What We're Fighting For

Tony was in the kitchen doing dishes after dinner with a spray hose. As he finishes the last of them, he stumbles upon a photo of himself and Peter, with Parker holding his Stark Internship certificate. This causes him to finally figure out what he's fighting for.

"F.R.I.D.A.Y. I'm going to run one more scan before I pack it in for the night." Tony said to the A.I, generating a holographic model of something he's working on.

"Look at a mod inspiration, let me see what check out. So, recommend one last sim before we pack it in for the night. This time, in the shape of a mobius strip, inverted, please."

"Processing." F.R.I.D.A.Y. complied with the request.

"Give me that eigenvalue. That, particle factoring, and a spectral decomp. That will take a second." Tony reached out to the Mobius Strip and used his hands to rotate the hologram.

"Just a moment." F.R.I.D.A.Y. spoke.

"And don't worry if it doesn't pan out. I'm just kinda-" Tony said. He ran a hand through his hair.

"Model rendered." F.R.I.D.A.Y. announced.

Tony fell back into the chair bewildered by this discovery.

"Shit!" He exclaimed in surprise.

"Shit." Tony turns and sees Morgan sitting on the bottom stair in her pajamas. He then put a finger to his mouth in a shushing motion and shook his head.

"What are you doing up, little miss?" Tony asked, whispering quietly.

"Shit." Morgan repeated with a triumphant smile.

"No, we don't say that. Only mommy says that word. She coined it, it belongs to her." Tony said.

"Why you up?" Morgan asked curiously.

"Cause I got some important shit going on here." Morgan gave him a incredulous look. "What do you think? No, I got something on my mind. I got something on my mind."

"Was it juice pops?" Morgan tilted her head to the side.

"Sure was. That's extortion. Great minds think alike. Juice pops, was exactly on..." Tony looked back at the hologram. "My mind."

Tony then took Morgan to her room.

"You done? Yeah, now you are." He wiped Morgan's lips and pushes her head onto her pillow. "That face goes there."

"Tell me a story." Morgan demanded.

"A story...Once upon a time, Maguna went to bed. The end." Tony said quickly, calling Morgan by a nickname.

"That's a horrible story." Morgan furrowed her eyebrows at the man and he raised his eyebrows back.

"Come on, you love that story." Tony protested. "I love you tons." He kissed Morgan on the forehead.

"I love you three thousand." Morgan replied.

"Wow." He whispered, climbing up and turning the lamp off. "3000. That's crazy." Tony then closed the door. "Go to bed or I'll sell all your toys. Night, night."

Down in the living room, Pepper was reading a book while sitting on the couch. Tony paced back and forth in front of the fireplace.

"Not that it's a competition, but she loves me 3000. You were somewhere on the low 6 to 900 range." Tony said. Pepper scoffed, laughing a little at his antics.

"Whatcha reading?" Tony inquired, glancing down at Pepper's book.

"Just a book on composting." Pepper shrugged.

"What's new with composting?" Tony asked absentmindedly.

"Just-"

"I figured it out, by the way." Tony said suddenly, cutting his wife off. Pepper looked up in surprise.

"You know, just so we're talking about the same thing."

"Time travel." Tony said.

"What? Wow...that's amazing and...terrifying." Pepper replied with amazement.

"That's right."

"We got really lucky." Pepper said.

"Yeah, I know." Tony nodded.

"A lot of people didn't." Pepper looked up.

"No, I can't help everybody." Tony shook his head.

"It sort of seems like you can."

"Not if I stop." Tony said. "I can put a pin in it right now and make it stop."

"Tony, trying to get you to stop has been one of the few failures in my life." Pepper teased slightly.

Tony smiles.

"I sometimes feel I should put it in a locked box and drop it at the bottom of a lake. We could go to bed."

Pepper thought about it for a moment.

"But would be able to rest?" She asked, knowing him better than anyone.