Minor edits from the original version.

Alright, here's the next chapter. Finally getting in to some good stuff.

Tippy: Thansk sissy! I'm trying to make as many sweet ones while I still can!

BuckyBarnes07: Thank you! Here's the next one!

crimson. blood .witch: Thank you!

Enjoy!

I didn't remember falling asleep in the garage. I had gone down late last night to apologize for going off on my dad, and I had stayed with him after that. He was working on remaking the arc reactor in his chest, giving himself an upgrade. Apparently I had fallen asleep, the exhaustion of everything hitting me finally. My dad had thrown a blanket over me, tucking me in on the couch. He was still sitting at his workstation, bent over the arc reactor. He had changed his clothes though, wearing a t-shirt and a pair of pajama pants.

I make my way over to the table, and he turns to glance at me before looking back at the arc reactor.

"Did you sleep last night, dad?"

He doesn't answer for a moment. "A little. You were out like a light and, given the state of your room, I just left you down here."

I nod. "Thanks. I'll put it all back, I just…"

He turns to look at me. "Hey. It's alright. I get it. You won't hurt my feelings if you get rid of some of it."

"Really?"

"Yeah. We'll have one of those celebrity yard sales. Donate the money to charity."

I smile. "Thanks, daddy."

He kisses my head before standing up. "I need your help with something. I just need to see how big your hands are."

I frown. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"Just let me see your hands." I hold them up and he looks them over. "You have tiny hands."

"Thanks, dad. That's great for my self esteem."

"In this case, that's a good thing."

He sets up one of his work chairs, programming the monitors behind him so that JARVIS can track his vitals. He gets himself set up, grabbing the new arc reactor off the table before motioning to me.

"I need your help." I come over to him as he sits back in the chair, pulling his shirt off. "There's an exposed wire under the reactor. It's making contact with the socket wall and causing a short." He pulls out the old reactor, handing it to me. "Put that over there and then come help me lift the wire out."

I set the old reactor on the table, turning back to him and the giant hole in his chest. I wasn't excited about doing this, but I had watched Yinsen do it. So I figured I could do it.

"There's a copper wire inside. Just be gentle. Treat it like Operation."

"I suck at Operation."

He gives me a look which I ignore, slowly sticking my hand in the socket. There's warm goop inside, making me wince. "I don't even want to know what that is."

"It's an inorganic plasmic discharge from the device."

"I just said I don't want to know." I dig around a little in there, finding the wire.

I may have accidentally let it touch the socket wall, jolting him a little. I'm a little distracted from my satisfaction and accidentally pull the wire out all the way, the monitors starting to beep.

"Dad…"

"It's okay, it's okay, just put it on the table."

I nervously put it on the table. "What did I do?"

"It's okay. I just wasn't expecting it. But we gotta get the other one in."

I nod, taking the new arc reactor, attaching the cords at the bottom to the baseplate like he says. He pushes the reactor the rest of the way in, shaking off whatever I had done to him.

"See? It's okay. I'm okay. You're okay."

I look down. "I messed up. I could have done something worse."

He cups my chin, lifting my face. "Hey, it's alright. We all make mistakes. But I'm in one piece." He looks down at his chest. "Figuratively." He gets up out of his chair, wiping his chest off with the towel before tossing it to me.

"Dad?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't ask me to do something like that again."

He gives me a serious look. "But you're all I have. Besides Pepper and you know she'd never be able to handle that."

I can't help but crack a smile. "That's true. What do you want me to do with this?" I hold up the old reactor.

"Destroy it. Get rid of it."

I frown. "You don't want to keep it?"

"I have been called many things, but nostalgic is not one of them."

I frown, turning the reactor in my hands as my dad goes back to cleaning up his lab. "I'm gonna go clean up my room now."

I head up the stairs, keeping the reactor in my hand, a plan forming in my head for it.

As the months go by, my dad and I get back into the swing of things. We have the yard sale, getting rid of a lot of my stuff that I never used: jewelry, clothes, shoes. I donate all of the money to charity, making the news for a day. People started talking again, saying I was doing better than my dad was. If only they knew.

My dad works on remodeling his garage. Changing things up, he said. But I knew he was planning something. Burying himself in his garage wasn't anything unusual for him, but now I knew things had changed and I was curious as to what he was doing. So naturally, I went to check it out.

Of course I had the worst timing possible.

My dad was standing in his new testing area, hooked up to something. I could see he had his bots close by, Dummy with the extinguisher attachment on his head. I quickly type in my password, just in time so see my dad fly backwards, hitting the wall behind him before falling to the ground. Dummy blasts him with the fire extinguisher, even though he's not on fire.

"Dad!" I rush over, trying to clear the air around him. "What the hell are you doing?"

He looks up at me, wincing. "You saw that?"

"Uh, yeah! I did!" I look down at the contraption on his bottom half. "You're rebuilding it?"

He winces as I help him stand up, adjusting a few wires. "More like improving it."

I look down, studying the boots. "Can I help?"

I can tell it takes him by surprise. I had never really offered to help him on a project before. At least not this monumental. Sure, we had rebuilt a couple of car engines and he had shown me around Stark Industries, but he had never really gotten me involved in his tinkering before. I knew a little, a lot of it I learned in the cave, but I felt like I needed to help him with this.

He regards me for a few moments, before nodding. "Sure."

My face lights up. "Really?"

"Yeah. Maybe it'll be good for you. I can teach you everything I know."

"But that's a lot of stuff."

"Well then I hope you're a fast learner."

My dad walks me through what he's done already, stopping to explain to me stuff that I don't understand. He's patient with me, helping me along. It's nice, spending time with him like this. I don't get to see him work often and he's so focused it's amazing. It's like the two sides to my dad. The partying playboy and the focused engineer and they somehow lived together in one person. But ever since our time in the cave, I noticed the focused engineer was starting to come out more. Maybe things really were changing for the better.

The days start to blur together, and I realize now how my dad could work for hours without realizing it. I had started to do the same with him, helping him finish the adjustments on the lower portion of the suit before starting on the upper portions. I, often times, would take breaks to get packages of parts that would arrive, sometimes multiple times a day. My dad really was serious about rebuilding the suit, making it better. He wouldn't tell me what for, but I had a feeling I knew already.

A few days later we finish the first attempt at the flight stabilizer. I got it all hooked to my dad, making sure the wires were in the right place before Pepper comes in, surprising us both.

"I've been buzzing you. Did you hear the intercom?"

Neither of us had. "Yeah, everything's...what?"

"Obadiah's upstairs." I hold in a groan.

"Great. I'll be right up." My dad says, not even paying attention.

My dad gets the arm piece up, getting ready to test fire it, handing me the button.

"I thought you said you were done making weapons." Pepper says, watching my dad too.

"This is a flight stabilizer. It's completely harmless. Zinny, any time now."

I hit the button, the stabilizer firing up before throwing him backwards, shooting a few items off of the table. I duck down to avoid getting hit, peeking out from under the table. "It worked!"

"Yeah, too well."

I hurry over, helping my dad up, my dad sending Pepper to tell Obie that he'd be right up. I didn't want to see Obie anymore than I had to. I help my dad get untangled from the wires, making sure he's okay before he goes upstairs. I elect to stay downstairs, tinkering with the project I had been working on. It was almost done, just missing the glass case.

My dad comes back down, looking like something's bothering him. I don't push it, knowing it more than likely has something to do with the company with Obie being involved. We continue to work on the suit, my dad working with a new drive behind him.

Another month goes by and we start on the outer casing of the suit, shaping and welding the metal to fit. It's a long process, but it gives us both time to think. My dad works on figuring out how to fly with the suit, nearly taking out a few cars in the process, before finally getting it down. Finally we're almost finished with the suit, my dad waiting for the perfect time to take it for a test ride. He had set up a comm system inside, allowing him to keep contact with JARVIS, and so he could link everything back to me.

I was happy he trusted me enough to be his pit crew. I was slightly nervous, hoping I could do everything right and not mess up again, and keep him from flying into something or crashing and burning. I didn't want to be the cause of my dad getting hurt, and it was a lot of pressure, most if it being put on me by myself. But I was excited too, being able to share this with my dad.

I sit at what he calls his control station, getting everything booted up, testing everything with JARVIS' help.

"Is everything good on your end?" My dad's voice sounds strange coming through the suit.

"Ready and uploaded." I say into the comm.

"Great. Have JARVIS start listening on ground control and do a weather and ATC check."

I run the programs, JARVIS hacking in to ground control, giving me a feed. "Weather's clear. No air traffic currently coming in either. You're clear to fly."

"Ready? In three, two, one."

The thrusters at the base of the suit start up, lifting him off the ground before he goes flying through the garage door, shooting out of the mansion. I watch the flight specs, keeping an eye on air traffic, listening on the comms.

"Can you still read me?" His voice crackles through the comm.

"Loud and clear, daddyo! How's she doing?"

"Handles like a dream."

I watch the suit specs, power levels and any interference that could come through. So far everything looked fine. That was, until my dad got the idea to test the altitude levels. He decided to push as high as he could, despite me warning him that his signal was coming in and out. And then everything went dark.

"Dad? Dad do you read me?" I check the comm link, but it's on, on my end. "JARVIS?"

"It appears we have lost contact." JARVIS' words don't make me feel any better.

"Come on, dad." I try to figure out a way to get his suit back online, trying to get remote access from his last GPS log.

Finally everything comes back online, and I get a reading on his suit again.

"Dad?"

"You're loud and clear Zinnia!"

I breathe a sigh of relief. "Thank god. Don't ever do that to me again!"

"Sorry, Zinny. I'm alright. Heading back to you."

"See you soon, Dad. You're clear for air traffic."

I wait patiently, my present for him waiting beside me. I had finished it a couple days ago but hadn't worked up the courage to give it to him. I figured celebrating his first flight would be a good time. That is, until he comes crashing through the roof, breaking the piano in half and completely crushing one of his cars. Thankfully Dummy was there to put out the nonexistent fire.