Life as Maya Stark • Iron Man's Daughter [ 1 ]

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Maya tapped her fingers against the table as she waited for Tony to come back. Her eyes were starting to slowly close, but Maya forced herself to stay awake. She glanced at her watch and sighed in frustration. It had been three hours since Tony had left. Why wasn't he back yet?

Maya continued to stare at the door of the garage, waiting for Tony to come through the door and tell her about his success. But as the minutes dragged on, Maya felt herself getting more and more tired.

Maya hadn't been able to sleep last night after she saw Obadiah's hesitation. She had been trying to figure out why he was hesitating in the first place and what he was trying to hide from Tony. If Obadiah didn't have anything to hide, why would he pause when answering a question? Obadiah was up to something and Maya was going to be the one to figure out what it was exactly.

As these thoughts ran through Maya's head, her eyelids started to close. Maya rested her head on her hand and fought the sleepiness that was trying to take ahold of her. But eventually, sleep won and Maya was out cold.

Just as Maya fell into a deep sleep, Tony came flying into the garage. His new suit was all batted up and when he took off his mask, his face was a little scratched. As soon as Tony landed, he looked around for Maya.

He looked around the garage until he found Maya sleeping at his desk with mounds of homework next to her. He watched her with a small smile and only then did he notice how tired she really looked. Tony frowned slightly and quietly walked away, not wanting to wake her up.

Tony went back to the platform that he had been on earlier when he had put his suit on. Machine arms rose out of the floor and started to take his suit off, but for some reason, his suit wouldn't come off.

"Ow!" Tony exclaimed in a hushed voice. "Oh, it isn't that bad, sir," J.A.R.V.I.S. said. "Sir, the more you struggle, the more this is going to hurt." "Be gentle, this is my first time. I designed this to come off," Tony muttered. "Please try not to move," J.A.R.V.I.S. advised.

"What is going on here?"

Tony froze and turned to see Pepper standing behind him with shock evident on her face. Tony stared at her for a second before saying, "Let's face it, this is not the worst thing you've caught me doing."

"Are those bullet holes?" Pepper asked. Maya's eyes slowly opened when she heard the two talking, but when she heard Pepper mention bullet holes, she sprung up and out of her chair. She should've been looking where she was going because she instantly tripped over the corner of the desk and fell to the ground.

"Ow," Maya muttered. Both of the adults looked over at Maya and Tony sighed. "Great, you woke her up," Tony told Pepper. Maya stood up and wiped off the dust before looking over at Tony. "Did Pepper say something about bullet holes?" Maya asked.

Tony looked at Maya and said, "Did you hear? I saved the town of Gulmira and saved a pilot from falling to his death." "What do you expect? A medal? A parade in your honor? A 'good job, Tony'?" Maya asked. "Those do sound pretty nice," Tony said.

"Tony," Maya said angrily. Tony stopped talking and looked over at Maya who was staring at the bullet holes that were in his armor. Tony sighed and glanced at Pepper before asking, "Can you give us a moment?" Pepper nodded and quickly left the room, but not before looking at the armor in shock one last time.

The machines finally got the suit off of Tony who then walked over to Maya. She looked up at him and he felt bad when he noticed that she had tears in her eyes. "A-are you hurt? Are you okay?" Maya asked. "I'm fine, kid. The bullets only went half way into the armor. I didn't get hit," Tony assured her.

"But what about those scratches on your face? Did someone hurt you?" Maya asked. "I might've gotten a little beat up, but that's going to happen. It's nothing too serious. I'm fine," Tony told her. Maya raised an eyebrow and Tony smiled at her, "I promise."

Maya sighed in relief and then quickly punched Tony in the arm. "Ow! What was that for?" Tony asked as he rubbed his arm. "That was for scaring me, you idiot!" Maya exclaimed before walking away. Tony watched as the girl walked off, probably to find Pepper. A smile was on his face as he then started to work on the suit.

A little while later, Pepper and Maya walked into the lab where Tony was working on his suit. Tony looked at Maya and gave her a quick smile before looking at Pepper. "Hey. Are you busy? I need you to go to my office and hack into the mainframe. You're gonna retrieve all the recent shipping manifests. This is a lock chip, this will get you in. It's probably under Executive Files, if not. . .they put it on a ghost drive, in which case you need to look for the lowest numeric heading," Tony told Pepper as he handed her a little device.

"And what do you plan to do with this information if she brings it back here?" Maya asked. "Same drill. They've been dealing under the table, I'm gonna stop them. I'm gonna find my weapons and destroy them," Tony explained. "Tony. . .you know that I would help you with anything, but I can not help you if you're gonna start this all over again," Pepper said.

"There is nothing except this. There's no art openings, there's no benefit, there's nothing to sign. There's the next mission, and nothing else," Tony told her. "Is that so?" Pepper asked.  "Then I quit."

Maya looked over at Pepper in surprise. "You quit?" Maya asked in a sad tone. Pepper nodded her head, "I quit." She threw the device onto the counter and then started walking away.

"You stood by my side all these years while I reaped the benefits of destruction. And now that I'm trying to protect the people that I've put in harm's way, you're going to walk out?" Tony asked.

"You're going to kill yourself, Tony. I'm not going to be a part of this," Pepper told him. Maya flinched at the thought of another one of her parents dying. Tony glanced at Maya who looked up at him with wide eyes. Tony sighed and looked away from Maya.

"I shouldn't be alive...unless it was for a reason.  I'm not crazy, Pepper. I just finally know what I have to do. And I know in my heart that it's right," Tony said as he sat down. Pepper sighed and slowly walked over to the table and picked up the device that she had thrown down.

Maya sighed in relief and quickly hugged Pepper. "You two are all I have too, you know?" Pepper said. Maya smiled and let go of Pepper. Pepper smiled at her before walking out of the room. As soon as she was gone, Maya turned to look at Tony with a huge grin.

"She's a keeper."