A/N: Hey guys, apologies for spelling and grammatical errors. I managed to keep my focus and get a few chapters write all at once, yay me! So, go and enjoy!

"Sir, Doctor Peterson has arrived." JARVIS called quietly, disturbing Tony from his slight slumber. He had been by Ruby's side all night, changing the cold cloth against her forehead and making sure that she was all right.

"Uh, great, yeah. Let her in. Is Miss Potts here?" His head was in a bit of a daze, since he hadn't really slept all night. Sure, he kept dozing off, but he refused to let himself fall asleep properly.

"Miss Potts is here, sir. Would you like me to ask her to escort Doctor Peterson?"

Tony really did appreciate how smart his AI was at time. "Yeah, thanks, Jay." He replied, before getting up from the chair he had been in for hours and stretching a little.

A few minutes later and a middle aged woman was led into the room by Pepper. "Mr Stark, Doctor Peterson is here." Pepper told him, giving him a slightly worried look. She could see he had been up most of the night, he looked a complete mess.

"Doctor, thanks for coming." Tony said, quickly holding out his hand. He was grateful that the woman had gotten there so quickly, and most likely dropped everything else just to come tend to his daughter.

She smiled at him as she shook his hand. "Well, as soon as SWAIN hacked into my computer and cleared my schedule for the day, I knew it was urgent."

Tony rubbed his head and let out a sigh. He had no idea how SWAIN had contacted her, and now he knew he really wished he didn't. "Yeah, sorry about that, I had no idea how he was going to convince you to come here."

Doctor Peterson chuckled a little. "It's fine, although a phone call probably would have been a better option. Now, SWAIN gave me the basics, but do you want to tell me how she's been?" She asked, putting her bag down and looking at Ruby.

"Uh, Ruby told me she had a headache, then she admitted to feeling sick, being dizzy, and just being tired in general really. She's been sleeping pretty well, I've been keeping an eye on her, she, uh, she's had a few nightmares but they seem to have settled down." Tony explained to her, trying to think of what else he could tell her. "I've been with her all night, she's still got a fever."

She nodded at him, before walking over to Ruby and gently waking the young woman up. "Ruby? Ruby, it's Doctor Peterson."

Ruby let out a slight groan. "Maggie?" She called feebly, clearly not entirely with the waking world yet.

"Yes, it's me. I got SWAIN's message. Now, I need you to tell me how you're feeling."

"Like I'm gonna throw up again." Ruby said, causing the doctor to look over at Tony. He nodded his head, remembering holding his daughters hair back as she was sick the night before. "My head feels like it's about to explode, and someone really needs to turn the heating down. It's too hot in here."

Doctor Peterson began to get things out of her bag. "Okay, let's give you the once over, Ruby." She told her, getting the thermometer out and forcing it under Ruby's tongue.

Twenty minutes later, and doctor Peterson was still writing notes down in her little book. Tony had been standing there awkwardly, watching and waiting to find out what was wrong with his daughter. Ruby still wasn't even fully awake, and that worried him even more.

It was another twenty minutes later when she finally signalled for Tony to join her outside of the room. "Mr Stark, how has she been in general?" She asked him, a worried look on her own face. "I've know Ruby since she was little, I've treated her more times than I care to remember. Something doesn't seem right here."

"Uh, stressed. I mean, with everything that's happened, she's been stressing herself out a lot." Tony admitted to the woman. "I know she hasn't been eating as much as she should, but I've been making sure that she does eat because of her glucose levels. I've been keep a close eye on them, because she has a habit of not telling me when something is wrong."

The doctor nodded at him, taking in what he had told her. "Well, I don't think this is anything to worry about. It looks like she has picked up a virus at some point, and the stress of everything has just pushed her over the edge." She explained to him. "I'm going to give her a course of antibiotics, and some strong pain killers. You need to make sure that she takes them with food, otherwise it's pointless her even taken them."

Tony chuckled a little. "Easier said than done. She's a stubborn as her mother."

"Funny, Jasmine used to say that she was as stubborn as her father." Her words shocked Tony a little. He had no idea that the doctor had know Ruby's mother. "Now, I'm going to give her a shot, it should help with the nausea. Also, I would like to have a word with her about the way she keeps in contact."

"Sure, go ahead. I got a few questions I would like to ask you once your done. Would you like tea, or coffee, or something?" He asked the woman. He wanted to find out what he could about Ruby's medical past, and he might just do a little bit of digging about Jasmine as well while he was at it.

Doctor Peterson smiled at him. "A coffee would be great. We should be done in about ten minutes." She told him, before slipping back into Ruby's room, and leaving Tony standing there on his own.

Ruby heard the door open and close, and she already knew who had come back into her room. "What's the verdict then, Mags? Tell me you're not going to haul my backside back to base?"

Maggie Peterson chuckled a little. "Oh, you'd love that, wouldn't you, Ruby? No, you're good to stay here. But I'm not happy with you, and neither is Director Fury. SWAIN's message really had him freaking out last night."

"Hey, I didn't tell him to freak everyone out, I just told him to get onto you." Ruby protested, letting out a groan as she tried to open her eyes. The light was just making her head hurt even more.

"Well, the good news is, you're going to live. The bad news is, I'm going to give you a shot, right now." Before Ruby even had a chance to try and get away from the woman with the needle, it had been stabbed into her arm, causing her to let out a yelp, followed by a cry. "Oh, stop being such a big baby. It's just one shot. For now."

It was soon over, and Ruby was quickly rubbing the spot where she had been stabbed. "It still hurts. I've had enough needles jabbed into me recently to last me a damn lifetime. So come on, how long is it going to be before this goes away?"

Maggie sat down on the chair beside the bed, the chair where Ruby's father had been all night. "That all depends on you, Ruby." She told her seriously. "You've got a virus, which I'm giving you some antibiotics for. However, this is all made worse because of the stress you're under."

Ruby scoffed a little. "Stress? What stress?"

"Really? You want to play it that way do you?" Maggie asked her, raising an eyebrow at her. "Ruby, you just need to take it easy for a bit. I'm giving you some strong pain killers to help with the headaches, but do you know what you really need to do to ease them?"

This time Ruby groaned. "Nope, not going to happen. No way. They've gone. Lost them, or broke them, or something."

A smirk worked it's away across Maggie's face. "Is that so? Because a little birdy gave me these." She pulled out a small rectangular box from her bag, and held it out in front of Ruby. "This is for your own good. You're just going to make it worse if you don't, Ruby, and then Fury really will drag you back."

"All right! Fine, whatever." Ruby said, snatching the box and shoving it under her pillow. She was going to be having words with a certain birdy later, a certain birdy by the name of Hawkeye who was a traitor.

"Okay, bed rest for the next few days. You need to shake that fever before you can do anything else." Maggie told her, resulting in a sigh from Ruby. "And I mean it, until that fever is gone, you stay in bed. I will be talking to your father and making sure he understands all of this as well."

Ruby wanted to give her some snarky comment back, but she couldn't find her words. Her world was clouding over and she found herself drifting back off to sleep again. Her eyes widened when she saw the soft smile on Maggie's face.

"Oh, did I forget to mention? There was a little bit of sedative in that shot as well. Come on, Ruby, I knew you wouldn't listen to me and would need a little bit of convincing." Maggie told her, pulling the covers back up as her eyes fluttered closed once more. "Sorry, Ruby."

When she left the room, JARVIS kindly gave her directions to the living area, where Tony was sitting, nervously twiddling his thumbs and waiting for her to return. "So, everything okay?" He asked, getting up as he spotted the woman.

She smiled at him. "She'll be fine. The nausea shot had a little bit of sedative in it, so she should be out for a few more hours. She needs complete bed rest until that fever has broken." Maggie informed him.

Tony didn't know whether to be angry or amused at the fact that she had sedated Ruby. "She was being grouchy, wasn't she? That's the real reason why you sedated her." He decided that it was for her own good, and that the doctor was just going what was best for Ruby.

"Oh, that girl is always grouchy when she's sick. I had to do it, otherwise she was going to kick up a fuss and say she was fine and not listen to anyone. It was for her own good, I assure you."

"Oh no, I believe you, trust me, I've seen what she's like when she isn't that well." He thought back to when she had just had her appendix out, and she had been nothing but grumpy and snappy and annoyed the whole time she was awake. "What about the headaches and the dizziness?"

Pepper entered the room, handing Maggie a cup of coffee. The woman quickly thanked her, and took a sip before turning her attention back to Ruby's father. "Mr Stark, Ruby is going to be absolutely fine. Once the fever has broken, her headaches should lessen. I've given her something to help, so she should be over it soon enough. I'd give it a week, but because of the stress it may take a little longer."

Tony knew that everything that had been going on hadn't helped her. He could see that she was stressed out, she was snapping at people too easily. The way she had been the night before with Obie had just proved it. "I'll do my best, but she's a handful. Ruby has a habit of listening to no one but herself most of the time."

"She's always been like that. I've been treating her since she seven or eight, and she still acts the same every time I see her." Maggie knew that she had to tread carefully, she wasn't just any doctor, she was a doctor from SHIELD, she was Ruby's personal doctor, the only one she would let near her with a needle.

"So, uh, I was wondering…" Tony said, knowing that he had two bullets to bite. "I missed a lot of her childhood, I wasn't there for her when she was growing up and I keep finding things out too late. Could I get an outline of her medical history? I didn't know anything about this thing with her blood sugar until she passed out from it, and her allergies I had to get from SWAIN."

Maggie was slightly surprised by that request, because she knew he could have gotten them easily if he had asked SWAIN. The AI already had a full copy of everything, and he would know what things to leave out from her past. "That won't be a problem, Mr Stark. As soon as I get back to the office, I can get it all emailed through to you." She told him, putting on a smile.

Tony made sure to smile back at the woman. He hadn't expected it to be that easy to get her medical records, which just made him think that the next bullet was going to be the toughest. "So, uh, did… uh, did you know Jasmine, Ruby's mother, much?"

The smile that was on Maggie's face quickly faded. "I didn't know her as well as I would have liked. Ruby's mother was always doing her best to keep her out of trouble, but Ruby would always find it."

"Yeah, from what I heard, Jasmine had a really hard time with her." Tony was desperate to find out more, but he didn't want to push it.

"Definitely. Ruby wasn't your average child. She didn't want to do what normal kids were doing, she wanted to invent things, blow things up, get into trouble by hacking into places that she should." Maggie admitted. "The amount of times that Liam Roberts had to call me because she had done something and had ended up hurting herself."

A small chuckle escaped from Tony's lips as he took a sip of his own coffee. "Yeah, Liam mentioned something about all of that. She didn't have the best of childhoods really, did she?"

Maggie bit her lip slightly, knowing exactly what Ruby's childhood contained. "No, she didn't. She was bullied and teased at school, and that was what really set her off. Her mother done everything that she could, but Ruby wouldn't listen to anyone but herself."

"I just wished that I had been there." Tony admitted, letting out a sigh. "If Jasmine hadn't left, things would have been different. Neither of them would have had to go through all of that, Ruby wouldn't have been bullied at school, and Jasmine…" It still hurt for him to talk about her, and he still blamed himself for everything that had happened. "Anyway…"

"These are her antibiotics." Maggie said, going back into her professional doctor mode. "She must take them with food. And these are the painkillers. Just make sure she actually takes them. Ruby has a habit of pretending to take her meds when she's in a bit of a mood."

Tony knew exactly what she meant. When she had been released from hospital, she refused to take her meds then a few times, saying that they only made her feel worse. The truth was, she was feeling worse because she hadn't given them a change to get into her system properly before avoiding taking them. "Gotcha. Antibiotics and painkillers. Must take with food, and make sure she does take them."

"She needs plenty of rest and absolutely no stress whatsoever. It's the stress that has made it so bad in the first place. My advice, keep her locked in her room with a few books. That way she has no choice but to stay in bed and do nothing." Doctor Peterson said to him, downing the last of her coffee. "This is my actual number. Give me a call if you need to." She pulled a small card out form her pocket and handed it to him.

"Great, thanks. Well, it was nice to meet you doc, and thanks." Tony said, walking her to the front of the mansion to escort her out.

Maggie just smiled as the door was opened for her. "Any time, Mr Stark. Ruby may be an annoying, stubborn, little pain in the backside still, but that's just who she is. I'm just glad to see that she has finally settled down a little. After her mother died… well, I was worried how it was going to impact her." And that was true. The whole of SHIELD had been worried about how Ruby was going to take it and deal with it, that was why they had been keeping a very close eye on her. "Sometimes she doesn't think before she acts, and that generally leads to her getting into trouble."

"Sometimes I think she likes getting into trouble. The amount of times I've had to ground her recently, she'll be staying in until she's well into her eighties now." Tony informed the woman with a slight chuckle.

She laughed a little as well. "I'm not surprised. Anyway, I should be heading back. Remember to give me a call if anything is wrong or if you have any questions. I'll get her medical history sent to you as soon as I can."

He nodded his head at her as he reached out and shook her hand. "Thanks you, Doctor Peterson, really. Thanks."

"It's my job, Mr Stark, and Ruby was always one of my favourite patients." Maggie told him, before getting into her car and driving away.

Tony was relieved to know that it was just a virus and stress that was causing his daughter to be so ill. He didn't like the fact that she was sick in the first place, but at least he knew it was nothing serious and that she would be over it soon enough.

"What did the doctor say?" Pepper asked him, bringing him out of his little world.

"She's got a virus. Doctor Peterson said she should be okay in a week or so, she just needs rest and no stress. The stress of everything has just made it worse, which I'm not surprised about." Tony explained to her. "Got some meds for her, which she's going to need to take with food when she wakes up."

Pepper nodded at him. "Is there anything you need me to do?" Tony shook his head at her, all he was going to do was sit with Ruby until she woke up. "Okay, well I'll be around if you need me at all."

Once she had disappeared, her went back to his daughters room and plonked himself back in the chair beside her bed, changing the cold cloth before he did. He knew he couldn't just leave her on her own, not when she had a fever. He had to be there for her, to look after her, to make sure that she really was okay and that he was there if she needed anything. He didn't realise it, but he was doing a super job at being a dad.

It was late in the afternoon when Ruby started to return to the land of the living. She let out a groan, which made Tony jump from where he had been dozing off. "Hey, you all right, honey?" He asked her, quickly leaning over the bed.

"Ugh, no. I'm not all right. What did that damn doctor give me?" Ruby moaned, feeling really disorientated. The last thing she remembered was Maggie giving her a shot and talking to her, everything after that was a blur.

Tony couldn't help but chuckle a little. "She knocked you out, Ruby. You're not well, you need to rest, and we all know that you're not likely to do that willingly."

"And you let her? You actually let her knock me out? What kind of father does that?" Tony knew that she was just being grumpy. She had only just woke up, still had a fever, and was probably feeling pretty awful.

"It was for your own good, Ruby." He told his daughter, knowing that it was going to be a long day of moaning from her. "Anyway, that doesn't matter. You need to have something to eat so that you can take your meds."

Once again Ruby groaned. "Do I have to?" She was definitely going to be difficult. "I don't think I can handle having anything to eat. I'll probably just be sick if I do have anything to eat."

"Nope, that was why you got a shot. No arguments young lady, you're having something to eat, then you're taking your meds, and then you are going straight back to sleep. You got that?" Tony told her firmly. She opened her mouth, ready to protest. "Uh, no, I don't want to hear it. You're going to listen to me, and do as you're told. No arguments." He told her, before getting up and heading over to the door. "I'll be back with something to eat for you."

The moment he was gone, Ruby grabbed hold of her pillow and shoved it over her face, screaming into it. She knew what was going to happen now, she had seen the serious look on her father's face when he had spoken to her. There was no chance in hell that he was going to let her get out of that bed while she was still sick. There was no way she could get around it either.

"Is everything all right, Miss Matthews-Stark?" JARVIS called to her, noticing what was going on and clearly showing his concern. It was strange how much the AI had taken to her since she had been there.

She dropped the pillow and let out a sigh. "No. Everything is not all right." She told him, rubbing her head a little. "I'm sick, and stuck in bed."

"As long as you rest and take your medication, then you should be off bed rest soon enough, Miss Matthews-Stark." JARVIS informed her, knowing that she was not looking forward to spending the next week or so stuck in bed.

"Oh, whatever." She mumbled, before resting her head back on her pillow and closing her eyes again. She wasn't exactly tired, but she did feel a little exhausted. Her limbs were aching and felt rather heavy to her. Ruby didn't want to admit it, but she knew she was really ill, and she really did need some bed rest. All she could do was hope that Fury wasn't going to have a moan at her for being sick.

It was a little while later when her father finally returned, carrying a tray into her room. "Right, here you go. Some nice chicken soup." Tony said, placing the tray down on the bed after Ruby sat up. "With honey and lemon tea, made especially by Pepper."

Ruby raised and eyebrow at him. "Yeah, and who made the soup?" She queried, not entirely sure she wanted to eat it if he had made it.

"I'm still working on my cooking skills, so I sent Happy out to get it for you." He told her, hoping that she would at least try to eat some of it. He knew she couldn't take those tablets if she hadn't eaten, and she needed to take them if she wanted to get better. "How are you really feeling, anyway?"

"My head hurts, everything aches, and I just want to curl up into a ball." Ruby admitted, taking Tony by surprise. He hadn't thought that she would actually give him an honest answer. "I hate being sick."

Tony just chuckled a little, as he forced the tray closer to her, telling her that she needed to eat. "Yeah, I don't like you being sick either, honey. The sooner you eat up and take your meds, the sooner you can rest, and then, guess what?"

"What?"

"The sooner you'll get better." He told her, giving her a rather large smile. "See, it really isn't that difficult. You eat, take meds, sleep, and you get better. Which is why you are not leaving this room. If you want something, you tell JARVIS."

Ruby thought he was being a little harsh, it was only a bit of a virus as far as she was concerned, she wasn't about to drop down dead. "Seriously? You're going to just lock me in my room? Wow…" There was a hint of disapproval in her voice and her eyes. She didn't actually want to be left on her own, she wanted someone there, someone more than just an AI.

"Ruby, if I don't lock you in here, then you'd go wandering around, making yourself worse. The doc said bed rest, and since you never listen to anyone but yourself, I'm going to have to force you to stay here somehow." No, Tony didn't really want to lock her in, but he knew what she was like, and he just knew she wouldn't listen.

"What if I promise to stay here? Would you lock me in even if I promised not to leave my room?" Ruby was going to find a way so that she wasn't locked in and left on her own all the time. She would end up going crazy after just an hour if that were the case.

Tony wasn't so easy to believe her little promise. "Well, that would totally depend. Listen, Ruby, I just want you to get better, okay?" He told her, watching her closely. "You've still got a nasty fever, you really need to stay in bed. I know it's going to be boring and drive you crazy, but if you want to get better, then you need to stay in bed and rest."

"And what are you going to be doing while I'm stuck in bed?" She was actually starting to get a little grumpy, because she knew he wasn't going to sway on his decision.

"Finish a little more of our project. Don't worry, I'll try not to get too far ahead. There is plenty of testing that needs doing, it's not going to be complete for a while, and by that time, you should be totally fine." He was actually telling her the truth, he was going to do a little more work on the suit. There was so much that still needed to be done, he was going to try and get as much of it done as he could, so that he could get her approval on it when she was better.

Ruby just let out a sigh and closed her eyes. "Okay, fine." She replied to him, wishing her head would stop hurting and that the world would stop spinning. "Can I go to sleep now?"

Tony looked down at the bowl of soup, she had hardly even touched it. "Uh, no, not yet. Come on, Ruby, you need to eat. It's going to take longer for you to get better if you don't eat." He reminded her, causing her to sit up a little again.

With a groan, she started to slowly spoon the liquid. Tony couldn't help but notice how her hands and arms seemed to be shaking a little as well. She really didn't look too well, and although she was doing her best to cover it up, it was definitely showing. Ruby may still of had her attitude and sarcasm, but the tiredness and pain was there as well.

Half an hour later and Tony was satisfied with how much she had eaten. Sure, she hadn't eaten all of it, but she had managed to get through about half of it. "Okay, come on, time for your meds, and then time for bed." He told her, grabbing the tray and placing it down on her dresser. The tea that Pepper had made her was only lukewarm now and not hot, but she still used to it wash down the tablets that her father had given her.

Ruby was actually struggling to keep her eyes open as it was, that was why she hadn't been able to eat any more. "Done. Can I sleep now?" She mumbled, her eyes closing and her head drooping a little where she was still sitting up.

A slight chuckled escaped from her father. "Course you can, honey. Sleep for as long as you like." He told her, helping her to lie back down properly. "Just shout at JARVIS if you need anything, okay?" Ruby didn't give him a verbal answer, she simply made some sort of murmuring noise. "Goodnight, Ruby." Tony whispered, kissing the top of her head, before placing the cold cloth on there and leaving the room.

He was glad that she was actually willing to get some rest, and that she took her medication without any fussing at all. Tony just hoped that it wasn't going to be too long until she was finally better and back to her normal and annoying, stubborn self. He didn't like her being sick, because it gave him something more to worry about with her.

A/N: Well, I hope it was all right. I'm trying to shift the story along, you know, get to the action and all that, but sometimes I get sidetracked. If anyone reads my main Doctor Who fanfic, then you'll understand what I mean.

A few quick notes on some reviews.
1. At the moment, I am planning to work around the Tony/Pepper storyline. I want it to focus on Tony and Ruby, so there are going to be some changes here and there.
2. I have got the outline for IM2, Avengers, and IM3. I know how Ruby is going to fit into it all, so that is all sorted.

I want to thank all of you that have left me a review. I really do love it when I get that little email that notifies me of a new review, so thank you all so much. I also want to say hello and thank you to all the new people who have followed/favourited the story, it's nice to know new people are reading it all the time.

I'm going to shut up now and get back to work. And by work I mean write. Until the next time!

Pippa.