A Merry Belated Christmas to you all! I hope you had a marvelous holiday and if you are having bad weather I hope you stay safe and warm!

I'll have a AN at the bottom that I hope you all take a look at!

Read, Review, And Enjoy!

Chapter Thirteen

The pain had ebbed a little and I could start thinking a little more clearly. Ivan had moved on from me and was at the computer typing.

I glanced up at Ivan and wondered, how could somebody fall so hard? He was smart, he clearly was fit. What could the Stark family have done to his to cause this?

Ivan stopped typing and turned around to glance over at me. I would be lying if I said I wasn't terrified. "Don't worry," he said. "I'll finish with you shortly."

I swallowed and forced the sob back down.

Ivan turned back to the computer while I glanced around the room, trying to find something to help me.

Maybe Krav Maga? I thought to myself. Or Muay Thai? Focusing on the things I needed to do after I got out of here was helping me calm my nerves down. Which was slowing my breathing.

Ok Scarlett, focus.

The chair was on wheels so I pushed myself to the left, pausing after a couple of seconds, looking up to see Ivan was too busy typing to notice.

"But as revolutionary as this technology is," I could hear Justin's voice from the video feed on the screen.

I need to help Pepper with the company transition. I thought as I scooted over to the left a little more.

There was silence from the feed and then I could hear the crowd cheering. He's there, I thought to myself as I finally made it to my destination.

"Try this," Ivan said.

I snapped my head from my task to the screen. "No," I breathed out as I saw the screen. Ivan was hacking Uncle Rhode's suit.

Ivan smirked as I let out another, "No."

"Deploy," Ivan taunted as the drones all armed themselves and took off.

I couldn't help but stare at the tiny screen. People were running away and screaming from the Expo. Please let no one get hurt. I sent out to whoever wanted to listen.

Scarlett, focus, my inner voice chided.

I reached forward with my right hand and gritted my teeth as pain coursed through my hand but I managed to grab a knife from the worktable. I glanced over at Ivan as he leaned back in his chair so he could watch the chaos. I looked back down at the knife and very gently started to cut the wires that I was tied up with.

I had finished the right hand and started on the left. I nicked the side of my wrist as I reached a particularly tough wire.

I shot a glance back up at Ivan who had taken his sunglasses off and was typing a little more urgently.

With both hands free the next part to work on was my chest.

Halfway through my cutting I froze, the alarms had started to go off. Thank god, help was here.

Ivan pulled up the camera security feed, I couldn't help but grin at Natasha kicking ass as she headed towards us.

There was a flash of something by the windows and smirked as I saw my red and blue best friend.

Ivan huffed and spun around in his seat.

Unfortunately for me I was in his direct eye sight.

"Fuck," I whispered to myself as he stood up and stalked over to me.

Yanking the knife from my broken fingers I cried out as I suddenly found my tool to escape pressed against my throat."You and your father are parasites, feeding off the work of others," he growled out.

The knife was pressed deeply into my throat. I couldn't form a reply without getting cut.

"You know, I always found that older men picking on young women gross," I heard Spiderman behind me.

Ivan wasn't paying any attention to him though as he started to draw the knife against my throat.

I closed my eyes and braced myself for death as I heard the release of Peter's web shooters.

The knife flew away from me as I heard Ivan yelp out in shock. I opened my eyes and saw Ivan charge at Peter. I kept trying to wiggle out of my bonds as I heard tables fall.

"Hey red," Peter said to me as he finished ripping the wires away. "You okay?"

"Where is Ivan?" I asked, cringing at the amount of fear in my voice.

"He ran away," Peter said. "I'll admit he kinda ran me over, grabbed a suit and left."

I sighed as I laid my forehead against his. "My fingers," I whimpered out. The immediate trouble was out of the area and I couldn't help myself start to break down.

Scarlett, my inner voice chided.

I sniffed, stuffing my feelings back in as much as I could back inside. Peter glanced at my fingers. "Let's get you to the hospital," he said.

I wanted to, oh god I wanted to go so badly. But the feed from the Expo was still going. Uncle Rhodey was still locked onto my dad. There was no one who knew our weapons system like me. "I can't," I said. "Not yet."

Peter looked up at me in confusion.

"I need to get to the computer." I said.

"You can't type."

I groaned, leaning my head back. "Can you, you know?"

There was a moment of pause. "You want me to realign your fingers?"

I hiccupped as I nodded my head. "Just like use your web stuff like a cast, please."

Peter sighed as he brought me something to bite down on. "Ready?" he asked.

I tried to relax myself as Peter grabbed my first finger. Scarlett, be brave, my inner voice encouraged definitely didn't play out in real life as it did in my head. For the first it hurt way more than I thought it did. And second, it wasn't the quick fix I thought it would be as Peter wrapped some of his webbing around my finger.

The door opened and my head snapped towards it. Natasha had finally showed up, and she was with Happy. She took a step towards me and I noticed the look in her eyes.

"He's a friend," I managed to hoarse out.

Natasha nodded her head and she became a little less hostile as she walked over to us.

"Her fingers," Peter said as he aligned the second one.

I screamed as that was wrapped too.

"No stop," I begged as Peter went to my right hand. "I can't, please."

"Clara," Natasha said. "Look at me."

I opened my eyes and through my tears I managed to look her in the eyes.

"Why aren't you going to the hospital, why are you staying here?" She asked.

"Because I need to h-help," I didn't say anything as I managed to calm myself down. I glanced at Peter and nodded my head for him to continue; two down, one to go.

The last one was the worst and I didn't even try to stop the tears as they trickled down my cheeks.

They gave me a moment to collect myself as Happy helped me from my chair. He gave me a hug, burying my head into his shoulder I took some steadying breaths, breathing in the familiar scent of Happy. He was my anchor right now.

"Let's save your dad," he said.

I nodded my head and took a step back and headed over to the computers. I pulled the chair that Ivan was in and sat down. I took a moment to glance over the actual information that was scrolling past. One screen was Rhodey's suit, the others were dedicated to the Expo and the droids.

"First things first," I mumbled to myself as I started the system reboot on Uncle Rhodey's suit.

I glanced over at what was happening and picked up the typing speed as much as I could with my fingers, so I could help. The machine gun was going off right next to my dad's head. "Got it," I exclaimed as the entire suit shut down.

"What happened?" My dad asked.

I activated the microphone on our end. "You just got your best friend back," I said.

"Scarlett?" My dad asked.

I couldn't help the smile that broke across my face. "I'm here dad," I replied."Are you safe?" He asked.

I glanced back at my little gang of saviors, and noticed Spiderman give me a two finger salute wave as he snuck out of the window.

"I'm safe," I replied.

I could hear the breath of relief leave my dad. "Thank god," he murmured to himself.

I hacked into the Iron Man suit and pulled my dad's vitals up. "Looks like the baddassium is doing its job," I said as I felt the first shot of happiness run through me since that night with Loki.

"Yes, for the moment I'm not dying," my dad replied.

"What do you mean you're not dying?" I heard my mom yell. "Did you just say you're dying?"

"Why didn't you tell me your mom was on the line?" Dad asked me.

"I didn't know," I confessed. But I couldn't deny the pleasure that I got from my dad realizing that Pepper was my mom.

"You knew!" Pepper yelled. "You knew and you didn't tell me?"

"I didn't want to alarm you," my dad said.

"I was waiting for him to tell you?" I offered looking at the screen that Pepper was on.

"You are not off the hook, young lady," Pepper said pointing a finger at me.

"Mom, I'm helping save the day," I whined.

"True, leave her alone, you can ground her later," my dad piped in."Dad!" I yelled feeling betrayed that he was going to throw me under the bus like that.

"Scarlett, focus," my dad said.

I smiled at hearing my inner voice once again. I don't know why but somehow it's always been my dad that's in my noggin telling my to calm down and focus.

"Right," I said as I began typing again. I bit my lip as the pain lurched through me again. "Hammeroids."

My dad started to laugh. "Hammeroids," he said. "That's a good one."

"Ok, they've broken off and are heading to you," I said looking at the map. "Along with something that's reading a higher power rate then the droids, its gotta be Ivan, I saw him working on a suit here."

"Heard," my dad and Rhodey said as I turned to start depowering every droid that I could. I focused on the ones closest to the Expo. It was slow going but I was working as fast as I could.

"Mom," I said turning towards her. "We need to start evacuating every one there, call the fire department and I'll start making sure the trains are running towards the Expo."

She nodded as she started making the appropriate calls.

"You're ok," she asked as she was on hold. "The both of you."

"I'm fine, don't be mad," my dad pleaded.

"I'll get there," I whispered quietly.

"I am mad!" She yelled.

I managed a half grin as she suddenly turned into her usual business mode.

I turned my attention back to my dad and Rhodey as they were preparing for their battle. I went back to powering down the droids.

"Is there anything else that you can do?" Natasha asked me.

"Not really," I admitted. "It's up to the heroes now."

"Then let's get you to a doctor," she said.

I nodded my head and Happy helped me stand up before picking me up bridal style.

"What are you doing?" I asked as we made our way out of the room into the hall.

Happy just ignored me as I stared at the bodies that littered the hall.

"You're a bad ass, Natasha," I mumbled as I snuggled into Happy.

"Hey, I helped," Happy said.I peeked my eyes over at Natasha and saw her smug look. "Will you train me?" I asked. "I'm pretty sick of getting kidnapped."

"Maybe," she replied.

I took that answer as I felt my eyelids start to drop. I was coming down off my high, I had been kidnapped and semi tortured, I still felt guilt over that man's death. I fought to stay awake, to make it through the end of the mission.

We walked outside and Happy stuck me in the back of the car.

"Take us to the S.H.I.E.L.D. office," Natasha said as she got into the backseat of the car with me.

"No creepy doctor," I mumbled as I laid my head against the window. "And no orange gunk."

"Orange gunk?" Happy asked as he turned us onto the highway.

"Why?" Natasha asked sounding surprised.

"Makes me feel funny," I told her. I watched the passing street lights as Happy sped past them. Thinking about my family kept me awake; wondering whether or not they were safe from the fight or pulled into the lot of the S.H.I.E.L.D. base Natasha directed us to, he led me to a small doctor's room as she went to go get a doctor she trusted. The woman was nice, British. Turns out she wasn't exactly a doctor, more BioChem according to her. But I took a liking to her and knew I was going to request her as often as I could. She took the webbing cast that Peter gave me off and fixed my fingers. I had gone pretty numb from the morphine I was given and to be honest I really wasn't paying attention to anything the girl was saying. I just nodded every time she gave me a moment to respond.

There was a knock on the door and I glanced at it as Happy walked in.

"Just heard from your dad," he said. "He and Pepper are safe."

The coil that was wrapped around my heart loosened at that news. They were safe.

"Thank you," I whispered. "Can I talk to him?"

"He's already headed out here," Happy promised.

I gave him a grateful smile.

"All set," the doc/BioChem expert said. "I'm giving you another dose of morphine, your fingers are going to be pretty sore but they should heal up just fine."

I turned a thankful smile at her, and my eyes started to flutter as that extra dose hit me. I lay on the tiny table and closed my eyes, waiting for my dad to come here.I woke up in a bed. I pulled the covers off of me and sat up. I glanced down at my hands, my fingers were in splints. Rubbing my eyes with my palms I looked around the room.

It wasn't a hospital room, nor was it a holding room in a S.H.I.E.L.D. facility. It was beautiful and filled with furniture that was nice.

I stood up and noticed I was dressed in pj's and not a hospital gown.

"The hell?" I asked to myself as I opened the door and walked down the hall.

I don't know where I was, but it wasn't a terrifying feeling. It was like waking up in a hotel the first night of a vacation. I padded barefoot into an open living room area; I noticed that it wasn't completely finished I noticed.

"There she is," I heard my dad's voice.

I turned and saw him walking down a different hallway towards us.

He was healthy; I could tell just by looking at him, the bags from under his eyes were gone.

I couldn't help the smile that reached my face, nor the happy tears that sprung to my eyes. But the running towards him and the launching into him as hugged him tight, that was all me.

"I'm so sorry," I heard my dad say over and over again as he hugged me back.

"It's ok," I repeated every time he apologized.

Because it was, everything was ok, here between the two of us at this moment in time. Everything was ok. Sure, we had a lot to work on, communication being the first thing we needed to tackle. And we will, I knew it.

But for now, I was Scarlett Stark, heir to the Stark empire, I was eighteen (and a half, if we want to get technical), my biological mom left me but I was ok with it (at the moment). I have a huge social anxiety issue and am prone to panic attacks when overwhelmed. I'm the daughter to Iron Man, I'm the adopted daughter to the woman who raised me. I am loved by people, who may or may not have a little extra super pep to their step. But for now, everything was ok.

Hand me crazy family drama and I will run to the hills.

But superheroes? Those, I've accepted

The next morning brought my dad and I to Pepper's office. I glanced at my dad who was sitting as awkwardly as I was in these seats.

"Do you really have no idea why Pepper told us to come?" I asked for what seemed like the hundredth time.

My dad shook his head again. "How many times are you going to ask this?" he asked.

I shrugged my shoulders as I turned forward to face her desk. Well I wasn't staring at the desk, I was staring at whatever contraption that Pepper had on her desk.

It went round and round like some kind of demented windmill, I fell into silence as I stared at the piece.

"Is it art?" I asked my dad, not taking my eyes from it.

"I'm not sure," he responded as I moved forward to reach the paperclip holder on the desk. Maybe I could stop the spinning.

"Don't bother," my dad said as I picked up the cup. "Already tried."

I sighed as I sat back in my seat. The door opened and we both turned around to see Pepper walk in.

"I'm glad you two made it," she said as Happy stepped into the room and shut the door.

"Anytime Pep," my dad said with a soft smile on his face.

I found myself feeling giddy at seeing my parents finally realizing that they loved each other. "What's up?" I asked as I turned to face my mom.

"You two need to have a talk," she instructed. "And this is where you are going to have it."

I opened my mouth and the closed it before looking at my dad who was as uncomfortable as I was.

"We, actually, are good," I said to Pepper.

"Yep," my dad shot out. "All good."

"Hugged it out," I said as I stood up.

"All on the same page," my dad said following my lead and standing up.

We turned to leave when we saw Happy cross his arms over his chest.

"Not so fast," Pepper said.

We froze and turned around to face her.

"Sit." She commanded pointing her finger at the chairs.

My dad and I tiptoed back to the chairs and took a seat.

"You walked out of the press conference months ago," Pepper said. "You moved to New York and started going by a new name. Why?"

I paused for a moment as I started to rub a circle into my palm with my thumb. "You told the world that you were Iron Man," I spoke looking down at my jeans. "But you also told the world that I was Iron Man's daughter. You didn't ask me if I was ready for that. You just did it."

"Clara," my dad replied before he cleared his throat. "I was telling the world that you were protected, that nobody should ever dare come after you."

I shook my head. "I didn't feel like it," I said still staring at my jeans. "I left because I… I have a really hard time just trying to live up to being your daughter, I don't think I can handle being Iron Man's daughter, too."

I heard my dad moving and soon he was kneeling in front of me. I didn't meet his eyes until he grabbed my hands in his. "You don't have to live up to anything," he said.

I felt my eyes start to water.

"You are the best daughter I could ever ask for," my dad said. "Honestly, I don't believe that I live up to being to your dad. Screw what anybody else says, I love you Scarlett. Shit, I mean Clara. I love you, Clara."

I laughed and sniffed. "It's Scarlett," I said in a soft quiet tone, afraid to break what was happening. "It's always been Scarlett Stark."

My dad smiled and gave my hands a squeeze. "What else do I need to do to mend this?" he asked.

"Be my dad first," I said. "Before Tony Stark, before Iron Man, I want to be selfish and have you be my dad. I want to wake up on my birthday and know that you are going to be there. I want to know that you will do anything to come back to me."

"Done," my dad said as he stood up and gave me a bone crushing hug, bigger than the one we shared at the tower.

"Thank you," I whispered into his ear as I squeezed him close."I'm just glad you decided to stick with Scarlett," my dad said as he pulled me up from the chair, tucking me into his side with an arm around my shoulders. "I couldn't keep what to call you straight."

I chuckled as I swiped a finger underneath my eyes, smiling at Pepper and up at my dad. "What can I say, my dad picked it."

AN: And that's it! That is the last chapter for Heroes, I've Accepted. We have one more sneak peak and then we will start the new story.

Also we are at 91 reviews, i'm kinda bummed because the last story we were already passed the 100 review mark at this point... oh well, once we get to 100 reviews, I will release the title for the next story!

Notes on Reviews:

Mira SeverusSirius Black-Snape: Thanks for the late birthday wishes and don't worry about our God of mischief, I have plans for him

SusanSmile: Aw thanks, I actually got all A's so 4.0 this semester for me! and Thanks for the birthday wishes

kira shadow wolf : No, No clint this time around, just our friendly neighborhood spiderman

Sabye : Why Hello there ;) I'm glad that my story exceeded expectations!

NicoleR85 : Thanks for the well wishes and I did great this semester!

JJAndrews : Not the Raid! :) Hopefully Peter responded fast enough for you! As for which team I'm on, Depending on what the actual fight is for the movie which I think has something to do with Bucky, and not going by the comics (cause for the registration act I'm team iron man) I'm team Bucky, the Winter Solider is one of my favorite characters, especially Ed Brubaker's run on him. So I guess that puts me on team Cap.

: Oh finals week, how I hate you so, I hope your finals went well and that everything was ok. And I live for the break between semesters, I just work and write. And I have broken several fingers, (not by a mad russian though) and it does hurt, I hope your fingers heal well!