I walk quickly towards the subway entrance with a plan forming in my mind. I glance at Morgan, whom I had put a hat on, and Kayla. They were not going to like breaking into the subway.

I pull them to the side, "Okay we don't have enough money left over to take the subway for all three of us, so we're going to have to break some laws."

Kayla glares at me, "Again?"

I nod, "Yep. Let's go."

We enter the subway and I pull them to the side. I look around and see a large crowd of people entering the station. I gesture towards them.

"Slip in with them and hop over the grate. Make sure no one sees you. Ok?"

They nod and I take Morgan by the hand, "Mo's with me. Kayla, you follow."

I walk briskly into the crowd of people. We get close to the bars and I whisper to Morgan, "Crawl under. I'll meet you on the other side."

She nods and slips underneath the bar. I glance around, and thankfully, no one noticed. Can always count on New Yorkers not to care.

I myself slide over the bars as I had done, admittedly thousands of times before. I look over to where I had told Morgan and Kayla to wait for me. Kayla gave me a relieved smile as we walked over.

"I don't want to that again."

I roll my eyes at her, "Live a little."

She glares, "You taught a ten year old and a five year old how to break into the subway. I did live a little."

Morgan giggles a little as I stutter, "Let's just get on the train. We needn to get to the tower."


After about a half hour we found ourselves outside the subway station with a crowd of people. Kayla was glancing around and she smiled when she saw the street.

"Oh my goodness! We're on Broadway!"

I nod and Morgan looked at her confused, "You've never been to Broadway?"

She shakes her head, "I've never really been in the city."

Morgan looks at her sadly but then smiles as she says, "Well you should come visit and Daddy can take us!"

I snort, "That might not be for a while. Do you remember why I'm taking you home?"

Her smile fades as she says, "Oh yeah."

I pat her on the shoulder, "Don't worry kid. I'm sure they'll only lightly kill you."

She groaned and Kayla grinned as we walked down the street. As we approached the tower, I felt my heart beating quickly. I hadn't been there in six months and I would bet Tony and Pepper were there.

"Look! It's the tower!" Morgan said excitedly.

We walk closer towards the entrance but I pull Morgan and Kayla aside before we can get spotted.

"Okay Mo. This is it. Go inside and tell Tony that you're sorry and that you came back on your own."

She looked at me confused, "You're not coming with me?"

"Um…no. Kayla and I have plans. It's just better if you go in by yourself."

"But why? I left so you could come home!"

I swallow, "Mo, it doesn't work like that. It's...it's complicated but I can't go home. Tony could get in trouble."

She nods sadly as she gives me a hug, "Ok. But come home soon."

"I'll try my best."

She waves goodbye to Kayla and runs towards the building. I make sure she gets inside before I turn back towards Kayla.

"Come on. It looks like it's about to rain, plus we need to get out of here. I garuntee Tony will be checking security cameras."

Kayla nods and says, "I thought you wanted to go home."

I turn and walk away, "Like I said, it's better this way,"


I'm pacing back and forth across the living room. Pepper's sitting on the couch biting her nails and Rhodey's sitting next to her. It's been a couple of days since Morgan's gone missing, and I think I'm going to die. Friday's ran every search of all the security in the tri-state area. The only think she found was that Morgan had left on her own and had started walking east. That's all they had and it was driving him crazy. How could his five year old daughter outsmart him?

"Probably from the little bit of time she spent with AJ," Peter said as he walked into the room.

He gave Peter a perplexed look and Peter said, "You said that out loud."

"Um...oh. Any luck?"

Peter shakes his head, "No."

He looked over at Peter. The kid had been searching the city non-stop for the last few days. He looked about as terrible as the rest of them.

"Boss?"

Everyone jumped as Friday spoke. Tony recovered first and asked, "Did you find something Fri?"

"Yes. Young Miss Stark has entered the building and Happy is bringing her up."

I felt a gaint weight lifted off my shoulders. Pepper stood up just as the elevator rang. I watched as she ran over to Morgan, who looked dirty but otherwise unharmed, and wrapped her in a big hug.

I walk over and hug them as well. I feel some of the tears I had been holding back fall down as I hug them.

Pepper and I pull back to look at her. Suddenly Pepper grips Morgan by the arms and firmly states, "Never. Never. Never do that again. Do you understand?"

Morgan's eyes grow big and she shakes her head yes, "I'm sorry Mommy...I just…."

Tears were now falling down her cheeks, "...I just wanted to find AJ. I miss him."

Pepper's eyes softened at that, "Oh baby."

I pulled her into my arms, "Morgan, we're going to get AJ back. But not now. We're going to find away."

She nods into my shoulder, "I know. That's what he said."

Pepper looked at me with wide eyes and I pull Morgan back to look at her, "That's what he said?"

A look of realization crosses her face before she says, "Uh...yeah. When he left for his new home."

Peter looked at her, "Morgan, how did you get home? You've never been able to get back by yourself."

She looks at me and swallows, "He told me not to tell."

"Fri, pull up all the security footage from around the tower around the time Morgan got in."

Multiple screens appeared in front of me and I began swiping. I found one and I zoomed in. A teenaged boy and a young girl were walking away from the tower and the boy turns, raising a hand to the camera to say goodbye.

"Fri, pause," I say as I zoom in on the photo. His eyes were sunken in and he had lost weight, but it was definitely AJ.

"Fri, can you see where they went after this?"

"No. AJ took care to avoid security."

I groan, "Of course he did. Whose the kid with him?"

"Kayla Sinclaire. Age 10. Resident of Greenworths Foster Home. They seem to be friends."

"Do you think they'll head back there?" Rhodey asks.

"No. I think I know where they're going," Peter says, "Right Morgan?"


"I'm soaked," Kayla says as we walk down the street.

I roll my eyes, "Well we were walking in the rain. Of course your soaked."

"I'm soaked and we're going to an abandoned old house. Yeah."

I shoot her a look as I open the gate, "You could have gone back to the Greenworths."

"Over my dead body. I'd rather starve by choice than by force."

I nod in agreement as we reach the window and I pull it open, "Same."

I indicate for her to go first. I look back at the city and hope Tony didn't kill Morgan.

"Uh...AJ?"

I turn, "Yeah?"

"You might want to come in here."

My brow creases in confusion as I climb through the window.

"What's -" I stop mid-sentence when I see Rhodey and Tony standing in the middle of the room.

Tony gives me a small smile, "Hey kid."

"Uh...hey. What...what are you doing here?"

He gives me a look, "You really thought I wouldn't track you down?"

I look at the floor, "You shouldn't have. You'll get in trouble."

"Yeah well I stopped caring as soon as I saw how much weight you lost."

I give him a small smile, "Now come on. I don't look that bad, do I?"

"You don't look that good either," Tony says as he walks over to me and pulls me into a hug.

"I missed you kid," he whipsers.

"Missed you too Tony," I say back.

We pull apart and I notice Rhodey standing behind Tony with a smile on his face, "Hey Uncle Rhodey."

He pulls me into a hug too, "Hey kid. Nice to see you again."

"You too."

I pull back and Kayla clears her throat. I turn to her and she gives me a raised eyebrow with her arms crossed across her chest.

I give her a small smile, "Oh yeah. Tony, Rhodey, this is Kayla Sinclaire, a friend from the group home. Sourpatch, this is Tony Stark and Colonel James Rhodes."

Tony extends his hand his hand and she shakes his hand, "So you're the girl Morgan mentioned. It's a pleasure."

"Um...likewise," she says kind of starstruck.

Rhodey also extends his hand, "Hi, nice to meet you Kayla."

She shakes his hand, "Nice to meet you too, Mr. Rhodes."

He smiles, "You can call me Rhodey."

"I'll keep that in mind," she says.

I turn back to Tony, "So...you didn't really answer my question."

He clears his throat, "I want you to come home. If you're here the Greenworths are obviously...not great. Pepper can deal with the red tape later. Look kid, you're my kid and I don't want you staying with a stranger doing who knows what to you or in old house freezing to death from the rain, which by the way you are already doing because you walked here from Broadway in the rain but I'm trying to let that go, and I'll be damned if I just let that happen. Come home."

I look at Tony, "Give me a minute."

He stares at me in confusion as I pull Kayla to the side.

She looks at me confused, "Um...what are you doing? You've been waiting to go home for six months!"

"I'm aware of that Kayla. I just...I just don't want to ditch you."

Her eyes soften, "AJ, you have a family waiting for you. Go to them. I'll be fine. The Greenworths really aren't that bad."

"Kayla, they...they hurt us for breaking small rules. They'll kill you for running away. Last time they broke your ribs. I can't let you go back to that. Come with me."

"What?!"

"Pepper could find you a better home. A more permanent home."

She looks down, "AJ...don't make me a promise you can't keep. I've already been let down too many times."

"I promise they will try and that's more than a lot of people do," I say genuinely.

She gives me a slight nod and I turn back to Tony.

"Ok, I'll come home but you have to make sure it's ok with Audrey and take Kayla with us. She can't go back there."

Tony nods in understanding, "Ok. I'll call Audrey, which Pepper would have made me do anyways -"

"Wait, Pepper doesn't know you're here?!"
He rolls his eyes, "-of course she does. For once, she was on board with me breaking several rules, and especially if it's for her favorite kid. And by the way Kayla, we had no intentions of making you go back or leaving you here. Now Happy's waiting downstairs and you two are soaking, so can we go?"

I look at Kayla, who still looks a little shocked, "Yeah. We're ready."

We all head towards the window. Kayla and Rhodey go first and I follow. I hear a bang and a string of curses.

I shake my head at Tony as I continue out the door.

Rhodey smirks, "It looks like something smacked some sense into you Tony."

Tony glares, "Do you want a ride back to the tower or not, Platypus?"

"If you left me Pepper would kill you."

He shakes his head as he opens the car door, "Nah. I've got AJ, so we're good."

I cliimb in with Kayla next to me, while Tony and Rhodey continue to bicker. I smile when I see Happy turning around.

"Hey kid, glad you're back," he says with a smile.

"Thanks Happy," I gesture towards Kayla, "this is my friend Kayla. Kayla, this is Tony's head of security Happy Hogan."

"Nice to meet you Mr. Hogan. Thank you for the ride," she says politely.

Tony and Rhodey climb into the car as Happy says, "Nice to meet you too."

Tony clapped his hands, "Ok Hap, to the tower!"

I see Happy roll his eyes as we begin driving off. Finally, I get to go home.