The Devil Within

2

                                                        A YEAR LATER...

"You can't be serious Nick! He's not fit to look after a child, especially one with her background!" Maria yells at Fury.

"That is why I'm having Romanoff go in undercover to keep an eye on her and to see if Stark is a good fit for the initiative," Fury explains holding his hands up.

"What if something goes wrong when she's not around? Or..or she isn't happy there and runs off? What if he-"

"Natasha will be there and so will Pepper Potts, neither of them will let anything happen to her. Potts can handle it, okay? I know you've come to care for her but she's better off in an actual home."

"Yeah. Yeah, okay. I just... I don't want anything bad to happen to her and not be able to be there for her." Maria stammers pulling at her hair.

"We can make sure she has a phone with both of our numbers for emergencies and Romanoff will have weekly reports that we can go over," Fury assures.

"Alright, I wanna have a talk with Potts though."

                                                   TWO DAYS LATER...

"Joseline, this is Tony Stark, he's gonna be looking after you indefinitely and his assistant Pepper Potts," Nick introduces me to.

Tony Stark seems about 6'1, has black hair and goatee, with brown eyes, and looks to be about 40. Pepper Potts is a ginger with freckles littered all over her face, green eyes and is roughly 5'9, maybe 35.

"What's up, kid?" Tony greets, "Favorite movie, go!"

"Tony, she's 11, its probably a Disney movie. You haven't seen a single one," Pepper says giving him an exaggerated look.

I look at both of them confused, taking another step towards Ria, hiding slightly behind her. "What's a  Disney movie?" I whisper to Ria, both tony and pepper look at each other and then me. 

"You don't know what a Disney movie is?" Tony asks flabbergasted, I shake my head. "Well I know what our first bonding activity is then."

Nick snickers at this, "Nothing too bad, we think she may have PTSD from her past." Tony nods at this, "Peps, look up some kid movies that she might like. Anything else I should know?"

"Everything to know is in this file, you need to read this as soon as possible. Until then keep her out of public and avoid loud noises. Oh, this is her phone shell need to learn how to use it, it has both me and Hill's numbers on it for emergencies."

"Alright, got it," Tony says motioning for Pepper to grab the file and phone from Nick, "Ill teach her how to use it tonight after we get pizza. Ever have pizza, Jo?"

"No," I answer slowly warming up to him.

"Well you're about to, ready to go?"

I nod as I look at Ria, she crouches down to my level, "I'm just a phone call away. Call whenever you want, okay?"

"Okay."

"Be good, Jose," she pulls me into a hug.

"I will try," I say with a small smile as we separate.

"See you soon, kiddo," Nick says with a smile that matches mine. I wave at him as I take Tony's outstretched hand.

Author's Note:  I've been struggling to get this written so this is what I got done. I'm gonna be busy the next few days but I usually write at night anyways, but school starts soon. Ill try to keep updating but no promises. I hope ya'll enjoy!

                                                                                                         Sincerely, Rai

Word count: 969