how unfortunate (the stupid things you do for love)
The Parker-Lombardi household had descended into chaos with the statement that Mary and Peter had both up and left. With Caterina ripping her hair out with what to do, and Ximena comforting all of the others, Valentina was at a loss.
“What about Mr Stark?” Valentina asked hesitantly. Ximena turned to her curiously. “He cares about Peter, doesn’t he? He’s got all the resources he needs to help us find him and Mary. He could help us.”
Ximena reached for Peter’s phone, which was lying face up on the dresser near the entrance to the house. Ximena flipped it open, her chest rising and falling with worry, scrolling through Peter’s contacts until he found the one labelled ‘irondad’.
She held back a chuckle as she put the phone on speaker and listened with everything she had to the dial tone. She hoped he picked up.
Tony Stark was their last hope.
“Alright, Underoos?” his voice filtered through the speakers on the phone. Ximena’s heart dropped. She didn’t know what to say, for once. “Everything okay?”
“This isn’t Peter,” Ximena started, looking at Caterina. For once, she didn’t know what to do. Malena was sat on the sofa, distracting the younger children with bright smiles that were strained and forced. “You met me the other day, I’m Ximena..”
Tony did not answer on the other side, so Ximena kept talking. “We’ve suspected something’s been wrong with him for a while, oh God,” Ximena put one of her hands on her forehead as she paced.
“What’s wrong with Peter?” Tony asked, his voice holding back his worry. On the other side, Tony was already gesturing for Happy to start the car to take him to Peter’s house.
“We’re not certain, but all the signs are pointing to it,” Ximena then said, being encouraged with a nod from Malena. “He’s bipolar. Mary’s bipolar, our grandfather was, it’s genetic. He’s gone on a spiral. Oh, God. He’s got drugs on him, and booze, lots of it, he almost killed the kids!”
Tony was racing through the streets as Ximena’s voice filled the space of the car, and he willed Happy to hurry up, but without breaking the law. “He’s gone, the whole house has been turned upside down,” it was a different voice, an unfamiliar one. “I’m Malena, by the way, Ximena’s sister,” she spoke. “Ximena’s just started having a breakdown,”
“Not helping, Lena!” Valentina shouted.
“I’m almost there, guys, hang on,” Tony sighed, and his breathing picked up as the phone hung up. “Jesus Christ, Happy, what has the kid been hiding from us?”
Tony rushed out of the car and bounded up the stairs, unable to restrain himself from the vigorous activity. He burst through the door, and the sight was atrocious.
Ximena was sat on the stairs, tears pouring down her face as she bounced her legs up and down, her fingers tangled in her hair. Malena was in front of her, attempting to calm her down, muttering in Spanish. Valentina was flicking through TV shows, trying to find one that would calm all their siblings.
“What the fuck?” Tony managed to stutter out. Malena got up and launched towards him.
“Thank the Lord you’re here,” she started. “Long story short, Mary’s bipolar and a crackhead and Richard’s in jail so Peter had to pick up the slack after Ricardo, that’s his brother, died from a drug overdose, and Peter’s now gone on a manic episode and we’ve lost him, and his bipolar isn’t diagnosed, so there’s nothing anyone can do and, oh God, like if the police get involved, we’re all going to be seperated, like, group homes and foster placements, like, oh, fuck.” Malena explained rapidly, and Ximena had stopped crying at this point, but her face was bright red and her eyes were bloodshot.
“He managed to hide all of this from me?” Tony asked in disbelief. Valentina opened her mouth to retort at him, but she closed it quickly. “I thought he trusted me.”
“He doesn’t open up about it much to anyone,” Malena said. “The only person outside of the family that knows about everything is probably Felicia,”
“Who’s Felicia?”
“Just a quick shag,” Ximena cut in, splashing her face with water. “They’re friends, though, so that’s got to count for something.” she said. Tony scrunched his face up.
“And you want me to help find him?” he asked again, just to be sure.
“You’ll help us find Pietro, won’t you, Mr. Stark?” Carlotta asked in all the strength a three, going on four, year old could muster. She was careful, polite about her words. She didn’t know the extent of what was going on. She tugged on his trousers, and stared at him with puppy dog brown eyes.
“Of course.” he said with finality. He reached into the briefcase he had brought with him, the same one he brought with him everywhere. A laptop was produced, and he sat down on the sofa, sinking in, and opened the lid.
“I think the best thing for us to do is just to wait for him to come back,” Valentina snapped at Ximena. “What’s he going to do?”
“You were the one that suggested calling him in the first place!”
“Because I thought he’d be more help than this!”
“Well whose fault is that?”
“We’re not helping anyone if we fight,” Malena cut in softly. “Think of the children.”
"I don't know why Peter chose not to tell me about any of this," Tony began, resisting the urge to spit some sarcastic comment at all of them. "But I think the best thing we can all do is work together, because we'll find them quicker."
"I never thought I'd be saying this, but I agree." Caterina said, sitting down next to him.
Tony was typing for every security camera in Queens, any people that remotely resembled Peter Parker or Mary Parker.
Tony Stark was not about to let another innocent child be swallowed by his bad childhood, or lack of, or his mental wellbeing.
He had already seen it happen once.
He was not going to let it happen again.