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?" Tony called, trying to get his daughters attention. "Ruby!"

Her head suddenly shot up. "Huh? What? What you shouting for?" She replied, rubbing her face and her eyes a little.

He chuckled at her a little. "How's it all looking down there?"

"Uh, not bad." Ruby told him, brushing some of her hair that had managed to work its way out of the ponytail away from her face. "What about at your end?"

"Looking perfect. Won't be long till we get Maggie-May back on the road and looking like new. You thought about the paintwork yet?" He asked, picking up a rag and wiping his hands on it.

"I'm just used to her being silver. If she was anything else, she wouldn't be Maggie-May anymore."

"Well, you know there is always another option." He told her, getting up from where he was and walking to the spot where she had been working. They had been working non stop, and he knew that Ruby was more than a little tired now. "You could always keep her silver, but just add your own little colour into it."

She frowned at him, clearly thinking about his suggestion. "Yeah, maybe that could work. Hey, JARVIS, run a few different designs, and make sure they are silver and purple."

"Of course, Miss Matthews-Stark. Will there be anything else?" The British voice called.

"Nope, that's all. Thanks." Ruby said, before standing up properly and stretching out her back. Her eye caught something through the glass doors. "Uh, best puppy dog pout, we're in trouble." She whispered, noticing the woman coming down the stairs.

Straight away, Tony knew what she was talking about. "Get back to work, Ruby." He said, a smirk on his face.

Ruby ducked her head back down, pretending to be working, just as the music turned off and the glass door opened.

"Please don't turn down my music." Tony called to the woman who had just entered the room.

"You and Ruby are suppose to be halfway around the world right now." Pepper told him, ending the call she had been on and getting her work all together and ready to sort through with Tony.

"Why are you trying to hustle me out of here?" Tony asked, pretending to be interested in what he was doing with the car still.

Pepper let out a long sigh. "Your flight was scheduled to leave an hour and a half ago."

"That's funny, I thought with it being my plane and all, that I would just wait for us to get there." He retorted, nudging Ruby who was trying to hold in her giggles.

"Tony, I need to speak to you about a couple of things before I get you, and your daughter who is not doing a very good job at hiding, out of the door." Pepper called, looking over directly to where Ruby was leaning over.

"I'm not hiding. I'm working." She called back to the woman, still not showing her face.

Tony couldn't help but smirk. His daughter really was a good troublemaker. "Doesn't it kind of defeat the whole purpose of having your own plane if it departs before you arrive?"

Pepper decided to just ignore him. "Larry called. He's got another buyer for the Jackson Pollock in the wings. Do you want it? Yes or no?" She asked, looking down at the list she had to get through.

"Is it a good representation of his spring period?"

Ruby snorted. "God, you're a idiot for a genius. The Springs isn't the season, it's the neighbourhood in East Hampton where the dude lived and worked." Tony just nudged her with his leg, wanting her to shut up and stop looking smarter than he was. "And it's seriously overpriced."

Tony just rolled his eyes. "I need it. Buy it. Store it."

"Okay. The MIT commencement speech…"

"Is in June." Tony moaned. "Please don't harangue me about stuff that's way, way down…"

"They're haranguing me, so I'm gonna say yes." Pepper said, doing the one thing that Tony hated the most, interrupting him.

"Deflect it and absorb it. Don't transmit it back to me."

"I need you to sign this before you get on the plane." She said, holding a pen and an open folder towards him, waiting for him to sign it.

"What are you trying to get rid of us for? What, you got plans?" Tony asked as he took the pen and signed the papers.

"Of course, auntie Pepper has plans." Ruby called, finally showing her face. "It is her birthday after all. Happy birthday, I hope you liked your present."

Pepper looked over at her, shaking her head but with a smile on her face. Ruby was covered in dirt, grease and oil, and she didn't even know it. "I did, Ruby. Thank you."

Tony just looked from his daughter and to his PA. "What did you get her? How did you know that it was her birthday?"

"I got her a new watch that she liked. And I knew because I actually asked." Ruby told him smugly. She knew she had one up on her father with Pepper now, because she knew it was her birthday and he didn't.

He rolled his eyes at her. "Yeah, Ruby, you got a little something, just… right here." He said, making sure to smudge the grease across her face a little more before turning back to Pepper. "Get yourself something nice from me."

It was Pepper's turn to look smug now. "I already did." She had gotten it when she had been out shopping with Ruby, and she didn't need that much convincing to get it either.

"And?"

"It was very nice." Pepper knew that he would never have remembered in the first place.

"Yeah?"

"Very tasteful. Thank you, Mr Stark." There was a small smile on Pepper's face now.

"You're welcome, Miss Potts." He said, before turning to his daughter once more. "You, uh, might want to go and shower first, Ruby. I mean, just look at that." He took hold of the rag he had been using to wipe his own hands on and started wiping at her face with it.

"No, get off!" She shouted, trying to push his hands away. "Stop it, you're just going to make it even worse!" Ruby cried, snatching the rag from his hand and throwing it to one side.

Tony just carried on laughing at her. "No, wait, there's still a little bit, right… here." He said, using his thumb to smudge some more across her cheek.

Ruby just glared at him, seriously not impressed with what he was doing to her. "I recommend you go shower as well. And hey, did you ever even finish your packing?" She knew for a fact that he hadn't.

The pair of them had spent all night working on the car, taking it apart and starting to put her back together again with the new parts that he had gotten. They had been so immersed in it, that neither of them had really bothered with the time.

"My packing is done, thank you very much." He said, smearing her face with his hand now.

"Yeah, only because you had Pepper do it for you." She said, giving him a small glare. Sometimes she didn't like how much he made Pepper do for him. "I hope you have a good day, auntie Pepper. I'd give you a hug, but I'm covered in grease."

"It's fine, Ruby. Are you sure you won't change your mind? You can stay here with me, you can come out with me tonight." And she was still trying to convince her not to go to Afghanistan.

Ruby just smiled at her. "I'm sure, we can go out when we get back. Anywhere you want, you're boss can pay. Claim it as expenses, or childcare. Either is fine with me." She told her. "Anyway, need to get clean. Bye Pepper."

Tony couldn't help but chuckle a little. "That's my little grease monkey." He said, watching her head over to the glass doors.

"I heard that!" Ruby shouted across the room to him.

The two that had been left in the room stayed silent until they were sure she was gone. "Tony, I really don't think you should be taking her. Seriously, she's just a kid, she shouldn't be going there and watching that weapons demo." Pepper's tone was harsh, and Tony had been expecting it.

"Ruby made up her own mind. She wanted to go, I'm not forcing her. If she wants to take an interest, then I am not going to stop her. One day, the company is going to be hers, so she may as well get used to it now." He told her, picking up the rag that Ruby had thrown.

"So you're going to force the company onto her? You know the only reason she is doing this is to spend time with you, to be a part of your life." She had remembered that from the conversation she had had with Ruby out on their shopping trip, and it was the thing that had bothered her the most.

"What, and she said that, did she?" Tony asked, not exactly sure that he believed his daughter would have said that. As far as he was concerned, they had been spending time together. Hell, they had even been up all night working on her mother's old car together.

"Yes, she did. She said that your work is your life, and she wants to be a part of that." The look on her face just made Tony know she was telling the truth. "I tried to tell her that she didn't need to go with you for that to happen, but she wouldn't listen."

Tony let out a sigh. "As stubborn as her mother." He feared the day he would learn just how stubborn she really was. It was bad enough that he could be stubborn, but throwing her mother's into the mix as well, it was going to be a nightmare. "I'll talk to her. See if she really does want to go. But if she does, I'm not going to stop her."

Pepper nodded at him. "Okay. Good. But Ruby was right, you really do need to shower as well before you leave. Happy will be behind you with the luggage. I assume you will be driving with Ruby in your car?"

"Yeah, Maggie-May isn't quite ready to rock and roll just yet." Tony said, looking over at the car. He couldn't wait to get back and start working on it again with Ruby. He had enjoyed it so much, and he had been able to watch her working. She really was a hard worker, her mind set with determination. "Shower, then talk to Ruby. Got it." He said, before bounding up the stairs himself and into his own room.

About half an hour later, and Tony was ready. He knew he didn't have any more time to waste, and that Pepper would get seriously mad at him if they were any later. He strolled down to Ruby's room, and knocked on the door. "Hey, Ruby? You ready?"

A few seconds later, the door was yanked open and Ruby stood there in her cargo pants and a tank top. "Yeah, I'm ready. This suitable enough for you for the desert? Because I swear, if you even try to make me wear a dress…"

"No, no, that's fine. You'll fit right in with the military. Hey, maybe I could leave you with them? Enrol you in military school." He said, a huge grim on his face.

"They'd kick me out within the first five minutes." She replied, smirking at him. "So, we all set to go then?"

"Uh, actually, I wanted to talk to you about something first." Tony said, making Ruby look at him nervously. "Miss Potts just told me something, something that you said to her. Look, Ruby, you don't have to come if you don't want to. I know that weapons aren't really your thing, that's why you took over on the Arc Reactor. You don't need to do this to be a part of my life. You already are." He assured her.

She let out a sigh, she should have seen this one coming. "I do want to go. And yeah, I may not be big on the weapons, but I know it is a huge part of the company. Which is how it's going to be until my work with the Arc Reactor takes over and steals your spotlight." Ruby said with a grin.

"That confident, huh?" Ruby just nodded at him. "So, you really do want to come? You wouldn't rather stay here and carry on working on Maggie-May?"

"No, that's something we do together or not at all. I really do want to come with you. If you still want me to?" Now she was unsure that he even wanted her to go.

"Of course I want you to come with me, Ruby. I never would have asked you in the first place if I didn't." He said, bringing a smile back to her face. "Now come on, we need to beat Happy to the jet." He said, before grabbing her arm and pulling her along with him back down to the workshop.

The got into one of his many cars, on of his Audi's. As they did, Ruby checked the ear bud that was fixed in her ear. "SWAIN, everything all set?" She called, making Tony glance at her out of the corner of his eye.

"Everything is all planned, Miss Matthews, and running smoothly." SWAIN replied in her ear.

"Good, keep me updated." She said, before relaxing back in her seat.

"Uh, what was that all about?" Tony asked as she started up the engine.

She shrugged at him. "Nothing much. Just a few projects I'm working on. Just because I'm not at the office doesn't mean I can't do some work."

The thought that she had projects, and that she was working, only made him frown. "And what are these projects then?" Tony asked her curiously. "And why do I know nothing about them?"

"It's to do with the Arc Reactor. And the reason why you know nothing about it is because it is my project and it is far from ready yet. I'm still going through the plans and stuff. I keep making changes to it." Ruby told him as she let her eyes fall on the window as they rushed out of the garage and down the driveway.

"So, you have got idea's then? Because we've not had a breakthrough in, what, thirty years?" He told her, glancing in the mirror and seeing the Rolls Royce behind them, desperately trying to catch up.

Ruby chuckled a little. "Yeah, you didn't have a breakthrough because you didn't have me."

"You really think you're onto something with it then?" She just shrugged her response to him. She had been making progress with it, but that hadn't really been the reason why she was checking in with SWAIN. "Well, when we get back, maybe you can run me through it all. I mean, if you want to?"

She managed to smile at him. "Okay, yeah. Yeah, that would be good. Thanks."

"Great. Now, how about we show Happy how to really drive?" Tony said, a smirk on his face as he put his foot down and the car sped off, leaving the black car trailing behind them.

Ruby managed to smirk back at him. "Well, I suppose you have to make up for the lateness some how. What better way than by breaking every single speed limit that you can?" She asked him, knowing that they were going to be late no matter how fast he drove.

He chuckled a little, liking her way of thinking. "You know, I'm still waiting to find out all your dirty little secrets. I know you have some, but I can't find them." Tony said, making conversation as they raced to the Stark Industries where the jet was waiting for them still.

"Secrets? You want to know my secrets?" Ruby asked him, getting a nod from her father. "Okay, my biggest secret is that I have a fear of the dark." She told him casually.

A frown formed on Tony's face. "Uh, no you don't."

"Okay, so strictly speaking it isn't the dark, it's the fear of what the darkness conceals. I've been that was since I was a kid, when I was bullied at school and they locked me in the store room for 7 hours." Ruby was doing good, spinning him a lie mixed with a little of the truth. "No one even noticed I was missing from class."

Tony just blinked a few times. "You were bullied at school?"

Ruby knew she had made a mistake now, she should have just kept her mouth shut. "Uh, yeah. Even the teachers made my life hell. They didn't like the fact that I was always correcting them, that I knew more than them. If I scored too high in a test, the other kids would beat me up. If I corrected a teacher, I got detention." Now that she had started, she just couldn't stop. "Mom didn't find out about it until I came home with bloody hands and blood dripping down my face."

"What the hell did they do to you?" Tony's grip on the steering wheel tightened. He was not pleased to be hearing this, but he did ask for it.

Ruby shrugged her shoulders. "The usual, the kids smacked me about a bit, slammed me into walls, kicked me, pulled my hair." She had to close her eyes a take a deep breath. "I was seven when it all started, and ten when mom finally pulled me out of that school."

Tony didn't really know what to say. He had no idea that she had been through all of that, that his daughter had been bullied because she was smart. It made him sick to his stomach just thinking about it. "And was it any better at the new school?" He asked her.

She shook her head. "Not really. The cycle just started all over again. But I decided that it was time to fight back. So I did, and I got myself into even more trouble."

"I take it this is where your mother getting help and you getting some training comes into it all?" He asked her, his mind still reeling from what he was being told.

"Yeah. I derailed, decided that school was pointless and stopped going. That was when Tasha stepped in. She was pretty tough on me, made me find something to focus on. Training with her helped me to get out all the anger I had with everyone else." She told him, wishing that her mouth would just shut up now. "So there you go, you know my secret."

Once again, Tony didn't really know what to say. It had gone from her telling him she was afraid of the dark, to confessing that she had been bullied at school for being smart. "Got to admit, not quite what I was expecting to hear. But hey, you don't have to worry about anything like that happening ever again. You're a Stark, no one would dare bully a Stark."

Ruby couldn't help but chuckle a little. "Yeah, if only they knew I was a Stark back then. God, I would have loved to see their faces when those idiots found out I was a the daughter of Tony Stark."

"I bet you would. I'd just be a little worried about what you would say to them, and how you would deal with it." Tony told her, keeping an eye out for the Rolls Royce that was somewhere behind them. "Like how you deal with the press."

"I was also taught not to give a damn what the press, or anyone else says or thinks of me. Someone told me that the only opinion that should matter to me is that of the ones closest to me, not of total strangers who know nothing about me." She told him, remember a conversation she had once had with her favourite archer.

"So, that's why you're so harsh with them?"

"I'm not harsh, I'm just not exactly nice. You can be nice to them, but I don't see why I should, they're only interested in me because of who I'm related to." She told him, knowing that it was true. None of those reporters or journalists was interested in her and her views, they only wanted to know about Tony Stark.

"Yeah, and this is why I don't want you talking to them unless I'm there. I never know what is going through that head of yours, or what is going to come out of your mouth." He told her.

Ruby just rolled her eyes at him. "You not meant to know. It's my head." She told him, watching the scenery flash past them. "Anyway, you know a secret of mine, now I think it's only fair that you tell me one of yours."

"I don't have secrets." Tony told her, keeping his eyes firmly fixed on the road.

"You're lying." Ruby sang back to him, knowing full well that he had secrets, everyone does, no matter how hard they try to deny it.

"No, I really don't have any secrets. My life has never been personal, everyone can know everything about me if they look hard enough." He was doing a good job at acting like he didn't have one, but Ruby knew better.

"Really, Tony, you do have secrets, we all do. And I told you something of mine, something that I didn't actually plan on telling you either." She said, still slightly shocked that she had let her mouth run away like that and tell him so much.

Tony let out a sigh, knowing that she was going to keep on pestering him. She was too much like him, and too much like her mother. She had no patience, and she knew how to get her own way. "Fine, you want to know a secret? The day your mother left was the worse day of my life." He told her, taking a deep breath. "That was the day I was going to ask her to marry me."

Ruby just looked at him, her mouth hanging open slightly. That really had been a secret, and something pretty big as well. "You were both bloody idiots." She mumbled, folding her arms across her chest and shifting in her seat a little.

"Oh, right, thanks. I tell you my biggest secret, and you call me an idiot." It was clear Tony was not happy with her response.

"I called you both idiots. Mom was an idiot for not talking to you and just walking out, and you were an idiot for not going after her. She took to going into hiding, doing anything and everything to avoid you, while you, Mr Stark, took to the bottle." Tony distinctly heard some spite coming out in her tone, and he knew she had some strong views on what the pair of them had done.

He let out a sigh. "Hey, if I could go back and change it, then I would, honey. I would go back, never be that jerk, marry your mother, and we'd be one happy family." He told her. "Hey, maybe there would even have been more Stark's running around." He teased.

Ruby scoffed at him. "Please, I'm bad enough, you couldn't handle it if there were more."

"Yeah, actually, I think I have to agree there. You are a real handful."

They spent a little time in silence. Both of them thinking over what they had just found out. Tony was certainly not impressed that his daughter had been bullied at school for being smart, and he was not impressed with the way she had ended up handling it. If he had been there, he would have sorted those teachers out, and those kids as well. It actually made him angry to know that they had done that to her.

While Tony was thinking on that, Ruby was mulling over what he had told her. She had always thought that the pair of them were complete idiots. She knew that her mother loved her father, even though she didn't know who he was. But it was as clear as day to her how much she loved him and missed him, and Ruby couldn't help but think she was a fool for not contacting him and trying to make things work. And yes, she did think Tony was an idiot for not gong after her mother. He was Tony Stark, he could have found her in a heartbeat if he really wanted to, but instead he took to drinking more and drowning in alcohol and women.

"Ruby? Hello?" Tony called, one hand on the wheel while he was waving the other in front of her face.

She shook her head and blinked several times. "What?" Ruby asked, looking at him in shock.

"Uh, we're nearly there now. Everything okay?" He asked her, glancing at her out of the corner of his eye as he drove. Happy was right behind them, and Tony wasn't speeding as much as he had been.

"Yeah, sorry. I'm just a little tired. We were up all night working on Maggie-May. You might be perfectly fine to live on caffeine, but I'm certainly not. Plus, I like my sleep." She told him, resting her head in her hand once more.

Tony smiled a little and nodded at her. "Well, you can sleep as much as you want on the jet, okay? I'll wake you up just before we get there so that you can wake up properly and have something to eat. That sound fair to you?" He asked her.

Ruby nodded a little at him. "Yeah, sounds good."

It didn't take them long to pull up at the red carpet that was waiting, leading to the private jet of Tony Stark. "You're good." Happy called, pulling up before the Audi and getting the luggage out of the car.

"I thought I lost you back there." Tony said to him, as Ruby picked up her things.

"You did, sir. I had to cut across Mulholland." Happy told him, a smile on his face.

Ruby looked up and saw Rhodey standing there, his eyes just full of annoyance and anger. "Uh, best puppy dog pout, we're in trouble. Again." She whispered to her father as he pushed her towards the metal stairs to the jet.

"What's wrong with you?" Rhodey asked them as they made their way over.

"What?"

"Three hours." Rhodey told him, having been standing there, waiting for them both, for three long hours, in the blazing sun.

"Yeah, we got caught up with something. Didn't we, honey?" Tony said, looking to his daughter for confirmation.

She just shook her head and looked at him. She had taken the fall for him at the awards ceremony, she was not going to do it again. "Don't bring me into this. I'm tired, I want to go to sleep." Ruby said, walking up the steps.

"For three hours. For three hours you got me standing here." Rhodey was definitely not in a good mood now.

Tony quickly ran up the steps, trying to catch up with his daughter. "Waiting on you now." He said, leaving Rhodey standing outside still. "Let's go. Come on. Wheels up! Rock and roll!"

All Rhodey could do was shake his head as he made his way inside of the jet. It was going to be a long flight, even longer with two Starks on board. But if Ruby was tired, and wanted to sleep, he was hoping he would only have to deal with Tony. He could manage that, just, but he couldn't manage if he had to deal with both of them, at the same time.

A/N: I just want to say thank you to everyone who has favourited/followed this or any of my other stories. And I love reading your reviews, so please keep leaving them for me to read.

Well, I hope you guys liked this chapter, and the little Tony and Ruby moments. There is a lot more to come, oh, just you wait and see!

Pippa.