"Dani!"

Dani sat up as Pepper came running into her room, the phone in her hand, and tears shining in her eyes.

"They found him. They found your dad."

"They did!? They really did?"

Pepper nodded, "he's coming home, sweetie. Rhodey is bringing him home."

Dani burst into tears.

Her dad was coming home.

After 3 months, he was finally coming home.

. . .

"Where to, sir?"

"Take us to the hospital, please, Happy," Pepper answered before Tony could.

"No," Tony said.

"No?" Pepper looked at him. "Tony, you have to go to a hospital."

"No is a complete answer."

"The doctor has to look over you."

"I don't have to do anything. I've been in captivity for three months."

"There are two things I want to do. I want an American cheeseburger. And the other-"

"That's enough of that," Pepper dismissed.

"It's not what you think. I want you to call for a press conference."

"Call for a press conference? What on earth for?"

Tony looked at Happy. "Hogan drive. Cheeseburger first."

"We really should be going to the hospital," Pepper said.

"How's Dani? Is she okay?"

Pepper wasn't ready to drop the subject, but she knew that there would be no arguing with Tony. He had made his mind up and dug his heels in.

"She's a lot better now that she knows your alive. It's been a rough few months for her. She started having nightmares about what was done to you."

"Damn," Tony muttered.

"It'll be really good for her to see you."

"Where is she though? Is she safe?"

"She's at the house. JARVIS is watching her."

"Good," Tony nodded. "That's good. Thank you for keeping her safe while I couldn't."

. . .

Tony saw a glimpse of brown hair, when he entered the house, before Dani's arms were wrapped firmly around his waist. "Oh," he wrapped his good arm around her, and slowly lowered to his knees, so that she could wrap her arms around his neck.

A feeling of relief was washing over him.

Once again, he was surprised by how much he could miss one person. One very small person.

Her shoulders began to shake with sobs as she clung to him.

"I'm here, Dani. I've got you." He ran his hand through her hair, blinking back his own tears.

"You broke your promise," she said after a while, her voice muffled from his shoulder. "You said four days."

"I know. I know I did, and I'm sorry. I really wanted to keep my promise to you," he leaned his head against hers. "Can you forgive me?"

She pulled back, her face blotchy and a mess of tears. "Yeah," she hiccuped.

He laughed lightly, and wiped away her tears with his sleeve. "Thanks."

"Are you okay?" She asked, wiping her cheeks, and looking over the scars and scratches that covered his face. Her eyes landed on the glowing arc reactor in his chest, and she frowned.

"I am now," Tony kissed her cheek. "I'm perfect, now that I'm home with you again."

She reached out and touched the reactor. "You're hurt."

"I'll heal, don't worry." He kissed her cheek again, and pushed himself to his feet, holding his hand out to her. "I want to hear about everything that you did while I was away. Let's talk first about how big you've gotten. Who gave you permission to grow, huh? Because I certainly didn't."

She giggled, "I don't know. I didn't do much, though. I mean, I guess I turned nine-"

"Excuse me?" Tony looked down at her. "No. Absolutely not. You are still eight. You're not old enough to be nine."

"You missed the party."

"No I didn't. Because there wasn't a party."

"We can have another one, though."

"It looks like we're going to have to."

"I really missed you."

Tony stopped in his tracks, halfway to the workshop, and looked down at his daughter.

She was staring at her toes.

"I missed you too. I thought about you and missed you every single day. Thinking about you is actually what got me up every day. You kept me going."

She looked up at him, "really?'

"Yes, really. I'd think about your smile and how much I wanted to get back to it."

She slowly smiled at him, and Tony's heart melted.

"There it is." He released her hand, and stroked her cheek. "There's my girl."

. . .

Dani was determined to not leave her dad.

She spent every waking moment with him in the garage.

He'd work on his various projects, and she'd do her school work on the desk he had set up for her.

She was calm as long as she could see him.

"Pepper. How big our your hands?"

Dani looked up from the math worksheet she was doing, and looked across the lab at her dad, who was sitting leaned back in a chair. He wasn't wearing his shirt, and different wires were attached to his chest. In his hand was a reactor that matched the one in his chest.

"What?" Pepper asked through the intercom.

"How big are your hands?" Her dad repeated.

"I don't understand why-"

"Get down here, I need you."

Dani stood from her desk and walked over to see what her dad was up to. "What are you doing?"

"Pepper and I are going to play a game of operation. Well, Pepper is going to play a game of operation...on...me."

Pepper punched in her code to get into the workshop, and walked in.

"Hey," Tony greeted. "Let's see them. Show me your hands." He lifted his hand and wiggled his fingers.

She copied him, holding up both her hands.

"Oh wow. They are small. Very petite, indeed." He looked down at the reactor he was holding. "I just, uh, I need your help for a sec."

Pepper walked closer and stared down at the reactor in Tony's chest. "Oh my God. Is that the thing keeping you alive?"

"It was," Tony replied dismissively. "It is now an antique." He held up the reactor in his hand. "This is what will be keeping me alive for the foreseeable future. I'm swapping it out for an upgraded unit, and I just ran into a little speed bump."

"A speed bump? What does that mean?"

"It's nothing. It's just a little snag. There's an exposed wire underneath this device." He twisted the reactor in his chest, and began to pull it out. "And it's contacting the socket wall and causing a little bit of a short."

Dani gasped and felt her eyes go wide as she stared at the hole that was now in her dad's chest.

He pulled the reactor completely out. "It's fine," he said when Pepper jumped.

"What do you want me to do?" Pepper asked, taking the reactor he was holding out to her.

"Put that on the table over there. That is irrelevant. I just want you to reach in, and you're just gonna gently lift the wire out."

"Is it safe?"

"Yeah, it should be fine. It's like Operation. You just don't let it touch the socket wall or it goes 'beep'."

"What's Operation? What do you mean, Operation?"

"It's just a game. Never mind." Her dad leaned his head back. "Just gently lift the wire. Okay? Great. Okay."

Dani sucked in breath and held it, watching Pepper reach her hand towards the hole in her dad's chest.

Pepper inhaled sharply, and pulled her hand back. "You know, I-I-I don't think that I'm qualified to do this."

"I'll do it," Dani offered.

"Absolutely not," Tony said immediately. "You're not old enough. And Pepper, you're fine. You are the most capable, qualified, trustworthy person that I've ever met. I mean, you keep me and Dani alive, which is no easy task. You're gonna do great." He looked at her for a few seconds. "Is it too much of a problem to ask? Cause I'm-"

"Okay. Okay," Pepper relented.

"I really need your help here."

She took a shaky breath and reached out for the hole again, lowering her hand in. "Oh!" She made a face of disgust. "There's pus!"

Dani could hardly believe what she was seeing. Pepper's hand was now inside her dad's chest. How in the world was that even possible?

"It's not pus," Tony replied calmly, looking up at the ceiling. "It's an inorganic plasmic discharge. It's from the device, not my body."

"It smells!"

"Yeah, it does."

How was her dad so calm?

Dani's heart began to pound as she watched the scene unfold in front of her. Part of her wanted to cover her eyes so that she didn't have to watch, but she couldn't look away She couldn't move.

"The copper wire. The copper wire, you got it?"

"Okay, I got it. I got it."

"Okay, you got it? Now don't let it touch-"

There was a loud buzz, and Tony yelled, his body jerking.

Dani clapped her hands over her mouth.

"It's when you're coming up!" Tony said over Pepper's frantic apologies. "That's what I was trying to say before."

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry." Pepper lifted the wire out of the hole, and Dani gagged at the sight of the 'plasmic discharge' that was dripping down it.

"Okay, now make sure that when you pull it out, you don't pull out the magnet at the end."

Pepper gave a yank, pulling out the magnet her dad was talking about.

"That was it."

The monitors around Tony that were monitoring his heart began to beep.

Dani covered here eyes, and watched through her fingers.

"You just pulled it out."

"Oh God."

"Okay, I was not expecting - don't put it back in!" He ordered, as Pepper began to lower it back into the hole. "Don't put it back in. Don't put it back in."

"Okay!" Pepper placed the magnet down. "What do I do?"

"Daddy?" Dani asked. She didn't like seeing how stiff and tense he was. And the frantic beeping of the monitors wasn't helping the situation.

"What's wrong?" Pepper asked.

"Nothing, I'm just going into cardiac arrest, because you yanked it out -"

"What? I thought you said this was safe.

"We've got to hurry. Take this," he handed her the other reactor. "We've got to switch it out real quick."

Dani grabbed her dad's free hand, and squeezed it as tight as she could.

He gave a squeeze back, but kept his gaze on Pepper.

"Okay, okay." Pepper took the reactor, examining it for a sec. "Tony." She placed her hand on his shoulder.

"What?"

"It's going to be okay."

"Is it?"

"It's gonna be okay."

"Let's hope."

"I-I'm going to make this okay." She began to insert the device, guiding the wired end through the hole.

"Okay, you're gonna attach that to the base plate. And make sure you-"

Dani heard a click, and then her dad was yelling. She squeezed her eyes shut, and gripped his hand.

"Ow!" Her dad finished the yell, and looked at Pepper, who was breathing heavily. "Was that so hard? That was fun, right?" He looked down at Pepper's hands, which were attempting to secure the reactor. "I've got it. I've got it. Here," he took over and clicked it into place. "Nice."

Pepper held her hands up, and looked at Tony with a horrified expression. "Are you okay?" She whispered.

"Yeah, I feel great. You okay?"

Pepper exhaled heavily and lowered her hands, glaring at Tony who began to laugh. "Don't ever, ever, ever, ever, ever ask me to do anything like that ever again."

"I don't have anyone but you," Tony replied seriously. He wrapped his arm around Dani, who was shaking as her heart pounded. "You are all Dani and I have." He shrugged. "Anyway," he sat up, and began to disconnect the wires from his chest.

"What do you want me to do with this?" Pepper held up the original reactor.

"That?" Tony stared at it for a moment. "Destroy it. Incinerate it." He tapped the one in his chest.

"You don't want to keep it?"

"Pepper, I've been called many things. 'Nostalgic isn't one of them."

Pepper nodded, "will that be all, Mister Stark?"

"That will be all, Miss Potts." Tony looked down at Dani. "Are you done with your math facts?"

"You expect me to go back to mathfacts after watching that?"

"Watching your dad go into cardiac arrest isn't reason enough to sluff off on homework."

Dani didn't have a response for that.

She was still trying to wrap her head around everything that she had just watched. It had been completely bizarre, and she didn't know how to feel about it.

"I think it does. So, I'm gonna go eat ice cream with Pepper, to get over the trauma you just put us through."

Her dad laughed, "alright. When you put it like that. Get out of here."

Dani grinned and ran from the lag. Ice cream cured everything.

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Thank you guys so much for reading! It's making me so happy that you guys are interested in this story! :)