Warning! There's quite a bit of bad language in this chapter.
They ended up in Pepper's room. It was tastefully decorated, tans and creams with red accents that Katie suspected Tony had had a hand in choosing. They sat and giggled, Natasha and Pepper painting all of Katie's fingernails. Katie felt so happy she could burst, but didn't say anything; in her experience, the moment you admitted you were happy was the moment it all fell apart. They were just starting on Natasha's toenails when the yelling began down the hall.
Yelling in itself was nothing new; the guys had been hooting and hollering for the last hour as they had duked it out over videogames and too much sugar. But this yelling was different, with a new, female voice and another, much lower man's voice. Natasha happened to be looking at Katie when it started and could see the blood drain from the girl's face, putting the black eye in stark contrast to her pale skin.
"Katie?" She asked, a question in a question. She really wanted to know if Katie needed her to beat someone up for her, but assumed that wouldn't go over well. Katie stood, as if in a trance, and walked towards the door, Pepper and Natasha following behind as the voices increased in pitch and intensity.
Now that they're in the hallway, they could hear Tony answering back, not yelling, but with the absolute calm that meant he was very angry. They rounded the corner and the whole scene became clear.
A woman who was clearly Katie's mother was standing in the middle of the room, facing off against Tony, leaning in so she was only a few inches from his face. Pepper winced because she knew that had to be making him uncomfortable, but he didn't waver. Behind Tony and Katie's mother stood Bruce and a massive, black-haired man, respectively. Natasha could feel Katie curling in on herself, hunching her shoulders, ducking her head, crossing her arms and making herself a smaller target in general.
The woman didn't look over at them, didn't know that her daughter was in the room. She kept yelling. "- stole my daughter away, you bastard, you stuck up, rich, son of a bitch, you took her." She looked like she wanted to spit in Tony's face, sneering, but didn't. "You really want the little slut? Then take her, get her out of my hands, I never want to see her smug little whoring face again, take her, you fucking bastard. But how dare you do it without asking!"
Tony didn't step back. "Ma'am," he asked icily.
"Ma'am? Oh, aren't we well mannered?" She retorted mockingly.
"Ma'am, I am willing to take charge of your daughter. She will no longer live with you. She will stay here. You will have no contact with her. You will sign paperwork that states that I, Tony Stark, am her legal guardian until she is eighteen."
Katie's mother seemed slightly taken aback by the offer; clearly she had expected Tony to deny everything, perhaps even that Katie was there. "And what if I say no?"
Tony kept his voice light. "Well, it is, of course, entirely up to Katie herself, but if you say no and she says no, then she will go with you. If you say no and she wishes to remain here, well..." His tone dropped, and he leaned in slightly. "I will make sure you don't have a moment of peace until you agree with us. Do you understand?"
Her chest heaving with rampant emotion, the woman jammed a finger into Tony's chest. Katie saw Pepper wince, but there was no display of emotion, pain or otherwise on Tony's serious face. "Do I understand? Do I understand? I understand that you are trying to blackmail me into giving you my child!"
"Your child. The child you so clearly care about and love deeply." Tony sighed. "JARVIS, bring up the cam film." The television turned on, and while the image focused, Tony added, "And no, I am not technically blackmailing you, since there is no money involved at the moment. It will be completely legal, and you will have to sign a nondisclosure agreement that states you will never speak of any of this again."
"You have no proof! I love my daughter!" Katie's mother seemed to notice her daughter standing in the doorway for the first time. Her entire demeanor changed, a sickeningly sweet smile spreading over her face. "Katie, love, come here and say hello to your mother, darling!"
Katie didn't move for a moment, then she took a deep breath and walked until she was standing a few feet from her mother. "What were you saying, Mr Stark? About how I don't love my child?"
Tony made a small gesture and the image on the screen started to play. It was security footage, grainy, from a store camera. Despite the low quality of the film, the woman, girl, and man on the screen were certainly Katie, her mother, and another man. The man said something, the woman laughed, and without any warning turned around and slapped the girl.
Katie's hand instinctively flew up to her cheek where the slap had landed weeks ago. It had stung, but mostly because there had been no reason behind it. It was just because.
"That is what I was saying." Tony smiled, wolflike. "So let me sum up your options. First, you say no. If Katie also says no, then you go on your merry way. If she says yes and you say no, you will never have a happy moment until you also say yes. If you say yes and she says no, then we'll find a way to work with it. If you both say yes, then you will sign a nondisclosure agreement, we will take charge of Katie, and you will never worry about it again."
Katie's mother worked the muscle in her jaw for a moment. "What if I say yes, then go to the press?"
"I would be willing to provide some light compensation for the privilege of watching your daughter as an incentive. But apparently you also don't understand the phrase 'you'll never have a peaceful moment.'" Bruce let out a short laugh, drawing Katie's Mother's attention.
Bruce spoke up. "The last person he told that to no longer has a credit score and none of their electronics will ever work again."
Katie's mother seemed to go white with rage. "How much money?"
Tony waved a hand dismissively. "I'm sure the sum doesn't matter. Yes or no, first?"
Katie took a moment to realize that her mother and her boyfriend were looking at her, along with everyone else. Her eye throbbed, and she thought.
She didn't know these people. She'd only met three of them today. And what about Thor? What if they all decided they hated her? Katie took a breath and stopped the idea dead in its tracks. As scary as it was, she trusted them already, more than she trusted her mother and her string of boyfriends. Her mother, who had hated her since her father died, who had hit her with words and fists and was even now ready to give her girl away for the right price, who had never once told her that she was loved and wanted.
Katie nodded. "I'll stay." Tony smiled. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Pepper beaming.
Suddenly, her head was ringing and she was on the floor. Her mother had slapped her, catching her already black eye with enough force to knock her over. She saw Steve and Bruce both take steps forwards, but Tony held up a hand.
"You ungrateful little..."
Tony cut her off. "So, Mrs Wolfe, what will it be? Yes, or no?"
Her mother bared her teeth. "Give me the form." Pepper came over and handed Tony a paper that had just printed out of the wall.
Tony held it out. "Standard. You are not allowed to talk about what has happened in this room, nor are you allowed to tell a perversion of it. If you insinuate even in the slightest way that we are in the wrong to any source, I will find out, your money will stop coming, and I will publicly sue you for every penny you own. And my lawyers always win. You, in signing this, agree to the transfer of guardianship of one Katie Wolfe and all that guardianship entails until her eighteenth birthday, when she can choose where she wants to live."
Snatching it, Mrs Wolfe scrawled her name on the bottom, Tony following. Bruce and (very reluctantly) the boyfriend signed as witnesses. "Now if you'll go, Mrs Wolfe, a few of us will be by tomorrow to pick up Katie's things and negotiate the terms of settlement."
Her mother turned toward where Katie was still lying on the ground. Her mother spit near her on the floor and glared, then turned on her heel and walked into the waiting elevator, the burly man close behind.
Katie curled in on herself on the floor, and it took a moment for the Avengers to realize that she was crying. Tony took a few quick steps over to her, scooping her up as if she weighed nothing at all (a sentiment that Tony seemed to disapprove of, based on his expression). He nodded down the hallway towards the bedroom and Pepper went ahead of him to open the door, the rest following.
Tony sat down on the bed, holding onto the young girl as she cried her fear and sadness and heartbreak and happiness and guilt.
Thanks so much for the reviews, everyone! I love them and they make my day!
Ahhh the confrontation. This was hard to write, because aside from my own reading, I have no reference; both my parents are good, loving people.