Guys we are getting close to the end!

I don't own Marvel, only Scarlett and her storyline

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Chapter 12

The first thing that I remember was hearing voices, several of them, both male and female. I couldn't make out what was being talked about but the sound was enough to lull me out of sleep.

I opened my eyes and saw Pepper, Peter, and Clint standing at the edge of my bed. They sounded like they were telling Peter what had happened with Obadiah. I wasn't ready to reassure everyone that I was going to be okay, so I just remained quiet and watched.

"Why don't you guys go check on Tony?" Clint said. "He should be waking up soon."

Pepper and Peter nodded and the two of them left.

Clint turned to face me. "Hey Tweety bird," he said as he dragged a chair next to the right of me.

I managed to give him a small smile as he handed me a small ice chip. I was relieved as the melted water started to slide down my throat. "How did you know?" I asked him, my voice was slightly scratchy.

"Your heart rate changed," Clint said as he pointed to the giant machine I was hooked to. "It was subtle but enough of a difference for me to notice."

"That's 'cause you have super-bird hearing Big Bird," I teased him. I started to push myself up when I heard someone walk in.

"Easy there," Creepy Doctor said as he walked in. "You've been through a lot,"

I nodded. "And yet I feel perfectly fine, my back doesn't even hurt."

Clint laughed. "We might have helped with that," Clint said. "You had a lot of injuries."

I nodded. "So, Doctor Creepy," I said looking at him. "Am I good to go?"

Creepy Doctor gave me a dirty glare. "Yes Miss Stark," he said as he sounded agitated. "You're good to go."

I started to pull the tabs and cords that were attached to me so I could be free. "Here," Clint said as he started to help me escape the tangle of cords. I was finally free and I sprung from the hospital bed. "There you go," Clint told me as he handed me a pile of clothes and a small bag. "You're going to need these."

I smiled and took them from his arms and headed to the bathroom. I looked at myself and was shocked at what I saw. My hair was a mess, it was sticking up everywhere and it was oily. I looked through the bag and found a hairbrush and some ponytail rings. I sighed, there was no way my hair could be tamed without a deep condition. So I used the faucet to wet down my hair and pull it into a tight bun. I stripped off the hospital gown and slipped on the underwear and bra Clint had picked for me. I put on two layers of deodorant, because that was how much I needed it, which led me to wonder just how long I had been asleep. I washed my face and slipped on the jeans and dark purple t-shirt on. I zipped up the black jacket and padded out of the bathroom barefoot.

Clint was still there and so was Agent. "Miss Stark," Agent said.

"What's going on?" I asked as I looked between the two of them.

"Scar," Clint said as he took a deep breath. "We need to know what happened, everything that happened."

I opened my mouth and then closed it again. I learned things that I never wanted to know about myself, about my past. And I didn't think that I could talk about it.

"Barton and I will be the only ones to know," Agent said. "It won't be recorded or written down. This is off the record. But we need to know."

I nodded, knowing that was I helping but I had the feeling that he wasn't going to let me go without it. "I want to talk to my dad first."

Agent nodded. "I'll get the car," he said as he left the room, leaving Clint and I alone.

There was two seconds of silence before Clint crushed me against him in a hug. I returned it and pressed my forehead against his shoulder. "You saved me," I mumbled against him. "thanks"

"I should've been there in the first place," Clint said. "He should have never taken you."

I could hear the guilt and pain in his voice so I pulled back and took a step, and then punched him in his shoulder.

"Ow," Clint said as he clutched his shoulder.

"Don't be stupid," I said. "You saved me and saved the day, don't ruin it."

Clint nodded and we headed into the room my dad was in. "so I guess we're good?" he asked as we headed down the hall "I was afraid that you would be mad at me"

I paused for a second before turning to him "you were a hero" I said with a small half smile.

"Dad," I said as I saw him, my dad looked up and I could see the relief on his face. I walked over to him and gave him a huge hug. "I'm sorry," I sobbed. "About everything, everything I said, or… or did. I'm sorry."

"Shh," my dad soothed me as he rubbed circles on my back.

Clint had never entered the room, but he was guarding the door so we could have a moment between the two of us.

"There isn't anything to forgive," my dad said. I nodded my head and tightened my arms around him.

"What happened?" I asked.

I felt my dad sigh. "After the arc reactor blew, it ended up frying Obadiah's suit. He fell backwards into the reactor," he explained. "He's dead."

I froze for a moment; I was unsure how I was supposed to feel about this news. Happy because a man who had almost killed me and my father was dead? Or sad because someone who I had grown up with was gone?

"He's out of our lives, Scar." my dad said. "He won't come back."

I nodded again and felt my body relax.

Clint knocked at the door. "Scarlett," he said. "Agent Coulson is ready."

I took a step away from my dad. "Ok," I told him.

"Ready?" my dad asked. "Ready for what?"

"I've got to give my side of what happened," I explained.

"I'm coming," my dad said as he took a step closer to me.

"Dad, no," I replied shaking my head. "You don't need to come."

My dad froze, I could see his face fall a little but I couldn't talk about what had happened with him there. I turned around and headed out of the room. Clint stayed behind while I headed to the front of the hospital. Pepper saw me when I turned the corner. "Scarlett," she said as she brought me into another hug.

"Mom," I replied as I buried my face into her shoulder. I was enveloped by her familiar scent.

"Are you ok?" Pepper asked. "I sent Peter back to the house to get some sleep."

I smiled. "Mom, I'm fine, and I'll stop by the house to pick Peter up."

"Where are you going?" Pepper asked concern lacing her tone, "and without any shoes?"

I looked down at my bare feet and wiggled my toes. "I forgot I didn't have shoes on, and I've got to talk to Agent Coulson about what happened."

Pepper nodded as she brought me closer for another hug.

"Dad's up," I said. "You might want to talk to him."

Pepper nodded and she headed to my dad's room.

Clint showed back up just as I was getting into the passenger seat of the car that Agent had.

"Here," he said as he tossed a pair of black slip-on shoes over the seat of my lap.

"Thanks," I said as I slipped on the shoes.

We drove in silence as we approached S.H.I.E.L.D.'s agency. "No black hood or anything?" I teased the two of them.

"Well now that you mention it," Clint said as he pulled out a bag from his pocket.

"Whatever," I said as I threw the bag back at him.

We got out and headed into a private room, Clint led me to a couch where he sat next to me. Agent followed behind us and sat in the chair across from us.

"So," I said as I rubbed my palms on the thighs of my jeans.

"When you called me," Clint said, "you said that someone was in the house."

I nodded. "I could hear someone talking to my dad," I finished, grateful to Clint that he was helping me. "So I hung up the phone and went to the living room."

"Who was in the living room?" Agent asked me

"Obadiah was," I answered as I thought about that night. "He was standing over my dad, he… he had the arc reactor from my dad's chest in his hand. I asked what was going on and he put the reactor in a case and headed towards me."

I felt Clint scoot closer to me so I continued. "Max attacked him so I ran over to my dad to see what was wrong with him because he wasn't moving. I heard Max whine so I started to move but Obadiah grabbed my ankle."

"What happened next?" Agent asked.

"I kicked him," I replied. Clint laughed and I swear I saw Agent crack a smile. "And then I took off towards the lab I thought that maybe I get to the suit. But he caught me and threw me across the room, I landed on the glass table and fell through it. He walked over to me and slammed my head into the ground."

I took a deep breath and noticed my hands were shaking, I started to rub a circle into my right palm with my left thumb. I looked up at Agent who in his defense didn't try and hurry me along with the statement. "When I woke up, I was tied to a chair; I had no idea what was going on. Obadiah came over and he started talking about how this wasn't how he wanted to do it."

"Do what?" Clint asked.

"Have me work on the arc reactor; he kept talking about his big plans for it," I supplied. "And I told him no, that I wouldn't."

"Why?" Agent asked as he leaned forward.

"Why what?" I asked confused.

"Why didn't you just help him?" he clarified.

I raised my eyebrow in confusion. "Because despite all your misgivings about me, I have morals and if I had helped him a lot of people were going to die."

Agent didn't say anything else, but I was ready for this to be over so I started to rush through the rest of the story. "So in typical bad guy fashion, I said no, he taunted and teased with a little bit of torture thrown in. When that was clear it wasn't going to work so he started to bring up my mother, my birth mother. Then he heard you guys, stabbed me in the thigh and then left."

"What did he say about your mom?" Clint asked.

I licked my bottom lip. I had hoped they had missed that part when I was explaining what had happened but it seemed like they locked on to that part pretty heavily. I inhaled through my nose before slowly letting the breath out of my mouth, and then I started. "Obadiah was saying that I was stubborn like my mom, and then he told me about how happy we were as a family, my dad wasn't developing weapons as much as he used to and Obadiah couldn't have that so he offered my mom money to take me and leave him. When she said no, he doubled the offer," I said.

"Did she take it?" Agent asked softly, I looked him in his eyes and noticed there was a pain there, like he knew how much this sucked for me and he wasn't asking to be spiteful.

"He said she did, but that she took the money and left me. It was my first birthday," I said. "I don't know if it's true or not. But it sounds like it could be"

"You never wondered about your mother?" Clint asked.

I paused for a moment and then shook my head. "I never cared to know," I admitted. "I mean she left me and my dad; that seems like a pretty clear sign that she didn't want any contact with us."

Agent nodded and he stood up. "I think we are done here," he said as he headed to the door. "Miss Stark," he said before he opened it.

I looked up at him, Agent just nodded and left the room, leaving Clint and I there alone.

"Tweety," Clint said.

But I didn't want to talk about it now; I just wanted a shower and a hug from my best friend. I was going to run away from this pain right now and just wait for it to bite me in the ass later. "I want go home," I said softly.

Clint nodded, although I could tell he didn't agree with my method of handling things but he didn't argue. He stood up and escorted me to the front of the building where the car was still waiting for us.

The trip back to my house was short and silent. I got out and turned back to Clint in the driver's seat. "Thanks," I said softly, "for everything."

Clint just nodded. "I'll see you in a few hours for the press conference that your dad is having."

"Ok," I acknowledged. "Let's just hope that this one goes better than last time."

I stepped into my house, you would think that with how often my dad and Pepper aren't actually here that I would be used to the silence that echoes through the house but I wasn't. The closer I got to home base the more I could hear Peter and to my utter joy, Max. I knocked on the door before heading in.

"Red!" Peter said as he shot up and headed towards me.

I didn't have time to say anything before I was pulled into a hug, this time I returned it just as eagerly.

"That's it," he said. "I can't ever leave you; you're just going to have to come to New York with me."

I laughed into his shoulder as the final moments of our hug passed. "Listen I'm going to jump into the shower and then we have to go to a press conference but after, we'll talk," I said,

"About you coming to New York?" Peter asked hopefully.

"About everything," I said as I turned around to walk back out of the room.

Max was following me as soon as I made it to my room so I bent down and gave him the biggest hug I could give my dog. "You're the real hero," I said. Max just barked in reply but I knew he was happy with how he helped me.

From there I jumped in the shower, I shampooed and conditioned twice and just to make sure I got all of the dirt and stuff off of me, and I'm pretty sure I ended up easily scrubbing the first layer of skin off.

I exited the shower, steam trailing behind me as I picked out a simple pair of skinny jeans, a black tank top with a red jacket over it, and my favorite pair of ankle boots. I twisted my still damp, but now officially tangle free, hair into a bun at the nape of my neck.

"Let's go," I said as I passed our home base. I made sure not to actually go in there because with Peter's power of persuasion I would end up watching a tela novella instead of going to the conference.

I could hear Peter getting up and jogging to catch up with me. Once he had we made our way back to the garage.

"Oh, I'm driving," peter said as he noticed me picking up the key to Ferrari 612 GTO, or as I know, Stark 7.

I tossed Peter the keys with no hesitation and I slipped into the passenger seat.

Now I know what you must be thinking, how could I let my best friend basically joy ride in one of my dad's car and my answer, all I can say, is that he's Spiderman; he has a better chance of not scratching the car then I do.

Once we got there Peter, in true Stark fashion, just parked the car right at the front and we walked into the building. "Not even going to look for a parking spot?" I teased him.

"Now why would I do that?" Peter asked as he hooked his arm through mine.

We managed to avoid any press as we headed to the back room where my dad and Pepper were.

"We have port papers that put you in Avalon all night, and sworn statements from 50 of your guests," Agent was saying as my dad was looking over notecards.

"Is that what we were doing?" I asked, the three of them noticed us.

"If we get luckily nobody will ask you, but yes that is the alibi," Agent said.

I nodded my understanding and slipped my arm out of Peter's so I could head over to Pepper.

She put one arm around me as we both noticed my dad's disapproval of the alibi. "See, I was thinking maybe we should say it was just the three of us alone on the island," my dad commented as he turned to look at us. "you know family bonding"

"That's what happened," Agent said, his stern tone coming out in reaction to my dad.

"All right," my dad said.

"Word for word," Agent clarified.

"There's nothing about Stane here," My dad said as he flipped through the card again.

"That's being handled. He's on vacation. Small aircraft have such a poor safety records," Agent explained.

"That's it, he was on vacation?" My dad exploded. "So no one is going to know what a terrible person he was, what a monster he was?"

"Dad," I said softly. "Please don't push this."

"After what he did to you?" My dad questioned me.

"It's done," I said. "It's over with, please just read the card and follow the plan." Truth be told I was a little upset that nobody was going to know just how much of a monster Obadiah was and what my family and I went through to stop him, but if this is what S.H.I.E.L.D. wanted to do, I wasn't going to question it.

"This isn't my first rodeo, Mr. Stark. Just stick to the official statement, and soon, this will all be behind you. You've got 90 seconds," Agent informed him.

My dad nodded as he turned to face me. Pepper took the hint and went over to talk to Agent. "Is this what you want?" he asked.

I nodded my head. "I want this to be over," I admitted. "And this is the fastest way."

My dad just looked at me and nodded. "Have you decided what you're going to do when this is over?" He asked me.

I looked him in the eye. "No," I answered truthfully. "Because I don't know how this is going to affect us."

"I think that we were doing good," my dad answered. "Putting our relationship back together, I mean just look at that night."

"That night?" I asked. "You mean my birthday?"

"Yeah," my dad clarified. "When I gave you that," he motioned to the ring that was currently sitting on my right ring finger.

"You mean when you took me to the roof," I said remembering that night. "And you went down to get us a drink."

"Yes," my dad said eagerly, glad that I was remembering that night.

"And then you left me," I finished. "On the roof by myself, is that the night that you were talking about?"

I could see my dad deflate, clearly he blocked out the rest of the night.

"Just finish this," I said. "And we'll see where it takes us."

My dad just nodded and headed out to the main room, leaving the four of us in green room while we watched him on the screen.

"Thank you. Been a while since I was in front of you. I figure I'll stick to the cards this time. There's been speculation that I was involved in the events that occurred on the freeway and the rooftop," my dad trailed off.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Stark, but do you honestly expect us to believe that that was a bodyguard in a suit that conveniently appeared, despite the fact that you," Christine Everheart, the tramp who had slept with my father months before, interrupted him

"I know that it's confusing," he said as interrupted her. "It's is one thing to question the official story, and another thing entirely to make wild accusations, or insinuate that I'm a superhero." My dad replied taking control of the situation.

"Oh God," I said watching what had unfolded. "Please don't."

"I never said you were a superhero," Christine said.

"You didn't? Well, good, because that would be outlandish and fantastic. I'm just not the hero type. Clearly. With this laundry list of character defects, all the mistakes I've made, largely public," my dad stammered.

I watched Rhodey lean in and whisper something to my dad. I prayed that he would get him back on track.

"Yeah, okay. Yeah..." my dad began.

"Please don't," I said out loud as I took a step closer, ignorant of the other people in the room

"The truth is..."

"Don't do this," I begged.

My dad opened his mouth and I held my breath

"... I am Iron Man." he finished.

AN: Uh-oh Tony went and did the thing!

So there is one last chapter to go before this story is over :(

the Shawarma scene if you will...

A huge thank you to every one who reviewed last chapter we got to 100 reviews!

So without further ado... the title for the next story will be

Heroes, I've Accepted

and because we also got to 100 reviews next chapter will also have a sneak peak! and I'll answer all of the reviews for both chapter