The Avengers get the oportunity to talk to Charlotte while Tony goes to pick Pepper up. Natasha is interrorgating, Steve is fascinated with Peggy Junior and Clint is just doesn't trust a Stark... It will get tricky, but rest assured that it will eventually work out.
Tony went to pick up Pepper from the airport in the morning. Charlotte went down to the empty common area. It didn't stay empty for long as the Avengers, curious about the newcomer, soon filled the room. Rather than coming in one by one, they entered all at once. Charlotte noticed them as a reflection on her laptop screen.
"Good morning!" she said.
"Morning!" the group said and soon joined Charlie in the living room. They sat a moment in silence, observing her.
"Alright, my guess is that you have many questions. How about you start asking them, because this is getting creepy." She said looking at each one of them. Both Tony and Nick had warned her in advance this was going to happen. Clint grinned, this was a response from a Stark. Natasha was the first one to ask.
"Your full name?"
"Charlotte Peggy Stark."
"How old are you?"
"18, I'll be 19 in July."
"When?"
"7th."
"Where has Tony been hiding you all this time?"
"Let's see. Chronologically it would be New York, sometimes DC, then back to New York, Malibu, the MIT and now I'm back in New York."
"My turn. The kid needs a break from you. Where is your mom?" said Clint earning a glare from Natasha for interrupting her. Charlie thought for a moment. Should she tell them about Peggy? No, for them that was her grandmother. Maria was her mom, her and Tony's. She loved her children more than anything.
"In Washington." It wasn't a lie. Howard and Maria are buried in Arlington and Peggy lives in a retirement home there. Charlie managed to hold back tears, it wasn't something she wanted to discuss and she knew what they were thinking anyway. That she was nothing more than a product of a one-night stand. She also regretted not remembering her mom, Maria. The answer satisfied Clint. Captain America raised his hand.
"Yes?"
"Well, first, I'm sorry I walked out on you yesterday. It's just that…"
"You loved grandma and I look like her, I know, dad explained. It's okay, it was a natural reaction. What would you like to know?"
"How was she?"
"She was awesome. She came around when she wasn't on a mission or at Shield, taught me a lot of stuff, like sneaking around, hiding and basic self defense. Before she retired, she took me to Shield a few times and showed me around. She got Alzheimer's two years ago, it's getting worse fast. If you want to, I could take you to see her. Well, dad would go too, since he doesn't let me go anywhere alone."
"That would be great, thanks."
Natasha remained suspicious.
"Just game are you playing with us, kid?"
"What makes you think I'm playing a game?"
"Your existence. Something stinks here big. If Stark had a kid, it would be everywhere. But no, nothing up until yesterday. If you were really Peggy Carters granddaughter, that would make either your mother being her daughter, which could make sense, or Stark is her son. Starks parents were Howard and Maria, so I'm opting for the first option. Or even better, this is all just a big joke and Stark's already laughing his ass of."
"I won't contradict, neither support this theory. It's interesting. Question is, is it also true?"Charlie said with a typical Stark grin. Unfortunately it only caused Natasha to ask one question after another.
Fury, who'd been at Shield to deal with the criminals from the previous day, joined the team.
"I see you're already interrogating the kid."
"Yes, we came to an unpleasant conclusion. Something's not right." Said Nat glaring at Charlotte.
"Yeah, like what? Did she sneak up on you? Since you got nothing, I'm gonna need the kid. Charlotte, I wanted to talk about that trip to the Shield base you wanted. Don't scare my agents."
"I can't make any promises, however I won't do it intentionally." She said with an innocent smile.
"You're taking her to a Shield base? Sir, that's not a good idea, we just met her and though she is nice and all, but how do you know she's trustworthy?" asked Steve, not fond of the idea of an outsider roaming the halls of Shield. Natasha and Clint shared his opinion.
"That's too risky. What if she can't keep secrets? It's Starks kid for crying out loud! We all know what he's like."
"Yeah, he's right. There's something weird about her. She's a Stark on top of that."
"Hey, give the kid a chance. You guys don't know her. She's really nice." protested Bruce. Thor agreeing with the scientist was looking back and forth between the two sides as they argued with Charlotte ducking behind him.
"That's enough!" Fury yelled, causing Charlotte to hide completely behind Thor and everyone else to shut up. "She is going. It is my decision and I don't care about your opinion. Besides, she's been there a few times already anyway." Everyone looked at him. "I lied, ok. I met Charlotte when she was a kid. Director Carter would bring her around every so often, when her dad had to do business. Charlie's mom passed away when she was still a baby. I promised Peggy I'd make sure she was safe, kept away from everything. Peggy said one thing to me when she retired. To remember that she's as much a Carter as she is a Stark and so is Tony. And yes, she's exactly like Tony was when he was young. How about you leave the judging to after spending some time with her? Or at least hear Banner and Thor out, because they already did. Right now I'm considering her a lot more trustworthy than you. Sorry I left you alone here Charlie."
"At least now I see what they think of my dad… You don't know him at all. He may not be a hero for you, but he is for me and I could care less what you think. Somehow I thought that you are his friends, but now I wonder what kind of team are you if you don't even know each other?" said Charlie and walked away. Fury's gaze followed her to the elevator. He then turned to the Avengers.
"Satisfied? The kid has a point. You have to learn how to be a team, not only on missions. Get to know each other, trust each other. Accept the others, not scare them away like you did with the kid. Stark trusted you when he introduced her."
Meanwhile Charlotte was laying in one of the nets of the playground staring at the sky. It was cloudy, rain was starting to fall and it reflected her mood pretty well. She was right, they didn't like her. Cap was only interested because of Peggy, Clint obviously didn't like anyone with the name Stark and Natasha would have loved to hook her up on a lie detector. At least there were Bruce, Nick and Thor.
"You know, I'm kind of getting too old for this stuff. Not to mention the trouble with my heart. Move, I'm gonna sit here." Tony's head popped up next to her. Charlie dried her eyes.
"Where's Pepper?" "Unpacking. She still doesn't know you're here. So, what made you sad?"
"Why don't people like me?" "How did you come up with that?"
"The bullies at school, I don't have any friends and half of the Avengers would probably be glad if I didn't exist. That enough?" Tony looked into her eyes. Charlotte and other people didn't mix well. She'd been bullied at school, the friends she had, or thought she had turned out to be using her and threw her away like garbage once she was useless to them, telling her she will always be nothing. It was something Tony could relate to. Something he had so hard tried to avoid happening.
"I know, honey. I've been through the same. People are much more complicated than robots. Sometimes they do stuff you can't explain the reason for. It's like a storm. The only thing we can do is wait for the rain to end. The sun will come out every time and sometimes there's a rainbow as a bonus." Before Charlie could say something else Peppers shouting filled the floor.
"Tony! Where's the ceiling?" Tony looked at Charlie. They were busted. Tony jumped down first. "Hey, honey. To answer your question, the useless part of our ceiling was exchanged for a monkey playground. You know, to swing around and stuff." The Avengers, having heard Peppers shouts, were attracted to the floor.
Pepper stood there in the middle of the living room with her hands on her hips.
"I'm gone for 2 weeks and you set up a monkey playground? Now tell me you actually got a monkey here so I can kill you." She meant it and Tony just grinned. "Monkey! Pepper wants to meet you!" Taking it as a codeword, Charlotte jumped down in the most elegant way she knew. When Pepper saw her, everyone else had to cover their ears. "Charlotte! Oh my god! You're here. No wonder Tony behaved so secretive. I missed you so much."
"Pepper, don't choke her. She's too valuable." said Tony hugging both his girls, one arm around each one of them.
Cap turned to Natasha with a smile. "You know, now that they're standing side by side, you have to admit they look alike."
Next up: Fury and Charlotte at Shield, Avengers interrorgate Tony for a change and Charlotte meets a ghost (or at least someone everyone thinks is dead).