Fish.
Max looked through the big glass window and laughed. He patted his hands on the glass, excited by all the glittering shapes moving past on the other side. He liked the way they were shiny.
"They're pretty, aren't they Max?" Mama agreed with him. Max bounced in her arms and agreed.
Fish were exciting. He pushed against the glass and tried to bite it, but Mama pulled him back and pointed to something she called a zebrafish.
Max crowed.
The big aquarium in the main lobby at Dadawork was one of his favorite things, and every time Mama brought him to Dadawork, they stopped and looked at all the fish. Max liked the big of it, and how the fish floated through the water.
He wanted to touch a fish.
"And those are angelfish and clownfish, like Nemo, Max. See Nemo?"
Max did, because he liked orange. He pushed his face on the glass and stared. It made his nose all flat and he giggled.
"We need to go, Max," Mama told him gently. Max kept staring, because if he looked hard enough, he could see more fish.
He licked the glass.
Then Mama pulled him away to wipe his mouth with her fingers, and Max started to whine. He wanted to look more at the aquarium, but Mama was giving him Floof and telling him about what a good boy he was, and how Mrs. Moon would have a cookie for him up in her office.
They moved into the big lobby, and Max could see lots of people around; almost as many as fish. Some of them came to talk to Mama and smile at him. Max felt scared and put his face up against Mama's sweater so he couldn't see anybody.
He felt better.
"He's a little shy," Mama told people, and tried to go to the lulvator.
Max liked the lulvator because it would go Up and Down really fast. Mama was rubbing his back with soothie love and it felt good. Max peeked to see who was still there.
The blonde lady in front of Mama was scary. She was looking at him hard and Max did not like that.
"Would you say he gets his coloring and looks from his father?" the lady asked Mama.
"I really couldn't say," Mama said, and Max felt her squeeze him.
Max wiggled so he could breathe.
"Because with that dark hair and those brown eyes--" the mean lady was saying. "Genetics do have a way of bringing out the truth, Miss Potts."
Max felt Mama breathe in, and knew she was going to do a Calm. Mama did that to mean people to make them feel better. "Oh dear, I think I smell . . . something. Max, sweetie, we need to change your diaper. Please don't let us keep you from the press conference, Ms. Everhart—Max and I will just go . . ."
The mean lady looked confused, and Max waved bye-bye, so she would go away. He didn't smell anything, but that was okay. Maybe he did have a dirty diaper—sometimes Max got so busy he didn't remember.
Mama carried him around the lobby towards the front, and Max hugged her because that always made Mama feel better. She smiled at him and they went into a little room.
Dada was there! Max immediately reached out for Dada, but Mama wouldn't let him, and set the diaper bag down.
Max threw Floof because he was mad.
"They're all out there already—I thought the statement was at nine, Tony!" Mama said and dug out a clean diaper. Max got up and went over to Dada's chair.
"Not my fault," Dada said. "Media Department bumped it up, apparently. Max, buddy, that's no way to treat a plane, even if it is ninety percent acrylic."
Dada did Up after Max pulled on his pant leg, and happy now, Max patted Dada's mustache just to check on it.
"Still there," Dada told him, "keeping it. Hey Maximum Overdrive, you going to see Mrs. Moon?"
Max yelled a happy yell to tell Dada yes, he was. Mama took him and laid him down to change his diaper.
"Okay, save me a cookie. Gotta go—" Dada told him and stepped out the door. Max waved bye-bye and kicked.
"Not helpful, sweetie," Mama told him, slipping off his shoes.
Just as she started to change him, BlackBerry rang, and Mama had to talk to it.
Max played with his socks in the air and Mama talked.
Max took his socks off, and Mama talked.
Max threw his socks, and Mama talked.
Max got noodie, and Mama talked.
Finally, bored, Max got up and went to the door.
There were lots of people, and Max was a little scared, but he saw Dada's legs and then the rest of Dada, and Max decided to go see him.
". . . No layoffs at this time. Stark Industries stands by its employees through this crisis . . . . whoa!"
Max laughed and smacked the wood thing in front of Dada. When Dada went to grab him, Max was ready.
He ran, and people got out of his way.
"Ok-aaay, you're taking Casual Friday a little far, Max, come on, buddy--" Dada told him, running after him and scooping him up. "Let's get back IN the pants."
Max laughed and wiggled.
"Dada!" Max said.
Everyone was very quiet. Max wiggled again and patted Dada's mustache. Dada did not look happy. He looked back at Mama, who was near the wood thing, and very quiet too. Mama was all red.
Max leaned back, waaaaay back in Dada's arms until he was almost going to fall, but he knew he wasn't. Dada never let him fall.
"Uhhhh," Dada said, pulling him back up.
"Tony," Mama said, and came over. Max held out his arms and hugged her hard. All the people made a funny noise, like the tribbles, sort of.
Mama was quickly nodding at Dada, but her mouth was all twisted.
So was Dada's.
"Uh, okay. Most of you out there probably know this is Max," Dada said slowly. "He's about twenty pounds now, and lives at my house, and in case you were wondering--yeah, he's mine."
Max let Mama put a diaper on him, and he fussed about the shirt, but it was okay when he got his head through it. There was lots of clicking out in the people and lights. Max didn't like it. He could feel a cry coming on.
"Shhhh, it's okay Max," Mama told him softly. "The wheels on the bus go round and round . . ."
"Hey, guys—help us out," Dada was saying. "You know this one, right? You—Mitch, you've got kids. And Donna, Wall Street Journal—I know you've got at least one at home. Come on, I'm betting you can carry a tune better than I can, right? All through the towwwwwn. Next verse. The wipers on the bus go swish, swish swish . . ." Dada said, waving at the people.
Max blinked and looked around.
They were singing. They were singing his SONG!
"The baby on the bus goes 'wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, The baby on the bus goes—" everybody sang to Max.
He loved them. Max held out his arms and gave them all a great big Love from inside.
Everybody except the scary lady, who was not singing. She looked like a crab on the beach.
When everybody was done, Max clapped for them and then he felt shy again, and hid against Mama's sweater one more time. Max could hear Dada talking.
"Thank you all for that. Definitely a press conference first, but Max here appreciated it. Clearly. Yes, Donna—"
"He's adorable. What are you feeding him?"
"Max is, um, just getting into solids. Really big on Vienna sausages."
"Mr. Stark, has he had his Dip-Tet yet?"
"First round. Pepper, want to help me out here?"
"He'd been immunized, yes. Not his favorite thing."
"Mr. Stark! Has fatherhood changed your priorities concerning Iron Man?"
"Yes. I have a curfew now. Next question?"
"Will you and Miss Potts be getting married, Mr. Stark?"
"That's entirely up to her. The offer's been made—several times, I'd like that on the record—but I'm willing to abide by whatever she wants."
Then the scary lady talked. Max looked over at her standing there with her hands on her hips. He could tell Dada and Mama didn't like her very much. "Mr. Stark, with your checkered past, don't you think this is really not the best time in your career to attempt to be a father?"
The room got very quiet, and Max looked around. He could feel Dada hurting inside; the scary lady made him feel bad.
Max reached for Dada, and Dada took him out of Mama's arms. Max patted his mustache and smiled.
Dada smiled back at him, and a lot of the hurt went away. Not all of it—Max could still feel a little inside Dada—but a lot of it was gone.
"I'm not attempting anything, Miss Everhart. I am a father. And frankly, out of all the things I've ever managed to produce in my career, Max here is the absolute best, bar none. Maxinator, let's go see Mrs. Moon and get a cookie, okay pal?"
Max yelled to agree this was a very good idea. He waved bye-bye to all the nice people who did the singing.
He hoped Mrs. Moon had circus cookies. Those were the best.
They went into the lulvator and went Up.
Mama looked scared and leaned against Dada. "Tony . . . why is it when you have a press conference, we can never ever get through them without . . ."
"Not my fault this time!" Dada told her back. "I wasn't the one streaking in front of the podium! And besides, Max had them eating out of his hand, totally."
Max looked at his hand. No food there. Did somebody eat his cookie?
"But when he called you—"
"—I know. It was . . . great," Dada smiled. "Finally. After weeks and weeks of nothing but 'Mama' 'Mama' 'Mama'. . ."
"He's got your sense of dramatics," Mama said, but she was finally smiling, and Max reached to beep her nose. "Don't you, Sweetheart?"
Max laughed, and wiggled because he was happy.
"Okay then," Mama sighed. "I'll start getting the press release . . . released. I guess this means we'll have to schedule some pictures, and fill in that birth certificate."
"And get married," Dada told her. "Let's send the first invitation to Everhart."
"No," Mama told him. "I'd be tempted to throw more than just a bouquet at her."
The lulvator stopped and when they got out, office people were clapping. Max liked that and clapped too.
Dada smiled, and Max felt him reach for Mama's hand and squeeze it.
This was good, and Max was happy.
And hungry.