We had been moving on through the destroyed streets and I kept a close look on Jacob as he would go a few yards ahead of me calling out to his mom. It made me think of my own, who dad never talked about, he didn't even have a picture of her for me. My mind was brought back to the two of us when Jacob came racing back over to me racing on about the drones. I pushed him behind me and I gripped his hand firmly so I wouldn't lose him.

"What were the drones doing?" I mumbled and pulled him with me as we made our way to an alley to hopefully miss the drones.

"They were blinking and made beeping sounds," My eyes widened and I had momentarily forgotten about the Jacob until he pulled on my arm. "Jaedyn..." I had began to hear the beeping increase, we were out of time. I picked the boy up ignoring my hands pain that had started to come back slowly and I ran deeper into the alley to get away. When we reached a good spot in the alley that was away from the drones I pulled Jacob against the wall and knelt down in front of him.

"It's gonna be loud but I need you to stay here with me and cover your head with your arms. Don't worry though everything's gonna be fine. There like fireworks, but these are not fun ones." Slowly Jacob did as he was told and I pulled him into my arms and shielded him with my body as the startling sound of the beeping stopped right before the bombs- I mean drones went off.

The sound was deafening and the ground beneath the two of us began to shake from the shock. I could hear the blasts echoing through out the city. There was going to be so much damage done and I knew the one person who was the cause of this, and it was not dad. I was afraid to move from the spot I was in, more important I could feel the young boy shaking as I held him. He tucked himself deeper into my shirt hiding his eyes from the dust that had rose from the rubble. I had thought he was going to scream but he didn't and I released him only for a split second to check on him. He seemed fine but I couldn't always tell.

"We're fine," I forced a smile and smoothed his blonde hair against his head. He wasn't smiling, and though I had one on my lips I was not happy on the inside. I was so scared, there was going to be so much backlash with this, and no doubt there was going to be news reporters and cameras. Dad and I were going to get blamed, I wouldn't be surprised if that happened again. But if Stern tried to take me away from dad now, I would flip. Quickly I shook my head focusing on the now and getting Jacob to safety then finding dad. Hopefully he was safe, Pepper, Happy and Natalie as well. I just needed to know that everyone I knew was safe in this mess.

"Miss!" I turned quickly seeing a man coming down the alley, I pushed Jacob out of site and hid myself away from him the best I could. Searching for something to attack the guy with I was disappointed when there was nothing around me. So I lowered myself to the ground, waiting. His steps crept forward until I saw his feet, that's when I acted. I shot up quickly and punched his nose and as he went to grip his nose I took his hand and brought it behind his back, forcing him to against the wall, hard. I heard him gasp shocked, but when he started to struggle I pushed his arm up farther up his back. Inching closer and closer to dislocating his shoulder.

"NYPD." He stated and I quickly lowered my hand, keeping a firm grip. I wasn't going to take my chances that these were Ivan's goons in costumes. "My name is Officer Walker, I'm just here to help."

"Jaedyn stop, your hurting the cop!" Jacob yelled to me, coming into the dim light. I sighed shaking my head and releasing the man. I sighed relieved when I saw the badge and the tag, Officer Walker.

"My name is-" I began but was cut off abruptly.

"Jaedyn Stark, yeah I recognize you. Whose the kid?" He asked, a gun drawn in his hand.

"I'm Ja-" I covered his mouth quickly and he looked up to me seeing that I was keeping him safe.

"I'm helping Jacob find his mom, they got separated," The officer nodded and as he came closer I was able to see his face. Chiseled features, dark hair and green eyes. "Could you help us Officer Walker?" He gripped his bloody nose and chuckled shortly.

"Yeah of course, I'd love to help the woman who punched my nose."I scoffed rolling my eyes. "Anyways, there was a woman who had been yelling about her kid, might be his mother," He held his hand out for Jacob to grab and when Jacob released me I almost fell over, I hadn't realized that I was practically leaning on the kid. I had suddenly began to get woozy. Stabilizing myself on the wall, the officer made sure that Jacob was fine but had saw me stumble. "Miss Stark are you alright?" I nodded and took a deep breath standing up straight.

"Fine. I'm fine, come on let's get Jacob to his mom," I gave the officer a sharp look as if to say, don't touch me when he tried to help me walk. "What are you even doing out here Walker?"

"My job, I could ask the same for you Miss Stark," I rolled my eyes and kept silent ad we walked. "This isn't the time to be playing hero, you could get hurt." I verbally scoffed and shook my head looking back to him when I walked ahead of the two boys.

"I'm pretty sure it's to late for that, and it's the perfect time to be playing hero. I'm not a child, I can handle myself. Anyways this is usual for me now. Almost like clockwork..." I chuckled at my joke.

"What do you mean?"

"Someone attacking my father and I, kinda constant as of late." Time passed quickly as in a short moment we had began to hear some ambulance noises, "It's usual, anyways could you take Jacob the rest of the way? I have to find my dad." I muttered and made my way the opposite direction. Jacob grabbed my bad hand once more and I flinched, catching Walker's eye but I bit the inside of my cheek so I didn't yelp in pain. "Jacob, this man is gonna help you find your mom, while I go find my dad."

"No!" Jacob pleaded and I grabbed the kids hand off of my own giving it to the officer. Walker bent down to Jacob's eyes and gave me a wink.

"Hey kid," Walker said in a kinda adorable voice. "If we find your mom you can ask her if I can take you for a ride in my cruiser. And I might just let you use the siren." I chuckled as I watched Jacob's eyes light up, he had been happy at that moment. "Miss Stark."

"Hmm," I looked when Officer Walker said my name.

"Be safe," I nodded, smiling softly, but he continued instead of leaving the conversation there. "I would like to see you again if I could." I stopped walking towards the expo and turned to him. He had a stupid grin on his face that made me smile. He turned to Jacob and held his hand out for him, Jacob took it quickly and the two of them made there way towards the noises of the sirens.

I hadn't moved from that spot in the alley for a few seconds, thinking of what had just happened. Did he want to go on a date with me? Why? Was it because I was a Stark? I rolled my eyes bringing myself back a few moments later and raced towards the main area. My eyes ghosting over the damage the explosion of the drones had caused. There was destruction everywhere, rubble scattered the ground and damaged buildings, I couldn't see any injured people and I really didn't want to see any. Half the drones had yet to move though, and it caused me to be filled with confusion. I quickly grabbed the phone from my pocket and dialed dad's number. I sat on a bench and took the moment to take a breath, pressing the phone to my ear I heard dad speak.

"Yello,"

"Only you would answer an unknown number in this chaos." I grumbled and fiddled with the new holes I had in my jeans. In the long run I would probably just throw this whole outfit away.

"Jaedyn!" I heard dad chuckle shortly when he heard my voice. "What did the doctor say for your hand an arm?" I bit my lip and looked up to the sky hoping to not be forced to say what I did. Even though I would probably end up telling him sometime later tonight. "Jaedyn."

"It's good. I got stitches, and the doc said I should get some physical therapy to fix the joints," I heard dad sigh and I knew he didn't believe me.

"Well," Dad began. "I'm sure you could put your doctor on the phone? Or I don't know tell me why when I tracked the phone that you are in the main area of the expo?" I cursed to myself, I had been caught. "Did you even go into the hospital or was that you lying to me?"

"I went in," I groaned. My eyes scanned the eerily quiet remains of the expo. "Everything was really just overwhelming so I took what I needed and fixed myself."

"You what?" He asked, "Let me get this straight. You went to the hospital, and took medical supplies that you needed?"

"It wasn't like I took things so I could become a drug attack, I just took morphine."

"Oh good!" I heard the sarcasm when he spoke now. "Morphine! That makes everything so much better." There was silence between us before dad finally broke it, "Are you at least alright?"

"It's me, I'm fine. How about you?" I questioned looking up at the stars, catching my breath.

"Perfect as usual. Pepper says hi," I chuckled when I could hear her muttering something in the background.

"She's alright? What about Rhodey, or Happy, Natalia?"

"Everyone's fine, Rhodes is here with Pepper and I." I sighed thankful that my family was safe. "Hey Princess, I'll come pick you up. What are you hundred meters from the Unisphere?"

"Yea give or take. I'm guessing Ivan is dead?"

"Yes." I felt no remorse for his death, matter of fact I couldn't give a damn. He deserved what he got after he heard so many people. Both here and then back in Monaco, plus he almost killed me. "He blew up the drones when he realized he couldn't win."

"Well he didn't blow them all up." I started to walk towards one of the drones that had fallen over motionless. "A little less than half are still unexploded. You think he's bad at programming?" I tilted my head and waited for dad's response but he must have not been paying attention to what I was saying. My brain blocked out all other sounds as I was focusing on why hadn't the drones exploded, Ivan was an evil man, but he was smart. He knew what he was doing. "Shit." I was sprinting before my head caught up with me.

"Jae?" Dad's voice was filled with worry.

"I gotta find the officer and Jacob!" I yelled, keeping the phone up to my ear as I leapt over some debris. "I have to make sure their safe!" My whole body was in pain and I felt every muscle in my body protesting against me running. "The drones."

"Who are you trying to save?" Dad asked me.

"A kid and a police officer, who I might have punched. Dad, it's the drones," He hadn't gotten it yet but it connected to me. It was like a light switch was flipped on and I knew. "It's like terrorist attacks, Ivan left some unexploded so when emergency response teams arrive there was going to be more damage. And I sent Jacob towards sirens. There's one wave of attacks then another!" I had repeated what I had just said to myself clarifying that I was right. It made sense, most damage. Suddenly I stopped when I heard dad yell my name.

"Jaedyn stay where you are!"

"There's not enough time I have to warn them. Dad I have to find them," My voice was filled with such despair I had hardly heard the beeping of the drones. The red lights flashing quicker was what indicated to me that I was running out of time. Ivan had quickened the time so that there was less time to escape, and this was going to be the maximum impact he would have wanted. My leg gave out under me and I stumbled to the ground scraping up my hands when I went to stop myself from falling completely.

"Jaedyn Maria stop running towards everything that's dangerous!" I gripped my thigh feeling the muscles tensing beneath my skin. So much for being fully healed. I took a deep breath before getting to my feet pushing through the pain I felt, which only grew more intense. Again I was sprinting as hard as I could towards the sirens, I was almost there to. But when I saw the blinking lights that surrounded me I stopped running, at least five unexploded drones were standing in my vicinity.

"Dad..." I mumbled backing away from the drones, I hadn't turned to run. I was almost struck motionless with fear. "I love you dad."

"No Jaedyn!" I dropped the phone from my hand thinking, this was it. Ivan would get his wish, he would have destroyed one Stark. I didn't want to leave dad, but the blast radius from the drones would probably kill me, if not kill seriously injure. I heard the sounds of the thrusters from dad's suit and that's when my eyes met his gold and red suit soaring towards me. I smiled up to him, for a split second I thought I would be okay. I had ran towards dad but the next thing I heard was nothing. I felt this heat that I thought was peeling the skin from my bones, I went to cover my face with my hands as I only saw red next. My feet lifted up off the ground and the force had knocked me back hard, I remember screaming out but nothing left my lungs. I didn't hear myself calling out for my dad. I just remembered gravity pulling me back hard against the ground and me landing on something hard, my back getting the brunt of the fall. My vision was blurry and as soon as I began to regain my vision and hearing I saw the Iron Man's silhouette racing towards me and stopping over me.

Then it all went black.

The first thing that Jaedyn heard was laughing, it was at that moment that she realized her eyes were closed shut and she was being spun around. The two Stark's were having fun in Central Park. Tony had to come to New York to deal with some business but he made good to his promise when he told his daughter that they would go to the park. Jaedyn and Tony fell into the grass rolling down an hill and coming to a stop. Jaedyn looked up to see her father. No dark circles under his eyes, no goatee. The two Stark's were younger and enjoying the time they had together. When the two came to a stop Tony sat up and looked over to his daughter. She was wearing a shirt that had flowers and a pair of pants with sneakers that also had flowers along the sides. Her hair was pulled behind her ears with a headband.

"What's going on in your mind Princess?" Tony asked his kid as he picked her up so they could walk towards the car, Tony's phone had buzzed and he knew that he would need to go to the office soon. As much as he enjoyed being with his daughter, he was a CEO that had to be present in the work.

"Can we go get ice cream?" Jae asked swinging on her father's arm grinning up at him.

"You wanna go get ice cream?" Tony paused looking at his Rolex watch on his wrist. "Yes we can go get ice cream." The car ride was quick as Tony had made sure to go to the nearest one to the office so it would be a quick ride there. The store was small, most likely family owned, but the young girl seemed to like the atmosphere. Photos of the visitors who beat a giant sundae challenge went on the wall. As the store was cold chills ran up the child's arms. When the two had to order what they wanted Tony lifted his daughter to see the flavors; vanilla, strawberry, chocolate, rocky road, rainbow sherbet, mint chip.

"That one!" Jaedyn pointed to the soft green colored ice cream and Tony was happy to get her the mint flavored one. The lady smiled and got the two of them the ice cream. "Thank you dad!"

"Alright Princess let's sit outside." Tony said opening the door for the two of them. Jaedyn hopped up onto the bench and began to eat her ice cream. It was obvious to the younger girl that each time her father put his hand on his pocket that his phone was buzzing so she tried her best to get rid of the ice cream fast. She loved and treasured the moments where they had the chance to be together where her father wasn't working.

"Dad?" Jaedyn looked over to her dad and he stopped licking the dripping cone to look to Jae. "Is Pepper gonna watch me when we go back to the building?" Tony's demeanor seemed to physically alter when he realized his daughter was smarter than she let on. It wasn't that Tony didn't want to spend time with her if he could he would just let Obadiah run the company but that didn't always end the best way. Plus Tony was the brains behind the designs.

"Yea Princess," The two sighed and watched the cars pass them by. "You know I would love to spend more time with you-"

"Daddy. I get it. You gotta work and stuff." Jaedyn began to eat at the cone and Tony did the same. "I love you Daddy." Tony smiled and he was met with Jaedyn's hazel eyes that showed adoration for her father. Once Jaedyn had finished her ice cream Tony picked up his daughter and rested her on his hip, walking the two of them over towards the car.

"I love you to Jaedyn..." Jaedyn rested her head on her fathers shoulder with an arm draped over his shoulder to comfort. "I love you Jaedyn Maria. Jaedyn Maria Stark. God dammit Jaedyn Maria! Please wake up. I can't lose you..."

I felt my lungs intake as much oxygen as hey could take and my eyes shot open. My ears were ringing and I couldn't hear what dad was saying, all I knew was that he was above me. As my vision began to sharpen I saw that the Iron Man face-plate off and his eyes were red. I felt multiple hands on my body, checking my pulse I'm guessing. I wanted to tell them I was alive and that I was okay but I couldn't hear what I was saying, I could hardly move my hands. The next thought scared me, had I just died? What injuries did that explosion cause me, what was good and bad right now. I tried to turn my head but I couldn't move my neck, but I saw the bright yellow cast that was a neck brace on me. There was another face that was knelt down next to me, my eyes moved over the face and I saw the similar green eyes and dried blood underneath the nose of the Officer. Officer Will? No, Officer Walker. He looked to be unhurt besides my punch to his nose, he was covered with more dust though. I didn't hear anything still as I saw dad's mouth moving, along with Walker saying something.

I lifted my left hand and gestured to my ears before I lowered it back on my chest, grimacing at the pain. I wondered where Jacob was for a short moment, but maybe he had found his mom. I slowly began to feel the pain seeping back into my body as I began to feel some weight on my right hand. I wanted to yell to get it off but I couldn't form words. I couldn't think straight currently, all I felt was the tears falling down my cheeks and the pain across my body. Dad soon knelt down and I could see by the way of his lips he had said, I love you Jaedyn. I had heard it so many times that I practically knew what he was saying. My eyes looked to my left hand and dad saw they sign I formed with my fingers. I put down my middle and ring finger, I love you, in ASL. I glanced over to Walker again, just now seeing the blood that had gathered on his uniform. I looked to dad, then to Walker as if asking whose blood it was. When I did Walker looked away and dad started to stroke my hair. I began to breath quicker and I felt the tears falling down my cheek once more. Whose blood was it? Was it Jacobs? Oh god. I looked away from dad and then that's when I saw the blood that was on my hand, a lot. My skin was paler but dad saw what I was looking at so he covered it with a cloth. Frankly that didn't help calm my nerves. The ringing started to fade and I started to hear the sirens that were on there way. I just remained motionless as dad lifted me into his arms and I felt my whole body ache.

I wanted to go back before tonight, before everything. Obadiah, Iron Man, Ivan, before all of it. I wanted to go back, back to when dad and I could be together like how they were in my dream. I felt my eyes start to grow heavy as I was set on a stretcher, my eyes closing slowly. I felt dad start to shake me, to try and wake me but I didn't oblige him. I let the darkness overtake me once more.

The Author

Hey it's me. I just wanted to say thank you. You reading my work makes me happy.

If you could leave me a comment with your thoughts on the chapter it would be very appreciative.

Thank you again!