(Chapter 4)Tony I: Consequences

Tony leaned over the boot, grimacing at it. Something was definitely wrong with the thruster. He wasn't sure, exactly, what that was but there was something wrong with it. "Jarvis, pull up schematics for the boot, getting stuck in my head again."

"Very good sir," Jarvis intoned, pulling up the boot in holographic format next to him. Tony frowned, turning the boot over digitally. This model was still too heavy for him to do that manually on a regular basis. He wasn't sure if that meant he needed a lighter one or not. Probably not. The force from the thrusters was insane, better for the boot to be durable.

"Jarvis, are there any instabilities in-" Tony heard a knocking, looking over to see Pepper with her hair up in a ponytail and dressed in her usual boring suit at the glass door. He felt momentarily embarrassed that he hadn't contacted her in the past couple of days. He hit a buzzer, "Pepper, what's the matter? What're you doing here?"

"Well, you haven't left the house in five days," Pepper said, putting down a stack of mail and a clip board. She sucked in her breath, like she always did to brace herself in circumstances like this. "And the police called again. They said if you don't come voluntarily, they are going to have to bring you in with a warrant."

Tony rolled his eyes, "They threaten that a lot."

"Tony, I think they're serious," Pepper said, her voice a little nervous.

Tony scolded himself internally, "Fine, fine. If you want to go, let's go now. Jarvis, download all video of the three days around the murder of one of my oldest friends so the cops know it wasn't me."

"Tony! Shouldn't we call a lawyer or, or, or look at legal strategy or at least call for an appointment!" Pepper said frantically as he got up.

"Should I shower?" Tony asked, picking up his button up and putting it on as he stepped towards Pepper.

"Tony, I don't real-" she sniffed, "No, yes, you should definitely shower." Tony could tell from her face, he did not smell good.

Tony smiled and put his hands on her arms, "Pepper. Calm down. You're right. I'm innocent. I should cooperate, just like I did with access to Stark Tech computers. They can't prove I did it, because I didn't do it. We'll just go in, we'll show them the video. I'll take a quick shower," he said, starting to take off his button up, "And we'll go."

"Finished, sir." Jarvis intoned, ejecting a drive from his console. "Grab that," Tony said as he went up to the stairs, taking off his undershirt when he heard an eep from behind him. The woman knew his social security number but she was still shy about seeing him shirtless. Some things he would never understand.

----

Tony and Pepper walked into a large office with a big table that had a computer monitor on it. Behind it sat a woman with a stack of papers and a police detective name plate saying, "Detective Hannigan" in front of her. At middle age and lightly hefty, she wasn't exactly pretty, Tony thought idly, but he guessed that might be good for a cop.

"Mr. Stark, please sit down. Now, just to inform you, this interview is a legal proceeding. Mr. Stark, you said in a previous informal contact with the police that you had, quote," she glanced down at a paper in front of her, "'No reason to hurt Obie,' that's referring to Obadiah Stane isn't it?"

"Yeah, Obie was one of my oldest friends, he was a mentor. He was the only guy on my side with the company."

"And you said, quote, 'If there's any secret files lying around, they'll be ghost files, look for the lowest sequence of numbers.' Why'd you say that?"

"There are a lot of ways to stow secret data, but not on the Stark Industry servers. Ghost files are basically the only choice."

"Mr. Stark, you said that you were, quote, 'totally committed to stopping illegal arms sales, whatever means necessary' is that correct?"

"I mean, I've been locked out of the company for a while now, but yes."

Pepper looked distressed, "I think I should call an attorney."

"No, Pepper, it's fine." Tony said. She always gets so worked up about everything and then it always worked out in the end.

"I'm calling an attorney."

"Fine, if you really want to," Tony said. "Oh, call Happy while you're at it, I could really use a burger right now."

The detective smiled patiently throughout this exchange, "Do you want to wait for that attorney?"

"No, I haven't done anything wrong," Tony said. Helping catch Obie's killer was part of his responsibility, he had to do something with his life and not just push responsibility onto his lawyers.

"Alright, finally, you were held captive by a terrorist organization known as the Ten Rings. You were in captivity for how long?"

"Ah, this is a matter of public record, but about three months. A little less, really, more like two and two thirds months. I managed a pretty daring escape, I might add."

"And what would you do to the people responsible if you could get your hands on them?"

"Well," Tony said, weighing the opportunity to lie against his desire to stop doing everything in his power to avoid his own damn responsibilities. "I don't know. I killed some of them while I was escaping, obviously, but that was just self-defense. If I had them at my mercy..." Tony let his voice trailed off, "Like I said, I just don't know.

"Of course," Detective Hannigan said, her voice understanding. "Mr. Stark, I'm going to show you a few documents and videos that we've uncovered in the course of our investigation."

She grabbed a packet of files from inside her desk and handed them over to Tony. He started flipping through them - They were injunction papers, files related to the sale of his weapons to the Ten Rings of all the damn people. "I'm, I'm sorry. I'm going to have to actually read these," he said.

Tony didn't want to believe it. Page after page had the same signature, the same account number, and Tony still couldn't believe it. He felt something gnawing in his stomach, an emptiness which the information engorged like gasoline on a fire. The weight of it just kept hitting him, over and over again.

"These, these have to be forged," he said after he finished, his voice not quite steady. "Okay, the injunction. I don't know. Maybe he thought I was losing it. I wasn't, I had a path forward, we were going to- Anyway, I can believe the injunction, maybe- MAYBE some profiteering but selling weapons to the Ten Rings?" Tony shook his head, "Not after they kidnapped me. No way."

"Tony, there's repo-" Pepper said, stepping inside the room with a Burger King bag. "Oh my god, Tony, what's wrong?"

"They're saying Obie was the one behind the Stark Industries' profiteering," Tony choked up, raising his hand to his mouth. Pepper grabbed his other hand and squeezed it. God, she was all he had left. Rhodey was mad at him, Obie was dead and a traitor, and here he was alive and worthless.

"That's not all he was behind," Detective Hannigan said, turning around the monitor so he could see it. There was an unplayed video of him with a bag over his head.

"Is this a ransom video?"

"No, Mr. Stark." Detective Hannigan replied, clicking the play button.

The video started playing and the translator started rolling, talking about being paid to kill someone. For one brief moment, Tony could imagine that the video wasn't really for Obie or maybe that he'd hired them to kill someone else. But then, "You did not tell us that the person you had paid us to kill was Tony Stark. As you can see Obadiah Stane, your deception and lies will cost you dearly. The price to kill Tony Stark has just gone up."

"Oh my god, why are you showing him this?" Pepper said, squeezing his hand. "He didn't know. He was at home. Stop it."

"Is that true, Mr. Stark?"

"Yeah, no I - I had no idea. Can I go?"

"I'm going to need proof of your location for the four days before Obadiah Stane's death."

Pepper grabbed the drive and slid it over to her, "There you go."

"My tech secrets are on that drive," Tony said reflexively, "I want it back when you're done."

"Your property will be returned when the investigation is over," Detective Hannigan said politely, "And the LAPD will not hand over the information to anyone, but will store it and watch it only within the presence of two officers, as per our agreement with Stark Industries."

"Thank you," Pepper said, "Can we go now?"

"I'm afraid not. We need to watch the two hours around the assassination before we're able to say. In full seriousness, Mr. Stark, unless you signed your name on the drone I highly doubt that we would convict you. I have better things to do than press charges in the murder of a terrorist."

"Alright, that's enough. He said he didn't do it, we've been nothing but cooperative, we've done your whole damn job for you. Tony, let's go eat your burger somewhere else."

Tony got up obediently and they walked into the lobby and sat down in some cheap plastic seats on cheap metal legs, where he stared vacantly at the wall. "Tony, you need to eat." Tony shook his head, staring into space. It was funny. When he'd gotten out of captivity, all he wanted was a burger and now he couldn't even think of eating. "Tony, please. I don't know what to do, I'm so, so sorry."

"Can you just sit?" Tony said, a little too snappishly. "Not - not that I don't like listening to you talk, but I just- right now…"

Pepper's face filled with compassion and Tony felt simultaneously safe and ashamed. He shouldn't have been sitting here getting coddled, he should've been out doing… something. "Sure Tony, whatever you need."

---

Fifteen minutes later and one slim, professional older lawyer arrival later, Detective Hannigan came out of the room where she was watching the security tapes. "Mr. Stark, you have powerful friends. I just got off the phone with an Agent Phil Coulson, he confirmed your whereabouts and said you're free to go." Tony had no idea who that was or how he'd confirmed his location.

"May we have the tape back?" Mr. Jones asked, who had been briefed by Pepper and, Tony could tell through his extraordinary veneer of politeness, was upset at Tony.

"It's still evidence, but if it shows what they're saying, we'll return it to you by the end of the week. Last thing I want is Jones and Harper up my ass till the end of time."

"We'll be up it for this little stunt," the lawyer said, before turning back to Tony. "I'm sorry I wasn't here sooner, Mr. Stark. I wish you had called."

"Don't scold him right now," Pepper snapped. Tony thought that was a bit much.

"It's Jones' job, Pepper," Tony said weakly.

"Ms. Potts is right, Mr. Stark. I can see that you're in distress. When you're ready, we can talk more about legal strategies in this and any future investigations. Ms. Potts, can you get him home? I have some words for Detective Hannigan's procedural methodology and I wouldn't want to increase his stress."

"Of course, Mr. Jones," Pepper said with a smile at him and then a glare Detective Hannigan that Tony had never seen her give him. "Thank you, and I'm sorry that I didn't call earlier."

The two of them made it to the door before Pepper cursed, "Damn it, I forgot the reporters."

"It's fine," Tony said, grasping at something that made him feel like he wasn't a piece of trash being dragged around, "let's just get out of here. Happy here?"

"Happy's here."

The crowd of flashing lights, the noisy reporters shouting "Mr. Stark-" and a hailstorm of questions. Tony reflexively tried to answer, "No, I didn't do it. I didn't know anything until after he died. It's just… It's all a shock." And then his brain caught up to his mouth and he felt stupid, "I'm sorry, why am I answering you?" he asked, as he and Pepper pushed their way through to the car.