Chapter 12

Daisy needed a funeral, and so she settled on the pecan pie. Pepper didn't eat it, but her father was sure to down the whole thing. And then the poison would stop his heart, always so weak even with the arcreactor.

She'd gotten the idea from Natasha of course. The assassin had said that the problem with poison was that those with perfectly healthy hearts didn't just have random heart attacks. But those with shrapnel desperately creeping towards their hearts and a magnet of sorts holding it back do tend to randomly have heart attacks. Especially when they occupy their time with stressful things, like crime fighting.

And so Daisy added the poison while watching the Avengers float passing beneath her window with the rest of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. The poison hadn't been hard to come by, not once she contacted her handler and told her the plan. It was certainly an illegal drug to have, but the illegality of having the poison was most certainly overshadowed by the illegality of murder.

When the Stark family sat around the dinner table that Thanksgiving, they all had a lot to be grateful for. Of course they weren't the type of family to actually say aloud all those things they were grateful for, but they knew them in their hearts. They were grateful to spend this first Thanksgiving with Pepper legally a part of the family. They were grateful for the life growing within her, a little girl if a mother's instincts were right. They were grateful for one more Thanksgiving with everyone alive. Pepper and Tony were grateful Daisy had gotten away from her kidnappers. Daisy was grateful that the first step of her mission was almost complete.

They were so grateful, no one objected when Tony suddenly declared they had to start with dessert as it was an old Stark family tradition he'd somehow forgotten about for five years. Daisy and Pepper made their way towards the chocolate cream, smoothing their halves with copious amounts of whipped cream. Tony gulped up his pecan pie, even managing to compliment Daisy's baking before clutching his chest and letting the fork clatter to the floor.

Daisy screamed watching her father dying before her, tears welling up within her. She didn't want to lose her dad. She couldn't lose her dad. Iron Man had to die.

"It seems Mr. Stark has gone into cardiac arrest," J.A.R.V.I.S chimed out, far too casually for the liking of the Stark women. Daisy was hysterical by her father's side, clutching his hand as her handiwork made its way through his system, shutting everything down. She'd picked a painless poison, the kind that shuts off the pain centers first. She couldn't bare to see her father die, never mind in agony.

"Daddy," she whispered, his eyes recognizing her presence. She could barely even see him through her own tears, but Daisy didn't let go. She'd never let go of her father. "I love you."

If Daisy's heart wasn't already broken, watching her father in his final moment nod would have done the trick. His grip on her hand disappeared, and his eyes, while still staring right at her, saw nothing. Daisy couldn't control herself. She sobbed over him, hugging him in that moment to make up with 20 years worth of hugs they should have had. She hugged him to make up with all the hugs they should have had in the future had he not had to die. Daisy kissed his lips, wishing the poison would transfer to her so she didn't have to feel so terrible. Her dad was dead. He wasn't just missing or in danger this time. He was dead.

Tony jerked up, panting, and then collapsed back to the floor. Daisy let out whole different kind of scream, reaching to feel his pulse. His heart was beating again, weakly, but beating. Suddenly Daisy felt a whole different kind of horrible. She had failed. She had not complied. She'd gotten her wish and her father had lived, and everything was wrong.

The parade made it nearly impossible for an ambulance to get to them, and by the time it did Tony's heart had stopped beating twice more. Daisy held her breathe and her father's hand all the way to the hospital. Her thumb she kept gentle against his wrist, needing to feel his pulse or lack thereof, even as the monitor beeped and flat lined next to her. Each time his heart stopped pain and relief shot through Daisy, and when he was revived gratefulness and disappointment replaced it. Everything was all so wrong. Daisy didn't know how to think, how to feel, and so she just held her father's hand.

He pulled through in the end. Daisy should have known her father would be the person to add a defibrillator to his arc reactor. Each time the poison brought his heart to a stop the electricity shot up, restarting it. Eventually the poison dissipated from his blood, and the cycle stopped. Daisy had never been so happy as when her father lived that thanksgiving. She'd never felt so terrible about having not complied.

"He's going to be okay," Pepper reassure her daughter (because damn it, Daisy was as much her daughter as the new life growing within her). "His heart hasn't stopped in two hours. He'll be okay Daisy."

She nodded, rubbing her red eyes. There were no more tears staining her hands, she'd cried herself out. Surely there would be more tears when her handler finally caught up to her. She had not complied after all.

"He's going to be okay," Pepper whispered again, trying to convince herself. She'd almost lost Tony again. How many times had she almost lost Tony?

When the other Avengers arrived, Daisy was sitting on the windowsill, looking out. The people of the city went about their lives, celebrating the holiday, lining up outside stores for Black Friday sales. It would have been a very black Friday for the Starks should Tony have died. Daisy didn't like to think about that.

"Hey kid, how you holding up?" Clint asked, the first one to dare speaking. Daisy turned, looking around. Almost all her targets were there and yet… yet she didn't feel like complying. She didn't want them to die. They had to, but she couldn't gather the strength to stand, never mind kill four superheroes.

Daisy didn't answer Clint's question, and none of the others, not even Steve pushed her further. Steve simply moved next to her, wrapping his arm around her so Daisy could bury her head in his chest. Never one to linger where death was, Natasha decided to search out a nurse, get some answers.

"He had a heart attack, plain and simple. Hearts aren't meant to run on batteries you know, especially not while saving the world. It was only a matter of time before something like this happened. But it was just a heart attack."

The nurse's words sent a chill down Natasha's spine that didn't belong there. No. No. She refused to believe it. It had to be a coincidence.

Fury picked up after the first ring, and Agent Romanoff managed to spit the words out, even if they left a bitter taste in her mouth. "You need to send a crew to analyze everything Tony was eating for poison. It won't be obvious, but look for anything out of place, even if it looks like it's probably nothing."

"There was no one in that building but the Starks, Romanoff," Fury reminded his best agent, all the while sending out the message for a team to do just that. "What do you expect to find?"

Natasha didn't want to say it, but she did. "I expect you'll find proof that Daisy just poisoned her father."