Now, I know what you're thinking.

'Becks. How do they stop you from teleporting out from the house?'

Easy answer! They don't.

Not long after the depressing movie session, the two of us went back to our own devices. Tony was coming up with a plan for his reactor, backed up by the math I had come up with. Really the only thing missing was the information from Howard that he hadn't noticed yet.

If I spent one more moment in that room with the ghost of Howard Stark I was going to lose my mind.

Nikki had an argument that I lost my mind a long time ago. Her opinion was thrown out on conjecture.

I teleported to my office. Pepper was already inside, angrily pacing. My phone buzzed in my pocket. Pulling it out, I did a quick check for ID before answering. "Yes?"

"Where are you?" Pepper demanded. Ah, so she hadn't noticed me yet.

"Had to clean my house." I answered. "Keep Dad from doing something stupid again, or make his previous stupid thing worse. Or Nikki from following in his footsteps."

Pepper let out an annoyed huff. "That doesn't mean you can just ignore my-geez!" Pepper had turned in her pacing, hearing the double effect of my voice. She spotted me on the desk- yelping and jumping back.

I smiled politely. Moving the phone back, I ended the call. "If I work tirelessly, will I be allowed back in your good graces?"

Pepper glared at me- the way she'd always tiredly glared at Tony when he was nearing the end of her rope.

"Do you need to take Dad's card to buy something nice for yourself?" I offered.

Pepper seethed. Her rage as fiery as her hair. She grit her teeth, glowering at me. I managed to keep a smile of a hesitant request for mercy up. "Yes. And then you will fix all of this."

"Without hesitation, ma'am." I nodded.

"Then get to it." Pepper began calling another number on her phone. She walked towards the door. "I'll send Natalia to you."

"Oh. Thanks." It took a lot of work to not grimace.

Pepper left me to my lonesome. Once the door closed, I let the distaste show on my face.

Then like the procrastinator that I was when emotions were involved, I dove straight into my work.

==NM2==

Natasha came into my office not even ten minutes later. In my opinion, she had gotten slow. I was in the middle of a phonecall with Rhodey. While doing that, my hands were typing up emails to- well- there were a lot of emails that had to be sent out. Many had been sent out in the past ten minutes.

She opened the door. Cool as you please, not even surprised that I was outside of the boundaries. SHIELD had definitely suspected I would escape first.

"Do you promise to use it for the good of the planet?" I asked Rhodey.

"The planet?"

"Do you?" I pressed, clicking 'send'. Natasha walked up to me, showing me the screen of the StarkPad she was using. I gave it a quick glance over. The paperwork was for the StarkExpo- I had read it the other day. Giving it one more once over I signed again.

The man sighed over the phone. "Yeah I promise."

"Promise that you will be the only person with access to it?" I added. Handing the tablet back to Natasha, she brought up more things for me to pay attention to.

Mainly, the other items from Howard Stark's collection. Including the table top model of the original Stark Expo.

"You know I will." Rhodey promised.

"Promise to give it a cool name?" Standing up, I walked over to the model. I pulled off the tarp over it. Natasha came up to my side.

Rhodey actually laughed. "Sure thing, Beck."

"Promise not to use HammerTech? Actually, no. Go ahead. Use it. Consider the embarrassment payback for the punches on behalf of Dad." I replied with a snarky grin. Rhodey's laugh stopped. "I grant you complete access. I'll have the paperwork sent to your superiors soon, just remember it's still Stark tech. It's not going to be a weapon."

"Listen. About what happened last night-"

"Dad was out of line." I supplied automatically. "Deepest apologies for any trauma physical or psychological that you received as of the events-"

"No, not about that. I meant about you." I hesitated in replying. Natasha watched with an arched eyebrow. I walked around her back to my desk. "What was that with your sister?"

"She is also an idiot. Deepest apologies for any-"

"Becky, don't give me that. Whatever is going on with your dad, you know you don't have to be dragged into it too, right?" Rhodey asked. "You don't need to fall with him."

"I know." I replied easily. "He won't. We're Starks. We don't go down easy."

"Becky-"

"Speaking of, I have a company fire to put out. Enjoy your HammerTech." The phonecall ended with a click. I clicked 'send' on another email. "What, no comments from Ms Super Spy?"

Natasha watched me with heavy calculation. That was all I could pick for what was going on in her mind. She merely watched me do my job. Something she'd done from the start, in fact. The only difference was now she knew that I knew who was really watching me.

"Hold on a second-" I turned to Natasha. "Is there anything work related you can do right now?"

Natasha watched, stone faced. "There are many things I could do."

"Then get to it." I turned back to the computer, answering more emails and sending some of my own as I went.

"You will need to leave for the StarkExpo soon."

"Then I should get as much work done as possible, then, shouldn't I?" I countered.

"Of course, Miss Stark." Natasha went out of the office to do such work.

For twenty minutes, I just worked. Multitasking Queen, that's what my superhero name should've been.

The door was thrown open. Sure enough, Tony walked in. He didn't say a word on entry. He glanced toward the tabletop model of the StarkExpo, as well as the unpacked boxes around it. I paid close attention to him, and the new emails.

Pepper was informing me over text that Bill O'Reilly was talking about me. Claiming this was nepotism at its finest.

I switched on the TV installed in my office. After a quick channel change, O'Reilly was talking smack about me. All about how I was too young for the job, too inexperienced, too wild to lead the company.

Jokes on him. I was 177 years old. Suck on that for too young/inexperienced.

As for wild...I'm also a teenager in spirit. That got a wry grin from me towards the TV reporter.

Tony turned the TV off. "That's enough of that." He went to the dean, sitting in one of the chairs in front.

"Hmm." I hummed, sending out another text. "Rhodes is mad at you."

"Oh, is he?" Tony replied.

I nodded. "Got him to promise to use the suit properly. There are some bugs there- we'll iron them out later."

"Wow. Okay we're going there." Tony leaned back in his seat. He rubbed his hand on the side of his face, still watching me work.

His reply got a smug grin from me. "You see Pepper yet?"

"I did, yes. Did you know she was allergic to-"

"Strawberries? Yes." I began typing a new email. "You tried apologizing with strawberries didn't you?"

"No." Tony replied. "I didn't apologize. I thought I was on the way here but I wasn't."

"Great. You brought the one thing that could kill Pepper to a meeting where you should've been apologizing." I noted. "Just tell me you didn't say it to her face."

"May have..."

"Dude."

"Yeah. Bad call- Pepper fed me the riot act. I don't see why. I mean, come on, I knew there was a correlation between her and strawberries!"

"An important correlation too. Bonus points."

"Exactly!"

"But a correlation that equaled death. So no bonus points."

Tony groaned. My argument was sound. Take that you fiend!

"Did you bring something that would kill me too?" I wondered.

"No. Why would I apologize to you?" Tony questioned. Too eagerly to be sincere. He had obviously brought along something for me. I should send Pepper another apology gift on behalf of Dad if she wasn't already getting it herself.

"Good point. Starks never apologize for anything." I noted. To make a point, I looked over towards the table of the StarkExpo.

Tony followed my kind of sight. "What?"

"He yelled at you. In the video." Getting up from my seat, I walked over to it.

"Dads yell at their kids sometimes. It doesn't mean anything" Tony excused. A whole other issue that we don't have time to unpack. For now, the plot needed to be moved along.

"For moving a display? A thing he could've easily fixed later?" I questioned in a thoughtful way.

Though Tony clearly wanted to dismiss what I was saying, something gave him pause. He heard something in my tone. He got I wasn't asking about traumatic memories- it was something else. "Where's your head going?"

My fingers tapped the glass of the display. "Nikki tried messing with her suit. I yelled at her for it too. You yelled at me when I was trying to help build the Mach I."

"We're both bad people."

"When someone messes with our Science, yes." I confirmed. "Like my father before me, and your father before you."

Tony glanced at the display. He pulled off the rest of the tarp to expose the full thing. "The Expo was just a showcase for him."

"What if it wasn't?" I questioned. "What if- the answer were looking for isn't in any of his notes because he couldn't figure it out. He was 'held back by the science of his time'. He had the solution, but he didn't know any of the important equations to prove it."

Tony nodded. Calculations zooming around behind his eyes. Understanding lit up his entire face, brighter than the reactor. His eyes went from the small plaque stating 'the key to the future is here' to me. He grinned with pride. "Becky. You are a star."

"I know." I grinned smugly back. "Ready to save your own life?"

Tony kept his grin up in confirmation.

The door to my office opened. I huffed while turning to it.

Natasha was poking her head in. "Miss Stark?" I tilted my head. "Wheels up in twenty-five minutes." She reported.

"Confirmed, Natashalie." I nodded my head. "What time do I need to be at the Expo, though?"

"Not for a few hours." Natasha answered coolly.

"Then I'm going to teleport there when I absolutely need to be. There's life saving science to be done." I told her. My hand went to Tony's shoulder.

He pulled back. "Hold it. Have you ever teleported with a person before?"

"Not yet!" I cheered. "Test subject time!"

"Nope!" Tony pulled away from my hand just before I vanished back to the house.

==NM2==

AN: Who is excited for Disney+?! I'm looking forward to Marvel stuff- but let's be honest, I'm gonna be hyperfocused on Lady & the Tramp- it's about dogs guys! Real dogs!

Thanks to Plexi Pink and Nibbachu for favoriting

Thanks to mandymarie28, bobboblue, and Nibbachu, for following