C’mon Mary, let’s just cut the crap
“How is this possible?”
That’s the major question indeed. How is it possible that Tony is standing in front of Mary Parker’s home fifteen years in the past? How is it that a stupid watch he got from freaking Deadpool actually got him to this time? How is it even that Tony trusted the guy enough to take his strange devices?
“Hi, Mary,” Tony greets the woman in front of him. She looks just like he remembers her, with straight brown hair cut short, dark eyes radiating the friendliness she’s holding inside herself. There’s her mouth that he recognizes in Peter now, along with the forehead. Tony finds his breath catching upon seeing her.
Having her in front of him, he realizes that any kind of romantic love he felt for her has now disappeared somehow. He loves her still, yes, but something’s shifted.
“Tony, I don’t know what happened to you but I thought I made it obvious that I didn’t want to see you again?”
Tony rolls his eyes and crosses his arms.
“Yeah, you made that very clear. Which is why I haven’t seen you in the past twenty years,” he returns bitterly. That seems to throw her off. She opens the door a bit more to lean against it. It’s an obvious sign that she wants to keep him out, which he understands.
“If this is some sort of prank to make me talk to you again it’s really not-“
“Ah, c’mon Mary, let’s just cut the crap and allow me to tell you why I’m here?”
Tony’s surprised by his own reaction. In the past, he would never have reacted that way to her, too in love to speak against her wishes. Now that he’s no longer head over heels for her he finds it’s kind of easy. A bit like talking to Pepper now.
“Excuse me?” she stammers out. She takes a quick look inside the house, as if she’s heard something. Nothing happens, but she doesn’t seem to lose her guard a she gets herself outside and nearly closes the door behind her. “Listen, Tony, I know you miss me, I miss you, too. But I just can’t do this anymore.”
“Because of our son, right?” he asks carefully, feeling a little bit smug when he sees her open her eyes in surprise.
“How do you-?”
“Listen, Mary, I know it’s a long shot and you’ll probably never believe me, but I have to try,” Tony starts with his hands up in the air to stop her from talking. He takes a deep breath and starts. “I’m from the future, Peter’s extremely sick and it’s because of something that didn’t happen in this year, which is why I’m here.”
Mary frowns, immediately crossing her arms in disbelief.
“Do you seriously expect me to believe this?” she asks angrily. “So, what, you put on some make-up to make yourself look older, bleach your hair? I know you’d do a lot to get what you want but I would never have expected you to sink so low.”
That, though, that hurt a bit. Especially when Mary moves forward to hold on to his face, attempting to pull away the supposed make-up he’s wearing according to her. When she finds nothing but skin she startles, pulling her hand back.
“It’s one hundred percent me,” Tony assures her. “And I need you to listen.”
“No, it’s just one of your holograms or something. You can’t expect me to believe that you’re from the future?”
Tony sighs, pulling out his phone from his pocket and tapping a bit on the screen before holding it out to her. On it there’s a picture of him, Steve and Peter. He doesn’t even remember when it was taken, nor who did it. It was just always there, he thinks…
“That kid in the middle? That’s our son. Peter. He has my eyes and your hair, he’s extremely smart but never skipped a grade because you were afraid he would end up like me.” He allows her to take the phone from him. The device is also something she’s never seen before, but that seems to be the least of her interests. “He keeps on going to school, about to get himself three diplomas. He has a girlfriend he avoids introducing to us even though we’ve already met her once shortly in the past.”
“That’s-“ she starts, finding herself unable to finish that sentence. “When did you find out about him?”
“2016. He’s the one who approached me,” Tony answers truthfully. He knows he could screw up the timeline like this, but as horrible as it is to say, it’s not like Mary has long left to cause a catastrophe. “Listen, I know that you never wanted me to know about him, but things are as they are and I love him more than anything in the world.”
Mary’s eyes are teary as she tears them from the screen towards Tony.
“Which is why I’m here, because right now Peter’s dying and we, together, are the only ones who can save him.”
Mary seems to hesitate for a moment longer before she hands him back the phone and shakes her head.
“I’m probably going to regret this,” she mutters as she reaches towards the door. Opening it, she gestures for Tony to get inside.
Mary’s home is exactly what Tony would have expected the average family home to be like. There are pictures on the walls of her and Richard, most of them with the addition of Peter in many ages. The lights give a warm glow into the long hallway that must lead to the living room.
“Where’s Dick?” Tony asks. Nobody ever calls Richard that except for Tony. It’s one of the things that he liked to annoy Mary with back when they were still friends.
“He’s asleep, he has an early morning tomorrow.” She gestures for him to sit. “Want to drink anything? Water? A beer?”
Tony shakes his head. “Water’s good,” he assures her.
“Really? I never thought Tony Stark would pass the opportunity to get some alcohol into him?”
Tony bites his lips together before shrugging.
“I’m about three years sober now, so…” he explains curtly. Realizing that she’s about to make a comment on it he quickly stops her. “Okay listen, your husband is working on genetically modified spiders, right?”
Mary, who starts heading towards the kitchen to get a glass nods.
“Yes, they intend to find a way to regenerate certain body parts, hence Curt’s interests in the matter.”
Tony keeps himself from mentioning anything about Connors. It doesn’t help in their situation and it’s unneeded information.
“Richard is going to inject the spiders with his blood. It’s some sort of fail-safe, in case Oscorp would ever turn against him, so they would only have any form of result with his bloodline.”
That information seems to be new to Mary, which makes it all the more clear that she couldn’t have known on her own. Somebody had to tell her; somebody who was aware of the situation.
“Is he afraid Oscorp’s going to turn on him?” she asks curiously.
“Yeah, and that’s the problem. Because when Peter’s fifteen one of those spiders is going to bite him which will give him special powers.”
“He will WHAT?!” she asks in surprise, a bit too loud. Out of reflex she puts her hands on her mouth to keep herself from shouting any louder. They wait silently to hear if Peter or Richard are awake. When it looks like they slept through it she relaxes again.
Tony takes advantage of the opportunity to drink some of his water. Mary, who now has her hands on her legs and is staring at them intensely seems shocked. It’s probably too much information at once. Tony feels a bit bad for her that he has to tell her like this, but he can’t waste too much time here. He has no idea what exactly is going on in the present right now…
“So you’re telling me one of Richard’s spiders will bite Peter? What happens to him?”
Tony thinks for a second, trying to find the best way to say this.
“He’ll become the greatest hero I’ll ever know,” he then says truthfully, taking out his phone again to show her a picture of Spider-Man, followed by one with him wearing the suit but without the mask, standing next to Steve in his uniform. Mary falls quiet after that. A heavy breath escapes Tony’s lungs. He looks down at the brown couch, eyes going over the flowery pattern underneath him. On the table a bit further away are some magazines. One of them shows Tony’s face in a rather unfortunate picture as he was spotted drunk in public. He clears his throat and looks away quickly.
“Correct me if I’m wrong, but Peter will get bit by one of Richard’s spiders, which should actually kill him since he’s not of the same blood as him?” she tries. Tony hums in agreement and Mary throws her head back in defeat.
“I know I’m asking a lot, but I need you to help me exchange the vials of blood, if they haven’t already been used. Otherwise we have the rest of the night to find a way to add our DNA to those spiders.”
And this is it, isn’t it? Mary, who finally seems to believe him, studies him really hard. There’s this unreadable expression on her face that he can’t quite place. It’s weird how fifteen years apart can put them so out of sync.
“Everything’s pretty much sealed off at Oscorp. Even I don’t have full access to it,” she warns him.
“Don’t worry about that. I can get us inside. You just need to show me where I need to go.”
Tony can tell that her mind is already made up pretty much. She nods at him and gets onto her feet. He watches her grab her shoes off the ground, which is indication enough for him to get up as well. Once she’s wearing her coat she nods towards the door for him to follow.
He’s not too surprised that the car ride is rather awkward. With the radio broadcasting some sort of talkshow that seems to love to speculate on this year’s Tony Stark’s current whereabouts, Tony finds himself fascinated to hear them talk about him like that. It’s weird since it’s about him, but it also kind of Isn’t since it’s about the other Tony.
Mary seems to catch on as well as she grips the steering wheel tighter. “So, uh, where are you, currently? In this year, I mean?”
“Psychiatric hospital,” he answers dryly. “Getting treatment for my depression. Which nobody knows about, obviously.”
“Obviously,” Mary retorts before her face falls. “Depression… it isn’t because of me, is it?”
Tony can’t really lie to her, he never could. “Amongst many things, yes. You are, I’m sure, aware that my life hasn’t really been much fun…”
She doesn’t answer to that, which Tony is grateful for. He doesn’t want to talk about himself, especially about a time when Mary was the most important person in his life, and she was spending hers pretending their son wasn’t his.
It’s about ten minutes later that she speaks up again. They’re almost nearing Oscorp and Tony has to admit that, though he hates it very much, the tower does end up looking better than it does now.
“So, uhm, that man in the picture with you and Peter… He a family friend?” she tries. Tony could almost laugh at the question.
“I guess you could say that,” he returns. “Very friendly.”
Mary raises an eyebrow at him. “Okay, what are you not telling me?”
“He’s Captain America,” Tony says quickly before thinking of the other way to describe Steve. Wonderful and perfect Steve.
“The real one?” Mary sounds impressed. “I thought he died?”
“So did I, until they found him in the Ice back in 2012.” Tony sighs when he thinks back of that time. Oh, how they just couldn’t stand each other back then. It’s almost criminal…
“So he’s like another uncle for Peter, then?”
Tony hesitates for a bit, just a few seconds, before his mind tells him that, once upon a time, he could tell Mary anything. She would never judge him, no matter what it was. He figures things wouldn’t have changed that much.
But before he can say what he wants to say Mary announces that they’ve arrived. Tony gets himself out of the car and quickly follows the woman inside. It’s extremely weird to hang out with her again. Almost as if nothing has changed. Except for the way he feels about her, that is.
“I might not be the biggest fan of Peter putting his life on the line, but I’m sure that with an Uncle like Steve no harm could come to him,” Mary jokes as she guides them inside the building. There are only a few people still inside, most of them on their way back home. The receptionist who got stuck with the evening shift looks like she’s about ready to head back to bed.
Mary gets them to an elevator. Awkwardly they stand together, Tony’s hands clasp together in front of him while Mary leans against the wall.
And that’s when Tony blurts it out.
“More like a father,” he says.
“Excuse me?” Mary asks in confusion.
“Steve’s not an Uncle to Peter, he’s like a father. Because Steve and I are together. Have been for a while now.”
Mary stays quiet, but Tony is all too aware of her eyes on him. She’s studying him, probably trying to get to know him again. It’s been a while since they’ve hung out for her as well.
“Okay,” she then says. Relief passes all over Tony, but he doesn’t let it show.
“Okay,” he returns, pretending like it’s not that big of a deal. “Are you- are you surprised?”
The elevator nears the floor they need to reach.
“I feel like I should say ‘yes’ to that to spare your feelings maybe, but no, I’m not surprised at all.” Mary smiles as she walks out of the elevator shaft.
Tony nods once again, though the conversation falls flat after that little exchange. She takes them through the hallway, entering a door after passing a badge against the scanner. Tony sees her picture on it, still hating the fact that she left Stark Industries to come work for this nutjob here.
Once entering the room, Tony finds they’re in some sort of large laboratory where everybody seems to have their own desk. There’s the typical hexagonal shapes that Oscorp seems to have adopted as their own in every piece of furniture it’s possible with. Even the wall has some fancy shapes on it. Or, well, what was fancy back in this year.
“This is about as far as I can go,” Mary says. “Richard and I share a lot, but beyond this point I’m not allowed to go.”
She puts her hand on a white door with a small window on it. It’s dark on the other side of the room, and it seems like the only way to get in is by bypassing the security system. Tony tries to concentrate on the technology around him but he finds it’s rather hard to do so. Even when he reaches out his hand, the connection just isn’t as strong in this time as it is in his own.
“What are you doing?” Mary asks.
“Trying to hack in,” Tony explains without opening his eyes.
“Well, hurry up, I think there’s a security guard heading this way.”
Tony shushes her, unable to concentrate with her talking like this. He just needs to find a connection with the network and after that things should be fine. He grits his teeth together in annoyance.
“Tony, seriously, what are you doing?” Mary urges him on. Tony taps his head.
“My brain’s like a computer now. Just trying to make a connection,” he explains curtly. He squeezes his eyes shut while he tries to go through the last bit of effort. It’s almost like there’s a ‘ding’ going in his head when he succeeds.
The first thing he reaches out for, ignoring many passwords in the process, is going for the security cameras. Just so he an get a view of the entire building, which comes in rather handing, really, since at least that way he’s prepared when he hears the door open. Immediately he jumps out of sight, letting the suit surround him and putting it on stealth mode. Then he hovers into the air, high enough so that the man entering can’t see him.
“Mrs. Parker? I didn’t know you were in today?”
Tony grits his teeth together upon seeing Norman Osborn walking up to Mary, who turns to look at Tony and finds that he’s no longer here.
“I, uh-“ she starts.
“Did your husband forget something here?” Oh, the way Norman talks is just so supposedly innocent, but Tony knows enough about him to spot his selfishness from miles away. He’s heard the entire story from Harry already, and his respect for Norman Osborn hasn’t gotten any bigger for it.
Norman just looks so young back here. To Tony, he died years ago, leaving his son with a terrible, uncurable sickness. He’d been grey and faded as far as Tony could remember. Here, he looks good, still. Well enough not to need tons of make-up to hide away the degeneration of his body. His reddish-brown hair neatly combed back, his chin cleanly shaven.
“Yes, he did,” Mary manages to lie eventually, though she’s clearly still taken aback. She walks up to where Tony figures Richard’s desk should be. There she grabs a file. “He said that he would get it tomorrow but I needed to get out of the house for a bit and thought I could grab it.”
Her eyes go back up to where Tony is hovering, trying his hardest not to make a noise. It’s a blessing already that he managed to make the thrusters as soundless as possible. To anybody who wouldn’t know, it would seem like an old laptop is running – which would make it a modern laptop in this current year.
The twitch in her eyes seems to have caught Norman’s attention, who starts to turn around to see what Mary’s looking at. There’s a short moment of panic before Mary almost shouts it out and reaches for Norman’s arm.
“Harry! How is Harry doing? And Emily? Are they fine?”
Norman stops his movement, now instead staring at where Mary is touching him on the arm. Tony is pretty sure that he’s frowning, though he can only see his back. Good, Mary’s making sure that he’s not turning around.
“Harry’s doing great,” Norman says, and that is again a lie. By now Tony knows that Harry has been kicked out of his school again and is at the verge of being sent to Peter’s school. Which would start the inevitable friendship between the two of them. “Though Em and I are not so sure private school is the best choice for him.”
“Well, we’re rather happy with Peter’s school. I’m sure Harry would like it there. Maybe they could even become friends?”
Norman is silent, still and Mary shifts on her feet. Tony is extremely sure that she’s nervous but she doesn’t appear to be. Damn, she’s a good actress.
“That could be possible, yes,” Norman then says. He clears his throat then and loosens his shoulders a bit. “Anyway, I must be getting back. I was on my way home when I saw the lights were on. Can I walk you out?”
Norman holds out his arm like any gentleman would do. The bastard.
“No, that’s alright,” Mary quickly says. She taps the computer gently. “I’m going to back up some of Richard’s logs since I’m here anyway. I’ll lock up when I get out.”
“Alright, then. Give your husband my best, and tell him I’m rooting for any results he manages to come up with.”
“Will do, see you soon.”
And with that, Norman finally heads out. Though, in his way out, he manages to glance upwards to where Tony had been, but he’d been smart enough to move the moment Norman mentioned leaving. All the guy sees is an empty ceiling, so he walks out the door without any other question asked.
Once they’re sure they’re alone Tony heads back down. He removes the suit soundlessly, though is extremely aware that Mary is staring at him with wide eyes.
“What was that?” she asks, sounding a bit breathless. Tony shakes his head, blinking his eyes once and with that opening the locked door to the secure lab.
“Tech from my year,” he says before nodding to the now accessible room. “C’mon, we shouldn’t waste time. He could come back any second.”
“No, seriously Tony, have you turned yourself into a robot?” Her mouth drops open. “Have you been a robot all along? Does Peter have it, too?”
“What?! No!” Tony taps his head then. “I’m human, as much as you are. It’s just a suit that’s stored inside my bones and comes out when I tell it to.”
“Doesn’t that hurt?”
Tony stays silent, which he figures should be answer enough. Of course it hurts, but not as much as it did before. Back then, it had nearly been agony to let out the suit. Now, it’s easier, just a little sting like having a couple of needles pressed into his skin at the same time. He shouldn’t complain too much about it.
“What happened to you that changed you so much?”
And that makes Tony stand still. His mind wanders back to the Mary he met once in that alternate universe Mordo sent him to. The one where he married Mary before Peter was born. The one where his kids hated him, where he was a cheating husband who didn’t love his wife anymore, but didn’t want to get divorced because that would ruin his name.
A man exactly like his own father.
And back in that universe, he hadn’t been Iron Man. There hadn’t been any word of him, just his weapons. That version of him hadn’t seen what Tony has seen.
“I got my eyes opened,” Tony says truthfully. He turns to smile at her, sadly. “I wish I could tell you everything but so much has happened.”
“You can’t tell me anything,” Mary states. “That would be dangerous.”
Tony doesn’t answer, instead starting up the lights in the room as he tries to look around.
“Except, it wouldn’t matter, would it?”
Tony turns around in confusion, seeing the pensive look on Mary’s face. He’s about to ask what she means when she continues.
“You saw the message. That’s how you found out about Peter. He wouldn’t have been able to know, otherwise. Which then would mean that I would be dead, wouldn’t it?”
There’s even more silence from him. He doesn’t want to lie to her, but he can’t tell her the truth. Staying quiet is the best option here.
“When?”
“Mary…”
“When, Tony?!” she urges on, raising her voice. Tony bites his lips together and looks down.
“In a few days, maybe?”
And Mary’s hand go down to her stomach instinctively, tears showing up in her eyes. “No,” she mumbles out as she takes a step back, leaning against the wall. Tony wishes he could take it back, make sure she never finds out, but… it wouldn’t be fair. Nothing is fair. Mary should have lived, so did that idiot husband of hers. Peter should have had his parents.
“Then maybe it’s for the better I haven’t told anybody, yet,” she mutters.
“Told anybody what?”
“That I’m pregnant?”
And if that doesn’t make alarm-bells ring inside his mind, nothing else would. It’s like there’s a large ERROR-sign in front of his eyes, on all his thoughts. This can’t be, this can’t happen.
Mary must be seeing the expression on his face. Through her tears she starts shaking her head while reaching out her hands towards him.
“Whatever you’re about to tell me, don’t. I don’t need to know about it.”
There’s a shaking in her voice, her eyes not quite meeting his. The cold of the room seems to be reaching Tony, making him shiver on the spot.
“But-“ Tony starts, only for Mary to step forward and put her hands onto Tony’s mouth.
“But nothing. If it’s supposed to be the end for us, then so be it.”
“Peter deserves his parents,” he mumbles. This is probably exactly why Strange didn’t want him to go back here.
“Peter’ll know we love him very much.” Mary shifts her hands onto Tony’s cheeks, making him look up to her. “The Peter you told me about, that’s the Peter I want him to become. And stopping us from dying… who knows, maybe the balance will be shifted and somebody else dies in our stead. We can’t play with that.”
She leans forward to kiss his forehead before pulling him towards her, into a strong hug. Tony lets out a soft sob before nodding in agreement. Of course she’s right. She’s always right.
“Let’s just do what we came here to do before anybody else comes in, okay?”
“Okay.”
The two move towards what must be Richard’s workspace.
“You’ve been here before?” he asks. Mary shrugs.
“Not often. But it won’t take a genius to find out where the blood will be stored,” she returns with a wink. In the way she moves, it’s clear that there’s still a sadness in her. It’s quite normal, obviously. Still, Tony finds that he can’t remove his eyes from her.
The Tony from this time was still hopelessly in love with this woman at this point. He’d been trying to sleep it off with other women, but that never helped him. Instead, Tony got drunker, up to a point where alcohol didn’t seem to be doing the trick anymore.
He’s done some crazy shit to get his high. It’s also the reason he got himself admitted after a while. Or… well, that’s on Obey if he’s completely honest. That traitor has at least done one good thing for him, though surely he’ll find out it was for selfish reasons if Tony digs deep enough.
Mary makes a soft sound when she finds what they’re looking for. Pulling out the blood samples, she checks them over. They’re in vials with a red cap on it. After reading through the details written upon it she closes the fridge and puts the holder of the vials down on the table.
“There must be stuff for drawing blood around here,” she utters to herself as she starts looking around. Tony just shivers on the spot, blinking a few times before taking the vial into his own hand. The blood is a usual red, cold to the touch through the glass. In here is currently the stuff that’s killing Peter. It’s strange how this works. Tony has since long given up trying to find out the details about time travel. It’s a lost cause.
All that matters now is saving Peter.
“Shit, why does Richard have to be so messy all the time?” he hears Mary calls out in the background. Tony then finally drops the vials and figures he should help looking.
She’s right. Dick leaves quite a mess in his workspace, but Tony figures he’s quite the same on that part. It takes them about ten minutes to locate the set. There are needles, more vials, a clamping band and many more stuff.
“Alright, give me your arm,” Mary instructs once she’s collected everything and has taken place by a semi-empty desk. Tony gives it a once-over before shaking his head.
“My blood’s not a good idea,” he admits.
“Why wouldn’t it be?”
“I’m not sure if… look, a few years ago I injected myself with nanites that now hold the suit inside of me. Parts of those nanites are also in my bloodstream. I just… I can’t risk Peter’s powers shifting because of that.”
Mary hesitates for a moment before she nods. Then she hands the materials to Tony. The needle has already been put into the holder, and about five vials are put at the ready. There’s some disinfectant wipes she rubs over her arm after she pokes around for a vein. With the help of the band she seems to find one that must be good enough.
“Alright, you just get that needle here,” she gestures right above the spot where an obvious blue vein is popping out already. “Don’t push the needle in too far, just… a few millimeters are enough.”
Tony nods, using the wipes to clean his hands before taking the needle between his fingers. He tries not to think too much about it, about how drawing blood isn’t that unfamiliar to him. Or rather, injecting something into the bloodstream.
The needle pokes through Mary’s skin without trouble. Once he thinks he’s in deep enough he grabs the vial and pushes it into the holder. Once he sees it fill up a small smile comes up onto his lips. Mary, too, smiles for a bit.
It’s still sad, but at the same time it’s full of joy. This is them rescuing their son, after all.
Tony secures the needle while he switches the vials one by one, until he gets to the fifth. Before it’s completely filled he loosens the band, throwing it back into the box it came from. Mary, with her free hand, takes the other four vials and starts shaking them gently.
“I guess that one year of medicine you did really wasn’t for nothing,” Tony jokes. Mary shrugs.
“I wanted to help people, but I figured rather soon that this wasn’t the way I wanted to do it.” Once Tony’s removed the needle she grabs a tissue and presses it against the bleeding wound. Tony, meanwhile, goes to take a bandage to put on it.
He doesn’t speak when their hands touch. Doesn’t speak when her fingers actively reach out for him, surrounding his wrist. When she looks down she sighs.
“I’m really sorry, Tony,” she admits.
“What for?” he asks, though he has an idea what it’s actually about.
“For shutting you out. For never telling you about Peter.”
Tony nods. “I was bitter for a long time,” he admits. “There’s a lot you took away from me, Mary. His first words, his first steps. His first day of school… those are all things I really wish I could have been a part of.”
He then sighs.
“But I also know that the Tony from this time wouldn’t be ready for that responsibility. And I could pretend that I would change for him, but I’ve seen how it would be and it wasn’t pretty.”
Tony puts his hand on top of Mary’s before offering her a small smile.
“Things happened the way they did. Now we have this amazing son who actually loves me, rather than a son who hates my guts. I wouldn’t want to turn back time and meet him earlier because that became such a shitshow.”
“You’re a good man, Tony.” Mary looks down to the ground, hands pulling away from Tony’s to take the vials of blood. “The reason I shut you out wasn’t only because of Peter.”
“What was it, then?”
There’s more hesitation coming from the woman in front of him. When she raises her head again, her brown eyes are filled with tears.
“I realized I might have loved you, too,” she says as she grits her teeth together to fight back the tears. There’s a hollow chuckle coming out of her, her hand balling into a fist onto the table. “I was actually thinking about ending it with Richard. We weren’t exactly working out all that well, but…”
Tony doesn’t interrupt her as she struggles with her words.
“But I was scared, so I stayed with what I knew. And Richard apologized for that fight, and then Peter happened, and then… I figured it was just for the better like this.”
She wipes away the tears from her cheek before clearing her throat. Then she gets on her feet with the vials of blood in her hands. Nearing the holder of Richard’s samples, she makes to exchange them with quiet movements. Tony just watches from where he’s seated, figuring that this makes the job done, then. He should be safe to head on home, now.
Once Mary’s secured the samples into the fridge, Tony’s about to announce his leaving. That’s when Mary surprises him.
“You want to see him?”
That surprises Tony.
“Who, Richard?”
“No, silly, I mean Peter.”
There’s a hard lump in Tony’s throat. No word is going to escape through his mouth anymore. All he can manage is a quick nod before Mary starts cleaning up the place to make it look like nobody came there. She takes the vials of blood from Richard with her to dispose of them somewhere Richard won’t find them.
They leave Oscorp rather quickly. There’s no surprising addition of Norman or any other person from Oscorp. Traffic is still in full swing, despite the time. Tony has to admit that he’s practically jumping into his seat.
They have to be quiet when they arrive back at the Parkers’ home. Mary guides them inside, makes sure to close the door to her and Richard’s bedroom before gesturing towards him to get to what Tony suspects must be Peter’s room.
Yet he hesitates. He’s seen an infant-version of his son before – he has the eye of Agamotto to thank for that – but this is going to be something different. This is going to be the Peter he knows at a certain age where he doesn’t yet know about him. The Peter who is probably way too young to even know about Tony Stark in the first place.
Mary nears Peter first. She leans forward and kisses his forehead, making him squirm a bit in his sleep. For a moment, Tony fears that they woke him up, but when he sleeps on peacefully his heart stills a bit.
When he gets to take Mary’s place next to Peter, he reaches out his hand until it passes over Peter’s cheek, his hair, the back of his head. He’s so small, still so full of wonder. Not yet filled with so much sadness. This is the Peter Tony wished he had the chance of being for the rest of his life, but it’s not up to him to decide this.
“…mom?”
Tony startles when he hears the soft voice of his son. The kid is sitting up while rubbing his eyes, but once he notices Tony next to him his eyes widen.
“Mr. Tony Stark?” he asks in surprise. Tony’s mouth falls open. Mary just looks at their son proudly.
“You know about me?”
The kid nods eagerly, though not before trying to hide away a yawn.
“You’re like this super smart guy,” Peter returns. When he looks around for a bit he still seems a bit groggy. “I’m dreaming, right?”
Tony smiles, reaching out towards his son to put his hand behind the kid’s head again. Then he nods and leans forward to kiss Peter on the forehead.
“Sure you are, son,” Tony returns. When Peter reaches out to hug him, Tony indulges him without hesitation. “You are the best thing that’s ever happened to me. Never forget that, kiddo.”
Peter nods eagerly before pulling away and lying down again. Then he grabs one of the books that must have been under his pillow, and he puts it into Tony’s hand.
“Will you read this to me?” he asks. Tony looks down at the story about the little inventor who wants to invent a robot. Oh, the irony.
“Of course I will,” he returns. And Tony reads, starting from the beginning. He doesn’t get to the end because it only takes a few minutes or Peter to fall asleep. Not long after that, a light flash comes into the Parkers’ home. Once it’s gone, Tony Stark has disappeared and Mary heads back to her bedroom to go to sleep as well.