Chapter 7

Tony had lost sense of time since he had crash landed into the desert after his explosive escape. Granted he had never really taken into consideration what came next after leaving the hostage site, he just knew he had to get out of there. The sun beat down on him as he made his way, in what he was assuming, was the direction of some sort of civilization. So long as the mountain pass was to his back, he at least knew he wasn't walking back towards where he came from.

As Tony walked the only thing, he was able to do, was reflect on himself and his time in captivity. The one constant thought Tony had though, was of Elena and how he had really taken her for granted until now. Tony always assumed his little girl would be there with him, however until he almost wasn't around anymore, he never realized how quick someone could be taken away.

He needed to get back to her and make things right. He would take more of an interest in her research and hear her out on her opinions in the company.

The sun continued to beat down on him until suddenly a tiny drone flew over his head, and Tony felt A small spark of excitement turn into pure elation as the drone's small whirl lead on to become the deafening sound of helicopter wings. In a burst of pure exultation Tony let out a huge yell and sank down into the sand in relief.

Before Tony knew it, Rhodes was in standing above him smiling "How was the fun-vee?" The Colonel asked as he came down to his level. Tony smiled at him remembering his last words to his friend and his daughter. With the reminder of Elena, Tony squinted up to his friend and asked "Squirt?' His tone indicating, he was asking about how she was. Because it wasn't until this moment that Tony realized he had no idea if she had been harmed in the attack.

Rhodey chuckled and then looked sincerely at his friend, "Next time you ride with me okay, that way I won't fall out of her good graces again."

Both men smiled over the stubbornness of the young girl that they loved and hug each other in relief.

"Come on Tony let's get you home." And with those word Tony made his way with the help of his friend to the helicopter and the only concern he had was that he could not wait to see his daughter one more time.

It was 2 am in California when Pepper in her pajamas frantically made her way over to the Stark mansion. After she had received the news from Rhodey about Tony, she sprang out of bed, grabbed her car keys, and ran to her car, with all sense lost to her.

As she entered the fortress, Jarvis greeted her in surprised tone. However, she was too preoccupied with her current task that she couldn't even muster a greeting, as she quickly sprinted up the stairs. Pepper made her way to the familiar door with a cursive E hanging on the front of on it and, without any thought to knock, Pepper barged her way into the room.

"JARVIS LIGHTS!", she yelled as she entered hoping to awaken the young woman she thought lay inside. However, she stopped dead in her tracks when she was greeted by nonother than Remy, who wagged his tail happily when he saw her enter.

He gave out a chipper bark in greeting

"Huh?" she exclaimed, when she saw the young girl wasn't in her room. The pup yawned, got off the bed, and made his way over to Pepper, sticking his head under her hand while whining for affection. She pets Elena's pup, giving him the attention, he needed, and asked, "Hey, Remy do you know where she is?" as if he would answer her. Remy always had a way of leading them the Elena.

Whining again the pup ran out of the room, and Pepper decided to follow the mixed breed all the way down the stairs to Tony's lab. He stopped at the glass door, with his paw raised to the door as if asking to be let in. Pepper smiled down at the dog and quickly typed her code into the door, opening it to allow the dog to enter before her.

Pepper stepped into the lab and didn't see the young girl anywhere. However, as she turned her head, she saw Remy sitting by the arm of the couch wagging his tail. As Pepper started to make her way over to him, the dog rushed over to the front of the couch and jumped on it disappearing from her view. As she turned to walk towards the front of the couch what she saw broke her heart a little.

There Elena was dead asleep, in the clothes Pepper had seen her in this afternoon, with the addition of Tony's old work hoody, clutching a small monitor, with a textbook dedicating to hearing modification resting open on her stomach. Remy had managed to wiggly is way in between his human and the back couch. Which to Pepper, just gave testament to how exhausted Elena must have been, if her huge pup didn't wake her while jockeying for that position then she didn't know what would.

Pepper quietly made her way over to sit down on the table directly across from the couch. Out habit Pepper began to brush a stray curly hair out of Elena's face and in a gently tone spoke, "Ellie bear, time to wake up."

Elena groaned "No it's not." not wanting to be disturbed.

"I have news, Ellie," Pepper tried to coax the girl out of her deep sleep. Groaning once more, Elena turned her body into her dog and mumbled, "Tell me in the morning Pep."

"Ellie, I just got off the phone with Rhodey. He said thanks to your drone they were able to find your Dad wandering about the desert. They are bringing him home Elle." Pepper said to the girl in front of her as she rubbed her back. Elena's form started to shake underneath her hand, and it took Pepper a minute for her to realize that the young girl was crying with her face buried into her dog.

"Oh Ellie," pepper cooed feeling her heart break all over again for the young girl. She knew that the Elie had run herself ragged trying to find a way to bring her dad home and that she had to be exhausted. This break down was just her final release.

Elena let herself wallow in the feeling that her drone had been what had ultimately found her father. If she had let people talk her out of her idea than they may have never had found him. She took a minute to compose herself by wiping her eyes, as she turned around to face the closest thing she had ever had to mother.

"When can we go see him?" Elena asked as she started to gather her stuff on the couch around her. As she did so, Elena started to plan for the day she may have ahead of her. She would have to reschedule her session with Frank and cancel the lunch she was supposed to have with her old classmate who was back from Calcutta

"His plane lands around noon, we can be there when he does." Pepper explains gently knowing the eager girl in front would leave for the air strip now if she let her. In hindsight maybe Pepper didn't need to run over and tell Elena the news at 2:30 in the morning.

"I'm going for a run." Elena tried to get up, but Pepper gently grabbed her arm "Ellie it's not even 3 in the morning."

"Oh" Elena said in surprise not really having any sense of time over the last few months.

"Oh" Pepper repeated and smiled at Elena, who even though had been living on her own the past few years still reminded her of the young girl who use to ask for her help getting ready in the morning.

Elena sat back down, her mind now buzzing too much for her to ever think about going back to sleep. She looked over to the woman in front of her and realized Pepper was still in her pajamas. A sight Elena can only recall seeing a handful times.

"Hey Pep, how does blueberry pancakes sound?" Elena asked her with an innocent smile on her face. Pepper laughed knowing that was Elena's way of trying to steer the conversation away from anything serious.

"Pancakes sound great Ellie." The girl's grin got bigger as she exclaimed her happiness and called her dog to her. Once Remy was at her heels Elena began to book it out of the lab all while yelling, "I'll make them if you get the coffee started."

Even though it had only been a few hours, it felt like years had passed for Elena since Pepper had told her that Tony was coming home. After pancakes, Elena went on a two-hour run with Remus, called and cancelled her session with Frank, and rescheduled her lunch with her medical school friend. And even though she knew her dad didn't care what she was wearing she had changed her outfit 5 times since showering about two hours ago.

She had finally landed on a comfy tees-shirt dress and some booties. Again, not that it matters to her dad, but Elena felt her fidgeting had more to do with nerves then actual vanity.

Once she had finish dressing, Elena meet Pepper and Happy downstairs by the car. They were taking the Rolls Royce to the airbase to meet her father. The car ride was tense and quiet, until the three of them reached the airbase's landing area. In the silence of the car Elena's mind began to wander and in a sudden panic she realized she had never actually asked what the condition her father would be returning to them in. Was he hurt, maimed or even conscious? Terrorist organizations weren't particularly known for taking care of their hostages.

Elena knew very little details and for someone of her strict mentality that did not sit well with her. She quickly turned to the women next her, who was keeping herself busy on her palm pilot, and frantically asked, "Is he injured? Did they check for internal bleeding, what if he has a bad concussion, they really shouldn't have let him fly if he does, what about broken bones did the give him all of the test- ",

Piper interrupted her, "Elena while I'm sure none of the doctors over there are as competent as you, I guarantee they would not have released your father if he was gravely injured. Rhodey said that Tony was in the best health he could be considering the circumstances."

Still angry towards her pseudo uncle, Elena crossed her arms and replied. "Oh, cause he's such an expert in that field." Pepper looked at the young women next to her and frowned, she placed her hand on top of one of Elena's and gently squeezed. "I know you and Rhodey have been at odds since your dad went missing, but now that he's home, I think it's time you two put it behind you Ellie."

Pepper knew asking a Stark to give up their grudge was a tasking thing to take on. Pepper knew the girl had only lashed out at her uncle because she was scared about her father and that the two would be back on good terms in no time.

"Yeah we'll see." Elena replied, as the sound of a rumbling plane caught her attention. Elena's head whipped to look out of the car's rearview window and saw a giant Cargo plane beginning it's decent towards the tarmac. Without any hesitation, Elena leapt out of the car and sprinted towards the aircraft, without looking to see if Pepper and Happy were following her. She stopped short when she saw an ambulance arrive on the scene. Again, her mind reverted back to everything that could be wrong with her father.

Elena braces herself as the plane's landing door began its decent, and two figures appeared in her vision. Trying to prepare herself, Elena takes one deep breath, anticipating all of the worst-case scenarios. Once of which that was going through her mind was that she honestly believes that Rhodey would be coming out of that plane with a folded flag and not with her father. As she held in her breath, Elena felt a hand grab hold of her own. She looked down to see Pepper had stepped up beside her to support her.

Elena felt her eyes start to swell with tears, with this simple act. This was the closest thing she had ever known to motherly affection. With her whole being, Elena would never be able to rely just how much she appreciated this moment and Pepper.

The EMTs start to move their gurney closer to the plane, but they quickly seemed to retreat causing Elena to chuckle knowing her dad had probably had a hand in their hasty retreat. Then as they began their walk down the plane's door, Elena's eyes lit up in excitant. However, before Elena could even think her body had catapulted itself forward towards her father. She ran and meet him at the end of the ramp, and while she took in the sling on his arm, she couldn't stop herself from launching into her father's waiting right arm. She wrapped quickly wrapped her arms around him, in an attempt to never let him go it seemed.

When he reached the end of the ramp, Tony saw a mess of curls before he saw anything else, and with the curls came the familiar scent of vanilla and coffee. His daughter scent let him know that she had not forgone her coffee addiction during his absence. He hugged his squirt and felt a lump form in his throat. Tony honestly hadn't been sure if was ever going to have a moment like this with her again.

"What's wrong squirt did you miss me or something." He asked in an attempt to thwart the emotions that were building up inside him. He chuckled into her hair after kissing the top of her head.

The arms that where wrapped around him tighten in their hold as Tony began to move away from the ramp. Tony laughed again and wrapped his right arm securely around Elena's shoulders not wanting to part from her, as he made his way to his secretary that was waiting by the car with Happy.

Noticing the red around her eyes and the unusual watery tint to them Tony asked, "What's wrong, Potts tears for your long-lost boss?"

Chuckling she respond "Relief, I hate job hunting."

"Vacation's over, daddy's home." He said shaking Squirt's shoulders, as she grimaced, "Don't call yourself Daddy it's pervy." Tony let out a deep laugh missing his kid's witty comebacks.

"Oh squirt, you have no idea how much I have missed you." He said fondly toward his daughter.

The two Starks let each other go only long enough to enter the car. Once seated Tony resumed his position with his arm around Elena's shoulders.

"Happy head to the hospital please." Pepper asked as they started to make their way off of the tarmac, and away from the plane that had brought Tony home.

"No, no hospital, why would I need that when I have the best doctor in the U.S. by my side." He asked turning his head to smirk at his daughter, who was now looking at him in disapproval.

"Dad, someone needs to look over you that isn't me." Elena tried to argue with him, but Tony was in no mood, he had things that needed to be done.

"No, I've been in captivity for months, I want only two things right now. The first I want an American cheeseburger, and two I want-" He paused and looked at Pepper, and Elena in disgust interrupted with, "Ew your child is right here, old man."

Turning his head to look at Elena, "Mind out of the gutter Squirt, I want a press conference." He said with a smug tone.

Unable to believe what she was hearing Elena protested, "Dad you need to be checked over, for internal injuries and such."

"No, we are going to get cheeseburgers, and then the press conference." Tony said with a note finality.

As they drove Elena discretely put her hands around her dad's wrist, trying to see if she could monitor a few of his vitals. But he got wise to what she was trying to do, and pulled his hand away, "Hey, no doctor stuff Squirt, worry about me like a normal kid, don't try and diagnose me." He said with mock offense.

Tony knew that his kid was worried about him, but he couldn't let his company's weapon manufacturing go on another second. Not when Elena was right, him and Stark industries had not been taking accountability of their inventory.

Elena huffed and said, "What good is being a doctor if I can't help the people I care about?" being very put off that her father had figured out what she had been trying to do. "Well legally speaking since we are related you couldn't be my doctor anyway." He answered smugly knowing he had proven a point to his stubborn child.

"I could still let you know if I think you need to be checked out." She argued back, meanwhile Happy pulled into the first fast food burger place he could fine, that being a Burger king. Tony spouted out an order so fast, Elena was surprised Happy had caught it. After he was done Tony looked at his girl and smiled, "fries and small chocolate shake?" Tony knew it was a combo his daughter could never resist, no matter how annoyed she was at him.

Not wanting to let go of Tony's slight on her doctoring abilities, she responded with a quiet "yeah."

Once they had received all their food, Pepper informed Tony that Obadiah had rallied the press, and everyone was waiting for them to arrive at Stark industries.

Elena lost in thought, was mindlessly dipping her fires in her shake, until she went to reach into the bag and was meet with another hand. She looked over to see her dad smirking at her once again, as if he didn't think he would get caught, "Hey old man get your own." She went to pull the bag away from her dad's hand, but he still came away with a few stragglers. he lifted them up to her as if to show off his trophy.

Elena smiled at her dad and laughed, she held out her milkshake with a knowing smile, "Here dad."

"Thanks Squirt, still love me more than french fries?" he asked as he dipped the fries into the milkshake. With that statement Elena almost lost it, a phrase that had come to mean so much to them. The statement that since she was little, she had ended every phone call or fight with. "I'll always love you more than French fries, old man" she said quietly, and quickly turned her head toward the window so as to collect herself before her tears fell.

Tony scarfed down the first burger before they arrived at Stark Industries. Much to Elena's dislike Obadiah was waiting for them at the front of the press crowd, ready to champion her dad back. Stane and her really had avoided each other during Tony's disappearance. Obadiah had pretty mush tried to freeze her out of the board during that time, but thankful Pepper had stepped in to intervene.

They all got out of the car as Obadiah embraced Tony, as if he were the prodigal son return home once again. He looked over Tony shoulder at Elena and Pepper as if to say, "I thought we were meeting at the hospital." Elena shrugged and just motioned to her father as a response of saying, ask him. The two men stopped to chat for a second while, Elena began to walk ahead.

She quickly made her way into the main lobby to stand in the back, as was usual during her father's press conferences. While waiting for Pepper to join her, a man in plain black suit began to approach her, thinking he was just passing by her she politely smiled and stepped to the side.

She pulled out her phone to quickly text Frank seeing when she could get a new session in, knowing she was going to need an outlet for all these emotions that had been building up since her father's return.

"I'm sorry to bother you Miss Stark, my name's Phil Coulson. I'm with the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division, I was wondering if I could debrief you about your involvement with your father's rescue." He asked handing me a card.

Before Elena could even register what, she was saying, the words, "You have got to come up with a better name for that," flew out of her mouth. He chuckled and patiently answered "I'm aware."

"Uh I really didn't have much to do with it, but I'm sure Pepper could put something in the books if you wanted." She said motioning over to Pepper who was standing a few feet down with Rhodey next to her. Just as Elena was about to walk him over to Pepper, Leslie, Stane's assistant intercepted Elena saying, "I'm sorry Miss Stark but your father is requesting that you join him on stage." Confused, Elena follow her upstage to stand on the other side of her dad.

"You okay?" she asked in concern knowing her dad has never asked her to be a part of a presser unless something serious was happening. He was sitting in front of the podium and motioned for Elena to join him on the floor of the stage. She sat beside him as he motioned for her to hold a minute.

Tony looked out into the crowd and said "Hey would it be alright if everyone sat down? That way you can see me, and we can see you." He motioned for everyone to sit down as he took out his third burger of the day. "A little less formal," He offered Elena a bite of burger before he took a bite himself. Elena just shook her head at him, a small smile gracing her face. Only her father would eat during a sit in interview about his miraculous return.

Obadiah crouched down on the other side of Tony, and Elena really became concerned as her dad became serious once again. After greeting Obadiah and turning to Elena to inform her, "I never got to say goodbye to my father," and in way Elena understood that was his way of telling her he had feared that she almost had, had that happen as well. Elena listened with rapt attention as Tony went on to talk about all the things, he would have asked his dad about his ideas on the company. Questions Elena had been asking Tony since she was a pre-teen

To her surprise, her father began to open up about the horrors he had seen during their attack and how he felt responsible about the accountability of his weapons. When asked what happen her father motioned for her to stand while announcing, "I've had my opened. I've come to realize that I have more to offer the world then just making things blow up," He put his hand on my shoulder with that statement as if to draw and give support at the same time, "Something I've been told many times from this wise woman beside me, but until now I refused to hear the truth behind her words. So, as of now I am officially shutting down the weapons manufacturing division at Stark Industries."

Elena's ears began to ring in shock whether from the surprise at her father's word or at the unanimous uproar from both Obadiah and the crowd of journalist in front of her. Before she knew what was happening her father was ushering her off the stage as Obadiah tried to turn this cluster into something spinnable.

As Tony brought Elena under his arm, he whispered to her, "I'm gonna start listening to your ideas more often Squirt and I'm sorry I dismissed them in the past." I nodded and kissed his cheek as we made our way to the elevator that lead up to his office space.

It was just her and her dad in the elevator as Happy had gone to move the car and Pepper was left to deal with the on slot of people demanding a meeting with Tony. The silence was comfortable as the two just relished being in each other's presence once again.

"So, there something I should tell you before you hear about it from someone else," was never a phrase Elena was excited to hear. The last time she had heard that statement is when her father was accused of having a drug problem, and social services was coming to check their home and threatening to take Elena out of his care.

"I'm listening," she replied as the elevator door opened and they both walked into Tony's office. Tony walked ahead of her and when he turned around to lean back on his desk, his shirt was open revealing a glowing orb from the center of his chest.

"what the ever-loving fuck is that?" she asked she walked closer to her father.

"Well is that the kind of language that you should be using around your father?" He asked in way as if to change the subject away from his glowing chest. She quickly made her way over to him and lifted his tank top to get a full look at his chest. There seem to minimum scaring and no real sign of infection around the inserted device.

"What exactly is it doing for you?" She asked still examining the device and the energy source it was giving off.

"It's an electromagnetic device that is keep shrapnel out of my heart. When the cars where attacked they fired off one of my missiles."

"The explosion tipped my jeep over." She said recalling the events, how her ears had wrung for what seemed like hours on end. How she still had a small scar from a head injury by the top of her forehead right before her hairline on the right side of her temple.

She was just now fully understanding that this little device was what was keeping her father alive and the fact that she almost lost him hit her a lot harder than she thought possible. "Electromagnetic, so this is your arc reactor technology?" she asked surprised he was able to condense it down to that tiny size. Last, she had heard the arc reactor was none functioning.

"I finally figured out a use for the god damn stuff." He replied trying to break away from his daughter a little anxious about how long she had spent examining his new piece of hardware. Allowing her father to rebutton his shirt Elena backed away as her mind began to whirl with possibilities for her father, knowing the potential in arc reactor power, Elena assume that device could keep her father alive a lot long then any regular modern medicine.

"I'm sorry but weren't you locked in a cave dad?" She asked trying to piece together how he got the parts to make the device.

"I was and originally this was just an old car battery, -"

"WHAT?" she exclaimed knowing that there was a big possibility that such tech could short circuit and zap her father providing further damage to his heart.

"Don't worry Squirt I had a doctor there looking out for me," Tony said fondly remembering his dear friend.

"Well that's comforting," she said in sarcastic tone, "Give me a few minutes to look that over, we may be able to up the power on the device, make sure it won't run out on you anytime soon? Also, what are those materials are doing to your body I would like to run some blood work to make sure none of them are toxifying your blood." She said creating a list of things.

"Also, I think we should alert- "

"Woo squirt" Tony interrupted. "I didn't show you this to have you start worrying about me. I will accept your help with a new device, but I'll go somewhere else for all you other concerns okay?"

She nodded and once again ran over to his to hug him "I missed you dad." She breathed in his scent, which somehow in all his time away remained unchanged. Tony looked down at his little girl with all of her curly hair, and gently wrapped his arms around her, appreciating that he was able to do this once again.

He had plans and those plans involved never being parted from his daughter again.