THE DAY AFTER THE NIGHT BIRDIE TOLD THEM WHAT HAPPENED, SHE TOLD TONY ABOUT REMY'S REQUEST. She had asked him after Remy had walked to school with Marc, whom he had stayed with while Birdie talked with everyone—he had texted her about Marc's parents and exactly why the boy hadn't wanted her to meet the family, but it didn't make too much sense. Tony had stayed over per her request, but stayed in the living room that night, though she had said she would be fine if he wanted to stay with her like he had been for some time now.

"Remy wants to know, and honestly, I think we all do," Birdie continued, cradling her too hot mug of coffee.

Tony continued to burn his tongue drinking his own too hot coffee to try and avoid having to respond. It worked until Birdie shouted at him to stop hurting himself, she didn't need a response right away.

He spit out the coffee, coughing and spluttering. "It's okay, I dropped ice in it while you weren't looking." But his tongue was still painfully burned.

She sighed, shaking her head and making her way to the pantry, making a glass of warm saline water, ignoring Tony's confused look. She thrusted it into his hands, instructing him to swish it around in his mouth, then spit it out.

"I was a nurse, I know what I'm talking about," she finished, and he just looked up at her over the rim of the mug.

"Are you sure you want me to do this?" he asked, starting to sip the saline water.

"Of course, you burned your tongue, it's going to be a lot worse for you later," she said, but he shook his head, standing up and moving to spit in the sink, making a face at the saline water.

"No, I'm talking about the test," he clarified, watching her expression morph to one of discomfort, "See, that's what I'm saying, I don't think you want me to do this."

"But Remy wants you to," she sighed, "And I need to be okay with him wanting something that I don't, because this is more for his benefit than it is for either of ours, though I think it could be beneficial for you? Or detrimental, I'm not sure, don't give me your answer now, please really think about it."

He crossed his arms. "Do you want me to do it?"

She shrugged. "I don't think that has anything to do with it. And I swear, if you're doing this because you feel bad for me after what I told you last night, I don't want you around."

"I wouldn't do that," he lied, holding up his hands, "I'm just asking what you want. I know this is for Remy and, I guess, for me, but what do you want? Do you want to know?"

She licked her lips, taking a deep breath and nodding. "I do want to know. I need to know. But I need to know that you're going to be okay with it. Because this is going to affect you too."

"I know," he said, taking a deep breath then making a high pitched sound, "Okay. You have fun with your work, I'm going to...ask for advice. About the test."

She gave him a tight smile. "Thank you."

He nodded, already started to leave the home. "Yup. Bye."

º º º

He had gone to Pepper first, because she wasn't going to be free at any other time, and he didn't want to just approach Rhodey with this, because there were many routes they could fall down if he didn't have pre-existing help.

"I need to leave the country."

Pepper rolled her eyes, checking her watch as she was going to miss a flight if he didn't hurry up. "Tony...just relax, okay? I think you should go for it, it's just a test."

He pouted, trying to get her full attention. "Pep, this is not just a test. I could be this kid's dad. You know I'm not ready for that, I don't know anything about parenting, what if I screw up, I'll never be able to take it back."

She reached out and placed her hands on his shoulders. "Maybe a few years ago, I would have agreed with you. But, Tony, I think you're ready. I've seen you, I know you, and I really think you're ready for this. This kid has already been pretty screwed up from what you've told me, maybe you have help him. You'd be a good dad, you just need a little more practice."

He glanced away, mumbling, "Then why'd you leave?"

She sighed, moving her hands to his cheeks. "We just needed some time, Tony. And in that time, you found someone better."

He opened his mouth, to argue that there wasn't anyone better than her, because there wasn't, but she just shushed him. "You know what I mean, Tony. I want you to be happy, and this family makes you happy. So just it happen. Test or not, you're already at the door, you just need to walk inside, for yourself."

He tried to find something to say, but he couldn't come up with anything; someone would have called it a miracle if the situation wasn't so heavy. He just sighed and leaned forward, dropping his head onto her shoulder, and she ran her hand through his hair, and it was so familiar, but so much had changed, and he was scared.

"If they make you happy, why wouldn't you want to go for it?" she asked, when he finally pulled away, knowing that she had to go.

He didn't have anything to say, so he just let her go, giving her a smile as she gave him once last, encouraging look over her shoulder before disappearing from view.

There was the set up: if they made him happy, why wouldn't he go for it? There were so many reasons why.

º º º

"I know that you're scared, but I really think that this is going to be a good thing for you, regardless of what the results are."

Tony sat across from Rhodey in the kitchen, continuing to rinse his mouth out with saline water to try and get rid of the strange texture of his burned tongue, listening as the man continued to speak.

"I get that you're scared because you don't want to screw up the kid or screw up being a dad, but you've made it this far, and they still really like you, so there's not much else that's really going to change except maybe this kid will start calling you 'dad' and you'll have to be a little more responsible, which you've already been doing a lot better with," Rhodey reasoned, watching as Tony sat across from him after spitting in the sink.

"What if I'm not the father?" he countered, eyeing the coffee he had made on the table warily, ready to wait until it was freezing cold before daring to take a sip.

Rhodey raised an eyebrow. "I saw the footage of that kid, that's incredibly unlikely. And even if you're not the biological father—which is, like I said, unlikely—that's not really going to change anything, because you're already a part of their lives, all this is going to do is raise a conversation about how just because you're not his biological father doesn't mean you can't be a father to him."

"But could I even be a father to him?" Tony sighed, "I don't think—I don't think I'm ready for that."

Rhodey shifted, clearly ready to have a very heavy discussion. "Tell me why."

Tony shook his head. "I don't know, let's just drop it—"

"No, Tony, we need to talk about this, this is an important decision, and you need to make sure you know what you're doing, I want you to be okay with what you decide to do," Rhodey pressed, and the other man sighed, rubbing his eyes.

"I'm scared, okay?" he cried, throwing up his hands, "I'm terrified. I tried to be better than my dad with the other kid, and I think I did alright, but I wasn't his dad, I wasn't really trying to be, I was just looking out for him. I don't want to be my dad, I want to be better, but I don't think I can."

Rhodey nodded, leaning forward. "But you won't know until you try. You won't be alone in this, Tony, you've got Birdie. And me. And everyone else, even if you think you don't."

Tony sighed heavily, shaking his head. "I can't lose another family again."

Rhodey rubbed his mouth, leaning back in his chair. "What do you mean?"

He drew patterns into the table with his finger, wishing that he could just make a joke and brush it off, do something so he wouldn't have to talk about it, because no matter how much he had gotten used to talking out his feelings, he didn't want to do it, because it was easier to hide everything than to have to deal with it once it got out.

"Everyone leaves," he mumbled, shaking his head, "I lose everyone. I lost my parents, I lost the team, I lost Pepper. I nearly lost you. Everyone leaves me, I can't do this again, I don't want to. I shouldn't have to."

Rhodey moved to his side of the table, and that in of itself made Tony want to run, but he stayed put, avoiding his gaze until Rhodey forced him to look him in the eye. When he finally did, the man spoke slowly and clearly, making sure Tony understood.

"I know you're scared, and I know that this life hasn't been fair to you, and I'm sorry. But you've told me about this family, do you think they'd ever want to leave? I know you've been hurt, but you can't just shut yourself out because of it," he tried, even though he knew Tony had spent his life hiding, distancing himself, and when he finally let himself be open, he was hurt again and again.

Tony rubbed his mouth, shaking his head. "I'm going to think about it, okay, I just..." he sighed, burying his face in his hands.

Rhodey rubbed his back, and Tony leaned into his touch, dropping his head onto his knee in an attempt to make him laugh. The man huffed out a laugh for his troubles, and Tony smiled.

There was one more person he needed to talk to.

º º º

"I just want you to be happy, Tony."

Tony sighed, taking a sip of his cold coffee as he stood next to Steve, the both of them wearing sunglasses. He had given Steve eyeglasses that would make his face look restructured so he wouldn't be so worried about getting caught in the city, but sunglasses that did the same helped even more. They were both wearing inconspicuous civilian clothing, though it had been brought to his attention that the off-brand clothing would draw more attention if done too much, but he wasn't in the mood to think too deeply about that.

"I thought you'd be afraid of putting them in danger, but I guess there's more to it than that, right?" Steve asked, glancing over towards him before remembering himself and turning back to face forward.

Tony sighed again. "You know why I'm scared, don't even pretend, you stupid, stubborn, punk-ass, pretty, blue-eyed, gorgeous, synthetically strong man."

Steve laughed at that, shaking his head, and Tony wished he didn't miss him as much as he did. The two were in direct contact all the time, just a phone call away, and they had been talking, yet it had been months since they had seen each other face to face, and it still felt like they had a long ways to go before being okay.

But the laughter was soon replaced with guilt and apology as Steve said, "I'm sorry I hurt you, Tony. I'm sorry that you expect the hurt now. And I'm sorry I destroyed the family. But you should try with this family, even if you don't take the test. Because we were a family, and I didn't need a DNA test to find that."

Tony took a deep breath, glad that he was wearing sunglasses. "Everyone leaves me."

Steve reached out and tried to pull him into a hug, and he immediately side-stepped it. The blond sighed, but knew he didn't deserve the hug, so he just glanced down at his coffee. "I know you're afraid of losing people. And you're afraid of being alone. And you're afraid of ending up like your father instead of being the father you wished you had. And I know that you've been hurt so many times, and just want to help people, and no one gives a damn about it. The world hasn't been kind to you, Tony, but you've been kind to the world. Maybe, just this once, you can choose to be a little selfish and let yourself have what you want."

Tony bit his lip, shaking his head. "I wanted us to stay a family. 'Cause I was finally starting to feel okay."

Steve swallowed thickly. "We can try again. I want to try again, and it won't be the same, but we can try. But give yourself a chance, Tony. I found a family to make me happy, and I want the same for you. If any of us was going to find happiness after what we lost, it should be you."

Tony laughed mirthlessly, swallowing. "How's Nicky's roommate?"

Steve gave him a small smile. "He's good. Worries about you just as much as Nick and I do. Sam as well. Thanks for sending him our way, by the way."

Tony smiled. "I didn't want him to be alone forever."

"And we don't want that for you," Steve said, and Tony nearly groaned, because of course he had walked right into that one; Steve was always one for the cheesy one-liners.

Tony took a deep breath, the two descending into a somewhat comfortable silence. It wasn't tense, like it had been months before. It wasn't the same comfortable silence that they used to have, though. It was a healing silence. It was getting there.

"I'm going to leave now," Tony said.

Steve nodded. "Okay."

"I'm not going to hug you just yet," he said, "Even though I really want to."

Steve breathed a laugh, glancing down at his coffee cup. "I deserve as much."

"Yeah, you do," Tony agreed, "But we'll keep in touch. I want you to keep good on this healing thing."

Steve finally turned to look at him again, smiling. "I want you to be happy, Tony. Take care."

Tony mumbled a dismissal as he turned to go, but he paused, finally giving in and looking at him as well. "You too."

º º º

It was late that night when Tony finally turned towards Birdie. They were sitting on the couch, watching a movie on TV that they had both heard of, but hadn't seen, curled up under a blanket, though Birdie wasn't sitting as close to him as she usually did, clearly still giving him space to think on the DNA test.

Sighing, he reached out and wrapped an arm around her from under the blanket, tugging her to his side. She instinctively dropped her head on his shoulder, eyes still trained on the movie.

Raising her eyes to look at him, she mumbled, "You made a decision."

He nodded, eyes still glued to the screen. "I mean, why the hell not, right? No harm in trying."

He could only hope that, this time, it would be better.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

I finally got Tony and Steve to talk, it's been four books in the making at this point, someone high five me, this was a really important thing, and I hope I characterized everyone correctly, because this was terrifying, I was so scared to write Rhodey, because I love him, but I don't know him super well, so I hope I did alright.

I actually started to choke up when writing Steve and Tony, so I hope you guys cried. Actually, this entire chapter just made me emotional for a variety of reasons, so I hope you guys cried. I'm sorry I didn't focus a lot on Pepper, nor much on Rhodey, I tried my best ya'll, I tried, because I know how important they are to him, I tried.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!