Disclaimer: I do not own Iron Man.

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My muscles were screaming in protest, begging me to stop. My heart was pumping madly. I listened to the sound of my feet slapping against the damp sand as I tried to clear my mind of everything worrying me. Dad, the suit, the Senate, everything.

I ran up and down the deserted beach until the sun began to dip behind the mountains. I finally stopped and began sucking in air in deep breaths. I was glad we had our own private beach so close to the house as I began slowly walking up the small, rugged path that led to the bottom of the driveway.

I had started running daily after the accident as a way to keep my strength up. And to prove that no one could break me, not even Obadiah. My leg ached during the run but I was determined to push through it. I was fine.

As the house came into view (I still liked to think of it as a house even though a more accurate description would be mansion) my mind couldn't help but think of the future. I was scared of what might be coming.

I had never felt like this before. I had never had to worry about the future. Everything had been set out before me, I didn't have to question my life. Now I questioned it every day. And I was scared, for both myself and dad. Was the government eventually going to get their hands on the suits? Was someone else going to try? The videos I saw at the Senate...they had been failed attempts at replicating our suit, but would someone, somewhere, eventually succeed? I had so many questions and no answers.

I would ask Dad but I knew he didn't have the answers either. And I was beginning to see that when it came to the Iron Man suits, he was blind. All he saw were the suits and the good they were doing. He was ignoring the debates and controversies that surrounded them. I didn't know what was going to happen and that scared me.

I reached the driveway gates I had to go through the process of proving my identity. After voice recognition, a fingerprint and retinal scan and punching in a four digit code, the gates swung open to let me in. Six months ago after Obadiah disabled J.A.R.V.I.S and got into the house so easily, dad had increased security tenfold. It was a pain sometimes but I knew it made him happier knowing that it was in place and it did make me feel more secure in the house. For weeks after the 'incident' I had felt so unsafe at home, jumping at every noise and shadow. Even with J.A.R.V.I.S's constant reassurance that there was no one in the house I had still been paranoid and scared.

I jogged up the driveway, trying to forget. I entered the house to immediately hear dad and Pepper's voices from the garage. Arguing. I wondered what it was about. There were so many things for her to be yelling at him for. Sometimes when they fought I would help alleviate the situation but right now I felt dad needed a little yelling at. He needed to get his mind right and realize his action weren't just affecting him anymore. From now on, everything he did was going to be twisted and spun and used against him in an effort for people to claim the suits. And because of his attitude and inflated ego, he didn't care because he believed he was untouchable and that no one else was as smart as him and could make a similar 'weapon'.

I crossed the living room and climbed up the steps then I realized that it was the first time in six months my eyes hadn't found the waterfall and replayed the accident in my head. I smiled. I was moving on. I wasn't going to let one event haunt me for the rest of my life. I hadn't even been hurt that badly...okay that was a little lie. But it wasn't my injuries that kept me reliving that night every time I closed my eyes. It was because that night I had seen that my father wasn't invincible, with the arc reactor sitting in the middle of his chest, keeping him alive. And that was the night I thought he would die. I never, ever wanted to feel the way I had felt that night. Lying on the stairs in pain, thinking my father was dead above me and I couldn't help him.

Even as I thought about it now, I had to swallow a painful lump in my throat. I pushed those painful memories aside and quickly showered. I pulled on a pair of baggy sweats and my favourite purple singlet.

"J.A.R.V.I.S what's the time?" I asked as I brushed my hair that was so long now it got tangled every 10 seconds.

"7:28 P.M," the British A.I answered.

I was already tired and ready for bed but my stomach rumbled, reminding me of how starving I was. I walked down to the vast living room and was surprised to find silence. I had thought that their argument would still be going on.

I found the leftovers of a Thai takeaway dad ordered after returning from D.C. I quickly zapped it in the microwave and sat down on the couch to reruns of Top Gear. I focused on the cars, trying to remember everything I knew about them, keeping my mind occupied.

But I found my mind wondering back to the Senate. I hadn't spoken to dad about it again since we had got home but I wanted to. I wanted to know why he had kept those videos from me. The ones that showed attempts to replicate the suit. I suddenly remembered a conversation I had with dad months ago and realized why he had kept his mouth shut.


FIVE MONTHS AGO

After four weeks in a wheelchair, I had become restless and extremely bored. I wanted to do something constructive like work on my cars but for the time being I was stuck watching dad instead.

"What are these?" I asked, looking at a stack of papers that littered his desk. As I inched myself closer to the desk, I could see sketches of the suit.

"New designs for suits. I've been thinking about new features I can add, like some sort of...stunning laser or...something that lets off a high pitch frequency to incapacitate them."Dad had sat himself down in a chair behind the desk and swung his feet up to rest on the corner of it. For someone who had almost died a month ago, he looked pretty good whereas I looked horrible.

"Dad, I've been thinking about that. Who are you going after? Now that you've taken out the Ten Rings and the people doing the under the table deals in Gulmira, what's next? If you're going be making all these suits, why?"

Dad sighed and put hands behind his head. "To protect people. I'll be taking out people who-"

"Who what? Deserve it? Are you gunna go breaking into jails and murder all the thieves and rapists?"

"Okay, now you're being dramatic Morgan. I fixed the wrongs in my company and that showed me I can help people. How can I sit here with the technology to save, hundreds, maybe thousands of people and not do anything with it?"

Okay, I accepted that, I would probably do the same. But there was still something nagging me. "But if you make more suits, that'll just put more targets on our back."

Dad removed his hands from his head and took his feet off the table. "Morgan, who do you think is going to go after you?" Something in his tone made me think he thought I was being paranoid.

"Well for starters, how about the government? You can't tell me that after your little announcement that they will be just fine letting you fly around in a suit with weapons." I gestured to the suit in question which was now sitting in a glass case next to the one he built in Afghanistan which they had recovered from Obadiah's lair.

"I'll handle the government," was all he said.

I shook my head. I was determined to make my point. "What about people?"

He frowned like I was making no sense. "What about people?"

"Well, you're going to be out there in this suit which is one of the biggest technological inventions of the century. People will want, and try, to recreate it. And maybe it won't be to do good like you're trying to do."

"For starters it will be a long time before anyone can recreate the suit without the designs, the knowledge and the machinery used to build it. And if someone one day does manage it, I will make sure the people who do are not using it for the wrong reasons."

I sighed. "Dad you are not seeing the bigger picture here. You have tunnel vision where all you see is the suit and nothing else like the consequences. One day, sooner than you think, someone else will have this technology and people will get hurt. And then I hope you will remember this conversation."

I wheeled myself towards the elevator and didn't look back.


Of course dad didn't want to tell me about the video's because that would mean that I was right. It has only been six months and already people had made suits based on his. Granted, none of them were exactly functional right now, but it was only a matter of time before they got it right. I wanted to know what dad planned to do about it.

I asked J.A.R.V.I.S to switch the TV off and picked up the empty takeaway container. I had just come back into the living room when I heard the clicks of Pepper's heels upon the stairs. Her figure, blurred by the waterfall, appeared a moment later.

"Hey Pep, what-" I stopped when I saw her face. She was staring at me with wide eyes, her mouth slightly parted. I walked slowly towards her, my mind running over the number of times I had seen Pepper stunned. Once, when she had discovered the suit. "Pepper, what is it? What's happened?"

"Mr Stark...he made me CEO," she said softly.

"What?"

"Mr Stark appointed me his successor."

"Oh." My mind was suddenly trying to comprehend this fact. Pepper was dad's successor, not me. I had just always assumed that I would take over the company after dad. But Pepper was taking over. I told myself not to care; I didn't want to run a company, not now at 17. But what about when I was 21 and was ready? Would Pepper just hand it over to me?

I saw Pepper staring at me, waiting for my reaction. "Congratulations Pepper!" I hugged her quickly and gave her a smile.

"Don't worry Morgs," dad called out as he ascended the stairs. "You can still take over when you're older."

Pepper suddenly gasped and looked at me with shock. "Of course Morgan! I didn't mean to take anything away from you."

I forced a laugh and relaxed my features into a smile. "I know Pepper. Don't worry." I stretched my arms out in front of me. I could feel my smile becoming too forced and strained. "I'm really tired. I'm just gunna go up to bed. Night." I felt their eyes watching me as I retreated upstairs. As much as I wanted to talk to dad about the suits, I needed to be alone right now.

I collapsed onto my bed with a groan. Why was I so upset? Sure, a couple of years ago I had been all gung-ho, ready to work at Stark Industries but now I wasn't so sure. I didn't know if it was what I wanted to do anymore. So I shouldn't care that Pepper had taken over to company. She would sure do a better job than dad had been doing lately. Maybe I was upset because I had thought the job would always be sitting there waiting for me?

Well that didn't matter. If I wanted to take over in a few years, Pepper would be happy to stand down. Maybe I was upset because dad hadn't discussed it with me first? Sure, he didn't consider me in most of his business dealings but this decision involved me. He should have at least told me before he made it official.

I studied the smooth pattern of the ceiling and came to the conclusion that I was being ridiculous. It was actually good that dad had finally appointed someone responsible to be in charge of Stark Industries. Pepper could handle it and she would be amazing at it. And she deserves a promotion. I'm sure she was looking forward to having a bit of freedom and not having to follow dad around constantly.

I went back downstairs with the intent of congratulating Pepper properly.

"J.A.R.V.I.S had Pepper left?"

"Miss Potts left seven minutes ago."

Damn it. I made a mental note to congratulate her tomorrow.

Instead of going back upstairs, I found myself descending the steps into the garage. I pushed in the password on the 'keypad' in the glass and pushed open the door. A quick glance showed me that it was empty which was unusual, especially at this time of the night. I walked across the cold tiles to the glass cabinets along one of the walls. Inside were four Iron Man suits, including the original one he made while being held captive in Afghanistan.

I walked past each one, my fingers running along the glass. I came to stand before the first suit, a very crude version of the complex and sleek one dad was now using. My eyes wandered over the bulky contraption, trying to imagine dad creating it, desperate to escape. What would life be like now if he had never gone over there? We sure wouldn't have these suits, but would that be such a bad thing?

It was useless to think like that. Besides, Obadiah had ordered the Ten Rings to murder dad in Afghanistan so if he had never gone over there, he would have just gotten someone else to do the job here. And he might have not survived it.

"You know Stark Industries yours the day you want it."

I spun around. Dad was striding towards me. His eyes were locked on my face, reading my expression. I smiled gently, a genuine one.

"I know Dad. But I'm not even sure if I want it anymore." I looked up into his eyes as he came to stand beside me.

"Then what's wrong?"

"Why didn't you tell me about the videos? The ones you showed at the Senate."

He sighed like he had been expecting the question.

I answered for him. "Because you remember our conversation down here and showing them to me would have been a big 'I told you so'."

"Exactly," he said. "You were right Morgan. But as you saw in the videos, no one is even close to perfecting the technology." He wrapped an arm around me and pulled me in close. "You need to stop worrying so much. I will handle all of it."

I smiled up at him. "That's what worries me so much." I pulled back to stare up into his face. "I love you dad and I trust you and the suit but I don't trust everyone else and I just worry that one day something is going to happen and the suit won't save you." I loved my dad more than anyone else in the world and all I wanted to do was protect him but he never made that easy. "What do I do with all this?" I asked, gesturing to the suits.

Dad frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Heaven forbid you die, what am I suppose to do with all this? And the company? I don't know what to do and I'll be all alone and all these suits-"

Dad cut me off by pulling me into a fierce hug. I clung to him, suddenly overwhelmed with sadness. What would happen if he died? I wouldn't know the first thing to do. And how would I cope with losing him? I would have no family left, it would be just me.

"Don't worry Morgan, I'm not going anywhere." He held me a moment longer before letting me go but keeping his hands on my arms. "And you will never be alone. You will always have Pepper."

"I know. I'm just...feeling lost."

He pulled me back in for another hug. I breathed in his scent, wanting to remember it forever, and never wanting to let him go.


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