His Joy {Peter Parker X Stark's Daughter}

{Josie meets Obadiah}

February 7 2008

When Josie got home, she told Pepper that she was going to bed. She was physically drained from dance and emotionally drained from everything that had happened. She lay in bed, staring into the darkness. She'd been trying to sleep for two hours, but she couldn't stop thinking about her dad.

Where is he? Is he okay? Is he even alive? Will she ever see him again?

The thoughts raced around her mind. As much as she tried to ignore them, they just kept coming back.

After a while, she couldn't take it anymore. She wrapped her fluffy blanket around herself and trudged to Tony's room. The bed was made and the room was neat and tidy, apart from a small pile of clean washing folded on the bed. She sat down on his bed and picked up one of the shirts. She laid down and held onto the shirt, just staring at the ceiling. At some point, she must have fallen asleep, because she woke up in the morning, still in her dad's room.

For the next few weeks, she just couldn't sleep in her own room. Pepper and Happy were worried about her, she wouldn't go to school, and unless it was necessary, she wouldn't really socialise.

A couple of months after the disappearance, Josie is sat in Tony's room, watching a film on his flat-screen, when there's gentle knock at the door. It slowly slides open, and Pepper comes in.

"Hey, sweetheart.", Pepper smiles sadly, sitting down next to Josie.

"Hey.", Josie says, quietly.

"Obadiah's downstairs, he wants to speak with you.", she says.

"Okay.", Josie nods, then gets up to leave.

"Josie,", Pepper calls after her, "you can talk to me if you need to, you know that, right?"

"Thanks, Pep.", Josie manages to muster a weak smile.

Pepper stands up and walks just behind Josie, as they both head downstairs. Obadiah is stood, staring out the window, at the sea.

"Joy! There you are!", he exclaims, as Josie came downstairs.

She visibly grimaces, only her dad gets to call her Joy, "It's Josie."

Obadiah chuckles awkwardly, then walks over to the girl, "I need to talk to you about the future of Stark Industries."

"Shouldn't you discuss this with my dad, when he gets back?", she asks.

"Sweetheart, it's been two months without a sign he's still ali-", he stops himself, "Do you want to run Stark Industries one day?", he crouches in front of her and puts his hand on her shoulder.

"No. Not really. That's Daddy's job.", she tells him, shoving his hand off her shoulder. She's never like Obadiah, he gives her the creeps. Tony always gets mad at her for being rude to him.

"Well then, you might need to sign your position as CEO over to me.", he says.

"Obadiah, is this really appropriate right now?", Pepper asks, glaring at him.

"My dad is the CEO, not me.", Josie declares.

"Sweetheart, we need to start thinking realistically.", says Obadiah.

"No, he's coming back. He's alive, he's coming back and everything is going to go back to normal!", she yells, then storms up the stairs, back to Tony's room, "And stop calling me sweetheart!", she shouts behind her.

Josie was right about most of that. Tony is coming back. Tony is alive. And Obadiah should stop calling her sweetheart- it's weird. The one thing she got wrong, was that things would go back to normal. Things would never be normal again for the Starks. Ever.