A/N: And here is the next chapter. The movie is only 2 chapters away now!

When Tony finally arrived home, Ruby was crashed out on the sofa and Liam was sitting with his laptop out, working away. "How's she been today?" Tony asked, sitting himself down on the couch next to Ruby.

"Well, murderess Ruby made an appearance." He said, closing down the lid of the laptop and looking at Tony. "I think everything is finally starting to catch up with her, you know, with her mom and everything."

"What happened?" Tony asked, looking down at his daughter who seemed to be peacefully asleep.

Liam let out a sigh and rubbed his chin. "I called her a kid, just as a joke like I usually do. She just snapped and lost it. When her mom went into hospital, she just started working on autopilot. It was all work, hospital, work, hospital." He explained. "That was her life. And I'm guessing she hasn't told you anything about it all yet?"

Tony shook his head at him. "Not a thing. She's avoided talking about Jasmine, and so have I, I guess."

"Maybe the pair of you should talk it through. I know what she went through, and she'd be better off telling you what happened before she has a complete breakdown." Liam told him, glancing over at the sleeping woman between them. "She needs to talk about it, unfortunately, that may involve her wanting to break things. She never was good with her temper, the whole time I've known her."

"Sounds like Jas really did have a hard time with her." Tony said, reaching out and gently stroking the hair on Ruby's head.

The man on the other side chuckled a little. "Oh yeah. She done a lot of stupid things when she was younger."

Tony just looked at him curiously. "Like what?" He asked, hoping there were going to be some more interesting stories that he could hold over her.

"Uh, she had a thing about fires and explosives. Almost burnt down the house about 12 times, I think it was. Almost blew it up 18 times." Liam told him, remembering back to all the times he had to help her hide that fact that she had started fires in her room, or blown something up in the garage.

"Yeah, I guessed she had a thing for explosions. She sort of mentioned it at one point." Tony told him, remembering when she wanted to blow up the tracking device.

"Oh, she was terrible. She blew up her car. On purpose."

Liam's words just made Tony's eyes grow wide. "She blew up her car? On purpose?" He asked in slight shock.

The man just nodded at him. "Oh yeah. She didn't like it. She tried really hard to do it up, get it to how she wanted it, but something always went wrong. She decided that the best way to solve the problem, was to blow it up."

"I'm going to have to remember that, and to not let her anywhere near my cars." Tony told him, smiling a little.

Liam let out a small laugh. "No, I think your cars are safe. From what I know, she's impressed with your collection. All I can see her doing is maybe taking one of them for a drive."

"Well, I've actually been working on something for her, or something we can do together. I know she's really attached to Maggie-May, her mothers car." Tony said to him.

"Yeah, she is. She always loved that car, but now it's all she really has left of her mom. Ruby doesn't think she's going to last much longer, and I'm not surprised with the way she drives her sometimes."

That time it was Tony who chucked. "Oh, I've seen her driving. Bit of a racer, isn't she?"

"Yeah, well she never got that from her mother." Liam said, giving Tony a look that said she got it from him.

"Okay, hands up, she probably got that from me. As well as the blowing things up thing." Tony said, raising his free hand in the air.

"Either of you ever hear of the term silence is golden?" Ruby mumbled, grasping the men's attention.

"No, can't say that I have." Tony commented as he watched his daughter stir and begin to wake. "How you been feeling today?"

Ruby forced herself to sit up on the couch and look at her father. "It's been painful, actually."

"She's only had one lot of painkillers today. Had plenty of pancakes for breakfast, and then slept through most of the afternoon." Liam called, opening up his laptop again, ready to crack on with his work.

"Well then, I guess it's time you had something more to eat and some more painkillers." Tony told her, giving her a soft smile. He was glad to see that she was getting a bit better, even though she was in pain. He was also glad to have Liam there to keep an eye on her as well. There was no way Tony would ever leave her alone, and he wouldn't drag her out with him either.

"In a bit, I've only just woken up." Ruby told him, rubbing her eyes a little. "Anyway, what have you been doing today?" She asked, looking over at Tony.

"Just taking care of some things at the office. Looks like the secret might be out about who you really are." He told her, wondering how she was going to react to the news.

"Yeah, I know. Some idiot from Vanity Fair. Did you read it?" She asked him, wondering what they had been talking about before she had woken up.

"Oh, I read it. JARVIS also told me what you done when you read it. I have to say, I totally approve of what you done." Tony told her, beaming away at her.

"I'm glad someone does." She muttered, glancing over at Liam who was doing his best to avoid her eyes. "So are you going to release an official statement to the worlds press since someone has worked it out?"

A smirk formed on Tony's face. "I already have." He told her, the large screen in the room suddenly turning on and showing a news report.

Ruby watched the screen as Tony Stark walked onto the stage, Pepper and Obadiah standing to the side. "Many of you are still curious as to who Ruby Matthews-Stark really is. There have also been concerns over her health since the incident that occurred the last time you were all here. I can tell you now, that Ruby is absolutely fine and recovering from having her appendix removed." The man told them all. "And to answer your other question, yes. Ruby is the daughter of Jasmine Matthews, who sadly passed away recently. I can confirm that she is also my daughter."

The moment he said that, the crowd started shouting out questions to him. "Mr Stark! How do you feel about being a father?" Someone called through the noise.

"I'm loving it. Ruby is a smart and interesting young woman who definitely has her mothers looks." Tony replied, a grin on his face. He was feeling on top of the world, telling everyone that he had a daughter. It was a feeling he had never imagined before, but now he couldn't imagine not having that feeling.

"How do you think having a daughter is going to impact your lifestyle, Mr Stark?" A blonde haired woman called from the crowd.

Tony chuckled a little. "Who knows?" He said, not really knowing what to tell them. Since having Ruby there with him, his lifestyle had changed a little. He wasn't going out drinking and partying, then returning home with a random woman. "This whole thing is new for me, so I guess we're just going to have to wait and see how it goes."

"When is she going to be back at work?"

"Ruby needs to take it easy for a while. So she will be back at Stark Industries when she is ready." Tony told them.

The screen turned off and a smug grin was spread across Tony's face. "So, the world knows that you're my daughter. How do you feel about that?" He said, looking at Ruby.

She shrugged her shoulders at him. "Oh well, there goes my plan to annoy them by not answering their questions." Ruby told him. Truth was, she didn't really care that they knew, it was only going to be a matter of time before it came out.

"I'm sure you'll find another way, Ruby. Now come on, you need to eat something. What do you want?" Her father asked, getting up from where he was sitting and ready to get her whatever she wanted.

"I don't know, whatever you want to get." Ruby told him, pulling her phone out from her pocket. While she had been asleep, she had received three messages, two from her pirate friend, and one from Tasha.

She rolled her eyes as she read his ones, telling her that he was still watching her, and also that he was giving her friends some time off to come and visit. A smile crept onto her face as she read the message from Tasha, letting her know that they had to time off to come and see her and was asking if the weekend was going to be okay with her. Saturday was two days away, and she was pretty sure she would be able to sneak out if Tony wasn't willing to let her go.

"Uh, I was wondering if I could go meet some friends of mine on Saturday?" She asked, looking at Tony with pleading eyes. "I haven't seem them for a while, and they've managed to get the weekend off."

"Hmm, I don't know." He replied, not sure that he really wanted to let her out on her own. "Who are they?"

Ruby paused to think for a minute, she had to be careful of what she said. "Tasha and Robin."

Liam laughed a little, getting their attention. "You finally broke them down then, huh?" He asked, shutting his laptop once more.

"Do you know them, Liam?"

He nodded at Tony. "Yeah, they're okay. Both of them are pretty strict and helped to keep Ruby in line. Trust me, she'll be fine with them."

"Well then, I suppose I can let you out for a few hours. But I think Liam should go with you, you know, just in case." Tony told her, making her let out a groan. "Come on, Ruby. The press are going to be hounding you, you need someone with you."

Ruby could see that he was not going to back down from his decision. She was stuck with Liam when she went to see Tasha and Robin, not that she actually minded, since they all knew each other. Ruby was just worried that the three of them were going to gang up on her.

"Fine." She said, folding her arms across her chest and grumping a little. "If that's the only way I'm going to get out of here then I had better agree to it, hadn't I?"

Her father smirked at her. "Good choice. Now come on, you need to eat something. Any thing you want."

She didn't really know what she wanted. She still hadn't gotten her appetite back, even if she did wolf down a load of pancakes in the morning. "I don't know. Just order pizza or something." She said, knowing that she could get away with only eating a little.

"Any preference for toppings? Or shall I just get you anything since you're not going to eat most of it?" Tony asked her, having already worked out exactly what she was trying to do.

She let out a sigh, knowing he was probably ready to have a go at her for still not eating much. "Peperoni. And lots of it." Ruby told him, looking up at the ceiling.

"What you having, Liam?" Tony asked, pulling his phone out and getting ready to make his order.

"Anything with meat on it." He told him, glancing at Ruby out of the corner of his eye. She looked over at him, and he raised an eyebrow at her. She just gave him a look, wondering why he was looking at her like that.

"Well, I'm going to have a quick shower before pizza arrives." Ruby said, letting out a sigh as she pushed herself off the couch.

"I should probably go and call Val, let her know how things are going and check up on everything. Make sure she hasn't come across any of you explosives around the house." Liam said, giving her a very stern look.

She couldn't stop her eyes from rolling. "Seriously? You think I'd just leave it lying around? I'll have you know that all my explosive materials were removed by Tasha."

"Come on, Ruby, you know that's not true. I know you kept some hidden." He told her, walking out of the living area with her.

Once they were far enough away, Liam stopped her. "Okay, Liam, what do you want?" Ruby asked him.

"Talk you him, Ruby." He said, still giving her a firm look. "You need to tell him about what happened, about everything you had to deal with. You can't keep going on like this. You completely lost it earlier."

"I don't want to tell him, Liam, there is no need to tell him. What happened earlier was a one off, I was in a bit of a mood, that's all." She told him, really not liking the prospect of talking to Tony about her mother and what she had to deal with for months.

"If you don't tell him, then I will. Got that, Ruby? I'm not messing around, you need to get this sorted." The moment he said that, she knew he really was serious.

"Okay. I'll… I'll talk to him. Just… let me figure out what I'm going to say first. I'm kind of trying to forget all that happened, I don't think it's going to be easy bring it all up again." She told him, wondering how little she could get away with actually telling Tony and if Liam had told him anything already.

"In the next few days, Ruby. Before you go and meet Tasha. He really should know, in case you decide to have another little breakdown, but in front of him this time."

"Okay." She whispered. It was going to be tough, but she knew Liam was right. He was always right when it came to things like this. "I really need to shower. I kind of skipped out on it this morning because of your pancakes, and I've been in my pyjamas all day."

Liam couldn't help but chuckle. "Glad to know that my pancakes can still make you forget about everything else. Go on, you're starting to smell a little funky." He said, holding his nose and pretending to wave away the smell.

Ruby nudged him. "Shut up, Liam. If anyone stinks around here it's you. Go call Val, and tell her I said hi and that I will be sending you home soon." She told him, before darting into her room.

She wasn't impressed with the way that Liam was bullying her into talking to Tony, to tell him everything that she done while her mother was in hospital. In her opinion, it was none of his damn business what happened before she met him. It was her life, the life she had with her mother. A life that was now gone.

As she got in the shower, she decided to forget about it all. She didn't have to tell Tony anything right now, he was more concerned about if she was in pain or not. She was starting to realise that maybe he did deserve a chance, and that maybe she was being a bit too much of a brat to him, but she didn't want him to have it easy. After all, her mother never had it easy with her, so why should he?

"Ruby, pizza is here." Tony called to her over the intercom. Usually he just sent messages between JARVIS and SWAIN, so she was a little surprise when she heard his voice come through.

"Give me a few minutes. I'm just getting dressed." She called back, knowing that he would be able to hear her.

It was just a few minutes later that she returned to the living area, sweatpants and a t-shirt instead of her pyjamas. Her hair was still damp and pulled up into a messy bun. Tony couldn't help but smile at the fact that she had more colour in her cheeks.

"So, want to watch a movie?" Tony suggested, handing Ruby a pizza box.

She shrugged her shoulders at him. "Whatever, I don't care." She noticed that Liam wasn't there, and assumed that he was keeping himself hidden so that she could talk to her father.

He frowned at her. He was really trying to make an effort with her, to bond with her and get to know her better still, but she was insisting on pushing him away. "Okay, well I do." He told her, the large screen flicking on and showing the Disney logo. "Can't beat a bit of Disney."

Ruby just looked at him, not really sure what to make of it all. "If you say so." She mumbled, taking a small bite out of her first piece of pizza. Even though she wasn't really that interested in knowing what film it was, her eyes kept glancing upwards to the screen as the music started. "Mary Poppins?" She questioned, recognising it straight away. "You're watching Mary Poppins?"

Tony looked at her as if she was crazy. "And what's wrong with that? Classic movie. Every one should watch this as a kid." He told her. "Your mother and I used to watch it all the time."

"It was one of her favourite movies." Ruby mumbled. "I know, I used to watch it with her all the time, mainly on Sundays after dinner. We would sit down on the couch, a bowl of popcorn on the table, and huddle together to watch it."

"Yeah, we used to do that as well." Tony told her sadly. It made him think about how much he had missed. Instead of it being just Ruby and her mother, or Tony and Jasmine, it could have been all three of them, cuddled up on the couch and watching the dancing penguins.

"Mom was a bit Disney mad. I think we own every single Disney movie ever made." Ruby told him. She had been thinking the same thing as he had, only neither of them knew it.

"I take it you're mad on it as well?" Tony asked her, grabbing himself another slice of pizza.

She shook her head at him. "Nope. I love them all, don't get me wrong, but I'm not mad on them. Too many memories." She whispered the last part. If it was a movie she had watched with her mother, it was likely to get her thinking about her.

Tony's face fell when he realised that this could potentially upset his daughter. "Want me to turn it off? We can watch something else?" He asked her quickly.

"No, it's okay. We both know it was her favourite movie, I think she'd be pleased to see us both sitting down at watching it. Together, you know." Ruby told him nervously. She really wanted to make her mother proud, even if she was no longer there.

The pair of them sat there and watched the movie. At times Tony could hear Ruby singing the songs quietly to herself, not that he was going to point it out to her. He had never heard her singing before, but it seemed like she had Jasmines talent for that as well.

"I… uh, I had a bit of a melt down while you were out today." Ruby told him, breaking the silence as the movie ended. "I went a little psycho on Liam."

Tony just raised and eyebrow at her. "And by psycho you mean…?"

She let out a sigh. "Murderess Ruby decided to make an appearance. There's a lot of… stuff that has happened over the past year. I guess it all sort of finally got to me." Ruby admitted.

"You want to talk about it?" Her father asked, trying to be as calm and patient as he could. He knew that Liam had spoken to her, told her to fill him in on everything. He just hadn't expected her to do it so soon.

"When my mom was diagnosed, we both just carried on as normal, like nothing had happened. But after a while, she had to quit her job. It was just getting too stressful for her, what with all the hospital trips and everything, she just couldn't do it." Ruby told him, playing with her hands in her lap. "We didn't have much saved up, mom used to say 'what's the point in having money if we can't spend it?' I was never left wanting for anything. If I wanted something, she got it for me, not that I approved but that was just how she was."

Tony just sat there, nodding his head and listening to his daughter speak about what happened and her mother. It was heart breaking for him to know that they both went through all of this, that Jasmine was working even while she had been ill until she couldn't cope anymore. If he had been there, she wouldn't have been working at all, and she would have the best doctors in the world to take care of her. If he had been there, she would still have been alive.

"So I got a job. Nothing fancy, just some bar work to pay the bills and put some food on the table." She told him. "But that wasn't really enough. We needed more to pay for the hospital bills, so I got a second job, a night shift at a warehouse. I worked at the bar from six in the evening till two in the morning. I'd go home, get showed and changed, before getting to the warehouse for four in the morning. I would finish at noon, and head straight to the hospital. I'd stay with mom for as long as I could, but I'd have to leave by five to get washed and changed for work again."

Tony was actually sitting there in shock. His daughter had been working two jobs, getting no sleep, and looking after her mother at the same time. "How long did you manage to keep this up for?" He asked her softly.

"Uh, about eight months. I'd always have Sundays off, so that was when I managed to sleep and spend some more time with mom. It was hard, but Liam and Val were always looking out for me, so were a few of my other friends." She told him, thinking about how Liam had always forced her to eat something, Val making meals for her and making sure she took something to work with her. If it weren't for them, she really wouldn't have eaten at all.

The man beside her let out a sigh. "Ruby, I am so sorry you had to go through all of that." He didn't really know what else to say, he was still in complete shock of everything that she had done.

She just shrugged her shoulders. "Don't know why you're sorry, you had no idea any of this was going on. You didn't know I existed or that my mom was even sick."

"No, but maybe if your mother hadn't had been as stubborn as she was, things wouldn't have worked out the way that they have." Tony told her. Yes, Jasmine had always been stubborn, so had Tony, and Ruby took after both of them.

"It was her choice. I told her, more than once, to just tell me who my father was so that I could ask him for help. I mean, the worst that could of happened was that I was rejected." That was what she had feared the most when tracking her father in the first place, being rejected. "But she told me to leave it, that he had his own life."

"You know, I would have helped if I had known, Ruby. No matter what your mother told you, I would have been there for you, for both of you." Tony told her, reaching out for her hand and squeezing it tightly.

Ruby just looked up and him and gave him a small smile. "We both knew that she wasn't going to last much longer, she had held on for longer than the doctors said she would already. That was when she told me to find my father. She had left a letter in her room, she'd written it years ago in case something ever happened to her. She told me it would have everything I needed in it to find my father."

Now Tony was curious. "And what was in the letter?"

"A bunch of payslips from Stark Industries, letters addressed to her old home in LA. I just figured she wanted me to go to LA, check out Stark Industries and do a little poking around. She left me the clues, I just needed to be the detective and work it all out." Ruby told him, trying to keep her emotions in check.

"Well, you did work it out, and pretty damn quickly as well." Tony told her, letting himself smile. He was proud at her for how quickly she had managed to figure it all out, to get to LA, meet him and question him before confronting him at his home in Malibu. He was also pretty proud at the way she had kept herself hidden all that time while he was freaking out about where she was.

"It really wasn't that hard. Like I said, you just need to ask the right questions in the right place. I think that was Katie Lowes." She said, remember the report she was pretending to be at that time.

"Ruby, I know none of this has been easy, hell I don't know how you managed to cope with everything you have, I know I wouldn't have. To have done all of that, and to have made it through to the other side, well, that's rather impressive." He told her, trying to find the right words to express what he wanted to say. "But you're not on your own anymore. You're my family, Ruby, my only family, just like I'm your only family. Whatever happens from now on, we get through it together, okay?"

She nodded at him, still trying her best to stop herself form crying. She was overwhelmed by emotions and was ready to burst. "I just… I miss my mom. I miss her nagging at me, teasing me and trying to make my life hell. I miss her cooking, her hugs, I miss her comforting me when I have nightmares. I miss my mom so much." She said, before losing it and completely breaking down in tears.

Tony was quick to react, pulling his daughter close to him, holding her tightly and letting her cry it out. "Shush, it's okay, Ruby. Of course you miss her, she was your mom. You know, I miss her as well. I've missed her since the day she left. But you've still got me, and I'm not going anywhere, Ruby, okay? I'm here, honey, and I will always be here." He told her, kissing the hair on her head, rocking her slightly as he continued to hold her while she sobbed. "I can't make up for the past, I can't change what has happened, but the future is ours, honey, just the two of us."

A/N: So, are Tony and Ruby finally getting that little bit closer? And her two mysterious (or not so mysterious) friends are going to be making an appearance.

Thank you to everyone who has favourtied/followed this story. It's nice to know that there are people out there who read my stories and enjoy them. And a big thank you to everyone who has reviewed. I do love reading your comments, and knowing what you think of the story, so keep them coming.

As already mentioned we are ever closer to the start of the movie now, and I know you are all eagerly waiting for it. I promise it is on its way!

Pippa.