A/N: I am sorry for not posting last week. I was still ill and my head would spin when looking at the screen. But all good now, sorry for the wait.
Tony and Rhodey were sitting on the curved couch on the private jet. Both the men had a drink in their hand, while the music played in the background, music that Tony had kept turning down. The flight attendants had been turning it up, and joining in with the party atmosphere, much to Tony's dislike. He turned it down, worried that it would wake Ruby up, and sent the flight attendants on their way. He didn't want them intruding, which was a little of a shock to Rhodey.
"That's what I'm talking about." Rhodey told him, clearly at least a little tipsy. "When I get up in the morning and I'm putting on my uniform, you know what I recognise?" He said, not acknowledging the fact that Tony didn't seem to be listening. "I see in that mirror that every person that's got this uniform on got my back." He finished.
"Hey, you know what? I'm not like you." Tony told him, taking a swig of the drink in his hand. "I'm not cut out…"
"No, no." Rhodey interrupted, causing Tony to roll his eyes. "You don't have to be like me. But you're more than what you are. Just look at you, Tony, ever since Ruby came, you've changed."
"Well what do you expect? It's not just me anymore, I have to look after her, I have to do what's right by her." He told his best friend. "I have to make my daughter my number one priority."
"Yeah, and you will. You know you will, I know you will, and she knows you will." Rhodey rambled. Tony laughed a little, but his smile quickly turned into a frown. "We all saw how worried you were when she had to go to the hospital."
"Did you hear that?" Tony asked, suddenly sitting upright.
"What? Tony, all I can hear is the music." Rhodey told him, frowning at his friend.
Tony turned the music off completely and made a signal for his friend to just listen. They both did, and a moment later they both heard a scream. "Ruby…" Tony said, before jumping off the couch and heading to the bedroom where she was sleeping.
The door flew open and Tony rushed in, his daughter thrashing and screaming in the bed before him. He had seen her have a nightmare before, and SWAIN told him not to wake her. But that had been nowhere near as bad as what he was seeing now. The beads of sweat were trickling down her face and her hair was definitely damp.
"JARVIS, I need SWAIN. Now!" Tony shouted, sitting on the edge of the bed, wishing that there were something he could do to help his daughter.
"Yes, sir." JARVIS replied, his voice echoing through the room.
A few minutes later, SWAIN was coming through to the room the same way that JARVIS would usually be heard. "How can I help, Mr Stark?" He asked from his room in Denver.
"SWAIN, she's having another nightmare, but this one seems a lot worse. She's screaming and hitting anything and everything." Tony said, the worry seeping though his voice. Rhodey was just standing there, quickly sobering up at the sight that was before him.
There was silence for a moment, while SWAIN assessed the situation. "I would recommend you wake her up, Mr Stark. I advise Colonel Rhodes to assist you, she will become violent." SWAIN told him.
"Tony, what the hell is going on?" Rhodes asked him, suddenly feeling a lot more sober than he was minutes before.
"Uh, nightmares, she… she has nightmares. Sometimes she gets violent while she's having them. We need to wake her up." Tony said, trying to rack his brain and work out what the hell to do to wake her up. "Uh, hold her legs down. And try not to let her kick you in the face." He said to his friend.
"And when you say violent?" Rhodey didn't need to say anything else, as a pair of legs flailed in the air and almost knocked him over. "Okay, never mind." He said, before gasping hold of her ankles tightly and doing his best to keep them still. It was already turning out to be a bit of a struggle, she was a lot stronger than she seemed, especially for someone who was sleeping.
While Rhodey was dealing with her legs, Tony had a tight hold of her wrists, stopping her arms from thrashing out and hitting him. His heart was pounding in his chest as he listened to her screams. "Ruby, you need to wake up." He shouted over her cries. "Ruby, come on, wake up!"
Rhodey was struggling to keep her still, she was a lot stronger than he had anticipated. "Tony…" He said, more as a warning as he was nearly kicked off the bed where he was resting and holding her down.
"Ruby, honey, come on, it's just a nightmare, come on. Please, just wake up, honey. Wake up." The man was pleading now. He had never experienced something so terrifying in his life as what he was going through now with his daughter.
When her appendix had almost burst, they had been on solid ground, and managed to get her to the hospital extremely fast. But this was different, her screams and her cries made it sound like she was in so much pain, and there was nothing Tony could do but try to wake her up.
Suddenly her whole body twisted, and all three of them landed on the floor. Rhodey landed on her legs, managing to keep them completely still under his weight, while Tony only had a hold of one of her arms. Ruby's other arm was around his neck, tight, but not enough to stop his breathing.
"Christ, Tony!" His friend shouted, seeing what had happened. And yet, there was nothing much else that Rhodey could do apart from trying to keep the young woman still. His heart was pounding in his chest as well, and he was sure that neither he nor Tony was going to make it to the air base in one piece and completely unharmed.
Tony grasped at the arm that was trying to cut off his airways. As his daughter screamed again, her grip loosened and he managed to yank her arm away from him. "Ruby, for God sake, wake up!" Tony shouted once more, before letting out of a sigh. "Come on, honey. Please, it's just a nightmare, wake up." He was getting desperate now, he had no idea what to do to wake her up. Shouting at her wasn't work.
Both the men just held her down for a few more minutes, while Tony racked his brain, trying to think of something to do to help. He felt like everything was falling apart around him, and that he was failing as a father and wasn't fit to look after Ruby. Now he was starting to think that he should have left her with Pepper, that maybe he should have forced her to stay behind.
"Mr Stark, her heart rate is beginning to lower." SWAIN called a few minutes later, having been keeping en eye on her with the help of JARVIS. They had been working well as a team, SWAIN providing all previous information of her heart rate and everything else when Ruby has had nightmares, and JARVIS comparing them to the current situation. It seemed like the two AI's were really hitting it off.
Tony looked down at his daughter, there were still beads of sweat on her forehead, and the screaming seemed to have turned into whimpers. "Hey, come on, honey." He said gently, brushing away the hair that was sticking to her face. "You need to wake up now."
Finally, she started to groan, her arms no longer trying to fight against her father, and her legs still restrained by Rhodey. A few moments later, and her eyes flickered open, adjusting to the light as her mind trying to clear of the fog.
"Hey, Ruby? Look at me." Tony urged her softly. After several blinks, her eyes locked with his. They were still filled with tears, and Tony was surprised to find that his were as well. "You're okay, honey. It was just a nightmare." He was relieved that she was finally awake, that her grey eyes were opened and focusing on him.
"Did I hurt anyone?" Ruby asked, her voice rough from all the screaming. Tony quickly looked over at his best friend, who had now moved off her legs and was shaking his head.
He turned his attention back to his daughter. "No, no one was hurt, honey." Tony assured her, before wrapping his arms around her tightly. "Are you okay?" He managed to whisper to her.
He felt her nodding against him. "Yeah, I'm good. Just a stupid nightmare. Stupid, stupid nightmare." Ruby mumbled to herself. Of course she knew it wasn't just s stupid nightmare, it had been so much more than that. But how could she ever tell Tony about it? She was desperate not to let him find out about her past.
That was the problem. Everyone had something in their past that haunted them, that they wanted to forget about. Unfortunately, Ruby had done a lot in her past that she wasn't very proud off, but she vowed to stay off that track, and everyone else who knew her agreed, even those who had pushed her into doing those things agreed. She was still young at the time, and had already been through enough, she was lucky to get out when she did.
"Are you sure, Ruby? I mean, it was pretty bad. No one got hurt, but you still managed to put up a bit of a struggle." Her father told her, conveniently leaving out the fact that she had almost strangled him. Tony was sure that if he told her that, she would freak out and panic, that was the last thing he wanted to happen. Besides, he knew that she never meant to do that.
She nodded at him. "Yeah, I'm sure. I already know it was bad, what with the way my legs and wrists are hurting. I take it you had a little trouble restraining me as you tried to wake me?" Ruby asked, glancing over at Rhodey and giving him a slight smile.
Tony ran his hand through his already seriously messed up hair. "Uh, yeah. But hey, no damage done, right? The jet is still in one piece, and so are we." He didn't really know what else to say. There was a part of him that wanted to prod and probe, and try to find out exactly what that nightmare of hers was about. But then there was another part of him that was absolutely terrified of what it could be. He wasn't going to push her to tell him, he was going to leave that choice up to her.
"Well, you two can get back to whatever it was you were doing now." Ruby told them, wincing a little as she got up from the ground. "I'm going to get some more sleep."
At her announcement for more sleep, both Tony and Rhodey found their eyes widening as they shared a concerned and anxious glace. "Uh, yeah, I'm not sure you should just yet, you just had a pretty bad nightmare, I don't want you having another." He told his daughter while Rhodey quietly slipped out of the room.
"I'll be fine." Ruby told him, sitting on the bed with Tony resting beside her now. "It was just a nightmare, nothing anyone can do about it. Just accept it and move on." Tony could see that she was trying to be strong, to be brave and not care about it all, but he could see it in her eyes. Her eyes were betraying her, letting out more emotion that she wanted, telling everyone that she was still scared.
Tony let out a sigh, knowing that in some ways she was right. "Okay, how about we make a deal. You sleep, but this time on the couch." He told her. "That way you can sleep, and I can keep an eye on you."
Ruby thought about it for a moment, running her hand for the mess of dark curls on her head. Her scalp was still a little sweaty, and her hair damp because of it all. Eventually, she nodded. "Okay, I guess that seems fair." She whispered. Ruby really wasn't in the mood to argue with him or anyone else. She was pretty exhausted, and thrashing around from a nightmare really hasn't helped her. The nerves that she was feeling probably didn't make it any better for her.
Her father smiled at her softly. "Good. Now, give me the sheets." He demanded, holding his arms out and waiting for her to pull them off the bed and pass them to him.
Once they were all bundled into his arms, Ruby smiled at him. "I need to go and sort myself out." She said, wanting to go and throw a bucket of freezing cold water over her head. "You know, get cleaned up a bit."
Tony nodded to her, his eyes not leaving hers. He was still searching them for some clue as to what the hell had happened in her head. "Sure, take all the time you need." He said, kissing the top of her head and walking out of the bedroom.
Rhodey was standing there, arms folded in front of his chest as he leaned against one of the chairs. "How she doing now, Tony?" The man asked, watching as he turned the couch into a bed. He had left the room so as not to intrude, Ruby was awake, she was mostly okay, he didn't need to be there while Tony spoke to her. They needed to be left alone.
"Uh, she's okay. Awake, and getting herself cleaned up." He told his best friend, his mind still completely somewhere else as he set out the sheets from the bed on the curved couch that they had previously been sitting, drinking and chatting on.
"You did good, Tony." His friend assured him, placing a hand on the man's shoulder. "You did real good. Only a father would hear the screams of his daughter over all that music we had going on."
"Yeah?" Tony asked him, clearly not convinced he was doing a pretty good job at being a father. Something else that pushed him into thinking he wasn't doing it right was what Ruby always called him. He was Tony, not dad. At times she would refer to him as her father, but she had never once called him dad. And although he would never admit it, it really did hurt him.
"Yeah, real good. Man, I can't believe how much you've changed since Ruby came into your life." Rhodey said, sitting down in one of the chairs while Tony sat just beside where he had made the bed for Ruby. "You're more thoughtful and considerate. You care more about your daughter than you do with sleeping around. You haven't been going to wild parties and getting drunk. I'm proud of you, Tony."
"You really think I'm doing okay?" Tony Stark rarely valued anyone's opinion, but something like this, coming from his best friend, it meant a lot to him.
"Of course you are, Tony. You need to stop doubting yourself. You're doing a great job with her. We all know she isn't the easiest of people, considering who her parents are, but you've done well, and kept her out of trouble. Mostly." There was a slight smirk on Rhodey's face now. "I mean, there is no way in hell you're ever going to get 'dad of the year' or anything, but you're still doing good."
A moment later, Ruby stepped into the room, her hair now tidy and tied back once more and her face dried of any tears. "How you feeling, honey?" Tony asked her as she shuffled over to where he was sitting down. He couldn't help but notice how pale she was looking now.
"Still tired." She grumbled, plonking herself down right beside Tony. "I hope you two are going to keep the noise down while I try to get some more sleep."
"I've got some things to go through. So you won't hear a peep out of me, Ruby." Rhodey told her, giving her a smile from where he was sitting. He had some files and magazines spread out in front of him, it actually did look like he had things to be doing.
Tony chuckled a little, he actually had things to be reading through as well, but he wasn't going to. "Of course we are, honey. So you just lay down and get some more sleep, okay?" He said, not moving from where he was sitting and determined not to leave her on her own.
Ruby eventually did fall back to sleep, on the couch, with her head resting on the pillow in Tony's lap. She had fallen asleep with him still holding onto her, and not long after that, he had ended up falling asleep as well. It was a sight that made Rhodey smile, Tony Stark and his daughter, cuddled up on the couch together, both at least half smiling.
It was certainly a something that he had never imagined seeing before. Rhodey stood up from where he was sitting, his own eyes starting to sting from the tiredness, and grabbed another blanket. He tossed it over the sleeping Stark's, giving them one last look and another smile, before he grabbed a blanket and crashed out himself.
Tony didn't know how long he had slept for, but he woke up to find Ruby still sleeping with her head resting on the pillow in his lap. When he looked down at her, he couldn't help but think how peaceful she was, compared to the scene that he and Rhodey had dealt with earlier when she had gone to sleep.
When he looked up, he saw that there was one of the flight attendants standing by the side, patiently waiting. As soon as their eyes locked, she nodded at him. "We should be landing in two hours, Mr Stark." She told him quietly.
He nodded back at her. "Uh, great. Yeah, thanks." Tony said, moving his head from side to side, trying to stretch it out a little. He realised that the only way he was going to be able to move, was going to be by waking up hi daughter. "Hey, Ruby? Time to get up and eat now." He whispered to her, gently trying to wake her up.
She let out a groan as she rolled over onto her back, her head now facing the ceiling. "How long till landing?" Ruby mumbled, rubbing her eyes with the back of her hand.
"Two hours. Time for you to get up, have something to eat, and get yourself ready." Tony told her, watching her stretch out her own limbs. He so badly needed to do that, his back was aching a little and his legs felt dead. He needed her to get up so that he could move around.
Another groan came from her lips. "Five more minutes." I mumbled, tugging at the blankets and wrapping them tighter around her body.
Tony let out a chuckle. "Nope. Come on, we made a deal. You need to get up now and eat, that was the deal if I let you sleep on the jet." He grabbed the blankets in his hands and tore them away from her, leaving her to shiver slightly from the sudden loss of the warm blankets.
"That was mean." Ruby grumbled, as she wrapped her arms around herself, trying to keep warm as she threw her legs over the side, letting her feet touch the floor. "I only asked for five more minutes, not five more hours."
"Well you're up now. So you might as well go and get showered and changed. You don't want to go out in front of the US Army looking like that, do you?" Tony asked her, looking up and down at her loose blue and yellow chequered pyjama bottoms and the blue tank top she was wearing.
Ruby just shrugged her shoulders at him. "I might as well. Not like they're going to be paying any attention to me, are they? All eyes will be on you and the new weapon." She told him. "I'm going to be able to sneak off and do a little exploring."
"No, because you are not leaving my side." Rhodey called, entering the room after having freshened himself up a bit. "While Tony is presenting, you are going to be with me, is that understood, Miss Matthews-Stark?"
Ruby didn't like it when her uncle Rhodey used her full last name like that, it meant that he was deadly serious. "Yes, sir." She said, giving him a small salute but making sure her face was showing nothing.
"My job is to protect you and your father, and I promised Pepper that I would make sure you were safe. Clear?" He said, in complete military mode.
"Yes, sir."
Tony chuckled a little, making both of them turn to face him. "I told you, she'd fit right in with the military."
Ruby just rolled her eyes at him. "I'm going to shower and change." She said, pushing herself up from the couch. "Since I'm not allowed to go back to sleep."
"Food will be ready for when you're done." Her father told her. Ruby simply nodded at him, before walking through the jet and to the rather large bathroom with a shower in it.
She still couldn't get over the fact that she was in a jet with bedrooms and full bathrooms. Ruby knew she shouldn't really be surprised, her father was Tony Stark after all, and he did like to live in style. But it was still something she wasn't used to, a whole life that was different for her.
Ruby didn't spend too long in the shower, long enough to clean herself up and wake up properly. She was still trying to shake off that stupid nightmare that she had, the nightmare of a memory from her past. That's what they always her, fragments of her past haunting her in her dreams.
She pulled on her clothes, the same ones she had boarded the jet in. Ruby knew that Tony would be walking out in a crisp, clean suit, but she didn't need to. She patted down her cargo pants, making sure that everything she needed was there, and safely out of sight. Ruby knew that she would get into a lot of trouble with both her father and Rhodey if they knew what she was doing.
"SWAIN, is everything still all okay?" She asked nervously, hoping that nothing had gone wrong or was going to go wrong.
"Yes, Miss Matthews." The British voice replied in her ear. "There have been no issues and everything is going as planned. You have nothing to worry about." Even he knew she was stressing over it all, and he could do very little to reassure her.
"Okay, thanks. I'm going to lose you when I'm out of the jet. When I get back, remind me to do a few more upgrades, new ear buds as well." She said, tying up the laces to on the black military style boots she was wearing. Tony had been right, the way she was dressed, she really would fit in well there.
"Of course, Miss Matthews. Will there be anything else?" He asked her.
"No, that's all SWAIN. Play nice with JARVIS while we're gone." Ruby said, finishing with her laces and standing up to make sure everything was all good to go.
"I shall, Miss Matthews. And do stay safe, do not stray from Colonel Rhodes." The comment made Ruby snicker a little. She did find it amusing the way he acted sometimes, she wondered if she hadn't over programmed him and given him too many emotional aspects.
"Yes, SWAIN. I'll be back before you know it, don't you worry. Now stop bugging me, I have to go and bug the US army." She said, before slipping out of the room and back to where Tony and Rhodey were waiting for her.
Everything was set. She had people watching them from a distance, ready to jump in if anything should happen. SWAIN knew the drill, he knew when they were due back on the jet, and he knew what to do if they never arrived. And she had her own little back up plan, one that she was sure neither her father nor her uncle Rhodey would ever approve of. But it made her feel safer, because she knew how to defend herself if it came to it, and she was not going to be afraid.
A/N: So, I do hope that it was worth the wait. Obviously the next chapter is going to be the big one, the one you are all so excited about, the one you just can't wait to read. Or is it?
Thank you to everyone who has favourited/followed. You guys are brilliant. And for all who have reviewed, you are magnificent. Keep those reviews coming, I like to hear what you all think.
Until next time, where there will be most twists and turns!
Pippa.