The Unknown Variable
(Chpt.24 Farewell, Miss Penny)

(Beta'd as of 1/14/14 by Espacole)

" ."
The space represents my disclaimer. I own nothing.

I was throwing all of my clothes into a random suitcase I found in the back of the closet when Tony walked in.

"Penny, you can't quit!" he exclaimed, before he continued I raised my hand. Silencing him, I sent out the EMP like pulse to check for any bugs. I did this randomly all the time in the Lab, but not in the rest of the house. I found two, one in the mattress and another in the air vent.

I was quick to fry them, and then sat down on the bed.

"Look, I know that I should have talked to you first, but opportunity presented itself and I couldn't pass it up." I said, that and I had a feeling the kitchen was bugged as well. "Look, I needed an excuse to leave, Pepper gave me that. Now…" I said but Tony interrupted me.

"What do you mean you needed the excuse to leave? Don't listen to Pepper, you're my daughter. You can stay as long as you want." Tony said sitting down next to me.

I sighed. We needed to work this out quickly. "I know, I don't want to leave but I need to SHIELD is looking into me, the Telnets me, and it won't be long before they realized that I'm not me." I sighed before I continued. "I need to ether disappear completely, or make myself seem like someone not worth looking into."

Tony frowned, and said, "What's SHIELD?"

I sighed and replied, "The anagram of the agency that Agent Coulson works for."

"Ah," Tony replied, we had discussed the Agent briefly one afternoon, but never paid much attention.

"I'm not going to push the reason you have to leave…" Tony started, and I sighed. I really didn't want to bring up all of my less then legal actions. Though I bet that Tony had a pretty good idea.

"But," I almost groaned at the 'but'. I had just gotten up to finish packing when he spoke, causing me to sit back down again.

"That doesn't mean you have to really leave, right? What if we just made it appear like you left?"

My eyes widened and happiness swelled in my heart. If we could pull that off… how would we pull that off?

"How would we pull that off?" I asked, puzzled.

"You leave that to me. Just don't leave before noon… ok?" he said, as he stood up.

I trusted my father, I really did, but I couldn't help but worried. I didn't want him getting in trouble with SHIELD as well.

I sighed and said, "Ok." As I watched my father walked out the door. 'I hope he knows what he is doing.'

Tony's POV

As I walked down the stairs, my brain had already come up with a plan. It was simple, it was easier, and it would work.

Penny had changed my life so much, even before I knew she was Evanna's daughter. My heart had broken when Evanna walked out on me; and now that I knew the truth… that my father had been the reason… it was another reason why I disliked the man.

Even though my heart still hurt knowing that I would never see Evanna again, I could see a lot of her in her…our…daughter. While Penny took after me, in a lot of ways, her temper, her passion, and her spirit were without a doubt her mothers.

I shook my head out of my thoughts as I walked passed Pepper without even a glance. Pepper was the new woman that had stolen part of my heart. The other part was reserved for Evanna and now Penny. I had denied it for ages beforehand, believing that my heart was only for Evanna. Even the one night stands over the years were in Evanna's memory. He only picked the girls that reminded him of her, similar hair, the same smile, similar perfume, and so on. He had been trying to fill the hole left by his young love for years.

And then Penny appeared, and in a flash he felt his heart healing. It wasn't until Penny told him that night in the cave, that she was both his and Evanna's daughter that he realized why his heart was healing. He might have lost his one love, but now he had a piece of her that was also his.

And he would be damned before he let anything happen to her. She was all he had left.

Penny POV

"Dummy! Stop! I said there! Not there!" I heard Tony cry as I walked down the stairs a few hours later. I had stayed in my room, not wanting to draw out our eventual goodbye. I had also been crying. I admit it, I was crying because everything had been ruined. Again.

"A little to the left Butterfingers, a little more, good!"

I sighed as I walked into the lab, only to look around in confusion. I could hear Tony, but I couldn't see him.

Sending out another pulse to check for bugs, I looked around for my father.

"Tony?" I called my voice rough from the extensive crying I had been doing. Suddenly Tony's head appeared behind a large toolbox that was backed up against the wall.

'What the hell?' I thought, it seemed as if Tony's head was coming right out of the wall.

"Come on in, Penny, I want to show you." Tony said before disappearing into the wall.

I walked forward, and it wasn't until I was only two feet away from the wall that I noticed it wasn't a wall, it was a door that looked like a wall, that was only open a crack.

I quickly opened the hidden door that made the whole part of the wall including the large tool box thing, swing forward as well.

Behind the door was a good sized room, it looked like it had once been used for storage or something but now, it was mostly empty; besides Tony, all three of the Bots, and a few random pieces of furniture.

My eyes widened at the sight. The room was mostly white, like the rest of the lab, and made out of concrete, but somehow Tony must have gotten his hands on blue paint, because U was holding a paintbrush in his claw and was trying, key word trying, to paint the walls. Butterfingers was rearranging a bookshelf, while Dummy was trying to sweep. Tony was playing with the wiring in part of the wall, right by the door.

"Come on, it won't be ready until tomorrow, but everything else is worked out." Tony said, as he stood up.

"Huh," was my extremely educated reply. It was all I could think of.

"Don't worry, I've got everything covered." Tony said reassuringly, as he pulled various pieces of papers out of his pocket. "Now, your fight's been taken care of, and so has your house. I'll have a taxi waiting for you at the airport to pick you up. Don't worry about fees it's already been paid for. Furniture will be delivered by morning, and all of the utilities should be on when you arrive.

"I know that you don't have a permit, so until you get your license I got you a bike. There'll be a grocer about a three minute ride from your house, along with a Wal-Mart. The town's not that big, but I doubt you mind. I was worried about the heat but it's the most discreet town I could find that wasn't totally sketchy. Now," Tony went to continue but my brain finally caught up to the rest of me.

"What are you talking about?" I asked, totally bamboozled.

Tony sighed, before saying, "Why, the plan of-course."

"What plan?" I asked, not remembering any plan.

"The plan so you can live here, but not; at the same time!" Tony said, excited.

"Huh?" I asked, not able to even form a word.

"Okay," Tony said, "We are going to create a ruse. I bought you a house… under your name, in a small town in New Mexico. You'll be flying into Albuquerque, and a Taxi will take you from there to your 'new home'. Set it up, 'get settled' introduce yourself to the neighbors, let people in the town see you. Set up your 'new life' then, when you're 'studying and want peace and quiet' you can Zap back here and no one will know."

I opened my mouth, to point out the flaws in his plan, not to mention to tell him to stop referring to my lighting-teleporting as 'Zapping' when he continued, "Just listen. By tomorrow, this room will be sound proof, bug proof, even Jarvis proof." I was shocked that he was locking his AI out. "It will also have secret access to the outdoors so you can Zap in and out anytime. The town is extremely small, and mostly only a retirement community, besides a small research station. It is right in the middle of the desert, so there's enough space for you to practice your Zapping without frying anything.

"I also borrowed your Laptop," Tony admitted a bit sheepishly, "and while your cover was good, I proofed it. Everything is solid, now, we just have to make a life to match it up."

I had to admit, it was a pretty good plan, I had no idea if we could pull it off though.

"What's my cover on leaving?" I asked, wondering if Tony had covered that.

"Well, 'Officially', you decided your education was more important. 'Unofficially', you couldn't deal with me, Pepper was hounding you about Afghanistan, and you just wanted to forget the whole thing happened."

I had to admit, that was pretty solid. Many PA's had quit over the years because of Tony. But none of them had gotten kidnapped; lucky birds.

"Alright, say I go along with this. What happens if I'm here and someone shows up there… say SHIELD?" I asked, wondering if he had thought of that.

"Well, personally, I was wondering if you could modify your Zapping so it could travel as an electrical current through the landlines. But until we figure that out, there's a skylight in the house. Just keep it open. Oh, and set a few alarms on your walkway or doorbell, or drive way so you always know when someone is coming."

Tony responded to my question with a flourish of his hand.

"But won't someone notice a bolt of lightning striking the house?" I asked, my voice lased with sarcasm.

"Just turn invisible before you Zap, in theory, it should turn the lightning invisible too." Tony replied.

"We can work more of the little details out soon. Happy is going to drive you to the airport. Your flight leaves at eleven thirty, so you better get moving." Tony said, before a frown fell across his face.

He froze for a minute before wrapping me in a hug, "Don't worry. Everything will work out. We're Starks, and Starks can do and handle, anything."

(I was going to cut it off here but thought that it would be mean.)

I slowly slid into the car, about a half an hour later. I had a mask up, and I hadn't spoken to anyone since we left my secret room. Tony had also put on a mask, but had not come up to bid me farewell, like Pepper thought he would.

Pepper gave me a simple, "have a nice flight." before leaving herself.

I shut the door slowly, this all seemed so surreal. Even if this was all another façade, it was quiet realistic.

"This might just work." I muttered quietly to myself, as Happy finished loading my bag and climbed into the driver's seat.

As we slowly pulled out of the Driveway, I briefly heard Jarvis say, "Farewell, Miss Penny."

"You know, Miss Telnets." Happy said sadly, as we got onto the road. "I'm mighty sad to see you go."

'So am I Happy, So am I.' I thought to myself. 'This is my home.' I sighed, 'and for a time, I didn't have to pretend.'

I know that this is a sad spot to leave it on, but hey, at least I'm not leaving you hanging for too long. This chapter was hard to write, and I feel that it is lacking, but oh well. Hope some of you got the plan. And you got a bit of Tony's view. Thanks to everyone, and I hope you all understood at least the basis of what just happened.

Thanks Expecto Prongs.
Cp