Chapter 5
Silence. Awkward, tangible silence.
Tony stood in the center of the room, fascinated with his hands as he turned them around and pulled the skin on his knuckles. He didn’t know how he envisioned this reunion going, but he certainly didn’t think it would be this uncomfortable. He glanced around the room, feeling a bead of sweat fall down the side of his head. For some reason his heart was pumping out of his chest.
Steve stood in the doorway leaning against the frame. Natasha had made herself at home in a lounge chair. She was sitting with her head propped against one armrest and her feet hanging off the other. Rhodey stood just behind Tony, arms crossed and patiently waiting.
Clint was in the chair next to her, staring at the floor. Bruce was standing against the wall to Tony’s left, waiting for someone to break the silence. Behind Tony there was a kitchen with an island counter, this is where Bucky and Sam stood, both leaning against it. Nobody said a word.
After about a minute Steve finally pushed off the doorframe and looked at Tony. “Tony, What's going on? Why are we all here?”
Tony finally let his hands fall. He crossed them in front of him, grabbing one elbow and finally speaking. “I know this was unexpected and I’m sorry to bother you guys but I didn't know who else to turn to.” Tony was quiet, the words barely a whisper. He now had the full attention of everyone in the room, everyone but Bucky, who was looking anywhere except at him.
“Tony, I meant what I said. Anytime you need us, we’ll be here, but you have to tell us what’s going on.” He pushed again.
“Peter’s missing. I can't find him and I don't know what to do.” He looked down, tears welling in his eyes. He fought them back. Tony didn't realize how hard it would be to say those words out loud but just uttering them made him feel like his whole world was falling apart. His knees threatened to buckle and he thought they would have had it not been for Rhodey’s steadying hand, gently placed on his shoulder. The tears threatened to spill out but he sniffled and tried to pull himself together.
Steve didn’t understand. “Peter?” He was clearly trying to match the name to a face.
“H…he’s my… he…” Tony couldn’t find the words.
“Tony met him before Germany. He’s the Spider kid. When Peter lost his aunt a year ago, Tony took him in and they’ve been together ever since. He’s Tony’s kid,” Rhodey jumped in, “I didn’t know Tony, I'm so sorry.”
Tony felt relieved to have his best friend here to help him out. Since he’d taken Peter in the two of them had gotten pretty close. Rhodes was like an uncle to the kid.
“That guy from the airport?” Steve asked. “He was a kid?” Steve didn’t know what else to say. Tony just nodded, not looking at the man.
“How come we never knew about him?” Clint asked, brows pulled together.
“Well…” Tony paused. How could he explain the whole situation? After the accords and the fight with Steve and Bucky, the whole team seemed to fracture and crumble. Nobody was taking sides but nobody was engaging either. Everyone kind of went their own separate ways. Of course Tony didn't want to tell the Avengers about Peter, he didn’t know who to trust, although saying that now seemed rather ridiculous didn’t it? These are the Avengers, what could they do to hurt the kid?
But it also seemed right that Tony kept him a secret. He knew Peter could be targeted for being associated with him, but more than that it wasn't Tony’s place to out the kid’s identity, even to his closest friends. Peter was very careful with his alias and it wasn’t his information to share.
“Well?” Sam pushed.
Tony guessed he had to try and say something. “Well, after the fight, it just didn’t seem like the right time. He just wanted to be the friendly neighborhood Spiderman, and I did all I could to keep his identity under wraps. That meant telling no one. Plus I have no shortage of enemies, publicly outing the kid as mine could have put him in more danger than he already faces everyday. It just didn’t make sense to me, not with everything going so well with him.”
But everything wasn’t going so well was it? Tony was still here in this situation that he tried so hard to avoid. And Peter was still god knows where with people who surely cared nothing about what they would have to do to the kid to get whatever it was they wanted.
“I guess all of it was for nothing because here we still are, in the same situation I was so terrified to be in to begin with.” Tony looked down again, tears attempting to surface yet again. His vision tunneled a bit and he could feel his heart racing. His breathing picked up as the anxiety crept back in, like a moth to a flame.
After a moment of silence, Natasha took a deep breath and stood up. She walked over to Tony, looking him square in the eyes and placed a firm but gentle hand on his shoulder. He looked back at her. “What do you need from us?” She asked. She was straight to the point, no coddling or hand holding. But the sentiment was clear in her voice. She was there for him, to steady him and help however she can.
“Well all I have is the street cam footage showing where they took him first. But they ditched their vehicles and took off again in new ones. I don’t know where they went and Friday hasn’t picked up anything on any other street cameras.” Tony sniffled a little bit.
“Then we start there.” Nat said, moving away from Tony and beginning to usher everyone across the room to the lab. “First we need to see what you have.”
Tony showed them the camera footage and again, the room was completely silent. Tony could feel the tension in the air, everyone wanting to say something but stopping themselves before they did. Tony kept his head down the whole time, not wanting to relive the whole thing.
Afterwards Natasha started giving instructions. “I want everyone to focus on satellite cameras, see if anything unusual pops up. In the meanwhile Clint, Bruce, and I will start going through local phone signals and seeing if we can’t find any posts or messages that throw red flags.”
Everyone nodded, finding a spot to sit and start working. Within a few minutes everyone had a computer or a tablet in front of them and they were working away diligently. Before getting to work Steve stopped in front of Tony. “I’m sorry about all of this Tony. We are going to get him back.” Tony nodded at him. They were nowhere near okay yet. The two of them still had a lot to work out, but Tony had a hopeful feeling that eventually, they would get back to the way they were. Steve’s words were genuine and comforting, and in that moment Tony felt a small feeling of relief. Like one of the many boulders sitting on his chest had been lifted away, and he could almost start to breathe again.