The Iron Woman

The Press Conference

A few weeks later things had gotten back to some sort of normal. Peter and I had started planning the wedding. He and Morgan had the most adorable brother-sister relationship. Pepper and Rhodey had grown to be even closer friends. Andy and Peter had started to become friends. Ned really liked him. Everything was great. I had a press conference that day so I was upstairs getting ready, and of course, Peter had to go and be Peter.

"Maya!"

"Yeah Babe?"

"Can you come here real quick?"

I put my makeup down and ran downstairs. Peter was standing at the bottom of the stairs holding something, but I couldn't see what it was. I stood in front of him.

"I got you something. More like us something."

I smiled and he held it up so I could see it. In his arms was a small dog. It was grey and had little white spots on its feet. I gasped and smiled.

"Aww! Peter! Thank you!"

He smiled. "She's adorable isn't she?"

I nodded. "What kind of dog is she?"

"Staffordshire bull terrier."

I smiled brightly. "I love you."

"I love you too."

I kissed him. He kissed back and his cheeks turned red.

"You're still that high school boy I fell in love with ten years ago."

"And you're the strong independent woman I always knew you would be."

I blushed and he blushed harder.

"You know, I was thinking about college."

"Where at?"

"MIT."

"It's a long way away, but if that's what you want to do I'd be willing to work out a long-distance between us."

"It doesn't have to be. We could rebuild Stark Tower. Live there. It's in New York not too far from MIT."

I smiled. "You do you, babe. You do, nerdy, innocent, small child, you."

I kissed him on the cheek then went back upstairs and finished getting ready for the conference.

(Timeskip)

I stood behind the podium in my usual aviator sunglasses. Andy on one side and Peter on the other.

"Ms. Stark!" Someone in the front row called.

"What is this? A board meeting? It's Maya."

"Maya, you saved us, but there are still some burning questions."

"Well make it snappy I have an appointment with sleep in like fifteen minutes. Twenty if it's good."

The crowd chuckled.

"Are you fit to be the CEO of Stark Industries?"

"Uh, I don't know am I?"

"Well, I certainly don't think so. You obviously have a terrible judge of character."

"Well, I'm not my father."

"No, you most certainly aren't."

I looked at Andy who rolled his fingers signaling for me to wrap it up.

Another person shouted my name. I pointed to them and the room went silent.

"Again, thank you for saving us, but one more burning question remains."

"Lay it on me."

"Are you Iron Man?"

"Well first off, that's impossible."

"How so?"

"The suit is made of nitinol."

The crowd laughed.

"We just want the truth."

"You want the truth? Well... the truth is, I'm not Iron Man."

The crowd fell absolutely silent.

"I'm Iron Woman."

The crowd erupted in cheers and exclamations. I smiled and walked out.