Chapter 17 :3
Tony was speechless. Pepper was really here, right in front of him. He couldn't believe it.
Pepper watched him stare at her with shock and awe. She realized that he probably wouldn't respond. Pepper was pretty happy, well not happy, but more relieved that he had stayed faithful to her and not gotten with another girl. Obviously, he had still had his flings, but he never got married. And she felt bad for being happy about that.
Sarah just watched both of them stare at each other. It was weird seeing her mom and dad in the same room. For the first 22 years of her life, she was used to being around her mom, but over the past week and a half, she had gotten used to Tony's way of living. Maybe that's because it was closer to how she would live her life. No plan, just go with the flow.
Okay this is boring. Sarah thought to herself.
"So Tony, Mom is going to stay here for a while. That's okay right?"
"Oh yeah yeah, sure that's fine." he said, breaking out of his trance, and walking into the kitchen to put Sarah's bowl into the sink.
Sarah beamed up at her mom.
"There is a lot I need to tell you." she said, through a yawn.
"Sleep first, then we can talk."
"But mom, I have to be up in like 3 hours anyways. Tony and I have a press conference at 11. So there's no point in sleeping."
"You need sleep! Have you even been sleeping at all while your here?" she said, making a pointed look at Tony, knowing that he didn't sleep much either. "And taking the sleep pills?"
"Of course I've been sleeping mom. Stop worrying." she answered ignoring the question about her sleep pills. When Sarah was 16 and her insomnia had really kicked in, Pepper had taken her to the doctors to get sleep pills so she could actually a full nights sleep.
"Sorry Sarah. I worry about you though. I'm a mom, it's what we do."
Sarah rolled her eyes "I know mom, Trust me, I know."
"You've been keeping up with your classes?" Pepper asked, Sarah paid a lot of money to go to Julliard, even if she did do it all online.
"Nope." No point in beating around the bush with her mom. She glared at Sarah. "But I'll get them done, I have three weeks to type two papers, and then I'm done."
"Alright, as long as you get them done."
"I will, and then I'll graduate in September."
"Sarah! It's already August 15th!"
"I'll get it done, don't worry. Graduation is September 25th anyways. Plenty of time." Pepper glared at her.
"Alright fine jeez, I'll go do them now. Jeez." Sarah said, running up the steps to finish her term papers.
"That girl I swear..." Pepper said, shaking her head. She was always putting off work until the last minute, though Pepper had to admit she was a master procrastinator and always got her work done. "She reminds me of you." Pepper said, spinning around and pointing at Tony.
"Me?" he said, mock looking offended. "Why do you say that?"
"Doesn't take no for an answer. Leaves her work to the last minute. Insomniac. Does what she pleases. Need I go on?" Pepper said.
"No ma'am." Tony said.
"So what is the press conference for?" Pepper asked
"Sarah and I are discussing her being my daughter."
"Well then I guess I should be there then, to make sure nothing stupid is said." Pepper replied
"Yeah probably" Tony said laughing. After he stopped laughing, an awkward silence fell between them. It had been a while since they had last talked, and the way things ended didn't help either.
"Umm... I'm going to go make sure she's working.." Pepper said, excusing herself from the room.
After she left, Tony felt like yelling. After she had left him, he had always tried to think of what he would say if he ever saw her again and now that she's here, he had acted like an idiot.
Just then Pepper came back downstairs. "Yeah, she's asleep."
"Of course she is" Toy chuckled "Anything to get out of working."
"Sounds like her. When she was little and didn't want to do something, she would hold her breath till she passed out. Scared me half to death the first time." Pepper said, laughing. Tony laughed too, it sounded exactly like something Sarah would do.
"I remember because we were at my mom's house for thanksgiving and she didn't want to eat her green beans, which is probably a good thing because it turns out she's allergic to green vegetables, but anyways, she didn't want to eat them and I didn't notice that she was holding her breath and she just passed out. We were all so scared until not even thirty seconds later she sat up and declared that she wasn't eating her vegetables and we just let her not eat them. It's funny now that I look back on it." Pepper laughed at the memory, while Tony looked sad. He wished he could've been there for this moment, or for any part of her childhood. She was an adult now and could technically do anything she wanted to, he didn't get to watch her grow up and become the wonderful person she is now.
"Hey.." Pepper said softly "I'm sorry that I.. Well... Left how I did. I just... I didn't think this would be a good environment to raise a child."
"It's okay, I wish I could've been there, but... I'm not sure I should've been around a child. I might've damaged her."
"She's so much like you Tony. It's scary sometimes, the resemblance. When she was little, I was so afraid that she would figure out that you were her father and she would leave me forever to go live with her famous father."
"Aww Pep. She wouldn't do that, she's too loyal to people."
"Like you." Pepper said, pointing out another personality similarity.
"I just hope that's not a bad thing.. Me and my father were so much alike and look at how we turned out." Tony said, sighing. He and his father had not had a good relationship. Tony was always striving to get his fathers attention and to prove himself, but his father really wanted nothing to do with him. He hoped the colliding personalities won't be too much of an issue.
"It won't be like that." Pepper said with confidence, "Because believe it or not, somehow a few of my genes slipped by yours, that seem to want total control. Like normal."
"Hey, I can't help it if I'm a natural leader and my genes took over all of yours." he said, chuckling slightly. She laughed too and then yawned.
"You should probably get some sleep." Tony said. "You can sleep in the couch until I can get a room fixed up for you."
"Thanks." she said and he brought her a blanket and a pillow. "See you in the morning." she said laying down.
"Yeah, see you." Tony said as he went upstairs and fell asleep the minute his head touched the pillow.
It seemed like five minutes later that Sarah was pounding on his door, yelling at him.
"TONY! Get your butt out of bed! We have to be down in the lobby in twenty minutes. GET UP!"
He grumbled "I'm up... I'm up.." he got out of bed and walked to the closet. Then he realized that he didn't know exactly what he was supposed to wear. Usually a press conference was a formal event, suit and tie, but then again he usually only talked about important formal matters. This was important but it wasn't formal. He open his door and yelled downstairs "SARAH!"
"Jeans, nice shirt." she replied, reading his mind.
"Got it!" he went inside his closet and pulled on some dark wash jeans and a dress shirt, no tie.
He came down stairs, "This okay?" he asked.
"Yeah yeah, your gorgeous, we need to go. And be quiet." Sarah said, pointing at Pepper, who was still asleep on the couch, and pushing him out the door.
When they got to the elevator, Tony looked down at Sarah. "You ready for this?" he asked, and Sarah knew that he meant "Are you okay today?"
"Yeah I think so. It helps that mom is here." she smiled at him and he smiled back. He was glad that Pepper had come to support her now.
"Does she know yet?" he asked, and she shook her head.
"I wanted to tell her last night, but I fell asleep." she chuckled, then the elevator dinged and they walked into the lobby. At the end of the lobby there was a table set up and two chairs, each had their own microphone. Tony led Sarah over to the table and they both sat down.
"We will only be answering questions for a half-hour, maybe forty-five minutes depending on the quality of the questions." Tony said, before the press decided to drag this out all day.
"First question, yes you." Sarah said, pointing to a women in the back of the room.
The woman stood up and said "Hi, yes, Sally Weaver, People magazine. Care to explain exactly how this happened?" She asked gesturing to Tony and then Sarah.
Sarah looked really confused as to what the question was asking, "You want me to tell you... How I was created? I think we all know how that happened." Sarah said, chuckling and the audience laughed slightly.
"No I meant like, how did you find out that Tony was your dad, how did you meet?"
"Ooooooooh! Well that makes much more sense." Sarah laughed. "I was actually brought up by my mom, I didn't even know Tony was my dad until a few months ago, and I just came to live with him for a while so Yeah." she said, smiling and shrugging her shoulders. "Next question."
"Uhhh.. You. Go." Said Tony pointing at a man.
"Hi, Stanley Yelnats, From the Today show. Sarah, I'm just gonna come out and ask the question that we are all wondering. Who is your mom? We've all seen you on TV but you've always kept your mom a secret. Is this why?"
"Umm yes actually it is. When she found out she was pregnant she broke things off with Tony and so she didn't want to be broadcasted on TV in fear of him finding out and then coming to find us when she wasn't ready and blah blah blah." she said, cocking to the side with each blah. When she was finished answering she smiled. "Next." she said, avoiding the first question.
She pointed at a short fat man in the front row, who slightly reminded her of Santa.
"Hi Chris Clause." Sarah looked startled, maybe he really was Santa.
"ABC news. My question is actually for Tony." Tony suddenly stopped trying to balance a pencil in his nose and looked at Chris.
"Yeah. Hi."
"So I'm sure none of us ever expected you to have a kid. Tell us what's its like to be the father of one of the most successful kids of her time."
Tony decided to be the jokester he was and looked at Sarah in shock. "Are you really? I had no idea." Sarah face palmed. She gave him a look and he became serious again.
"Well sir, you are right. No one ever excepted me to become a father. Honestly, I never expected it either. I thought I would die alone with only the other Avengers to accompany me. And maybe a robotic cat or something. Truthfully, though, becoming a father is amazing. I've only known my daughter for less then two weeks and I love her. She's talented, smart, beautiful, and funny. I would do anything for her." he smiled at Sarah and she smiled back. That was probably one of the nicest things anyone had ever said to Sarah. "And as for the fact that she is the most accomplished kid of her generation, well, it's awesome. Knowing that half of that is me makes me feel accomplished. As my dad once said," Tony turned and looked at Sarah, "My greatest creation will always be you."
Sarah smiled and teared up. She buried her head in her arms on the table. Tony heard a muffled "Damn you Tony." and he laughed. Sarah lifted her head a couple seconds later.
"I'm fine." she said. "Next question." And pointed to a man.
"Yes. Doug Haines. TIME Magazine. What is going to be done with your companies now? You both run and own two different companies. What's going to happen?"
"Ummm... We don't know-" Tony cut Sarah off in the middle of the sentence.
"From now on, Stark Industries and Sarah Tech will be working together. We are merging to form one company." Everyone in the audience gasped, so did Sarah.
"Tony!" she yelled. She was mad to say the least. She didn't have any say in what her own company did, what was this?! She stood up and stormed out of the lobby.
"Well, I guess question time is over. Thanks for coming." Tony said, and he got up and followed Sarah.
God Dammit Tony. Keep your mouth shut.
This Chapter... I don't know. I just couldn't get it out, so It's probably not as good as it should have been. But Whatever. Hopefully the next chapters are better :3
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