A/N: Hey guys. Sorry this has taken so long, been a weird few weeks. I've only had a chance to proof read this twice, so I apologise now for any mistakes that you may come across. Enjoy.

Ruby had just finished getting dressed when there came a knocking on her door. She couldn't help but frown, it didn't sound like her father knocking, which was who she expected it to be. When she finally pulled the door open, she saw Pepper standing there. "Morning, Pepper. What's up?" She asked, trying to be as casual and calm as she could.

The truth was, she was worried about how the day was going to go. She was going to be having a little bit of a fight with Happy, and she was worried that she might actually hurt him. Training with Tasha and Clint was different, because she knew that they could take it, she knew their limits, just as they knew hers. But with Happy, it was a completely different story.

"Ruby, are you sure you want to be doing this?" The woman asked her, completely serious. The instant Pepper had found out what Tony had arranged, she had been nagging at him and telling him not to be stupid. When she asked Ruby not to do it, Ruby just shrugged, never giving her a proper answer.

"It'll be fine, Pepper. I'm more worried about Happy than myself." She admitted to her. "I'm kind of worried that I'm going to end up hurting him. I know I may look like a defenceless teenage girl, but I'm really not."

Pepper just looked at her and sighed, knowing that she was going to go through with it, just like Tony had told her she would. "Fine. Well, your father is waiting for you. He wanted me to come and check that you hadn't gotten cold feet over the whole thing." Pepper told her. "Which I wish you had." Ruby heard her mumble, before leaving the room and quietly closing the door behind her.

Ruby couldn't help but smile. "Cold feet, me?" There was no way she was going to get cold feet over fighting Happy, she had been in too many situations that had been way worse and not gotten cold feet. Getting cold feet was not in her nature.

It only took her a few more minutes to finish getting herself ready, pulling her hair back and securing it up tightly. When she made it to the training room, her father was already in there, just like Pepper had told her. She wasn't surprised to see that he was doing a little bit of sparring with Happy.

"Ah, there she is. The daughter that thinks she is a ninja." Tony exclaimed, walking across the mats and towards Ruby.

All she could do was frown at him. "What, you got other daughters out there who have other specialities?"

The look on his face was one of pure shock. Sure, he had a bit of a past, and sure there had been a few who tried to claim their kids were his. But the courts had been quick to prove otherwise. "I better not have. I can hardly deal with you half the time as it is. I really don't think I could cope with any more Starks. I got you, I don't need anyone else."

Ruby looked at him, a smirk forming on her face. She really did love to tease him, and sometimes he fell for it much to easily. "Shame, would have been nice to have a sister." She said, just wanting to test him and see how far she could push him on the subject.

"Yeah, uh, no." Tony replied, starting to get a little flustered. "You're my baby girl, no one else. So, not going to happen. Not ever."

In the end she shrugged at him. "Oh well. So, are we doing this then or what?" Ruby then asked, looking over at Happy and seeing a little hint of fear on his face. "You okay there, Hap? You, uh, you look a little pale?"

Now that she was in her workout clothes, both Tony and Happy had noticed some of the muscles that she had. Ruby had been working hard to get back on form, and although she was nowhere near there yet, the progress was starting to show. "I'm good. So, how are we going to do this? I don't want really want to beat up the bosses daughter, but he's ordered me." Happy told her, trying to work out what type of fight she was going to be after.

"Hand to hand, anything goes." Ruby told him, doing a few stretches. Happy had been able to spar with her father for a nice little warm up, but she didn't need that. "Loser is the one who goes down and stays down."

There was a look of pure shock on Happy's face now, and Tony seemed to be a little concerned at that as well. "Uh, Ruby, I don't really think…" Her father started, only for her to quickly cut him off.

"If I recall, you threatened to ground me and have Happy take over from Tash. When I informed you that he wouldn't stand a chance against me, you decided to set up this." Ruby told him smugly. "Now it's between me and Happy."

The man in question looked at her. "Want me to go easy on her, boss?" He asked, trying to sound confident. The truth was, he was a little scared of her, she seemed to have way too much confidence, and he didn't like that in an opponent.

Tony didn't really know what to say to that. Yes it had all been his idea, but he hadn't thought that she would actually go through with it. He had expected her to come up with some lame excuse as to why she couldn't do it, or admit that she didn't want to. "Not the face. I don't want my baby girl to have a messed up face. It's her only good feature."

While Happy laughed at that, Ruby done nothing but glare at him. "Stop calling me 'baby girl', dad." Ruby hissed at him, really not liking the way he was calling her that so much. She didn't mind it on occasions, but she didn't want him to always call her that. "Can we just get on with this? I have stuff to be doing."

It was clear that Happy was nervous, and that Tony was starting to regret ever thinking about getting the pair of them to fight. He could see that Ruby was ready to go, and that there was no way she was going to back down. "Okay, just keep it clean. Got it, Ruby?" Tony said, watching his daughter closely.

She nodded at him, knowing that she needed to keep a level head. She was fighting Happy, not Tasha or Clint, she had to be careful, she had to keep in control. She may not be on top form, but she had been training enough to do some serious damage if she wanted to. Only she didn't want to, Ruby didn't want to hurt Happy at all.

"Okay, well. When you two are ready." Tony finally said, taking a step away from the mats and watching his daughter take a defensive stance straight away.

Happy wasn't exactly sure what to do, he was keeping up a defence, but Ruby just wanted attacking. In fact, to him, it looked like she was just waiting for him to attack. The truth of it was, she was waiting, watching her opponents movements closely and trying to gauge what he was going to do next. She was running through strategies in her head, knowing that he would have a weakness, apart from his size.

Ruby was small, she could use that to her advantage, while Happy was rather more bulky and built. Some people might think of size as an advantage, but Ruby knew that wasn't always the case. She had taken on people who had been four times her size, and came out of it with barely a mark on her. She knew that all she had to do was wait, and the man would show his hand and she would then know the best way to take him down.

"Tony, this was a completely stupid idea." Pepper hissed at him, having suddenly appeared beside him. "Are you trying to encourage her to fight? She is a teenager, you shouldn't be making her do this." It was clear from her tone that she was appalled by what was going on, and she was making sure that Tony knew that as well.

Tony had been expecting her to say that, because she had already said it several times over since the moment she found out what was going on. "If Ruby didn't want to do this, then she could have said no. I have not forced her to do this, it was her choice to go through with it." He replied to her in a hushed tone.

"And you really approve of this, do you? Your daughter fighting with Happy, was that really your best idea?"

"Pepper, one thing I have learned about my daughter, is that she isn't a normal teenager. I don't even know half of what happened to her when she was growing up, but what I do know is that she had it tough." Tony told her, trying to explain what he knew about Ruby and the little things he had managed to pick up on. "I know she was bullied when she was younger, and I know that resulted in Jasmine getting help when she turned violent. What I also know is that she likes to keep things bottled up, until she explodes."

The woman simply looked at him. "And you think that is a valid enough reason for her to be fighting with Happy?"

Tony couldn't stop himself from letting out a sigh. "She got angry with me, she kicked my car and left a huge dent in it. This is her outlet. If she's angry or frustrated, whatever it is, this is how she deals with it. This is what calms her down."

Pepper didn't say anything, she just watched as Ruby began to dodge the attacks that Happy sent her way. She was moving swiftly, and with so much ease. "I still don't think this was a good idea, Tony. Someone is going to get hurt." With those final words, she walked out of the room, her heels clicking on the floor as she went.

He turned his attention to the fight that was happening before him, his eyes following his daughter as she ducked out of the way every single time Happy went for her. He could see the frustration growing on his employee's face, frustration at the fact that a teenage girl was moving quicker than he expected.

Ruby was still calculating the best form of attack. She hadn't thrown a single attack at Happy, she had done nothing but defend herself, trying to pinpoint his weakness, to find a weak spot. She was finding it rather amusing, the look on his face telling her that he wasn't entirely pleased with how things were going.

"Are you too scared to hit me or something?" Happy soon asked her, a smirk on his face. Ruby knew he was just trying to rile her up, to provoke her, but there were very few people who knew how to do that, and he wasn't one of them. "I can keep this up all day."

She couldn't help but roll her eyes at him, he wasn't very good at trying to provoke his opponent. "Happy, I'm not scared of hitting you, I'm just trying to work out how badly I can hurt you without getting grounded for too long." Ruby replied, her head darting to the side as she dodged yet another attack from him. "Are you scared of hitting me? All you've done so far is miss."

That seemed to irritate the man enough for him to start a full on attack, which brought a smile to her face. She needed a proper fight, not just a little dance, and she was finally going to get it. He was now putting full force into his attacks, his arms moving at a much faster pace than they had been before, keeping Ruby on her toes.

"You know, as much fun as this is, I really do have other things to be doing." Ruby told him, ducking down and coming up behind him. "So, I'll make this quick."

Suddenly, Happy was face down on the mats, Ruby with her knee in his back. She had managed to get behind him, kick the spot behind his knee, and send him to his knees. After that, she simply pushed him forward, knowing that he wasn't going to be able to get up if he was face down, not with his tingling legs from her attack.

"What the hell just happened?" Tony called, storming over as Ruby got herself up.

She just looked at her father, wondering why he was asking such a stupid question. "Uh, I won?"

Tony just seemed to ignore her, stepping over to the large man who was lying on the floor. "You all right there, Happy?"

"Didn't see that one coming." He faintly heard the man say, clearly in shock. "Wow, I don't… I didn't…"

Ruby couldn't help but smile as she grabbed a bottle of water from the small fridge in the corner. "Don't worry about it, Happy, it happens to the best of them." She was feeling rather smug, because neither her father nor Happy had seen it coming.

"I'm okay, boss. I'm good." Happy said, finally pulling himself together and getting himself up. He was amazed at how quickly Ruby had gone from being on the defensive to just suddenly attack him. He hadn't expected it, he certainly hadn't seen it coming. "She's quick, I'll give her that."

"Well, I could have told you that much." Tony told him, remembering back to when she had managed to dark under the table and away from him before he could even take a step towards her. "So, what do you think then, you want to take over her training?"

Happy Hogan looked between his boss and the teenager who had managed to take him down before he could even think about it. He had expected her to know a few things, maybe a little bit of kickboxing or something, he had never expected her swiftness and skill. "Uh, you know what, I think she needs a little more training with this friend of hers. Ruby fights dirty."

"Hey, I do not fight dirty. Hand to hand combat is what I have always been taught, if you wanted to do some boxing, then you should have said." Ruby told him, not impressed with saying that she fought dirty. She fought him how she could have fought in a real life situation, almost. Ruby knew she had held back a bit, because Happy wasn't really out to hurt her. "Now, are we done here?"

Tony could only look at her, seeing the expression on her face change and turn completely serious. He knew there was still a lot that was bothering her, but he knew she wasn't going to tell her a thing any time soon. "Uh, yeah, you're done here. Go shower and get changed." He told her, looking for anything in her face that would tell him what was going on in that head of hers. "We got things to do."

For a moment, he could have sworn he saw her eyes darken before she walked out of the room, not saying a word or giving him a second glance. "Did you know she could fight like that?" Happy asked him, checking that all his limbs were still in tact.

"I knew she could fight if she wanted to, I just never expected it to be so… I don't know, strategic." Tony told him, replaying bits over and over in his head. He could see that her attack had been calculated, that she had been waiting for the moment. "I really think I need to meet this Tasha." He ended up mumbling to himself, really starting to question whether it was a good idea to keep letting his daughter hang out with someone who was fighting like that with her.

While Tony was a little concerned, Ruby was actually rather proud of herself. By winning against Happy, she knew that all her training with Natasha was starting to pay off. She had caught him totally off guard, and it hadn't taken that long for her to observe his moves and work out his weakness. She knew that Natasha would be proud of her, and probably her annoying pirate friend as well.

"Hey, JARVIS?" Ruby called, peeling off her clothes while she waited for the shower water to heat up.

"Yes, Miss Matthews-Stark?" The AI replied.

"Can you send a copy of the fight to SWAIN. I want to review it, I made a few stupid mistakes and I know I could have done better." She knew that although she done rather well, she could do better. She needed to watch her fight, and then point out all the things she done wrong before Natasha had a chance to pick up on it all.

"Of course, will there be anything else?"

"Uh, nah. Thank, Jay." A few minutes later, and she was in the shower, smiling to herself. For just a moment, everything was great, all those things that had happened had fled her mind and left her finally able to just be herself. There had been so much playing on her mind, thoughts of her mother and what had happened in that cave. Ruby finally had a moment of peace and relief.

But that moment was swiftly ended when JARVIS informed her that SWAIN had someone needing to talk to her. With a sigh, she turned off the shower and headed into her room with a towel wrapped around her. "Hello?" Ruby called, putting the earpiece in place.

"Agent Matthews, Director Fury needs you to come in." That was not a voice she had wanted to hear, and she wasn't pleased with what he had said as well.

"Uh, no. Day off. Family time. Can't do it." She told him, knowing that there was no way that she was going to be able to get out anywhere. Her father had asked her if she was going out, and she had assured him she would be there all day.

"You don't have an option, Agent Matthews. You are needed here, now."

"Not a chance, Phil. I'm spending the day with my father, we got things planned. So no, I am not going. And you can tell pirate Pete that as well. It will have to wait until tomorrow." She was determined not to go anywhere, to do what she had said and spend some time with her father. She had been so busy training with Tasha, she had really not had the time to see him. Ruby wanted to change that, to put it right before she let things get too bad.

She heard the man sighing at the other end of the line. "Agent Matthews, this is not the best way to prove yourself to the Director." Agent Coulson told her. "We know you have been working hard on your training, I've seen it, as has the Director. But we do need you here when we need you."

Ruby let out a frustrated growl. "My dad is getting suspicious." She had to speak quietly, hoping that SWAIN would have taken care of JARVIS so that he wasn't catching any of her conversation. "I've been out so much, he thought I was at the office, I've only just come clean and told him that I've been meeting up with a friend, and training."

"Then tell him the truth, its really not that difficult, Agent Matthews." That was exactly the answer she knew he was going to give her. "The sooner you do it, the better."

"No, I'm not coming in, and no I am not going to tell my father either. Now just is not the time, not with everything that is going on. He's finally starting to pull himself together, and I want to spend some time with him. Please, Phil, please let me have some time with him." Ruby was pretty much begging him now, but Agent Coulson had always been a tough nut to crack. There were very few people that she couldn't work her magic on, Coulson, Fury, and Agent Hill.

There was silence at the other end of the line for a few moments. "Tomorrow morning. First thing. This is important, Ruby, we really do need you here." As soon as he said her first name, she knew it was serious.

"I promise, tomorrow morning, I'll be there." She replied, grateful that he was actually letting her have the rest of the day with her father. "Bright and early. I swear."

"You better be, Agent Matthews." Phil said to her, before ending the call.

Ruby pulled the earpiece out, throwing herself back on her bed and grabbing a pillow before screaming into it. She had no idea why she was needed, but she knew it was important and that she couldn't just ignore it. All she had wanted was a few normal days, some time to relax with her father and to maybe even work on the car with him. She knew that wasn't going to happen now, so she needed to make the most of the day they had left.

She quickly pulled on an old pair of jeans and a Black Sabbath tee shirt that had magically disappeared from her fathers closet and ended up in her own. "Hey, JARVIS? Where's my dad?" Ruby called, heading out of her room after tugging on her old converse trainers.

"He is currently down in the workshop, Miss Matthews-Stark." JARVIS replied.

"Awesome, thanks, Jay." Ruby called back, before heading down to where her father was. She wasn't entirely sure what she was going to find him doing down there, but if he was already down there, then she hoped it wouldn't take too much to convince him to work on Maggie-May with her. "So, what you up to then?" She said, spotting him sitting at his desk.

He was about to say something, but stopped and frowned at her when he saw her. "Is that mine?" Tony asked, pointing to the tee shirt that she had on.

She looked down at it, pretending to be innocent. "Uh, no. This was in my closet, so I put it on. You've got loads of tee shirts, I'm sure if you actually look, you'll find it somewhere."

"No, I am pretty sure that's mine." He said, getting up from where he was sitting and walking over to her. "Because I don't remember you ever actually have one. Plus, you know, it is just a bit too big for you." He tugged at the side of it a little, just to prove his point. It really was a little big on her, but Ruby didn't care, because it was comfy.

"Oh, whatever. I was wondering if you wanted to do a bit more work on Maggie-May? I, uh, I'm meeting up with Tasha tomorrow morning, so I thought we could do some more work on the car." There was a hint of nervousness in her voice, and she wasn't entirely sure of why. It was possible that she was feeling guilty about lying to him so often, or maybe the fact that she hadn't been around much recently.

Tony just raised an eyebrow at her. "Again? Seriously?" His daughter nodded at him, a worried expression on her face. "Look, honey, I'm really not sure I like how much time you're spending away from here. Truth is, I still get nervous when you're not here, I worry about you."

"I promise, I'll sort things out with Tasha, arrange it so that I get to spend more time with you. The only reason I'm with her so much is so that I don't decide to go and smash up your car, again."

Her father looked at her a let out a sigh. "Ruby, I know why you do it, the fighting, I get it. But you know, sometimes it might help if you just talk to me. If something is bothering you, or you just want to scream and shout, whatever, I am always here, and I always will be here." Tony told her, just wishing that she would open up and talk to him. He knew there were so many things that she wasn't telling him, that she was keeping a secret, and it was getting to her.

Ruby didn't really know what to say to him. There was so much that she wanted to tell him, at times she just wanted to tell him everything. But she was worried how he would react to it all, and she didn't want him to start stressing over something else because of her. There was already so much going on, she didn't want to put more on to that. "I know, it's just… Tasha has always been there for me, you know? Sometimes it's just easier for me to go through it all with her."

"I know, but I just want you to know that you can talk to me, about anything." Ruby nodded at him, knowing that he really was trying and that she couldn't push him away. "Now, did I hear you mention something about Maggie-May?"

"Uh, yeah. I was thinking that if you weren't too busy then we could work on her. But it's okay, you don't have to." Ruby told him in a rush. For some reason she had suddenly started feeling a tad nervous. She couldn't explain it, she was just overwhelmed with it.

It was clear that her father had noticed the nervousness. "Honey, I am never too busy for you. You got that? Never. So come on, let's get to work." Tony said, dragging her over to the silver Audi that was now only half in pieces.

Ruby couldn't help but smile, knowing that they were going to be spending the rest of the day doing something together. That was all she wanted, and it helped that it was a distraction for both herself and her father. They could throw themselves into the work on the car, and pretend that nothing had happened, that everything was just perfect. Ruby knew that it wasn't true, that she wasn't living in a world where she could live a happy life with her father, but she liked to just pretend, just for a little while, that everything was fine.

A/N: I hope you liked this chapter, and I really am sorry for the wait. It's been difficult to get myself into my writing when I've had so many other things going on around me.

Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to leave a review. In response to a review, I haven't decided if there is going to be a love interest for Ruby yet, just as I haven't decided if Tony and Pepper are going to get together as they do in the movie or at all. So let me know what you think about that.

I'm going to shut up now and get back to writing. Fingers crossed the next chapter doesn't take as long.

Pippa.