Bruised (Irondad)

2

It was another two days before they heard anything.

Pepper and Tony had kept the news to themselves with the exception of Happy and Rhodey, they deserved to know. They both remembered Leila too, they were there the night that her and Tony met at a party, they were there when she arrived at the door, five months pregnant.

They'd thought she looked big for five months, but what did they know about babies and pregnancy? Zilch. So they stayed out of it.

Now they know.

"Tony!" Pepper shouts, her heels clacking against the floor, picking up pace as she quickens into a slight run.

The man in question notes her panic and doesn't like the uneasiness that comes with it as her flustered form appears in the doorway.

"Tony I've just been on the phone to social we need to go" she leans against the wall to catch her breath and he stands up abruptly.

"Go? Go where Pep? What's happening?" He walks towards her and places his hand on her shoulder.

"The twins, they um.." she pauses to take a deep breath "Gianna's been taken to hospital, I don't have many details but her mom was nowhere to be seen, we have to go".

In the car on the way there, Tony Stark feels as though he's suffering from both pre-parental panic and a fucking heart attack at the same time. She can't die before he's even met her, that's not fair, and then the weight of that would be heavy on his shoulders forever. But he's not ready, he was supposed to have at least a few hours to emotionally prepare before he met his daughter.

His daughter.

It doesn't feel right, he doesn't have a daughter. Except he does. He does have a daughter and she needs him.

He's never liked hospitals, it's even worse when he's there for someone he's deniably worried for. A small life form who's going to be reliant on him. His irritatingly clean shoes squeak against the just as polished floors, each step carrying him closer to his apparent fatherhood.

He isn't ready, but he doesn't have a choice. He might have the option to wait but Gianna doesn't, she doesn't get a say in any of this and it makes him feel awful. He wasn't there, he should've been. Who knows what kind of hell she's been through in the short five years of her life so far? Hell that he could have prevented.

Come on Tony, it's time to step up.

"She's stable" is the first thing the doctor tells him, an unfamiliar wave of relief washing of the somewhat new dad.

Knowing that the girl is at least not going to die is the best form of comfort he could ask for right now.

"She's awake but very teary, her stomach's been pumped so we wouldn't expect her to be at her best right now. We're looking at a suspected poisoning, though we can't be sure what the substance was yet until we get her bloods back".

Poisoning - his kid was poisoned.

Tony doesn't need to search very far down his list of suspects to make an educated guess at a culprit. That anger makes a reappearance in the unceremonious form of his reddening cheeks.

Pepper's hand covers her mouth, the horror of the situation setting in a little. She hadn't wanted to think about where the girl had been living, how she'd been treated, but here she doesn't have much of a choice.

"She's probably not up to meeting you right now, but if it means anything to you, you can see her through the window".

The concept is slightly laughable to the billionaire, he's going to watch a child through a window, but he doesn't laugh. He doesn't laugh because the first time he's going to see his child is through a window in a hospital whilst she cries because she just had fucking poison pumped out of her stomach. And he's so angry, oh he's so angry. He cannot wait to find whoever did this and kill them slowly.

But Tony Stark is not a dad, no, not at all, he just.. doesn't like child abuse. Yeah, that's it.

The knot in his stomach begs to differ, when he gets his first glimpse of copper waves. They tumble around the girl in soft locks, framing her tiny body. Boy is she tiny, the neglect is painfully obvious, from the cheekbones that kids that age shouldn't have to her stick-thin arms. She's absolutely tiny. Her cheeks and lips are tinted red from crying, her gentle eyes pooled with tears. She's connected to an iv, practically swimming in the hospital gown they've put her in.

The sight of her makes his heart drop, a lump form in his throat.

Come on Tony, don't be pathetic, don't cry.

The boy that bursts into the hall is almost a blessing, shocking him out of his sentimental state as the determined redhead pushes his way through the double doors and runs past the doctors and nurses littering the corridors.

Yeah, this kid is determined, and Tony Stark immediately knows who he is.

Multiple adults are chasing after him, but the five year old boy is on a mission, screaming the whole time.

"Моя сестра! Мне нужно быть с моей сестрой! Пожалуйста, она мне нужна".

Tony doesn't speak the language, but recognises Russian when he hears it. Natasha often speaks it when she's angry or just wants to piss someone off.

It takes him by surprise, he hadn't even considered the fact that the kids might not speak English, why would he? It was just a given, wasn't it? Now what?

"Gia!" The boy shouts as he reaches the right door. It's the only word that Tony's able to make out and understand.

The girl's head snaps up, her attention captured immediately as the door opens and her twin slips in.

Pepper and Tony watch in silence as he jumps up onto the bed and wraps his arms around her. They hug for ages, to the point where neither are sure whether they're ever going to let go or if this is a permanent arrangement. Either way, it's cute, as much as Tony wants to deny it.

It's absolutely adorable.