Not Alone
Pain. Deep pain. Shit that hurt! What the hell? Had he been in a car wreck? He hadn’t wrecked since he’d been in college and had totaled the junker Howard had given him. His chest felt like it was on fire! SHIT SHIT! Was he on fire?
Tony opened his eyes and tried to roll away from the wreckage of his car, but found he couldn’t because something was holding him back… he was attached to something. He frowned down at his chest and found it wrapped in bandages, two wires coming out from underneath the off-white wrappings. Was he in the hospital then? But the wires were black, and not the kind found in hospitals, at least he didn’t think they were. The fuck? He reached out, hands shaking to follow the wires from underneath his chest bandages to… THE FUCK? A CAR BATTERY? Tony breathed hard, vision swimming. He was- disoriented. This was- it was a dream- it had to be some sort of twisted fucking nightmare, because he was not lying here with his chest on fire and hooked to a mother fucking car battery! He blinked hard four or five times in a row, trying to clear the nightmare away, but he couldn’t. His vision was dark around the edges, pulsing with the quick pace of his heart, but he found himself staring up at rock… not the pristine white ceiling tiles of a hospital.
He really would have liked to investigate where the fuck he really was, but the pain in his chest and the wires- oh fuck… he was hooked to a fucking car battery! He slammed his eyes shut again trying to focus on breathing for just a moment. Breath, fuck it hurts, breath, just breath. It’s a nightmare, it’s a nightmare. I’m not here. He opened his eyes again and then stared down at the bandages on his chest and scrabbled to move them aside, trying to rip them apart. Some of them were soaked in his own blood.
He didn’t know how he managed to pull the bandages away when his hands were shaking so bad, but he did, and found himself staring down at a grotesque circular piece of metal sticking out of his chest, black wires hooked up to the car battery… he hadn’t crashed his piece of shit car from Howard again, he was the wreck. If only his father could see him now…
Panic gripped him and his shaking hands moved to yank the wires out of the hunk of metal in his chest.
“I wouldn’t if I were you,” came a voice to his left, and his eyes darted over to find a man in ragged clothes with his back to him… shaving. “That magnet is keeping you alive.”
Tony woke with a mangled shout trying to rip its way out of his throat. There were hands on his arm, shaking him gently, and his own hands flung out in fear as he scrambled to get away.
“Tony, Tony it’s me, shh, you’re ok, it’s me, it’s me.”
He blinked hard just like he’d done in the cave, trying to clear this vision away. This wasn’t real… he was in a cave and this was the dream… the dream he’d conjured up to comfort himself.
“Tony? Hey, are you awake? It’s ok honey.”
Tony’s breaths were coming fast and his hands were shaking. Not a dream. This is not a dream. It was really Pepper, and this was what was real. Afghanistan had been the dream.
“I’m-” he swallowed thickly, throat tight. Crap, his whole body was shaking. “I’m awake.”
“Honey-” Pepper’s voice sounded broken, and Tony wasn’t sure why. She scooted towards him where he was tangled in sheets and blankets at the edge of the bed. Then tentative arms sought him out in the darkness and wrapped themselves around him. “You’re shaking,” she said, voice quiet. She didn’t ask him about it though, she just held him, and after long moments of his mind racing, still trying to reassure himself that this was reality and not a dream, he finally relaxed into her arms. It had been a long time since they’d embraced like this… since he’d let himself be embraced like this by her.
“It’s ok,” she said, voice soothing. “It’s not real. You’re right here.”
He focused on her words. They were helpful. In the first month after he’d come back from Afghanistan, before Peter had been taken, he’d woken from nightmares frequently and she had held him after each one and reassured him he was safe. He’d told her it was helpful. That seemed like a lifetime ago now. He still had the nightmares, but he’d spent four years staying up late every night until three or even four in the morning and then stumbling into bed just a couple hours before she had to wake up to go to work. Staying up late was a great way to avoid nightmares. He still had them, but if he only slept for four or five hours a night then he was less likely to have them than if he got a full eight or nine hours of sleep.
“You’re safe,” she repeated again. “You’re here with me and Peter. Peter’s next door in his room.”
“Shit,” Tony murmured to himself. “I should go check on him.” He hated to think about all the fear and anxiety he’d just felt in the nightmare going through their soul-bond and frightening Peter.
“FRIDAY, is Peter awake? Is he in distress?” Pepper asked in the darkness.
“Peter is sleeping soundly and does not appear to be in distress.”
Tony sucked in a deep breath and let it out slowly. He’d stopped shaking now. He’d forgotten just how much being in his wife’s arms helped after a nightmare like this. Still, just to reassure himself, he reached up to his chest and felt the arc reactor mark III. Not a hunk of metal hooked to a car battery then. When he’d woken at first in the cave, he really had thought he’d been in some sort of nightmare. While it was horrifying to be in intense pain and find himself hooked to a car battery, the worst part had been finding out it was all real, not a nightmare. When he did have nightmares, this was a frequent one because his brain tried to trick him and make him think he was back there… that he hadn’t escaped and made it home.
“Come on, let’s lie back down,” Pepper urged gently, and he scooted back to the center of the bed with her. Once they were both settled under the covers she ran her hand through his hair and kept her other arm firmly over his chest. After ten minutes her breathing evened out and her fingers stopped winding their way through his hair. She had fallen asleep again. Tony still stared up at the ceiling in the darkness.
He thought about going into his lab, but the lab didn’t feel like the refuge it had before Peter had come back. He’d prized the emptiness of the lab before, but now the emptiness of the lab at 2 AM felt entirely different to him. It was cold and lonely. It was oppressive.
His mind flickered to the red car 90 some floors below in the parking garage, covered in a car cover and tucked away. Peter had mentioned it a few times now, asking about it. He and Peter used to spend hours in his shop garage working on it in the shop in Malibu… keeping it tuned, upgrading it, and just spending time together. That garage in Malibu had seemed so full of life with seven year old Peter in it, just like the penthouse felt so full of life now, with the TV perpetually on and blaring SpongeBob or other cartoons Peter liked.
Tony closed his eyes again. Maybe that’s what the lab needed: Peter. In the morning he’d go down to the parking garage and move the red Audi R8 to the massive elevator that ran from the parking garage all the way through the center of the tower and to his penthouse lab. He’d had the tower built like this so he could still work on his cars without having to do it in the parking garage. He rarely worked on any of his cars though. That car elevator had been one of a dozen things that represented his dwindling hope that Peter would come back someday and that they’d get to work on cars together again.
Pepper tightened her arm around his chest in her sleep and Tony closed his eyes, mind finally settled enough to try sleeping again. He hoped Peter would want to work on the car with him… that he wasn’t too old to enjoy spending time with him like that anymore. Tony knew that wasn’t the case though. Peter had had a lot of fun building the built-in wardrobe and dresser in his room.
* * *
Tony woke Peter early and took him down to the parking garage.
“Are we going somewhere?” Peter asked. “Am I going to school today? I- I don’t have my bag, and there- there’s a test in biology and I think it’s today, and- and- and I don’t, I didn’t have my textbook to study.”
“No school at all this week,” Tony reminded him. “We’re going to get the Audi R8.”
“The red one?” Peter asked in excitement.
“Yeah. I thought we could work on it today buddy.”
“Really?” Peter bounced on the balls of his feet as the elevator door opened to reveal the parking garage to the two of them. They stepped out of the elevator and Peter turned back to give it a frown. “Are we working on it here?”
“We’ll take it up to the lab.”
“But-” he gave the elevator behind them another frown. “Will it fit in there?”
Tony huffed a laugh. “The car has its own elevator. Wait til’ you see.” He led Peter across the small private parking garage and to the corner where the Audi R8 was under a gray car cover, now covered in dust.
“I’ll get this corner,” Tony said. “You go lift up a corner from the back.”
Peter hurried around the side of the car and lifted up the gray cover, revealing bright red paint. Tony could feel his son’s excitement come across the link.
“If- if you- dad, if you drive me to school in this, the cool kids might not- they might not think I’m so lame anymore!”
“You’re not lame buddy, you’re the coolest person I know.”
“Noo,” Peter said with a laugh. “I’m not cool dad! Ned’s cool. Cool kids- they don’t get thrown in dumpsters.”
“How many times has that happened?” Tony wondered out loud as Peter handed him his corner of the car cover and Tony set to folding it up. When he was done he tossed it in the car.
“Uh, well, less now that Ned hangs out with me,” Peter said.
“How many times do you think though?” Tony asked.
“Five?”
It sounded more like a question than an answer though.
“Well that’s never happening again,” Tony assured him. “And if it did, Iron Man would have something to say about it.”
Peter just stared at him. “Iron Man? Would- would you- I mean- would Iron Man… put them in a dumpster?”
Tony smirked. “At least.”
That brought a grin to Peter’s face. Tony had him get in the passenger seat of the car and then Tony got in and started the car up and moved it inside a bright yellow hollow painted box on the garage floor.
After they got out Tony pulled his phone out and said, “Stay back here with me and watch.” He tapped in a command and the square piece of floor inside the yellow square box started rising with the car. After being sure the elevator was working properly, Tony looked down at Peter and grinned at the look of awe on his son’s face. The ceiling opened up and the car was pushed up into it. After it had disappeared into the ceiling, the lift it had been on returned to its spot and settled back into the garage floor.
“That was so cool!” Peter said.
“Yup. Come on, let’s go back up to the lab. It’ll be waiting for us up there.”
Peter practically ran to the elevator, bouncing on his feet again while he waited for Tony to get there at a more leisurely pace. The elevator door opened before Tony got there and Happy stepped out. He looked startled for a moment to see Peter and Tony, but schooled his face neutral after a moment.
“Boss,” he said to Tony. Then he greeted Peter with, “Mini-boss.” Tony’s heart fluttered at that. He wondered if Pepper had already talked to Happy. Whether she had or hadn’t, it filled him with excitement to hear Happy call Peter that.
Peter stared up at Happy but didn’t say anything. Tony couldn’t sense fear or anything else coming from him.
“I got a security notification that the garage lift was activated. I came down to check.”
“It was me. Just taking a car up to the lab to work on.”
Happy’s eyes flitted to the corner where the Audi R8 usually lived under the car cover, and then he smiled a little to himself, and gave a nod. “Right.”
“We’re gonna drive it to school so I don’t get thrown in a dumpster,” Peter said, and Happy looked back down at him. When Peter saw he had the man’s attention he said, “And if I do get thrown in a dumpster, Iron Man is gonna throw them in a dumpster.”
“I’ll uh, I’ll help him do it mini-boss.”
Happy hit the button for the elevator door and when it opened he waited for Peter and Tony to step inside before he got back in. He hit the button for level 80 and then the button for the penthouse. Peter had been in this elevator a few times now, and found it interesting that this elevator only seemed to go to floor 80 and above.
Once the elevator was moving upwards again, Tony said, “Peter, this is Happy. Happy, Peter.”
Peter moved in front of Happy and stared up at him, face scrunched up like he was trying to figure something out. Happy looked uncomfortable under Peter’s close scrutiny. Then Peter surprised Happy and Tony both by reaching up to the edge of Happy’s suit jacket and tugging lightly on it, bringing Happy’s attention back down to him.
“Are you coming with us to school in the red car?”
“It only has two seats,” Tony said.
Peter frowned again. “How’s uncle Happy going to go with us then?”
Happy gaped down at him, and so did Tony.
“You uh… you-” Tony cleared his throat. “You remember Happy?” Peter hadn’t said anything about him when Happy had brought them back from the FBI field office, and hadn’t asked about him since then. It had been a long time… four years too long, since he’d heard his son refer to their body guard and head of security as ‘uncle’ Happy. Happy had been Tony’s friend for years, and Tony had once referred to him as ‘uncle Happy’. Peter had latched onto that when he was little and taken it literally. He’d once asked why Happy and Tony were so different if they were brothers, and Tony had had to explain the difference between a real uncle and a friend that was close enough to the family that he was called uncle.
“Didn’t uncle Happy used to pick me up from school?” Peter asked, brows knit together in confusion. “Did I remember right, or am I confused?”
“You’re not confused,” Tony said, anger surging through him for a moment. Damn Parkers. His kid was not confused about his own memories.
“I think-” Peter trailed away as the elevator neared level 80. “I think uncle Happy used to let me have ice cream on the way home from school sometimes.”
Happy shifted uncomfortably and looking down at Peter said, “That was supposed to be a secret kid.”
“Oh, I- I forgot.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Happy said. His eyes shifted sideways to Tony, but he only found him giving him a sly smile. Damn it was good to see his boss smiling again.
Happy got off at level 80 and then Tony and Peter continued up to the penthouse. As promised, the red car was waiting in the lab, and after it was unlocked, Peter raced inside and touched the car, fingers brushing the side of it as he walked down the driver’s side. He scrutinized it for long moments and then seemed satisfied.
“I- this, this one’s my favorite,” Peter rambled. “Red’s my favorite color, cuz I could always, this one’s the one I always-” he trailed away looking frustrated for a moment as he searched for words and said, “I always remembered working on this car with you.”
“Yeah?” Tony asked. “This is my favorite car too, and my favorite color.” He motioned to the row of red and gold Iron Man suits along the far wall. He’d shown Peter the suits briefly, but it had only been a few days since he’d returned home and they’d spent most of that time together on the couch with Pepper, reveling at the fact (and being in disbelief at the same time) that Peter was finally home.
Tony dragged over two low rolling stools and Peter plopped on one of them and spun once with a laugh.
After Tony brought over two tool boxes full of tools he used to work on cars and set them on the floor, he popped the hood and leaned over the engine. Peter got off the stool to come look too.
Tony began explaining parts of the engine, and Peter looked like he was soaking up the information. Tony’s phone rang a few times, but he ignored it and eventually set it to silent, wanting to spend the whole day with Peter working on the car and ignoring the rest of the world. Unfortunately Pepper didn’t ignore her phone when it rang and half an hour into working on the car (they had barely even started), she came into the lab.
She looked over both of them fondly, but then her face grew serious and she said, “Tony, agent Neilson called.”
Tony looked up at her from where he was leaning over the engine, but didn’t ask her what Neilson had called for. Instead she filled in the information for him. “They want us to come down to answer some more questions. For Peter to answer more questions.”
“It can wait,” Tony said.
“They asked us to come down today.”
At first Tony wasn’t sure if it was his own irritation he was feeling, or Peter’s. It was his, he decided, because what he was getting from Peter, even if only from looking at his posture, was anxiety.
Tony put his hand on Peter’s shoulder, which caused him to flinch, but then pulled him into his side and said, “The car will be here when we get back kiddo. We just have to go take care of this real quick, and then we can pick up ice cream on the way home, how does that sound?”
Peter looked up at him. “We need uncle Happy for that.”
Tony took a deep breath, nodded, and said, “Ok, we can bring uncle Happy for that.” He looked up at the ceiling and said, “FRIDAY, notify Happy that we need him for the afternoon and have him meet us in the parking garage.” FRIDAY chirped to let him know she’d sent the message, and Tony kept his hand on Peter’s shoulder as they followed Pepper out of the lab.
Tony didn’t bother changing into nicer clothes in the hope that they weren’t going to be gone long.
Happy was waiting for them in the parking garage next to the large black company SUV he drove. Tony, Peter, and Pepper ended up sitting together in the back seat, Peter between his parents.
“FBI field office,” Tony told Happy, and Happy pulled out of the parking garage and into the city.
When they were almost there, Peter asked quietly, “And we get- we get- we’re gonna get ice cream after right?”
“Yeah buddy,” Tony said.
Peter seemed to steel himself then, and Tony watched his son’s face harden from the innocent, scared face Peter had had the last few days, to something similar to what Tony had seen in the mirror every morning for the last few years: reluctant acceptance.
An agent met Tony, Pepper, and Peter at the door and took them up to the same conference room Tony and Peter had sat in just five days before. The difference now was that Pepper was with them, and Peter once again found himself sitting between both parents. Pepper was running her hand through Peter’s hair as agent Neilson and three other agents settled in across the table from them. The camera and recording device were recording again.
“Hi Peter,” Agent Neilson said, giving him a smile. Tony thought Neilson looked tired, like he hadn’t had a break in the last few days. “Have you been settling in at home ok?”
Peter nodded. Tony took a deep breath when he caught sight of Peter’s face. Somewhere between the car and the conference room Peter had gone from looking determined to haunted. He had to look away. He’d seen that look on his own face too many times and he didn’t want to see it on Peter’s. Pepper was there though and still focused on Peter. He was glad she was here this time around and that this wasn’t all on him to project a strong front for their son.
“Peter, we just have a few questions that we were hoping you could clear up for us. Would that be all right?”
Peter gave a single nod.
“Could you tell us your name again?”
“Peter Richard Parker.”
Tony still didn’t look back at his son. It hurt to hear him call himself that again. He was aware that Pepper was rubbing her hand gently up and down Peter’s back now.
“Peter, do you remember your other name? The name your parents gave you?”
“Uh- Peter Stark? I uh, I forgot. I’m- confused.”
Tony was breathing hard and he startled a moment later when Pepper’s hand left Peter’s back and reached across him to settle on Tony’s arm. She squeezed it and he looked across Peter to her. She wasn’t looking at him, her eyes were focused on the agents, but he knew she was really focused on him at the moment.
“It’s ok Peter,” Neilson said, apparently oblivious to how angry Tony was at the moment. “Your name is Peter Edward Stark.” Neilson marked something down on a notepad in front of him and then looked back up at Peter.
“How have the last few days been at home?” he asked.
“I have a really cool room,” Peter said. “And I have lots of Legos, and my friend got to come visit, and I get to work on the red race car with my dad, and watch lots of movies, and, and, and uncle Happy’s gonna take me for ice cream after this.” He rambled it all off seemingly without taking a breath. Then he added brightly, “There’s no closet in my room. Dad and I built a wardrobe instead.”
Neilson didn’t understand why that was important. Tony didn’t know either, he only knew that it was, and that Peter was no longer afraid of his room.
“That’s good Peter,” Neilson said. “That’s really good. Can you tell me about what you just said about having toys? Did you have toys when you were with the Parkers?”
“Toys are for babies,” Peter said without thought. Then he paused. “Uh, I mean, I thought they were? Dad said I can still play with toys.”
“So you didn’t have any at the Parkers? When we looked in your bedroom at their apartment, it was pretty empty.”
“I had an erector set, and my friend Ned gave me a red Lego car, like the one I used to work on with my dad.”
“I see. Did the Parker’s tell you you couldn’t play with toys? Did they tell you that you were too old?”
Peter shrugged. “Ben- he bought the erector set, and, and he brought me the motors. For my birthday,” Peter added.
“What about other toys?”
“I don’t remember.”
“That’s ok Peter-” Neilson started, but Peter started to ramble, and cut him off.
“I, there, there was a rocket. A- a space shuttle, cuz I like space shuttles, and, and astronauts, and NASA. They, I mean, I had it for a couple of days, and then, uh, and then, and then, it- it got broken.”
“Broken how?” Neilson asked. Peter looked down at the table and Tony tried to send the feeling of confidence and strength back through their bond for him.
“Uh, Ben, he uh, well, I- I got in trouble. He broke it in half and- and he threw it away, cuz, toys are for babies anyway.”
Pepper wrapped her arm around Peter and left it there, trying to lend him her strength and confidence as well.
“Peter, did things like that happen often?” Neilson asked. “Did the Parker’s break your things when you got into trouble?”
“Uh, maybe, sometimes.”
“What did they do when you got into trouble?”
Peter shrugged and looked down, just like he had done the first time they’d come in here and been asked that.
“Did you get grounded?”
Shrug.
“Did they hurt you Peter?”
Shrug.
“Did they withhold food?”
Peter shook his head. “No.”
“Did they do something else to punish you?”
Peter stilled and anger flared in Tony’s chest again. He had no one to direct it at since the Parkers weren’t there so his eyes snapped up to the agents across the table. “Can we hurry this up?” he snapped.
Neilson looked unphased by Tony’s anger, and Tony was sure it was because he faced this sort of thing all the time from other parents. Neilson had a track record of finding kids and reuniting them with their parents. It was the reason Tony had insisted all those years ago that Neilson be put on Peter’s case. He couldn’t find it in himself to feel sorry for snapping at the man right at the moment though.
“One more question. This one’s important. Peter, do you know what happened to your soul-mark? A few days after you were taken, your dad’s soul-mark began to burn and then turned into a scar. Can you tell us what happened to your soul-mark?”
“Uh, I- I- I don’t know,” Peter said, eyes coming back up from the table. “I wasn’t, I, they wanted me to be good, and I wouldn’t. I didn’t do- I wasn’t doing anything they said. Then I woke up in the middle of the night, cuz my mark was burning, and they were standing over me. They said, they said it was because- because my parents died in a plane wreck, and their bodies got burned up, so my mark was burning.”
“Peter, I want you to think hard. Think back to that night. I know it’s difficult. Can you remember anything at all about that night that might tell us what happened to your soul-mark?”
Peter scrunched his face up in thought and then closed his eyes. The room had been dark, but there had been something glowing behind May’s back. It had been casting a soft orange light in the room. He had no idea what it had been. “May had something glowing red behind her back. I- I dunno what it was. It- I always thought maybe- I, I thought, I thought they might have done it.” He startled a moment later when Pepper pulled him up out of his chair and onto her lap, which was difficult because he was 12, even though he was small for his age.
Tony stood up and walked away from the table, his back to his wife and son. He was glad Pepper had pulled Peter into a hug because he clearly needed it, and at the same time Tony needed to stand up and pace because he was filled with anger. Everything they’d done to Peter had made him angry, but this? Burning him? Burning his soul-mark? It was too much. Forget how it had made Tony feel lost and alone and uncertain and hopeless when his matching soul-mark had burned. They’d hurt his son, and there was no way he could ever forgive them for that… there was no way he could forgive them for any of it.
“Ok Peter, you did good here today. I think that’s all we need. Peter, would you mind waiting outside with agent Jenks for a few minutes while I talk to your mom and dad?”
“No,” Pepper said, and Neilson’s eyes came over to her. “Tony.”
Tony turned and looked at Pepper, their son still on her lap. She motioned to him and Tony knew what she wanted him to do immediately.
“Pete, let’s go buddy.” Peter looked at him and slid off of Pepper’s lap, and then took Tony’s hand and allowed himself to be led out of the room. Tony was glad to flee the conference room and let Pepper deal with whatever Neilson had to say. The room had started to make him feel claustrophobic, like he needed to escape. The only reason he hadn’t walked out yet was because Peter needed him there. Pepper must have seen how riled he was. Pepper was amazing. Tony knew she was. He’d never forgotten that, even when he’d chosen to pull himself away from her, but now that Peter was back, he was remembering all over again just how amazing she was. There was a reason he’d made her CEO of his company. Pepper had a non-nonsense approach to things. She could walk into a room and command it just by her presence in the same way Tony could if he chose to. Having her there with them this time meant he was free to take a step back if he needed to, because he knew she had it handled. It was… nice. And he was lucky she was still around… lucky she hadn’t decided to just be done with him after those first few months of him locking himself away in the lab, or even after the first year or two. He really couldn’t understand why she had stayed.
Tony and Peter waited outside the conference room door but didn’t go anywhere. He didn’t want to leave Pepper there. Peter pressed himself against Tony and wrapped his arms around Tony’s stomach and Tony put his hand on the back of his son’s head and just held him close while they waited. Peter was anxious and Tony was angry and anxious both. He wondered if Peter could feel that across the bond.
“You’re ok,” Tony said, trying to speak softly and keep the anger out of his voice.
“Mmm,” Peter hummed.
“Your mom’s got this.”
Peter murmured his agreement again.
“You know, you and I are both lucky to have her,” Tony said.
Peter looked up at him and Tony felt something else come over him. It wasn’t something he was used to, and he was positive it wasn’t coming from Peter though it was caused by him. Peace. For just a moment, at the realization that Peter was there with him, and Pepper was taking care of whatever it was agent Neilson wanted, he felt at peace. Then, as fast as it had come over him, it was gone. His anger had died down a little in its wake, now slowly simmering under the surface. More than anything Tony felt exhausted. It was only noon, an hour and a half ago they’d been working on the car, and now he felt exhausted and ready for a nap, or several cups of coffee.
“Ice cream,” Peter said, and Tony looked down at him and realized Peter was still staring up at him as he pressed himself into his side.
“Hm?”
“Remember, you said we could get ice cream.”
“I don’t think Happy would let me forget,” Tony said. He thought back to that morning in the elevator in the parking garage. He had never realized that Happy used to take Peter to get ice cream after school… that it had been their secret. The realization filled him with warmth. Now that Peter was home, he was surrounded by people who loved him. He felt a pang then at the thought that he still had to call and tell Rhodey. He wondered if Peter remembered him. Rhodey had always brought candy or toys or books for Peter when he came to visit… just whatever he thought Peter would like. It was never anything expensive, but Peter took delight in whatever Rhodey had brought for him. That was their thing. Knowing now that Peter and Happy had their own thing made him happy. Peter deserved people around him that cared about him and wanted him to be happy.
After ten minutes the door to the conference room opened and Pepper came out, face still all business, like she was coming out of a board meeting or a meeting with investors.
“Are we done?” Tony asked.
She nodded. “We’re done. We shouldn’t have to come back here again.”
“Good,” Peter said, drawing the attention of both of his parents. “Now we can get ice cream.”
Tony ran his hand through Peter’s hair and gave a nod and they made their way down to the lobby and out to Happy, still waiting in the car.
* * *
They didn’t end up working on the car after they got back from the FBI field office and then from getting ice cream. Instead they came back and turned on a movie. Peter pressed his back up against Pepper and put his legs over Tony’s and they watched a movie about an astronaut stuck in space who couldn’t get home. It was PG-13 and Pepper asked Peter three times if he was sure if he wanted to watch this one because it could be ‘scary’ but Peter insisted and said he’d already seen it a dozen times.
“This one’s the best mom. I’ve seen all the good astronaut movies like this one.”
At some point in the movie Tony and Pepper left Peter on the couch and went into the kitchen to start dinner and to talk.
“What did Neilson have to say?” Tony asked quietly as he pulled steaks out of the fridge and Pepper started to make a big salad for them all to share.
“He said they tracked their movements all the way back to the day they took Peter. They were able to track them via old cell phone records and credit card purchases. After they took Peter they moved around for four months… a new city every night. Then they settled down for six months and picked up and moved again. They moved and settled in a new place 14 times.”
Tony frowned at that. “Peter thought it was only five or six times.”
“14,” Pepper said again, voice hard and angry. "Agent Neilson said there was also a two month stretch where they lived in their car while they were on the road.”
They were silent for several minutes as Tony started the steaks on the stove and Pepper finished making the salad. “Was that all?” Tony asked when the steaks were nearly done.
“They’re almost done with their investigation. They said they shouldn’t need to call Peter in to answer questions again, and if they need to they can come here. They’re submitting the videos and recordings of both interviews with him as evidence to be used in court. They’ll be going for the maximum sentencing. Just based on the burn to Peter’s mark alone they think that will get them both ten years, and then the other charges should each bring 5 to 7 years by themselves. He said neither one of them have admitted to any sort of physical abuse. The agent thinks that just based on how Peter reacted to those questions they can get one of them to confess so they can get more charges added on.”
“They’re lucky they’re locked up,” Tony said. If they weren’t, he would go after them as Iron Man. Pepper didn’t respond to that.
“I think we need to make a decision about school,” Pepper said instead as Tony cut up the cooked steak to add to the salad.
“I haven’t even had time to look into schools.”
“I have.” He stopped what he was doing and his eyes came up to meet hers. Grateful. He was so grateful that he didn’t have to take care of all of this himself. “I also contacted Midtown and got his records. He’s been struggling there. I can’t believe the Parker’s thought he should be in high school at this age. His teachers all say he’s smart and understands most of the material, but that he hasn’t been able to keep up with the workload.”
“They didn’t think he should be there,” Tony said, voice sharp. “They just wanted to isolate him.” He didn’t know if the Parkers had admitted that to the FBI or not, but Tony was sure it was true. “And then there’s the bullying,” Tony said.
Pepper looked grim as she nodded. “I found a private school in Manhattan I think would work well for him. The class sizes are small, and the teachers are willing to give students work on their level, so they can meet Peter where he’s at academically, but he’d still be with kids his own age.”
“We’ll have to think about security,” Tony said. Peter had been taken from the playground of his private school in California. He couldn’t have Peter going to school and have the same thing happen again. Just thinking about Peter going to school and being away from him gave him anxiety.
“I’ll show you the information I got from them after Peter goes to bed,” she said. “They have a few kids from high profile families already and they have security measures in place. It’s one of the reasons I added this one to the list of possibilities.”
Tony nodded, looked down at the steak he’d been cutting up, and swallowed. Then he looked back up at her and said, “I’m pretty sure I haven’t told you lately how lucky I am to have you.”
She looked shocked for a moment, and then her eyes started to look watery. “Everyone knows how lucky you are to have me,” she said with a little laugh, raising one brow at him.
Tony laughed too.
* * *
“Peter honey, we want to talk to you for a few minutes about school.” It was Thursday and Peter had made his way through building nine Lego sets. He’d been wondering when they would bring school up and if he’d be going back to Midtown. He’d been allowed to call Ned again, and Ned had asked, but Peter hadn’t known what to tell him.
Peter was sitting at the head of his bed, playing with one of the smaller Lego sets he’d just put together. It was an Avenger’s set with a huge Lego Hulk. His mom came and sat on the left side of his bed, and his dad sat on the right side. They were both facing him and looked like they were about to break bad news. It made Peter feel like there were butterflies in his stomach.
“What’s, what are, what’s there to talk about?” He swallowed and then snapped his mouth shut to keep himself from rambling nonsense.
“Pete,” Tony said, “you’re really smart, we know you are. All of your teachers at Midtown said that you’re smart and you understand the material even though it’s two years ahead of where you should be. But you never should have been in 9th grade at 12 years old. I think the main reason you’ve been getting bullied the last few years is because you were bumped up two grades and were always the youngest in your class. A year or two doesn’t make much difference once you’re a teenager, but it makes a big difference when you’re grade school or middle school age. Does that make sense?”
It did make sense to Peter, especially after his dad had told him that he wasn’t too young to play with toys and watch SpongeBob even when his classmates had told him he was for the last couple of years. There was also the fact that Peter never understood the jokes other kids told, and couldn’t seem to blend in with them no matter how hard he tried. It always left him feeling like he was weird, and like he was on the outside looking in. At least, that was the case until he’d found Ned. “I- I get it,” Peter said.
“We want you to be able to make friends your own age,” Pepper said.
“What about Ned?” Peter asked. If they told him he couldn’t be friends with Ned anymore, he was going to cry. He knew he was.
“You can still be friends with Ned,” Tony told him. “We can set something up so you can see him after school a couple days a week if he’s not busy, or on weekends, just like before. We think for right now the best thing to do is get you into 7th grade in a new school. Your mom found a really good private school that will give you work that’s on your level since you’ve already been through 7th and 8th grade in public school. That way you won’t be bored, but you’ll still be with kids your age. You deserve that chance to make friends your own age.”
Peter looked back and forth between his mom and dad. They were looking at him like they expected him to cry or throw a fit. He was used to changing schools though. He really didn’t believe going to a new school yet again would make a difference in him getting bullied, but it was what it was. He never got a choice in this sort of thing.
“What do you think honey?” Pepper asked, and Peter looked up at her.
“What do you mean?”
“We know you’ve been moved around and had to change schools a lot,” Pepper said. “We want to know how you feel about this.”
Peter shrugged. “At least the bullies at the new school won’t be as big as the ones at Midtown,” he said. “I’m gonna- I’ll, I’ll miss Ned though.”
“I promise we’ll work something out with Ned and his parents,” Pepper said. She looked across the bed at Tony and said, “And in two years, when you’re really ready to be a freshman in high school, we can think about Midtown again. Ned will still be there as a junior at that time and then you’d get two years of going to school with him. It’s a possibility, but it’s something for us all to think about and discuss in two years when you’re ready for high school.”
Peter shrugged again. “I guess, I think, yeah, I guess I could try it.”
“Remember what I said,” Tony told him, bringing Peter’s eyes back up to him again. “If there are any bullies at the new school, or anywhere, they’ll have to deal with Iron Man.”
Peter smiled at him and said, “Can we- uh, can we go work on the car before bed?”
“C’mon buddy. Let’s go.”