Leah Stark - The Unknown Child

1.04.0

Trigger Warning - Mentions if physical abuse and scars.

1 month later
Tony's POV

Leah had been living with me and the other avengers for a month now. She had met practically everyone apart from Thor and Loki who were in Asgard. She got on well with Nat and Clint particularly, but Steve was an obstacle for her with his strange ways of doing thing that pissed her off.
I was working in my office when FRIDAY pinged me.
"Sir, I have found all information regarding Leah. I have placed it in your computer to read and encrypted the file so it cannot be read by external sources." The computer said.
I nodded, turning to the computer and opening the document.

Leah Darcy Jones
Age: 15
Parent(s): Elizabeth Jones (deceased) and unknown father
Guardian(s) : Oliver Lukas ( mother's husband)

I read through the file, learning the kid hadn't even been reported missing by her stepfather, but by her teacher. It informed me that according to people who lived in her hometown said that she had been enrolled in an elite boarding school, but when looking at records, no such enrollment had been made.
I learned social services had been over several times but had never found any signs of abuse. It made me furious that "no signs of abuse" had been found when we had found it within seconds of finding her! I suppose that's what happens when you have the best doctors in the country. I thought trying to remain calm.
I learned how her mother was murdered and no one had found out who it was. I sure as hell had a few ideas. Her life was tragic. No one took care of her and she was never taken into the right care. The abuse. The terrible life in the streets. I couldn't even begin to imagine it.
I closed the document and the computer. I couldn't look at it anymore.
I walked out of the lab to the kitchen to get a drink. Natasha and Clint were sitting with Leah, showing her knives and how to hold them properly when throwing them.
"Oi!" I shouted, startling the trio. "You are not teaching the kid to throw knives here! Go to the training room for God's sake."
They smiled at me like three naughty kids who had just gotten away with a prank. "Leah!" I called before she got the chance to leave. She turned her head quickly towards me, bouncing on the spot wanting to head off with Nat and Birdbrain. "Can we have a quick talk?" I said

Leah's POV
I sighed as I walked over to Tony. I really wanted to learn how to throw knives like Natasha, or the Red as I called her. I sat on the counter as Tony poured us both a glass of water.
"I looked into you." He said bluntly. "I didn't look into everything like your favourite breed of dog obviously, just where you cane from and whose supposed to be looking out for you." I sat their stunned. It shocked me that Tony would even do something like that.
"The man your mother was married to, he did that to you, didn't he?"
I looked at the tips of my shoes before nodding slightly. I didn't want to talk. He couldn't make me, but he knew. He knew about what had happened.
"Did he also hurt your mother?"
Another nod.
"He was the one who killed her, wasn't he?"
A tear leaked from my eye. I jumped off the stool and ran toward Tony, hugging him before bursting into full sobs. He hugged me back, calming me down and saying everything was going to be alright. But it wasn't. Mum was gone and that was the first time I'd admitted it to myself. It was also the first time I realised that that man, no that monster who called himself Oliver, didn't kill her on accident. He did it because he could.
"I-I d-d-d-don't wanna g-g-go back Mr Stark." I said in between sobs. "He killed mummy. He killed her and didn't even care. He wanted to kill me to. B-b-but I'd called an ambulance and he had to hide the knife. He pretended that someone broke in. He told me to pretend to. I-I-I had to or he'd hurt me worse, like when he was really mad."
I lifted my shirt to show Tony the cuts. "He did them all. Mummy used to stitch them up, but when she was killed, I had to do it myself." I pointed at the largest scar. It was the deepest and caused the most pain. "That one was the one he did last before I ran." I said almost monotone, but the weakness still came out.

Tony's POV
I was shocked at what she'd just told me. He stabbed her that much. She ran away when she was ten. She sew that up when she was ten. She'd been stabbed before that too. Anger flooded my gains, but I couldn't let it show. I wrapped my arms around the girl.
"I'm so sorry that anyone let that happen to you. I promise you won't ever see him again as long as I live." I whispered into her ear.
She hugged me back. "Thank you"