"Tony?"

Estella was skeptical when she first saw him, unsure of if he was real or she simply fell asleep again and hadn't realized. She scowled, refusing to fall for the fake dream again, refusing to let her defenses down and bring her hopes up again. But then he smiled. His beard grew slightly on the edges as his lips formed a curve. He opened one of his arms (the other was in a cast).

"Estella." Hearing his voice was enough. He was real. He was here. He was back.

Estella sprinted forward across the living room and slammed into her father at full force. There was no burning in her nose or eyes before the tears came, no warning that she was going to cry until she felt Tony' arms wrap around her. She held him tightly around the waist.

"Dad." She inhaled his scent, relished in the thought of touching him again, feeling his shirt on her skin. It was the best feeling in the world. Tony kissed her head, holding her almost as tight with one arm as she was holding him two.

"I'm back, Estella," he said, "I'm not going anywhere."

Estella furrowed her head into his chest, feeling something metal, vibrating ever so slightly. She tried to hide her gasp and snapped her eyes open. She didn't pull away. Her heart pounded against her chest. She fought to keep her breath even, not wanting the others to think something was wrong. But everything was wrong.

The thing on his chest, without seeing it, Estella knew that it was the same thing she'd seen in her dreams. The glowing blue thing in Tony's chest that ran all the suits. That meant that the dreams she had really weren't dreams. The thought scared her. She clung on tighter to Tony, shutting her eyes again, pushing all thoughts of fear from her mind and lived in the moment.

She had her father back.

***

That night, the nightmares returned. The only difference, Estella knew they weren't nightmares anymore.

There was a suit of armor, similar to the one she'd seen in her last dream, except smaller, red, gold, refined. The blue, glowing circle her father had in his chest glowed within the suit of armor. Something in Estella's mind whispered 'Arc Reactor' .

The suit was flying over Manhattan, towards the water. Estella couldn't see what it was flying at, but somehow, she knew. There was a torpedo coming to the city, to stop the aliens. When the thought of aliens ran through Estella's mind, she looked to the city to see a large hole in the sky. Creatures swarmed from it like bees protecting a nest, only they weren't protecting anything. Estella's heart pounded against her chest. She held her breath. Turning her attention back to the suit of armor and the torpedo, she watched it take hold of the bomb, the suit twitching as if it was damaged.

Her body surged forward, flying alongside the suit. She watched the red and gold armor, holding the torpedo, fly towards the hole in the sky. As the suit veered upwards, Estella stopped moving and watched the red and gold armor disappear into the dark abyss above her head. She saw the explosion, felt the heat, heard the screams. Then the hole began to close, and the suit of armor didn't come back. Just as the hole closed and the sky was blue once again, Estella jolted awake, breathing heavily, sweating. She didn't remember seeing the suit fall from the hole.

Her dream was soon pushed to the furthest parts of her memory as she heard Tony in the kitchen making breakfast, a sound she long since forgotten.

***

"You seem happy today, Estella," Caidy whispered to Estella in the back of math class the next day. Estella hadn't realized that she'd been smiling down at her assignment until Caidy piped up. Estella looked up to see Caidy smiling at her. Estella shrugged and moved her head back and forth.

"I guess I am happy today, Caidy," she said. Caidy's eyes brightened.

"Will you tell me what happened?" Estella scoffed.

"No."

Caidy, although slightly disappointed, grinned and looked back at her paper. Estella's smile stuck all throughout the day.

Estella met Mithri outside their school on the grass lawn at the 3:05 sharp. As soon as Mirthri saw her friend, she dropped her bags and sprinted towards her at full speed, smiling like an idiot. Estella dropped her stuff and ran towards her friend as well. They collided in a strong embrace.

"He's back! He's back!" Mithri squealed. Estella squeezed her friend.

"I know!" They held each other for a while before Mithri pulled away.

"Estella, I can't believe that your father shut down the weapons manufacturing at Stark Industries! It was a real heroic move on his part," Mithri said. Estella stared at her friend for second, trying to process what she just said. Estella shook her head and pressed her thumb and pointer finger against her temple.

"What...what did you say?"

Mithri scowled.

"Didn't you see the interview he had when he got back?"

"No," Estella ground through her teeth, "I must have missed it."

"Oh, well, our dad said that there won't be any more manufacturing of weapons from Stark Industries. That's good, right?"

Estella nodded, trying to brush off whatever she was feeling (Anger? Fear? Paranoia? Dread?), and attempted to smile.

"Right. Yeah, it's good." Mithri offered a reassuring smile and ran her hand up Estella's arm once.

On the scooter-ride home, Estella couldn't help but think of the consequences that could come out of her father's decision. There were plenty of people who relied on the weapons Tony made. There were plenty of people who needed the weapons and who only payed Tony for the weapons. Naturally, there was always the bright side. Tony got kidnapped for making weapons of mass destruction, so there'd be no more kidnapping (hopefully). Estella didn't know what to think. She was so distracted with her thoughts that she ran a red light and almost got hit by a car.

Once she was within the safe walls of her home, Estella searched the house for her father.

"Tony?" She called into the seeming empty place. "You here?"

"I believe he is down stairs, Ma'am," JARVIS said over the intercom.

"Thank you!" Estella said.

"Would you like your interesting fact today, Ma'am?" The AI asked as Estella started towards the stairs.

"Yes please."

"A strawberry isn't actually a berry," JARVIS said.

"No?"

"But a banana is. A berry is produced from a single seed, but strawberries have yellow seeds on the outside, which are known as individual fruits themselves."

Estella had to stop on her way down the stairs to think about what JARVIS said.

"Really?" She asked, looking up the ceiling as if the embodied version of the AI would fly in through the roof.

"Really, Ma'am," was JARVIS' answer.

"Hmm."

Estella finished her decent to the basement, where her father tended to work and where he kept his cars. She pulled her ID card from her butt pocket and slid it through the lock pad. After typing in the password, she pushed open the door. Scanning the room, she saw a collection of bits and pieces of metal, screens floating around the room, Tony's machines rolling around.

"Tony?"

She heard a loud explosion somewhere near the cars and the sound of a fire extinguisher. With a quiet gasp, she ran towards the sound, only to find her dad, partially encased in a metal suit (much like in the dream she'd forgotten she had), laying on his back. The extinguisher droid stood over him, squeaking and whirring as if asking him if he was okay. Tony glared up at the robot.

"What did I say about that?" He asked the droid. Estella raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms.

"Um...Dad?" Tony snapped his head up and looked at his adopted daughter. He grinned and lifted his hands in the air.

"Estella!" He exclaimed. The droids all turned to look at her. She smiled and lifted her hand awkwardly at the droids. "Mind helping your old man up?"

Estella approached him and pulled him to his feet.

"How was school?" Tony asked, walking towards a chair, the metal boots on his feet clumping loudly as he went. Estella shrugged and followed him.

"Pretty normal. I see you've been productive," Estella said. She sat on the floor in front of Tony. He took a sip from his scotch glass and shrugged.

"I guess."

"Doing what, exactly?"

"Ah!" Tony stood again, and, with a roll of her eyes, so did Estella. "I've been perfecting my suit of armor, the one I made with Yinsen. The one that works with this," Tony tapped the metal thing in his chest.

"Right. And I see that's going well?"

"Not well enough."

The two fell silent. Tony started to flit around with his floating screens that JARVIS provided for him. Estella leaned against one of the desk, crossing her arms again. She pursed her lips, feeling her teeth dig into the skin. She scowled, trying to figure out how to start her question.

"Tony...Dad...why didn't you tell me about the fact that you decided to stop manufacturing weapons?" She asked. Tony paused for a brief second, as if shoked by the question, but returned to his previous work as normal.

"Should I have?"

Estella pushed off from the table.

"Well, yes. Mom helped make some of those weapons. I mean, why wouldn't you stop when she asked you to then? Why now? And have you thought of the consequences? I mean, Obadiah Stane profits a lot from your weapons, wouldn't he want you to keep making them? And what about all the other people relying on your weapons? What about the Ten Rings? What if that Raza guy comes after you again?  Tony, what if-" Tony Stark turned around and put his hands on his daughter's shoulders.

"You're over thinking things again, 'Ella," Tony said. Estella scowled at him and shook her head.

"I'm not overthinking! I'm trying to be rational. I fully support your decision and I think it's one of the best you've made in a long time, but I want to know that you've thought of everything, that you won't get any of us, that you won't get yourself hurt."

Estella shifted back and forth uncomfortably under Tony's gaze. He forced her to stand still by holding on to her shoulders tighter.

"'Ella, 'Ella, look at me," Tony caught her eyes again in his and smiled at her. "We'll be okay. Pepper'll be okay, and Happy'll be okay. Rhodey'll be okay. You'll be okay." He pulled the 15-year-old girl into a hug, still half encased in armor. Estella clung to Tony, tears pricking her eyes.

"But will you be okay?" She whispered, her voice breaking. Tony was silent for a moment, which worried Estella, but her nerves calmed when he spoke.

"Sure, Kiddo. I'll be okay. "

***

It wasn't much later that Tony became Iron Man. Estella knew well enough it was him. When she heard the kids at her school talking about the 'Flying man in metal armor', she knew it was her dad. When she went home and turned on the TV to see that Iron Man had saved a small town, she knew it was Tony. She was proud of him, she really was, but even with the words he had told her, Estella felt dread in her stomach, fear in her heart, paranoia picking at the back of her mind.

It didn't help that the dreams were getting worse. She didn't even remember what half of them were anymore. She remembered having them, and that they scared her just as much as they did when she knew what they were about, but most of the details were gone. Sometimes, she would go through the box in the false bottom of a drawer in an unused dresser in the back of her closet. Sometimes, she made the time line again and went through her head all the possibilities of this being fake, a hoax. She saw the Arc Reactor on the closest end. She saw the man with the metal arm in the middle. She saw the gemstones at the the far end. She thought of the gemstones painted in Mithri's room. Estella didn't know what was going on, but she did know that she couldn't tell anyone about it.

She didn't see Rhodey for a couple weeks. It saddened her that someone who had once been so close was now no where to be seen. She tried to reassure herself that he was just busy, protecting her dad and all, but it got really hard after a few weeks. It seemed that every time she went home, no one was there except her trusty sidekick animals and JARVIS, even though her family was all back together. Pepper had work, Happy was with Tony, Tony was back, Rhodey was never there. He didn't run beside her to or from school, he didn't call her when he had breaks, he just wasn't there.

Sometimes, Estella found herself laying awake at night, staring at the ceiling, waiting. She didn't know what exactly she was waiting for, but she was waiting for something. Maybe she was waiting for Rhodey to come back. Maybe she was waiting for all her life to go back to the way it was before the kidnapping (even if it wasn't ideal). Maybe she was waiting for sleep to consume her, for the nightmares (whatever they were) to poison her.

One night, four weeks after Tony's return, Estella realized what she was waiting for. She was waiting for her mother, Luz. She was waiting for Luz to walk into her room, kiss her on the forehead, and hum her a song. She was waiting for her mother to say "Goodnight, mi amor. I love you, Cosita."

It was that night, while Estella thought of her mother, that she realized how much she really needed Luz back. It had been five years, long enough, she thought, for someone to get over their mother's death, but Estella still couldn't shake away the nightmares, she still couldn't forget her mother's voice.

"Mama, where are you?"

***

She stood in her best dress, her toes peeking out from her high-heels. The fall wind sent goosebumps up her bare arms, but she didn't care. She didn't mind her hair whipping across her face or the chill that went up her spine every time the wind rustled the leaves of the tree above them. Tony Stark stood next to the shivering girl, unable to talk under the pressure of heart-broken silence. He looked down at her, only 15, holding a bouquet of flowers in her hands. A black, lace veil covered half of her face, hiding the tears the young girl shed.

Estella lay the bouquet of Baby's Breath, Luz's favourite type of flower, across the crisp grass the grew in front of her gravestone. As she bent down, she grabbed the long dead flowers she had placed there last month, the daisies for the monthly visits. But these flowers, the one that took the place of the daisies, the ones that were white like purity, like hope, these flowers were for the annual visits, the Death Day visits. It had been five years to the day since the doctors called time, five years since Estella officially became an orphan. Today was the day for grief, today was the day for tears and silence.

Tomorrow was the celebration; the celebration of Luz's life and the celebration of Tony taking Estella into his home. Tomorrow was the day that they spent partying and eating cake and opening presents. Tomorrow was for laughter and for smiles and jokes to be told.

But today, they cried.

Mithri came over at one point to give hugs and to try and make the day a little lighter, but no one was in the mood, not even JARVIS, who didn't have moods.

It was this day, after months of not being seen by our young protagonist, that Estella saw Rhodey.It almost didn't surprise her. He'd always managed to make it to, not only the Life Celebration, but the Death Day ceremony as well. He would hug his friend and cheer up Estella. He always managed to make the day seem a little less colder, even though it was almost negative degrees outside.

Estella was sitting on the couch, staring at the ground below her. She had her feet pulled up on the couch and leaned against the arm of the chair. She felt bile rise in her throat as another round of tears spilled over for her dead mother. She felt someone sit next to her, and, for a brief second, she almost thought it was Rhodey (and almost wished it was), but was greatly surprised when she saw Tony. Usually, after the gravestone visit, he'd lock himself away in his room, drown himself in alcohol and not talk to anyone. Yet, today, he found the strength to sit next to Estella. She stared at him for a second, half expecting him to get up and walk away. When he didn't, she shifted her position so she was facing him and pressed herself face against his shoulder, hoping that he wouldn't turn away like he'd done in the past. He didn't.

Estella smiled a small smile as he put one of his arms around her shoulders and held her closer.

Rhodey arrived just after Estella found the courage to get up and get a glass of water.

The door opened and JARVIS said "Welcome, Lieutenant Colonel." Estella knew who that was immediately. The fragile glass slipped from her hand as Rhodey entered her vision from the door way. The glass shattered on the hard ground, the water spilling everywhere. The sound of shattering glass got both Rhodey and Tony's attention, not to mention, snapping Estella back into reality. She bent down quickly and started picking up the pieces of glass. Tony came running over, Rhodey on his heels.

"You alright, Stell?" Rhodey asked. She could hardly look up at him, hardly believed he was there. He was almost missing from her life as long as Tony was, and the thought of him being back terrified her. She nodded stiffly, her mouth hung open. Tony grabbed a towel and started to help clean up the water.

Once the mess was cleaned, Estella was forced to stand and lok Rhodey in the eyes. She wanted to smile, to hug him, to thank him for coming home, but something else crept into her chest. Something that made her brush past the two men and walk into her room, something that made her shut the door slowly and never want to emerge.

She woke to the sound of music and talking. Lights filled her room, filled the entire house. Estella knew what day it was and jumped from her bed, throwing on some of her party clothes that Tony had provided for her. Just a flowy, bright coloured dress that twirled when she spun. She emerged from her room exasperatedly, smiling. She had already almost forgotten the events of the past day, which was often the custom. She found her father and gave him the biggest hug she could muster. There were a lot of people there, mostly just to fill the space, but Estella managed to find Mithri, Pepper, Happy, and Rhodey. The encounter with Rhodey on this day, was much better accepted than the last. Estella smiled and threw her arms around him, thanked him for being there, thanked him for coming back. He promised he'd never leave like that again.

The party was much fun to those who came. There was a light amount of booze, just enough to get a few people tipsy, but not drunk. There was all of the foods Luz used to make. All of her old coworkers from the restaurant she worked in when she first moved to New York were there, as they were every year. Many of them had much better lives than they had before, but some didn't. Estella made Tony pay for their plane tickets.They would congratulate her on her latest pieces of art, which were hung up around the room (to which Estella protested every year, though Tony never listened). They reminded her that the one of her mother, the one Estella made when she was very young and had given to Tony, was still beautiful.

Estella felt awkward around the people she didn't know, but managed to have brief conversation with a few of them. The beautiful girls in short clothes dancing on the dance floor made her sick, but she refused to be the downer at her mother's party. She knew that Tony slept with some of those girls in the past and would in the future, but she also knew that on this day, they weren't anything to him, this day was for Luz.

Soon, the party was over, the people were milling out, the household was cleaning up. Pepper left and Rhodey left and Mithri left. Happy went home. Only Estella, Tony, JARVIS, and their two pets, Luna and Sol, remained. The human beings and the animals sat together on the couch, watching old videos from their past of the times they spent together. None of them had Luz in them. They were the performances that Tony missed, or the Christmases where he got Estella the best gift ever, or the time when they attempted to bake a pie and almost burned down the house. They laughed and smiled and remembered. They fell asleep on the couch as the video started to replay.

Come stop your crying
It will be alright
Just take my hand
Hold it tight

I will protect you
From all around you
I will be here
Don't you cry

For one so small,
You seem so strong
My arms will hold you,
Keep you safe and warm
This bond between us
Can't be broken
I will be here
Don't you cry

'Cause you'll be in my heart
Yes, you'll be in my heart
From this day on
Now and forever more

You'll be in my heart
No matter what they say
You'll be here in my heart, always 

***

Hello my lovelies! So this is mostly a filler chapter, and one I'm not exactly proud of. :/

Tell me what you guys think. Should I add something more or take away and put in more details? The next chapter is the end of Iron Man 1.

Please help me by pointing out any spelling errors, misconceptions in the plot, non-canon things, grammatical errors, plot holes, things like that. If you think I should change the title song, please say so! I didn't know what to use for this chapter, so I thought this song would do. If you have suggestions for later chapters, let me know! This song is You'll Be In My Heart from Tarzan by Phil Collins.

I love each and every one of you so so SO much and all of your comments, votes, reads, and what not really do make my day and make me the happiest person on the planet. I appreciate you so much.

With Much Love and So Many Hugs,

Bucky J. Clausen,

The Author's Bane.