Intuition
Tony and Pepper had both risen early Saturday morning, leaving Peter sleeping in the center of the huge bed in their bedroom. Tony made a pot of coffee and Pepper set to work making scrambled eggs and pancakes. They sat across the glass dining room table in front of the wall of floor to ceiling windows overlooking the city and ate in silence for a few minutes. Sometimes they shared meals like this in complete silence, but today they had things to talk about. They needed to figure out what they were going to do with Peter in regards to school, contact the FBI to see what was happening with his kidnappers, and a dozen other things. Since Peter was still sleeping, it was a good time to talk.
“What are we going to do about school?” Pepper asked.
Tony took a sip of his coffee and looked like he was thinking about it. “I really don’t know. I need to talk to Midtown and see what his grades are. I’m positive that the Parkers moved him up two years in school to keep him isolated… he said he gets bullied and has a hard time making friends. I don’t like it. That’s how it was for me when I went to MIT because I was the youngest one there. I was just lucky Rhodey took pity on me so I wasn’t completely alone.” He took another sip of his coffee and set it down. “He should be with kids his own age so he has a chance of making friends but-” he looked at Pepper. “The Parkers moved him around a lot from one school to the next, probably making it so he was always in a new place with new people. School’s been in for two months. I don’t want to do that to him Pep, moving him again… he has a friend there now. I really don’t know what to do with that.”
“Is he even getting good grades at Midtown?”
Tony shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ll have to contact them Monday and get his records. He’s supposed to be in 7th grade right now, but he’s already been through 7th and 8th grade. If we put him back to 7th grade he might be bored, but then he’d have a chance to be around kids his own age.”
“He said Ned is 15,” Pepper pushed her eggs around on her plate for a moment. “I don’t know that I’m ok with him being friends with a 15 year old… I mean, what kind of 15 year old wants to hang out with a 12 year old? Doesn’t that just seem… I don’t know, off to you?”
Tony sat back in his chair and sighed. “He seemed like a good kid. He helped Peter talk to me… told me to be patient with him because he was rambling and couldn’t get all the things he needed to say out. Peter told me Ned doesn’t let the other kids bully him.” He leaned forward again and met Pepper’s eyes. “The only reason I even survived MIT was because Rhodey was there looking after me. He was 20 and I was 15. I don’t think he really wanted to be friends with a 15 year old. I think he just thought he had to because he was my roommate.”
“Rhodey loves you,” Pepper said. Tony scoffed but didn’t argue with her about it.
“To be honest, I don’t know how I feel about it either. I only met the kid once. I want to look into him too. I don’t want to tell Peter he can’t talk to his only friend though. At least not until we learn more.”
People always just assumed Tony was a genius because he’d been born that way… born with superior genes. At MIT other students had sneered at him because they assumed college was easy for him (it must be, right? It must be easy if he had skipped three grades to get to college early?). It wasn’t any easier for Tony than it was for the rest of them. He wasn’t a genius because he’d been born that way, he was a genius because he had a need to know things. He needed to have all the information in order to problem solve and come out on top. As a child that had led him to reading anything and everything he could get his hands on because Howard was always pushing him to do something worthwhile. He had never been able to prove to his father that he was worthwhile, so he pushed to get more information. More, more, more. He could have skipped 8th and 9th grade too, but he’d begged his parents not to send him away to college until he’d had at least one year of high school. Tony was a genius because of his frenetic need to know anything and everything about it all. There was no way he could, but it didn’t mean he couldn’t try. Now he was here with Peter, and Pepper, and he didn’t have any of the information he needed to know to really help his son. That thought was enough to make anxiety rise up in him.
“What are the next steps with the FBI?” Pepper asked.
It took Tony a moment to understand what she’d said and to try stuffing the panic down that was still trying to overwhelm him because of his lack of knowledge. “They said they’d be in contact, but I’m not going to wait for them to call. I was planning on calling them today.”
“And-” she hesitated, and then set her fork down and looked up at him. “What about Rhodey?”
He looked up at her. “What about him?” He didn’t need to ask because he knew what she’d say. He didn’t want to hear it though. He was trying to get rid of his anxiety, not make it worse.
“Have you told him we found Peter yet? He’ll want to know. And Happy.”
“Happy picked us up last night at the field office.” Tony had promised Happy an explanation though, one he hadn’t given him yet. He reached up to rub his forehead, feeling overwhelmed with everything that needed to be done… everything he still needed to learn.
It had been months since he’d spoken to Rhodey last, and that had been necessary for work because there was a joint mission the Avengers had needed him and Rhodey for. Rhodey had asked about how he was doing, and asked about Pepper, but Tony hadn’t told him much. He suspected that Pepper and Rhodey talked, but if they did, he didn’t mind. He’d spoken more to Pepper in the last 12 hours than he had spoken to her in an entire month. It felt strange to have this much conversation now. It was going to be strange to just call his best friend out of the blue… to call his best friend he’d been ignoring for years and just start up a conversation. Maybe it would be better to practice with Happy first since Happy already knew about Peter.
“I’ll talk to Rhodey,” he said, “and Happy. Maybe just- maybe not today.” He gave her a look, pleading with his eyes that she’d understand why he couldn’t do this all in one day. He was still shaken from coming face to face with Peter the day before in the auditorium and all of the overwhelming emotions that came with that, including anxiety. He was startled a moment later when Pepper reached her hand across the table and took his hand in hers and just held it. He met her eyes again and found understanding there. They kept holding hands for several minutes until Peter’s voice came from the other side of the living room.
“Can I- I mean, is it ok if I come out?”
Tony turned and he and Pepper found Peter standing on the threshold of the master bedroom and the living room. His hair was messed up as he stood there in his Avenger pajamas, stuffed zebra dangling down from one hand.
Pepper was fairly certain her heart was going to melt and liquify into a puddle at the sight of him. “Of course honey, come here. Are you ready for breakfast? Do you want some blueberry pancakes?”
“Who’s cooking them?” Peter asked as he crossed the living room and came to stand beside them.
The question took his parents by surprise and Pepper said, “I am sweetie.”
Peter’s eyes flitted between Pepper and Tony and he asked, “Dad’s not cooking them?”
“Your dad?”
Peter looked confused for a moment but then he took a seat at the empty spot at the table and said, “I’d like pancakes. Yeah, pancakes. Yes please. It’s ok if they’re burned.”
Tony laughed and shot Pepper a smirk. She had her brows raised and said, “I won’t burn them sweetheart, I promise.”
“I ate some already,” Tony said. “Totally unburnt.”
“Oh, uh, does mom, I mean…” he trailed off.
“Hm?” Tony tried to prompt him to finish his thought.
“Does mom always do the cooking?”
“Most of it,” she said. “Your dad doesn’t bother to eat half the time.”
“I eat, I just eat takeout or leftovers,” he said.
Peter didn’t say anything else as Pepper got up to take her plate to the kitchen and to start in on a fresh batch of pancakes. One of the things he’d remembered the day before was his dad making him something to eat for lunch. Maybe he was confused about it though. Maybe it had been his mom who had cooked lunch in that memory, even though Peter didn’t remember that being right.
“Did you sleep well?” Tony asked.
Peter set the stuffed zebra on top of the table and said, “Yeah, yeah, I slept good.” He frowned. “Is it Saturday?”
“Yup. What do you do on Saturday?”
“Uh, May works the early shift Saturday, and Ben works the late shift Friday night, so while he’s sleeping I watch cartoons and eat cereal until he wakes up. Then I do whatever homework is due on Monday.”
“Well, no homework today,” Tony said, “but you can watch cartoons if you want.” He motioned back to the TV above the gas fireplace.
Peter looked over at it, and then to his mom, who was still working on pancakes.
“It’s ok,” Pepper called over her shoulder. “You can eat pancakes and watch cartoons. Do you want to go turn something on and I’ll bring these to you?”
“It’s ok?” Peter asked his dad for confirmation, and he nodded.
Peter grabbed the stuffed zebra off the table, went into the living room, and sat down on the couch in the same spot he’d occupied the night before. He picked up the remote, navigated to Netflix, and turned on SpongeBob SquarePants. He had it turned down low, but the intro song to the cartoon still filtered across the living space and into the kitchen. “Are you ready, kids? Aye, aye, Captain! I can't hear you! Aye, aye, Captain!”
He was oblivious to the fact that his parents were staring teary eyed at his back because it had been four years since the sound of cartoons had played in their home.
“He still watches SpongeBob,” Tony said, not looking at Pepper. She didn’t respond and Tony got up, leaving his coffee on the table and made his way to the living room. He didn’t say anything as he sat down beside Peter.
A few minutes later Pepper finished making Peter’s pancakes and took them into the living room for him. She knew Tony didn’t find cartoons particularly fascinating, but his eyes were glued to the screen right next to their son.
“Hey Pete,” he said, touching Peter’s shoulder. Peter looked up from his plate of pancakes and Tony said, “Don’t forget to thank your mom.”
Peter looked stricken for a moment, horrified that he’d been rude. He looked up at her and said, “Thank you. Thanks. Thanks for the pancakes. I- yeah, thank you.”
Pepper smiled down at him, refrained from reaching out to touch his hair because she didn’t want him to jerk away and spill his breakfast, and went back to the kitchen to clean up for a few minutes. When she returned to the couch, Tony stood up, pulled out his phone and disappeared into his lab down the steps off of the dining room. Pepper knew he was going to make a call to the FBI, and hoped he wasn’t planning on staying in the lab all day.
* * *
“We’ve had them at the field office all night. Mr. Parker broke pretty quickly and told us everything. This morning Mrs. Parker seemed more willing to talk.”
“What have they said?” Tony asked, throat tight and voice hard.
“They admitted taking him from the playground at school. They didn’t know he was Peter Stark until after they’d taken him. They told us that Peter was very uncooperative in the first few days, hitting them, biting them, and just in general refusing to cooperate with anything they said. Ben Parker confirmed most of what Peter told us last night… that they told him you had died, and that they spent the next year convincing him that his parents were Mary and Richard, who really did die in a plane crash by the way.”
“Why did they take him?” Tony demanded.
“Neither one of them have said yet. Sometimes what we see in these cases is that a couple who has lost their own child or who can’t have kids of their own get desperate and resort to kidnapping.”
“Do you think that’s what this was?”
“I honestly don’t know. We’re not done questioning them yet. We’ve already charged them with kidnapping, transporting a kidnapped minor across state lines, and mental abuse. Depending on the rest of the details they give us we may be charging them with more.”
“They hit him.”
“Peter told you that? I’ll need a statement from him to that effect.”
Tony sighed. “No. He hasn’t said anything new. But he flinches every time one of us reaches for him. He acts like he’ll be struck.” Tony was pissed, knowing someone had hurt his son.
“For now don’t push him, just try to get him used to being at home and being with the two of you again. We’ll wait a few days before we talk to him again, and we’ll ask him about it when we see him next. Right now there’s no rush. We can get them convicted of the charges we have on them, and then if new information comes up later we can try them again on new charges and get time added to their sentences.”
Tony let out a breath and then nodded despite that the agent on the other end of the line couldn’t see him as it wasn’t a video call. “Peter asked for some of his things from where he was staying.”
“We have agents there processing the apartment this morning. They started early. They’ll be done by Sunday morning and then you’ll be able to go in and collect any of Peter’s things. Just let us know when you want to go over there and I’ll have an agent meet you to let you in.”
“Thank you.”
“Of course.” Neilson ended the call and Tony stared down at his phone for long moments. He looked up at the glass door to his lab, knowing Pepper and Peter were on the other side in the living room, probably still watching cartoons. He just needed a minute to himself in the quiet of the lab.
The lab didn’t feel like it was quiet though, not like it had before. It felt like an oppressive box holding him in. He looked down at his phone again, thinking now would be a good time to call Rhodey, despite that he’d told Pepper he wouldn’t do it today, but the weight of the emptiness of the lab was pressing down on him and propelled him up and off of the stool he’d been sitting on at his workbench. He went to the door, stumbling back a step, opened it, and turned back to stare at the dark lab with a frown. What the hell was wrong with him all of a sudden? He didn’t know, but the moment he stepped out of the lab, his chest felt lighter. Had he been about to have a panic attack? He rubbed his chest hard, frowned at the lab again, and went back to the living room to find Peter and Pepper.
The cartoons were still going but they’d been turned down low, and Pepper was standing between the living room and Peter’s bedroom door, trying to coax him into the room to choose an outfit to wear for the day. Peter was pretty firm on his refusal to go in though, rooted to his spot on the couch.
Tony came up behind Pepper, startling her when he put a hand on her back and said just loud enough for both her and Peter to hear, “Pete, how about we pick out clothes for you today. Would that be ok?”
“That’s, yeah, that’s good,” he said. Peter seemed relieved.
Pepper left them there in the living room to go get clothes from Peter’s room. She was back a few minutes later with a fresh shirt, pants, socks and underwear. Peter took them from her and went into the master bedroom to use the bathroom there to change.
“I really don’t think he likes his room,” she said.
“He’s scared. I don’t know why. Something about the room is freaking him out.”
Her shoulders fell. He knew how hard she had worked to make the room feel welcoming for whenever Peter returned to them.
“I don’t think it’s how it looks,” Tony said. “I don’t think he was lying when he said he liked it.”
“What is it then?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. For right now I think we just need to meet him where he’s at. If he doesn’t want to go in there, I don’t think we should make him. We’ve just got to let him go at his own pace.” That was what Tony had needed after Afghanistan. Rhodey had tried to get him to talk about what had happened, but Pepper had just let him move at his own pace. Of course, he’d never told her much, but she’d let him get comfortable at home again at his own pace after coming back. That was what Peter needed now. “Just, let him go at his own pace,” Tony repeated.
Tony went to their bedroom to check on Peter, and Pepper watched him go, finally reaching down to pause the cartoons playing on the TV. Tony knew on some level what Peter needed because of their soul-bond. He could feel some of the things Peter was feeling if the emotions were particularly strong, but he also knew because he’d been taken and held captive four years before. He knew they needed to just meet Peter where he was at. Pepper thought that was interesting. She hadn’t known how to help Tony in the last few years, but maybe what he really needed was for her to meet him where he was at. If that was what Peter needed, then maybe it’s what Tony needed too. In a roundabout way, whatever he said Peter needed, was really what Tony needed, wasn’t it?
As Tony and Peter came out of the master bedroom a few moments later, Pepper watched them and listened to the conversation they were having about TV shows. She doubted very much that Tony had ever dealt with the whole Afghanistan thing because he’d barely been home for a month when Peter had been taken and then he’d been forced to deal with that. He’d dealt with that by pushing everyone around him away.
Now he was here settling down on the couch to watch cartoons with Peter. She’d meet Peter and Tony both where they were at.
* * *
All of Saturday had been spent on the couch watching cartoons, Star Wars, and How To Train Your Dragon. His mom had made sandwiches for lunch, and then they’d ordered pizza for dinner (which excited Peter again, because he usually didn’t get to eat pizza unless it was in the school cafeteria, and cafeteria pizza was never very good).
Sunday started off the same way, except that his mom hadn’t attempted to get Peter to go into his room, and had a fresh set of clothes waiting for him in the master bathroom to change. He was grateful they weren’t going to force him into his room. He knew he’d have to go in there eventually, and wasn’t looking forward to staying in a room with a closet, but he’d put that off as long as possible. Maybe they’d just let him sleep on the couch when they got tired of him sleeping in their bed.
It was Sunday after lunch when Peter was growing bored and asked his parents again if they could get his things from his bedroom in the apartment in Queens. He really did want to build with the brand new sets of Legos in his bedroom closet, but there was no way he was going in there for them. The best thing he could do was get his red Lego car and his erector set from his room in May and Ben’s apartment.
“Can we get my things from the apartment?”
Tony looked down at his watch. It was just after four pm. “Actually, we can. Agent Neilson said they’d be done in there by this morning. Let me text him and let him know we’re coming. He said someone would let us in.
“Um-”
Tony looked up and found Peter looking at him across the kitchen island. “Yeah bud?”
“It’s Sunday afternoon.”
“It is.”
“Ned always comes to see me on Sunday evening for an hour… to, to check on me. Cuz we didn’t have school for two days on the weekend, and, and he, he just always comes to see me.” Peter was biting his lip.
“Do you want to call him and let him know you’re ok?”
Peter nodded. “But- I mean, because we’re going to Queens, I thought maybe, could we-”
“You want to see him?”
Peter nodded again and looked relieved that his dad had finished his sentence for him and not made him continue to stumble through his words, rambling until his mouth finally caught up to his thoughts.
Tony looked to Pepper for a moment and Pepper said, “Why don’t you invite him here, then we can meet him and get to know him too.”
“Oh, he’ll, he’ll pass the vibe check mom,” Peter grinned at her. “Can he really come over? Like, today? Right now?”
Her smile looked strained but she nodded. “Sure honey. If it’s ok with his parents.”
“We can pick him up while we’re in Queens,” Tony said. “Do you know his number?”
“I have it memorized!”
Tony handed his phone to Peter and Peter bounded away with it.
“Peter honey, why don’t you put it on speaker,” Pepper said.
Peter didn’t question her request and dialed the number he had memorized, and then put it on speaker. It rang a few times before Ned picked up.
“Ned! Ned, it’s me, it’s Peter.”
“Peter! Oh my gosh, are you ok? What’s going on?” came Ned’s voice out of the phone. Tony and Pepper watched from the kitchen, though they tried to pretend they weren’t listening in on the conversation. Peter was oblivious to them, staring down at the phone with an excited look in his eyes.
“Dude! I’m- I’m good. Yeah, I’m good.”
“You’re not… you’re not back with May and Ben are you? You’re with your dad right?”
“Yeah!” Peter said happily. “Guess what? I’ve got Legos now Ned! I’ve got boxes and boxes of them and some of them are Star Wars!”
“That’s cool Peter. I’m really happy for you.”
“Do you want to come over and put them together?”
“When?”
“Right now! We’re going to get my stuff from May and Ben’s apartment today. We can pick you up. Can you come? Will your mom say yes? I mean, do you wanna?”
“Hold on, I’ll be right back. You’re sure it’s ok?”
“Yeah! My mom’s cool, she said you can come over! And guess what? You can just call me Peter now and we don’t even have to be careful about it!”
“Ok, hold on a sec, I’ll go ask my dad. Daaaad!” Ned must have put the phone down and left the room because they didn’t hear anything for a minute, and then he came back and said, “Peter?”
“I’m here, I’m here, right here.”
“I can come. What time? My dad said he’ll come pick me up when we’re done.”
Peter looked over to his parents at the counter and Tony looked at his watch and said, “We’ll leave in a few minutes. We can pick him up at 5? He can stay for dinner.”
“Did you hear that Ned?” Peter asked.
“Yeah. I’ll see you soon.”
Peter hung up the phone and bounded back across the living space to give it back to his dad. “I never get to call Ned. I memorized his number in case I needed to though!” he said, sounding proud of himself.
“Good job buddy,” Tony said. Peter grinned at the praise.
Peter looked around for his shoes, remembered that Pepper had put them in his room, and walked to his bedroom door to look inside. They were sitting just inside against the wall by the door, so he reached in to get them without having to go into the room and then sat on the floor outside the room to put them on.
As the three of them rode down to the garage in the elevator a few minutes later, Peter asked, “What kind of car was the red race car?”
“An Audi R8,” Tony answered.
Tony heard Peter whispering it over and over under his breath. “Audi R8, Audi R8, Audi R8.”
“I still have it,” Tony said.
“You do?” Peter asked, looking up at him.
“It’s in the parking garage.” It was under a car cover in the back of their private garage so Tony didn’t have to look at it. He didn’t want to drive it or think about it when it was the car he and Peter had worked on the most.
Tony led them to the black Audi he’d been driving for the last year and had Peter get into the back seat while Tony and Pepper got up front.
The silence in the car felt awkward to Tony, so after a few minutes he turned on some music. They were four songs into the playlist and nearing Queens when Peter sat forward in his seat suddenly and said with urgency, “What’s this one?”
“What?” Tony asked, looking into the rearview mirror at him.
“This song? What’s this song? I know this.”
Tony grinned and turned it up.
“Back In Black by AC/DC. You like this one?”
“I-” Peter frowned. “Did you used to play this alot? While we, while we were doing things to the red sports car?”
“We used to listen to all kinds of music together,” Tony said.
“Your father was trying to indoctrinate you into loving only his style of music,” Pepper told him, turning the music back down a little.
Tony navigated to May and Ben’s apartment via GPS and just as the song ended they pulled up in front of the brick apartment building. Ned was sitting out front on the front steps, and before his parents could even get out of the car, Peter had unbuckled and thrown himself out of the car and onto the sidewalk.
“Ned!” Peter shouted, running up to him with a grin. “Ned! Look!” He turned and pointed back to his parents, who were getting out of the sleek black car. Pepper was trying hard to smile instead of giving Ned a wary look.
Ned gave Peter’s parents a curious look, and brought his hand up in a motionless wave.
“Ned,” Tony said, coming up to him. He patted Ned on the shoulder once and passed him, going into the building. Ned watched as he passed, and then gave Peter a look and said, “Dude, I can’t believe your dad is Iron Man.” Peter shrugged. “I thought you were joking at first at the assembly Friday.”
“Hello,” Pepper said coming up to him. “I’m Peter’s mom. You must be Ned.” She held out her hand to shake. Ned gave it an uncertain look before giving her the same look and taking her hand in a shake.
“Hi,” he said, sounding nervous. “Nice to meet you.”
“Ned, would you mind waiting outside while we get Peter’s things?”
“Oh, yeah, of course. I know I’m early. Peter doesn’t know where I live so I figured I’d come here and wait for him.”
“Thank you. Do your parents know you’ll be going with us into Manhattan?”
“I’m not sure my dad really believed me, but I told him. He said to call him when I’m ready to come home. I have to be home by nine because I have school tomorrow.”
Pepper waited for Peter to enter the building, though he gave her a questioning look as he passed her. Inside and up the stairs Peter asked, “Why can’t Ned come? He’s been up to my room before. He comes over four days a week after school and, and, and on Sunday.”
She didn’t know how to explain it to him. She and Tony needed to see where their son had been living… the conditions he’d been living in. She was nervous about what she’d find up in the apartment. “This is something your dad and I just need to do alone with you,” she said.
“Oh, ok. I- I guess that’s ok.”
Up on the fourth floor they found the door to May and Ben’s apartment open, and an agent waiting outside to lock it back up. Tony was already inside, standing in the living room and just staring into space.
“Tony,” Pepper said to let him know they were there with him. Peter passed both of them and went into his room. Tony followed him and stood in the doorway.
“Was this your room buddy?” he asked. Peter turned to give him a questioning look, hearing the strain in his voice.
“This is it.”
“Where’s- where are your toys?”
Peter dropped to the floor and pulled a couple of boxes out from under his bed. There was a beat up cardboard box for an erector set, and then a smaller shoe box with several old motors inside that Peter had been using when he built things. He pulled both of those out and put them on the bed, and then turned and snatched his red Lego car from Ned off of his desk.
“Where’s the rest?” Tony asked quietly, coming into the small room and looking around. The walls were bare. No posters, no photographs, no childish drawings, just nothing.
“This is it,” Peter said. “I’m too old to play with toys.”
“Are you?”
Peter shrugged. “That’s what all the kids in my class always say.”
Tony sat down on the edge of Peter’s twin bed and said, “Pete, do you think that’s because they all thought you were 14?”
Peter paused and then looked up at his dad. “What’dya mean?”
“You’re 12, and the other freshman at Midtown are 14 or 15. Maybe since they thought you were 14, they thought you were too old to play with toys.”
“Am I? Too old to play with toys?” Peter wasn’t certain.
“I don’t think so,” he said.
Peter looked down at the red car in his hands. “I like to build things… I like to build Legos.”
“Legos are toys,” Tony said. “So is the erector set. Sounds like you’re not too old to play with toys to me.”
“You’re sure?”
Tony nodded. “Positive.”
Peter moved to get his clothes, which were all folded in a plastic dresser, but Pepper said from the doorframe, “Are there any you really want to keep honey? You’ve got new clothes waiting at home.”
Peter shrugged and left the clothes. Tony carried the two boxes out of the room, and Peter carried the red car.
“Is uh, is this it Pete?” Tony asked, voice quiet, looking around the apartment.
“Yup, this is it. Can we take Ned home now? I wanna show him my new room.”
“Yeah. Why don’t you go down to him and we’ll be down in a minute,” Tony said. Peter disappeared out the open door and ran down the stairs and out of sight, Lego car in hand.
“Are you sure he should be out there alone with Ned?” Pepper asked.
“He’s been walking to and from school with Ned for over a month.” He turned in a circle and looked around the room again. “He’s been right here this whole time Pep, just 15 minutes away from us.” He walked to a bookshelf where there were framed pictures of May and Ben Parker, and a few of Peter. He lifted up a photo of Peter and showed it to her. It was a school photo and Peter’s smile looked strained. “We should have been here for this. This- this is a year they stole from us.”
Pepper walked up behind him and put her hand on his back before running it up to rest on his shoulder. She stared down at the photo. Suddenly Tony reached out with his arm and swept several framed photos of May and Ben off the top of the bookshelf, sending them crashing to the floor. Pepper stilled but didn’t say anything. Whatever he was feeling, she was right there with him. Anger, sadness, loss, all of it. “This one’s ours,” he said, still holding the photo of Peter. “And this one.” He snatched another photo off the shelf. This one was Peter, a couple years younger, out in a forest somewhere in front of a tent, camping. He didn’t look happy, but he wasn’t crying or anything. “These belong to us, not them.”
“Take them,” Pepper said. Tony threw them both on the hardwood floor, startling her again, and then stomped his boot down on them, breaking the glass. He stooped down, picking up the frames and shaking the broken glass away, and took the two paper photos.
“Did that make you feel better?” she asked.
“No,” he said. Then he surprised her for a third time by taking her hand and leading her out of the apartment.
Downstairs Peter and Ned were sitting on the front steps, talking. They stood up when Tony and Pepper came out, carrying the two cardboard boxes from under Peter’s bed.
“You two ready?” Tony asked, voice tight.
“Yes sir,” Ned said.
“Great, let’s go.” Tony was in a hurry to get out of there and was pleased when both boys got into the back seat and buckled up right away. He never wanted to come back to this apartment again, and he certainly never wanted Peter to come back here again. He sped away, leaving Queens behind them. He wanted to forget that the Parker’s ever existed, though he knew for Peter that it wouldn’t be possible.
As they drove back to the tower, Ned and Peter chatted in the back while Pepper and Tony listened to the conversation quietly. They could tell Ned seemed a little nervous from his quiet responses to Peter’s questions and chatter.
“Ned, wait til’ you see my room. My bed’s sooo big. Super big! It’s all blue and I have a model race car like my dad’s, oh, and I found out what kind of car it was! It’s an Audi R8, I mean, I think that’s what he said. Dad did I say it right? Is that- is that the right car?”
“An Audi R8,” Tony agreed from the front, before falling silent again.
“That’s cool,” Ned said quietly.
“And we watched movies all weekend on a super big screen. We watched Star Wars and How To Train Your Dragon.”
“Which Star Wars?”
“Empire Strikes Back,” Peter said, “and some others.”
“I knew you’d watch Empire Strikes Back.” Then Ned gave Peter a grin and said, “I watched that this weekend too.”
“Weirdo,” Peter said.
Ned only grinned at him. It seemed to be an inside joke between the two of them.
Peter filled the rest of the ride up with idle chatter about the things they’d eaten, about getting a milkshake on Friday even though it was chilly outside and was November, and about all the Lego sets they were going to build as soon as they got back to the tower.
Ned was quiet on the elevator ride up to the penthouse, and gave a brief look around before Peter grabbed his wrist and dragged him into his bedroom. Tony and Pepper watched, surprised that Peter had gone in there willingly after refusing to all weekend. The door to the room stayed open, and Tony watched from the living room as Peter pointed into the open walk-in closet, sitting on the edge of his bed.
“The Lego’s are in there.”
“You want me to get them?” Ned asked.
“Yeah, you- you go in and get them.”
Ned walked into the closet, flipping the light on with the switch inside and Tony heard him ask, “Which sets do you want?”
“All the Star Wars ones!”
Ned shifted some boxes around and came back out with four sets a few moments later. He gave Tony a nervous glance when he spotted him coming to lean in Peter’s bedroom door frame with his arms crossed, but then turned to Peter with the boxes, so he could look at them.
“Wait, there’s another one. I saw, there was, I saw a, a, a speeder bike set in there!” Peter pointed back into the closet, and without argument Ned went into the closet and retrieved the little yellow box that held a Star Wars speeder bike. Peter took the other four boxes and slid off his bed, and then went to the opposite corner of his room, which Tony noted was as far from the closet as he could get. There was something about that closet that was giving Peter anxiety. Tony couldn’t feel it, but felt like that was what was keeping Peter from coming into this room alone, and what had made him turn and leave quickly the one time he’d come in before.
Tony left them alone as the boys settled in on the soft carpeted floor to open the Lego sets. He ordered pizza, because they’d told Ned he could stay for dinner, and then went to the kitchen island to talk to Pepper and wait for their food to arrive. They could hear Peter’s quiet chatter, and Ned directing Peter on which parts of the Lego set to work on first, their voices quietly filtering out of the room and across the living space.
“Seems like a good kid,” Tony said.
“I still just feel like Peter needs friends his own age,” Pepper replied.
“Yeah,” Tony said. He glanced back at the open bedroom door for a moment and then looked at the photos from the Parker’s apartment that Pepper was looking at.
After a few moments Pepper said, “I can’t stop looking at this one.” She slid it across the kitchen island towards Tony and he picked it up to look at it too. It was the one of Peter in front of a tent. “That apartment looked like they were trying to be a normal family, but I don’t know if that’s true or not. Were they out doing family things, going on a camping trip, or were they staying in a tent trying to live off the grid or…” she trailed away. Tony scrutinized the photo and Peter’s face. He looked unhappy, but not miserable. It was the same thing he’d thought back at the apartment. His hair and face were clean. If he had to guess, this photo was of a regular camping trip.
“And if they were trying to be a family,” Pepper continued, “I can’t stop thinking that they’re the ones that got to do all these things with him… camping, or going on vacation… to the beach? Do you think they took him to the beach?”
“We took him to the beach,” Tony said, voice low and unhappy. He looked up at her. “We have photos of him on the beach with us.” He pushed the photo back across the island towards her and said, “And we’ll take him again. Lots of places. We’ll go camping.” He wanted to say they’d take that trip to the zoo… the one they were supposed to take four years before, but his throat was tight and he couldn’t get the words out to suggest it.
Their pizzas arrived, and they called the boys out of Peter’s bedroom. Peter brought out a completed Lego speeder bike and sat on a stool at the kitchen island next to Ned to eat their dinner. Now that Ned had been there for forty five minutes, he seemed less nervous and more talkative.
“There’s this one set that’s the village on Tatooine. My cousin bought three of them and set up a huge village on his desk.”
“That’s so cool. I want to build the forest on Endor,” Peter said.
“There’s a lot of sets with trees, and there’s a website where you can order just the bricks in the colors you want without a set, so if you got a bunch of foliage pieces and brown bricks you could build big trees,” Ned told him.
Tony tuned the talk of Legos out, mind still busy with thoughts of the two photos he’d tucked into a kitchen drawer so Peter couldn’t see they’d taken them from the Parker’s apartment.
After dinner, he had Ned call his father to ask if he wanted Tony to drive him home, or if he still wanted to make the drive into Manhattan to pick him up. Ned’s father said he’d come get him, and Tony gave Ned instructions on where his father could pull up outside to pick him up. The boys played with Legos for a few more minutes, and then Tony heard Peter asking Ned if he could bring all the rest of the Lego sets and toys out of the closet before he went home so Peter could play with them as well.
A few minutes after that Tony took Ned down in the elevator and saw that he made it safely to his father, who looked shocked to see his son standing with Tony Stark. He clearly hadn’t believed his son when he’d told him where he was going and who he’d be with. When Tony got back to the penthouse, he was displeased to find Peter sitting on the floor outside of his room, building Legos in the living room.
“You uh, don’t want to do that in your room bud?” he asked. He’d been pleased that Peter had been comfortable enough to go into his room with his friend, and thought that maybe now that his friend had gone in with him, he’d want to spend time in there on his own. Clearly that wasn’t the case.
“No, I’m gonna, I’m gonna build out here.” Peter looked up at him. “Unless, I mean, am I- not allowed?”
“You’re allowed to have your toys out here,” Tony said. He gave a dark look into the bedroom through the open door, and turned and went down into his lab. He grabbed one of his metal toolboxes and then passed Peter and went into his room.
Tony didn’t know what it was about the closet that was freaking Peter out, but there was one thing he could do right now that might help. He pulled out a flat head screwdriver and a hammer and began working the hinges off of the closet door so he could pull the door off. If Peter still had an issue with the closet after that, Tony could install extra lights in there that stayed on 24 hours a day, and if that didn’t help, he could wall the closet off and just put in a built-in wardrobe and dresser.
He got the pins out of the lower two hinges, but the hinge on top was being stubborn and he needed a screwdriver with a flatter edge to wedge in there to pop the pin out. He turned to look through his toolbox for what he needed, but was surprised to find Peter standing behind him, holding out the screwdriver he needed.
Tony looked from the screwdriver to Peter, and it took his mind a moment to catch up to what was going on. He’d forgotten what it was like working on the car in the garage with his son. It had always been Peter’s job to hand him tools, and when they were really having fun listening to music and working, and laughing, Peter would just know what tool Tony needed next without having to be asked, because of the soul-bond.
Tony accepted the screwdriver, handing Peter the one he no longer needed, and turned back to his task. He popped the pin out of the top door hinge and then reached up with both hands and pulled the closet door off and stepped back with it. He looked down at Peter, who was staring into the walk-in closet with a haunted look, though it was also mixed with curiosity.
“This help?” Tony asked. Peter looked up at him and nodded. “Does it need more lights in there?”
“I- uh- I dunno.” Peter gave another dark look into the space, though he gave the door a much lighter look, and Tony felt a sense of relief from Peter wash through his chest.
“No doors,” Tony said, “got it. Why don’t you grab my toolbox and bring it to the lab.”
Peter followed Tony out of the room with his red toolbox, struggling to carry it because it was heavy. Tony carried the door out and to his lab, and was pleased after they came back out of the lab to see Peter take his Legos back into his room. Peter still felt nervous about the closet, Tony could both feel it and see it in the way Peter skirted around the edges of his bed rather than get close to the closet.
“No doors,” Peter mumbled to himself. “No doors.”
* * *
Monday morning rolled around, and Peter was confused about why he wasn’t going to school. His dad had told him he was staying home for the week and that they needed to figure school out. He’d also told him he had a few things to do that day, so Peter would be staying home with his mom, who had taken the next few days off.
Peter felt nervous at first about staying with just his mom, because up until this point his dad had been with him since he’d revealed himself in the auditorium, but Monday went like Saturday and Sunday had gone. His mom made him breakfast and he watched cartoons on the living room TV. Then she made him lunch and sat at the round glass dining table with him. It hadn’t been a bad day so far. He was confused though, because she kept asking him about Ned. Peter loved Ned, but he couldn’t come up with much else to tell her about him.
“How come you wanna know so much about Ned?” he asked. If anything, he’d thought she’d ask more about him, about what his favorite colors were, and about his hobbies. Both of his parents had been curiously quiet since he’d arrived at the tower, and hadn’t asked too many questions. There were a few here and there, but all of them were questions of necessity, like what did he want for lunch, and did he want to watch a movie?
“I’m just-” she paused, looked like she was making up her mind about something, and then gave him a gentle look. “I’m just worried about you being friends with someone who’s so much older than you sweetheart. You’re 12 and he’s 15. Usually kids your age are friends with others in your own age range.”
Peter didn’t know why that concerned her, but suddenly new things about Ned came to mind that he realized he hadn’t told her yet. He’d told his dad and the FBI, but not his mom.
“I’m lucky to have him. Ned doesn’t let Flash call me names,” Peter said, “and, and when Flash does it anyway, Ned calls him a jerk, and, and he makes me, makes me repeat the opposite of whatever Flash told me… like, like when Flash beat me up and him and his friends picked me up and threw me in the big dumpster and laughed at me. Flash, he, he wouldn’t leave unless I told him I was, you know, that I was, that I was trash, and that the dumpster was where I belonged. And then they left me in there and it was gross, so so gross, and there was goopy trash, and it was smelly, but then as soon as they left, Ned came and opened the dumpster lid, and he looked down inside and pulled me out. And I still had trash on me, and Ned, he pulled trash outta my hair. And then he said I had to repeat after him that I wasn’t trash, that I was Peter. And then, after that, he started walking home with me so Flash couldn’t get at me after school. Yeah. He’s, Ned’s my best friend.”
“Does Ned ever want anything in return from you?” Pepper asked. Her heart broke to hear that Peter had been hit and thrown into a dumpster.
“Like what?”
“I don’t know,” Pepper said. “Does he ever ask you to do things for him?”
“He asked me for my locker combo, cuz Flash pushed me in there and shut it and spun the dial, and Ned had to get me out so I could go to class. And then he asked me to go to the nurse’s office cuz when I got shoved into the locker I got all scraped up, and my arm was bleeding, and he said that was gross and it was better to get it all washed off and get a bandaid if I needed one.”
“He doesn’t ask you to do other things for him? To keep secrets, or to do drugs or anything like that?”
Peter pulled back and gave her a horrified look. “Eew, drugs? No, Ned wouldn’t, no mom. I don’t think Ned has any secrets anyway. He just keeps all of mine, like that my name’s Peter and that I was kidnapped.”
“That’s not a secret anymore,” she said, voice soft. “You are Peter, and you’re home.”
He looked up at her and gave her a warm smile. “I know!” he said brightly. His face darkened at something, but she didn’t know what had caused it, and the look was gone after only a moment so she didn’t ask.
* * *
Peter still hadn’t slept in his own bed in his own room. After Ned had left Sunday night, Peter had been grateful to see his dad removing the door to his closet. It was a huge closet, but it made Peter terrified that he’d be punished by getting locked in there. His parents’ room didn’t have a closet, it had a massive wardrobe that took up an entire wall, with sleek drawers and doors that held all of their clothes, so he was more comfortable staying in their room. The wardrobe doors didn’t have locks on them and were high up and he didn’t think they could be blocked from the outside to be kept closed.
He didn’t know where his dad had gone Monday morning or why, but he showed up just after lunch with an elevator full of wood, and huge cardboard boxes, and asked Peter to help him start moving them out and to his room.
“What is all of this stuff?” Peter asked curiously.
“Something your room needs. Are you going to help me build it?”
Peter nodded, heart leaping with joy. He had missed working on the red car with his dad. Now he’d get to hand his dad tools and listen to loud music again. His dad let him go into his lab with him again to get the toolbox and some other things, and then they went back into Peter’s room. His mom stood there watching from the door frame, curiosity in her eyes.
“What are you up to?” she asked Tony.
“I don’t like that closet,” he said. Peter was surprised that his father was the one that didn’t like it.
“You don’t?” Pepper asked.
“I’m going to put in a wardrobe like ours with a dresser underneath. Peter’s going to help, aren’t you?” he asked, reaching over to ruffle Peter’s hair before moving to cut open one of the huge boxes. When he did, it revealed dark blue wardrobe doors nearly the same color as Peter’s bedspread, but more muted.
His mom didn’t ask any more questions and moved past them and all of the boxes to the closet. She went inside and came out with all of Peter’s clothes, and a few boxes that had been up on the closet shelf.
Peter asked about turning on music, and his dad grinned at him. “Now you’re talking,” he said. “FRIDAY, music from my playlist.” There was a chirping noise from the ceiling, and Peter looked up at it, eyes curious, but then music came out of nowhere. It sounded similar to what had played in the car on the way to Queens the night before.
It took Peter a while to be able to figure out what tools his dad wanted before he asked. Sometimes he guessed and didn’t get it right, handing his dad a hammer when he wanted the electric drill, or nails when he wanted screws. His dad never scolded him though, he just asked for what he really wanted and Peter scrambled to find it and give it to him. He even showed Peter how to use the electric drill to drill some of the holes, and then how to change out the drill bit for a bit tip, and then how to screw in screws to secure pieces of the wardrobe together
They didn’t finish by bedtime, which was now nine for Peter as opposed to just whenever May and Ben got off work and made dinner late at night. It didn’t matter that they hadn’t finished yet though, because the closet was effectively blocked off. The wardrobe doors still needed to be put on, and the drawers to the dresser underneath assembled, but the closet was no longer there, dark and scary and looking like it wanted to swallow Peter whole and never let him out again. A shudder passed through him even thinking about it.
“Bedtime honey,” Pepper said, holding out a pair of pajamas for him. Peter took them, went into his room, and closed the door to change. It was the first time he’d been in his room with the bedroom door closed. Usually he changed in the master bathroom. When he opened the door again he threw himself onto the bed and pulled the covers back. His mom stood in the doorway, eyebrows raised and looking surprised.
“You want to sleep in here tonight?” she asked.
He nodded. The bed in his room had looked so big and soft, and he’d wanted to sleep in here, but the closet had been too big of a threat, so he’d slept in between his parents for the last few nights.
His mom came in and gave him a hug, and then kissed his hair. “We’re right next door if you need us.”
“I know.”
“Good night sweetheart. I love you.”
“Love you too. G’night.”
She looked uncertain, like she didn’t want to leave him there. Was she scared of the closet too?
He pointed to the closet. “It’s ok, no doors. The closet’s gone. Me and dad fixed it.”
Her eyes flickered to the new half finished wardrobe, brows drawn together. “You sure did,” she said. She told him goodnight again, gave him a second hug, and then left. A few minutes later his dad came in to tell him good night, and grinned at the sight of him in his own bed.
“You did a great job today Pete. You’re a great helper.”
“I handed you a bunch of wrong tools.”
“You handed me some of the right ones too though. Don’t worry, you’ll get the hang of it.”
Peter tilted his head, looking thoughtful. “Your mind’s all mixed up sometimes. It’s hard to tell what you want. It’s like, like, like a bunch of tools and other things all floating around in a swimming pool. You- I kept thinking you wanted some photos, but I didn’t know where they were to hand to you.”
Tony stilled, looked startled at that, but then gave a nod. “It’s ok, your mom doesn’t understand how my brain works most of the time too.” He leaned down to give Peter a kiss on the top of his head, asked if he wanted the light on or off, turned it off, and then left him to go to sleep.
As Peter lay there, no longer worried about the closet, his own mind swam through a sea of thoughts. The rules here were so different than at May and Ben’s apartment. His mom and dad allowed him to have chocolate milkshakes with dinner in November. His mom did most of the cooking when Peter had expected that Tony would do it, and despite expecting burnt food, his mom was a really good cook. She made the best blueberry pancakes. Dinner here was eaten at five thirty or six, not nine thirty or ten. And the best rule of all: no closet doors. No closets. There wasn’t even a scary closet in the living room for him to get trapped in when he’d done something really bad.
The last thought Peter had as he drifted off to sleep for the first time in his new bed, in his new bedroom, was that it had been days since he’d had to repeat his mantra of, I know my name is Peter. Nothing here had made him forget his name, because everyone here knew it.