Family Secrets

The next day, Tony woke up when he usually did so that he could get Peter up and ready for school. When Peter found out that he was being made to go to school, he protested to his father but Tony won.

“Bud, you have to go to school.” He said as he made his son's lunch.

“But you just got home.” His son said from his spot next to him.

Tony crouched down so that he was level with him. “Pete. I’m not going anywhere, okay? I’m not even going to leave the house today.”

Peter still looked upset. “I don’t want to leave you.” He said quietly.

Tony smiled softly at him. “I know bud but you have to go to school.” He paused as he packed up the lunch. “You only have a couple more weeks of school and then you and I can do whatever you want this summer.”

Peter looked hopefully at his dad. “Promise?”

“Absolutely kiddo.” And the two of them walked to the front door and out into the courtyard where Happy was waiting to take Peter to school.

With Peter gone, Tony went down to his lab to begin work on a new more powerful arc reactor to replace the one that was currently in his chest. He had been down there for about two hours when Jarvis spoke up.

“Sir, you have an incoming message.”

“Who’s it from J?” Tony asked, not looking up from his work.

“The number is blocked sir. The message said that they are here to deal with a potential infestation and that they are out front.”

That got his attention. He made his way past Pepper, who was working in the living room with the TV on, and made his way outside only to see his cousin leaning on a car.

“Share-bear!” He yelled as he made his way over to hug her. “What are you doing here? I thought you were working.”

“Got done earlier than expected and I was down in Mexico so when I was done there I hopped on a plane and came up.” Sharron said with a smile as they pulled apart before turning serious. “Maria told me there might be a bug problem.”

Tony grimaced. “Yeah she told me that too. You know, I really don’t like the agency that you two work for.”

“Yeah well we’re not exactly thrilled with them right now either.” She said as she reached behind her and picked up a notebook and some sort of device off the hood of her car. “But what can you do?”

“Quit and come work for me. I pay better and offer better benefits.” Tony only half joked as he threw an arm over her shoulder.

“While I am sure that that's true, the two of us are of more use to you while at Shield, at least for right now.”She said as she leaned into her older cousin. “I missed you Tony.”

“I missed you too, Share.” He said. “How long are you here for?”

“Just today. Need to be back in DC tomorrow so use of your plane would be wonderful.”

“Done.” He said with a grin. “So what’s the plan here?”

She held up the device that she had just picked up. “I am going to walk around the house and go through every room with this. You are going back to whatever it was that you were doing. If I need to communicate with you before I clear the house, I’ll write it in the notebook.”

He took the device and looked it over. “And if you find anything?”

She merely smirked. “I fry it.”

With that Tony made his way back into the house and back down to his lab. Before he made it all the way, he stopped and scribbled a note to a confused Pepper to not say a word to Sharron when she came in.

For the next few hours, Sharon methodically made her way through the house clearing each room. She managed to clear the whole house without finding anything which was definitely a relief. She sent off a text to Maria that the house was clear before making her way back downstairs to the living room where Pepper was still working.

“We are officially clear.” Sharon announced.

Pepper looked up from her laptop. “Anything?”

Sharron shook her head as she leaned on the wall. “Not a thing.”

Pepper let out a sigh of relief when the intercom came alive with Tony’s voice. “Pepper, how big are your hands?”

“What the hell kind of question is that?” Sharon asked. That was an odd question even by her cousin's standards.

“Share-bear! If you are talking we’re good. How big are your hands?”

Pepper was incredibly confused. “I don't understand why…” She began before getting interrupted.

“Get down here. I need you. Both of you.” The billionaire demanded.

Pepper and Sharon exchanged a look and the two of them made their way down to the lab. When they made it down the stairs and into the lab, they saw Tony on a chair with heart monitors strapped to his shirtless chest.

“Hey.” He greeted the pair. “Let's see them. Show me your hands. Let's see them.”

Both women held up their hands as they walked towards him. Tony looked at the pair's hands.

“Oh, wow. They are small. Very petite, indeed. But I think Sharon’s are a bit smaller.” He said and pointed at the Shield agent. “I just need your help for a sec.”

“What the hell is that thing?” Sharon asked at the same time Pepper asked, “Oh, my God, is that the thing that's keeping you alive?”

Tony looked at his cousin first. “It’s an arc reactor.” He then looked and answered Pepper’s question. “It was. It is now an antique.” Tony then held up a new reactor. “This is what will be keeping me alive for the foreseeable future. I'm swapping it up for an upgraded unit, and I just ran into a little speed bump.”

Sharon narrowed her eyes at him. “Speed bump, what does that mean?” Tony’s definition of a speed bump was different from everyone else’s.

Tony waved away her skepticism. “It's nothing. It's just a little snag. There's an exposed wire under this device. And it's contacting the socket wall and causing a little bit of a short.” He said as he unscrewed the old reactor and yanked it out. “It's fine.” He said nonchalantly as he handed it to Pepper.

“What do you want me to do with this?” Pepper asked as she held the device very delicately.

“Put that on the table over there.” He said dismissively. “That is irrelevant.”

“Oh my God.” She murmured.

“Sharon.” Tony turned his attention to his cousin. “I want you to reach in, and you're just
gonna gently lift the wire out.”

Sharon looked at him with even more skepticism than before. “Is it safe?”

“Yeah, it should be fine.” He said before she cut him off.

“The key word there was, should, Tony!” Sharon exclaimed.

“It will be fine. It's like Operation. You just don't let it touch the socket wall or it goes beep."

Sharon was stunned. “What do you mean, like Operation? Are you really basing this on a game?”

“Yes.” Tony said with a nod. “Now, just gently lift the wire. Okay?”

“Okay.” Sharon nodded.

“You know, I don't think that she’s qualified to do this.” Pepper said nervously and Sharon nodded in agreement.

“No, she’s fine.” He placated Pepper before looking at Sharon, “You're fine. You're the most capable, qualified, trustworthy person I've ever met. You're gonna do great.”

Sharon rolled her eyes at him. “And you’re a kiss ass.”

Tony smiled. “I know.” He looked at her with puppy dog eyes. “I really need your help here.”

Sharon just shook her head at him. “Okay, but I want you to know that only Pete can pull that look off properly.”

“Yeah, but it still worked on you.” Tony teased.

Sharon grumbled her annoyance at him before she stuck her hand into the opening. “Eww, there's pus!” She yelled.

“It's not pus. It's an inorganic plasmic discharge from the device, not from my body.” Tony corrected.

“Oh god, it smells!” Sharon groaned.

Tony laughed at her discomfort. “Yeah, it does.”

Sharon tried to soldier on. “The copper wire?” She asked for clarification.

“The copper wire.” Tony clarified. “You got it?

“Yeah, I got it.” She said through gritted teeth.

“Now, don't let it touch the sides,” He said as he was zapped by the wire, “when you're coming out!”

“Oops. sorry.” She deadpanned.

“You’re not funny Goldilocks.” Tony gritted out. “That's what I was trying to tell you before. Okay, now make sure that when you pull it out, you don't…” Tony said as Sharon pulled the wire and magnet all the way out. “There's a magnet at the end of it! That was it. You just pulled it out.’

“Oh, God!” Pepper gasped.

“Okay, I was not expecting…” Sharon said as she started to put the magnet back in before being stopped by Tony.

“Don't put it back in! Don't put it back in!”

“Okay, what do I do? Sharon asked at the same time Pepper asked. “What's wrong?”

“Oh nothing, I'm just going into cardiac arrest 'cause you,” He pointed at Sharon, “yanked it out like a trout…”

“What? You said it was safe!” Sharon yelped.

“We gotta hurry. Take this. Take this.” He handed her the brand new reactor. “You gotta switch it out really quick.”

“Okay. Okay.” Sharon took the reactor.

As that was going on, Pepper spoke up from behind Sharon. “Tony? It's going to be okay.”

“Let's hope.” He said before giving Sharron directions. “Okay, you're gonna attach that
to the base plate. Make sure you…” He yelped as Sharon plugged it into his chest. “Was that so hard? That was fun, right?” Sharon pushed the device in and turned it. “Here, I got it. I got it. Nice.”

“Are you okay?” Pepper asked with wide eyes.

“Yeah, I feel great.” Tony said as if nothing had happened. He laughed as he looked at his cousin. “You okay?”

“Don't you ever, ever, ever, ever ask me to do anything like that ever again.” Sharon remarked angrily.

“You’re one of the few people I can ask.” Tony told her as he stood up and began taking off all the connections from the machines.

Pepper spoke up. “What do you want me to do with this?”

Tony looked at the old reactor. “That?” Pepper nodded. “Destroy it. Incinerate it.”

Pepper looked shocked. “You don't want to keep it?

“Pepper, I've been called many things, nostalgic, is not one of them.” Tony said.

‘Will that be all, Mr. Stark?” Pepper asked.

“That will be all, Miss Potts.” Tony confirmed before he turned back to his cousin.

After a few weeks and with the new arc reactor installed, Tony was able to begin working on his new project.

“Jarvis, you up?” He asked as he brought up the design for the suit that got him out of the hell hole in Afghanistan.

“For you, sir, always.”

“I'd like to open a new project file, index as Mark Two.” He said as he moved the design over to the holographic table so that he could manipulate it.

“Shall I store this on the Stark Industries Central Database?”

Tony thought for a second before speaking. “Actually, I don't know who to trust right now. Till further notice, why don't we just keep everything on my private server?”

“Working on a secret project, are we, sir?”

Tony paused as he began to remove elements of the suit. “I don't want this winding up in the wrong hands. Maybe in mine, it can actually do some good.

Tony’s focus was drawn from his design by a voice from behind him. “Cool! What is that?”

Tony turned around and saw his son standing there staring at the design.

“Aren’t you supposed to be in bed?” He asked.

“But it's summer.” Peter whined.

“But I don’t care.” Tony mock whined at his son.

“Daaaad.” Peter groaned.

Tony relented and waved him over. “Fine. Come here.”

Peter ran happily over to the display that his father was using. “What is that?” He asked again.

“That,” Tony pointed at the display, “was the suit that I used to get home to you.”

Peter looked at itin awe. “Like a suit of armor?”

“Kinda.” Tony responds before looking down at Peter. “But now its obsolete, so I’m designing a new one.”

“Can I help?” Peter asked, eyes never leaving the design.

“Of course you are going to help? What kind of dad do you think I am?” Tony said as ruffled his son's hair. “We need something to do this summer.”

For next few months Tony and Peter, with the help of Dum-E and U although most of the time it was in spite of them, worked on the brand new suit.

“Okay, let's do this right.” Tony said as he walked, with the newly built boots on, onto a platform. “Start mark, half a meter, and back and center.” He looked at the robot behind him. “Dummy, look alive. You're on standby for fire safety.” He then looked over the robot that was next to Peter. “U, roll it.

“Dad, are you sure this is smart?” Peter asked nervously.

“It will be fine Pete.” Tony brushed his son’s worry aside. “Okay. Activate hand controls. We're gonna start off nice and easy. We're gonna see if 10% thrust capacity achieves lift.”

“That’s too much.” Peter told his father.

“Peter. It will be fine. I know what I’m doing.” Tony told Peter. “And three, two, one.” Tony then flew straight up and hit the overhang and fell down to the floor. Once he landed on the floor, Dum-E doused him with the fire extinguisher. Peter found all of this absolutely hilarious and was laughing on the floor.

Tony slowly stood up in pain but nothing serious. “What happened to you being worried?”

Peter was still laughing. “You,” laugh, “hit,” laugh, “the ceiling.” He got out the last bit quickly before he started laughing even harder.

“So much for ‘honor thy father’.” Tony muttered.

Tony got to work designing a flight stabilizer for the suit. As he was designing it, he explained everything he was doing to Peter and answered any questions his son had. That was something he had always made sure to do for his son because whenever Tony had a question and tried to get an answer from his father, he would either be ignored or told to leave him alone and that was not what he wanted Peter to experience.

Once he finally had a prototype ready for testing, he carefully fitted it to his arm with Peter safely off to the side. As this was going on, Pepper entered the lab with coffee and a package in her hands.

“I've been buzzing you. Did you hear the intercom?” She asked as she set the package and mug down.

“Yeah, everything's... What?” Tony responded though he was barely paying any attention.

“Obadiah's upstairs.” She told him.

“Great!” He said as though it was anything but great.

Pepper waited for him to continue before she realized he wasn’t. “What would you like me to tell him?

“Great. I'll be right up.”

“I thought you said you were done making weapons.” She said to to Tony as she eyed the device strapped to his arm.

“It's a flight stabilizer.” Peter said.

“It's completely harmless.” Tony said and Peter shook his head as though to say ‘no it isn’t’.

Tony then powered up the stabilizer which sent him flying backwards, getting Peter laughing at his fathers misfortune. “I didn't expect that.” Tony moaned.

A while later, Tony was able to test the boots and stabilizers again.

“Test 37, configuration 2.0.” Tony said to the camera. “For lack of a better option, Dummy is still on fire safety.” He looked back at Dum-E. “If you douse me again, and I'm not on fire, I'm donating you to a city college.” He then looked and pointed at his son who he had confined behind the glass leading into the lab. “And if you come out from there before I tell you, I’m letting Dummy play with your legos.”

This had Peter shaking his head furiously and Dum-E somehow looked happy.

Tony then looked straight ahead. “All right, nice and easy.” And having learned from his previous mistake. “Seriously, just gonna start off with 1% thrust capacity. And three, two, one.” Tony went a few feet into the air and was able to hover shakily before landing.

“Okay.” He then looked behind him and saw Dum-E tracking him with the extinguisher. “Please don't follow me around with it, either, 'cause I feel like I'm gonna catch on fire spontaneously. Just stand down! If something happens, then come in.” He then looked over to Peter. “How was that? Good?”

Peter was jumping up and down. “That was awesome!” He yelled.

Tony smiled at Peter before looking over at U with the camera. “And again, let's bring it up to 2.5. Three, two, one.” Tony then slowly climbed higher than he was before and he started moving around the room with very little control. Soon enough he was over the line of cars “Okay, this is where I don't want to be! Not the cars, not the cars!”

Peter, who was still behind the glass, was watching his father fly around the lab and over the cars and lab table with wide eyes. “Dad! Look out!”

Slowly Tony began to get control and began to hover over the platform. As soon as he cut the power and dropped back down to the floor, though as soon as he did that, Dum-E brought the nozzle for the extinguisher down on him. “Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! No!” Dum-E’s arm dropped and it made a sad sound. Tony waved Peter in, which he did running.

“You flew!!!” He exclaimed excitedly as he reached his father.

“Yeah, I can fly.” He agreed, rather proud of himself.