AN – I don't remember who said it – I believe Aaron Cronin did – but Ben Kingsley is a perfect mental idea of the man in the white coat. Go with that.
Please2forgive for taking so long. College has been royally kicking my ass. And I'm still behind on all my school work. I'm 5 novels deep currently (I just can't read more than two at a time, otherwise I get them mixed up) and I don't read particularly fast. With golf, school, my parents, the world coming crashing down – all I can think about is how am I going to get Tony and poor Emily out of harm's way.

Chapter 15

The sound of silence

"After the statement given by Pepper Potts yesterday, I can't help but wonder – who would give Tony Stark, the Iron Man, a child willingly, when there were other alternatives? Reports are that she still has family-"

I couldn't listen to that. 3 days later, and pundits are still clamoring on about Tony and Emily getting kidnapped at the same time. Yes, Tony had realized what kind of danger Emily would go through in her life. He had bottled himself up in the workshop for days once because he realized that at any time, I could be harmed to get to him. He didn't like the idea. It frightened him. He thought more about the death of his parents. Then the possibility of being alone again.

Now someone decided throwing a 5 year old in the mix was going to make everything even better.

Fury had an idea what was going on, but he wouldn't tell anyone. I had to all but sob uncontrollably to get him to tell me that. He said he would 'let me know if anything else came up'. Which meant stay out of my way.

I couldn't go to work. I was mobbed there, and even when I did get to my office I didn't want to work. I knew that when the day was over, I was going home to a completely quiet, sterile home with no laughter and no breaking of mechanical parts. Or the reverse order sometimes.

Rhodey offered for me to stay with him – just so I wasn't alone. It was a little ways off and I didn't feel right doing that. I felt like I would impose on him being a single bachelor and I knew he had to go to work at 4 in the morning some days. He didn't need to stay up coddling me.

The world needed to go on without Tony Stark. And I just wouldn't let myself do it.

It was like Afghanistan again.

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

My body felt like bricks. I knew where I was when I came to enough to feel the cuts on my wrists. I was back in the same bed in that room that I guessed was my little cell.

Like Emily was in that room all to herself. That was her cell so she would be occupied and out of these men's way, but still here enough to tug at my heart.

"You gave us a bit of a scare there, Mr. Stark."

How did they know I was awake? I forced my eyes open enough to see that all the lights were on this time. The part of the room that had been dark before was lit, and – it was work benches. With my suit now in pieces all over them, and he was playing with a gauntlet. My gauntlet. His fat, grubby fingers shouldn't fit in holes built for my more slender and handsome fingers. All I could hear in my head was my mother, long ago telling me "Tony, you have to learn to share" but this was different. This wasn't something I meant to share, or needed to share.

"We didn't think you would wake up. You've been out a good amount of time."

He had his back to me. How could he see that I was awake? Or even knew to say what he did when he did? What was with this guy?

He finally did turn around and rolled over to me in his rolling chair, the sound echoing off the walls. It wasn't until he was right next to me that I noticed why my body felt like bricks.

There was no glow from my chest. The port was open, and had wires coming out of it. I followed the wires down from my bed, but I couldn't see what they were attached to.

"We couldn't have you running off with the suit at any time, so we took the liberty of hooking you up to a much more…confined connection."

"Do you think I can break handcuffs normally? Why put me on a leash when I'm already on a shorter one."

He answered my question in a very simple manner. He moved over and unlocked both of my arms from the bed, then my ankles. I was free – or, at least, as free as I was going to get in here. I rubbed my raw wrists as I maneuvered to sit on the edge of the gurney like bed and reset how the cables were hanging on my chest. I felt like I was running on half capacity and I wanted to go back to sleep, but it was only because the cables were probably hooked to something not as powerful as the reactor. I felt like I was tugging that battery along again.

"I have no problem with you free if you'll agree to my proposition."

I didn't like the sound of that, but I didn't have much of a choice. God, how could anyone take this man seriously – he just looked like he needed a good rhinoplasty –

"But, I have no problem convincing you if necessary."

"Sure, what have you got? I've got time to hear a proposal." I had to act like this was just a normal business proposition. There were too many possibilities of what 'convincing' could become. But without the cocky ass voice I normally carried. I had to remember that I was the one in the lower position here.

"My colleagues are studying your little piece from your chest…remarkable, really." He was rolling around, not even looking at me and more interested in curling his fingers around and listening to the metal around them move with the bends of his joints. The fact that he could get it on was still angering. It shouldn't have even fit him. It was mine, made for me, not anyone else-

"And Starkium. Interesting element. And to think! You synthesized a new element in your basement. I didn't know anyone could build a collider in a basement-"

"Cut to the chase. What do you want from me?"

"I want reactors. The suits we can design, but the power source is the hard part. My head scientist told Stane that, and so Stane just stole it out of your chest. What we want is your cooperation, not to kill you." He was busy pulling the gauntlet off of his hand and resetting it on the table next to the other one. He wasn't even looking at me as he talked. He didn't have to to know he was lying. He wanted my designs and my knowledge to go into his pockets instead of my own, and if he played his cards right, I would lose my ability to be Iron Man, the great protector and become Iron Man, the leader of the American Army.

He didn't have to tell me he was making suits to sell.

He rolled back to my sitting on the bed and looked me in the eyes, finally.

"I want you to teach my men how to create your miniature reactor, and in complete working condition. You do that for me, and you and your lovely daughter can go home. Very simple."

"…Okay. You just want me to make one arc reactor with your scientists, they see how it goes, they start making them, Emily and I go home. Correct?"

"Yes, Mr. Stark. That's all I'm asking. Simple, like I said."

I paused for a moment, trying to look like I was weighing my options.

The man never said it had to be in working order. Or that it hard to be to exact specifications.

"Alright. I'll need to make one here first-"

"Oh, no, that won't be necessary Mr. Stark. We'll base it off of your previously made one." He waved his hand in front of me. He must have caught on. He didn't want me to have on in my chest. The cables were on purpose. A short leash for a man already on a pretty short one.

"Alright…so when do we start?"

"Tomorrow morning should be best…I think they're still finishing work with the collider. Is there anything I can get you?" He had rolled away again to put the chair underneath one of the work benches, and instead stood to walk over to me. I slid off of my seat on the bed, learning quickly how much taller I was to this man.

"Could I see her?" I had no hesitations asking. If I was going to agree to a deal with this man, he was obligated to indulge me, even if it would have been some hookers and blow. A few minutes with my daughter shouldn't be a big thing, right?

"Sure, Mr. Stark, I think I can do that." He smiled at me, shook my hand, and walked right out of the room, guards behind him shutting and locking the door.

When I said I wanted to see her, I meant then.

Not 3 hours later.

I was tinkering with the suit with the tools I had been left (not as good as mine, but workable) when the door opened again and I was brought back to reality – that I had been taken again, and my daughter was stuck with me.

I hadn't expected a crying mass of black curls to walk in and look around.

She stared right at me, and I dropped the tool I had been using on the table. We lunged at each other at the same time.

She kept crying and calling for me while I held her and tried to calm her down. At least we were left alone together. Someone watching while I tried to comfort my daughter would make me feel horribly uncomfortable. Not that I didn't already, since I was having to comfort her for something she didn't understand.

Her small hands grabbed at my neck and shoulders while my larger ones tried desperately to calm her by rubbing her back and holding her to my naked chest. Her tears found their way to dripping down my skin, but I walked around and whispered to her enough for her to catch her breath and realize how tired those tears made her.

"Where…blue glow?" She asked after a few quiet minutes, her fingers poking at the cables coming out of my chest. I couldn't help but sad smile. What could I tell her? What would she understand? I couldn't tell her they took it from me so I couldn't run away. Without the reactor, I couldn't put on the suit and leave. I couldn't destroy all of this, all of their probably pre-made suits and find my way home.

I just smiled to her and pushed the black curl from her face to behind her ear. She was still wearing the clothes I sent her to school in that day. They weren't dirty or anything, but her hair was greasy, and she needed her face washed. They were feeding her, entertaining her and giving her a bed, but that was the bottom of the rungs of child care. I didn't know that before, but after months, I understood that now.

"I love you." I whispered to her and hugged her tight to my shoulder as I sat down on the bed in the corner of the large room. I laid my body back and down along the bed with her next to me, helping me drag the cables over so they weren't tugging so much on my chest.

She was asleep on me in minutes, drooling slightly out of the corner of her mouth.

I couldn't sleep, but I could have watched her for days.

I had to get us out of here.