Hello all!
So I am happy to present to you the next cycle of updates! I want to say a quick thank you to all of you who have been fav/following and reviewing! It's incredibly encouraging to see those and know that people are enjoying the story:)
On a slightly unrelated note I wanted to share a exciting new development for how I'm working out a new way to be able to personally interact with my readers. I have gone and started a new blog, specifically centred around interacting with all of you guys! I'll be using it to post announcements and snippets for upcoming new works as well as news and teasers for existing ones. There will be character bios with easy access tags so you can easily find the work dedicated to a specific OC, and other then my long multi chaps you'll be able to find all my different works organized by tag for easy browsing and access. I also am open to Q&A's for any topic you want, as well as random thoughts you'd like to share for conversations:) I would really love to be able to connect with all you guys who have supported me and my crazy ideas for fanfics with your fav/follows. reviews and patience with my forgetfulness when it comes to updating. I'm hoping to be able to eventually centre the blog completely around my readers and people who follow some of my art series so if any of you guys are interested head on over! My url handle can be found on my profile near the top of my bio so just copy/paste and take out the spaces and you're set!
I hope you all enjoy the next three chapters!
Families Worth
"Hey Phil, what's that building over there? I've never seen it this busy before." Bryanna commented, pointing across the bay.
The area along the bay had become a regular place to go walking, just busy enough that Bryanna was getting plenty of exposure to being surrounded by people but not so much activity that she was being jostled and bumped.
"That's the South San Francisco Conference Centre." Agent Coulson answered, Bryanna humming in acknowledgment as she leaned against the rail and studied it from over the bay.
"Do you know what's going on there?"
"A green technology convention according to the advertisement posters I noticed as we drove around town." He answered without missing a beat.
"Cool! Let's go look!"
She started off down the sidewalk and she heard Agent Coulson sigh before quickening his pace to catch up with her.
"Bryanna, the convention isn't going to be open to the public. It's for companies and investors that are involved in the clean energy and green technology industry, for advertising their work and showcasing current work in this particular field."
Bryanna shrugged at his words and Agent Coulson shook his head with another sigh as they rounded the bay and hurriedly walked towards the stairs.
"If we aren't go in then why are you so determined to see the building?" Agent Coulson questioned.
"I've been to several conventions like this before when I was a kid, so I've met some of the names in green technology, my dad took me and Tony to several while he gave speeches on clean energy development." She explained as they approached the stairs.
Reporters and cameramen lined the staircase on all sides, and Bryanna could see security guards standing at the curb next to several different cars.
Next to her she heard Agent Coulson mutter the words clean energy and Stark quietly under his breath before giving a startled noise.
"Bryanna stop!"
She paused and turned to face Agent Coulson with furrowed brows, confused by his reaction.
"We need to leave, now!"
"What? But-"
Agent Coulson didn't even let her finish before he had grabbed her forearm in a gentle but firm grip and was pulling her back in the direction they had just come.
"Come on, we'll come back another time. Let's go." He said urgently.
Bryanna's eyes narrowed and she dug in her heels, yanking her arm away.
"Stop that! I don't want to leave, I want to see if I recognize any of the names on the poster. I don't need you dragging me around like some errant child!" Bryanna snapped.
He grabbed her arm again, grip slightly tighter this time and his lips were pinched.
"Bryanna just come with me, there's some things going on here that you aren't ready to deal with." He said plainly, clearly realizing that dancing around the situation was useless.
Behind them she could hear someone exiting and all the reporters murmuring as they surged forward. Loud voices started piling one over another but she was far to focused on the agent in front of her that was acting weird and setting her on edge. Bryanna glared at Agent Coulson, pulling her arm again only for him to pull her gently back towards the exit.
"Cut it out! I'm not-" She started to snap, only to be cut off by an oh so familiar voice.
"Hey! What's going on over here?"
That was impossible...
At first she thought she was hearing things, that lack of sleep had finally caught up and was repaying her in one of the worst ways possible. Taunting her with her brothers voice. Her breathing started to pick up and her muscles relaxed in Agent Coulson's grip, her eyes widening.
"Nothing, sorry for disturbing you. Just-"
"Hey, I know you! Coulson right? What are you doing all the way over here?"
His voice had gotten closer, and in one fluid motion Bryanna jerked her arm free and wheeled to face the same direction as Agent Coulson. Her wide eyes landed instantly on a cocky and self assured figure that swaggered towards them with a small smirk.
He never even looked at her, clearly more interested in the agent that stepped up just past her.
"Do you have some sort of letter or something? I-"
"Tony?"
The shocked whisper slipped from her lips almost without her realizing, causing her brother to pause and turn towards her for the first time.
Shadowed eyes met brown and she saw the exact moment he realized who he was looking at. His eyes went wide and his mouth hung open, neither paying any attention as a red haired woman hurried up behind her brother.
"Bryanna..." He muttered, sounding hopelessly confused for the first time she could remember.
His words snapped her out of her shock and with a choked cry she began to run.
"TONY!"
The guards behind him never had a chance to react as she lunged forward, bolting straight towards him. She tripped over her own feet in her haste to reach him but as she fell forward she never hit the ground, instead she fell directly into Tony's waiting arms as he pulled her into him.
A mixture of laughter and tears escaped her mouth as she pressed her face into his jacket, arms wrapping tightly around his neck as she clung to him.
"You caught me. Just like you always did, you caught me." She babbled, sniffing as she felt Tony's arms grip her tight enough to hurt.
"You're here." He mumbled into her hair where his face was pressed.
The siblings clung tightly to one another, Bryanna struggling to regain her hold on her emotions as she gripped his suit jacket as tightly as she could. Her whole body shook as she mumbled over and over again that this wasn't a dream. Around them there was the sounds of raised voices and the rapidfire clicking of cameras, but neither Tony nor Bryanna acknowledged them.
Eventually Tony's grip on her relaxed and he tugged at her shoulders, Bryanna releasing her arms and slowly allowing him to pull her back. She looked up tearfully at Tony as he stared at her face, eyes darting all over her as if he was committing her face to memory.
"Bryanna... Bri. You-...you're here. With me." He said quietly, tone almost disbelieving as he gripped her shoulders.
She nodded and he pulled her into a second hug, holding her tightly.
"Mr Stark, ah- Miss Stark, I apologize for interrupting but I believe it would be prudent to move this discussion somewhere more private." One of her brothers security men said hesitantly, stumbling over how to address Bryanna. She assumed that Agent Coulson had informed the guards on who she was.
"Yeah, let's go back to the hotel. Then we can talk uninterrupted." Tony said after a moment, turning back towards the cars and waving, his movement signalling the driver of a black car that pulled slowly through the reporters over to them.
Around them her brothers security had surrounded them to block any of the reporters. Agent Coulson moved directly behind her and she felt him take her hood and tuck it over her head to partially hide her face.
"We need to leave without them getting a proper photo of your face." Agent Coulson said lowly.
The car pulled up next to them and Tony pulled the back door open, sliding into the back seat and pulling Bryanna along with him. Agent Coulson got in next to Bryanna who found herself squished in between the two men. A red haired woman that she had noticed earlier climbed into the front and the car slowly pulled away from the curb, people banging on the car and calling Tony's name.
"Security will follow in the car behind." The woman in the front assured Agent Coulson who glanced behind them at the black car pulling out.
Bryanna reached over, grabbing onto Tony's arm to assure herself that he was really there with her and that he wasn't leaving. The emotional overload was making her tremble and with a careful glance around to make sure that no one was watching she slowly pulled on her shadows, allowing them to wrap around her bare arms under her hoodie sleeves. The cold sensation helped calm her and she closed her eyes, leaning her head back and taking several deep and slow breaths before letting them out.
"Bryanna?" Agent Coulson called softly.
"I'm fine." She responded, lifting her head off the headrest and opening her eyes.
She could feel eyes on her, the red haired woman had turned in her seat to face the back seat and the man in the drivers seat was glancing at her in the rearview mirror. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Tony studying her and with all the attention on her she felt like a bug under a microscope.
"Here."
Icy cold metal was pressed into her palm and Bryanna looked down to see Agent Coulson pressing a metal cube into her hand. Her fingers closed tightly around it and she nodded in thanks, rolling it in her fingers. They had recently discovered that for her metal served as almost like a grounding object, pulling her out of the panic she could get into when overwhelmed and calming her.
The drive was quiet and Bryanna focused intently on her lap, one hand holding onto Tony and the other fiddling with the cube. She didn't know how long they were driving but it didn't feel like long before they were pulling into the parking lot of an extremely fancy hotel.
"Here you are sir." The driver said formally.
"Thanks Happy, go take a break for a bit. Charge whatever you spend on me." Tony said as the door was opened on Agent Coulson's side and one after another they all climbed out.
Security surrounded the car and blocked people from getting to close as Tony closed the door behind him. Bryanna tugged her hood to make sure it covered as much of her face as possible as they all made their way to the elevator.
When security followed them into the elevator Bryanna felt herself tense, slowly backing up until she was able to press her back against the corner. Both hands were stuffed deep into her pockets and her head was down, but anyone who was trained in combat would easily see the tension in her muscles and how she shifted her stance into defensive, ready to move into action should her safety be threatened.
A hand settled on her shoulder and she flinched, head shooting up to see Tony staring down at her with concern written all over his face.
"You okay?"
She relaxed under his grip and shot a thin smile at her brother.
"I'm alright. Just a lot to take in right now."
They stood in silence as the elevator moved up the floors, the penthouse button glowing as Pepper put away the keycard she had tapped against the sensor. Minutes later the elevator stopped and the door opened to reveal one of the most beautiful rooms Bryanna had seen.
"Ooh..."
Tony grinned and steered her off the elevator with him into the penthouse, Bryanna momentarily distracted from the guards as she took in her surroundings.
"This is beautiful." She said after a moment.
"Hell yeah it is, I wouldn't be staying here if it wasn't." Tony said with a smirk, shrugging out of his suit coat and pulling off his tie so he could undo his dress shirt and toss it over in the corner of the room.
"So much better." He said with a sigh as he smoothed his undershirt and dropped down onto one side of the small couch that had been set up in a small sitting area.
Bryanna hesitated in the middle of the room and Tony patted the seat next to him. She nodded and carefully approached, sitting down carefully next to him and looking over at where Agent Coulson stood with the red haired woman and the security guards.
"Hey security, you guys can leave. This is going to be a private conversation, I don't want you guys hanging around." Her brother called, the men in his security detail quickly leaving the penthouse.
"Bryanna, I'd like you to meet my assistant and right hand for all things in life, Pepper."
The red haired woman smiled at Bryanna and crossed the room to offer her hand. She stared at the hand for a moment before shifting away, Pepper's smile faltering as her hand dropped. Bryanna felt a flash of guilt, she wasn't trying to offend her brothers assistant, she just really couldn't handle physical contact with strangers right now.
"Um, hi." She finally said, her voice sounding forced and tense which made her internally cringe. "I mean, it's nice to meet you."
This time it came out sounding a tad more normal and not as forced, and Bryanna glanced away uncomfortably.
"It's nice to meet you as well, I've heard so much about you and I'm excited to finally meet you." Pepper suddenly said warmly, making Bryanna look up in surprise.
"Thanks." She mumbled, at a loss of what to say.
She had no idea what to think or do in a situation like this. She was finally reuniting in person with the brother she had been talking with for months without ever getting to see except for through the rare video chat, and now she was exchanging pleasantries with a stranger while she sat next to said brother.
"Terribly sorry to interrupt this lovely girl's bonding moment, but I'm impatient and want to ask my dearest sister an extremely important question that simply can't wait." Tony butted in, causing them all to turn and face him as he gave a dramatic clearing of the throat. "How did the truly awesome prank we planned together go? You said you were finally going to follow through with it last time we talked. "
Pepper gaped at Tony and Agent Coulson blinked while Bryanna grinned and gave a tiny hop in place.
"It went awesome! I did exactly as you suggested for the stink bomb and managed to keep it hidden, then I bribed someone to sneak it into the directors office wrapped in foil, and once I knew it had been delivered I used a special trick to crush the egg and stinkify his office." Bryanna said with a wicked laugh, eyes glittering with mirth.
"So that was you who did that. It took almost two weeks to get that stench out." Agent Coulson said, shaking his head with a sigh.
"How long did the egg sit?" Tony prodded.
"Two months!" Bryanna declared proudly.
The two siblings laughed and high fived. Phil Coulson crossed his arms and cleared his throat, bringing their attention to him.
"As wonderful as hearing you two celebrating a stink bomb is, we have some slightly more important things to deal with. For example, explaining to the director this current turn of events."
Bryanna grimaced at the thought of his reaction and watched as Agent Coulson reached into his pocket to pull out his cell phone. He had just barely started dialling a number when Bryanna grabbed onto her brothers arm tightly and leaned forward.
"Please don't call him! He'll want you to take me back and I don't want to leave Tony again! I want to talk and spend time with him, I'm tired of only being able to see him through a computer screen!" Bryanna pleaded, expression earnest.
"Protocols that have been set in place for your time out of headquarters, and this situation is certainly one I can just bypass protocol for." Agent Coulson informed her as he finished dialling the number.
"What?! Hey! Stop! I said-"
"Hello, Director?" Agent Coulson answered, cutting Bryanna off.
There was a moment of tense silence before he spoke again.
"Yes, there has been a rather large problem-...you know? What?!" Then he moved the mouthpiece away and looked over at Pepper. "Do you have a computer or something with you? I need you to look up "Tony Stark Conference Rendezvous" for me."
Pepper hurried over to one of the doors in the massive penthouse and entered the room behind, rustling noises echoing out into the main room before Pepper reemerge with a laptop. Returning to her seat she typed away for several moments before gasping.
"Oh this is going to be a PR nightmare..."
"What is it?" Tony asked, reaching over and spinning the laptop to face him.
"BACHELOR TONY STARK HAVING SECRET RENDEZVOUS WITH MINOR?!"
Bryanna and Tony let out twin groans at the sight of the headline.
"You have got to be kidding me." Tony muttered, clicking the first headline and slowly scrolling through.
"Tony Stark, billionaire and widely known as a ace womanizer has been seen with plenty of woman, most of which were part of his not-so-secret flings over the years since stepping into the media spotlight. However, this one might just be the one to top all others.
Outside of the South San Francisco Conference Centre after one of his scheduled appearances at the Clean World Technology Convention taking place this week Tony Stark had been speaking with the media when a disturbance a few feet away caught the attention of the billionaire. He went down to see what was going on and upon speaking to the older man and female who appeared to be no older then mid teens the teen shouted his name and lunged for him, the two sharing a passionate embrace-"
"Passionate embrace?!" Bryanna squawked, glaring at the screen.
Beside her Tony muttered a few choice words under his breath, clicking back and checking several other articles that had similar articles. Over where Agent Coulson sat there was a click, and Fury's voice suddenly filled the room.
"As you are currently seeing, this incident has spread all over the Internet like wildfire. Everyone and their dog knows about what happened, there are countless pictures circulating. The only thing on our side is that they never got a good shot of Bryanna's face. This is exactly what we don't want! We are going to have to come up with explanations and cover stories and alibis. I run a government department! My job isn't to clean up after Stark messes!"
"Yes, because this was absolutely my idea. To reunite with Bryanna in front of the bloodthirsty press. You know, none of this would have ever happened had you allowed Bryanna and I to see each other face to face long before this. In fact, if she lived with me like I've been pushing for the last couple months to happen, this wouldn't have even been something you'd have to ever worry about." Tony snarked.
"That being said, the point is that it did happen and we are dealing with this situation right now. We're going to have to do some figuring to try and settle this down. I want Bryanna brought back right now, before any of the paparazzi think to come to the hotel and lay in wait on a hunch that she'll be here."
"What?! NO!" Bryanna shouted, all sense of calm gone at Fury's words.
"Hmm, nope. She's not going anywhere. We haven't been able to speak face to face until now, and courtesy of you and your little minions what time we do have to talk together is regulated by the control freaks in charge of her. I'm not letting Agent take my sister anywhere." Tony said, his voice light but his eyes narrowed and hard.
"You don't get a choice in the matter, Mr Stark." Fury stated.
"But I do! This is my life that you guys are fighting over! I'm so sick of living at that compound, everything I do having to be cleared through you guys. I can't go outside without being followed, I can't just go to the fridge and pick some food form myself, I can't just decide that I want to talk with my brother, it has to be cleared through people and monitored for a set time! I hate this! I want to live with Tony!" Bryanna shouted, fists clenched and eyes blazing.
"Bryanna-"
"If you force me back to headquarters I swear to god that I'm going to make your life a living hell. I don't care what it takes to be able to see my brother, I'll destroy whole wings of headquarters if I need to." She spat.
"By all means, please do. I've been wanting to upgrade our building but the council claims that while the building is in working order it will not be upgraded. If you destroy the building, not only will I get the changes I want but it'll be payed for by Stark funds so the council won't have too much of an issue. Coulson, bring her back immediately please, I have blueprints to start on." Fury rebutted, Bryanna catching traces of amusement in his tone.
"How about not? Since I think you have some slightly bigger problems on your plate to deal with then Bryanna." Tony said smoothly.
Pepper blinked, clearly as puzzled as Agent Coulson. Bryanna on the other hand knew what would be coming next, and from the groan on the other end of the phone line so did Fury.
"Alright, out with it. What's your threat?" Fury sighed.
Tony had mock startled look on his face at Fury's words.
"No, no you misunderstand me. I'm not threatening you at all, merely informing you about this issue I have that may have a rather unfavourable effect on you. See, recently I've been having this frustrating trouble. Stark Industries prides itself on being able to say that all our weapons are made from scratch by us, not third party groups are involved in the making of our military grade equipment. However, we don't have our own raw material to use just as the drop of the hat, we have to go through suppliers and vendors." Tony started, pasting the most innocent expression on his face.
"Let me guess, they're refusing to service you for some reason." Fury sighed.
Tony pressed a hand to his heart as a look of horror came over his face, almost hiding the wicket glint in his eyes.
"Oh if only it was that easy, no this situation is far more difficult! Because of the sensitive material I deal with, I don't go through a bunch of lower employees to place my orders, I have to go through the company owners who clear everything. Nothing is shipped out to anyone without their approval. But for some really strange reason the men that supply my most necessary material have gone on leave! Something about mandatory relaxation and stress release therapy." Tony shook his head with a sigh before continuing.
"I can't get ahold of them and during my free time I've been going through files and invoices to find if I was informed about their whereabouts for forwarded approval necessary to receiving my orders, but I just don't have the time to go through all that! I have work, public appearances, and time for tinkering and inventing that's necessary for creating new weapons. But that supplies is getting awful low, which in turn means that work halts. With no work being done, employees can't be paid and those employees would be forced to find new work which means that there is no one to create those weapons. By the time I get my shipments in...well there isn't anyone to work the equipment and create those weapons."
Bryanna's face was pink with her effort to hold back her laughter. Anyone with half a brain would know that he was just spinning a whole lot of crap, the tech industry didn't work that way, he was just going out of his way to mock Fury while simultaneously threatening him.
"Let me guess, that means you wouldn't be able to supply weapons to the military."
"Bingo!"
"No need to worry, we can supply you with exactly what you need through other suppliers." Fury said calmly.
"Not gonna work. The material has been formed with very specific compounds, it's one of a kind and nothing else would work. I'm afraid that without my special stuff I'm out of commission." Tony said, stretching and relaxing back with a smirk.
"...oh course. And now that you've shared that spectacular load of crap would you like to enlighten us on the "what if"?" Fury finally said, sounding wholly unimpressed.
"Well, if I had someone that had the time to go through that paperwork for the approval letters, someone that didn't mind sitting out of the spotlight and that I trusted with free access to my mansion, then I just might be able to get to work on those weapons again."
"I'll help you find someone to hire." Fury stated.
"Nope, I can't afford all the paperwork headache that goes into hiring someone for that. Pepper is far to busy to oversee someone since there's no way I'd trust any mere employee in my house or in my files like that." Tony dismissed.
"So who is this person you have in mind." Fury droned, clearly recognizing the futility of trying to get around Tony's game.
"Bryanna! I would absolutely trust her to have access to my files, I know she doesn't want to be in the public eye and would enjoy being able to hang around the mansion where she would have free access to food and anything else she would want. She would be perfect for the job."
"And I suppose that if I allowed her to return with you to complete this job you would be able to continue supplying weapons to the military." Fury clarified needlessly.
"You got it!"
"Whether you make those weapons for the government willingly or not is despite the point, you might be a private company but the government has the right to force you into making these weapons." Fury said tiredly.
Tony's face darkened, anger filling his features. Next to him Bryanna pressed back into the couch and glared at the phone.
"You can't make me do a damn thing, Director. If you would rather resort to force over just allowing my sister to live freely with me then I'd rather let my company fall to ruins around me then give in to my sister staying with sociopaths like that." Tony snapped. "If my sister isn't flying home with me on my plane at the end of this week then neither the government or the military will see one single weapon until you sign those papers that give me full legal custody of her."
Pepper's mouth dropped open and Agent Coulson gave a startled intake of breath while Tony glared at the phone, jaw set. Next to him Bryanna sat tense as a board, watching the phone with narrowed eyes.
After several moments of tense silence there was a heavy sigh.
"As much as I'd like to just say yes and get this headache off my hands, I can't. There's a reason we've been holding off on you two meeting, we knew that separating you two again would be a nightmare and right now we can't send her back with you." Fury started to explain.
"Why?! Give me one good reason why I can't go with Tony!" Bryanna spat.
"We have absolutely no idea how you ended up in the hands of the terrorists and whether or not their is still a threat to your safety because you refuse to talk about what happened and until we have an idea what happened and are able to set up any safety precautions necessary you cannot leave the one place where you are the most safe."
Bryanna stilled.
"Wait, you mean that if I tell you what happened I can go home with Tony?"
"That's exactly what I'm saying. Believe me Bryanna, as lovely to have around as you may be, we have absolutely no interest in keeping you at the base for any longer than absolutely necessary. All we were waiting for is the necessary information, then you would have been free to go."
That revelation hit her hard and she sagged back into the couch. If she had just told them what they wanted to know she could have been able to go home with him sooner?
"Why didn't you tell me sooner?"
"We weren't interested in pressuring you into a breakdown, we want you to heal not hurt you further." Agent Coulson answered for Fury, meeting Bryanna's eyes steadily.
"...alright. I'll tell you what you need to know. But only if I get to fly out with Tony at the end of the week." Bryanna finally said, stuffing her hands back into her hoodie pockets and grabbing onto her cube. "But if you're lying and you don't send me home with Tony after I give you the information you want, I'll do everything in my power to destroy and ruin everything I can. I won't ever be used by someone again, not if I can help it."
There was a collective sigh of relief, and Tony gave her a tight squeeze with the arm draped over her shoulders.
"Good. Then we will start preparations right away, have someone ready the paperwork. Over the course of the week I will have Agent Coulson brief Tony on everything he needs to know about your condition, and what needs to be take care of while you live at the mansion. Bryanna will meet with us to share what information she can, and between those meetings we will allow you to meet and discuss for a small amount of time each day as she packs to move out to California with you." Fury said briskly before ending the call with a clipped, "She has an hour today before she comes back to headquarters."
The line was abruptly disconnected and Bryanna sat there staring at her brother blankly. She was going to get to go home...
"YESS!"
Her brothers hoot as he pumped a fist in the air effectively knocked her out of her frozen state and she cheered, slapping her brothers offered hand before allowing her brother to jerk her off the couch and haul her around the room in a impromptu happy dance.
"You're finally coming home!"
So what did you think? Reviews are welcome! Flames shall be laughed at, posted for others to laugh at, and ignored as I continue the story.
