The Golden Daughter✓Tony Stark

7: Lost but Found.

"Hogan, drive. Cheeseburger first." Dad says again. I give Pepper a sign telling her to drop it. Something must have happened within these three months for dad to call a press conference all of sudden. I lean my head on his shoulder, suddenly feeling sleepy.

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"Hey Smalls. Wake up sleeping beauty or I'll tell Happy to drench you with water." Dad says as he nudges me.

"He wouldn't dare." I muttered as I raised my head to see that we were at the office.

The staff were out, clapping and cheering. Happy stops the car right in front of Obadiah and dad gets out giving me a minute to fix myself.

"Look at this! Tony. We were going to meet at the hospital." Obadiah exclaims pulling dad in for a hug.

"No, I'm fine." Dad says not giving much attention to Obie as he picks out a cheeseburger from the paper in Happy's hands.

"Look at you! You had to have a burger, yeah?" Obie continues.

"Well, come on." Dad says gesturing inside.

"You get me one of those?" Obie asks again.

"There's only two left. One for Lis  and I need the other one." Dad replied as I pick out one and hand it to him.

"Hey, look who's here! Yeah!" Obie's says again and I almost snap. It seems to me that he's nervous about something and is trying to cover it up by keeping the unnecessary conversation.

"Miss Potts?" A man in a navy blue suit calls out and Pepper turns around. "Miss Stark."

"Yes."

"Can I speak to you for a moment?" He asks.

"I'm not part of the press conference, but it's about to begin right now." Pepper politely informs him.

"I'm not a reporter. I'm Agent Phil Coulson, with the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division." The man - agent Coulson informed us.

"I'm sorry what?" I exclaim. I wonder how he's able to say that off hand.

"That's... that's quite a mouthful." Pepper replies in a more polite way.

"I know. We're working on it." He replies with a smile.

"You know, we've been approached already by the DOD, the FBI, the CIA..." Pepper lists but was cut off by agent Coulson.

"We're a separate division with a more specific focus. We need to debrief Mr. Stark about the circumstances of his escape." He says as he hand Pepper a card

"I'll put something in the book, shall I?" Pepper replies taking the card from him.

"Thank you." He says as he leaves.

I was about to ask Pepper to let me see the card when I was interrupted by Obadiah's voice."Well, let's get this started, uh..." He looks down at dad who was seated comfortably on the floor.

"Hey, would it be all right if everyone sat down?" Dad asks as he brings out the burger in his pocket. "Why don't you just sit down? That way you can see me, and I can... A little less formal and..."

"What's up with the love-in?" Rhodey asks squatting next to Pepper and I.

"Don't look at me. I don't know what he's up to." Pepper says smiling nervously.

Rhodey raise his eyebrow at me in question, but I simply shrug swallowing the bite in my mouth.

"I never got to say goodbye to my father. There's questions that I would have asked him. I would have asked him how he felt about what this company did. If he was conflicted, if he ever had doubts. Or maybe he was every inch the man we all remember from the newsreels." He says and I wonder why he's bringing up this topic now. He rarely spoke about the accident.

"I saw young Americans killed by the very weapons I created to defend them and protect them. And I saw that I had become part of a system that is comfortable with zero accountability." He continues.

"Mr. Stark!" A couple of reporters shout but dad gestures to the one in front of him.

"Hey, Ben."

"What happened over there?" He asks quietly.

"I had my eyes opened." Dad stands and Pepper and I exchanged quick glances as dad stands behind the podium. "I came to realize that I have more to offer this world than just making things that blow up. And that is why, effective immediately, I am shutting down the weapons manufacturing division of Stark International," he announced as everyone stands up in confusion "until such a time as I can decide what the future of the company will be."

"I think we're gonna be selling a lot of newspapers." Obie says as he tries to usher dad down the stage but dad doesn't stop what he was saying

"What direction it should take, one that I'm comfortable with and is consistent with the highest good for this country, as well."

"What we should take away from this is that Tony's back! And he's healthier than ever. We're going to have a little internal discussion and we'll get back to you with the follow-up." Obie says trying to salvage the situation but it's to no avail.

Next update: Wednesday