Iron Man's Daughter

Tony sat back in his seat, the only light in the room coming from the one on his desk. The city lights of Malibu were flickered below him. He let out a deep breath and slowly opened the drawer on his right. He dug through the papers and documents until he reached the bottom and pulled out an old photograph. It was creased and wrinkled with age and like it’d been handled a lot in its earlier years.

It was of a younger Tony Stark kissing a beautiful young woman’s cheek. In the background were lights from a carnival long gone. The woman’s hair was long and dazzling black. Just like Tess’s. The grin on her face reached her jade colored eyes. Mia.

Never once had he forgotten her. Never once had he stopped regretting leaving her. None of the women he’d ever been with compared to her and that had bothered him for seventeen years. He should have been able to forget her and move on, but it wasn’t that simple. Obadiah had persuaded him to leave her behind, to just forget her, but that was something he could never do.

Sighing, Tony sat back in his chair to think. He’d completely broken that girl’s heart and he knew it. There was no way he was her father though. He couldn’t be a father, he’d be a terrible one. What worried him was that his name was on that birth certificate...but he’d never signed it. He would have remembered something that big coming into his view once. So who had signed his name?

--

There was a quiet knock on the door. Pepper checked the peep hole, looked back at Tess who was laying pitifully on the couch, and opened the door. Tony stood there with a box in his hands.

“Is...Tess here?” he asked and Pepper was surprised he knew her name.

However, she glared at him. “Yes. What do you want?”

Tony sighed. “I came to...to apologize.”

Pepper’s eyes widened in shock. Apologize? Tony Stark was apologizing to someone? That couldn’t be possible. Despite her reluctancy and shock, Pepper stepped aside to let Tony in. He walked over to Tess, who didn’t bother to look up, just kept her eyes glued to the TV screen.

“The Matrix? Good movie. A little to deep for me though,”Stark said, keeping his eyes on the teenager. She still didn’t move. “Look, Tess. I am very sorry for what I said to you the other day.”

Tess’s face slowly rose to look at him and it startled him by hard her expression was. “Its fine,”she said softly and went back to the TV.

“No, its not.” Tony paused. He was about to say a whole bunch of stuff he usually wouldn’t say. “I loved Mia...your mother. She’s the most compassionate person ever. And, God, she’s still beautiful I’m sure. She’s–”

“Dead.”

“What?”

Tess looked at him again. “She’s dead. That’s the only reason I came to her. Because she’s dead.”

Tony stared at her as the thought sunk in. Then he slowly sunk into a chair. Pepper had never seen him so...sad.“I had no idea. When?”

Tess slowly sat up. “About a month before I came here.”

“What happened?”

“Leukemia. She just couldn’t do the treatment.”

Tony shook his head. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know.” He looked at the box in his hand and pushed it across the coffee table to her. “I can’t apologize enough and I know this won’t help, but when I saw it, I thought you might like it.”

Tess looked at him, confused, before she reached for the box. Whatever was in it was moving unsteadily. She looked at Tony again before lifting the lid off. A fluffy, black head with yellow eyes lazily peeked its head out. Tess gasped and hesitantly lifted the fluffy cat out of its confinement. When it was in the embrace of her arms, it began purring happily.

Tess stared at the man beside her. “You got me a cat?”

Tony shrugged. “If you’re not a cat person, I can go get a dog. Just tell me what kind.”

Tess shook her head, petting the feline softly on its smooth head. “No, I love her. Thank you.”

Pepper was smiling when Tony looked back at her. She nodded approvingly. “What are you going to name her?”

Tess looked at the cat’s face who blinked lazily up at her. “Maya.”

“Good name,”Tony said. “But...I need to discuss something else.” Both females looked at him expectantly. “I never signed that birth certificate. So please don’t be angry at me for never knowing about you because I had no idea about you.”

“But Tony, the signature–”

“Wasn’t mine, Pepper. I swear this time, I’m not lying.”

Tess continued to stroke her new pet thoughtfully. “So what do you...what do you want to do?”

Tony raised an eyebrow at her. “About you? I’m shipping you off somewhere else.” Tess’s head jerked up, her eyes wide and fearfull. He was smiling. “Kidding! Not sure if I’ll make a good father, but...I can try.”