ʟɪᴛᴛʟᴇ ɪʀᴏɴ ᴄʜɪʟᴅ

Refused

{Chapter Six}

Abby was grounded for two weeks because she had been skipping class. Not that that meant that she was not allowed to go out with Violet, and she spent most of her time in her room or in her dad's workshop studying and doing homework.

Being grounded didn't bother her though, she rarely went out anyway. And she enjoyed spending time with her father and watching him work on the suits he was building.

Halfway through week two of her sentence Abby sat by the piano pressing the keys, she enjoyed playing instruments. Pepper had found someone to teach her a few months after she moved to Malibu, she felt that it would help Abby settle in if she had things to keep her busy.

The small girl sat looked up when Pepper placed a box on top of the piano. When she looked at the box she saw that it contained the first arc reactor, they had helped replace, labeled "Proof Tony Stark Has A Heart". Abby smiled at the woman, it had been her idea to keep the antique, as her father called it. Pepper had smiled at the suggestion and decided to act on it.

"It's great!" Abby smiled.

"Okay, then. I'm going to wrap it and I'll take it down. Have you finished your homework?" Pepper asked.

"Yeah." Abby nodded looking back down at the piano.

Obadiah came to see Tony and sat beside the young girl. Abby didn't really like Obediah, she knew he was her father's friend so she was always polite but she felt uncomfortable around him. She believed she was uncomfortable because she didn't know him and she had never liked to be around people she didn't know.

"Hey, kid." Obediah smiled down at her.

"Hello." She replied not looking up from the piano.

"Obediah. I didn't know you were here." Pepper spoke as she entered the room.

"Yeah, I just thought I'd come and talk to Tony. Is he here?" The bald man asked.

"Yeah, I'll call him now." She smiled walking over to the intercom.

"You okay Abby?" Obediah and Abby had never really spoken so she didn't understand why the man was speaking to her now.

"I'm fine." Abby nodded picking out a sheet of music and placing it on the stand.

"I don't think he can hear me, I'll go down and get him for you," Pepper spoke making her way to the stairs leading to Tony's workshop.

After a few minutes of the little girl and the bald man sitting in awkward silence, Obediah spoke up.

"So, do you know anything about that thing that is powering your dad's heart?" He asked making the girl look up at him with an emotionless look.

"I'm ten," Abby said not showing an interest in the conversation the man was trying to have with her.

"I know that," He chuckled, "I was just wondering if your dad had said anything about it."

Abby stared at the man. She didn't understand why he was asking her. Why didn't he ask Tony himself? Why did he want to know in the first place? Before she had the chance to ask him Pepper and Tony appeared.

"Obie, leave my kid alone," Tony spoke walking into the room before pointing at Abby, "You done your homework?"

"Yeah" Abby replied.

Tony walked to sit on the couch spotting the pizza Obediah had brought.

"That bad, huh?" He asked the man.

"Just because I brought pizza back from New York doesn't mean it went bad."

"Uh-huh. Sure it doesn't." Tony rolled his eyes.

"It would have gone better if you were there," Obediah told him.

"Uh-uh. Abby come get some pizza." Abby stood from the piano glad to have an excuse to get away from Obediah. Plus, she would never pass up the opportunity to have some New York pizza she had missed.

The girl skipped over and sat beside her father taking the piece of pizza he offered her.

"You told me to lay low, that's what I've been doing. I lay low and you take care of everything else." Tony said.

"Oh come on. In public. The press. This was a board of directors meeting." Obediah stated.

"This was a board of directors meeting? Did you know that?" He asked turning to Abby causing the girl to shake her head and giggle.

"The board is claiming you have posttraumatic stress. They're filing an injunction." Obediah explained. Abby didn't understand a word either of them were saying but by her dad's reaction, she assumed it wasn't good.

"A what?" Tony asked surprised.

"They want to lock you out."

"Why because the stocks dipped by forty points?" It was at that point Abby tuned them out because they began speaking in what she believed was a different language.

She jumped slightly when her dad snapped at Pepper and decided to go back over to the piano so she wasn't in the middle of what they were discussing.

She looked up when she saw Tony stand up and make his way back to the workshop. She watched Obediah trying to convince Tony to give his arc reactor technology to the board only to be refused. When Tony began to descend the stairs to the workshop Abby followed after him.

She walked over and sat beside him in silence for a while before speaking.

"Why does Obediah want the arc reactor, dad?" Abby asked.

"I don't know, Munchkin." Tony sighed looking over to see the girl biting her lip, "Did he say something to you?"

"He asked if I knew anything about what is powering your heart," Abby replied.

"And what did you tell him?"

"I told him I'm ten. He didn't seem to understand that my mental capacity isn't as good as yours." She shrugged making Tony laugh.

"I wouldn't be too sure about that."