Bella was beyond ecstatic. Rhoddy had kept his word and found her dad and brought him home. And as she knew that he would have to have a press conference before Pepper and Obadiah would let him come home, she was in the living room waiting for the conference to start.

Laughing quietly, she saw Stane standing at the podium while her dad was sitting on the floor.

"Hey, would it be alright if everyone sat down?" He asked, while pulling out another burger out of his suit pocket. "Why don't you just sit down. That way you can see me and I can see you. A little less formal." Everyone, not sure if he was actually being serious, slowly sat down. He looked over to Stane, "Good to see you."

"good to see you too." He replied, patting him on the back.

"I never got to say goodbye to my dad." Looking at all the reporters, "I never got to say goodbye to my father. There are things that I would have asked him. I would have asked him how he felt about what this company did. If he was conflicted, if he ever had his doubts. Or maybe he was every inch of the man we all remember from the newsreels. I saw young Americans killed by the very weapons I created to defend and protect them. That is something I swore that would not happen. And I saw had become part of a system that is comfortable with zero accountability."

One of the reporters raised his hands, "Mr. Stark?"

"Hey Ben."

"What happened over there?"

Standing up and going to stand behind the podium, "I had my eyes opened. I came to realized that I have more to offer this world than making things blow up. And as I promised when is I started this company, starting now, effective immediately I am shutting down the weapons manufacturing division of Stark International until such a time I can decide what the future of the company will be." That had the press going into a frenzy. "What direction it should take, one that I'm comfortable with and is consistent with the highest good for this country, as well." Obadiah started to lose his cool and started to shove Tony away from the podium.

As she saw her dad walk away from the conference, she saw that Obadiah was trying to rein them back in.

As he was walking out, he grabbed Peppers arm, dragging her out. "I'm going home now. I need to see my daughter."

"Tony! What the hell was that?" Pepper demanded as she got free of his hold.

"You didn't see what I saw over there. What I did is what needed to be done."

"You have to stay here. Your company needs y-" Pepper started to argue.

"My daughter needs me right now. I haven't seen her in three months and knowing you, you have her getting ready to take over." Tony fired back as he walked to the car. "Happy, bring me home."

"Tony you need to think-"

"I'm going to go home and see my daughter and that's final." Tony ended the argument and got into the car.

-To The Stark Manor-

Bella was bouncing in her spot in the foyer. She had received a very annoyed text from Virginia that they were on their way home. A huge smile spread across her face when she saw Happy pull up.

Smiling, he all but runs into the house.

"Daddy!" She yelled, running and jumping onto him.

Laughing, ignoring the pain, he twirled her around the room. Putting her down, hugging her tightly, "I missed you."

Smiling, she pulled away, looking up at her dad, "You're late, daddy. Your dinner has gone bad by now."

Laughing, "Yeah, I got held up. Sorry I didn't call."

"Just be sure that it doesn't happen again." Bella pleaded.

"I can try." He replied. Pulling her to the couch, "So what has been happening with the company since I've been gone."

"I had slowed down all weapons sales before you shut down that division. All requests for a raise in payment has been put on hold, especially when it is the board members that are requesting that the money comes from the lower members of the company. The same goes for all termination requisitions. What makes it interesting is that the employees that are requested to be released are the employees that are most loyal to SI. Despite the slowing down of the weapons sales, there have been a small increase in the rest of Stark profits."

"If I may interrupt, Miss Stark, you are forgetting that all irregularities have Obadiah Stane's name attached. Despite his attempts of erasing his footsteps, there are quiet a few irregularities." Jarvis interrupted.

"What, no 'Hi' from you Jarvis? I've been gone for three months and you don't acknowledge your creature." Tony asked sarcastically.

"Greetings Sir. A pleasure to have you back at the manor. Hopefully you can keep Miss Stark and Ms. Potts from killing each other now that you are back." The AI replied.

"They still don't get along? I figured that they would become best pals while I was gone."

"That is an understatement Sir. It seems that, though, Miss Stark may work more efficiently then you, to Ms. Potts, she is harder to work for."

Looking at his daughter, "Why is that?"

Shrugging, "I don't take peoples bullshit and I don't take no for an answer. The board would go to Stane, Stane goes to Potts, she comes to me, I decide whether or not to give them what they want. As I said when I first agreed to take over, no big decisions were to be made without my approval. All the people that didn't get what they wanted would whine to Potts and do everything they could to make her job harder."

"Jarvis, how is this company doing since my daughter took over?"

"By my calculations, Miss Stark would have managed the company just fine if you had not returned. For a seventeen year old girl, she had done remarkably well. Like you, Sir, she took over easily. The company has done well under her reign and your absence."

"Huh-" He was going to say more but was interrupted by Jarvis.

"Sir, Mr. Stane has just entered the premises." Pepper went to the door to greet him, but he had other ideas and let himself in.

"Where is he? He in the garage?" Obadiah demanded as he stormed through the foyer.

"He's in the living room." Pepper replied, closing the door behind him.

"What the hell was that?" He came in, glaring at Bella, "That was your doing wasn't it?"

"No. The double dealer, he is to blame. What happened to my dad and the soldiers, that is not what my families company is about." Bella replied, standing up, crossing her arms and glaring at Obadiah.

"We're a weapons manufacturer." He started to argue.

"I don't want to inherit a body count. That is not what I know this company to be." She glared.

"It's what we do. We're iron mongers. We make weapons."

"To protect America and the soldiers the fight for their country." Bella argued back, she took a breath to try calm down. "It's my name on the side of the building. It was my decision, deal with it Stane."

"But your not a Stark, are you Isabella?" Obadiah taunted, knowing that being adopted bothered her.

Bella snapped, walking up to Obadiah, she slapped him, and stormed to her room.

Rubbing at his no stinging cheek, he looked over at Tony, "You gonna do anything about what she just did?"

Pepper gasped, not believing what he had just said. Tony just raised his eyebrows, "She had the right. Besides, it is her name. I adopted her. She is a Stark. When I was over there any choice she made was hers to make. It's her company too."

Knowing that he wasn't going to get anywhere, he just huffed out, "What are we gonna do? Make baby bottles? Will that please the little princess?"

"I think we should take another at Arc Reactor Technologies."

"The Arc Reactor? We did that as a publicity stunt. It such the hippies up." He questioned.

"It works though." Tony replied.

"Yeah, as a science project. I mean we haven't had any breakthroughs. Have we?"

"Could you have a lousyer poker face? I mean who told you? Tell me who told you. It's Rhodey or Pepper? I'm gonna say, Rhodey."

"I want to see it." Obadiah demanded.

Tony took off the sling, unbuttoned his shirt a little and showed him the miniaturized Arc Reactor.

After rebuttoning his shirt, "Listen to me, Tony. We're a team. Do you understand? Me and you. Just like it was me and your dad. Not you and your daughter. There's nothing we can't do if we stick together."

Rolling his eyes at the mention of his father, "I'm sorry I didn't give you a heads up, okay?"

"You gotta let me handle this. Your daughter isn't old enough. You gotta heal. You gotta promise me that you'll lay low." Obadiah requested as he left the house.

Later that Night.

Tony had just called Pepper down to the garage, he was sitting on the chair as his daughter kept an eye on the monitors that were tracking his heartbeat.

Not looking up from the computer, she asked, "You sure that she can do this, daddy?"

"Of course. I trust her with my life, and more importantly, yours." He said as he played around with his new reactor.

Rolling her eyes, "You also trust Stane with the company and look were that is taking you."

Before he could respond, Pepper had arrived in the garage. "Let's see them. Show me your hands." Not sure if he was serious or not, she did what he asked. "Oh wow. They are small. very petite. I just, need your help here for a sec."

"My god, is that the thing that's keeping you alive?" She asked, walking up to Tony to get a better look at the reactor.

"It was. It is now an antique." He lifted up the new reactor, "This is what's going to keep me alive for the foreseeable future. I'm swapping it up for an upgraded unit, and I just ran into a little speed bump."

"Speed bump, what does that mean?" Pepper asked, confused.

Looking up from the monitors, "Meaning he can't replace it by himself."

Looking over to the younger Stark, "And why can't you do it?"

Rolling her eyes again, "He doesn't want to traumatize me. Like having him kidnapped and held captive for three months hadn't done that to me already."

Keeping his daughter from saying anything else, he started to explain what was wrong as he took out the original reactor. . "There's an exposed wire under this device. And it's contacting the socket wall and causing a little bit of a short."

Taking the reactor from Tony, with a disgusted look on her face, "What do you want me to do?"

"Put that on the table over there. I want you to reach in, and you're just gonna gently lift the wire out." He instructed.

"Is it safe?" She asked, worried.

"So long as you don't let it touch the socket walls." Bella called, making a few adjustments on the monitor. Looking up again, "Just think of it as Operation."

"You want me to play Operation on your dad?" She asked, not believing what she had just said.

"No." Bella scoffed, "My dad does."

Trying to stop their argument, "Just gently lift the wire. Okay?"

Pepper started to reach, but pulled back quickly. "You know, I don't think that I'm qualified to do this."

"No. You're fine. You are the most capable, qualified, trustworthy person I've ever met. You're gonna do great. Is it too much of a problem to ask? Cause you're gonna prove my daughter right if you don't."

Pepper jumped at the chance to prove that the younger Stark was wrong about something, she reached in. Squealing at the feel of what she felt, "Oh, there's pus."

"That's not 'pus. It's an inorganic plasmic discharge from the device. Now, be sure to grab the copper wire." Bella called from the desk.

"I got it." She replied as she started to pull the wire out. Trying to be careful, but she let the wire touch the side.

Groaning at the shock that went through his body, "Okay, now make sure that when you pull it out, you don't.. There's a magnet at the end of it!" He yelled at her when she didn't pay attention and pulled the whole thing out.

Bella jumped up when the monitor went red and started to beep louder, "You shouldn't have done that! He's going into cardiac arrest now."

"I though you said this was safe!" Pepper yelled at Tony.

He just handed her the new reactor, "You gotta switch it out really quick."

"Okay. Okay," She hesitated again, "I'm going to make this okay."

"Let's hope. You're gonna attach that to the base plate. Make sure you-" He didn't get to finish as he flinched to when the reactor was connected. "Was that so hard? That was fun, right?"

Watching as his vitals went back to normal, Bella got up, "You okay daddy?"

As he got up from the chair, "Yeah, I feel great."

Pepper wiped of the matter of her hands, she grabbed the original reactor, "What do you want me to do with this?"

Tony looked over, "That? Destroy it. Incinerate it."

"You don't want to keep it?" Pepper questioned.

He tapped on his new reactor, "I don't need it. The media knows me as many things. And nostalgic isn't one of them."

"Will that be all Mr. Stark?" She asked, sensing the dismissal.

"That will be all Ms. Potts." He replied.

She looked over to Bella, "And you Miss Stark."

"I'm good, Virginia." Bella shook her head. Looking to her dad, "Mexican or Thai tonight?"

Watching as Pepper walked out, "I was thinking, Pizza?"

"Sure. So long as there's wings and that you read to me tonight." She replied laughing.

A little fluff between Bella and Tony at the end there.

Anyways, tell me what you think.

Or if your still reading these stories.

Auggie Frank.