Chapter 14
The courthouse was quiet, eerily quiet. It was ten minutes until the start of their hearing, hearts were beating fast and the coolness of the oncoming autumn was doing nothing to ease Tony’s stress induced sweat. It had been foggy that moring, chilly and the sky was threatening to pour rain down onto grimmy Manhattan. The dreariness of the day did nothing to heighten Tony’s hope.
The boys had been quiet and distant since the previous days suit fitting, something that severely worried Tony. If there was a chance that Peter no longer wanted to be adopted, he would have to go with Vivian, someone who had no place in her home or her heart for a boy as special and deserving as Peter. For someone as small and innocent as that young boy Tony had come to love. Failure to adopt Peter would also result in separating the boys, something that would be Tony’s fault, since he had so abruptly adopted Harley and then proceeded to deter Peter.
‘He hasn’t said he doesn’t want to be adopted.’ Tony had to remind himself. ‘At least he hadn’t yet.’
It was hard for him to stop thinking negatively.
Pepper had shown up, as promised, and was sitting in the front row. Even with both Tony and Pepper on the job, the two hadn’t been able to find any evidence to prove that Vivian had tampered with the surveillance. Although, there was no doubt in Tony’s mind that she had. Still, without the evidence, there was nothing that could be done about proving that she had harassed him and attempted to seduce him before practically threatening the man.
It was infuriating but, as Pepper had so helpfully said; there was nothing that could be done to change reality.
There was a small crowd for an audience besides Pepper, Tony’s closer friends, like Rhodey and Happy and some of Vivian’s stuck up supporters, all of which looked just as nasty and two faced as the woman herself. Peter’s social worker, Bill, was there as well, this being the first time that Tony had met the surprisingly tolerable man. He was young, obviously inexperienced, but it seemed to Tony that the man actually did have Peters best interest at heart. Apparently the situation regarding Peter being pulled from the boys home had been the home’s workers blindsighted the man, and he hadn’t any idea of their true intentions. The man was very different than Harley’s social worker had been.
As the clock ticked closer to the golden hour, Tony began to feel impossibly more and more nervous. He was doubting himself now, spiraling. If, God forbid, he lost against Vivian, he would have to live with himself knowing that Peter was suffering the neglectful hands of that horrid creature. If he were being honest, Tony wasn’t sure if he would be able to live with himself.
He would still have Harely then too. He would have to wake up every morning and see the face of a lost boy who he had failed. He would have to look at Peter too, since the resemblance between the boys was clearly visible. Losing Peter wouldn’t just be like losing a small orphaned toddler that he had met not a week ago, losing Peter would be like losing a son, like losing a part of Tony himself.
Tony took a deep breath to try and calm his racing heart. ‘Things would be alright’, he tried to tell himself. After all, there was no way the judge could be as blind as to let Peter leave with Vivian. Tony couldn’t understand how it was possible for anyone to be that blind.
Judge Harrison proved him wrong.
“I understand that for the past week, Peter Parker had been in your care, Mr. Stark? Even though the state placed him under the guardianship of Ms. Waters?” Harrison asked, eyes narrowed accusingly.
“Yes, your honor. Only after Harley paid Ms. Waters a visit and saw her neglect for Peter.”
“And Mr. Stark, is it true that you took the boy into your home for a week without the proper paperwork allowing you to do so?” The judge asked, Vivians lips quirked upwards.
“Yes, you honor. But Ms. Waters and I had a verbal agreement that Peter was to be in my care until the trial.”
“Can you or Ms. Waters provide any evidence of this agreement?” Harrison asked. “Perhaps an audio recording?” Tony’s heart fell, he had been hoping the judge would have just taken his word.
“No, your honor.” Tony sighed. He knew he had violated a major law, that Vivian’s denial of their verbal truce would demolish his chances of adopting Peter and could possibly even send him to jail.
“And are you aware of the repercussions for the multiple crimes you have committed?” Harrison asked. Tony stayed silent, the irrational part of his brain thinking that perhaps, if he stayed silent for long enough, the judge would forget about the matter and call the entire hearing off.
“Mr. Judge, sir?” Cut a tiny voice through the dense silence. Peter. The boy had hopped down from his seat to stand in front of the stand. He clenched his bear tightly in his arms.
“Go back to your seat, bambino.” Tony pleaded, hoping that Peter’s interruption wouldn’t make matters any worse.
“But-”
“Now, please.” Tony said again, a little more firmly this time. Peter nodded, head dipped to the floor pathetically as he dragged his feet back to Harley. Tony raised his head to face the judge once more when a scratchy audio tape filled the courtroom.
“No bed, no boy, Mr. Stark.” Came Vivians sickening sweet voice from inside the bear. ‘Harley’s invention’, Tony thought as he smiled. “Now I’m going to ask you one last time, are you going to give me a special little something in return?”
“No.” Came Tony’s stern answer. “I’m hoping you’ll do the right thing for the kids. For Peter.”
The judges eyes widened with Vivian’s her mouth opening and closing like that of a fish’s.
“W-what.” She stuttered. “That doesn’t prove anything! There’s still no proof of this supposed verbal agreement.” She screeched furiously. “And he had no right to record me without my consent.” She said waving a finger at Peter. The boy rushed back to Harley’s arms.
“No Ms. Waters the judge agreed, still getting over the shock of the new development. “But it does change things a little. Tell me ma'am, where were you at the time of that recording?”
“On the street in front of the coffee shop by central park but I don’t understand how that has any relevance-”
“So you admit to being both on public property and in the view of traffic cameras during that time?”
Vivian paled.
“Yes, your honor.”
“Very well then.”
“I have heard of your concerns about Peter being in Ms. Waters care but, Mr. Stark, do you believe that you could provide for Peter properly?” Judge Harrison asked, eyebrows raised skeptically and critically. Tony nodded immediately.
“Absolutely, money will never be an issue, anything that boy needs he’ll get.” He assured. “And I’ll always be there for him, should he ever need comfort. I would say we’ve done pretty well in that area this past week.” Tony said, glancing at the boys to throw them a small smile. His spirits lifted slightly when he thought he saw Peter smirk back at him.
“And what about a mother figure for the boy? Harrison asked. “Statistics prove children raised in homes with two parental figures struggle less further down the road.” Tony’s nostrils flared with anger at the comment, it wasn’t something the judge had asked Vivian, it was something aimed solely at Tony. He understood the angle of an outsider, someone who remembered Tony’s not so distance playboy years. Still, Tony had changed, and he liked to pride himself on how far he had come with Harley these last however-many months.
“I assure you that Peter would be well cared for with me.” Tony asll but sneered. “And if he should ever need someone besides me to lean on, he has Harley and Pepper, both of whom I’m absolutely positive would be willing to take that position.” The judge starred at Tony a moment, before simply nodding and moving on.
Tony wasn’t very appreciative of the man's skepticism. It's not that judge Harrison was being overly unfair, just a bit sexist and judgmental. If anything, Harrisons hesitation to side with Tony and the boys was aggravating more than anything else.
“Very well then, I believe Mr. Harely Parker wanted to testify?” He asked, turning towards the teen who had been sitting silently in the front row. Tony looked for a script or piece of paper in the boys hands and saw nothing. This must have been a last minute decision.
A decision made after everything that had happened yesterday.
Tony gulped.
Harley rose from his seat and walked to stand in front of the judge. Harrison welcomed him to the stand and let the boy take a seat behind the microphone. The teen wasn’t anxiously wringing his hands, Tony noticed, which meant that whatever Harley was about to say, he wasn’t nervous for.
“Three years ago, a plane crashed into the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.” He began, voice soft but confident. “Peter and I had been at home, left to our own devices while our mother traveled for business with her new boyfriend. At the time, I was glad that they had gone. Mom was always wrapped up in her work as it was and with RIchard around… it only got worse. They were both scientists, working on something new, I don’t quite remember what, and they had to travel to Europe to present their findings to their employer. RIchard hadn’t been the nicest of mom’s romances, abusive even, so I was relieved when they had left but man, when I heard the news, when I heard mom died, everything changed.
I had been left alone with Peter for the week, something pretty regular at the time, and it took CPS two weeks to figure out mom had kids. By the time they got to us we were low on food, worried, and Peter had caught his first round of pneumonia. They took him to the hospital and brought me to an overcrowded, understaffed orphanage. They seperated us on the first night.”
Harley took a deep breath, eyes stinging from the emotional memory. Tony had to restrain himself from moving to comfort the boy.
“Mom wasn’t the best parent out there, she wasn’t around much, if at all and she slept around a lot, but I always knew that there was some small place in her heart for Peter and I. Having her around was like a lock on the back door, a security I had come to take for granted. When mom was around, yes, Peter and I were often alone but we were together and that’s all that ever really seemed to matter.
After they separated Peter and I, we didn’t see each other again until over a year later.” Tony’s eyes widened, that wasn’t something he had known. “During that time I had bounced from abusive home to abusive home and had practically given up hope of ever seeing my little brother again. There was no reason to believe that I would. After all, there hadn’t been any word of him.” Harley lowered his voice, wiping a tear from his eye before whispering: “For all I knew, my baby brother was dead.”
Tony’s heart clenched.
“About fifteen months later,I was put into a boy’s group home in Queens. The kids there weren’t very nice and were mostly older than me. They didn’t want anything to do with me and always brown nosed the workers, except for this one little boy.” Harley said, grinning in Peter’s direction. “There was this little baby, a kid that couldn’t have even been two yet and was already a chatty cathy. The moment I saw his face I knew it was Peter. He was bigger, he had grown a lot and looked a lot more like mom, but I couldn’t have been more sure that it was my little brother.” Harley choked on his tears.
“The boys home was worse than moms neglect had ever been, way worse. Sometimes I thought it was even worse than some of the abusive homes I had been in. The things they did to Peter…. I had started losing hope again, I started to wonder if I would even be able to force myself to make it to eighteen so I could finally make a family for ourselves again. THere was nothing that Peter or I wanted more than to have a family all to ourselves, to have someone else to say ‘goodnight’ and ‘I love you’ to. But still, the days passed and nothing changed. I had given up hope completely when Peter was pulled from the boys home, I thought I had lost him again, perhaps forever this time ...” Harley smirked, laughing before looking up through his bangs, right into the eyes of the billionaire before him. “That was at least, until Tony came along.”
“Ugh, Tony had been so annoyingly persistent after we had first met.” Harley complained, causing Tony’s heart to squeeze in worry. “He wanted me to come work in the lab with him, he had wanted to help me after the fire. After a lifetime of being ignored and tricked, the last thing I wanted to do was trust a near stranger with my life. But I did, because I hoped, by some miracle, that it would lead me to Peter. That maybe this time I could finally find that long lost family member.”
Harley wiped his eyes again, clearing his throat before he continued.
“Turns out, that was the best decision I’ve ever made. Tony’s the fucking best. The way he looks at both Peter and me… its a dream come true. I love you, Tony.”
That was what it took for Tony’s resolve to break. Those three simple words, those magical words, brought all the mans carefully constructed walls tumbling down. The floodgates opened and the genius couldn’t take it a second longer. As the teen was getting up, Tony rushed forward and scooped Harley into his arms, surrounding the boy in an embrace of strong and loving arms.
“I love you too, soldato.” Tony whispered. The Italian word for soldier, a title the boy had definitely deserved.
There was a minute of silence in the courthouse before the crowd behind them erupted with applause and cheers for the scene in front of them. Judge Harrison smiled from his position at the head of the room.
“Well Mr. Stark, Mr. Parker, after everything we’ve heard here today and, In the best interest of the child, I hereby declare Anthony Edward Stark as the new guardian of one Peter Parker.”