I woke up with a gasp. My heart was pounding, and it felt like I was being pushed into the water , just like in Afghanistan.

"Dad! D-Dad!" I shouted out.

Suddenly Natalie barged inside the room. The room. It wasn't my room.

"This room isn't mine. Where am I ? Where did u take me , you. - you fly!" I screeched out.

Fly? You had no better thing to say?

Apparently Natalie thought the same as she raised a passive aggressive eyebrow at me, hands folded to her sides.

"You wanted to know who I was. Well, you can learn it here. "

"Where am I ? Wait, does my Dad know about this? Coz if he did I bet you that he won't agree to this whole, passive kidnapping thing?"

"You are in a secure SHIELD facility, your dad doesn't know about this. All he knows is that you are visiting your aunt Peggy in the DC, and quite frankly, they too want you away from all this chaos. And this isn't a kidnapping. " She answered all my questions in such a calm way, it irritated me.

"Then why the frack am I here?" I said, frustrated because of the vague answers she was giving.

"We know your dad is dieing. Have known about it for a while now. But unfortunately we haven't gotten anything to cure him, or even curb the symptoms. We were hoping you could, as you secretly have been doing for the past week. With our resources and your brain I'm sure we can come up with something." She said.

"Okay, I get that. Agree with it too , but why are you saying we again and again? Who do you work for? Is it that eye patchy guy from before?" I said, curious and interested. They did want to save my dad, I hope.

"You are correct on that assumption, but do not call me eye patchy dude ever again. " The black bald guy came in , his cloak blowing even though there was no air.

I jumped up a bit , " Woah. You know how to make an entrance. But , as it's gonna save my dad, count me in."

*******

It's been three days, I think , since I have been here, trying day and night to solve the palladium poisoning. I had done extensive research before on it, but now that my dad's life was on the line, I had to do something.

I was wearing my goggles , as I was welding a thin piece of glass, trying to make a new arc reactor which wouldn't react to Palladium like the other one is. Maybe by replacing the arc reactor might counteract the effect of the poison.

Till now I had only been able to find something to curb the symptoms. Not stop them entirely. But hopefully it will give me some more time.

Suddenly, Fury barged in. He had introduced himself to me the next day after our meeting. He might look all that tough, but in truth he was a big softie.

Don't tel him I told you that.

"Stark, let's go." He said, as he turned back to go outside.

"But I still haven't finished!" I protested.

"Doesn't matter. Grab what you made and come with me. Your dad made a big mess on his birthday. "

"Wait, I missed his birthday?!" I whisper- yelled.

I missed my father's potentially last birthday ever.

"Doesn't matter Stark. With your medicine and his brain. He will get something."

I nodded, still in shock of my doings.

Cheer up Sofia. You did it for him only.

With that I went into the helicopter Fury was sat in with Natasha.

And apparently Natalie was actually Natasha Romanoff, a badass spy who is actually Russian! I was so glad to know that I wasn't wrong and hadn't just accused an innocent of being a spy.

Soon, we were above a donuts shop. Inside the big donut ring, was my Dad, wearing sunglasses, and eating a donut.

"Sir! I'm gonna have to ask you to exit the donut!" Fury called out.

I let out a laugh, how can he not laugh after saying what he said?!

Dad lifted his sunglasses as he peered at us. After seeing me, he gave me a short wave which I returned. As soon as he came down, I ran up to him and hugged him tightly. Well, as well as I could with him wearing his suit still. He hugged me just as tightly, although he reeked of alcohol.

"I thought you were in DC?" He asked me, still keeping an eye on Fury.

"They lied. I was actually studying about your poisoning." On his surprised reaction I raised an eyebrow , " You seriously thought your genius kid wouldn't figure out you were dying when you told Pepper about chlorophyll? It's the only counteract people know right now for palladium poisoning . "

He scoffed a bit. " Ofcourse, you had to major in biotechnology. "

"Among many things, Dad." I softly said, realising the gravity of the situation. He gave me a small smile himself, as we both turned inside.

His sarcastic side came up again, as he said to Fury. " I told you I don't wanna join your super secret boyband."

Fury laughed humorlessly, "I remember , you do everything yourself. How's that working out for you?"

"It's , it's . I'm sorry , do I look at the patch or the eye?" He said, although I could easily hear the panic in his voice.

"Honestly I'm a bit hungover, I'm not sure if you're real or -"

Fury sat up. " I am very real. I'm the realest person you're ever gonna meet."

"Just my luck." He turned his face from us, giving me a look on the scars on his neck. I must have looked real worried as Dad gave me a small smile, telling me that all was gonna be okay.

But it wasn't.

"That's not looking good. "

"I have been through worse. "

Through the entrance I saw Natasha coming in.

"We have secured the perimeter, but I don't think we should hold it too much longer. "

I could tell dad was surprised as he looked intently at Natasha for a minute.

"Huh. You- you're fired....?" Even he didn't sound so sure about it.

"Dad!" I said , giving him a look.

"What? Did you know about this too?"

" I actually figured it out the day of the race . Didn't have much time to tell you. " I shrugged.

"That's not up to you. " Natasha said, steering the conversation back to the topic.

"Tony I want you to meet agent Romanoff."

Dad was still gawking at Natasha.

"I'm a shield shadow. Once we knew you were I'll I was tasked to you by Director Fury."

"I suggest you should apologize." He sharply said.

"You have been very busy. Made your girl the CEO, you're giving away all your stuff, you let me your friend fly away in your suit! If I didn't know better -"

"You don't know better. I didn't give my suit, he took it ." Dad defended.

Who are we talking about again?

"Whoa whoa whoa, he took it?! You're Iron Man and he just took it? The little brother walked in , kicked ass, and took your suit! Is that possible?" He asked Natasha.

"Wait, uncle Rhodey took one of our suits?" I asked shocked.

Everyone ignored me.

"Well according to Mr.Stark's database security guidelines there are redundancies to prevent unauthorised usage. " Natasha said.

Fury made a motion like here we go!

Dad smirked a bit, " What do you want from me?"

" What do we want from you? Nuh uh uh, what do you want from me?" You have become a problem, a problem I have to deal with. Contrary to what you believe you are not the centre of my universe! I have bigger problems than you in the southwest region to deal with. "

He then motioned me to do what I came here for. I silently passes the needle to Natasha as she quickly injected it to his body. He shouted about as he rubbed his neck.

"Oh god! You're gonna steal my kidney and sell it? Please can you not do anything that's awful for five seconds." He said as I stood up to carefully see the effects.

The scars had faded . Just as I knew.

"What did she just do to me? Sof, what did she do?" He asked, although his voice held a lilt to it, one I hadn't heard in a while.

"What we just did for you. That's lithium dioxide. Your girl here formulated it, told us it could potentially counteract the effects. That's why we had her with us for the past three days. It's gonna take the edge off. We are trying to get you back into work. "

"That's great actually. I'm proud of you baby girl. Just get me a couple hundred boxes of it and I'll be right as rain. "

"Dad it's not a cure, it just eases the symptoms. " I softly said, trying hard not to cry.

The one time my dad needed me and I failed him.

"Then the wagons gonna be an easy fix."

"Trust me I know I'm good at this stuff. I have been looking for a suitable replacement for Palladium, I have tried every combination , every permutation of every known element."

"Well I'm here to tell you, you haven't tried them all."