A Different Path

Palladium and a Sister

It's safe to say that Tony spoilt his and Pepper's daughter the Christmas of 1998. Pepper had watched amused as he bought her a mountain gifts, offering her input here and there.

Rhodey, Yinsen, and Happy were very ecstatic to have a niece. Yinsen had started working as a surgeon at the nearby hospital and had moved into an apartment, but he was at the tower at least three times a week to play with her.

Rhodey and Happy seemed to be in competition for who could be called her favorite, even though she was only six months old. They gave her toys and played as much peek-a-boo as she wanted.

Tony was very secretive before Christmas, but he was also very obvious about it, telling Pepper, "nope, no spoiling your Christmas presents."

Christmas Eve was quiet. Pepper and Tony's friends were all asleep in their rooms, but they were still trying to get Aurora to sleep.

"C'mon, star," Tony whispered as he paced with Auora in his arms, bouncing her. All three were in her room, which was painted in a solar system theme, with a starry sky and the solar system.

The six month old continued to be stubborn. Pepper was nearly asleep on their daughter's Mulan bed.

A sudden dizzy spell had Tony quickly sitting down on the bed, throwing his weight down harder than a controlled sit. Pepper instantly was awake and looking at him with a scrutinizing gaze.

He gave her a little smile to try and reassure her he was fine, but he knew he wasn't. He'd been getting dizzy spells, headaches, light nausea, and chest pain for about a month for seemingly no reason.

He'd ask Yinsen to run a check over him after Christmas, but right now all he cared about was his fussy daughter.

Gently, he ran his hand over her hair. It was two or three inches longer than it had been three months ago. Slowly, she relaxed. Tony did, too, thinking she was asleep.

"Da..."

Pepper and him jumped to alertness. The strawberry blonde had her phone out in a flash and was filming using the dim light of the nearby sun nightlight.

"Yes, dada. Can you say dada?" They'd been trying to get her to say mama or dada for the passed month.

"Da.... dada." Tony's heart leapt into his throat and he could hear Pepper's small squeal from beside him, not having to look to know there was a blinding smile on her face. Tony himself was grinning was absolute joy.

"Ma... mama."

Tony wrapped his arm around Pepper and drew her close. Her first two words.

That morning, Pepper showed their friends the video. She'd been replaying it almost constantly all morning. Their friends were just as happy as they were, hugging and just beaming with joy. Aurora was showered with affection and gifts as she babbled all morning, saying the occasional "Mama" and "Dada".

Tony gave Pepper an elegant blue dress, jewelry, and the boots she had been eyeing, but Pepper said the best gift of all was the large family picture of all of them.

/

Two weeks later, any good mood had vanished. Yinsen had done that check on Tony and found that the palladium in his Arc Reactor was poisoning him.

The dark lines were already creeping from the arc reactor. How he'd not noticed, he didn't know.

The news was hard to accept and Yinsen encouraged him to tell the others, his own face grave and sad.

A few days later, after he'd tested every element combination he could for a replacement, he sat down with Pepper and, with a very heavy heart, he told her. She valued honesty, but it hurt him to see that heart broken look on her face.