Chapter 2:

Pepper POV-

Alright, I will admit, bringing a twelve year old girl into our home may not have been the most thought out plan. Not to mention, Tony will undoubtedly freak out when we walk in the front door. I had actually planned to talk to Tony about this, I had planned to evaluate the girls today and go home and talk about it with him tonight but when I met Danielle, I didn't want to risk that she might not be there the next time I came back, so, yes, I acted impulsively (so unlike me) and decided to adopt her (in Tony's name) right then and there.

I'll tell Tony that this will help his image in front of the press, which it will, and he will believe that but the real reason I insisted on adopting a girl was exactly what I told Danielle, he needs to care about someone other than himself. And adopting this girl will give him just that. I knew it couldn't be a boy, he wouldn't get paternal or protective over a boy, no, it had to be a girl, it had to be Danielle.

All the other girls were so sweet but I knew they wouldn't work, Tony doesn't play well with others and someone too sweet would be like two repelling magnets. Danielle was different, she had a sharp wit, like Tony, liked a lot of the things he liked, has a problem with her real father, like he does, and, most of all, she just seems like the kind of girl who could easily kick someone's butt or save someone's life, much like someone else I know who is always running off to be the hero.

Honestly, I didn't know how I knew this about her, just judging by her personality it seemed highly possible.

Now we climbed into my car, I made Dani sit in the back seat, much to her dismay. I stifled a smile at her pouting face in the back of my rear-view mirror. I drove us to the mall and tossed my car keys to the parking valet.

"Danielle," I told her, "I want you to pick out whatever you want, money is no object," I told her, holding up the Stark Industries credit card. Her eyes widened like a little kid on Christmas morning and she could barely contain her excitement as she towed me through the mall. The majority of what she picked out were jeans in every style and color, converse shoes, and hoodies and sweatshirts, and graphic t-shirts. I had to resist the urge to laugh out loud at the irony when she picked up an Iron Man t-shirt. Despite her tomboy tastes, I insisted that she pick out formal clothing too, after all she would be attending all of the Stark Industry benefits, expos, and banquets with Tony and I. I found her a simple black dress with spaghetti straps that reached a little above her knees and flared out a little at the bottom I also got her a different red dress, a blue dress and a pair or (low) silver heels.

We stopped in front of the Apple store and Danielle bought an iPhone and a laptop which would be synchronized with Jarvis when we arrived back at home. Then we went next door to the home accessory store and purchased her bedroom furnishings and decorations, which I would have sent to the mansion later on tonight. Danielle picked a black and red bedspread with gray curtains and dark black furnishings along with some kind of black, floating hammock chair with more red pillows. Afterwards, we ate together in the food court, and let me tell you, when that girl said she likes food, she wasn't kidding, I think she eats more than Tony.

Finally, our shopping expedition was nearly finished as we picked up all of her bags and headed towards the double doors. We were almost out when I heard Danielle say "Awwwee!" She had found the pet shelter window.

I shook my head as the energetic twelve year old ran inside making the bell on the pet shelter door ding loudly. She knelt in front of the glass fronted dog cages, her face lighting up as the excited puppies barked in delight. Dani looked at me with her own puppy dog eyes that only a little girl can pull off and I felt my resolve begin to crumble. She asked a woman dressed in khaki if she could hold one of the puppies that was already a foot tall and kept tripping over its oversized feet. Because this was a branch of the pet shelter, most of the dogs were mutts, the one Danielle was currently holding looked like a mix of some kind of Shepard, maybe some Border Collie and maybe some Labrador or Spaniel because it was solid black except for the white patch on it's chest, paws, and mussel and its ears flopped, one standing straight up and one about half up. It yipped happily and licked her face as she giggled in delight.

'Great,' I thought, rolling my eyes and shaking my head, 'Not only is she a dog person, she's a big dog person.' I opened my mouth to protest but she handed the dog to me and as I looked into it's eyes which were a dark bluish color (hmm…maybe part Husky) and saw Danielle's blue eyes giving me the same pleading look, there was no way I could say no.

'Wow, a girl and a dog in the same day, Tony is going to kill me.'

"You know a dog is a big responsibility right," I told her as we signed the paperwork. She nodded, "You're going to have to be in charge of training him, feeding him, bathing him, brushing him, making sure he has water, and taking him on walks." I told her, which, I knew wasn't technically true, in the Stark Mansion, you could find just about anybody to do just about anything, but instead of backing down at the responsibility like I had expected she nodded enthusiastically. We bought the dog and all of the dog accessories to go with him, black and red so that they could match her bedroom where she would undoubtedly keeping the dog. She bought him a red color with his name inscribed on the bong shaped tag.

For some reason she had decided to name her dog 'Ghost.' I clipped the leash onto his collar and we led him out of the mall to the car we had driven here in which suddenly seemed way too small. Dani clutched a very squirmy ghost in her arms while we piled the rest of the shopping bags in the trunk and the empty seats around us, so high, that I almost could not see to drive. We pulled up to Tony's home.

"Okay," I told her, twisting in my seat to look at her, "I'm going to break it to him slowly. He doesn't know about you yet so don't be surprised if he freaks out, especially when he sees the dog." She nodded and I continued, "Tony is a really nice guy once you get to know him but sometimes it takes a while for people to warm up to him and even longer sometimes for him to get used to new people." Danielle nodded again. Finally we got out of the car, I had someone take her things to an empty room and start putting them in the closet and we set out on a search to find Tony.

Thankfully, Tony had left earlier and would not be home until later tonight after the furniture had been delivered and Danielle would already be asleep.

'So,' I decided, 'He'll find out tomorrow.'