A/N: Hey guys, I'm sorry this is late. I was meant to post it on Monday but I totally forget and got distracted with something else. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it!
The two Starks were absolutely silent on the drive back to the mansion. Tony was fuming, he had been betrayed by one of the people he trusted most in the world. The person that he thought he could rely on, that he thought was a friend, turned out to be nothing more than a conniving and scheming old man.
Ruby was drumming her fingers on her legs while her father drove. She had wanted to find something out, some clue or some link, but this was not what she was expecting. Yes, she had always got a bad feeling from Obadiah, but she never expected him to be behind some double dealing. Then again, it did all fall into place, he was quiet controlling when it came to the company, and he had always been sure to keep her out of the way and away from the main dealings. She should have just gone with her gut instinct and caught him out already.
But there was something else that was bothering both of them. If Obadiah was responsible for the selling of weapons to terrorists, was he responsible for their kidnapping? Was he behind the whole three months that Tony spent in a cave? Was it because of him that he now had a device in his chest keeping him alive? All those thoughts made him grip the wheel even tighter, turning his knuckles white.
"He won't get away with it." Ruby suddenly said, breaking the silence. "I'm not going to let him get away with it. He is going to pay for what he's done." Tony was sure he heard a hint of malice in her voice, and usually he would have questioned it, but not this time.
"What, you got a plan to stop it all?" He asked his daughter, not actually expecting a real response from her.
But he had no idea what was going through Ruby's head. "I'm working on it, let me get back to you. I'm still working out all the details, and trying to find the cheapest way to dispose of the man."
"Ruby!" Tony cried in shock at her words.
"What? Dispose of the man, get him out of the company, throw him out, kick him to the curb. I'm trying to think of the best way to get him out without it costing the company a fortune." She told him innocently. She was getting far too good at lying to her father, because she had really been thinking of how many different way she could have the man assassinated.
Tony glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, trying to focus on the road and not get pulled in by what she had said. "Yeah? You sure about that?" It was clear that he wasn't going to fully believe her. "Sometimes I never know with you, Ruby, I never know when you're being serious and when you're not."
"Yeah, and that is just how I like it." She grumbled, finally picking her phone up from her lap and tapping away at it. She was not going to sit back and do nothing. She was a Stark, and she had been trained by some of the best in the world, Ruby could handle anything that was thrown at her, she was sure of it.
As soon as they were home, both of them went to their own bedrooms, wanting to get out of the formal clothing that they were stuck in. Tony was done the quickest, and was straight back to his workshop in a matter of minutes. But Ruby was taking slightly longer, having to get herself out of that dress and wash off the little makeup that she was wearing.
The moment she was in some more confortable clothes, she got SWAIN to make the call, even though he had protested against it, and told her to wait until morning. There was no way that Ruby was going to do that, she was going to get on it now.
"Agent Matthews, I take it this is important?" Her favourite pirate called through the earpiece she was wearing.
"Christine Everhart, Vanity Fair, you need to keep a close eye on her and make sure she keeps her big mouth shut." Ruby told him, looking at the photos that were strewn all over her bed. "She approached Mr Stark tonight, and handed him photographs containing Stark weapons in the hands of the Ten Rings."
There was silence on the other end of the line for a few moments, and Ruby knew he was sending Agent Hill to sort out Christine Everhart. "What can you tell me from these photographs?" Director Fury asked her, knowing that she would have picked up on something.
"It's in Gulmira, the place where the doctor who saved my fathers life was from. What I can also tell you is that I will be able to track these weapons, from the moment the first piece of the shell was made. The lot numbers are visible in the pictures, I can track it back and find it who signed for it." She didn't know whether she should inform him of what she knew of Obadiah yet, or leave it for her father to deal with. It was a tough choice.
"Well, that is good news. How long will it take you to trace them back?" He asked her, having no idea what else was going through her head.
A small smile grew on her face. "I got my boys already working on it. Should have something in a few hours, there is a lot of data to go through." Ruby told him, knowing that it wouldn't really take that long but anticipating a few hurdles on the way. Now she knew that Obadiah was involved it made sense that everything was more difficult to get access to.
"I want direct contact when you have something. Is that understood, Agent Matthews?" Fury told her, surprising her. She would have expected him to tell her to report to Coulson, actually that was what she had expected. Ruby thought he would tell her to meet Coulson that the diner, like she usually did, and go over the photographs there.
"Understood, Director." Ruby replied, watching her laptop screen as it scrolled through all the data. "Hopefully I should have something for you within the next few hours." Fury mumbled his response, before ending the call, without saying goodbye, like he usually did.
With that now out of the way, Ruby decided to go and head down to check on her father. She knew that he was going to be in a bit of a bad mood, and most likely working to try and distract himself. When she got down there, he was sitting at his desk, playing with pieces of the armour that JARVIS had finished.
"So… uh, how's it coming?" Ruby asked him, wandering over to him in her sweatpants and tee shirt.
Tony looked up at her with a frown on his face. "You should probably go to bed, honey. Honestly, you look awful." He told her, noticing the dark circles under her eyes now that she had wiped away all of the makeup.
Ruby just ignored him and plonked herself in the chair at her desk, before spinning it around so that she could see her father. "How's the suit coming along?" She asked, totally avoiding what he had said about her looking awful.
"A few bits are ready, but there's still a few hours to go before JARVIS has the whole lot finished." Tony told her, rubbing his eyes and letting out a sigh. "I don't want you going anywhere near the office."
"What? Why? Because Obie is a two faced, scheming old git who went behind your back?" She asked him, not holding anything back. She had never really liked him, and now she had the reasons that she had been missing.
Tony really wanted to tell her off for what she had just said, but he knew that there was some truth in what came from her mouth. "Look, I just don't want you going near the office, you got that? There is no need for you to go there anyway, you can do all your work from here." He told her, trying to keep himself calm. "I need you here to help me with the suit." He added, knowing that he had to really convince her to stay away form Stark Industries. It knew that he could no longer trust Obadiah, and he wasn't going to let Ruby anywhere near the man.
"You don't need me to help you with the suit." Ruby reminded him, pushing herself out of her chair and walking over to her father's desk, before pulling herself up so she was sitting on it. "Dad, what's really going on in that head of yours?" She knew there was more to it, she knew how to read him.
With a heavy sigh, Tony turned and looked at his daughter. "You're right, I don't trust him, so I don't want you anywhere near him. Until all of this is sorted, you're… you're grounded." He knew that was a bit of a drastic move, be he just wanted to keep her safe.
"Grounded? You are seriously grounding me, because of him?" To say Ruby wasn't happy was putting it lightly. "What exactly do you think is going to happen? You think he's going to lock me in the cupboard or something?"
"I don't know, but either way, you are not leaving this house. Do you understand that?" It was clear to see that Tony was absolutely serious about it, and that he wasn't going to sway on it.
But Ruby was still going to give it a try. "Okay, you don't want me going near the office, I got that, I can do that, but why the hell are you locking me up in here?" She was slightly annoyed that she was being grounded just to stop her from going near Stark Industries. All had to do was tell her and explain and she would have listened to him.
"Because I can."
"Nah, not good enough." Ruby told him, in no way happy with his answer. "Give me one good reason why I should be grounded, why I shouldn't step foot outside of the door." She growled at him.
"Ruby, enough. You're grounded, end of story." Tony replied, starting to get a little riled up himself now.
The tone of his voice just made Ruby even angrier. "Give me a reason." She was trying so hard not to shout at him, because she really did want to just shout at him and walk out.
"I'm your father, I don't need any other reason."
"Uh, yeah, yeah you do." Ruby replied, clenching her fists, her nails digging into the skin on the palms of her hands. "You can't just ground me for no real reason. You told me to stay away from the office and I will. You can't just ground me when I haven't done anything wrong, that just isn't fair. You can't even give me a good reason for it." Now she was shouting at him.
"To protect you!" Tony ended up shouting at her, slamming his fists on the table and making her jump back and away from him. "How the hell am I meant to protect you if I have no idea where you are? You keep going off to meet people I've never even met. I have no idea where the hell you are. What if something happens? What am I meant to do then?"
That was a bit of a shock to Ruby. All those times she had been off to meet Coulson, visiting the base and training with Tasha, she had not been thinking of how her father would be feeling. Ruby just assumed he was too busy with everything else to really notice, to actually pay attention to where she was. "I'm… I'm sorry…" There was nothing else that she could think of to say.
Tony took a few deep breaths to calm himself down, before getting up from where he was sitting and standing in front of his daughter. "Ruby, honey, you are all I have. Whether you want to believe it or not, you mean everything to me. Before you came along, my life was a mess." He admitted to her. "You are everything, Ruby, everything, and I have to keep you safe. Right now, the only way for me to do that, is to keep you here."
Ruby could have sworn she could see her father's eye glistening with tears, because she knew her own were. When she first found him, she was so sure that he would just turn his back on her, to not give a damn about her. But she had been wrong. She had been wrong about him caring more about his work than about her, thinking that he never had time for her and that he wouldn't care if she went off out without telling him.
"I know it seems like I'm punishing you, but that is not what I'm trying to do here."
"What, so it's okay for you to take a stupid test fight without telling me, but… but it's not okay for me to go out and see my friends?" It was a lame attempt to fight back, but she didn't really know what else she could say.
He should have seen that one coming, he knew she was stubborn, and he knew she was going to fight back. "Ruby, I've told you why I don't want you leaving the house. Yeah, I've done some pretty stupid stuff in my life, I've made a lot of mistakes. I'm not going to just stand here and watch you get hurt because of that."
Ruby closed her eyes and took a deep breath, knowing she had to calm herself down as well. No, she didn't like the fact that he was trying to ground her just because he didn't want anything to happen to her. "Dad, you know I can look after myself. You saw me kick Happy's backside, and I was going lightly on him." She told him, trying to get a little leeway. "Can we not come to some sort of compromise?"
"Right now, no. I'm sorry, Ruby, but that's just how it has to be at the moment." Tony was feeling a little guilty for how it had all turned out. He didn't want her to be cooped up all the time, he didn't want to use his parental power to ground her, but he really did just want to keep her safe. "I know you can look after yourself, but the answer is still no."
She wanted to keep fighting back with him, to be stubborn and get her own way, but she knew it wasn't going to happen. She couldn't fight with her father, not now, not after everything that had happened. Slowly, she nodded her head at him. "Okay." Ruby ended up whispering.
"What?"
"I said okay. I'll do what you say, I'll stay here. If that's what will make you feel better, then fine." Yes, she was giving in, but she had other things going on in her head. She knew that she would be able to get around him eventually, she just had to wait for that moment. What Ruby also knew was that her father really was worried about her, and she didn't need to add to all the stress that he was already under.
Tony reached forward and wrapped his arms around his daughter. "It won't be forever, Ruby, I promise. We'll get all this sorted and we can start fresh. What do you say?" As soon as the nightmare was over, he was going to treat Ruby to something special. It was going to be their first Christmas together, and he was going to make it special, he was going to have everything sorted by then.
"Yeah, sure." Ruby replied, with very little enthusiasm. For some reason, she felt completely drained. They had been out to a party for just about an hour, and then drove straight back home again. The whole night was meant to be getting back into the world and proving to them that nothing was wrong, but they ended up going home in such a deflated mood.
"Right, pizza and a movie?" Tony asked her suddenly, picking his phone up from his desk, ready to order some pizza for the pair of them.
Ruby looked at her father and saw that he was worried, she could see it in his eyes. "No thanks, dad. I… I think I'm just going to go back to bed." She told him, not really in the mood to sit there and watch a film.
He quickly put his hand against her forehead, checking her temperature and making sure that her fever hadn't come back. "How are you feeling now? You still feeling all right?"
She nodded at him slightly. "Yeah, I'm just tired and got a lot on my mind." Ruby informed him, being honest and not wanting him to worry. "I've got SWAIN and JARVIS working on trying to track the weapons in the pictures. They'll let you know if they come up with anything."
"Ruby, I know you're not happy with me, or this whole thing, but you have to understand why I'm doing this." Tony pressed, knowing that she was still rather annoyed with him and how things were turning out. She had only just started getting better, and now with what they had just found out, he was worried she was going to get worse again.
"You're right, I'm not happy with any of this. I'm also not blaming you for any of this, because I know it's not your fault, and you're doing everything you can to fix it." Ruby told him, ready to just go and curl up in her bed now.
"Okay, well, go get some sleep. Honestly, you still look a bit pale." Tony told her, still worried that she was going to get sick again because of all the stress. "And Ruby, promise me that you will try not to worry about all of this. It was the stress that caused you to get so sick in the first place." The one thing that Tony really didn't want to do was call out the doctor again because his daughter had gotten sick once more.
When Ruby looked into her father's eyes, she really could see the concern. "I promise. Not much that I can do right now anyway. It's going to take a few hours for the boys to sift through everything to find what we need, so there's no point just sitting around and waiting. It's like watching paint dry."
Tony couldn't help but chuckle a little. "Yeah, and we all know how boring that is. Just go back to bed. If they come up with anything important, I'll let you know. Deal?"
Ruby nodded at him. "Yeah, deal. Night, dad." She said, before surprising him and hugging him. She needed the hugs, because she still didn't feel all that great, no matter how much of a front she put on. Without her makeup on, it was easy to see the bags under her eyes and the paleness of her skin.
"Goodnight, honey. Give me a shout if you need anything, all right?" He told her softly, a small smile on his face, even though there was that pain inside him one more. When he hugged her, he thought of all those hugs he missed when she was younger, of all the times he missed saying goodnight to her and putting her to bed. He thought of those bedtime stories he never told her, and the monsters he never chased from under her bed.
Ruby didn't know it, but a lot of the time Tony would be down in the workshop, the video feed of her bedroom up on his screen. He would just sit there, and watch her while she was sleeping. He knew what side of the bed she preferred to sleep on, he knew which way she would face when she was sleeping. Tony also knew that she would wake up at least once to go to the bathroom during the night. He had seen her having nightmares, and he had snuck into her room to sit with her until she calmed down. But she didn't know any of that.
He watched her as she walked out of the room and up the stairs, dragging her feet a little as she headed off to her room. Tony knew that she would head to her bathroom, get changed and get into her bed, before picking up the framed picture that resided on the small cabinet beside her bed.
By the time Ruby had reached her room, Tony was sitting down at his desk, watching her go through the usual movements. He watched her disappear into the bathroom, before returning a few minutes later and getting herself under her covers. Then, as he predicted, she picked up the frame and looked at it. He was always curious as to what she was saying, because he could see that she was speaking to the picture, the picture of her mother. However, he knew his daughter deserved her privacy, and he would never intrude on those moments that she spoke to Jasmine.
He watched her put the frame back, before all the lights went out in her room. Within twenty minutes, she would be asleep. "Hey, JARVIS?" Tony called, getting the attention of his AI.
"Yes, Sir?" The British voice replied.
"I need you and SWAIN to keep a close eye on Ruby. I'm worried about her. She's only just started getting better, I do not want her to get sick again. Anything out of the ordinary, you let me know straight away, got it?" He knew that he was probably being just a little over protective, but he couldn't help it. No one was going to hurt his baby girl, and he was going to make sure she didn't get ill again.
"Of course, Sir. Doctor Peterson has sent through Miss Matthews-Stark's medical history, do you wish to view it now?"
Tony had almost forgotten all about that, his mind had been elsewhere. "Yeah, sure. Bring it up, Jay." He replied, before watching as the feed of Ruby's room shrunk and zoomed to the corner of the screen, while everything that the doctor had sent appeared on the screen.
Reading through the first few years of Ruby's life didn't really give him much. She seemed to have been a pretty healthy baby, just a few cases of the sniffles here and there. It was only when he reached to when she was six that things started to crop up. There were several cases of viruses, chest infections, throat infections, and even stomach bugs. From what he could see, she was getting sick a lot, and it wasn't until he got to when she was eight that it changed into broken bones.
After that it just seemed to be one broken bone after another, until she was twelve. From then on, there didn't seem to be too much to worry about. The odd virus or bug here and there, sprained ankle and some bruising from things, but nothing that would worry him. What did worry him was why she had always been so sick, and how she had gotten so many broken bones.
He did remember her telling him about getting beaten up at school, and then starting to fight back. Tony guess that would probably account for the broken bones, but the other illnesses still bothered him. Why had she been so sick as a child? He made a mental note to try and find out more about it later.
By the time he had finished going through it all, including her full list of allergies and medication that she should be on but absolutely refuses to take, a good few hours had passed. When Tony looked at the time, he realised just how tired he was now as well. He hadn't been sleeping too well, hence how he knew so much about Ruby's sleeping habits.
A few hours later, and Ruby was tossing and turning in her bed. She had kept waking up throughout the night, almost every hour on the hour. "JARVIS, what time is it?" She grumbled, knowing that it was still going to be really early.
"It is almost four in the morning, Miss Matthews-Stark." The British AI replied. "Is there anything that you require?"
"Some more sleep." Ruby moaned into her pillow. "Is my dad still up?" She knew how he liked to stay up all night tinkering and messing around in his workshop. Sometimes it was hard to tell if he was going to up awake or crashed out somewhere.
"Your father went to bed roughly two hours ago." JARVIS informed her. "Do you wish for me to wake him?"
Ruby was quick to reply to that. "No." She told the AI, picking her head up from the pillow. "I'll… I'll go wake him up myself." She said, before throwing the covers away from her legs. This was the first time that she had slept so badly that she actually needed someone there since she had moved in with her father. Most of the time she coped with it on her own, pretending it never happened or calling Tasha to talk to her about it.
She shuffled out of her room, her bare feet feeling the cold of the floor a little as she went. Her head was actually feeling a little fuzzy, and she knew that was because of all the different things she was worrying about. She couldn't help but worry, she was trained to deal with situations worse than this, and they had caused her fewer headaches.
When she found herself standing outside of her father's bedroom, she froze, not really sure if she should wake him up or not. Her decision was made when her knuckles lightly knocked on the door, before it creaked open a little. Ruby pushed the door open slightly and peeked inside. "Uh… dad?" She called quietly through the darkness, seeing a figure move a little on the large bed. "Are… are you awake?"
There came a slight grumble and a bit of a groan. "Ruby? You okay?" Tony called to her, as JARVIS put the lights on dimly.
Ruby saw her lying on his bed, not in it, rubbing his eyes with one of his hands. "I… uh, I can't sleep." She admitted to him, feeling a little awkward. She didn't know how he was going to react to her waking him up at four in the morning because she couldn't sleep.
Tony could see that she was feeling a little awkward. "Hey, come here." He said, beckoning her over while he pushed himself up so that he was now sitting on his bed. "Come on, sit down." Ruby done as she was told and sat crossed legged on the bed with er father. "Talk to me, honey."
"I'm… I'm worried about all of this stuff, with Obie." It was about time she was honest with her father, she already had so many secrets that she was keeping from him, it was just getting too much. "Is he the one that is double dealing?"
With a heavy sigh, he looked at his daughter, and saw the worried expression on her face. "I don't know, but it looks like he knows something about it. I don't want to say anything without any proof." He knew that he needed to reassure her, to let her know that everything was going to be okay. "But you've already got SWAIN and JARVIS looking into it. They haven't got anything for us yet, but they are looking, so the moment they do have something, you'll know about it, we both will."
"And…and what will you do if it turns out he has been behind it all? He's a big part of the company, and your friend." She wanted some answered, because she had to be prepared. "You trust him, what happens if he is involved?"
"Ruby, you don't have to worry about that. I will deal with it. If Obie is involved with it all, then I will make sure he is dealt with. I don't approve of any of this, and I don't think he can be trusted any more." Tony told her, hoping that he was getting through to her. "This is why I don't want you near the office, I don't want you near him. We don't know who else is caught up in all of this, I'm not going to risk something happening to you, honey."
Ruby nodded at him, relieved that he thought Obie had something to do with it. All of those suspicions that she had about the man were really bothering her, and with this new revelation, it was possible that she had been right all along. "What about Pepper? Do… do you think she knows anything about it?" Ruby didn't, but she needed to know what her father thought.
"No." Tony replied, without a second of hesitation. "Not a chance. You know what Pepper is like, she hasn't got a bad bone in her body. If she knew anything about it, she would have told us already." He had that much trust and faith in Pepper Potts, the assistant who had to put up with all the things he used to do.
She couldn't help but smile at her father a little at that comment. "She may not have a bad bone in her body, but she sure has got some protective bones in there somewhere." Ruby knew Pepper was protective of her, she had shown it enough times. Pepper worried about her, tried to be a firm but caring figure. Ruby knew she wasn't trying to be her mother, but just someone she could turn to if she needed it. "I don't think she has anything to do with it either. If she doesn't approve of me having a drink, she really will not approve of what's been going on."
Tony couldn't help but chuckle a little at that. "Exactly. There is no way that she is involved in any of this. Miss Potts is on our side, remember that." He told his daughter, wondering of there was anything else that was bothering her. "We're going to get through this, honey, we're going to work out what's going on and put a stop to it, I promise."
Her head slowly nodded at him in the dim lighting. "Yeah, I know."
"What else is on your mind?" Tony asked her. "It's not just about who could be involved, there's something else, isn't there?"
Ruby hated the way that he was starting to be able to read her, it meant that her ability to mask herself was slipping. "Gulmira. That… that was where Yinsen was from. His wife and children are there. They're probably still waiting for him, hoping that he is still alive." Since Tony had returned, he hadn't said a word about the doctor who had saved his life, he hadn't needed to. Ruby knew straight away that he hadn't made it, otherwise he would have been found with her father.
"He died saving my life. That man saved my life twice, and he looked after you." Her father replied, taking a hold of both her hands, seeing that she was getting a little upset. "He died a hero, and I'm not going to forget that."
"I didn't think you would be the kind to believe in heroes." Ruby commented, knowing that, in their eyes, Yinsen really had been a hero.
Tony shrugged his shoulders at her. "Depends on the kind of hero." He replied, giving her a small smile. "Now, do you want to go back to bed, or go watch a few films and pass out on the couch?"
She didn't really feel like being on her own, it would leave too much time to keep thinking everything over. She needed a distraction. "Mary Poppins?" Ruby asked.
"Mary Poppins." Her father confirmed, glad to see that she was at least willing to try to sleep on the couch.
He was also glad that she had actually gone to him. It wasn't very often that she would tell him what was bothering her, not without a lot of pressuring and a fair amount of arguing. But this time, this time she had gone to him, in the early hours, telling him that she couldn't sleep and explaining why. He felt a slight panic at first, when she had appeared at his door, because he thought something was wrong. Only it wasn't, and he felt a rush of proudness at the fact that she had gone there, to talk to him instead of bottling it all up or calling her friends. And now, he was going to lounge around on the couch with her, watching one of their favourite movies, until the both fell asleep.
A/N: Okay, the poll is still on my profile, and I'm kind of disappointed that there have be so few readers actually voting on it. So, if you wouldn't mind taking a look and voting, it does relate to this story and I'm only going to leave it open for a few more days.
To all you lovely people that take the time to leave me a review, thank you all so much. I'm trying to move the story along now, but I always find something else that happens. Anyway, welcome to all who have favourited/followed, glad to see you are enjoying the story.
Well, I need to get on with the next chapter, and the movie. I am going to be doing Iron Man 2, I've already got the basic outline for it. Oh, and those who have asked if Ruby is going to have a love interest, not right now she isn't, no. Her current lifestyle doesn't allow it, maybe in the future, but not right now.
Until next time…
Pippa.