The Stolen Stark

December 16th 1991

Long Island, New York

POV 3rd Person

"Wake up, dear, and say goodbye to your father and Stella." Maria says softly looking at her son laying on the couch. Stella is on the floor building a mini robot Howard had gotten her parts for.

"Who's the homeless person on the couch?" Howard says as he picks up Stella softly and sets her building parts aside. She looks confused and looking around. "Where we going Grandpa?" She asks happily. "You'll see soon." He says walking past Tony giving him a small glare at his laziness.

Tony gets up he has a Christmas hat on and looks at Stella with a happy smile seeing her happy. He puts his Christmas hat on her head it covers her entire head and she giggles. Maria smiles looking over.

"This is why I love coming home for Christmas . . . right before you leave town." Tony says with a annoyed huff.

"Be nice, dear, he's been studying abroad." Maria says softly. "Really, which broad? What's her name?" Howard says giving Tony a side glance as he's fixing the hat on Stella. Tony glares at him while Stella plays with Howard's tie ignoring this conversation.

"Candice" Tony responds with a smug look. "Do me a favor? Try not to burn the house down before Monday." Howard says as he walks towards the front door Maria following.

"Okay, so it's Monday. That is good to know. I will plan my toga party accordingly. Where you going?" Tony asks losing his smug look on his face showing genuine curiosity.

"Your father's flying us to the Bahamas for a little getaway." Maria says fixing Stella's shoes on her feet while Howard holds her. Stella can't help but giggle happily. "We might have to make a quick stop." Howard says holding Stella on his hip better after Maria finished.

"At the Pentagon. Right? Don't worry, you're gonna love the holiday menu at the commissary" Tony jokes

"You know, they say sarcasm is a metric for potential. If that's true, you'll be a great man some day. I'll get the bags." Howard says as he hands Stella to Tony so she can say bye to him and walks off to go grab the bags.

Tony holds her softly on his hip and she looks up at him happily "Daddy why aren't you coming?" Stella asks curiously. "Sorry sweetie I plan to hang out with friends for a couple days and work on some things." Ask he says that we hear Howard scoff in the distance

"He does miss you when you are not here. And frankly, you're going to miss us. Because this is the last time we're all going to be together. You know what's about to happen. Say something. If you don't, you'll regret it." Maria says softly and places her hand on his cheek rubbing his cheek softly before softly taking Stella from his arms.

Howard walks back in with the bags and sets them by the door. "Again Don't burn the house say bye we're heading out." Howard says taking their bags to the car. Maria turns to Tony and kisses his cheek softly. "We'll see you Monday. Promise to take care of yourself." She says softly

"I promise mom and take good care of Stella." He kisses her cheek then hugs both her and Stella then kisses Stella's forehead. "You be good for Grandma and annoy grandpa alright you Goober? I'll see ya Monday then we can wait for Santa to show up." He smiles at Stella happily. She smiles happily "Ok daddy!" She says giggling happily.

He watches Maria put Stella in her car seat in the back then get to the front seat and watches them drive off.

Hours have passed and Stella is fast asleep in the back of the car.

"Howard when we get back please try and speak to your son.. before you regret it." She says softly and holds his hand "You know he has always looked up to you and wants to have a better relationship with you.."

"I know I give him a hard time cause I know he can do great things. I'll speak to him when we get back." He smiles at her softly

"You know Stella is becoming very smart and will wonder what's going on between you two. I don't want her to have to choose between her dad and her grandpa." She says softly looking back at the sleeping Stella. He smiles in the rear view mirror looking at Stella. "She is very smart. I'll do what I can to fix things." He says with a sigh as he notices a bike's high beams on behind them but thinks nothing of it.

Slowly the high beam comes closer and all of a sudden there's a loud bang on the side of the car making it shake and Howard loses control of the car smashing it into a tree. Stella wakes up crying from the car seat going forward and the seatbelt digging into her skin.

Howard struggles to get out of the car and he sees a guy on a motorcycle walking towards him. "Help my wife. Please. Help my Grandkid." Howard says struggling to stand as the Winter soldier grabs him by his hair.

"Sergeant Barnes?" Howard asks as he gets punched in the face. "Howard!" Maria screams out to him "Grandpa! Grandpa!!" Stella screams out crying as Winter punches his face in and drags him to the driver side placing him against the stirring wheel.

"Howard!" Maria cries out and is trying to move in pain as Winter walks over to her side and grabs her neck and starts to strangle her. She cries out. "Grandma! Leave grandma alone!" Stella cries and is trying to get her seatbelt off. "Stella run!" Maria struggles to say.

Stella gets the seatbelt off and quickly crawls to the other side of the door and struggles to opens it and when it does she falls out to the ground shaking her legs are wobbly from the crash. Winter finishes killing Maria and walks towards a crawling Stella only to see the camera up above on the light pole and shoots it out.

Stella screams and cries hearing the gun go off. Winter walks up and injects a syringe in her neck then walks to go grab the case from the trunk while Stella struggles to fight off the sleepiness. But eventually falls into darkness. Winter walks over and picks her up carefully holding her close as he attaches the case to the side of the the motorcycle and sits on it holding Stella close and driving off with one hand.

POV Tony

Was waiting at home for his parents and Stella to return he was building a new doll house for Stella she asked for a new one for Christmas so he decided to build her one.

I heard a knock at the front door and Jarvis answered the door. I ignore what's being said until. "This is important we need to speak to Mr. Stark." I lift my head up and go around the corner seeing two officers at the door. "Hi how can I help you two?" I ask curiously

"Mr. Stark I'm sorry to be the one to inform you but your parents died last night in a car crash." My eyes widen and I stare at them "W-what?" I ask quietly

"It seems that Mr. Howard swerved to avoid something and crashed into a tree they both died on impact." He says slowly and carefully as if I'll break. Wait they didn't mention Stella where is she is she ok? "Where's my daughter? Where's Stella? Is she at the hospital?.." I ask quickly and shaking scared at what happened to her.

"We don't know.. she was missing from the scene we could see the back door open in the car and crawling on the dirt so we assume she crawled away to find help but there was motorcycle tracks near the scene we believe someone found her and took her. We're searching local Hospitals we think whoever found her might've taken her to a hospital." I grip my fist thinking about my little girl is injured and missing or with a stranger hurting.

"Well please keep searching I need to know she's ok.." they nod and walk off I close the door and lean against it holding back tears. Please be alive little Goober...