Chapter Text
He remembers when Darcy took her very first steps, they were on his shop; he was once again working on one of his cars and his kid was laying on a blanket playing with a rubber screwdriver, he was talking to her telling her everything she needed to know about fixing a car, when he hears JARVIS’ British-metallic voice calling him, telling him there was something he should see, and so Tony does, he gets out of the bottom of the car and sees his daughter trying to get up.
“Tell Pepper to get down here!” he says with urgency to JARVIS who transmits the message to Pepper. He keeps watching Darcy trying to get up, her little brows furrowed in concentration, the little screwdriver tight in her little hand, he hears the soft sound of Pepper’s shoes, but he doesn’t look away, he is afraid of taking his eyes of her and she suddenly take her first step without him seeing it – even if JARVIS is probably already recording it he wants to see it live.
“Oh my!” Pepper gushes when she sees Darcy on her feet, she closes the door behind her and walks quietly over to where Tony is “She’s going to do it, Tony!” Pepper says putting her hand on his arm, trying to control her excitement. Darcy noticing her parents looks at them and gives them a toothless smile, making their hearts melt.
“C’mon kid, you can do it!” Tony says in encouragement, Darcy seems to understand when she puts her little right foot in front of her and then her left foot, she wobbles a bit but does it again, until she is close to her father, she tries to go a bit further but she falls and her dad is right there to catch her “Amazing, Darce!” he says and kisses the top of her head making her giggle.
Pepper comes and takes Darcy from Tony’s arm, ignoring his pout “In no time you’ll be running, hm? Darcy, you’re growing up too fast!”
“Pep, it seems like we are sending her to college already,” he makes a sour face “I don’t like the sound of that” he looks to his daughter’s blue eyes “You are sentenced to live forever under my roof, never going to school or college or anything, got it kid?” she reaches her small hand to him giggling.
“Your dad is crazy, Darcy, tell him ‘Dad you’re crazy’” Pep says kissing her cheek, Tony holds the hand Darcy outstretched to him.
“It is done, she shook my hand, and there is no getting out of it. JARVIS has it all on tape and a gentleman handshake cannot be broken!” Tony says dramatically getting Darcy to giggle again.
“Oh, Tony, stop it” Pepper says whilst rolling her eyes.
7 years old
Darcy Stark inherited her brains from her grandfather and father after all, Tony was already teaching her advanced math behind Pepper’s back, it was not his fault his daughter had hunger for knowledge, he only wanted to help her satisfy herself, other than math he teaches her robotic engineering, mechanics, physics and chemistry letting JARVIS teach Darcy, english, literature, history and geography.
Pepper and Tony had decided to have Darcy homeschooled, after all, which school was prepared to give Darcy Stark all the knowledge she needed it if not for the AI and Tony? To satisfy Darcy’s social side – not that she showed that she wanted contact with kids her own age, but Pepper thought it was important – Happy and sometimes Rhodey would take her to places with lots of kids for her to interact.
The day he told Rhodey that he has a kid, was one of Tony’s favorite moments of Rhodey, his friend was drinking beer when he came out and said that he had a little girl of about three months, Rhodey sputters the drink all over and coughs afterwards loosing for those precious seconds all the cool poise the military had put on him, Tony couldn’t stop laughing.
“I mean, you should see your face! Well, actually you can see your face, JARVIS show us -” But before Tony can continue Rhodey interrupts him.
“Hold on, Tony” he says raising a hand to stop the other man from continuing talking “you have a daughter?”
“I don’t appreciate the emphasis on the ‘you’, Rhodey” Tony says rolling his eyes, would everyone always put emphasis on him having a child? Just because he didn’t take care much after himself didn’t mean that he couldn’t look after and be there for someone else, especially when that person is Darcy. In his defense the company after his father’s death didn’t explode or went bankrupt when he took control, it was making even more profit than it previously was, if it had Pepper’s hand on it or not, well, it was he who had hired her in the first place.
“You have to understand Tony, you just took control of the company and that is a lot of responsibility and you weren’t always, uhm, a prime example. To add to that you have a kid, that’s a lot, man” Rhodey says, wincing when he knows he wasn’t very clear but hoping that his friend understands, he was never very good at telling other what he thought – if it was military issues, he excels at that.
Tony sighs “I know,” he wants to tell his friend how Darcy is not another responsibility to him, she comes first in everything. But he is Tony Stark and he doesn’t talk about his feelings with anyone, the emotional wall he built is there for something. “but then it’s not” he says quietly to himself and Rhodey pretends not to hear, he knows Tony and talking about sentimental stuff is never something the Stark would do, but he understands, he could see the moment Tony said he has a kid the way his eyes took that glint that he normally only had when he finished something amazing, like the AI.
“What’s the kid’s name?” Rhodey asks hoping it would brighten up the mood again.
“Darcy” Tony says in a breath, in a few minutes Pepper and Darcy will be back from walking on the beach, the very private one he bought so his daughter could have somewhere safe from the public eye to enjoy it with him and Pepper.
“Darcy Stark, I like the tone of that” Rhodey says gulping a bit of his beer.
“She has an alias, though,” when his friends brows shots up he continues to explain “I want her to have a quiet life, away from the public eye, so she can make her mistakes without everyone breathing down her neck” Or if I mess up I can do it without anyone breathing down my neck.
Rhodey nods, understanding where Tony was coming from, he knows what he had been through when he was growing up, it was hard. Even though he had everything any other boy could hope for, it never matter to him all he wanted was the attention of Howard Stark, so he drank and made a fool of himself to try and gain the attention, but it was all done on the public eye and he was marked like cattle for it, always the playboy genius, nothing he did changed his image. One day, Tony had said he had thrown the towel if people wanted to see him like that, then he’d make the best of it.
The young military sighs and then smiles “I want to meet her. God knows she’ll be a firecracker when she grows up”
Tony smiles crookedly “Well, I don’t know about that, I’ll make her promise me not to grow up” Rhodey laughs at the ridiculousness of Tony.
“Dad, I don’t think it’ll work” Darcy whines while looking at motherboard of her-soon-to-be-robot, Tony leaves the blue prints he is working on and walks over to her, sees the blue prints that he had helped her draw - knowing that all the math was correct as well as the design - he looks at the motherboard and doesn’t see anything wrong with it.
“Why’d you say that? Everything looks perfect to me” Darcy frowns and looks at a patch on it pointing to her father.
“That, isn’t right” Darcy points to a certain part of her robot.
He chuckles “It’ll run a little bit slower than what you were hoping for, but it’ll work.” he looks at her again and see that she’s still frowning he puts his finger on her forehead and then down to her nose, leaving a grease mark over her face.
“Dad!” she screeches trying to slap his hand away and he starts to tickle her, making her giggle “Da-addy, s-s-stop it!”
“Oh the mighty Darcy has forfeit, oh my, what has the world come to!” he says loudly throwing his arms to the sky, being overly dramatic for the laugh that follows. Tony picks her up on his arms and when she has calmed down from laughing he looks seriously to her “Don’t doubt yourself when you know you have done everything right,” she looks down and speaks softly and he only catches the words disappoint and you coming from her young mouth, he puts his finger lightly on her chin making her look at him, her big blue soulful eyes lock on his brown ones “nothing that you do will ever disappoint me, Darce,” she nods and he grins at her, making her smile at him “Now, bring life to your robot,” he says with a maniacal laugh afterwards making the little girl giggle at her dad’s foolishness.
“I’m not Dr. Frankenstein, daddy!” he kisses her cheek and puts her on the floor so she can connect the last wires to turn the robot on, he looks at her little creation, it wasn’t little it was taller than her and almost his height, it had a big claw at the end of it, the arm and the rest of it was still wires and metal, the only part that was covered was the wheels Darcy had insisted that it had. He thinks about how she mentioned Frankenstein and rolls his eyes. I can’t teach her advanced math but Pepper can let her read Frankenstein.
Tony hears the little take in of breath the little girl takes and with a flick of her finger she turns her robot on, the claws start to open and close, she picks the control they had done and puts it to walk, or better yet, to slide on the floor.
“It works, pa!” she says excited he ruffles her hair, something which would make her huff at him but she just blinds him with her smile – completely forgetting about the grease on her face.
“Of course it does, Darce” he says and watches as she makes it pick stuff up and then put it back down, it was a little slower than he knows Darcy would have like it, sometimes it responded too slow to her command on the control and it would go straight to a wall, but his daughter didn’t seem to mind, she’d just shake her head and put it to try again “What’s its name?”
She tilts her head to the side and then smirks, a very reminiscent smirk of a Tony Stark “It’s Dummy”
12 years old
It took him almost a year to convince Pepper to let Darcy skip grades, he knew he could have done without her consent, but it matter to him and to Darcy – after all his daughter considered Pepper her mother and it made sense to him to have her think that, the redhead had taken care of Darcy, had been there every time the little girl needed, and it was Pepper Darcy had first called after him, she had called her ‘ma’ when Pepper had been holding her and ever since Darcy had never stopped calling Pepper that – so, yes, Pepper’s approval on Darcy skipping grades mattered.
He had agreed that Darcy should go to school, he had wanted her on a private school, but Darcy had liked the idea of going to a public one and meeting ‘normal’ kids, saying they’d be best suited for her than trust fund kids.
“You do realize you are a trust fund kid, right?” he asks rolling his eyes.
Darcy shrugs while shoving her food to a corner of the plate then to the other “I know, but I’m not like them, am I?” he frowns and locks his eyes on her, she keeps her eyes downcast and he can’t immediately tell what is going on her head – she’s doing it on purpose – but he can see the slight hunched shoulders and the down tilt of her lips.
“Share, Darce” he says in his most parental tone and he can see the immediate effect, she crosses her arms in her front and looks the other way.
“You don’t share, so why should I?”
“Because I’m the grownup” he says and she huffs “Darcy…”
She looks at him and he sees something in her eyes that he had never wanted to see, a sad glint and Tony Stark wants that out of her eyes, he wants to fix whatever needs fixing so that she isn’t sad anymore “If I went to one of those private schools they’d all want to know who’s my father and mother and I can’t tell them. We’ll probably come up with a back story, but even so, I wouldn’t be able to tell that you are my father”
He can feel his eyes softening when she finishes speaking, he feels his heart warm at her words and knowing that she wanted everyone to know that he’s her father, even through all his mistakes and not exactly role model actions. His arms opens and he doesn’t have to say anything for his little girl to go sit on his lap and he buries her in his chest “I’m sorry for that Darce” he feels her nodding on his chest “I know that you understand our reasons for it, Pepper and I just want you to be able to do your stuff and live for now without the weight of my name on you”
“I like the weight of our name, Dad” she says quietly and he holds her tightly, he knows she doesn’t mean that she likes the power that comes with it, but the story of all Starks, his story, his father, his grandfather and so on.
“Then the truth is, I’m a selfish person”
“I know,” she says before he can finish.
“Hey – continuing I’m a selfish person and I wanted to keep you to myself,” she laughs and he smiles knowing that for now he made the sadness leave her.
“Thank you” she says
“Any time, kiddo”
Just because Darcy had wanted her mother’s approval on skipping grades, didn’t mean she wasn’t annoyed that she wouldn’t graduate from university at the same age her father had done, she was a year behind him.
“Are you still annoyed?” Tony asks his daughter while looking at the engine of his car, he – like always – was going to make it run faster.
“Yes! I wanted to graduate from college at the same time you did!” she says and Tony smirks, happy that his daughter can’t see the smirk, or else all hell would break loose.
“You can skip another grade,” he offers and it’s true she can, but she wouldn’t.
“Ma, doesn’t want me to, even though I don’t particularly like my class it would be nice to graduate with them”
“Pass me the screwdriver” he asks for it and a few moments after he feels a tap on his arm he grabs the tool and continues to change the engine “Darce, just amuse me here, so you decided on what you are going to do on college?”
She shrugs, but he doesn’t see “What do you think?”
“I don’t want to guess,” he says with an exasperated tone while rolling his eyes.
“Electrical Engineering, Dad, relax” she says with a laugh doing the same as her father and rolling her eyes at his question.
He releases a breath and smirks “Well, you can break my records” he says and looks over his shoulder and she smiles at him.
“I’ll do my best with that” Darcy says then gets up and goes to the door which JARVIS opens for her before she even asks “Dad, you do know the amount of power you are putting on the engine is going to be way above limit right?”
“Of course I know” he answers with a mild shrug.
“Just wanted to check, I just hope the money going to pay the tickets don’t leave from my trust”
“Like a few tickets would put a dent on the trust, kid” he throws back at her and Darcy laughs, but they understand each other like this, she doesn’t need to say she worries about the amount of speed he’ll be going, that he could injury himself and like always he tries to comfort her the best way he knows, making dry remarks, being sarcastic, making jokes and so on and the weirdest part is that it comforts her more than if he told her not to worry about it, nothing was going to happen, because both geniuses know that something can always happen.
19 years old
Darcy Stark had gone to MIT much like her father, she did break a few records, but most of the still belonged to the genius Tony Stark and that was fine with her, because her father never asked more than what she gave him, he was ecstatic when he got the news that his record was broken a few times by his one and only daughter – not that anyone knew, he did went to give her an award, but no one noticed.
Pepper was always amazed when Darcy would hack on some of the most guarded files of Stark Industries, sometimes the redhead suspected that Tony was the one to tell Darcy to hack it, make her train her skills. Pepper can see Tony every time she looks at Darcy, the trademark smirk, the witty eyes, the color of her hair, the sarcastic and cunning mouth as well as the love for machines and knowledge.
The redhead could never imagine how no one knew that Darcy Lewis, actually was Tony Stark’s daughter, she was a copy of her own father. Pepper was extremely worried when Tony had decided to go and give the award for his own daughter, she thought that the time he stepped on the stage with his daughter their secret would be blown, but when no one came to her to ask if the Lewis genius was Tony’s daughter she was baffled, which made both Darcy and Tony to mock her.
The father and daughter knew that some people just couldn’t see how much alike they were, be in personality or physical appearance, Pepper could see because she knew, if someone was to really look at them with that little thought in mind they would see it and no amount of denying would help.
There was only one thing that they both could never find middle ground, it was the fact that Tony trusted in Obadiah Stane too much. Darcy had met the man on one of the awards her father had gone give her, he said that Obadiah wanted to meet this student that Tony was willing to use his precious time on, Darcy knew what the bald man was thinking that she was one more conquest of her father, which in her opinion was disgusting.
When Tony brought him to meet her, interrupting her conversation with the dean, she knew immediately not to trust him, he shook her hand and she tried her hardest to be polite and cordial with the man she knew her father liked so much, she could see in the way Tony kept stealing glances at her and smiling. Darcy noticed that he shook his head slightly knowing his mind was finally out of the gutter, everyone knew that Tony only went for completely legal girls not only would be awful and repulsive for her father to have a girlfriend of her age, something which he seemed to share with her.
Darcy knows how much her father is a womanizer, she would have to be blind and deaf to not know about it, even though Pepper had tried her hardest to retard Darcy’s knowledge over that little fact and the red headed woman did an amazing job at it, it was only on junior high that Darcy found out about it, she couldn’t look at her father for a month, in Darcy’s mind her father didn’t have those needs and when Pepper had the talk with her (not that she didn’t already knew about it) it was another month until she could really look her father in the eye.
That was why she was relieved when she had seen time and again her father dismissing girls that were too close to her age, she had even commented to Pepper one time.
“Of course he does, sweetie. It’s too close for comfort” Pepper had said with a small knowing smile.
“What do you mean?” Darcy asks with a small frown, while handing to her mother a black dress and then red pumps.
“Red shoes, really Darce?” Pepper asks and receives a smile and a nod, she puts the items her daughter gave her “I think a very clear image of a man of his age dating you, is very appealing to him” Pepper laughs lightly when understanding crosses Darcy’s features, she gives a small twirl “How do I look?”
“Beautiful, mom” Darcy says with a smile, Pepper could wear anything that it would turn beautiful and would make any woman near the proximities to be jealous of the red head beauty “Have a nice date” Darcy says giving Pepper a kiss on the cheek, not that she liked the fact that her mother was going to a date and the person she would be dining with wasn’t going to be Tony, the younger woman knows that sometime her parents will see how much they actually love each other, she just had to wait and see.
Darcy just hoped that it didn’t take all her college life for her parents to see each other in the right light.
It did.
Darcy Stark couldn’t believe in what her mother was telling her, she just couldn’t. She stops in mid motion on the grocery store, keeping the milk in her hand neither giving it to lady to pass it through the machine or lifting from the kart.
“Darcy, sweetie, are you there?” Pepper’s voice comes and Darcy can hear the sadness on her mother’s tone, even though the other woman was trying to hide it from her, trying to be the strong and composed one.
“Dear?” the lady cashier says and Darcy drops out of her shock, she shakes her head gives the woman a random note, knowing that it would be much more than she had actually spent and leaves the grocery store without anything in her hands.
“I’ll be home in twenty minutes tops, mom”
“Please, drive safe, sweetie” Peppers whispers in the telephone, knowing that when it came to Tony the young woman would do anything, much like her father would do the same for her. Right now that bothered Pepper, her daughter was getting in one of her father’s car which its engine had been fully converted by the male Stark, so it was extremely fast and Pepper Potts hates when the two Starks are driving one of those cars, nothing and yet everything could happen on the road.
“I’ll, Ma,” she says putting the key on the engine and leaving the parking lot with a squeak on the tires, she only stops in the red signs and doesn’t take her foot off the gas pedal.
“JARVIS, I want you to pinpoint my father’s last location, where he was before he was kidnapped, the moment of it and the exact moment when you lost track of him”
“Miss I’ll have to hack on military satellites for the exact location of Mr. Stark”
“I don’t care; I know you won’t leave any trails, just do it”
“Right away, Miss” he is quiet for awhile and Darcy concentrates of the road, she’s glad she’s used to JARVIS voice coming and going at any given time, or he would have made her crash the car “It’ll take ten hours to complete the task given”
“Thank you” even though she would prefer for it be faster, she knows JARVIS is doing what he can without getting caught, she knows it must probably mean federal prison if anyone finds out what she made the AI do.
Darcy saw the moment her father was taken, but after that he and the others had disappeared, there was nothing she and JARVIS could do and that was what made her even more annoyed, she needs to find her father. Darcy however is making the AI keep an eye on that area; something is bound to happen to give them a clue about where Tony is.
Uncle Rhodey tells her that they are doing everything they can into finding her father, she can see it in his eyes every time he has a videoconference with her and Pepper that he is feeling as bad as they are, her mom can’t stop crying, even if she tries to hide it from Darcy.
Darcy – she can’t cry anymore, after the first day every tear that she could probably produce was used, so she tried to keep her mind elsewhere, she dove in on her father’s shop, trying to finish some of his projects, starting new ones, but none of that made her forget the situation her father is in for more than five minutes.
She is grateful her mother is taking care of the company, if it had been left only in the hands of Obadiah Stane, Darcy would have said bye to the secret and demand that the company was passed to her, even if she didn’t have an idea how to run it, Pepper would be there to help her and her family’s business would be safe and sound.
She raises her hand up and Dummy gives her a torch and she rolls her eyes “No, I asked for the screw driver! I don’t even know how you got torch out of that one” she says with a small smile in her lips, she knows that half the time the robot she built did everything backwards, but it was hers and Tony could never get rid of that no matter how many times it got under his skin.
“Miss. Stark” JARVIS calls her and she looks up from her job “The military have found your father, they are going to pick him up” when he finishes talking, she can feel her face getting wet, but she doesn’t care, she just wants her father back and as quickly as possible.
“Call mom, tell her to get here and also call Uncle Rhodey, I want to speak to him,” she knows her voice if breaking but she doesn’t care.
“All communications have been disconnected, it is not possible to call Rhodey” she sighs, but can’t be too unhappy about it, she asks the AI for images of her father’s pick up. He has bruises in his face, his skin is slightly red from all the sun he probably got to escape his hell hole, he seems thinner, but it is his eyes that make her put her hand over her mouth and silently cry, something in him had changed he had been scared – something she had never seen in him before. Darcy cleans her eyes with the end of her sleeve and notices something in his chest.
“JARVIS, what is that?” JARVIS says he doesn’t knows because he can’t do a scan on her father, her jaw tightens at the mere thought that something more than him getting kidnapped had happened, that something which was long term happened.
Darcy is livid when she can’t go to meet her father at the airport, but she knows that it is the best for both of them, there will be too much press trying to get a glimpse of Tony and she would get in the middle of it, and then there would be half of the world at their heads.
That doesn’t mean she doesn’t make JARVIS track her father’s every move, she was getting a little crazy, but she was thinking about putting a chip on him so that if something like that ever happened again she could make those bastards see what all the tech of Stark Industries could do, she shakes her head. “I’m completely losing it”
She gets annoyed that he goes to a press conference before getting home so she could crush him until she believes he is there. Darcy turns on the TV and sees her father telling everyone to sit down, he starts speaking then gets up, Darcy feels that her dad is about to do something which he shouldn’t probably do without consulting with Pepper. He gets up and announces that Stark Industries will stop manufacturing weapons, her mouth drops, the reporters get up and ask questions, Stane is beside himself (thought he does hide it well), Rhodey is not sure of what to do, then Obadiah takes Tony from there. JARVIS tells her that they are still in the facilities of Stark Industries.
Darcy makes the AI call her mother; on the first ring Pepper gets it “Mom, is dad high?”
Pepper sighs “I don’t think so, sorry sweetie, I have to go” Pepper says and hangs up. Darcy is left to look at the wall and think “What happened to you, dad?”
Is late afternoon when she hears the front door opening, she runs from the shop to go to the first level, not even waiting for JARVIS to tell her that it was Tony, she practically could feel that it was him, the moment she reaches the final stair, her father looks back and at her “Dad!” she basically whispers and runs to him, his arms are already extended to welcome her to the hug. She doesn’t care that they almost topple over and go to the floor, she is just so happy that her father is here hugging her with the same ferocity as she is.
“I’m home” he says and she knows her glasses are toppled over her face and she can also feel that her tears are soaking his shirt and that there is something slightly cold under her cheek on her father’s chest, but right now – none of it matters because Darcy got back her father.
“I’m implanting a chip on you so this stuff doesn’t happen again” she says quietly to him, she hears him laugh and squeeze her a little harder.
“Only if I can do the same to you, Pepper never let me do it when I proposed the option” he answers and she knows that it probably is not a lie, he kisses the top of her head but still doesn’t let go of her. They are not typically huggers, but when time requires they become fierce huggers.
“Sure, dad, instead of matching tattoos we’ll have matching chips, its way more awesome and more our style” he agrees with her with a chuckle, she knows that this hug probably broke all of their records, but right now she can’t bring herself to end it, she can’t even make her fingers relax their grip on his suit.
“I’ll work on it, kid” hearing him call her that, makes her tears start to fall again.
Tony Stark was home and Darcy couldn’t be happier.