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“I need to talk to you,” Strange murmured as Peter talked to Quill and his crew of very interesting—that was a good word for them, interesting—people. “I have an idea,” Strange told him as he drew him away from the rest of the group. “It’s… potentially very stupid, but it’s an idea.”
“Promising start to this conversation.” Always encouraging when someone started with ‘this is stupid’. “I can work with stupid.”
Strange nodded. “I can use the time stone to view alternate futures,” Strange told him. “Not countless, but several million at least.” Tony tried not to blanch at the thought of viewing several million futures. That sounded like a good way to lose one’s mind. “It will be more difficult and limit the number of futures I can see, but if we do it together… I think we’ll have more success than me performing the spell alone.”
Tony stared at him, taking a moment to consider the dangers of something like this—potential loss of sanity being one of them—and then compared them to the very dangerous and real possibility of losing and the destined outcome of that. Losing his mind seemed a small price to pay. “Yeah, this is definitely not a good idea. But it’s the best one we have, right now, which makes it genius.”
Strange made a face at Tony’s assessment. “You’ll need to trust me,” Strange told him. “This is an intricate, difficult spell, if you fight me on it, it might not work at all.”
Tony paused, pushing back his instinctive response to agree just to get Strange to bring him along in order to consider whether he really trusted Strange enough for this. Could he trust Strange? Strange had, thus far, been entirely honest with him, even when he had to have known that Tony wouldn’t like the answers. That meant something, surely. Beyond that, he didn’t doubt Strange’s conviction. But he didn’t know Strange. Conviction did not a trustworthy person make. It just meant that a person would do whatever it took. Which could be as dangerous as it could be beneficial.
But wasn’t that what Tony needed? At least in this?
Finally, he nodded. “I trust you.” Enough for this, at least.
Strange pulled him to a rock a few feet away from the others and Tony copied him in sitting cross-legged as Strange opened the necklace he was wearing to expose the time stone, glowing a faint green. “Now, this is going to be our touch point, whenever we end a time loop, we’ll come here.”
“Is this going to be like… watching a tv show? Or are we…”
“We’re going to live it,” Stephen said. Tony felt a moment of doubt, that was… That was horrifying. He could only hope that they figured this out quickly. “If—when—we die, we’ll… exist, in some shape or form. We’ll know, at least, what the time stone allows us to know.”
So death wasn’t their end point. Which was good and terrifying in equal measure, kept a specter by time itself. But it was necessary. It was too likely that at least one, if not both, of them would die in order to keep the universe safe. They would need a way to know it worked.
Tony nodded. “All right.”
Strange reached out, taking Tony’s hands in his own. There was a faint tremble to Strange’s hands, but the hold was still firm. Green poured over his hands, wrapping around both of their forearms.
And then the world flashed green.
Strange slumped forward a little, and Tony caught him, noting that the green was still intact around both of their arms. “Did it work?”
Strange nodded. “I don’t know how many I’ll be able to manage before I have to stop, but let’s make the most of it.”
They started.
They come in force and Thanos kills them too quickly. With the power and reality stone the dead man’s spell on Strange’s necklace is undone. The mind stone is destroyed, and Thanos turns back time.
Half the universe disappears.
The world flashed green.
“A straight run is out of the question,” Strange said as they ended up back on that rock, starting over.
“Never been good at subtle, but I suppose given the circumstances…”
They’re subtle this time—or subtler—Strange and Tony greeting Thanos in a quest to steal his attention so that the others can attack.
The fight lasts longer, but they fall. Mantis, then Drax, a woman named Nebula appears and is killed, Quill dies, and then Peter. Peter, Peter, Peter and Tony falls avenging him. Strange portals back to earth, back to Kamar-Taj and the sorcerers who can help him protect the stone.
Kamar-Taj fights. Kamar-Taj falls.
The universe pays the price.
The world flashed green.
“That might have been on the right track,” Tony pointed out. “They lasted longer, if we have reinforcements for them…”
They leave immediately, head back to earth and the protection of Kamar-Taj. They last a week, before some enterprising government decides that the best way to end the threat is to nuke all of them. With the space and power stone, Thanos survives.
So does the time stone.
In the end Kathmandu is not the only price that’s paid; half of all life is gone.
The world flashed green.
“Not again,” Strange said. “We can’t risk Kamar-Taj.”
Tony shuddered; he barely remembered dying, only remembered the moments before it happened. Remembered the terror on the faces of Peter, of the young novices, of Strange, remembered the fear in his own gut. “No, but maybe Wakanda? I did some searching during the last timeline, that’s where the fight with the rest of Thanos’ armies was.”
They run to Wakanda. Drax and Mantis are killed in an accidental onslaught, too alien when the aliens are their enemies. Quill dies when he attacks in both protection and revenge.
There is no trust; when Thanos arrives, they fall.
The world flashed green.
“Try again. We can handle that better.”
They run to Wakanda. Tony goes first, warns T’challa and his people that they’re bringing reinforcements. The fight goes better, but there are still fractures in the trust Tony has in the original Avengers, and fractures in the trust that the Avengers and T’challa’s people have in him—the greatest threat to Wakanda’s intellectual superiority. Tony falls first this time. Strange lasts until the very end.
It’s not enough.
The world flashed green.
“Again, I can be better. I can make it work.”
Again.
The world flashed green.
Again.
The world flashed green.
“Wakanda isn’t going to work,” Strange decided a dozen iterations and plans later.
“I know.” Tony rubbed at his face. “We need time.”
“We need to run.”
They all climb into the Benatar and flee. Quill guides them.
Without the fight on Titan to distract him, Thanos reached Vision as Shuri tried to free him before Maximoff could destroy the stone.
Thanos catches up to them when they refuel, his children with him, the mind stone gleaming on his gauntlet.
They are overwhelmed and outnumbered. When they fall, they take Thanos’ children with them.
The world flashed green.
“It felt like the right track,” Tony said. “We can make it work.”
They flee. This time they know the trap is there and they evade it and run. Quill becomes Peter—Peter the weirder, the older, the more ridiculous, the original, depending on who is asked. Drax and Mantis stay Drax and Mantis, but they become friends. Strange becomes Stephen.
It is not family, but it is easy to see how it might be.
Thanos arrives, months and months of fleeing behind them, all but the time stone on his gauntlet. Peter is turned by the mind stone. Tony can’t fight him, can’t hurt Peter, not his kid, Tony falls. Stephen fights Peter, kills Peter. Thanos catches him in his grief.
The world flashed green.
“I swore,” Stephen said; there were tears in his eyes. “I swore I’d protect the time stone.”
Tony hated him. Hated him with all his heart. Even as he knew that Stephen had only done what he had promised. Tony had seen the death of the universe too many times now to not understand the stakes. Peter would have exchanged his life gladly if it had meant they’d won.
“Portal him to safety.”
They portal Peter to earth before Peter can argue. They run again.
When they get caught this time, it is Stephen who is snared by the mind stone. Tony understands now, understands the grief of standing against someone he loves—and god, when did this turn to love?—and being forced to kill them as he does everything in his power to keep Stephen from giving away the stone.
He kills Stephen and forgives him Peter’s death in the same moment; he knows he’ll hate himself for the rest of his life.
He doesn’t have the heart or strength to face Thanos in the aftermath.
The world flashed green.
They portal Peter to earth before Peter can argue. They run again.
They get further this time, they know the traps to avoid. They find, months later, that every planet they land on is destroyed to the very last person. Billions are dead. Civilizations and cultures nothing more than ash.
No matter what happens now, this isn’t a victory.
The world flashed green.
“We need to delay him on Titan to stop him from getting the mind stone. You need to get away.”
Tony stays, alone, entrusts Peter and Stephen to each other and to the crew of the Benatar.
He dies alone.
He doesn’t last long enough.
The mind stone is taken, and when Thanos finds Stephen, Peter, and the others they fall.
Stephen is the last this time.
The universe is so tired of paying the price.
The world flashed green.
“Again.”
”Tony—“
“No, I can do it, Stephen.”
He lasts, he lasts so much longer than he’s supposed to. Fights with a hole in his side and blood in his lungs, but he falls.
In the end, it’s still not enough.
The world flashed green.
“Leave Peter-the-more-ridiculous and the others with me. Take Peter alone.”
They last longer, they last long enough. Maximoff destroys the stone. Peter and Stephen run and run and the earth is annihilated and Thanos continues his hunt, destroying everything in his path. The universe is safe from immediate destruction, but is this a victory?
The world flashed green.
“We have to engage him here first,” Tony said. “Get him to chase us from here before he goes to earth.”
Peter Quill and the others die before they make it to the Benatar. Peter dies from wounds that don’t heal fast enough, and it is Stephen and Tony alone.
They run, Thanos one step behind them.
The earth is safe.
They don’t land on any planets, portalling the Benatar with Stephen’s magic. But Thanos has the space stone and it’s not good enough.
It is the first time, though, that Tony kisses Stephen. He’s loved Stephen for so long, but this time Tony has to let Stephen know. He may have a thousand more chances to tell Stephen, and he will. Every time. But he starts now.
He dies minutes later, words of love on his lips.
Stephen dies shortly after him.
The world flashed green.
They run again.
They marry.
They die.
The world flashed green.
They run.
Years pass.
They adopt Peter.
They marry again.
Stephen teaches Tony and Peter magic. Neither of them are very good, but they make up for it with enthusiasm.
They’re happy.
Tony thinks there might not be any part of Stephen he doesn’t know at this point. His strength and beauty and weakness and ugliness and love and pain and hope. He knows Stephen and he loves him with everything he has.
It’s not enough.
When Tony dies, Stephen greets death with a smile.
“You should have run,” Tony whispered. Even though he was starting to think that they had made a mistake doing this together. They were so entwined now, it felt almost impossible to imagine living and fighting when Stephen was gone, from the look on Stephen’s face, the feeling was mutual.
“We’re not going to win, running,” Stephen said, paused, clearly searching for the words that Tony had already thought. But there were no words, and so he pushed on. “We have to stay and fight.” They had tried running, it didn’t work. It was time to try something else. Eventually they’d figure this out.
All it mattered was that they figured this out.
He leaned forward, kissed Stephen and prayed that time would show them the way. “Then we stay and fight.”
They’re so close, they’ve gotten Thanos to a stand still and then for the first time they learn from Thanos’ own mouth what happens to Gamora. Peter loses it, and they fall.
Thor doesn’t go for the head.
The rest is inevitable.
The world flashed green.
“He needs to know before.”
It’s not enough, they tell Peter before, but he can’t keep to the plan, they never even get Thanos to a standstill.
The world flashed green.
The despair felt heavy. Time and time again, and they failed in so many different ways. “What are we doing wrong?” Tony asked. “We need to do something else.” But what more was there to do? Different moves? Different acts? They couldn’t go through each iteration of each different possible move they could manage, especially when they were so close.
Stephen reached forward, pulled him in and kissed him. “We’ll figure it out. It’s us.”
They run again, desperate for the space and time that running gives them to plan.
The world flashed green.
They stand and fight, because they can’t keep running.
The world flashed green.
They split their forces, because standing united just gets them killed together.
The world flashed green.
Tony is tortured while Stephen is forced to watch.
He can take it, they can take it.
Six days into Tony’s torture, Stephen breaks.
Better to try something, anything else, than to watch this happen.
The world flashed green.
Over and over and over. They had passed the threshold of three million lives. Tony wasn’t sure how many tries they would have, Stephen had said several million, but he had also said that with two of them, they wouldn’t be able to do as many.
“What about Thor?” Tony asked.
“What about Thor?” Stephen asked right back.
“What if we can get him here? He’s the closest we get to winning. There has to be a way.”
They send Peter and his crew to Nidavellir, they don’t get there in time.
The world flashed green.
They send Stephen with this time, if he knows what it looks like he can get them there next time. It’s not about winning, it’s about gaining enough knowledge to win the next time.
The world flashed green.
Thor is swallowed by a black hole.
The world flashed green.
They keep Thor alive this time, the black hole turns into nothing but butterflies, but Stormbreaker is turned to dust and Thor dies raging.
The world flashed green.
“Thor’s not going to work,” Tony said, another several dozen tries later. Thor could defeat Thanos on earth, but something about Titan gave Thanos an edge. Perhaps it was desperation. On earth Thanos could taste victory, got careless. Here on Titan it was still a fight to win.
“I’m tired,” Stephen whispered. “Five million times, and we’ve failed.”
“We’re going to figure it out,” Tony said. He wasn’t sure he believed it, not anymore. How could they fail so many times? It was as though the universe itself was fighting them and not just Thanos. “This can’t be meant to be.”
“What if we’re wrong. What if we need to go further?” Stephen asked. “What if there’s a way to reverse this?”
It was worth a shot. “Go until everyone gives up, no matter what happens to us, keep going until the last person resigns themselves.”
They go, they lose, they hold on and on and on. Decades in which they watch unable to interact with nothing but each other. The universe moves on in some places, struggling, limping, surviving; it falls into death and destruction in others, quickly, slowly, inevitably. Tony watches with his hand in Stephen’s.
It’s not right.
The world flashed green.
“One of us needs to live.”
They manipulate it so that Tony lives. Thanos swore to spare his life for the stone, and that promise holds true. And Tony lives and he lives and he can’t figure it out.
The world flashed green.
Stephen slips the time stone around Tony’s neck, and it is trust and devastation and love.
Tony trades the time stone for Stephen’s life.
Stephen survives the snap.
He still doesn’t find a way.
The world flashed green.
A rat runs across a lucky button. They discover time travel.
Everyone lives.
Tony dies.
The world flashed green.
“What… what if we’re on the right track?” Tony asked slowly. “What if it’s not technology that we need to use. What if all we need is more time?” What if they avoided all of this in the first place. What if they prepared before this ever happened?
They use the time stone this time.
And—
“What happened?” Tony asked, head in his hands with a sudden ache. There had been no flash of green, just… nothing.
“The stone won’t show us the past,” Stephen said, he was rubbing at his own head. “I’m not sure if that means it didn’t work or if we go into the past then we need to go blind.”
“Last ditch attempt, then.” Tony paused. “There was the one future… the one where—“
“No,” Stephen interrupted. “You don’t get to die on me. That’s no victory.”
“It is for everyone else.”
Stephen met his eyes. “But not for me. Not for us.”
“Okay, try again. This time we stop past Nebula.”
They make sure future Nebula and past Nebula never interact.
It works. It works!
They live, everyone lives.
And then… No, Tony needs to know, needs to see if the future is one worth living. Stephen lets him, high on their victory.
Peter disappears, Steve disappears into the past, Wanda almost destroys the multiverse, and then… it gets worse.
The universe rips apart at the seams, the stones are gone, there is no stability.
They win, but the future, the future that Tony has run after all of his life, it loses.
The world flashed green.
They sat there, horrified. They lost.
Even when they win in the aftermath—a pyrrhic victory—the moment Thanos destroyed the stones, they lost.
And they had never beaten Thanos before.
“What do we even do?” Tony whispered. “We can’t stop Thanos from snapping the first time. But after the second time is a loss, even if we bring everyone back.”
“There’s that space in between. It’s our only chance.” Stephen looked haggard; Tony could see the toll the whole thing was taking on him. They only had a few more chances.
Over nine million lives.
“Can you?” Tony asked.
“I’ve got a few more in me,” Stephen promised.
Tony lives, Tony joins the rest of the Avengers. They lose, the stones are already snapped.
But they know now, they know where to go.
The world flashed green.
They fight on Titan, Stephen trades the time stone for Tony’s live, ensuring Tony’s survival. Thanos disappears to earth. They open a portal to the garden and they wait.
Thanos snaps. Tony presses his lips to Stephen’s as he turns to dust, turns and holds his son—he’s held him so many times now—as he disappears. Tony is left with Nebula at his side, her rage as strong as his own.
When Thanos arrives, he’s weak, so is Tony. But Tony has the death of his universe nine million times strong. He has fury and need and conviction and Thanos… Thanos has won, is not prepared for the fact that he might lose. Tony knows failure so keenly he’s been reforged in it.
Thanos dies. Tony takes the gauntlet. He can bring them all back.
Tony—
They were back, like the time where they tried to use the time stone. “What happened this time? Does it work? Will it not?” Was it another gamble of the dice where they weren’t allowed to know if they won or if they lost?
“Even if it does, it will kill you,” Stephen said. “How is that a victory?”
“Because the rest of the universe survives,” Tony said. “That’s worth it.”
“We need me to be the one to live,” Stephen argued. “I’m used to channeling dimensional energy, I have a better chance of surviving.”
They fight on Titan, Tony carries the time stone around his neck and trades it for Stephen’s life. Thanos disappears to earth. They open a portal to the garden and they wait.
Thanos snaps. Tony presses his lips to Stephen’s and Tony is the one to turn to dust this time, he turns to dust knowing that Stephen will hold Peter for him.
Stephen is left with no one but Nebula at his side, her grief a counterpoint to his own.
When Thanos arrives, he’s weak, so is Stephen. But Stephen has the death of his universe nine million times strong. He has fury and need and conviction and Thanos… Thanos has won, is not prepared for the fact that he might lose. Stephen knows failure so keenly he’s been reforged in it.
Thanos dies. Stephen takes the gauntlet. He can turn back time.
Stephen—
Tony cursed. “Why won’t it show us?” he demanded. “We’re so close, why won’t it show us? Why—“
“I don’t know.” Stephen sounded exhausted.
They had done all of this, had tried and tried and tried and they didn’t know. They didn’t know what would happen, but they had to trust.
“How many more tries do we have?” Tony asked. They could still try, find something better.
“Not many.”
9,000,817 lives. That was how many they’d lived. And after all of this. It was all going to come down to chance. The time stone wouldn’t let them know what would happen if—when—they snapped. They just had to hope it worked.
“I don’t want to live without you,” Tony whispered. “I have to be the one to snap.”
“And you want me to live without you?” Stephen asked, and there was anger in his voice. Anger and despair and loss. Because one of them would be forced to live and one of them got to die.
“The world needs you, Stephen. Iron Man, this was always going to be my last fight. You… you have so much more to give.”
“Maybe Iron Man is done, but Tony Stark isn’t. There’s so much more Tony Stark can do.”
Tony just smiled. “Stephen—“
“Don’t make me lose you.”
Tony leaned forward and kissed Stephen, soft and with every bit of love he could manage. “Stephen, you know this is how it has to go.”
Stephen looked devastated; Tony regretted, of course he did, regretted that he was going to die and leave Stephen alone, that he would never see Peter become an adult, that he would never get to say goodbye to his dearest friends—Pepper, Rhodey, Happy, god he loved them, missed them—that he would never be able to make so many other things right. But in some ways those were all small things. He was at peace. This was the end of the road for him, and he knew it. And Stephen knew it too, even if he didn’t want to face it.
“End the loop, Stephen. We know what we have to do.”
Stephen pulled him back into another kiss. The world flashed green and they were both sitting on that stone, surrounded by the team—their team, even if half of them were strangers, now.
“Mr. Stark, Mr. Stark, are you okay?”
Peter was right in front of him, eyes wide with worry.
“I’m good, kid,” Tony answered. He reached forward, pulling Peter into a hug.
Peter froze for a moment, a quiet “oh” escaping him before Peter returned the hug with enthusiasm. “Are you okay?” Peter asked when Tony finally pulled back.
“Yes.” He glanced back at Stephen who was watching Peter with longing. But while Tony could hug Peter, Peter wouldn’t understand Stephen doing the same. They were strangers, even if Stephen loved Peter like a son. Tony reached back and took Stephen’s hand. “We went forward in time, to view all the possible futures.”
The whole group blanched, and it was Peter the elder who asked the question. “How many did you see?”
Stephen was the one to answer. “9,000,817.”
It was Peter the younger who asked the more condemning one. “How many did we win?”
Tony looked back at Stephen, felt his heart break. “Two.” The look in Stephen’s eyes was devastation, Tony expected that the look in his own was peace. It wasn’t fair, and Tony knew it. He would take his death over Stephen’s any day.
“What do we do?” Mantis asked, fear in her voice.
Tony knew her now, cared for her. She was a kind soul in a cruel universe. He hoped that the universe was better to her if this worked.
A part of him couldn’t help but grieve the fact that this time he would never have the chance to know her. To know her and her soft kindness, her empathy, her warped humor. Couldn’t help but grieve that he’d never have the chance to hear Drax mess up every metaphor he heard, to see him and Mantis finally fall in love. Couldn’t help but grieve that he would never see Peter’s ridiculous replay of the dance off that saved a planet, that he’d never argue with him about music, that he’d never hear the story of Peter’s mom. Couldn’t help but grieve that he and Nebula would never play their paper football game, that he’d never gain the trust necessary to see her wounds, that he’d never hear her laugh.
He hoped Stephen would still have those chances.
“Here’s the plan.”
They fought, using the plan that kept all of their team—their family—alive.
Stephen traded the stone, and with it set their path.
They lost.
Stephen opened the portal the moment Thanos was gone and they stepped out into the garden.
“You said there was a way we won,” Peter the elder yelled, looking around the empty garden. “You said there was a way we won.” He sounded broken; Gamora’s death, their subsequent loss, the hopelessness of the future, all of it was too much.
“There is,” Stephen said calmly. “But first we had to lose.”
“There was no other way,” Tony said quietly. “Either path led us here.”
He felt the shift in the air when Thanos snapped. 9,000,817 times he’d lived this. Now 9,000,818, and the feeling of the universe falling apart had bled into his soul.
He grabbed Stephen and kissed him; Stephen’s tears mingled with their kiss. “I love you.” And then Stephen was gone.
Tony turned and held out his arms as Peter stumbled into them. “It’s going to be okay,” Tony promised. “I’m going to fix this.”
“I believe you,” Peter whispered as the wind stole him away.
Peter died with trust in his eyes. Tony refused to fail him.
“You said there was a way we won,” Nebula said, anger and hope and distrust and need in her voice. Tony knew her better than she could ever imagine, could see everything she was trying to hide.
“There is,” he said. “We’ve got one last chance. One last chance to kill him and make this right.”
Nebula nodded, her hands wrapping around the hilt of her sword.
And then Thanos was there.
“It’s done,” Thanos told him. “Your fight, it’s lost.”
Tony met his gaze. “Not yet.”
Tony knew how this ended, but he fought as though he didn’t, fought as though failure was always a risk and it was Tony’s best or nothing.
And it was enough.
For once, it was enough.
The gauntlet was heavy in his hands. Tony stared at it. Stared at this thing that had caused so much pain, so much death.
He stuck his hand in the gauntlet, hands too small, but the armor made up the difference and all he needed was one snap. He could feel Nebula at his side, waiting and hoping and needing.
Tony hoped that she discovered that sometimes the universe could be kind. That somehow she’d get the life she deserved. That all of them, all of this team he’d made, that they’d heal, survive, live.
Make things right, Tony wished. Make things right. Undo what Thanos has done.
Pain seized through him; he was no Titan, built to withstand even this. No, he was nothing more than a man in a metal suit. He snapped.
The world flashed the colors of infinity.
“It is June 1st,” a familiar voice said, drawing Tony awake from a restless sleep, “the weather is 78 degrees and the sky is clear. You have the president on the phone to discuss the plans for restoration—“
“What?” Tony asked, voice coming out hoarse. His jaw and throat hurt, as though someone had choked him and his back lanced with pain—almost, his brain told him, as though he’d been thrown back first out of a window.
He opened his eyes and stared at a ceiling he hadn’t slept under in two years. He turned, gaze searching out Vision even as his mind told him that Vision was either already dead or didn’t exist at all.
“The president is on the phone with you,” the voice—JARVIS—repeated. “He wishes to discuss the plans for the restoration of New York in the aftermath of the Chitauri’s invasion.”
It was JARVIS’ voice. Tony didn’t understand, but it was JARVIS’ voice.
JARVIS’ voice, in his tower, in the aftermath of the Chitauri invasion.
“JARVIS?” His voice choked up and he… he wasn’t sure he could handle this. It was JARVIS.
Some part of him couldn’t help but believe that this had to be some sort of dying hallucination. Or perhaps a dream world that the infinity stones had placed him in.
The pain helped ground him, too real to be a lie or a dream. This was real.
“Yes, sir?”
Tony swallowed, forcing himself to keep it together, he needed to focus, needed… needed to know if he was alone. “I need you to find a man by the name of Stephen Strange. He should be a doctor at Metro General.”
JARVIS paused for a moment. “Doctor Stephen Strange has tried to call three times this morning, but has been relegated to answering machine as no secretaries are currently available and he did not have priority access to you. Would you like me to put him through?”
“Yes,” Tony whispered. “Yes.”
It was moments later that he heard Stephen’s voice. “Tony?”
Millions of lives rushed over him, millions of moments of loving Stephen, millions of experiences, hopes, dreams. Millions of moments of them.
And Stephen was here, was here with him.
Tony wasn’t sure he could have done this alone.
“Stephen,” he whispered. “This wasn’t what I intended. I just wanted to make things right. To undo what Thanos did.”
Stephen laughed, and it was delirious and hopeful and relieved and devastated and Tony found tears slipping down his cheeks as his own laugh escaped him.
“Then that’s what we’re going to do,” Stephen whispered. “We have six years. That’s what we’re going to do.”