Stark Bleiben | Stay Strong | Tony Stark's Daughter | Book 1

She's a What?

Veronica's POV

"Stark, can I talk to you?" I ask as I walk outside where he, Steve, and Clint were chopping wood.

Tony looks at Clint for something but he shrugs.

"Yeah, sure." He breathes, putting the axe in the stump.

"Thanks." I faintly smile as he walks over to me, wiping the sweat off his forehead.

"What do you need?" He asks putting his hands on his hips.

"I'm sorry." Is the first thing I say. "I'm sorry what I said, I just... my mom is a sensitive topic for me and you saying that just... I know you were looking out for me."

"It's fine, I should have known you were going to freak out a bit." He waves it off a bit. "We both tend to do that when people talk about our parents." He mumbles.

"Yeah..." I nod. "But... I think you were right." I admit looking into his eyes.

"Veronica, you don't have to say tha-"

"I'm not lying." I cut him off. "I had a flashback in a dream and it was the day my mom left me." My voice gets a little shaky. "I noticed her eyes. They weren't like the eyes that she usually looked at me with. They were the eyes that she looked at Garrett with."

"Garrett?" He raises an eyebrow.

"He was the Hydra agent that took my mom away." I explain.

"How do you know his name?"

"She said it." I remember the venom in her voice when she spoke to him. "Then she talked to me and left." I clear my throat, holding back the tears.

"So, you think I'm right?" He questions sadly.

"Yeah." I shake my head. "Whole world going to turn to shit if you're right, right?" I smirk.

"That's not the first time someone has told me that... sadly." He sighs.

"But here's the other thing." I take a deep breath. "You know how me, Pietro, Wanda, and Tiff had theories about how my mom didn't actually die, that Hydra killed her."

"Yeah." He nods his head.

"I'm thinking she didn't actually die at all." I admit.

Tony looks a bit taken back by that.

"What do you mean?"

"She..." I lick my lips and look down at the ground. "She's a Schmidt."

We hear a grunt and wood falling on the ground.

We turn around to see Clint giving Steve a shocked look.

"She's a what?" Steve demands look our way.

I give him a sheepish smile.

-----

"You did not tell us you're a descendant Johann Schmidt." Steve yells at me.

"Does it matter?" I counter.

"Yeah, it does!" He yells back.

"How does it, Steve? How?" I push past Tony towards Steve a bit more.

"He's the reason why I'm not in the 1940's! He's the reason why I'm not with Peggy!" He shouts. "He's the reason why Bucky was the Winter Soldier. He was the leader of the organization who wanted to take over the world with the tesseract. The organization that destroyed SHIELD."

"But you stopped all of that, Steve. You killed Johann Schmidt." I point out. "You got Bucky back, you're alive right now. Can't you at least accept that? Yeah, you're not with Peggy, yeah you're not in the 1940's but you're alive. Be thankful for that."

Steve just shakes his head and puts his hands on his hips.

"Hydra might not be down for the count, but Schmidt isn't even alive anymore." I continue. "His descendants? Yes, they are. But they're not as bad as he was. For god's sakes, not at all bad as he was!"

"But you still have Red Skull's bloodline." He glares at me.

"Doesn't mean I have the same... same desires of taking over or destroying the world as him." I shout at him. "I was with SHIELD, I live in the Avengers Tower for Christ's sake. I haven't tried anything yet, have I?"

"But you could." He looks at me with such a disgusted look in his eyes.

"But I'm not going to, Steve." I promise looking him straight in the eye. "I'm not. I haven't. And I'm not going to... Scouts honor." I hold the three fingers up.

Steve laughs and shakes his head. "You sure are a Stark."

"More than I am a Schmidt."