Later that night, after giving Grace a room to sleep in and the others had gone off to do their own things, Tony sat behind a desk in his main office, drinking deeply from a bottle of whiskey and rubbing his temples.
The desk had been Tony's father's and he had had it specially removed from its previous location at the Stark mansion. Howard Stark had been a hard worker-just like Tony was-and he could always be found either in one of his laboratories or hunched over behind his desk, working on god-knows-what. And, although Tony still held some harsh feelings towards his father, the idea that he could work from behind the same desk as Howard, continuing the legacy, meant a great deal to him. Tony was sure that Howard would nod sternly if he were there to see the desk being put to good use by his son.
But he wasn't. Howard and Maria Stark had died in a tragic car "accident" when Tony was only 17 year old. Tony had always suspected foul play, but there was no hard evidence to support his claim. So now, here Tony sat, an alcoholic with a narcissistic attitude, defensive tendencies, and PTSD that he tried so hard to hide from the others. Despite his condition, would Howard be proud of his son? Tony doubted it. Howard had been a difficult man to please and he had never really paid Tony much attention. Tony saw too much of Howard in himself.
And now he was faced with this. A daughter. He should have known. Tony had slept around more times than he could count, sometimes with protection, sometimes without. He rarely heard from any of those women again but, nonetheless, he should have been prepared.
The thing that was really eating away at his brilliant mind was that Grace had powers. She was supposedly his daughter but something just didn't seem right.
Grace had claimed that she had inherited powers from her mother, Anna Lavrov, who was conveniently dead. Sure, even if her mother had not possessed any special powers, it was possible that the girl's genes could have mutated on their own, but this was highly unlikely and very rare. On top of that, Tony had only been to Russia a handful of times and he could not for the life of him remember this girl's mother. He would have to remember sleeping with someone as powerful as Grace, right?
The thing that scared him most was how easily Grace had locked Wanda to the wall. It was no effort to her. True, Tony did not like the Scarlet Witch much, but he would never have wished that upon her. Wanda was part of the team and you do not treat your teammates with such harsh and unnecessary hostility for no reason. The kid had even laughed about it, like it was funny to cause someone pain.
The nagging thoughts paraded the back of Tony's brain and suddenly he didn't feel like being in this room alone anymore.
"JARVIS, locate Dr. Banner," Tony instructed his AI pal.
JARVIS responded within seconds, "Sir, Dr. Robert Banner is in laboratory 14."
"Thank you."
"You are welcome, sir."
Tony connected the intercom to lab 14 and spoke into it, "Bruce, you down there?"
"Yes," Banner's voice echoed through the microphone, "I was just adjusting the emission of electromagnetic radiation on the laser that connects to Barton's new arrowheads."
"I was planning on infusing them with tabun, too."
"For paralysis? Good idea," Bruce agreed.
"Care to join me for a drink?" Tony asked.
"Sure, let me lock down these blueprints and seal the weapon case."
Ten minutes later, a light knock sounded on the door of the office. Tony gave the knocker permission to come inside and in walked Bruce, looking a little on-edge.
"You all knew," Tony accused as Bruce shut the door behind him.
"Not really, Tony," Bruce said, one hand burrowed deep in the front pocket of his khakis, the other scratching at the back of his head-something he did when he was feeling anxious.
"Then how come you were all there?" Tony challenged.
"Look, Tony, I didn't know about anything until a few seconds before we left, when Pepper asked me to go."
"But Clint knew," Tony pointed out.
"No, Steve told him as Wanda was telling you."
"You were all in on it. That's my point."
Bruce sighed. "Do you want me to tell you the full story?"
"Please," Tony replied snarkily.
"Pour me a glass because this is going to be a long one." Bruce pulled up a chair opposite of Tony and sat. Tony poured him a generous glass of whiskey and slid it across the wood. Bruce could handle alcohol in moderation and Tony was the only person who was comfortable sharing a drink with him. "Thank you," Bruce inclined his head.
"Tell me everything you know, Bruce."
Bruce swallowed a stinging gulp and nodded. "Right." He took a shaky breath and began. "As you know, the Maximoff twins grew up in Russia. Where they lived, there was a rumor that a special child lived among them. The people investigated and found her alone, in a building that was abandoned a long time before. When confronted, the child claimed to be a Stark. Now, I just did some research, and the building itself was a place where horrible experiments conducted by Hydra were reported to have occurred. Th—"
"Wait a minute," Tony interrupted, "you're telling me that this kid was alone in a building owned by Hydra, and you thought it was a good idea to bring her here!? Do you see anything wrong with that, Bruce?"
"It wasn't my idea, Tony," Bruce defended himself. "I didn't know anything until I was already on my way there."
A nasty sensation seized Tony's stomach. Whatever was going on, he did not have a good feeling about it. "Who authorized this?" Tony demanded.
"Natasha," Bruce answered, shrugging.
"Bruce, from what I know, Natasha has not contacted us ever since she left for that mission in Istanbul, two weeks ago."
"I'm just going off what I was told, Tony." Bruce took another sip from his glass, his body stiff and his skin sweaty.
"Who spoke to her?"
"Steve. Natasha told Steve about the child—your daughter—and how she needed to be brought here."
"Just Steve? Why did she need to be brought here?"
"Well, Wanda caught the tail end of it and Nat said it was because she was unwell and needed your help."
"Help with what?" Tony pressed on.
"She didn't get the chance to say," Bruce replied, "the signal dropped."
Tony found himself leaning forward in his chair, a thousand of different thoughts, suspicions, and possible scenarios running through his crowded head. "Then what?" he prodded.
"Then Steve and Wanda spoke to Pepper about the situation and she insisted on going. Steve didn't want her to go because of the possibility of danger, but because the girl was your child, she would not take no for an answer. Steve advised her to ask me to go so that maybe I could protect her, and she did. I agreed to go without knowing anything about the mission because I knew you would want Pepper to be safe."
"You still don't have full control," Tony demurred.
"I-I wouldn't have h-hurt her," Bruce stammered. "I-I thought it was better for me to go than just Steve, I w-wouldn't have transformed unless necessary," The hand holding Bruce's glass began to shake as he rambled on," I thought I would try to protect her without changing into the other guy, and even if I had transformed, I would have distanced myself from her, I knew you would want her to have some sort of protection, I mean, I—"
"—Calm down, Banner, I wasn't suggesting that you would have purposely put Pepper in harm's way."
"I would never," Bruce asserted.
"I know." Tony reached out and placed his hand on top of Bruce's, steadying it. "Tell me the rest," he encouraged.
Bruce took a deep breath and wiped the beads of sweat away from his forehead with the back of his hand before continuing. "We geared up for the mission and set out. We arrived and were able to access the building without any trouble. We found the girl and explained to her who we were and that we wanted to take her home. It was weird, Tony, she was just sitting there, staring at us. She didn't even seem surprised to see us. I was feeling edgy, but I played it off as nothing. The place was dirty and there was no source of running water or food, but she was clean and didn't seem to be too undernourished, considering her living conditions. It was smooth, we removed her from the premises and she went along with it. While Pepper was having conversation with her, I took Steve aside and told him something wasn't right. He ignored me, of course, and went on about how he was not going to let this girl grown up an orphan like he had to. He said that rescuing and reuniting her with her family was honorable. The entire trip back, she spoke to Pepper and Steve, who kept smiling at her. I had a bad feeling, so I sat away from them, but I listened to their conversation. It was a normal, she spoke about her mother and how she had been killed a few years back, and how she was excited to meet you, but she didn't once bring up her powers. It was odd, Tony. When we got back, you saw what happened."
As Bruce's personal reiteration of the event came to a close, the office door opened. Pepper peaked her head inside.
"Are you coming to bed?" she asked, and then seeing Bruce, "Am I interrupting something?"
"Not at all," Tony lied. "Where's the kid?"
A look of distaste colored Pepper's face. "Your daughter is in her bed, fast asleep."
"Yeah, yeah," Tony rushed, "are you sure?"
"Yes," Pepper confirmed, squinting her eyes suspiciously. "I just checked on her."
Tony decided to let Pepper in on the private discussion. "Come in and close the door, please."
Pepper, Bruce, and Rhodey were the only people Tony trusted. They were the only people who knew about Tony's PTSD (except for that kid from Rose Hill, Tennessee) and they were the only ones who knew the true Tony Stark. Tony trusted them with his life.
Pepper did as Tony said, crossing her arms over her silky midnight colored nightgown.
"Take a seat."
"Tony, what is going on?" Pepper demanded, standing tall as she blatantly refused to sit.
"I don't trust Grace. There are some major holes in her story," Tony shot at Pepper.
Pepper took a deep breath and looked ready to defend Grace with all her might but then a beeping came from the computer.
"What in the world?' Bruce murmured, putting down his glass to look at the computer screen.
"Sir, Grace and Wanda are on the roof," JARVIS informed Tony.
Tony, Bruce, and Pepper looked at each other and then hurried to the staircase to get to the roof. They pushed the heavy door open and Bruce and Tony helped Pepper get over the final step. Within seconds the three were joined with Barton and Steve. Both Barton and Steve looked ready for a fight and Tony thought that they might be right. If both girls had similar powers, some serious damage could be done.
"They're on the other side of the roof," Steve yelled over the wind that was now whipping across the roof.
The group hurried across, hoping that they weren't too late to prevent the fight. Finally they saw Wanda and Grace, standing face-to-face. The girls weren't fighting but they were standing with defences raised.
"Why didn't you tell them the whole story?" Wanda yelled at Grace, who shut her eyes and took deep breathes. Tony realized that the wind that was growing stronger every minute was coming from her.
"What story?! That I was unwilling operated on?! That my mother was a horrible monster and so am I?! Tell me which story to say, cause I have plenty!" Grace screamed, tears rolling down her face.
Wanda looked over and seemed to notice the group for the first time. She smirked at them and then turned her attention back to Grace. Tony looked closer at Grace and realized that she was suffering a panic attack. He finally unrooted himself from Pepper's side and tried to get closer to Grace, who turned to face him with tears running down her face and more in her eyes, which were flashing between violet, brown, and light blue. Her entire body was shaking and her lungs were heaving. She collapsed to the ground and at the same time the wind was gone.
"Hey," Tony said, putting a hand on her shoulder, "It's okay kid."
"No it's not," Grace cried, "I'm a monster."
Tony looked back at the group. Steve and Pepper, sensing his distress, came forward to stand next to Grace.
"Hey kid, I'm the only monster here," Bruce said trying to lighten the mood.
Grace looked up at Wanda, who nodded.
"They deserve to know," Wanda whispered.
"Know what?" Barton asked, putting down his bow and arrow.
Grace took a deep breath and began.
"You ought to know why someone like me is the way she is and why I was all alone when you found me. Anna Lavrov was my mother. She only had half the power I do. She had even less than what Wanda has. But she did have something that made her more interesting."
"Why don't I remember her?" Tony pushed. That was one of the real answers he wanted.
"She did what she did best. She erased herself from your memory."
Tony slowly lifted his hand off Grace's shoulder. She looked at the ground and laughed.
"Is this funny to you?" Tony demanded.
"No, no it probably shouldn't be. But yes, it is funny to me that a woman can erase herself entirely from your mind. Don't worry, she did it with a lot of guys. Sometimes I witnessed her messing with people's minds. And I thought this team accepted when minds are messed with," Grace said staring straight at Wanda.