The Quiet Room
Location: S.H.I.E.L.D. Medical Wing – Night
Time: One week after Toni's rescue
The sterile white light above flickered gently. Monitors beeped in a low rhythm, tracking her vitals. Toni Stark lay still in the hospital bed, staring at the ceiling like it might collapse any second.
The arc reactor pulsed softly through her chest—her heartbeat, her reminder.
Her nightmares weren't cinematic. They were real. Metal, sand, heat. Screams in Dari. The weight of her own genius used against innocents. She could still smell the blood and oil.
She clenched her jaw as the door opened quietly.
Lance.
Wearing a loose black shirt, sleeves rolled up, golden hair slightly tousled. He moved without sound, like someone who had spent decades in the shadows.
He carried a thermos and a small bottle of apple juice.
Lance (softly):
"You always liked juice after a long day."
Toni blinked, then gave a dry smile. "What am I, five?"
Lance:
"Five... and brilliant. Don't forget brilliant."
He sat beside her bed, gently setting down the bottle.
Toni (after a pause):
"Do you think I'm broken?"
Lance:
"No. I think you're cracked. And cracks let the light in."
A silence passed. She exhaled slowly, her voice barely above a whisper.
Toni:
"They made me build weapons again, Lance. I designed the very thing that nearly killed the convoy trying to extract me."
She turned her head, facing him.
Toni:
"I thought I was past all that. I thought I wasn't that version of me anymore."
Lance leaned forward, his hand covering hers—his warmth grounding her.
Lance:
"You're not. You're more than what they tried to reduce you to. You're alive. That means you still have time to redefine yourself."
She looked down, then pulled her hand from under his and placed it atop his.
Toni:
"I didn't think you'd come."
Lance (eyes narrowing):
"Don't say that. You're the only person who ever made me feel human in a world that treats me like a god."
Her eyes filled with tears—quiet and sudden.
Toni:
"I missed you."
She leaned forward slightly, lips brushing his cheek.
Toni (softly):
"Thank you for saving me. Again."
⚙️ Scene 2: Broken Towers and Ghosts
Location: Stark Tower – Under Reconstruction
Time: 3 weeks after rescue
Dust swirled around the scaffolding as sunlight streamed through the cracked windows. Stark Tower was a skeleton of its former self—gutted, restructured, haunted.
Toni stood in the middle of the lab space, arms crossed, her arc reactor faintly glowing through a tank top under a thin blazer. She looked pale, thinner than before. But her eyes? Sharper. Focused.
She glanced at an old model of a missile launcher.
Toni (bitterly):
"Every metal part in here has blood on it."
Pepper Potts:
"You could've had someone else supervise the rebuild. You didn't have to be here."
Pepper stood in heels covered in concrete dust, her red hair tied back, holding a tablet. Her green eyes shimmered with worry.
Toni:
"I did. If I don't face it, it owns me. Besides, you're the only one I trust to yell at me when I start losing it."
Pepper hesitated before stepping closer.
Pepper:
"I cried when they told me you were missing. For two weeks, I didn't sleep. I kept seeing press conferences in my head. Obituaries. The kind you would've written yourself—witty, smug, heroic."
Toni laughed dryly. Then her smile faded.
Toni:
"I didn't think I'd make it back. I thought the last thing I'd see was a Stark Industries logo printed on a bomb I made ten years ago."
She walked over to a covered table and threw back the tarp.
Underneath: the skeletal form of a new suit. Sleek. Elegant. Vented wings. A solar energy core.
Toni:
"I'm not building weapons anymore. I'm building armor. For myself. For others. For Lance."
Pepper raised an eyebrow. "Armor for the President of the United States?"
Toni (grinning faintly):
"White and gold. Capable of absorbing solar, thermal, and plasma energy. Think Homelander meets Tesla."
Pepper (deadpan):
"Very subtle. Totally not godlike."
Toni:
"He saved me, Pep. Again. He always does. I want to give something back."
Pepper gently touched her arm.
Pepper:
"Maybe... give him the part of you that doesn't need metal."
Toni swallowed hard.
Then, softly—
Toni:
"I don't know how. But I want to try."
Just then, from the hallway:
Natasha Romanoff (Black Widow):
"Are we still doing this 'serious trauma engineering' session, or can I steal some of your arc reactor juice for my tasers?"
Neena Thurman (Domino):
"Yeah, I need a power cell that doesn't blow up when I sneeze."
Toni turned with mock annoyance.
Toni:
"You both walk in here like it's the tech version of Starbucks."
Natasha (grinning):
"You love the chaos."
Domino (deadpan):
"Also, you're the only one weird enough to make a stealth unit that works off music vibrations."
Toni (snorting):
"Patent pending."
Pepper (grinning as she exits):
"Try not to blow up the West Wing."
As Pepper leaves, Toni turns to Natasha and Domino.
Toni:
"Listen… I'm building Lance a new suit. Solar-powered. Fully adaptive. Basically a flying sun-god with the voice of a jazz pianist."
Domino:
"...Wow. You are in love."
Natasha (carefully):
"You think he'll wear it?"
Toni (softly):
"He'll wear it because I built it. Just like I carry his voice in my head every time I lift a wrench."