Lost
As soon as Pepper filled Maria in on everything she knew she picked Peter up and marched down to Tony's lab, still in their bathing suits. Pepper close behind.
“Jarvis, I need a keyboard and a display.” She barked as she sat down and pulled a scared Peter into her lap.
“At once ma’am.” The A.I said as a holographic display appeared in front of her.
Maria furiously typed on the keyboard. “Jarvis, I just gave you unrestricted access to Shield’s network. Start going through everything that they have on the region Tony was in and go through their satellite images of the area.”
“Understood ma’am. Would you like me to use other systems as well?”
“Shield has backdoors into most other intelligence agencies. Once you have the access codes to them, start going through them. After you’ve gone through everything, then we will work on getting you into other systems.” She informed the super computer. “If you find anything that could be a lead on Tony, send it to me and Rhodey.”
“At once ma’am”
Pepper was incredibly confused. “Maria, what are you doing? What's Shield?”
Without taking her eyes off the display. “Shield stands for the Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement and Logistics Division, and they are who I work for.”
“I thought Tony said that you worked for the State Department.” Pepper asked even more confused.
Still not looking at Pepper as she continued to type. “It is, or rather was a cover. Shield technically doesn’t exist. It is the best intelligence agency in the world because no one knows it exists. The only reason that Tony and I know is because our father and godmother were founding members with the later becoming the director.” She glanced over at her brother's assistant. “You can never tell anyone about this.”
“I won’t. Don’t worry. Just tell me what you need.” Pepper assured her.
Maria looked back at the monitor. “Right now, nothing but S.I is going to be a shit show as soon as this breaks and Stane is going to want control. Tell him that Tony designated a silent proxy until his return and keep him away from Peter.”
“It’s done.” She said as she pulled out her phone to start making calls, leaving the lab to do so.
As soon as she saw her do that, Maria had a realization. She quickly and gently pulled her phone out of her nephew's grasp and made a call. “Sharron...Tony’s missing. I gave Jarvis access to Shield. I need you to try and cover up anything he leaves behind… I gave him access to everything… I’ll be here until at least Friday, it would raise too many questions if I cut my vacation short as soon as he went missing… Tell your parents so that they don’t have to hear about it from the news… I have Peter right here.” She nudged Peter’s shoulder. “Sweetheart, Sharron wants to talk to you.”
With Peter talking to Sharron, Maria went back to combing through everything she could. While Jarvis was focused on Shields' files at the moment, she started looking at D.O.D’s aerial reconnaissance images from the past few months. She was looking over a map when Peter poked her and handed her her phone back. “Shar… Let me know if you hear anything… Talk to you later.” With that she hung up.
As soon as she hung up Pepper came back in. “I talked with the media and public relations department, they are going to start working on a statement. I also talked with legal and they said that the silent proxy is good until…” She froze.
Maria looked at her and then back at Peter. “Sweetheart, why don’t you go and get a shower. Get all that chlorine off. Once you are done we will get dinner.” Peter just nodded and slowly made his way out of the room. Once the glass door to the lab was shut she spoke to Pepper. “It’s only good until he is declared dead, right?”
Pepper nodded her head yes. “I’m assuming you’re the silent proxy.”
Maria shook her head. “No. Our cousin Dan is but he won’t do anything unless we both agree to it.” She looked back at the map on the display. “Now I just have to find him before someone declares him dead because I have no clue what to do once that happens.”
“He already took care of that in his will.” Pepper spoke up.
Maria spun around in the chair. “What did he do?” She asked.
Pepper was surprised. “He never told you?” Maria shook her head no so Pepper continued. “He left Peter to both you and Mary’s brother and left you in charge of Stark Industries and everything they own until you feel that Peters is ready to take over. He made you his executor”
Maria closed her eyes and sighed. “What the fuck Tony.” She opened her eyes and looked up at the ceiling. “Jarvis, activate all security measures. The only people allowed on this property as of right now are myself, Peter, Pepper, and Hogan. Only Pepper and I are allowed to add and remove people from that list.”
“Understood ma’am.”
“Should have done that immediately.” She mumbled. She then looked back at Pepper. “I am sorry to have to ask you this and you are well within your rights to say no, but can you end your time off now and stay here with us?”
Without any hesitation. “Absolutely. I’m going to run home and grab some things. I already have a room here.”
“Thank you.” Maria said. With that the two left the lab.
That night and the next day she combed through maps and anything Jarvis flagged for her to review. She sent Rhodey any information that she deemed useful in the search for her brother but there wasn’t much to go on unfortunately. Whoever had taken Tony had covered their tracks extremely well. The only thing she was able to figure out was that he was taken into the mountains that surrounded the valley that he was in but that was still like finding a needle in a haystack.
As soon as the news broke about Tony missing in Afghanistan, Stane tried to get control of the company. However, with news of a proxy in place that was appointed by Tony himself, there was very little he could do beyond his actual duties.
When Monday morning rolled around, Maria got Peter up and ready for school.
“Why do I have to go to school?” He asked quietly as they were waiting outside for Happy. “I want to stay and help you find dad.”
Maria knelt down to look at him. “I will find your dad kiddo. He would want you to go to school and you know that.” She said as she brushed his hair behind his ear. “As soon as I find him, you’ll know.”
“Promise?” He asked.
“Promise.” She said as she pulled him into a hug. Just as she did that, Happy pulled into the courtyard.
Happy got out and opened the backdoor for Peter to get into the car as Maria walked up.
“You and Tony hired all the guys I sent your way right?” She asked the bodyguard. As people she served with began getting discharged from active duty, she began approaching those that she trusted and told them that Tony was looking to hire ex-military as private security and that she could put a good word in if they were interested. In reality, Tony was only hiring who Maria told him to so that meant that Tony had his very own squad of Marines on staff. Tony took care of any and all of their medical needs. He also helped those that needed psychiatric help find it. All of them were incredibly grateful for him.
He nodded. “They have no idea how you hooked them up with us but are happy you did.”
“Have two of them sit outside of Pete’s school today.” She said to the bodyguard.
“Anything that I should be worried about?” Happy asked.
“As of right now, no.” Maria shook her head no. “But until we know who took Tony and why, we don’t take any chances, especially with Pete.”
“What about me?” He asked, walking back to the driver's door.
“Do what you usually do during the day when Tony’s not around. I don’t want to draw too much attention to us right now.” She said walking back into the house to continue looking for her brother.
“You got it boss.” Happy said softly.
At the end of the week, there was still no sign of Tony and Maria had to return to her post at Shield. Unfortunately this meant leaving an already emotionally unstable Peter in an even more precarious spot.
When Maria went to say goodbye to Peter she found him crying in his room.
“Hey.” She said softly as she lifted his chin so he was looking at her. “I will find your dad Pete. I promise you that.”
He just nodded at his aunt.
“Peter. Sharron and I will both be coming to visit you whenever we can.” She said as she hugged him. “By the time that we find your dad, you will be sick of us.”
That got a small laugh out of her usually happy nephew. With that she headed off to the airport to head back to Shield.
For the next three months Maria was pulling triple duty. She had her responsibilities with Shield, searching for her brother, and making sure Peter knew he still had people to look out for him. Sharron had helped when she could but with her being more of a field agent and being required to go undercover at a moment's notice, she had only been able to go and see him twice. She did however call him almost every day with a good portion of those calls being video.
Ben and May Parker had gone out once a month to help Pepper with Peter.
With the frequent travel between D.C and Malibu, Pepper had arranged to have a Stark plane, that was owned by numerous shell companies, in D.C at all times. The shell companies were done at Maria’s suggestion, in case anyone started poking around.
By the three month mark of Tony’s disappearance, most of the searches had been called off, with Rhodey’s group being one of the only ones still active. The military was concluding that he was dead and the board of directors at Stark Industries were beginning to push the same thing.
One night while Maria was in her apartment she got a phone call from Pepper.
“Yeah Pep.” She said as she was going over more files, looking for anything that could lead her to Tony.
“Maria, the board is pushing to have Tony declared dead.” Pepper let out frantically.
That got Maria’s attention. “What?!” Now they were screwed. “I thought we would have more time before they moved to this.”
“You and me both.” Pepper grumbled out. “They are trying to get a look at Tony’s will but so far Aaron won’t show them it.”
Tony’s lawyer, Aaron Williams was loyal to a fault. Tony had been introduced to him by Rhodey while the two of them were at MIT and he was at Harvard. Tony had hired him right out of law school to be his personal attorney and quickly became the top attorney for S.I. His very first job for Tony was to make sure that he got custody of Maria. If any one could hold them off, it was Aaron.
“Alright, we have some maneuvers here but not many.” She said, trying to come up with a plan before asking, “Have you talked to Rhodey? Does he have anything?”
“I talked to him a couple days ago. He said that they are moving to a new area, and that no one had searched there yet.” Pepper said quietly.
Maria sat in silence for a few moments, trying to come up with anything. “Pepper. I am going to call you back tomorrow afternoon. I know what to do.”
With that she hung up before Pepper could say anything. Pepper was the one to tell her about Tony’s will, it wouldn’t take her long to realize what she planned to do. She spent the next hour packing some of her things before there was a knock on the door. She went over to look through the peephole and sighed when she saw who it was.
“So Pepper called you huh.” She said as she opened the door.
“Well you are planning on quitting your job and moving across the country.” Her cousin Sharron said as she pushed past Maria and into the apartment towards the kitchen.
Maria just rolled her eyes at her cousin. “Well come on in.” She said sarcastically, as she closed the door, after Sharron was already looking through the apartment. Following her cousin into the kitchen, “I’m surprised it took you this long to get here. I figured Pepper would have called you as soon as I hung up on her.”
Sharron was going through the kitchen cabinets when she responded. “I’m guessing she did but I was on a date so I came after.” She turned to look at her cousin. “Don’t you have any alcohol?”
Maria just gave Sharron an exasperated look before making her way to the cabinet above the fridge and retrieved a bottle of whiskey. “You are not going to talk me out of this, my mind is made up.” She handed over the bottle to Sharron.
As Sharron retrieved two glasses she said, “Wasn’t planning to. You and Peter need each other right now. I just figured you could use a friend tonight.” As she began to pour, she noticed that the label said Macallan. “You really have to appreciate your brother's taste in alcohol.”
The two spent the rest of the night talking, laughing, and crying at the fact that despite the fact neither wanted to admit it, Tony was likely never coming home.
The next morning the two headed into Shield, one to continue their work, the other to end theirs. Just as they had made it past security Maria’s phone rang. She looked at the caller ID and saw that Pepper was the one calling. She figured that she was only calling to stop her from quitting. She went to decline the call but something in her mind stopped her from doing so so she answered it.
“Pepper, I'm going to have to call you back. I’m about to meet with my boss” Maria said in lieu of a greeting.
“He’s got him!” Pepper frantically cried through the phone.
This made Maria stop walking which caused Sharron to stop walking. “What? Who’s got who?” Was Maria’s bewildered question.
“Rhodey! He found Tony!” She could hear Pepper crying in happiness. “Tony’s alive!”
“He’s alive.” Was Maria’s quiet response before she looked at Sharron. “Tony’s alive.” This caused Sharon's eyes to widen as she pushed Maria into the women's bathroom that was in the corridor that they were in. After making sure nobody else was in there, Maria put the phone on speaker.
“Pepper, it's Sharrron. He’s alive, he's okay?”
“Yes. Rhodey called and told me to tell you two. He said Tony was being looked at by the medics but he looked okay.”
For the first time in three months, Maria felt at ease. Her older brother would be coming home. “Do you…do you know when he’s coming home?” She asked as tears started to form and a glance at Sharron revealed she was the same.
“Not yet. Rhodey said that there are multiple agencies waiting to debrief him on where he has been.”
“Did he give you any of the agencies names?” Came Sharon's question and Maria knew where she was going with that. She wanted to know if Shield wanted to talk to him.
“He did not. The conversation was over pretty quickly. He just wanted to let me know that he found Tony and to let you guys know that he would be in touch once Tony was done getting looked at by the doctors and done answering questions.”
“Does Peter know yet?” Maria asked as she wiped her eyes. Her nephew hadn’t been his usual happy go lucky self since the disappearance.
“Not yet, he’s still sleeping. I’m going to tell him when I get him up for school.”
“Ria.” Sharron murmured, drawing her cousin's attention. Sharron pointed at her watch, letting Maria know they had to go.
“Pepper, we have to go. Call one of us as soon as you hear anything.” Maria said as she took her phone off speaker.
“I will.” Was Pepper's response before she hung up.
Maria and Sharron exited the bathroom and headed to the elevator. “So are you still quitting or do I get to keep my cousin and favorite coworker?” Sharron asked quietly.
“Of course I’m staying, Sharron.” Maria said before what Sharron had said caught up with her. “Wait, am I not your favorite cousin?”
“Well Tony bought me a car so…” She trailed off as they stepped onto the elevator.
“I hate you.” Maria muttered as the elevator stopped on Sharron’s floor.
“No you don’t!” Sharron sang as she stepped off the elevator.
Tony was cleared to return to the U.S three days later but unfortunately Maria and Sharron were unable to go and see him. Sharron had been sent back out into the field the day before and Maria had been pulled into a meeting. While Sharron was still a field operative, Maria had quickly risen through the ranks and was now a case officer.
As Maria settled into the briefing room with the others already there, Director Fury walked in and stood at the front of the room. However, the words out of his mouth brought her nothing but dread.
“We are here to talk about Tony Stark.”