So i'm reposting cause something happened and yeah haha. Thanks The Cloud's Essence for pointing it out. You da best. Again, this is the second half of chapter 3, my computer was having some issues so I split it up.

Elli wasn't quite sure what to make of the new extensions of her arm and feet. When they had first appeared they had hurt quite a lot, but now they were just kind of there. She was able to get the hang of having a left arm pretty quickly, after all it was just like her right one. The feet were more difficult. She and her daddy were sitting on the floor in front of the T.V. He had placed her on his lap so she could see both of their feet together.

"Now Elli, see how I am curling my toes? Can you try doing that for me?" Pepper had painted both of their toes earlier that day. Her toes were orange because that was her favorite color that week while her daddy's were red and gold.

Concentrating really hard, Elli watched as her new feet twitched a few times before her toes curled just like her daddy's. Her head shot up to smile at her daddy, a bright smile on his face as well.

"Good?"

"Very good, sweetie. Can you try bending your knees now?" Elli nodded and followed her daddy's example.

"Looks like it is going well." Elli squirmed out of her daddy's lap and held her arms up.

"Peppa! Peppa! I can wiggle my toes!" The woman scooped her off the floor and Elli lifted one of her legs to show her.

"Amazing!" Pepper showered her with kisses and then plopped her on the couch so Elli could watch Mickey Mouse. Deedee hopped up next to her and put her head in Elli's lap. Using her left hand, Elli practiced petting gently. Her daddy said that her new arm was very strong so she had to be extra careful.

"They look so real. It's like she had them all along." Elli decided to only pay somewhat attention to what her Aunty Pepper and daddy were saying, Mickey was currently singing the clubhouse song.

"I know. I'm so glad that marathon runner mentioned her friends saying she looked like a cyborg. I wouldn't have thought to make the faux skin sealing."

It was when Elli decided she was thirsty that she discovered she had a problem. Her juice was all the way over on the coffee table! Now normally she would just make it float to her, but her daddy was making her wear her special bracelet. When she was wearing her special bracelet she didn't float on accident but she couldn't make stuff move to her either. And daddy usually let her take it off in the house, but he said she had to wear it until she got used to her legs since she kept using her powers to move them on accident.

Frustrated and unable to get her daddy's attention, Elli shimmied off the couch and landed on the floor with a soft thump. Gripping onto the leather couch, Elli glared at her legs. She could do this, her daddy used his legs to move all the time.

**** mini line break (not an entirely new scene, just a new perspective) ******

Tony was extremely pleased with how the surgery had gone. Elli's prosthetics were slightly different from the others—hers had interchangeable parts due to her being a child, she would need to get upgrades as she grew—but they worked just as well, if not better than the original designs. The faux skin was a great addition that he would introduce to the SI models as well. The only hint at where the prosthetic began was the thin line where the seal met actual skin. Pepper had jumped at the chance to paint Elli's toenails for the first time, and when his baby girl had insisted his be painted too, he hadn't even hesitated. The young marathon runner, Grace had been her name, had told Tony how much she had missed having painted toes. She had said how she felt silly, since it was such a minor thing, but it was what she was looking forward to the most—after being able to run again, of course.

"Oh my gosh, Tony turn around."

Tony whipped around just in time to see Elli take her hands off the couch. The coffee table had been moved so that Tony could sit with his legs stretched out in front of him so it was a little farther than usual. Both of them watched in silence, Tony cheering internally as to not break Elli's concentration. He almost wants to laugh at the Frankenstein walk she is doing, they'll have to work on her bending her knees and ankles some more. When she makes it the four feet from the couch to the coffee table, Pepper and Tony burst in excitement causing Elli to fall onto her butt in alarm. Jarvis made sure to take plenty of pictures.

*******new scene********

"Come on Tony, you've barely had anything to do with the company in the past three years. The kid can be watched for a while you go to Afghanistan."

Tony wheeled around to look at Obie on the screen. He was getting some work done in the lab while Pepper took Elli to the park. She was old enough that he could get her to wear tinted glasses and a knitted hat that hid her hair and eyes well enough that someone would have to be paying attention to notice the unique coloring.

"Obie I've never been gone for more than two days. I would rather not travel to a war zone the first time I'm gone for longer than that."

"Okay so a week, tops. And Tony, you're going to be with the U.S. military in the middle of a desert demonstrating a missile. Nothing bad is going to happen."

"For some reason that doesn't make me feel better." Tony snorts and turns back to what he was working on.

"Please Tony, the investors want to see you. Not me, it's not my name on the company." Tony didn't pick up on it but there was a hint of bitterness as Obadiah said those words.

"I'll think about it."

******mini line breakkkkkk*******

Tony squeezed his daughter as tight as he could without breaking her. She giggled sweetly as his beard tickled her cheek as he kissed her in an exaggerated motion.

"Pwomise you'll be back?" Tony leaned his forehead against Elli's as she tried not to pout. She was a big girl and her daddy had assured her he would be back home soon.

"I promise, muffin."

"Peppa said we could go the pawk wheneva I wanted but I don't want Peppa to take me to the pawk. I want you to take me to the pawk." Elli sniffled, it's not that she didn't like Pepper. She just really loved her daddy.

"I know, baby but if you promise to be a good girl for Pepper, we'll go to the park AND get ice cream when I get back." Elli's eyes lit up.

"Ice cweam?"

"Of course!"

Tony chuckles at her excitement, he knows she won't be forgetting that promise. He reaches down into his pocket when his phone starts to ring.

"What's up, platypus?"

"Tony, your flight was scheduled to leave an hour and a half ago."

"That's funny, I thought with it being my plane and all, that it would just wait for me

to get there." Rhodey sighs at his friend.

"I know there is some separation anxiety…"

"Excuse you, Elli is three. She can have all the separation anxiety she needs." Tony blows as raspberry at the toddler on his hip causing her to burst into a fit of giggles.

"Not talking about Elli. Tony just hurry up and get here already." A click ends the conversation as Pepper walks up to the father and daughter.

"That was rude."

"He has a point, say your final goodbyes."

"Alright, alright. I love you princess."

"I love you too daddy." Tony passes his daughter off to Pepper before being herded to the town car by Happy.

"Remember bath time is a 7! And no juice after 6!"

"Tony, I keep track of both of your lives. I know the schedule, just get to the airport before the plane leaves."

"Doesn't it kind of defeat the whole purpose of having your own plane if it departs before you arrive?"

***another mini line break***

Before Tony can even exit the town car, reporters are swarming. He definitely hadn't missed this.

"Mr. Stark, where have you been the past three years? Is it true you have become a hermit?"

"Mr. Stark, there has been rumors of a Mrs. Stark causing you to end your playboy lifestyle. Can you confirm this?"

"Mr. Stark is it true that you are terminally ill?"

Tony deflected most questions by repeating the phrase no comment as he made his way through the crowd, but one woman was extremely persistent.

"Mr. Stark! Mr. Stark! You've been called the da Vinci of our time. What do you say to that?"

"Absolutely ridiculous. I don't paint." Well not masterpieces at least. Elli loved to finger paint.

"And what do you say to your other nickname? 'The Merchant of Death'?" The woman was practically in his face now.

"That's not bad," his weapons had caused a lot of death, but they protected the young men and women serving his country so he had little to no guilt, "Let me guess. Berkeley?"

"Brown, actually."

"Well, Ms. Brown, it's an imperfect world, but it's the only one we've got," if this world were perfect, Elli would have never have had to suffer like she did, "I guarantee you, the day weapons are no longer needed to keep the peace, I'll stick to only making prosthetics and baby bottles."

"Rehearse that much?"

"Every night in front of the mirror before bedtime." He had stopped walking now, the other reporters having been left behind when security pushed them back. How she managed to sneak past, he would never know.

"All I want is a serious answer."

"Okay, here's serious. Until it is guaranteed that our children are safe, I'm going to stick to my old man's philosophy, 'Peace means having a bigger stick than the other guy.'"

"That's a great line coming from the guy selling the sticks."

"My father helped defeat the Nazis. He worked on the Manhattan Project. A lot of people, including your professors at Brown, would call that being a hero."

"And a lot of people would also call that war profiteering. You are still making money after you blow people up with those new prosthetics." Tony was ready to hit the bitch.

"Tell me, do you plan to report on the millions we've saved by advancing medical technology or kept from starvation with our intelli-crops? All those breakthroughs,

military funding, honey."

Before she can say another word, Tony turns on his heel and practically sprints toward the plane. God, did he hate the paparazzi. Vultures, that was the only word for them.

"What's wrong with you?" Tony looks up to see Rhodey scowling.

"What?"

"Three hours."

"Elli needed extra kisses and then I got caught doing a piece for Vanity Fair." Tony shrugs his shoulders. Nothing he could do about it now.

"For three hours. For three hours you got me standing here."

"Waiting on you now. Let's go. Come on." The sooner they left and got this demonstration over with, the sooner he could get back and see Elli.

Ha, its going to be a bit longer than a week Tony. So this chapter was really long, don't know what got into me. Just finally got into the groove of the story I guess. And a lot of coffee kept me going, lol.