The Unknown Variable

(Edited as of 8/19/13)

Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday To me, I am now 16, but I still don't own anything!

UPDATED CHAPTER ONE, IT ANSWERS ALOT OF YOUR QUESTIONS, AND REVEALS ALOT!GO READ IT! CHAPTER 10 HAS ALSO BEEN BETA'D

Even though I desperately wanted to just go home, we had one more stop to make before I called it a day… hopefully. You never really knew with Tony.

As we drove to the factory, I tried very hard to ignore Pepper jumping down Tony's throat. But some of her comments just made me just mad and I wanted very much to tell her that Tony knew what he was doing and what he was talking about. But I didn't, I held myself back. I should've gotten an award for that.

We made great time, and although Pepper was dropped off, Tony took me inside to see the large Arc Reactor that powered the factory.

Neither of us had talked, we both just stared at the large Reactor that we basically owed our lives to, not that Tony knew about my Core… I had yet to tell him.

'This made it all possible,' I thought to myself, 'without this there would be no Starks left in this world. I would've never met Tony, never discovered my sparks, I would have never had a life.

'Without this, I wouldn't have my father either. We would both be dead, we never would have met.' My thoughts were interrupted as Stane entered the building, a cigar in his mouth.

"Well, that...ah…that went well." Stane said around the cigar. He hands were on his hips, in a manly fashion of-course. Tony only spared him a glance before looking over at me.

"Did I just paint a target on the back of my head?" He asked, though by the way he said it, I knew he meant 'our heads' it was my company too now… well… it might be some day.

"Your head?" Stane said, stalking over here, and I turned my gaze back towards the reactor, intent on ignoring the man. "What about my head?"

I couldn't help but roll my eyes. If he wasn't a narcissist, who was?

"What do you think the over-under on the stock drop is gonna be tomorrow?" Stane stated, and I rolled my eyes again, really? That was all he cared about?

"Ah…Optimistically, 40 points." Tony replied after a moment of quick thought, pulling at his tie.

"At minimum." Stane added, trying to hide his fury.

"Yep," Tony said, as he put the tie on the railing, refusing to meet Stane's eye. I knew that my father looked up to Stane, to him he was a father figure, but personally, I wanted to knee him in the shin and never see him again.

Honesty, I had no real reason to dislike… ok, hate him, but for some reason I just did.

"Tony, we're a weapons manufacturer." Stane started but Tony interrupted.

"Obie, I just don't want a body count to be our only legacy."

Hey, I was part of his legacy now too… too bad I couldn't shove that in 'Obie's' face.

"That's what we do. We're iron mongers. We make weapons." Stane tried again, but Tony interrupted once more.

"It's my name on the side of the building."

"And what we do keeps the world from falling into chaos."

Ok, I really did snort at that, Stane really wasn't happy if he was pulling that crap. I doubted he cared about the world, as long as he made money. Thankfully no one noticed my snort, and I picked up Tony's tie, folded it, and put it in my pocket. No need to lose a two hundred dollar tie.

"Not based on what I saw. We're not doing a good enough job," was Tony's swift comeback. Man, he was on a roll today.

The two men were practically nose to nose, and I knew a silent conversation was going to between the two. I noticed that Tony suddenly looked tired, and I knew that everything that had happened was catching up to him, to both of us.

"We can do better, We're gonna do something else." Tony continued, seeing Stane didn't have a comeback.

"Like what?" Stane replied, getting his feet back under him, "You want us to make baby bottles?"

"I think we should take another look into Arc Reactor technology." Tony stated and I practically groaned, I could tell by the small tells in Stane's expression that we were getting into the real reason we were here.

I had really hoped that Stane wouldn't find out about his Reactor until later.

"Come on." Stane said, shaking his head with a smile on his face… ok he was a terrible liar. "The Arc Reactor, that's a publicity stunt! Tony, come on. We built that thing to shut the hippies up!"

I silently prayed that Tony wasn't buying this… Stane could not lie… or he didn't care enough to try.

"It works." Tony stated his thoughts obviously on other matters, as he stared at the larger version.

"Yeah," Stane agreed "as a science project. The Arc was never cost effective. We knew that before we built it! Arc Reactor Technology, that's a dead end, right?"

I shook my head, and leaned against the railing, although I was pretending to ignore them, I was watching both of them from the corner of my eye.

"Maybe," Tony said, looking up at the Reactor, pretending to ignore Stane.

"Am I right? We haven't had a breakthrough in that in what, thirty years." Stane said, and Tony finally turned around and faced him.

"That's what they say." He narrowed his eyes slightly at him, waiting for Stane to crack. In a battle of wills between Tony and Stane…when it really mattered… Tony would so win.

"Could you have a lousier poker face?" Tony asked, and I sighed in relief that Tony had noticed it… not that I doubted he could… it was just annoying me. "Just tell me, who told you?"

"Never mind who told me. Show me." Stane said, eyeing Tony's chest.

"I know it wasn't Penny. It's Rhodey or Pepper." Tony stated, and I felt thrilled that he knew I would never rat him out.

"I want to see it."

"Okay, Rhodey." Tony settled on it before unstrapping the sling and unbuttoning his shirt just enough for Stane to see, while making sure no one else was around.

"Okay." Stane said and buttoned Tony's shirt back up.

"Okay?" Tony asked, eyeing Stane's hands, obviously he wasn't comfortable with anyone that close to the Arc.

"Do you know what personal space is?" I whispered to myself. Was it just me, or was Stane creepy? I hoped it wasn't just me.

Obadiah looked positively gleeful as he buttoned Tony's shirt. He let out a small laugh and shook his head, shooting me a look, causing Tony to also look over at me too.

I pretended to be looking at the Arc, ignoring the two, Stane might have bought it, but my father sure didn't.

"It works." Tony stated. Hell it did, we would both be dead if it didn't.

Obadiah sighed as he studied Tony and tried to figure out what to say… or what to do.

"Listen to me, Tony." Stane told him, putting an arm around his shoulders. I spotted his cigar in-between his fingers; I had wondered where that had gone. "We're a team. Do you understand? There's nothing we can't do if we stick together. Like your father and me."

That was the wrong thing to say, as Tony instantly looked away. Maybe Tony and Obadiah were a team in the past, but Tony and I were a team now, and there was nothing he could do about it.

"I'm sorry I didn't give you a heads up, okay?" Tony stated, changing the subject. "But if I had…"

"Tony," Stane interrupted…he did that a lot… "Tony, no more of this "ready, fire, aim" business. You understand me?"

"That was Dad's line." Tony commented, not looking at him again.

"You gotta let me handle this," he said, finally taking his arm off of Tony's shoulders. "We're gonna have to play a whole different kind of ball now."

'Really?' I thought sarcastically, 'we had no idea.'

"We're going to have to take a lot of heat. I want you to promise me that you're gonna lay low." Stane said, as Tony grabbed his coat and motioned for me to follow them out.

I was instantly at Tony's side, my head held high and ignoring Stane. We would do what we wanted. Nothing more, nothing less.

Pepper, Tony, Happy and I were all back in the car. We had picked Pepper back up, apparently she had been filing some paper work, and were on the way back to the mansion.

"Penny, where do you want to get dropped off?" Pepper asked me, her voice just a tad too cheerful.

"What?" I asked, my eyebrows knitted together in confusion. I was planning on going back to the mansion with all of them. I had no idea what she was talking about.

"I thought you might want to go home and sleep. It's been such a long day and all, so where's your apartment?" I stiffened at Pepper's words.

I had completely forgotten that I had an apartment. Personally I wanted to stay at Tony's house but I suppose that wasn't realistic… I wasn't even sure if I had an apartment anymore, if I missed three months of rent.

Part of me wished to jump out of the car right then and there, and see if I still had a place to live. The other part however, just wanted to go home with Tony and ignore it all.

"I…"

"She's going to stay in the guest bedroom tonight. We'll work out everything else in the morning. It's getting late and all." Tony quickly stepped in; I shot him a thankful look as Pepper huffed.

"She…" Pepper tried to protest but Tony quickly shot her down.

"There isn't a problem is there Miss Potts?" Tony asked, his voice completely professional.

I saw her stiffen, before sighing and saying, "No, Mr. Stark."

I was finally going home.

Ok, in case any of you were paying attention when my story crashed... yes I had to re-update the last chapter. This is why, I tried to re-post Chapter 1, (i added to it so go reread it!)but instead i accidentally deleted it so i had to replace every chapter with the one before... so yeah that's what happened. Sorry for the confusion. And i have no idea HOW i reposted 14 as 15 last night... didn't even touch a thing so sorry about that as well.

Chapter 10 as also been Beta'd... and I think i have fixed all of the missing Page Breaks... if I am still missing one tell me so i can fix it. Thanks to all of you.

Till next time,
Cp