Apologies for the delay in posting a new chapter. I hope you enjoy it and don't forget to review.
Disclaimer: I do not own Iron Man.


"What the hell?" I asked myself as I stepped off the stairs and pushed past the cheering idiots. I watched with an open mouth as he began stumbling around and trying to DJ. He was officially out of control. This was the stupidest thing he has ever done, including racing a F1 car last week! Why would he do something like this? He was obviously blind drunk, as he was every year at this party, but the worse thing he had done before was backflip off the roof into the pool. Even in his drunken state some part of his brain should be saying 'hey, this is a stupid idea!'

I had no idea what to do. A wave of relief hit me when I saw Pepper standing in the crowd. I made a beeline for her.

"Pep!" I yelled over the music. She tore her wide eyes away from dad to stare at me. "What the hell should we do?"

"I…I don't know," she said. Her look of shock mirrored my own as we stood there watching dad chug champagne from the bottle. "I don't know what to do."

I grabbed my phone from my pocket and called the only person who might be able to control this situation.

"Rhodey!" I had never been so happy to hear his voice. "Where are you?"

"I'm outside," he said.

Instantly I was out the door, desperately searching for him. He will know what to do…I hoped.

"Morgan!"

I grinned with relief as I saw Rhodey weaving his way through the many Ferrari's, Lamborghini's and Aston Martins parked outside. I grabbed his hand and practically began tugging him inside.

"Morgan, what's wrong?" he asked.

"He's gone crazy," I said. "We don't know what to do."

His brow creased in confusion until I dragged him inside and he saw the mess that was my father. "You gotta be kidding me."

At that moment Iron Man stumbled and fell into a glass cabinet, got up and laughed as the crowd cheered.

"That's it. I'm-"

Pepper grabbed Rhodey's arm before he left. "No. Don't call anyone."

"Pepper! This is ridiculous! I just stuck my neck out for this guy."

"I know," Pepper said. "I'll…I'm going to handle it. Just let me handle it."

We watched as Pepper pushed through the crowd towards dad. I wasn't confident that Pepper was going to make dad get out of the suit.

I looked up to Rhodey. "Do you have any idea why he's acting like this? Has he said anything to you?"

I was sure I saw something in Rhodey's eyes but he shook his head. "I have no idea."

I wasn't entirely convinced but I had no time to question him as dad's voice suddenly boomed through the room. I looked over to see he had picked up the DJ's microphone. Great.

"You know the question I get asked most often?" he said with a slur. "Tony how do you go to the bathroom in the suit?"

The room went silent as everybody stared up at him. Dad squinted like he was concentrating then sighed. "Just like that."

For some stupid reason everyone starting cheering again while dad cackled with laughter. Pepper waked up behind dad with a strained smile. She took the microphone off him while dad continued to laugh. "Does this guy know how to throw a party or what?"

The crowd clapped in response.

"Tony, we all thank you so much for a wonderful night," Pepper said. "And we're gonna say goodnight now, and thank you all for coming."

I sighed in relief while everyone around me booed.

"No, no, no," dad cried as he reached for the microphone. He and Pepper started speaking and I could see the desperation in Pepper's eyes from where I stood. The crowd weren't leaving, instead they were watching the obviously tense standoff between dad and Pepper. After a minute Pepper took the bottle from dads hand and replaced it with the microphone.

"Pepper Potts." Dad stumbled down the few steps into the centre of the room. "She's right you know. The party is over. Then again, the party was over for me like an hour and a half ago. The after party starts in 15 minutes!" That earned a cheer from the crowd.

I knew he wasn't going to just give up and go to bed.

"And if anybody, Pepper, doesn't like it, there's the door!" he raised his hand to point to the door.

The familiar sound of the repulsors going off filled the room and the glass waterfall behind us shattered. Instantly I flinched in fear as the sound brought back horrible memories. I could feel the glass shards piercing my back again as Obadiah advanced on me. My heart rate skyrocketed as I remembered looking into my dying father's eyes and thinking that was the last time I would see him.

Suddenly there were a pair of arms around me. "It's okay," I heard Rhodey saying. "You're okay. You're okay." I didn't realise I had been shaking until I reached for Rhodey's hand. After a minute I took a deep breath and stepped out of Rhodey's arms.

"I'm fine," I said with faked calmness. Truth was, inside I was as scared as hell and reliving memories I wanted so much to forget. But we had bigger problems to deal with at the moment.

Rhodey was still looking at me with concern in his eyes but his attention was quickly drawn away when dad yelled.

Someone in the crowd threw a champagne bottle up into the air which dad proceeded to shoot with a repulsor. I flinched and covered my head instinctively as glass and alcohol rained down on us. Some people around me did the same while others clapped. I looked around to Rhodey only to find he wasn't there anymore. I prayed he had a plan because the only one I could think of was calling the cops, which I really didn't want to do. The cops would come, arrest dad and his face would be over the morning news. And our suits would be gone the next day.

Girls continued to throw things up in the air and drunkenly cheering as dad smashed them to pieces. Each time I flinched while dad laughed. I wanted to leave. I wanted to go somewhere and pretend that everything was fine and my dad wasn't shooting bottles for drunk chicks. I just wanted a moment where everything was okay.

Something suddenly rained down on me that wasn't alcohol. It was a watermelon. I had had enough. I turned around, ready to go to the garage and leave in my Audi when I saw Rhodey standing at the top of the steps in the Mark II armour.

"I'm only going to say this once," he said as everyone spun around to look at him. "Get out."

Everyone around me immediately scrambled for the door and within a minute the only people left in the room were dad, Rhodey, Pepper and myself. And the DJ.

"You too Morgan," Rhodey said, his voice slightly distorted by the suit.

I wanted to stay, to try and talk dad out of the suit but Pepper grabbed my hand and led me out of the room before I could say anything.

"Pepper, we have to-"

"No. We have to go," she said, leading me through the stranglers who were still running for their cars. As she threw open the door to her Audi, I heard music suddenly blast through the house. What the hell were they doing?

"Pepper, I'm not leaving," I said, shutting the car door.

A loud bang suddenly echoed through the night followed by the sound of glass smashing.

"Oh my god, please tell me they are not fighting." I spun on my heels and ran for the house. I was going to be useless against two men in titanium suits but I'll be damned if I was going to let them destroy my house.

Pepper ran after me, screaming, "Don't be ridiculous!"

I ignored her and continued for the house. More destructive sounds filled the night air and I wondered just what on earth I was going to walk in on. I almost cried when I walked back into the house to see a huge hole in the wall. They had gone straight through the wall, through the sauna and into the exercise room. Glass littered the floor and I didn't even want to go in and look at what was left of the exercise room.

I had just wondered where they hell they were when a crash rocked the roof and I heard the sound of the repulsors upstairs. This had to stop before they destroyed the whole house and sent it crashing into the ocean. I was halfway up the stairs when the roof rocked again and the sound of a crash followed.

Running down the stairs and into the entertaining room, the first thing that got my attention were the two men in suits throwing punches in the middle of the room. The second thing I noticed was the gaping hole in the roof which gave me a perfect view into my room. At that moment Rhodey wasn't the only one who wanted to punch dad in the face.

The two of them were throwing punches and trying to kick the other's ass but as they were both in suits, the match was even. The only thing they were doing was demolishing the house.

"Morgan!"

A hand suddenly wrapped around my wrist. Happy had run into the room and was tugging me towards the glass doors that lead out onto the balcony. As he did so, I noticed that not everyone had left after Rhodey had yelled at them to. Instead they had stuck around to see the fight. Some were even recording it on their phones. When Happy let my wrist go once we were outside, the first thing I did was go up to the closest person recording the fight and snatch their phone from them. He yelled in protest but before he could get it back, I had pegged it over the side of the house into the dark ocean below. I did not want this going up on YouTube. I was going for the next phone when the people around me gasped.

I spun around to see Iron Man had smashed Rhodey into the bench and had apparently knocked him unconscious. Iron Man slowly turned around to face the small crowd watching him. After a moment he adopted a fighting stance and yelled threateningly at us. The people around me instantly screamed and ran for the steps to leave, for real this time. Seconds later, I was the only person left standing on the balcony. I gathered Happy had gone to check on Pepper, wherever she was.

I stared at dad through the glass doors and he stared back. For the first time ever, I was truly afraid of my father. It was a feeling I never thought I would have. But as I stood there, I couldn't deny a ripple of fear travelled down my spine. Was he so drunk that he didn't recognise his own daughter? Would he attack me?

I watched as Rhodey stood up before ripping off the bench he had been smashed into and whacking it into dads head. He was sent flying across the room, landing head first into fireplace. Flames erupted and engulfed his head. I had a brief flash of concern, as would anyone after watching their father's head plunge into fire, before I remembered the suit could withstand temperatures hotter than the flames.

Dad wrenched his head out from the fireplace and turned to face his best friend. I watched the pair, standing in the ruins of what once was the entertaining room, and I wondered how on earth they would ever overcome this. Friendships had ended over less, although I'm pretty sure none had ever ended because they had beat each other up in titanium suits.

They both threw up their hands and the repulsors began to glow as they powered up.

Through the glass I could just barely make out Rhodey saying, "put your hand down."

"You think you've got what it takes to wear that suit?" dad replied.

"Put your hand down."

"Take the shot!"

When I realised neither of them was going to back down, I ran for the steps that lead up to the driveway. We had never tested the effects of shooting two repulsor blasts at each other but going on the damage one blast did, I didn't want to be around for two. The repulsor sound blared through the glass and from the corner of my vision I could see a white light glowing from the room.

I wasn't fast enough the reach the stairs so when the blast went off, the force of it sent me flying into the stone balcony railing. Pain exploded across my back and head. The edge of my vision went black and I was too weak to even try to lift my arms to shield my face from the flying glass. As the dust settled and the ringing in my ears dulled slightly, I looked around and thanked god that I had been on the edge of the blast. Had I been standing where I was only seconds before, the blast would have surely killed me or the flying debris would have.

After struggling for a few minutes and trying to ignore the fact that half of my vision was still blurred, I managed to get to my feet and walk with small, painful steps so I could check that neither of them had killed the other. Nothing in the room was left standing after the blast, including the men in the suits. After standing there for a few moments, surveying the wreckage that was once an entertaining room, both men showed signs of regaining consciousness. I figured both of them were done for the night and I sure as hell was. Painfully I made my way up to the driveway where Pepper rushed up to me.

"Morgan, where the hell-" she stopped mid sentence when she was close enough to see the cuts on my face. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," I said briskly. I didn't mean to be snappy but I found it hard to be perky after watching my father get drunk and ruin half of my home, including my bedroom. "Can I please stay with you tonight?"

"Of course." She led me towards her Audi which was now the only car left on the driveway. I managed to get into the car without grimacing and showing just how much pain I was really in.

Pepper kept throwing me concerned glances as she drove but I pretended not to notice as I stared out the window. Half of my mind was praying that any second I would wake up and tonight was just been a bad dream while the other half was still trying to comprehend what had happened tonight. I was finding it hard to believe that it was just drunkenness that would cause dad to beat up his best friend while destroying our house in the process. Something more had to be going on.

I think I was trying to come up with excuses for what he had done because if he had just done it for shits and giggles I don't think I would be able to forgive him. But I couldn't think of anything that would excuse destroying a home.

Neither of us really spoke as we arrived at Pepper's house. I went immediately to the room I always stayed in when I crashed at Pepper's. I got the feeling that Pepper wanted to talk about it, to see if I was okay but right now I didn't want to talk to anyone. What I wanted to do was scream and yell but I didn't want to do that to Pepper. Dad was the one I should be yelling at but right now he was either still getting his ass kicked or he was puking his guts up.

My back and head were still aching like a bitch from the blast. I found some aspirin in the bathroom but I doubted it would take away much of the pain. As I painfully changed into a spare pair of Pepper's pyjamas, I noticed my reflection in the mirror above the sink. My face had numerous small cuts from the flying glass and I was covered in dust. One look at my back showed numerous bruises already forming thanks to the stone balcony I hit. I hated knowing I had these injuries thanks to Rhodey and dad. I found a pair of tweezers in one of the drawers and spent the next half an hour picking out the tiny shards of glass from the face and body. None of the shards of glass had been big enough to do any more damage than drawing some blood. One I was sure I'd gotten all of the glass I wiped the blood and dirt from my face.

I climbed into the bed and immediately had to roll onto my side. Even lying on my back was too painful at the moment. I waited for sleep to come but of course, with so much excitement tonight, I was wide awake. My phone, laying beside me on the pillow, suddenly rang out. With a pounding heart, I looked at the caller ID. It was Rhodey.


Thank you to everyone who reviewed: Lollypops101, ZabuzasGirl, FanfictionPlus, MammonDaughter, gummybear1825 and vita di pasta. Your reviews are amazing and keep me writing!
Please leave a little review below if you like the story. Reviews are the best!