Serendipity- T.S Daughter

03: Struggles and Parenting

Tony Stark is tired, sure being the CEO of a company as great as Stark Industries wasn't an easy task but nothing could compare to the hardest job he was facing right now.

Parenting

He had never pictured himself as a family man, being raised with one loving parent and an absent father had made him detached to the idea of him himself becoming one. He never expected that his short romance with one of the many women he had fooled around with would result in him becoming one.

To be honest with himself he didn't even know how he had managed the past 4 months on his own. Sure Pepper and Happy helped whenever they could but he never truly allowed them to help him full time, after all this was his responsibility and he couldn't just shove it into someone else. He was also able to work from home most of the time thanks to Obadiah who had taken his role and only showed up when he absolutely had to. But outside of that it was all him. He couldn't even recall the amount of teaching videos he had to watch to learn the basics of raising a child.

But none of those videos showed him how to handle this situation, dealing with your sick child.

Sharp cries echoed around his room as he carried his child out of her bathtub and placed her on his bed.

"It's okay peanut, you'll be okay" he comforted her softly as he dried her gently into new clothes.

The baby looked at him, face red in pain and moving in discomfort. Tony placed his hand against her forehead and glanced at the clock in his drawer .

"Jarvis how long does the medicine take to work?" Tony asked loudly as he rocked her in his arms

"Around 30 minutes sir" Jarvis answered back

Tony huffed, his hands shaking lightly in frustration feeling impotent at not being able to help with his child's pain.

Minutes passed with non stop cries and soft hushing in comfort. Slowly the cries turned into quiet hiccups.

"See? It's a little better" he reassured looking down at those tearful two colored eyes.

Tony hadn't even realized that he himself was crying. He wiped his eyes in surprise and looked down again. He was met with wide eyes dry of tears looking up at him in what a baby could express as concern.

Tony breathed out shakily as he placed his forehead gently against his daughters.

"I'm sorry peanut, I know I suck at this" he whispered softly. He laughed softly as he received tiny smacks against his face.

"You don't like me talking bad about myself?" He asked teasingly as he received babbles in response

At times like this, as he struggled with a crying baby with a fever he truly wished his mom was there to help him. Maria Stark had been his pillar of strength in his life, she had been there every second that he needed her and now her being gone was still a hard concept to accept.

"I wish you had met your grandma, she was amazing and she would have loved you, that's why I named you after her" he said softly as he remembered that loving woman he had once called mom

"She used to get mad at me for skipping classes, for miss-behaving but deep down she knew why I did it, why I acted like I did, whose attention I was desperately trying to get" he said gently

"But when I didn't get it she always focused on me, made me know she loved me and that I wasn't alone even when it felt like I was" he said playing with those tiny fingers that clung to his hand

"But you know what? I think she would be proud of me, she always was" he confessed tearfully as he held his baby closer and pressed a kiss into her forehead

"I love you" he whispered and smiled himself at receiving a smile in return