You Shook Me All Night Long

AC/DC

It was the middle of the night, so Maggie knew her dad wouldn't be in the workshop unless he had pulled an all-nighter. She pressed the code into the key pad and watched the glass door slide back. She wasn't sleeping well lately and desperately needed at least a couple of hours alone in the lab. To her dismay she found her Uncle Bruce hunched over one of the planning boards. She sat in her regular chair and pulled up the last thing she had been working on, her very first robot. Bruce looked up from his work and smiled, "Bit late don't you think?"

"Or early, depending on your frame of reference. I couldn't sleep again," Maggie replied quietly without looking away from her screen.

"How's the seventh grade treating you?" Bruce asked.

"Not much better than the sixth grade," Maggie replied in the same unenthused tone. Bruce wasn't expecting a much different response because Steve had told him about how she was struggling. She was incredibly smart with no focus, just like Tony. She was probably smarter than most of the teachers at the private school Tony and Steve were sending her to, and she made it known too. She also didn't have the same kind of work ethic in the classroom as she did in the workshop. It was no wonder none of the teachers felt very attached to her or cared when she had trouble making friends. There were certainly a few things the kids could be cruel about, like her two gay dads or the things they heard about Tony Stark from their parents. The tuition for the school was higher than community college, so naturally everyone enrolled there came from rich families, but none as rich as the Starks. Either way Maggie was miserable and neither of her fathers really knew how to help. The sunshine of their lives was dimming and they didn't know why.

"Do you mind if I put on music? A good playlist is very important to a good work environment," Maggie said matter-of-factly. Bruce just nodded and You Shook Me All Night Long, Maggie's favorite AC/DC song started playing.

"You are just like your dad," Bruce said laughing and shaking his head.

"Well, as much like him as I can get," Maggie said under her breath, but Bruce heard it.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"Uncle Bruce, please don't try to give me the same crap about 'when two daddies love each other very much.' I know where babies come from now, and I know that two guys can not make a baby. I just wish someone would tell me where I came from," said Maggie, growing more and more frustrated with every word. She had never fully voiced these thoughts aloud before. Anytime she had brought up the subject Tony would say 'Ask your father' and Steve would make up the same ridiculous story that the stork dropped her off on the Stark Tower helicopter pad.

"Two guys might not be able to make a baby, but three can," Bruce said quickly looking for something amongst his hundreds of files.

"Uncle Bruce, have you ever taken a health class?" Maggie asked. Aside from her dad, Bruce Banner was the smartest man she knew, she couldn't even begin to imagine what he was talking about.

Up on his screen was something Maggie recognized as a DNA helix attaching and detaching itself in a constant loop. She stepped closer to the screen as Bruce took off his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"I really shouldn't be the one telling you this," he said carefully.

"Telling me what?" Maggie asked, the glow of the screen hurting her eyes in the dim light of the lab.

"Maggie, you are your fathers' daughter. I mean really," he added with a skeptical look from her. "You were genetically engineered- I genetically engineered you from Tony and Steve's DNA."

"WHAT?" Maggie yelled as she backed away from the screen. "You mean I'm like one of those test tube babies?"

"Well, you weren't grown in the lab, just created," Bruce stammered, trying to calm Maggie down.

"Oh great than I'm an even bigger freak than I thought I was!" she screamed throwing her hands in the air.

"No, no! You're a perfectly normal human being! Well, except-"

"Except what?"

Bruce took several deep breaths to calm down as Maggie stared at him in disbelief. "You did get some of Cap's genetic alterations, which we kind of expected."

"What do you mean?" asked Maggie, still not exactly calm.

"Have you ever noticed that you're faster than the other kids? Or maybe stronger? Or that you can eat like an eighteen-year-old boy and still be the skinny little thing you are?" Bruce asked, gesturing to Maggie.

She considered the points he had made, all of which were completely valid. She was also really smart and good at math and science, just like Tony, which was not a skill you just pick up by association, but by genetics. She was the fastest girl on the junior track team and despite her unpopularity she was often picked first in gym class. She also had eyes the same shade of blue as Steve and dark unruly hair like Tony.

"So, my dads are really my dads?" Maggie asked slowly, trying hard to grasp the concept.

"Yes," Bruce replied simply.

"This is great!" Maggie squealed.

"This is- what?" Bruce asked suddenly confused by the extreme change in Maggie's mood.

"I'm not just some lame kid they adopted into a family of super heroes. I'm special! I'm Iron Man and Captain America's daughter! Wow, oh my god, I'm awesome!"

Bruce cocked an eyebrow and shook his head, Maggie really was their daughter. Sweet and thoughtful one minute then a cocky little jerk the next. It was amazing she never considered actually being related to at least one of them before. He couldn't help but wonder if this was why she was always so down on herself, because all this time she didn't think she was special.

Maggie started the song over again and played air guitar and sang at the top of her lungs:

"She was a fast machine
She kept her motor clean
She was the best damn woman I had ever seen
She had the sightless eyes
Telling me no lies
Knockin' me out with those American thighs!"

When it was over she retreated upstairs to go find her fathers.

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mayzie