DISCLAIMER:I own NOTHING that has to do with Iron Man or the Avengers; Marvel owns everything. The only things I own are the Original Characters and the plot. Rated T just to be safe. ENJOY!

Pepper's POV

I walk into Tony's lab and as usual he's working on something with his suit while blasting AC/DC. Normally I'd smile at this but in light of what I found, I can't help but to be a bit nervous. I quickly hide my nervousness as he looks up from his suit and looks at me.

"Mute." The music suddenly stops and he puts the torch down before pulling his goggles off.

"Something wrong, Pep?"

"I found this file among Obadiah's things that we have yet to get rid of" His eyes narrow at the name mentioned and to be honest, I wish I didn't have to mention him at all but this isn't something that can be kept under the rug that Obadiah swept it under.

"Trash it."

"I can't do that, Tony."

"Why not, Pepper?"

"It's about another hit that he'd ordered." He grabs a rag and starts to clean the oil and grease off his hands as he walks over to me. I open the file so that he can look at it from over my shoulder. Out of the corner of my left eye, I can see him starting to shake. He'd opens his mouth to say something when the door to the lab opens.

We both look back at the door and see James looking at the both of us curiously, "Hey, what's the matter with you two? You both look like you've been hit by trucks, seen a ghost or something."

"You remember Morgan Trent?" Tony's voice sounded strained, almost hallow. I couldn't help but feel my heart break all over again for him.

"The she-devil that was your first love that shattered your heart into a million pieces and turned you into an even bigger womanizing pain in the ass when she left without warning and we haven't heard or seen since; that Morgan Trent?"

"Yeah, Rhodey. That Morgan."

"What about her?"

Tony carefully takes the file from my hands and holds it out to James, "Apparently every hateful thing we ever said about her was uncalled for."

James takes the file from Tony's shaking hands and looks it over. I wrap my arms around Tony's waist and hug him. He wraps an arm around my shoulders while I look up into his eyes; it's hard for me to tell what he feels more of, anger or anguish. Morgan Trent had been a very beautiful young woman who Tony had met while he was at MIT. She had somehow been able to tame Tony into submission and made him a one woman man for the few years that they had dated and through their very brief engagement.

I remember reading the articles about the two of them. They had been the dream couple; the world had been stunned when she had left Tony without a reason and seemed to have just dropped off the face of the Earth. After she'd left him, Tony turned back to his playboy ways after several months of being a shut-in. He'd never admit it to anyone but James, Obadiah and I but he was completely devastated when she'd gone.

Tony and I watched as James reads the file in silence. I feel Tony's grip tighten a bit when James drops himself unceremoniously into a chair nearby, looking horrified.

"H-He had her killed…but why? This doesn't make any sense!"

"It makes perfect sense." I could feel both men's eyes on me, "He wanted Stark Industries all to himself. If Tony and Morgan had gotten married, it would have complicated his plans to take over the company. It would have become even more complicated if they had children. It would have been like Tony all over again. Howard and Maria's deaths had been an honest accident but he'd seen it as a way to come up with his plan to take over the company when the time was right. He would've had to have waited until any child they'd have been old enough to name him the heir to the company if something were to happen to them like Tony had."

Both men's eyes are wide in surprise, realizing that my theory is the most likely case but we'd never know for sure since the only one with answers is dead.

"The only thing I don't understand is why wait seven years after she left to order the hit…did he want to give her a false sense of security?"

"I'm not sure, Pep. The only person who can answer that is burning in Hell."

I can hear papers shuffling, "Pepper, are there any other files that he'd left?"

"Yes, they're in storage at Stark Industry Headquarters since we had bigger things to worry about than going through his effects to see what was company business or personal. Anything that was on his computer was moved into another part of the company's main frame that can only be accessed by Tony, Jarvis or I."

"Unmute." Black Sabbath now filled the lab, "Pause. Jarvis!"

"Yes, Sir?"

"Obadiah's files, I need you to access them."

"Of course, Sir."

James throws the file onto the worktable near him, "I just can't believe this."

"I can't either, Rhodey."

"Sir, I've located, opened and decoded all of Mr. Stane's files."

"Thanks Jarvis." Tony pulls up the screen and enlarges it so that the three of us could all see it and read it easily.

"You're welcome, Ms. Potts."

"Whoa, wait a second, Tony. Go back to that one file."

Tony pulls back the file that he had moved to the side a second ago. It's a record of having hired a private investigator.

"Why would Obey need a private investigator?"

"I'm not sure. Let's keep looking."

While they were looking through some of the reports that the investigator had done, I was looking through the photos that the man had taken. One photo in particular makes me pause. I must have made a noise of some kind because the next thing I know I feel Tony's hand on the small of my back.

"What is it, Pep?" All I could do is enlarge the photo I found of what appears to be Morgan walking down the street with an adorable little girl, hand and hand. I look over my shoulder to see Tony's reaction. His eyes are wide with shock as he stares at the screen.

"Jarvis."

"Yes, Sir?"

"Do a scan of Obadiah's files and show us any files that mention Morgan Trent or a child. Same goes with photos." Tony grabs a stool and plops down on it hard. He grabs my hips and pulls me close to him. He's shaking again and I can tell it's taking everything inside him not to break down in front of James or me.

"Done, Sir."

A few files remained along with a couple of photos. One of the files was a copy of a birth certificate that belongs to a Sirena Selene Stark, born December 17th, 1992 at 10:31 pm; weighing exactly 5 lbs and being 17 ½ inches long. The names on the parent lines are Morgan Riley Trent as her mother and Anthony Edward Stark as her father. Beside the birth certificate is the file on a hit ordered not just for Morgan but also Sirena.

"Oh God. Tony…" The sadness in James' voice is pronounced as Tony buries his face in my stomach so he didn't have to read anymore. I ran my fingers through Tony's hair in an effort to calm him while James continues to skim the files Jarvis had brought up.

"Wait a second. Look." James enlarges an article on the screen. It's Morgan's obituary, "Read the last paragraph."

I tilt my head to the side and read it out loud, "'Ms. Trent is succeeded by her mother Mila Trent (nee' Riley), her father Edgar Trent, and sister Edith Trent. She is survived by her niece. Her niece is currently in the custody of a family friend who requested to remain anonymous.'"

"That's impossible."

Tony unburies his face from my stomach and I look down at him, "Why's that?"

"Morgan was an only child like me. The last two sentences have to be a cover- up of some kind…but by whom and why?"

"We can figure that out later. Why don't we see if we can find anything on your daughter?"

"Jarvis, see what you can dig up."

"At once, sir."

Tony buries his face in his hands, rubbing his face roughly. I run my hand up and down his back slowly in a comforting way. James quietly walks out of the lab and goes upstairs to give us some time alone.

"I'm sorry, Pepper."

"For what, Tony"

"All of this."

"None of this is your fault, Tony. I didn't know Morgan but from what I'd heard from Obadiah-"

"Wait, you talked to Obey about Morgan?"

"Yes. On one of your drunken nights you started ranting about her before you passed out. When I asked Rhodey, all he told me was that I shouldn't mention that name in front of you, ever and he left it at that. So I asked Obadiah. He said that before she had left you, she had seemed like a sweetheart."

"She was. I never understood why she had left. Now that I know she was pregnant, I'm even more confused and we all know how much I hate feeling that way."

"Sir, you may want to see this."

Jarvis brings up a classified file of S.H.I.E.L.D.s' that Tony must have gotten on one of the few times he hacked into their main frame. According to the file, Sirena has lived under their protection since her mother's death. She'd been homeschooled but had attended a public high school for her Junior and Senior years. She had graduated in the top of her class and was valedictorian when she was fourteen. Like Tony, she'd graduated summa cum laude from MIT at seventeen with master degrees in physics and electrical engineering. She'd apparently had gone Cambridge after MIT and graduated summa cum laude from there with bachelor's degrees in secondary education, specializing in physics science and math when she was nineteen.

"Like father, like daughter."

Tony smirks, "So it would seem. Says here she's currently living in Salem Center, New York and teaches science part-time and math full time but they don't list the school, dammit."

"Your daughter's a teacher?" Tony and I turn to see that James had rejoined us, "God save those kids if she's really anything like you, Tony."

"Shut up, Rhodey."

"Well, she's obviously still alive. How do we go about getting in contact with her and seeing if she really is your daughter?"

"I think we need to have a little chat with Fury. Don't you, Pep?" He smiles, "Jarvis, get in contact with Fury and tell him to meet me at Stark Tower in Manhattan."

"Of course, Sir."

A/N:So, what do you think of the prequel to my Iron Man/Avengers Fanfic? I know Tony is OOC in this but would you kinda be too if this bombshell was dropped on you? Btw, cookies and brownies to anyone who can figure out what school Sirena teaches at!