The Unknown Variable
I own nothing, or Disney wouldn't have bought Marvel and there would be more Hp.
"Penny!" I called as soon as I landed in the lab.
The suit hadn't even been fully removed before I pulled myself out of it and started scanning the lab.
It was almost exactly the same as when I left….
Except for one thing.
Penny wasn't on the couch.
"Penny!" I yelled my voice growing hysterical, as I walked around the lab.
Please be here…
"Pen?"
God…please…
"Pen!?"
…be here…
"yeah?"
I froze, there she was.
She stood there before me the silver cloak lying across her arm, and her red hair curling around her face.
I didn't care that her hair now held silver, I didn't care how she had come back…
She was here…
She was alive!
"Pen!" I exclaimed and before I knew it Penny was in my arms, and tears were streaming down my face, sobs racking my frame.
"It's okay Daddy…" her voice reached my ears and I wrapped my arms tighter around her.
I thought that I would never hear her voice again.
"How?" I finally managed to ask as I got my emotions under some control.
She pulled back and I couldn't stop myself from studying every aspect of her face, she was here…
It wasn't a dream…
…or even if it was…I wouldn't care.
She was here, and that was all that mattered.
A smile appeared on her face and she looked at me sadly as she replied, "It seems that dating Death comes with privileges."
I pulled her in tighter; I owed that spirit my thanks…
Wait…
I pulled back and said, "You're dating Mortem?!"
Penny froze in surprise as she realized what she just said, and a sheepish smile appeared on her face. "Hehehe…um…"
I sighed and just wrapped my arms around her again. "We can talk about that later. Right now, I'm just glad you're alright."
We just stood there for a moment, while I was sighing in relief before Penny froze and pulled back, "Wait…you know Mortem?"
I laughed and nodded, "Yeah, we've met."
A sheepish smile appeared on Pen's face again as I looked her over, making sure that there was no lasting damage.
She seemed to be doing well enough, there was no trace of the lines, and her new Arc was shining brightly through her light blue tank-top she was now wearing. Her skin was a bit paler then it usually was, and of course there was the silver strip now lining her face, but otherwise…
"Wait? What happened to your eyes?" I asked noticing that they were now a blue-green color instead of the bright sky blue they were before.
I watched as Penny hesitated for a moment before she shrugged and said, "Side effects of dying?"
I rolled my eyes fondly, before picking her up and throwing her over my shoulder.
"Don't ever…ever…Ever do that again!" I stated as I spun around in circles.
Penny laughed as she said, "Alright! Alright! Put me down!"
"Nope," I said with a smile, popping the "p". "You're not going anywhere!"
An unexplainable feeling of joy was coursing through my veins. I had my daughter back! I had my daughter back!
"Daddy! Come on!" she exclaimed with a laugh and a fake pout.
"What on earth is going on here?!"
We both froze, and I dropped Penny to the ground in shock; thankfully she landed on her feet.
Pepper was standing there, and Rhodey was rubbing the back of his head nervously. He had obviously flown her home with the suit…
"Damn." I muttered under my breath.
"Tony man…I…" Rhodey started but I shook my head, dismissing his apology.
Oh well…no turning back now.
"Pepper…meet my daughter, Penella…Penny, Pepper." I said, trying to break the awkward silence.
Pepper's glare wasn't helping things.
"Um…hi?" Penny stated nervously rubbing the back of her head.
Just what I needed…just great…
Penny's POV
"Please?" I pleaded with my father, trying to ignore the other redhead in the room.
"No," Dad replied tiredly rubbing his temples.
"Come on… it would fix everything!" I exclaimed, my puppy dog eyes were on full blast, and I was in full out pout mode.
"No." Tony repeated.
"Please….just let me erase her memories…I won't mess up!" I pleaded.
"No Pen, you're not erasing Pepper's memories." Dad stated giving me the look.
"Pleeee…." I carried out the word as long as I could, and I saw Pepper's eyebrow twitch in annoyance. "…..eeaseee Dadddddyyyy!"
"I said no Pen." Dad stated, giving me a look that said clearly to drop it.
"Fine." I muttered under my breath as I crossed my arms over my chest, "it could've worked."
And just because I was Immortal didn't mean that I had to be all 'serious and wise' all the time.
We were allowed to have fun too…me especially since I was the youngest and could get away with it more. I had a younger soul, and so many people just blamed that…they didn't ever think that my personality was like that. Why would they?
"I'm sure." Tony drawled rolling his eyes fondly.
Rhodey had left almost immediately, well, he had given me a hug told me he was happy I was alright and then fled like a bat out of hell…hmmm…I wonder how he'd look at a bat…
Daddy and I had glared at him and muttered together, "Coward."
He left us alone to deal with Pepper…the meanie.
I was going to get him back for that.
"So…" I stated as Pepper and Dad started at each other, while Pepper glanced at me every once in a while.
"Are you going to explain to me what is going on?" Pepper asked Dad, giving me a guarded look.
Hurt stung my chest at Pepper's protective stare, he wasn't hers…and while I knew he wasn't just mine either…I didn't really feel like sharing him…
I sighed as Tony motioned Pepper to the couch and I flopped down into my chair.
This was going to take a while.
I had really, really, REALLY, not wanted to explain everything to Pepper…but we did. It took forever!
I mean, really, the sun was coming up by the time Pepper was practically up-to-date. We told her everything… (as much as Tony knew) …but her believing it was something else entirely.
When she realized that I was Evanna's daughter, she had glared at me, (not that Tony noticed) but sighed when she realized that was why I had come here, and that Tony hadn't known until Afghanistan.
She had been angry and horrified when she realized that I had been practically living here for the past seven months and she hadn't even known about it.
She had also been very skeptical about my powers until I have a demonstration, Tony had shot me a look and I knew we would be talking about it once Pepper was gone. Then she just sighed and shook her head.
Right around dawn, Pepper started jumping down my throat about something not important and I gave up. I couldn't do it anymore.
I had let out a scream and fled into my room, locking the door behind me, and ignored Dad's calls.
It had just been too much in the past week…not to mention the past twenty-four hours. I had died for Christ's sake and sort of Awoke…dealt with Chaos, and then had to deal with everything that came with waking up…
Oh yeah, Pepper was yelling at me because apparently, I didn't help enough at the Expo.
That had pissed me off.
Not only had Mortem and I destroyed two thirds of the droids ourselves, but I had helped Romanoff, contained the blast that killed Vanko (I made it seem harder than it was…she didn't know about my power boost) not to mention that I contained every single self-destruction explosion. Thankfully, when Mortem and I destroyed them, we vaporized them so there wasn't as many to contain as there could have been.
Dad stood up for me and said that considering I had been dead (he had choked on that word, and I couldn't imagine how he must've felt…I had hugged him) my powers were probably all messed up, and that he was glad I stayed out of it. Especially since I had already had a huge fright that morning…
That was seriously this morning?
Anyway, I had been completely and utterly furious with the redhead until Mortem showed up. I ranted to my Bonded for about an hour before I crashed.
I fell asleep with his arms wrapped around me and my head on his chest.
Hey, it had been a long day.
Tony knows that Penny's alive...and that she's dating death (I was laughing when I wrote that. :) and Pepper now knows about Pen…sorry for the lack of details, I couldn't figure out how to write that scene…oh well.
Things will smooth out between the two…eventually…
And actually, that day WAS really long…let's see…Oh my… that one day ended up begin 15 chapters…holy shit!
You don't believe me? Go count…
Thanks to everyone!
Cp