Cry with me
Morgan wiped at her red and puffy eyes and crawled into Peter’s bed where her mom was clutching onto Peter’s stuffed teddy bear and blanket as if it was the only thing tethering her to the earth.
“Mommy?” Morgan asked in a small voice. She peered over Pepper’s side and wiped at her eyes again. “Will Peter come back to us?”
Pepper cried harder but lifted her head up to turn to face her daughter. “I hope so. I hope so, Morgan.”
Morgan laid down on Peter’s pillow and couldn’t stop herself from crying into it once she smelt Peter’s scent. Apple scented shampoo with a bit of Tony’s cologne that seemed to be embedded in his skin after spending hours in his fathers arms.
“I hope he’s okay and-and not crying right now.” Morgan sat up in the bed where Pepper spent the last few hours crying in agony for her son. “I-I don’t want him to be s-sad because he always needs dad when he’s sad.”
That had Pepper crying harder but she tried to hold it in to be strong for her daughter but it was almost impossible.
She had no idea where Peter was, if he was okay or if they were ever going to see each other in this lifetime again.
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Tony had switched places with Natasha since he had two panic attacks while driving and he wanted to keep going but Natasha had to tell him that he wasn’t any help to Peter dead from crashing the car so he switched places with her meaning that he was the one who answered the phone.
“Did you find anything?” Tony answered the phone to one of the detectives that he hired to help him find Peter the first time.
He was amazing. He never stopped or slept and was determined to get Peter back almost as much as Tony was. That was what they needed.
“Neighbours heard a gunshot so they called the police in Finger Lakes. They found Mark Wellington shot in the chest. He’s alive and he says he saw Peter. He’s our eye witness so I’m going to the hospital now to wait until he gets out of surgery so I can talk to him.” Owen, the detective, explained to Tony.
Tony tried to focus on the fact that Peter was still alive. That was good. He needed to focus on that. “How long ago was this?”
“Forty minutes ago. I’m at the hospital now. I’ll update you.”
Tony hung up his phone and rubbed aggressively at his eyes. “We’re going to Finger Lakes. That’s where Peter was last seen.”
“I would have thought they were going to take Peter to Ithaca like last time.” Natasha said out loud but Tony didn’t answer.
These guys were smart.
He knew that before but they were proving to be more and more smart. He had no idea how they got there so quickly. They had a plan and Tony wanted to know what it was but they shot someone who probably figured out who Peter was or got too close to him.
“Oh god.” Tony grabbed at his chest because he couldn’t breathe again. He felt like he was suffocating. “Oh my god. They shot a man in the fucking chest. They actually tried to kill someone because he saw Peter. They- what aren’t they willing to do to keep Peter this time?”
Tony didn’t want to know the answer to that question.
“They’re working harder and smarter now. Rogers knows we know that he has Peter and they are trying to stay five steps ahead of us.”
Tony rolled down his window to try and breathe but his phone was ringing again. “Yes?”
“Tony, Mark Wellington worked in a passport shop. Rogers and Barnes are going to take Peter out of the country.”
That was the last straw for Tony.
He dropped his phone into his lap and took off his seatbelt, leaning forward and gagging. If they managed to leave the country with Peter, that was it.
Tony would never see Peter again. He knew that for a fact because they would probably change his name and his looks to make Peter unrecognizable to anyone he knows.
Natasha grabbed the phone from his lap to speak for Tony. “Is Mark out of surgery? Ask him what happened? Was Barnes with them?”
Owen sounded like he was out of breath. “No. His wife is here. He’s still in surgery but they were at the passport shop. Where’s Tony?”
Tony regained his composure and grabbed the phone from Natasha. “Call the FAA and have them shut down the airports. They’re not taking Peter out of the country.”
Owen hesitated before speaking. “I don’t know if you can do that-”
“I’m Tony Stark. I can do whatever the fuck I want so call them.” Tony hung up the phone and pressed on Peppers contact information. She answered on the second ring.
“Tony?”
“They’re going to take him out of the country, Pepper.” Tony said but once he heard her voice, he felt like he couldn’t hold it together anymore.
“What? How do you know that? Where’s he now, Tony? Where’s our baby?” She cried into the phone, begging to know the answer to the same question Tony had.
Where was their baby?
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Peter couldn’t calm down no matter how hard he tried.
He was pretty sure Steve just shot and killed the man in the passport shop and Peter was pretty sure it was all his fault. If he hadn’t made himself look so obvious or maybe if he tried harder to not let Steve shoot the man, he would still be alive.
No one even tried to calm him down either.
Both Steve and Bucky were arguing about something but Peter didn’t know what it was. It had to be something serious though since they never used to argue in front of him.
Soon enough, they were pulling into a long driveway off a dirt road. Peter wasn’t entirely sure where they were or where they were going so he managed to calm down enough to look out the windows. He was able to see a bit more since it was brighter out as the sun came up but he was suddenly feeling hungry as he thought about the hours that passed by.
He wiped at his eyes and kicked Steve’s seat. “I’m hungry.”
Steve ignored him at first so Peter tried to lean forward to get out of the seat but the buckles held him down. “I’m hungry.”
Steve was putting the map away that he was looking at and turned to look at Peter. “Okay, bear. We’ll eat once we get on the plane. It’s a small one so it’ll be a bumpy ride but they’ll take us where we need to go.”
Peter frowned. “Where are we going?”
He watched Bucky dig in a bag for something while Steve spoke. “That’s not important. You don’t need to worry about anything.”
Peter rubbed at his eyes. He was exhausted. He pulled a lot of all nighters before since he couldn’t fall asleep but he was over that phase now. Now, he could sleep but he was too scared to.
He saw Bucky pull out another bottle so Peter leaned his head against the car seat and watched him pour something into it then shake it up.
“What’s that? What did you put in it?” He knew what it was. It was going to make him fall asleep but he was so hungry and so tired, he had no energy left in him to fight it.
Peter was reaching for it before Steve even handed it back to him.
“Drink it all.” He said, watching Peter until he brought it up to his lips.
Peter appreciated the coldness on his hoarse throat. He shut his eyes and tried to think about his family and what they were doing now. He hoped they were still looking for him even though it’ll be a full day soon.
He didn’t want them to give up on him. He wanted to be able to go home to them again soon.
Peter was pulled from his thoughts by a door slamming shut. He jerked and opened up his eyes, seeing Steve walk towards a small plane on a tarmac and throwing his arms around wildly as he spoke to two men standing by the plane.
Peter dropped the bottle onto the floor and tried to sit forward to get a better look at what was happening. “Bucky? What’s he saying?”
Bucky was watching the scene in front of him. “Don’t worry, bear. Drink your milk.”
Peter tried to grab it but it was out of reach. He whined and tugged on the buckles again. “Bucky. Take me out. Why are you letting him do this to me? I wanna go home. Please, Bucky. Please.”
“We’re gonna take you home, bear, but our home can’t be in New York anymore. It’s too close to the bad guys so we have to go somewhere safe so they can’t get to us.” Bucky explained to him which only had Peter tugging harder on his car seat.
“No. You’re lying and you lied to me my whole life so-so how can I trust you now. I hate you. I hate you and Steve. So much.” Peter threw his head back and screamed through his teeth. “Let me out! I wanna go home.”
Bucky ignored him. He reached down to grab the bottle and handed it to Peter but it was kicking Bucky's arm away from him. “No!”
Steve matched back to the car and opened the door, slamming it shut. “Drive. We gotta go.”
Bucky didn’t hesitate to get out of there. “What is it? We’re supposed to get on that plane. That’s the plan.”
“Not anymore.” Peter saw Steve pull out his phone and so he tried to lean forward to get a look at it. He thought about grabbing it to call his dad or the police or anyone that could help him.
He turned back to look at Peter. “Where’s your bottle?”
Peter stared at him and Bucky handed it to Steve who handed it to Peter who took it so he didn’t get in trouble. He kept it in his mouth so as to make it look like he was drinking it but he wasn’t. He wanted to stay awake.
“We need a new plan. Stark called the FAA so all flights are grounded. They refuse to take us in the air.” Steve explained to Bucky and Peter’s heart started to beat faster at the mention of his dad.
His dad had to be the one to shut down the airports to stop him from leaving the country. He didn’t know how that was possible but it gave him some comfort despite the situation.
“How did they find out?” Bucky asked, turning onto the road and continuing on it.
Steve turned back to look at Peter to see if he was still drinking then pulling out the map again. “I don’t know. Where do we go? Back to Ithaca maybe? Can we go to your grandpa's cabin?”
Bucky shrugged. “They’ll look there. We need to do something to throw them off.”
Steve paused and turned back to look at Peter then at Bucky. “We’ll use Peter.”
“Are you serious? We’re not involving him.” Bucky shook his head, tightening his grip on the steering wheel.
“We have to throw them off and send them somewhere we’re not to give us a head start and we don’t have much time.” Steve turned and held his hand out towards Peter. “Stop drinking. Give me your bottle, bear. You can’t fall asleep just yet.”
Peter took it out of his mouth and handed the bottle to Steve, wanting to know what he meant.
“Just pull over somewhere so we can do this.”
A few minutes later, Bucky pulled into a gas station parking lot and shut the car off. Peter looked around to try and see where they were but he had no idea. He wasn’t even sure if they were in New York anymore.
He watched both Steve and Bucky get out of the car, leaving him alone. He hated that he wanted them to come back so he wasn’t left alone in the car.
He thought about all those times when he was younger and left in this exact same position and how much he hated it then and hated it now.
Peter tried to listen in but he couldn’t hear what they were saying. It wasn’t long until the car door was opening up and Steve was unbuckling him and lifting him out of the car.
“You’re going to have to call the bad man, bear. It’ll be okay.”
Peter gasped. He knew his family weren’t the bad men Steve was referring to all his life, they were his family but Steve was still trying to embed that in his brain.
“You will call Tony and tell him you got my phone but you will tell him I’m taking you to Ithaca to a cabin near the water. That’s it. Then you will say you have to go and you’ll hang up the phone.”
Peter nodded eagerly. He was going to get to call his dad and hear his voice but he had to lie to him. He didn’t think it would work since his dad could always see right through him and knew whenever he was lying.
He still agreed.
Steve handed him the phone after he typed in *67 so the call showed up as an unknown caller to Tony’s phone. “Type in his number and don’t you dare say anything else.”
Peter took the phone, wanting so badly to tell his dad everything but he couldn’t.
Tony picked up in the second ring. “Hello?”
Peter felt tears pour down his face at the feeling he got when he heard his dad’s voice. “Uh, it’s me.”
“Peter. Oh my god. Where are you, baby-”
“I’m Uh… I got h-his phone and I’m calling you to tell you that,” Peter turned to look up at Steve. “they’re taking me to Ithaca. To a cabin… near the w-water. I have to go now because he’s coming.”
Steve grabbed the phone from him and hung up then picked Peter up and strapped him back in the car seat but Peter was stopping him. “I need to pee.”
Steve sighed. “Alright. Let’s go quick.”
He lifted Peter back out of the car and grabbed onto his hand, leading him towards the gas station.
Once inside, Peter looked for a tv but saw that it was playing a sports game so he was going to have to figure something else out.
Steve kicked open the bathroom door and ushered Peter and himself in, locking it behind him. Peter did need to go pee but he wasn’t about to go in front of Steve.
“Well… can you leave?” Peter asked, looking at Steve, annoyed that he was here.
“Let’s hurry up, Peter. We don’t have a lot of time. Let me help me.” Steve reached forward to grab onto the sides of his pants so Peter screamed which immediately had Steve covering a hand over his mouth. “Shh. Don’t you dare do that again.”
Peter breathed heavily. Steve was letting go of his mouth carefully, making sure Peter didn’t scream again.
“Go pee. Make it quick or I’ll help you.”
Peter had no other choice but to go so he pulled his pants down, upset that Steve was watching him but it wasn’t anything Steve hadn’t seen before. Although he wanted more time to figure something else out. “I need to go poop too. So… can you go?”
Steve raised his eyebrows at him. “You have to be quick. We don’t have a lot of time, bear.”
Peter went to sit down but Steve was stopping him to cover the toilet seat with toilet paper and as he was bent over and close enough to Peter, Peter saw the phone in his pocket and without even thinking, he reached for it but Steve was quicker and grabbed his wrists.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
“Nothing. It was an accident!” Peter lied, hoping it would work.
“We’re done in here. Let’s go.” Steve tugged up Peter’s pants and underwear in one movement and grabbed onto his wrist. “Don’t say another word until we get to the truck.”
Peter was screwed. He messed up yet another chance to get away.
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Tony paced back and forth.
They arrived at the crime scene where Peter was only hours earlier.
Once again, he was too late.
He was waiting for his team to gather the security camera footage but it was taking longer than necessary and it was making Tony go crazy.
Natasha walked over to him with her arms crossed. She had no good news for him. “I watched the footage. You don’t want to see it, Tony.”
“What? I’ve been waiting out here all this time and you already watched it.” Tony pushed past Natasha to walk into the shop but she was grabbing his arm. “What?”
When Natasha didn’t say anything, Tony felt his heart drop. “No.No. No no no… he can’t be-”
“No. Peter’s alive. He’s alive, Tony, but you don’t want to watch the footage. Okay?” She held onto his arm still. “It’s just Barnes holding onto Peter while he kicked and carried him across the parking lot.”
Tony knew Peter knew how to defend himself. He took self defence classes with his siblings and even fought with Harley and him but he was only fourteen. He was always small for his age and Barnes and Rogers were grown men who were also very large.
They could over power Peter without even trying.
“I’m gonna watch it. He’s my kid, Natasha.” Tony killed a little part of him every time he watched a video with Peter in it because it showed him the exact moment Peter was taken and how he failed as a parent.
Tony wished so badly he could go back and be in this spot at the same time Peter was. Now he had no idea where his kid was.
He felt his phone vibrate in his pocket so he quickly pulled it out and saw that it was an unknown number.
“Oh god. Record this.” He quickly said to Natasha, just in case, then he pressed the answer button. “Hello?”
Tony held his breath, hoping so badly for it to be Peter so he knew he was okay.
“Uh, it’s me.” Came Peter’s voice but it was quiet.
Tony let out a breath of air he didn’t know he was holding in. “Peter. Oh my god. Where are you, baby-”
Peter cut him off but he didn’t sound like he was in a rush like last time. Tony’s blood ran cold. Something was wrong. “I’m Uh… I got h-his phone and I’m calling you to tell you that,” Peter paused and his voice sounded like he wasn’t facing the phone when he spoke again. “they’re taking me to Ithaca. To a cabin… near the w-water. I have to go now because he’s coming.”
There was muffled sounds coming from the other end and then the phone call ended before Tony had the chance to say anything else.
He stared at his phone but something was wrong. It sounded like Peter was reading from a script. He was lying. Tony knew he was lying and it terrified him.
“Somethings not right.” Tony told Natasha.
She stared at him. “How would he even be able to get one of their phones? I saw the way Barnes held onto him.”
That wasn’t the only thing that concerned Tony. “Peter doesn’t know how to do the unknown call. I never taught him how”
“And if he’s in a rush to call you, he’s not gonna have time or even think of doing the blocked caller ID.” Natasha added.
They both stared at each other for a few seconds, trying to determine what was going on.
Tony held onto the fact that Peter was alive but he wasn’t sure if he was hurt or not. The unknown killed him.
“They’re trying to lead us somewhere they’re not going.” Natasha said. “They got Peter to call you and say that and I can bet that they were there that whole time too. We’re not going to Ithaca.”
Tony wanted to agree with Natasha but what if she was wrong. “I don’t know. What if Peter was actually trying to warn me where they’re going? It’s been a full day almost. I can tell you right now he didn’t get any sleep so he’s probably not thinking straight either.”
“You didn’t get any sleep either, Tony.” Natasha tried to argue with him but Tony walked away from her.
“I’m an adult. This isn’t the first sleepless night I’ve had.” He stopped to face Natasha. “I’m not sleeping until I get Peter back.”
Tony walked away from Natasha and leaned against the car so he could call Pepper to see if she somehow knew anything. He just needed to hear her voice.
“Hello?” Pepper answered on the first ring. Her voice was full of hope.
“I don’t know where he is. He-he called me a few minutes ago… I think they set him up though.” Tony broke down. He didn’t know what to do next. “I don’t know what to do, Pepper. He’s gone. Peter’s gone.”
Pepper was silent for a few seconds before speaking. “Get him back, Tony. I know he’s scared and he’s waiting for us this time. Just bring him home.”
Tony nodded but didn’t say anything because he didn’t trust his voice to speak.
He was so close yet so far away.