Birth
It was evening when Tony and Pepper Stark’s daughter was born. They named her Morgan Peter Stark, her first name after Pepper’s uncle, her middle name after the teen that Tony thought of as a son, not that he’d ever say it. That day was a temporary alliance between the Man of Iron and Captain America. Steve came to see a child born into the world without half the universe. The heroes gathered around Pepper’s hospital bed swore to protect the child. Until their final breaths.
Age 1
It was Morgan’s first birthday. Some heroes sent presents, knowing Tony wouldn’t want to see them. Nebula was quiet the whole time, confused when the others sang happy birthday. But Morgan loved her blue aunt. When Tony let the woman hold onto the baby, after a lot of hesitation from the woman. Morgan liked to feel the metal part around her eye. After awhile, Nebula relaxed and even made her eye pop out for the girl to push in. Morgan was highly amused. Tony and Pepper smiled as they watched the two interact. Nebula never thought that she would be happy. But here she was, one step closer to happiness.
Age 2
Tony looked at his daughter playing with the stuffed Spiderman toy in her playpen. Pepper made the toy for her after Tony was able to speak of the teen who changed his life for the better.
“Hey, squirt. Can you say Daddy?”
She just babbled in response, earning a chuckle in return from her father.
“You’ll get it.”
Pepper showed up in the doorway to the bedroom.
“Hey you two. It’s lunchtime.”
“Okay. Come on Morgan. Let’s go eat before Mommy gets mad.”
He picked her up and kissed his wife on the cheek. They went down to the dining table to eat some lunch.
“So Tony, you were telling a story on… Peter at breakfast. Mind continuing?”
“No.” He took a bite of the salad. “Okay… where was I… oh! So after he left the note on the bicycle, he helped an older woman with directions. She ended giving Pete a churro—”
He was cut off with a small voice coming from the head of the table.
“Pete!”
The parents turned to look at their daughter in surprise, who just giggled as if mocking them.
“Pete!”
Tony threw his hands up.
“I’ve been trying to get her to say Mommy or Daddy for the past few days and I wasn’t even trying to get her to say Peter!”
“Peter!”
Pepper just laughed in her husband’s dismay.
“Well I guess you’ll just have to live with that. FRIDAY?”
“Yes Mrs. Stark?”
“Did you record that?”
“I do have audio recorded.”
“Thank you.”
Pepper turned to look back at Tony’s betrayed look.
“Really? In front of my salad?!”
They continued the friendly banter with Morgan interrupting them with a giggle or a Pete, eventually developing to Peter, every once in awhile. Tony smiled through their whole lunch.
Age 3
Morgan was out playing on their little beach being supervised by Tony. Pepper was out doing CEO business at SI. Tony closed his eyes for a little bit, only to feel the slimy feeling of a wet plant. He opened them and saw Morgan holding onto the other end of the plant.
“What are you doing, squirt?”
“I’m Spiderman.”
He chuckled and got up from the lawn chair he was sitting on.
“Let me show you how he does it.”
He got down beside her and gently clasped her smaller hand in his and gently moved her fingers into the position he uses to release his webbing. Once he showed her, she giggled in glee.
“Now you try it by yourself.”
After a few trials and errors, she managed to do it with both hands. Tony watched as she ran around on the sand and shallow water pretending to be Spiderman.
“Do you want to try and be Iron Man now?”
“No thanks!”
He sighed and heard Pepper drive up on their dirt driveway. He turned and saw her walk up.
“What’s going on?”
“Squirt is being Spiderman. She doesn’t want to be Iron Man.”
Pepper silently laughed.
“Mommy!”
Morgan ran up and tackled her mother’s legs.
“I’m Spiderman!”
“So I’ve heard.”
Age 4
Tony carried Morgan to bed after having some Juice Pops. As he set her into her bed, she stopped him with a question.
“Daddy, could you tell me a story on Spiderman?”
“Sure thing squirt. Do you want your Spidey?”
She nodded and he grabbed the stuffed Spiderman, now worn from love and use. Once she seemed settled, he started the story.
“Have I told you about the time he and his decathlon team went on a field trip to Stark Industries?”
He told of the story of how he embarrassed Peter and proved the class that his internship was a true thing.
“Why were they mean to him?”
“I’m not sure. He wouldn’t tell me.”
“When I see him, I’ll give him a biiiiiiiiiiiig hug.”
“You do that, but after me, okay?”
“Okay. Good night Daddy.”
“Good night Morgan.”
Age 5
“Where is Peter?”
Tony turned to look at his daughter. He wished she never asked this question but knew it was coming.
“He is… on a mission.”
“How long will he be gone?”
“For a long time. He’s out in space.”
“Could we call him?”
“We can’t. There’s no signal.”
“Oh.”
They sat in silence for a minute.
“I made him something.”
“Let’s see it.”
She pulled out a piece of paper with four stick figures holding hands on it. The stick figures came with titles on them. The one that Tony figured was Pepper was labeled as Mommy, the one next to her was him, labeled as Daddy. The smaller stick figure was her, labeled as Me. The one that had a red stick body was a surprise to him. He saw that the stick figure was holding Morgan’s hand and in the other, a circle that Tony presumed was a mask and on the circular head was a mess of brown. Morgan labeled him two things, Peter and Big Brother.
Tony won’t lie that it didn’t bring tears to his eyes. He quickly wiped them away.
“I love it. So I think he’ll love it too.”
She smiled.
“But you forgot his Aunt May.”
“I don’t have a picture of her.”
Tony sighed and had FRIDAY pull up his photo album and found a picture of May and Peter together.
“Here you go squirt.”
Morgan smiled and ran off to go grab her crayons. A few minutes later, May was finished.
“How about we hang this up before we lose it, okay?”
“Okay.”
The drawing hung up proudly on the fridge from that point on.
Age 6
It was two months after her birthday. Two months after her birthday was when she went to her father’s funeral. She was told he saved the universe. She sat with Uncle Happy.
“What do you want to eat?”
“A cheeseburger.”
“Your dad liked cheeseburgers… I’ll get you all the cheeseburgers you want.”
She laid her head against his chest and looked out at the lake where she could faintly see the flowers and arc reactor float away. Morgan saw a teen walk up to the two on the bench. He kneeled down in front of her.
“Hey, are you Morgan?”
She nodded.
“I’m Peter. Peter Parker. Pepper says you know me more as Spiderman.”
She picked her head up from Happy’s chest and looked at him.
“You’re Spiderman?”
He nodded. She left from where she was sitting and tackled him in the biggest hug she could give. It took him by surprise but he quickly recovered and hugged her back.
“Why did you do that?”
“I promised I would. Oh I have a present for you!”
She grabbed his hand and pulled him inside the cabin to where the drawing was. She carefully pulled it off the fridge and proudly presented it to him. Peter grasped it and looked at it and looked at her.
“Thank you.”
He bent down and hugged her again.
Don’t worry, Mr. Stark. I will protect her for you.