Juggling Life

Being a father was never going to be easy for Tony Stark. Not when his company was the leading manufacturer of weapons around the world and he was one of the most famous billionaires, but it was proving to be much more of a struggle than he thought when he became a single parent. All his life, Stark Industries was his priority, and now he had something that took over all of that immediately, his daughter. She was his number one everything, nothing came before her, and he was determined to keep that promise.

It had been working out pretty well until one day there was so much that needed to be done that it was causing Tony to have headaches and become frustrated.

"Board meeting is being held at 2.30pm Mr. Stark." The voice came over the intercom, interrupting his thought process as he scribbled onto a sheet of paper.

"I'll be there at three." Tony replied.

"Mr. Stane is here."

Tony sighed. "Tell him I'm-" the door to his office swung open. "...busy."

"Tony," Obadiah ran his hand over his hairless head. "This has gotta stop."

Over by the side, Rebecca lay silently on the couch with her favorite stuffed animal and a pile of children's books next to her. Tony tried to avoid bringing her into the office as much as possible, usually working from home since he made prototypes and designs, but on days like this like this when he needed to be at the office, there was no option.

"And by that you mean..." Tony raised his eyebrow. He already knew Obadiah didn't like him bringing Rebecca into the office with him, he never really got any work done, but Tony always shot back with the whole 'it's my company, my name on the building, my rules.' It was clear Obadiah wasn't a 'kid' person, but he would just have to deal with it.

"You need some time off." Obadiah spoke softly, almost sympathetically. "You're not coping."

Tony rolled his eyes. "I just had time off, I only just got back."

"Well it wasn't long enough, obviously. You can't possibly get this much work done and be a father too, Tony. You need help."

Tony looked over to Rebecca, making sure she was content before turning back to his sketches and scribbles. "Who makes the weapons here? Me. It'll be done Obi. Is that all?"

Obadiah sighed, clearly not getting anywhere with this conversation. "There's a board meeting-"

"At two thirty, yeah I know." Tony cut in.

"So you'll be there?"

Tony shrugged. "I might make an appearance."

Obadiah leant down on the table. "Just think about it. Maybe a day-care or a nanny, I don't know."

"Nope." Tony spoke definitely, not looking away from his paper. "Is that all? I've got work to do."

"How about we go get some ice-cream?" Happy bent down to Rebecca's level as she sat on the couch.

Tony had been working frantically all day to finish what needed to be done for the board meeting, and Rebecca had been sitting quietly on the couch scribbling in her own books and reading. Tony stopped what he was doing and looked over.

"Yes!" she beamed, scooting herself off the couch. "Can I?" Rebecca looked up to her dad when she remembered she had to ask before going somewhere.

"Yeah, have fun." Tony smiled to his daughter. "Hey Happy,"

"Yeah boss?" Happy walked over, waiting for Rebecca to pull on her shoes anyway.

"I've got a meeting at three..." he pulled a face.

Happy nodded. "No problem, you want me to take care of her for a while?"

Tony sighed. "It's just this meeting, just this once."

"Hey, I don't mind. She loves spending time with Uncle Happy." he smiled proudly. "I'll take her back home after, you okay to get back?"

"Yeah, no problem." Tony nodded. "Thank you, really, this helps a lot."

"Really, I don't mind, I actually enjoy my little bonding time with her." Happy walked toward the door and Rebecca grabbed his hand to hold as they left.

An hour had passed when there was a knock at his door, and he was so concentrated on his work that he didn't even bother to answer.

"Mr. Stark?" The door pushed open to reveal one of the receptionists. "I have...something for you." Tony still didn't look up. "It's important."

"What is it?" he asked in an annoyed tone. The woman didn't say anything, she just awkwardly searched for the words to explain, but Tony was too frustrated to deal it. "It mustn't be as important as you say then. If you have something for me, put it on my desk, if not stop standing there and go."

The woman walked over slowly, intimidated by Tony's firm voice, and sat the forms down on his desk. "It's from...K-Katherine, Mr. Stark."

Tony immediately stopped what he was doing and looked up at the woman with wide eyes.

"She was here?" he asked with a serious tone. "She was in this building, just now?"

"Possibly, Mr. Stark, these were on my desk when I got back from my break."

Tony picked up the papers that were enclosed in a full envelope and separated them to read. The woman left the room quickly, not wanting to experience his reaction to whatever those papers contained.

"I've signed all of the forms, they're all yours now. I won't be in contact with either of you again after this, I'm sorry."

The handwriting made Tony's heart best faster, it was Katherine's perfect cursive letters, and it was the last time he'd see them. He sat down the tiny note from her and continued to lift up another form to read. Tony panicked when he saw the bold writing at the top of the page, certain words only standing out to him.

"Custody of the child."

He read further trying to figure out what was going on. Why would Katherine leave them, and then want full custody of their daughter? It made no sense, and soon Tony found out the real reason behind the forms.

"...full custody of Rebecca Maria Stark, is to the father of the child, Anthony Stark."

Tony's eyes skimmed along the pages, seeing that Katherine had signed all of the appropriate spots and ensured that she would no longer be involved in her daughter's life. The only spots left now were Tony's signatures, but his mind was in no place to read through the pages of the agreement which seemed to outline Tony being fully responsible for Rebecca and Katherine being only recognized as her biological mother.

Tony thought he knew this woman, he loved her, they had a family. When she left, the only thought in Tony's mind was that it was because of him. Rebecca had done nothing wrong, she was only three years old, she barely had time to know her mother before she decided to take off and leave them. All of that love, all of that respect that Tony once held for this woman, it was all gone once those custody forms were in front of him and he discovered she wanted nothing to do with their daughter. She was his responsibility, and he was never going to leave her like Katherine had, never.

Tony walked through the door back home, exhausted from his day of work at the office and going to the board meeting he couldn't get out of, and to add to that the turmoil of discovering Katherine had completely cut all ties with her daughter. He was relieved that Happy had taken Rebecca home and stayed there for the rest of the afternoon.

When he walked into the living room, Happy was sitting on the couch watching the sports channel on mute, signaling for Tony to be quiet.

"She's asleep." he whispered, thinking even the sound of a pin dropping would wake her.

Tony nodded, setting his handful of files down. "Thanks Happy."

"No problem boss, always here to help." Happy gathered his coat and prepared to leave, but he stopped next to Tony and gave him a sincere look. "You're not handling this well, are you?"

"I'm fine." Tony shook his head. "It was just a busy day."

"And what happens when there's another busy day?" Happy wondered. "You need help Tony."

"I don't need help, I need people to stop telling me how to be a father." Tony spoke firmly, annoyed at the amount of people insisting he couldn't do this alone.

"Okay boss," Happy nodded, holding his hands up in surrender. "I'm sorry. I'll see you tomorrow."

"No, not tomorrow."

Happy looked confused. "No?"

"I'm not going in tomorrow, or the next day, or at all. I'll be working from here. I'm not doing this again, I won't put weapons before my daughter." he explained.

Happy nodded, a smile playing at his lips at his boss's reasoning. "You know I support anything you choose to do, parent-wise Tony, I'm always here for you two.''

Tony walked into Rebecca's room, admiring the sight of his daughter laying peacefully on her bed. It want until he moved closer that he realized he was awake.

"Hey, what are you doing up?" Tony asked softly as he sat on the edge of her bed.

"I can't sleep." she mumbled tiredly.

Tony felt so guilty having been at the office for so long, and he hated to admit it, but everyone was right. He couldn't keep doing this, he couldn't keep putting her through this.

"I'm sorry, I've been doing too much work." he pushed her hair back from her face. "Some people think we need help."

"Is...that because...mommy's gone?" she asked in a soft tone, not wanting to upset her dad. She was only three, but she had seen how sad he was when her mother left and she didn't like reminding him.

Tony nodded, being honest. "Yeah, but we're okay, aren't we?" he held his arm around her. "We're fine, you and me." Rebecca nodded, a small smile on her lips. "Yeah, we're gonna be just fine."

Rebecca snuggled into her dad's side, getting comfortable, and Tony closed his eyes as he lay back on the bed. It was moments like this where he didn't even care about the company, or the amount of work that needed to be done, or all of the media and reports he was supposed to worry about. Nothing mattered more to him that Rebecca, and when he held her safely in his arms, nothing worried him any more.

Okay, so this is the first one-shot for this series, and I hope you guys liked it. I'm going to just play around with different times in their relationship, just exploring what happened in those sixteen years before "A Change". This is where your reviews are really important because I really want you guys to suggest/request different events or situations that you might like to read about so I can write for you all. I will be updating this pretty much whenever I finish a piece, which I'm usually good at updating fast, but if I'm a bit slow it's because my full stories will by priority and I'm currently finishing off the first chapter to the sequel to "A Change" which will be up very soon! Thank you for reading, and I hope you continue to enjoy them. Please review with suggestions or requests!