Chapter 7: 3 Months Of Hell
For the next week or so, Daisy began to focus on school. Something she had never done before in the past. She needed this though, to keep her mind off Tony. A distraction.
He was scheduled to be home in three weeks' time and already a week had passed. Pepper avoided her for the most part and the only person she saw was Happy and that was only because he was her driver.
Sitting on the couch with a biology book in her lap and a pencil dangling from her finger tips. She tapped the pencil absently against her book.
The TV making white noise in the background. A door slammed from the entryway and heavy footsteps echoed on the wooden floors.
Pepper walked in a look of death written all over her face. Turning to face Daisy her lips parted slightly, her eyes wide and unshed tears began sliding down her cheeks.
Standing up, her text book sliding off her lap. "Pepper, what's wrong?" she asked. Taking a hesitant step towards her. "What happened?" she pleaded begging Pepper to say something.
"Tony, he… he's missing" she choked. Letting out a sob. "What?" she whispered. Not comprehending what Pepper was saying.
"There was an explosion…. They were attacked and now Tony is just…. He's gone" Pepper sobbed. The tears flowing from her cheeks.
Everything felt numb to Daisy. She couldn't speak and she couldn't move. Standing there her gaze drifting past Pepper. The last words that she had ever said to Tony running through her head.
She could vaguely hear a voice calling out to her but it felt so far away. Her eyes beginning to mist, blinded by tears. She wasn't aware of anything anymore, it was like a part of her had been shut off.
Her heart began to rapidly pound in her chest, like a hummingbird flapping its wings and her stomach felt like there were bee's swarming around in it.
She could breathe, everything just stopped. A roar sounding in her ears and then screaming…. Shouting really. "Daisy! Daisy!" a voice screamed. Feeling hands on her shoulders, shaking her roughly she looked up startled.
Pepper was staring at her wide eyed. Yelling something at her, blinking away the tears. She turned looking around at her surroundings.
Everything was trembling. Quaking all around them. In the kitchen, she could hear dishes crashing to the ground, shattering. The TV exploding and the sound of windows everywhere bursting.
"An earthquake, Daisy! We have to leave, get out of here it's not safe" Pepper yelled. Trying to get her to move. Stumbling to her feet. She found herself being dragged by Pepper, out the door.
The ground shook beneath her feet. Taking a deep breath, she tried to calm her rapidly beating heart. Closing her eyes, she shut out everything and ignored Pepper, she just needed to calm down.
The shaking began to stop and everything became still. Wiping her tears absently, she turned and collapsed into Peppers arms and sobbed.
"It's all my fault, everything is my fault" she choked. Tony, her dad was dead because of her and she would never be able to take back those words she had said to him, they were final.
She could feel Pepper slowly rapping her arms around her neck, softly soothing her. "Shhh its ok, whatever it is I'm sure it's not your fault. Let's just talk about this" She murmured in a gentle voice.
"Before he left I told him to just go and die and now he's missing. This is all my fault" she yelled. Trembling in Pepper's arms.
"I'm sure it's not your fault" Pepper soothed trying to comfort her.
"I never even gave him a chance" Daisy whispered. Pulling away to wipe at her eyes. "I told him that he couldn't be my dad. What kind of person does that?" she said. Turning away from Pepper.
"I'm a horrible person" She said. Her eyes filling with tears again. "No, Daisy you're not. You're just a girl, who made a mistake. We all make mistakes it's what makes us human"
"Ya know, I tried to come up with a reason for why I had said all of that to him and there was only one answer I could come up with" she said.
"I thought that if, I let him into my life, if I excepted him as my dad. Then my parents the ones who raised me would never love me" She whispered.
"All this time, I have just wanted them to love me. I would have done anything to gain that love and I didn't want Tony to be the reason that they never excepted me, but he wasn't it. The truth is they're never going to love me, no matter what I do" She said. Looking over at Pepper.
"But, Tony… he loves me. Why don't they love me?" she sobbed turning back to Pepper as the older woman rapped her arms Daisy and held her.
"Sometimes, that's just the way people are" Pepper said. "One day you'll find that you can't change another person. No matter how hard you try" she said to the broken girl in her arms.
The days after went by in a blur and it was the same old, same old. She went to school, came home, did her homework, and went to bed.
After about a month the lawyers had come. Tony hadn't been found and the state had come to take her back. Pepper offered to be her legal guardian.
Moving in with the older woman was strange. When she had lived with Tony she hadn't needed to worry about seeing him but now Pepper was around all the time.
On the second month, she told Pepper that she wanted to change her last name and that's how Daisy Louise Johnson became Daisy Louise Stark. People would know who she was now, if they hadn't before.
Rhodey searched tirelessly for her father but no traces of Tony were found and already two months had gone by. Daisy was a wreck, she couldn't seem to sort out what she was feeling and for the first time in her life she had felt real grief.
She had only known Tony a short while but the pure grief was unmistakable. She didn't know how she was going to get through this.
Pepper wouldn't stop crying. Daisy suspected that she had loved Tony. She wanted to ask her, but didn't.
On the third month Rhodey began searching for a body. He didn't have to say it. She just knew. Tony had been missing for three months. The hope for survival had dropped after month two and now the odds of him being alive were slim to none.
She missed him maybe more than she had thought.
Sitting in class, barely paying attention to anything the teacher was saying to her. The door opened and someone walked in handing a note to the teacher and murmuring something. "Miss Stark?" A voice asked causing her to look up.
Waving a note at Daisy. She stood up grabbing it and walked out of the class. Pepper was waiting in the counselor's office and for a first time in a long time, there was a smile on her face.
"They found him, they found him" She breathed. Hugging the girl tight.
Standing next to Pepper. She wasn't sure how to proceed with the news. She hadn't expected him to come back and now he was. She didn't want him to hate her though for what happened and she was worried that he would.
She could see the plane landing and next to her Pepper clutched her hand. Rhodey appeared, wheeling Tony out. After the wheel chair, had hit the asphalt He stood up, waving the ambulance away despite Rhodey's protest.
Making his way over to them. Her heart began to pound louder in her chest the closer he got, until he stopped right in front of them.
"Your eyes are red, have you been crying? Tears for your long-lost boss" he said. A grin slowly sliding onto his face.
He was still the same, despite what he had endured. Pepper said something in return but she wasn't paying attention enough to understand what the woman had said. Her focus was solely on Tony.
His eyes moving away from Pepper before they landed on her. She didn't know what to say next, she didn't know how he was going to react, but hugging her was the one thing she had not expected.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry" He mumbled his voice coming out muffled. Standing there she could feel tears coming to her eyes. Letting out a sob. "No, I am the one who is sorry" she said.
Slowly rapping her arms around his waist, she hugged him back. "Tony, you need to go to a hospital" Pepper said drawing their attention away from each other.
"No, I need to have a press conference, make it happen" he said walking past towards the car. Daisy turned, frowning as she looked at Pepper who shrugged.
The press conference is short. Tony has announced that as of now. They wouldn't be manufacturing any more weapons, even though the company makes 90% of the profit in weapons manufacturing.
After that, they made their way home. Her and Tony never having had the chance to talk yet. She was dreading it, she honestly didn't know what to say to him and that made her more nervous.
Stepping through the door she stood there uncertain. Tony walking in, like he hadn't been gone for over three months. Pepper nudged her gently and nodded to Tony before walking away.
Opening her mouth, she tried to say something but the words wouldn't come. Taking a deep breath, she tried again. "Tony?" She asked causing him to turn to face her. "About what I said. The last time we saw each other…" slowly getting her bearings Tony cut her off.
"It doesn't matter what you said. I never stopped thinking about you. Every day that I was trapped there, I just thought of you and that was the only reason I made it out of there at all" he said. A smile donning his face.
"I didn't mean it. What I said and when I said it. Just the heat of the moment kind of thing and I realize now that I pushed you away because I thought that if my parents found out that I was close to you that they wouldn't want me and I have tried for so long to get both to love me that I just can't, I can't keep holding out hope that they'll love me" she said her voice shaking.
"So, I want to try this again. Us being a family. You being my father and me being your daughter. I even changed my name to Daisy Stark because I wanted something to remember you by" She said.
"Wait… you changed your name for me?" he asked, before pulling her into a tight hug. Nodding slowly, she smiled. "Of course, dad" She said her voice muffled.
Pulling away fast he looked at her. "You just called me dad?" he said. Is voice held a hint of shock in it. "Yes, I hope that's ok, you are my dad" she said her voice getting quiet.
"Don't be stupid I 've been waiting for you to call me dad since the moment I met you" he said a grin forming onto his face.
"Baby steps" she said giving him a soft smile. "Huh?" he asked confused. "I know that you love me. Right now, though I am not sure what I feel and I don't know if I can say that I love you yet but I can acknowledge you as my father" she said.
She was almost positive that her dad couldn't get happier than he was right now.
A few days into her dad being back. Daisy had been on the couch, mindlessly flipping through channels. When she heard a loud crashing, sound coming from below.
"Jesus Christ!" she yelled. Jumping up she ran down the steps, typing in the code hurriedly as the door opened and ran into the garage.
Standing there dumbfounded as her dad hovered over the ground dressed in a weird metal suit she only had three words to say. "What the hell?"
