Wee Little Stark

chapter 1

Returning his focus to the little girl, Rhodey kneeled down so that he was no longer towering over her. He smiled to himself slightly at the little huffing noises she made as she struggled to climb the sofa. She was too damn cute. After another minute of watching the stubborn little girl, she finally made her way onto the cushions and sat up and looked patiently at Rhodey. Mentally giving himself a shake, he was determined to handle this like the proper grown-ass man he was and figure out what the hell was happening. Taking a deep breath, Rhodey engaged the girl.

"What was that, sweetheart?"

"I'm two! Not three, silly," She smiled, her chubby cheeks flushed from her exertion, "I got Jeffrey for my birthday! See?" She thrusted the stuffed robot in front of her, smacking Rhodey in the face with it in her excitement.

Laughing, Rhodey gently pushed the robot out of his face and looked back to the energetic girl, "He's really neat, sweetheart. My name is Rhodey. What's your name?"

"Hi, Rhodey! I'm Darcy!"

"Why were you outside the door, Darcy?"

Darcy looked confused for a moment, before looking down at the forgotten envelope in the hand not clutching Jeffrey. "Momma's friend Dave said to give it to whoever answered the door and to stay with them," she then handed it to Rhodey, whose brow was furrowed in anger as he took it from her. The front of the envelope read Deliver to: Asshole Stark.

"He just left you by yourself? JARVIS?"

"From the security feeds, it appears that a car stopped about halfway down the street where a man exited and took Miss Darcy from the car, then pointed her in the direction of the mansion. The man returned to the car and drove off, and Miss Darcy walked the rest of the way here. I would have traced the car, but it was without proper license plates." Rhodey made a mental note to congratulate Tony later on his coding because the usually unflappable AI sounded very disapproving and a bit angry.

That thought stopped Rhodey cold. Shit, Tony. Tony whose house I am in. Tony who will be back soon. Where there is an abandoned toddler sitting on his couch. He's going to kill me. Rhodey sighed, and closed his eyes and tried to calm his nerves. He opened them again when Darcy spoke up.

"Is there a man in the ceiling?" she looked positively thrilled by the idea, and Rhodey couldn't help but chuckle at her enthusiasm.

"No, sweetheart, that's JARVIS. He's a really smart computer that my friend Tony made."

JARVIS took this moment to properly introduce himself, "Hello, Miss Darcy. As Mr. Rhodes has said, I am an Artificial Intelligence that oversees all of Sir's needs and looks after his protection."

Darcy looked up at the ceiling with awe and giggled a little, "JARVIS you're so cool! You can be friends with me. And Jeffrey! He's a robot too!" She then held up the plush robot to the ceiling, as if showing him off to his fellow robot.

"Thank you, Miss Darcy. I would be honored to have you, as well as Jeffrey as a friend. Us robots must stick together." Rhodey's eyebrows raised in shock. Not only was JARVIS preening at the little girl's praise, but he was good with the kid. What the hell did you program, Tony?

Deciding that the two new friends could get to know one another, Rhodey turned to the envelope in his hand as the AI and toddler chatted in the background. Tearing it open, he found three folded up letters. The first was short, crumpled, and in a horribly messy scrawl.

Hey Asshole Stark,

The kid is yours. You knocked up my ex-girlfriend. She kept the kid. She got in a car crash a couple days ago. Cops gave the kid to me because that's what Cheryl wrote down or some shit. Apparently she was planning on trying to contact you about the kid. So here's your kid. Cheryl left a letter for you.