Night Mistress

Chapter 04

Dad was asleep for five days. Five days without his stupid sex jokes or any remarks about his suit. There wasn't any nervous smiles when he thought about Pepper. No sarcastic ones when he thought about Rhodes. I can't believe I'm missing his half jokes on being my father. I want him back.

He had been unconscious since his surgery. The only thing telling me he was alive was his rising and falling chest. His upper body was covered in wires from my electromagnet, and there were cuts all over his face.

They made me watch as they put that electromagnet in his chest. I was bound and gagged off to the side, a man holding my chin so I couldn't look away. Dad may not remember much of it, but he wouldn't stop screaming whenever he was lucid. It was all just panicked shouting and worried screams of my name.

It was a mercy when my own wounds took a turn. I blacked out just as Dad's backup heart was installed.

It was odd. I woke up after the surgery to find all my cuts and bruises had faded. There had been this gash along my head, just above my left eye, and it had faded in just a few hours.

I wasn't the only one to notice. The cameras were sure to have shown them I was healed after barely two days. Yinsen noticed when my bandages weren't sticky with blood. I noticed while I was fixing up the car battery, wondering why I wasn't passing out from blood loss or infection. Yinsen wasn't ask questions, though he must know I have no idea what's happening.

The Ten Rings had kept quiet in regards to my healing ability, only coming in for food. There was no mistaking the dark sneers of the men coming in, eyeing my dirty skirt and shirt. With the cameras, I had no privacy to change into the shorts I packed in my bag. The studious part of my brain kept bringing up honor killings and all the horror stories of girls my (physical) age.

It was just what I needed, to be honest. So I was worried about Dad, the ever present situation of being used as a sex toy by these people, worrying about keeping everyone in this cell/cave alive, and my new powers. Joys of Being Me, an autobiography.

Around lunchtime, I was working on the designs for the Iron Man suit. It was a miracle I survived, and in case something happened to me I couldn't leave Dad without something. It kept me busy. Busy stopped me from thinking about I had supernatural healing.

This wasn't supposed to happen. I wasn't supposed to get superpowers. Even when my low probability of surviving the attack, getting superpowers out of it was just ridiculous!

Yinsen went to his shaving, leaving me to make touch-ups on Dad's the car battery. It kept me calm. It was an old battery, Dad was an old human being.

Out of nowhere, Dad took a sharp intake of breath. My head shot up his direction, wondering if everything was finally coming back.

Dad pulled out the wire in his nose. I flinched in disgust as he tossed it aside. He tried reaching for the stuff on the table, but knocked it back.

"This place is low on water. We can't go spilling it." I advised. My hands steadily handed him the cup, which he hesitantly held.

Dad looked up at me with wide panicked eyes. Not looking away, I put the mug back. He was looking down at his chest, staring at the odd contraption I helped scrap together. His hands followed to the cords from the car battery to his chest.

He was speechless, something I'd never seen from Tony Stark in person.

It was when he yanked on the cords that I intervened. "Dad, stop!" I ordered, worried. I went to his bedside, pushing him flat on his back. "Those cables are fragile. Okay? They pop out, so do you." I explained in a borderline panicked voice.