AN – and here's the other half I had written by mistake for 7, but now it's own with better ties! =3 Please feel free to comment when something doesn't quite fit the rest of the story in this chapter. I had to adapt it a little… if you notice something, let me know and I'll fix it for the rest of the readers. You'll also get a very nice shoutout. =3

Chapter 8
The Outside World

Since the night had gone so well, Pepper had started setting things in motion to start living here. She wanted two weeks, and as much as I wanted to go clean her apartment out myself and have her come home to an empty apartment, I knew better than to open my mouth. If I was going to start learning something about women, it was going to be learning my place. The fact that she had finally caved was the best thing anyone could have ever given me – you know, apart from the little human not far behind me.

Pepper and I had…argued…about my 'care' in the daytime. After letting Emily almost break her toe with a steel tool, Pepper had wanted either a –daycare, or b – a nanny to watch her at all times. There was absolutely no fucking way I was putting Emily in daycare. Furthermore, It didn't feel right without her down there, and bringing Natasha back felt cold and like I was putting my own child off. I had pushed people away for years. I finally found someone who wouldn't care if I cried, yelled, or showed any emotional problems and I could spend every waking minute with her. And I intended to.

"What are you doing with your dolls, little miss Stark?" I called out from one of my tables. I was soldering a new chip for the navigation system. Dummy had already broken one. If you want something done, you have to do it yourself and not give it to your idiot robot.

"I'm playing model." That earpiece I had was still working fine, even after chunking it across the room. Everything was clear and I had even upgraded for better slang translation.

"Model? What do you do when you play model?" I realized something about it too. Listening in on her playtime would be a great way to learn more about her in ways that weren't basely physical. I could learn more about how she was mentally.

Jarvis translated for me again in his quiet voice only reserved for her corner of the room.

She held up the dolls, both Barbie variants, and stated again with supreme confidence.

"This girl wants to be a model, and so does her friend, but they need to find a picture guy to take care of them."

Could she mean more than just take pictures of the two girls? It was very likely. Models slept with photographers all the time. Did she witness her mother do that? Did she see the hideous underbelly of modeling before the age of 5?

She picked up a Ken doll and held him in one hand, and the girls in another. She had the man yell at the two girls, then she dropped one of them. The remaining two dolls were forced together and made kissy sounds.

Yeah, I was right. Especially from the words that came out of her mouth.

"If you come back here cow I'll take you to slaughter!" She had yelled. It took the AI a minute to find slaughter for some reason. He informed me it was a mismatch of the French and Russian word for it. The man had been French, and screaming at her mother about her being too fat. In front of her child.

The way she portrayed the girl who had been dropped only told me more that the doll that had been let go of had been her mother.

I left the girl to her own devices for a few minutes and removed my translating ear piece to put in another – my own Starktooth. I still think it would sell better with that name, or maybe Sharktooth…

"Jarvis, call Pepper." I said at a normal talking voice, having turned back to my work table. The translation worked, but now I needed a way to translate certain things that I said to her.

"WHAT." Oh, good, she's in a great mood.

"Having a good day honey?"

"…Yes, Tony. What do you need?"

"I think we need to find a child…shrink for Emily." The word was sour in my mouth. The idea of a shrink looking at anyone close to me made me uncomfortable in my skin. They wanted me to go to therapy after my parents died – so I did for one session, but the guy creeped me out. He kept trying to draw Oedipal conclusions, and I wasn't about to listen to a guy tell me I was in love with my mother. Against Obi's wishes, I walked out after 20 minutes.

She sighed on the other side and I heard her shooing people out of her office as she tried to hide it from me. I heard at least one barked command of out, the large door shutting, then she returned.

"Why do you say that?" She was back to being normal and calm – the frightened 'mother' she was.

"I started listening to her play dolls-"

"You always hear her play. She sits in the workshop all day-"

"I made an earpiece translator, remember me telling you about it? I can finally understand what she's doing over there with all those naked Barbies. I'll get you one too, but that's not the point – I just think she…might need to be seen." I didn't know how I was going to qualify sending my child to a psychiatrist or whatever the hell. I just thought it would be a good idea.

The language barrier would be the problem.

There was a soft silence for a second as I heard little one mumbling off to herself back there, wondering what her mind was playing out with those dolls now…but this was a little most necessary than eavesdropping on her playtime.

"There are a lot of things we need to do for her. That's one of them. We need to take her to a specialist and see how far she is in development – she should be going into preschool in September, Tony. That's the best way for her to learn more English and to grow normally."

Let her go to school? How could I let her go out into the world? She had already been dumped in a foreign land with a foreign language and not knowing a single person. It took days for her to be comfortable here. How long would it take for her to be comfortable in a school setting?

I didn't deny that she needed to go to school. That was natural progression of age. I was honestly curious as to her intelligence. If she was my kid, she had to have some higher knowledge than normal, and I wanted to know sooo very badly.

"Yeah…uh, I'll have Jarvis look for some…specialist or whatever. Maybe whoever they are can tell us where we can find a therapist, shrink-"

"A therapist, more than likely."

"Yeah, that. I'll work on it. You can go back to screaming at whoever you need to scream at."

"Thank you, Mr. Stark. I just couldn't do it without your approval." Those sarcastic comments got me so hot.

"Love you Potts. I'll be slaving over a stove!"

She hung up on me. I felt like such a little wife waiting at home and watching the kids when she was busy in an office – what was once my office – bringing home the bacon. I knew I had an apron around here somewhere…

As I took off my Starktooth and turned my chair back to the girl behind me, I noticed that she wasn't sitting on the carpet anymore. Instead, she was 2 feet from me and holding her arms up. Behind her was a robotic arm mimicking her movements. For some reason, Dummy loved her. Fine with me, he could keep her out of trouble for me…

Quickly I stuck the ear piece back in one ear and picked her up and just stared at the whining arm as I settled her on my hip. She quickly regained my attention

"Juice, papa?"

Thank god she had at least learned certain things in English. Off we went to the kitchen area to get her favorite cup with a chirping machine behind me.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

A week later, we had an appointment with a diagnostician. Was that necessary? Hell, I didn't think so. There wasn't anything wrong with her. Why take her to a diagnostician? Pepper and I had already gone through this – that was the only choice. The worst part about it was that the appointment had only been available after a large press conference having to do with Iron Man. Therefore, I had to go up to the company offices. Without anyone to look after Emily beforehand…I took her with me.

Emily had been so very curious when I was dressing. Pepper had long since set a suit out for me to wear to the press conference, and Emily had only seen me in jeans and wife beaters. She wanted to feel my jacket and play with my red and gold tie (that I had specially made).

One of the best parts of the fun was dressing her up. She was easy to choose for – okay, that's a joke. Pepper and Natasha had long since bought two closets worth of clothing for her. What do you put on a 5 year old to take her to a teacher? I guessed some form of dress, but I had hundreds to choose from. I chose a red dress with purple flowers. I could at least try to match us…but then I thought about it. No one would really see right? Or maybe I just wanted us to match for my sake. It was one way I could claim her as my own in my head.

After trying to figure out how to explain to her where exactly we were going, I realized that we were going to be late if I stayed there and kept trying to think of a way to tell her about the day's plans.

With both sets of ear pieces (one for myself, one for Pepper) and mine set in, I picked up the pale little girl in one arm and briefcase in the other as I set out the front door. She didn't fight going outside, and Jarvis called after us to bid us a good day. She waved as the door shut behind us and I threw on my sunglasses to go out into the morning sun.

Happy was…happy (god, what a terrible pun) to see a much more pleasant and healthy looking little girl than the first day he had seen her.

"Hey Happy, long time no see." I said somewhat breathlessly as he opened the back door to the Bentley to let us crawl inside.

"She looks so much better, Mr. Stark."

"Yeah, thanks Happy." I smiled as I climbed in after setting her down on the Italian leather seats. He shut the door behind me and I pulled Emily up into my lap. She seemed really interested in looking out the heavily tinted window at the disappearing coastline as we went farther inland to the company.

"Where are we going, Papa?"

Having this ear piece in all the time was going to make it easier on her and on me.

"To see Mama at work. Then we're going to meet someone that wants to talk to you." I said quietly as she looked out the window with her nose pressed to the glass.

Emily had her own ear piece that translated what I said. She heard the English, but afterwards she heard the Russian. There were a few bugs for slang, but I was working on that over time.

She didn't answer me, instead she kept herself busy looking at the cars we passed by. Happy, as he was instructed to as always, was speeding down the highway towards the towering buildings of the company compound.

What I hadn't expected was the press turnout in front of the main office building.

Happy pulled up to the front door slowly, through the wave after wave of reporters and cameras waiting to see me step out of my car.

Within seconds I had Pepper on the phone. I hadn't intended this to be the day that the world saw Tony Stark with a child.

"Yes dear?" It was only 10 am and she already sounded beat and apparently sarcastic. I had a feeling the reporters had been harassing her that Tony Stark hadn't been seen outside of his home in over a month. That's why they were swarming in wait.

"Pepper, the reporters…what do you think I should do?"

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

What do you think he should do? I'm always willing to listen =3 I don't exactly have the idea cemented just yet…so you might sway me with reviews and comments!