In order to rise from the ashes, the phoenix first must burn.
Elliott Stark was not important. In a lineage of geniuses and billionaires, she was known only as the illegitimate daughter of the most successful Stark; no more than a footnote...
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home of tony stark. dec 24, 1998
The time after Elliott's arrival could only be described as chaos. Complete and utter chaos.
Within two weeks, her room had been furnished and painted an abominable shade of pink, lovingly named 'bunny.' Pepper had taken the girl shopping for clothes a few days in, and had luckily dodged all but one of the cameras waiting to stalk them.
Despite all the hubbub, she adjusted quite nicely.
Elliott had also visited a few doctors since she'd been let out of the hospital, just to make sure that things were still alright. They'd told him that her lack of memories was a result of dissociation; her brain's way of protecting herself from whatever trauma she had endured before.
She could still remember a great deal of things; she could recall the layout of the apartment she'd lived in nearly exactly, and bumbles some nonsense about her preschool friends and the late uncle after which she'd been named. She could describe a few details about her mother, and her appearance. But aside from looks, Elliott remembered nothing about the woman that had been raising her.
They asked if she'd ever been hit, or yelled at, or locked away, or had anything thrown at her. But the girl's answer but was always the same; I don't know.
Eventually, it was concluded by three different specialists that it didn't seem as though she would be recovering any of the deeply suppressed memories anytime soon. So, they moved on with their lives.
Tony took off work to bond with his daughter, leaving Obadiah Stane in temporary control of Stark Industries. And it seemed that his efforts worked; as the days went by, the girl warmed up more and more to him, and the more time Tony spent with her, the more he began to doubt that he would ever want to live without her again.
If Maya Hansen ever dared to show her face around them again, he was ready to put up a fight.
Less than two months after Elliott's arrival, Christmas rolled around. And for the first time since his own childhood, Tony was genuinely looking forward to the holiday, and everything that it entailed. Decorations, gifts, sweets, snow — the whole shebang.
