**A/N – Hey all. Lots of apologies as life is extremely busy at the moment and finding time to sit and write when my brain isn't mush seems to be very hard these days…but here I am! Thanks so much for the continued support, however, I don't blame you if you've jumped ship! To everyone else, as it's been a while, please be patient whilst I try to drain the mush from my head and refill it with actual living matter… And finally, I've seen Endgame, but there are no spoilers and also…my universe doesn't match that of Infinity War! X
Chapter 20 – NOW what?
Nothing happened for a while. In fact, for a good long while. The Christmas holidays ended and already Tony was making changes in that he didn't send Charlotte off to boarding school. He still found it difficult though, he would be crazy to admit he didn't, he got so busy it was so easy to ignore everything else when in his workshop, inventing stuff and…
Stop it, Tony. He would say it to himself often. He also did his best to show he could support Charlotte in everything she did and when the school show came around, Charlotte had a bit part. A frog for Christ sake! A goddamn frog? His kid, was playing a frog who had one line…however, when he saw her on the stage he couldn't help the immense feeling of pride he felt swelling through him. This was something different and the look of joy on her face told him everything he needed to know…
Time ticked on then. In fact, things seems so much calmer he wondered how the hell he had gotten into the previous mess he had before. Suddenly his business didn't seem so important BUT….Dr Strange and his warnings kept jumping around in his head. DON'T do anything to change the time line. DON'T tell anyone what you have done, blah blah blah…boring boring boring…although everything went completely pear-shaped the day he got a panicked phone call from Luke, through Jarvis….that Charlotte wasn't at school, she had been picked up by someone impersonating him it seemed, and the poor guy was about to lose his mind…
'….Well, who the hell picked her up?...'..Tony was wasting no time at all, forget planes, trains and automobiles, there was only one sure way to get to Charlottes school, and as the Ironman pieces clamped around him, Tony ran out of the base of the tower as he had been waiting to meet someone in the foyer, and much to the surprise of the people coming in and out, he shot into the sky as fast as the suit would allow.
It was a tense couple of hours. Shortly after Tony had landed on the driveway of the school, cars screamed up the drive way, bringing other members of the Avengers to offer support and to also stop Tony killing anyone. Good job they did, Nat got to him first as his was about to explode at the poor principal who was terrified he was going to get fried by Ironman.
'Dammit Tony, calm down and take a step back! Let's go and check CCTV and see exactly what happened!'…
So that's what they did, in the security office, a man looking just like Luke arrived, flashed his I.D, and proceeded to wait for Charlotte who was called from class and got in to the car. Same make, model, colour and exact same registration.
'Did you not think to check with me?' spat an angry Tony at the poor receptionist…
'Well, you called beforehand! At least, it sounded like you AND you gave the password! So did the driver! If they give the password, we let the students go…'…she quailed under his glare, highly upset.
Tony turned and pulled out his phone, direct link to Jarvis…
'Get on the CCTV at the school. I want you to track where that car went, as far as you can, using every available camera you can hack into, and I want you to do it now!'
'Of course Mr Stark. I will call you back the moment I manage to do so'…
oOo
It took a little while. The car it seemed headed out of the school and took the quickest route into the city…and that's where they lost it. Even with the Avengers storming in all guns blazing, the abandoned car was found…along with Charlotte's jacket, it appeared that they had gone underground, literally, and Jarvis was now scanning every security system in the city, but it seemed that both the driver AND Charlotte had disappeared into thin air. They found the car in an old abandoned warehouse, it had become obvious that the best place to hide was in the city itself as someone was one step ahead of the team and knew Tony would be all over the traffic cameras on the highways tracking them otherwise…
'Tony, we'll find her….don't worry'…
Steve's attempts at reassuring Tony fell on fruitless ears. Tony just sat and stared out at the night sky, thinking, thinking….trying to find a way to…
'That's it!'…jumping up, he startled both Sam and Rhodey, who happened to be around at that point in time, watching Tony run headlong towards the lab, obviously had an idea about something or other…
oOo
'…can I go home now?'…
The now 7 year old Charlotte asked the woman who was sat in the room with her, apparently immersed in something or other on her iPad, earphones stuck in her ears, which she pulled out, annoyed…as Charlotte spoke.
'No. Shut up and stay quiet'…
Charlotte did as she was told, eyes filling with tears but didn't dare cry, afraid of what might happen next…
oOo
She thought the man was Luke. He looked like Luke, sounded like him AND he gave the school the password her dad had set up. She had guessed something was wrong the moment she had gotten into the car and the doors automatically locked and Luke hit something in his ear saying only two words…
'Got her'…
'Are we going home?' she had suddenly asked in a panic, and when Luke didn't reply she had tried to open the doors frantically when they stopped at traffic lights. The man just gave a wry smile as he set off again, Charlotte doing her best to open the doors.
It got even worse when the car finally stopped, inside a crumbling building in an as yet 'waiting to be built after it had been flattened' part of the city. 'Luke' got out of the car, opened her door and dragged Charlotte out by the back of her sweater, she dropped her jacket but managed to hang onto her bag as they headed out of the building and into another, down some stairs, along way down….and into some old sewers. Long abandoned, the only water that came down here was rain water, running to the river…but it smelt fusty and old, was also cold and damp….she shivered as she was frog-marched along to the current room she was being held in now. With still no clue as to why this was happening or where her dad was, she tried to be brave as she was dragged to a corner where there was an old battered couch in what appeared to be an old sewage works room, she spoke with what she thought was an authoritative voice, but came out as a squeak…
'…Ironman will kick your ass, then the Avengers will too!'…
Finding herself hoisted high by 'Luke' she regretted what she had just said instantly…
'Daddy won't do jack-shit! Neither will that pack of freaks he associates with! Now sit down there and don't say another thing!'…after that, he dug deep into her bag, found her phone and threw it into a drain, the water taking the phone out into the river and causing Tony to chase shadows after he activated the tracker on it…
oOo
She slept fitfully that first night. It was cold, the place was far from sunlight so would never be warm unless artificially heated. There was a heater but the woman in the room hogged it most of the night, leaving the blankets for poor Charlotte. So she tried to pass the time of day and much of the night by drawing in her scrapbook she took everywhere with her. She drew the room, the woman in the corner and 'Luke' when he came back. The pens she drew with were special ones her dad had made. The colours blended into each other, creating amazing swirls of colour, he made the paint himself, especially for her...keen to encourage her passions unbeknown to her, like before…
oOo
'No, shut up and stay quiet'…
After the woman had responded, Charlotte stood and walked to the door that led to the tiny windowless bathroom. The woman briefly glanced her way then went back to whatever she was watching and Charlotte closed the door behind her and looked around the small bathroom and lent against the sink. She didn't actually need the loo, just needed a change of scenery and as she looked around the grim, pokey, cold and smelly bathroom. Her 7 year old mind doing overtime, she wondered what her dad would do, probably make something out of the toilet and toilet roll holder to blow the door off its hinges! It was at that point she looked up. There was a grate at the top of the wall. Like a…air conditioning duct from years gone by. It was small but….so was she.
Not thinking twice, Charlotte put her backpack on (hadn't left it, felt comforted having it close for some reason) and climbed onto the toilet cistern. The screws to the grill were loose! Better not make a noise though…and within a minute, she managed to get the grill off and with her pen torch, saw that the duct was big enough for her to crawl through… (the pen torch was a 'thing' at school, everyone wanted them, now it was going to help her escape…) and as best she could, Charlotte put her bag up first and scrambled up, hoping the woman in the room was still watching whatever it was on her iPad…
oOo
A well-aimed kick splintered the wood and the man yelled at the woman, realising their prize possession had gone walkabouts, standing on the cistern, 'Luke' yelled Charlotte's name, but there was no way he was getting in there, it was too small…
'Get me maps of this place! Find out where that air duct goes!'…he snapped, pulling his phone out..
'Where the hell am I going to find one of those?'…she shrieked back at him…
'I don't know and I don't care…start with that damn iPad you're always stuck to!'…
He ran back the way he came, up the steps, heading towards the surface, if he lost the Stark kid, he'd loose his head, the boss wasn't one to be crossed…
oOo
Unaware of where she was, Charlotte just kept going. Loosing track of time of how long she had been crawling and it was dark, cold…smelly….she was afraid the battery would run out before she got out….she ended up in a corner, hugged her knees and cried…
'Please come and find me Daddy!' she said, to no-one really but herself, but eventually once her tears subsided, Charlotte once again pushed on, scrabbling through the metal air ducts and suddenly…was that light? Rounding another corner, she came to another old room…with a light from some sort of grill. The exit from the air duct was like the other one, the fastenings had long since rusted and even she could kick it out, although it made hell of a noise. Climbing out, she placed her hands on the grill, it wasn't daylight, it was the moon shining on the river…and that looked like a bridge! Over on the other side, she saw lights of the city, but how was she going to get across the river? Or even get out of here?
'Hello Charlotte, you HAVE gotten yourself into a mess, haven't you?'…
Turning around, she came face to face with the man she remembered had been in MacDonald's that day, the man who ate one of her fries…