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Chapter twenty-eight

~_~_~_~_~_~_~ Steve, Natasha & Clint: Common Room ~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~

It was like watching a car crash, it was horrible to watch but you can't bear to pull your eyes away from the scene. Steve, Natasha and Clint were in the common room/kitchen area with Norah's father Tom, who had decided to make himself right at home at the mini bar that Tony had. In hindsight, considering what everyone knew of Norah's father, they probably should have hidden the minibar or something considering this was one of the possibilities.

"My damn daughter…..won't even let me…stupid…..people." Tom mumbled to himself as he glared down into whatever alcoholic drink he poured himself, Norah was his daughter and he didn't understand why he couldn't see her.

Steve, Clint and Natasha were all in the kitchen part of the room and were sitting on the stools while watching this unfold, Tom definitely wasn't hesitant or going slow with the alcohol in Tony's collection and was making sure to grab the top most label he could find. (Not that Tony bought anything but the best as it was). But all three of them had their eyes trained on Tom unsure of how he may act once he got a certain amount of alcohol in his system, he was already talking to himself angrily about what Pepper had said to him and about how he wanted to see Norah as well. They all just hoped that he was still like Norah had described him – a lazy drunk.

"Tom?" Steve questioned as he slowly approached the drunk man who looked at least ten years older than his actual age, one of the effects of alcoholism. "Tom, maybe you should slow down a bit or stop for a while and wait. I'm sure Norah wants to see you after she's done talking with her mother and sister." He said to him, thankful that Norah's sister's husband and daughter had gone off with Thor and Vision to do who knows what.

"You know….." Tom started to say. "You know, I didn't want to come here. I've never left Minnesota before, I wanted to wait till Norah came back." He said drunkenly. "I didn't want to come but my ex-wife guilt….guilt tripped me into coming here. I just wanted to stay home and drink but instead I'm here." He said and then knocked the drink back in one gulp. "I come all this way and my damn daughter doesn't even want to see me."

Steve looked over at Natasha and Clint for a moment before back towards Tom, "Maybe you should stop for the night, you'll be seeing Norah later." He said hesitantly, uncertain if that was the truth or not.

"I haven't had enough yet." Tom said as he started to pour himself yet another drink and then turned away from Steve.

Steve stared at the back of Tom for a few moments and shook his head at the man, he understood that alcoholism was a disease and back in his day drinking was one of the things that helped people through the day but it was a dark time back then. It was sad to see the father of someone who he considered friend and family like this, it was sad that Norah's father has been like this a majority of her life and that he didn't even seem to want to be there to see her and would rather be back home drinking his day away.

Giving a sigh Steve walked back towards the island of the kitchen and took a seat on one of the stools once again. "All he wants to do is drink." He said quietly to Clint and Natasha.

"I wouldn't be surprised if he had a bit of Russian blood in him," Natasha said offhand as she looked at the older man. "I'm surprised he's still upright and not falling over or passed out yet." She said.

"Alcoholics do develop a high tolerance after years of abuse." Clint said quietly as he narrowed his eyes at the grey haired man that was Norah's father.

For a while the three of them just sat at the kitchen island and watched Tom continue to drink himself into oblivious or rather unconsciousness, the man seemed to still be mostly cognizant and aware of his surroundings. Surprisingly.

"Maybe we should get Tony down here," Steve said quietly as he looked at Natasha and then at Clint who was munching on some sort of snack food that was within the cupboards. "Have him deal with Tom or at least have him get Tom somewhere that he can pass out at rather than out here." He said with a nod of his head to the room.

"Do you really think that's the smartest idea?" Clint questioned as he looked at Steve with a raised brow, a curious look on his face. "You know how Tony feels about Norah's birth father." He whispered to him so that Tom wouldn't be able to hear what they were talking about at the moment.

At that Steve shrugged and raised his hands in defeat of the situation, "Do we really have a choice? We can't let him keep on drinking like he is." He said.

It's not that Steve wanted to contact Tony and have him come down to deal with Tom, he knew how Tony felt about Tom and knew that anytime the two would interact would be strained but someone had to do something about Norah's father drinking the night away and being belligerent which he was starting to be. When Norah had first described her father as uncaring, a drunken alcoholic and the sort of person who should have never been a father Steve had thought she was being overdramatic a bit but after talking with Tom a bit and seeing how he was, he had a feeling that Norah may not have been exaggerating. Only time would tell how bad Tom truly was.

~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~ Tony ~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~

For the last twenty minutes or so since Norah left Tony had to repeatedly keep on reminding himself to not leave his lab, to not head up those stairs that would lead to the lounge where Norah was reuniting with her mother and sister. Seeing them again was something that Norah had to do alone, without him listening from around the corner. He may have been tempted to watch on camera but he held himself back from doing so, no matter how much he wanted to hear what was going on and what she was saying to them. Another thing he had to keep on telling himself was that Norah wouldn't leave him or Pepper, that she wasn't about to go up to her room and pack all of her shit up and leave with her real family. Tony was her father, Pepper was like a mix of an older sister and a mother all rolled up into one being, Steve was the goody two shoes brother, Natasha was the anti-social sister who could kill you with one look, Bruce the quiet uncle (when he was there, he was still MIA), Thor…..well no one could really describe what Thor was to this weird, mismatched family, and Clint was another brother. This was their dysfunctional family; all of the Avengers, as well as Vision, Pietro and Wanda….even if Tony still wasn't all that fond of the speedster as of yet.

He was a jealous man, Tony knew that about himself and would fully admit that among other less than savory attributes of his personality. He hated, absolutely hated that Tom was here in his tower, he hated that Norah had to grow up with a father like Tom who was barely a father and was almost just as bad if not worse than Tony's own father had been. It took a lot out of him to call Norah's family and let them know that she had been injured, to tell them somewhat of what had happened and then it took even more out of him when he invited them to New York…..even Tom who he wanted to veto coming. But he did it all because he loved Norah. Norah may not say it all that often or at all really, but she missed her mother and sister, she loved them so much and it hurt her to not talk to them or see them and so Tony invited them so that she could rekindle the relationship she had had with her family. Tony doubted that Norah wanted to reconnect with her father but apparently Tom was a package deal when it came to her family coming to see her and so, until Norah told him to send Tom away he would be staying. He really hoped Norah asked him to send Tom back to Minnesota, though he wouldn't dare to say that out loud near Pepper or she'd have his head and balls. He always seemed to be surrounded by violent women.

"Mr. Stark?" Friday's familiar voice said.

"Yes?" Tony questioned back, an irritated tone in his voice which was only because of the fact that he had just been thinking about Norah's father and how he had treated Norah and her sister while they were growing up. "What is it? Can't you see I'm doing mad scientist shit here?"

At that Friday gave a sigh, "I do not have eyes sir." She said. "I was asked by Captain Rogers to contact you and have you come to the common room, they are having problems with Miss Norah's father. He is drinking and will not stop." She said.

Hearing that Tony gave a derisive scoff, "Yeah, go figure." He said sarcastically. "Fine, fine, fine. I'm on my way. Probably a bad idea to have me go there but shit happens." He said offhand as he gave a flippant wave of his hand and hopped off of the chair he had been sitting in and made his way out of his lab and down to the closest elevator to take him to where the common room/kitchen was at.

When Tony did arrive in the main living area of the tower it only took him a few moments to assess the situation before he had the urge to walk right back out, Tom was at the mini bar he had built which was less a mini bar and moreso a somewhat fully stocked bar. Tom was still standing so that was a surprising fact.

"I see you helped yourself to my bar." Tony said evenly as he walked further into the room, gaining the attention of Tom, Steve, Clint and Natasha. "And you didn't even ask first, how rude." He said to him snidely as he walked arrogantly into the room and leaned against one of the counters of the kitchen and looked at Tom.

The only time that Tony has seen Tom was through a computer screen that that didn't truly depict the man that was now in front of him; Tom was a man in his early fifties but the fact that he's been abusing alcohol and drugs for a couple decades if not longer made him look as if he was ten or so years older than he was supposed to look. Norah's birth father had grey/silver long wavy/curly hair that reached just above his shoulders, a scraggly looking beard that could deal with being cleaned up a bit, he had a belly on him, he looked frail and had bruises along his arms, he had a haggard look on his face, his eyes were yellow tinted which was a definite sign of alcohol abuse. All in all there was not one damn thing about this man that reminded Tony of Norah, if there had ever been a resemblance between the two it was long gone now because of the toll the alcohol and drug abuse has taken on the man's body.

"Figured it was here for a reason." Tom said to him as he pushed himself away from the bar and somewhat steadily made his way over towards Tony – a battle of the fathers was about to start from the looks of it.

Natasha looked between Tony and Tom and couldn't help but give a little amused grin at the current situation, "This is going to be good." She murmured to Clint and Steve, the latter of whom gave her a pointed look for finding amusement in this sort of situation.

"Really, Natasha?" Steve questioned her with a sideways glance before turning his attention back on Tom and Tony.

She just shrugged and then turned back to look at Tom and Tony, both of whom were giving one and another stare down.

For a while Tony just leaned there against the counter with pursed lips while looking at Tom who was looking at Tony with narrowed eyes, an annoyed and possibly angry look on his face. Neither saying anything to the other, but quite obvious that these two were not going to get along whatsoever which wasn't going to happen in the first place as it were anyways.

"I think you've had enough, don't you?" Tony questioned finally as he gestured towards the bar and raised a brow. "Don't you want to be sober enough to…..to talk to Norah later?" he questioned, struggling with saying that sentence since he really didn't want to say it and since he knew that Norah didn't really want to see the man whatsoever.

At that Tom glared, "I would have been to see her already if that stupid woman would have let me go with to see Norah." He replied, a scowl on his face at the fact he hasn't seen his long lost daughter as of yet.

It took him a moment but Tony realized that Tom was talking about Pepper, okay, so he got why Tom called Pepper that and as much as he didn't want to admit it Tony would probably be just as annoyed and angry as Tom is if he was told that he couldn't see his daughter but Tony really didn't like Tom so he didn't care at this precise moment. But he definitely wasn't going to be going around insulting his girlfriend.

"That woman," Tony said snidely to Tom, gaining the man's attention. "Who you called an idiot, is my girlfriend and the CEO of Stark Industries. I'd be careful with what you say." He pointed out to him. "She's also important to your daughter." He told him.

"That's nice." Tom said uncaring. "Now, I'm going to go and find Norah and see her and you can't do anything to stop me. I don't know why she didn't want to see me along with her mother and sister but I'm going to see her." He said and crossed his arms over his chest, challengingly to Tony.

At that Tony gave a laugh and moved to be in the way of Tom so that he couldn't move towards the hallway where the elevators were, there were a lot of floors in the tower so the likelihood that Tom would be able to figure out where exactly Norah, her mother and sister were talking was slim to none but Tony would still rather not chance it.

Tony raised his brow at Tom, "Yeah, no. You're not going to be heading after Norah and barge in on her talk that she's having with her mom and sister, she specifically asked for it to just be the three of them and no one else. So sadly," he said sarcastically and a bit cruelly. "You're just gonna have to sit on your ass and wait your damn turn. And if you even want a sliver of a chance to talk with Norah you'll stop fucking drinking for the rest of the day, have as sober of a conversation as you can have with her." He said to him, a disgusted look on his face for how Tom was acting and the fact that he couldn't hold himself back from drinking since the moment he stepped into his tower.

There was only silence for a few moments as Tom and Tony stared each other down, both with anger in their eyes but soon enough Tom broke the silence and poked Tony hard in the chest. "I….I don't care if you are Tony Stark, I don't care that you are this damn billionaire who throws money around like it's candy. You won't stop me." He said with determination in his voice. "Norah is my daughter and I," he said pointing to himself. "Am her father."

Tony had to hold in the urge to scoff at that statement; he knew all about tom and the sort of person he was, about the sad excuse of a life he led and what sort of father he has been to both of his daughters and the sort of husband he had been to his ex-wife. Tom was a drug addict (okay, only pot and some pills which wasn't all that bad, but still), and he was a chronic alcoholic who didn't seem to care about anything in his life.

Everything and anything that there was to know about Tom and the things he did – Tony knew about it. The things that Norah never mentioned to him about Tom he knew about, the things that not even Norah knew about her father Tony knew about that as well. When Norah had first come to live with Tony she barely talked about her family and when she did she never dared to speak about her father, rather leaving that subject in the dark but with a bit of coaxing on his part Tony was able to find out a bit about Tom. And what Tony couldn't get out of Norah about her father he figured out by having Jarvis run a search on the man and to collect all and any files that were out there on the man, to be honest by the end of that search Tony ended up hating the man just a bit more the more he found out about him. He may have hated the man the moment Norah started to talk about, about how he was never the father of the year, about how he was never around and never seemed to want to spend time with Norah or her sister, how he always broke promises he made, how he never went to any of her elementary concerts and everything and anything in-between. As far as Tony was concerned Tom should have never been a father in the first place.

"Father?" Tony questioned incredulously. "Do you even know anything about your daughter, either of them? Do you know Norah's favorite color? Her favorite animal? Her dream job? Does she prefer tea or coffee? Do you?" he asked him expectantly.

"Of course I know my kids," Tom defended himself. "Norah's favorite animal is an otter." He said haughtily.

At that Tony rolled his eyes, "Lucky guess. Norah has loved that animal since she was a toddler. What about the other stuff, what's her favorite color? It's been the same for about fifteen years now." He said and looked at him, waiting for him to mess up.

Tom tried to think back and think what Norah's favorite color was throughout the years, what she wore the most but he couldn't come up with anything definite or any color that she seemed to favor all that much. "Pink?" he questioned, hoping against hope that he was right.

"Oh dear lord," Tony said with a bitter laugh. "You really don't know her do you? You've never known her." He said with a disappointed shake of his head. "Norah hasn't liked pink since she was seven or eight years old. She likes blue, specifically a turquoise or teal colored blue." He said to him.

Steve watching things from the sidelines could tell this was about to go downhill fast and decided maybe he should intervene and that calling Tony to help with Tom was really the worst idea he's had in a while – Tony hated Tom even before meeting him. It was bound to go bad.

"Perhaps we-" Steve began to say but he was interrupted and ignored by both arguing men.

Clint grabbed Steve's arm and looked at the taller man and shook his head, "Nothing you can do but let it happen." He told him quietly. "Was bound to happen eventually, might as well get it out of the way right away." He said with a shrug of his shoulders and then settled himself bac down in the stool he had been sitting in.

So with that the three looked on as Tony and Tom continued their 'discussion' about Norah.

"How was I supposed to know that?" Tom asked angrily. "I barely saw her, besides knowing a person's favorite color isn't that important." He said to him. "It doesn't change the fact that I'm her father."

Hearing that Tony stepped closer to Tom and glared at him heatedly, angry for everything that this man has done to the wonderful woman that Norah was. "No, you're not her father. You're her sperm donor. Nothing more." He stated cruelly to Tom. "You donated half of your genetics to Norah and as far as I am concerned that means absolutely nothing in the long run. I," Tony said and pointed to himself arrogantly, as Starks were known for. "Am her father. She calls me dad when the mood strikes, she comes to me for comfort that only a father can give, I've helped her the best I could when she was feeling down, I've scared boys off from her, I've supported her and loved her and I do love her. I love Norah like my own and as far as I am concerned she is mine. She's my daughter and I have done my damndest to attend things that she found interesting or important. I went to her graduation from her University, I've gone on vacation with her and Pepper, a family vacation. I've gone on a road trip across the United States to all those boring historical sites because Norah wanted to see them and because she loves history. Hell, I've gone to the Opera with her and let me tell you that was a sick and twisted form of torture but I did it because I love Norah." He said fiercely, breathing heavily after getting all of that off of his chest.

Tony wasn't done yet though, no, he had only just started with what he wanted to say to Tom. "I don't like you Tom Sullivan." Tony said to him. "I don't like what you put Norah through, her or her sister. I don't like what you represent and the sort of person you are and if you weren't Norah's birth father I wouldn't have allowed you in my building or even a fifty yard radius. But you are her birth father and if she wants me to send you away packing, I will. And I'll enjoy every minute of it." He said fiercely, he was protective of Norah and didn't want her to be emotionally hurt any more than she already has been, especially from this….this sad excuse of a man that was standing in front of him.

If you could even call him a man, a real man wouldn't have been neglectful or uncaring towards his children or wife like Tom had been.

"How dare you, how-" Tom began to say but Tony interrupted him.

Tony grinned at him, "How dare I? I'm Tony fucking Stark, I dare to do anything and everything I want to." He said with a blasé shrug of the shoulders. "Friday?" he questioned.

"Yes Mr. Stark?" Friday responded within moments.

"Get Thor and have him help Steve and Clint escort Tom to a room that he will be staying in while he is here, a room that is nowhere near Norah's." he iterated to her. "And make sure he isn't able to go and search for where Norah and her mother and sister are at." He said off hand.

"Yes, Mr. Stark." She responded without hesitation.

Hearing that Tom tried to approach Tony but was stopped by Steve, "How dare you-"

"Yeah, yeah. You already said it." Tony said with a wave of his hand in Tom's direction. "How dare I and all that jazz. I don't care. Now, I'm going to leave and do things that people of a sad intellect such as yourself won't understand. So, buh bye." He said with a wave and then waltzed his way out of the common room/kitchen area before he had the urge to break Tom's face in with his fist. Something he was really fighting to do at the moment.

Once Tony had left the room Natasha, Steve and Clint exchanged looks with one and another at what had just happened in front of them. Tony had definitely vented and complained at Tom to his heart's content, probably something that he has been itching to do since he found out about Tom and the sort of father and person he was.

"Well," Natasha said as she looked at the other occupants of the room. "That went better than expected."

~_~_~_~_~_~_~ Author's Note ~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~

Sorry, no Norah in this chapter and I know you all were hoping for her to confront her mother and sister finally but yeah, nope.

Next chapter will have the confrontation though, I promise.