A/N: Sorry for the long wait, been a mad week here in the Netherlands. Off camping with the school for the weekend tomorrow, so will have no chance of getting online then, that's why the update is now. Anyway, enjoy.

Tony had decided it was time to check on Ruby. He could have just asked JARVIS, but he wanted to see her himself. He found her sitting in the passenger's side of the car, her music blasting out of the stereo. She hadn't even noticed him walk over to the car.

He tapped on the window, and the music instantly stopped. "Pepper's on her way back. She has the results." He told her, a nervous expression on his face. Ruby just nodded at him before stepping out of the car.

They walked up into the living room area in utter silence. Rhodey had left, and Tony had orders to call him and let him know exactly what was going on the moment he knew. Rhodey knew he wouldn't actually call him, he'd probably have to hear it from Pepper instead.

"You want a drink?" Tony asked her, heading over to get himself a drink.

"Um, hello? 17, not legal." She replied, smirking at him a little.

"Not legal for you to go out drinking, while you're here I think it's okay. Come on, I'm sure you could use one." He said, waving a bottle of scotch in the air.

"Will you shut up if I say yes?" Ruby asked him.

Tony just smiled at her and walked over to the couch with a glass of amber liquid for her. She didn't even bother to ask him what it was before she took a sip. He had been expecting her to pull a face, scotch was not everyone's kind of drink, but she didn't. "I take it you've had scotch before?"

She nodded at him. "My mother hated it. I always used to have a bottle hidden in the closet. She didn't like me drinking, unless it was a special occasion."

"Yeah, she didn't like it when I started drinking either." He told her sadly. All the memories had come flooding back to him, and he couldn't shake them.

"I know, she told me." Ruby said, shocking him a little. "She used to talk about my father, but would never give me a name or anything that might lead me to who he was. I never really questioned it. She explained to me why she had left, why she hadn't told him about me."

Tony was still in shock. "She… she talked about me?"

"She talked about my father all the time. We're still waiting for the clarification that it is in fact you." Ruby reminded him. "But yeah, she was always going on about him, how he had been such a great and wonderful man, but began to change when his life was turned upside down."

Tony let out a sigh. "I wish I had paid more attention back then. I wish I had been able to see what I was doing to her, then maybe she wouldn't have left and she'd still be here now."

"There's nothing either of us can do that will change what has happened or bring her back." Ruby said, lifting the glass to her lips again. "We just have to remember her."

He nodded, and took another sip of his own drink.

"Sir, Miss Potts has just arrived." JARVIS announced, just as the strawberry blonde haired woman walked into the room.

The expression she wore was hard to read. "Hey, how you both doing?" She asked, before noticing the glass in Ruby's hand. "Tony, what are you doing giving her alcohol?" Pepper said scornfully.

"Relax, Pepper. I think she deserves it. It's not like she hasn't touch alcohol before." Tony told her, putting his glass down on the table and standing up. "You got them?" She nodded at him and held out an envelop for him to take. "The moment of truth." He said, taking it from her. His heart was pounding in his chest so much and his hands were shaking. He couldn't remember ever being so nervous in all his life.

Ruby kept her gaze firmly on the glass in her hand, while Pepper watched Tony as he opened the while envelope. He pulled out a piece of paper, his eyes scanning over it a few times. "Looks like we have a trip to the court house tomorrow morning." Tony whispered.

"Well?" Pepper asked, having not heard what he said. "What does it say?"

"It says that Ruby is grounded until she is 21." He told her, letting a smile tug at the corner of his lips.

"What does that mean?" Pepper asked, still not understanding what was going on.

Ruby let out a sigh. "It means that Tony Stark is in fact my father." She put her glass down on the table. "Will you excuse me for a minute." Before anyone had the chance to say anything she was out of the room and locking the door to the guest room she was occupying.

The blood was pounding in her ears, and her hands were shaking as she picked up her earpiece and put it in. "SWAIN, call Liam, now." She demanded.

"Ruby, what's up?" Liam's voice called a few moments later.

"It is him. I've found my father." She whispered. She didn't know whether to be happy, relieved or completely freaked out.

"That's good right?" There was silence. "Rube, tell me that's good?" There was worry in his voice, and he only ever called her Rube when he was worried.

"You don't know who it is yet." She told him, trying to keep herself together. "You know that huge company, Stark Industries?"

"Yeah, that one owned by the biggest playboy in the world? Who doesn't know about that company?"

"Well, turns out, the biggest playboy in the world is my father." This time Ruby was met with silence. "Liam, you can't tell anyone about this. If the media ever found out…"

"Wow, that's… that's…"

"Disturbing?" She suggested, earning a chuckle from Liam.

"I was going to say crazy, but yours fits better I guess." He told her. "And don't worry. I won't say a word, not even to Val. I'll just tell her you've found him."

"Thanks."

"So, what are you going to do now then? Are you going to stay there with him or come back to Denver?" Liam asked her.

"Um, I think I'm grounded until I'm 21." Ruby told him. The truth was, she was still unsure of what she wanted to do.

"What did you do this time?" He asked her, letting out a sigh.

"Nothing, yet. But the night is young. I just wanted to tell you, I promised I would."

Liam could tell from her voice that she was completely torn with everything and needed time to get her head around it all. "You know where I am if you need me. I can always come over that way if you want. You just have to let me know, okay?"

"I know, thank you. I'll talk to you again soon, I promise." She told him, thankful that he wasn't asking too many questions.

"You better. And don't worry, I'm not going to go and shoot my mouth off to anyone. I think SWAIN would find a way to kill me if I did."

Ruby couldn't help but laugh at that. "Yeah, he probably would."

"Take care of yourself, Rube. Try not to get into too much trouble."

"I'll try. Bye, Liam." She said, before ending the call. She wondered if she should call Tasha and tell her as well. No, there was no point, Ruby would only want to have a moan at her for putting the tracker in her car.

"Well, SWAIN, looks like it really is mission completed." She said, throwing herself back on the bed.

"You do not seem too happy about this, Miss Matthews." He replied, noticing the difference in her voice pattern.

She let out a sigh. "Think logically, SWAIN. My mother is dead, and now I have found out who my real father is. Not exactly a normal week in anyone's books, is it?" She asked him.

"No, Miss Matthews. But I thought you would be pleased to know who your father was."

"I am, really I am pleased. But now what do I do?" She asked him. "I don't know him and he doesn't know me. We're not going to just suddenly be a happy family, are we? I've spent 17 years not knowing who my father was, he spent 17 years not even knowing he had a daughter. It's a shock for both of us."

There came a soft knocking at the door. "Hey, Ruby?" Pepper called. "Are you okay?"

She got herself off the bed and pulled the door open. "Hey, I'm fine, Pepper."

"I know this is hard…"

"Understatement of the year." Ruby muttered.

Pepper just let out a chuckle. "That is exactly what Tony said. I just wanted to make sure you were all right. You rushed out of there pretty quickly." There was an expression of concern on her face.

"Really, I'm fine. I just need to get my head around all this." Ruby assured her.

"Okay, well if you want someone to talk to, you can always talk to me, Ruby. I know we don't really know each other, but I'm still here if you want." The woman told her. Ruby could tell from her face that she was being sincere.

"Thanks. How's…" She couldn't call him dad. "Tony coping?"

"Well, he's currently trying to get through to someone so that he can have legal custody of you." Pepper told her, a smile on her face. "I've never actually seen him this happy before."

"He's… trying to get legal custody now?" Ruby asked her in shock. She had never expected him to want to get things done as quickly as he was. Pepper just nodded at her. "He's insane. Actually no, I think he just wants the legal power to ground me."

"I'd say it was a little bit of both. He told me what you done to JARVIS." She said, still smiling. "But seriously, Tony wants to get everything done."

Ruby let out a sigh as she remembered what he had said the night before about her name. "I don't want to be Ruby Stark." She announced, taking Pepper by shock. "I want to be Ruby Matthews Stark. If he insists I take his name, it comes after my mother's name. They were never married, and I'm the only Matthews left."

"Tony thought you would say that. He isn't going to take away your name, he wanted to talk to you about that first. He was actually going to suggest Matthews Stark."

"I, uh, guess I better go and talk to him about it then." It was clear that she was nervous, and she hated getting nervous. All her life she had faced her problems head on, not caring about the trouble she got into, not being nervous about anything. But since her mother had passed, she had been nothing but nervous.

"Everything will be fine, Ruby. It's going to take time, but it will get easier." Pepper assured her, as they walked into the living area where Tony was on his phone to someone.

"I'll call you tomorrow, Rhodey." Tony said as he noticed the two women standing there watching him. He quickly put his phone back in his pocket and smiled at Ruby. "So, you're grounded until you're 21. I just want to make that perfectly clear right now."

"And I give it 3 day's before I drive you so insane you have to unground me." Ruby warned him.

"We'll see about that. We're going down to the courthouse tomorrow to get everything done. But before we go, do you want to change your name?" Ruby could see that his eyes were pleading her to say yes.

"Matthews Stark. And if you don't like that, then you can shove it." She told him, folding her arms across her chest.

The smile didn't fade from his face. "Fine with me. Ruby Matthews Stark, I like it, don't you Miss Potts?" He looked over at Pepper, who was also smiling.

"Right, Rachel Peters needs to check out of her hotel now." Ruby told him, earning a strange look from the adults in the room. "I need to get my things from the hotel I'm staying at." She said, rolling her eyes at them.

"I'll get Happy to do that." Pepper said, pulling out her phone and walking towards the kitchen area.

"So, how long am I going to be stuck living here for? I still have a house in Denver with most of my stuff in." Ruby asked him.

"We can get that all packed up and whatever you don't need can be put into storage." Tony told her. The smile just wouldn't fade from his face now.

"And what about SWAIN? He's kind of built into the house."

He hadn't actually thought about that. "We'll work something out. Can't let you be without your SWAIN now, can we?"

"I was thinking of renting the house out to Liam and Val. I trust him enough to look after it, and I can keep SWAIN there but just… extend him a little more." Ruby suggested.

Tony just kept on smiling. "I think that can be arranged."

"Great. I'll let him know tomorrow."

"There's… something else we need to talk about." His smile finally faded and was replaced with a very serious look.

"The press. I know. It's up to you how you deal with it all. Not going to make a difference to me if I'm grounded until I'm 21. My 21st birthday is when they are finally going to catch my wild side." There was a glint in her eyes as she told him that.

"It's not up to me, it's up to us. When they find out, they are going to be coming up with all kinds of stories. Some of them aren't going to be nice." Tony warned her. He had dealt with his fair share of bad publicity, and false stories, but he could handle it and would just ignore it. Ruby hadn't lived a life in the limelight, the press was new to her.

She shrugged at him. "I think I can handle it. I may not be used to the press, but I do know how they work. They don't care if what they write is completely rubbish and full of lies, they're getting a story out and selling papers."

"Well, we'll see how the next few days go. Wait until you've settled in." He told her, actually rather surprised by her attitude. "You need to go and pick a bedroom."

A frown formed on her face. "What's wrong with the one I'm in now?" She asked, folding her arms across her chest.

"Nothing, I just… I didn't know if you'd want to stay in that room or pick one for yourself." He admitted.

"I'm happy to stay in that room. The view isn't too bad, and it's still bigger than my room back in Denver." She told him. Ruby actually liked waking up in the mornings and seeing the ocean right outside, she found it somewhat calming.

"Okay, well if that's what you went then that's fine. You can decorate it how you like as well." Tony said as he walked over to get himself another drink. "It's your room."

"Oh goodie, I get to put up all my posters of half naked men." Ruby called, jumping up and down on the spot and acting like a child.

Tony just looked at her with wide eyes. "Oh really?" Clearly he was no impressed.

She stopped and rolled her eyes at him. "No. I'm not 12. All I'm going to want is my set up from home for SWAIN. The walls are safe."

He was actually a little relieved. He didn't think he could cope with her having posters like that in her room. "It's getting late. You should probably head to bed." He told her, not really knowing what else to say.

"It's not late, it's not even midnight yet." Ruby reminded him, not overly happy that he was telling her to go to bed. She had never had a bedtime, and she was not going to let him start bossing her around.

Tony just let out a sigh. "Ruby, it's been a long day, and tomorrow is going to be another. You've hardly slept recently as it is, you're making yourself ill."

"You can't force me to go to sleep. You can send me to my room, but that is it." She was determined to stand her ground on this.

He let out a groan of frustration, life with Ruby was definitely going to be a lot more difficult than he anticipated. "Okay, fine. So what do you want to do then?" He asked her, knowing he had to relent.

"I actually have a few people I need to contact, before they hear everything from the press." Ruby told him. "Otherwise I could get into a lot of trouble, and I'm trying to avoid trouble for a few more days."

"Only a few?" Tony asked her. He was more than just curious as to what her history was now, because it seemed to him that his daughter had many secrets.

"I promise, the moment everything has calmed down, I'll be right back to it." She assured him, a grin on her face. "Since you've already decided to ground me until I'm 21, I may as well make the most of the time I have."

"You'd seriously do that?"

Ruby's grin just grew bigger. "I'd seriously do that. Now, I need to go make a few calls. Oh, this is going to be anything but fun." She mumbled.

"And I take it after you have done that, you're going to sleep?" Tony asked her hopefully. He couldn't help but worry about her. He knew she hadn't been looking after herself since before her mother even passed away, and he didn't want her to keep being like that.

Ruby shrugged her shoulders at him. "I might. Depends on how long these calls take."

"Right, well, good night, Ruby." He said, feeling a little awkward. He didn't know whether he should hug her or what, so he just shifted from one foot to the other.

"Yeah, night." Ruby replied, feeling just as awkward, before heading off to her room.

She closed the door and locked it behind her. "Okay, SWAIN, time to make sure the past is securely locked away." She called to her AI.

"Of course, Miss Matthews. Who would you like me to contact first?" SWAIN said in her ear.

She couldn't help but smile. "You're going to hack, because I want to talk to the organ grinder, not the monkey. I'm not happy with him, at all."

"Are you sure that is wise?"

Ruby just rolled her eyes. "Yes, he's brought this on himself. He should know that I would do something like this, so get on with it."

She waited a few moments before a deep voice called through her earpiece. "Who is this?" The voice asked.

Ruby couldn't help but snort a little. "Who do you think it is?"

"Ruby Matthews. Back to your old tricks, I see?" The man asked her.

"Well, I may have decided to derail a little. My mother has just died, some jackasses have been trying to track me, oh and I've found out who my father is." She told him, sounding a little bored. "I decided it was time to be the troublemaker you guys think I am."

She heard the man sigh at the other end of the line. "No one ever called you a troublemaker, just that you know how to cause trouble."

"Also known as a troublemaker. Look, you can't deny it, so don't even bother to try. I can get SWAIN to take down your systems in less than 10 seconds, and you know it." No matter how hard she was trying, she was starting to lose her cool with the man.

"I take it there was a reason for this call if yours?" He asked her, knowing that she hadn't called just to give him hell.

Ruby took a deep breath. "You know who my father is, don't even try to deny it. I know that she told you, she told you years ago." Her mother had admitted to it after she had managed to get herself into a spot of trouble, and someone else had to come in and clean up her mess.

"What do you need me to do?"

"I need you to make sure that the press are never, ever going to get hold of anything. Ever." Ruby told him seriously.

"That will not be a problem. Your father may be Tony Stark, but I have a lot more power over things than he does. Consider it done." The man replied.

There was a small smile on her face now. "Thanks, I really do appreciate it. Expect to see me all over the place in the next few days."

"Stay out of trouble, Miss Matthews. I don't want to have to be sending someone out because you thought it would be fun to do something illegal." He warned her.

She couldn't hep but laugh a little. "Like I said, you all just think I'm trouble. And besides, it's Ruby Matthews-Stark, well it will be as of tomorrow."

The man on the other end chuckled a little. "Already taking his name are you?" He asked her.

"Already grounded until I'm 21." Ruby mumbled.

"I think that's probably safer for everyone. I'll have everything tidied up and make sure no one will ever find out." He assured her, referring back to the main reason for the call in the first place. "And next time, just a simple call will be enough. Stop hacking our system."

"Aye aye, captain. Catch you later." Ruby called, before ending the communication.

"Well done, Miss Matthews. You managed to control your anger." SWAIN called to her.

"Oh, shut up. Call Tasha."

"I'm working, Rubes." A female voice called to her.

"Yup, you're always working, Tasha. Anywhere nice this time?" Ruby asked, lying back on her bed and making herself comfy.

"Not really. Hang on a second." Ruby waited, listening to the commotion that was happening wherever Tasha was. "Okay, I've got a few spare minutes now. What's happened?"

Ruby let out a sigh. "Yeah, I've found my father. Oh, and I was not impressed with someone putting a tracker in Maggie-May." She hadn't forgotten about that.

"I was under orders, Rubes."

"Fine, whatever. I disabled it before I went anywhere, so you guys wouldn't have found me either." She told her.

"So, what else? You didn't just call me to say that, so what else is there?" Tasha asked her.

"I want to know if you knew." Ruby asked her. "I know certain other people knew, were you one of them? I just want the truth."

For a moment there was silence. "Yes. That was why I was assigned to you, Rubes. And I'm glad that I was. We needed to keep the heat away from you, keep you out of the spotlight. That was all your mother ever wanted for you. But you were so determined to draw attention to yourself that someone had to step in."

"I can understand that, Tasha. I always knew that my mother wasn't the only person who knew who my father was. And… I'm grateful for everything you've done for me over the years. If it wasn't for you, I really would be in a hell of a lot of trouble." Ruby told her.

"As long as you're not mad at me." Tasha asked her.

"No, course not. Well, I better let you get back to work now. Have fun, wherever you are."

"When I get back, we'll catch up. Go for a coffee or something?" The woman suggested.

Ruby smirked. "Sure, I'm confident I'll find away around this 'ground till I'm 21' thing." The pair said goodbye, and she let out a content sigh. "Okay, I think I'm done for the night." She called, ready to curl up in bed now. "Night, SWAIN."

"Goodnight, Miss Matthews."

She chuckled a little. "Last time you're going to be saying that to me. Tomorrow it's going to be Miss Matthews-Stark."

"You will always be Miss Matthews to me." SWAIN replied to her. Ruby just chuckled some more before getting changed and making herself comfortable under the covers. A week ago she had no parents, no family left at all, but now she had a father. She knew that the next few weeks were going to be rather hectic for her, and she would have to try her hardest to stay out of trouble.

A/N: So, what are you guys thinking so far? I have to say thank you to everyone who has reviewed, you guys really are totally awesome. A big thank you to those who have followed/favourited the story as well.

Yes I have the next chapter written. Yes the story is going to lead into the first movie, then the second, as well as Avengers. So I will do the third as well when the time comes.

Now, remember to review and let me know what you think. Sorry if there is any spelling and grammar errors, I shall admit that my proof reading has been slight terrible as of late.

Pippa.