Chapter 8

Tony woke up around 11 am, the next morning. After he had left the Potts' house late last night, he stopped at a motel in the nearest town to sleep off his exhaustion. He had never been able to sleep more than 6 hours at a time especially when he was not in his own bed. Then Tony sadly remembered that the only period in his life he had slept more than 6 hours at a time was while he had shared a bed with Pepper. He closed his eyes tightly and tried to keep tears from forming at the memory. After shaving and a long shower, Tony checked out of the motel. Tony walked out of the motel office towards a coffee shop on the other side of the road. He had no real plans in mind for what to do next, but he thought a strong cup of coffee might help him come up with one. As he left the shop with a large cup of coffee in his hand, he spotted a car stopped at the traffic light. He looked back at his coffee, and then quickly turned his head again to the car as he seemed to recognize the driver, a woman, with short brown hair, in her early thirties. He was trying to figure out who she was, when her car started to pull away from the traffic light. He followed the car with his eyes and instantly memorized the license plate. He reached in his jean pocket to get his cell phone and dialed Jarvis.

"Jarvis,"

"Yes, sir," answered the AI

"I need you to find out who owns the car registered to Virginia plates XXJ-6610." Tony stated as he was crossing the road to reach his car.

"Right away, Sir," Jarvis answered. After a few seconds the AI started "The car belongs to a certain Anna Bloomfield. She was born in the 30th of June 1982 in Los Angeles, California, she studied…"

Tony cut him off "It's ok J., I don't need her résumé. Do you have a picture?" Tony asked.

"Yes, Sir, It is already on your phone." Jarvis responded.

Tony quickly slid into his car and took a look at the picture. Something about this woman was familiar to him. Tony thought about it a minute when he finally remembered.

"Jarvis? Are you still there?" Tony asked.

"Yes, Sir" answered the AI.

"Could you pull up the SHIELD file "Item 47 for me?" Tony asked still looking at the picture on his phone.

"Yes, right away, sir," Jarvis stated.

"Good, send it to me now please." Tony ordered.

"Already done," Jarvis responded obediently.

The project "Item 47" had come from an idea of Fury's. After, the events that happened in NYC, almost 8 years ago, a lot of the Chitauri technology had stayed on earth most of it kept by enterprising New Yorkers as souvenirs. All attempts to make any of the alien weapons work had failed until a young couple had started to rob banks using a functioning Chitauri hand held weapon. After SHIELD had retrieved the weapon and had interrogated the couple, the project "Item 47" was started within Shield. Fury had wanted to create new weapon system based on the Chitauri technology. As the world's foremost weapon engineer, Tony Stark had been the first one assigned to this task. Then, when SHIELD had realized that Tony was trying to actually slow down and even derail the design process instead of really helping; he had been excluded from it by Fury. But of course by that time Tony had already backwards engineered the weaponry, secured the information on his personal secured files, and effectively sabotaged the weapon in order to prevent anyone else from figuring out how the weapons really worked.

"Here you are," Tony exclaimed as he was looking through the files that Jarvis just sent to him. "Claire Wise," he said looking at the picture of the girl, "it seems that you look like a lot like Miss Anna Bloomfield here." He stated ironically. "Jarvis, do we have information on Claire Wise?" Tony asked his AI.

Jarvis took time before answering, "It seems that she was appointed as Agent Blake's assistant just after been arrested with the Chitauri gun, her boyfriend Benjamin Pollack was appointed to work on Project 47. Her aptitudes lead her to become a field SHIELD agent, 6 years ago. It seems that no other data is available on her, since then." Jarvis concluded.

"What the hell is a SHIELD agent doing here?" Tony asked.

"I have no idea, Sir." The AI stated.

"I know J., it was just a rhetorical question." Tony paused for a minute then added. "It is a funny coincidence that a SHIELD agent is under cover in a small rural Virginia town like this. A small town where the woman that I love and my son live by the way."

"If I may interrupt you Sir, it might not be a coincidence." Jarvis stated.

"Oh, yes Jarvis. I pretty much agree with you. Are you ready to break into the SHIELD data base system again, J?" Tony asked as he started his car.

"I am always here to please, Sir." Jarvis replied politely.

"Ok, start without me, J. I'm on my way. I'll be in Stark Tower in less than five hours." Tony said hitting the gas pedal.

At the same time, in the Pott's farm house, Dane and his grandmother were finishing lunch.

"Can I go work on the motorcycle after lunch, Grandma please?" Dane asked as he was eating the last spoon of his mashed potatoes.

"Anna told me that she gave you some homework to do for this afternoon." his grandmother said suspiciously.

Dane sighed heavily "Yes ma'am , but I can finish it fast," he paused and then added "You know yesterday I made a lot of progress with Tony's help and I thought about something last night that I want to check on the engine." He noticed the disapproving look in his grandmother eyes, so he quickly added with his best puppy dog eyes "please, Grandma…"

She thought about it for a few seconds then spoke "Ok, let's make a deal," Dane was listening carefully, "You can go to work on the motorcycle for one hour, then you come back inside and do your homework,"

Dane stood up and hugged her "Thank you so much Grandma!"

She smiled and hugged him back, "And please, no arguing when I ask you to stop and come back inside." She stated in a serious tone.

He pulled away and looked at his grandmother, raising one hand up "Promise!"

She smiled at him and ruffled his dark hair "Go on sweetheart, I'm going to go wash the dishes,"

Dane ran out the kitchen yelling "Thank you!" back towards his grandmother who smiled after him.

Dane entered the barn and noticed right away that his things had been moved around since yesterday. As he came closer the motorcycle, he saw a note on the seat. Dane immediately picked up the note to read it.

"Dane,

When we worked together on the motorcycle yesterday, I had figured out that all the cams followers were worn out and needed to be replaced. I took the liberty to mount the new ones on the engine. With that done, you'll be able to finish restoring the engine by yourself, I trust you on that.

I'll probably not be able to keep my promise to help you repaint the motorcycle. I'm so sorry, but it's not under my control and you are too young to understand why. , I left you some hot rod red paint, so you'll be able (with supervision) to paint it by yourself.

I hope to see you again soon,

Tony,"

"Awesome!" exclaimed Dane as he looked at the motorcycle engine in order to check what Tony was talking about. He was so excited about the engine's repairs that he first didn't pay attention to the last part of the note. "I knew it that it had to be the cam followers!" he said victoriously, a big smile on his face. Then, his gaze dropped to the paint cans on the floor next to the front wheel. He looked again at Tony's note and his smile faded slowly.

"Why am I, too young?" he thought. He was wondering what could have possibly happened between Tony and his mom. It must have been big and important. Dane was still disappointed though. He had only seen Tony one time but Dane felt like he somehow already knew him well and that they were both a lot alike in many ways. And besides, Tony was Iron Man and it was huge for a young boy like him to be 'friends' with the Incredible Iron Man! He turned his attention back to the motorcycle and started to work on it again, slowly forgetting about Tony's note.

One hour later, Dane's grandmother walked into the barn.

"Come on Dane, it's time to do your homework." She called as she got close to Dane's 'workshop' area of the barn.

Dane hovered over the motorcycle's engine, clearly in the middle of something "Five more minutes, please grandma, I want to finish this one thing first,"

"Dane Anthony Potts, I warned you, no arguing!" his grandmother said severely.

Dane sighed loudly "Fine…" he said now visibly upset.

His grandmother shook her head and mumbled quietly "You are so like your father sometimes…"

Dane, who was now looking at her in disbelief, asked "What did you just say, Grandma?"

His grandmother realized her verbal slip and recovered quickly "Nothing, sweetheart, just that sometimes you are really stubborn."

"Mmhh..." replied Dane, not really convinced that his grandmother was telling him the truth now.

Halfway down the walkway leading to the farmhouse, Dane suddenly stopped and said "Wait, I forgot something in the barn!" He started to run back towards the barn before his grandmother could say anything. He quickly ran back to join her now carrying a paper in his hands.

"What's that?" his grandmother asked noticing the paper immediately.

"A note that Tony left for me," he said proudly.

His grandmother looked at him suspiciously, "Can I see it?" she asked.

Dane hesitated for a second then handed the note to his grandmother as they continued walking towards the farmhouse. He waited patiently for her to finish reading it and then asked. "What happened between Tony and Mommy, Grandma? And why am I too young to understand?"

His grandmother actually gasped, and froze mid step in the middle of the walkway, suddenly very unsure as to how to respond to Dane's question.