking back on it, I just remember the good stuff." Tony told him. "You know? He did teach me a lot."

"Yeah? Like what?" Howard asked.

"No amount of money bought a second of time."

"Smart guy." Howard said.

"He did his best." Tony told him.

"You know, that kid's not even here yet and...there's nothing I wouldn't do for em'." Howard said, walking off.

Tony stood there for a moment, letting that sink in.

He looked up at Steve, who nodded. Tony pointed at the briefcase.

"Good to meet you, Strange."

Tony turned to Howard.

Howard took the flowers from him.

"Yeah." Tony shook his hand. "Howard, everything's gonna be alright."

They stared at each other.

Tong leaned in and gave Howard an embrace.

"Thank you." He said. "For everything..." He pulled away. "...you've done for this country."

Howard walked away from Tony.

"Jarvis." Howard handed a tall man, holding the door of a car for him, the flowers.

Tony watched him walk away and walked away shortly.

Howard turned back to Tony. "Have I ever met that guy?" He asked.

Jarvis turned to see Tony. "You meet a lot of people, sir." Jarvis said, opening the door and putting the flowers inside.

"Seems very familiar." Howard said, finally getting in the car. "Weird beard." He said, closing the car door.