Awakening

*bows*

On with the show!

Dad's been oddly silent since we left my room and rejoined the others for lunch. We had discussed quite a few other random topics, and I filled Dad in on the more sensitive bits regarding what had happened since we met.

I was still relieved with how well Bruce and Dad had taken anything, besides Dad's little fainting spell, but that was slightly expected. It was better than him trying to kill Mortem anyway.

Bruce was still slightly out of it, trying to wrap his mind around everything, but he was hiding it well. In fact, right now he was talking with Barton about the Chitauri bodies and what SHIELD was going to do with them.

So, I might be the only one who noticed that Bruce was still working on the information, it was actually very likely.

I also wasn't sure if anyone else had noticed Dad's quiet mood. Sure, he was joking and making fun of things as much as he usually did, but when the others weren't paying attention, he would drift off silently, lost in thought.

Jarvis had ordered Italian for lunch, and afterwards the Avengers were going to be going out in full gear to help with the city repairs. This had been something that Fury and Tony had both suggested, at different points, to get the team good PR and also to show that they actually care. Romanoff and Barton weren't all that thrilled about it, being spies and all they didn't like public attention, but Barton wasn't complaining.

Romanoff was brooding, still.

Replaying the memories I had of the incident, and a few that Hell had provided, I decided that Romanoff's reaction to my appearance had been tripled by Fati, just like how Hulk had freaked because of her, and I was pretty sure that Roger's being an ass was also because of her.

She had wanted to make mine, and Dad's, lives miserable, so it was extremely likely.

"You're worried about your father." Mortem's voice drifted through my mind and I had to resist rolling my eyes.

After all of these years I guess I did get used to Mortem responding to my random thoughts.

"Yeah, a bit;" I admitted as I glanced over at Tony, who was making some remark about Rogers being a Capsickle because he didn't know what a BlueRay DVD was. "But I'm also worried about Fati. What caused her to escalate so much? I mean, sure, Insania managed to wiggle her way in and helped me break free, but still…I just feel like something's different this time. Like this lifetime is important, and I don't know why."

Mortem was silent for a moment as I stabbed the pasta on my plate. Fati had already screwed me over so many times; I didn't want her messing this life up too.

"I don't anyone besides Infinitas knows what's really going on." Mortem sighed, and I could tell he was doing his best to make me feel better. "But your father knows what's going on, and none of your Sisters are going to let anything happen to you. Not to mention you have me."

I could just feel his smug smirk at the end of his sentence and this time I really did roll my eyes.

I was pulled out of my thoughts as Romanoff stood up suddenly, threw her plates into the sink with a clatter, and then stormed swiftly out the kitchen.

Everyone blinked a few times, silence hanging thick in the air.

Thankfully, it was Dad who broke the silence. "Well, what crawled up her ass and died?"

Rogers gave Dad a stern look that he of course ignored and I too stood up, jabbing Dad in the side.

"Hey, want to go work in the lab till you all gotta leave?" I asked softly and he also stood as he hummed in agreement.

Dad gave me a large grin, and threw his arm around my shoulder as we both put the dishes in the sink and walked out of the room.

"Jar, make sure I'm ready to go in an hour, alright?" Dad spoke, glancing up at the ceiling with a grin. Jarvis had recorded my whole explanation, that I knew without asking and I had a feeling that once Dad was alone he was going to go through it a few times, looking for things I skimmed over or didn't really say.

I didn't have a problem with that, in fact I would be worried about Dad if he didn't do something like that.

"Of course, Sir." Jarvis replied immediately, and I shook my head fondly at the AI. Once, about a month ago, I had spent three hours trying to convince Jar to call Dad anything besides Sir. I even tried messing with his code! But he locked me out, and then ratted me out to Dad.

He of course, had been caught between scolding me and laughing his head off when he heard; eventually he let Pepper do the ranting. It wasn't like I was hurting Jar or anything; I was just trying to expand his vocabulary a bit.

Besides, if Jarvis had really minded I wouldn't have been able to try for three hours.

"So, what do you think our priority should be? We need to run full system diagnostics on the Reactor, as well as making sure that the construction workers don't mess with the power system. Both the Mark VI, and VII need some serious reconstruction and Mortem's little show got me some upgrade ideas for the Mark VII…"

Dad was rambling, but that was ok, because Dad rambling meant that he was processing, thinking, getting back to normal.

I smiled at my father and just shook my head as we stepped into the elevator.

"Well, I would recommend starting the diagnostics for the Reactor and the rest of the Tower, even though they are going to take much longer than the hour you have. Obviously I can mess with things while you're gone…"

"Stark! Wait!"

Dad and I blinked in surprise as Rogers slid into the elevator just as the doors closed.

"Jar?" I barely breathed as soon as the Cap entered the elevator, and although the AI didn't respond, the elevator stayed where it was.

"What do you want Capsickle?" Dad sighed as he rubbed his temples. I wasn't exactly sure what tension I had missed between them, I mean sure, I knew that Rogers had been beyond an ass to Dad after everything that had happened, but Dad's voice hadn't had his nasty bite that I had expected during lunch.

So maybe Dad wasn't completely mad with Rogers? I wasn't completely sure.

I didn't like not knowing something.

Rogers shifted and scratched the back of his neck, causing Dad and I to share a look. Rogers was nervous, but about what?

"I know that I've already said this…" Rogers started and I relaxed slightly as Dad stopped himself from rolling his eyes; I could tell, 'cause I knew that expression.

"But I wanted to apologize to the two of you." He continued and I stared up at him with a curious look on his face. An apology, yeah totally saw that coming.

But from the look on Dad's face, he hadn't.

"Not necessary Rogers," Tony stated slowly, and Steve blinked that the use of his last name, and not some nickname.

"Yeah, Loki's Puppetmaster was causing everyone to be asshats," I told him with a small smile, trying not to giggle at the way he jumped at 'asshats'. "So even though I don't know everything about what you did, I for one don't blame you."

Rogers shifted a bit, and I could tell that he was still guilty about it. I looked at Dad with a raised eyebrow; what exactly had he done that was causing him to tear himself so much?

"But still, I was way out of line, and whether I was influenced or not…" Rogers tried again for an apology and Dad just waved it off as he ran a hand through his hair.

"Look, Cap, we told you not to worry about it." Dad was trying very hard not to drawl or snap, I would see it in his eyes.

Stepping in I decided to just get this over with.

"How about we just start over and forget about it alright? Hi, I'm Penny Stark, nice to meet you Captain Rogers." I held out my hand in greeting, giving the old soldier a small smile.

Sadly, I wasn't smiling on the inside. The fact that Fati had messed with Rogers head had brought back the memory of Fati messing with Tony's head, trying to make him commit nuclear suicide.

I wasn't exactly sure why I had forgotten that, but my head was still rather a mess, so…yeah. We needed to talk about that.

"Nice to meet you as well Ms. Stark, and please, it's Steve." Rogers said and I raised an eyebrow before nodding.

"Then call me Penny, Steve."

I saw Dad rolling his eyes out of the corner of my vision and stepped on his foot. He glared at me, but I ignored him as Rogers hesitantly turned towards him.

Dad sighed but held out his hand anyway, "Tony Stark, hi."

"Steve Rogers." The captain returned hesitantly, their handshake not nearly as warm as ours had been. As they let go, there was an awkward silence in the elevator until Jarvis took some initiative and opened the door for Rogers.

Clearing his throat, Rogers took the offered way out and nodded to the two of us.

"Well, see you in an hour Stark." He said as a goodbye before strolling back down the hallway.

We were both silent as Jarvis closed the door and we descended the floors to the lab.

"So," I said slowly and I gave Dad a sharp look. "Since we're apparently forgiving people under Fati's control…you and I need to have a talk about why you thought it was a good idea to fly a bloody nuke into a multi-space and dimensional portal!"

I crossed my arms over my chest as Dad winced and rubbed the back of his head.

"Um…sorry? Wait, did you just say that it was Fati's fault…like multiple times?" Tony protested as the elevator stopped and the doors slid open.

"Indeed she did," Jarvis agreed. "But it was still a foolish and irrational move Sir."

I grinned, happy that Jar was on my side.

"See Jarvis agrees with me!" I chirped as I gave Dad a grin. "So, while I do forgive you…you need to make it up to me, since I can't torment you because of it."

"Make it up to you!" Dad raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms over his chest as Jarvis unlocked the lab for us.

"You're the one who died! Shouldn't you be making it up to me?!" Dad exclaimed, but I could see the teasing, and dark, look in his eyes.

"Well then fine, we'll just have to make it up to each other then, happy?" I drawled with a roll of my eyes and a light teasing smirk.

Dad pulled me into a headlock and dragged me over the desk. I didn't really protest, just a bit of squirming to annoy my father.

"For now; but I'm warning you now Pen," Dad said as holograms lit up the air around us. "Don't expect to be going anywhere alone for a very long time."

I couldn't help the chuckle that escaped my lips, even if I rolled my eyes again.

Typical Tony.

Hey, look, an update!

So, simple chapter but still, juts FYI there will be a lot less hostility between Rogers and Tony now. Though Tony still isn't completely fond of him because of Howard (which will probably end up getting addressed.), and there are issues there.

Hope you like it; I'm going to try to get another chapter out today :)

Thanks everyone!
Cp