Disclaimer: I don't own the Avengers, just Elizabeth
Tony: You're right! I do.
Me: No. You don't either *crying* Someone else does. He even owns you.
Tony: What? *crying with me*

I should probably explain what the mess is, but I should start at the beginning. It all started when Tony left for a trip. He was supposed to return that day and I was sitting in my room. I shouldn't really call it a room. More of a workshop with a hammock in the back by the bathroom door. JARVIS's voice crackled on the intercom. I made a mental note to have Tony fix the crackle. I would do it, but he doesn't let me. Someday, I'm going to hack in there and set it to Russian. That was one language I knew, I prioritize learning it, as was my heritage.

"Ms. Elizabeth,"JARVIS's annoying voice with the terrible British accent stated, "James Rhodes would like to talk to you."

"Tell him I'm busy!"

"A proud member of the US army probably will not take a response like that too well, especially coming from a fourteen year old girl. He says it's urgent"

"I'm smarter than a fourteen year old. And more mature. But I'll go. But send some steel to my room, I'm out. Oh, and a solder." If I must leave, I might as well get the solder. Tony doesn't like me 'playing' with it.

I walked out of my room and into the elevator. I punched in the button (ML) for main level. I felt the elevator lurch upwards. You see, my room is lower than the basement. It's like just like bunker in this mass of rock the house it sitting on. The mass of rock in Miami, Tony would have said, I thought. I missed him. We were pretty much all we had left of family.

"Elizabeth," Rhodey said with a smile as I stepped out. He looked fine, but his voice told me otherwise.

"What's wrong?" I immediately exclaimed, worried.

"Woah. Slow down. There's nothing wrong."

"Yes there is. I can hear it in your voice. Tony's supposed to come back tonight. Oh, is his flight delayed? He makes such a huge fuss over that."

"No, I'm afraid not. Tony went missing yesterday. Somewhere in Afghanistan. We think he's being held captive."

"Wait. Yesterday? Why did you have to wait til today to tell me?"

"I'm sorry, I wanted to tell you in person, but I wasn't in town."

"Tony's missing, and he could be out in Afghanistan being tortured to death. And you come to tell me in person? You could be searching. Aren't you supposed to be there, protecting him?" I had to many questions and I could tell Rhodey was too tired and worried to answer, "Wait, no. I'm going to go my room and work on something. You are going to get some rest, and we'll discuss this tomorrow." I tried to adopted an 'I'm being mature' voice, and it either worked, or Rhodey knew better than to argue with my decision, because he left with his very small bag.

I sat down in a corner of my room, sinking down into a mass of pillows and blankets and started crying. Tony was all I had left, and now he might be gone. Mr. Stark (Howard Stark) was amazing, I only knew him, not his wife, she died before I really understood. When Mr. Stark died, it was just Tony, Pepper, James and me. Except Rhodey didn't really like talking to me. Pepper was okay, we were close enough. We just didn't connect. If Tony was gone, I was alone.

I looked over at my work table. A soldering iron was sitting on the table along with about ten eight-foot rods, three inches in diameter, of stainless steel. JARVIS knew me so well, Tony always brought pipes, which are really nice for some things, I just hardly worked with them. Also, somehow JARVIS knew I would prefer stainless. It was just what I wanted, but I couldn't bring myself to get up and start working.

I knee I probably looked like a mess, if I wore makeup, it would be running dow my face. The pillow beneath me was wet from me burying my head into it. I slowly got up and walked into the bathroom and reached for a tissue. Seventeen and a half tissues later, my face was still bright red, and I still had that hard feeling in the back of your throat that you sometimes get from crying, but my face was dry and I looked better. I looked at the time, noticing my stomach growling. Usually Tony or Pepper would bring takeout, but it was Pepper's day off, and Tony wasn't here, so it left me with two options, order takeout, which I could do perfectly fine, or make something.

I didn't think that Pepper or Tony would have anything in the fridge except takeout, but I was wrong. We had a fully stocked kitchen, and it was starting to smell really good. Pepper had wandered in while I was cooking, but I think she could tell I'd been crying so she left me alone. After making the pasta, I realized I had way too much food for myself. I tossed the pasta with basil, cilantro, olive oil and tomatoes. Then I went to the stove. The chicken was pan seared in half oil, half Elizabeth-Tears. I finished and dished out three plates. I grabbed them all and gave one to Rhodey, he thanked me, but I didn't want to disturb him, so I left.

I moved over to where Pepper had moved in, as she was going to run the company until Tony was found, and handed her the plate. As I walked away, she called out,

"Elizabeth, wait! I want to talk to you."

I turned around. She gestured to a chair and I sat down.

"You're a smart girl." Assuming that was slightly rhetorical, I didn't respond, "you've passes college already," I knew it was rhetorical then, "I know it's going to be hard for you getting by without Tony, but -"

"How does that relate to me being smart? And you say that like it's going to be a long time until Tony gets back." I protested. I felt the tears welling up, and I tryed really hard to keep them down.

"Let me finish," she sounded annoyed, "It's going to be hard without him here to run the company, and I'm going to need some help from someone, and I was thinking you. Do you want to help me run Stark™ until he gets back?"

A/N: I'll admit, I cryed along with Elizabeth when she got back to her room. Please review.