Chapter 16:
Tony POV-
Alright, so I figured out her secret…kind of, but what now? I still don't know how it is even possible for her to be half dead! Like seriously, how did she die, or half die, or…whatever. And it's not like I can really just ask her, something tells me that she would not react well to that.
And quite honestly, I have no idea how I will be able to protect her form her also half dead "father." Vlad is even more of a psychopath than I thought.
Then I thought about the second, or maybe it was the third day she was here, when that bizarre electromagnetic sensor had gone off when Pepper and I were in the lab discussing Danielle. I shook my head, a light smile playing on my lips, obviously that had been her, spying on us. Thankfully, I hadn't had the Iron Man suits out at the time.
'But would it really be so bad if she found out?' part of my brain whispered to me. I thought this over for a second. 'No,' I realized, finally, it wouldn't be so bad if she found out who I am, but for some reason I couldn't convince myself that telling her would be a good idea. Maybe because, at least for now, I still had the element of surprise on my side, or maybe because part of me still didn't trust her completely? 'No' I told myself, trying to be convinced that that was not the reason, other than not telling me a secret, in which I am in no place to judge, Danielle has not done anything not to deserve my trust.
'The question is however, how do I get her to trust me enough to tell me her secret on her own?' at this moment, the only option seemed like the Iron man suit on the wall. I sighed, even if I was planning on telling her, I would want it to be after all the improvements were done, so that she would know that I would be able to help her, but, with the unstable behavior of the ectoplasm, that could take a few more days.
Feeling the need to occupy my thoughts with something, anything, else, I amped up the electromagnetic sensors in my own home and then I hacked the security cameras that were posted all around the city. It only took a few minutes to install the electromagnetic sensors into all of those cameras too.
'There, now when Vlad shows his head in this town, I'll know,' I pushed my chair back from the computer, satisfied, for the moment. But, once again, my thoughts wandered to forming a plan to get her to tell me her secret, and once again, I came up blank.
Suddenly Jarvis, came on overhead.
"Sir," he told me, "Miss Danielle and Miss Pots, request your presence upstairs.
"Okay, Jarvis," I replied, turning off the lights but leaving on the luminescent screens of the computers, locked with an encrypted password, of course.
When I arrived in the living room, Pepper stopped impatiently tapping her foot long enough to purse her lips at me.
"Tony," she glared, disappointedly, "I told you, we have that banquet today and you look like you haven't showered in days."
To be honest, I don't remember the last time I showered, or even the last time I had been out of the house (with the exception of the Iron Man hero work) because all my thoughts, time, and resources had been tied to Danielle.
"Yeah, I remember," I lied with a smirk.
"Really?" she arched an eyebrow at me, "It's in an hour."
"Oh," was all I could say. A few seconds ago, I hadn't noticed that both Pepper and Dani were dressed up. Now that I was paying attention, I noticed that Pepper was in an emerald green dress that came right above her knees and Danielle was in a elegant yet simple blood red dress that came down to her knees with a black ribbon around the middle. Both of their hair was pulled back in a messy, yet sophisticated bun. I gave Danielle a 'why-didn't-you-tell-me-I-we-had-to-go-to-a-banquet-tonight' look, to which she shrugged.
"I figured you knew, plus, I only found out like thirty minutes ago," she told me. I found it amazing that she would be able to pull off that look in thirty minutes, unlike every woman I had ever met, Pepper included, but hey, she's not like most girls.
"Okay, I'll be ready in ten," I told them before rushing down the opposite hallway to my room. I quickly jumped in the shower and quickly jumped out, putting on the suit that Pepper had laid out on my dresser. Then I walked out of my room.
"That was eleven minutes," Danielle smirked.
"Let's just go," Pepper said, hurrying the two of us to the door, "We don't want to be late."
I wanted to point out that we would still be about half an hour early when we got there, but I didn't, instead I let her shuffle us into the limo.
I glanced at Danielle out of the corner of my eye, she wore a little reddish gloss on her lips and a very faint amount of eyeliner, not that she needed very much makeup. The slight pink tint on her cheeks was natural, a result of being on the beach and in the pool with Issa yesterday and earlier today. She noticed me studying her.
"What?" she asked, confused.
"Nothing," I smiled, "You just look very nice." Danielle smiled, blushing a little.
"Thanks," she replied, still smiling.
As I predicted, we arrived at the banquet twenty minutes later, still half an hour early, but the paparazzi was awaiting us already. Dani stepped out of the limo first, followed by Pepper, and myself but the press didn't seem to care about me so much as they bombarded Dani.
"Danielle," one woman asked, "What is it like being the adopted daughter of Tony Stark?"
"It's great," she said, calmly and smoothly as we continued to walk forward.
'Like a pro,' I thought to myself, as I praised how Dani was already so good at handling the reporters.
"Danielle, is it true that you're Tony's long-lost niece?"
"Danielle, is it true Tony bought you a car?"
"Danielle, how is Tony different at home than he is in public?"
They continued throwing random questions at her, but Dani simply ignored them. I was glad that the attention was off of me…well kind of. I walked up behind Pepper and put my hand on the small of her back. She blushed, but continued to look forward, a slight smile on her lips. Finally I got a question of my own.
"Tony, what has your experience as a parent been like?" another woman asked me.
"Well," I grinned, "I'm still getting used to it." By this time, we were at the entrance to the banquet.
"Tony and Dani will answer all questions at the press conference after the dinner," Pepper announced. I frowned at her, she hadn't told me about the press conference, but after a few seconds, I shrugged it off, most of the questions would be for Dani anyway.
On the inside of the banquet hall, were long tables lined with black and red satin table cloths, and white porcelain dinnerware.
The banquet went easily, mostly it was just a bunch of celebrities or rich people (not as rich as me) who had paid a hell of a lot to be there. During the dinner many of the people sitting around us would lean over and talk to Danielle, considering that she was the only kid there.
"I will admit, I could not believe that Tony Stark would have adopted a daughter until now. You seem much too sweet to be stuck with him," an Ambassador to somewhere mentioned to Danielle with a smile.
She smiled in reply, easily achieving the sweet, innocent, girl look that I knew she was going for, "Thank you. Of course, Tony might say that I am only sweet to those who don't know me."
The Ambassador laughed, thinking she was joking.
After dinner, Danielle and I were moved to the press conference along with a few other people. They went first and then Dani and I stepped up together.
Reporters immediately raised their hands.
"I have one for Danielle," a man asked, Danielle nodded and the man continued, "What were your parents like before you went to live with Tony and what happened to them?"
"Well, I never knew my mom and my father was an alcoholic who…abused me sometimes," she told them, obviously well rehearsed, the reporters didn't speak, "And as for what happened to them, my father died while driving intoxicated and I have no idea what happened to my mother. Next."
"Tony," another man asked, "How did you react when you found out that you would now be responsible for a girl and a dog?"
I wondered for a second how they knew about the dog, but, they're the press they know almost everything. I opened my mouth to speak.
"I've got this one. He said 'you can stay but there is no way you are keeping the dog,'" Dani told them.
"But then she looked at me with puppy dog eyes—" I jumped in.
"And he said 'I don't want to see dog piss on the floor,'" Danielle finished, causing the audience to laugh.
Danielle opened her mouth to speak again but a blue mist came out. It was faint, so faint that I would not have been able to notice it if she hadn't been standing directly next to me.
"Shit," she cursed so quietly that her lips didn't even move. She tapped her fingers on the podium.
"Um…I'll be right back," she told the reporters politely, before quickly stepping off of the stage and rushing to the bathroom.
"I told her not to drink so much soda at dinner," I said into the microphone, directing the attention off of Danielle and back on to me. Several people chuckled at my remark, but most kept turning around, waiting for her to come out.
I didn't quite know what that blue mist was, but I'm sure it had something to do with fighting ghosts.
'Hmmm,' I thought, 'Maybe I can ask her about that later.'