The Secrets We Keep

The next morning, Nat stood nervously outside of Tony’s office. Should she go in? Should she not go in?

She took a deep breath and entered. Tony sat at his desk and was looking up at Rhodey who was pacing. They were arguing.

“I swear Justin Hammer is a dumbass. It’ll take him over 20 years to create the technology to rival my current Ironman, and by then, I will be so much further along,” Tony said, his voice laced with boredom.

“But he’s still a threat to our family, we have to do something!” Rhodey argued.

“He’s too high profile, we touch him and everyone will know it was me,” Tony knew that Hammer had so many government officials in his pocket, he was too prominent to touch without turning some heads.

Nat cleared her throat.

“Ahem, boys,” she started. “I need to speak to Tony.”

“Get in line,” Rhodey rolled his eyes.

“It’s urgent.” Nat tried to keep her voice steady to hide the nervousness in her voice.

“Alright Romanov, spit it out.” Tony gestured for her to speak.

“Can we speak privately?” Nat asked.

“Because suddenly the consigliere isn’t high up enough to know about this?” Rhodey asked skeptically and folded his arms.

“Rhodes is right. Anyways, get to the point,” Tony said. Before Nat could get a word in, his phone rang. He gestured to Rhodey, “Ugh it’s Happy.”

“Yes Happy?” Tony whispered out. “Yea put the tracker on Hammer’s car. Somewhere he won’t see it! Yes, under the wheel well is good. Yes, put a tracker on all of his cars. But make sure to put them in different places in case they find one. Got it? Good. Now get out of there before anyone sees you.”

Rhodey stepped away from his friend and walked to Nat. He put his arm on her shoulder and started walking her to the door.

“Listen, promise me this isn’t as important as the situation with the Hammer mob. Besides, maybe you’ll have more time to get Tony more information about whatever it is you wanted to talk about.”

With that, he closed Tony’s office door, shutting Nat out.

As that door closed, Nat knew another one open. Her instincts told her exactly what to do.

--

The seasons changed and so did Nat. From Winter to Spring to Summer to Autumn to Winter to Spring, time waited for no one.

As Nat walked into her office, she thought back to the time over a year ago when she walked into Tony’s office to tell Tony about how she found Pepper. Getting kicked out was a sign. God was she glad she changed her mind and kept it a secret.

Nat looked down at the folder she worked so hard on putting together over the past year and a half. It took her so long because she had so little information and she had to keep it under wraps. After Rhodey pushed her out of Tony’s office, she realized he was right. She needed more information and to actually find her. And besides, she needed to track down Pepper quietly. Once she found her, she knew she could help Pepper. No one could find out what she was up to, especially any rivals. If any rival families found out what she was doing, they could kill the heir to the Stark family before she was able to save him. But with what she had learned at MoMA, she was able to find Pepper without raising any flags. She spent months just looking through birth records at all of the hospitals in the NYC area. She had no idea how old Peter was exactly, but she narrowed down the dates and looked for any birth certificates with a boy named Peter. She found hundreds. It took her months of discretely investigating all of these families one by one to finally find the right Peter.

It was over a year after the MoMA Christmas special when she was finally able to confirm Mary Fitzpatrick was indeed Pepper. Pepper, aka Mary, had started over without her husband. She had a job, was extremely close to her neighbors, May and Ben Parker, and appeared to be generally happy with her life. Despite living in poverty, Pepper appeared to have all the support she needed from the Parkers.

Nat had spent the past year internally battling with herself on what the right thing to do was. Nat’s instinct told her she had to help Pepper. But what even would helping Pepper look like? Did she still love and miss Tony the way Tony craved her? Tony still talked about Pepper nearly every day to her or Rhodey or Happy. It seemed he would never get over her, and no one else had any leads. If she told him she would have a major edge in the Stark family. But still, she wasn’t sure if it was really her place to dictate Pepper and Peter’s lives. Maybe they were better off outside the mob. Maybe the right thing to do was just to protect them from afar. She could try to warn them if any danger came up. She could protect them and keep them secretly tucked away from the mob.

Nat looked out the window and wondered what Peter looked like now. Did he look more like Tony? He had to be walking. He might even be talking by now. She looked back down at the folder and started going through each page. It was then she realized the pages were out of order.

Someone had seen the file.

Nat frantically opened up her computer to look at her security camera. She sped up the footage from the past few days and immediately noticed someone enter her office. It wasn’t someone she recognized. The man was wearing all black and took pictures of her file. Shit.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

She slowed down the footage and was able to take a screenshot of his face. She ran his face through the database Tony had put together to track Stark employees, Stark mob associates, and any other mobsters they had information on. Tony had been smart. He hacked into other mobs’ files and stole as much information as she could.

She gulped when the matched showed he was from the Hammer family.

Pepper was in danger, serious danger, and Nat knew what she had to do. She had to help Pepper. Help her and Peter escape. She figured they would have to lie low, change their names, move to another city. Nat would help them disappear. This was her fault anyway; she put them in danger. But first, she needed to get to them, make sure the Hammers hadn’t already gotten to her. She opened up her desk drawer to find the keys to the Audi Tony gave her.

She was so distracted looking for the keys she didn’t hear Happy come into her office.

“Hey what is that?” He grabbed the folder. Nat whipped around her eyes bursting with fear.

“No give me that back,” Nat reached out to try to grab it, but Happy held it high with his left hand and pushed her back with his right.

“What is this?” Happy looked at the birth certificate. She knew she was screwed if she didn’t give up her secret immediately.

“It’s not something that concerns you, give it back I gotta go quick.”

“Common tell me what it is, it must be important if you have a whole folder of some random kid’s information.” Happy turned to the next page and looked at Nat’s notes. “Who is this kid?”

“I don’t have time for this, give it back,” Nat begged.

“Seriously, spill now.”

“I have to do something first, I’ll tell Tony I promise,” Nat jumped from where she was sitting and snatched the folder out of Happy’s hand. She stormed out of the office, with the folder and car keys in hand.

Happy stood in Nat’s office looking at the exit she just left in. To Happy, it seemed suspicious. What was Nat up to? Happy knew Nat wasn’t afraid of anything, yet he couldn’t get her fear-filled eyes out of his mind. Something was up.

Happy decided that he had to rat Nat out so he went to Tony’s office. When he barged through Tony’s office door, Tony was meeting with a man Happy hadn’t seen before. The man was bald and had an eyepatch. Tony looked relieved to have an interruption. Happy rushed to Tony’s side of the desk and saw that Tony was discretely checking the location of the tracker they planted on Hammer’s car. It was on the move. Ever since last year, the Starks and Hammers had been going at each other. The tension was building between the mobs, and Tony knew it was a ticking time bomb.

“Excuse me, I have a meeting with Mr. Stark!” Eyepatch said.

“And you are?” Happy asked, with his eyes narrowed.

“My name is Nick Fury, and it’s none of your damn business why I’m here!” Fury shouted.

“He’s trying to get me to join his super-secret boy band,” Tony explained with boredom.

Fury rolled his one eye. He wasn’t going to wait around for this little interruption to end.

“I will be back soon Stark to finish our discussion.” Fury huffed as he stood up and walked to the door.

“Bye now!” Tony waved as Fury slammed the door behind him.

Tony pivoted his chair to face Happy.

“Did you forget how to knock?” Tony joked.

“Hope I didn’t interrupt anything important.” Happy worried.

“Nope just some Avengers initiative.” Tony rolled his eyes.

“Sounds important,” Happy commented.

“Eh maybe,” Tony wasn’t so sure. A superhero? How could he, a mobster, be a hero?

“Anyways, I thought Nat would come here since she has something to tell you.” Happy stated and looked around. Maybe Nat was hiding in some corner to kill him for ratting on her. She was a superspy after all.

“What are you talked about?” Tony asked. Tony looked back at the screen with all of the Hammer car locations. A handful were in Queens.

“She just,” Happy blubbered out, “she had this folder filled with information about some woman and her kid. It seems strange to me. She said she was going to tell you and wouldn’t let me look at it.”

“Hmm, not sure what that’s about. Did you get any information?”

“Well I saw an address, it’s in Queens.”

“You think she’s headed there now?” Tony asked rhetorically.

“Maybe,”

--

“U’cle Ben!! U’cle Ben!!” A 20-month-old Peter bounced up and down on his toes in the living room of the Parkers. He was holding his favorite toy. The Ironman plushie May and Ben gave him for his first Christmas. He loved Ironman more and more as he grew and brought his Ironman with him everywhere.

“Peteeeeeee,” Ben picked up Peter and swung him around, soaking up the giggles that filled the apartment.

“Aun May?” Peter asked looking around. Where was his favorite aunt that he missed so much?

“She had to go to work and she won’t be back until wayyyy after your mommy comes to get you, so it’s just you and me bud.” Peter gave Ben a pout, and Ben laughed. “You’re adorable when you pout, you know that kid?”

“May May May MAYYYYY” Peter chanted. Peter wanted his favorite aunt to come play with him, even if her food was yucky.

“I know you loveeee my wife, but what about me? Do you love me? Can you say I love you?” Ben asked as he hugged Peter to his chest.

“I luv youuu,” Peter sang and giggled into his favorite uncle’s chest. Uncle Ben was fun. He would toss Peter in the air and let Peter do acrobatics in the air. He loved it.

“Common it’s snack time, then it’ll be nap time. What do you want for a snack bud?” Ben asked.

“Blubleblablananana,” Peter said confidently. Ben looked at him confused. Sometimes, Peter could speak clearly. Other times, he still made absolutely no sense at all.

“Almond date loaf?” Ben smirked.

“Noooooooooo,” Peter wined. Not yummy.

“Ummm, do you want blueberries and bananas?” Ben asked hesitantly, hoping that’s what he wanted.

Peter squealed in excitement.

--

Nat pulled up to the apartment building in Queens in the black Audi. She scanned the area, looking for any threats. Her eyes landed on a black BMW with tinted windows. She looked at the license.

HAMM3R

Nat yanked the car door open and ran towards the building.

--

“Your Ironman plushie doesn’t need any blueberries, Peter,” Ben tried to negotiate with his nephew, who was laying on his stomach on the floor with his blueberries and his Ironman stuffy attempting to put a spoonful of blueberries into the mouth of Ironman. But Ben’s suggestions went unnoticed, as Peter kept babbling to his stuffy and pushed the spoon into the face of his favorite toy, spilling blueberries all over the floor.

Ben heard a knock on the door and stood up from where he was crouching next to Peter.

“You’re silly Pete,” Ben bent back down to ruffle Peter’s curls. Another knock, more urgent than the last.

“I’m coming!” Ben called out and rushed to the door.

He was shocked when he opened the door to see an unfamiliar man wearing a grey suit and glasses towering in his doorway. He had two larger men behind him.

“Can I help you?” Ben asked nervously.

“Is Mary, um” Justin Hammer looked down at his phone to confirm the name one of his spies gave him. His spy promised that they had seen one of Tony’s closest associate's digging into this little family. Told him it would piss off Stark. This kind of opportunity was exactly what Justin was looking for. Justin didn’t really have time to look into it, but he knew that if one of Stark’s people was looking into these civilians, he could use them to hurt Stark.

“Is Mary Fitzpatrick home?” Justin finished his question.

“Um, no, but can I take a message?”

“Actually no, you can’t,” Hammer smiled wickedly and pulled out a gun.

--

“Don’t you have a tracker on all Stark cars?” Happy asked.

“Yea” Tony rolled his eyes. He obviously wanted to keep tabs on where his crew was going at all times.

“Well pull it up, we can see where Nat went,” Tony rolled his eyes, and typed in the code to overlap the location of the car Nat was in with the Hammer car data.

Nat’s car was directly overlapping with three of Hammer’s cars. Tony’s eyes bulged. The threat was imminent and Nat couldn’t do this alone.

Tony called for his suit, and it encased him immediately. Tony rocketed out of his window, leaving Rhodes behind.

--

“Whoa whoa whoa, please put that down,” Ben’s eyes widened. He put his hands up and stepped in front of the view of Peter to protect his nephew from seeing the gun.

“Where is she, and why is Stark so interested in you?” Hammer demanded, walking forward with the gun pointed at Ben’s chest.

“What? Who’s Stark? Tony Stark? I don’t know him, I promise! Please put the gun down I promise I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“But you DO know Stark! His crew has been looking into you.”

“What that’s impossible! We aren’t in the mob! Please I’ll tell you anything you want, we just don’t have anything to do with the Stark mob.”

“LIAR!!” Hammer screamed as his finger closed on the trigger.

--

Tony was still in the air when he saw Nat running towards the door of an apartment building. He landed in front of Nat, and she stopped dead in her tracks.

Tony was about to speak when they heard a gunshot ring out.

“GO” Nat yelled.

Tony took off and broke through the window where Friday detected the shot.

--

Ben looked down, to see the blood seeping through his shirt. He looked back up to see the strange man smirking.

Ben fell to his knees and collapsed onto his back. He looked up at the ceiling, trying to remember how to breathe. For Ben, everything felt like a dream. He felt nothing, yet he felt everything. His body was in so much pain, but it felt like he wasn’t even in his body.

“U’cle Ben?” Peter called out, looking for his uncle. The strange noise was confusing, he had never heard anything like that before.

When Peter spotted his uncle lying on the ground, he screamed, dropped his Ironman, and ran to his uncle.

“Nononononono” Peter sobbed and put his head on his uncle’s chest and wailed into his favorite uncle.

“Pete,” Ben breathed out. He lifted a shaky hand to brush the curls out of Peter’s face. Why did it hurt to talk? Why was Pete so blurry? He took a shaky breath, feeling the exhaustion pull at him. He had so much to say to his beloved nephew. With a weak voice, he spoke, “With great power, comes great responsibility.”

Ben closed his eyes.

“Why boo-boo? U’cle BENNNN” Peter said through tears. He tried to shake his uncle. Uncle Ben didn’t respond, and Peter cried harder. So hard that he was gasping for air. Peter was confused, why was uncle Ben sleeping on the floor funny with a big boo-boo? He had never felt this scared in his life.

Hammer watched the little boy cry over his uncle and raised his gun. He would do what he had to do. Anything to piss off Stark. He pointed it at the boy and was about to pull the trigger when he heard the window shatter.

Hammer looked up in time to see Ironman blast him with the full force of his repulsors. Hammer had no time to react. He was hit by the blast, sending his lifeless body flying into his crew. Tony shot more blasts over and over again, his instincts screamed for him to protect. Protect, protect, protect. It didn’t matter how high up Hammer was or who Hammer’s connections were or what mob war he just started, what mattered was that Tony trusted his instincts to get rid of Hammer once and for all. He shot at them until he knew that Hammer and his men were nothing but ashes.

Tony glanced around the apartment to see why the hell Hammer targeted these people. He had no idea who this guy was. The impoverished state of the apartment clearly meant he wasn’t a mob associate. He saw pictures scattered around the apartment of that man. There was one which looked like a wedding photo with a woman who had long straight brown hair. There was another photo of him and the same woman holding a baby.

He only realized he wasn’t alone when he heard the muffled sob. There was a kid on the ground crying. Tony watched the boy sob on the chest of the bloody man for a moment, then realized he should probably do something about the kid. Instinct told him to help the poor boy. He walked over and crouched down next to the toddler, who was sobbing onto the dead body. The kid had to be under two, he was tiny.

Looking at that boy was the first time Tony felt something in a long time. Tony had learned to always suppress emotions, especially when it came to his line of work. In his world, death was inevitable. But the scene in front of him was unforgivable. Tony felt an overwhelming urge to protect this small innocent boy. He couldn’t fully explain it.

Tony was already uncomfortable dealing with kids, let alone a kid who just had something traumatic happen. But something told him he had to be the one to help the child. That thing telling him to help… it wasn’t words.

It was instinct.

A protective, caring, loving instinct.

“Hey kid,” Tony’s voice sounded tinny in the suit. When the kid didn’t look up, he shook the boy’s shoulder. The kid looked up, and his eyes widened.

“I’nman?” He sniffled out; eyes still filled with tears.

“Yup, hi buddy, come here,” Tony said awkwardly and reached his arms out and plucked the kid off the body.

“Cold!!” The boy cried out. Tony realized he must be talking about the suit, so he set the boy down on the couch, who started to cry harder now that he was alone on the couch, then Tony stepped out of the suit. He quickly picked the boy back up, instinctively holding him close, and walked him away from the body. Tony was surprised when the kid wrapped his arms around him and put his face into Tony’s neck. Tony held the boy’s head there as he continued to cry. Tony hoped that by cradling him like this, he could keep the boy from seeing his uncle’s body again. He went and opened the door next to the couch, and was glad to find a bedroom. At least here he could keep the kid away from the dead body. He felt strangely natural holding the kid as he continued to cry. Tony did his best to rock the kid, thinking that the movement could be soothing. Tony looked around the bedroom and saw more pictures of the man and his wife.

He almost dropped the kid when he saw pictures of his own wife.

He walked up and examined them closer. In every single photo, she was holding a kid. This kid. The kid currently in his arms.

“Hey kiddo,” Tony shook the boy to get him to lift his face up. Tony picked up a picture of his wife. In the picture, the boy had chocolate all over his face and was sitting in Pepper’s lap. His wife smiling into the camera with her cheek pressed up against the boy’s cheek. “Who is this?”

“Mommy.” He sniffled out.

“That’s your mommy?” Tony asked again, dumbfounded.

“Uh-huh,”

“This woman right there?” Tony used his thumb to point out Pepper.

“Mommy,” Peter confirmed. Tony was still completely in shock.

“And what’s your name?” Tony set the photo back down and sat on the edge of the bed, holding the kid a little tighter.

“Peter!” The boy looked at him as if it was so obvious that Tony should have known. Tony was surprised that Peter wasn’t crying anymore, but he figured the kid had a short attention span… just like Tony.

“Right… And what about daddy?” Tony asked. Was this his son? Tony examined the kid's face and knew the answer immediately. Those big brown Bambi eyes reminded Tony of the eyes he saw when he looked in the mirror every morning. He realized this kid had to be under 2, yet he was answering questions. So this kid was a genius too. Like father like son.

He didn’t just see and hear similarities; he could feel it. Deep down he already knew the truth. The boy he was holding was his son.

“I dunno” Peter shrugged and put his head back down on Tony’s shoulder. Peter felt safe in Ironman’s arms. Real Ironman was much bigger and warmer than his stuffy.

“Where’s Mommy now?” Tony asked.

“Mommy work,” Peter said with a hint of sadness. But immediately after, he yawned, feeling an overwhelming sense of exhaustion. Unbeknownst to Tony, it was past the kid’s naptime. Peter wiggled in Tony’s arms, looking for a more comfortable position.

“You tired Pete?” Tony wondered, shifting the boy in his arms to make him more comfortable.

Peter nodded against Tony’s neck.

“Close your eyes,” Tony rubbed his boy’s back in slow soothing circles.

“Scared,” Peter whispered out, his eyes started to fill with tears. As he started to remember the confusing and scary thing that happened to his uncle, he began to shake.

“Shhh shhh shh,” Tony tried to soothe and began to run his fingers through Peter’s hair. “I’m Ironman, I’ll protect you.” Tony could feel the little arms wrap around his neck, with fists grabbing the back of his shirt.

“Promise?” The boy whispered.

“Always.”

--
Tony held Peter securely for a long time. He felt the boy’s breathing even out against his neck, and he pressed a kiss to the boy’s temple.

Where did that come from? Tony was shocked by his soft behavior. He, a mobster, was kissing a toddler’s head. But it felt so right. Instinctive. This was his son; he was basically sure of it. But he had a feeling he knew a certain redhead who he could confirm the paternity for him.

Tony gently stood up, trying not to jostle Peter. He walked back out into the living room to find Nat, Rhodey, Happy, and a few men from his crew there. Tony looked around, and Ben’s body as well as the ashes of Hammer and his men were already gone. His crew had heavy-duty cleaning supplies, the kind they would usually use for serious jobs.

“Where the man? Is he…” Rhodey cut Tony off but didn’t look up from where he was still wiping blood from the floor.

“He was already dead when we got here. We tried to save him but there was nothing we could do” Rhodey said solemnly and continued scrubbing. The Starks had a rule as did most families. Leave civilians out of the bloodshed. Yet that asshole Hammer didn’t seem to have the same morals. At least he paid dearly. While killing a rival mobster could start a war, no other mob would question Tony’s actions to protect a child. Especially if the child was his.

“I called them as soon as I got here and saw the car,” Nat commented quietly, noticing the boy was asleep in his arms. Rhodey and Happy finally looked up at their boss.

“Um is that a kid?” Rhodey asked confused.

“Yea same question,” Happy added quickly.

“That’s Peter isn’t it?” Nat asked. Tony turned to her with a raised eyebrow.

“I tried to tell you over a year ago, but this one pushed me out of your office.” Nat pointed to Rhodey, who put his hands up in surrender with a confused look on his face. “It’s taken me all this time to track them down. I just got the address last week.”

In reality, she had known for longer, but she knew if she told him the truth, she was a dead woman. So she lied. She knew she would have to keep lying. Not just for herself, but for Pepper. For Peter. The less she revealed, the better.

“You should have told me,” Tony whispered, trying not to lose his temper. He couldn’t, not when he was holding a sleeping boy. He could yell at Nat later. He paused only for a second as he looked down at the boy in his arms. “So, he’s mine?”

“Yea. He is.” Nat revealed the biggest part of the secret that had been plaguing her for the past year. Tony closed his eyes, inhaled deeply as he hugged his son just a little tighter. “He was born on August 10th.”

Tony did the math in his head. 9 months after his honeymoon, his son was born. And he missed it. And he missed so much more. It made him sad to think about it. He missed so much of his baby’s life; he wouldn’t miss anymore. He promised himself that. And he would do everything in his power to ensure that.

“Holy shit, I took her to a doctor a few weeks before she disappeared” Happy choked on his own words.

“I’ve been trying to tell you this. But,” Nat paused, and sighed heavily, “Pepper really wanted to give him a normal life and- and I didn’t know how to tell you.”

“You found Pepper,” Rhodey gawked.

“Normal? That’s not really possible as you can see here,” Tony ignored Happy and Rhodey’s comments. Tony’s eyes gestured around the room which was completely destroyed.

“I know it’s not,” Nat said solemnly, “that’s why I came here today to try to convince her to come back.”

Liar, Liar, Liar. Nat’s mind screamed it over and over again, but she kept going.

“I have no idea how Hammer found out about her.”

“Where is she?” Happy wondered looking around.

“Work,” Tony said, “at least that’s what he says.” Tony glanced down to check he was still asleep. He still couldn’t believe he was holding his son.

“When will she be back?” Rhodey asked.

“I’m not sure,” Tony stated, his expression cold. “But I’ll be here to take her home.”