Ch 4
HAPPY 2014! Was new years great? Anyone drowsy or hungover? Well I might have something to help… another chapter! THANK YOU The best guest (who is obviously a guest), Absent minds and StardustOwl for reviews! You guys rock! Also thanks to Leah Tatyana Nicole for the story follow! Hope all of you continue to enjoy the story.
This chapter is fun and I liked writing it. also I have introduced a certain archer into the mix… tell me what you think! 3 reviews= new chapter!
now for said story!
Later that afternoon, as I was about to head home from work, when Rhodes called me into the office room.
"What do you need Colonial Rhodes?" I asked.
"Remember when you said I could look into your adoption records?"
"Yeah."
"I just had a question about that."
"Okay, what is it?"
"If you found out whom one of your parents were, what would you do?" he asked.
"I hadn't thought that far yet. I guess I would like to meet with them." I shrug.
"Alright then. What if I said I knew who your father was?"
"No." Tony said defiantly to his girlfriend and best friend. "I will not meet with her."
"Tony, this is silly. You have already met her once. What is exactly the problem?" Rhodey asked the genius.
"Does she know its me?"
"No, Rhodey just said he would get a meeting between her father and her. He never said you specifically." Pepper told him.
"Good. She won't want to know its me. Once she does she's going to freak. I have a history I am trying to distance myself from. You know, the whole playboy thing?"
"You still call yourself a genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist." Rhodey deadpans.
"Your point?"
"We are trying to figure out your point at the moment. Forget ours." Pepper says.
"I will not meet with her you two. Nope. Never. Lets not ruin the ideas for her."
"Tony…" Pepper pleads. "She grew up never knowing who her parents were. You the answer to her questions. She should at least know its you."
"But I don't have the answers to the questions she has! I don't even remember her mother! What's that say about me? What will I say? What if she asks about her? Or what happened to her? Why she was given up? I have no fucking idea! I only heard of her mother when I was looking to see if she was actually my kid!"
"Wait… you actually have thought this through…" Rhodey says upon realization of what Tony had said.
"Of course I thought of it. And I decided it was a bad idea."
"Tony… are you sure this is because you think this is a bad idea or because your scared?" Pepper asked him before she walked out of the workshop and up the stairs.
One week later, or as we can call it, a few hours ago…
I walk up to the front door and I look at how large the house is. A few days ago colonial Rhodes gave me a piece of paper with a time, date and address.
And now here I am… at 10880 Malibu Point.
I walked to the front door and rang the bell.
"Welcome, may I ask who this is?" a cool British voice greeted. It surprised me.
"I'm Alyssa Williams. I was told to come here by colonial Rhodes." I answered slightly startled from the voice.
Then the doors opened, by themselves.
"Welcome, miss Williams. Miss Potts informed me you would be coming today. I have informed her of your arrival." The voice told me as I stepped into the home.
"Thank you…" I said. I had no idea where that voice was coming from.
Less than a few seconds later, Pepper Potts came in looking very professional. "Hello Alyssa, welcome. Its lovely to see you again." she greeted to me.
"Hi Miss. Potts. Nice to see you again too. Who was the voice?" I ask. I am so confused right now.
"That's JARVIS, he runs the house. He's an AI."
"Okay… now that's cleared up… may I ask why I'm here?"
"Well, the reason you're here is being called up from the basement and should be here in a moment."
"And that reason is?" I ask still really confused.
"Hey Pep! What do you need?" I hear Tony Stark ask as he walks up the stairs. He then notices me. "What's she doing here?"
"Alyssa, Rhodey told you he knew who your father was correct?" Pepper asks and I nod.
"Alyssa, meet your father. Tony Stark." She said gesturing to the man beside her.
Well then.
My eyes go wide and my jaw drops and then I freeze in this position for a bit.
"Pepper! I told you…" Tony starts to say.
"I know what you said. And this is my solution." Pepper says.
"To drop the bomb on her and break her?" he asks as he waves a hand over my eyes and starts snapping to see if I'm paying attention.
"I'm paying attention stop your snapping." I tell him.
"Good. You aren't broken." He informs us.
"No shit Sherlock. I'm not broken. Thanks for the obvious." I retort.
"You two have a lot to discuss. Luckily you two have all day." Pepper tells us.
"I don't. The Hulk buster armor is almost ready for a test run." Tony says.
"Not anymore." She says as she directs both of us into another direction. Tony isn't really paying attention to where we are being lead until he notices the three of us are in a broom closet. Mind you I didn't notice either. I was busy trying to comprehend that I just met my biological father.
"Why are we in a broom closet Pepper?" Tony asks upon realization of where we are. I am mentally asking the same thing.
"You two need to talk and because I know you will try to avoid it Tony, I thought of a solution. See you two when I get back. Food is in that container." She said as she left the broom closet. Leaving a shocked Tony and me in the closet.
When the door closes she says something to JARVIS and the door locks.
"No… JARVIS?" Tony calls out. Nothing happens. Not even an acknowledgement from the AI.
"DAMN IT!" he yells.
"We're locked in here aren't we?" I ask.
"Yes. We are locked in here. Thank you for stating the obvious."
So that's how I ended up in the closet with Tony. Long story huh? I know I could have just said that Pepper forced us into a closet and locked the door. But hey, that's not as dramatic. Every story needs flare.
We have found sitting on the floor is better than standing. And we haven't said a word. Tony just tried to contact JARVIS and yelled a bunch of times. About a half hour ago he figured out it wouldn't help.
Jimmy has texted me a few times wondering why I'm not at work. I have only responded with that I took a day off. He buys it but tells me that's odd because it's Thursday.
It's quiet for a few more minutes when Tony decides to speak.
"How long? How long did you know you were adopted?" he asks.
Oh so now we want to talk?
"My whole life." I respond simply.
"Really? They didn't try to hide it?" he questions some more.
"They really couldn't. It was kind of obvious. They were both Asian."
"I guess that would make hiding it… problematic."
"Yeah… so I knew for a long while."
After that we went into more silence.
"Did you know about me?" I ask suddenly.
"No. I only found out a week ago. Only because Pepper and Rhodey were talking about it at that."
I nod. And we once again go into silence.
"Why did you want to find out who your birth parents were?" he inquires.
"I don't have anything else."
He gives me a look telling me to elaborate.
"I never really had any friends growing up. I was busy going to school, and considering my genius all my classmates were much older than me. I spent a lot of time with my parents. They both died during the battle of New York. I had no one after that. All I wanted was to figure out who I was."
"I'm sorry about your parents. Death by alien army trying to take over world with a crazy ass god, not exactly what you want on the tombstone."
"Don't feel bad."
"I won't then."
"You just want to get out of here don't you?" I ask him immediately after.
"Pretty much." He responds immediately after I get the question out.
We once again fall into silence. We both know we probably are not getting out of here for a while. But neither of us wants to talk. We both don't know what to say.
Tony stares at the ceiling. I think this may be the one time he doesn't have some sort of technology with him.
"You know, when I have time, I'm going to make a suit that will come to me. Situations like this won't happen again. Suit will crash through the door." He tells me. He points to the door and actions out the door breaking.
"I'm sure you will. You can build things no one even dreams of."
"I know I will. I'll figure it out."
"Of course you will. You are Iron Man. You have all the answers." I tell him exhaustedly. I want out of this fucking closet.
"I can build anything and everything and master thermonuclear astrophysics overnight. I will never admit to this but as much as I would like to think I know everything, I don't. And if you tell anyone I said that, I'll deny it."
"I'm sure you would. But I don't see anything around that doesn't have you all over it. People like me aspire to be even an eighth of what you are."
"You're the closest I've ever seen. You're… probably a quarter of the way there." He smiles at me. This is the first time he's looked me in the eyes along with that smile.
I give a small smile back. "Thank you." I respond. "That's one of the nicest things anyone's ever said to me."
"No its not. I lied." He then says.
"What?" I ask him confused.
"Your not a quarter. Intelligence you're more like… half. Personality is more like a quarter. That's probably a good thing." He looks at me again.
I just look. I finally realize I have no idea what's going on.
"I don't know how I can help you Alyssa. Anything you could want to know about me you could Google and I don't even remember who your mother is. I don't have any information to what you want to know." He breathes out. His eyes look at me seriously.
"If I'm being honest, I don't know what I want to know. I didn't expect to find anything." I inform him.
"How long has it been since we got locked in?" he asks.
"About an hour." I estimate.
"Damn."
"Don't like being locked in small rooms?" I ask amused.
"Not fond of them. I put myself in a metal suit all the time so I'm not claustrophobic."
"I would assume not. But claustrophobia has nothing to do with if our situation. Well, it does but not what I was getting at. You don't like that it has almost been an hour and miss Potts, your girlfriend, locked you in."
"You a therapist or something?"
"No but I do go to therapy. You pick up some good reading skills."
"I don't like therapy."
"Don't underestimate it. It helps. Just talking sometimes helps." I shrug.
"Stark? You here?" I hear faintly from outside.
"Someone's here." I inform the billionaire.
"No ones here. JARVIS would inform me if someone's here." He says flatly.
"JARVIS isn't in the oversized broom closet, genius." I roll my eyes.
"Point taken."
"So, how do we deal with this?" I inquire. I can still hear the voice –whomever's it is- still talking to dead air. Not even JARVIS is answering all of the person's questions.
"I don't know. We're in a closet. I can't talk to whomever it is through walls." Tony rolls his eyes.
"Well ok, your right, we can't talk through walls… but we can listen!" I say reaching over into the food container Pepper left for us. I quickly found a paper cup among the granola bars and crackers.
Tony looks at me as I show him a paper cup and through a second one at him. He catches it mid-air. "Really? The old cup to a wall trick?" he looked at me like I was crazy.
"What? It works, doesn't it? Plus if we listen we can at least figure out who it is and what they want." I reason. I then stand to my feet and outstretch my hand towards him to help him up.
He grabs my hand and is soon enough standing beside me. Leaning on the door with a paper cup to his ear and trying to hear.
"Come on Stark! JARVIS told me you're here. You're not in your lab and your not here! I don't want to search for you." We here a man say.
Tony looks at me expectantly. "Well?" he whispers.
"What? I can't tell you who it is." I remind him.
"This was your idea!" he does that yelling whisper thing.
"That doesn't mean I can tell you who is out there!" I do the same yelling whisper.
Tony is about to comment but I cut in. "Shhh. I think I hear something." I say holding up my hand in a stopping motion. Tony pouts but he stays quiet.
I hear a groan and then faint footsteps then suddenly they stop and I can't hear them again.
"Damn." I whisper.
"What?" Tony asks. Obviously we didn't hear the same thing.
"The footsteps stopped."
"You could here footsteps?"
"You probably could too if you were listening instead of pouting." I note.
"I was NOT pouting!" there goes that yelling whisper again.
"So what do you call it? Sulking?" and I start the yelling whisper again too.
"Why are you guys whispering?" we hear the mystery voice say in a normal volume behind us.
This scared the shit out of the both of us.
"GAH! Fuck Barton! You have to use the vents?" he yells.
"Fucking hell! Who the fuck are you?" I yell at the same time.
"Why are you guys in a closet?" this blond guy asks.
"Pepper locked us in. why you here?" Tony asks.
"I came to check in. Plus hiding from Fury. He'll give me shit for what I did on my last mission." He says simply. I have no idea what they're talking about.
"Who's the girl?" he asks.
"Alyssa Williams. Alyssa, meet bird brain." Tony introduces us. 'Bird brain' just nods in comprehension.
"I'm guessing you aren't really bird brain." I suspect.
"Barton." He says he holds out his hands for a handshake. "Clint Barton."
"Now that this is all clear, can we please get out of this closet?" Tony asks.
Clint shrugs. "Sure. Will you be following me through the vents or will it just be me and then getting JARVIS to unlock the door?"
"Unlock the door." Tony and I say simultaneously.
"Give me a minute. See ya." He says as he jumps up towards the vent, latches on to the side and pulls his way through. When he is fully in he pops his head out once more and mock salutes us and finally disappears.
I look towards Tony in amusement. "The vents?" I note.
"Carnies." He shrugs in dismissal.
I am about to raise an eyebrow at the comment when the closet door flies open, reveling Clint.
"Your free!" he says as he opens the door. Tony rushes out happily.
"JARVIS! I missed you buddy!" he exclaims out happily.
"I missed you too, sir." The AI responded.
I walk out of the closet like a normal person.
"Is he always like this towards the AI?" I ask Clint.
"Probably. I think they're best friends or something." he responds.
I look at the man then back at Tony, who is still chatting happily with JARVIS.
"I see you spent some quality time with your daughter like miss Potts asked." JARVIS noted.
Tony and me both stared at each other. No one has yet to proclaim I am in fact his daughter. We just established he was my father. Stupid AI.
The two go hand in hand but its not like he raised me or anything.
Clint just stood there, looking slack-jawed. "Whaaaaa?" he said like a Despicable Me minion.
Tony was still just staring at me. Then the both of us looked towards Clint.
"You have a daughter…?" he said slowly and confused.
"Um… well… look at the time…" Tony said obviously avoiding the subject.
We spend an hour in a fucking broom closet together and this is how he treats his long-lost child?
"Yes, I'm Tony's long lost daughter. Don't worry if you didn't know. He only found out a week ago." I tell the man.
"Thanks for selling both of us out Alyssa." Tony responds.
"I am actually surprised I am surprised at this." Clint realizes. "I mean with your past, you should have seen this coming. Condoms are not one hundred percent you know…" Clint answers.
I move my head back and forth thinking about this. I completely agree with this Clint guy. He so should have seen it coming.
"Thanks for the lesson Hawkeye. So helpful right now, 21 years later." Tony remarks sarcastically.
"Wait your Hawkeye? The arrow dude?" I say then looking at Clint.
"Yes, I am. You heard of me?" he asks. Obviously I rubbed his ego a bit with the fact I recognized him.
"Kind of. I know Hawkeye shoots arrows. You have a quiver on you right now and Tony just called you Hawkeye. I'm just connecting dots."
"Oh." He deflates a bit.
"Why did Pepper put you two in a closet?" he inquires.
"Pepper said we needed to talk." Tony informs him.
"I just found out he's my dad an hour ago." I also inform him.
"How long were you two in the closet?" he then asks.
"About an hour." We both say at the same time again.
"You've had a big hour haven't you?" Clint looks at me.
"No kidding." I reply.
"So why are you really here hawk boy?" Tony turns the table.
"I told you…" he starts.
"Why are you really here?" Tony cuts in.
"SHIELD noticed someone hack into the system and looking for a specific person. That person being you Alyssa. We figured it was you so they had me check it out. Now this father-daughter stuff is for sure, it's a no threat thing."
"That was you looking to see if I was your kid?" I summarize.
"Yeah, that was me." Tony tells us. "I don't appreciate SHIELD's suspicion, but thankful you came. Who knows how long we would have been stuck in there. I'm putting JARVIS everywhere now."
"What is SHIELD anyway? Why do they have information about me?" I then ask.
Clint looks at me wide eyed. "SHIELD? What's SHEILD? I don't know what you're talking about."
"Cut the crap feathers, she isn't stupid. She's a genius. She knows what you said." Tony tells him.
"I know. I know her IQ. I read her file. She isn't a threat but she doesn't have the clearance to know." Clint says leaving me confused again.
"And I do?" Tony asks him.
"Fair point. But you wouldn't if it wasn't for you proclaiming you're Iron Man during a press conference." Clint informs him. Him and Tony continue to debate this without me.
For what feels like the hundredth time today I am just left confused.
The two bozos are still debating this SHIELD stuff. I just sat myself on the couch and started playing with my phone. I zone out but every once and a while I hear words like 'security clearance', 'eye patch', 'crazy', 'secret government something' or my personal favorite 'breaking protocol'.
I feel a slight shift beside me. I look to my side to see miss Potts beside me.
"How did it go?" she asks with a kind smile.
"Fine I guess." I tell her.
I watch her look over to the two men still standing there arguing.
"How long they been at it?" she asks of the two fighting men.
I look to my phone to see the time. "Almost two hours."
"Wow. I'm surprised they haven't descended into anarchy." She laughs.
"I don't think they realize it's been two hours, for a good part of it was a staring contest."
"Not surprising. I sometimes have to remind Tony to blink." She smiles at me.
I look at her in shock. Jimmy has had to remind me to do the same thing more than once.
"So, should we tell the boys to quit it or just let them keep going?" she asks me suddenly and takes me out of my shocked state.
"Let them keep going. We'll get worried when they start throwing things." I shrug and she laughs.
"Would you like something to eat Alyssa? I'm assuming you two didn't eat anything." She offers. I'm about to decline when my stomach butts in. "I'll take that as a yes." She responds.
"Thanks miss Potts." I smile. "Now that I think about it I did forget breakfast again."
"Please, call me Pepper. Miss Potts is too formal. And it's my pleasure. Tony forgets to eat all the time." She says as she pats my knee before standing.
"Must be another thing I inherited from daddy dearest." I groan as I stand to follow her.
She giggles slightly. "Alyssa, I hate to break it to you but it wasn't hard to see the relation."
"Really?" I ask raising my eyebrows as we both walk into the kitchen. Tony and Clint have moved turned their 'security clearance' match into a 'who's-better-than-who' match.
Pepper looks at the two boys then to me and rolls her eyes. "This isn't going to end well." she notes.
"When two boys fight does it ever?" I ask knowingly.
She smiles and agrees. "What would you like to eat?" she asks as she opens the fridge and pours me orange juice. I didn't ask for it, but I appreciate the action and say thanks.
"I don't know." I shrug.
"Well were probably going to have to feed the boys… so how about we just order something?" she asks. I just shrug because I really have no idea what to do.
"JARVIS? Can you give us some options?" she asks and after an 'of course' from the British voice a list appears on a screen in the counter.
I didn't even know that was there. That's impressive.
"What do you like?" she asks.
"Anything. I'll eat anything." I respond.
"I didn't ask what you would eat. I asked what you LIKE to eat. Big difference hon." She scolds me. I feel like a kid being scolded by a mom.
I look down at the list on the screen and see all these different food options. Some I haven't even heard of before.
"Pep! When did you get home?" Tony asks walking into the kitchen. Clint following behind him.
"About 15 minutes ago. Alyssa and I were just looking at food to order in. Have any thoughts?"
"How about Italian? We could take the jet to Italy and be back by Saturday." He offers.
"Its Thursday Tony. Unlike you, three of us have work." Pepper notes. "But we can get Italian if you like."
"Party pooper." He notes before he starts tapping things on the screen. Pepper seems to not really care about what's going on. Clint and me look to each other and shrug. This is completely new to us.
"Done, should be here in twenty five minutes." He tells us as he looks up at us again.
We end up playing Monopoly. Tony flips the board and Clint almost has an emotional break down.
