In the days since Tony had been home, Mira hadn't seen much of her uncle. Neither of them had made much of an effort to talk to the other. They hardly even spoke a 'hello' in the morning. Instead, Tony locked himself in his workshop and Mira locked herself in her office in an effort to avoid all conversation about the past few months.

Due to an order by Obadiah, neither of them left the house often. Because of the weapons shut down, he had to try and do some damage control. Since Tony nor Mira had been seen, it was better if they stayed inside just a bit longer.

After about three days of nonstop training, Mira was starting to exhaust herself. On day four, she walked into her office only to sit in the corner.

"Want me to begin the usual program, Ma'am?" Jarvis asked.

"No," she replied simply.

"No?"

"Jarvis, can I ask you something?"

"What is it, Ma'am?"

Mira wrapped her arms around her knees and rested her head on the wall. "Is Tony doing okay?"

"Mr. Stark's vitals shows he's healthy, other than the reactor in his chest."

"That's not what I meant."

"Then what did you mean?"

"What's he doing down there?"

"I'm not authorized to say."

Mira picked up her head. "Excuse me."

"I'm sorry, Ms. Stark, but what Mr. Stark is doing is something he is keeping on his private server."

"But I can still see things on his private server."

"I'm sorry, Ms. Stark. I'm not authorized."

"That son of a bitch," Mira mumbled. "Is he down there now?"

"He is."

Mira picked herself up from the ground. "That's it. I can't do this anymore." She marched through the house and stopped at the door to the downstairs workshop. She aggressively typed in the password and jogged down the steps. At the base of the stairs was another door and another code that needed to be entered. She typed in the numbers for her birthday, the regular password, but the screen flashed red.

"I'm sorry, Ms. Stark. Mr. Stark has since changed the passcode to this door."

"Oh you have got to be kidding me." Knowing Jarvis was not going to give her the code, Mira decided to try a different approach. She hit her hand against the glass three times producing a hallow sound. "Uncle Tony? Let me in!"

Tony popped his head up from his chair. "Sorry. Sorry. Jarvis, let her in."

The door made a click, unlocking it. Mira pushed it open. "What the hell, Tony? You don't trust me now?"

"What? No. It's not you that I don't trust. I changed it because I don't trust anyone else. I just forgot to tell you the new password."

"Well, do you want to share it with me now?"

"It's your birthday. Easy to remember."

Mira's shoulders fell. "That was the old password."

Tony's eyebrows scrunched together. "Oh. Wait. Jarvis, what's the new password?"

"It's your birthday, sir."

"Oh. See? Still easy."

"Right." Mira noticed something about her uncle. "Wait. Where's your sling?"

Tony answered as he sat back down in his seat, turning to his project. "Don't need it anymore."

"It's been, like, four days."

"Has it?"

"You should really put it on. Your arm isn't going to heal without it."

"It's already healed."

Mira tilted her head, annoyed. "No, it isn't."

"Mira, did you come down here for something or did you just want to berate me about my arm?"

Mira sighed and crossed her arms. She gazed intensely at her uncle. "I want to know what you've been doing down here."

Tony spun back around in his chair and stared at his niece. "And I want to know what you've been doing in your office."

She shrugged. "I've been doing work."

"For what? The rainforest foundation? Because I talked to Mark, your former assistant. According to him, you gave him the foundation after I went missing because the stress was too great. I thought 'that doesn't sound at all like Mirabelle,' so I did a quick Google and, low and behold, he was telling the truth."

Mira hung her head. "Uncle Tony-"

He continued on, ignoring her interruption. "You know what's great about modern technology? A lot of places are starting to go paperless. This means, I get stuff sent directly to me through the computer. Isn't that amazing? You wanna know what I got in my email today?" He stood up once again from his chair and stepped up to Mira. "I got a hospital bill, Mira. You come down here, demanding answers from me, but here you stand with secrets of your own. Now, do you want to explain yourself or are you just going to lie to me again?"

A single tear fell from Mira's eye. Her voice was slow as she placed herself in the past once again. "Fine. I overslept that day. I ignored my phone. I just wanted to have a night of fun without any worry. When I grabbed my phone, I had twenty missed calls some from Pepper, some from Rhodes, even some from Obadiah. The voicemails were all so vague. I had no idea what was going on. Then Pepper came to my hotel room. She told me you were missing, but Rhodes was looking for you. The next thing I knew, I was in a hospital. Pepper was on the phone with someone when I woke up, but she hung up to talk to me. The doctors said I stopped breathing. Pepper told me it was my worst episode yet. I spent the next week in that hospital, Uncle Tony. The episodes kept happening, even after they released me. Pepper watched out for me, but I just wanted you back." After taking one, long breath, Mira looked up. "About two months in, I gave the foundation to Mark and I shut myself inside the house. I didn't want to be seen or bothered. The doctor's wanted my stress reduced and I thought that would work. It didn't. At about month three, I got up and started working out and that's what I've been doing ever since."

Tony waited a minute and let her words sink in before he spoke. "Anything else?"

There was one thing she left out of the story and she wasn't sure if she wanted to show him. It was extremely personal and would make her the most vulnerable person in the world, but she decided to show him. "Jarvis?" she whispered.

"Yes, Ma'am?"

"Play message number 1 from my phone please."

Tony's last message to her before his disappearance began to play overhead. "Hey, Mira. I just landed and got your message. I'm so sorry. I didn't know that she was going to ask those questions. I'll get her fired if that's what you want. Anyway, I have to go. I know you're at your fundraiser. I'll call you later and see how it went. I would understand though if you don't answer. Okay. I'll talk to you later, kiddo. Love you."

When it ended, Mira couldn't hold back the tears any longer. She spoke quietly through the sobs. "I kept it and listened to it almost everyday. I thought it was going to be the last thing I ever heard you say. I thought if I deleted it, it would really be over and you would really be gone. You're all I had left."

At that moment, Tony released all of his anger and grabbed the young woman, pulling her into a hug. She cried into his shoulder. "Shhhh. Sh. It's okay, kiddo. It's okay. I'm home now and I'm not going anywhere. I'm staying right here." The pair stayed in that position for awhile, waiting for Mira to calm down. As her tears began to slow, Tony looked up. "Hey Jarvis. Do me a favor and erase that message from Mira's phone."

Mira pulled her head away from his chest. "What are you doing?"

"Are you sure, sir?" Jarvis asked.

"Yeah, get rid of it." He lowered his gaze to his niece. "You're not going to need that anymore, so I got rid of it for you. I don't really want you to remember me by some crappy, apologetic voicemail anyway."

"It has been erased, sir."

Mira released her uncle and wiped her eyes with her hands. "Oh my god, look at me. I'm a mess."

"No, you're beautiful." Tony looked at his robots. "Isn't she beautiful?" They nodded in confirmation. "See, even they think so."

She giggled and a smile began to pierce through her sorrow. "Stop."

"I'm gonna tell you a story. There was a guy where I was held. He was the one that saved my life with this thing," he said as he flicked the arc reactor, "and helped me escape. When we first met, he asked about you. I told him you were the smartest, most enthusiastic, humble, and most beautiful girl there was and I knew that you would be worried sick about me. I told him that I needed to get out of there to get back to you, so I can tell you I'm okay and that there was no need to worry."

"Well you sure took your time to come and tell me that," she joked.

He smiled. "Yeah, I did."

Mira walked passed her uncle as he took a seat at his desk. She leaned up against it and examined what he had laying around. On Tony's desk many tools and metal pieces covered most of the area. There was only two things that stuck out to her the most. The first being the picture frame on the upper left side. It held a photo of the two of them back when she was eight. Tony took her to Hawaii for the first time and she got to swim with the dolphins, her life goal at the time. They took that photo right next to the ocean. It was one of many trips Mira and Tony took together, but it was definitely one of her favorites. The other thing Mira had caught a glimpse of was a piece of equipment she had never seen before. It was a thick metal boot with many moving parts on the outside. "Can I ask you a couple questions now?"

"You're going to ask them even if I say no."

"Yeah you're right." She stopped herself for a second, debating if she should ask her first one or not. Tony had been through so much. She didn't want to shake up any memories, but she had to know. "How did you get out of there?"

Tony picked up a screwdriver and began working again on his project. "Couple means two. What's your second question?"

"Why is there a giant metal boot on your desk?"

He paused and glanced over his shoulder. "Are those your only two questions?"

"Basically, yeah."

"Well, then, I guess it's my turn to tell a story."