A/N I'm sorry if this chapter seems rushed, I'm kinda in a writer's block at the moment.

Chapter 3:: Snacks and Gunfire

The house was empty, lonely, dark. It was such a big house, especially when you're alone and had no one to talk to except the artificial intelligence that was programmed into the house. Tapping her pencil on her desk top, Harper glanced up out the window and stared out into the darkness before letting out a small sigh. "Hey Jarvis, what's the time?" Harper asked softly looking back down at her homework that was only halfway finished. Harper couldn't keep her mind on anything but this horrible nagging feeling that was still playing with head.

"Should I assume you were talking about where your father is?" The voice of Jarvis filled her room.

"You assumed correctly." She answered with a roll of her eyes.

"It would be nine thirty-eight in the morning in Afghanistan." Jarvis answered displaying the time in front of Harper's desk. Harper glanced up at the time, watching as the seconds slow tick by. Doing some quick math in her head Harper let out an even louder sigh, it was only ten o-eight where she was. "Still worrying about your father Miss?" Jarvis asked pulling the time away from Harper's view.

"That obvious?" She asked looking back to her work, working out the simple math equation that was she assigned from her advanced math class. Breezing through the question without even having to stop and really think her mind went rushing back to her father. "I hope he's okay." She muttered to herself jotting more answers into her notebook.

Jarvis was doing his best to make sure Harper wasn't feeling lonely, but engaging her in useless conversation. "I'm sure Mr Stark is perfectly fine. He's surrounded by military, I doubt he'll get into any trouble."

Harper let out a small laugh as she closed her notebook and stood up stretching her arms over her head. "Jarvis, its dad!" She giggled. "You know he'll find a way to wiggle his away and find some kind of trouble, the question is if this trouble is a blonde, brunette, or red-head." She shook her head heading for her door as her stomach gave a small growl. Her feet padding softly across the cool flooring.

"Your father seems to be fancying the blondes lately, if I do say so myself."

Laughing Harper nodded opening her door stepping out into the hall, glancing towards the hall that leads into her father's room. "Sadly he has, and anti-gun girls to boot." She rolled her eyes thinking of all the Anti-war and anti-weapons seminars she had been invited to over the years by her dad's flavor of the week. "He must just love the irony of it all. Those girls who say they despise him, but yet they're so quick to jump into bed with him." She muttered starting down the steps. She knew she should be getting ready for bed, but since she was alone she was gonna pig out on ice cream, and sodas, something her dad never let her do on school nights.

Frowning at the darkness of the house Harper crossed her arms over her chest hating now her house was mostly windows and anyone could just see in and watch what she was doing. Quickly she made her way into to the kitchen, heading straight for the fridge, grabbing a spoon along the way.

Flinging open the freezer door she smirked looking at the large tub of strawberry ice cream staring back at her. Grabbing it out she kicked the freezer door shut before going into the fridge grabbing out the whipped cream and chocolate sauce. Sitting her grand feast on the counter top she searched the cabinet next to the stove, pulling out a large bottle of sprinkles. Walking back up to the counter she pulled herself up, sitting with her legs crossed under her on the counter top. Humming softly to herself she pried open the ice cream before grabbing the whipped cream and just began spraying it into the container, next was the chocolate sauce, followed lastly by half the bottle of sprinkles.

Taking her spoon she scooped herself up bite that was dripping chocolate before quickly shoving it in her mouth. Her eyes closing and she let out a satisfied sigh. "Perfect!" She muttered through the mouthful before going in for another bite.

Harper was at least three bites into her supper before her pocket started vibrating. Harper's eyes widened and she left the spoon hanging from her mouth as her hands fumbled in her pocket pulling out her cellphone. Seeing the name that popped up on the caller ID made her smile, accepting the call she put the phone to her ear. "Hey dad." She answered, her words muffled from the spoon.

"You're in the ice cream aren't you?" Tony asked without even saying hello. He knew his girl like the back of his hand.

Harper smirked scooping up another bite into the spoon. "No.." She grinned with a mouth full of whipped cream.

"Yes you are." Harper swore she could 'hear' him rolling his eyes at her.

No, I'm not "IN" the ice cream. I'm eating it. There is a huge difference." She smirked licking the spoon clean.

"Potato, patoto-" Tony breezed off her sarcastic answer letting the subject drop. "-did you finish your school work?" He asked putting on his fatherly act.

Harper nodded taking another bite. "Yes sir. Just finished. How did your presentation go?"

Suddenly Tony went from fatherly to sarcastic, "Oh you know how these things go, huge parties, lots of booze, drugs, girls everywhere, another great weapon sold by yours truly."

Giggling Harper shook her head. "Congrats! You'll be coming home now right?" She asked trying to hide her nervousness. His work was done so he had to come home right away.

"Shouldn't be too long." He answered over the noise over the Humvee. Harper could barely make out the sound of ACDC playing over a horrible sound system. "We just finish up a few more things then I should be home. So make sure you clean up all the beer bottles and when I get home I better not find any boys there."

Harper giggled again rolling her eyes. "I haven't thrown any wild parties."

"None?" Tony faked a shocked tone. "Well I'm disappointed in you. I thought I raised you better than that."

"I blame Pepper." Harper shrugged holding the phone to her ear with her shoulder as she continued eating the ice cream.

"Speaking of Pepper, what did y'all do today? Other then spend all my money."

"Nothing, she went out with her friends and I stayed home, watched movies and pigged out on pizza and hotdogs." Harper grinned through the mouthful. She wasn't about to admit to her father that she was lonely, she hated seeming needy like she couldn't handle being on her on for a few nights.

"You and that junk food.." Tony sighed through the other end of the phone "You're eating healthy when I get home."

"Dad, you don't eat healthy." She snorted rolling her eyes.

"I'm dad, I make the rules, you're child, you follow the rules." Tony teased his child.

"Like you follow the rules?" She giggled.

"Touche. Now put that junk food away and go to bed, you have school in the morning, no skipping!" Tony suddenly got serious. He knew she wouldn't skip but he still wanted to say it, she was a smart kid and she really didn't need school like the other kids did but he was hell bound on her having a semi-normal childhood.

Harper let out a long over exaggerated sigh. "Man, I was gonna bail and go to the arcade and play ski ball." She whined, "They have these really hip spider rings that only cost about thirty bucks!"

Tony rolled his eyes and chuckled, "Goodnight Harper."

"G'night dad...be careful."

"Always am."

Flicking his phone closed Tony slid it into the inside pocket of his jacket before looking at the others in the vehicle with him, they had been silent from the moment he got in. The kid next to him was looking at him nervously before quickly glancing back out of the window. The silence was killing him. "I feel like you're driving me to a court-martial." He stated...silence.

"This is crazy, what'd I do?" He popped off again but still didn't get a single sound from the others. "I feel like you're gonna pull over and snuff me. What, you're not allowed to talk?" Now he was getting a little agitated. "Hey Forrest!" He turned his gaze to the kid next to him.

"We can talk, sir." The young solider answered softly still avoiding eye contact with Tony.

"Oh I see, so it's personal?" Tony asked.

"No," Came a famine voice from the driver's seat. "You intimidate them." She answered as Tony turned his gaze to her.

"Good god you're a woman? I honestly...I couldn't have called that." He blurted without thinking, He quickly jumped into charm mode. "I mean, I apologize but isn't that what we're going for? I thought of you as a solider first."

"I'm an airman." She corrected him trying to hide her grin.

"You have excellent bone structure there. I'm kinda having a hard time not looking at you now." Tony kept his eyes on the woman. "Is that weird?"

The ice was now officially broken and it didn't feel as tense. "Come one, it's okay laugh!" Even Tony felt a little more at ease.

"Sir I have a question, the other man in the front seat asked turning in his seat to face Tony. Is it true you went twelve for twelve with last year's Maxim cover models?"

Pulling off his sunglasses Tony lowered both hands, taking extra care not to spill his drink along the bumpy road. "That's an excellent question, yes and no. March and I had a scheduling conflict, but fortunately the Christmas cover was twins." He answered coolly. "Anything else?"

The younger man next to him shyly raised his hand. "You're kidding me with the hand up, right?" Tony asked as the guy blushed and lowered his hand. "If it's about my daughter you're too old for her." Tony answered just enjoying picking on this young-in. He was overly shy for a soldier. He smirked as the man's face went beat red and the other two began laughing.

"N-no, I wasn't... I mean wondering if it'd cool if I took a picture with you?" The young man asked.

"Yes, it's very cool." Tony nodded holding in his chuckle.

The solider smiled nervously handing his camera to the guy in the front seat. "I don't want to see this on your myspace.." Tony leaned over as the kid held up a peace sign for the picture. "Please, no gang signs."

He lowered his hand, slowly not knowing if Tony was joking or not. "No I'm just kidding, throw it up." The younger man raised up his hand again, smiling and making a peace sign once again with his fingers. "Yeah, peace. I love peace. I'd be out of a job with peace." Tony shrugged as the two soldiers began bickering about how to work the camera.

What happened next was something that Tony wouldn't have dreamed of in even his worst nightmares. The Humvee in front of his suddenly exploded as if they hit a landmine or were shot by a rocket. Tony felt his heart stop and his blood run cold, he couldn't even make out what everyone else was screaming at him and to each other. It seemed as if time suddenly began to slow down. He watched as one by one the soldiers in the Humvee began falling.

He glanced to the younger man beside him as he began to get out of the Humvee. "Wait, give me a gun!" Tony screamed at the kid.

"Stay here!" He yelled back before turning around, immediately getting shot and falling to the ground out of Tony's sight.

"Shit.." Tony cursed panic running through his veins. "Rhodey.." he muttered slipping quickly out of the Humvee looking to the one behind his. His head began swimming as the sound of bullets and explosions filled his ears. Looking around for somewhere to hide. Spotting a large rock, Tony threw himself behind it and took a shaky breath. Reaching into his pocket he pulled out his phone, no sooner as he began trying to make a call did something slam into the ground beside him. Glancing over his blood ran cold as he read the name on the side of the small missile. ~Stark Industries~. Before he could react or even run it exploded, his chest began to burn in excruciating pain as he found himself laying on his back. Pulling his shirt open he looked down at his Kevlar vest and the blood the was pouring through the holes in it. Resting his head back on the ground he let out a shaky breath staring up at the sun before everything went black.

Later that day, Rhodey sat in the medical tent getting a large cut above his eyebrow was getting cleaned out. He hadn't been severely injured when they were ambushed, he was one the of the ones who got away alive. A huge tug a guilt pulled at his heart as he sat there, so many of his soldiers died today, and Tony...they couldn't find Tony's body. All Rhodey could find were pieces of a cell phone and blood stains on the ground.

"Colonel Rhodes?" Rhodey was thrown from his thoughts as he was joined by two other officers, Rhodey quickly moved to stand but was stilled by the officer that spoke. "Sit.." He ordered patting Rhodey on the shoulder. "How are you feeling Colonel?"

Rhodey couldn't keep his eyes up, he turned his gaze down to the ground. "Not so good sir.." He answered rolling his hands together. "We lost a lot of good men...and ..." He paused taking a deep breath. "-and Stark." His voice cracked a bit thinking of his good friend and not knowing where he was, or if he was even still alive.

"We've sent out scouts to search nearby to find who ambushed y'all and to find Stark's body." The officer stated crossing his arms, the thought of Tony being dead caused Rhodey to feel even worse. He should've been in that Humvee with Tony, but he wasn't. He let Tony out of his sight for one minute and now his friend could just as well been dead, or is being tortured. "The odds we'll find them are slim."

"What do we tell the press?" The other officer asked looking down at Rhodey.

"We tell him nothing." Rhodey said slowly getting to his feet. He knew he couldn't let himself wallow in this right now. Rhodey knew Tony wouldn't want Rhodey to get all emotional over him, and neither would his men. "We keep this as tight lipped as possible until we have more answers, we are also gonna keep looking for Stark." He stated with a nod.

"I don't know how long the press is going to wait before fabricating stories of their own."

"Did anyone contact Stark's next up kin yet?"

Rhodey's eyes went wide, Harper...she didn't know. "He has a daughter. She's still in school." Rhodey's heart broke for Harper, Tony had told him how she begged him not to leave a few days ago now some one had to tell her that her father, her only family member was possibly dead. "She needs to be told before anyone tells the press anything."

The officers both nodded. "Agreed. We can send someone to-"

"No," Rhodey interrupted with a shake of his head. "I'll go. I'll take her father's jet back tonight and tell her in person."

"Do you think that's a good idea?" The officer asked concerned for Rhodey's own well being.

"I've known her since she was a baby. It should come from me rather than from someone she doesn't know." He nodded sadly his heart breaking for the young girl. She was so close to her father that this would destroy her. "After that, I'm coming back to help with the search." Rhodey stated walking towards the flap of the tent.