Chapter 13
Soon after breakfast, Pepper called. Tony had a certain wrong tone for her, a soft piece form the piano that they had -attempted- to play together on their first official date. It was one of his favorite sounds, following up in Harley and Peter’s laughs.
He finished using a baby wipe to clean off Peter’s incredibly sticky hands before he answered, on his phone rather than through F.R.I.D.A.Y. since he had seen the incoming call as being rather personal.
Harley gave him a quick glance as Tony was leaving the room, bringing his phone to his ear.
“Ms. Pott, what a pleasure.” He greeted, going back to his bedroom so he could prepare himself for the day as he spoke.
“Not the time, Tony.” She scolded. “I just got notice that the court time was moved up to eleven tomorrow morning.”
“That's good news, right?” Tony asked, shuffling through his drawers for a comfortable shirt. He didn’t see why an earlier time slot would be anything but good, the sooner they were in and out of that courthouse the better.
“I suppose.” Pepper sighed. “But it also means less time to prepare and when the judge moves your time up, it can mean one of two things.” She warns.
“Let me guess,” Tony says, “one of these things is bad?” Of course it was bad, there’s always something bad.
“Well, it could be as harmless as another case was canceled or moved to a later date and therefore ours was moved up.” She said.
“Or…..” Tony pushed.
“Or it could mean that the judge had already made up their mind and simply wants to get the case over with. Which, could be good or bad unless Vivian requested an earlier time hoping to catch us off guard and the judge took her side and agreed.” She rushed, saying faster almost in good that speed would decrease Tony’s chances of hearing.
“That’s one of three things, Pep.” Tony sighed, running a hand through his hair. “Two of which are bad.”
“I was trying to be optimistic.” She said, annoyed. Tony had to give her that one, this was a difficult situation to be optimistic, and Pepper was doing a pretty damn great job. Especially when Tony wasn’t making it any easier for her.
“What can we do?” Tony asked.
“Besides being as prepared as possible and making sure the boys are one hundred percent one board? Nothing.” She sighed before continuing. “But I wasn’t calling just because of that, I wanted to check the email I just sent to your laptop. I checked the coffee shops surveillance Tony, there’s an issue with it.”
Immediate alarm bells begin in Tony, issues? What kind of issues?
“What issues are we talking about, Pep?” He asked as he pulled his laptop from his nightstand and logged in. He sat on the bed, covers still messed up from him and Peter sleeping there.
“It’s been tampered with, it must have been by Vivian but we don’t have any evidence to prove that.” She said. Sure enough, as Tony opened his email and clicked on the attached file, the video feed plays but the audio cuts out just moments after Tony and Vivian shake hands.
“What about the traffic cams?” Tony asked, remembering how their conversation continued outside the shop. The more important things had been said there anyway. “Or does the shop have any store front cameras?” He asked hopefully.
“The only visual surveillance in the beanery is the one your looking at right now.” Pepper confirms. “I checked the traffic camera already, you guys are barely in the frame and your conversation can’t be heard over the traffic.”
Tony groans, resting his head in his hands and gripping his hair. This is not good. Without the audio they won’t have any proof that Vivian actually said what she said.
“What about the boys?” He asked, hopeful again. “They came around near the end, if they overheard, could they be witnesses?”
“It’s not that kind of trial, Tony.” Pepper informed. “We’re not attempting to put anyone away. Besides, they’re both too young to have their words taken seriously.”
“So what does this mean?” Tony asked.
“That we don’t have any evidence.” Pepper said. “And that you better be god damn sure these kids our on their puppy dog eyes.”
Well fuck.
***
Bringing previously abused children to a suit fitting was not an event Tony ever wanted to live through again.
They arrived at their appointment a good fifteen minutes after the scheduled time, not as if that was something new for Tony, but were able to be helped immediately. It wasn’t until the boys were finally changed into the correct attire and placed upon the raised platforms, that Tony realized that Peter and Harley had absolutely no idea what a suit fitting was.
Harley had gone first, standing stiff and ramrod straight, so much so that if Tony hadn’t known better, he would have assumed the boys spine had been surgically fused. It was obvious that Harley was extremely uncomfortable with strangers in such close proximity to his… well, everything.
Still, even in his extreme discomfort, the kid didn’t complain. It was fascinating to Tony, really to see how much Harley absolutely contrasted with the mommy blogs. All those warnings about the dangers of adopting kids in puberty and ‘teen rebellion’ didn’t seem to apply to Harley. The kid was so complacent it almost worried Tony. Still, the man didn’t say anything, he didn’t think that he should be complaining.
For the first ten or fifteen minutes Harley space was pinched and the boy was near tears. After that, after he pushed through the first really uncomfortable bit, he seemed to calm down. Or, Tony hoped he was calming down and not just cooling his expression.
Nevertheless, the process ended rather painlessly. Which was a Godsend considering that when Peter's turn came along, all hell broke loose.
Apparently, the kid hadn’t been paying enough attention and was completely unaware that he would have to go through the exact same procedure that his big brother had just endured. Peter was completely fine watching and was calm and collected as Tony led him to the pedestal. It was when Tony tried to leave and the tailor approached that the toddler began to scream bloody murder.
It was pretty out of the blue and shocked Tony to his core, he had never heard a child scream like that and never Peter. The boy was emitting loud, ear splitting, heart wrenching sobs. As if his safety was being seriously threatened, or his life. In all fairness, the toddler probably thought that to be the case. Tony should have been more considerate of his past.
Harley jumped into action immediately, switching to big brother mode at a moments notice. He surged forward, and would have barreled over the tailor if the poor worker hadn’t been quick to move out of the way.
“Peter.” He said, taking the screaming boy into his arms, seemingly unbothered by the sound. “Peter, bud.” Harley soothed. “It’s okay, your okay. I’m right here, I’ve got you.”
Peter stilled screamed, if a little quieter, as he held onto Harley with a death grip.
“Breath Peter, breath.” He calmed again, rubbing soothing circles on the boys tiny back. “I’m sorry, you won’t have to do that again.” He shit Tony a glee at this, a look of warning. As if to say: try and make him do it again and we’ll see what happens. It made Tony proud to see Harley’s protectiveness, if a bit angry that the kid was looking that way at his dad.
Peter’s crying slowed down to hiccups and sniffles before his breathing became more labored again and he erupted into harsh coughs. Harley bounces the boy, shushing him and reaching in his pocket to retrieve something, supposedly a toy to cheer the boy up. It wasn’t, but instead an inhaler and an old soother that looked like it was older than Peter himself. Tony hoped it was clean, though Peter didn't seem to mind and accepted it eagerly.
It was odd, since Harley had been complaining about Peters thumb sucking habit not two nights before. He supposed there were lines you were more willing to cross when there was a screaming toddler involved.
It was annoying though, that it was Harley, the barely rene brother who was prepared for the breakdown and not to the soon to be -and much older- father.
Still, as he wrapped up the appointment -if a little embarrassingly- and paid quite a bit more than just the price of Harley’s fitting, Tony couldn’t help but to steal glances at the…. no, his kids. Peter had his head rested upon Harley shoulder, finally calming down and starting to submit to exhaustion while Harley continued to sway with the boy in his arms, despite the teens own small nature.
If he kept it up, Harley was going to gain muscles from carrying that kid around. Not like he should always be carrying the kid around. It was cute and all, but that was a job for a parent, not a big brother. Besides, Peter was probably developing an even more severe form of separation anxiety than he had before on top of the bad co-sleeping habit Tony had started and now the soother… Perhaps Tony should look into hiring some help.
-The appointment was cut short- Tony texted Pepper as the three left and piled into Happy’s preferred car. No one had spoken yet, a tense silence spread throughout the vehicle.
He hadn’t said anything about Peter’s, somewhat warranted, freak out or the fact that the boy was leaving without so much as even a tie. There would be room for that later. Tony didn’t want to draw attention to an event that couldn’t have been prevented.
He still felt terrible, as if it was his fault Pete had been so terrified by the process. He should have thought about that before hand, considered the kids’ pasts before taking them to something intimate and nerve racking as a suit fitting with complete strangers. How many times had he been going to these all throughout his childhood and well into adulthood? He knew exactly what a fitting entailed.
Harley was probably mad at him now, maybe furious or wary. Perhaps Tony had just set them back to square one and on the day before their court date…
What if Peter didn’t want to be adopted anymore?