The Fire of Family

Chapter 1

A/N- Okay, so this was just something I had rattling in the back of my and decided to publish now. So, please, if you enjoyed reading it or have any questions regarding my story, please let me know!

One thing you need to know is how I've altered the MCU. As of right now, the only major changes I've put in place have to do with the timeline of Iron Man I & II and Tony & Pepper's relationship. Instead of taking place in 2008 & 2009, they will have happened in 2004 & 2005, my story taking place directly after the events of the first Iron Man. Also, to sum up Tony & Pepper's relationship:

Right out of college, Pepper Potts is hired by Tony Stark as one of Stark Industries' interns, working her way up to become Tony's personal assistant. Despite his constant flirting and playboy attitude, she manages to find another side to Tony and they enter a romantic relationship. After being kidnapped by the Ten Rings, becoming Iron Man, and the downfall of Obadiah, Tony realizes just how important Pepper is to him and asks her to marry him in which she says yes. With Rhody as the best man, they are wed in a small, but extravagant ceremony.

Alright, super cheesy, yes? Well, there's that.

Thanks and happy reading!

Minutes within being born, she went into multiple organ failure. It started with her liver, then her kidneys. And at 01:29 AM on May 4, 1990 that little girl's heart shut down and she stopped breathing. The couple her birth mother had found abandoned the child, too pained to loose another.

They watched through the glass as the doctors and nurses began to unplug and untangle various tubes and attachments, the constant beeping of the monitors coming to a halt. Their little girl was dead.

The older woman brought her fingers to her lips, choking back a sob as she tried her best to see through the tears. Her husband stood behind her, his hands trailing up and down her arms.

"Do you think we should go tell her?" she whispered.

The man reached up to run a hand through his salt and pepper hair. The thin lines traveling across his forehead along with the creases in the corner of his eyes made him look like a man who had waited too long and paid the price. Eventually, he nods.

He body temperature was at a recorded high of 107.1ºF when she died. It wasn't too much of a surprise—they had little hope for the baby that was born at 27 weeks. They were shocked, however, when at 02:07 AM on May 4, 1990 her eyes shot open and she let out a cry as her heart rate picked up and her temperature continued to rise until stabilizing at around 115ºF. It was both scientifically baffling and a miracle. But as that tiny baby's chest rose and fell through the night, it was alone.

Now, nearly fourteen years later, she lay on her bed letting her mind wander to those prospective parents who left her. All she knew about them, other than the fact that they left her at that hospital, was their name: Alvery. It's the same name on her birth certificate. Madeline Alvery. It was at least more than she knew about her biological parents.

/ Madeline /

I used to think that if two people who were supposed to take care of and love me weren't willing to stick around for "further complications," then they wouldn't have made for good parents anyway. But now I've realized there are worse places to end up.

I've been moving around in the foster care system for most my life. That's what happens when you're a medical mystery. I was hot to the touch with an eternal fever and a heart rate over 200bpm. It raised a flag to any couple who picked me up and held me. So instead, families opted for a different, healthier baby. This went on for years until I finally realized no one wanted me. At least, that's what they said.

"Freak," "Dangerous," "Uncontrollable," "Monster." Just some of the words my foster dad screamed at me after I sent him to the emergency room with third degree burns on both his hands. I didn't mean to do it. I didn't even know how I did it. I was just so angry...

He hit her. He hit her and when he went to do it again, I tried to stop him. He wasn't supposed to hit her—the other foster kid—a six year old girl. It was our unspoken agreement. I took his beatings and in return he'd keep his hands off of her. It was better that way. When I would wake up in the morning, the welts over my eyes and the bruises that littered my limbs had always disappeared. The break in one of my ribs from a blow to my side was suddenly healed before school the next day. But when he grabbed her... Something flared up inside me, a fire raging within, traveling through my body to the outside.

Since then I've bounced between four other places and as of last night I've been transferred to a group home.

Yesterday, at school, I was taking a test, my teacher walking the isles to monitor the students. When she stopped beside me, probably just to check on how I was doing, she laid her hand on my shoulder and something brought me back to that night. I don't remember what happened, but the other kids in the class claim my whole body burst into flames right there at my desk. They said that the flames grew larger and larger, the colour changing from a fiery red-orange to a soft white and eventually a blazing blue before the sprinkler system kicked in and put me out. It seemed so unreal, but like I said, I wouldn't know. The first thing I can recall is Ms. Polnick being loaded into the back of an ambulance in the school parking lot.

It wasn't the first time something like this had happened and it surely wouldn't be the last. Incidents like these happened all the time. My poor social worker, she knew that I caused them. But then again, how could I? People don't typically burst into flames and when they do, they don't come out unscathed. What I could do... it wasn't normal. And it wasn't just fire, either. It was energy itself, the life that coursed through my body. I could produce sparks of electricity and create new cells—it's how I'm able to recover so quickly. Although, it's not without it's disadvantages. Using these newfound abilities drained my energy significantly, leaving me completely exhausted afterwards.

But what good is any of that if I can't learn to control it? I thought as I rolled over onto my side, clutching the comforter tight.

/ Tony /

I glanced over to where she sat, her feet tucked under her as she read a book cracked open over the arm of the couch. She was dressed comfortably for a night in, her shoulder-length hair tucked behind her ears as she hovered over the words printed on the page.

God, she's beautiful, I thought to myself.

"Tony?" she called out suddenly, folding her book to a close. "You coming?"

"Yeah," I said grabbing the two glasses I had poured.

Together, the two of us went over some industrial designs for a new Stark Industries building in New York, just barely glancing at the cost. It wasn't long until my drink was empty and my mind wandered elsewhere, Pepper constantly trying to steer me back on topic.

"Did you get those papers signed?"

"Yeah. Yeah, of course," I say, rolling my glass between my palms.

"You... You okay?" Pepper asks, a funny smile on her mouth. "Seems like you have something on your mind."

"Do you want kids?" I blurted. "I mean, you do want kids, Pepper, right?"

Her face went from mild surprise to complete bewilderment, all traces of the smile gone from her lips. Her eyes darkened and she leaned forward to put her drink down on the coffee table, turning away slightly.

"I know we've never talked about it," I said quickly. "My father, he, uh, was in his fifties when he had me and I don't want to be an old dad and-"

"I-I don't know, I..."

"I knew I should've transitioned into that a little smoother."

Pepper lets out a sob.

"Was it something I said?" I half-heartedly joked.

Another sob.

"Aw, Pepper," I whisper, wrapping my arms around her, bringing her close. "We don't have to rush into anything, I just thought we could talk about it that's all. If you don't want kids, that's fine-"

"No. It's not that, I..." she trailed off.

"Well, what it is then?" I ask, bringing her tear stained face up to mine, brushing a few strands of her red hair out of her eyes. "What's wrong?"

"There-There's something you don't know, Tony," she cried. "Something I've never told you about."

/ Pepper /

Tony continued to look down at me with that worried frown and furrowed eyebrows, waiting for me to go on. I sniffed and took in one long shaky breath as I rubbed my eyes with the heel of my hands, wiping away the wetness, letting my fingers slide down so that they rested on either side of my face.

"I was eighteen," I began. "My boyfriend at the time, we had been dating for sixth months. He was so right in so many ways. He was kind and smart, top of his class. We were going to be co-valedictorians together... and going to separate universities in the fall. We knew that when we started dating, we knew what was going to happen and we were okay with it. But when-when I found out I was pregnant-"

I tried not to let it, but my voice wavered. Tony clenched his jaw and I averted my eyes.

"Hey," he murmured, bringing his hand to cup my face, running his thumb under my eye.

I laid my hand over his and gave him a weak smile before continuing.

"I didn't want to mess anything up for him; we weren't ready to be parents. So, I decided that when the time came I would give the baby up for adoption. I found this great couple. They couldn't have children of their own, but they were the kind of people who were supposed to be parents, you know?"

"You find this couple through an agency?"

"Yeah, Hudson Valley or something in New York. It was all going to be okay. I would give birth at the end of summer and start school after. But she was born early, Tony, like really, really, early," I whispered. "Something was wrong—more than just being born premature. I didn't know what was wrong or what was going to happen to her. I was so scared, Tony. So, I left. I left the hospital."

"So... you don't know if... if she..."

I shook my head. "No and it's just—I left her, Tony! And I may have been giving her up, but she was still my child and I left her. I left her to die and I'm just not sure that cuts me out to be a mother."

"No. No, don't say that. You were only a kid, Pepper," he says staring down at me, locking his brown eyes onto my blue ones. "Come here."

Tony pulled me into his chest, wrapping his arms around me tight. "It's okay. You're okay."

/ Tony /

Later that night...

After Pepper fell asleep, exhausted, I took her to bed then came downstairs to the garage to tinker with my toys as I thought about things. That's when I had an idea.

"Jarvis, look up Hudson Valley Adoption Services, will you?"