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Disclaimer: I do not own any rights to Marvel and Annie or it's characters. The girls in the foster home and Ceri are based on the orphans from the musical Annie.

Chapter 2

In front of Lessa stood one of the tallest buildings in the city. Her jaw hung open as she tilted her head up estimating how many floors there were. "Stark Tower?" Lessa exclaimed. Staring at the building and back at Tony, everything clicked. "Wait...you're Iron Man! Emily always talked about you!"

Beside her, Tony nodded. "Yeah I am. Who's Emily?"

Lessa hesitated for a second. "Uh...my friend. She lives with my family at the moment while her parents are traveling around the country." The lie rolled of her tongue as easy as it was telling the truth. It was a skill she perfected over the years of living at the home and at that moment she was grateful to have it.

She didn't know how to react when Tony had brought her into Stark Tower. Tony kept glancing down at her waiting for a reaction as her brown eyes drank everything in from the furniture to what was hanging upon the walls. A small smile formed on her face.

Tony sat her down on the dark sofa. Taking out his tablet he asked, "So you're parents, do you know their number." Lessa shook her head in a daze. "What store they were in?" She shook her head again. Tony frowned. Usually kids knew their parents phone numbers. "Okay, how about their names?"

Lessa froze. She should have known he would ask that. It never occurred to her that she would need to know their names. "Uh…mom and dad?"

"How about let's just use your last name then." He watched her as he waited for an answer. Confusion swept across her eyes turning into being lost. "Scarlet?"

She thought hard. Of course the Grinch would have brought it up every now and then when she had to go to the doctor's office since she gets sick a lot. Barely? Berry? Perry? Lessa could barely remember. It took her a few minutes as she went down the list of possible names until one rang a bell under the billionaire's questionable stare. "Perez!"

"Scarlet Perez?" Tony asked, a hint of disbelief in his voice. "That's an interesting name. But why Scarlet?"

Lessa shrugged. "I don't know. I guess my parents thought it sounded cool." He typed her name into his tablet and scrolled through the results he received. Each name that showed up had a picture next to it and any Scarlet or Perez person he found didn't look close to the little girl sitting in front of him.

By the hundredth result, he stopped. "Look kid, you can't lie. I just want to get you back home before your face ends up on missing posters all over the city, okay?"

Lessa's face reddened, her lie almost being exposed. She didn't have to lie -no- but she did because she didn't want to end up going back to her so called foster home (which was not like one according to other kids in the foster system). "Alessandra."

"Alessandra? Is that your mom's name?"

"No, it's mine."

"Ah, so you did lie to me."

Her face turned from red to white, feeling ashamed. Lessa nodded and took a deep breath, avoiding his eyes.

Keeping an eye on her, Tony typed her real first name and looked at the results. It took about a page and a half before he found her. Under the relatives list in red it said "unknown".

It was silent as he stared down at the screen. How could her parents be unknown when she had just said she lost them in a store? But then again, the little girl didn't specify when she lost them. Tony searched for an address for where she lived. "Come on, let's get you home."

Home? Did he really find her parents or is he taking her back to her foster home? "Home?" Her eyes widened, hoping that the first one she thought of was true. She stood up, feeling the excitement buzz through her.

Tony smiled at her excitement. "Now c'mon."

While they traveled, Lessa's heart began to drop at the familiar stores and streets that they passed. She looked over to Tony in the driver's seat and frowned and slumped in her seat. She was going back to the Grinch.

Once he found a parking spot, Tony got out and opened up the door for Lessa, walking with her up to the front door of her home. Tony knocked a couple of times, hearing nothing come from the other side of the door.

Lessa looked up at her window and found the girls staring down at her with wide eyes. Emily disappeared from the window once she caught who Lessa was with.

Behind the door, Tony and Lessa heard some stumbles and whispers as someone raced to the door. Tony straightened his back while Lessa hid behind him. When the door swung open, Lessa let out a sigh of relief.

Emily stood in front of them with a smile plastered on her face. "May I help you, Mr. Stark?"

"Can I speak with your guardian?" Tony asked not even phased by Emily's radiating excitement.

Lessa stared at Emily and shook her head pleading that she wouldn't get the Grinch. Emily caught her stare and her smile faltered. She looked up at Tony. "She isn't home at the moment."

Tony furrowed his eyebrows and peered into the townhouse spotting five other girls watching from the small kitchen intently. "Are you sure?"

Emily nodded quickly. "You see, she had a meeting for her job. Come back in an hour." She reached out and pulled Lessa in and went to shut the door until a shout came from within the home.

"Who is at the door?" Came a voice coming down the stairs and turning into the hallway that led to the front door.

"Nobody," Lessa answered, closing the door on Tony. "We thought we heard those cats again but it was only the dog across from us, Ceri."

Ceri rose an eyebrow. In her late thirties, she could have passed as older. Wrinkles creased her face as she held a tight frown. Her dark dyed red hair was pinned up with her usual jaw clip still damp from her recent shower.

Outside, Tony waited to see if the door would open up again. The townhouses were dark brown bricked homes waiting for some renovation to take place. On the other side of the door he heard a scratchy voice yell and girls arguing back before it opened once more.

When Ceri Torres saw who was standing on the other side, she glanced at Lessa. "May I help you?"

"Uh, yes," Tony said. "Alessandra came up to me in Manhattan saying she was lost and needed help to get back home."

Ceri slowly nodded. "Lost she said? Well I'm glad she has been brought home safely. Thank you….Mr. Stark. I apologize for any inconveniences."

Tony's eyebrow rose at how Ceri leaned up against her door, her back slightly arched with her chest puffed out. He looked behind her back at the girls who were rolling their eyes. Must be usual behavior, he thought. "It's no problem. I'll just get going then."

Tony turned around and headed down to his car. Ceri yelled goodbye and waved and he gave a small wave back with a fake smile. Once the door slammed shut, his hand and smile dropped. Poor kid.

Lessa braced herself for the wrath of Ceri once the door finally shut.

"Who ran away again," Ceri stated, her ruby red lips curling back into a snarl. "I told you to stop doing that. Next time I will call social services and get you moved somewhere else!"

Lessa wanted to move so badly, but she knew she couldn't leave the other girls behind. They were her family. "Maybe I'll stop running away when you start being nice and let me find out who my parents are!"

Ceri glared at the other girls who scurried back up to their rooms so that she and Lessa were alone. "Alessandra, it has been ten years since your parents disappeared off of the face of the Earth and the social workers brought you here. They are most likely dead."

"You don't know that! I still can't believe no one has reported you yet."

"For what? Sharing my home to give kids a place to live? Why would someone report me for having such a...loving and open heart?"

Lessa snorted and backed away. "Your heart is cold and selfish!"

"Oh, honey," Ceri mockingly cooed, "I'm sure you don't even know what selfish means."

"I'm eleven not five," Lessa retorted.

Ceri snapped her fingers and pointed at her. "No talking back! Go back to your room. You're grounded once again!"

Lessa shot Ceri a dirty look as she started to climb the stairs. "I bet you don't even know what 'grounded' means!" She shouted and quickened her pace.

"Excuse me?" Ceri yelled up the stairs just as Lessa closed her door. Lessa took a deep breath and met the stares of the other girls. "We need to get her out of the foster care network….fast."

"How?" Emily asked. "We already tried before. Why would they listen now?" She fell onto her bed and stared up at the ceiling. "Those poor kids that might come here soon."

Angie frowned. "What if she adopts us?"

Lexi laughed, fixing a headband onto her hair to keep it somehow contained. "Like they would actually let the Grinch adopt all of us. That's hilarious, Angie."

"Will you quit it?" Emily asked her. Being the oldest at thirteen, she was getting tired at the ten year olds comments. "You don't have to talk like that all the time and be mean to Angie."

Lexi shrugged, marveling her hairdo in the mirror on the wall. "I can't help it. It just comes out."

"Well can you at least use a filter in that brain of yours?"

Pursing her lips, Lexi tapped her chin. "Nope. No can do."

"Guys!" Lessa exclaimed throwing her hands up. "Let's get back on topic here!" All the girl's eyes were now on her.

"So what should we do?" July asked. She held a stuffed animal, a tiger, in her lap already in her Spider-Man pajamas.

Making her way across the room, Lessa sat down on her bed with a sigh. She stared at the drawer in her night stand where her parent's note laid. "I have no clue."

"What about Tony Stark?" Emily piped up. "He helped Lessa today and met the Grinch and now know what she is like. Maybe he could help us!"

"Maybe," Lessa muttered. "I mean he could be busy with many other stuff like saving the world."

"You could ask him, Lessa."

"You should!" Angie said, jumping up and down and ran to Lessa. "That would be so cool!"

Lessa laid down and traced the bars above her that held the upper bed up. "I mean it would be cool. He even searched for my parents today on his high tech computer!"

Across the small room, Emily fixed her sheets on her own bed, the only one on the room that wasn't a bunk bed. "What did happen out there anyways?"

Answering Emily, Lessa went into full detail about what happened. Once she finished, all the girls dropped their jaws.

"No way…" July breathed. "I can't believe that happened to you! It's wonderful living near the inner city isn't it?"

Thinking about it for a moment or two, letting the idea sink it, Lessa rolled on her side to face the girls. "You know what? I think I might ask him."