A/N: Massive thanks to Pandora who left me such a lovely review 3 and to everyone who favourited and followed the story - hope you continue to enjoy it!

Tony watched as Roxanne leant her head against the window of the plane, if it was anyone else he'd have thought they were asleep, but even with the relatively short time he'd known Roxanne, he knew different. She was distancing herself. From him, from the situation, from everything, he didn't exactly know but it also didn't matter. He wanted to let her have the distance. Well, for now anyway. A sudden arrival into a parental role didn't afford him much in the way of the right to reprimand her.

Her eyes were closed, but her fingertips tapped the armrest rhythmically, and with no headphones or music playing, it had to be more of a nervous twitch than an unconscious movement. Carrie had been moved a couple of days earlier, as soon as he could get the help arranged at the building in New York. As much as he didn't want them to be bunking in the tower with the rest of the Avengers around more often than not, there was no other option, not since the Malibu place was destroyed. And Tony couldn't help but think that even if the Malibu house was an option, it would've been far too isolating for Roxanne, and as much as he wanted Carrie to be comfortable, he wanted her to be comfortable as well, and LA wasn't a place to go to unprepared for the insanity it contained.

"How long until we get there?" Roxanne asked quietly, her eyes staying on the world outside, watching as it passed by underneath them.

"About a half hour," Tony replied, "Then a twenty-minute drive into the city." She nodded slowly, before she leant her head back against the seat, and Tony noticed that she was taking deep breaths. "You okay?"

"Just kind of a nervous flyer."

That, at least, explained her twitches and closed eyes. "Why didn't you tell me? We didn't have to fly, we could've driven."

Roxanne shook her head, "I miss my mom. I wanted to get back to her the quickest way I could."

Tony watched her, as she tried to calm her nerves, "I get it, y'know. The flying thing."

She scoffed, "I bet you do, Iron Man."

"It started after I put on the suit," her eyes flicked back to him in disbelief, "Really. Back when New York was attacked…something happened. Since then, I find it difficult to fly. Not impossible, but difficult. But I do it – when there's people who need me – I do what I have to. Just like you're doing for your mom. It's like a muscle, you exercise it enough, and eventually it gets easier."

There was a sadness in Roxanne's eyes that he could only see as close as he was now, or perhaps it was that she was letting her guard down a little. He couldn't imagine what it was like knowing that you were going to lose your mother, he'd lost his own so suddenly, and he'd been trying to come to terms with it ever since, but here was Roxanne living every day knowing that her mother could be gone soon. It broke his heart. There was no way he could say he was ready to be a father yet, but he was ready to be whatever she needed him to be.

He went to get up, Roxanne's eyes were looking teary and he thought she might want him to leave her for a little while. "Tony?"

At the sound of her voice, he turned back quickly, "Yeah?"

"I don't know how to have a dad."

It was such a simple statement, but the weight of it sat heavy with them both.

Tony shrugged a little, "I don't know how to be one. But we can try. Together."

Roxanne didn't say much else on the way into New York, and given that they had made the tiniest of breakthroughs, Tony wasn't about to push her for more before she was ready to give it. When they arrived he first showed her the room when she would be staying and then quickly steered her towards Carrie's room, the place he knew she really wanted to be.

There was a moment where Tony just had to sit down and take a load off, the craziness of the past few days hitting him like a wall. He'd called ahead to Pepper to let her know that he was bringing Carrie and Roxanne back to the tower and she decided that she would stay away for a couple of days so they could all get settled in. If he was honest, she just sounded thrilled that he had some other family in his life, however reluctant they seemed to be. She said that 'it would be healthy for him to be around people who weren't super-people'.

So, he had to survive without Pepper for three days. Three Pepper-less days. He could do that. Well, at least he hoped so.

Footsteps coming down the stairs made Tony leap to his feet. Roxanne walked into the lounge, a hand combing through her thick, dark locks, she stopped suddenly seeing Tony. "Hey, how's your mom?" he asked, eager to avoid any awkward silences.

"She's…okay," Roxanne shrugged, before heaving a deep sigh, "She's tired."

"You don't look so hot yourself there, kid," He raised a brow, "It was a long journey, you should get some rest."

She nodded, but instead of leaving to go to her room, she slumped down into one of the chairs. "Can I ask you something?" Tony desperately wanted to protest, but given that she was actually talking to him now, he didn't want to ruin it, so he nodded. "When my mom sent you that letter, why'd you come?"

In all honesty, Tony didn't really have a good enough answer for her. Impulse seemed too heartless and cold, interest sounded false, like something he should say, rather than what was true. "I don't know," he answered, as honestly as he could, because that was the truth – he didn't know why he went. "But I knew if I didn't, I'd regret not going. I'm a man of my word, Roxanne. It may not mean much to you now, but it's the truth."

"What did she ask you to do?" Roxanne wasn't stupid, she knew there was something about the letter he wasn't telling her.

"You should ask your mom-"

"I'm asking you."

He sighed, it was going to come out sooner or later, so it might as well be now. He'd deal with the consequences, whatever they might be. "She asked me to look out for you…after she's gone."

Scrubbing a hand over her face, Roxanne pursed her lips in frustration, "So you came out of pity? Because she's dying?"

"No!" He spoke ardently, sitting forward as though to try and make her listen. "I wanted to see your mom again…and I wanted to meet you. You're my daughter, Roxanne, and I spent twenty-four years not knowing you existed. I needed to meet you."

She was silent. It was still a lot to process, and he knew that. A week ago, Roxanne had no knowledge of her father, and now, not only had her father suddenly arrived in her life, he was Iron Man himself, the billionaire whose name was rarely out of media scrutiny. "I'm just gonna go work on some stuff," he was as vague as possible – there was always something he could tinker with, but he was really just saying it to get out of there. It felt a little like a conversation neither of them wanted to be a part of any longer than they had to be. This whole father-daughter thing was still very new, and, well, awkward to say the least.

Roxanne watched as Tony escaped the room quickly and she had to admit she was glad. Any longer and she might have said something she regretted. She didn't know why it kept happening, it wasn't like she wanted to keep arguing with him and snapping at the things he said, but there was still a lot to process about this, and no amount of questions she could ask would be able to clear her mind.

But, instead of wallowing in her confusion, she decided to explore the building. Starting with finding the kitchen. Tony was right, it had been a long journey, and she was tired, but she was also hungry and in these situations, food came first. Plus, it was still early, and she didn't want to sleep yet.

She was thankful that Tony was who he was when it came to the kitchen – stocked up and fully equipped, it was every food lover's dream, not that she could imagine that it came in particularly useful when Tony wanted dinner – she didn't exactly see him as too much of a chef. Not that Roxanne could judge, she wasn't going to be winning any cooking competitions any time soon, but she could keep herself alive without ordering takeout, so she counted that as a win. Opening the fridge, she stuck her head inside searching for something to eat, anything that she didn't have to put too much effort into.

"Hey, Romanoff, there you are," a deep, unfamiliar voice came from the other side of the kitchen. Roxanne shut the door, to see a well-built, surprised blonde in the doorway. "…You're not Natasha."

She shook her head, "Nope, sorry."

"No, I'm sorry, I just saw legs. I didn't expect Tony to have a visitor," he gave a tight smile, blushing a little.

"Visitors," she corrected him.

The man seemed flustered now, stumbling through his words, "Oh…I didn't—I…is that a – thing people do? Three people?" Roxanne's brow furrowed, her eyes narrowing a little in confusion, so he continued to try and explain himself, "It's just, I know Tony has a lot of female friends, but I thought he was with Pepper now and-"

"Oh, dear god no, please stop," she covered her eyes, as if it would somehow rewind time to before he started talking about her dad's sex life, "Nooo. No. I'm actually… Tony's daughter. Me and my mom are staying here for a little while."

His jaw slacked, seemingly relieved by this, "So Tony has a daughter?"

"Yep, that's me," she nodded, before holding out her hand, "Roxanne."

"Steve," he smiled, shaking the proffered hand.

It finally clicked in her mind, "Right. Captain America."

He nodded with a humble smile, leaning against the doorframe. She'd seen him on the news before now, but it was different seeing him in person like this. He was only a few inches taller than her, but his body was broad and large, far larger than it seemed in pictures. "So, how long have you known that Tony was your dad?" he asked, seeming genuinely interested.

"Really not long at all," she gave a little laugh, "I'm still kind of in shock."

"I can understand that. Took me a while to get used to Tony, and we're just friends." Steve gave her a comforting smile, "But, your mom and Tony, they're…"

She could tell her didn't want to ask her directly, so she shook her head, "Not since they made me," it was clear that Steve wanted to ask more, "She's sick."

"I'm sorry."

It was weird, no matter how many times she told people about her mother's illness, it never got easier to talk about, it just made her want to close up completely. But, Steve had been so nice to her, she didn't want to throw it back in his face by reacting badly, so she thought it might be better to just excuse herself.

"I should probably go check on her," she forced a smile, "It was nice meeting you, Steve."

"You too."

He watched as Roxanne stepped past him, making her way to the stairs. She seemed so different to Tony it was hard to see that they were related. Then again, he'd known Howard, and he and his son were different men. Steve paused for a moment, taking in the slightly odd fact that Roxanne was the third generation of Stark he had known.