"Eleanor.."
"Where's Tony, Pep? He was supposed to meet me in New York after the thing in Afghanistan."
The phone was silent for a couple of seconds, and Eleanor stopped tapping her pen and sat up straighter.
"Pep? What's going on?"
The woman on the phone took a shaky breath. "Uh, Tony, he's missing, El. They're looking for him right now!" she rushed to add in. "They're going to find him, there's no doubt about it."
Eleanor stared at the wall for a few seconds, gripping the phone tighter. Her brother was missing? She was sure that he had loads of protection there in the warring Middle East, but he was missing?
"I'm coming to Malibu. Send the jet."
Pepper protested, "No, you don't need to come all the way here, Eleanor! I know that you've just got your practice going and you're needed there. I can keep you-"
"Send the jet, Pepper. Now," the younger Stark seethed, leaving no room for argument. She hung up the phone and stared at it. With a yell, Eleanor hurled it against the wall, not even denting the Stark Phone. Breathing heavily, she swiped everything off of her desk, causing all of the case files, papers, and scans to float to the floor.
Bastard, she thought angrily, tears pricking her eyes. Stupid, idiotic, moronic asshole. Out of everything, you're missing in the desert.
Eleanor fell into her chair heavily, wiping a hand down her face. Starks don't cry, Starks don't cry, Starks don't cry. The mantra kept repeating even though her cheeks were wet and nose was runny. The idiot was supposed to meet up with her and discuss what the two of have been up to (Eleanor was planning an intervention for her stupid older brother, but he didn't know that) and he even decided to come to New York instead of making her fly out to Malibu like usual. It was supposed to be a day full of her trashing all of his life decisions so far and him asking her when was the last time she got laid. It was supposed to be normal.
She didn't know how long she was just sitting there until a beep from her phone alerted her to the arrival of Happy to bring her to the jet. Reluctantly, Eleanor rose from her seat and glanced at the mess she made. A pang of guilt went through her at the thought of leaving everyone here on their own, but it was quickly squashed by the overwhelming sadness and absolute fury she was feeling at the moment.
"Carol," Eleanor called out to the older woman. "I'm going to be gone for awhile... I'm not sure how long, and I'm sorry to ask you, but can you run this in my absence?" she smiled at Carol. "If there's any trouble, you can contact me, but I'll be dealing with some... family issues."
The woman gave her a pity-filled gaze and nodded her agreement. Eleanor attempted another smile before finding Happy waiting for her at the front. He nodded at her, a frown on his face, and Eleanor gave his arm a pat.
"How many are out there?"
"Enough to know that you've been crying and tearing things apart, Miss Stark."
Cursing, Eleanor took the sunglasses from Happy's hands, thrusting them on her face and smoothing herself down. Once getting the signal from Happy, the two left to be met with camera flashes and a flurry of "Miss Stark!"s and "Doctor!"s. Eleanor held her chin up like a good Stark would do and marched behind Happy, ignoring the buzzing of voices.
"Miss Stark, do you know anything of your brother's disappearance?"
"Miss Stark, what will you do about Stark Industries?"
"Will you be quitting the practice, Doctor?"
Clenching her jaw, Eleanor finally made it into the sleek black vehicle and threw her sunglasses off. Her brown eyes were still watery and red, and she dropped her head into her hands, waiting to get back to Malibu already.
"Obie," Eleanor shook the older man's hand before he embraced her tightly.
"Oh, Eleanor, I'm so sorry," he consoled and her eyes filled with water again before she blinked them away. Pulling away, Obadiah gave her a strong pat on the shoulder, pity in his eyes. "I'm just as surprised as you, and I hate to do this, but we need to figure out where the company stands."
"You want to do this now?" Pepper asked incredulously, marching right over to Eleanor and wrapping an arm around her, squeezing her. "She just finds out her brother is missing and you're seriously concerned about that?"
"It's fine, Pepper," Eleanor placated, sending the woman an encouraging smile. "I figured we would need to talk about this." Eleanor gave Obadiah a steely look. "I want to set this straight, Obie. I'm not quitting the practice."
Obadiah nodded at her understandingly. "I'm not asking you to. But, it would be easier for you to run the company without worrying about that. If it makes things easier," a glint went through his eyes. "You could give me custody so to speak until Tony comes back."
Vehemently, Eleanor shook her head, a frown on her face. "It's Stark Industries, not Stane Industries. I'm perfectly capable of handling both, and you know it. Where are the papers?"
If Obadiah had any problems with her decision, he didn't voice it, but Eleanor could see the disappointment on his face. She gave Pepper a pat on the arm and pulled away from the assistant. Marching away from the two, Eleanor called over her shoulder, "Surely you want to figure this out quickly, right, Obie? I can't do that if you're standing there with the papers. Just know that as soon as Tony comes back, I'm signing this shit back over."
She didn't wait for a response.
Tony's absence was hard on Eleanor. Her brother was one of the most important people in her life (besides Pepper and Rhodey, of course, but she'd never let Tony know he had to share the throne), and for him to be missing - captured - she wasn't handling it as good as she said she was.
Dark bruises under her eyes were noticeable, no matter how much makeup Eleanor wanted to put on. She spent most of her time in Tony's lab staring at all of his unfinished plans, hoping to spark some type of genius in order to finish it for him, but she was just not as exceptional in mechanical engineering as he was. Every time she fell asleep, it consisted of her mind conjuring up the worst possible things (Tony dying, Tony never being found again, Tony looking for help, Tony dying) and she would jerk awake in a cold sweat.
JARVIS tried his best, but considering he was an AI, he wasn't the best at comfort, and Eleanor appreciated it, she really did, but it wasn't the same.
"Miss Stark, Miss Potts is asking for your presence. She says it's urgent."
JARVIS forced her out of her daze, and Eleanor lifted her head from her arms, blinking a few times. "How urgent?"
"She says it has to do with Sir."
Eleanor jumped up - it had been weeks, months - and sprinted to the kitchen where Pepper was most likely residing. The redhead was grinning with a few tears in her eyes.
"They found him."
She wasn't sure what she was expecting when she watched him get out of the plane. Missing a limb? In a wheelchair? Traumatized? Maybe one of those but not her brother in a sling, strutting around like normal. Despite the fond irritation she felt, she couldn't help the tears in her eyes as he stepped in front of her, a crooked smile on his face.
"Hey, Ellie."
Eleanor stared at him, looking up and down to check for any serious injuries. The only thing she could visibly see was the sling and the way his body was thinner than before, but he was fully intact. Meeting his eyes again, Eleanor threw herself into his already open arms, burying her face into his shoulder.
"You idiot," her cry was muffled. "If you do some stupid shit like that again, I swear I'll come find you and kill you myself."
Tony laughed softly and squeezed her back just as tightly, mindful of his injury. "I love you too, Ellie. And I don't plan on getting kidnapped again, but thanks for the warning."
He released her and kissed her on the head before heading to Pepper, and Eleanor wiped her eyes, smiling. Everything should go back to normal.
"What the hell is that?"
Tony tapped the thing on his chest. "This is a mini Arc Reactor. Not going to go into all the details about what it is because you wouldn't really get it, but what it does is keep me alive."
Eleanor stepped closer and leaned in to inspect it. The blue glow was bright up close, and she was surprised that she never noticed it until now. She looked back up at him. "Does everyone else know?"
He shook his head and pulled his shirt back into place. "I don't want everyone else to know. Ellie... there's some things that I need to tell you about that I learned over there and it - it might be hard to believe, but I need you to trust me."
"I trust with everything, Tony, you know that."
He ignored her and led her down to his lab. Curiously, Eleanor followed after him, staring at the back of his head intently as he urged her further in.
"I've been working on this and I - I can't really explain exactly what happened over there, but Ellie, my weapons were killing innocent people. And - and I think this will change that."
A red and gold suit stood in front of her, and Eleanor could only gape in awe. It truly was a sight to behold. She knew Tony had holed himself up for long periods of time not knowing what he was working on, and it was starting to worry her to the point where she was afraid to go back to New York, but this was... something.
"Is it a, uh, super suit?" she finally asked, turning back to look at him. "Tony this is amazing."
In typical Stark fashion, Tony puffed up at the compliment and smirked. "Well what did you expect?"
Eleanor wasn't sure what type of stuff Tony had gotten himself into, and after this, she could only think that he had it under control.
Tony was in deep shit, it turns out. Deep shit that involved Obadiah planning to get rid of the two Starks in any means possible.
Which was why she was staring into the eyes of Obadiah Stane in a suit that looked suspiciously like Tony's, guns facing her.
"Tony's already taken care of," the man that helped raise her stated matter-of-factly. "Once you're out of the way, it makes things so much easier."
Eleanor wiped the blood and sweat from her eyes and glared as harshly as she could while shaking in fear. "Yeah? What are you going to say happened to us? I'm not sure you know how autopsies work, asshole."
Pepper was behind her, looking as if she wanted to throw up at the turn of events, and Eleanor hoped, prayed to whatever being would listen, that she wouldn't do anything that would cause her any harm.
"Weren't you friends with my father?" Eleanor rushed out, hoping to bide some time. If Tony seriously waits any longer, I swear to everything holy... "Howard must be absolutely rolling in his grave at the thought of you doing something like this, don't you think?"
A laugh came out of the suit, and Eleanor's heart hammered in her chest at the sound. "Who cares?" Obadiah asked, powering up her execution weapon. "He's dead!"
Eleanor shut her eyes and braced herself for the influx of bullets that would surely make her into Swiss cheese, but they never came. Peeking an eye open, Eleanor watched as her brother plowed into Obadiah in his own suit, effectively changing his attention from her. She sagged in relief and fell to the floor, hands shaking. Pepper quickly embraced her and put her hands on Eleanor's cheeks.
"Eleanor? El? Hey, you're okay," Pepper soothed, staring into the young Stark's eyes to catch her attention. "Tony's here and he's going to fix it, alright? Breathe with me."
Eleanor took a few breaths with Pepper before calming slightly. She glanced back at the fight then back to Pepper before putting a hand on her head.
"Pep? Remind me to kill Tony after this," she muttered, causing the redhead to laugh shakily. "And I'm pretty sure that fucker gave me a concussion."
Pepper winced at the sight of Eleanor's head and moved her hair to get a better look. "It looks pretty bad. You know more about it than I do, but I would get it checked out after this - by someone other than you."
Grumbling, Eleanor agreed.
She was forced to watch the conference from a hospital room. Tony wouldn't let her leave even though the doctors gave her the ok, but Tony felt that flashing lights and a lot of noise would bother her more than she let on (he was only somewhat right and Eleanor wasn't going to admit it).
So here she was, watching her brother look through the cards given to him (when did he use cards?) before decidedly announcing, "I am Iron Man."
And as she saw the smug look on his face, Eleanor couldn't help but laugh loudly at the turn of events. What an idiot.
so i watched infinity war and WOW
