Iron Man's Daughter

Tess struggled to pry the metal covering from her father. The robotic arms were joining in and--like her--were not prevailing.

"Ow!" Tony exclaimed, hissing in between his teeth.

"Sir, the more you struggle, the more this is going to hurt," JARVIS said.

"Stop complaining. Its your own fault for making this a tight fit," Tess replied dryly, drilling into the side of his breast plate.

"I designed this to come off so...Ow, hey!"

"Please try not to move, sir."

"What's going on here?"

Tess and Tony both froze. Tess peeked around her father to see Pepper standing there, completely stunned by the sight before her. Tess could understand why.

After an awkward moment of silence, Tony said, "Let's face it. This is not the worst thing you've caught me doing."

Tess rolled her eyes and went back to drilling. "I don't even want to know what that means," she muttered.

Regaining some effort to speak, Pepper shook her head. "Are those bullet holes?"

"No," Tess answered. "He was violently attacked by demented marbles."

|:|

Tess and Pepper walked nervously out of the elevator and into the office at Stark Industries.

"I can't believe Stark made me come with you," Tess said quietly.

"You know more about computers than I do. I'm just here to get you in," Pepper answered just as quietly and then smiled at a man as he walked by.

They stepped into Tony's office. Their goal: "hack into the mainframe and retrieve all the recent shipping manifests" in Tony's words exactly.

Tess sat down at the computer in front of the huge glass window and took the lock chip from Pepper's purse and plugged into the computer. "Warning: Security Breach" flashed up on the computer and Tess's fingers began to work expertly over the keys.

"Found the ghost drive," she said more to herself than the woman looking over her shoulder.

The shipping papers all began to flash up on the screen as she looked through them.

"Stop," Pepper said as one file came up. A rather, bulky suit came up on the screen. A lesser prototype than the one Tess and Tony had worked on.

"Sector 16?" Pepper whispered. "What are you up to, Obadiah? Next file."

Tess clicked on the next and a video clip appeared. It was a group of Muslim soldiers with someone seated in the middle of them. One of the soldiers was reading something. Another removed the sack from the hostages head. It was Tony. Tess pressed the button to translate the clip.

"You did not tell us that the target you paid us to kill was the great Tony Stark." Tess's eyes widened. Pepper mirrored her. "As you can see, Obadiah Stane, your deception and lies will cost you dearly. The price to kill Tony Stark has just gone up."

Tess began to initiate the copy and the files began to fly into the lock chip.

"So..." The two woman jumped at the sound of Obadiah's voice. He was standing in the door. "What are we going to do about this?" He walked in slowly, moving over to a tray to pour himself some more bourbon.

"I know what you two are going through." He looked up at them with an unreadable expression and then smiled. "Tony. He always gets the good stuff, doesn't he?" He sniffed at the glass bottle in his hand.

Pepper smiled nervously and nodded, but Tess kept her face guarded, watching the old man's every move. As he poured himself another glass, Tess hid the lock clip with some papers on the table as it continued to download the precious files. She swallowed, trying to breath normally. If Pepper and her got caught...

Obadiah began to make his way over with two glasses and Tess quickly, quietly exited out of the files.

"I'm guessing you don't drink, do you, Tess?" Obadiah smiled pleasantly.

Tess only shook her head. "I was so happy when Tony came home," Obadiah continued. "It was like we got him back from the dead. Now I realize, well, Tony never really did come home, did he? He left a part of himself in that cave. Breaks my heart."

Tess wanted to yell at him for trying such antics with them. He was the reason Tony had ended up in that cave! He was the reason "Tony never really did come home". It was all Stane's fault because he wanted everything for himself.

Despite the anger boiling inside her, she kept her face smooth."Well, he's a complicated person," she said. Pepper looked almost shocked that she'd spoken. "He's been through a lot. I think he'll be alright."

Obadiah licked his lips. "You are a very interesting you girl. What makes you so...attached to Tony?"

"She's just...learning the ropes," Pepper cut in. "But...we should be getting back, shouldn't we?" She looked at Tess who nodded.

As Tess stood from the chair, Pepper grabbed the lock chip and the newspaper on top of it. She smiled at Obadiah and they began to exit, the sense of uneasiness leaving them.

"Is that today's paper?" Both of them stopped and looked at each other, the nervousness returning.

"Yes." Tess was surprised by how strong Pepper sounded.

Obadiah came up to her, holding out his hand. "Do you mind?"

"Not at all," Pepper answered.

Tess shifted uneasily as he threw her a troubling glance. "Puzzle," he said, showing her the paper and then smiled.

Tess managed a dry, fake smile back and followed Pepper quickly out of the office. "Take care," Obadiah called after them.

"God, that was close," Pepper breathed as they made their way down a flight of stairs.

"I know," Tess said, letting the slight fear show in her voice. That didn't help Pepper's confidence at all. "Obadiah's not stupid..."

Pepper nodded solemnly.

"Ms. Potts?" the detective from the news conference so long ago was sitting at one of the leather chairs in the lobby. "We had an appointment? Did you forget about our appointment?"

"Nope, right now. Come with me," Pepper answered quickly.

"Right now?"

"Yep, right now. Walk with me."

The agent got up and fell in step with them. Tess looked back up at the second floor and saw Obadiah staring down at them. She held his gaze for a moment before turning back around to walk with the two adults.

She had a very unsettling feeling now. Stane knew something. Not about them knowing what he had done, but about her in particularly.