Found

The sun pouring into through the windows woke him and he didn’t feel the need to shy away from it like he had for the last decade of his life from various hangovers. Instead he basked in the warmth that spread over the silk sheets and reached absently toward the other side of the bed.

But it was empty.

Slowly opening his eyes, he frowned. Another part of his life that had changed in the last year; he hated waking up to an empty bed. Before this he wouldn’t even allow his “guests” to sleep in his bed. Their business was always done in a guest room and Tony would leave them there to return to his own room.

His room was his own private space. A space he did not want anyone to invade. A space that he now shared with Pepper.

That was more surprising to as it was to anyone else. Never did he think that he would be in a relationship, much less one that could probably be considered healthy. He didn’t drink like he used to anymore, he gave up the pills and the playboy act, instead he was just Tony and that was enough for both of them.

Sure, they had their fights. He would spend too much time tinkering, blow off board meetings and his responsibilities at SI, never sleep enough, but she was happy with him still. She loved him. He loved her. Oh, God, did he love her.

“Pep?” he called, his voice husky from sleep as he tossed the sheet off. He could hear her movement in the adjoining bathroom. She must have been getting ready for some meeting that she knew he had no interest in. Smiling to himself, he decided he’d join her.

Taking lazy steps across the floor, eyes half closed still from sleep, he nearly crashed into her as the door slid open. Catching her by her elbows, he noticed her shoulders shaking and her breathing erratic.

“Pepper, honey?” his heart plummeted as she choked on a sob and pressed her face into his chest. He had seen her cry before, but never like this. At her own mother’s funeral the year before she stood composed and shed only a few tears. “Pepper, what’s wrong?”

She let out another sob as it seemed to take all the power she had to look up at him. “Tony,” she lifted her hand, revealing a plastic stick. “I’m pregnant.”

Once the shock wore off, the excitement set it. It seemed simple enough. Tony loved Pepper and there was absolutely no way she would let him turn into a father like his own father. She was too important and just the feeling of how much he loved their baby growing inside her told him that there was no chance of him being cold and detached like his father before him.

Twelve weeks and it was their first ultrasound. He had heard the baby’s heartbeat already and had he not been sitting down he may have fainted. It was all overwhelming but in a way that was not at all bad.

“And we can tell people after today,” Tony stated suddenly coming out of his thoughts checking his watch for the dozenth time.

Absolutely no work was getting done. He had sat at his desk since he arrived, screening phone calls and watching the clock. The only partially productive thing he had done change his desktop background to a more recent image of him and Pepper. According to Pepper that was not actually productive in the least.

The appointment wasn’t until eleven. How was he going to make it another hour when he was already bouncing in his seat?

The pointed look Pepper gave him was one of exhaustion and fondness. “No. We can tell Rhodey and Happy. We’re not just telling anyone. The last thing I want is the press getting word of a Stark heir growing inside your assistant.”

The last words came out with distaste that made Tony frown at her. He knew that she was thinking of it from a PR stand point but hated when she said such things about herself. They had worked together for two years, been together for a year, but it was enough for both of them to know that these were not passing feelings.

He pulled her off the corner of his desk and into his lap, grinning at her squeal of surprise.

“We could get married. That way the Stark heir is growing in my wife.”

Despite her stern glare, he could see something soft in her gaze. “I don’t think I want to deal with that PR nightmare either. You marrying your pregnant assistant.”

Tony huffed and frowned, looking like a scolded child as he still held her across his lap. Pepper took pity on him, her hand gently caressing his cheek as she smiled down at him softly. “I’m sure I’ll marry you. Just not when I’m pregnant. Not when you ask as the most unromantic suggestion ever.”

That seemed to brighten him up at least a little as he glanced at the time once again making Pepper groan and move off his lap. “Alright. We will go. Maybe Layla can get us in early since she’s a friend.”

“And I’m a billionaire,” Tony added as he grabbed Pepper’s wrist and jumped toward the door.

“You know, that line is not attractive—will you slow down? I need my bag!”

Doctor Layla Gordon was a tall woman with a dark tan and a head of long dark curls. Before Pepper, Tony would have definitely looked twice, but now he was much too busy looking ever pamphlet they had set out in the examine room.

They were kind enough to get them back to the examine room immediately, but while Pepper answered e-mails he looked over the pamphlets.

Miscarriage and Early Pregnancy Loss
Sudden Infant Death Syndrome
Pre-Eclampsia
Placental Abruptions

Tony felt sick. He hadn’t really thought about all the things that could go wrong until there were literally dozens of little papers in front of him provide how he could lose his wife and baby.

Wait, not his wife. Not his wife, but his significant other (because Pepper detested the word girlfriend). Hell, either way he was going to spend the rest of his life with her and he needed her life to be long. He needed that. He needed Pepper Potts to outlive him. He needed this kid to outlive him by a hundred years.

“Tony?”

Pepper’s voice had him turning to him. Her brows were pulled together in concern. “Are you alright?”

Swallowing thickly, he looked toward Dr. Gordon. “Oh, yeah. Definitely, but uh, why the terrifying wall art?” He gestured toward the reading material.

The expression on Pepper’s face softened as she took his hand in hers. Layla, however, chuckled softly. “You’re not the first father to ask me that and I’m sure you won’t be the last. It’s more for people who have been through these conditions or they are at risk for them. SIDS is always a pamphlet to read up on, however, as we still don’t know a lot about why it happens. However, the rest I would only send home with you if there were extenuating circumstances.”

Her words did seem to put Tony at ease as Pepper gave him a fond smile, her thumb caressing the back of his hand softly.

“But what do you say we get some pictures of this baby Stark?” she motioned for Pepper to move onto the table.

His heart fluttered as he watched Pepper get comfortable and pull up her shirt to reveal her slightly swollen abdomen. It was hardly noticeable but Tony loved how it was just a little rounded now compared to how it used to be completely flat.

Layla spoke as she worked, putting gel on the wand and looking up at the screen. “So today you will get pictures of your baby, as well as get a definitive due date and know how many weeks along you are. Don’t worry, hun, we keep the gel warm here. We aren’t heathens.”

Pepper giggled as she kept her eyes glued to the screen. Tony stood up and moved closer, standing right next to her head as they waited for something to show up that resembled a baby. So far it just looked like static.

“I could tell you not to bother looking until I tell you, but I know you’re just going to stare anyway. It’ll be a minute until I broadcast onto the screen you can see. I got to get a good visual, make sure everything is working well on my end before-“

Layla stopped midsentence effectively ripping both parents’ gazes away from the screen and to the doctor. Oh dear God, we’re getting a pamphlet, Tony immediately though, his heart plummeting to his stomach as Layla seemed to be concentrating exceedingly hard, clicking on the ultrasound machine and moving the wand across Pepper’s belly.

Pepper’s hand found Tony’s, a sure sign that her own anxiety was growing as she watched her doctor and friend work.

It seemed like an eternity when realistically it had probably been less than a minute before Layla looked back at them, turning her whole body toward them with a huge smile. “Well, it seems you’re a bit further along that twelve weeks. Actually, you’re about sixteen weeks which means if you’d like I can tell you the sex today.”

That made both of them light up like a Christmas tree. They had already decided they wanted to know. Tony was not one for surprises and Pepper always like to be prepared, so knowing the sex was a surprise but a grand one.

“Oh yes!” Pepper squeaked, her eyes shining with tears as she glanced up to Tony. “We would love to know.”

Layla smiled and looked back at the monitor. “Well, it’s easy to say Baby A is a boy.”

Tony burst out into a joyous laugh. “I knew it! I knew it would be a boy!” He leaned closer to Pepper’s stomach, talking to it. “I knew you were a boy.” Pepper was laughing joyously at him as they slowly came to realize what else Layla had said.

“Baby…A?” Pepper gave her friend a hesitant look as Layla took the opportunity to flip on the screen for them both to see the image of two babies. Two. Their heads right next to one another as they laid parallel.

For a moment, Pepper and Tony just stared. Watching at the little babies laid there in black and white grainy imaging. The baby on top stretched its little legs and wiggled, immediately making the baby below it wiggle.

“Your little boy is this one,” she pointed to the baby on the bottom who was recently disturbed by his sibling. “And this is your little girl.” Pepper choked on a sob as she continued to stare at the screen, clutching Tony’s hand to her cheek. “Congrats, Mom and Dad. You’re having twins.”

Layla rolled her chair over to the wall of pamphlets and handed one to Tony. Pregnancies of Multiples

Peter James Stark and Penelope Maria Stark were born on a rainy day in April. They were born right at 37 weeks, which Layla had been proud of with Pepper’s slight frame. It was official, they did it. They were parents of twins.

But their lives as parents were cut short when four years later there was an accident.

Everyone in their lives had been vetted. Background checks, credit checks, references, everything that could have been done had been done. No shortcuts when it came to the safety of their children. Yet, somehow it still happened. Somehow someone still got to their children.

Obadiah had insisted both Pepper and Tony needed to be at the dinner. After all it was a formal event for their investors and board members, it was only appropriate that the CEO/owner and his wife were both there to shake hands and smile.

It wasn’t by any means the first time they had left the twins with their part-time nanny. Isabella was a wonderful woman and the children adored her. While Tony and Pepper insisted on doing the majority of the parenting themselves, realistically their jobs required them to have a nanny. They paid her well for discretion and to keep a flexible schedule for them.

They were having a perfectly fine time. The hour was getting late and Tony knew that their obligation to stay was waning. At 11:21 P.M. Tony and Pepper’s phones went off a blaring alarm that meant it was an emergency alert from JARVIS. Their home was on fire.

The home itself was hard to burn with the amount of technology Tony had dumped into it, but there had been a point to the first on the second floor: to cover the security cameras in smoke.

Isabella was found dead from smoke inhalation despite the rather contained fire and the twin four year olds were gone without a trace.

They waited for the ransom demand, ready to pay whatever was asked to get their children back, but nothing came.

At first Tony and Pepper clung to each other for support, then the dove into their separate work letting their missing children become a wedge in their marriage. But when Afghanistan happened they quickly realized that they still needed each other to survive in this world. That this world was cruel and that their love kept them breathing when everything was falling down around them.

Then… ten years almost to the day from when they lost them, they found them again…

Pepper lounged across the sofa. Her pencil skirt and blouse from earlier that day was already discarded and replaced with jeans and a comfy shirt, her hair loose over her shoulders. It was Tuesday, the night they decidedly had off together to just relax and have take out. If they didn’t decide on a day to do nothing, they would only see each other in bed and at work. Their once a week nothingness allowed them to unwind together. It was a tradition for years now suggested to them by their therapist.

Chinese takeout was on the menu tonight, their usual from their usual place, and then probably a movie. It all sounded incredibly mundane but it was very much looked forward to by the both of them. They would cuddle up on the couch, eat, abandon dishes for the morning as they made out like teenagers and stumbled to their bedroom to finish off their evening.

It was predicable but perfect.

Tony handed her the plate as she absently chose a movie that they wouldn’t be paying a lot of attention to.

“How was your day?” she asked her husband, cuddling into his side. He had learned how to eat with her up against him, a fork in one hand and a plate in the other long ago.

“Long, but not bad,” he replied with a smile taking a bite of noodles. “Yours?”

At his age learning manners was simply a lost cause.

Pepper nodded absently. “The same.”

And that was that. After over a decade and a half together silence was comfortable and inviting. They didn’t need to talk to keep the comfort, they just were comfortable.

Pepper didn’t even realize she had dozed off until she heard FRIDAY chime in above her. “Boss, I feel the need to alert you that Protocol has been activated in my system. Happy Hogan is set to arrive in fifteen minutes.”

Protocol Milk Carton?

The speed at which Tony stood up almost had Pepper on the floor. She barely caught herself as she whipped her head around to see Tony opening his laptop on the bar, a look of determination and confusion mixed on his face.

“FRIDAY, are you sure? Where are you getting the information at?” he demanded.

Pepper just continued to stare at him, knowing better than to interrupt the conversation based on his tone.

“Police prescient in Queens, New York, Boss. Finger prints matching Peter James Stark and Penelope Maria Stark were just ran through the system.”

That had Pepper on her feet all but running to Tony’s side. “Penelope and Peter?” she asked, her voice breathless as she watched his fingers work against the keyboard. Knowing her husband he was probably doing something illegal. Hell, he was probably hacked into the FBI database if FRIDAY was able to alert them before the police did that their children’s finger prints were just ran.

“I’m calling Maria Hill,” Pepper said immediately as she grabbed her purse.

“I’ll call Happy. No way we’re waiting until he gets here. We’re leaving now.”

For the second time in a year they were sitting in police station, however the situation was drastically different. Last time everyone had been so kind to them. Two muggers shot and killed their aunt and uncle right in front of them on their way home from the store. They had been scared, devastated, everything in them hurt with an emotional pain they had never felt before. Every officer in there had looked at them with kind eyes, offered them kind words of understanding, patted them on the backs and told them they were going to be okay.

This time there was no kindness.

Peter held tightly onto Penny’s hand as they waited for their social worker, both their right hands tipped with black ink from the printing. No matter how many times Peter opened his mouth to try to explain the situation he could hear the yells of his foster father calling him a liar before they were both dragged out in handcuffs.

Assault. They could go to juvie. That’s what the officer kept telling them on the way to the station. Peter knew Jack wasn’t going to press chargers and send them to juvie, he just wanted them to shut up. One teacher asked Penny too many questions about what was going on at home and Jack Jr overheard.

It only took Jack a couple of drinks to start getting angry at Penny for not being fast enough with dinner. Peter tried to get between them but he was determined. Honestly, Peter didn’t mean to hurt him and he probably didn’t that bad, but one shove made him catch his head on the end of the coffee table. Of course, he had to go and say that Penny was involved too. At least they were together.

“We’re going to be okay,” Penny stated with sheer determination. Her voice was soft so that the officers didn’t hear them. She didn’t want them to start lecturing them again on what sort of lifestyle they were choosing. “We’re going to get through this.”

Peter nodded as he watched a large man in handcuffs get escort past them. Tattoos on his neck and face. What would May and Ben say if they could see them now? At least the officers had been kind enough to take the handcuffs off.

“We’ll probably just get placed somewhere else. Maybe even someplace nicer,” Peter offered, trying to hop on the train of optimism his sister was on.

“Some place with a dog.”

“Some place with heat in our rooms.”

The both chuckled lightly but there was no real humor in it. In a year they had been to four foster homes. Each one worse than the last. The things they had seen, the things that had been done to them. They were already counting down the days until they were eighteen.

Often they discussed just running away and living on their own. But they were fourteen. Sure they were rather unique fourteen year olds but fourteen none the less. They couldn’t likely survive a winter in New York on the street.

“Holy shit, is that Tony Stark?”

Their super hearing had both of them scanning the room at one of the officer’s hushed whispers. Sure enough, they saw the billionaire himself charging into the room looking like he owned the place with Pepper Potts-Stark at his heels. They could have overlooked them at first, after all they weren’t wearing the usual perfectly pressed suits and skirts that they always wore on TV. In fact, Tony Stark wasn’t even wearing his signature sunglasses. Nope, they just looked like normal, regular humans.

“What a day to get arrested,” Penny teased, bumping her brother’s shoulder as they unabashedly stared at the couple arguing with an older balding man. Had the room not been so busy they would have most certainly been eavesdropping.

“Sure, yeah, we may go to juvie but at least we were thirty feet away from Tony Stark for two minutes, right?” Peter scoffed sarcastically giving his sister a glare.

She rolled her eyes at him and glanced back at the couple only to see them now staring back at them. She blinked as she did a quick glance behind her. No, they were definitely looking at them and they were looking at them extremely strangely.

“Peter,” she hissed, kicking him in the side of the leg. “Why are they looking at us?”

Peter’s nose wrinkled as he looked back up at them. Sure enough, Tony and Pepper Stark were looking right at them.

For some reason a fight or flight instinct came over him as he held his sister’s hand tighter. From that distance he could see there were tears in their eyes. They walked right to them, stopping in front of them.

“You’re Peter and Penelope, right?”

Tony frickin’ Stark was talking to them.

“Penny.”

Peter stared at his sister disbelievingly. “Seriously?” he hissed. “Tony Stark is talking to us and you correct him immediately?”

Penny shrugged at like it was no big deal, looking determinedly haughty. “I hate being called Penelope.” She looked at Tony her posture faltering just a bit. “Just so you know, um, sir. It’s Penny, Mr. Stark.”

Much to their surprise Tony and Pepper chuckle at the girl’s antics.

“If she’s Penny, are you Pete?” Tony asked giving Peter a billion dollar smile. A smile that made Peter’s cheeks burn hot.

“Peter is fine- or Pete! R-really whatever is fine, Mr. Stark,” Peter stuttered, not sounding nearly as sure as himself as his sister did.

Tony and Pepper continued to smile at them brightly. “Well, there’s a room back over here that Sargent Wells said we could use to talk, if that’s okay with you two.”

The twins seemed to pull back from them as they looked at each other, seeming to have a quiet conversation between themselves before looking back at the adults.

“We are waiting on our social worker,” Penny told them, the confidence in her voice slipping. “I don’t know if we’re supposed to go anywhere. No offense, sir. We just don’t really need to end up in more trouble.”

Pepper that spoke this time. “Don’t worry. We have a social worker meeting us in there.”

That did make them feel a little better, despite the fact she said a social worker not their social worker.

Pepper couldn’t miss how thin they look, too thin. Their faces sunken in slightly and even though most teenagers wouldn’t be caught dead holding their siblings hand, they wouldn’t let go of each other’s. Peter looked so much like Tony, lanky dark hair and brown eyes, but big and doe-ish, filled with innocence. Penelope, or Penny as she preferred, was her own carbon copy. Everything from her sharp blue eyes to her strawberry blonde hair. Except while Pepper’s had been straight her entire life Penny’s fell in loose curls.

She applauded herself for not immediately bursting into tears at the sight of them. They had no idea who they were and from the conversation with Maria on their drive over, they had a rough life. Their “parents” died in a plane crash when they were five, so shortly after they were taken from them and then they were raised by a paternal uncle and aunt. A year ago they were killed in front of them. Since then they were in foster care.

She was decidedly focused on the fact that her children were alive, in front of her, and pushing past the bad at the moment.

As the door clicked behind them in the conference room, Tony motioned toward a grey haired woman standing at the table seemingly waiting for them. “Penny, Peter, this is Maxine.”

Both kids looked her over and then looked the couple over again before staring at each other. “We don’t understand,” Peter stated slowly, staying planted in the space by the door. “Do you know Mr. Williams or something? Did he send you here?”

Tony looked thoroughly confused as he shook his head. “Who? No, this is-“

But Peter continued, placing a protective hand in front of his sister. “Because he was lying. I swear!”

“Peter!” Penny hissed at him, grabbing his arm that was in front of her and pulling him back slightly. The two children in front of them were starting to look less like kids and more like cage animals.

This time Maxine tried. “Mr. Williams has nothing to do with this situation. The case of the assault-“

“There was no assault!” Penny bit back stepping past her brother. “Mr. Williams lied. He always lies! Peter didn’t do anything wrong.”

They were fiercely protective of one another, that was clear. Whatever all they had been through in the past year probably forced that.

Finally, Pepper stepped up and tried. “It’s alright, sweetheart.” Both teenagers whipped their heads toward her. Their expressions so confused as they seemed to relax slightly at her tone. “I promise, we’re not here about any assault.”

No one had used such a gentle tone with them in, well, since May died. The tone was so comforting and mothering that for a moment they both were drawn to it. Two sets of eyes just stared at the beautiful woman as if she had walked out of a dream they had once but couldn’t quite remember.

Pepper offered Penny a hand. “Please, take a seat.”

The girl looked at her hand for a long moment, then back to the woman’s face before slowly taking it. Pepper’s heart soared as she was able to lead Penny to one of the chairs and encourage her to sit. Peter sat right beside her.

A silence fell over the room as everyone looked toward Maxine to begin. “Peter, Penny, I am a special sort of social worker. I work with the FBI when children are displaced or missing.”

Both kids shifted as they stared at her, their brows furrowed in confusion. It was hard not to watch them as Tony and Pepper took their place across the table.

“Can I show you two some pictures?” Maxine asked her tone compassionate but oozing professionalism.

They nodded cautiously, watching as she pulled out a folder and several old photos on the table in front of them. Tony and Pepper immediately recognized the photos, after all they had provided them. They were the most recent ones they had at the time when the twins were taken.

Penny moved first. Tony had a feeling that was typical. She seemed to be the one to be the one to take initiative while her brother was more laid back.

She picked up a picture of she and Peter sitting on the floor of his lab, DUM-E trying to give them one of their toy hammers and they’re laughing hysterically. Her brow was furrowed as she looked at the picture with great concentration. Realization came across her face as her eyes widened and she dropped the picture, almost slamming it down on the table before grabbing another one.

“What’s wrong?” Peter asked as he more tentatively look. He didn’t bother holding the images, instead kept his hands in his lap and looked at them from their place on the table.

But Penny was already on her third photo, a photo in their bedroom. Peter holding his favorite stuffed animal, a dalmatian dog he named Cookie, while Penny shoved Toodles the bunny toward the camera.

“What the fuck.”

The pictures were dropped as she shoved herself backward, the chair clattering against the tile floor as it fell. Her hands went to her hair as she stumbled over the fallen chair, barely catching herself as everyone else in the room stood.

“Penny?”

“Sweetheart-“

“Kid-“

But her head was racing with memories that she thought she had fabricated. She rushed forward and grabbed the picture she held a moment ago with the stuffed animals. “Look!” she demanded to her brother.

Tony and Pepper’s hearts were racing watching. Did this mean she remembered? Did she remember them? They watched anxiously as Peter too stared at the photo but he didn’t seem to get the same emotional reaction.

“They kinda look like we did,” he stated with a shrug.

But Penny shook her head. “No, those are us,” Penny demanded making Tony and Pepper’s heads swim. “Cookie, remember? He smelled like vanilla and Toodles smelled like cinnamon. We took them everywhere. Holy fuck. Why do I remember this?”

Penny grabbed her head again and moved aimlessly. She seemed to be having some sort of breakdown but at the same time was piecing together parts of her life. “Peter, that’s us. That is us and they-“ She motioned toward Tony and Pepper. Her surety faltered, her shoulders slumped as she seemed to be too afraid to admit the complete ridiculousness of the situation.

“They,” Peter stated his tone slightly concerned for his sister’s wellbeing, “are the Starks.” He said it like she didn’t already know that and please needed to quit embarrassing them both.

Tony decided to step in. He took photo Penny had and held in on the table between all of them. “These two kids are Pepper’s and my twins. When they were four, they were taken from our home in Malibu. Their names were Peter James and Penelope Maria.” That alone had Peter speechless, staring at the billionaire a little afraid to breathe. Tony continued. “We searched for years, but never found our kids until less than half an hour ago I got a notification that there was a match for their fingerprints.”

Peter flexed his right hand were the ink was still there. Surely this wasn’t real. Surely this was all some big mistake. This was actually a dream and he was about to wake up and be back in his crummy bed at Jack’s house.

“Your fingerprints.”

Peter and Penny looked at each other, a million different emotions running through them as they stared at the two people in front of them.

“We’re your kids?” Peter asked still reeling.

Pepper nodded, the tears she had been holding back better than anyone could have finally started to spill. “Yes.”

“Better question, does that mean you want us?” Penny asked her tone attempting to be strong but there was a break in there that showed her fear.

Tony let out a watery chuckle. “You bet your ass we do.”

In that moment, things changed. Everything changed.