Chapter 4:

2 years later:

In this chapter, we will see through Andie's POV the break between Tony and Pepper, mentioned in Civil War. I hated even thinking this, let alone writing about it. I love me some Pepperony. I missed Pep in the last couple of movies. (cough. cough. Marvel. cough. cough)

"I can't believe we finally got a night to ourselves," I tell Devon, who's sitting in the booth across from me.

We drove to LA for dinner. It's a little over an hour drive.

"I know. I miss Attie, but it's good for her to spend time with your parents," Devon says while looking over his menu.

He brought me to one of the best restaurants in the city. Through both his connections and mine, we got into a place that has a two-month long waiting list.

"Good for us to spend some time together, too," I tell him, smiling over my glass of wine.

"Life without Iron Man," Devon says in a toast with a raised glass of scotch.

"I wonder how long it'll last," I say, bringing up my own glass.

I know I ruined the mood, but it's the truth. I don't think that Dad can physically stop. It's only been a year. Trying to not be Iron Man for Dad is like a recovering drug user trying to stay sober for the year.

It's painful. Thankfully, with the entrance of Athena in our lives, Dad stays busy. He certainly stays busy with her. It's like he's trying to make up for my childhood through Attie.

"Hopefully for a little while at least," Devon says. I can't help but the hear the hope in his voice.

"Hopefully," I repeat back to him.

Mom and Dad agreed to watch Athena while Devon and I went out on a mommy/daddy date. It's hard to figure out a time when the two of us could just unwind and have some alone time.

It doesn't help that Attie has been walking for the past couple of months. She's been getting into all kinds of things. It's just her curiosity. Even at her young age, she's showing signs of being like me and Dad.

The Stark Mansion has since been rebuilt. Seeing as a lot of the cliff was destroyed by the missiles fired by The Mandarin's choppers, the outside doesn't really look like it did before. It's still the modern-looking and windowed thing, though. The inside definitely has gone through a redo. The biggest difference: No more Jarvis. It's all Friday.

"Mom? Dad? Attie?"

"Welcome back, Andie. The Boss and Athena are in the garage," Friday tells me. "Mrs. Stark just went out."

"Thank you, Friday."

I head down the stairs and type in my code in order to be granted access. Though the house might be different, the one thing that has remained the same is the shop.

"Not that one. That one," Dad says, pointing to a lug nut on the ground.

I watch as Athena's little arm reaches towards dad, the lug nut inside her hand. They're working on the tires.

"Mommy!" I'm greeted by my daughter. She runs up to me with a lot more grace than a two-year-old should have.

A normal two-year-old, anyways.

I take immediate notice that she is covered in grease and other car-related goo.

"Hey, Attie baby! Did ya miss me?" I ask her.

"Yes!" She saunters off back to Dad and sits down right next to him.

So much for missing me.

She's been learning things at a pretty quick rate. She's only two, but she seems like she's twice that.

Oh, the genius genes.

"Hey, Dad," I greet him.

"Hey, Andie. I'd hug you, but I got grease all over me."

Sure enough, I look at him and he matches my daughter.

Dad picks up a file and hands it to me. This can't be good. This cannot be good. I'm not like Dad in the fact that I don't like being handed things, I just don't think being handed things by Dad that will lead to something bad.

There's a State Department seal on it.

Now I know this is really bad. If he's working with the government again…

"Sokovian Accords" is the first word I see. This is about the aftermath of Ultron. I sit down at the work bench in the garage and I skim over the file. Dad and Athena continue working on the car. Well, Dad is working on the car. Attie is just picking up random tools and banging them against the ground.

"They're wanting an oversight panel for the Avengers?" I ask him. This in my hand is obviously the Cliff Notes version of something even bigger. This could be as big as a college textbook.

"Yep and I'm rallying for it."

"Do the others know about it yet?" I ask him.

"Not yet, but they will."

"That means you have to go back to New York," I say. "Dad –"

"GO?" Athena asks. "PA-PA NO LEAVE! PA-PA NO LEAVE!" Attie screams. She climbs her way onto Dad's lap and clings herself to him. I can hear the cries building up. She's not much of a crier, but Dad leaving is apparently her kryptonite.

I know what this is like. I've been in her exact shoes. When I was younger and before I knew what Dad did, I'd react to his leaving like this. Exactly this. Instead of Pa-Pa, I'd say "Daddy." He won't listen to her any more than he listened to me.

"Attie," Dad says, trying to pry her off.

I hate to tell him, but it isn't going to be that easy. She's Stark material. She's only two, but when she gets an idea in her head….

There's no stopping her.

I walk over to her and pry her off Dad's body. She begins crying even more hysterically, of course. She and Dad are like peas and carrots.

"Come on, sweetie. Pa-Pa has work to do."

She tucks her head into my neck and continues to cry.

"Pa-Pa leave?"

"Yeah, baby. Pa-pa's going to leave."

Her mostly brown hazel eyes just look at me as she asks, "Why?

"Because he can't stop," I tell her.

I don't look at Dad as I leave the house. He catches up with us while I'm putting Athena in her car seat. She's still a little weepy, but she's going willingly.

"Andie - what? Where are you going?" I hear him ask.

"Home, Dad. You keep wanting to save the world, but what about the one you live in, Dad? Go, stay – it doesn't really matter. You're going to do what you're going to do and I'm going to do what I need to do for my child."

"Andie –"

"Dad, I'm tired. I have to go home and give my daughter a bath and get her to sleep which will probably be difficult. Goodnight, Dad."

I just get into the car and nod to Devon, telling him that I'm ready to get out of here.

I look in the mirror to see Dad in the same spot he was when we got in the car. I feel bad about the way I speak to him sometimes, but I like to think that I'm telling the truth. And I am.

"I didn't know exactly when would be the best time to bring this up," he begins on our drive back to the loft. "but my Dad is building a firm in DC. He wants me there. I could work my own hours..."

We don't really need to worry about money. Better hours are another thing. Devon works a lot, more so than I do. I work at the company and he's a lawyer. Attie is either at work with me or in daycare. Most if the time, Mom is too busy running the company and there is no telling what Dad would do with her. He might build her a Iron Baby suit. If she wasn't already learning at an advanced rate, I'd have her in an academic program for toddlers, but she'd get bored. I know she would.

"That's great, isn't it?" I ask him, thankful for the distraction from Dad's business.

"I guess, but the job would be in DC. It'd be a permanent move."

"Right now, it seems very promising."

"What's going on?"

"It's Dad," I tell him. It's a bit bleak, but I don't know what else to say.

"It usually is," Dev begins. "But what is it this time?"

"He's about to open a huge can of worms," I tell him. "They're wanting to assign a government oversight committee for the Avengers."

"That's a good thing, isn't it? A lot of horrible shi—things have happened. Cities have been destroyed and all that jazz," Devon says, catching himself.

"What if everyone on the team doesn't feel the same way? This could lead to an implosion. This could lead to a civil war among them. That, in itself, could be more destructive than anything else that could happen. Clint could get back in the game to fight his best friend. Banner could get back in to fight against Nat. It would be friend versus friend."

"A true civil war. DC is starting to sound better and better," Devon says.

"Why can't he just stop?" I ask my husband when he puts the car into park in our garage.

He reaches down with one hand and grips mine. "I don't know, babe. I don't know."

I get out of the car and get into the back seat to find that Athena has fallen asleep on the way here.

"Poor baby," I whisper to her as I gently and quietly unbuckle her. I lift her into my arms and secure her against me, still in her sleeping form.

Straight to the crib with this little one.

We walk up the old metal stairs and into the living space of our loft.

After I get her situated in the nursery, I go into the pantry in order to pick out a bottle of wine.

I could use a drink right now.

After I've had a couple of glasses, I find that I'm in need of rest. I go into the bedroom and change into one of Devon's T shirts and climb into bed. I can hear him in the bathroom taking a shower.

The rushing sound of water going through the pipes is the last thing I hear…

Until I hear someone banging against the metal door of the loft.

Who the hell…

"That'd be your mother, Andie," Fiona announces.

It's 3 AM.

In other words, it's too early for this. But it's my mother at the door. Who knows how many times she woke up at 3 AM for me.

I get out of bed, miraculously finding that no one else in the loft has woken up. I open the door to find my mother standing there with a leather bag in each hand.

Oh my god.

My mother has just left my father.

I step aside to allow her in. She drops her bags next to the counter in the kitchen. I get us a pot of coffee going.

"What's going on?" I ask he, setting a mug of coffee in front of her.

"Your father and I are taking a break," she responds.

"A break?" I ask her.

"I don't know what to do, Andie. I honestly don't. He just keeps on and keeps on. After you left, we just fought and argued. It was the most heated it's been in years. I'm tired of it, D. So just very tired of it. He keeps promising and he keeps breaking those promises. He said that after the Mandarin, he was done. He blew up his suits just to build more. You and I have been on his case for long enough."

"Are you saying that you're done, Mom? You going to call lawyers later today?"

"I don't know what I'm going to do, Andie. A divorce would be messy with the business and all. I don't want that, but I don't want to be married to a ghost, either."

"I don't blame you, Mom. I really don't. Every time he attempts to step up, he ends up flying back out," I tell her, looking into the steaming cup of coffee in front of me instead of my mother's tired and sad blue eyes.

"Right now, he's flying back out to New York or MIT or wherever he's going," she tells me. I don't like the tone that she's got in her voice.

It sounds like she's given up.

I have no say in what she does or what happens in their relationship. I am no longer in their charge. I am not a child that they have to fight for custody of.

"I'm not going to do anything until I can figure what to do. I definitely shouldn't be making decisions in this state of emotional turmoil."

"Probably a good idea," I tell her.

"I'm just going to go settle into the guest room. If he shows up, I don't want to talk to him right now," she tells me.

"Okay," I say. "Stay for as long as you want to," I tell her.

She lays her hand on my cheek before she goes down the small hallway towards the guest bedroom. Sooner or later, this loft will not be big enough for all of us and if Devon and I have another child, it will definitely not be big enough.

DC is starting sound really appealing now. When Dev brought up the idea, it was just merely something to think about. Now, it seems like a viable idea.

It hasn't even been a day since he brought it up. It's only been a few hours.

Sleep won't come to me, so I don't even try.

Lots to think about…

After everything that they – we - have gone through together, the camel's back finally broke. Seeing as I'm not a child and I know exactly what is going on, I don't feel the confusion or the shock that most would probably feel. Instead, I feel like I saw this coming. Don't get me wrong, I don't want my parents to split up, but I can't control it. It's not in my power to make them stay. I know that. I understand that.

Nor is it in my power to make Dad stop being Iron Man.

A girl can dream.

"Andie, your father just pulled into the drive," Fiona tells me.

Wonderful. Instead of letting him in the loft, I meet him down in the garage.

"Is she here?" he asks me as soon as he's out of the Audi.

"I thought you were heading out to wherever you are going?" I ask him, ignoring his question about my mother.

"In a little bit. Is your mother here?" he asks again.

"She is, but she's asleep," I tell him. "Just go, Dad. You won't help anything by being here. She's mad, I'm mad. Just give us space, Dad."

"I know about Dev's possible job in DC," he tells me.

"Of course you do," I reply, brushing my hair back with my fingers.

"He gonna take it?" he asks me.

"Frankly, Dad, it's none of your business," I tell him.

"What's going on?" he asks in a desperate tone of voice.

As much as I hate seeing him like this, I know that he brought it upon himself. We didn't do this. We didn't build those suits. We didn't promise our family a life without Iron Man and then break that promise. After he blew up the suits, I thought that would be the end of it, but it wasn't. Ultron wasn't. I'm sure that whatever fight that breaks out because of these Accords won't be it, either.

"You really wanna know?" I ask him. "You've been blinded by your quest to save the world. So blinded that you failed to see how your world was falling apart around you. Broken promise after broken promise. Iron Man has ruined this family. That is what happened," I tell him before I turn and head back up the stairs that lead to my home.

Talking to my father like that in a pair of short cotton shorts and a camisole without a bra didn't seem intimidating, but I don't care. I said what needed to be said. It needed to be said for the last few years.

Iron Man has ruined this family.

Now that I have my own family to think about, I think I need to break away from Iron Man. I think it's time that I took off this heavy crown. I think it's time for me to lose the weight of burden.

I have to let it go.

Granted, I'm a Stark so I'll still have to work at the company, but as for everything else: I'm done. Whether or not we go to DC or not, I'm done.

So Done.

Dev is the first one up in the morning. I didn't sleep at all. I kept the coffee pot full and just sat and stared at the brick wall of the loft. As soon as I hear him enter the room, I just look at him.

"Let's do it."