Family Secrets

Not many things shocked Natasha Romanoff when she was on deep cover assignments. She always made sure to go over her targets background with a fine tooth comb and would shadow them for as long as possible before making contact. When she studied Stark’s background and life, she only came up with four people that he interacted with on a regular basis and she would have to prepare herself to meet.

Pepper, Happy, Rhodes, and of course his son Peter.

She also knew that most of Tony Stark’s security team was ex-military and a majority of them were special forces.

No, the thing that shocked her for the first time in years was the presence of two fellow Shield agents and that said agents were apparently working for Stark.

“I told you that she wasn’t from legal.”

“Shut up Tony!” Maria spoke, never taking her eyes or gun off of Romanoff.

Natasha started to turn to face Maria until Sharon’s voice stopped her. “Ah-ah-ahh. Move one inch and I redecorate Tony’s gym.” She said coming up and roughly pushed Pepper behind her. “And I have got a beautiful headshot lined up.”

“What is going on!?” Pepper cried out incredibly confused.

“Dad!!” Peter yelled happily coming into the room, stopping in his tracks when he saw his aunt and cousin pointing guns at a strange woman. “Dad?”

“Peter, go to the lab and lock yourself in.” Maria ordered.

“What's…” Peter tried to speak before his father cut him off.

Tony looked over to his son. “Listen to your aunt!”

“Pepper, go with him.” This time it was Sharon that spoke.

Pepper hastily made her way over to Peter and led him to the lab.

Natasha looked directly at Maria. “Aunt?”

“God damnit Tony.” Maria growled.

“What do you want me to do? You and Goldilocks come barging in, guns drawn and start yelling at Pete to leave.” Tony defended as Happy hobbled over to his boss

“Guys! Can we work through our issues later?” Sharon yelled. “We kind of have more pressing matters at the moment.”

Tony looked at his cousin. “There’s something funny about you holding a gun at someone while you're covered in Disney stuff.”

“Shut up!” Both Maria and Sharon yelled.

“Okay jeez.” Tony told the two. “So what exactly is the plan here?”

Natasha smirked. “I’m rather curious about that myself.”

“What are you doing here?” Maria asked.

“You’re Fury’s golden girl, I figured you know.” Natasha said smugly.

Sharon gripped her gun even tighter. “Ria, let me shoot her.”

“No Sharon.” Maria ordered. “Look Romanoff, I need to know what Fury needs to know about…,” Maria paused, debating with herself about what she should say before reluctantly deciding on the truth, “... about my brother.”

“Well now we have to shoot her.” Sharon muttered.

Tony just stared at his sister. “Wow. And I thought the kid was going to be the one to blow it,”

For the second time in five minutes, Natasha Romanoff was shocked. She was expecting an honorary aunt. “Sister?” She asked with wide eyes.

“Same dad, different mom.” Tony supplied her.

“I need a new job.” Happy muttered, earning a small laugh from Sharon.

“WILL. YOU ALL. SHUT. UP.” Maria growled before addressing Natasha. “I’m going to lower my gun and you and I are going to talk.”

Sharron glanced at her cousin. “I’m not lowering shit.”

Natasha finally turned so that she was fully facing Maria. “That's okay, the adults need to talk.”

Sharon growled at Natasha.

Maria took a deep breath before asking again. “Why are you here?”

“To look into him.” Natasha nodded her head towards Tony.

Maria quickly spoke before anyone else could. “Why? Tony already turned Fury down.”

“Fury thinks something is going on. His behavior in public is becoming erratic, he’s giving away his things, and to top it all off he is naming his assistant CEO.” Natasha filled Maria in as she turned to look at Tony when she finished talking.

Maria and Sharon both looked at Tony upon hearing this information. “What? I thought you were questioning her.” Tony tried to defend himself.

Maria glared at him. “Once we’re done here, you and I are going to be having a conversation.” Tony audibly gulped. She then looked back at Natasha. “Can you promise me that my brother and nephew will not be harmed?”

Natasha nodded. “Not by me. If something were to happen my priority was to get Peter to safety at all costs.”

“Wow. Fury must be really desperate to get Tony to trust him.” Sharon spoke.

“Not a Fury rule. He ordered that I don’t break my cover under any circumstance.” Natasha looked at Sharon. “I don’t let kids get hurt when I can do something to prevent it.”

Sharon was surprised by that. “That's… oddly nice of you.”

“I really hate your boss.” Tony told his sister and cousin.

“So do the rest of us.” Sharon told him as Maria nodded in agreement. Even Natasha found a small part of herself agreeing with that statement.

Natasha looked between everyone in the room and then back to Sharon. “I’m sorry but what's the relationship here? Another sister?”

There was a long pause, everyone else in the room looked at one another as they debated how to answer Natasha’s question. Finally, Maria spoke.

“Might as well tell her, she already knows about me and I’m the big one.” Maria paused before looking at Sharon. “Do you want to tell her or do you want me to?”

Sharon sighed. “I’ll tell her.” She said as she lowered her gun but still kept it in her hands. “I am not their sister, I am their cousin.”

“Cousin?” Natasha asked.

Tony finally chimed in. “Our,” He pointed between himself and his sister, “godmother is Blondie's aunt.”

“Who exactly is your godmother?” Natasha asked. She knew they were leaving something out. Something big.

Sharon smirked. “What’s my last name?”

“Carter.” Natasha said slowly confused where she was going with this until it suddenly clicked in her head. “Zatk`nis.” She spoke in russian. “No. People would be talking about it.”

“Talking about what?” Sharon asked with a smirk.

“You all call the Peggy Carter aunt?” Natasha asked.

All of the cousins nodded their heads. Natasha just stared at them. Never before had she had an assignment take such an unexpected turn. Of all the things she had expected to learn from Stark she was not expecting to find out he had a younger sister and cousin, both of which worked for Shield, and his godmother was Peggy Carter.

“Well, are you going to be sharing this information with Fury?” Maria asked.

Natasha looked back at Maria. “No and as long as a semblance of my cover remains intact Fury won’t find out.”

Before Maria could answer, Sharon spoke. “Now hang on.” Sharon said as she brought her gun up a little bit. “Is she really implying that we let her hang around here? The Black Widow. What about Peter?”

Tony looked to his cousin. “What about me? I live here too.”

Sharon looked at Tony. “There is still hope that we can turn Pete into a decent human being.”

Tony looked mock insulted. “Are you saying I’m not?”

“I’m actually saying none of us are.” Sharon told him.

“Will you two shut up for once?” Maria growled at the two of them before she looked back at Natasha. “What do you need?”

“An excuse to stay around him.” Natasha tilted her head towards Tony.

Maria thought for a few moments before an idea slowly started to form. She looked over at her brother. “Pepper is being named CEO?”

Tony narrowed his eyes. “Yeah.” He said slowly. “Why?”

Maria smirked. “Then it sounds like you are going to need a new assistant.”

“Wait… Hang on…” Tony stuttered.

“That would work perfectly.” Natasha told Maria, both ignoring Tony.

Maria pressed on. “Would you prefer a live-in role?”

Sharon’s eyes widened. “Okay now we’re going a little too far!”

“That would be great.”Natasha said, now ignoring Sharon.

“Alright. I guess I should introduce you to Peter and show to an empty room.” Maria told her before she looked back at her brother. “Don’t go far. You and I are going to have a long talk.” With that, Maria and Natasha left the room.

Everyone in the room was silent, trying to figure out what they had just witnessed.

“What the hell just happened?” Tony asked aloud.

Sharon blinked a couple times, still holding her gun, and staring at the doorway. “I think she just hired Romanoff to be your live-in assistant.”

“Yes I got that part.” He told her with a wave of his hand. “What I do not understand is how you two had her at gunpoint one minute and the next… well that.” He pointed towards the door.

“I honestly have no idea.” Sharon told him as she finally holstered her weapon. “This whole thing kinda got away from me.” She then looked over to Happy. “And what the hell happened to him?”

Tony sighed. “He got his ass kicked by Romanoff.”

“I told you I slipped.” Happy protested.

“Great.” Sharon groaned. “He’s useless.”

“But what am I supposed to do about the dangerous Russian that’s going to be living in my house?” Tony asked over Happy’s protests.

“Maria would be the one to ask. She’s run operations that have had Romanoff involved.” Sharon filled him in.

“Fantastic.” Tony grumbled as those left in the room headed out.

“What the hell is going on with you!?” Maria yelled at her brother.

After she cleared everything up for Pepper and introduced Natasha to Peter, she went to find her brother who had taken refuge in his lab so he could put the finishing touches on his new suit.

“I should be asking you the same thing!” Tony yelled back. “You and Goldilocks come in here, guns drawn, tell me that the notary from legal is actually an undercover Shield agent, and then out of the blue hire her to be my PA!” If Maria wanted to pick a fight with her brother, he would certainly oblige her.

“What was the alternative? Shoot her? Shield is invested in you whether you want it or not!” She yelled, coming up so she was standing in front of him. “We need her on our side now and I thought honesty was our best bet!”

“I don’t know what we should have done but I definitely didn’t want her here.”

“Too bad Tony. You lost your right to choose with the ‘I am Iron Man’ bull shit.” Maria said angrily.

“So this is my fault?” He asked angrily.

Maria pinched the bridge of her nose. “No. You’re twisting my words now…”

“No no.” Tony interrupted. “You said I lost the right to choose because I announced that I am Iron Man!” He yelled as he began to pace around the lab.

“Well you shouldn’t have done it!” She yelled back. “You should have simply just read the script that was prepared for you but no, you had to go and announce to the world that you were the one all over the news so that you could quench your precious ego's appetite.”

“So what? No one is coming after me while I have the suit.” Tony told her.

“No one’s coming after you.” She pointed out. “Did you forget you were a father? What about Pepper? What about Rhodey? What about me Tony? Just because you think you are invincible doesn’t mean that everyone around you is.”

Tony stopped pacing and looked at his sister. “I know what I’m doing.” He defended.

“Really?” Maria asked. “Because apparently you’re making Pepper CEO and you’re giving your shit away.”

“Well it’s my shit. I can do what I want with it.” He said angrily as he walked back towards Maria. “And what’s wrong with making Pepper CEO?”

“Nothing is wrong with making her CEO, she’s 100% capable of doing an excellent job.” She defended her questioning. “It’s just why now? Why are you doing all of this just as you’re kicking off your expo?”

“I thought the timing was right is all.” He defended meekly.

Maria stared at her brother for a few moments, trying to regain her composure. “What are you hiding from me? I can’t protect you if you hide shit from me.”

“Well I don’t need you to protect me!” Tony yelled, his anger starting to return. “You told me to cooperate with Shield. If I had done things my way then Shield would not have found out about the suit and I could have dealt with all dealing under the table my way. All of my weapons that had ended up in the wrong hands would have been destroyed.”

Maria tried her hardest to stay calm. “And you would have wound up dead…”

“And we couldn’t have that could we.” Tony interrupted sarcastically. “God forbid your meal ticket dies…”

Maria punched her brother in the face, bringing him out of his anger. “Go to hell.” She growled at him as she turned to leave.

Tony knew he went too far and he felt terrible. “Ria. I didn’t…” He said as he reached out to her.

“Didn’t mean it? No, it was nice to hear the truth come out.” She told him angrily and as a few tears fell.

“Ria, that wasn’t the truth. I don’t know why I said it.” Tony was desperate to apologize to his sister.

“Have fun in Monaco you prick.” She said and tearfully left, leaving Tony feeling like shit.