A/N: Hey guys, sorry for the wait for this chapter. Life does tend to take over some times, and this has been one of them. Anyway, hope you enjoy the chapter.
"What time are you going to be home?" Tony asked his daughter, watching as she got into one of his cars. He wasn't happy that she was off out, and so early in the morning as well. While they had been working on her car, she had told him that she needed to go meet up with Tasha, but she wouldn't tell him any more than that.
Ruby shrugged at him, having no idea how long things were going to take. "Not sure, but I'll let you know when I'm leaving. We ordering out again tonight?"
"Uh, do you want to order out? We can go out if you want. Or, you can finally give me that cooking lesson if you want." It was clear to see that he wasn't just nervous, but worried as well. He knew something was going on, and he just wanted her to tell him.
"We can't go out, we're meant to be 'laying low', as Obie said." Ruby reminded him. "You make sure there is food, and I will teach you have to cook. Start with something simple, like toast." There was a smirk on her face as she said it, teasing him about his cooking skills, or lack of.
"Watch it, missy, or I'm going to ground you." Her father warned her, wagging a finger at her threateningly. "Don't be too late, we got things to do."
At this point she frowned at him. "Things? What things?" Ruby asked him in utter confusion.
A smile crept across her fathers face. "You'll find out when you get back. So hurry up and go, so you can get back."
Ruby ended up rolling her eyes at him as she turned the key in the ignition. "Yeah, yeah, I got it. I'll try to make it as quick as I can. She just wants to see me, not beat the hell out of me today, which is a surprise. So, see you later, dad." She whizzed out of the garage and onto the main road, wondering what the hell was going on.
She really did hate keep having to lie to her father, and there had been so many times over the past few hours where she had wanted to just tell him the truth, only she didn't have the courage to do it. She was nervous about him finding out, which was why she was meeting Phil at a diner to take her to the base where Fury was waiting for them.
Before she knew it, she was at the diner where Agent Coulson was already standing beside a sleek, black car, just waiting for her. "Good morning, Agent Matthews. Glad you could make it so early." He called to her, his shades perched on his nose as he held onto the stone cold exterior he always wore.
"Well, I did promise, didn't I?" Ruby told him locking her fathers car and heading over towards the other car. "But can we make this quick, the old man is really getting suspicious and trying to ground me."
Phil didn't say anything as he watched her getting into the car. The moment she was inside, his emotions broke through and he let out a sigh. "It would be easier for you if you did tell him the truth, Agent Matthews." He told her, once he was in the car and sitting over by the other window.
"I am not going through this again, Phil. I've told Tasha, Clint, and you, several times, he isn't ready to find out. Once all this is over, when we have figured all of this out, I'll do it." Ruby told him, although not entirely sure that she would tell him. It was certainly getting hard, and she did hate the lying, but she was still scared to tell him everything that she had done in the past.
The pair ended up spending the drive in silence. Ruby was gazing out of the window, looking almost as if she was sulking. Agent Coulson was worried about, they all were. Ruby Matthews had always been good at putting on a front and taking everything head on, but they all know what would happen the moment she broke.
Ruby was out of the car the moment it stopped, not even bothering to wait for Phil. She strode through the corridors, other agents moving out of the way to give her room. There were a few that she recognised, but for the life of her she couldn't remember their names. All she could do was smile at nod at them, just wanting to get to Fury and find out why she was basically summoned.
"Agent Matthews, take a seat." Director Fury said to her the moment she stepped inside of his office. She hadn't even knocked, she had just walked right in like she always did, which meant that he was used to it from her. "We've found something that might be of interest to you."
A pile of photographs was tossed onto the desk in front of her, and she wasted no time in spreading them out to get a better look of them. Her face dropped the moment that she saw them, and she felt her chest tightening. "Wha… where were these taken?" It was clear that she was shocked at the images before her.
"Several different towns close to where you were found." Directory Fury informed her, his one good eye watching her carefully. "Do you know anything about these?"
Ruby's head snapped up and she glared at him with anger. "Do you really think I was involved with all of this?" She shouted at him, waving a photograph in the air before tossing it on the table. "I'm still trying to find out how the hell Ten Rings managed to get hold of those weapons that helped in capturing my father and myself."
"Then can you give me any explanation as to why Stark weapons were found in these locations?" There was a frown on his face, and it was clear to see that he didn't know what to make of the whole thing.
"Does it look like I can give you an explanation?" Ruby spat at him. "There was a reason why I asked for more eyes and ears in Stark Industries, because someone in the company is doing this. There is someone out there who is dealing under the table, selling the weapons to terrorists and God knows who else. If I knew who they were, they'd already be dead."
Fury studied her for a moment, taking in her reaction. He didn't doubt her, he trusted her and knew that she wasn't lying to him. "None of our people have managed to find anything yet. I sure hope you have something for me."
She leaned back in her chair, rubbing her forehead as she let out a sigh. "I got nothing. I've been scouring the servers, trying to find something, anything, but I just can't. Whoever is doing this, knows the system."
"Are you telling me that you can't even find anything? The great Red Cobra, known for her pranks and hacking skills, can not find a damn thing on the servers of her own company?" Now he was getting frustrated as well. If she couldn't find anything, he knew that there wasn't much chance that he was going to be able to find anything either.
"Pretty much. I'm trying, all the time. Me and SWAIN are going through the files of every single person who works at Stark Industries. Every little detail that is on their computer. What websites they have been visiting, their passwords and bank details, the dirty details of who is sleeping with who." She told him, rubbing her head some more. "So far there is nothing that has stood out."
"Your training with Romanoff seems to have come along nicely." Fury said after a few minutes of silence. "SWAIN was kind enough to send me the video of what you were up to yesterday. I'm impressed. Which is why I'm cutting down your training for now." Instantly her head shot up and she looked at him. "You've proven that you can get back on top with the right push. But right now I need you to focus on what is going on with your father."
"This is because he just doesn't want to talk to anyone about what happened, isn't it?" Ruby asked him, knowing that every time they tried to contact him, to talk to him about how he managed to escape, he brushed them off. It didn't help that she refused to give them all the details of what had happened, of how he had managed to get out. All Ruby had told them was how she had escaped, and how she knew her father had a plan.
Once again Directory Fury let out a sigh. "He is being more difficult than you, Agent Matthews. You won't tell us a thing about his escape, and he is still avoiding Agent Coulson."
"You know why I won't tell you, it's not my place. It was his escape, I wasn't even there. I knew he had a plan, but I was left for dead before he had his plan ready." Ruby reminded him, hoping that he didn't question what she wasn't telling him. He always seemed to know when she knew more than she was letting on.
The meeting wasn't going how Fury had hoped. He wanted her answers on how weapons with Stark Industries stamped all over them were found in several more towns close to where Agent Barton had picked her up in Afghanistan. He wanted to know how the hell her father managed to escape, to know exactly what had happened in that cave.
She really was a good Agent, and Fury knew that she was working hard. SWAIN had been sending him updates on her progress when he had tried to contact Ruby. "Agent Matthews, you know how serious this situation is. This new development has made it even further up my priority list. Do what you need to find out how this is all happening."
She nodded at him, understanding exactly what he was saying. "Understood." Her reply was quiet, because she knew she was putting herself further into trouble with her father now. "Anything else?"
"Eyes and ears open. We cannot afford to waste any more time. As you said, we don't know who else out there has gotten their hands on Stark weapons. They need to be stopped." The man told her, watching her as she once again rubbed her head. He could tell that it was all getting to her, no matter how much she held herself together, Ruby Matthews-Stark was still just a teenager. "Now, I suggest that you get back home and get to work. I'll have Coulson check in with you in a few days."
"When are Tasha and Clint back?" Ruby asked him, not even trying to get up and move.
"They should be off assignment in a few days. After they have been debriefed, I will send them your way." Directory Fury knew that was what she was asking. She wanted to see both of them, not just train with Romanoff, she wanted to sit and talk with them. They were good for her, they always had been, and they always would be.
Ruby nodded her head at him, finally deciding to push herself out of the chair. "Great, thanks. See you later, pirate." She mumbled, pulling open the door and stepping out into the corridor where Agent Coulson was standing, waiting for her.
"Ready to go, Agent Matthews?" Phil asked her, getting a simple nod in response from her before she started heading out. He couldn't stop the frown from forming on his face. Something wasn't right, he could see it written all over her face.
Although he wanted to say something, to ask her if everything was okay, the pair of them spent the drive back to the diner in utter silence. Ruby had her eyes closed the whole time, and it looked like she was sleeping, but he could tell that she wasn't. He didn't even get a chance to say anything to her when the car finally came to a stop. Ruby was out of the car and straight into the diner, not a word or glance back at him.
With concern, Agent Coulson followed her into the diner. She was already sitting down at a table in the corner, her head resting in her hands on the table. "Anything you want to talk about?" He asked her, sliding into the seat opposite her at the table.
"No." Ruby grumbled, her face still covered. "Go away, Phil."
"I'm not going anywhere, Ruby. I've been tasked with looking after you, and since you decided to enter the diner and not get in your car and drive home, I decided to join you." He told her, just as the waitress came over. He ordered coffee for the pair of them,
A strange moaning noise seemed to come from Ruby. "I just want to be left alone for a while. I am so done with all of this."
"Ruby, you know I'm always here if you need anything." Agent Coulson told her, knowing that he needed to get through to her and get her mind into a better place. "I know you're struggling with this, and I understand that. I also understand that you have very few people that you can talk to everything about."
"No, stop right there." Ruby said, lifting up a hand but her head remaining on the table. "I am so sick of people telling me that I should spill everything to Tony. Yes, he is my father, yes we have both been through a lot of crap. I'm sick of hearing it, and reminding them that there is so much going on, that he probably wouldn't be able to handle it."
Phil knew that she was right, he had been one of them that insisted she tell her father everything. "We are only trying to help you, Ruby. We all know how things get to you, and how you tend to keep things bottled up. But it's not good for you, and you don't need to do it when you have people to talk to."
"If people really want to help me, then they will just shut up and let me get on with things." She finally decided to lift her head, just as the waitress came back with their coffee. Ruby was quick to start on hers, not bothering with any milk or sugar. "This is my life, Phil, just once I want to be able to control some part of it."
The man sitting opposite her let out a long breath. "When I first met you, you were Ruby Matthews, complete trouble maker. You refused to listen to reason, you spoke only with your fists. You let your anger get the better of you, which was the whole reason you ended up with us in the first place." Ruby just sat there, pretending not to listen to him as she gazed out of the window. "You were on SHIELD's radar because of who your father is. Your grandfather done a lot of work with SHIELD in the past."
That grabbed her attention. "My grandfather?"
A small smile graced Phil Coulson's lips. "Howard Stark. He was a brilliant man, and his work was amazing."
"I don't care about Howard Stark. I'm sorry, but the only Stark I care about is my dad. I've never met any of the others, and I never will, so there is no point talking about them." It was clear to see that she wasn't interested in hearing tales about her grandfather, but it wasn't really clear on the reason.
"We knew what he was capable of, we knew what Tony Stark was capable of." Coulson said, getting right back to what he was trying to say to her. "So of course, we were going to be keeping an eye on you to find out what you were capable of. Brilliant minds are hard to come by, most people just waste them."
"Yeah, I get it, Phil. I was monitored because I was a Stark. Then I just had to go and hack the US military, followed by some messed up organization in Russia. And then I found SHIELD. Yes, I know I hacked, because I was bored." Ruby was starting to sound even more fed up by this point.
"You hacked because you were bored, you were bored because you were constantly grounded for getting into fights. The final straw came when you broke that kids nose… and arm… and ankle." There was a sour look on her face at being reminded of what she had done when she was younger. "Your mother didn't know how to cope with it all anymore, you had gone off the deep end, Ruby. It took her months to convince herself that it was the right thing to do, that she needed to get help."
Ruby couldn't stop herself from snorting a little. "Yeah, because teaching me how to fight and kill people was really a good way to help wasn't it? My mom thought you guys were going to put me in therapy, you know, have me talk out all that anger and aggression."
"We did." She looked up at him with confusion on her face. "Before we put you in with Barton and Romanoff, we put you through therapy. But it didn't work, you just shut yourself off even more."
"I don't remember any of that."
Coulson just smiled at her a little. "Like I said, you just shut yourself down. You blocked out every single therapy session, because you thought they were pointless. The moment Romanoff saw you, she knew that you needed a different outlet, a more physical outlet. And Agent Matthews was born."
Ruby rolled her eyes at him, and the slightly smug grin that was on his face. "And the point to this tales is…?"
"You've been through a lot, Ruby. A lot more than someone your age should have. Romanoff understands you better than anyone else, she saw something of herself in you. There are people here if you want to talk about anything, there are people who care and understand."
It finally dawned on her exactly what Phil was trying to tell her. "But people aren't always around to talk to me. Tasha is one of the best, so she is always busy with some assignment or another." Ruby told him, letting out a long sigh. "And Fury has told me to stop pestering her."
"Since when have you ever listened to the Director?" Coulson asked her, a big smirk on his face now. "And when have you ever called Romanoff and she was been too busy to speak? It doesn't matter what situation she's in, she always has time for you, Ruby." The young woman stayed silent. "You know I'm right."
"But there isn't anything to talk about, Phil. Nothing has changed since the last time I saw her. I haven't had some miraculous break through and found out who is involved and how they done it all." Phil was trying to make her see that she wasn't alone in all of this, and that it was not a good thing to just 'leave her alone' like she wanted. But Ruby was being, as per usual, stubborn.
He let out a sigh, putting his empty coffee cup back on the table. He wasn't getting anywhere, she just wasn't going to listen to anyone with the mood she was in. "There are people who care about you out there, Ruby. You just need to remember that. Agents Romanoff and Barton would drop everything for you, and it wouldn't be the first time."
Ruby didn't say anything to him, she just watching him get up from where he was and leave the diner. She ended up resting her head in her arms on the table, letting out a groan as she did. Her head was just filled with too much stuff, and she was struggling to sort through it all. She thought she was finally getting herself back on track, getting a fresh start at a decent life, but everything changed.
As soon as she found out who her father was, she knew she wasn't going to have a normal life, but that didn't bother her, she was okay with that. But then Afghanistan happened, and it changed everything all over again. She turned back into the person that she had once been, the person who had been trained to kill. She had managed to get out of that life before done too much damage to her, and she had Natasha to thank for that.
Only now she felt like it was all crashing back down on her, the life that she had just managed to leave had chased her, and now had its teeth sunk deep into her ankles. That was how she felt, and no matter how much she tried to pry the jaws open, to get the monster off, it wouldn't go away.
The bell chimed, signalling that someone had entered the diner, but Ruby didn't care, she was too consumed with her own thoughts. "Why aren't you answering your phone, young lady?" A voice suddenly said next to her.
"Don't know. Because I didn't want to?" She grumbled, knowing who was standing there beside her. SWAIN had been telling her that her father had been calling her, and then he also warned her that he was going to find her, so she wasn't really that surprised that he was there.
"Hey, what's up, honey?" Tony asked her, noticing that something was wrong. She hadn't even bothered to look up at him, and she didn't seem to care that she gave a very lame answer.
"I'm just fed up with all of this. All people seem to care about is the announcement you made, they don't seem to care that you were held captive in a cave for three months. They don't care about what really happened, they just care about the money." Tony took that moment to sit down beside her and drop his arm across her shoulders. "The military want the weapons, they don't want to find the men that started all this. They don't want to find out how they ended up with Stark weapons. They only care for themselves."
Tony could see her point. People were fussing over the company, the impact that his announcement was having. No one had stopped to ask if he was okay, or if his daughter was all right. Even Rhodey had shut him out because he wasn't working on something for the military. "I know, honey. Which is why we are going to do something about it ourselves." Ruby slowly lifted her head up and looked at him with curious eyes. "While you've been off getting your backside kicked by your friend, I've been working on something. I've been waiting for you so that we can get started on it."
"You've been working on something?" There was a hint of a smile trying to work its way onto her face, but she was doing well to suppress it so far. "And you've been waiting for me? Why?"
"Because we're going to do this together. As a team. We are Stark's after all, Ruby, we'll show them all exactly what we can do." Tony was smiling away at her, knowing that he had definitely gotten her attention now. "So, are you going to stay here and mope about all day, or are you going to come home with me and take at look at what I've been working on?"
Ruby couldn't help but let out a small groan. "I am not moping. I was having a coffee and trying to forget all about the world." It was a lame excuse, and she knew it was, but she just didn't really care at that point.
"Really? And here I was thinking that you were meant to be meeting Tasha about something." Tony had to admit that he was surprised to find her sitting there alone. He was hoping he could catch her there with her friend, and finally find out who it was that she was always off meeting.
"She's been and gone. Wanted to tell me she's giving my ass some time to recover." There was no way that she was going to tell him that she had been sitting there drinking coffee while the Agent from a secret organisation that was trying desperately to speak with him reminded her of her past.
Tony couldn't help but frown. He didn't like the way she was giving him such short replies. "Right, well come on. Time to get home and get started on this new project. I'm going to need some expert help with it, and I know of only one person who's right for the job." He was trying to get her to smile, anything to get her to be herself again.
"You don't need me then." Ruby ended up grumbling, closing her eyes and letting out a sigh. "I'm no expert. I'm pretty useless actually. Can't even find what I want on the Stark Industries servers."
"Hey, now come on, Ruby. You are not useless, don't you ever say that. It was you who came up with the design for what is keeping me alive." Tony told her, tapping at the arc reactor in his chest. "This was all your idea, honey. It was only because of you that I got out of there alive. You're my daughter, and you are brilliant." He was hoping that his words would give her some encouragement and drag her back from whatever pit she was starting to fall into. "So, whatever you going swimming around in that head of yours, stop it. Because we have some serious work waiting for us at home."
A moment later, Ruby found that she was being pretty much dragged out of the diner and over to her fathers car that she had driven there. She also spotted Happy sitting in the Rolls Royce that was parked next to it. "Everything okay, sir?" He asked, watching the pair approach.
Yeah, great. We'll meet you back at the house, Happy. I'm driving with Ruby." Tony opened the door, watching as Ruby just got into the car in a bit of a daze. He wanted her to talk to him, to tell him what was bothering her so much. Sure she had told him what she had been up to, but he knew that it was more than that. Tony had learnt the hard way that her mother had been good at keeping secrets, and now he was pretty sure that Ruby was keeping a few as well. He didn't like it, because it just made him worry about her even more. He couldn't stop thinking that she had gotten herself into some serious trouble, but he really hoped that he was wrong.
A/N: Well, that's it for another chapter. I'm going to leave this note short and sweet.
Thank you to everyone who has favourited/followed. And for everyone single one of you who has taken the time to leave a review, massive thank you to you all.
I promise to work hard to get the next chapter done as quickly as I can, but I don't want to rush it.
Pippa.