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He couldn’t believe – he had always been careful, he understood what the consequences could mean especially this one. He keeps looking at the little photo on his hand and then looks back at the woman he had only spent maybe three weeks, he doesn’t know anything about her and she only knows that he is a Stark – and probably that’s all that had mattered.
“I’m not lying to you Tony” she says to him but he doesn’t speak, for the first time in his life he doesn’t know how to answer, he can only keep looking at the little photo – at the ultrasound form eight months ago.
He shakes his head trying to clear his thoughts it is a first for him to have a completely blank mind, when he does look up his eyes can only go to her stomach, to the very big belly, there’s no hiding she’s carrying a kid, the only problem he is having a hard time believing it’s his.
“W-why tell me now?” he chokes at her, finding frustrating the way his voice comes out of his mouth, she sighs and crosses her arms in front of her chest, she looks down at her feet after a few minutes, seemingly spent.
“I thought I had it under control, I really thought I could do it on my own – no Tony that’s not I’m saying,” she says exasperated when she sees the look on his face as if she is going to ask him to co-parent with her “but the truth is, I don’t have what it takes to have a kid – I can’t be a mother, not now at least.”
She fishes some papers from her bag and puts on his coffee table with an open pen over it “I want to put her for adoption, but they wanted to know if the father was okay with it – they don’t want any problems with anything later on”
Tony keeps looking at her stomach, there is a little Stark in there. That was what kept running around in his mind, someone that has his genes, someone that may be just as brilliant as his father was and as he is, gorgeous as his mother was, have his dark hair and smirk and of course the deadly tongue, which he still doesn’t know what happened to it.
“So… will you sign it?” She asks a little worried by the way he keeps looking at her stomach.
‘You’ll lose your rights over her if you sign it’ And then he sees a small kid running around over his house, he sees himself teaching her how to fix a car, to build things – he sees someone who will be a lifeline for him, something he knows he needs.
“No” he hadn’t expect to sound so resolute, so certain about his choice, but he knows he can’t give away his rights, yes he is completely scared, but the little girl growing in the woman he barely knows is his.
“No?” The woman asks back at him, her blue eyes narrowing.
“No, she’s mine right? I don’t want to sign any papers”
“Tony! I am not leaving her with you!” The woman says as she gets up, though with some difficulty due to her stomach.
“Why not?” he asks with blazing eyes “You are ready to leave her with unknown people and who’s best to have her than her own father?” he crosses his arms in front of his chest, his brown eyes narrowing on her figure, defying her to not agree with him.
“Because you are you” she gesturing at him in a manner of explanation, he frowns at her and roll his eyes at her.
“Well after that very well thought answer I’ll have to reconsider, oh, yes such a tough spot” he says dripping with sarcasm but his eyes don’t leave hers, he wants to make his point clear to her “I. Will. Not. Sign”
“Tony, think about it – do you really want to be a dad?” she asks gently to him as though he hadn’t really thought about it, which to her he hadn’t.
“I already am, aren’t I? You sign the papers handing her over to me, and then you’ll never have to see us again, how’s that?”
“What makes you so certain I won’t come back to bother you?”
He sighs and turns intimidating, almost feral “You wouldn’t dare and besides my butler has recorded this meeting – your little admission is all a court and I need”
The woman sits back at the couch, picks the pen and signs it “After she’s born, she’s all yours Tony”
“I know,” he says somewhat in awe and scared, but the little baby that still has to be born is his, she is someone for him to love unconditionally and possibly love him unconditionally as well (that’s what he is hoping for anyways). I’ll not screw this up, I’ll be the best I can be. Hear me kid?
“I always liked the name Darcy, if you had a sister I think I’d have called her Darcy” he remembers his mother telling him and then he looks at his kid still in the woman’s stomach – Darcy, that’s your name kid.
Tony Stark tells Pepper Potts the next morning what he has discovered, when she asks how are they going to deal with it, he explains that he’s going to keep his daughter.
“I already knew that Mr. Stark” she answers whilst rolling her eyes.
“H-how did you know?”
“A hunch” she says vaguely and it’s clear she won’t go on any further. “And the child’s mother?”
“She doesn’t want any participation on it, and I am fine with it” Tony answers quickly, Pepper nods.
“How are we going to release it to the press, Mr. Stark?”
He stops for a second finally realizing the full intent on his daughter having the father and name that she has, she’s the daughter of one the most famous and important men on the world – everyone will want to know about her, about their life, of how he is at parenting, if it will be one of the very few things he isn’t good at.
He starts to panic.
He stares at his coffee table.
Am I doing the right thing? Am I going to give my kid the best life she can possibly have? He wonders.
“Mr. Stark?” Peppers asks in alarm seeing how white his face was becoming – she usually saw his face pale when a wave of nausea hits him and that is after a long night of drinking and being stupid, it is the first time she saw him – panicking.
“We don’t have to anything, now Mr. Stark it is a privet matter which mean it is no one’s business”
“Pepper, tell me the truth, how is her life going to be if it is made public?” Tony Stark looks at her as if she has all the answers on the world and she doesn’t have in her heart to break his trust on her, so she tells him the truth.
“The press will be all over her and you for the first years of her life and much like your life was it will be picked apart like an experiment and the public will always have an opinion on how you are parenting” he puts his head on his hands and groans “But if she is anything like her father she will just throw everything back at their faces and your are going to be the best father there is, I’ll be here to hit your head if you do anything stupid” he laughs at that but still doesn’t take his face from his hands.
“You are doing the right thing, Tony. No one can be better for her than her real father, of that I am sure and when have I been wrong?”
Tony looks at her with gratitude on his eyes and smirks, and she knows that something must have clicked on his head, that he made his decision.
“Careful there Pep, it almost sounded as if you like me and enjoy working for me”
She huffs but doesn’t answer him, they are in a comfortable silence but still the air around them is serious.
Tony decides to share his thoughts with Pepper “I think I want to keep my kid away from the public”
Pepper puts her poker face on, she doesn’t know how they are going to accomplish that but somehow she knew that dodging paparazzi and put on a show for the entire world to see and keep his secrets to himself, Tony Stark was the man for the job.
Two weeks later…
Tony was working on one of his cars, the loud music banging trough the stereo, being on his shop was what made him calm these days, he was edgy – he hated waiting. After he had talked to Pepper and was reassured he was doing the right thing after all he wished to have his kid on his arms already, and he was getting annoyed that she wasn’t there already with him.
He felt as if she didn’t want to abandon her mother, like she knew her mother would leave her after she was born and she would have to stay with her father, but he kept reminding himself that a baby couldn’t possibly plan or think that at all, it was only his mind playing tricks on him because he was damn nervous.
Tony Stark more than once over the days kept thinking what would his life be without Pepper Potts, the day after he had told her about him having a kid and keeping her, Pepper had started to do everything on the house that would accommodate a child, she picked one of the guest bedroom – that was at the back of the house with much privacy – and decorated for a baby, everything that little Darcy would need was there, and Tony knew that should anything be missing Pepper would rectify that.
For all that the ginger woman was showing him these days he had decided to make her a legal guarding as well, but without her knowledge about it, he just needed to see her looking at his kid to know for sure, but he almost never got anything wrong and he was positive he was not wrong about that.
But even the supportive Pepper couldn’t make his anxiety and giddy excitement wash away, Darcy would be the only one to accomplish that, he had been less than an hour on her presence but he still felt a connection with the little – still – unborn baby.
So much for not thinking about it. Tony sighs, shakes his head and tries to continue working.
“Tony!” he hears Pepper scream. What a set of lungs, he thinks but goes to the stereo and turn down the music.
“What?” he yells back at her.
“Get your ass here, we are leaving this instant!” he hears the shuffling on the first floor, he throws the handle bar he had on his hand on the table, leaves his shop and taking two steps at time on the stairs reaches the top floor, Pepper already has her enormous phone on her hand and her briefcase on the other.
“What?” he asks when he sees she’s rolling her eyes at him.
“Your daughter is coming, her mother is already in labor”
That seems to wake him up, he doesn’t care for the grease on his shirt or some that’s on his face – he just wants his kid on his arms - the sooner the better.
Stark is at the door in an instant, the car already on the driveway waiting for them, Happy opens the door for his boss and doesn’t ask about the dirty clothes, he had long ago learned that sometimes Tony Stark liked being different and doing weird things, oh yes, he had learned.
Happy continues to keep the door open so that Pepper can go in as well she passes him with a smile and a thank you.
“Where to Mrs. Potts and Mr. Stark?” Happy asks when inside the car.
“Sundance Hospital, Happy” Pepper replies, keeping her cool for Tony, but if her poker face wasn’t as good as it is, her nervousness would be appearing and it wouldn’t do any good for Tony.
Happy doesn’t say anything, he also has learned to go with their flow, he supposed he shouldn’t be alarmed to take them to the Hospital, he hadn’t seen blood or anything like that on them so for now he was alright, but he could see the way Tony was fidgeting on the back sit and drumming his fingers on his leg.
“How much time will it take for us to get there?” Tony asks Happy as they stop in another red light.
“Fifteen minutes” Happy answers and hears the annoyed noise Tony does and he can’t help but smile, sometimes his boss could be such a child.
“We’ll get there” Pepper tried to sooth her boss, but he couldn’t soothe, silence fell and it was followed by the drum of Tony’s finger. When they were close to the Hospital, Pepper tells Happy to park on the side of the building, she hands a set of sunglasses to her boss and a cap. He takes those and puts it on; when the car stops he flies out of the car and goes to the door, asking quickly where Rebecca Johnson was, they answer telling him the floor and he goes to the elevator.
“Calm down, Tony” Peppers hisses at him when she reaches the nervous man, he rolls his eyes and doesn’t answer her, he counts the floors and thanks for whatever that no one called the elevator, having to make them stop.
When the doors open, he gets out first than Pepper and tries not to run while looking for the number of the room, finally, he thinks to himself when he finds the room, a nurse is outside writing something on the clipboard, she looks at him from the corner of her eyes.
“You are the father of the little girl I take it?” she asks without looking at him.
“Yes, where is she?”
The nurse smiles at him and starts to move “I’ll take you to her” she looks to Tony and then to Pepper, giving them a gentle smile “The birth went without complication and it was one of the quickest I have ever seen, the little girl wanted to get out” she says laughing so she doesn’t notice the falter of Tony’s feet. She wants to be with me. He knew what he was thinking was ludicrous, but he couldn’t help it.
“The mother doesn’t want to see her,” the nurse says quietly “some moms think it’ll make the separation easier.” Tony winces and he feels Pepper hand on his arm, tranquilizing him.
“Is she really ok with that decision?” Peppers asks and the nurse nods her head, they finally reach the room where all the babies are, there was only a door to the left and the big window showing the inside, Tony stops and stares at the babies, but before the nurse can even point his daughter his eyes are glued on a baby on the far corner two rows to the back.
“There she is, on the corner two rows to the back” the nurse announces and Pepper gushes, Tony is looking to his daughter, lightly pink – wearing pink -, her perfect little hands reaching for something on the air, dark tuffs of hair. “I’ll bring her to you” he can only faintly nod to the nurse, when the nurse picks her up, Darcy looks at him and he sees blue eyes, it wasn’t his eye color but the shape is like his.
“She’s perfect, Tony” Pepper whispers to him and then the nurse walks back to them holding the little girl. Before he even knows what he is doing he reaches his arms to take Darcy.
She fits on his arms perfectly, she reaches up and he gives her one of his fingers, which she takes and holds, looks at him with wonder and amazement, the same expression that’s on her father’s face.
He faintly notices that Pepper has gone to take care of the paper work and he is alone with Darcy and he isn’t scared, he is just utterly and unbelievably happy.
“Hey, kiddo, you and I are in for a rollercoaster ride” he feels her little hands tightening their grip on his finger as if answering him, saying she’s in.
“Tony?” he hears Pepper speaking he gives her a nod but doesn’t take his eyes from his little girl “What’s her name?”
“Darcy Stark. Alias Darcy Lewis”
“She really is perfect and looks like you” he can hear the way her voice shakes. Yup, she’s definitely Darcy’s guardian.
“Yup, kiddo, you’re perfect”
“We can take her home, they wanted to keep her in observation for a few more days but I explained that we have anything that she’ll possibly need” She means we have Jarvis to keep an eye on you, kiddo. He remembers when Pepper asked if it was possible for the AI to scan people and see if they are sick or not, that was his project for almost three days.
“C’mon, let’s go Tony.” They go to another elevator one that is closer to them, Pepper keeps telling him what the nurse had said to her, what type of milk it was better for a new born to drink and many other tricks, but to tell the truth Tony was only paying half of his attention on what she was saying, he still couldn’t stop looking at his little girl.
He heard her calling Happy and telling him to put the baby car seat, she didn’t explain but he could hear Happy asking what was happening, when they got to the front of the Hospital his ever faithful driver was waiting for them, baby car seat installed and all.
They all got in the car and Pepper told him to drive back to the house, the driver held his tongue for about fifteen minutes until he couldn’t anymore “You do know is illegal to steal a baby, right Tony?”
He chuckles at Happy “Not stealing her, Happy. She’s my kid” The driver faintly nods, but Tony doesn’t see it as he is impressed with the sleeping baby by his side, he wanted to reach out for her and trace her face structure, but feels a restraining hand on his forearm.
“I’ve read that is better to not wake a baby up.” The rest of the journey is spent in silence. When they reach the house, Pepper helps him take the baby car sit from the car and he carries his kid to her room and when they reach it, he can see that she woke up, eyes taking her room, taking the golden white of the walls, the arm chair with intricate designs, the crib and even the wardrobe being in gold and white, he smirks knowing it is the perfect colors for his kid’s room.
He takes her from the baby car sit and sits with her on the arm chair, smiling softly at how comfortable it is, the little girl raises her hand again and touches his cheek then goes to his nose and he can swear he can see her smiling, then puts her little hand on the finger he gives her to hold.
“Hi, Darcy, welcome home” He can only look at her beautiful blue eyes “I was really anxious waiting for you, Pepper will say to you that I was impossible this past two weeks but don’t believe her, I am always impossible” she tightens her little hand on his fingers and he can see how she listens intently to his voice “so just let me put this out there, okay kiddo? I’ll be sometimes impossible and you won’t be able to tolerate me, but I promise you I’ll try my best to always be by your side, helping you accomplish… stuff, I’ll try to be the best dad ever without spoiling you rotten, because let’s face it, Pepper will never let me do that and we are the luckiest to have her on our crazy rollercoaster ride.” She lets go of his hand and he can see how tired she is, her eyes slowly dropping but she tries to be awake.
He begins to sing “If You Want Me to Stay” performed by Red Hot Chili Peppers to help her sleep, he knows is probably not the best song to sing to her, but it seemed to work as her eyes dropped heavier and heavier.
Two hours later
Pepper finds them on the arm chair, Darcy on Tony’s chest and his hand on her back, his head slightly falling closer to Darcy’s head, both eyes closed, father and daughter sleeping contently together.