Chapter 1
Tony didn't really know how it happened but somehow in the months following bringing half of the population back from the dead he had gone from one to five children. Well logically he knew how it happened but it seemed like one day he only had Morgan and the next he had four teenagers and a kindergartener.
He had been in a coma when Pepper had started the paperwork to get custody of Georgia who had come back from the blip to find out her mother had died leaving her alone. CPS hadn't known what to do and was so overwhelmed that she decided to call her older sister Pepper, who immediately rushed to where CPS had been keeping her and brought her home.
Harley had called Tony two days after he woke up saying he was in an overcrowded and understaffed group home in Tennesse and hadn't even been allowed to see his sister how was in a foster home. Tony had immediately sent a jet and some lawyers out to get both Harley and his sister Abbie and bring them to NY.
While Tony was in the hospital Peter spent almost every moment with him, only leaving when he was forced to, and Tony didn't mind. Tony being moved into the Penthouse of the tower didn't change anything. Peter still spent all of his time with Tony. After a few weeks of this May and Happy sat down with Pepper and Tony and asked them what they would think about Peter living with them. 24 hours later Peter lived in the tower.
Life had been crazy, to say the least, but it was about to get worse as all five kids were either going back to school in the case of the big kids or going to school for the first time for Morgan. To say Tony was stressed out was putting it lightly, he had made all five kids watches with panic buttons as well as integrated FRIDAY in all except for Peter’s who got Karen. Eventually, Harley’s would get the AI he was working on, but for now, it was FRI. He had also programmed all of the watches to alert him to any elevated heart rates or anything else that could indicate they were hurt. He had also installed panic buttons in all of their backpacks, and phones for the big kids. He had also given lots of money to their schools to upgrade their security systems. Pepper claimed he was going overboard but let him do it if that was what it took to get him to let the kids go to school.
The big kids were all going to Midtown and Morgan was going to an elementary school a few blocks away for gifted and talented kids. They had toured Morgan’s school a few weeks prior and Morgan seemed really excited about it. He had wanted to wait a little longer to put Morgan in school but had already put it off a year and Pepper wouldn't let him put it off any longer.
It was almost eight o'clock the night before they all went back to school and Tony had just gotten Morgan to sleep. She had been so excited about her first day of school that it took five books and three songs to get her to fall asleep, but it was finally done.
He left Morgan’s room and went out to the living room where Pepper was sitting with the big kids going through all of their bags and Morgan’s bag to make sure they all had what they needed for their first day of school.
Pepper had two pieces of paper in front of her, one with Midtown’s school supply list and the other with Morgan’s supply list from her teacher. She was reading things off of Midtown’s list and the kids were showing her the item from a pile of things before putting it into their bags. It seemed they were almost down as the piles in front of each kid only had a few things in them, so Tony just stood in the doorway and watched them for a few minutes until they finished.
“Alright time to get ready for bed,” Tony said in way of a hello as he pushed himself off the doorjamb he had been leaning on.
Harley rolled his eyes at Tony, “It's like eight o’clock.”
“Your brains are still developing so you need at least nine hours of sleep each night and you have to get up for school at six so you should be asleep in the next hour.”
“Peter literally sleeps that much in a week.”
Peter threw a pillow at Abbie’s head but she knew it was coming and easily dodge it.
“Well now seems as good a time as any to fix that.”
“Tony they are all practically adults it's their own fault if they are exhausted on their first day of school.”
They all knew Pepper was right but didn't want to say it so they all stayed where they were on the floor until Peter gave up and flipped backward over the couch.
“I’m going to go take a shower.”
Tony smirked knowing he had won but kissed Peter on top of the head and said goodnight like he always did.
Slowly the other kids followed heading to their own rooms until finally, it was only Tony and Pepper left in the living room.
Tony flopped down on the couch next to Pepper and signed dramatically.
“Why did we decide kids was a good idea?”
Pepper just rolled her eyes and went back to whatever she was doing on her StarkPad ignoring her husbands grumbling.
They stayed like that for a while until Tony decided to head to bed and Pepper followed not long after.
They both fell asleep not long after getting in bed and slept peacefully until FRIDAY alerted them to the first nightmare of the night. They had become less frequent but all of the children and both adults had their own trauma to deal with so nightmares were frequent. In the beginning, they were often woken up three or four times a night, it was the newborn stage all over again. But after a few months of therapy for everyone, it slowed down to them often going days without being woken up.
It was Morgan so Pepper volunteered to go. They had learned early on who could calm down each child the best. For Peter and Abbie it was Tony, and for Harley and Georiga it was Pepper, and Morgan was Peter, but they only woke him up if it was really bad. So Pepper set off to their youngest daughter’s room which was the one closest to their room.
Tony fell back asleep not long after, to be woken up again, what felt like minutes later to his alarm. He rolled out of bed and got himself dressed before heading to the kitchen to get some coffee before he started making breakfast. Because Pepper had to work it was mostly Tony’s job to get the kids ready for school.
He poured himself a cup of coffee and got started on cooking enough eggs to feed the small army that was his family. Pepper came in not much later fully dressed and ready for work. She poured herself a cup of coffee and sat down at the island to watch Tony.
A few minutes before he was done Tony told FRIDAY to start waking up the kids. Abbie was the first there with Georiga and Morgan not far behind. Just as Tony was finishing breakfast Peter stumble into the room and went straight to the coffee pot.
Once Tony finished cooking and got Morgan her food he walked down the hall to Harley’s room. He banged on the door a few times before he heard a grunt that might have been permission to come in. Tony swung the door open and rolled his eyes at Harley who had his head pinned between two pillows because FRIDAY had opened the curtains and turned the lights on in an attempt to wake him up.
Tony crossed the room to the boy and pulled the pillows off his head. “Harls, it's time to get up. Breakfast is ready.”
“Ughhhhh. WHY???”
Tony just rolled his eyes and pulled the blankets off the boy.
It took a few more minutes but eventually, he got Harley up and headed to breakfast. By the time he got back Pepper had finished eating and was off to work.
Once all of the kids had eaten Tony took Morgan to her room and got her ready for school.
It took ten minutes to get Morgan ready and by the time they made it back to the living room both boys were ready and falling back asleep on the couch while Abbie sat at the table on her phone and Georgia was presumably still getting ready.
A few minutes later Happy texted Tony that he was on his way. “Happy will be here soon.”
Georgia came running into the room pulling on a shoe while trying to balance her coffee and backpack. Tony just shook his head and helped Morgan get her shoes on.
By the time the big kids had their coffee and Morgan had her shoes on FRIDAY had alerted them that Happy was downstairs.
“Before we go down come stand over here so I can take a picture.”
The kids groaned but did as he asked lining up by the elevator so he could take a picture.
Tony checked them all over as they got into the elevator. They all looked good except for some toothpaste still on Harley’s face which he wiped off.
When they got to the garage Happy was waiting in the black SUV he used for bringing the kids places. It was still nice but far less conspicuous than most of Tony’s cars. Tony helped Morgan into her seat while the other four climbed into the car. Clearly, they were tired as there was none of the usual fighting over who got to sit in the middle.
Tony climbed into the front seat and they took off towards Midtown. It was a twenty-minute drive in which Morgan talked nonstop about how excited she was, the boys both slept, Abbie did something on her phone, and Georgia messed with her makeup.