Pepper felt like she was going crazy. Fortunately it wasn't just her. Rhodey saw it too, but it had taken him a bit to admit it.
Jazz had managed to seamlessly join Tony's circle of 'close associates' without setting off any of the usual red flags.
She wasn't after his money...Tony had checked and outside of paying normal bills the girl almost never spent any of the cash she made with the patents he had helped her to acquire.
She honestly didn't care about his fame...she was one of the few people who treated Tony as a person, rather than someone who was famous. If anything, she seemed to dislike it and went out of her way to avoid attraction attention, which Tony seemed to thrive in. She had a very distinct dislike of reporters, as they had found out.
(Tony would never again try to drag Jazz into the limelight after the three hours he spent glued to the toilet with some rather impressive diarrhea and a lack of any decent toilet paper.)
She wasn't after his inventions. She had enough trouble with her tablet or her laptop whenever they crashed, never mind the phone when Tony got back at her for the prank she played on him.
Jazz had given up trying to figure out what was wrong with it and had happily gone old school, to Tony's annoyance. Unlike most teenagers she wasn't that dependent on her phone and had somehow found a way to throw paper airplanes far enough to reach the recipient with whatever message needed to be sent.
He was still trying to figure out how she pulled that one off. The aerodynamics alone should have kept the plane from traveling as far as it needed to go!
Jazz had been there for nine months, and to be honest Pepper and Rhodey kept seeing her as a younger, female version of Tony. Just with a far more down to earth attitude and mischievous personality.
Which was why Rhodey had a plan. For some reason Jazz resembled Tony in a very strong way and they wanted to confirm whether or not the two were related.
If they were, Tony was certainly going to be thrilled. He didn't really have much family to speak of, so if she turned out to be a cousin he would be over the moon. If not, they were just going to chalk up the similarities as a really weird coincidence and leave it at that.
When Jazz tossed her disposable cup (which had Chai tea, despite Tony's attempts at converting her to the wonders of coffee, the heathen) Rhodey collected it as a DNA sample and then sent it off to the lab.
He sent out a private order for it to be compared to the other samples they had on file...one of which happened to be Tony's in case they needed to identify his body. He was, after all, a very important weapon's developer to the government.
For three days, the two made no indication of the fact they had swiped Jazz's cup for a DNA sample.
Then Rhodey came to Pepper on the fourth with a piece of paper and a very odd look on his face.
"What?"
"There was a partial match," he said.
"So she is his cousin," said Pepper relieved. She wasn't going crazy after all.
"Not exactly," said Rhodey slowly.
Pepper blinked. Then her face went owlish in shock.
"You can't be serious."
Rhodey handed her the paper.
There was an almost 49 percent match to Tony's own profile. Pepper sat down hard in shock.
"She's his daughter?!"
"Who's daughter?" asked Tony, having overheard Pepper's rather odd tone of voice.
He noticed the looks Rhodey and Pepper were giving him, almost as if they had no idea how to break this particular bit of news.
Tony tried to diffuse the situation with his usual brand of humor.
"So who are we going to congratulate for being an unexpected parent?" he joked.
Pepper and Rhodey shared a look.
"Tony, you might want to sit down," said Rhodey carefully.
Tony looked at them both.
"Seriously, what's going on?"
Pepper sighed and just decided to bite this particular bullet, if only to get it out.
"Tony, you have a daughter."
Tony stared at her, before laughing.
"Are you kidding me? I would think I'd know if I had a kid by now," he laughed.
"Tony, we're serious," said Rhodey.
"So what, did one of my ex's come forward with a kid claiming it was mine again?" asked Tony, not believing it for a second.
"Not exactly," said Pepper.
The door opened to reveal Jazz, carrying take-out as normal along with the usual drinks.
She was about to start handing them out when she noticed the odd atmosphere.
"...What's going on?"
"A few days ago I took one of your disposable cups and had it tested against the DNA databank the military keeps. It came up with a partial match too big to be a distant relation," said Rhodey. "Tony's your father."
Jazz relaxed.
"Oh, is that all. I thought I was about to get fired or something."
"'Is that all'?" said Pepper incredulous. She stared at Jazz. "You already knew, didn't you?"
"I suspected he might be my father after I read one of my mother's journals I found. She mentioned there was some trouble having me registered as the family heir after I was born, though she never specified why. The only thing she did say was that there was a possibility some bloke she ran into at a bar after a loud fight with my father might have been the one to get her knocked up instead of him, but she had no idea whether or not this 'Anthony' guy might be my biological dad," said Jazz shrugging. "Took me a bit of digging to narrow down who she might have meant, and was the main reason I applied to Stark Industries rather than somewhere else. I just didn't feel the need to bring it up."
More like she took an inheritance potion third year and had been very surprised to learn her father's name was Anthony Stark, not James Potter. Apparently the only reason she hadn't had her inheritance stripped from her then and there was because James had done a blood adoption ritual to make her his daughter...at least until Lily could give birth to a legitimate heir. Unfortunately they died before that could happen, meaning the titles and family magicks defaulted back to her anyway.
Sirius, when he found out about the news had made her his heir regardless to piss off a large number of people, even if she wasn't James' biological daughter. He had been the only one who knew, since it was an internal matter.
Remus and Peter were firmly kept out of that discussion, a fact she was very grateful for now.
Tony looked at them all in disbelief, shock...and a small amount of hope that this wasn't some cruel joke.
"Why didn't you say anything before?" he asked finally.
Jazz gave them all a flat look.
"Let me think, how would any of you react to the possibility that I was Tony's daughter? At the very least Obie or even Pepper would have accused me of being after his assets, his fame or possibly his inventions through a dubious blood connection. At the most finding out you might be my father only influenced what company I applied to. I wasn't going to actually bring it up since I didn't want to deal with the suspicion I was only in it for the money or the glory," she said bluntly.
Pepper winced at that. As Tony's PA, she would have been very suspicious about anyone showing up and claiming Tony was their father or close relative. At the very least she would have regarded Jazz with no little amount of suspicion and would have kept a close eye on her to find out what her motives were for showing up like this, if only to protect Tony.
Especially if her claim was true.
"What did your mother have to say about all this?" asked Rhodey.
"I wouldn't know what my parents would have had to say about it. They've been dead since before I turned two. And if my aunt had known she would have tried to exploit the potential connection to him in order to get money. I know for a fact she would have drained my trust account dry the first chance she had if she had access to it, and would have never spent a single pound on it for my sake," said Jazz bluntly.
Seeing the looks on their faces, Jazz had a tired smile on hers.
"I've long since come to terms with their deaths. It's hard to feel sad about people you never got a chance to know," she explained.
She could tell from his expression that Tony had open hopes that this wasn't some sort of sick joke. That he had actual family that he could legitimately call his own, someone who had already proven to have a scarily similar mindset to him that he could share things with.
She had a similar one on her face when she found out she might have a living parent, at least until she thought things through and reality came crashing down around her. The only reason she had taken a chance and come to America in order to get a job at Stark Industries was because it was the only option available to her in order to escape.
If she wanted an out of the war they were trying to drag her into, she needed an excuse the idiots wouldn't be able to easily tear apart.
Since there was no way Tony was leaving something like this to chance, Jazz easily handed over a cleaner sample of her DNA to test against his. He used three different agencies without telling them who it was for or letting anyone know which ones.
And they all came back with the same results. Jasmine Evans, aka Jazz, was Tony's biological daughter.
It was a massive shock to the billioniare weapons designer.
He had a daughter, one who had been working for him for a little over ten months...and she hadn't said a thing about it. She had suspected it, but unlike many in the past, she had kept her silence and did the job she was paid for.
Jazz was like none of the other parasites that had tried to attach themselves to his name. People like that were a dime a dozen and they cropped up often.
She simply didn't care about the fame, money or any of it. The apartment she owned was well kept, modest and well within the means of a 'trust fund baby' trying to earn their own way out of their parent's shadows.
Then again what the PI Tony had hired to investigate Petunia Dursley had been an eye opener...and not in a good way.
Petunia was a spiteful, vicious woman who apparently had a major grudge against her dead sister. One that carried over to her daughter. The woman had no idea that the PI had found the 'cupboard' Jazz had briefly mentioned, or the pictures they had sent back to their client. It had taken everything in the woman's power not to call the police.
And her son... "Dudley" was a real piece of work. There were thugs with more brains than that boy, and it was clear he'd die of a heart attack or some other obesity related disease sooner rather than later.
It was no wonder Jazz didn't like talking about her aunt or why she left England, if she was forced to live with those people.
Now the question remained...exactly how was Tony supposed to deal with his newly discovered daughter, who was far more "mature" than he ever was at that age and was already very independent?
Tony had to admit, Jazz was one of the most paranoid girls he had ever met. But from what little they had been able to get out of her for why she left England, she had every reason to be.
The lawyers had certainly been impressed with the way she handled things.
She would give them far less work than having to clean up after one of Tony's "messes", as Pepper called them.
Pepper, however, was looking at the stocks for the company with a frown when it was over.
"That's odd."
"What is?" asked Tony. He had a headache...and why on earth did Jazz speak Latin of all things that fluently? It was a dead language!
"Someone has been buying up stocks left and right," she replied. "So far there's at least five percent of available stocks in the hands of one person."
Tony blinked. While that might not sound like a lot, the amount of money needed to buy five percent was pretty large. Especially at the current price.
"Well if the price dips any lower, it would go up to at least ten percent or higher," Jazz said without thinking, while messing around on her tablet.
Tony and Pepper looked at her. She blinked and realized her mistake.
"Some people would call stock trading an investment. I prefer to have a security blanket that isn't dependent on an inheritance. And nothing gets the corperate fat cats to listen to you like having a decent controlling stake in the company that isn't dependent on the percentages inherited from a parent."
Tony had to grin.
"Smart move. An inherited percentage can be taken away by the board if they're smart enough to word it right, but stocks bought with your own money is another story entirely," said Tony. It was sneaky and underhanded and something he should have looked into himself, if he cared about that sort of thing.
Jazz had a smirk on her face.
"I don't trust people who work with large amounts of money. Especially at the level you tend to play with. Better to have something you can hold over their head that they can't touch than to allow them even a chance to control you."
Pepper frowned.
"Is that why you're keeping your mother's maiden name and not announcing the fact you're Tony's daughter?"
Jazz looked at Pepper seriously.
"My parents were killed by a traitor, and nothing upsets plans of a hostile takeover from a greedy snake like an heir showing up who can prove that they legitimately have a claim on the money they're trying to get their claws on. Especially if the previous boss was already aware of that heir and put in contingencies that the snakes weren't aware of naming them the new head of the company," said Jazz flatly. "I've noticed a few oddities in the tech department and the money flow, but I haven't been able to figure out who's responsible. Whoever it is, they're high up enough to cover their tracks."
That got Tony and Pepper's attention. Despite her youth, Jazz was extremely observant and suitably paranoid. It was entirely possible she had found a traitor in their midst that they missed because they were too close to them.