Secrets And A Spider

-21-

Sam tapped my arm, so I sat up, drying my eyes and watching my dad walk over to us. "Come on Toot, let's go for a walk." He said, holding out his hand. I took it and walked beside him, Ross watched us closely and Tony nodded as if to answer a question, "we can't go far, here, this way." He opened a door and I went inside, followed by him. There was a deadly silence as we both waited for the other to sit down, but our Stark stubbornness prevented us from doing so.

"Dad..." I went to try and start but he held out his hand for silence, "don't. I want to talk first." He paused, taking a deep breath. Tears brimmed my eyes and I just wanted to run, but I refused. "I don't know wether to be angry, or happy Riley. You make it difficult to keep you safe and out of trouble. You ran away to another country and then helped a criminal..."
"He didn't do it." I instantly cut him off.
"Riley, there's evidence."
"I was with him, this whole time." I stated, trying to clear my new uncle's name. "So there wasn't one moment where he went out of your sight? Not once?" At this I sighed, of course he had left me alone in the apartment, and my dad saw right through me.

"Riley, you're lucky they're giving me a chance to help you, if you weren't my daughter, this would be a lot worse for you." I looked away from him, unable to look and see how disappointed he was. "And what if Rhodey hadn't been there? You think the police would've just let you fly the suit here? They would've shot at you and done only God knows what, to get you out of that thing! I could've lost you!" I winced as he raised his voice, it wasn't often he got genuinely angry at me, and I hated every second of it. I couldn't help but cry, I no longer cared that he was watching my every move, I couldn't hold it in.

"No, baby girl. Please don't cry, I don't want to see you upset Riley." As he spoke he came closer, wrapping his arms around me and squeezing. "I just wish none of this ever happened, I wish I could go back to when we didn't argue. When all we did was mess about and build things together, the days when we'd go out with Pepper and just have fun..." I trailed of as I noticed that, he too, was crying. "Dad?" I pulled back, looking at him. "I do too, I'm sorry Riley. I'm so sorry." As he apologised, I noticed something else, "what happened? What's going on?" I asked, making him look me in the eyes, "We're on a break, me and Pepper. I was struggling to keep you safe, and I didn't want to risk her too. It was mutual, she wanted me to focus on us, my daughter."

I went to speak, but the room fell dark, and an alarm sounded. I looked at my dad, "stay close!" He ordered and we ran. He pointed to the office, then went the opposite way, set on finding the source of the outage. "Sub level five. East wing." Was all Sharon said, and Sam dragged me behind him as we ran out of the room and down the stairs.

"We need to get to him." Steve cried as I struggled to keep up, "we will, I promise." I replied, as we slowed and walked around a corner. Soldiers lay everywhere, all unconscious. Then Steve marched over to the interrogator, he was pissed. I leant on the wall in the previous room, catching my breath, I had just kept up with two grown men, who had training in this stuff, plus one of them was a super soldier. That's when I heard the crash of Bucky's metal fist making contact with the wall. He then continued to pick up Sam and launch him into the holding cell.  Steve let go of the imposter, fighting against Bucky and getting closer to me. "Move!" He shouted and I ducked under a table, watching the fight. Then Steve was pushed down the lift. As Bucky walked away I ran over, looking down I saw Steve give me a nod, "go, please." He begged. Only then did I see how much he truly cared, so I ran after the Winter Soldier.

I ran upstairs and found everyone fighting, but losing to Bucky, my dad was sneaking up when he spotted me. "You're in so much trouble young lady!" He whispered, standing behind a pillar. "I don't care, the interrogator, he did something to mess with Bucky's head..."
"Shut up! Stay here." He said before equipping his new gadget, (a suit hand with an EMP pulse installed) and walking towards Bucky. He didn't last long and I screamed as he was knocked to the ground, then Carter appeared, but she too lost. I continued watching as Nat ran in, she could do this, she had to be able to. But no, Nat was being choked, only to be saved by T'challa. They fought up the stairs and I took it as my chance to run in, pushing T'challa to the wall and causing him to bash his head. Bucky looked at me, I just stared back and he turned, almost like he was grateful, before walking away. By the time the King recovered and we got downstairs, he was gone. Steve arrived, "the roof." I mouthed and he legged it whilst I ran away, my only chance now was to get to Sam.