A/N: The poll is still on my profile regarding to which 2 of my stories you would want me to continue the most. Come September I will be back at uni and very busy. So please go and vote so I know which ones to work hard on right now.

Ruby was standing at the craps table, Tony beside her as she threw the dice. Her first stay in Vegas was going rather well, and Tony was keen to let her play anything she wanted, even if it was illegal. He didn't care, he was Tony Stark and his daughter was happy.

"You seem to be pretty good at this whole gambling thing." Tony told her, taking another swig of his scotch. "Are you sure your mother never let you sneak off to the casinos or something?"

Ruby scoffed. "As if. She hated letting me go out in case I caused trouble." She told him, trying to keep her attention on the table before her.

"And did you?" They had been getting on so well now, and she was always so relaxed around him now. But there was one thing that was still bothering him.

She looked up at him and smiled. "Of course I did. As she reminded me on so many occasions, I take after my father." Her comment made him chuckle, but still brought the issues that she never called him 'dad' even further to the surface.

They both heard someone coughing behind them and turned to see Rhodey standing there. "Oh no. Did they rope you into this?" Tony asked him, looking at his best friend.

"Nobody roped me into anything. But they told me that if I presented you with an award, you'd be deeply honoured." He replied, a frown on his face.

"Of course I'd be deeply honoured. And it's you, that's great. So when do we do it?" Tony asked, missing the nervous look on Ruby's face.

"It's right here." Rhodey said, holing up the award that Tony was meant to have collected. That was the whole reason they were in Vegas. "Here you go."

"I'm really sorry, uncle Rhodey. It's my fault." Ruby said, giving him her most innocent look. "I got distracted while we were on our way, and he wouldn't leave me. Honestly, it's my fault, please don't blame him."

Rhodey let out a sigh as he looked at her. He had seen her do that trick on Tony so many times now, he never thought he would suffer it as well. "Yeah, it's okay." He said.

"Please don't be mad, uncle Rhodey. I really am sorry." Ruby said again, making sure to keep her innocent, puppy dog eyes in place.

"Yeah, it's fine, Ruby. Forget it." It was clear that James Rhodes was still annoyed. "What are you doing even letting her play, Tony?"

The man just shrugged his shoulders as kept his eyes on his daughter. "Why not? I've been with her the whole time. She's been doing rather well. Gave her a limit of fifty thousand, and she's already tripled it. She's got a gift."

"No, I've just got a really good poker face." She said, rolling the dice and winning yet again. "Okay, so maybe I do have a little bit of luck on my side tonight."

Rhodey just rolled his eyes. He knew there was no talking to Tony, and Ruby was just as bad at the moment. He had hardly seen her all evening, the first time being when Tony walked into the casino with her on his arm, grabbing everyone's attention. The moment he saw her, he thought it was Jasmine.

She was wearing a lilac evening gown, which shimmered every time she moved. Her hair was flowing down her back, the curls bouncing around on her shoulders. She really did look a sight, and so much like her mother.

"This is where I exit." Rhodey told them, shaking himself out of his thoughts and bringing himself crashing down to the real world. He looked at Ruby and saw she was pouting at him. "Give it up, Ruby. I've forgiven you and Tony already, you're not getting anything else."

"Fine." She grumbled to him.

The man smiled at her before looking up at her father. "Tomorrow, don't be late."

"Yeah, you can count on it." Tony said, trying to pull his daughter away from the table. Rhodey was warning them to go home now, otherwise he would totally give them hell in the morning on the plane.

"I'm serious." Rhodey said, just to make sure that he really did understand that he needed to be on time in the morning.

"I know, I know." He said, finally managing to get Ruby to move with him. "Ruby, come on, we can come back another time."

"You promise?" She said, now looking at him and turning on the puppy eyes.

Tony just rolled his own eyes at her. "Yes, I promise. Now move, SWAIN will give me hell if I don't get you home soon."

"Uh, SWAIN? No, I think you mean Miss Potts. She would give you hell if she knew you had let me gamble, and drink." Ruby told him a smirk on her face. She really had been able to get away with whatever she had wanted for the past two days. Not that she had really been trying to get away with things, she just wanted to test Tony, see how far he would go. Turns out, he would go pretty far if it put a smile on her face.

"Yes, and Miss Potts. Now come on." He said, tugging at her arm once more as Happy and the rest of the security team led them out to the waiting car. "Why do you still have that? I have loads of those." Tony asked her, noticing that she was still holding onto his award that Rhodey had put down on the table.

"Because you were meant to keep it. I think Rhodey would be a little more ticked off if he knew you didn't even care about the award." She told him, as Happy opened the door.

"Mr Stark!" The pair heard a woman call, making Ruby roll her eyes. "Excuse me, Mr Stark, Ms Stark. Christine Everhart, Vanity Fair magazine. Can I ask you a couple of questions?" The woman called to them.

Ruby was the first to turn and look over her father's shoulder and at the blonde haired woman. "Oh yay, the woman who thought I was pulling a stunt at the conference." She whispered to Tony.

Tony looked down at her. "Really? You're sure?" Ruby nodded at her, before letting a grin take over his face. He quickly turned, taking Ruby with him. "Hi."

"Hello!" Ruby added, waving a little and smiling as they walked a little closer to the woman as security let her go.

"Hi." The blonde haired woman replied, putting on her best smile for the man standing before her.

"Yeah, okay, go." Tony said, making sure Ruby was still holding onto his arm. He wanted to see what the woman had to say, and how Ruby was going to deal with her.

"You've been called the da Vinci of our time. What do you say to that?" Christine asked, making Ruby snort a little.

"Absolutely ridiculous. I don't paint." He said, trying not to laugh at the way Ruby was acting. He had tried to keep her away from the press, because he had found out, rather quickly, that she liked to give them hell and was really a little too good at twisting their words.

Christine just frowned at him, he wasn't taking her seriously and she didn't like that. "And what do you say to your other nickname, 'The Merchant of Death'?"

Tony actually seemed impressed. "That's not bad… eh, honey?" He said, looking to Ruby and grinning. All she could do was grin back at him. "Let me guess. Berkeley?" He asked, trying to guess where she had studied.

"Brown, actually."

"Well, Ms Brown. It's an imperfect world, but it's the only one we've got. I guarantee you, the day weapons are no longer needed to keep the peace, I'll start making bricks and beams for baby hospitals." Tony told her smugly.

"And what about you, Ms Stark?" She asked, looking to Ruby. "You're part of Stark Industries now."

Ruby's grin just grew wider, if that was even possible. "Ms Everhart, firstly I would like to correct you on my name. Miss Matthews-Stark, not Ms Stark. You managed to get it right when you claimed that my appendix almost bursting was down to stressed caused by my father." The woman's face dropped, clearly she had not expected something like that to come from the young woman's mouth. "I would also like to point out, that I have no dealings in the weapons department of Stark Industries. My father and I both have our own departments, our own projects."

"So you're saying that you don't care?" Christine retorted.

That was a big mistake on her behalf. "Stark Industries has been dealing with weapons since before I was even born, since before my mother and father were even born. What I am saying, Ms Everhart, is that I do not deal with the weapons of Stark Industries, or any other company. I have my own interests which are part of the company." Ruby told her, her tone full of spite. She really disliked the woman, and she was going to make her life hell if she carried on the way she was.

To say that the woman was stunned was an understatement. Tony was smirking away, trying to contain his laughter. He hadn't thought Ruby would be so harsh with the woman, but it was very entertaining. "You find this discussion amusing, Mr Stark?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "Mildly. My daughter is very entertaining when she wants to be."

"All I want is a serious answer." Christine told him, trying to pull herself together from the attack she received from the young female Stark.

"Okay, here's serious." Tony said, actually straightening himself up to look serious. "My old man had a philosophy, 'Peace means having a bigger stick than the other guy'."

"That's a great line coming from the guy selling the sticks." Christine replied sharply. She was starting to fall into a foul mood. The woman hadn't anticipated that it would be so difficult to talk to the pair.

But Tony wasn't ready to give up yet, his daughter had given a show, and now it was his turn. "My father helped defeat the Nazis. He worked on the Manhattan Project. A lot of people, including your professors at Brown, would call that being a hero."

Christine Everhart stood tall and firm. No, she was not going to let them intimidate her. "And a lot of people would also call that war profiteering."

Now Tony had really had enough with the woman. He quickly took off his shades and took a step forward, taking Ruby with him. "Tell me, do you plan to report on the millions we've saved by advancing medical technology or kept from starvation with out intelli-crops? All those breakthroughs, military funding." There was now a smug grin on his face.

"You ever lose an hour of sleep your whole life?" She spat back at him.

"All the time, I am a father after all. My daughter comes first." He told her, before turning away from the woman and ready to head back to the car.

"Ms Everhart, next time I suggest that you do your homework more accurately." Ruby told the woman, stopping Tony from pulling her to the car. "That is, if there is a next time. Now, if you shall excuse us, I was promised some quality time with my father." And with that Ruby turned away, tugging at Tony's arm and leading him to the car. "Well, that was fun." She whispered to him, as Happy opened the door for them once again.

"What am I going to do with you, Ruby?" Tony asked, shaking his head as she got in the car. "Oh, I know, I should never let you anywhere near the press, ever again."

Ruby couldn't help but smirk some more. "Hey, I was going easy on her. She deserved so much more than what I gave her."

"Happy, let's go." He said, looking at the man in the mirror before turning to Ruby. "How about a quick movie when we get home? Anything you want."

"You do know it's already really late, and going to be even later by the time we get there. Even if we are taking the jet." Ruby reminded him, resting her head against her hand as she looked out of the window.

"So, is that a no then?" Tony asked, pretty confident that she was going to say no.

"Have you done all your packing?" She wondered, not even bothering to look at him. She already knew the answer.

"Uh, no."

"Well then, you have packing to do and I need to get some sleep. Plus, I need to check in with Liam, you know, to make sure he isn't going to worry too much about where we're going." Liam had been very against her going, his view on it was so strong that he was threatening to drag her backside back to Denver until it was all over. Then Ruby told him she had Tasha and Robin looking out for her, and he relaxed a little.

"He still bugging you over that?" Tony asked her. Of course, Liam had called him as well, demanding that Tony didn't take her. He was a little surprised at how demanding he had been, but realised that it was because he was protective of her still. And still, no matter how much he assured him that Ruby would be safe, he still wasn't convinced.

"Please, he isn't going to stop bugging me until we get back and I let him know. It's a nightmare." She moaned.

"So, how about after the demo, me and you take the jet somewhere for a few days?" Tony suggested, knowing that it would annoy Liam and that his daughter would love it.

Ruby smirked at him. "Where do you have in mind?" She asked him, clearly thinking the same thing that Tony was.

"Well, we could stop off in Italy, they have a few nice slopes there. Go to the south of France, I might even take you to London, let you do a little bit of shopping." He told her, grinning away at her as they made their way to the airfield where the jet was ready and waiting to take them back to Malibu.

"No spending limit?" She asked, hoping that that was the case. If it was, she knew what her answer would be.

He shook his head at her. "No spending limit. You can but whatever you want. And hey, when we get back, I might even buy you a new car."

Ruby glared at him. "No, I don't want a new car. A new car will give me a reason to give up Maggie-May. So no, no new car." She told Tony firmly. She really was still attached to her mother's car, and even if it was old, she really didn't want to get rid of her.

Tony held his hands up in defence, looking at his daughter beside him in the back seat of the Rolls Royce that they were currently in. "Okay, calm down. I thought it was a nice gesture. What would you rather have me do?" He asked her, knowing exactly what he had already done, waiting for them when they got home.

Ruby let out a sigh, knowing that Tony was just trying to do something nice for her. "Sorry. It's just… that car means a lot to me. And the thought of having to send her to for scrap, well, it upsets me. She's one of the best memories that I have of my mom, I kind of want to keep it that way."

Tony just reached out, taking a hold of her hand and giving it a light squeeze. "Hey, it's okay. Maybe we can figure something out, I'm sure there is something we can do to save her."

His daughter scoffed at him. "I doubt that. The amount of work that needs doing to her, well, it would cost and take a lot of time." She said, looking at the confused expression on Tony's face. "No one touches Maggie-May but me. That means that no one else does any work on her but me. That way, if something is wrong, I only have myself to blame."

Tony just grinned at her. He liked the way she thought, plus it helped that he already had a plan. "Fair enough. But surely you can afford the parts and do it yourself?" He suggested, knowing full well what he was doing.

Ruby let out a sigh. "I can't afford them all. I can afford some with the money mom left me, but not everything. I am not going to do it, unless I am going to do it right."

There was a forced sad smile on Tony's face now, not that Ruby really noticed as she was too busy looking out of the window still. "Well, maybe I can help you get the parts. But only if you behave and don't do something that I have to ground you for."

She let out a huff of annoyance. "Well, we both know that is never going to happen. Don't give me false hope, Mr Stark, that's just cruel." Ruby told him.

"Oh, you must be annoyed, you're calling me 'Mr Stark' now." Tony commented, trying so hard not to laugh.

"Shut it, Stark." Ruby warned him, glaring at him at the same time. No, she definitely wasn't in the mood for him to be joking about her mother's car. And that only proved to him how important that car was, and how he had made the right choice with what he had planned.

"Please, don't glare at me like that. Seriously, Ruby, I am begging you not to do that. It gives me the shivers and just reminds me of your mother." Tony told her, trying to shake off the feeling that he had just given him by looking at him like that.

"Don't talk about my mother's car than." She told him, still giving him the glare, just a little more fierce than before.

They spent the rest of the drive in silence. Ruby annoyed that Tony had even suggested getting her a new car, while Tony was trying to think of the right thing to say. He had never meant to upset her by offering to buy her a new car, he just wanted to test how much the Audi that she currently had meant to her. It turns out, it meant more to her than he could ever imagine, which actually made him smile.

When they were on Tony's private jet, flying back to Malibu, he noticed that Ruby seemed to be shaking a little. "Don't tell me you're scared of flying?" He asked her, wondering what was wrong with her.

"No." She replied, making sure to glare at him. "I am not scared of flying. I'm just nervous about tomorrow." Ruby admitted. "It's my first 'official' outing with you, I guess. I don't want to screw up of make you look more of an idiot than you already are."

"Hey, come on, you're not going to screw up. What happened before was not your fault, well not totally." Tony said, earning yet another glare. "Listen to me, Ruby, there is nothing you can do that will screw it up, or make me look like an idiot, okay? I'm already an idiot." She didn't answer him, she didn't even look at him. "Ruby, honey, everything is going to be fine. Your awesome uncle Rhodey is going to be there. What could possibly go wrong?"

Ruby almost groaned at his final words, knowing that they would curse their trip. Whenever some asked what could go wrong, something usually did go wrong. She had worked that out years ago, when a mission wet wrong and a few people ended up in a lot of trouble, and a deadly situation. It never ended well when someone said that.

"The last time someone said that, everything went completely wrong." She moaned to him, making him chuckle a little.

"Yeah, but that someone wasn't the brilliant Tony Stark." He said, trying to make her smile, but failing totally with it.

"No, but it was someone who really should have known better." She grumbled, thinking back to that time when her Robin Hood had pretty much jinxed the entire mission. She quickly shook her head, trying to shake away the memories that she really didn't want to be remembering. That was her past life, that wasn't her life now.

The pair of them pretty much stayed silent for the rest of the long journey home. Ruby was too busy trying not to worry and to focus on something other than Afghanistan and all the things that could go wrong. Sure, she had Natasha and Clint looking out for her, but if something went wrong and they had to intervene, Ruby would be pretty screwed. There was a lot she wasn't telling her father, a lot that she never told her mother either.

Soon enough, they were pulling up to the mansion, and Ruby just couldn't wait to lay down on her bed and pass out. "Welcome home, sir, miss." JARVIS called to them both as they walked in.

"Is everything set up in he workshop, JARVIS?" Tony asking, taking off his jacket and tossing it onto the couch.

"Yes, sir. Everything is all ready."

"Hey, where do you think you're going, missy?" Tony called, noticing Ruby trying to slip off to her room already.

She stopped and turned to face him. "Bed. I'm tired and it's going to be a long day tomorrow. All I want to do is go and crash out until it's time to leave." Ruby told him. She really did just want her bed now, she hadn't realised before how exhausted she was really feeling until now.

"Ah, in a bit. I've got a surprise for you first, so come on." He said, taking a hold of her arm and dragging her down to the workshop. Ruby wasn't impressed by the way he was pulling her around, and it took a lit for her not to pull away and hit him for it.

The glass door to the workshop opened, and Ruby just frowned. "Okay, so what's this great surprise that just couldn't wait?" She asked him, looking at the mass of boxes scattered all over the place. Most of them had been opened, but she still couldn't see what was in them.

"Remember what we were talking about earlier?" Tony asked her, but just getting a shrug as a response. He rolled his eyes at her. "About Maggie-May?"

"Uh, yeah, what about it?" Ruby could admit that she was confused now.

Tong just gave her a huge grin. "Well, all the parts you need are here." He told her, wondering what she was going to say. Except Ruby stayed silent. "I had a look a few months back, ordered all the parts that needed replacing or updating. I know how much that car means to you, so I was thinking that we can work on her together. What do you think?"

He stood there, looking at her, ready and waiting for her answer. But once again she didn't say anything, she just walked over to one of the brown cardboard boxes and started rummaging through it. After going through about eight or nine boxes, she finally looked to Tony. "Why?" Is all she said to him.

He couldn't stop himself from frowning at her. "Well, I just… I thought it would be a nice thing to do, and something that we could work on together. I mean, if you don't want to, then that's fine." Tony said, holding his hands up in defence in front of him.

"There's a lot that needs to be done." Ruby told him, going back to hunting through the boxes. "It's going to take weeks, if not months, to get it all done." She stopped, looked at her father, and grinned. "So I guess we better get started then."

Tony Stark stood there, slightly shocked. He had not been able to read his daughter, to see what she was thinking of feeling. At one point he was sure she was going to tell him where to stick it, but instead, she wanted to get started on the car straight away. "Now? I thought you wanted to go to bed? I thought you were tired?"

She shrugged at him. "I can sleep on the plane. So, are we doing this?"

"Get changed." He said, looking down at the expensive and stunning dress she was still wearing. "No working in dresses." He warned her.

"Uh, yeah. Okay, probably a good idea." Ruby mumbled, only just noticing the dress she was still in. She had just been a little too excited when she found out what Tony had done, and she just wanted to get started with it now. "Give me five minutes, do not start anything until I get back." She warned him, heading towards the glass door to making her way back upstairs and to her room.

"I'm sorry, who's the parent here?" Tony asked her, his eyebrows raised as he looked at her.

There was a grin on Ruby's face still. "You haven't passed yet, I'm still training you up." She called to him, before bolting it up the stairs and to her room.

A/N: And so the first Iron Man movie has officially started! Will Ruby actually go to the weapons Demo? Will she make it out again if she does? How is this who thing going to affect her and her relationship with Tony?

Guess you're just going to have to wait and find out.

Thank you to everyone who has followed/favourited the story. I know I say it a lot, but it does mean the world to me to know people are reading. And obviously a massive thank you to everyone who reviews. It's because of you guys I continued to write.

Pippa.