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Chapter 1

Jade Lily Potter sat quietly in her seat on the airplane, glad to be away from her relatives. At least, for a little while. Her Uncle Vernon had come home and told them that he'd been assigned to the job of gaining a profitable deal with Stark Industries and had to fly out to America. Her Aunt Petunia and Cousin Dudley were, obviously, going. Jade had fully expected to be left with a neighbour. But none of them could take her. Never in her five short years of life had Jade ever believed that she'd go to America, but here she was, in second class while her family were in business. The nice stewardess had even given her a bag of peanuts and a cup of water. It was nice to have something other than the occasional table scrap to eat. And she didn't have to put up with any beatings for several hours, or chores, which gave her a chance to recover. Jade slept for the majority of the flight, and when it was time to land, the stewardess helped her with her seatbelt.

"Thank you." She said.

"No problem." The stewardess replied, before moving on.

The landing was smooth, and Jade got off the plane, with the other passengers. She went to collect the luggage, and then rejoined the Dursleys. Vernon gave her a slap round the back of her head for taking so long. They all got in a taxi, Vernon in the front passenger seat, Jade behind the driver, Petunia in the middle, and Dudley behind his father. Even though her Aunt was between them, it didn't stop Dudley reaching over and hitting Jade. In fact, by doing nothing, her Aunt was encouraging it. When the driver brought it up, Vernon brushed it off as a bit of 'childish fun'. The man shrugged and left it at that.

At the hotel, they checked in, and a bellboy took the luggage to the room. This was a relief to Jade, as it meant that she didn't have to do it herself. The room had two double beds, one of which Dudley got all to himself, which meant that Jade was to sleep on the floor. She was thankful that the room was warm; otherwise it would be more uncomfortable, seeing as she didn't have a blanket. Her relatives all freshened up, and changed into clothes to go to some sort of party. Jade was left behind, in the room, alone and hungry. Not that that was too different from home. At least Vernon had only hit her around a couple of times before they left, and hadn't used the belt like he had before they'd come, and several other times before that.

Parties always take several hours. Jade mused. If I avoid the party, perhaps I could explore. Maybe find something to eat. A place like this is sure not to notice a missing apple or something, right?

Jade pulled a chair over to where the spare key hung, and she climbed the chair, and grabbed the key, taking note of which peg she'd grabbed it from. She jumped down, and hurried from the room, pushing her black hair from her face. Jade hurried to the elevator, and when she got in, she hit the button for the ground floor. When the elevator doors opened again, she stepped out and saw a load of people. The men were all in smart suits, like her Uncle and Dudley were wearing and the women were all in pretty dresses, like her Aunt tried to wear. Cold realisation washed over her. She'd come down to the party.

Jade quickly ducked into a corridor to avoid being seen. She didn't want to take the chance of her relatives finding out, and she didn't want anyone who looked so smart or pretty to see her dressed in overly large hand me down rags. She observed the party goers and saw that they all seemed to be going into another room. Except two. One was a smartly dressed man, in a very nice suit. His black hair was curly, and he had a goatee and a moustache he was shaking the hands of many others. The woman had strawberry blonde/red hair and was wearing a black silk dress. She was standing to the side of the man, a little behind him. The woman saw Jade, and smiled at her. Startled, Jade walked backwards, and right into something.

"What are you doing out of the room girl?" Vernon Dursley's gruff voice asked, before a thick, meaty hand clamped down on her neck, and shook her roughly.

"I didn't mean to come down to the party Uncle Vernon! Honest!" She said.

Her Uncle raised his hand and slapped her hard across the face, before dragging her to a door labelled stairs.

Tony Stark turned his attention to his assistant Virginia 'Pepper' Pots when he heard her gasp. He followed her line of sight to see a large man who he'd met briefly earlier, Dursley, violently shaking a young black haired girl, who had fear in her emerald green eyes. Eyes that looked just like- Tony's thought pattern was cut off when he saw Dursley back hand her and begin to drag the girl away. Anger flared in Tony's chest. If it was one thing that he would never let pass, it was child abuse. He excused himself from the conversation, and signalled to Happy, to alert him that something was about to happen.

Tony was aware of Pepper following close behind him as he headed for the door that hid the stairwell. He opened the door, and saw Dursley roughly pulling the girl up the stairs by her hair.

"Hey!" He said.

Dursley stopped and looked down the stairs at him. His snarl turned into a strained smile.

"Mr. Stark! I was just taking my niece back to the room. She's a very troubled child, needs a firm hand to keep her in line."

"And a firm hand includes manhandling her and hitting her, does it?" Tony asked darkly, ascending the stairs so that he was on the same level as the whale of a man. "Let her go before you make this any harder on yourself."

Dursley's eyes narrowed slightly, his face turning purple. His eyes narrowed, and he let go of the small girl before, pushing her down the stairs, causing Pepper to scream, as the girl tumbled down the stairs. Tony tried to grab her, but was cut off by a hard punch to the stomach by Dursley. He regained his balance, and lashed out with a well aimed punch. He struck Dursley in the nose, and had the satisfaction of hearing a crunch. Blood spurted from his nose, and then the two men were locked in a fist fight.

Pepper crouched down beside the whimpering girl. "Can you be a brave girl for me while I move you out of the way?" She asked, stroking her hair soothingly. She needed to get her out of the way; Tony and Dursley were on the edge of the step. One, if not both, was bound to fall down. If they did, the child would be hurt again.

The girl nodded. Pepper moved her as gently as possible; surprised that Happy wasn't here yet. Then, just as she had the young girl out of the way, the door opened, and Dursley toppled down the stairs.

"Happy!" Tony said, "Have that man taken into custody. I want him charged with child abuse, and neglect and also assault.

Happy and a security guard came over, and pulled Dursley to his feet. He was spluttering, and cursing, sending obscenities Tony's way. The door opened once more, and Pepper saw a horse like woman and a pig like boy, the other two Dursley's. Pepper was amazed that the child wasn't anywhere remotely animal like.

"Vernon? What's going on?"

"The brat's more trouble than she's worth Petunia!" Dursley said.

"I should have let you drown her when she was left on our doorstep." Petunia said, as her husband was led away. Pepper stood up, squared her shoulders, walked over to the horse faced woman and slapped her. Then, she slapped her again. "People like you shouldn't be around children." She said.

Another security guard appeared and led Mrs. Dursley and her son away, after her husband.

Both Tony and Pepper watched them go in disgust, before Tony headed down the stairs, and rejoined Pepper at the child's side. She looked to be three years old.

"How are you feeling?" Pepper asked her.

"I've been worse." She said.

"I'm Pepper Potts and this is Tony Stark, what's your name?"

"Jade Potter, Miss Potts."

"Just call me Pepper."

"Potter?" Tony asked.

"Is your mother's name, Lily?" Tony asked. Lily had been marrying a guy named Potter.

"I don't know. All Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon told me was that my parents were drunk and died in a car crash. Then they told me not to ask questions. Rule two of a quiet life with the Dursleys."

"And what was rule one?" Tony asked.

She stayed quiet.

"Come on, you can tell us, we aren't going o hurt you." Tony said. "And what did they do to you? If you tell us, they'll never be able to touch you again. I promise."

"Rule one was to not be a freak. They said I got being a freak from my parents too. If I did anything freakish, or even got better grades than Dudley, I was locked in my cupboard for two days with no food and little water."

"Why did they lock you in a cupboard?" Pepper asked, aghast.

"The cupboard under the stairs was my room. That was probably the lightest punishment I got given."

"Well what they did was wrong." Tony said, firmly. "Now, what else did they do?"

"Beat me. Let Dudley and his friends come after me and beat me up. I did most of the chores too."

"They'd better go down hard, Tony, or I swear to God I'll kill them." Pepper said.

"Don't worry Pep, I'll sort it out." Tony said, before turning his attention back to Jade. "How old are you Jade?"

"Five."

"Five?" Tony asked surprised. She looked like she was three. But that put her at the right age as when he and Lily had both gotten drunk and slept together. Was it possible that this girl was Lily's child, and maybe even his? Either way, he was going to take care of her now.

Happy came back in, followed by a couple of paramedics, and a gurney. Tony raised an eyebrow at Happy.

"I thought it would be best for the child to be seen to." He said.

The two Paramedics crouched down on the other side of Jade, and started examining her. She whimpered when one of them brushed her ribs.

"Well, I think she may have a cracked rib or two." One of the paramedics said. "We'll have to take her to the hospital, get her properly checked out and treated." He nodded to his companion and they both started to load her onto the gurney. Jade looked startled by it, and Tony and Pepper were quick to reassure her that everything was going to be fine.

"Happy, I'm going to go with Jade in the Ambulance." Tony said. "You and Pepper meet us there."

"Of course, Mr. Stark." Happy said, nodding. Pepper and Tony walked on either side of the gurney, each one holding one of her hands.

Tony got in the ambulance with Jade, and did his best to keep her calm. He knew the chances of her actually being his daughter were thin, but something in him told him that she was his daughter.

At the hospital, Pepper and Happy rejoined them, and a doctor checked Jade over. The X-Ray revealed that Jade had two broken ribs, which the doctors bandaged up, but not before they saw, and treated wounds that looked like they came from a belt. There were also old scars along her back that looked as if they came from the same thing.

Tony felt his anger increasing rapidly. When the Doctors were done they informed Jade, Tony, Pepper and Happy that there was a social worker on the way, so a nurse led them to a spare room, where they were to wait.

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