Battle Scars {An Iron Man FanFic}

Chapter 16: Like Father Like Daughter

A/n: Dedicated to @itscaitlanidiots ! You vote and read every chapter! Thanks so much! Check out the video :D It's funny, give it time ;) Also, pic to the side is Andy's daddy <3

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Chapter 16: Like Father, Like Daughter

"A dad is a son's first hero and a daughter's first love"

                                                                -Unknown

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He was wrong.

He was totally wrong.

He was undoubtedly wrong.

Tony Stark was wrong.

                I grinned at the thought. Of course he was wrong! Someone as privileged as him, as pigheaded and lazy would never understand! Of course, it wasn't his fault, like he said, he was born with it. Even then, he would never understand. Only people like my father would, he was living proof. I closed my eyes as I remembered him talking to me, those summer days where we built anything we could think of.

"Mija, you just need hard work and dedication. 'Aguántate tantito y la fruta caerá en tu mano', Wait a little while and the fruit will fall into your hand" he would tell me, quoting my favorite book, Esperanza Rising. "Pero mija, mira, if you want that fruit to fall, you're going to have to work to help it grow. You can't just plant a seed and forget about it, no one will care for it for you." I pictured his smiling face just ahead of me. He walked over to me and, with leathery calloused fingers, helped me fit two pieces together. "Aver, see".

                I felt my eyes begin to sting and a tear fall from one of its corners. My dad was hard working. He was just as smart as Tony was, maybe even smarter! The only difference was that dad struggled for that knowledge. He moved up the ladder with great effort while Tony simply took the escalator. And although they both met at the top, on equal ground, my dad probably had more experience. For every rung of the ladder, he faced a new challenge. Tony just glided by, unaffected by things such as money or resources.

I grinned to myself. I was my dad's daughter, Andrea Valdez. If he could do it, so could I. I opened my eyes and looked over at my bedside table. Two orange containers stared back at me, almost venomously, and were filled high with pain and sleep meds. I took in a breath and struggled to sit up right. I grabbed both meds and stared at them angrily. I would show Rhodey too! I didn't need them in order to live. I opened the bottom drawer of the table and shoved the bottles deep within, trying to hide it behind some socks and a paperclip of old papers.

I turned back over in the bed and felt a small tug at my chest. I looked down to see the pod swivel in the opposite direction, one beep rang out. I plucked it off easily, the only thing previously holding it down being gravity. I set it on the table and stood to change into my pajamas. Needless to say it was a very pain filled process, taking me nearly ten minutes to bring my shirt over my head and off of my elbows. Once I crouched down to fit my pant legs through my own legs, I knew I wouldn't be able to stand up right anymore. The pain in my chest has slowly risen and I tilted myself over to fall roughly on my bed. I let out a cough and pulled up the pants, envisioning myself as a mermaid on the shore, flailing around. I crawled forward to my pillow and settled down.

The night went by slowly, each breath hurting a little more than the last.

. : ☼ : . The Next Day . : ☼ : .

I sat on the rooftop, the cold air of morning racing wildly. I pulled out my phone and texted Luke, asking where he was it. I put my head back onto the brick wall behind me and sighed aloud. This was going to be a long day, I could already tell. It hurt just to get out of bed and even more so to pretend I felt okay in front of Pepper. Any movement that involved my torso was nearly impossible to do at a normal pace. When I went to fast I was met with a searing pain that mirrored a hot metal nail being pierced into the skin.