[𝟏] 𝐈𝐑𝐎𝐍 𝐃𝐀𝐔𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐄𝐑

𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗿: 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝗮𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗳𝗮𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿

three months later

CLAIRE WORKED NONSTOP within her father's lab, always working on her iron boots and making sure that they were in perfect condition. If she was going to save her father, she couldn't afford to have any mistakes with her iron boots. She spent day and night inside the lab for all hours, refusing to leave the lab for anything unless it was for the bathroom. Pepper would end up bringing her food down to the lab since Claire refused to leave, but the young genius would only take a few bites from it. In order to get her out of the house sometimes or as an attempt to try to take her minds off of her missing father, Happy Hogan would drive Claire to Burger King to get her a cheeseburger with fries

The lab was too quiet with just her. She missed hearing her father tinkering away on their inventions with her while the two listened to their rock music blaring loudly. She refused to think that her father could be dead, mainly because she didn't want to think about what would happen if he was dead.

Before he had left to search for her father, her godfather, Rhodey had stopped by to check on Pepper and Claire. That same day, he had knelt in front of his goddaughter and promised that he would find him and bring him home to her.

"Don't worry, sweetheart, I'll find your dad and bring him home."

His words remained in her head everyday, all day along. She knows he won't stop till he finds her but what her godfather didn't know was that Claire was working on her own little invention in order to help join the search for her father.

Obadiah Stane—Obie, as Claire knows him by, who was a lifelong family friend made his occasional stops every now and then to check on her to see how she was doing. Not only that but Obie managed to run Stark Industries as normal despite the heated alternations.

"Claire!" The sound of Pepper's voice is enough to lift Claire from her work as she looks over, spotting the woman as she hurriedly enter the lab after opening the glass doors. "They found him."

Claire felt her eyes widened in realization, suddenly feeling her throat dry as she swallowed. She bit the inside of her cheek as she didn't want to get her hopes up.

"Daddy?" She asked softly.

Pepper nodded, giving her a soft smile.

"Your father's coming home."

Claire stood on the airport runaway next to Pepper, anxiously bouncing up and down on her legs as she waited. She watched the US Air Force plane land in front of them and she holds herself back from running, trying so hard to contain her excitement at seeing her father after the three, long months. She held her breath as the ramp slowly opened at the rear end of the aircraft.

The moment that Claire spotted him, she was no longer to contain herself and bolted, the seven-year-old racing to get to her father as she didn't want to waste another second. Rhodey stood beside Tony, letting his best friend lean on him for support and started down the ramp slowly. He let Tony go the moment the two stood on the tarmac, awaiting the hug from Claire that he knows Tony's been waiting for the entire flight back. Rhodey watches as Tony fells to his knees, catching his daughter as Claire collided into his chest and he wrapped his good arm around his little girl.

"Daddy!" Claire cried out with relief, tears of joy burned her eyes but she blinked them back while she buried her face into his neck with her arms wrapped around his neck, clinging to him for as long as she could.