The Golden Daughter✓Tony Stark

8: It's like Operation

The newscaster mocks
"Stark Industries! I've got one recommendation! Ready? Ready? Sell, sell, sell! Abandon ship! Does the Hindenburg ring any bells? Let me show you the new Stark Industries business plan! Look, that's a weapons company that doesn't make weapons!"

Dad's voice suddenly booms over the intercom, "Pepper. How big are your hands?"

"What?" She exclaims in confusion as I mute the television

"How big are your hands?" He replies

"I don't understand why..." Pepper starts.

"Get down here. I need you." Dad says and Pepper drops the PC in her hands on the table, heading towards the lab. She suddenly turns around and asks "You coming?" And I roll my eyes before standing up to join her.

"You know you can't ignore him forever." She says.

"I might if I try hard enough." I muttered.

"Both of you are so alike. You'll come around in a few hours." She says as she opened the door to find dad shirtless on a chair holding an arc reactor in his hands.

"Hey. Let's see them. Show me your hands. Let's see them."  Pepper holds up her hands as she goes closer, while I just stay at the door post observing them.

"Oh, wow. They are small. Very petite, indeed. I just uh.. need your help for a sec."

"Oh, my God, is that the thing that's keeping you alive?" She asks as she goes closer to him. It hits me again that I'd almost lost him. I know he saw something there that made him make that announcement.

"It was. It is now an antique. This is what will be keeping me alive for the foreseeable future. I'm swapping it up for an upgraded unit, and I just ran into a little speed bump." Dad explained to her.

"Speed bump, what does that mean?" She asks again.

"It's nothing. It's just a little snag. There's an exposed wire under this device. And it's contacting the socket wall and causing a little bit of a short. It's fine." Dad explained as he pulled the reactor out, handing it to her.

"What do you want me to do?" The anxiety was clear in her face.

"Put that on the table over there. That is irrelevant."

"Oh, my God!" Pepper exclaimed placing the reactor in the table

"I want you to reach in, and you're just gonna gently lift the wire out."dad instructs.

"Is it safe?" She asks unsure.

"Yeah, it should be fine. It's like Operation. You just don't let it touch the socket wall or it goes 'beep'. " dad says and I mentally face palm. Way to calm her nerves down.

"What do you mean, 'Operation'?"

"It's just a game, never mind. Just gently lift the wire."

"Okay."

"Okay? Great."

"You know, I don't think that I'm qualified to do this."

"No, you're fine. You're the most capable, qualified, trustworthy person I've ever met. You're gonna do great. Is it too much of a problem to ask? 'Cause I'm..."

"Okay, okay."

"I really need your help here."

"Okay. Oh, there's pus!"

"It's not pus. It's an inorganic plasmic discharge from the device, not from his body." I quipped coming closer to the duo.

"Oh and she speaks. Here I was about to sign up for an online lesson for sign language." Dad retorts.

"It smells!" Pepper exclaims, gagging.

"Yeah, it does. The copper wire. The copper wire, you got it?"

"Okay, I got it! I got it!"

"Okay, you got it? Now, don't let it touch the sides- ahh," he exclaims when Pepper let's it touch the sides "- when you're coming out!"

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

"That's what I was trying to tell you before. Okay, now make sure that when you pull it out, that you don't... " But he was cut short when Pepper pulls the magnet out and the equipment beside him started beeping.  "There's a magnet at the end of it! That was it. You just pulled it out."

"Oh, God!"

"Okay, I was not expecting..."

"Okay, what do I do?"

"Don't put it back in! Don't put it back in!"

"What's wrong?" Pepper asks confused.

"Nothing, he's just going into cardiac arrest--"

"What? You said it was safe!"

"You yanked it out like a trout... We gotta hurry. Take this. Take this. You gotta switch it out really quick." He defended, handing her the device.

"Okay. Okay. Tony?"

"What?"

"It's going to be okay. Okay?" Pepper reassures.

"Is it? He's kinda dying at the moment." I quipped.

"You're not helping. It's gonna be okay. I'm gonna make this okay." Pepper snapped and I almost burst out laughing, she's really easy to rile up.

"Let's hope. Okay, you're gonna attach that to the base plate. Make s-sure you... ahhhh was that so hard? That was fun, right? Here, I got it. I got it. Here. Nice." Dad said as he sat up straighter.

"Are you okay?" She asks.

"Yeah, I feel great. You okay?" Dad replied asking her cos she really looked like she could cry now.

"Don't ever, ever, ever, ever ask me to do anything like that ever again." Pepper says gulping.

"I don't have anyone but you." He said and I clear my throat.
"Well, except for her, and I can't really ask her to help me, I feel like she'd press the wire against the wall and refuse to replace it until I'm almost breathing my last." Dad said.

"What do you want me to do with this?" She asked, holding the old reactor like a trophy.

"That? Destroy it. Incinerate it." Dad replied shrugging.

"You don't want to keep it?" Pepper asks

"Pepper, I've been called many things. 'Nostalgic' is not one of them."

"Will that be all, Mr. Stark?" Pepper asks.

"That will be all, Miss Potts." He replied turning to Butterfingers, as Pepper walks in my direction.

"Talk to him." She whispers.

"Hey, Butterfingers, come here. What's all this stuff doing on top of my desk? That's my phone, that's a picture of me and my dad. Right there. In the garbage. All that stuff." He commands before turning to me. "Oh you're not leaving?" He asks and I roll my eyes before jumping into the chair he just stood up from.

"What happened back there?" I asked quietly. I wasn't upset about the announcement, I was upset because he didn't tell me about it, and when I asked on our way home he just ignored me.

"Something you shouldn't worry your little head about. I'm fine." He replies pulling me to his chest. "I've never been more glad that you lost a bet. I don't know what I would've done if they'd taken you too." He whispers into my hair.

"Yeah that had to be the first and the last bet I'm ever loosing." I replied laughing slightly.

"Yeah whatever." He replies pulling away.

"So what's the plan now?" I ask swinging my legs. "If we stop manufacturing weapons, what do we do then?"

"What you need to do is go to bed. JARVIS told me about your sleeping habits or lack of. You go to bed and I go talk to Rhodey." Dad says.

"Little snitch. After that, will you finally tell me what's going on in that old brain of yours?" I ask, fighting back a yawn.

"Old? You think I'm old? Old is not the word I would use to describe the brain that made a miniaturized arc reactor in a dirty cave." He mumbled ruffling my hair. "Go to bed. I'll wake you when I'm back."