Out of time

[stephrogers]

She was getting scared. She was supposed to be back at the orphanage hours ago but a weird thunderstorm kicked up. Lightning streaked across the sky as the eight year old girl tried to make a run for it. Rain hadn't come down yet. But the winds were blowing every which way and she heard the rumble. She really hoped she made it back home before it really began to pour.

Comments

[spark-of-power.livejournal.com]

And out of the rumble, with a crash and a painful landing, came the frightened form of ten year old Tony Stark, who was, truthfully, about at his limit of how much craziness he could handle. As he picked himself off of the ground, he spotted Steph and... almost kind of... but it couldn't be... recognition and logic battled it out on his face. God, this was awkward.

"Uh, hi."

[msrogers.livejournal.com]

She jumped and screamed when she heard the loud crash into a pile of trash cans. Steph cautiously walked over and peered at the kid who seemed to appear out of nowhere. "Hey, are you all right?" she called out.

[spark-of-power.livejournal.com]

"I... I have no idea. Ow. Ow." He winced, rotating his right ankle, which he had landed on. "What just even happened? God, I hope this isn't broken, that's all I need right now... Sorry I scared you. Not intentional, trust me."

[msrogers.livejournal.com]

"Here, lemme help you." She offered her hand to him and winced in sympathy. "I don't know. But it sounds like you're really hurt. I'm sure Sister Agnes could bandage it up for you."

[spark-of-power.livejournal.com]

"Thanks," he muttered, taking her hand gingerly. He immediately proceeded to check his pocket for his cellphone and it is, of course, missing. "Well, crap. I think I'm going to have to take you up on that offer until I figure out what happened. I just hope you don't think this is creepy or anything."

[msrogers.livejournal.com]

"You're welcome," she replied with a toothy grin. "And you're not creepy. You're just a kid like me! I'm Stephanie by the way. What's your name?"

[spark-of-power.livejournal.com]

"I'm Anthony. But everybody calls me Tony." He tried to run the odds on how many blondes named Stephanie there were. Probably a lot. There was no reason yet to assume his time travel stunt had worked, because that would mean he was so, so screwed. "Well, except my mom. She used to call me Toto... it's a Filipino thing." For a second, his expression turned wistful and somber. He'd been hoping to time travel back into seeing her, not some random kid.

[msrogers.livejournal.com]

"What's Filipino mean?" she asked. Steph could see the sadness in his eyes. "Oh...you lost your mom too?"

[spark-of-power.livejournal.com]

"It means my mom was from Philippine Islands, not America. She moved here after she fell in love with my dad." He swallowed thickly and nodded. "Yeah. Car crash. Both my parents... well. I try to keep in mind that it was probably pretty sudden and not agonizing, but..." Crap. He tries to pull it together. "So, your mom...?" He doesn't want to say 'died', but it's implied in the tone. His gaze softens.

[msrogers.livejournal.com]

"She was a nurse." Steph started walking. "She worked in the tuberculosis ward. She got really sick." Her voice was quiet in the last few words. She still had nightmares sometimes about not being able to see her mom.

[spark-of-power.livejournal.com]

"Hey. Your mom sacrificed herself for other people. That's amazing. Try to remember the good side of that, if you can... okay?" He follows, wincing at his badly strained ankle, but grateful for a guide while he tried to put together what happened. "She sounds like she was a really noble person."

[msrogers.livejournal.com]

"Here, let me help." She moved around him and ducked under his arm to support him and keep the weight off his injured ankle."My mom was the greatest. My dad too. He was in the 107th. So was Bucky's dad. Bucky's my best friend, you know."

[spark-of-power.livejournal.com]

"Thanks, but I'll be okay, really," he protested weakly, seeing the stubbornness in her gaze that told him it was useless. "It must be nice to have a friend. I don't have any. I haven't in a long time." Not his own age, anyway. But Bucky - that was the slamming confirmation this was indeed the past and this was indeed Stephanie Rogers and - his head spun, and for a moment his vision danced with black dots. There was always a risk in time travel of accidentally altering things and making yourself unexist. Fortunately, after a few moments of seeing nothing but black, he blinked and Stephanie's face came back into view. "...sorry."

[msrogers.livejournal.com]

There was familiar look of concern across her young features. "You don't look so good. Don't worry, though. Sister Agnes is a nurse too and she's kind of mean but she'll make sure you get better faster. So how'd you end up in the trash cans, Tony? And where did you get the nice clothes?"

[spark-of-power.livejournal.com]

Time to start fiddling with the truth. "I have no idea how I got into the trash cans. That was an accident of the weirdest kind. The clothes, though, I can only guess made sense at the time? I think I may have hit my head back there. This day is kind of awful all around except for the parts with you in it."

[msrogers.livejournal.com]

She giggled and helped him up the steps to the brownstone orphanage. "Sister Agnes! Sister Agnes!" she shouted. Steph guided Tony until he could sit down on a bench. "Wait here, okay?" With a smile, she ran off to find the sister, only skidding when she saw Bucky.

"Steph, where've you been? I was worried sick! What if you had one of those...things where you can't breathe?" he flustered. "Have you been carrying something?" The brown haired boy peered into the lobby. "Who's that?"

Steph began to explain as a very stern looking woman approached Tony.

[spark-of-power.livejournal.com]

Tony fears nuns. He grew up on his Dad telling him they were evil. So he just answers the stern woman's questions and braces for the worst, blue eyes darting over to Stephanie repeatedly. The look in them is akin to a rescued cat getting a bath - betrayed and why would you do this terrible thing?

"The thing where she can't breathe is an asthma attack, probably caused by environmental factors like dust and air quality. Since there's moisture in the air from the oncoming rainstorm she's probably safe, and I couldn't really make her not help." This is Tony's way of saying 'sorry, bro'.

[msrogers.livejournal.com]

"those clothes, I don't like it, Steph. It's like he stepped off of Madison Avenue." Bucky glared at the boy that Sister Agnes was fussing over and Steph rolled her eyes. Boys were dumb. She ran over to Sister Agnes, listening to her instructions in helping Tony to a bed so that he could rest his ankle.

[spark-of-power.livejournal.com]

"I stepped out of a trashcan. Kind of. It was more of a fall. Stephanie saw it more than I did," Tony explained, still confused on his own landing. That had definitely not been part of the plan, not at all. This whole thing was a comedy of errors. "My ankle feels like it's on fire. From the inside out. If a dashing blonde hero hadn't come to my rescue, I'd be doomed."

[msrogers.livejournal.com]

Bucky seemed to fume at Tony's explanation. Steph chose to ignore him and took him to the guest rooms that were down the hall from the dorm she shared with six other girls. "Here, you can rest up here while she goes to get the bandages. You know you can stay if you don't got folks. Maybe someone would adopt you."

[spark-of-power.livejournal.com]

"...no one would ever want to adopt me. Trust me on this." The thought was unbearable. And these kids needed it more. He needed to find a way home, and for that he needed metal and equipment he just didn't have access to right now. God, today had gone ass over teakettle. "You deserve to be adopted way more, anyway. You're heroic. I'm just... me."

[msrogers.livejournal.com]

"Don't say that." Another toothy smile. Steph helped him into bed then sat down on the chair next to his bed. "Everyone deserves to be adopted for whatever reason. There's nothing wrong with you except maybe you fell out of the sky. But I bet someone would want to adopt you."

[msrogers.livejournal.com]

She tucked some of her thin, blonde hair behind her ear as she listened to him. Steph waited a beat or two, blue eyes sweeping over him to try and find something broken about him. "You don't...look broken. And you don't sound broken. Your ankle maybe is sprained but...I don't think you're broken."

[spark-of-power.livejournal.com]

"Heart defects aren't visible. It's something you have to run medical tests for, and my dad was a scientist. He tried to play it down like it wasn't as bad as it was, but I could see it in his eyes." Tony pinches the bridge of his nose. "I'm sure I could lie and look healthy, but... that's no way to live life. I don't want to lie to everyone. Especially not anyone nice enough to adopt me. That's too cruel, too selfish. I couldn't do it. If you were in my position, could you?