Through the Years
The next few years were filled with both highlights and tragedy. The first major event was when Mary and Tony were engaged shortly before Peter's first birthday. Unfortunately the joyful period didn’t last long because in January of 2003, when Mary was heading to a scientific conference in Japan, contact was lost with the plane she was on.
Tony was understandably distraught and lent whatever resources he had to the search crews that could help them. It was two weeks after contact was lost when they found the debris field. After that everyone onboard was declared lost. Tony took Peter back to New York for Mary’s funeral. The only ones in attendance besides them were Mary’s brother Ben, his wife May, Sharron and her parents, and Peggy. Maria and Rhodey were both deployed to Afghanistan and wanted nothing more than to run home to be there for Tony but he told them not to worry about him, they were the ones in a warzone.
A couple months later Tony got around to updating his will since Peter had been born. When he gave it to Pepper to file, he didn’t think about the questions that would arise from it, specifically from her.
Pepper marched down the steps and entered the code to Tony’s lab. She smiled at Peter who was playing with his blocks in the play area that Tony had set up in the corner of the lab. She saw Tony tearing apart one of his older cars. It was a very familiar sight since Mary had died. Unless he was with Peter he was down here and he was bringing Peter down with him more and more.
“Jarvis, mute music.” She ordered as she got closer to her boss.
“Of course Ms.Potts.” The computer responded.
Without even looking up from what he was doing “Um I was listening to that.”
“I don’t care Tony. I saw the will that you want me to file. Who is Maria Hill and why are leaving her all your shares in the company as well as joint custody of Peter?” As soon as she said Peter's name she could hear him yelling “me” over and over. “You made her your executor Tony.”
Putting down his tools and looking up at his assistant he spoke in the most serious tone Pepper had ever heard her boss speak in “Maria is the only person that I trust, and I really mean THE ONLY person that I trust with this. She knows all of my secrets and would protect him,” pointing at Peter, “with her life.”
“But who is she? You’ve never spoken of her before.” Pepper was desperate for answers. As far as she knew, this mystery woman could just be using him.
Tony walked over to the sink and began to wash his hands. “I just need you to file the will Pepper and not question me. If that's too hard I’ll get someone else to.” He turned the water off and made his way over to his son.
“I’m just trying to protect you and Peter.” She pleaded as she followed along.
Tony stepped over the baby gate that surrounded the play area and knelt to play with his son. “Maria is the one of the only people in this world that you never have to protect us from.”
At the mention of his aunt's name, Peter’s head began searching the lab for his favorite aunt.
“That still doesn’t explain who she is. Who is Maria Hill?”
Peter chose this point to chime into the conversation. “An Ria, An Ria.” He began calling excitedly.
Tony simply closed his eyes. He really should have known that saying his sister's name would have gotten such a response from Peter. “Aunt Ria isn’t here, bud. She’s still fighting bad guys.”
Peter’s face went from happy to sad in a second.
On the other hand, Pepper's confusion only grew. “Aunt Ria?”
Knowing that the cat was out of the bag and Tony was too tired to come up with anything, he went with the truth. “My sister through an affair my father had.”
Pepper’s mouth literally dropped open in shock.
Tony told her everything. From finding out about her existence to raising her. Pepper swore that she would never tell another soul and Tony thanked her for her discretion.
In February of 2005, Peggy approached the current director of Shield and someone she had personally recruited, Nick Fury, about a potential new agent, one Maria Hill, who had just returned home from Iraq and was soon to receive an honorable discharge from the Marine Corps if all went according to plan.
“Tell me again how you know her.” Fury asked.
The two were meeting in an old diner just outside of DC. A place the two of them would meet every couple of months to catch up with one another.
Peggy took a brief sip of her tea before responding. “She’s an old family friend, Nicholas.”
Fury looked at her, irritated over the use of his first name. Only a handful of people were allowed to use it and she was unfortunately one of them. “So I’m supposed to just take a chance on this Hill, an unknown?”
Peggy simply smiled wryly at him “If you’ll recall I took a chance on you, an unknown, once upon a time.”
Fury merely rolled his eye “How could I forget? You only bring it up every time you need something.” He said before taking a bite of the pie that was in front of him.
Peggy took another sip of her tea before saying “You’ve read her military jacket, what she accomplished while in Afghanistan. You and I both know that you have agents that could never do what she did.”
“Don’t you think that I know that Peg.” Fury said in a hushed tone as he looked around the busy diner “But there’s a difference between being a Shield agent and being a soldier.”
“I’m well aware of that Nicholas but I’m telling you”, she said sternly as she put her hands on the table, “she can make that jump.”
“And what makes you think that? Just because she held off a shit ton of Taliban fighters in a burned out chopper? I’ll admit, it’s impressive but you can’t know.”
“But I know her. She’s everything we want our agents to be” Peggy growled back at him.
Fury sighed dejectedly. He was more than capable of winning arguments with just about anyone , but when it came to Peggy Carter. “I’ll make the approach Peg. But this makes us even.”
Peggy simply smirked as she stood up and put money on the table for both of them. “This doesn’t even bring us to the 90s. Makes us even, you are funny Director.” She said with a laugh.
Fury simply grumbled in response as he finished his coffee and pie.
3 weeks later
Maria wiped the sweat off her face with a towel. She had just finished working out in the now empty gym. She had been home from Iraq for a little over a month. She only had a brief 6 month deployment there unlike her year long one in Afghanistan. She still hadn’t gone to see her brother and nephew since returning because as soon as she turned her phone on upon returning to California she had a single text message from an unknown number that simply said You have eyes on you DH. Maria and Peggy had devised a system that if a situation couldn’t be deemed secure, Peggy would use the name she had used when Maria was a kid.
Maria knew Peggy was going to bat for her with Shield but she wasn’t expecting it this fast.
She was brought out of her thoughts by footsteps approaching her.
“You have a friend in a very high place Sergeant”
Maria turned around and standing there was a black man in a leather trench coat and an eye patch. Maria didn’t need an introduction but thought it best to play dumb.
“I’m sorry sir I’m not sure what you mean.” Maria said before pointing back towards the door, “But this is a Marine only gym, I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”
Fury merely smirked at her. “You can cut the bull shit Hill. We both know you know who I am and why I’m here.”
Mare looked around again to make sure no one was around. “If you’re here I’m guessing that I’m being recruited for Shield.”
“Look at that, took you only one guess. My only real question is how exactly did you get Peggy Carter to be a character reference for you.”
Maria simply went with the old story with a smile on her face, “She’s a family friend.”
In July of 2006 Tony was sitting in a meeting with Obie and a few of the board members and he was bored out of his mind. He had done everything he could think of short of faking his own death to get out of the meeting but Pepper had threatened him into attending. He wasn’t even sure how it happened. One minute he was sitting next to his pool watching his soon to be five year old son, who he was convinced was part fish, and the next he was in the back of his Rolls driven by Happy to S.I.
Now he was stuck in a meeting and Pepper was taking his son school shopping. Oh what he wouldn’t give to be walking aimlessly through some random store looking for a backpack with Peter's favorite tv show of the week on it. He really did try to keep up with what the kid liked but it changed so often that whenever he thought he had it, it turned out that was two or three shows ago. The only thing that brought him comfort was Pepper was just as lost as he was and she tried just as hard as he did.
He was brought out of his boredom by his phone vibrating. While receiving a glare from Obie, which he didn’t care about, he checked the caller id and it read Secret Squirrel, his sister.
“Excuse me, I have to answer this.” Tony stood up and made his way out of the glass conference room, “Stark.”
Tony would always answer his sisters calls that way to let her know he wasn’t alone.
“Tony. something happened.” came his sister's upset voice.
“What's wrong? What happened?” He asked as he rushed to get completely out of the room.
“It’s aunt Peggy. Sharron and I, we went to check up on her. She wasn’t paying her bills. We were the only ones able to go..” Maria was rambling at this point and if she was rambling something really bad happened.
Tony practically ran into the nearest empty room, dread filling him as he cut off his sister. “Ria, Ria. What happened?”
“We walked in the door and the house was a mess. When we found aunt Peggy, she was just walking in circles in the basement. She didn’t know me, Tone.” His sister was losing it at this point. “She didn’t know me or Sharron Tone. We had to call Dan and Nicole to come.” Tony felt his heart rate spike. If Sharon's parents had to head down from Boston. “They said she has Alzheimer's Tony. The doctors say Aunt Peggy has Alzheimers.” And with that, he could hear his sister sobbing completely on the other end which is what he wanted to do but he had to wait until he got out of the building. He just stood in the empty room with his hand over his face.
“I’m on my way Ria.” He said as he strode back out of the room.
He stuck his head back in the conference room and told them they were done for the day. He called Hogan to bring the car around to take him to the air strip and he called Pepper to ask if she could watch the kid for a couple days, which of course she said yes to.
Four and a half hours later he was stepping off his plane just outside of New York only to see his cousin Dan waiting for him. No words exchanged, they just walked up to one another and hugged.
As Dan drove them to the hospital he filled Tony in on what had happened. Once at the hospital, Peggy became more lucid and aware of her surroundings but would slip in and out of that state. Maria and Sharron were blaming themselves for not being around her enough to catch it early enough, despite Dan, Nicole, and the doctors telling them nothing they did was their fault. Both were wrapped up with their jobs at Shield and hadn’t been to see her in months, just the occasional phone calls.
Once at the hospital, he saw his sister in a state that he’d never seen her in. Her eyes were red from crying and she looked like even the slightest noise would spook her. As soon as she saw her older brother the tears started again she ran for him and grabbed onto him and wouldn’t let go.
At that moment, he didn’t see the combat veteran Marine or the Shield agent that she was. What he saw was the nine year old little girl that had shown up on his doorstep all those years ago.
And with that, Tony Stark broke down crying with his sister.