Chapter 7
The new century comes and goes with as much fanfare as the press can spin on it. She wanted to laugh at their fear of the Y2K apocalypse, as if they were afraid that technology would suddenly stop being able to handle the turn of century. As if her own technology would be so simple that it was unable to compute a year turning from 1999 to 2000.
Still, her own reassurances do not quell the fears in the public, and she was beyond trying to convince them to believe her. It was a battle she had no intention of fighting, given how the press had long since made up their minds on her.
It didn't matter to them, how many weapons she made, how many laptops, music players, cellphones. It didn't matter that Stark Industries had picked up a reputation of being the best in the business. If she ventured into the field, she ensured that all of their products were the top of the line.
It didn't matter that in the near decade since she had taken over Stark Industries, that she had quickly become the Stark that people thought about.
There were those who still referenced her father, who still looked down at her for her accomplishments. But those were the older crowd, the ones who were quickly losing their sway as they were caught in the past.
It helped that she had slowly begun to replace her board, starting with those who had doubted her to the point where it had hindered her. Namely Roberts and O'Brian. There had been a fuss, of course, but she had the accounting errors and proof that their mistakes were starting to cost the company far more than they were worth. It certainly helped that the retirement packages she had provided as incentive were more than generous.
All she wanted to do was to build, to create, and to make. She didn't want the spotlight watching over her constantly. She didn't want them to doubt her, to make her into the persona they needed her to be in order to sell more papers. She didn't want them to constantly doubt her and constantly spin her into some sort of party girl. She was coming on thirty, and she was tired of their words constantly trying to make her into something she wasn't. She was tired of being the party girl, or the playgirl who would sleep with everything and anything that moved.
She hadn't had a serious relationship her entire life, because the world always insisted on painting her as who they wanted to be, and why would she trust anyone enough to let them into her life, only for there to be a tell-all about her in the papers the next morning? She didn't need a love life. Not when she had her children. She had Rhodey too, even if she only saw him once every few months. And Pepper Potts, despite being her PA was quickly becoming one of the most useful people in her life.
Thirty years old, and she was known as the Merchant of Death.
She hated the name. Hated what it represented, and hated that people saw her and thought of nothing more than death and destruction.
She hated making weapons, hated what they did, and hated knowing that it was her bombs being dropped, even if over terrorists and those who threatened their safety. It didn't mean she liked it any more than she had to.
But her weapons kept Rhodey safe. They made it so her Sour Patch came home in one piece, and there was nothing in the world that she wouldn't trade for his safety. There was nothing she wouldn't do it if it meant that Rhodey came home in one piece.
It didn't help either that for each new piece of technology she unveiled, Obadiah insisted on three prototypes to show the military. Stark Industries made weapons, and while their technology department certainly brought in more than enough profits, it was nowhere near the multi-billion dollar profits each contract with the military brought in. It was their bread and butter, whether she liked it or not, and she knew that she could hardly shut down the department.
Still, she outlined new departments she wanted to open. Outlines of various fields she wanted to venture in, where she thought they could make more of a difference, such as medical research and in making prosthetics, the automobile industry, the clean energy market. She had outlines for all of them, but new departments cost money, and she knew that convicting Obadiah to even let her bring it up with the Board would be a battle. Because if she could barely even convince him to listen to her ideas, she had no chance in convincing the rest of the Board members.
She sighed to herself. All she wanted to do was make a difference. And as morbid as it was, it certainly was easier when she ran her own company than when she had to listen to her father tear her down in every conversation.
She couldn't help but wonder, why. Why had her father entrusted his legacy with her? She knew it was her birthright, as outlined by her grandfather, but he never had been all that happy about it before. Her father had made it clear that he hated her in every conversation. So why had he given her his legacy without one last fight?
And now, she had the power to change the world, and shape it as she liked. She went against Hammer Industries and Viastone on a regular basis, and time and time again she proved that they were the superior company. But it didn't stop them from questioning her. It didn't stop them from thinking she was nothing more than a weak woman who didn't have what it took to survive in this business.
She wondered if it ever would make a difference.
"Toni!" She heard a cheerful scream, and she looked up from her screen to see Ava enter the room excitedly. Despite her cousin being in her early twenties, she still had the innocence and naivety of a child. It was one thing she always had been envious of Harry and Ava for. They were always allowed to be children, not forced to grow up far before their time. They always were allowed to have a childhood, because Aunt Peggy and Uncle Daniel never treated their children the same way Howard had treated her.
"Ava," Toni smiled, despite the exhaustion setting in. How long had it been since her last meal? Since the last time she had slept? She couldn't answer either of those questions, and she knew from JARVIS' attempts to make her sleep, it must have been bordering on a couple of days at least since she had had more than an hour here or there.
"You look like shit," Harry said, looking at her bluntly, and Uncle Daniel lightly smacked him on the shoulder.
"Harry," Uncle Daniel said warningly, before turning to her, "Toni, Sweetheart, when was the last time you ate anything?"
"Uh," she hesitated, trying to think back, "Yesterday morning, I think?"
He gave her a disapproving look, "JARVIS, can you order some takeout from the Italian place, please? Charge it to my card."
"I don't need you to buy me food!" she protested, "I'm a billionaire. I can afford it."
"Doesn't mean that you are responsible enough to eat properly," Ava shook her head, "Even I eat proper meals, and I'm in college."
"Consider it my treat," Daniel waved her off, "You're family, Toni. The least I can do is make sure you're taking care of yourself."
"I'm fine," she said, trying to brush off his compassion. And maybe it would have worked for anyone else, but Uncle Daniel had been in her life for decades, and if anyone knew better, it would be him.
"You're not," he shook his head, as he led her over to the sofas in her penthouse. "You need to take a break, Antonia. Peggy wouldn't want to see you like this. It would break her heart to see you wearing yourself thin trying to balance everything."
"It's better now that I have Pepper," she protested, "She helps balance some of the workload."
"You still run the company," he reminded her, "And design all the new products your company creates, as well as doing all the testing and tweaking. Antonia, you cannot carry that weight on your shoulders. You'll burn out if you try. You need to take a break, or at least delegate more of your tasks."
She sighed, and Ava perked up, "Hire me," Ava said cheerfully, "I can help with testing. Then it means I get to try out your products first."
"I already give you prototypes of some of the tech before it hits markets," Toni scoffed at her younger cousin.
She shrugged, "Still, we could be working together. Think about how much fun that would be."
"I thought you wanted to join SHIELD like your brother?" she asked her younger cousin, looking at Harry who simply shrugged.
"If I joined SHIELD it would be for Research and Development," Ava shook her head, "Besides, everyone knows Stark Industries is the best. Let me work with you."
Uncle Daniel simply laughed, and she glowered at him.
"Finish your education first," Toni sighed, knowing she'd never turn down her cousin. Besides, if she trusted anyone it certainly would be her. Over the years she had come to see just what her cousin was capable of. "Then we'll talk."
"Yes!" Ava cheered, "I get to work for the best organization in the world."
"You are aware that Mum founded SHIELD right?" Harry raised an eyebrow at her, "Alongside Dad?"
Ava grinned at her father, "Dad do you mind if I work with Toni instead of Harry?"
"Darling, I know better than trying to tell any woman who's made up her mind what to do," Daniel laughed, "If it is what will make you happy, and only if Toni agrees to give you a job, then follow your heart."
She felt her heart clench at the supportiveness. He might be her uncle, but it wasn't the same. Her own father would never allow her to follow her heart, especially given what it was she wanted to do. He only ever saw her as a burden and resented her every moment from the time she was born.
"How is Aunt Peggy?" Toni asked, as JARVIS alerted them to the delivery boy's presence, and Harry got up to go pick up the food.
"Today is not a good day," Uncle Daniel said, looking sad, and Ava took her father's hand. "You've seen how she's been doing, Toni. She's getting worse with each passing day. And I don't know if I'm going to be enough to help her any longer."
"What do you need?" she asked immediately, knowing that if there was anything she could do for her aunt, she gladly would do so.
"The doctors were thinking of putting her in a home," Daniel sighed. "She needs constant care. And I want nothing more than to be enough for her. I wish I was enough for her. But I am a man enough to admit that I need help. But she's your family too, Toni. So the decision lays with all of us."
"What does she want?" Toni asked, "Have you talked to her on her good days about it?"
"She wants to go," he said, voice breaking, "It hurts her too on her good days to know how bad some days can be. She doesn't want to put me through that, no matter how much I insist that I will always be there for her. She doesn't want me to have to be in this position."
"She's family," Toni said softly, "If she wants to go, and you are comfortable with it, then I'll make the calls to get her the best care she can get."
"The best home for her is in Washington," Daniel sighed, and Toni felt her heart drop. Washington was on the other side of the country.
"Oh," she said, and Ava squeezed her hand.
"Harry is already there because of SHIELD, and Ava was thinking of doing a degree at University of Maryland," Daniel told her, "If Peggy goes there, then I'll move close by."
"Of course," she said, plastering her press smile on, "She deserves the best care, Uncle Daniel. She's always looked out for me, and she deserves to have others looking out for her too. I can find you something close by. I have a few properties there for when I have to meet with Congress or the Senate."
"We're not leaving you, Toni," Harry told her gently, "Not like that anyways. We're still family, and if you ever need us, we'll always come. You're important to us too."
She felt her throat close slightly, as she could do nothing but nod. "I know. If this is what is best for Aunt Peggy, then it is what we must do. Let me take care of the arrangements, please."
"Okay," Daniel said, looking torn. And she knew why. For all the work they had done for the government, they hardly had as much disposable income as she did. Retirement homes could be expensive, especially ones that needed as much care as Peggy would. And Toni could more than afford it. Even if they had come just to ask her opinion, she wouldn't let them do this alone. Peggy was family, and she deserved the best.
Pepper Potts was more than a formidable Personal Assistant, and Toni Stark could honestly say she admired the woman and her tenacity. She put up with the shit the Board gave her when Toni had asked her to take care of certain things, helped her balance her workload, and had more than enough patience to deal with Toni Stark after she had gone on a weekend bender, filled with inventing, designing, creating, and very little sleep or food.
"People warned me about you," Pepper had sighed, one Monday morning after she had spent the weekend designing new robots meant to help with the production demands for their company. "They warned me that you would drink too much, party too much, and that it would be up to me to try and clean up your messes. I just didn't think that messes would entail far more of trying to get you to exist healthily and not starve yourself."
"Pepper, oh sweet Pepper," Toni said, tiredly, as Pepper handed her a cup of coffee, "Did I ever tell you that you're the light of my life?"
"You might have mentioned it once or twice," her PA snorted, as she prepared a plate of eggs for her and placed it in front of her, "Now eat. We have the meeting with the Board today to discuss new location for Stark Industries to set up home, and I have a feeling you're going to need to get up your strength in order to deal with them for longer than ten minutes without getting a headache."
"I love you," she told her with a grin as the coffee made its way from the cup and into her stomach. "I have no regrets about hiring you, do you know that. Everything is so much better with a bit of Pepper in my life."
"This is why the Press thinks you're drunk half the time," Pepper sighed, "Because of all your exhaustion ranting. And then the other half of the time, I swear you're just messing with them, and feeling into your persona."
"They see what they want to see," she shrugged, "They always have. Might as well have some fun with it. Besides, people always underestimate me, and it gives me an advantage when I shake their very cores of what they believe in. The press always likes to talk about all of Stark Industries new innovations, as if I didn't have any hand in creating them. They'll always be that way, Pepper Pot, and the sooner we accept it, the sooner I can put it behind me and continue to be who I need to be in order to change the world."
"It just goes to show that you cannot believe everything you read in the press," Pepper said, "If only all those people who thought you're nothing more than a rich socialite with far too many partying tendencies could see the real you, then they'd take back all their words."
"Are you hitting on me, Pepper?" Toni asked, dropping her voice to sound flirty, as she bit back a laugh, "I must say I'm flattered."
"What?" Pepper asked, turning slightly flushed, "I-uh, what? I thought that was one of the things the Press made up about you in an outlandish way to gain more sales."
"The story was outlandish," Toni shrugged, "But not everything in the press is a lie. I like people, regardless of their gender. But don't worry, Pepperoni, I was just messing with you. I wouldn't do anything that made you feel uncomfortable."
"I don't doubt it," Pepper said wryly. "So have you decided on where you would like the new offices to be?"
She hesitated for a moment, "I was thinking about making it a bit bigger than just a new development facility," she said. "What do you think about moving the headquarters to Malibu? I think I need to get out of this city for a bit, and what better place to go than there?"
"What about your family and friends?" Pepper asked her, a little confused.
She wanted to scoff, Rhodey was gone more often than he was here. Her mother was long gone, as was Jarvis and Ana. Peggy was in a home in Washington, and Daniel had moved there to be with her. Ava and Harry were off doing their own things, so who did that leave her with, other than Obadiah?
"There's nothing here for me anymore," Toni said with a shake of her head, "Everyone is gone. I need a break from this city, Pepper. All it's ever given me is loss. It's time to start fresh somewhere else. Somewhere away from here."
"Okay," Pepper said with a nod. "My mother is in California, and I always did like the weather there far better than New York."
Toni looked up at her in surprise and Pepper simply scoffed, "Did you think I'd let you go alone, Toni? You can barely take care of yourself. You need me."
She smiled at her friend, and for the first time in a while, she felt slightly less alone.
Toni sighed to herself as she buried herself in the paperwork in front of her, wondering just when it would finally end and she could go back to inventing, or doing anything she actually wanted to be doing
It wasn't that she hated running the company. How could she when all she ever wanted to do was work for the company that her father and grandfather had before her? Stark Industries was her bread and butter and helped her make a difference in the world. And she had worked hard to be here, fighting for her right to be in charge. But that didn't mean she enjoyed some of the business aspects any more than she had to.
She heard her door to her office open, and without looking up from her paperwork she said, "If you're not Pepper you better have an appointment to be here. I have far too much to do today."
"I didn't know I needed an appointment to visit my little sister," she heard a wry voice say, and her head snapped up to see Rhodey standing there in front of her, donning Military Apparel but looking smug as he knew he caught her off guard."
"Rhodey!" She exclaimed, standing from her desk as she moved to hug him tightly, "I missed you!"
"I saw you a few months ago at Christmas," he reminded her, "It wasn't all that long ago, Tones."
"I know," she pouted up at him. "But that was months ago Sugar Plum. I've missed you. And not that I'm not happy to see you, but what are you doing here? You usually don't take your leave until the holidays so you can spend a couple of weeks with your family. I didn't expect to see you again so soon."
Because it wasn't that she didn't still talk to her favourite person. She still called and wrote him emails, but it wasn't the same as being able to see her Honey Bear every day like she had been able to do when they were still in MIT and spent hours each day at the lab together."
"That's actually part of the reason for my surprise visit," he told her softly, "I wanted to talk to you about something."
"Oh?" she asked him, gesturing for him to sit down on the Parisian chaise Pepper had purchased for her office, in the hope that she might take a nap on it from time to time. Jokes on Pepper; Toni didn't have time for naps.
"The Military's made me an offer," he told her after a moment, "And I won't accept it without your go ahead. But I want you to know that I'm considering it seriously. I'm not getting any younger, Toni; I'm in my mid-thirties. I don't want to spend the rest of my life overseas, only coming home for a few weeks at a time. I want to be stationed States side for the majority of the year."
She felt her breath catch in her throat, but she let him continue.
"I talked to my supervisors, and they offered me a proposition. They need a military liaison to Stark Industries, given that we have so many contracts, but they want someone who knows you personally. They asked if I would take over the position. It would mean being closer to my mom and Jeanette, and to you. But I will not accept it unless it's something you are comfortable with. I will not allow the Military to exploit my connection to you to get what they want."
She was glad he said it, because they both knew why the Military would ask it to be him. Because she loved him, and had a hard time telling Rhodey no. Not that he'd ever given her any outlandish requests; it was one of the reasons she loved him so much. Because he loved her, not her resources.
But the Military was asking only because they knew she cared about him. Because if they wanted a better rate on weapons, now it was Rhodey she'd have to say no to, not some faceless organization.
"If you want to take it, you should," she told him softly. "I trust you, Rhodey, more than I do anyone else. And if this means I get to see you far more than once a year, then I want you to take it too. It's been rough without you by my side."
He pulled her into a tight hug, and she leaned into him.
"Then I'll take it," he exhaled. "You and me, Toni, against the world."
She wondered if this was how Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes had felt back in the forties. That they'd go to the end of the world for each other. Because she'd do the same for Rhodey and knew he would for her too.
"Together," she told him. "Your Mom is going to be so excited."
"I think she might move here," Rhodey laughed, "Jeanette already mentioned how much she likes California and if Mama be with all three of her children together, do you think she will not take that opportunity?"
Toni laughed, knowing he was right.
"And just think of what we could do together," Toni grinned, "We could dominate the entire world."
He laughed, but kept an arm around her, "I knew I missed you for a reason," he grinned. "Now why don't you introduce me to this Miss Potts who's taken my job of keeping you alive in my absence?"
She stuck her tongue out at him, "I don't think I will. I don't need the two of you ganging up on me."
His grin widened, "I think I'll like her then."
She pouted but didn't argue. Her Rhodey Bear was moving home, and that was enough for her.
She wasn't sure whether she should have been pleased or not that Pepper and Rhodey had become fast friends, bonding over the different ways they managed to look out for Toni over the years.
On one hand, she was grateful; she loved the both of them more than anything. But on the other hand, it meant that they more often than not ganged up against her in an attempt to get her to do anything which they determined necessary for her to function like a "normal human being".
Jokes on them if they thought that a few hours more of sleep would make that much of a difference in the long run. The only thing it would change was that she'd lose a few precious hours of sleep of when she could have been working on a prototype for a new bomb or something of the like.
And at Pepper's insistence, she'd found herself a new bodyguard. She'd received threatening mail her entire life, even as a child. And she'd been forced to read every single one of those letters growing up. It was just another messed up thing that Howard had insisted on, and she was more than used to her fair share of threats.
And when the threats turned into kidnapping attempts, she'd stay calm until Aunt Peggy was able to rescue her, no matter how much they hurt her. Because she was a Stark, and Starks were made out of iron. They did not break, nor did they bend. And after the first couple of kidnapping attempts, Aunt Peggy had taught her how to fight so she could save herself.
Pepper, however, had been horrified to learn about the kidnappings and insisted on a bodyguard. She had tried to insist that she didn't need one, but Pepper refused to listen.
And well, so blame her if she found a former boxer who happened to stop a rogue ex-employee from targeting her one day when they were out in public and had hired him on the spot.
Pepper had been in her first year of employment when that had happened, but she had long since given up on trying to change Toni's mind once she had decided on something.
In the years to come, she had built a family around her, with her bots and friends. People who loved her, people who wouldn't leave her, even when everyone else had.
Pepper had found her drunk one night, as she rambled on about her fears of Pepper too deciding to leave, and Pepper had sat with her all night, promising she'd still be there in the morning.
Rhodey, who had taken a job so he could be closer to her and the rest of his family.
Happy, who put up with her eccentricities, with odd smiles here and there when he thought she wasn't paying attention.
JARVIS, who like his namesake, looked out for her, and watched out for her when everyone else was unavailable.
And her bots, who ran amok in her workshop starting fires and putting them out.
It was during one such interaction between DUM-E and JARVIS, as JARVIS desperately tried to persuade DUM-E out of using motor oil in one of her smoothies that she had decided she wanted another one. Another bot to run around her workshop and cause chaos.
DUM-E might have taken her a few years to get right, but U was welcomed into the world a month after she had made the decision.
"Aww look at you," she had cooed looking at him, and before she knew it, her bot had accepted it as its name. She really should have known better, given the fiasco's with DUM-E and Butterfingers. While JARVIS had asked for a name, and read his programming, it seemed as if her other bots were more than prepared to accept whatever name she gave them, even if accidently.
Rhodey had laughed at her for the better part of the evening, asking why she hadn't learned better by now. It had been over a decade since she'd made DUM-E and she was still paying for his unfortunate name.
Pepper had been amused by it, but she had taken to U instantly, immediately whispering praises of what a smart bot it was.
DUM-E and Butterfingers had been excited to have a new sibling and DUM-E had accidently set the latest experiment she'd been working on, on fire, and JARVIS had exasperatedly tried to put it out.
Ava, the youngest of the humans, had loved U instantly, and asked if Toni would let her work on a bot. With her Master's complete, Toni had given her the job of helping her test her new products like she'd wanted, and honestly it was nice having so much of her family so close to her.
She looked around the room, feeling so much love and warmth for everyone around her. While she knew there were others, like Aunt Peggy, Uncle Daniel, and Harry, who loved her and wasn't present, she knew that she was loved.
For how alone she'd felt a little over a decade ago upon the loss of her mother and Jarvis, Toni knew that there were others who loved her. And that they would never hurt her, not the way Howard had when he was drunk and wanted to show her just how much he hated her.
She wasn't alone.
She just hoped they wouldn't leave, even if they promised they wouldn't.
