James Rhodes was left gaping as his daughter stomped out of the room after her outburst. He had arrived just as she had started arguing with the Maximoff twins and had been rather impressed by the points she'd made. He was also quite proud of her for putting aside her shyness and standing up for both herself and Tony.

For all her cheerfulness and helpful nature, Rosie was quite scared of meeting new people. Over the past few years, James had noticed how his daughter acted like two completely different people based on where she was. At home, when surrounded by friends and family - in a familiar environment - she was the life of the place, bubbly, bright and cheerful, leaving everyone in fits of laughter from her hilariously sarcastic comebacks.

Once outside, when she was alone or in a crowd where she did not know anyone, Rosie transformed. She became an extremely shy girl who hunched in on herself and tried to make herself look non-existent. A politely interested expression would be plastered to her face and she would keep to herself, doing whatever she had come to do before retreating into a secluded corner. 

He knew that academically talented people often had problems fitting in with the rest of the world. Take Tony, for example. James loved his best friend, but he couldn't deny that the vagaries of human interaction often went over his head. Sure, Tony could make the public dance to his whims, manipulate people to do what he wanted and was considered a brilliant showman, but simple conversations and making casual acquaintances was beyond him. 

Was this just a 'side effect of being a genius' - as Pepper put it - or was it a result of their less-than-ideal childhoods?

All that Tony had let slip about Howard over the last twenty or so years had painted a picture of a businessman who had put his company over his family. Maria had done her best to play the wife of the famous Howard Stark and be the mother Tony needed, but the former often took precedence over the latter. 

As far as James knew, there had been no physical abuse involved, but emotional abuse and neglect could do just as much damage to a child. Tony fondly spoke about the games he used to play with the family butler Edwin Jarvis in his childhood, but there was never any mention of other children. All the evidence pointed to James having been the first friend Tony had made.

The same seemed to have been the case with Rosie. She didn't talk much about what living with Arnold had been, merely saying that it was in the past and didn't matter now. However, he had gathered that the man hadn't given a damn about her beyond paying for whatever she needed. 

Even at the age of thirteen, the kid could cook a variety of complicated dishes, do her own laundry and take apart and fix every damn appliance in the house. She had managed the entire ten months in her wheelchair with minimal help from them and had never asked for help with schoolwork during that time. It was obvious that she was too used to doing things for herself to even think about asking for help.

Spending three years at college had not helped as much as James had hoped. Rosie had returned with just one friend - who was four years older than her - and a couple of casual acquaintances. It was too much like his own experience with Tony for his liking.

She pretended that it didn't bother her, but James knew better. He had seen her longingly stare at teenagers her age having fun and just being themselves. Despite all his encouragement and persuasion, she didn't attempt to join them aside from a few superficial conversations. "It won't work dad. I'm just too different from them," she told him the last time he'd suggested rejoining her karate class to meet a few people her age, "But I have you guys, so I'll be fine. Don't worry."

It had taken him a while to realise it, but once he had, James let the matter drop. This was a battle that she had to fight herself. With his full support, of course, but by herself. The fact that the Rosie of two years ago wouldn't have dared to give the Maximoffs the dressing-down that she just had made him so proud of her that he forgot about Ultron and his homicidal plans for a moment.

Suzanne's voice brought him back to reality. She was glaring at the Maximoffs and Cap "You morons had to act like that didn't you? She's been on edge ever since the party and this was the last straw. For the record, I'm fully on Rosie's side. You better get your priorities in order when we come back, or else I'm gonna help her knock some sense into the entire lot of you." She huffed, before going out of the room.

"Who was the younger girl?" The Maximoff girl asked, "Why wasn't I able to read her mind?"

That set James' blood boiling. "You did what?" He growled, glaring at her. "What the hell possessed you to do that? You just can't go around trying to read people's minds!"

Maximoff took a nervous step back, saying "She was on the jet with him-" she pointed to Bruce, "-and somehow managed to sense my attempt at an intrusion into her mind. I got a punch to the face." James felt a vindictive pleasure and pride in his daughter as he noticed the dark purple bruise on the girl's cheek.

"Serves you right for what you did." He would have said a lot more, but Steve interrupted, "I think it's time we addressed the concerns she brought up. Wanda, Pietro?"

The boy looked thoroughly chastised. "She was right, we were not thinking clearly when we attacked you." He faced Clint, "I am sorry for what happened to you. All of you. Blaming Stark for Matushka and Otets..." As far James could tell, he was being sincere. "It wasn't correct or logical of us. Especially not now, when we are old enough to have realised that you cannot be held responsible for what every bomb made by your company does. I will help you fight Ultron."

Tony nodded silently, accepting the apology. He was always too forgiving for his own good. The Maximoff girl offered an apology less sincere than her brother's with a slight scowl on her face, which was also accepted.

"This discussion is tabled for now, but we will be coming back to it once Ultron is no longer a threat," James firmly told the two. "We can't afford to waste any more time now."

Dr. Banner acquiesced. "The Colonel is right. We've got much bigger problems at the moment. Clint?"

"The platinum bastard's got Nat. The kid and I decrypted her message. I half-expected her to fly off to where Ultron is and tear him apart with her bare hands." They all collectively shivered at the thought. If pissed off, Rosie was the devil incarnate. She usually removed herself from the situation before she lost control, just like she had done now. There was a reason why they called her Mini Romanoff, after all.

He had never seen her blow up this badly, but he could understand why it had angered her so much. Rosie considered the whole team as family, Tony even more so. What the Maximoffs had done was bound to piss her off.

James stayed silent as everyone in the room began to make plans to rescue Nat and use it as an opportunity to get rid of Ultron for good. He was embarrassed by the fact that it took him a while to realise that Tony and Bruce hadn't said anything much, both of them too involved in whatever they were doing with the cradle. "Tony," he said, his voice loud enough to carry through the room, "What are you doing?"

"Look, you won't understand, but we need this. More than we needed Ultron," he replied, expression earnest. "Trust me, Rhodey."

"You don't know what you're doing." Steve said.

"And you do? She's not in your head?" Bruce demanded, giving the Maximoff girl a hostile look. James suddenly realised that she'd neither apologised nor showed a shred of remorse for the nightmares she'd given the team.

"I know you're angry." That was a laughably poor attempt to placate the man.

Bruce replied, "Oh, we're way past that. I could choke the life out of you and not turn a shade. Or maybe Rosie will, if she hears that you're getting into anyone else's head."

"Guys, can we just calm down and talk it out?"

"We need him-" Tony pointed to the cradle, "-if we're going to beat Ultron. What's coming is much worse." The Maximoff boy speeded around the room, unplugging everything. He grinned infuriatingly, "No, no. Go on. You were saying?"

There was a crash, and the glass under the kid broke, sending him tumbling down to the floor below. Clint, who none of them had noticed leaving the room, was holding a gun. "What? You didn't see that coming?" He asked the boy.

Just as James tried to diffuse the situation, there was a loud crack of thunder, and Thor came flying in, slamming his hammer on the glass of the cradle. A powerful bolt of lightning shot through it, going into the body. A sudden shockwave threw all of them backwards and a hissing sound was heard as the Cradle opened, dense white smoke filling the room.

A red-coloured humanoid burst out of the cradle, landing on one knee. James watched in amazement as a suit and cape formed around him. "Thank you." It nodded to Thor. "That jolt was what I needed."

"What are you?" James asked.

"The Vision." Thor answered. "Stark was right. The Avengers cannot defeat Ultron."

"Not alone." The new guy agreed.

Thor pointed to the gem in Vision's forehead, "It's the Mind Stone. It's one of the six Infinity Stones, the greatest power in the universe, unparalleled in its destructive capabilities. Their powers," here he gestured to the twins, "the horrors in our heads, Ultron himself, they all came from the Mind Stone, and they're nothing compared to what it can unleash. But with it on our side..."

"Are you on our side?" James inquired.

Vision seemed to consider the question for a moment before answering. "I am on the side of life. Ultron isn't, he will end it all."

"How can we trust you? How do we know you are not the monster Ultron intended you to be?" The Maximoff girl asked, "When I looked in your head, I saw annihilation."

"There's no trace of Ultron left. I wiped it all from his system. It took me a while to reconfigure J.A.R.V.I.S's operational matrix, but I can assure you that Vision is completely free of Ultron." Rosie came back in, unwrapping the tape from her hands as she spoke. She must have gone off to the gym to hit something. "How can we trust that you  won't rejoin Ultron?" Maximoff turned up her nose and refused to answer.

"I would like to thank you for doing that for me, Miss." The robot inclined his head to her.

"Not an issue. J.A.R.V.I.S was my first friend. I wasn't going to lose him that easily." It was said in a casual tone which did not betray a single ounce of the emotions that she must have been feeling.

The others were too focused on the sudden appearance of the new entity to pay much attention to what Rosie said, but James had. His daughter's happiness and well-being was his first priority. He desperately wanted Rosie to be happy and what was happening right now wasn't helping him. 

'Friend' failed to encompass how much J.A.R.V.I.S had meant to her. The A.I had been her closest companion until she had built MARLENE and had then taken over the mammoth task of teaching the younger A.I.

James had pretended to not see Tony blinking furiously as he gazed at the destroyed 3D model of JARVIS a couple of days ago, knowing the man hated showing weakness, but Rosie's reaction worried him even more, because there was none! 

She had just gritted her teeth and got on with the job of helping everyone figure out how to stop Ultron. She hadn't allowed herself to feel anything! James made a promise to himself. He would have a talk with both his daughter and his best friend as soon as he could. The loss of J.A.R.V.I.S had hit them a lot harder than it had him.

James was pulled out of his musings by Vision casually picking up Thor's hammer and handing it to him, "I would have preferred to answer all your questions right now, but we need to go." Everyone had looks of shock on their faces, but Bruce recovered first.

"Where?" he asked.

"Novi Grad, Sokovia. He's got Tasha there too. I found her message." Rosie told them. "I've something to do though, so I won't be coming with you guys." James nodded, glad that his daughter wasn't going into a potential warzone. "Three minutes. Get what you need." Steve ordered. "Wait!" James stopped the new robot from flying off. "What are we supposed to call you?"

"Vision."

-------------------------------------

James was keeping half his attention on the comms while flying around and fighting the bots. He'd vaguely heard something about Vision trapping Ultron in his current body and the stolen vibranium engines being used to lift the city into the air. God, he'd just said that so casually.  Flying around in a metal suit, fighting rogue robots over a floating city was just a normal day at work now. What even was his life?

James wasn't a genius of Tony or Rosie's calibre, but he was smart enough to know how deadly something falling from a height could be. If the city fell from a far enough altitude, then it could wipe out the entire continent, possibly more. Hoping that Tony would somehow find a way to stop the city from dropping, James focused back to the fight.

It seemed as if the others had realised this as well, and were discussing the situation. "Everyone up here versus everyone down there? There's no math there." Tony was saying.

Steve told him, "I'm not leaving this rock with one civilian on it."

Surprisingly, it was Natasha who answered, "I didn't say we should leave. There's worse ways to go. Where else am I gonna get a view like this?"

"Glad you like the view, Romanoff. It's about to get better." It sounded like Hill, who they hadn't seen for days. James turned around to see three Helicarriers flying in towards the city. The bay doors opened, and what looked like dozens of smaller boats came flying out towards the city. "This is S.H.I.E.L.D?" the surprised-sounding voice of Pietro Maximoff asked.

"This is what it was supposed to be."

"This is not so bad."

James was fighting as hard as he could, but he was slowly getting overwhelmed. "Guys, I'm gonna need backup here. Tones? Thor?" he called out.

"I'm offended, Dad. Don't I count as backup?" Rosie's voice came over their comms. Twenty Iron Man suits took off from the Helicarriers, all of them heading straight into the fight. One came right next to him, and the faceplate lifted to show Rosie's face. "Sorry I was late. Had some issues reprogramming them to be externally operable from the Helicarriers." Giving him a two-fingered salute, she flew off towards the other robots, blasting them out of the sky.

James sighed in exasperation, speeding up to stay on par with his daughter. Why did he ever think that she was going to stay out of the fight?