Thank you Pollux'sThetaWaves for betaing.
It wasn't uncommon for people to claim they had a child with Tony Stark. He was, after all, famous for sleeping around with many women. That and people would do anything for money, which was precisely the reason why he hired a lawyer to deal with these accusations. Pepper simply didn't have the time to deal with such things; he also had a few quarts of blood stored away for DNA testing for the people who were serious about it. This had proved to be useful because most people backed down once they demanded a DNA test.
It was late one afternoon when Pepper had gotten a call from Laura Pace. The woman who was in charge of such matters, for not only Tony Stark, but other celebrities. She rarely called, usually only to tell Pepper that Tony needed to donate more blood, or other strange matters. Pepper could only nod her head as she agreed to a quick meeting with the woman. Her eyes diverted to Tony who on the other side of the glass, was moving about the garage stopping every few seconds to tap his fingers on his Arc Reactor, this was a new habit Pepper had noticed, that Tony had devolved, since she helped him install it.
"I'll be there in ten minutes." The woman said on the other side of the cell phone, her thick British accent, ringing in Pepper's ear. With out a good bye the woman on the other end snapped her cell phone shut, leaving Pepper in silence. Pepper snapped her phone closed, slipping the thin phone in her pocket, and with her newly freed hand tapped the code to get into Tony's garage, stepping in with the clack of her heals.
"Tony!" she said loudly, her eyes watching Tony turn around with a look of confusion on his face. He muttered a very soft 'hello Pepper' before continuing on searching for what ever it was he lost. "Laura Pace is coming over; she has requested a quick meeting with us." She said, calmly watching Tony's face scrunch up in confusion.
"Who?" he asked, running his fingers through his black hair glanced back at Pepper who could only roll her eyes. Tony forgot nearly everything, and this only made her job harder. "Laura Pace, she's one of your lawyers." Pepper said watching Tony tap at his Arc Reactor; suddenly he scrunched his eyebrows forgotten memories coming back to him.
"Laura Pace? The lawyer that deals with the child law suits?" He asked leaning against a messy table. Pepper nodded her head watching Tony as he thought about what the woman could want.
Jarvis's loud British voice echoed over the room allowing both of them to know that Laura had arrived, and was waiting in the living room. Without another word Pepper turned on her heel, and made her way back out the door that she had just came through, it closed with a hiss. The sound of her heels couldn't be heard on the other side of the wall. Grabbing the nearest towel, Tony wiped his hands of all visible grease, tossed it over his shoulder, and made his way upstairs.
Pepper and Laura Pace stood in the living room waiting for Tony. Laura, a small old woman, with streaks of grey hair through her white locks, studied Tony with such an intensity, that he felt small, and child-like. Swiftly Tony made his way to the woman, wanting to get the meeting over with as quickly as possible, so he could get back to work. "Miss. Pace!" He said sticking his freshly clean hand out to her. She continued to harshly study him for a second before also sticking her hand out grasping his hand tightly, "Mr. Stark." She said, her thick British accent echoing through the room.
"If we could get started?" The woman asked, pulling a thick brown folder to her chest. It was the first time Tony had noticed she was carrying anything. Still feeling small compared to this woman, he muttered a very unconvincing yes, and used his free hand to motion her towards the white couch.
Tony sat in the middle of Pepper, and Laura. He patiently waited for her to start whatever she wanted to talk to them about. Silently the woman flipped through the brown folder, pulling out a white piece of paper, with a silver paperclip in the top left corner. Suddenly Laura's eyes were filled with sympathy as she handed the paper to Tony.
The paper its self, was a bleached white, with tar-black type. The paper had a small picture attached of a child, her arms, and legs, covered in tons of medical tape, tubes, and gauze. The child's skin also had large black, purple, and yellow bruises scattered across her skin.
"It's been confirmed, she is your daughter." Laura said, watching Tony's face twist into an emotion she had seen many times before in her line of work. It was a mix of shock, sadness, and pain. After a long pause of silence, Tony tossed the paper on the table running his hands through his hair. He didn't know what to do, what to say. Nothing, in his entire life, could have prepared him for something like this. Pepper snatched the paper, a gasp escaped from her lips when she saw the picture of the little girl.
"What happened to her?" She said, outraged. Laura suddenly straightened her back, and weaved her fingers in her lap. Her mouth quivered for a second, before she spoke, her voice soft, and very clam. "CAS took her away from her mother, three weeks ago." Miss. Pace said softly then proceeded to tell the two of how the child had been hit on a regular basis, deprived of food, and clothing. But most horrifying of all, was the man of the house-hold had taken sewing pins and pushed them through the small child's body. She had a surgery to remove most of them about two weeks ago, and had another surgery planned in two days to remove the ones close to her heart and other organs.
Pepper began to cry as the woman explained that the little girl was 17 months old, and was already behind in her development. She could walk, but couldn't talk at all; she was also slightly deaf, among other things.
Tony remained silent, thousands of thoughts were running through his mind, once again his eyes skimmed the picture on the table, it was almost impossible to tell what the child looked liked, her face was too swollen, and covered with bandages.
"Mr. Stark?" Laura asked watching the man in deep thought. He could only look at her, he couldn't think of anything to say. Pepper, gently placed a hand on his shoulder, and he flinched not expecting such an action.
"Would you like to see her Mr. Stark?" Laura asked, watching him intently. It was the second time she had asked him the question, but he was so out of it, she had to ask it a second time. Suddenly Tony sat up stiffly; it had finally clicked in his mind what he was being asked.
Tony had always hated hospitals, he hated everything about them, and having to be in one wasn't helping his situation. Laura had led both him and Pepper to the children's ward; he had never been to one before. There was cream colored walls with paintings of Disney characters, that all looked to happy to be there. Very few children were actually in the ward, so when Laura led them into a large room with at least 3 other beds he wasn't surprised to see only one of them occupied.
She wasn't really sleeping in a bed, but some strange kind of incubator. Her face was much better looking then in the picture he had seen only hours ago, but yellowish bruises, and medical instruments still remained. As well as a few stitches here and there from where they had pulled out the sewing needles encased in his little girl's body. She was only wearing a diaper, which had some children's T.V. show printed on the front. Tony found himself lost, slipping his hand inside the warm incubator and placing his large fingers into her tiny hand.
"What's her name?" Tony asked, as he watched his child's chest slowly rise and fall, her eyes tightly shut. He could feel Laura stiffen behind him. Laura cleared her throat, before answering in the simplest manner as possible, "She doesn't have a name."
Tony could feel his insides burning with anger. What kind of human does this to a child? He could only imagine the things they called her, the things they would have said to her.
"Tony?" Pepper asked, worried, he hadn't said a lot since this load of information was dumped on him. She was beginning to worry, because she had no idea what he was thinking.
"Her name is Maria." Tony said suddenly, stirring the silence in the room. Pepper could only nod her head in agreement; Pepper knew that Maria was his mother's name. Laura's shoulders stiffened again, watching Tony slide his hand from the incubator. He knew what he had to do now; he knew that he had to take his daughter home, because he felt the overwhelming need to protect her.
"What now?" He asked, looking at his lawyer who pulled the folder close to her once more.
"I'm assuming you want to keep her?" She said studying Stark sharply. He nodded his head in agreement, Laura only watched with interest, before harshly grinding her teeth. "Then we have a lot of paper work to sort through." She said, swiftly turning on her her heels and walking out of the room.
Maria spent most of her time sleeping, but Tony understood, and honestly would have it no other way, because sleeping meant that she was healing. The quicker she healed, the sooner she got home. She had finally gotten her second surgery and all of the pins in her body had been removed. Small stitches covered her body; they would leave thin scars, but it was much better then pins implanted in her body.
Since the papers were signed and finalized, Tony had gained full responsibilities over her, even if CAS would be involved with his child every step of the way.
He quickly sent Pepper out to 'buy any toys a little girl could imagine', he could tell Pepper enjoyed such a task, often coming back to the hospital to show Tony the dresses, and outfits she had gotten for Maria. He had her hire someone to fix up a room in the house for Maria's bedroom, and also asked Rhodey to fix a part of his garage into a play-area for Maria so she could play in the shop while he was working.
The hospital allowed him to hold Maria a few hours after her last surgery. But they had to keep the medical equipment attached to her, and he understood why. The equipment was keeping her alive and healthy. But they didn't change the way he felt about her, and how tiny she was in his large arms. He didn't know how long he held her, because just watching the little creature in his arms suck her thumb, and every so often open her soft blue eyes to look around the room, seemed to pass the time like nothing.
There was a soft knock at the door, and Tony forced his eyes away from his daughter. Rhodey and Pepper were standing at the door holding bags of food. Tony had suddenly remembered he hadn't eaten all day.
"Hungry?" Rhodey asked holding the brown bag up for Tony to see. Tony nodded shifting around in the chair a little, his arms still wrapped around his daughter protectively. Both of his friends smiled, entering the room silently; pulling up two chairs beside him.
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