Author's note: Trying something new here, bear with me. -Jay

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Maria Hill leaned back as her boss looked over the papers he had been forcibly handed.

Tony threw the papers in the air, "Nope, has to be a mistake. Somebody trying to get money from me."

Hill sighed, "I got a call, it's either you or an orphanage and if word gets out that Tony Stark didn't want to take care of his own child, just imagine the backlash."

Tony was pacing back and forth before he turned to his human resources secretary, "I have never heard of this kid, for all I know, she may not even be mine."

"Birth certificate does say that you are. Did you ever know any Michelle Eisenwald?"

He nodded apprehensively, "It was a week long fling about 17 years ago."

"Are you aware you've been paying child support for this 16 year old girl for 16 years now?" Hill frowned, this was not the best time for this to happen. No time was.

Tony kicked the desk, "No, I had all bills on auto-pay, I haven't paid my bills in about 20 years."

"Well child services wants the child to stay with you."

Her boss was deep in thought before he slumped down in one of the chairs, "Fine, whatever. Enroll her in that science school in Queens."

"Halfway across the city?" Hill raised a brow.

Tony threw his hands up, what else am I going to do Hill? If she is my daughter, I don't need anyone extorting money from me, besides, I know I can have someone look after her."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-

4 Days later

-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Amber Eisenwald stepped out of the yellow street cab carefully. Getting sprung that her father was a billionaire playboy only hours after her mother's death had for a better part, made the girl dislike the man almost immediately. Getting off the plane and having to find her own way to Stark Tower was another thing. She was out of money, without a parent, and starting to get soaking wet as she pulled her luggage out of the trunk of the cab in rain trodden Manhattan. At least the rain was familiar to her, growing up in Seattle had it's qualities.

She tried to step up onto the pavement, her prosthetic leg from the accident five years ago slipping a little on the wet sidewalk. She slung the backpack over her shoulder and pushed the doors open. The white lights next to the Stark name gave a hint at how big his ego must be. A few receptionists stayed glued to their screens as Amber sat down in one of the few lobby chairs. So much for a happy welcome. She waited five minutes before pulling out her phone. Soaked.

"This day can't get any worse," she muttered into her hands as she rubbed her face.

"Miss, do you have an appointment?"

Amber looked up, one of the receptionists stood over her. Amber thought for a minute. If he didn't even bother to get me a ride here, what are the chances that he'd tell anyone about me.

"Miss?"

Amber blinked out of the thought, "Sorry. No, I'm just waiting for someone."

The receptionist rolled her eyes, "I'm sorry, I'm going to have to ask you to leave. This is a place of business, not a homeless shelter."

Bitch, Amber thought to herself.

The elevator door dinged as Amber swept her wet chestnut colored hair over her shoulder, gathering her things and heading toward the door.

"Hey, hold up!" another woman's voice called, followed by the sound of quick footsteps on tile flooring, "Are you Amber Eisenwald?"

Amber turned around. A tall woman in her mid 20's stood there, waiting for an answer.

"What's it you?" she replied, putting a hand on her hip.

"How did you get here?" the woman asked threateningly.

Amber's confidence was unwavering, "I paid for a cab. Nobody was there to pick me up."

"You didn't see the man holding the sign labeled 'Stark'?" the woman raised an eyebrow.

The moody teen groaned, "There can be more than one person with that last name in the world, besides, I'm not using his last name."

The receptionist looked between the two, "Was I not supposed to do that? I thought her last name was Stark."

"It's Eisenwald. Not Stark. No hyphen either." Amber glared at the two women.

The tall one refocused on the girl rather than her last name, "I'm your father's Human Resources Services secretary, Maria Hill."

Amber turned her luggage around before she shook Maria's hand, "Amber Eisenwald."

Maria jerked her head towards the elevator with a faint smile, "Come on, let's get you to your room."

"More like two years of prison," Amber huffed under her breath.

Hill pushed the button, waiting a second before the door opened. Amber dragged all of her soaking bags into the elevator, sitting on her large one.

"Aren't your pants going to get wet?"

"I'm from Seattle, it happens." Amber replied, not making eye contact.

The elevator door closed as the elevator climbed up the tower. Maria watched the girl before noting the slight differential in her left pant leg. "What's wrong with your leg?" Hill tried to spark conversation.

Amber sighed as she bent down and rolled up her left pant leg, exposing the prosthetic, "Lost it a few years back."

Maria nodded, "Are you excited to meet your father."

Amber shook her head, "The only reason I'm not somewhere else is because the state department wanted me here and they knew it would be bad PR for him if he refused. I don't want to be here."

Hill blinked, of all the scenarios, she expected at least a little eagerness. Yet again, this is a girl with one leg, who lost her mother and step-father and was being forced by the government to move across the country to make Tony behave himself. She must have thought it was a cruel joke. Amber started whistling something to herself, nothing like the boss listened too, closer to what Cap listened too. More classical.

The doors parted, revealing Tony pacing back and forth on the phone behind a barrier of soundproof glass, talking to someone. Maria nudged Amber who was glaring at Tony with daggers for eyes. "This way, you a fan of his kind of work?"

"Not really. Too complicated. My step-dad always said that to fix the world, all you would need is a shotgun, a roll of duct tape and a can of WD40." Amber shrugged.

Hill crossed her arms, "Don't even like the suits?"

"I like Captain America and Romanoff better."

Hill stifled a laugh, Tony's daughter was almost completely unlike him. She opened a door revealing a large bedroom. "This is your room, it's already got a bathroom and walk in closet..."

"Why?"

The question caught the former SHIELD agent off guard, "What do you mean?"

Amber shook her head, "Is there any room smaller than this? This is like a penthouse. I don't need a space that big."

Hill closed her eyes. "This is the smallest, he had to have another guest room put in when he found out you were coming."

"So the room's are as big as his ego, good to know," Amber growled as she walked into the room.

This was going to be interesting. "Hill!" Tony's voice called from the hallway.

Maria turned to Amber, "I have to go, let me know if you need anything."

Amber grimaced and nodded as she closed the door with her foot.

Tony started walking down the hall at a brisk pace, "First day as a father and she's not even on the plane. I'm screwing it up already."

"She bought her own ticket and a rode in a taxi cab." Maria looked at her boss, motioning to the closed door.

Tony glanced at it, "You mean to tell me she doesn't like me. I haven't even talked to her yet."

"You don't exactly make good first impressions, even as Iron Man," Maria smiled.

Tony pulled on his hair before grabbing a phone out of his pocket, dialing the one contact in the phone as he walked back down the corridor.

Maria followed him, "Didn't he tell you that was for emergencies only?"

"This counts, hey Cap, where's Clint?"

Maria waited.

"Of course this an emergency. I need his advice...excuse me, I think my need does qualify as an emergency...no, he's the only one who can give me the advice I need...no, it's not about Pepper...I don't need, just put Clint on...I don't care, I need help...how bad is it? I found out last week that I have a sixteen year old daughter who I've never even heard of and now she is in my custody for the next two years and she doesn't even like me from what Hill is describing...sure, laugh it up, I told you I need his help...family night? You don't understand, this can't hello? Hello?"

Maria couldn't hold it in any more, she started laughing. Tony closed the phone and looked at her, "That's not funny."

"You could just try to talk to her," Maria said after she calmed down.

"I don't understand, kids usually love me," he threw up his hands.

Tony put his hands on his hips and looked out over the Manhattan skyline, "I've faced aliens, the government, gods, my own killer robots, a couple of freak shows from my past, an angry Pepper, Cap and yet I'm getting beat by a sixteen year old girl."

He raised his hand, pulling up a camera in her room, all he could see was black, "Great, she found the cameras. Friday, play it back, I want to see how quick she is."

The AI rewound the security tapes, showing Amber's entrance, closing the door and looking around the room before walking into the bathroom and coming out with a stack of towels which she threw over the camera's with surprising accuracy. "She proceeded to leave the room and is now on the elevator down to the main floor," Friday announced, showing the inside of the elevator with Amber in a Pike Place hoodie.

"Stop the elevator, bring it back up." Tony sighed, placing a hand on his forehead.

Amber froze as the elevator jolted to a halt before going up again. Amber snorted as she pushed the emergency stop button and promptly flipped off the camera.

Tony watched as she braced herself against the sides of the private elevator and opened the top of the elevator. "Open the intercom to the elevator."

"It's open sir."

"What do you think you're doing?"

No response except for a right foot coming down on the camera.

"Sir, she's in the elevator shaft, it seems that she's trying to get off," The AI informed Tony who could only roll his eyes.

"Even if she did, she has nothing on her that could open up the doors," Tony smiled, "She's trapped."

Maria kept silent, he would be stunned in 3, 2, 1...

"Sir, she opened the doors to floor 48,"

Tony made a face, "No way. Do you have any idea how she is doing this?"

Maria shrugged, "Did you even read her medical history?"

"Friday, look in her medical history for anything that would cause her to open those doors."

It was a split second before Friday responded, "Amber Eisenwald was given a prosthetic leg after a car accident five years ago."

"She took her own leg off to get away from me. She's determined, send out the Iron Legion."

Maria was shocked, "The Iron Legion, to get your daughter?"

"She started it."

The two watched as a minute later the empty Iron Man suits flew into the hallway with Amber, cornering her.

Tony smirked, "Keep me posted as I go and get her,"

"Yes sir, she is currently attacking them with her leg."

Hill shook her head as she watched the video feed of Amber keeping one hand on the wall while her prosthetic leg was clutched in the other as she was trying to wail on the suits. Determined.

She launched herself at one, attempting to bash it's head in. Romanoff would be proud.

Tony finally arrived to a shoe being flung at him. Shouting ensued as she hopped around, smacking suits with her leg. Maria couldn't help but laugh before Tony finally grabbed hold of her once she fell on the floor as one of the suits moved back.

"Friday," Maria asked.

"Yes, Miss Hill?"

"Send a copy of this footage to Natasha Romanoff, she'll get a kick out of it," Hill smiled as she heard swear words echoing down one of the halls as Tony and his Iron Legion were forcibly dragging Amber to the couch. One of the suits had her leg in it's hand.

"That's enough of that." Tony grimaced as the flailing teenager was dropped on the couch, to which she promptly ended up rolling off and fell face first on the hardwood floor.

Hill's phone buzzed.

Who's the girl? -Nat

Guess who found out they had a kid? -MH

Daddy issues already huh? -Nat

She hates him, adores you. -MH

I call babysitting! -Nat

She's 16 years old, not 16 months. -MH

"Earth to Hill? Who are you texting," Tony looked over from trying to avoid the swats from his daughter as he tried to check the cut on her forehead.

"Natasha, I sent her the video."

Tony paled, "You did what?"

Amber started laughing like an insane person.

He turned to face the three limbed sixteen yer old, "You shouldn't be laughing. As far as I'm concerned, you're grounded."

"Can I have my leg back now?"

Tony examined the prosthetic, "I can make you a better one then this, you sure you want it back?"

"Yes, now give it here, and my shoe."

Tony sighed and tossed both at the girl with the leg hitting her in the back, "Just behave, please?"

Amber leaned up against the couch, "Look, I'm trapped here for two ears, I'll be nice and try to make it seem like I'm not even here. It's worked out for you pretty well so far."

Maria leaned forward, "That's a different leg than the one you had when you originally got here."

"Yeah, I have one for walking, the other for running."

Tony grew frustrated, "Running, in this weather? Forget it, I'm not going to allow it."

"I wasn't asking for permission, besides, it's not even as rainy as Seattle gets sometimes."

Tony was unsure how to respond. She had a lot of attitude, no document could show that enough. She walked uneasily to her room before slamming the door shut.

Stark quickly turned to Hill, "How am I going to get through to her? It seems like she hates me on principle."

Hill shook her head, "You haven't been there her entire life, she's lost a lot and is now forced to live in a place she doesn't want to be. Give her a bit of room boss. I think she needs it."

"I gave her a room, a large one, that's every person's dream these days, right?"

"You can't buy her Tony, you actually have to connect with her."

A knock sounded on Amber's door before it opened, "Get your shoes on, we're going out."

Amber sat up from her resting place on the floor, "Why? Don't you have work?"

Tony crossed his arms, "Dinner, with the team. Natasha ordered me to bring you with me. What kind of pizza do you like?"

"Meat lovers with pineapple," Amber returned to staring at the ceiling.

Tony sighed, "Put your leg on, we're leaving."

His daughter groaned as she rotated her body to the other side of the bed, she didn't have her prosthetic even on.

"Put your leg on, okay?"

Amber glared at him, "This isn't something for you to buy my acceptance is it?"

Tony shook his head, "I don't want to piss off a trained assassin by refusing to bring the one person she wants to meet to dinner."

Amber cracked a smile, "Your afraid of her?"

"I'm as afraid of her as I am about being hit by your leg."

This caused his daughter to chuckle, "the great Tony Stark, the man who carried a nuke into a wormhole and fought aliens is afraid of a teenager's prosthetic leg."

Tony rolled his eyes, "Just meet me on the 87th floor, Friday has all other exits locked off."

Rule 1: Attempt to make a good impression

"Whatever," Amber responded, pulling a jacket over her head before trying to pick one of her legs to use.

She waited a full minute before picking her running one. Tony watched as she delicately put it on.

"Stop staring, I don't like it when people do that," Amber snapped at him.

Tony averted his gaze to an interesting place by his foot before walking to the elevator. Luckily, it had finally stopped raining.

He waited a moment before pressing the button as Amber came out of her room, "So, uh, how was your flight?"

Amber shrugged, "Does it matter?"

Tony's lips pursed, "Just trying to make conversation."

There was a moment of silence as the two stepped inside the elevator before Amber finally answered, "Got into a fight with a Rams fan in St. Louis."

"How did that happen?"

"He was making fun of the Seahawks playoff loss, so I asked him where his team went and what their record was. He hit first, it was justified," she sighed, recalling the left hook that caught her off guard.

"Friday, pull up surveillance video for Lambert-St. Louis international around the time of Amber's layover," Tony ordered.

A second later, footage showed up on the wall of the elevator of the man hitting Amber before she fought back. Left jab, right cross, upper cut, and to his family jewels. A few seconds later, the security finally showed up with the crowd defending the teen.

The elevator opened to the 87th floor of Stark Tower, Amber walked out ahead of Tony, surveying the room before her eyes settled on a certain area on the floor, she pointed at it, "What happened there?"

"What do you mean?"

"The stonework, it's a different shade, not that noticeable but it signals that there was repair work."

Tony was impressed, attention to detail, "Hulk made Loki a rag doll."

Amber nodded before pushing the door to the helipad open. She didn't seem that fascinated over it. he began to think she was controlling her reactions.

"Where's the pilot?" she asked when she opened the door.

"I am, don't worry about it," he smirked as he entered the pilots seat.

Amber cautiously sat in the passenger seat as Tony started the engine. Amber clutched the side of the door as the helicopter took off. The ride was smooth, but Amber had her eyes closed.

"You alright?" Tony leaned over.

Amber shook her head, "I don't like flying much. Airplanes, yes, gliders and helicopters, no way!"

Tony laughed, "Relax, it's fine."

The ride lasted for half an hour but as soon as they touched down, Amber was out of the chopper and puking over the lawn. Tony patted her back, "get it all out."

Amber swatted his hand away before wiping her mouth, "I'll be fine."

The two headed into the compound as the scent of pizza wafted through the air.

"So Amber, where are you from again?" Romanoff questioned Amber who was in mid bite of a slice of pizza.

She stopped to swallow, "Seattle."

"Ouch."

Amber turned to her hero, 'Why ouch?"

Natasha shrugged, "I always imagined that any kid of Tony's would be born in California or Hawaii, even Florida. Not the gloomy northwest."

"I was born in San Francisco, my mom moved to Seattle with me three months later. I didn't even know he was my dad until two weeks ago, I wish I he wasn't."

Tony sighed, "I'm right here."

"I think they know, is this ordinary human interaction with a younger person?" Vision voiced up.

Natasha chuckled, "apparently."

TO BE CONTINUED

AN: Hope you enjoyed it. -Jay