Chapter Text
When Toni opened her eyes, the first thing she realized was that the suit had somehow tapped back into the arc reactor. Toni remembered creating the nanobots to be able to come out of the arc reactor instead. She was in a shield uniform, but there was a throbbing pain in her side at the moment. She stood up, only for her body to scream in outrage over the action. She had hoped though that the Extremis would start sooner or later. Toni grunted as she got to her feet and realized, holy shit, this is definitely not New York. She tried rubbing her eyes but nope, she was here. It was New York but it wasn’t her New York. There was no more fighting at least, no doombots or whatever.
“Ok, ok, Toni, you can figure this out, you can figure this out. Maybe they redecorated while you were gone. Or you landed in a different part of the city.” She mumbled to herself, Jesus, if I’m dead, this better be a good heaven. She didn’t believe in god but hey, if this was his way of a cruel joke, she could play along. She touched her chest to touch the arc reactor since that was the only thing calming her down right now. “Thank god I have this at least.” She mumbled, god I could use a drink right now. But then she remembered, she still had the earpiece, it was connected to Friday but she prayed that she would respond.
“Friday?” No response.
“Friday?” No response. But then there was a crackling sound.
“Friday? Can you hear me?” She paused and listened, hearing crackling noises before finally hearing the AI’s voice. “Boss? Where are we? I can’t find a signal from any satellite.” She sighed in relief at the sound of the Irish accent, thank god there was someone in this world that she knew.
“That’s what I’m trying to figure out Fri, I don’t think we’re in New York anymore.” She scanned the city, it was busy, and people were laughing and playing in the streets.
“Boss, my readings are telling me that we are in Brooklyn right now.”
“What’s the year, Fri?” if Friday was a person, then this was the moment she’d pause and think about the answer, “the year is 1943, Miss Stark.” Holy shit..., she thought, she was here the year Steve Rogers would become part of the Project: Rebirth. “Well fuck me, Friday do you know what this means?”
“No boss, what does this mean?” She rolled her eyes at her sassy tone, ignoring it and said “Capsicle hasn’t become a supersoldier yet.” She started walking, and somewhat jumping on the roofs of the buildings. She looked around and realized there weren’t any skyscrapers yet, no Stark tower, that’s for sure. Toni finally decided to look down at the throbbing pain in her side only to see that there was a very sharp object stick out from the side. Extremis when are you gonna start working!
“Friday do you know why there’s a sharp something in my side?” She knew it was a stupid question but she could ask anyway. Toni already had an idea but she wanted to hear what Friday had to say. “It seems, boss, that you must’ve fallen on something when falling from wherever it is that you fell from. I would recommend going to a hospital or asking for medical assistance in the least.” Toni huffed, she hated hospitals and its chemical smells and clean objects. Asking for medical assistance was like asking for pity from a stranger. “I can’t go to hospital because of this thing, or ask for medical assistance. I don’t need to be turned into a science experiment. This would attract all kinds of attention.” She thought out loud, not noticing her missing her step on the next roof.
She gasped, suddenly all the memories of the nuke into space and falling from the Stark tower by Loki came back to her. Luckily for Toni, there was a worn out couch to save her from dying yet again. Or at least she thought it was until well she fell on something, and something hard. “Fuck!” She yelled as her vision was blurry, all she could see were two figures suddenly standing in front of her.
“Ma'am are you alright? Ma'am?”
“Stevie, stop talkin! Ya prob’ly scarin her!” There was a silence as Toni was helped to her feet, she groaned to herself before her vision became clear. Standing before her was a short man with blonde hair and clear blue eyes and another that was taller than Toni and the shorter man with brown hair and silver grey eyes.
“Miss, are ya alright?” She straightened, trying to figure out where she went wrong with everything in life as the two men continued to stare at her. “Yes, I’m fine. Um, thank you for catching me, I guess.” Toni tried to avoid the gaze that a certain brunette was giving her. She wanted to shiver but stopped herself from doing so.
“Are you sure, m’am, you fell pretty far.” She looked closer, and once again if God was trying to play a curel joke on her right now, he once again succeeded. Not only was this man short and had blonde hair or blue eyes, she realized this was preserum Steve. And that tall brunette was James Buchanan Barnes, the best friend of Steve Rogers. Toni was tempted to pinch herself and ask Jarvis if this was all real but decided against it. She also forgot that Cap was a gentleman and too polite for his own good sometimes. She was really tempted to say 'it’s been too long Grandpa' but, again, decided against it.
“Boys, calm down, I’m fine, really. Do you have a first aid kit by any chance?” The men both looked at eachother, probably thinking whether Toni was crazy or not but whatever. Technically, Friday did say that she needed medical assistance so why not ask the pre serum man with a plan for assistance? Ah. if only Steve could see her now, actually asking for help for once. “I-I--uh have one at our apartment, if ya wanna come with us.” Bucky finally spoke up, Toni noting the slight blush that Steve had on his face.
“Thanks, I didn’t catch your names.” She said, raising her eyebrow at them playfully. Steve blushed even harder at that motion while Bucky just winked at her. “My name is James Buchanan Barnes, but everybody calls me Bucky. What's your name gorgeous?” Toni slightly stumbled over the sidewalk as they were walking and had to shake her head slightly at the comment. “My name is um, Toni, Toni Carbonell.” If she said Toni Stark, that would attract too much attention so this was the better and safer way to do it. Besides her mother would be laughing in her grave right now over this. "My name is Steve Rogers ma'am." Toni shook Steve's hand, making it already weird to be doing this all over again.
The three of them reached a small apartment and walked in. Toni wouldn’t be surprised if it had one small bed and a bathtub but it was small but it felt like home for some reason. God, I could really use some music right now. Toni was about ready to ask Friday to play AC/DC but didn’t. If she did, Toni could swear that Steve and Bucky would think she was insane. So instead, she just hummed along to Highway to Hell as they walked in. “It’s not much lady, but we have some gauze an’ scissors here. I could check if we have---”
“No it’s fine. Honestly, I’m surprised you’d let a stranger even in to give me this.” Toni could’ve sworn she heard fighting going on outside but not before a gun went off. Steve and Bucky both froze while Toni grabbed the medical kit. “Does that normally happen? Like shooting and fighting near your apartment?” She said while grabbing tape and the gauze. “Well, uh, yeah, but it’s normal, ya get use ta it.” Steve said, sounding slightly ashamed and embarrassed.
“It’s fine, where I lived, that sort of happened but not really.” Steve nodded at that and Toni finally got to analyze that wound. It seemed that some sort of leftover pol from the portal in New York came flying through with her. Groaning, she pulled it, ignoring the expressions both Steve and Bucky made while looking at it. She was still wearing the SHIELD combat gear but she could take it off. She pulled it off and set to work on getting the bleeding under control. Clearly, fuckin extremis has not set in yet so I hate everything right now, Toni thought to herself, inspecting the wound.
“What’s that thing in your chest?” Steve said, nodding towards the arc reactor in Toni’s chest.
“Steve! Don’t say that! Jesus, that’s rude-” Toni laughed, if anyone ever told her that she would be standing here with two supersoldiers, and Bucky actually had manners, she wouldn’t believe it. She remembered Howard always saying that Bucky was a lady’s man, a real flirt with the girls. “It’s fine, I uh, don’t really talk about it much so it’s ok.” Usually Toni would be embarrassed about showing the reactor off. She still remembered when Pepper nearly fainted when she saw it after Toni came back from Afghanistan.
After fixing the wound, Toni finally could understand her surroundings. She asked Steve for some paper and got to work on what was happening here. “So it’s 1943, it’s World War II time, and it seems that preserum Steve was as cute as a button. She was glad that he was still the same flustered, polite man that he was when she met him. Although those words were still fresh when they first met, they still stuck to her. Take that off, what are you? Good question, honestly at this point, Steve I wouldn’t know now. She continued writing down ideas and quickly connecting the dots.
“Fri? I need you to find anything and everything on Project: Rebirth. I need to know the idea of what has and hasn’t happened.” She whispered quietly to the AI, thankfully, she still had EDITH, thank god for the technology she brought with her at least. I don’t think I’m gonna last with all of this old tech laying around. Friday pulled up what information she could, bless her artificial fullness, and read what she could. She realized that Steve was still trying to enlist while Bucky might or might’ve been enlisted already. She checked the time, it was already 3:30 am, well crap.
She walked into the kitchen, which really only took like three steps, and looked for coffee there was. Thankfully, there was coffee and tea lying on the table. She quietly, or at least tried, to make the coffee and drank it greedily. What would she do without her coffee? “Are you drinkin coffee right now?” Toni squealed, almost spilling the coffee at the shadow at the door of the bedroom. “Um yes, is that a problem?”
“It’s almost 4 in the morning, doll. Whatcha doin up at this time?” Toni mentally confirmed that Bucky Barnes might just be the death of her if he kept calling her doll. “Can’t sleep, this is my way of not sleeping.” Toni did realize that drinking coffee at 4 am or so was maybe a little weird to do here in the 1940s, but hey, screw it because she’s not just any dame. “Well, care to join me, it’s a little cold in my bed right now.” Thank god for no lights right now. Screw you Barnes and your flirtiness. “Haha, nice try, buddy, but I’m just gonna lay down on this couch. It’s quite comfy actually.”
“It’s not but ok, I’ll tell Stevie you said that.” She rolled her eyes. “Is it so hard to believe that it’s- ok nevermind. Just go back to sleep, unless you came down here for a reason.” Bucky walked over to her, ignoring the continuous babbling that Toni made a habit of. “I’m shipping out soon and I guess I don’t know how ta tell Stevie.” Toni chewed the inside of her cheek thinking about, in a week or so Bucky would ship out, Steve would follow soon, a day or two after for boot camp. “Bucky, you should tell him, otherwise he will be angry the next time you see him. Your part of the 107th, right?” Ok, so maybe that was a bad idea to mention she already knew that he was recruited for the 107th but boo hoo, the past was already changing because of her.
“I-I, how did ya know?” Bucky said, surprised a little. “I saw the enlistment papers or whatever, something to do with the 107th.” He nodded back at her, shifting in his position. “I dunno how ta tell Stevie.” Toni was tempted to say it’s not that hard, but they were men, men had pride, ego, something like that that people told Toni all the time. She was a genius, philanthropist, had a big ego if someone asked. But this was war so she might as well ignore all the things that made her Toni Stark.
“Look, I know if I said it’s easy, it ain’t easy, but at least tell him something. You say your best friends, best friends wouldn’t lie to each other.” At one point, Toni was convinced that Steve and Bucky were a thing, but eventually she swallowed her pride and finally asked. In return, she got laughter and a hug from them both. “If I tell him, then you have to come with us the night before I leave.” She sighed, going to a Stark Expo was no biggie, but when it was her father’s Expo, she would say no. “Alright, fine, I’m planning on dragging you both with me to get clothes tomorrow then.” Bucky chuckled before walking back into his bedroom and Toni finally exhaled.
God, she was gonna need more coffee after this.