~March 7th 2000~

Tony Stark didn't expect a knock on the front door of his Malibu Mansion, especially around two o'clock in the morning. Fortunately, he was awake and busy working on a few projects in his lab to hear J.A.R.V.I.S inform him of a hooded woman outside his door.

"She appears to be placing a basket down, sir." The A.I. as Tony was slowly approaching the door. He raised an eyebrow at the information.

"Is she still there?"

"No; she walked away after leaving the basket." The billionaire hummed in response, throwing away a cloth that he just finished using to wipe his hands. He finally made it to the door, but hesitated, not sure if he should open the door and check or figure a way to get rid of it as it might contain something dangerous.

"Do a scan on what's inside the basket." Tony waited for a few seconds, his mind coming up with hundreds of different scenarios before being interrupted by J.A.R.V.I.S. with unexpected news.

"There's a baby inside the basket, underneath a blanket." Feeling shocked was an understatement, as Tony's eyes widened and he reluctantly opened the door, which indeed revealed a wooden basket with something underneath a pink blanket.

The CEO stared at the basket, frozen in his spot. He didn't understand a single bit on who that hooded woman was and why in the world she would leave a child -a child - to be taken care of by someone who already has a lot on his plate - work wise of course.

Eventually, after staring at the basket for what seems like hours, he bent down and picked the basket up. Tony took in a deep breath, his fingers on the corner of the pink blanket, not knowing what to expect, before exhaling and peeled the material to reveal a tiny baby with a folded piece of paper on the baby.

Tony took a sharp breath in when he saw the features of the baby. He couldn't believe it, the baby looks exactly like his own mother when she was a baby.

No.

No, it can't be.

He looked around to find a chair, which luckily was only a few meters away, and he placed the basket gently on top of the chair, grabbing the piece of paper whilst doing so.

Tony looked at it for only a little bit before unfolding it and seeing a few lines of scribbled words and a some ink smudges. He raised an eyebrow at it but ignored it so that he could read what's been written.

Dear Tony,

I'm leaving you our child since I believe that you'll be able to look after her and keep her safe. Sorry for the inconvenience.

She also doesn't have a name yet since I think you'd prefer to name her, and she was born a week ago on February 29th.

I hope you the best.

The CEO looked at the letter with disbelief all over his face. A baby? Correction: His baby? He quickly looked at the sleeping baby, then back to the letter, then back to the baby. He still couldn't believe it, though. A week old baby, which he didn't know about for more than nine months until now.

Whilst the information was still being processed in his mind, Tony shoved the letter into his pocket and gently grabbed the basket, walking slowly and as quietly to his lab, not wanting to wake up his own child.

When getting into the lab, he place the basket on top of a metal table before going to his computer.

"J.A.R.V.I.S.?" He whispered, briefly looking at the still sleeping baby in the basket.

"Yes, sir?"

"Can you run a check on the baby to see if she really is my child?"

"Certainly, sir." The billionaire then took a seat next to the baby as he looked at her properly; she had the same mouth and nose as him, and the same skin colour, but he wondered what colour were her eyes, just to see.

Whilst waiting for the A.I. to finish checking if the baby is his, Tony moved a little bit closer to the basket and as gently as he could, stroked the baby's soft cheek. A ghost of a smile was creeping onto his face, but was gone within a second after Tony realised it.

"The baby is yours, sir." Tony jumped from J.A.R.V.I.S.' voice, cursing quietly. Just then, he finally processed the A.I.'s sentence and quickly stood up to go straight to his computer. He checked the information that his A.I just found, just to double check. Sure enough, the baby's his.

He looked at the screen, mouth open, eyes wide and his fingers twitching from the need of having a bottle of alcohol in his hand. He quickly went out of the lab, looking for the first bottle of any type of booze he can get his hands on, which was an unopened Bailey in a box with a bow on top of it.

Perfect, Tony thought, ripping the box open and open the bottle of Bailey, gulping a third of it down whilst walking back into his lab. He abruptly sat down onto the same chair he was sitting on a fe minutes ago, forgetting that there was a baby next to him.

Unfortunately, the noise he made woke the baby up, in which she began crying loudly, causing Tony to jump out of his seat and leaving the now half empty bottle of Bailey on the side.

Tony started panicking, looking around to see if there was anything that could help, but he didn't know if there was anything to help in this situation. So, he did the first thing that he hoped would work: cradle the baby.

And with that, he carefully picked up the crying baby and cautiously held the baby against his chest, shushing it. She eventually calmed down, making Tony let out a breath he didn't realise he was holding.

He was about to lower back into the basket but stopped when the baby began to move her tiny hands towards the Bailey bottle. Stark raised his eyebrow, questioning the baby's intentions before placing her into the basket.

Just then, it hit him.

Bailey.

"That's it!" He whispered, a smile being plastered onto his face. He looked back down at his baby, his eyes softening from the view of how peaceful the baby looked.

"How about Bailey? Yeah, I'll call you Bailey." He chuckled to himself, slowly feeling warmth in his chest. "Bailey Stark. Huh, has a nice ring to it." And that's when he silently promised to himself that he won't become like his own dad, that he'll bring up his Bailey to be better.

"Hope you don't become an alcoholic, kid."

So! I'm new to this Marvel fandom so I'm really sorry if I got a few of my facts wrong, BUT I did do tons of research whilst writing this just to make sure I got some info right, and yeah. Other than that, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and please leave a comment and some constructive criticism, thanks!