May 26 2010
Tony didn't come back home until the afternoon the next day, so Josie was left with J.A.R.V.I.S as her babysitter. Not that she really minded, she liked talking to J.A.R.V.I.S, just asking him random questions and seeing if she could catch him out and ask him a question he didn't know the answer to (it never worked). All day, she wandered around, without so much as a phone call from Tony. The idea came to her that maybe she should pretend she wasn't in when he came back, but she quickly realized that was a bit cruel. So, right now, when she hears the car pull up outside, she settles for just going into his workshop and acting like she's been hanging out there all day. Knowing there's been an unsupervised eight-year-old in his workshop all day will be enough to put him off leaving her home alone for so long ever again.
"Jellybean! I'm home!", Tony calls, as he walks through the front door. Josie doesn't reply, just knocks some stuff off his desk, causing a loud clattering noise, "Jellybean?", he rushes to the lab.
"Nice of you to come back home, finally.", she says, raising her eyebrows.
"Sorry, I had to go to court.", he says, casually, "Have you been wrecking my lab?", he asks, looking at the spanners and screws she's tossed all over the floor.
"Yeah. I smashed everything.", she lies.
He rolls his eyes, "Maybe don't do that again."
"Maybe don't leave me home alone for two days again."
"One and a half.", he corrects.
"Why were you even in court?", she asks.
He walks over to pour himself some chlorophyll, "They were trying to take my suits. They can't, obviously, but they wanted to."
"What? Why?", she's suddenly very interested.
"Because they think I could present a threat, they even roped Rhodey in to prove their point. Still didn't work, the 'weapons expert' they brought in was Justin Hammer, so that was quite an easy win."
Josie pulls a face at the mention of Justin, she's had more interactions with him than she'd like. From award ceremonies to fancy restaurants, he was always there. That might be the one upside to Tony not letting her be seen in public, she doesn't have to ever see him again.
"Justin Hammer? Now I'm glad I wasn't there."
"You missed me that much?", he chuckles.
"Never."
"Good, because Pepper and I are going to Monaco tomorrow."
She turns very serious, "No you're not. Not without me, you're not."
"Uh, I'm the adult, I say who gets to go on holiday and who doesn't."
"I refuse to be babysat by a robot ever again. J.A.R.V.I.S can't really stop people from breaking in or anything.", she reasons.
"He can call me and the police.", he says.
"You're in Europe, by the time you get here, I'll be kidnapped. And do you really want a bunch of random police officers coming into your home and seeing me? That is if they get here before kidnapped, is that what you want?", she asks, half-joking.
He narrows his eyes at her, "You really know how to tug on my heartstrings, don't you?"
"Well, I think everyone would rather not have their child kidnapped. So, can I come?"
"Let me think about that. Hm.", he doesn't pause to think, "Still a no."
At that moment, Pepper bursts in, "Is this a joke? What are you thinking?"
"What?"
"Dad, our conversation still isn't over.", she tells him.
"What are you thinking?", Pepper repeats.
"Hey, I'm thinking I'm busy and you're angry about something. Do you have the sniffles? We don't want to get sick.", he walks over to some of his holograms.
"Don't bring me into this.", Josie walks over to the sofa.
"Did you just donate our entire modern art collection to the... to the..."
"Boy Scouts of America.", Tony tells her.
"Boy Scouts of America?"
"Yes, I'm just supporting Josie and her hobbies."
"I was in girl scouts three years ago, stop bringing me into this!", Josie says from the couch.
"Whatever, it's a worthwhile organization. I didn't physically check the crates, but, basically, yes. And it's not our collection, it's my collection. No offense."
"No, you know what? I think I'm actually entitled to say 'our' collection, considering the time I put in, over ten years, curating that.", Pepper argues.
"It was a tax write-off, I needed that."
"God, you two argue like a married couple.", Josie mumbles, then turns her attention back to her iPad, because, to an eight-year-old, Roblox is far more interesting than Tony and Pepper's incessant nattering.
"There's only about eight-thousand and eleven things that I really need to talk to you about.", Pepper says, frustrated.
"Dummy, hey. Stop spacing out. The Bridgeport's already machining that part.", he taps on Dum-E.
"The Expo is a gigantic waste of time.", Pepper continues trying to talk to him.
"I need you to wear a surgical mask until you're feeling better. Is that okay?"
"That's rude.", Pepper says.
"There's nothing more important to me than the Expo.", Tony tells her.
"Now that's rude.", Josie says.
"It's my primary point of concern. I don't know why you're...", Tony continues, ignoring Josie.
"The Expo is your ego gone crazy.", Pepper laughs.
Tony picks up a painting of Iron Man, "Wow. Look at that. That's modern art. That's going up."
"Oh, you've got to be kidding."
"I'm gonna put this up right now. This is vital.", he declares, looking around for somewhere to hang it.
"Stark is in complete disaray.", Pepper says, "You understand that?"
"Why is it so... No. Our stocks have never been higher."
"Yes, from a managerial standpoint. You are..."
He cuts her off, "Well if it's messy, let's double-back,"
"Let me give you an example."
"Let's move onto another subject."
"Oh, no, no, no, no. You are not taking down the Barnett Newman and hanging that up!", Pepper yells.
Tony knocks loads of things off the counter, then climbs up onto it, "I'm not taking it down, I'm just replacing it with this. Let's see what I can get going here."
"Okay, fine. My point is, we have already awarded contracts to the wind farm people..."
"Don't say wind farm, I'm already feeling gassy."
"Ew.", says Josie.
"... and to the plastic plantation tree, which was your idea, by the way. Those people are on payroll..."
"Everything was my idea.", Tony says.
"...and you won't make a decision."
"I don't care about the liberal agenda anymore. It's boring. Boring. I'm giving you a boring alert.", he jumps down off the counter, "You do it."
"I do what?"
"Excellent idea, I just figured this out, you run the company.", he says.
"Yeah, I'm trying to run the company."
"Pepper, I need you to run the company. Well, stop trying to do it and do it."
"You will not give me the information..."
"I'm not asking you to try, I'm asking you to physically do it. I need you to do it."
"I am trying to do it!", she yells.
"Pepper, you're not listening to me! I'm trying to make you CEO!", he announces, "Why won't you let me?"
"Have you been drinking?", she asks.
"Uh, chlorophyll.", he answers, truthfully, "I hereby, irrevocably appoint you chairman and CEO of Stark Industries, effective immediately. Yeah, done deal. Okay?", he walks over to a bottle of champagne with two glasses, "I've actually given this a fair amount of thought, believe it or not. Doing a bit of headhunting, so to speak, trying to figure out who a worthy successor would be. And then I realized, it's you. It's always been you. I thought there'd be a legal issue, but actually, I'm capable of appointing my successor. My successor being you. I mean, hopefully, you'll give it to Josie when you step down, but it's a lot of pressure on an eight-year-old, running a company and trying to finish second grade. So... Congratulations?", he offers Pepper a glass of champagne. She sits there, in a state of shock, "Take it, just take it."
"I don't know what to think.", she smiles.
"Don't think, drink.", he says, she laughs as they clink glasses, "There you go."
"Congrats, CEO.", Josie grins.