"Time to get to work," Erica sighed to herself. She rebooted the laptop with all its "incognito" settings that mom didn't know about. Lately Erica had been digging into her past. She needed to know where she came from, who her dad was. Erica knew mom thought she could hide it from her forever, but clearly she's not handling it well.

A long time ago she learned to hack into S.H.I.E.L.D.'s classified files, well, Natasha taught her. And not just them, but the entire country's, the entire world's. It was unbelievable how much information she'd leaked to the government so that the country wouldn't get blown up.

Not to mention how many World War IIIs she'd prevented without anyone knowing.

But that wasn't what her purpose was tonight.

Erica pulled up the specialized decryption program she created. It was nearly as good as Stark's...nearly. Which would explain why she was having trouble breaking the damn firewall for a level eight file right now.

She groaned.

Maybe I should call Tony?

It wasn't her best idea, and if she got caught by mom or S.H.I.E.L.D. she would be in deep...it was worth it though, right?

As long as she used the secure line she should be fine.

Erica blasted Pandora on the Kindle Fire so her mom couldn't hear any conversations, and opened a link for the secure video chat. "I'm so dead." She clicked call and it buzzed a few times. Just as she was about to hang up, Tony's face appeared on the screen.

"Kid," Tony greeted with a half-hearted smile.

"I don't appreciate being called an infant, Stark."

"I know."

Erica paused for a moment before speaking, "I need your help."

"Why else would you call." He deadpanned.

"Maybe I missed your snarky comments."

"Huh." He let out a small chuckle. "I'm sure you did. Now what do you need? I'm working on a new suit."

"Your decryption program...before the aliens attacked New York you hacked into all of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s files."

"What about it?"

"I need it." She roll her eyes.

He narrowed his eyes at her. "What do you need it for?"

"Nothing too illegal."

"I like your thinking, kid..." He had that look on his face where she knew he wasn't going to let her use it.

"But?"

"But I don't think your mother would approve."

"Since when have you cared about parental permission?" Erica argued.

He shrugged, "never."

"Good. Please give me the program."

Tony leaned closer to the screen. "I'm going to ask again: what do you need it for, Erica?"

"You're not going to give it to me are you?" She sighed and slouched into the chair.

"If you tell me what you're trying to find, I might be able to help."

She raised an eyebrow, "I thought you were busy with Mark-whatever-number-you're-on."

"Forty-seven. And I could use a break. Now spill, kid."

She sat straighter. "You can't tell anyone, not even Jarvis."

"Deal."

"I'm looking for my dad, okay? I don't know anything about him and my mom refuses to tell me every time I ask! In fact, I never even get the chance to ask."

"That's it?

"Yeah." She tapped her fingers on the desk.

Tony sighed, "Okay. Fine. I'll email the download to you, but be careful. Make sure to delete it after you use it. You can just add it back in later if you have to."

"Thanks, Tony. You're the best!" Erixa grinned ear to ear.

"I know." And with that he ended the call and she wait for Tony's email. Once she got it, it didn't take long to download the program and start her search.

+ + + + +

"Erica, dinner's here!" mom called from the living room.

"Coming!" Erica quickly saved the data I've found onto a flash drive then deleted the decryption program like Tony said to. She left her room in search for the sausage pizza that was calling her name.

The box was sitting out on the counter with a plate next to it. She noticed mom was sitting on the couch still watching the news. Grabbing two pieces of the cheesy deliciousness and setting them on the emerald plate, Erica went to sit next to her.

The reporter was going on and on about all the damage Thor caused today after saving the world. And if Erica was angry about stupid David Jones, she sure as hell knew mom was furious.

"He saved the world," Mom glared at the screen as it went to commercial, "people should be thanking him, not criticizing him over his methods."

"Can we watch a movie instead of this?"

"Sure. What do you want to watch?"

"You can pick. I'm up for anything."

Mom sighed, got up from the couch, and stood by the shelf with hundreds of movies. They didn't do things like go to the park or beach, instead they watched movies. It had always been their thing. She held out two cases: Transformers and The Hunger Games. "Which one?"

Erica snatched The Hunger Games out of her left hand and set the disc in the DVD player.

Only half an hour into the movie mom was snoring. She worked late last night so Erica understood.

She decided to do some more digging, so she covered her mom with a blanket and headed back to her room for a long night's work.