Chapter Text
Things hadn’t exactly gone any easier for Tony on that first day. He knew he probably should’ve spent a bit more time around the kid, but holy hell, the looks he got each time he tried to talk to Sam after their lunchtime feels-session! They were enough to have Tony wanting to take his suit out for a while and blast a few assholes just to take out his temper.
Everything that Loki and Tony had talked about had painted a pretty nasty picture for the kid. Hell, they’d painted a pretty nasty picture of the world – a world that Tony hadn’t even realized had so much he wasn’t even aware of. Reconciling his own worldview with one where the supernatural shit actually existed was enough to throw any guy off their game. Toss in a traumatized, scrawny kid, and yeah, it was going to make shit awkward.
So, Tony had done what was probably the cowardly thing, and he’d mostly left Sam to his own devices today. It gave Tony time to freak out a little, try and wrap his head even more around all that he’d learned, and to start the adoption process with his lawyer. It was a good thing Starks employed only the best. With Tony’s past, even having adoption papers already signed by John granting Tony full custody might not be enough. But Tony’s change of lifestyle helped, though his lawyer warned him that his status as Iron Man wasn’t going to work in their favor.
In another act of cowardice – and damn, he was really racking those up today, wasn’t he? – Tony withheld telling Pepper quite yet. Or anyone else. He wanted to make sure the paperwork was well on its way to being done before he had to deal with that storm. Less chance of anyone trying to find a way to stop me. Can’t stop it if it’s already done. With the Stark money to help him, Tony was pretty confident he could get the adoption done fast. Not that Tony necessarily approved of that kind of thing – buying people off just to get what he wanted, especially when a child’s welfare was at stake. But… it’d be stupid to protest it while it was working in his favor.
Normal adoption could take months. Sometimes even years, his lawyer had warned him. With Tony’s money, that time was going to be cut in half. He’d still have to have someone from the state come out and check out his house, plus probably talk to Sam, and they’d have to officially go before a judge in a month or two. But with John having signed the papers, and with all the evidence JARVIS was collecting now to document that asshole’s neglect through the kid’s life, it was looking really good for Tony.
Plus, well, there was the part where Tony was pretty sure Loki would come to take things in hand if anyone tried to take Sam away.
Researching the Winchesters was proving to be a test in patience and control for Tony, though. Luckily, Loki had given Tony some of the aliases that the Winchesters had used. How he’d gotten them, Tony had no idea, nor did he think he wanted to know. However, with those JARVIS was able to start to piece together the patchwork of this kid’s early life. What he was coming up with wasn’t a pretty picture.
For the first six months of Sam’s life, things were pretty normal. Mom, Dad, brother, nice house, simple life. Then… then the death of Sam’s mother in a house fire that started in the boy’s nursery. The papers called it an electrical fire. According to Loki, it was likely a demon.
A demon. Fuck! Since when had this become Tony’s life?!
From that point on things got a bit spotty. There were random school records here and there, spread out all across the country. Sometimes they were in one spot for only a week or two, sometimes months. Other times there were gaps between transcripts where Tony guessed they’d been traveling or whatever, hunting, and it looked like neither boy had been in school at all.
More concerning than all of that, though, were the medical records. Especially once Tony got some of the aliases and worked out a couple more. It helped once they got things mapped out and JARVIS was able to scan general areas and then scan photos and such. That brought them a few more fake names the Winchesters had used. It also brought with it the kind of information that had Tony wanting to put on his suit.
Like the broken arm when Sam was five. Sure, could’ve been just a kid thing, if it weren’t for the bruising around the break the doctors had made note of. Or the ‘wild animal attack’ just a year ago. There were other reports, other pictures, letters from teachers, all of them adding together to nothing good. Either John Winchester had been a careless hunter and allowed his boys to be repeatedly hurt, or he’d been the one hurting them. Maybe a mix of both. Or maybe it was the ‘training’ that Loki had mentioned.
There were other things that doctors had made a note of. Things that made Tony’s blood boil.
Worries about Sam’s weight, about his obvious lack of nutrients, and his suspicious lack of decent medical records. One doctor made a clear note about shots, which prompted Tony to ask JARVIS what he meant.
“Children receive multiple shots throughout childhood, for vaccinations,” JARVIS informed him. “While those from early infancy are present in Master Sam’s records, there are none there for him beyond one year of age. Nor are there any for his brother after that point, either.”
This asshole hadn’t even taken his kids in for medical check-ups and shots??
Tony lost himself for a while in his rage at what he and JARVIS were discovering. He had to take a break once to go and shoot a few things with his glove, just to get some of the rage out of his system. But he eventually came back, and he sat down to make plans. Plans were something Tony could do. It was a lot better than going out and committing cold-blooded murder.
He’d gotten so caught up in his plans, he’d barely realized just how much time passed. It wasn’t until JARVIS jerked him out of his head that Tony finally realized just how late it was. Unfortunately, the reason JARVIS pulled Tony out wasn’t a good one.
“Sir, Master Sam is showing signs of clear distress,” JARVIS informed him. That alone was enough to have Tony’s head snapping up. Then JARVIS kept going, and it only made Tony’s stomach sink. “He’s showing all the signs of a night terror.”
“Fuck,” Tony breathed out. He knew nightmares, and he knew what a bitch they could be. Night terrors were worse. “What do I do, J? I don’t know what to do! I barely handle my own nightmares. How the hell am I gonna help a kid with theirs?”
“You could try waking him and offering comfort,” JARVIS said dryly. “I imagine he might appreciate that after a nightmare.”
Go up and wake him up, offer comfort – yeah, sure Tony could do that. He could totally do that. That wasn’t hard, right? All he needed to do was do the same kind of stuff that he wanted someone to do for him when he woke up from a bad dream. Then again… maybe not. Tony doubted alcohol was quite the way to handle a kid’s nightmare.
Fuck. He was going to have to wing it. “This is what you signed up for,” he reminded himself. “You’ve got at least seven and a half more years of this shit before he hits eighteen. Better get used to it now.”
That reassuring pep talk didn’t help Tony at all, but it did get him moving. He hurried up out of his workshop and in the direction of the bedrooms. There was a moment of hesitation at Sam’s bedroom door, a brief what the hell am I doing? But Tony drew in a breath and forced himself to straighten up and reach out for the door.
Sam’s bedroom was dark, so it took a second for Tony’s eyes to adjust. Once they did, however, what he found was heartbreaking.
The bed showed clear signs of having been slept in, yet at first glance, Sam was nowhere in sight. It wasn’t until Tony looked closer that he found the boy on the ground beside his bed, wrapped up in his comforter and curled into as tiny a ball as possible. He wasn’t shaking, wasn’t moving, wasn’t doing any of the usual things that showed when someone had a nightmare. But, as Tony got closer, he could see just how tight Sam’s face was, and the faint hint of tears. Tony stared down at the boy and felt his heart break all over again. “Aw, sweetheart.”
Tony didn’t hesitate anymore. He walked forward and went down to one knee beside Sam, one hand reaching out as he went. “Sam. Hey, Sam, kiddo, wake up…”
If it hadn’t been for his recent training for Iron Man, and the extra time he’d spent with Happy in the ring, Tony’s reflexes might’ve been just a bit slower. As it was, he was lucky they were as fast as they were, even if they almost weren’t fast enough. The minute Tony touched Sam, the kid came alive in a flurry of motion. Tony didn’t even see where the knife came from. One second Sam was moving and the next the knife was slashing Tony’s direction.
Tony jerked himself backward in just enough time to avoid a knife to the gut. He fell back, already scrambling backward even as he hit the ground, until there were at least a few feet between them. “Woah, woah, woah!”
“Get back!” Sam snarled out at him. “Just get back!” He had shoved himself back until he was mostly wedged between the bed and the nightstand next to it, the blanket loose on the floor and the knife held in what even Tony could see was a pretty expert grip. The fact that a ten-year-old knew how to do that only made the scene all the more heartbreaking.
Jesus fuck – this kid was going to kill him, and Tony wasn’t referring to the knife. He stared at those too-wide hazel eyes and knew that Sam wasn’t seeing him right then. He was seeing something else. Something worse.
“Sam,” Tony kept his voice pitched low and even. He tried to emulate the steady and calm tone that JARVIS used with him when an anxiety attack gripped him tight and wouldn’t let go. “Listen to me, Sam. Listen to my voice. You were having a dream, kiddo. I know it doesn’t feel like it right now, and I know you’re scared shitless. Trust me, I get it. But it was just a dream. Whatever it was, it’s not real, not anymore.”
Sam wasn’t lowering the knife, but he wasn’t trying to shut Tony up, either. Tony chose to take that as a good sign and keep talking.
“All that shit that’s scaring you right now? It’s all coming from your head. Maybe it was just a nightmare, or maybe it’s something that happened before, I don’t know. What I do know is you’re not there anymore. You’re here with me – Tony Stark. We’re at my home in Malibu, where Loki brought you earlier, and you’re in your new bedroom. Can you feel it? You’ve got the nightstand right there that you’re touching, and the bed on the other side. Can you feel them?”
Little by little, Tony could see as his words sank in. As Sam slowly drew his head from the nightmare that had gripped at him so tightly.
It was easy to see the exact moment that Sam realized what was going on. His eyes cleared, and then they drifted down to the knife that he was still holding. Thanks to JARVIS, who had turned the lights up just the slightest bit, it was easy for Tony to see as the horror hit Sam just seconds before he dropped the knife.
It didn’t get any better when Sam brought those horrified eyes up to him. “I-I’m sorry!” Sam blurted out. He looked even more terrified than before. Though Tony hadn’t thought it was possible, Sam was pushing himself back further, tucking himself into his hiding spot even more, all the while still trying to stammer out those shaking words “I’m s-s-s-sorry! I’m s-sorry, M-Mr. St-Stark!”
“No, hey, no, Sam, you’re all right.” Now that the knife was no longer in Sam’s hand, Tony was free to move forward again. However, he did make sure to knock the knife away under the bed for the moment. They could deal with that later. Now that it was out of Sam’s reach, Tony shifted himself down onto his knees a few feet in front of Sam, and he held his hands up in a gesture of peace. “You’re okay, Sam. It’s fine. Look – you didn’t get me. Not a single mark in sight. I mean, my ass hurts a little from jumping back like that, but it’s nothing I haven’t…”
“Sir!”
JARVIS’s sharp voice cut Tony off before he ended up sharing way more than he should’ve with a kid. Color flooded Tony’s cheeks. “Ah, right. Not exactly talk for little ears.” He shot a sheepish look over at Sam, surprised to see that the kid looked a tiny bit more relaxed. “Sorry, kid. I’m not used to talking to midgets. It’s gonna take some practice.” Realizing what his word choice had left open, he lifted a finger and pointed it at Sam, affecting a mock stern look. “One joke about my size, Tiny Tim – I dare you.”
He was pleased to see some of the fear recede from Sam’s face. The boy actually gave Tony a small – barely there – ghost of a smile.
Tony returned it with a smile of his own. “You think you’re ready to climb on out of there? It doesn’t look all that comfortable.” When Sam instantly tensed, clearly not ready to get out of his hiding spot quite yet, Tony just shrugged his shoulder like it was no big deal. “That’s cool. Sometimes I don’t want to come out after my nightmares, either. Stay in there if it makes you feel better. I’m just gonna hang out up here on the bed, though, cause this floor isn’t as comfortable as it should be. J, make a note of that. We need to make more comfortable floors. Why isn’t there a soft carpet or something in here?”
There was no way Tony could miss how Sam relaxed the longer that Tony babbled. Which, hey, that was definitely something Tony could do. So, he hauled himself up until he was lying down on Sam’s bed, and then he flopped onto his back and stared up at the ceiling. Coming down from panic attacks and nightmares was always easier for him if he didn’t have someone staring at him, though having them there helped. Tony only hoped it did the same thing for Sam. Then, with his head just barely starting to hang off the side of the bed, Tony just let himself talk.
He started off just talking about nothing much at first. The projects he’d been working on, the improvements he wanted to make to the Iron Man suit, little things like that. Somehow it seemed to transition into talk about Loki and magic and that whole crazy mess of things.
Tony didn’t start paying too much attention to his words until Sam suddenly popped up beside him, his eyes wide and bright in his face, exclaiming “Really?”
It took a second for Tony to backtrack. He ran through what he’d just been saying until he caught up with himself. Oh. He’d mentioned the brother that Loki had brought up, and how he’d found the number to the place that had him so Sam could call. “Really,” Tony finally said back, tilting his head to smile at the kid. “From what Loki told me, you two are pretty close. I’m not going to keep you two from talking to each other or seeing each other. Maybe we’ll be able to get him out for a visit once everything gets all settled down.”
Even if it hadn’t been something simple, seeing the joy that lit up Sam’s whole face had Tony promising to make damn sure that these two got to see one another.
He wasn’t prepared for it when Sam flung himself forward and awkwardly wrapped himself around Tony’s head in a half-hug, half-smothering gesture. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!”
There was a second where Tony froze a little. He wasn’t used to other people initiating contact with him,. Not unless they were adults, and it was meant as a prelude to sex, or sex itself. But this? This spontaneous, emotional touch – one of genuine honesty and thanks? That was something Tony wasn’t used to.
Still, he couldn’t deny the warm feeling it gave him. Awkwardly, Tony reached a hand up and patted at Sam’s back. “No problem, squirt. No problem at all.”