Chapter 14

It was Daisy's first night in the house in months, but she wasn't going to let Tony know that. They managed to get Tony into the passenger's seat, unsure whether he was even okay to be driving. Something was very much different with him, and whether or not he was okay was yet to be seen. Obadiah and everyone with shares in Stark Industries thought he was insane, but Daisy wasn't sure. So weapons manufacturing was 90% of what they did, but it was the worse 90%. The good stuff they did was the rest, and if Daisy could see that perhaps Tony was just seeing that as well.

Or maybe they were right and he was suffering from PTSD. Having your own weapons turned against you would be enough to drive the strongest person to terror and insanity. Maybe he was just scared that if he allowed weapons to continue being built they would be turned on him again.

Daisy didn't know, and she didn't care. All she cared about was that Tony was alive and back. She was going to find some way to bring normality back to their lives. She was going to find some way to fix this giant mess they were living in.

"Did they tell you anything?" Daisy was awkwardly standing in the living room, watching Tony awkwardly standing in the living room. It was like that first night all over again; neither of them knew how to act. "Did they tell you about…" He pointed to his chest, and Daisy nodded. "Want to see it?"

No, she very much did not, but Tony pulled off his shirt. The arc reactor shone in his chest, and Daisy couldn't help but think about what it was doing. If it was to come out he'd die. Metal was ripping through him, edging towards his heart, trying to kill him. Only that larger piece of metal and genius was keeping him alive.

"Does it hurt?" Daisy asked looking at him warily. "Does it feel like there's something in your chest?"

"I can feel it," Tony admitted pulling his shirt back on. "But it doesn't exactly hurt. It's like how you feel your heart, but it doesn't hurt." And like a heart if his arc reactor broke he'd die. "Anyway, it's late, you should get to bed."

Daisy could have argued that it was summer and she was 16 and didn't have a bedtime, but she didn't bother. She didn't want to fight with him now that he was home. She just wanted to be glad he was. "I'm not going to make you tell me what happened over there," she told him with a pointed look. "But you need to tell someone, or you're going to drive yourself insane."

"I learned how far a man must go for his family," Tony told her as she went to leave. "And I learned that I missed you every single day. That's what matters. Nothing else… not even this arc reactor… none of it matters as much as that."

Daisy so wanted to believe it. In all the months he'd been gone she should have forgiven him, but looking at him now she realized she hadn't. She just couldn't get past how terribly he'd screwed up the first time. Maybe he swore to try now, and maybe he would succeed, but the pain was there. That disappointment might never go away. She just had to try and live with it. "Goodnight Tony."

"Goodnight Daisy."

Daisy awoke the next morning to her phone ringing. Caller ID said it was Tony, and she instantly panicked. Was something wrong? He should have been in the house, so why was he calling her? What was wrong that he was calling her from in the house? "Hello?"

"You have small hands right?"

Daisy looked down at her hands. They weren't tiny or anything, but they were definitely smaller than Tony's. "Yeah, I guess so. What's wrong?"

"Come down to the workshop, I need your hands."

Tony hung up, and Daisy barely threw on a bra before running down the stairs. He was acting so weird something had to be wrong. Sure, he always acted weird, but he'd never asked for her help before with a project. He'd probably gotten hurt or something and needed her help or…

Tony was sitting topless in a chair, his arc reactor in his hands. Daisy wanted to scream, but held it in. Was he trying to kill himself? Why would he possibly take that out of him! And where was the other one coming from? He'd been home for a single night and built a new one.

"There's a little wire, behind this," Tony told Daisy handing her the old arc reactor. "I need you to put the old one on the table over there and then pull out this little copper wire." Daisy stared at horror. "Don't worry, it's perfectly safe. Just don't let it touch the edges or pull out the magnet at the end."

Daisy listened carefully, and reached in. There was a terrible squishing, but she just remembered that she was literally holding his life in her hands and carried on. Oh God why did he do things like this? She was 16 and so not supposed to be digging in his chest playing Operation! "Okay, I have the wire, just pull it out?"

"And be careful of the magnet."

She suspected that without the magnet he'd go into cardiac arrest, and pulled on the wire carefully. He hands wanted to shake, but she focused on keeping them steady and not killing him. Carefully she got out the wire, and helped him get the new reactor in place.

"See, that's why I called you and not Pepper because she would have pulled out the magnet."

"Don't ever ask me to do something like that again!" Daisy howled horrified. If something had gone wrong… "I don't want your life in my hands. I can't deal with it."

Tony looked down. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked you to do that. The good news is this upgraded version won't expire in a few days and kill me." Daisy paled at the thought. "It's fine, you did fine. Why don't you give that old arc reactor to Pepper, have her burn it or something."

"Fine," Daisy sighed storming up the stairs. He was so stupid for a genius. She shouldn't have had to do that. She wasn't sure she'd ever breathe again after doing that.

"What's that in your hand?" Pepper asked when Daisy appeared in the kitchen. "Oh my God you didn't just pull that from his chest!"

Daisy was annoyed at Tony, true, but they'd just established that she didn't want him dead. "I did, but only because he told me to. He's fine, go and see. He wants you to burn this or something."

Pepper took the arc reactor warily. "He doesn't want to keep it?"

"When is he ever nostalgic?" Daisy answered with a shrug. "I have my classes to work on. Tell him I'm in my room and just call if he needs any more surgery."

Tony was standing in the doorway, and Daisy knew it. Good. He deserved to hear her bitter words. Here he was talking about family, and trying, but he was doing a bang-up job at it.

"You can't just do stuff like this to her!" Pepper was yelling at Tony, apparently caring more about the girl she'd lived with for three months than her job. "She's been a mess Tony,and you can't make it worse by doing things like this. She hasn't stopped working. She asked me if I thought she was smart enough to take over Stark industries. She thinks if she graduates early people will think she's qualified for it when the time comes. She hasn't stopped working to impress you. Even when it looked like you weren't coming back. Don't put more stress on her!"

Adults sure loved to yell about her well being as if she couldn't hear them, and it drove Daisy nuts. She was fine. She wasn't some fragile doll like Pepper thought. She was just driven. (Who was she kidding, Daisy had been a complete mess, and would be for some time more. Her life was pretty stressful.)

"She doesn't even care about the company. Why would she care about taking over it to impress me?"

"Because you're her father and the only family she's got! So start acting like a father and thinking before you drive her over the edge."

Daisy wasn't sure what edge there was for her to fall over. She'd gone down when Tony disappeared, and now she was just trying to learn how to fly again.