"I'm missing the dance," Jessie groaned as she looked at the billions of text messages she had gotten from Liz.
Tony scoffed. "You really want to go to a sweaty party filled with a bunch of kids who spike punch and vote for the prettiest princess in all the land?"
"Yes," Jessie said shortly. "Yes I do." Tony sighed.
"Look, JT, I'm not trying to keep you from being a kid..."
"Oh, really? That's what it seems like to me," She gestured to the science lab that Tony asked her to meet him in so they could run tests on her brain activity when she was using her powers.
Tony clenched his jaw and went silent. He was sitting across the room from her when he decided to push his rolling chair
toward her so he could talk to her in a serious manner. "Jess, I don't want anything to happen to you. I don't want something bad to happen to the kid either. Can't you see I'm just...I'm just trying to keep you both safe," He explained to her but she shook her head.
"You're not my father," She mentioned and he quickly retorted.
"And you're not my daughter, but hell if I have learned anything from the time I've spent with you..." He sighed, trying to control his temper. "It's that you remind me of me. And I'm starting to remind myself of my father."
Jessie stayed quiet as Tony was looking down at the ground in a manner that the girl was not used to.
"I may not be your father," He said softly. "But...someone has to be or you're gonna keep putting yourself in danger and I can't be responsible for you getting hurt because I..."
"You what?" Jessie asked as he choked on his words. She could tell this was hard for him, but whatever he needed to say was what she needed to here. She wanted him to say it.
"I...I care...about...you," He said and coughed as if he needed to clear his throat from something. He started to air his shirt out when he asked, "Is it hot in here to you?" But he couldn't say anything else after that because Jessie engulfed him into a huge hug.
"I know we don't do this, but...please just let me," She said into his shoulder and he sighed before wrapping his arms around her back. He had never felt so willing to protect someone since Pepper and all he could think about was how this was so out of place for him.
But another thing plagued his mind as Jessie hugged him and he hugged her back. The same thing plagued Jessie's mind as she had her arms wrapped around Tony's neck.
They both felt comfortable holding each other, as if this one hug resolved a lot of tension between the two of them.
Jessie pulled away first and quickly sat back in her chair. "Um, so the tests," She cleared her throat and pointed to the scanner and Tony looked down at the ground in deep thought. "Uh, Tony?"
"Um, yeah," He snapped back up to look at her. "Actually, I have a better idea."
-
"What are we doing in here?" Jessie asked as Tony took her to a part of the building she had never seen before. He led her into a room that had racks upon racks of dresses and Pepper turned greet them with a huge grin.
"I figured you might still want to catch the dance. Or not, we could also go back to the lab and run some more.."
"No!" He stopped talking abruptly when she interjected and she laughed uneasily. "I mean, thank you! For...all of this," She motioned to the room. "Are you going to stay to help me pick out a dress?"
"Oh, you don't want me here for that," He said awkwardly and shook his head. Pepper watched the interaction until she couldn't help it anymore.
"Of course she does. Besides, I'm going to need help judging which dress looks the best on her," She took Tony's hand and flashed him a pleading look before he rolled his eyes and nodded.
Pepper squealed and motioned for Jessie to follow her. They ran along the stacks of dresses pulling out each one Jessie favored. They were finally down to five dresses when Tony was getting impatient and bagged at them to hurry up.
Jessie places the first one on which was a green float dress that reached just above her knees. As soon as she walked out from behind the curtain, she noticed the pained look on Tony's face and Pepper looked amused.
"Is it bad?" She asked them.
"Uh, I mean, maybe not.." Pepper started.
"It's horrendous! Go change!" Tony ordered and Jessie stifled a laugh before running back behind the curtain.
She tried on two more which were rejected by Tony and slightly rejected by Pepper. When she reached the fourth dress, she walked out feeling more confident in this one. It was a red dress with silky fabric that flowed down just past her knees and had a sweet heart neckline which didn't dip down too low and accentuated her features perfectly.
"Wow, Jess," Pepper places her hands up to her mouth and her face went pink as if she were holding back tears.
"Yep, I'm pretty sure that's the one," Tony said after seeing Jessie and then glancing at Pepper's tearful eyes. "My work here..." He stood up from his seat and brushed off his pants. "...is done."
He started to walk out when Jessie stopped him. "Hey, wait. Um, thanks...for all of this and um..."
He sent her a wink and a small smile before walking out the room and Pepper stood up from the couch to examine Jessie in the dress from a closer view.
"Oh, this is perfect. Peter will freak when he sees you in this," Pepper said excitedly. "Are you going to head out soon?"
"Not quite yet. There's something I have to do first."
-
Jessie had changed out of her dress and back into her training clothes and placed the dress on a hanger in her room.
"Miss Tanner, Mr. Rhodes has arrived as requested," JARVIS said through the intercom and Jessie smiled to herself knowingly.
"Thank you, JARVIS. Please let him know that I will be down in a minute," She responded and JARVIS replied with a short "Of course, Miss Tanner."
Jessie sent a quick text to Tony before heading down to the fifth floor to meet with Rhodey. As planned, Rhodes was standing in the lounge looking impatient and irritated.
Her phone buzzed with a text and she read it to see what Tony had responded with.
It's go time.
Jessie smirked and felt her feet lift from the ground. She propelled herself forward and when Rhodey saw something hurling toward him, he shouted as Jessie's arms shot under his own and she flew through the open window and dropped Rhodey.
He screamed as he fell to the ground and Jessie caught him a few feet before he made impact. She set him down and Rhodey wa a breathing heavily as he was kneeled on the ground.
"Damn it, Jess! You almost gave me a heart attack!" He said dramatically and Jessie knelt next to him.
"Pay back," She said simply.
"You know I actually did fall that day and hit the ground with enough impact to almost leave me dead, right?" He reminded her and she nodded.
"I did this to remind you that we are friends. Friends don't drop friends at heights that could kill them," She explained to him and he nodded.
"I'm sorry about what happened, Jessie. Truly. I wasn't thinking clearly with everything going on and you know I'd never want to intentionally hurt you," He explained and Jessie nodded.
"I'm sorry, too. For making you relive that feeling of falling to your death. I just wanted to make sure you learned your lesson," She stood up and lent him her hand. He grabbed it and stood up himself.
"I'm sure I have. Hey, by the way, uh, how'd you manage to fly without Tony turning on the device?" He asked her and she smirked.
She lifted up her phone to call Tony and when he answered, he was already talking. "Hey! Did you do it? How was the look on his face? Was it funny?" He asked and Rhodey laughed sarcastically.
"Ha, ha, ha," Rhodey said sarcastically. "Very funny, Mr. Stank. I'll get you back next time you're here," He said through the phone and Tony laughed before ending the call.
"So, uh, what now?"
"Oh, that was all! You can go back home now. I have a dance to get to."