Ruby sat in the middle of the bed in her hotel room. The glass she had in her hand had been there for a few hours now, and she had hardly touched it. Her mind was in turmoil, she just didn't know what she should be doing.

"I mean, seriously, he couldn't handle having a kid. He likes to go out to parties, get drunk, and bring a different woman home every night. He's not very responsible, he is certainly not a good role model." She called to no one in particular.

"May I remind you how you ended up almost being arrested for drunk and disorderly, on several occasions?" SWAIN replied to her.

"Hey, I'm a teen, it comes with the territory." She retorted, not pleased with the way he had brought that up.

"Mr Stark has only recently found out he is a parent. You cannot learn to be a father over night. It takes time, Miss Matthews. And there is only one way for him to prove to you that he can be a good father." SWAIN reminded her.

Ruby let out a groan. He had been constantly pushing her to just go and see him. "Well, maybe I don't want him as a father. I can look after myself."

"May I also remind you that you are still a minor?"

"Oh, shut up, SWAIN." She said, before putting the glass on the bedside table. "Where does he live?"

"Less than an hours drive, miss. Do you wish for me to have Maggie-May ready for you?"

She bit her lip, weighing up her options. He really was the only family she had left now, and she knew that her mother would have wanted her to find him, rather than carrying on her life alone. Why else would she have even told her in the first place? "You're not going to let me rest until I have seen him, so just do it."

"A wise decision, Miss Matthews." Ruby was sure her would have been smirking at her at that point.

"What do you wear when you're going to meet the man who is your father?" She pondered, looking through her clothing. "Casual? Smart? Maybe I should just show up in my pyjamas and holding a pink fluffy teddy bear. And shout, 'Hey, you're my dad. Can I stay over?' Yeah, that would work."

"I would recommend the purple summer dress your mother gave you, along with the flat purple shoes. It is casual, but also looks very nice on you." SWAIN told her. That was another thing, he had been designed to give her fashion advice, and she couldn't for the life of her remember why she had done that.

"If you say so." She said, shrugging as she found the dress in questions. "If anything goes wrong, I'm blaming this all on you."

Tony Stark was sitting in his workshop, a glass of scotch in his hand as he looked at the pictures once more of his daughter. "JARVIS, have you found her yet?" He called. He was desperate for some news, he needed to know where she was and that she was okay. The last he knew she was in Kansas, but that was a few days ago now.

"I am afraid not, sir." JARVIS replied. He had been trying to find her, looking for any information he could. But nothing was coming up. It was like she had just disappeared.

"Well she has to be out there somewhere, JARVIS. Have you checked all the hospitals? Something could have happened to her." There was a slight panic in his voice. He didn't want something bad to have happened to her, he really didn't.

"Indeed, sir. There is no record of her being checked in to any hospital, or any one of her description."

Tony's frustration was just growing. He was starting to regret not going and talking to her at her mothers funeral. He was starting to think that it would have been better to tell her the truth then, at least he would have spoken to her and would probably know where she was now.

"Have you tried the police?" He asked, not very hopeful.

"Yes, sir. There is nothing." JARVIS informed him.

"Well she can't have just vanished." He shouted, throwing the glass across the room. It shattered as it hit the side of one of his cars.

"Sir, Miss Potts has just arrived." JARVIS told him, hoping that the company of someone he knew and trusted would calm him down. Of course JARVIS had been the one to call her over in the first place, since he was so worried about the way he creator had been acting.

Tony let out a sigh as he pushed himself out of his chair and walked over to the glass doors. "Keep looking for Ruby." He said, before pulling the door open and bounding up the stairs.

"Tony, why haven't you been answering any of my calls?" Pepper asked him in annoyance as he reached the top of the stairs.

"I've been busy." He replied, heading straight for the drinks cabinet and pouring himself out another scotch.

The woman let out a sigh. He had been this way since he had found out he had a daughter. "Tony, you need to calm down and back off. I'm sure that wherever she is, she is safe." She said, trying to reassure him.

"Even JARVIS can't find her, and he can find anyone. Why can't he find my daughter?" He asked her, throwing himself onto the couch.

"Because she's lived a quite life, unlike you. She hasn't been shoved in the spotlight, like you." She reminded him. Of course, Pepper was right, it was hard to find things about someone who had lived a normal and quiet life.

"I can't help it. I'm worried about her, Pepper."

"I know you are, you're her dad after all. I'm sure JARVIS is doing everything he can to find her. Just let him get on with it." She was worried about her boss. She had never seen him act that way before, and she didn't know how to deal with it.

Pepper had been there before, when there had been lawsuits and mothers claiming he was the father. She had dealt with all of that, and she could handle that. But this was something so different, because Tony had no doubt in his mind that he was a father, and it seemed that he wanted to be a father to Ruby.

"Well, he needs to hurry up and find her." He muttered. She was all he could think about now, and he didn't know what to do anymore.

Having that reporter talk to him, knowing everything, that had shocked him. And he realised that he really did need to find her before anyone else found out. He didn't want her to see the headline, a picture of her on the front page, claiming Tony Stark as her father. He wanted to be the one to confirm it, not the press.

He also doubted that she would be able to handle the press, he needed to be there to get her through that as well. But if one reporter, who was only an intern, had already managed to work it out, then how long would it be until the rest of the world followed?

"Sir, I have located the Audi TT registered to Jasmine Matthews." JARVIS called, making Tony jump out of his spot on the couch.

"Where is it?" The man asked, his heart pumping a little faster at the prospect of finding his daughter.

"Sir, there is someone at the door." JARVIS said, not answering the question that had been put to him.

"I'll go." Pepper assured him, getting herself up from where she had been sitting and working and heading towards the door.

Less than a minute later, Pepper's voice flooded through the mansion of Tony Stark. "Tony!" She cried. "There's… someone here to see you."

He could tell by the tone of her voice that it was important, or serious, or possibly even both. "JARVIS, where is the damn car?" He shouted, wanting to get an answer before he reached the door.

"It is currently outside, sir." Tony was sure there was a hint of smugness coming from his AI.

He rushed to the door, and looked at the woman standing there in a knee length pale purple dress with matching flat shoes on.

"I'll speak to you later, Tony." Pepper said, knowing that he would rather speak with his daughter alone. He just nodded at her and watched as she walked away and over to her own car.

"Hi, umm, sorry. I know this is weird and stupid and probably not what you were expecting, but I was wondering if you remember a woman called Jasmine Matthews?" She asked, trying not to let the butterflies in her stomach get the better of her.

Tony just nodded at her. "Uh, yeah, I do. Been a long time since I heard that name though." He said, leaning against the doorframe and watching her.

"Well, I was just in the area, and I though I'd… I'm afraid I have some bad news." She was definitely nervous.

"You better come in then. What's your name?" He asked, stepping to one side.

"Oh, I'm Ruby." She told him, trying to avoid eye contact with him.

"Nice name. Come on through." Tony replied, leading her into the living area. He had to admit, he was a little surprised that she was there. How JARVIS hadn't been able to find her before, he had no idea. "So, what's this bad news?" He asked, although he already had a feeling he knew what it was going to be about.

"Jasmine Matthews passed away last week. She… uh, she had cancer. Not many people knew, she didn't… she didn't want to have people fussing over her." Ruby told him, playing with her hands in her lap as she sat on the couch. "I… I found out that you two had been really close at one point. And I just wanted to let you know what had happened to her."

Tony could see how nervous and out of place she felt, and all he wanted to do was embrace her and let her know that he was there for her. "Yeah, she was a good woman. Pretty head strong at times, knew how to get her own way as well." He told her.

"Tell me about it." Ruby mumbled. "I only stopped by to let you know. She was living in Denver, I can give you the address for the place where she is buried if you want." She told him, rummaging through her bag.

"Was she happy?" Tony asked suddenly. Ruby just looked up at him. "Jasmine, was she happy?"

She nodded at him a little. "Yeah, she was."

"And… uh… how is her family doing?"

"She didn't have much family left by the end. Her parents had already passed away, she was the last one left." Ruby told him, not yet daring to mention that she was Jasmine's daughter.

"No… husband? Or kids?" It seemed she wasn't the only one that was nervous.

"She never married. She never had any relationships. But she did leave a daughter behind."

Tony nodded slightly. "How old is she now? And who's looking after her?"

"She recently turned 17. She knows how to look after herself." Ruby said. She clenched her hands tighter in her lap, trying to stop them from shaking so much.

"And how old are you, Ruby?" He asked, wanting the truth to be told already.

"Me? I'm… 17." She couldn't do it. She wasn't ready to tell him who she was and who he was to her. "I have to be going now. I… I have other people to tell." She said, pulling her phone and keys out from her bag. The moment her phone was in her hand, something sharp stabbed her finger. "Ow!" She yelled. "Why, you sneaky little…"

Tony frowned at her. "Everything okay?" He asked, trying not to sound too concerned.

"Oh, yeah. Just got a shock from my phone. It happens from time to time. I think maybe it's time to take it apart." She growled the last bit, hoping that SWAIN would understand her threat. Her phone just bleeped, and gave her the warning that she had been expecting. "Oh, shut up. I know." She mumbled, making it shut up.

"You know, I'm pretty good with technology, want me to take a look at it?" Tony asked, holding his hand out.

"No, it's fine. Nothing I can't fix." She told him, quickly shoving it back in her bag so that he couldn't take it from her hand. "It was nice to meet you, Mr Stark, I'm sorry to have been the bearer of bad news."

That was when he realised that she really was going to just walk out of the door and not tell him anything else. "Wait, what was your last name?"

Ruby turned to face him and let out a sigh. "Matthews."

There was a smirk trying to work its way onto his face. "You're Jasmine's daughter?" She nodded at him. "And you're minor. Which means you shouldn't be looking after yourself."

"Yeah, well. I'm in the process of finding my father. I very much doubt that he would want me after not even knowing I existed for 17 years." She told him, trying to keep herself together.

"What makes you say that?"

"I've done my homework. I know the kind of life he lives. He has enough responsibilities as it is, without having to add a daughter he never knew about into the equation. I'm pretty sure he likes his life the way it is." Ruby was just trying to convince herself that there was no need to tell him, that he wasn't going to be her father.

"You can't know that, Ruby." Tony told her softly. "Are you sure he doesn't know anything about you?"

"He knows. My mother sent him a letter, just before she died. She… she didn't want me to be on my own. She wanted me to find him. And I have." If he really were the man she had been looking for, then he would already know she was his daughter, yet he hadn't mentioned it yet.

"And what did you think of him?" Tony asked her, wondering why she was still playing dumb. Unless she hadn't worked it out yet, in which case he needed to be careful, very careful.

"That he's a genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist. Or at least he thinks he is. I haven't exactly spent any time with him, so I don't really know him."

The words she had used had described him perfectly. There was no doubt in his mind that she knew it was him. "Then why don't you spend some time with him?"

"Like I said, he has a busy life. He doesn't need to be dealing with a teenager along with a major company."

"Sir, I have an incoming message for Miss Matthews."

Ruby just looked around, wondering where the voice came from. "Who the hell is that?" She asked.

"Oh, that's JARVIS. He's my AI. What's the message, JARVIS?" Tony asked, curious to know who would be contacting her through him.

"That her blood glucose level is seriously low, and that if she doesn't do something about it soon, she will regret it." JARVIS called back to him.

Ruby pulled her phone out of her bag and glared at it. "You are so being dismantled when we get home." She muttered to it, only resulting in the same message flashing across her screen. "Yeah? What you going to do, tell my dad?"

Tony had heard her, and was very interested to know why she was randomly threatening her phone. "Who knows you're here, Ruby?" He asked her.

"Just a friend. A friend that is in starting to get on my last nerve." She replied, ready to toss her phone out of a window.

"They also say that they already have told your father. And wish to know what you are going to do now?" JARVIS called out.

She looked down at the phone in her hand. "You're dead to me." She grumbled, before dropping it back in her bag.

Tony didn't really know what was going on, and Ruby was starting to look a little more and more off colour.

"You know, if you want to call you're friend, that's fine by me." He told her, wondering what to do.

"No, it's fine. I'd recommend you get your AI to block that person though. I know how annoying and irritating they can be at times." Ruby warned him. She knew that SWAIN was going to keep on pestering her now, and she just didn't need that.

"JARVIS, you heard the lady." Tony called, watching her closely.

"Yes, sir."

"Look, I really do need to be going." She told him, wanting to just run away from everything now. Her head was spinning, and she knew that if she didn't do something soon, she was going to black out.

"Yeah, you know, you're not looking so good. Maybe you should stay here for a little bit longer." Tony told her, watching as she swayed a little on her feet.

"I'm fine, really." She insisted, trying to get the world to stop spinning. "Just a little dizziness. I may have neglected to eat much today. I've been a little distracted."

The frown on Tony's face deepened. "Well, maybe you should stay and have something to eat."

"I can look after myself."

"Well clearly you can't. Otherwise there wouldn't be someone sending you messages through my AI to remind you of your blood glucose levels." He quickly replied.

"I've managed on my own so far. I managed to get from Denver to LA on my own." Ruby snapped. She didn't like people interfering in her life, especially since she didn't know if she could really trust the man before her.

"And how did you do that?" Tony asked, moving a little closer to her. He was worried she was just going to pass out.

"Just over 13 hours of driving. I'm leaving now, I really am going." She told him, stumbling through the mansion and towards the main door.

Tony couldn't take it any more. He hadn't gone looking for her, she had come to him. There was nothing in the letter about him not telling her when they met, just that he was not to go looking for her. "You're staying right here, Ruby." He told her. "JARVIS, lock the doors."

She quickly spun around to face him. "You can't keep me here, Mr Stark."

"I can and I will."

"Who the hell do you think you are? You think you can just hold me hostage?" She shouted back at him.

"I think we both know who I am, Ruby. You didn't just come here to tell me about your mother." He was doing his best to stay calm, he didn't want it to turn into a shouting match.

She just pulled her phone out of her bag and started fumbling as she typed a message for SWAIN.

"Sir, someone is trying to override my systems." JARVIS called. "I believe it is the same person who sent the 'lions'."

That grabbed Ruby's attention. "Lions?" She whispered, completely forgetting what she was doing with her phone. That was her thing, like her little trademark, lions. That's what she had sent to the person who had been researching her, and trying to track her. The same person that had taken SWAIN offline after she had kicked their system offline.

"Yeah, some virus that took JARVIS offline for a while. I almost had them as well." Tony told her, not putting two and two together yet.

"This… this is just too much. I can't… I just… Just let me go, Mr Stark. Please." Ruby pleaded.

"What are you so afraid of, Ruby?" He asked.

"That my father is going to just reject me. That I'm going to end up going back to Denver with no family left. That I'll end up in the hands of the child protection services or an orphanage." She told him, without really thinking about it.

"That is not going to happen." He assured her. "What's his name? Your father, tell me his name."

Ruby looked up at him. "Anthony Edward Stark." She whispered.

Tony smiled ant held out his hand. "It's nice to meet you, Ruby Matthews. I'm Anthony Edward Stark, most people just call me Tony."

She slowly held out her hand and took hold of his. "Uh, yeah. Nice to meet you as well, I guess." She mumbled.

"Ruby, you need to sit down now. I'll go grab you something to eat." Tony said, helping her back over to the couch.

"I'm fine, seriously. You're as bad as SWAIN." She told him, but not having the energy to fight him.

"Who's Swain?" He asked her, finally getting her to the couch.

"My friend, the one who sent those messages through to JARVIS." She wasn't ready to tell him anything more about SWAIN just yet, or the fact that it was her who had sent that virus.

"Well, just wait here. I'll be back in a minute." He told her, before disappearing into the kitchen area.

While he was gone, Ruby pulled out her phone and sent a message to SWAIN, asking if he was happy now. He replied that he was, making her groan a little. Sometimes she wondered if he wasn't a lot smarter than she had programmed him to be.

A few minutes later, the man returned, a mug of tea in one hand and a bar of chocolate in the other. "You need sugar. That should ease the symptoms for a while. But you need a proper meal. When was the last time you had one of those?" He asked her, passing her the tea first.

"A long time ago. Before she went into hospital." Ruby whispered to him, taking a large gulp of the tea. She immediately pulled a sour face. "How much sugar did you put in this thing?" She moaned.

"Enough." Tony told her, trying not to smirk at her reaction. "Where are you staying at the moment, Ruby?"

"A hotel in LA."

He frowned. If that was the case, then why had JARVIS not been able to find her? "I know this is difficult, and new, for both of us, but I think you'd be better off staying here tonight." The condition she was in, he didn't want her driving.

"I don't think that's a good idea." She told him, starting to unwrap the chocolate bar. "I don't know you and you don't know me."

"That doesn't matter, I'm your father, your guardian. You're staying here." He told her firmly.

Only Ruby was one step ahead of him. "Nope. You're not my guardian, not in the eyes of the law. And until you have concrete proof that I am your daughter, you have no rights over me what so ever."

He was actually shocked that she had come out with that. He hadn't imagined she was going to put up much of a fight, but she was ready to prove him wrong. "Fine, we'll get the DNA testing done, prove that you are my daughter and then see what rights I have."

Ruby couldn't help but chuckle a little. "You're only saying that to keep me here."

"JARVIS, inform Miss Potts of the situation. First thing tomorrow morning, I want the DNA test ready to go."

"Of course, sir. Will there be anything else?" JARVIS asked him.

"Actually, yeah. Who was trying to override your system?" Tony called, only just remembering about.

Before JARVIS could reply, Ruby spoke up. "I was. My mother always told me I had inherited my fathers brains." She said, before closing her eyes and blacking out.

Tony was rather impressed. She really was his daughter. He pulled the empty mug from her hand and set it down on the table, before gathering her up in his arms. He walked through the mansion, stopping when he reached one of the guest bedrooms. There were several of them, but when she was ready he would let her pick which one she wanted and she could claim it as her own.

He wasn't going to reject her. He truly had loved her mother, and he was determined to do what was right and take care of their daughter.

He placed her down on the bed and gave her one last look before closing the door. His world had changed so much in such a short time. But he was happy, because he had a family, and even though he had lost Jasmine forever, he now had Ruby. And he wasn't going to let anyone take her away from him now.

A/N: Thank you guy for the reviews, you're just awesome. And thank you to everyone who has favourited/followed as well.

I've started on writing the first movie now, but there is still a few chapters to go before we get anywhere close to that point. But I'm pretty happy with it so far.

Anyway, thank you guys again.

Pippa.