Meet the baby
Peter Benjamin Parker Stark was born August 10, 2001. Tony and Mary couldn’t have been happier. The only thing that put a damper on the day was the photographer that was outside of the hospital that had managed to get a shot of Tony entering with his pregnant girlfriend.
Once the picture was released, three things happened that caused him a major headache. The first thing was Tony got an earful from an irate Pepper about how he could keep something that important from her. She yelled about how was she supposed to properly do her job if he was hiding something as big as a pregnant girlfriend. When she said that, he bit back the desire to say “wait until I tell you about my sister from my fathers affair” due to the fact that it would have probably sent her over the edge.
The second thing was that Obadiah Stane called him to tell him that the last thing he needed to worry about was a child. He called himself and Tony ironmongers, they weren’t meant to have children. He explained that was why Howard was such a bad father. Tony simply hung up on him before he got any angrier.
The last thing he had to deal with was the public relations department of S.I. They would be issuing a statement on his behalf. He made them aware that under no circumstance were they allowed to release either the child or mothers name. All they were allowed to release to the press was that the baby was a healthy boy and that Tony was in a committed relationship with the mother.
Peggy and Maria were beyond thrilled with their baby nephew. Peggy purposely held off on visiting until Maria could be granted leave, which meant that it wasn’t until the end of August that they were able to meet him and in Maria’s case, Mary as well. Maria stopped at LAX to pick up Peggy before continuing on to Malibu.
After pulling into the driveway, Maria practically sprinted to the door of the house. She unlocked the door and walked inside.
“Where is he, Jarvis?” Maria hastily asked before the computer could greet her.
During her last visit to the mansion, she had helped Tony with the programming for Jarvis so she had grown comfortable with him.
“Where is who, PFC Hill?” Jarvis asked.
“The baby!!”
Maria was already in the living room when Peggy finally entered the house.
“Oh don’t worry about little old me. Just leave me behind, why don’t you.”
“Sir has the young sir in his arms upstairs.” Before Jarvis even finished talking, Maria was sprinting up the stairs leaving Peggy laughing in her wake.
“Try the nursery miss.” Jarvis said.
“Smart ass computer.” Maria mumbled as she threw open the door to the nursery.
Inside the room, Mary was sitting in a rocking chair watching Tony walk around the room with Peter in his arms.
“Sir, your sister has arrived and is demanding the baby.” Jarvis’ voice sounded.
“Just Ria? Where’s aunt Peggy?” Tony asked. He could just imagine his sister leaving Peggy at the airport so she could have more time with Peter.
“It appears that Mrs. Carter is entering the house now but Ms. Hill appears about ready to tear the house apart sir.”
“Send them up Jar.” Tony said before looking at Mary “You ready?”
“Of course. Being one of only a handful of people to know that you have a sister is quite the honor.” Mary teased before they heard thumping coming from the hallway.
“Well here we go.” Tony said before looking down at his son before laughing “I’ll see you in a couple days Pete.”
As he said that, the door was thrown open and Maria went right up to Tony “I’ll take him.” She said as she took her nephew from her brother. After he was in her arms, she looked over to Mary “Um.. hi. We’ll talk later.”
“I look forward to it.” Mary said laughing.
As she said that Peggy finally caught up and entered the room.
“Hello dears.” She said and walked over to give both Tony and Mary a kiss on the cheek. She then turned and looked at her niece holding her nephew and raised her eyebrow.
“I’m not sharing. Go find your own.” Maria said, somehow pulling him closer.
This led to Tony taking Mary’s hand and leading her out of the room, knowing that this would be a fight for the ages.
“I told you we never should have told anyone.” He said as they walked down the hall.
Mary smacked him on the shoulder “They’re just excited.”
Tony and Mary made their way downstairs and sat down on the couch. Soon enough, the new parents were fast asleep.
About 20 minutes later, Peggy and Maria came down with the elder aunt holding Peter.
“...you’ve been holding him long enough. Give him back.” Maria’s irate voice carried down the stairs and into the living room before they got to the bottom. “Tony, tell her to give me back your… baby.” Her voice trailed off when she realized her brother and his girlfriend were passed out on the couch.
Peggy came over and handed her Peter to her “Come on. We should leave them be.”
Maria couldn’t take her eyes off Peter “Yeah. Right.”
About an hour later the new parents were awoken by their screaming infant. After following his cries, they found him in the dining room in the arms of Maria who was frantically trying to calm him.
Mary had a small smile on her face as she walked up to her screaming son “Don’t worry, there’s only one thing that he wants right now and you can’t give it to him.”
Maria just looked sheepishly as she handed her crying nephew back to his mother. “Sorry, I was looking for a bottle for him and didn’t want to wake you guys.”
“That's okay, puckhead.” Tony yawned as he leaned on the back of a chair “Petey doesn’t care how much sleep his adoring parents get.”
“Oh, would you stop?” His girlfriend glared at him, “He’s just a baby.”
“And since when have you ever cared about how much sleep that you’ve gotten?” His sister asked as she took a seat in the chair next to the one her brother was leaning on “I remember in the summer before I started high school when you locked yourself in your lab for a whole week, only coming out to make sure I was alive and that I had food. It took me telling Aunt Peggy and her coming over to kick your ass for you to go get some sleep.”
Tony looked at his sister with narrowed eyes “I didn’t realize that you had gone and tattled on me to her. Also, I did sleep during that week.”
By this point Mary had already left the room with the hungry newborn but her voice still carried “Why do I doubt that last part?”
Maria burst out laughing “Oooh. I like her.”
“Of course you do because all the women in my life seem to get off on giving me migraines.” Tony said exasperatedly, throwing his hands in the air.
Suddenly, Peggy’s voice spoke up as she came into the room “Who’s causing you migraines?”
Tony stepped back from the chair and pointed at Peggy in mock horror “And there she is. The ringleader of the witches coven!” And then made a cross with his fingers.
Peggy merely leveled an unimpressed look at her godson as she set a plate of food in front of Maria before sitting down herself “You’re not as funny as you think you are Anthony.”
Maria snorted in laughter and Mary’s laughter could be heard from the living room.
“I need a drink.” Tony said and left the room.
The rest of the visit went well. Maria spent every moment that Peter wasn’t eating or sleeping with him. Whether that was being next to whoever was holding him or preferably holding him herself. She and Mary also got to know one another and became fast friends. At one point she cornered her brother in his lab with a screwdriver in her hand and threatened “Don’t screw this up.”
Tony spent the visit hovering around Peter, trying to correct how people were holding Peter. When Mary called him a helicopter parent, Maria lost it and told her about what he had done while she was growing up.
Peggy meanwhile just sat off to the side and watched her family with a fond smile. When Howard and Maria had died, she was worried that Tony would spiral out of control with the girls and alcohol but with him taking Maria in, he never had the chance. She would always credit her niece for being the one to save Tony from himself. Watching the siblings fight over Peter warmed her heart and she knew that those two would guarantee he would never know anything but love.