The Backup

2016

Three.

Two.

One.

"He-ey, May. My gosh--uh, I wanted to tell you what an incredible job your nephew did this weekend at the Stark Internship Retreat. Everyone was impressed." Tony looked at Peter through the video, looking solemnly at the tight-lipped smile and wide eyes that screamed 'I can't lie!' God only knows how this kid managed to keep his identity a secret, even if it had only been a handful of months since getting his powers.

The mission hadn't gone the way he had wanted. His goal hadn't been to burn down the Avengers from the very core. For Natasha to choose Steve and Bucky. For Clint, Sam, and Wanda to get tied up and shipped off to the Raft. For Peter to go crazy.

A loud car horn made the two in the backseat jump. Happy yelled, deep in his New York road rage, "Come on! It's a freaking merge." With a quick glance over his shoulder, he added, "I'm sorry."

I should've driven, he thought in dismay, and quickly told Happy, "This is because you're not on Queens Boulevard." He turned back to Peter's alibi video. "See, Happy is - is hoping to get bumped up to asset management. He was forehead of security, and before that, he was just a driver."

Still driving, Happy looked back at him over his shoulder, face slack in exasperation. "That was a private conversation. I don't like joking about this. It was hard for me to talk to you about that."

Tony asked Peter, "No, seriously, was he snoring a bunch?"

He slammed on the brakes, bringing the car to an abrupt stop. Peter's body gave into the pull, pushing against his seatbelt before getting thrown back into the seat. "All right. Here we are. End of the line - whoops."

He laughed, sparing a glance at the teenager beside him. He asked, seriously, "Happy, can you give us a moment?"

Having been given some time to think back on things...He felt a bit of regret. Steve had told him that going after Bucky would be horrible payback, leaving Peter without a parent just as the Winter Soldier had done to him. But he had still blasted off his arm, leaving his face beaten so bloody that his hair was slick with it. Full intention to kill, avenge his strangled mother left as a pawn in a staged car accident. 

It wasn't the guy's fault. Just like it wouldn't have really been his fault, if he had built that missile all those years ago. But the guilt said otherwise, and he had seen the guilt on that soldier's face. His tear-filled eyes had told him all he needed to know, and he hadn't paid any mind to it.

And when he looked at Peter, waking up in a strange place, last remembering getting hit by Giant-Ant-Man, his heart had skipped a beat. He could've killed one of the only people this kid had on his side. He had gotten the note Natasha left for him, and he was indirectly promising her that he wouldn't leave the kid alone. He had a rough life, gotten a tough break, and deserved more than he was being given. And probably still working for Hydra, and not even knowing it? Well, someone had to do something about it, while his parents - who were the most qualified - were gone.

Tone dripping with disbelief, he asked, "You want me to leave the car?"

Giving him a look, he suggested, "Why don't you grab Peter's case out of the trunk."

Peter's face went slack, eyes widening with shock. The hand holding the phone dropped down, so he could look at him properly - and to end the video, so talking about Spiderman wasn't included.

"I can keep the suit?" he asked in a small voice, unable to believe it. Tony couldn't blame him. Going from a sweatsuit to a multi-million dollar setup? And being able to keep it? It must mean a lot to him.

To stay simple, Tony said, gesturing to Happy as he gpt out of the car, "Yes, we were just talking about it." Peter was stunned into silence, and Tony cleared his throat, putting the sunglasses back on to hide his black eye. Cap's little parting gift. "Do me a favor, though. Happy's kind of your point guy on this. Don't stress him out. Don't do anything stupid. I've seen his cardiogram. All right?"

Nodding his head, he said gratefully and very enthusiastically, trying to prove that this decision was worthwhile, "Yes."

He didn't hesitate to set down the ground rules. This kid was smart, but he was a kid, and Tony had to keep him safe the best he could. "Don't do anything I would do, and definitely don't do anything I wouldn't do. There's a..." he made a little circling gesture, "there's a little grey area in there, and that's where you operate."

"Wait, does that mean that I'm an Avenger?"

"No," he said, nipping it in the bud. Not yet.

They were both distracted by Happy knocking on Peter's window. Tony cocked his head as Peter turned around, the two of them looking at him. He asked, holding up the case, "This it?"

"Seventh floor," Tony confirmed.

Peter immediately shook his head and insisted through the window, "I can take that. You don't have to take it."

"You're gonna take it?" Happy asked, a little surprised.

Nodding, he assured, "Yeah, I can take that."

"Thank you." Happy immediately dropped the case, not even reacting when it clattered against the road. He moved to stand by the driver's door, ready to get back in whenever Peter got out.

But that moment was yet to come. The kid turned back around to face Tony, and asked with an eager expression and tone, "So when's, when's our next...When's our next 'retreat,'" He made little air quotations. "You know? Like..."

"What, next mission?"

"Yeah, the mission. The missions."

After a moment, Tony assured him, "We'll call you."

"Do you have my numbers?"

"No, I mean, we'll call you. Like, someone will call you."

"Oh."

One of Tony's eyebrows quirked up, in question. "All right?"

"From your team."

He inclined his head. "Okay." He reached past the kid to open the car door, but Peter misunderstood the motion and hesitantly put his arms around him, setting his chin on his shoulder. Tony let him have the contact for a moment, before he pushed open the door and moved away, speaking shortly, "It's not a hug. I'm just grabbing the door for you. We're not there yet."

As Peter made an awkward leave, Happy got back in the car. Tony managed to say, "Bye," just before Peter's door slammed shut. They waited until the boy was on the curb in front of his apartment building, before pulling away. Happy pressed down a little too hard on the gas, propelling them forward at a shocking rate. He eased up on it, and said, "Sorry. I just can't wrap my head around this. Romanoff actually felt something other than judgement?"

At one point, Tony could have laughed. Or at least smiled.

But Happy hadn't seen everything.

||||||||||

The last thing Peter remembered was hitting the concrete in the airport, before waking up in a med lab at the Avengers Compound. He remembered a blurry image of the Black Widow and the King, looking at him with sad eyes and speaking in hushed tones before leaving. Colonel Rhodes had come in for a moment, walking on crutches and sitting down beside him, checking up with him. When Peter had asked what happened, the answer the Colonel had given him wasn't one Peter really believed. But it was possible, so he couldn't say a thing.

He just had a feeling he couldn't shake, that something had happened that he didn't know about. Or just couldn't remember.

Upon entering the apartment, May corralled him to sit on his bed. She was surprisingly calm about the whole thing, seeming collected even though he knew she had to be worried.

He hated lying to her, but he knew that he didn't have a choice. After everything she's been through, losing Uncle Ben...he couldn't tell her that he put himself at risk every single day. He lived a reckless life, but at this point he couldn't imagine himself not ever having Spiderman. The suit gave him options, acted as a doorway to the unknown.

Probably from the kitchen or bathroom, May called to him in his bedroom, sitting on his bed, "So. Who was it? Who hit you?"

Preoccupied with picking at the band around his wrist, he absently replied, "Some guy." Then, under his breath, "So itchy, man. God."

"What's 'some guy's' name?

He immediately panicked a little. Say a name. Just any name. Rob. Bob. But the name to come out of his mouth didn't end with B; "Uh, Steve." He immediately winced, cursing himself as he continued to fiddle with the wristband.

"Steve? From 12-C? With the overbite?"

He balked, exclaiming, "No, no, no - you don't know him, he's from Brooklyn."

Okay, so Peter sucked a lying. He just had to live with that.

The band suddenly spewed a bright red laser. Before he could look up, the door creaked, and he hugged his wrist against his chest. Looking at his aunt like a deer in headlights, he said, minutely, "Ouch."

Aunt May sat down on the bed in front of him. She cocked her head to the side, long hair spilling over her shoulder, "Well, I hope you got a few good licks in."

"Yeah, I got quite a few in, actually." Remembering the Ant guy, he added, good-humoredly, "His friend was huge. Like, huge." He stopped talking, happily taking the ice that May was offering him. He put it to his bruise, and said in relief, "That's way better. Thank you."

"Okay, tough guy." She sent a bright, wide smile his way before getting up to leave the room.

"Love you, May...Hey, can you shut the door?" She did without complaint, and Peter took his wrist from his shoulder. He shined the red laser on his ceiling, a grin splitting his face as he looked at the Spiderman image alight on the plaster.

||||||||||

At last, they were given time, he could afford to linger and worship her like she had always deserved - he folded their slanted mouths together for the first time since before their son was born. But, unlike then, their bodies and minds were their own. There were no limitations, nothing to keep them from running palms over arms and fingertips over cheekbones, from entwining their fingers together and smiling into soft, passionate kisses.

So he did just that, held her close. Even if he couldn't remember it, he had wanted this for so long. He was going to celebrate their reunion, even if it would be short-lived.

They broke their kiss and Natalia leaned back in his one-armed embrace, just enough for them to look into each other's eyes. Before he could say anything, she whispered, "I got to see him."

Bucky ran his thumb over her oblique, reveling in the fact that she was in his reach, and that there was nothing tearing her away. "How is he?" he asked, guilt seeping through his blood. He and Steve had given him to T'Challa to take back to the Compound, and everything in Bucky had not wanted to let him go. They'd been apart for too long, he was there, he could help him -

He couldn't help him, until he helped himself.

"He was set up in the med lab. He's back to his programming, no longer in and out of reality. The king told me what happened."

Bucky glanced down, pursing his lips. "I had to do it."

She brought her hand to his cheek, stroking her thumb over his cheek before letting it drop down, judging at his jaw before slipping over his jugular. She said, voice a little strained, "I know." She inhaled sharply, changing topics as she removed those strong emotions from the front of her mind; "The king said that they're going to fix your programming?" 

Bucky nodded a few times, shortly. "Wakanda has very...advanced technology. Past any other country. He believes that the scientists and medics will be able to remove what makes me him, and help me come back to myself." he paused, swiping his tongue over his bottom lip. "I want to get better. I want to be safe for Peter to be around, so I can actually be his father. I did my best, all those years, but I failed him."

Her face fell. "You didn't -"

"I did," he interrupted her, defeatedly. "I left him behind. I was going to go back, but they did whatever the hell they did to him before I could. They gave him fake memories, a fake family, a new mission, because we weren't there for him."

Natalia was silent for too long. For a time that made Bucky's stomach sink, because that silence meant that she knew he was right.

"If we had escaped..." he began to whisper, but was unable to finish the thought.

With a face made of stone, an expression he knew all too well, she echoed, "If we had escaped."