As he worked on the new arc reactor, Tony thought about Biela. He hoped she was doing alright. On a whim, he picked up his cell phone and called the general in charge of the base. "General Porter," the man answered. "Yeah, this is Tony Stark," he replied. "Mr. Stark," the man greeted. "What can I do for you?" "Can you buy long-range phones on your base?"
"Well, yes," the man replied. "Can you do me a favor, buy one and send me the bill. Program this number into it and give it to Biela, the girl who came in with me, who's currently in the hospital wing, okay?" "Certainly, Mr. Stark. Anything else I can do for you?" "Just tell Biela to give me a call," Tony said. He hung up the phone.
An hour later, his phone rang. "Jarvis, answer the phone," Tony ordered. "Yes, sir," the AI said. "Hello?" Tony answered. "Tony?" someone asked. "It's Biela." "Hey, Bee, how are you?" Tony greeted. "Good. I saw the press conference. When I said not to waste your life, that's not exactly what I meant."
"What did you have in mind?" Tony asked, affronted. "Um…I was thinking tracking all the weapons and self-destruct buttons," Biela said. "Oh. I suppose that is a good idea," Tony admitted.
"So, why did you want to talk to me?" Biela asked. "I missed our conversations," Tony said. "You're one of the few people smart enough to keep up with what I'm saying." "I have an eidetic memory," she said. "I remember everything I see, hear, or read. That's how I knew enough about weapons and tech to help you."
Tony sighed good-naturedly. "Only person who can keep up with me is ten," he smiled. "So…I was wondering, do you want me start looking for your dad?" Biela was silent a moment. "I don't know," she finally answered, in a voice so soft that Tony barely heard her. "On one hand, I kind of want to meet my father, but on the other, what if he doesn't want me? Where would I go then?"
"You don't have to worry about that," Tony said firmly. "If he doesn't want you, or if he's dead, or if we can't find him…I'll adopt you." "You'll adopt me?" Biela said softly. Tony felt suddenly shy. "Yeah, uh, if you don't mind being stuck with me…I know I've got enough issues, and I'll probably be a horrible parent…"
"Tony, stop," Biela ordered. "I'd love for you to adopt me. That is the nicest thing anyone's ever done for me. No one's ever been as nice to me as you are. If you were here, I'd hug you right now, and I admit that I'm crying, I'm so happy."
Tony smiled. "So…even if we find your dad, and you don't hit it off immediately...can I try to convince him to let me adopt you anyway?" "Sure," Biela said, and Tony could tell from her voice that she was beaming. "Well, I've got to go," she said with a sigh. "The docs are yelling at me to go to sleep." "One more thing," Tony said quickly. "Or three, actually. What's your favorite colors, your shoe size, and your clothing size?"
"Um, yellow, blue, green, and pink, girl's size 11, and girl's size 6, in US standards." "Thanks, Bee. Call me tomorrow?" Tony asked. "'Kay, Tony," Biela replied. "Bye!" "Bye," Tony replied as she hung up.
He finished the new arc reactor and tried to install it, stopping when a wire touched the sides of the plate in his heart. He tried to reach in and grab it, but his hands were too small.
"Jarvis, call Pepper," he said. "Pepper, uh how big are your hands?" he asked her. "What?" she said. "How big are your hands?" "I don't understand why…" she replied. "Come down here, I need you," he interrupted.
He watched her come down the stairs and enter the lab. "Hey," he called as she walked through the door. He knew he must look weird, lying on the medical table in pajama pants with a towel over his waist, a metal plate in his chest and another glowing object in his hands.
"Let's see 'em. Show me your hands," he ordered. "Let's see 'em," he said as she walked towards him. She held up her hands. "Wow, they are small. Very petite," he said. "I just, uh, need your help for a sec."
"Oh my God," she said, focused on the plate in his chest, "is that the thing that's keeping you alive?" "It was," Tony said, fingering the new arc. "It is now an antique. This," he held the new arc up, "is what will be keeping me alive for the foreseeable future. I'm swapping it out for an upgrade, you know, but I ran into a little…speed bump."
"What speed bump, what does that mean?" Pepper asked. "It's just a little snag," Tony reassured, reaching up and detaching the arc in his chest. "There's an exposed wire under this device, and it's contacting the socket wall and it's causing a little bit of a shortage." He yanked the arc out while still talking.
"Now, I can't really blame the installer, she's just a kid, only ten, and she did manage to keep me alive in the first place, and install this thing," he said, handing the arc to her. "What do you want me to do?" Pepper asked. "Put that on the table over there, that is irrelevant," Tony ordered. Pepper turned and did so.
"Anyway, I just want you to reach in and you're just going to gently lift the wire out." "Is it safe?" Pepper asked warily. "Yeah, it should be fun, just like Operation, just don't let it touch the socket wall." "What's Operation?" Pepper asked. "What do you mean Operation?"
"It's just a game, never mind, we'll play in a couple weeks. Just gently lift the wire, okay? Great." Pepper was reaching for it when she snatched her hand back. "You know, I-I don't think I'm qualified to do that." "No, you're fine," Tony reassured, "You are the most capable, qualified, trustworthy person I ever met. You can do great."
Pepper still seemed wary. "Is it too much of a problem to ask?" Tony asked. "'Cause I really need your help here." "Okay, okay," Pepper said. She reached for the socket. "Okay," Tony said calmly. Pepper took a deep breath and reached in.
"Oh my, oh, there's pus!" she said squeamishly. "It's not pus," Tony said, "it's an inorganic, plasmic discharge from the device, not from my body." "It smells," Pepper whined. "Yeah, it does," Tony said. "The copper wire, the copper wire, you got it?" "I got it," Pepper said breathlessly.
"You got it, okay, now don't let it touch the-AH!" Tony yelled as it touched the socket wall. "Sides, sides, when you're coming up," Tony finished. "That's what I was trying to say before." "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Pepper chanted as she pulled the wire out.
"Okay, now when you pull it out, make sure you don't pull out the magnet at the end," Tony said, just as he saw her pull the magnet out. The machines started beeping frantically. "That's it," Tony said, "You just pulled out the magnet." "I'm sorry," Pepper said again.
She moved to put it back in. "No, don't put it back in," Tony said, "What do I do?" Pepper said slightly, freaking out. She put it down on the table. "What's wrong?" she asked as Tony took a deep breath. "Nothing, I'm just going into cardiac arrest 'cause you yanked it out." "What!" Pepper yelled. "I thought you said this was safe!"
"Here take this, take this," Tony said, handing her the new arc. "Okay," she said, grabbing the wire. "Really quick," he said. "Okay." She stopped a moment. "Tony," she said. "What?" he asked. "It's gonna be okay, okay, it's gonna be okay, I'm gonna make this okay," she said.
"Alright, okay, you're gonna attach that to the base plate," he said as she reached in with the wire. "And make sure you-YOW!" he yelled as she plugged it in. "Was that so hard?" he asked her as she placed the arc in. "That wasn't so hard, was it?"
"Here, I got it," he said, taking the arc. "Nice." "Are you okay?" Pepper asked. "Yeah, I feel fine," Tony said. "You okay?" he asked with a slight chuckle at her discomfort. He laughed as she broke into an uneasy smile. "Don't ever, ever, ever, ever, ask me to do anything like that ever again," she said.
"I-I don't have anyone else," Tony said. "But you. Anyway," he said, pulling the heart monitors off his chest as Pepper slung the plasmic discharge off her fingers. He got up and began to shut down the devices.
"What do you want me to do with this?" Pepper asked, holding up the old arc reactor. "That?" Tony asked. "Destroy it. Incinerate it," he said, tapping the new arc. "You don't want to keep it?" Pepper asked, looking down at it.
"Pepper, I've been called many things," Tony said, throwing the towel down. "Nostalgic is not one of them." Pepper looked at it once more and asked, "Will that be all, Mr. Stark?" "That will be all, Miss Potts," Tony replied.
He turned around and addressed his robots. "Hey, Butterfingers, come here. What's all this..stuff, doing on top of my desk. That's my phone, that's my picture of me and Dad, the rest is trash. Get rid of it."