Disclaimer: Obviously I do not own Marvel. Also I will not be canon compliant in many things because honestly I'm terrible at keeping timelines and details straight in my head, but also, and most importantly, for the *plot* :p

Also, thank you to the reviewer who pointed out that my original postings were unreadable... I have no idea what happened there (I think something with the copy/paste process). It should be fixed now though!

My knee bounced nervously as I looked around the office I was in. The white walls and modern accents matched the building I'd been ushered through. Everything was so…cold and austere. I know Stark Industries was all about technology and science, but did they have to keep everything so…well, stark. I laughed to myself a little at that wordplay. I really hoped this wasn't a representation of the man himself. From what I'd seen from my brief research, it seemed rather the opposite of him. I swallowed hard, I'd be finding out soon enough. I'd also be finding out how he was going to feel about my news… or well, my possible news. First, I'd have to ask him a few questions. Oh, how I hoped I wouldn't be wasting his time. Or that I'd just be making an absolute fool of myself. I nervously made a fist, squeezing my nails into my palm, cringing as I realized how sweaty my hands were. Deep breaths. Deep breaths. Deep—

The door opened. And in he walked, looking exactly like he did in the videos online. Tony Stark. I swallowed and stood, quickly wiping my hands against my skirt. His eyes skimmed me over, one eyebrow raising. I stuck my hand out, "Hi, Mr. Stark, I'm Y/n y/l/n."

He returned my handshake and leaned against the corner of the desk. "I know who you are, Miss y/l/n. How could I not after you continuously pestered my employees demanding a personal meeting with me?"

I blushed. "I'm sorr—"

He raised a hand to cut me off, "I don't have time for the simpering. Why are you here?"

"Well, I, um…I might have something kinda big to tell you…or I might not because maybe it was just a delusion and oh boy will I feel bad about this if it was..but if it is wasn't then well, you should know, but maybe you don't want to know, maybe you'll hate me for coming in here and—"

"Miss y/l/n. I still don't know why you're here, or more importantly, why this couldn't be handled by someone else."

"Right. Sorry." I took a deep breath, my mind flashing back to words written in my mother's journal, and my carefully planned gentle lead-in disappeared from my mind. Instead, I blurted out.

"If I'm wrong about this I'm sorry, but I need to know if you knew a woman named Mary y/l/n, and if you did, if you had a relationship, a um, physicalrelationshipthatis, say about 16 years ago? Because if you did...youmightbemyfather."

A surprised expression crossed his face, and he straightened up, "I'm sorry, what now?"

I took a deep breath, staring intently at the wall directly behind him, "… I should probably backtrack…my whole life my mom refused to tell me who my father was because apparently he'd abandoned us when she'd told him he was pregnant. I recently found an old journal of hers. And it mentioned you. And it mentioned how she was mad at you, so she left. And that she hadn't even told you that she was pregnant. As some kind of…revenge. That pregnancy…that was me." My voice came out quiet for the last words, "So…I came to see if you're my father…"

I dared a quick look at him, trying to hide how hopeful I was. Trying to brace myself in case he rejected the possibility of me being his without further thought and decided to call for security to haul away the stupid girl trying to get at the billionaire (because my very-brief research had shown him to be exactly that). But he didn't look like that was the plan. He'd leaned back against the desk like it was the only thing keeping him up, and was just staring at me with wide eyes, eyes that were the exact same shade as mine. Eyes that were looking me over with an odd mixture of calculation and…hope?

He suddenly seemed to realize we were both examining each other, and his expression closed off, his arms crossing in front of his chest. His voice came out sounding accusatory, "Why?"

I blinked, "Why what?"

"Why did you decide to come here? Why didn't you ask your mother before coming? Surely, she could have cleared this up for you."

I looked down at my hands, "I decided to come here for a few reasons. One, well, I was hoping to find my father.. Two, I thought that if I am your daughter, you deserved to know…that maybe that's something you'd want to know," my eyes darted up to his then immediately back to my hands, "And well, even if I wanted to confront her for lying to me about my father's interest in me… I couldn't ask my mother; I only found the journal because she…because she…she passed away…"

"Shit, kid, I'm sorry."

I shrugged, "Also. I should mention, if you are my father. I don't expect anything from you. I don't need handouts or money or recognition or anything. I can take care of myself. I can walk out the door and forget I even knew your name, and you can forget mine. I just… now that I have the possibility of knowing who my father is…I just want to know. Either way. Plus, it might not hurt to maybe know both sides of familial medical history, though that's only if you don't mind, obviously I'm not gonna force you to reveal that kind of information if you don't want to…" I was rambling and forced myself to trail off, before looking back up at him, hoping he'd say something before I started making even more of a fool of myself.

He stared at me for a moment. His gaze seeming to linger longest on my eyes. After what felt like an eternity, he stood up, and went to the door. I sighed, guessing I was about to be kicked out. Maybe it was Security time after all.

He turned back to me, his one hand holding the door open, "Well, are you coming?"

Shocked, I jumped up and hurried after him as he strode down the white hallways towards an elevator. "Where exactly are we going?"

"I have a state-of-the-art lab upstairs. And a close friend with a medical degree who happens to be visiting at the moment. We'll have our answer by the end of the hour."

I stopped short for a moment before running to catch up, my heart in my throat. I'd never expected things to go this fast.

We stood silently side by side in the elevator, with me trying to subtly watch him out of the corner of my eye. He led me down a hallway, to a set of glass doors where he had to scan his palm and verbally enter a code before they whooshed open. A dark-haired man, who looked vaguely familiar, looked up from where he was bent over a microscope. His eyebrows shot up in surprise when he saw me, and his look turned to Mr. Stark.

"Tony, who's this?"

"That's what I need your help to find out, Bruce. I need you to run a DNA test to see if she might be my daughter."

This Bruce responded by gaping at Mr. Stark.

I half raised my hand to catch his attention, "Also, my name is Y/N. In case anyone cares that I'm also a person."

Mr. Stark waved his hand in my direction, brushing off my statement, then pointed his pen at Bruce. "So?"

Bruce gave his head a little shake and stood up, looking a bit more clearheaded, "Of course," he gestured over to another door, "We'll just go to the med bay—"

"No. We'll do it here. It's more…private. I trust your," this was emphasized by gesturing at Bruce, "discretion, but too many of my doctors like to gossip." He turned to me like it was an afterthought, "I'm sure you're okay with that, right… [name that starts with the same letter as yours]?"

"It's Y/n. And it really doesn't seem like I have choice."

He smiled, "See, she's on board. Let's do this."

Bruce looked uncertain, then acquiesced with a tired shrug. "Fine, Tony, sit over there. Y/n, over here please." He gestured at the chairs of two different tables, and I followed orders, sitting down while I wondered what the hell I'd gotten myself into.

Bruce started with Mr. Stark, their voices kept low as they had what sounded like a bit of an argument. Then Bruce came over my way, leaving Mr. Stark holding a cottonball to his arm.

"Hi Y/n, I'm Dr. Bruce Banner," he put his hand out for me to shake with a smile. He had an awkward shyness to him that immediately put me at ease and I happily returned the handshake.

"It's nice to meet you. Sorry for interrupting what you were doing."

He gave a little laugh, "Don't worry, when you work around Tony, you get pretty used to interruptions."

"Hey!" An indignant response came from the other side of the room, and I giggled.

Dr. Banner smiled a bit more at that, "So, Y/n, here's how this is going to work…" He went over the procedure and asked me a few questions like if I had any known allergies and if I'd eaten today. His eyes were kind and inquisitive.

I turned away while he inserted the needle, but looked back to study his face while he drew the blood, trying to place him. Suddenly, the name and face came together, and it clicked. I gasped. He looked up in concern, "Everything okay?"

I waved off his concern with my free hand, "Yes, sorry, I just realized where I know you from."

His expression closed off and in a dull voice, he asked, "Oh, and how's that?"

A little uncertain as to what I'd done to offend him, I hesitantly responded, "From the poster in an old friend's room. She was obsessed with you and your work."

Noting that his expression had opened up again, and now showed slight surprise, I gave an apologetic smile, "Not that I ever really understood what exactly that work was… science and I don't get along well. But she'd go on and on about it. Sounded like gibberish to me. She called you 'revolutionary' a lot. It was her biggest dream to meet you. She was devastated when you disappeared. I wonder if she knows you're back in the science field…"

I trailed off, realizing I was once more rambling. And that he looked embarrassed. Thankfully, the blood drawing was done, so I had an excuse to once more turn away, and he had an excuse to leave the situation, leaving me with my own cotton ball to hold to my arm.

Mr. Stark was up now, wandering the lab and absentmindedly picking things up, glancing at them briefly, then putting them back down. He raised an eyebrow at Dr. Banner, "So, what do you think? 20 minutes?"

Dr. Banner gave a small laugh and shook his head, "More like 40." He glanced uncertainly at me, "Are you two staying here while I run the comparison, or going elsewhere, or?"

Mr. Stark paused in his movements, glancing over at me like he was trying to evaluate something. I shrugged, "I'm good to go wherever. I don't want to be in the way."

Silence for another moment. Finally Mr. Stark spoke up, "There's a café on the third level. You can go there. I'll have someone come get you when the test is done," He gave a quick glance upwards, "FRIDAY, can you have someone waiting on the 3rd floor to show her the way?"

"Right away, Boss."

I started at the Irish voice coming from nowhere. Neither of the others seemed to notice thankfully. Mr. Stark led me to the elevator and sent me back down to the 3rd floor, where an intern met me and led me through a twist of hallways until we reached a little nook with a café. I sat there, drink in hand, nervously alternating between staring at the window and people watching. Around me, men and women bustled, some dressed in office clothes, several in lab coats, and a few security people in black and white. One walked by with an extremely unhappy looking expression. I avoided meeting his eyes.

What if the test came back negative? What if Mr. Stark wasn't my father? There'd been no other possible candidates mentioned in the journal, which meant I'd have to just accept not knowing who my father was. And deal with making a massive fool of myself in front of a total stranger. Make that two total strangers, because Dr. Banner would be there too. Oh god, what if he was my father though? What would happen then? I'd meant what I'd said, I wouldn't ask anything of him. I could take the knowledge and just leave. I'd offered it, but that didn't mean it wouldn't hurt if that's the option he went with. Even though I recognized that logistically, especially with him being such a public figure, it would be a lot simpler for him to not have a daughter come out of the woodwork.

But what if he didn't do that? What if…what if he wanted me? How would that work? And what kind of father would he be? I wasn't sure how I felt about him so far. He'd been abrupt, barely remembered my name, and had basically ordered around Bruce and myself like it was a given we'd do what he said. Of course, it was also a very odd situation, and I'd spent less than an hour with him, so I was going to give him the benefit of the doubt. For now. As I tried to ignore the childish fantasies that somehow finding my father would mean my life would be perfect now.

The minutes ticked by slowly as I pondered back and forth between the options. At some point, I went to take another sip of my drink and realized it was empty. Then did the same thing again a few minutes later. I sighed and stood up, walking closer to the window and pacing back and forth, no longer able to stand still.

"Miss Y/l/n?"

It was the same intern as before. They led me back to the elevator, I got on, and when the doors opened back up, Mr. Stark was waiting for me. It was a different floor than before, gone was the never-ending white. Instead, it was a lot of metal, and grey. A few decorative accents here and there, and some plants that I was tempted to look closer at to see if they were real or fake.

I stepped off the elevator and nervously looked at the stone-faced man in front of me, "So?"

He turned and started walking away, making a small gesture for me to follow him, "Bruce is waiting in the living room to give the results."

So, he didn't know yet either. I squeezed my hands tightly, nervously brushing them against my skirt, as we pushed through a set of glass doors into a nicely-furnished room. Several leather couches and chairs were spread throughout, and there was even a fireplace. On one of the chairs, Dr. Banner sat, holding a folder. I momentarily forgot how to breathe as we approached him.

He gestured for us to sit, "I thought this might be more comfortable than the lab for discussing the results." He gave Mr. Stark a pointed look at this.

The billionaire, who had stayed standing, ignored the look, instead resting one hand on the back of the couch I sat on. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed his grip tighten against the leather as he asked, "So what are the results, Bruce."

Dr. Banner nervously flicked open the folder, adjusted his glasses, and looked between us. "Congratulations, Tony, Y/n, you're family."

I inhaled sharply, not noticing Mr. Stark doing the same beside me, and was surprised to feel the prick of tears in my eyes. He was my dad. I had a dad. I swallowed hard as I nervously turned to look at Mr. Stark- my dad. He hadn't moved, was just frozen, staring at Dr. Banner. My movement seemed to shake him out of it though, and he turned to also look at me, and while I'd been surprised at my tears, I was shocked to see his eyes were also wet.

We just stared at each other, until an awkward cough came from Dr. Banner, and we both turned back to him. He stood up, pursing his lips, "I bet you two have a lot to talk about, I'll just leave you to it." And awkwardly shuffled around us and beelined for the door.

I turned back to the-man-who-is-my-father, and stood up on shaky legs. "So, what no—"

I was cut off as he pulled me into him, his arms wrapping around my shoulders, and I paused only a moment before lifting my arms around him too. Pressed into him, surrounded by the scent of designer cologne, cotton, and the vague scent of oil, I immediately started crying. I would have felt embarrassed, but I could hear slight sniffles from where his head was pressed into the top of mine.

Eventually, we separated, and I met his eyes, eyes that like mine were red, watery, and the exact same shade of brown. I gave him a small smile, "Do I call you dad?"