While Tony is tasked with looking through his father's old belongings, Mazzy is tasked with spending the day with none other than Pepper Potts. Unfortunately for Pepper, while also watching Mazzy, she has to work, like it's any other day. But everything is already busy and problematic with all the stunts Tony has pulled in the past few days.

That is why Mazzy is huddled up in the corner with a clipboard, a piece of paper, and a pack of crayons. First, she folds the paper in half- hamburger style, as Pepper called it when she helped Mazzy make a Father's Day card for Tony a few months back. But this time, Mazzy has to make the card herself because Pepper can't help make her own thank-you card.

Once the paper is folded, Mazzy gets to work. In her best handwriting, which is still quite messy, she writes out the words, THANK YOU PEPPER, and draws some balloons around the sides of it. She also draws a cake on the bottom of the cover, even though it isn't a birthday card. Mazzy just isn't sure what else she's supposed to draw on a thank-you card.

As soon as the cover is finished, Mazzy opens up the card and draws a picture of her and Pepper in a park together. She finishes it off with a little note.

Deer Pepper,

Thank you, Pepper. I am glad you have to babysit me becuase you are funny and nice but I am sorry my dad made everything busy. He is dum. I don't have a thank you prezent for you so I drew a picture of us insted. You are very nice and sometimes I love you so much I wish you were my mom. Thank you Pepper!!!

Love,

MAZZY STARK

It's annoying that Pepper's on the phone during all of this card-making because that means that Mazzy can't ask how to spell the words she's unsure about. She's a pretty good writer and speller for being only six years old, and being the daughter of Tony Stark, but she still makes her fair share of spelling mistakes.

Just as Mazzy gets up to go over to the desk and wait patiently for Pepper to finish her phone call, the door to the office swings open. That is very weird, considering no one is supposed to interrupt Miss Potts' important phone calls (which is a rule Mazzy was informed of by the secretary as soon as she stepped foot into the office building).

When the door opens, in steps the secretary Mazzy had walked past on her way up there. The woman looks nervous as she peeks her head in. "Miss Potts?" she interrupts quietly.

"Relax," another voice says from behind the woman. Mazzy knows that voice to be her father's. He is supposed to be at home going through things, from what Mazzy has been told.

"Mr. Stark is here," the secretary lady announces. "He refuses-"

"I don't. It's fine," Tony says, shooing the secretary lady off. "I'll just be a second."

Hesitantly, the secretary lady closes the door, leaving Tony in the office.

Mazzy runs up to her father and tugs on the bottom of his pail blazer. He turns around to look at her with his eyebrows raised. Mazzy cups her hands around her mouth as she whispers, "You aren't supposed to interrupt Miss Potts' important phone calls."

Tony's eyebrows pinch themselves together. "'Miss Potts'?" he echos with confusion. Since when does Mazzy refer to Pepper as Miss Potts? "What have they been teaching you here?" he murmurs.

"Shhh!" Mazzy shushes him, her pointer finger pressed against her lips.

Although rolling his eyes, Tony complies and stays quiet.

His silence only emphasizes the voice of the man rambling about Stark Industries on the television, though. "When Mr. Stark announced he was indeed Iron Man, he was making a promise to America. We trusted that he would look out for us. But he obviously did not. And now we learn that his secretary, a woman named Virginia 'Pepper' Potts, has been appointed as CEO of Stark Industries. What are her qualifications?!"

As soon as Mazzy hears that, she rolls her eyes just like Tony would, and she quickly adds an extra note at the bottom of Pepper's thank-you card.

P.S. The news guy is DUM!

"Miss Potts is doing nothing to manage this terrible situ-"

Before the newsman can go on, Tony mutes the TV.

With a container of strawberries in his hand, Tony starts looking through the boxes that are stacked in the corners of the office— all of his stuff that Pepper doesn't want. "I'll get this stuff outta here," he says. Mazzy shushes him once more and Pepper only ignores him. Tony just keeps looking through everything.

Eyeing the container of strawberries in her dad's hands, Mazzy tries to snag one, but Tony swats her hand away before she can get one.

As Pepper finally begins to wrap up her phone call, Tony pulls up a chair to the other side of her desk. Eager to give Pepper her thank-you card, Mazzy grabs the paper and climbs up onto her dad's lap, simultaneously trying to keep the card out of Pepper's eyesight.

Finally, Pepper hangs up the phone and places it back in its spot on the desk.

"Got a minute?" Tony asks, placing the strawberries down on the desk.

"No," Pepper deadpans.

"Come on, you just got off the phone. You're fine. Thirty seconds," Tony says.

"Thirty seconds," Mazzy echos, nodding her head in agreement.

Pepper sighs, looking down at the watch strapped around her wrist. "Twenty-nine, twenty-eight..." she begins counting.

"Okay, I, um... I was just driving over here, and I thought I was coming to basically apologize, but I'm not," Tony starts to ramble. Mazzy huffs, giving him a glare. He's already doing a bad job at this.

"Oh, you didn't come here to apologize?" Pepper asks, giving him an incredulous look.

"Look, that goes without saying-"

"No, it doesn't," Mazzy says, shaking her head and pressing her lips together.

"Yes, it does. And I'm working on that. But I haven't been entirely upfront with you," Tony says.

"Oh, I know. Mazzy told me all about it," Pepper says, annoyance laced in her voice.

His mouth slightly open, Tony gives his daughter a stern look. "That was top-secret shit, Maz," he says, his eyebrows raised. He isn't sure all of what Mazzy has told Pepper, but he hopes it isn't any of the super-top-secret things. Luckily for Natasha, Mazzy kept Not-Really-Natalie's secret. Unluckily for Tony, Mazzy has, in fact, mentioned her dad 'being sick'.

Mazzy holds her hands out at her sides. "Nobody told me it was top-secret shit," she argues.

Repressing a laugh, Tony shakes his head. "That is a bad word. You don't say that word," he tells her.

"You said it."

"Okay, hold on. Can I move this?" Tony suddenly changes the subject completely, shifting everyone's attention to the spinning decoration on top of Pepper's desk. "This- this is crazy. It's like a Ferris wheel going. I'm trying to get some..."

"No," Pepper answers, her eyes narrowed at him.

After letting out a big, dramatic huff, Tony rolls Mazzy and himself over to the other side of the desk, as far from the spinning decoration as he can get. "Do you know how short life is? And if I never got to express... And by the way, this is somewhat revelatory to me. And I don't care... I mean, I care. It would be nice. I'm not expecting you to... to..."

"Dad," Mazzy says, looking at him with her eyebrows pressed together. He already passed his thirty seconds a little while ago, and now he's just rambling.

"Okay. Look, here's what I'm trying to say. I'm just gonna say it," Tony decides.

And just as he's about to say it, "Lemme just stop you right here, okay? Because if you say 'I' one more time, I'm gonna actually hurl something at your head, I think," Pepper interjects. Tony tries to share an amused look with Mazzy, but Mazzy only mimics Pepper's look; she narrows her eyes at him. Pepper leans in closer. "I am trying to run a company. Do you have any idea what that entails?" she asks.

"Yes."

"People are relying on you to be Iron Man and you've disappeared, and all I'm doing is putting out your fires and taking the heat for it, all while babysitting your daughter for free," Pepper rants. Mazzy decides not to be offended by that last part because Pepper is already stressed out by everything else going on. "I am trying to do the jobs that you were meant to do," Pepper says.

Tony sighs, leaning his head on his hand with his elbow resting on the desk.

"Did you bring me strawberries?" Pepper then asks, filling the deafening silence. Hesitantly, Tony nods. Mazzy watches the two of them carefully, unsure of where this is going. "Did you know that there's only one thing on Earth that I'm allergic to?"

"Allergic to. Strawberries. Mhm," Tony murmurs, eyeing the box on the desk.

"Does that mean I can have one now?" Mazzy asks her dad. He blows air out of the side of his mouth and nods. Mazzy gladly takes a strawberry from the container.

"This is progress, Pepper. I knew there was a correlation between you and this," Tony says, gesturing between Pepper and the strawberries.

As she starts eating some strawberries, Mazzy looks back over to the TV, curious to see if they have moved on from the Tony Stark and Pepper Potts story. Unfortunately, they haven't yet.

"I need you..." Pepper begins.

"I need you, too. That's what I'm trying to say."

"... to leave. Now."

The door to the office opens once again, and this time, Natasha and Happy walk in. Natasha is dressed like Natalie once again, so Mazzy knows not to call her Natasha. She feels a little bit excited to be included in such a big, important secret, but she is a little scared that she'll accidentally let it slip.

"Miss Potts?"

"Hi, come on in," Pepper says.

"Wheels up in twenty-five minutes," Natalie announces, eyeing both Mazzy and Tony as she walks into the room.

"Thank you," Pepper says, closing up a file on her desk.

Mazzy decides that now is an appropriate time to give Pepper her thank-you card. She places the card on the desk. "I made you a thank-you card, Pepper," she says, smiling wide.

Pepper returns the smile, taking the card from Mazzy and opening it up. And despite the stress of the day, the card does lift her spirits a little. It is good to know that, 1. she is appreciated, and 2. Mazzy is still polite and sweet despite the bad influence of her father.

"Thank you, Maz. That's very sweet," Pepper says, putting her hand on Mazzy's. Mazzy smiles wide again, proud of herself for making Pepper feel better. Pepper comes around to the other side of the desk and kisses the top of Mazzy's head before leaving the office to go catch her flight. Happy follows along behind her.

When Mazzy turns to wave to Pepper and Happy one last time, her eyes latch onto the TV.

"I'm surprised you can keep your mouth shut," Natasha says as soon as the doors to the office shut.

"Boy, you're good. You are mind-blowingly duplicitous. How do you do it? You just tear things- You're a triple imposter! I've never seen anything like you. Is there anything real about you? Do you even speak Latin?" Tony rattles off very quickly.

Natasha replied in Latin, but Tony doesn't have a clue what she said.

"Which means...? Wait. What? What did you just say?" Tony asks.

"It means you can either drive yourself home or I can have you collected," Natasha answers.

Mazzy's eyes are still latched onto the television, and usually, when Natasha is in the room, Mazzy is enamored with and impressed by her, but right now, that is not the case. Mazzy doesn't even say goodbye when Natasha starts toward the door.

It doesn't go unnoticed.

Just as she gets to the door, Natasha turns to look at Mazzy. "Are you alright, Mazzy?" she asks, slightly concerned.

For a moment, Mazzy doesn't give an answer. Tony tugs affectionately on a strand of her hair. "Maz, what's up with you, huh?" he asks.

Mazzy points at the TV screen. "I'm trying to read her lips, but I can't," she says.

Both Natasha and Tony turn to look at the TV. It looks like any other woman speaking to them, so why is Mazzy trying to read her lips?

"Why?" Natasha asks.

"I know her. She was at the party. She helped me," Mazzy explains to the two of them.

All three of them, Tony, Mazzy, and Natasha, watch the TV screen for a moment. Nothing seems odd about it until a picture of Mazzy herself pops up on the screen. Tony's eyebrows furrow. Mazzy is usually left out of the news. The only time she was talked about a lot was when she had gotten 'sick'. Maybe the woman is just talking about her experience at the party.

"Unmute," Tony says aloud.

The audio on the TV turns on. The pouty-lipped woman from the party is speaking with the news anchor. She's dressed quite a lot more professionally than she was at the party, but it is her. Mazzy knows it's her.

"-to the party, I didn't even expect her to be there. She was looking for Tony Stark so I told her where he was. But when everything went bad, she fell and got cut by a bunch of shards of glass," the pouty-lipped woman is explaining.

"And where was Tony Stark at this time?" the news anchor asks.

"Fighting Colonel Rhodes in Iron Man suits. But that isn't the point, sir," the pouty-lipped woman says. Her voice is high. She might be nervous about the whole thing, whether it be because it's her first time on the news or the fact that she's talking about what she saw at that party.

"What is the point, then, Miss Zahn?" the anchorman asks.

"The point is what I saw her do. I helped her pull the glass out of her hands and knees, and as soon as we got the glass out, her skin... it just- it healed so quickly. I watched it with my own eyes. I swear to you, her body just healed itself in seconds. Like it was nothing," the woman— Miss Zahn, apparently— rambles anxiously.

Tony's heart drops down to his feet.

"And you're sure that this is what you saw?" the news anchor asks.

Miss Zahn nods adamantly, obviously a bit shaken. "I know, it's hard to believe. But I know what I saw, and I know I might get in trouble for speaking- for speaking out about this, but I'm worried for that little girl," she explains to the public.

"Worried how? Why?"

"Well, obviously it isn't normal for skin to fix itself in seconds like hers did, and with her father being Tony Stark and all, I'm just worried that- like, what if he's done or is doing experiments on his own daughter? With Mr. Stark's reckless behavior lately, I don't even know what to think. What if he's treating that poor girl like a lab rat?"

"Dad, why're they acting like that?" Mazzy asks, looking at her father with her eyebrows pinched together. She doesn't understand any of it. She knows not everyone can do that, but she never thought it was so uncommon that it would catch the attention of the press. It can't be that strange, can it? Her dad would tell her if it is. Right?

"So, what you're telling me is that you believe Tony Stark may be trying to make a superhuman out of his six-year-old daughter," the newsman asks for confirmation.

"I'm saying that what I saw was not normal. Something is wrong. They must be keeping a secret," Miss Zahn insists.

"Thank you for coming on here and being willing to speak out about this, Miss Zahn."

"Of course. I didn't have any other choice. That little girl deserves to have a normal life, despite who her father is," Miss Zahn replies.

"I appreciate your bravery. It's not easy speaking out against someone as famous as Tony Stark," the news anchor says, a sincere look on his face.

"Thank you for having me, sir," Miss Zahn says, a small smile on her lips.

Finally, the newsman nods and Miss Zahn is off of the television. The news anchor looks right into the camera. "Well, there you have it folks. Tony Stark's six-year-old daughter, Mazzy Stark, has inhuman abilities. Did he give those abilities to her? Was it mother? Is her mother even in the picture at all? We'll do our best to answer those questions after this commercial brea-"

"Mute," Tony says, his voice weak.

"Daddy, what are they saying? Why are they acting like there's something wrong with me?" Mazzy asks, her eyebrows pinched together. She doesn't understand any of it. She doesn't think anything about her, aside from her last name, is newsworthy. But there she is, right on the news.

"There's nothing wrong with you, Maz," Tony says firmly, rubbing his hand over his mouth.

"She said I'm not normal," Mazzy reminds him, her voice wobbling with her words.

"Nobody's normal. There's no such thing as normal," Tony mutters, unsure of what else to tell his daughter.

How do you explain to a six-year-old that she was taken away as a child, that her mother had created her with Tony Stark with intentions only to use her as a soldier, and that she was experimented on in a different country? How do you explain to a six-year-old that she has killed people before?

Sweet, little Mazzy with blood on her hands.

"Why don't you go ask the secretary for one of those candies she has on her desk? I need to grab a few things," Tony says. Really, he just needs to talk to Natasha alone.

Hesitantly, Mazzy slides off of his lap and leaves the room.

The door clicks shut and Tony stands up to face Natasha.

"Fury said you knew. Do you know?" he asks, his expression stoic.

"I do. I might know even more than you do," Natasha answers solemnly.

"So what's Fury's plan on this, then? Huh? He said she'll stay out of it," Tony says, obviously frustrated. He's taking his anger out on the wrong person, though. Who he really needs to take his anger out on was already dead. He had killed her himself, despite never wanting to go that far. He didn't really have a choice.

"I mean, we can do our best to get it out of the media, but we can't erase it now, Tony," Natasha explains to him. She wants it out of the media just as much as Tony does. Mazzy doesn't deserve any of what happened to her, and she doesn't need to hear about it on the TV 24/7.

"So we can- what if- what if we pay the girl to shut up about it? Or make her admit to lying or something," Tony rambles, pressing his fingers into his eyes.

"You haven't told her?" Natasha asks.

"What? Told Mazzy?"

"You haven't told her what happened to her," Natasha says.

"No. I haven't told her. And I'm not gonna tell her, either," Tony confirms.