Chapter 3
Pepper Potts was a very patient woman; you have to be when your life is connected to Tony Stark. She loved, no loves the man with her whole heart but she was not the one for him (took her years to figure that out). Tony needed someone who understood him, who could keep up with his intelligence, who would keep up with his self-sacrificing, deeply caring personality, who would make him understand that he doesn’t have to carry the world on his shoulders, a person who was equally amazing and special as he was; he needed the person who deserved him and there are not many people on this planet who deserves Tony Stark and his wonderful heart.
But that didn’t mean she loved him any less, nope he was her best friend. Just like she said to him years ago he was her family and she couldn’t lose him.
Even though she was very patient, then also she didn't have patience for Tony to wake up. The minutes, hours, and days passing without hearing his rambling was driving her mad. Here they were in the med bay of the tower waiting for Helen to inject the third dose of extremis into Tony’s body and thankfully this was the last. The same thing that almost killed her 3 years ago was being used to save him because of a man who thought so low of Tony but would never be even half the man Tony was .
They had shifted Tony from the hospital as soon as his operations for the new sternum and arc reactor were done. Helen and Dr. Wu wanted to do the extremis procedure here since extremis wasn’t medically sanctioned or advisable but it was their only resort hence there wasn’t much choice.
Only her, Sharon, and Maria Hill were inside the room with the doctors. The others were waiting for them outside.
Maria was standing next to the door with narrowed eyes. The woman had grown closer to Tony after the fall of SHIELD and was fiercely loyal to and protective of him. She also told her once that she had a crush on Rogers but that blew up the moment he blamed the entire ULTRON disaster on Tony and brought the HYDRA bitch into the team. Well, Pepper had decided to trust the ex-agent after that, especially after she found out the only reason she had not joined the new SHIELD was to make sure Tony was safe (that had proven useful when she contacted Coulson the moment Friday alerted them that Tony was stranded in Siberia) and she had become one of her few friends.
Sharon was leaning against her shoulder clearly anxious; she was still blaming herself for giving that horrid shield to Rogers. But honestly, no one could blame her; she had no idea of how Rogers treated Tony since he wanted her far away from the avengers for her safety. And no one could blame her for falling for America’s golden boy (most of the women and men in the country were). But one thing was for sure the next time Rogers sees Sharon Carter it won’t be a hug and a kiss he’s getting.
She came out of her thoughts when she saw Helen and Dr. Wu coming towards them.
“It’s done, extremis is injected successfully but when he’ll wake up that we can’t tell,” Helen said with a relieved smile.
Sharon let go of her and gave Helen and Wu a hug thanking them profusely. They both then left with Maria leaving Pepper and Sharon alone.
“Do you think this will work and he’ll wake up?” Sharon asked nervously fidgeting with her fingers.
“Of course he will Shar, he’s too stubborn to leave us this soon.” She said trying to comfort the distraught woman. Sharon just nodded.
“Um Ms. Potts, Ms. Carter, there’s something I have to tell you, it’s in regards to Boss and I think you both should know it before he wakes up.” Friday’s voice rang out in the room. Sharon and Pepper both looked at each other in concern.
“Go on Fri, what is it?” Pepper asked.
“Ms. Potts, as soon as Mr. Parker arrived at the tower I did a lot of scans on him and if the results of my facial comparison to boss and biometric comparison analysis are to be believed then there is an 80% chance that Mr. Parker is Boss’s son and the only proof I need more is a DNA test,” Friday replied.
Pepper just stared at the ceiling dumfounded. She didn’t see Sharon’s reaction since she was herself processing the information. After a few moments, they both looked at each other dumbfounded.
“Mr. Stark might be my dad?” said a small voice and both of them turned around to see a very clearly shocked Peter standing in front of the door.
“Peter, what are you doing here?” said Sharon finally breaking from her stupor.
“I came to see if Mr. Stark was alright and when I came in I heard Ms. Friday saying that he might be my dad.” The kid replied still shocked from what he heard.
Pepper took a deep breath and looked at the kid and finally she saw all the similarities between them. The same golden-brown eyes, the same tone of brown hair, he was a genius just like Tony, and well he was Spiderman (a hero who idolized iron man). Heck, if she had looked closely at him when they first met a few days ago she herself might have thought that he was Tony’s kid, they were way too similar.
She walked towards Peter and put a hand on his shoulder and said, “Pete, do you want a DNA test?”
“Um, is that ok, don’t we need his permission or my aunt’s permission?” he asked nervously.
“That’s ok Pete; if the test comes out positive then we’ll tell them everything,” Pepper said trying to calm him.
The kid nodded but he was still nervous and he was looking towards Tony's bed worriedly.
“Peter I need you to listen to me when I say this, okay?” Sharon said in a firm yet soft tone.
He nodded and Sharon continued, “First thing if you are really Tony’s son and I’m pretty sure you are then I’m 100% sure that Tony didn’t know that, if he had then he would never leave you, Peter.”
She came forward and tilted his head, looking at him sincerely, and said, “I can say this because I know Tony Stark, he adopted me when my parents died and when none of my relatives wanted me. If he even had the slightest idea about you then he would have taken you in without a doubt. When he wakes up and if the results come out positive that you are his son then he will keep you, he will want you, okay?”
Peter nodded and suddenly launched himself at Sharon and hugged her tightly and said, “Thank you, Ms. Carter.”
“Well Peter, you might want to start calling her aunt Sharon since she is Tony’s cousin,” Pepper said with a mischievous smile. In turn, both the other occupants in the room turned bright red and she laughed softly.
“Ok guys, Sharon can you take Peter down to the bio lab, take Vision, and only him with you. He’ll do the DNA test and we will get it in 5 hours, so we can clear everything before Tony wakes up and after telling him only we will tell the others, got it?” Pepper asked. Both of them nodded and went out of the room.
Honestly, the DNA test was not needed since it was clear as day that Peter was indeed Tony’s son, you just needed to look a little closer then you'll see that they are indeed very similar.
She looked back at her best friend and went towards his bed and held his hand. She was praying to any God there was above for him to wake up, for extremis to work. If it didn’t then a kid would be losing a man who might be his father just after he got him and Tony would be losing his son without even knowing it.