A/N: Sorry for the long wait, been busy trying (and failing) to keep up with my other stories. Anyway, enjoy.
After her father had left, Ruby tried to get back to sleep. Only she found it to be a lot more difficult than she had hoped. Giving up, she rolled over in the bed and picked up her discarded earpiece from the side of the bed.
"Hey, SWAIN?" She called, putting it in her ear. "Call Tasha, please."
"Of course, Miss Matthews." He replied, before dialling Tasha's number.
Ruby listened, waiting for it to connect. It was taking a while, so she figured she was pretty far out of town for work. Finally it started ringing, and was then answered almost immediately after the first ring. "Ruby, is everything okay?" A slightly worried voice asked her.
"What makes you think something would be wrong in the first place?" Ruby asked, a frown on her face.
"Ruby, it's late, you're just calling for a late night chat are you?" Tasha asked, trying her best not to be sarcastic.
She let out a sigh, Tasha knew her all too well. "I just… I had another nightmare." She admitted, rubbing her eyes, trying to stop them from stinging.
"Okay, first of all, are you okay? And second, please tell me no one got hurt?"
"I'm… fine. I guess. And no, no one got hurt. Uh, SWAIN made sure that he didn't wake me up. I only called because… well… I don't want to go back to sleep now. It was horrible, Tasha." Ruby told her, blinking rapidly and trying to stop the tears from stinging in her eyes.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Tasha asked her. She knew Ruby rather well, and she always seemed to know what to say and do when something was wrong. It was her who had made sure she was left alone to look for her father and not be hunted down by child services, or anyone else.
"No, I just want to make sure you and Robin Hood are okay." She replied nervously. "I'm still waiting for you to come to town so we can go and have coffee."
"We're both fine, Rubes. And so is everyone else. Nothing terrible has happened." Tasha assured her, now knowing that whatever happened in her nightmare was about her and her partner. "And I will let you know the moment I can get to see you. I may even bring Robin Hood along for you to annoy as well."
A small smile managed to creep its way onto Ruby's face. "That would be good. Just try to make it soon, okay? I don't know how much longer I'm going to last here with just a couple of AI's to talk to."
Tasha chuckled a little on the other end of the phone. "I'm sure you will be fine. Worst thing that could happen is you have to actually build yourself a friend."
Ruby rolled here eyes. "Been there, done that. You have met SWAIN, right?"
"You'll be fine there Rubes. Just give things time to settle down, and I will come see you the first chance I get a free day. Okay?"
"Okay, Tasha. I'm holding you to that, so if I find out you had a free day and didn't come to see me, well you're going to regret ever teaching me how to fight." Ruby threatened, although not really meaning it too much.
Tasha chuckled a little at the other end of the line. "I already do. I'll speak to you again soon, Rubes, and please try to get a little more sleep. You get too hyper when you force yourself to stay up all night."
"Yes ma'am." Ruby said, making sure to mock salute.
"Did you just salute me?" Tasha asked, sounding a little amused.
"Uh, no?" Se replied, quickly putting her hand in her lap. "Talk to you later, Tasha. Say hi to everyone for me. Well, everyone except the organ grinder."
"So, now you're calling us all monkeys?"
'What? No, of course not. Uh, bye Tasha." She said quickly, ending the call before Tasha could say anything else.
She sat there just staring at the wall, not really knowing what to do next. She looked over at the clock and saw that it was just gone 2am. "SWAIN, got any good projects for me to work on?" Ruby asked, needing something to take her mind away from the nightmare.
"Not at present, Miss Matthews." SWAIN replied to her. "All projects have been completed and closed, there are none outstanding."
"Well that sucks." Ruby grumbled. "Maybe I'll just do a little tinkering to your system. What do you think?"
"My systems are currently running very sufficiently, I would highly appreciate if you left it as it is, Miss Matthews." SWAIN told her.
"You are no fun at all, SWAIN, seriously." She told him, before pulling her laptop out from down the side of the bed. "Guess I'll just do a little… work then."
"I do hope this 'work' does not involve a certain organisation, Miss Matthews."
Ruby just rolled her eyes. "Oh, don't you start. If you don't like it, then go away."
While Ruby was in her room, doing something that SWAIN did not approve of, Tony was down in his workshop, having a sneaky look at Maggie-May.
"Ruby was right when she said she had done some tinkering." He mumbled as he looked at the underside of the car.
"Sir, I am not sure Miss Matthews-Stark will appreciate you meddling with her mothers car." JARVIS called to him. He had been advising him against it since he first started wandering around the car and inspecting it.
"I'm not meddling, JARVIS, I'm just looking." Tony called back to him. "How is she now, anyway?"
"She is currently arguing with SWAIN over something, sir." JARVIS informed him. "It would appear he does not approve of what she is doing at the moment either."
Tony just chuckled a little, the similarities between his daughter and himself really were starting to become more noticeable. "Does SWAIN want me to ground her some more? I can do that, you know." He said, shuffling himself out from under the car.
"SWAIN believes that grounding her more will just give her even more reasons to cause trouble." JARVIS told him after a moment of silence.
"How are you getting along with SWAIN? You boys been playing nicely I hope."
"His system is remarkable, sir. There is room for improvement but it is quite an accomplishment for someone of Miss Matthews-Stark's age to have created." Clearly JARVIS had been impressed with SWAIN.
"Well, why don't you boys make a list of these improvements and I'll see what Ruby thinks of them?"
"We have already taken the liberty of compiling a list of recommendations for making his system more efficient." JARVIS told him, taking him by surprise a little. "As well as some suggestion for incorporating him better into Miss Matthews-Stark's life here."
"You mean so she doesn't have to keep talking to him through an earpiece?" Tony asked as he sat down at his desk.
"Yes, sir. It would also mean you would be able to communicate with SWAIN directly."
"Okay, sure. We'll have a talk about that later. Right now I need you to order this for me. I want it here now, got that?" He said, typing in a list of things he wanted JARVIS to get.
"Of course, sir."
He stayed down in his workshop for a few more hours, before deciding to go and catch a few hours sleep. Pepper would show up, drag his backside out of bed and make sure that he went into the office. If that was the case, he was going to make sure he dragged Ruby with him. She was still grounded after all.
"Ruby still awake?" He called, heading out of the glass door and up the stairs.
"She is, sir."
A grin just spread across his face as he strolled towards her room. He knocked loudly on the door, and heard someone cursing on the other side. Tony just frowned and opened the door. "Watch your language." He said to his daughter, folding his arms across his chest.
"And how do you propose I watch it exactly? Write down everything I say and read it?" She asked, closing the top of her laptop down. "Or just have JARVIS film everything and then play it back for me?"
"Very funny. I suggest you get some sleep now, Miss Potts will be here in a few hours and she will be dragging me to the office." He told her, leaning against the wall. As he looked around the room, he felt a little pang of… something. The room just seemed so bare.
"And this involves me because?" Ruby asked, tucking her laptop back down the side of her bed.
He couldn't help but smirk. "Because you're grounded, so you're coming with me."
Ruby let out a groan. "Really? Can't you just lock me up in here or something?"
"You're a Stark, you'd override JARVIS' security protocols in minutes and go cause trouble." Tony informed her, pretty confident that she could and would do that if she really wanted to.
"Less than a minute, actually." Ruby corrected him, sending him a glare. "Fine, go away so that I can get a few hours sleep."
"Sure, I'll get JARVIS to wake you up when Pepper gets here. Night, Ruby." He said to her, heading for the door.
"Night, Tony." She told him, throwing herself back onto her bed and watching her father leave the room. Once the door clicked closed, she checked that her earpiece was still there. "Hey, SWAIN?"
"Yes, Miss Matthews?"
"What do you think of Tony?" She asked, staring into the darkness.
"I am afraid I am unable to…"
Ruby let out a sigh. "Never mind. Night SWAIN." She said before pulling it back out again and deciding to at least try to get some sleep. The truth was, she really was exhausted but she was just too scared to sleep. That was what always happened when she had a nightmare, only she usually had her mother there with her. Ruby was going to have to get used to dealing with it on her own from now on.
Someone was hammering on Ruby's bedroom door. "Ruby! Will you get up already!" Tony shouted through the locked door. She had overridden JARVIS the first time he had threatened to come in there and drag her out and made sure the door was locked.
She let out a groan. "Go away, I'm trying to sleep." She called back to him, before stuffing her head under one of the pillows.
"Okay, JARVIS, do it." She heard Tony say, before her ears were filled with the sound of Black Sabbath.
"JARVIS, if you don't stop that I will hack your system, again." Ruby shouted, seriously annoyed with both Tony and the AI now. "Don't think that I won't." She threatened.
Instead of the music stopping, the volume lowered to a more acceptable level. "I would suggest getting up now, Miss Matthews-Stark, rather than hacking my systems all the time." JARVIS told her.
Ruby let out a slight growl in frustration and annoyance. "Fine, I'm up." She said, pulling the bed sheets away. "Happy now? I'm up."
The music stopped and she could hear Tony laughing on the other side of the door. After quickly unlocking the door with her phone, having already had everything prepared to do that, she pulled the door open and glared at the man standing there. "You find this funny, do you?" She asked, clearly not happy.
"Very. Now get dressed. We're already running late because you decided to sleep in." He said, controlling his laughter and looking at his daughter.
"Yeah, well we're going to be even later. I need to shower and dress, and then I need to eat. Unless you want me to randomly pass out in the middle of your building. I'm sure that will give you some good press." Ruby told him, still glaring at him.
"You're not a morning person are you?" He asked, paying no attention what so ever to what she had just said. He was finding it all rather amusing, trying to get the upper hand over his daughter. It was definitely going to be a challenge with her around, but one that he was looking forward to.
"I just don't like being woken up by some complete…" She paused, realising what she was about to say and who she was about to say it to. "Moron and his damn music." Ruby finished.
Tony just chuckled at her. "Nice save there, missy. Now hurry up and get dressed. Breakfast will be waiting for you when you're done." He told her, before walking down the hallway and out of sight.
Ruby let out a sigh as she closed her bedroom door and headed over to the wardrobe. "Hmm, what to wear today?" She pondered, looking over all her clothes. Her eyes finally settled on an old, torn pair of jeans. "Oh, those will be perfect." She said, grabbing hold of them. The next thing she grabbed was an Iron Maiden tee shirt, planning on not dressing up for her day out.
Almost an hour later she finally ventured to the kitchen, her ripped jeans drawing the attention of the man sitting at the counter drinking a coffee. "You are not coming with me dressed like that." He said, looking her up and down.
"Well I'm not getting changed so I guess I won't be coming then." She told him, grabbing the second mug of coffee that was sitting on the counter.
"Oh no, you're not getting out of it that easily." Tony told her, spotting what she was trying to do. "You're coming with me, no arguments."
"Where's this breakfast you said would be waiting for me?" He slid a paper bag across to her and she peeked inside. "Great. A bagel." She said, unenthusiastically, as she pulled it out and started eating it.
"Well, if you were up sooner, then you could have had something else." Tony countered, enjoying her reaction. "Come on, we're late. You can eat that in the car." He told her, getting up from where he was sitting and walking out of the room.
Ruby let out a sigh as she drank as much of the scalding hot coffee as she could before following behind him. She really wasn't in the best of moods, and Tony was playing to that. He was going ot have a little fun with his daughter while he could, and push her to her limits.
When they reached the main entrance to the house, Happy Hogan was standing by the car waiting for them both. "Good morning, Mr Stark, Miss Matthews-Stark." He said, holding the door open for them both.
"Happy, Ruby. Ruby, Happy." Tony said, before getting into the car.
This was the first time she had actually met the man. "Morning, Happy." She said politely, before getting into the car beside her father. "So come on then, I'm sure you have a great big long list of orders for me. Let's get that over with."
Tony looked over at her as Happy closed the drivers door and started up the engine to the Rolls Royce. "Don't wander off and don't go off talking to people." He told her. "Give it a few more days, then we tell the press. I want to get you in the company first."
Ruby frowned at him. "What do you mean, get me in the company?" She asked him curiously.
"You know, get you working on something there. You're interested in the arc reactor, right?" She nodded at him. "Well then, I need to get you set up with that. Then bring you in to the company legally."
"And by legally, you mean…?"
He rolled his eyes at her. "And here I was thinking you had the Stark brains." He teased. "I'm going to set it up so that you get rights in the company. You are my only heir after all."
"Yeah, thanks for reminding me of that." She mumbled, folding her arms across her chest. "I hope your going to make that press conference a much better show than last night."
"Oh trust me, I will." He replied, smirking at her.
Ruby ended up staying silent for the rest of the drive. It wasn't that she was sulking, it was more that she was thinking everything over still. She needed to talk to Tony about the house back in Denver, about getting all her things and sorting something out with SWAIN. Yet all he seemed to be thinking about was how he was going to show her off to the rest of the world.
"Hello? Ruby?" Tony called, waving his hand in front of her face.
She batted it away before looking at him. "What?"
"Uh, we're here." He told her, worry showing on his face. "Everything okay there?"
Ruby just looked at him. "Yeah, fine. Let's get this day over with already." She told him, opening the door before Happy even had a chance to get out of the car.
Tony quickly followed her and led her into the building. Sure enough people were looking at them, and whispering. Ruby didn't seem to care, she was just strolling through, one hand in her jean's pocket and the other holding her phone as she walked.
Her father was still a fair few steps behind her, watching and waiting to see what she was going to do. That was until one of his security men stepped out in front of her.
"Excuse me, Miss? All visitors need to sign in at reception." The man told her, blocking her way. Tony just hung back, watching with interest.
"Oh, I know that. But I'm not a visitor, well not technically. It's a rather complicated situation that I am sure your boss would be more than happy to fill you in on." Ruby told him, before turning around and facing her father. "He's right there, why don't you go and check everything out with him."
The minute the man's back was turned, she disappeared into one of the elevators with a smirk on her face. She couldn't even see Tony, he was being blocked by the bulky security guard who had tried to stop her.
"Hmm, I wonder which floor would be his…" Ruby pondered as she looked at the lift. "Hey, SWAIN? Be a dear and get JARVIS to take me to Mr Stark's office. I want to be nosey." She called to him through her earpiece.
Several minutes later, she was pretty near the top of the building, stepping out of the elevator and into a rather large office area. She wasn't that surprised when a certain red haired woman sat there gawping at her. "Ruby, where's Tony?" She asked, panicking a little.
"Oh, he's still downstairs. There was a slight… security thing. I decided to go ahead while he dealt with it all." Ruby told her, looking around the room. "I take it this is his office?" She said, pointing to the floor to ceiling doors that were over to one side.
Pepper nodded at her and watched as she just opened the door and strolled inside like she owned the place. "Well, it's not bad I guess." She commented, sitting down at her father's computer and hacking into it with ease.
"Ruby, what are you doing? I really don't think…" Pepper started, only for Ruby to interrupt her.
"Uh, nothing much. I'm just getting a head start on some research, you know." She replied, typing away at the keyboard.
"Tony isn't going to like that. Maybe you should just wait until he gets here." There was a worried look on Pepper's face. She hadn't really had much to do with Ruby, they hadn't spent much time together, so she was unsure of how to approach the situation with her.
"Nope, it's fine. I've got everything I need right here." She said, opening a file and pulling up different statistics about the arc reactor. She reached across the desk and grabbed a pen and some paper and instantly began jotting things down.
Pepper just watched her as she mumbled to herself as she went, one hand moving the pen quickly and the other flicking through the files rapidly on the computer. The woman let out a sigh and left her alone in the office, there was no point in trying to stop her, she was a Stark after all.
She sat down at her desk just as the elevator doors opened and Tony stepped out, looking more than just a little annoyed. "Where is she?" He asked, a frown on his face. Miss Potts just pointed to his office and he strode in there.
Ruby was just sitting there at his desk, looking innocent with a smirk on her face. "What took you so long?" She asked him, "Did you get mobbed by all your crazy fans."
"You know, you really are sneaky." He told her, walking over to his chair and pushing it away from his desk with her still sitting in it. "What have you been doing in here?" Tony looked at the screen, just knowing that she had been up to no good in his office.
Ruby shrugged her shoulders at him. "Nothing much. Just making a few notes about the arc reactor." She commented casually. That really was what she had been doing, after quickly convincing JARVIS to give her access and poking around his computer files.
"Really?" Her father asked her sceptically.
She let out a sigh. "Yes, really. If you don't believe me, ask JARVIS. After all, it was him who gave me access to your computer." Ruby said, sounding rather bored and fed up already as she got up from the chair and started wandering around the office.
She looked out of the window, watching the hustle and bustle of the busy city below. It was seriously different from what she was used to, a quite little place where you knew your neighbours. Now she didn't have any neighbours, or any friends really. All she had was the man who was her father and his personal assistant.
Ruby must have zoned out for a bit, as she was brought back to reality when Tony tugged on her arm a little. "Everything okay?" He asked, frowning at her.
"Yeah, why wouldn't it be?" Ruby replied in confusion. She didn't know that he had been trying to speak to her for the past 15 minute, or that SWAIN had been calling in her ear as well.
"I kind of lost you for a while then. You were off in your own little world."
Ruby just shrugged at him. "Oh well, it happens sometimes, you know, when I'm thinking."
"What were you thinking about?" Her father asked, taking a genuine interest.
She turned and faced him, looking him dead in the eyes. "Why do you still build weapons when you have the means and the technology to do so much more?" Ruby asked him seriously.
To say that Tony was shocked was putting it mildly. That wasn't the kind of thing he had been expecting his daughter to be thinking about. Even he didn't think about it. The business he was in was good, it was something his father had built up, and he was a very wealthy man because of it.
"Who's to say I'm not working on other things?" He asked, not wanting to admit that she actually had a point. He could do a lot more, break into new markets, but he was comfortable with what he already had and knew.
"Uh, you're computers?" She replied, rolling her eyes at him. "Come on, when was the last time you even looked at anything to do with the arc reactor?"
He rubbed his chin, his facial hair scratching his hand a little. He honestly didn't know, the arc reactor had been there for so long now that he really didn't pay any attention to it. As long as it was up and running, Tony Stark really didn't care that much. "Didn't we decide that was going to be your little project?" He asked, a smile forming on his face.
"It may have been mentioned. I never thought for a moment that you were going to be serious about it." Ruby replied, giving her father a rather odd look. "Are you actually serious?"
The smile that had been forming turned into a full-blown grin. "Yup, completely serious. I've got someone from legal coming down soon. You get total freedom to the arc reactor and all the research related to it."
"Total freedom?" She asked him curiously. That wasn't something she had been expecting, Ruby thought it was just going to be her looking at it and him really not caring about any of it.
Tony just nodded at her. "Total freedom. You'll be the boss." His eyes were glinting as he told her, he was hoping that this was something that would not only keep her busy and out of trouble, but also something that would bring them closer together. That was what he wanted, for them to actually bond and get to know each other better.
So far, he had only found out a few small things from her. They hadn't really spent much time together, they had only known each other for a few days. Tony was going to do whatever he could to get to know his daughter better, to understand her and to have her accept him as her father.
A/N: One step closer to the start of the first movie now. Lot of things are going to be happening, and Tony is going to find out a few little secrets about his daughter.
And will Ruby ever call him dad? Or is he forever going to be Mr Stark or Tony? Well, obviously I know whats going to happen, but do you guys want to know as well?
A massive thank you to everyone who has reviewed, you guys totally rock. And a big thank you to everyone who has favourtied/followed this story as well.
Pippa.