Chapter Text
Tony began walking down the dirt path, which was lined with long, dry grass and the occasional tall, leafy, hickory tree. The trees appeared more frequently and in greater variety as he went on, winding his way around gentle, small hills.
He began to breathe heavily and felt the sweat begin to trickle down his back as the sun shone fiercely above him. Unbelievable serum-healing aside, his body had still been through the wringer, and it would probably be a bit before he got back into normal shape.
He was just thinking that he’d have to stop for a break when he rounded a small hill and saw blue stretch out before him, ringed by green vegetation, the trees casting shade from the hot sun.
It was the lake… his lake… and his house was just across on the other side.
Without any hesitation he jumped into the water, welcoming the cool relief the water promised.
The solace that the soothing cold brought as he lay in the gently lapping waves was heightened by the knowledge that Pepper and Morgan were only half a mile away.
He completely submerged himself and stretched out along the shallows, only surfacing when he couldn’t hold his breath any longer.
His face lifted out of the water and he sighed in relief, shaking droplets out of his hair.
He began to make his way out of the water but stopped in surprise when his ears were suddenly assaulted with a cacophony of noise disrupting the quiet lakeside.
It was laughter and the squeals of children, and it was strangely familiar.
He’d barely recognized the noise as such when, out of a clump of trees not forty paces from his right, a large figure burst out and began running for the lake.
He kept watching and realized the figure was actually two people: a smaller girl sitting on an older boy’s shoulders.
But these weren’t just any children out for some summer fun. They were… they were…
Morgan giggled and waved her arms dramatically around forcing Peter to keep tight hold of her legs, while she yelled out, “Faster, Petey, faster! Faster!”
Peter ran into the lake and dumped her unceremoniously into the water, holding her up when she surfaced, still giggling maniacally, “Again Petey! Go again!”
Tony found himself unable to move, happy tears suddenly threatening to appear as the events before him unfolded. How many times had he watched Morgan playing in the lake and wished that just such a scene could play out? How many times had he wished that Pete…
Before he could finish his thought, another person came out from the trees, “Be careful you two! Morgan, stop trying to stick Peter’s head under the water. He’s not a fish!”
She looked tired, with dark circles under eyes and a sort of lowering in her shoulders. Nevertheless, Pepper’s gaze was steady and her eyes were fond as she watched the kids. Her hair was as fiery as ever. She stood tall and her hair glinted in the sunshine, looking more blond or red depending on how her head was angled.
Tony could have stood and stared at her happily for the rest of time.
She had one of the waterproof pocket-tablets in her hand. Was she working? Tony frowned in concern. Pepper was one to be on the job 24/7, and she hadn’t had him around to get her to relax.
Friday’s voice came out of the tablet’s tiny speaker system, “Boss Lady.”
Pepper sighed, “What is it Friday? I said this time was for the kids and to only contact me with emergencies.”
“Understood Boss Lady, but you also had me scan for possible paparazzi or threats in the area, what with the reduction in privacy since the… well.”
Pepper sighed again, “You can say it Fri. I need to get used to it. Since Tony’s funeral, you mean. Anyway, what about it? Is there a threat?”
Friday spoke hesitantly, “I… I wouldn’t say so Boss Lady, but I think my scanners must be malfunctioning. You see—”
Pepper interrupted her, “Look, if there’s no clear threat, let it be and I’ll get Bruce to look at you when I get back. If anything comes up I can always call the Rescue armor here in fifteen seconds, right?”
Friday responded, “That’s correct. But—”
Pepper interrupted again, “That’s enough Friday. Mute except in case of immediate danger.”
The conversation ended. Morgan was now trying to convince Peter to be a fish so she could “catch” him. Pepper watched the splashing kids and looked out at the lake. A small smile played at the corners of her mouth.
The scene would have been the most perfect thing Tony had ever seen, except Pepper’s eyes were sad. He hated it when she looked sad.
He took a final step out of the shallows and was about to say something, but before he could Morgan’s eyes went wide and she let out a shriek, “Daddy?”
Peter whipped around and froze, staring, “Mr. Stark?”
Tony opened his mouth and tried to think of something to say, but for once he had no one-liners ready, “So… I’m back.”
Next thing he knew the Rescue armor had appeared and was encapsulating Pepper. She flew over to him, knocked him on his back, and primed both hand repulsers at his face.
He gulped but for some reason could not stop his mouth when the right one-liner finally came to him, “Honey, I’m home.”
He didn’t think he’d ever heard her sound so enraged, “Who are you? Why are you impersonating my husband? Don’t you have any respect at all? He’s barely been dead for three weeks! What do you want with our family?”
He stared up at her. The faceplate swung upward and she glared at him. She seemed either on the verge of screaming or breaking into angry tears, and her face was red. Somehow, it made her freckles stand out far more.
He thought she looked gorgeous.
The repulsers made a whirring noise, and Pepper’s face darkened, “Say something! Who are you?”
The fall had knocked the breath out of him, and he coughed, “It’s me, Pep.”
Pepper scoffed, “Bullsh—” she stopped, and looked back at Morgan, watching with huge eyes with Peter’s arms wrapped protectively around her and lowered her voice—“sherbet… I was there when he died. I watched him take his last breath. I saw the life leave his eyes; do you hear me? Trust me, with the number of times he’s come back despite ridiculous odds… If I hadn’t been there right next to him—but I was, I said goodbye, and I watched my husband die. You’re not him. So I’ll ask you one more time. Who are you?”
Tony figured he should start talking, “It’s me. Really.”
Pepper’s glare didn’t falter.
Tony thought for a second, then continued, “We came up with the phrase bull-sherbet when you said the bull-s-word in front of Morgan. You had just finished lecturing me about swearing less in front of her. I told her that bull-s-word was Mommy’s special word and that we couldn’t use it but then she said she wanted a special word. So I said how about we come up with a special word for all of us and Morgan agreed. Then she asked me what the word was and I started with “bull” but for some reason blanked on what to finish it with. You blurted out the first word that came to your mind, which just happened to be sherbet.”
Pepper’s eyes widened and she took a step back, “What? How did you?”
Tony kept talking, “Your father’s name was Bill and your mother’s name was Harriet. When they died you were supposed to go to your Uncle Morgan but he dropped off the map somewhere in China and by the time the authorities got in contact with him you’d turned eighteen. You got through college on academic scholarships and landed a job with Stark Industries right out of college. The first time you met me your supervisor had already fired you and you called me a drunk ass and said if I wasn’t going to get my shit together then I should at least get someone to check my math, that is if I didn’t want to run the company into the ground. I said you were probably right so how about you do it? You said that you didn’t work for me anymore. I offered you a position as my P.A. You only agreed because I promised that if you stuck around for two weeks I would pay all your student loans. Even though you sprayed him with pepper spray, Happy still liked you better than me by the end of the first week.
“I don’t know when I first fell in love with you but I first realized it the moment I walked out of the hanger from Afghanistan and saw you waiting for me with red eyes. The day we got married and the day Morgan was born were the happiest of my life. When we brought Morgan home for the first time I panicked about how I was going to be a horrible father and end up just like Howard near the end of his life. You calmed me down and said I would be a great father because I had the perfect example of all the things not to do. I smiled but said the logic in that was probably flawed and you said that I had to get over it at least for right now because Morgan’s diaper needed changing and you needed to pump and your feet hurt. Then you handed me Morgan and she smiled at me and for the first time, I felt that maybe I could do this.
Pepper took a couple more steps back, “But… but I…”
“You telling me on the battlefield that you would be okay—you and Morgan—was the only thing that made it okay to go. I didn’t want to go, but it was okay, because you would both be safe. Everyone was back, and you’d be safe in a world without Thanos. Your smile was the last thing I held onto before everything went black.”
Pepper kept walking backward and Tony kept following her.
“But… but how…” Pepper whispered.
They both stopped after a few more paces, and Tony cocked his head to one side, “I’m still not a hundred percent sure how, but basically our adult daughter from another universe decided she didn’t want me to die in this one. She took my time travel concept and expanded on it, and must have somehow figured out crossing to other timelines not in her past. Maybe she was able to reverse engineer Steve’s trip to her universe? And then there was the serum that she and Bruce—the one from her universe, that is— created. That somehow healed everything, but also made me appear dead to keep the timelines unaffected or something. With any split creating new timelines any action before Steve returned the stones would negate the whole purpose in a brand new timeline—“
Pepper interrupted, “I don’t care.”
Tony was still speaking, “So obviously that wasn’t—oh. Okay.”
Softly, Pepper spoke, but it wasn’t to him, “Friday, remove the suit.”
“Yes Boss Lady,” Friday replied, and the suit seamlessly melted right off Pepper and condensed into a tiny jewel arc reactor, which Pepper placed in her pocket.
Hesitantly, Pepper took a step toward him, tears in her eyes, “It’s… it’s really you?”
Tony took a step toward her, “Yep. Promise.”
Pepper took another step forward and held out a shaky hand to touch his shoulder, looking as if she expected it to pass right through.
It didn’t, and she moved her hand down, brushing across his chest down to where the arc used to be, and then to his left, her right, pressing down as if to feel his heartbeat.
Gently, carefully, almost warily, he brushed the strand of hair falling over her face behind her ear, “It’s me. I’m home.”
Pepper let out a single, loud, anguished sob and then she was falling against him. She was wrapping her arms around his neck and crying into his shoulder and letting her hand run through his hair and crying some more.
Then she started hitting him, still crying, “Don’t ever ever ever ever do anything like that ever again.”
He cupped her face, managing to distract her from hitting him, “I promise honey.”
Then he kissed her, and it was passionate and wet and Pepper and home and he didn’t want to come up for air.
Then, suddenly, something caused him to stop, while still holding the woman in his arms close, and he looked down. It was the only thing that could have stopped him, really.
Morgan’s voice came from a spot by Pepper’s waist to his left, “Daddy? Are you really back?”
Tony linked his fingers through Pepper’s and tugged her down with him as he knelt to look his daughter in the eyes, “I’m back Morguna.”
Morgan crossed her arms and looked at him appraisingly, a look that was completely her mother through and through, “For good?”
Tony nodded, “For good. I promise Morguna.”
Morgan thought for a second and then nodded, “Good. I told everyone you were coming back. Now you can help me catch Peter. He’s a fish.”
Tony chuckled and drew her in for a hug, during which he kissed her on the head, hard.
Then he looked up at Peter, who could well have been imitating a fish. His mouth was hanging open in a big O, and only closed to fall back open again. His eyes were wide and unblinking. He flapped his arms about in sporadic, jerky motions, rather like fins.
Tony couldn’t help the grin spilling over his face as he looked at the three people before him.
Peter flapped his arms about some more, “Mr. Stark? Sir? I mean… It’s not… It’s… it’s really you?”
Tony was starting to feel like an idiot for grinning so much but he couldn’t bring himself to care, “Yep, it’s me kid. Are you ever going to call me Tony on a regular basis? I know you said it at least once on the battlefield. No going back now.”
Peter didn’t say anything and Tony’s look softened, “It’s really good to see you back here kid.”
Peter stuttered, “You too. I mean, cause, you were dead… or we thought you were dead… and like, there’s memorials and stuff and so it was pretty convincing… I mean… Well I also saw you die; so there’s that too… but like… Did you die and come back to life? Do you remember dying? What was death like? Is that a rude question? I hope that’s not a rude question it’s just seeing you here is a little crazy cause you were dead and it’s a little hard to process and I just… I really missed you Mr. Stark. I mean, uh, we all did, cause you’re such a big public figure and you like have your fingers in a lot of pies, as Aunt May says. We have pie back at the house. Are you hungry? Does being dead make you hungry? Sorry that was probably rude again—”
While Peter spoke, Tony wrapped an arm around his wife’s shoulders and she buried her face in his neck, hiding a chuckle at Peter’s babbling, and he pulled Morgan closer with his other arm.
Eventually, he took pity on the kid, and interrupted him, “Kid, breathe.”
Peter stopped, and then nodded, “Right. Breathing. Right. That’s important.”
Not having a hand free, Tony gestured down with his chin toward the family hug he’d formed with Pepper and Morgan, “Get in here already, kid.
Immediately Peter ran toward them and came up right behind Morgan. Stretching Tony managed to get his arm around Morgan and Peter both and held all three members of his family tight. Turning, he buried his face into Pepper’s hair, breathing in the scent of her conditioner, and if he cried a little bit… well… no one commented on it.
Finally, they were all together, and they were safe.
A fair distance away, two couples, two women and men in total, watched the family embrace.
“See Natty? I told you we could pull it off!” an adult Morgan said to her boyfriend.
Tony, a far older Tony to be exact, with graying hair and a good many wrinkles, spoke up while leaning on a red and yellow cane, “That was all you Morguna.”
Nathaniel grinned, “Yeah, but I think if you hadn’t done it the Morgan in this timeline would have figured out a way to get her dad back. You’ve never been one to settle, Morgs.”
Pepper, the adult Morgan’s mother, smiled serenely, graceful even in old age, but shook her head wryly, “That’s the Stark genes. They see something wrong, then they fix it. Doesn’t matter if it’s impossible.”
Adult Morgan smiled as she prepared to teleport the four of them back to their own timeline.
Unknowingly, she quoted her dad’s words from long before she was born.
“That’s what we do. We fix things.”
Tony,—the one just returned from being not-dead—Pepper, Peter and Morgan stayed in their hug for several minutes until Tony could feel Morgan wiggling a little. He loosened his grip on her.
Morgan looked up at him and he looked down at her.
Morgan spoke, seriousness displayed across every feature, “Daddy, we should buy you a welcome back gift, like we got Uncle Happy after he broke his leg.”
Tony nodded, just as serious, “Is that so Morgan H. Stark? What did you have in mind?”
Morgan grinned, “We should get you lots of cheeseburgers and juice pops, but you should share them with me, cause Mommy says when you have too much of something it’s good to share it.”
There was silence for a split second, but then all at once Tony, Pepper, and Peter began howling with laughter.
Tony lifted Morgan up and twirled her around, setting her on his shoulders. Using one hand to keep her steady, he used his other to intertwine his fingers with Pepper’s.
“Cheeseburgers. That sounds perfect Morguna. We’ll get you more cheeseburgers than you can eat. More cheeseburgers than even Peter can eat!”
Morgan, who’d learned something of Peter’s fast metabolism, opened her eyes wide in amazement, “That’s a lot of cheeseburgers.”
Tony began leading them back to the lake house, “We’ll get it delivered though. I don’t want to leave any time soon.”
Morgan cheered and then began wiggling to get down. Once she reached the ground she grasped Peter’s hand and began marching ahead on her tiny legs.
Dragging Peter with her, she huffed up at him, “Come on, Petey. We’re getting cheeseburgers!”
Tony watched them and stopped for a second to look at Pepper, “I’m serious, you know. I’m not leaving. I’m not leaving, ever again.”
Pepper smiled her beautiful smile and leaned in to kiss him.
“Let’s start with ordering those cheeseburgers for the young Madame Secretary, and go from there. We’ve got plenty of time to figure it out.”
Tony smiled, thinking of a long life with Pepper, Morgan, Peter, Happy, Rhodey… He needed to get Harley to visit more. He also remembered a conversation with an older Pepper from a different timeline, and wondered if his Pepper would one day look the same.
He smiled more broadly, “Will that be all, Mrs. Stark?”
Pepper pulled him closer, kissing him before simply looking into his eyes, their noses brushing each other, “Not in the least, Mr. Stark.”
Together, following Morgan and Peter, they made their way back to the lake house.