Thanks for everyone's reviews! They're much appreciated :) enjoy!
This chapter is dedicated to XxThe Penny TreasurerxX because she showed me those AWESOME Iron Man 2 clips!!!! :D
'Are you still up?'
'No, daddy.'
Wilson Delaney stepped into his daughter's room, where 4 year old Molly was hiding under her duvet.
'I thought I told you to go to bed,' he said quietly, dangerously.
'I have, daddy,' Molly said, shaking under her thin cotton nightgown.
Wilson raised his hand…
… and the 17 year old Molly Delaney sat bolt upright, shaking her head to clear the fuzz.
The clock on the wall opposite read 07:16am and Bessie took a moment to remember where she was and how she'd got there. A massive feeling of well-being flowed through her when she remembered that the room she was in was her's and she'd spent the evening talking to Tony Stark and going for a ride in the Audi R8.
But that didn't explain how she'd gotten to her room…
Bessie swung her legs over the side, surprised when the warm soft blanket fell off her. She groaned as she realised that Tony must have carried her up and she stood up, stretching her arms.
She still had an hour to clean up and get to MIT and Bessie hit the bathroom like a girl on a mission. The water was hot and cascaded down her back, it was nice to finally be able to wash her hair with decent shampoo and she came out feeling cleaner then she ever had in her life.
Bessie pulled her new clothes back on and made her way back down to the central room, where there was a strong smell of coffee in the air.
Tony had passed out on the sofa and Pepper was waving a cup of coffee under his nose when she walked in, Pete was trying not to laugh when Tony sniffed at random intervals as the coffee came closer to his nose. Bruce was eating toast and Sue Storm had a box of 'Special K' cereal out in front of her.
'Morning Bess,' Bruce said, nodding at her. 'Hungry?'
'Yeah,' Bessie said grinning.
'We have pretty much every kind of cereal ever invented so name your poison.'
'Do you have… Cheerio's?'
Bruce grinned, 'indeed we do, but Tony will fight you for them.' Bruce stood up and turned to the cupboard, pulling out the cereal box, bowl and spoon and sending them over to her.
Tony batted away Pepper's hand over on the sofa and rolled onto his side. Pepper sighed, put the coffee down… and went for his ribs.
Tony yelped and rolled off the sofa onto the floor with a rather impressive thump. 'Oww…' he moaned, sitting up and rubbing his sore head. He glared at Pepper. 'Do you enjoy waking me up?'
Pepper smirked and handed him his coffee. 'Perk of the job, now get up, drink the coffee and get dressed, you have a meeting in an hour.'
Tony stood up, drained the coffee and stalked off mumbling something about 'red-heads' that Bessie didn't catch.
Pepper grinned and walked over to the toaster; Bessie hid her face in her hair to hide her smirk and finished off her Cheerio's. She stood up and stretched her leg muscles, taking a black hairband from her wrist and wrapping it around her hair.
'I better scoot off or I'll be late,' she said, reluctantly.
'Cool, will you be coming back this evening?' Pete asked hopefully. 'It's Tony's turn to get pizza, and 'cause he's rich he always gets the good stuff.'
Bessie grinned. 'Well… if there's pizza involved.'
'See you this evening then,' Pepper said smiling.
Bessie made her way out of the central room and into the white reception. She pulled her rather battered MP3 player out of the pocket of her jeans and set off towards her flat.
The MP3 player lasted 2 minutes and Bessie sighed as she slowed to a halt and put it back in her pocket. She'd bought it off a fellow student at MIT who had, in his defence, warned her that it was 'crap', but it had also only been two dollars and Bessie knew that he was bound to have some AC/DC on it somewhere, she hadn't been disappointed either.
Bessie made the trip back to her flat in silence, half of her wondering if there was any point in taking the player apart for the 10th time and trying to repair it.
Once inside, the landlord gave her an odd look.
'You're late back today,' he said, suspiciously.
'Yeah, I stayed the night with some friends,' Bessie said, calmly unlocking the door and hiding her grin.
The landlord stepped back into his room suspiciously as Bessie unlocked the door and stepped inside. She quickly grabbed her school books and stuffed them into her bag. She then pulled the bag of clothes Tony Stark had given her out from the bottom of her wardrobe and changed into another pair of skinny jeans and a black shirt, pulling her new converses back on and grabbing a soft purple jumper.
'Sweet,' she said grinning. She turned and looked at herself in the mirror. It felt and looked nice to be wearing clothes that actually fitted her and weren't full of holes and her hair felt smooth and soft on her head.
Bessie turned and relocked the door, flicking her hair for emphasis as she hoisted her bag onto her back and headed for the door.
Tony Stark stepped back into the main room, having speed-showered, gelled his hair, and stepped into one of his (many) suits.
Pepper was sat on the sofa, Los Angeles Times in front of her, making notes on her BlackBerry.
'I had a thought,' Tony said, seizing the abandoned box of Cheerios.
'Dangerous…' Pepper murmured, not looking up from her BlackBerry.
At that moment, a small girl wearing a red and white checked school dress ran in, desperately trying to pull a hairbrush from her thick dark hair while also trying to balance her schoolbag.
'What's up Georgie?' Tony asked the 5 year old, who was perilously close to tears.
'I can't get this hairbrush out of my hair!' she cried, tugging it to no avail.
Tony sat down on the sofa and put his bowl of Cheerios to one side, patting his lap for the little girl to climb up onto. 'What do we keep telling you?' he asked as he began to untangle the girl's hair.
'That I should use a bigger hairbrush,' the girl said, pulling a face. 'But I like this one! It has Barbie on it!'
Tony smiled as he eased the brush from her hair and set about plaiting it. 'Better?' he asked when he finished.
The girl patted her hair and gave him a huge grin, sliding off his lap. 'Much better,' she said, admiring her hair in the reflection in the glass window.
'You need a lift?' Tony asked, picking up his bowl of Cheerios and then pulling a face when he realised they'd gone soggy.
'Yes please,' Georgina Meadows said, picking up her schoolbag and pulling it on.
'Don't take the Audi,' Pepper warned, 'you'll cause a riot.'
'At a playground?' Pepper gave him a look. 'Spoilsport,' Tony said scowling. 'Fine, Fiat it is. Come on Georgie hop to it, I'll meet you back here in 20 minutes, Peps.'
'Make sure you do!' Pepper called after him as he inspected the large line of keys hanging on the wall and eventually, disgustedly, selected the Fiat's key. 'Don't go home to work on the suit or take JARVIS or Dummy apart.'
'I got all dressed up didn't I?' Tony said indignantly. 'I'll be there Peps.'
Pepper's eyes followed him out of the door.
The Fiat Panda 1.2 was a car that Tony detested using. His eyes drew lovingly across the garage towards his Audi R8 in the corner and then back to the red scrapheap that apparently used to be a Fiat. The Fiat was only used when the Avengers wanted to be discreet, although in fairness- no car driven by Tony Stark was ever discreet. Fortunately for the rest of the motorway however, the Fiat didn't get above 40 mph on a good day.
Tony opened the door for Georgie who hoped in and plugged her seat belt in while Tony made his way (slowly) to the driver's door.
Sitting in the car and plugging his seatbelt in Tony turned to Georgia and pulled a face. 'Ready, kiddo?'
Georgie gripped the edge of her seat and nodded; a determined expression on her face. Tony took a deep breath and put the key into the ignition. He turned back to Georgie. 'Time for a little prayer,' he said and turned the key.
The engine spluttered to life with a slowness and consistency of jelly but it was alive none the less and since this was such an amazing thing to happen both occupants of the 'Glorified Scrapheap,' as the poor car was known, cheered and veered out of the garage, heading towards Bellevue Primary School.
The playground was full of children and parents when Tony and Georgie arrived. 'Ready, Hun?' Tony asked. Georgie nodded and unplugged her seatbelt, a sad look on her face. 'Hey,' Tony said, catching her chin gently and making her look up at him, 'what's the matter kiddo?'
Georgie looked at all the beaming parents, so proud of their children and then back at Tony, who was gazing at her anxiously. 'They all have parents who are proud of them,' she said sadly. 'I don't have parents at all, which means that my parents don't love me and aren't proud of me.'
'No,' Tony said firmly. 'Honey you can't think that, I'm sure there's a very good reason why…'
He was about to say 'why your parents abandoned you,' but Pepper had been teaching him about tact and he realised that actually that wasn't a very tactful thing to say.
'Listen, Georgia,' Tony said, stroking her hair. 'It doesn't matter if the others have parents that are proud of them, I'm proud of you, and I know the others are too, and if you were my daughter, I would be the happiest dad in the world.'
Georgia's face lit up, 'really?' she asked, beaming.
'Of course,' Tony said, smiling. 'You're an amazing girl and I know that everyone can see that, now off you go, I'll pick you and Sam up after school and we'll go for ice creams on the beach, how does that sound?'
Georgia jumped off the seat in excitement and hugged Tony excitedly. Tony laughed and kissed her on the forehead. 'I'll see you later Georgie,' he said, as the girl grabbed her bag and jumped out the car.