AN: Yes, I've been gone for a very long time. It hasn't been completely my fault, but the majority has. I broke up with my long-standing boyfriend (and found another that not only is okay with my RDJ obsession, but participates in it), graduated college, and played in a national championship since I last found myself here. But I find that I really feel like I should finish this. This is the only one that I really took my time and tried to get done. So now that I have the time, I think I'm going to try to get this done. It may be quicker than some of you would prefer, but I'm going to do it. I'm actually going to finish something.
What a concept!

Chapter 17
A Father's Pain

"Excuse me?"

"I want to go."

"Hell no. You are not going. Especially into something that we aren't sure what they have or what they want."

"I just…"

"I get it, you miss your narcissistic boyfriend and his lovechild with some model, but that doesn't mean that I allow you to tag along on something that would probably get you killed."

I knew I wouldn't be of any use to them, I just wanted to be there – they were going to get him, or at least so they believed. I wanted to be there to see both of them alive and well. I knew it would be better for me to be sitting at home waiting than to be in the way, but I just wanted so badly to hold them both as soon as they were somewhere safe and sound.

"You'll have your loverboy in a few hours, Miss Potts. Don't worry that pretty head of yours."

As I watched Fury walk away with Natasha, in an overly tight black bodysuit, I knew everything would be alright. But I just didn't want to have to wait. What if they were injured, or worse – if one of them was…

That wouldn't have happened. It hasn't been too long. Tony wouldn't jeopardize her or him near her. He couldn't do that.

I didn't want to just sit and twiddle my thumbs, but what other choice did I have in the moment?

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

When night came, they walked her into the room and shut the door behind her quietly. I was sitting at a table working as I had been, looking at the fried circuitry within the suit. I had realized a few hours before that the 'rock' I had been hit with wasn't a rock at all.

"Nasty little things. Small, but powerful. Thought the government would be interested in using them. They're small enough to carry and they aren't particularly noticeable to the enemy. And they said that you couldn't make an electro-magnetic pulse that was this small."

I had remembered to ask when he came in earlier to talk about reactors. For some reason, my reactor wasn't particularly bothered by it, but my suit was wrecked. He wanted to discuss that as well. But that was beyond now. Emily was here.

I set my tools down and moved to kneel on the floor so we were face to face similar heights. She wandered over, arms out, happy to see me in more of a normal circumstance. But she was weirded out by my cables still. She poked at them, pulled on the bundle, and looked down in the metal cavern in my chest.

"Where blue light daddy?"

"They have it, but it's alright. Just needs fixing. I have a new battery, but it's not as pretty." I pointed up to the car battery on the table above me, just starting to pull down a little from my kneeling on the floor.

"Oh. When it come back?"

"I don't know, baby. Soon. Are you ready for bed?" I moved the hair away from her face and smiled half-assed. I could bring her some semblance of normalcy this way. I needed a brush for her matted hair. She needed her hair washed and a good shower to boot. I hadn't had one either.

She nodded and I reached around her to pick her up with one arm. For some reason, with only car battery power, it was harder to pick her up. I knew she wasn't that heavy – she was still decently small. I shouldn't have any trouble carrying her. It was a weird feeling for her to be something of a heft on my body.

I picked up the car battery with my other arm and walked to the other side of the room where the bed lay next to a now set up lamp and nightstand. Small requests were easy to get now that I had completely cooperated and was going along with their plan.

I sat down the battery first next to the lamp, then slowly, steadily, and exactingly laid down with her still laid against my shoulder and the cables over her body. I moved them around so they didn't bother her laying, and instead went through the open space between our faces over my shoulder. As much as I wanted to keep looking at the suit and trying to figure a way to get us out of here, she needed me more. She needed me first. And that's something that I had only learned in the last few months. Iron Man was needed across the world for a number of people, but only Tony Stark was needed at all times by one small person. And one large one too, but she was probably freaking out in his mansion at the moment because both of us were gone.

I laid there staring at the ceiling after kissing her forehead and telling her I loved her. Her breathing slowed down, so I reached over to turn off the lamp, leaving the room bathed in small light from one of the work benches. I could still see some above me, but not much. Enough for me to think and not be bothered by my eyesight.

I could make a glitching reactor. It would work perfectly when not in complete use, then fry when the suits started using a large amount of energy. That would be possible. Make it powerful enough to run small things, but not strong enough to make the whole suit work. That would be simple, and they wouldn't know much of a difference. I could start on that tomorrow. And maybe get a shower for Em and myself. As much as I loved the girl, smelling her hair so close to my face told me how much she needed to bathe.

At some point in time, while thinking about the equations to make everything work as I planned in the reactors, I fell asleep in my exhaustion. I felt so much more at peace with a small girl sleeping on my naked chest. Even if her fingers weren't touching a certain light in my chest.

I was jolted awake sometime in the early morning. It was still dark, but not that dark. I heard something – an explosion. Emily heard it too. She was hiding in my neck quickly after and mumbling tiredly. Instinctively, I sat up and held her tight to me – it could have just been some scientists trying out something, and having a bad reaction, or it could be quite the opposite.

When the alarm started sounding, I knew exactly what it was.