Start Over

Chapter 1

"Cassie, I mean it!" a man with short, wavy brown locks and sweet brown eyes called up to his daughter. He was an averagely built man, but he looked way younger than he actually was. He was handsome of course, he would often catch the opposite sex checking him out in the grocery stores of his hometown. He was never interested though. After suffering a brutal divorce almost ten years ago, he had given up on love and tried to focus on his sixteen-year-old daughter, Cassandra Lang.

"Dad, calm down, we're not going to be late to school. You're freaking out over nothing," Cassie stuck her tongue out at her father before grabbing her books.

"I have to meet Luis up for ten," the man said, looking at his watch. Luis was his best friend and the co-founder of their business, Ex-Con Securities, a business that would employ ex-cons who were trying to better their life. Him and his friend a spent a few years in prison, they learned from their mistakes and would try to be better, once getting back on their feet, the core four, Kurt, Dave, Luis and him had pooled their money together to open up the business. They were once burglars after all and knew how to protect properties from other robberies.

"You won't be late," Cassie assured him. "You're Scott Lang anyways, Luis would have the planet itself keep still until you were ready. It will be fine, now let's go. I have school!"

Scott grabbed the keys off the cabinet next to the door and followed his daughter to the Chevrolet Malibu parked outside. It was a beautiful Californian day in San Francisco. The was shining and the birds were chirping. That was until Scott and Cassie arrived at the school to see police everywhere. The sight of them made Scott tense up. It was like he was being taken to prison all over again, though he knew he was innocent, he had a record and if somebody got hurt, Scott would be the first suspect. He had an altercation recently at the school with his ex-girlfriend, the first woman he dated after Maggie. They got in a fight because Scott thought she was failing Cassie on purpose, she was an excellent student in English, but it turns out Cassie had been distracted, she wasn't focusing on school but in boys instead. Even so, Scott firmly believed that was still not the case as Cassie study everyday after school and had not text about a boy to any of her friends. He just couldn't believe that Cassie would fail even if she wasn't completely focused. She is a very smart young woman. Scott believed that to his core.

"Dad, is that a-" Cassie cut herself off as she pointed to a black body bag in a stretcher being placed into an ambulance.

"Stay here," Scott advised his daughter as he unbuckled his seatbelt and climbed out of the car. He searched for the detective in charge and when he spotted her, his heart stopped. She had long black hair and hazel eyes. She was absolute beautiful and Scott took a mental note of that for if he ever saw her again after today, for when the circumstances weren't as grim. "Hi, I'm sorry to bother you, but my daughter goes to school here and I was just curious as to what was going on?"

"Oh, I guess there's no harm in sharing," the detective smiled. "One of the teachers here were murdered."

"What, that's horrible!" Scott voiced his thoughts. "I'm sorry to hear that. This won't affect the kids will it?"

"No, no. School should continue on. Don't worry about your child," the detective placed her hand on Scott's shoulder. "If you find out anything, here's my card. Enjoy your day, sir!"

Just as Scott turned to go back to Cassie and let her know that school was still in session, he looked down at the card.

Detective Hope Van Dyne
San Francisco Police Department
Email: HopeVD@gmail.com
Telephone: ×××-×××-1823

Scott smiled to himself, maybe he would call. Not for the case though. He hopped back into the car, a giddy smile upon his face. "Ooh, Dad!"

"What?" Scott smiled down at his daughter.

"Did the sweet ole detective over there give you the love bug?" Cassie smirked at her father. She hadn't seen him smile like that since her parents were married.

"No, peanut. Now would you please get to your class so I can meet up with Luis?" Scott shook his head at his child before losing the smile.

"Only if you stop calling me 'peanut'," Cassie bargained with him as she got out of the vehicle.

"Never going to happen!" he shouted after her as she continued on to class. After watching his daughter safely make it inside the public building, Scott through his car in reverse and made his way to Ex-Con Securities to meet up with Luis and another potential client. The company sure has taken off since opening it about eight years ago.

"LANG!" Luis shouted as Scott entered their building. He shook his head with a laugh as he walked over to Luis' office. Luis was a shorter, darker man. He had black hair and a fast, Spanish accent.

"Hey, man," Scott greeted his best friend with a bro hug. "Did you see the news this morning?"

"No?" Luis answered but it was more like a question.

Scott shook his head with a laugh. "Of course you didn't. One of the teachers at Cassie's school got-" Scott cut himself off and used the "sliced neck" gesture to say she was killed.

"WHAT? THAT'S CRAZY!" Luis shouted.

"Shh, man," Scott hushed his friend. "I don't know if it's public knowledge so keep it on the down low."

"Okay, okay, okay," Luis said really fast. "So we're meeting up with Pepper Potts-"

"Isn't she Tony Stark's wife and CEO of Stark Industries?" Scott said dumbfounded. It was one thing to have a company want to hire them to protect their stuff, whatever it was, but it was another thing for a billionaire and international celebrity to want to hire them.

"Yes! Crazy, right? Apparently their head of security is too busy with helping their daughter in school, so now she's looking at us for a temporary filling. She's offering us about one million just to work the year while they tutor the girl!"

"LUIS!"

"SCOTT!" Luis shouted back at his best friend. "WE HAVE TO LAND THIS!"

Scott started pacing back and forth. With this money he could send Cassie away to a good college. God knows that it would make up for everything he did to her. He missed her childhood, and he certainly wanted to prove to her that he was an incredible dad who cared about his daughter. He could give some money to Maggie and Jim too, to help raise Cassie. He would even have some left over for him and the boys. This was it. This was what he was working towards. Pepper Potts wanted to work with them. He did it. They made it.

"If we get this account, we could send Cassie to a good college, Luis!" Scott smiled at his friend.

"We are sending Cassie to a good college, Scotty!" Luis assured him. "We have half an hour until Pepper gets here. We got this, Scott."

"We got this, we got this," Scott repeated to himself. How could he not be nervous about blowing it? Cassie's future is on the line.

The half hour flew by and before they knew it, Scott and Luis were sitting in front of Pepper Potts. She was a beautiful strawberry blonde. She was sweet and she just had that smile that screamed that she would be your friend. Scott could definitely see why Tony Stark chose to marry her. He was actually surprised Pepper locked down Tony since he was commonly known as the genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist.

"So," Pepper started. "We're just looking for some temporary security guards for the HQ, would you guys have anybody willing to work for is part-time?"

"I'm sorry, part-time?" Scott questioned.

"Yes. Is that going to be a problem?" Pepper questioned the man before her.

Scott shook his head rapidly. "No, that's actually fantastic!" One million just for the year and she only wants them as part-time? That means they could put only a few men on, fix up the security system and still be able to work other accounts.

"So?" Pepper stuck out her hand in anticipation of a handshake. "We have a deal?"

Scott and Luis took one look at each other before Scott gave Pepper's hand a shake. "We have a deal!"