Pepper
Eighteen and a half years ago university student Virginia Potts found out she was pregnant.
She had always known she didn't want to have children. But when the doctor confirmed her pregnancy test result, she knew that she couldn't have an abortion. She just couldn't. At a rational level, she was very much pro-choice, but being in the situation she felt her survival instinct kicking in. She wanted to protect the life inside her! She wanted to give him the best life possible. Which meant, at least, giving him a family that truly wanted and loved him.
It didn't feel like a decision. It felt like the only logical way of doing things.
She stopped going out. She got easily tired and gained weight. She didn't really mean to try to keep it a secret but she didn't have close friends or anyone else to talk to anymore. After all, all of that had started when she had lost her boyfriend, the only person she used to confide in. She didn't talk to her family back then.
She wore large unfitting clothes. Her classmates thought she was depressed. Maybe she was. She didn't want to think about what was going on in her life. She focused her energy on studying and kept getting excellent grades.
The boy was going to be born at the beginning of September. She gave a premature birth at the end of July.
Later, she didn't remember anything about the fall. At Christmas, she wondered where her year had gone.
She coped with intellectual effort, graduated with the best grades of her class, got a job at Stark Industries… and with all her new challenges, she didn't have time to dwell on her past.
She had almost forgotten the kid she gave a better life. Until Tony rescued the new mutant spider kid from the street into his trainee and Pepper saw a familiar birth date in the contract.
So when 18-year-old Peter met her in Tony's lab and inquired shyly "Can I ask you about something?" she lead him into her office.
"Is this true? Is this really you?" Peter asked and showed her a copy of a familiar paper.
"Yes."
"Wow. Just wow." Peter didn't know what to say for a moment. Soon he remembered The Big Question: "Who is my father?"
"I don't know."
"What?" Peter was surprised a second time in five minutes. "How is that possible?"
"I think you were sired the night when I found my boyfriend cheating me with another woman in a party. I broke up with him immediately and then I drank a bit more and found someone to bang for revenge." Peter just stared at her so she felt she needed to continue. "I and my boyfriend had been having hard times together for some months and no sex, so I figured you couldn't be his. Your father most likely had dark hair. I'm sorry I can't tell you more details."
Peter let the information to sink in. His biological mother was one of the richest and the most intelligent women on the planet, his father was some dude she hadn't cared to find out.
Pepper reached his hands and continued: "I never wanted to abandon you. When I found out about you I only wanted the best for you and that was with a family who was ready for a baby when I wasn't."
Peter smiled. He understood. A purely logical solution.
"Well, now I don't have to wonder from where I have inherited my intelligence", he grinned. But he had to ask anyway: "But Tony wasn't in that party, was he?"
Pepper rolled her eyes. "I think I would have remembered him."
"I think you would. See you around, mom", Peter said and rose up. The case was closed. He wanted to get back to work.
After he had left, Pepper checked out Tony's old calendar and other information from that time eighteen and a half years ago. It was, indeed possible that Tony had been at the party.
She had to find out who Peter's father was.