Dislcaimer: Not mine obviously

A/N: I know I''ve been away for a long time, I was having writers block and then just was blah. I was having issues with a guy I was seeing and got all down and whatnot. And then I picked up a new hobby. So yeah, tada, new chapter. smooches.

Chapter thirty-eight

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

Tony was in his lab because, really, where else would he be? At the moment though he was pretending to work on some sort of project and told everyone else to not even bother contacting him because he'd just hit the ignore button. But the truth of the matter was that Tony just needed to be alone for a while. Usually, Tony being his usual self, loved to be the center of attention about ninety percent of the time and he loved to be in the media and limelight whenever an event was going on that he was invited to; a fundraiser, a gala for Stark Industries or something for the Avengers or what have you. Right now though, Tony wanted to be by himself and left to his own devices.

Aaaand he may or may not be avoiding everyone – especially Pepper – because then they would be able to see how jealous and angry he was over the fact that Norah actually did agree to meet up with her birthfather for dinner. Something he thought wouldn't ever happen, even if Norah's life depended on it. Yet here he was, proven wrong. Tony hated, absolutely hated that Norah had given in and had decided to give her birthfather, who didn't even have a damn fatherly bone in his body, a second chance after she had adamantly refused to see him for a week straight. He hated it and he hated Tom for everything that he stood for, for doing what he did to Norah and her older sister, for thinking that he could just waltz in here and think that everything would just be hunky dory. He hated the façade that Tom put on, he hated that Tom reminded Tony a lot of himself before he became Iron Man and he hated that he felt threatened by the drug addicted alcoholic that Tom was.

"You're Tony Fucking Stark, you don't have a reason to act like this." Tony said to himself as he threw a small wrench across the room, clattering to the ground when it hit the thick glass wall. "Acting like a stupid teenage girl." He said to himself as he shook his head.

He was jealous of that asshole who was just using up space, he was jealous of him because irrationally he thought that if things go well with this dinner thing that Norah and him were having, that she'd prefer to have Tom as her father rather than him. Tony has always been the jealous type, even when he had been a kid and sharing the title of father with Norah's birthfather was no different. He was jealous and possessive and wanted to be the only father figure in Norah's life.

"Sir," Friday's disembodied voice stated throughout the eerily silent lab, interrupting Tony's train of thought. "Your phone has been ringing for the past five minutes; perhaps you should consider answering it." She suggested to him.

Tony narrowed his eyes, "I never should have given you free will to say whatever you want, you're like a nagging mother. An adjustment is in the near future." He grumbled underneath his breath and then halfheartedly grabbed at his phone to see whoever it was that kept on calling him.

"You only have yourself to blame for that Mr. Stark." The A.I. responded haughtily.

Tony shook his head at the A.I. and then turned his attention back to his phone which began to ring yet again, a picture of Norah making a funny face popping up onto the screen. "Norah!" Tony answered in an upbeat tone, not wanting her to know how much of a bad mood he was in at the moment. "You know I love hearing from you kid, even if you do out me to Pepper sometimes and talk in languages I don't understand. Rude by the way. But, aren't you supposed to be having that thing called dinner that people seem to like doing. With whatever his name is." Tony said in a playful tone. "I mean I get-" he began to say but stopped abruptly when he heard a sniffle on the other end of the line.

A sniffle was not what Tony had been expecting to hear, a sniffle meant one of two things. Either the person was sick and needed to be quarantined or someone was crying and seeing as Norah hadn't been sick before she left the tower that only meant that Norah had either been crying before she called Tony or that she was close to crying. Neither of which Tony was fond of, Norah shouldn't ever be made to cry.

"Tony," Norah uttered pathetically over the line, her voice sounding small and cracking a bit as she said his name. "Tony, is…..is Tom there?" she asked sadly and from her tone of voice Tony could tell that she was trying her damndest to keep herself together and not break down.

As much as Tony hated Tom that didn't meant that he wanted something like this to happen, Norah didn't deserve to be stood up and from the sounds of things that is definitely what had happened. So once again Norah was disappointed, as if she hadn't already been disappointed by her father too many times as it is. Norah didn't deserve to be stood up, forgotten about or cancelled on. Norah was twenty-two years old, graduated from college only a month or two ago and had the rest of her life to live and look forward to. So having to deal with this Tom shit was definitely not something that she should have to deal with.

"Norah," Tony said gently in a tone of voice which he only reserved for Norah and Pepper. "I haven't seen Tom around the tower but I've confined myself to my lab doing sciency genius stuff." He said to her, doing what he could to make sure that Norah didn't start crying over the phone. He wasn't really good with dealing with that sort of stuff.

There was the sound of Norah slowly breathing in and out in a semi-controlled manner, more than likely she was trying to calm herself down so that she could talk to Tony without having her voice crack at every other word. "Can…can you ask Friday if she knows where Tom is or something, please?" she asked him, her voice sounding small and sad.

"Friday?" Tony asked his A.I.

"Yes, Mr. Stark?"

Tony spun himself away from his table and jumped out of his chair waltzing over to where a few of his computers were located at, "When exactly did Tom leave the building, and pull up a video feed while you're at it." He said, or rather demanded of Friday.

There was the sound of Friday sighing, who know an A.I. could sigh and sound so put out, "You could be a bit nicer instead of demanding." Friday told him but before Tony had a chance to respond to her rather snippy tone a video appeared. It was a video of Tom heading down a set of elevators and then exiting the tower and heading onto the streets of New York to who knows where. "This was taken at 5:37 this evening, Mr. Sullivan had told Happy that he would take a taxi to where he was supposed to be meeting Norah for dinner."

When Tony had heard Friday say that he couldn't help but give a heavy sigh and shake his head in disappointment, Tom sure just ruined any and all chances that he ever had at having any sort of relationship with Norah. Tony may have only been a father to Norah for the last three or so years but he does know most of the ins and outs of her personality and he knew without a doubt that this was definitely not something that she would be able to forgive.

"Norah," Tony said gently, running his free hand through his dark hair tousling it up even more than it already was. "Tom isn't here, there is video feed of him leaving and apparently he told Happy that he was going to take a cab to meet you rather than having Happy drive him there." He explained to her as calmly as he could, on the inside he was seething in anger and really couldn't wait to get his hands around Tom's neck.

Tony needed to stay calm and be chill, Norah needed him right now and it wouldn't do any good if he let his anger get the best of him while he was on the phone with Norah. That didn't stop him from envisioning finding Tom and punching his drunk face in with his Iron Man suit – Rhodey would help. Pepper wouldn't approve of violence but what Pepper didn't know wouldn't necessarily hurt her.

"Can…can you come here, please?" Norah asked with a broke tone over the phone, sounding so broken hearted. "I just…I can't come back to the tower right now. I, just . . . . . just, please. Please come here. Please, Tony."

Like Tony could deny her, especially after the night she just went through. "Of course Norah, I'm your dad. I'll always be there for you." Tony said to her sincerely, doing his best to put all of the love, care and feelings that he had for her into those words so that she knew that even though her birthfather wasn't there for her, that he would be. "Blinker," he said, using the nickname he gave to her when he had first seen her use her powers. "Stay right where you are. I'm coming to you, just…I don't know. Channel your inner Buddhist and be all calm like a cucumber or whatever it is that they say." He said which made Norah give a small snort of amusement. "I'll be there soon."

"Okay," Norah stated in a quiet, subdued tone of voice.

Quiet and subdued are two words that did not describe Norah whatsoever; for as long as Tony has known Norah she has always been strong, hard-headed, stubborn as a bull, fierce, loyal, sarcastic, talkative and playful young woman. Norah has never been known for being quiet and submissive and Tony hated, absolutely hated that this shit storm with Norah's birth father had reduced her to being like that. What he wanted to see and hear was Norah being full of life, being playful, teasing, joking around and scaring random people in the tower by Blinking around the tower. Tony wanted the old Norah back and he wanted her family, or at least her birthfather to leave and never set foot in New York ever again.

~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~ Norah ~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~

Norah should have figured that this would happen, that Tom would do something to yet again disappoint her and leave her broken hearted. It's not like it was any different from any of the things that he had done to both herself and her sister years ago, so really, she shouldn't be surprised or disappointed. Norah was angry and frustrated with herself, she really should have known better than to hope and dream that Tom had changed, she should have realized that he didn't deserve a second chance and definitely didn't deserve for her to waste her time on. But, here she was sitting on a bench in disappointment waiting for Tony to find her using whatever Stark Tech was able to trace her, and god was she doing the best that she could to not cry right now. It's incredibly hard to keep yourself from crying when all you really want to do is cry, she wanted to cry until she couldn't cry anymore, she wanted to be violent and angry and…well, she was feeling a lot of emotions right now.

Sighing to herself, Norah pulled her knees up to her chest on the bench and wrapped her arms around them before burying her head in her knees, letting a few tears escape but did her best to quickly wipe them away before they really started flowing. She already knew that when Tony got there that she was more than likely going to have a mini-breakdown. What Norah really wanted was for everything to go back to normal, to go back to the way it was before her family came to visit her. She loved her ma, her sister and her niece and her brother in law isn't all that bad but she just wants life to go back to normal. Or as normal as it can be for a bunch of superhero's.

Being so caught up in her thoughts Norah didn't hear the luxury engine of a car pulling up to the sidewalk or a car door opening and shutting, she only realized Tony was there when she felt him settle his hand on her shoulder.

"Norah?" Tony questioned.

Lifting her head up slowly, Norah looked up at Tony with a heartbroken expression on her face and no matter how much she wanted to try and force a smile to make it seem like she was okay, she couldn't. Tony would be able to see through it within a moment, he knew her too well.

"Tony." Norah says simply and then without much of a warning at all she stood up and basically flung herself into Tony's arms and buried her head into the crook of his neck, wrapping her arms tightly around him as if she was afraid he would disappear.

Rather than saying anything to Norah to comfort her which may only make her cry even worse, Tony just held Norah and let her silently cry on him as much and as long as she needed. Giving a small sigh Tony wrapped one arm around Norah's back and the other went to hair and slowly and carefully (her hair was rather wild and curly) ran his hand down her hair in a comforting motion. It's too bad that Thor wasn't still here, Tony was sure that the God wouldn't hesitate to seek revenge for the harm that has come to the fierce Norah, that's what Tony assumed Thor would say at least.

It killed Tony to see Norah like this, to see her so utterly broke and disappointed by a man that shouldn't even have to be in her life any longer. Tom shouldn't matter to her and she shouldn't have to care about him, but Tom was still her father and so, Norah still felt something for him even if she tried to push it away. Tony got that, that's how he felt about his own father when he had been a kid and up until his parents had been killed. He understood why his father did the things that he had done a bit, but not enough to really be okay with everything that had happened while he had been growing up.

"Ahh Norah," Tony said suddenly, unable to handle the quiet or the crying that was going on with his pseudo-daughter. "I'd try and say something to make you feel better but I can only do that so many times a year before my allotment is up you know. It's Pepper's turn for the rest of the year." He joked.

When he said that Norah laughed a bit into his chest and shook her head at him, "Don't tell her that then, she'll make you do it instead in spite." She said to him softly as she slowly pulled away from Tony, her crying now calming down thankfully.

"Best keep that a secret then, hmm." Tony said as he looked down at Norah and quickly brushed away the few stray tears that were running down her cheeks. "Now, on a serious note because if I'm not serious and Pepper finds out or Wanda or Pietro I may be killed. How are you doing, really?" he questioned, looking at her in concern.

Norah shook her head, "Fan – fucking – tastic. I gave him a chance Tony, one fucking chance and it wasn't even something that hard. All he had to do was show up for dinner and we'd talk and see how things went and see where to go from there. But like every single other time, he disappointed me. I wasn't really expecting much to come of this really, to be honest and I know my Ma wanted things to go well but well, shit happens." She said and could feel more tears forming in her eyes which she quickly wiped at. "God damn it, I am so sick of crying over him. I'm sick of being disappointed, sick of hoping, sick of everything."

"Hey, hey crying can be good at times kid, so I am told. Or maybe I read it somewhere." Tony said with a shrug of his shoulders. "But it's okay to feel these things, you know that. You gave in and gave him a second chance and expected him, after however many years of not seeing you that he'd show up. But instead, he bailed out to do who knows what when he should have been meeting up with you. I wish I could have stopped you from doing this so you wouldn't be feeling this disappointment."

All Norah did in response to that was give a halfhearted shrug, "Like you could have stopped me," she said, a small smirk on her face. "If I want to do something we both know I will do it with or without anyone else's permission." She said and then looked at Tony with her big, dark brown eyes and gave him a puppy dog look.

Seeing the look that Norah was giving him made Tony suspicious, he's seen her use that a few times throughout the years and pepper has given him that same look as well and it never bode very well. And god, was it hard to look away especially when Norah had those big dark brown eyes.

"What do you want?" Tony asked with a heavy sigh, knowing without a doubt that he wouldn't be able to say no to whatever Norah was about to ask him.

"Can…can we go get some ice cream?" Norah asked hopefully. "I just….I can't go back to the tower yet. Everyone will want to know what happened and why I'm coming back home with you and I just can't deal with that right now." She said with a sullen face, looking away from Tony and instead at the cracks in the sidewalk as if they were the most interesting thing in the world.

"Norah," Tony started softly as he brushed some hair behind Norah's ear lovingly. "You know they won't judge you or anything for what happened, they'd understand what happened and wouldn't say anything unless you wanted to talk about it." He said to her as he cupped her face and kissed her forehead. "We all love you Norah."

Hearing that Norah smiled, it was true. The Avengers were her family, she had her family from back in Minnesota of course who she just reconnected with and she had a few friends from Xavier's but Tony, Pepper and the others were her family. They were the ones who she chose to be her family and who chose her to be their family member in some sort of capacity. She loved them all as if they shared blood, and she knew without a doubt they would support her in anything she wished – almost anything at least – they would be there for her and would protect her if she needed it or anything really.

"I know, I get that and I love that about all of you and I know if I want to talk about this with any of you guys that you won't mind, but truthfully all I want to do is forget about this whole fucking night and to just get some ice cream. So, can we do that?" Norah questioned as she looked up at Tony, pleading with him.

Tony grinned at her widely and ruffled her hair a bit, "Of course Blinker, let's go get some ice cream." He said as he wrapped an arm around her, pressed the lock button on his keys and made his way down the street with Norah by his side so that they could find someplace to get some ice cream.

It took the two of them a while but eventually Norah and Tony ended up finding an ice cream shop, much to Norah's excitement. Once the two of them had ordered their respective flavors of ice cream the two casually made their way back to where Tony had parked his Maserati – Tony really needed to learn what inconspicuous was at times. A luxury vehicle wasn't needed in every situation.

"How can you even like that?" Tony said as he eyed Norah's light green colored ice cream with judgmental eyes. "It's not even a real ice cream flavor!" he said shaking his head at her.

"It is so real ice cream!" Norah defended as she took a big lick of her flavor and stuck her tongue out at him.

"Nope." Tony responded simply.

Norah rolled her eyes at that, "At least I have an imagination Mr. I only like chocolate." She said and playfully pushed him in the side. "I mean really, out of all the flavors you could have possibly picked you decided on chocolate. That's a flavor you get as a kid, not an adult." She told him.

"Yeah, because pistachio isn't an old person flavor." He teased. "Better watch out, I think you're turning into an old grandma."

"Hey! Pistachio is delicious, not my fault that you have faulty taste buds. Probably should get that looked at some time in the future." Norah said to him as she savored the flavor of pistachio, Storm back at Xavier's introduced her to the flavor and she's been in love ever since.

For a while the two walked in silence and ate their ice cream; the one thing that was both fascinating and shocking at the same time was that no matter how late at night or early in the morning it was that the streets of New York City would always be bustling with life. When Norah experienced her first night in NYC she couldn't help but be amazed by everything, by all of the sights and just look around in amazement. She was pretty sure that Tony was getting a kick out of all of her reactions. Even though she did live in New York when she had gone to school at Xavier's that didn't meant that she really went to New York City all that often, that was reserved for special circumstances and field trips which Norah had only gone on once or twice. And those field trips usually didn't involve going to fun places or going sightseeing sadly – museums mostly and lectures.

"I know I've told you before," Tony began to say as he ate the last bit of his ice cream come. "My dad wasn't the best either, wasn't there for me and when I was around, shooed me away like a family dog. I just wanted his acceptance, his approval, his love and all sort of other stupid emotional shit. I wanted to be just like him." Tony said to Norah without looking at her knowing that this was something she really didn't want to talk about.

Looking at Tony with a sideways glance Norah gave him a questioning look before also finishing off her cone; she was confused as to why Tony was talking about his dad. She was pretty certain she made it perfectly clear that she did not want to talk about Tom and what had transpired.

Pulling her light jacket tight against her, Norah looked at Tony with a raised brow. "I thought we agreed to not talk about this." She stated, giving Tony a pointed look for bringing up a subject she didn't wish to talk about.

"I have to at least kinda talk to you about it Nor," Tony responded with a sigh. "You know that both Natasha and Pepper would have my balls if I don't and I'd really rather not have that happen because who knows when I'd get them back and I am rather fond of them where they are." He said to her and then looked down at himself and whispered something Norah couldn't hear.

"Tony!" Norah screeched a bit, making an appalled face at what he just said to her. "I didn't need to know that!" she said as she made another disgusted face and made a few noises to accompany the face she made.

Tony grinned over at Norah and shrugged nonchalantly at her, "Well now you know how I feel when you say that you want to get your claws into a guy, and the other times I've accidentally overheard you and your girlie time with Natasha and Pepper or your friends over skype. Some things a father does not need to hear about his daughter."

Making a face at Tony, Norah crossed her arms. "Not my fault you didn't walk away right away, Mr. Nosey."

Laughing, Tony wrapped his arm around Norah's shoulders and pulled her to him and gave her a small kiss on the forehead. "Come on kid, let's head back home." He said to her as they finally reached where the car was parked.

It was as if Norah suddenly remembered the whole reason why she and Tony were out on the streets; taking on a somber expression Norah nodded her head. "Okay." She stated simply and quietly got into the car.

Looking up into the night sky Tony took a deep breath before slowly letting it out, this night had gone differently than he had imagined and as happy as he was on the inside that Tom had fucked up yet again he hated that Norah was feeling so heart-broken and depressed because of what Tom did. Tony knew that Norah was keeping a lot of her feelings inside at the moment, more than likely she didn't want to have a complete break down over her father yet again. Hopefully this was the one thing that would make Pepper let him send Tom packing, one could dream at least.

~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~ Cheri ~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~

It seems a common emotion that Cheri feels a majority of the time nowadays is frustration; frustration with herself, with both of her daughter's and at this very moment, frustration with her ex-husband. Tom had been a completely different person when Cheri had fallen in love with him at the age of seventeen, he lived his life fully, he loved and cared for everyone, he loved fishing and he was the sort of man Cheri could have seen herself spending the rest of her life with but then he started drinking more and doing drugs more and dealing. He became a different man within ten or twelve years and it killed Cheri when she had to divorce him, she didn't divorce him for a lack of love because she did love him with her whole heart but she had to divorce him for their kids' sake. Neither of her daughter's deserved to grow up in a household that had an alcoholic drug dealer for a father.

Tom had come back to the tower earlier in the evening, around the time that he was supposed to be in the middle of dinner with Norah and he was definitely not sober in the least. So Cheri just sighed in disappointment when she saw him stumbling is way in, helped him to the room he was staying in and made sure there was some water besides his bed for when he woke up. Cheri knew that Tom had made a mistake, a really horrible mistake and wished that there was something she could do to make Norah see the mistake but she sincerely doubted that. Hopefully she would be able to convince Norah and at least get her to talk to Tom at least once during his visit.

Cheri gave a slight jump when Wanda spoke suddenly from beside her, she didn't even realize that she was in the common room with her. "Your ex-husband is not good man, is not good father to Norah." She said to Cheri as she sat down casually onto the couch and stared at the woman with an unreadable expression.

"He made a mistake, that's all." Cheri defended as she looked at the younger dark haired girl who was looking up at her skeptically, obviously not believing the words that Cheri had said.

Wanda shook her head, "No, he did not just make mistake. He hurt Norah, you will see when she comes back to tower. It took a long time for Norah to be convinced to even talk with Tom, this will not end well for him. This was second chance she was giving him, she will not give him another." She said with certainty.

Cheri looked at Wanda who had turned away and instead was paying attention to whatever was playing on the TV. Wanda was…..interesting, her and her brother Pietro both were, there were times when Cheri got just a bit creeped out by Wanda but she thought that was mainly because of the powers that Wanda possessed. The girl was able to use energy wisps to lift and control things and even had the ability to mess with people's minds if she wanted, that was a hell of a power to be in control of especially for someone who was in their early twenties like Wanda. Though Cheri was accepting of Mutants like her daughter and like Pietro and Wanda, that still didn't mean that some of their powers and abilities didn't scare her a bit and make her hesitant. It was a bad habit that she needed to break but it was hard, some of the things that they could do was mind boggling.

Just as Cheri was about to open her mouth to respond to what Wanda had said to her about Norah not giving Tom another chance there was the familiar sound of the elevator giving a ding, announcing that someone had arrived on the common room floor. Both Tony and Norah appeared within a few seconds of the elevator ding, Norah with a downcast and badly concealed broke expression on her face and Tony doing his best to try and cheer up the young Mutant woman that he called daughter.

When Norah saw her mother who was leaning against the couch Wanda was sitting on she gave a sigh, all she wanted to do right now was head up to her room and be left alone for a while and not have to talk to anyone but it seems that her mother had a different idea and wanted to talk to her about Tom.

"Where is he?" Norah asked shortly, wanting to get this conversation done and over with as fast as possible and wanting to know why exactly Tom decided that he wanted to bail on her.

"He's upstairs in his room, passed out." Cheri admitted reluctantly, knowing that Norah wouldn't take well to this information.

Hearing that Tony narrowed his eyes and mumbled to himself, "Not his room for much longer."

Norah looked at her mother and gave a sarcastic smile and shook her head, "Of course he's passed out because he couldn't stand to go one damn day or hell, even half a day without drinking himself into a stupor. He just had to, absolutely had to go out and get a damn drink when he knew he was supposed to be meeting up with me for dinner." She said and ran her hands through her hair and tugged at the ends in frustration; god today just made her want to pull her damn hair all out. "I know he's an idiot a lot of the time but he's not so stupid that he can't even remember when he was supposed to have dinner with his long lost daughter."

"Norah," Cheri said gently as she slowly approached her daughter, wanting her to stay as calm as possible. "Your father made a mistake, a really bad mistake and I'm sure when he wakes up tomorrow he's going to regret what he did and will do everything that he can to make it up to you. Just give him-"

"What? Give him a chance?" Norah asked. "This was his chance, I've given him chance after chance after chance and you know what," she said and gave her mother a sardonic look and did her best to control her erratic breathing. "Nothing's changed, after all these chances that I've given him nothing has changed. He hasn't changed one fucking bit, he doesn't care about anyone but himself and he will break promise after promise no matter how many times he say's he'll change." She told her.

Tony looked between Cheri and Norah and could see that neither one of them were about to back down from their view on the matter of Tom. While Norah wanted nothing to do with the man and as far as she was concerned she no longer had to have contact with him ever again, Cheri on the other hand wanted Norah to talk to Tom, she wanted her to try and reconcile with him. Something that Tom definitely isn't worth of.

"Norah!" Cheri said loudly, looking at her daughter with serious brown colored eyes. "He is your father and yes, he made a mistake. A stupid mistake but he doesn't deserve to be talked about like you're doing, people make mistakes Norah and Tom made one that he will regret when he wakes up."

Internally Tony scoffed at that comment, Tom did more than just a little mistake. He ripped apart the small bit of trust that Norah had for him and ruined any chance he ever had of being able to talk or see Norah ever again, because he knew without a doubt that she wouldn't see Tom willingly if her life depended on it. Norah will do everything in her power just to make sure that she doesn't have to deal with him, and hell Tony would be more than happy to help her if she wanted him to.

"This is not a damn mistake Ma, this is more than a god damn fucking mistake!" Norah yelled angrily at her mother and make a sound of frustration and walked away from her mother a bit and paced, trying to stay calm but having a damn hard time doing so, her mother could bring out the best of her and could also bring out the worst in her. "He promised he would be there, I told him straight to his face when he was as sober as he was ever going to be, that this was going to be the only chance he gets. That I was willing to talk and we would see where it goes but he better not fuck up because it was the only chance I would ever give to him. This was his last chance at attempting to redeem himself and guess what Ma, he failed. Miserably." She stated fiercely. "So, I'm sorry you don't see things my way but guess what? I'm not you Ma, I've never known him as the man you knew him as so I can't remember a time when he didn't end up disappointing me. So I am done. I am finished with him."

"Eleanorah!" Cheri admonished. "He is your father and you will treat him as such!" she demanded of her twenty something year old daughter. "You may hate that he is your father, you may hate a lot of things that he has done over the years and I am sorry that you got the short end of the stick but you need to realize he has a sickness, a disease. That the alcoholism and drug addiction has consumed him, changed him." She explained, pleading for her daughter to understand why Tom was the way he was.

While the mother/daughter duo was fighting all Wanda could do was watch on with baited breath and disappointment. She liked Norah's mother, she seemed nice enough and was quite motherly and made her miss her own mother just that much more but this was something that Cheri should be able to see from Norah's perspective. She should be able to see and understand the all the hurt, the pain, the frustration, the anger that Norah feels towards her birthfather, she should realize after years and years of this happening that this last chance was all that the man was going to get and that he wouldn't get another chance to be in Norah's life. But Cheri seemed to be blinded by the love that she still held for her ex-husband, or rather the man that her ex-husband had once been. She doesn't see him as the man he is now, as the negligent father that both Norah and Niki had to suffer with, as the man who always disappointed.

"I don't care mother," Norah said condescendingly, she was angry and couldn't take how blind her mother was to Tom and his actions. "I really don't give a shit anymore. You can only blame so much on the alcoholism and the drugs before you start using it as a crutch, he made a mistake and it's his own fault. He knew what the repercussions were when he decided to head to a bar to drink and then come back to the tower, I told him that this was his only chance and well, he ignored what I said. Probably thought I wasn't serious." She said with a derisive laugh. "Jokes on him now, isn't it?" she asked rhetorically. "I won't talk to him, see him or speak to him for the rest of the time that he's here, if he's in a room I will leave it, if he tries to talk to me I will ignore him. You don't have to like it and you can hate it and think that I'm being overly dramatic and childish but it won't change my mind."

"You'd be that cruel to him? You'd ignore him and run out of the room whenever you see him? He loves you Norah," Cheri tried to reason with her daughter. "He loves you but he's just affected by the years and years of abuse his body has taken, his mistake-"

Wanda decided that she couldn't bear to hear any more of this back and forth argument between Norah and her mother, especially since they kept on going around in circles so she decided to take matters into her own hands and end it before it got too out of hand.

"She said that she will not see him or speak to him anymore," Wanda said in a serious tone, leaving no room for argument on anyone's part. "You will not force Norah to change her mind, she has made her decision and had warned Tom of what would happen if he messed up and now he must live with choice. He has to live with that." She said and glided forward towards Norah, wrapped her arm around Norah's shoulder and then looked from Tony and then to Cheri. "Good night, come on Norah." She said and led Norah away from the argument with her mother and to the elevator so that they could leave the common room level.

Tony grinned as he watched Wanda and Norah leave, he may have disliked (not hated as he liked to let everyone else think, didn't want to ruin his rep or anything) the twins when they first came to the Tower but he was thankful for them. Wanda especially. The girl cared about Norah and the two were like two peas in a pod, which was a good and bad thing all at the same time depending on their mood. But Wanda helped Norah be able to act more her age, be able to act like the young twenty some girl who gossiped over boys and fashion magazines rather than being an on call agent of the Avengers who didn't have many friends her age and hung around superhero's a majority of the time. He might not ever say it out loud on pain of death but Tony appreciated what both Wanda and Pietro have done for Norah.

Norah was more than thankful to Wanda for what she did back there during the argument she was having with her mother, she thought that her and her mother butting heads all of the time was something that she only had to deal with when she was a teenager and it was something she grew out of the older she got and all that jazz. Norah hated arguing with her mother, whom she only just reunited with and now was arguing with her as if she was a fifteen year old again, she loved her mother and wanted their newly reunited relationship to go well and smoothly but she should have realized that they loyalty that her mother had for her birthfather was intense. Even when the two were divorced it was obvious to see that her mother still loved Tom, that she loved him fiercely and if he hadn't of been doing the things he had been doing that she would have still been married to him.

But damn it, did it kill Norah that her mother couldn't look the tinted glass and see Tom for what he was and see what sort of father he was to her and her sister. To see how pointless it was to try with him and to hope, Tom was a lost hope no matter which way you looked at things.

Feeling tears running down her face for the second or third time in the night, Norah gave a sound of anger and viciously wiped at the tears willing them to stop but no matter what she did more kept on coming down. "Damn it! God fucking damn it, everything sucks and just FUCK!" Norah yelled in frustration, anger and utter sadness at how the whole night had turned out.

"Norah," Wanda said gently as she laid a gentle hand on the shorter girls shoulder and pulled her into an unexpected hug, hating that her newest and closest friend was hurting. "I am sorry. I am sorry that this happened." She whispered into her ear as she just hugged Norah for a few moments as they rode the elevator to whatever floor Wanda had pressed for them to go to. "I am here for you, Pietro is here for you, Natasha, Steve, Clint, Tony and Pepper. We are all here." She said to her.

Taking a few shaky breaths Norah stepped away from Wanda, tried to wipe at her eyes which seemed to still be leaking, "I know. Thank you. I'm just so angry, I hate everything and I hate today, I just want to disappear and forget about everything that happened today. For a while at least. I just don't want to have to think and remember the disappoint that Tom and this whole shitstorm of a situation is." She said and slammed her fist against the wall in frustration.

"I do not think hitting wall will change things." Wanda spoke as she looped her arm through Norah's and led her off of the elevator and headed down the hall.

Norah gave a heavy sight and then paid closer attention to where Wanda was taking her and then turned and looked at her friend curiously; this was definitely not the way back to Norah nor Wanda's room. "So, where exactly are you taking me?" she questioned.

"Just moment, you will see." Wanda said to her and then turned down another hallway and went to the second door on the left and pushed it open and saw a relatively plain room that had a bed, a dresser and a chair. There were a few books and some clothes thrown around and one simple picture on the dresser. "This is Pietro's room, stay here, I will get him. You need him." She said and before Norah had a chance to say anything to the Sokovian she was gone.

Norah went over to the dresser and saw that the picture she had spied earlier was an old picture – of Pietro's parents and him and Wanda. Giving a small smile Norah slipped her shoes off and sat on the bed trying to not think about everything that happened that day but unable to stop thinking about everything, this was the first time that she was alone with her thoughts and was able to properly process everything.

Right now all Norah wanted to do was to forget everything and to just disappear so that she could cry, because quite simply Norah needed a good cry session after the night she just experienced. So, deciding to just give in to her inner self Norah laid down on Pietro's messy bed and wrapped her arms around one of the pillows on the bed and buried her head in the pillow that smelt so much like him and gave a good cry. Crying was healthy, or so Pepper says.

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

Hope you all enjoyed, and if you did review please! I love reviews and all that jazz. Sorry I have been gone for a while!