{Chapter One}
Two Hours Later
Malibu, California
Pepper Potts made her wat through the Malibu Mansion towards the stairs leading to her boss' workshop. She had been trying to get him to come up stair for the past ten minutes but the stubborn man had been ignoring her. With a huff, she opened the door and approached her boss.
"Mister Stark, you are needed elsewhere, hence why I have been telling you that for the past ten minutes."
"And I have been ignoring you for the past fifteen." The man replied not looking up at his assistant.
"I just got a call from NYPD. Tony, you're needed in New York." The woman sighed her voice full of concern finally catching her boss' attention.
New York-Presbyterian Hospital
Abby laid comfortably her cheek stained with tears she had cried after being told the news of her mother's death. It had been too late when her mother got to the hospital, she had been dead on arrival.
The young girl didn't even look up when she heard the door open and someone entered the room.
"Hi, Abby." A woman said from beside her. "I'm Doctor Turner, I'm a psychiatrist. I work with the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division. Have you heard of us before?"
"That's where my mom worked, before the cafe," Abby whispered, still not turning to look at the woman.
"Exactly. Now, I'm here to talk to you about where you're going now." Dr. Turner said finally making the girl look at her.
"I would like to go home now, please," Abby said in a small voice. Dr. Turner gave the girl a sad smile, realizing just how young she was.
"I know you would, sweetie, but I'm afraid that won't be happening."
"What is going to happen to me now, then?" Abby asked tears leaking out of the corner of her eyes.
"We've located you're father and he is coming to get you so you can stay with him." Abby looked at the woman for a second before turning away again. "You've got a while before you will be leaving, so why don't you try and get some sleep."
"I can't sleep. Hospitals have too many scared people in, I can hear their worries, I don't feel safe here. I can't sleep if I don't feel safe." Abby whispered.
"What do you mean you can hear their worries? Abby, are you having trouble with your... condition?" Dr. Turner asked obviously concerned.
"No, I'm okay. It's just when I'm in a place with lots of people things get through the wall. I'm okay."
Six Hours Later
78 Precinct, New York
Tony Stark and his assistant Pepper Potts entered the police precinct, not quite sure what they were doing there. They approached the front desk to ask why they were requested.
"Hi, can you help us-" Pepper was cut off by a woman stood beside them.
"Oh, my God. You're Tony Stark." She yelled wide-eyed.
"Yeah, I am," Tony smirked.
"Mister Stark?!" A voice called from the other side of the room. Tony and Pepper turned to see a woman approaching them. The woman before them had a polite smile on her face as she spoke, "Mister Stark, I'm Ms. Lewis. I need to talk to you about Sarah James. I believe I spoke to your assistant over the phone."
"Yes, that's me." Pepper held out her hand for the woman to shake while Tony simply stared at her.
"Please, follow me." The woman said leading them to a room where they could talk privately.
The three entered a room, it's usual purpose was for interrogations. Tony and Pepper sat across from the woman in slightly awkward silence.
"Mister Stark, you knew Sarah James, is that correct?" Ms. Lewis asked
"Uh, yeah, we grew up together. We started dating a few years back but we broke up when she got a job offer." Tony nodded.
"Have you seen or heard from her since then?"
"She moved away for her job and we kept in touch for about three months but since then we haven't seen each other. Why do I feel like I am being interrogated?"
"Sarah James died nine hours ago, in a hit and run car crash." Ms. Lewis informed them.
Tony was shocked into silence. He remembered how much he had cared about Sarah. She is the only woman he had been completely committed to. He felt like she was the person he could spend the rest of his life with but when she got a job offer he knew he couldn't stand in her way.
"I work with the Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement and Logistics Division. I work to keep the children of our agents safe if anything is to happen to one of their parents." Ms. Lewis explained.
"Whoa, wait for a second, children. Why are we talking about children?" Tony asked beginning to panic.
"Mister Stark, Sarah has an eight-year-old daughter. Your daughter."
"That's not possible. I- I mean, Sarah would have told me. She... Uh... She would have told me., Tony stuttered.
"Mister Stark, you have a daughter. A little girl who has no family but you." Ms. Lewis assured him.
"Uhh.. Where is she?" Tony asked.
"She was taken to New York-Presbyterian Hospital after the accident. She's fine, she just had a head injury but it doesn't seem to have done any serious damage. We sent a psychiatrist to talk to her in hopes of helping her understand the loss of her mother." Ms. Lewis explained.
Tony sat in silence, not knowing what to say or how to act. Ms. Lewis sat patiently allowing the news to sink in.
"Can we see her?" Pepper asked when she realized that Tony wasn't going to talk.
"There is one other thing. Your daughter was born with a condition. She inherited it from her mother. It makes her different, to most eight-year-olds." Ms. Lewis began.
"What do you mean by condition?" Tony asked looking up.
"It less of a condition and more of a mutation. She was born with abilities. When she was young her mother found a way to damper them to help her sleep at night but as she grows the damper will become less effective."
"What do you mean by abilities?" Pepper inquired.
"She can move things without touching them, she can feel and understand what others are feeling without talking or touching them, she doesn't even need to be near them." Tony stared at the woman in front of him feeling as though the air had been knocked out of him. "So now you know everything, would you like to see your daughter, Mister Stark?"
"What's her name?" Tony asked.
"Excuse me?"
"Her name. You've been calling her 'your daughter' and 'she' but you never actually told us her name."
"Abigail Maria James-Stark."
New York-Presbyterian Hospital
Abby sat in the hospital bed tying her shoes. Doctor Turner had just been in to tell her that her father was on the way. Abby had never met her father, she never really asked her mother about him either. Though she was a curious girl Abby loved her life with her mother and didn't want to change it so she never really saw the point in a father.
The small girl looked up when the door opened revealing Doctor Turner carrying a stuffed lion.
"You ready?" The doctor asked earning a small short nod from the girl. "Okay, before we go I wanted to give you something. I thought you could keep this lion so that you know where ever you are you're safe. As long as you have that lion nothing can touch you do you, understand?"
"Yes." Abby nodded taking the lion from the woman. With that, the two made their way out of the hospital to the parking lot. The closer they got to the parking lot the tighter Abby's grip was on the woman's hand.
When they reached the parking lot they saw Tony and Pepper stood with Ms. Lewis in front of a black car. The two walked towards Abby blocking herself from view behind Doctor Turner.
"Hello, I'm Doctor Turner." The psychiatrist said shaking hands with Pepper and Tony. "This is Abby."
The doctor stepped to the side allowing the adults to get a full view of the child. Pepper looked down at the girl with a small smile, she could see the resemblance between the father and daughter straight away. Tony saw Sarah. The young girl looked up at him with the big frightened eyes that looked exactly like her mother's.
"Abby, this is Ms. Lewis your social worker. And this is your father Tony Stark and his assistant Pepper Potts." Doctor Turner introduced.
"Hello." The young girl whispered in a shaky voice causing the adults to smile down at her.
"I'm going to have a quick talk with them, why don't you wait in the car?" The instant the woman said the word 'car' the girl stiffened. Anyone could have see the clear fear on her face as she glanced at the black car behind Mister Stark and Ms. Potts. She slowly turned to the doctor her lip quivering.
"I want to go home now, please." She said tears spilling from her eyes. Doctor Turner got down to her level with a small smile.
"You know you can't go back there, sweetie. You're going to a new home now."
"The car flipped. I couldn't pull her out. I didn't want to hurt her." The little girl muttered the tears still falling freely down her rosy cheeks. This had happened multiple times, when she became scared or panicked she would begin to repeat the words she had spoken after the accident as if she was reliving it.
"I know, and that is okay. You're safe now." The woman said pulling the girl closer. She looked up to see the girl's father watching in concern. "Have you got an iPod?" The doctor questioned him in a hushed voice.
The man reached into his pocket and pulled out an iPod connected to earphones handing them to the doctor.
"Okay, Abby. I want you to listen to this music and focus on it, do you understand?" The doctor asked putting the earphones into the girl's dainty ears.
"Yes." Abby nodded.
"Good. Now when you get into the car, close your eyes, and focus on the music, don't open them until your told to." The doctor instructed.
"Okay." The dicots pressed play on the iPod and Abby made her way to the car. Once her small figure had disappeared the doctor stood and faced the conceded adults.
"Abby is struggling with her mother's death. She's asked four times to go home, but I don't think that is what she really needs. She told me she can't sleep if she doesn't feel safe, so I believe home is anywhere she feels safe. That could be her apartment, her school, or her mother's cafe. But at the moment it isn't a car. She's been through a lot and will most likely start showing signs of PTSD, but as long as you become her safe place she will be fine." The doctor evaluated.
"Become her safe place? How do we do that?" Tony asked.
"You just sit with her. Right now any source of comfort is safe to her. She's a good kid and will trust you easily enough. If she can sleep in your presence then she probably trusts you. She may struggle with sleeping the whole night, but you just have to make sure she knows you're there."
"We'll come and check up on you both every now and the, but from what I can see she is in fine hands. Congratulations, Mister Stark, it's a girl." Ms. Lewis chuckled as she and Doctor Turner turned to leave.
Tony and Pepper made their way to the car, taking seats at either side of the petite girl, trying not to disturb her.
They had been driving for an hour when Pepper got Tony's attention.
"Tony." She whispered, causing her boss to look up, "She's sleeping."
Tony looked down to see that Abby, his daughter was sleeping her head resting against his arm, the music playing in her ears.
"So she is."