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Chapter 2
I did my makeup while Pepper watched the movie, and I got dressed after the movie. Obadiah got me a purple dress that grazed the floor. The fabric felt like satin, and flowed around me when I walked. I only put on light makeup because that's all I knew how to do; not all that dramatic wing and eye shadow crap. I had a thin diamond bracelet and a matching necklace. After searching through my closet I found have my small silver clutch and put my cellphone in it. So here I was in the car with Stane with my arms crossed.
"You look lovely, darling." He smirked at my glare. "Now tonight, you are just here to smile and look pretty. If anyone asks you about your father, play the depressed little girl who misses her father. Oh try to add something about the company too."
I just shook my head and looked out the window. "Whatever." I'm not doing what he asks.
After the longest fifteen minutes of my life, Stane pulled up and got out. He opened the door for me and I slapped on my 'I'm so happy and life's great' smile on. Stane put his hand around my waist and pulled me towards him.
"Let's have a picture together before you run off and have fun." He was smiling and I had to keep myself from glaring at him. I crossed my hand in front of myself and gave the camera a sweet smile. When the photographer was satisfied, I quickly walked away from him.
"Ms. Stark!" Four reporters called and five photographers being held back by security guards. I waved off the guards and smiled at the reporter. "Ms. Stark, as Tony Stark's daughter, what do you usually do when your father goes onto trips like this?"
"Usually what I do is go down into what my dad and I call our 'shop', which is basically where we build and research how we can make better and smarter weapons for the military." I looked from the reporter, who has on a black suit. His eyes are dark matching his wavy black hair.
"You have helped with some of your father's projects?" He looked at me with awe.
"That's just some of the things we do to bond. He takes his job very seriously, and is always working. So I started with just watching and observing him work, then one day he told me to help." I nodded.
"Amazing." Then he looked at the camera. "We will have more amazing stars, like Ms. Bailey Stark tonight, back to you Charlotte." The camera turned off. "Thank you for talking, have a nice evening."
"Thank you, same to you." I walked down the crowded walkway of stars, fans, and reporters. The ground is covered with a red carpet and is lined with screaming fans and crazy reporters. I felt my phone go off and I stopped and answered it.
"Hey." I answered.
'Hey Bailey, why is it so loud?' He asked.' Are you at a party?'
"Sadly, yes. Stane dragged me to an award show. I can't wait until you get back." I smiled genuinely into the phone.
'You and me both. I'm a little limited on alcohol here.' He pouted.
"Maybe you should stay there longer to sober you up." I laughed.
'Ha. Ha. Well I'll let you go, talk to you tomorrow, Bails.'
'Love you dad.' I told him as I hung up. I sighed, back to the party.
After I finally got inside, I took my seat next to Stane. As the show started, I dozed off most of the time until dad was awarded for something, I don't even know what. Unfortunately, Stane went to go receive the award and dragged me with him. He accepted the award and stood at the microphone, and I stood there awkwardly and smiled.
"This is a great honor, it truly is." Stane admired the trophy, it was a pyramid looking thing. "Regrettably, Mr. Stark is not with us tonight, due to a weapons presentation in Afghanistan. If he were here though, he'd be as honored as I and his daughter, Bailey, feel right now." He put his hand back around my waist and I resisted the urge to beat the shit out of him. "Bailey is in training to take over the family business, after Tony." Stane paused. "Tony would've announced this today, but is obviously unable to. Thank you all again."
The crowd exploded into applause and we exited off the stage. The rest of the night was boring and Stane drove me home. Once home, I took a shower before getting changed and curling up in bed. My room's wall are a light blue with a painted mural of the ocean on one side acrossed from my bed. I have a small desk to the right of my room that's scattered with papers and a dresser next to it. On the left is a door to leave my room and a door to go into the walk in closet. I don't have a lot of clothes, so I used the closet as my 'art room'. Yeah, i painted the professional looking mural myself.
After looking around my tidy room, I allowed my eyes to close and me to go to sleep. What felt like minutes later Jarvis's voice woke me up.
"Bailey, you have a call." Jarvis woke me up with an alarm.
I moaned and pulled the blankets closer to me. "From who?"
"Colonel Rhodes." He answered.
I yawned and rubbed my eyes so I could grab my phone on my nightstand. "Connect us."
"I will secure the line." Jarvis did what he had to do and my call went through.
"Colonel? What can I do for you?" I answered.
'It's your dad.' I heard him take a breath.
"What happened?" Sleep was snapped away from my mind.
'We can't find him. The truck he was in was blown up, but I saw him leave the truck. We think he's being held captive.'
No! I covered my eyes with my hand to keep myself from breaking down. "Is there anywhere you have in mind, for where he is?" I kept my voice as even as possible.
'The only thing we know is he's in Afghanistan.' He sighed as he answered.
"Well that narrows it down." I said sarcastically.
'It's the best we can do right now. I'm sorry.'
"Let me go and help. You guys are searching for him, right?"
'Yes, we are, but you're not coming'
"An extra set of eyes can help." I argued. "He would've done the same for me."
'I'll think about, but right now I gotta go.'
"Keep me updated, okay?"
'Will do. Take care of yourself, Bailey.'
"I will Rodey, just get my dad back." My lip twitched slightly into a smile before hanging up. "Jarvis, is Pepper here?"
"No she is not here. Would you like me to contact her?"
"No, I'm just gonna go to the shop." I hoped of my bed and shuffled down the stairs to the shop, my dad's office.
He was working on a bunch of stuff, but I usually have my own projects too. Like right now I'm working on my own version of Butterfingers and Dummy. I'm still thinking of a name for mine and mine's gonna look more human. It'll have arms and legs and have a smart program kind of like Jarvis. I pulled my little rolling work bench with me to where my project was hung up. I had the 'body' together all I had to do was program him and name him. I liked to use the computer the old fashion way unlike my dad, who usually uses Jarvis as his personal assistant.
"How may I be of assistants?" Jarvis's voice interrupted my train of thought.
"I'm okay, Jarvis. I just have to get my mind off things." I saved the program on a microchip and inserted it into the slot hidden behind his head. "Power on." I had had it voice activated so I'm the only one who can work it. His eyes lit up with a light blue light. I made him around dad's height, with the ability to become taller and shorter. His face was basically an oval with two big round eyes; no mouth, other than a barely visible speaker. My creation looked around from where he was hung.
"I am in the residence of Anthony Stark, why?" His head cocked to the side. His voice was soft and comforting. He is able to sound pretty close to human.
"I'm Bailey, I created you." I put my hand over my heart. "This is also my home." My creation was like a human internet.
"There is no information of my name or my existence." He sounded confused.
"No one knows about you, and I didn't get to name you." I shrugged.
"Why not?" He asked.
"I'm not that great at choosing names, I guess." I watched him as he thought. "While you think I'm gonna get you down." I told him and lowered him two inches so he was on his feet and the chain had a sag.
"I have an idea for my name." He suddenly spoke as I unchained him.
"What do you have in mind?" I asked as I finished.
"Elek." His head turned and I could tell he was analyzing me for a reaction.
I smiled at him. "I like it."
"It means defender." Elek said proudly.
I had programmed him to protect me and others who need help. Elek is the perfect name for him.
"It's perfect." I motioned Elek to follow. "Come on, I'll show you around your new home."
I gave him a full tour of the house and introduced him to Jarvis and Pepper. Pepper was amazed at Elek for being so human, mostly intellectually. Then I talked to Elek the rest of the day about my dad, and how he's captured.
"He must be saved." Elek announced.
"El, a friend, Rhodey, is doing all he can to find him. I don't have the skill and knowledge to help."
"I'll help you. I can give you the knowledge to find the skills and I will teach you." I heard a smile in his voice.
"Thanks, Elek." I smiled.
We started that night, searching, learning, and talking. We even started remodeling the shop a little into a workout room. I was in shape, but not in good enough shape to be able to fight. I didn't really know how to fight because, why would I, I have bodyguards. Luckily, Elek downloaded some files and is able to teach me some techniques. Every time we were down in the shop I'd keep my cellphone close in case Rhodey would call and tell me if dad was saved or dead. That was always the worse, and it took my sleep. The only way I could sneak in a few hours would be working and staying awake until I passed out. There were a few nights where I would actually fall asleep in the shop and Pepper tried to tell Elek to carry me upstairs, but he wouldn't listen because he only takes orders from me. That morning Pepper told me and I added her voice so she could tell Elek to do certain things, I'm gonna add dad when he gets back. It's been three months since dad's been gone, and there have been nights where Pepper and I would go into my room and talk about him just to cry. I'm just like my dad when it comes to emotions; the kind of 'go with the flow' attitude. I don't cry often, but when I get that sick feeling in my chest and it's hard to breathe, I let a few tears go.
"Dad's not going to be happy if he comes back."
"Why?" Elek watched me as we climbed the stairs.
"Because we remodeled the shop." I got some water and sat on the couch. It was eleven at night so I watched some TV with Elek until I fell asleep on our soft puffy white couch. I was training all day non-stop even with Jarvis nagging constantly.
"Bailey, you must wake up, you have a visitor at the door."
Speak of the devil. I curled up in a tight ball. "Who?"
"Agent Coulson, from the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division." Jarvis seemed amused at the name.
"Well, that's a mouth-full." I forced myself to get up.
"They claim to be working on it."
"Alrighty then, let him in." I got up and went to go meet Agent Coulson by the door.
He looked young with dark hair and blue eyes. Of course, Coulson wore a black suit. "Ms. Stark, pleasure to meet you." Coulson extended his hand to me and I shook it.
"Agent." I nodded. "Let's go into the kitchen to talk." I led him to the kitchen and we both sat down. I waited patiently to for him to start talking.
"Have you had any contact with your father?" He asked crossing his arms.
"No." I crossed my arms over my chest.
"I'm sorry." He said it as if he HAD to say it. This guy just made my shit list. "I was originally coming here to give your father this confidential envelope."
I eyed the envelope. I needed to see what was in that envelope. "I can hold it for him until he gets back."
Coulson chuckled. "Ms. Stark I don't think you heard me when I said this was 'confidential'."
"I know, Agent, but my father and I are a team. Whatever I know he knows, and he knows, I know as well. Trust me when I tell you this," I leaned forward and glared at him. "No one, other than my father, will know about the contents of this." I sat back in my chair while he thought to himself. After minutes of silence, Coulson finally spoke.
"I can't let you have this." He stood up. "Have a good day, I hope everything goes well with finding your father."
"Same for you, and thank you." I let him leave and Elek came to sit next to me.
"What did that government bozo want?"
I programmed some dialogue that normal people use into his database a month back. "To give dad something confidential."
"Not to offend a government agent," he projected an image onto the table through his eyes. ",but he is terrible at keeping things confidential."
I stared down at the documents on the table in front of me. "El, you're a genius!"
"Technically, you're are the genius for building me." Elek said with a 'matter of fact voice'.
"He is right, Ms. Bailey." Jarvis chimed in.
"Yeah, yeah." I went through the documents, which talked about a secret 'superhero' team called the Avengers? Avengersā¦.avengeā¦.avenge what? "What are you hiding, Coulson?" I whispered to myself. There were videos labeled Bruce Banner, Thor, Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanoff. I watched all of the videos before having Elek hide them deep in his databases. "Keep this hidden, okay, Elek?"
"Okay." He answered.
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