Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Mary Fitzpatrick would always be the one that got away.

Tony had been at a conference in Berlin when he met the virologist. Despite the fact that her field was completely different from his own, Tony was captivated.

He wasn’t even drunk when he invited her to his room, only to be surprisingly shot down. That didn’t stop Tony as he looked her up and surprised her at her workplace.

(“Tony Stark? What are you doing here?” Mary asked, crossing her arms with a frown.

“Was in the area,” he replied with a grin. “Come have lunch with me!”

“Oh, so you’re going to be that way,” Mary growled. “Let me rephrase the question: what are you doing here, in Atlanta, 2500 miles away from California?”

“Lunch!” Mary buried her face in her hands.)

At first Tony just wanted her, to soothe his bruised ego from the rejection. Then it slowly bloomed to something more as they talked over lunch, bits and pieces of their life intertwining. A dinner date here and there, and soon Tony was captivated again, ego forgotten as he realized how brilliant and funny and human she was when Mary started to drop the wall between them.

He wanted to marry her right there and then. Tony figured Mary may be getting there as well, inviting him to stay at her apartment. Of course, he took up the offer, staying with her over the weekends. There were Saturdays when Tony brought her out to see the sights – and by sights he would fly her on his private jet to Hong Kong, Tokyo, Paris, wherever. They managed to avoid the press because, after all, it was a one-day thing.

Then there were some Saturdays when Tony would arrive with an armful of takeout to find manuscripts all over the floor and the sound of Mary humming as she played the piano. Unlike Tony who tinkered and built new things to explode as a hobby, Mary was music. She would be scribbling tunes or lyrics, wearing either an oversize shirt or a band t-shirt as her other hand played out a tune.

(It was always his shirt. Mary had turned bright red as she admitted that it smelled like him. Tony started leaving a few more shirts just for her.)

Sunday mornings tended to have them being lazy in bed, Tony drawing up schematics on his next inventions while Mary would be figuring out the cure for some lethal disease.

It was funny how some of his greatest weapons came from looking at her research (it made Tony feel ill now after Afghanistan.)

And then Mary suddenly disappeared.

When Tony dropped by the CDC, he was surprised when they told him she left. When he went to her apartment it had been emptied, as though she was never there. For months he drowned himself in alcohol, maniacally searching for any traces of her. Eventually Rhodey managed to pull Tony away from his self-destruction, and in turn Tony drowned himself in work.

Then Afghanistan happened. Obie’s betrayal. New York, Sokovia, Berlin. The team was shattered and gone in the wind.

The only good thing that came out of all this was Peter Parker. Sure, he had messed up a few times – the ferry disaster came to mind – but the boy was smart and could mostly keep up with Tony’s thought process. After May had found out about Peter’s extracurricular activities as Spider-Man, Tony had nearly been rendered deaf as she screamed at him before making him promise to be a real mentor and to keep Peter safe. Of course, Tony promised and he kept his promises.

He just never meant for Peter to become such an integral part of his life. Peter’s eyes always shone whether in training or in the lab, and Tony would question if this is what being a mentor was like.

It didn’t take long for Tony to question if this was what being a father was like.

(“Any chance I can, you know, adopt him, May?” Tony asked over coffee one day. May raised an eyebrow.

“Sorry, he’s my kid, Tony,” May replied and took a sip of coffee. “Get your own.”)

Chapter Text

Helen had demanded that Peter be given a complete work-up after the third time he was shot and stabbed. May had agreed wholeheartedly while Tony and Peter were reluctant about it. It helped that Rhodey and Pepper also pushed for Peter’s work-up, which led to their current setting.

Helen was behind her desk with her tablet, showing the results while May and Peter sat across from her, May with her own tablet showing Peter’s results. Tony was also there, leaning against the wall with his arms cross and awaiting the results.

“Everything looks fine physically,” Helen was explaining, scrolling through her tablet. “Heart rate is higher due to your enhancement but looks and sounds good. Lungs, eyes, hearing, reflexes all look good. Blood work all looks clean.

“I would still like you to come in once a month to check,” she added. “It’s just a precaution, in case your DNA is still mutating.”

“More needles?” Peter groaned.

“More needles, I’m afraid.” Helen gave him a sympathetic look while May elbowed him with a smirk, a quiet chuckle from Tony. The smirk quickly disappeared, replaced with a frown.

“Are you sure you got the tests here done right?” May asked as she looked up from the tablet. Peter looked over at May with a questioning look while Helen tilted her head slightly.

“Everything in here is state-of-the-art,” Tony said. “It’s always correct. Why?”

“Because it says here Peter’s blood-type is A+,” May replied. “Richard is B+ and Mary is O+.” Tony’s eyebrows shot up while Peter’s jaw fell open slightly. The only surprise from Helen was a blink.

“I see,” Helen said. She scrolled down. “Well, I could run the blood work again, but the labs are generally correct.” May exchanged a look with Peter and Peter shook his head.

“Knowing Mr. Stark, he probably had the labs run them three times,” Peter said with a weak grin.

“Of course,” Tony agreed and Helen let out a soft laugh. “Hell, now that we have your DNA on file, we can look up who your biological dad is.” May and Peter exchanged another look before Peter shook his head.

“Nah, I, uh, I’m good,” he said softly. “Maybe another time.” Tony just shrugged as May handed the tablet back to Helen.

.

.

“So. I’m confused,” Peter stated as they sat down for dinner. “I mean, dad wasn’t really my dad? How? I thought him and mom were together since, you know, forever.”

“So did I,” May replied. “Ben made it sound like Richard and Mary were heads over heels for each other. They practically moved in with each other down in Philly.” Peter hummed, slowing down his eating as he looked up at May.

“Hey, May?”

“Yeah?”

“Am I… Am I still your kid?” May looked at him with surprise, taking in Peter’s worried look, his tense shoulders. A smile lighted on her face.

“Peter, you’ll always be my kid,” she reassured. Relief crossed his face and Peter smiled. When they started clearing away the dishes, Peter spoke again.

“I bet Mr. Stark’s going to go digging,” Peter said with a sigh. May snorted.

“You know what? I think so too,” May replied with a shake of her head. “You think he wants pictures? God knows, your parents were super camera-shy, but I did manage to snap a couple pics. I’ll dig up the old photo albums.”

.

.

.

Of course, Tony wasn’t going to let the issue lie. Richard Parker wasn’t Peter’s biological father? Now that’s a mystery right there and Tony needed to know.

Suffice to say, Tony was intrigued.

There was oddly a lack of pictures and information for one Mary Patterson and one Richard Parker. That just drew more of Tony’s need to solve the mystery. He dug through all the SHIELD files and, surprise, surprise, while there was no mention of Mary Patterson, Tony did track down an Agent Richard Parker who was killed in the line of duty.

Tony was very intrigued.

The kid had mention that both his father and uncle had been in law enforcement, but Peter had thought Richard was FBI or CIA. Turned out Peter’s dad – or is it stepdad now with the DNA thing? – was a lot more bad-ass than most US agents.

Speaking of DNA, Tony had tried to respect Peter’s wishes and not try to match his DNA.

Key word was tried.

Unfortunately, when he came up with all the dead-ends for Mary Patterson, Tony decided what the hell, pulled up Peter’s DNA result and had FRIDAY run for results. Then he wandered off to the kitchen to fix himself another cup of coffee, tablet in hand as he made notes on another upgrade feature for the Spider Suit—

(“Uh, Mr. Stark?” Peter started nervously. “N-not that I don’t appreciate it, but, uh, are some of these upgrades necessary?”

“Why, what’s wrong?” Tony asked, turning his chair to look at the teen.

“Well, Instant Kill Mode isn’t something, you know. Um, I don’t really need it.”

“You’ll need it one day.”

“No, I really don’t. And KAREN keeps suggesting it, is this the start of SKY-NET?”)

—and maybe take another look at the Accords. Ever since the Coney Island incident, Ross had been breathing down Tony’s neck for information on Spider-Man. Of course, Tony didn’t give him anything, seeing as the kid was not an Avenger, and much to his annoyance, realized that St— Rogers may have had a good point in not signing.

(He was never going to admit it. The man had tried to kill via shield in the chest.)

Besides, the Parkers had grown on him, loudly and warmly joining in his tiny family. May and Pepper got along quite well, often joining forces much to Tony’s amused horror in demanding he take better care of himself. Peter had been a little intimidated with Pepper at first but warmed up quickly, and Tony could tell in that moment that Pepper was completely attached to the kid.

As for Rhodey, after his initial anger at Tony of discovering Peter was Spider-Man, he seemed to take on the mantle of uncle with the kid. Rhodey always was a grounding force to Tony so it didn’t surprise him that Rhodey’s influence would affect Peter as well. Both May and Rhodey also got along quite well, her husband a former military man, and combined with Pepper being the voices of reason in the group.

(It really evened out in the end, both Tony and Peter’s energy to their calm influence. Not too many explosions and everybody still had fun.)

And if he really had to admit it, under threat of pain and suffering, Tony needed the loud chaos of the Parkers in his life. After Siberia, he’d been so wrapped up in his lab, angry at the betrayal, not paying attention to anything or anyone, focused on trying to straighten out his life. Then Peter brought in the chaos, a small tornado of mistakes and need for attention.

(Tony may or may not have had a small heart-attack when Happy called about the crashed plane. The little shit had decided on another trip in the sky, this time without his suit.

Not that he was impressed. No, not impressed. Being impressed sets a bad precedent to the kid.

Okay, so maybe Tony was a little impressed.)

May, on the other hand, was a hurricane, a true New Yorker who didn’t put up with any of Tony’s bull-shit. After finding out about Peter’s vigilante activity and screaming at him, May calmly and firmly sat Tony down and began to work with him, setting down ground rules. It had taken some time for either of them to get use to each other, but with Peter as their main concern and buffer, somehow it had changed to a partnership of sorts.

Mostly to keep Peter out of trouble, but damn, just talking to May seemed to do wonders for Tony’s own tattered soul.

“Boss, I have the paternity and maternity results,” FRIDAY announced, interrupting his thoughts.

“Cool, find anything?” Tony said, taking a sip of coffee.

“Maternity results have concluded a Mary Fitzpatrick as Peter’s mother,” FRIDAY said. Tony choked and spat out his coffee, cup placed none-too-gently on the counter as he scrolled through the results on the tablet.

“Mary?” Tony sputtered out in shock. He didn’t bother asking FRIDAY for the paternity result, immediately sliding the window over. There, in bold letters, was her name. “What the fuck? Is this right, FRIDAY?”

“I have performed the test three times, boss,” FRIDAY answered. “The concluding results have been the same all three times.” Tony dropped the tablet on the counter, running his hands through his hair as he stared wildly at it.

“Holy fucking shit,” he breathed. “Holy fucking shit.”

Chapter Text

His cell rang. Clint looked at the number. Caller ID revealed that it was Stark.

Huh.

He answered it as he watched Nathaniel play with the soft blocks.

“Stark.”

“Barton.” His expression turned stony at Stark’s voice.

“Nope, still have no idea where Steve and the others are,” Clint drawled.

“Okay, well now that those answers are out of the way, on to the real ones.” The archer blinked. Nathaniel cooed. “Know a Richard Parker back in your SHIELD glory days?”

“Huh. Wow, Richie Parker. Haven’t heard that name in years,” Clint said in surprise. He shifted to pat Nathaniel on the back, smiling as the boy looked up with a smile of his own. “Why are you asking?”

“Personal interest. SHIELD had him listed as Internal Affairs so I’m guessing not a lot of people liked him.”

“Actually, he was pretty likable,” Clint interrupted. “Good guy, believed in the whole ‘innocent until proven guilty’ schtick.” He stuck his tongue out at Nathaniel who giggled.

“Any field work experience?”

“Eh, was an Army boy, but usually had backup. He was better at investigating and paperwork than fighting. Hell of a shot though. I think Nat backed him a couple times.”

“And he and his backups died during one of his investigations.”

“Yup, sounds right.” He picked up a soft toy and waved it in front of Nathaniel, watching as the boy stared at it in curiosity.

“Huh.” Clint could hear the skepticism from the man. “Any idea what his last investigation was? It’s not in the files.”

“Sorry, I was out of the country.” Stark just grunted then sighed.

“Well, good to know that this file is probably full of lies.” Stark growled, causing Clint to frown. “That’s all I needed to know. Thanks.”

“Wait, wait, what’s going on?” Clint quickly interrupted. “What do you mean the files are full of lies?” There was silence on the other end.

“Line’s not secure enough to talk,” Tony answered. The archer blinked, quirking an eyebrow as he heard Stark hum. “Alright. Pack your bags, I’ll see if I can move your house arrest to my place for a while.”

“What.”

“Probably going to need your help anyway, which I do not like to think about, but fuck it.”

“Stark.”

“See you in a couple days.” The line went dead and Clint blinked at the phone.

“What,” Clint said.

.

.

.

Tony called Pepper next – he would have called Rhodey next, but glancing at the time and confirming with FRIDAY, his friend was currenting in PT.

(“Mary ran off with Richard Parker to have his baby?! When the fuck did she even have time to meet him?” Tony raged, angry and hurt at the fact that the woman he loved could do this to him.

“Boss, Richard Parker isn’t Peter’s biological father,” FRIDAY reminded him. Tony paused.

“Fuck, right, yeah, of course, what the fuck was I thinking,” Tony mumbled, the rush of adrenaline dissipating just as quickly. Running his hands over his face, Tony leaned against the counter and stared off at a distance. “Jesus Christ, Peter is Mary’s kid, I—”

He went quiet. Peter was born in October.

Mary had disappeared in February.

“FRIDAY, who’s the biological father?” Tony asked slowly, even though he already knew the answer. FRIDAY actually hesitated before answering.

“You are, boss.”

“Holy fucking shit.”)

Honestly Tony wasn’t sure what to expect when he gave Pepper the news of hey, turns out the kid we all love so much and wished was my son? He’s my biological son for real. He still wasn’t sure how to react – a part of him was filled with excitement that Peter was his while another part was freaking the fuck out because Peter nearly got himself killed so many times, and a few of those times may have been his fault.

And suddenly Peter’s selflessness and guilt complex made so much sense to Tony. Instead of Tony’s way of helping, which usually involved money and signatures, Peter used himself.

Fuck, the suit is definitely getting an overhaul if only so Peter didn’t kill himself because of said selflessness and guilt complex.

(Like father, like son. Oh god, just those four words terrified the hell out of Tony.)

“Tony?” Pepper answered on the third ring.

“Hey, Pep,” he replied shakily. There was a pause.

“Everything okay?” Pepper asked softly.

“Yeah.” Tony closed his eyes, listening to the concern in her voice. “Yeah.”

“Tony…”

“Okay, so maybe a slight problem? And not sure what to do about it,” Tony managed with a half-crazed laugh. “Turns out Peter’s my biological son.”

“…What?” Tony nodded – that was the reaction he was expecting. “How? How did you find that out?”

“Well, remember how you and Rhodey and May all ganged up on me and the kid on doing a complete work-up on him? May spotted his blood-type and pointed out that it didn’t match his parents.” Tony took a sip of his coffee. “So, I, uh, I got curious.”

“And ran a paternity test on Peter’s DNA because now you have it on file,” Pepper surmised.

“Yup.”

“You slept with Peter’s mother.”

“Yeah.” His voice turned soft, memories of Mary coming to mind. “I knew her well.”

“Who was she?” Pepper asked, a tone of curiosity in her voice.

“Mary. Mary Fitzpatrick.”

(“Tony,” she said, her voice still thick with sleep as she sat up slightly in bed. “Time to go?”

“Ugh, yeah,” Tony groaned, leaning forward to kiss her. He hated leaving her and their warm bed. “But I’ll be back tomorrow. Dinner?”

“Hm.” Mary smiled before she kissed him. “We’ll see.”)

Tony got up and began to pace.

“God, I tried looking for her when she suddenly disappeared. Couldn’t find anything, but seeing as Peter’s dad or stepdad or whatever he is now turned out to be a SHIELD agent, maybe he had a hand in her disappearance.”

“You should go find out,” Pepper gently urged. “May should have pictures of them.”

“Yeah, yeah, you’re right.” Tony stopped, bringing up a holographic picture of himself and Mary. It had been a spur of the moment to take a selfie of him, kissing Mary on the cheek as she smiled at the camera. “I. Yeah.”

“And I’m sure Peter will be happy,” Pepper continued. “He really looks up to you, Tony.”

“Oh my god, I’m going to fuck him up,” Tony groaned, dropping his face into his hands.

“You’re not going to fuck him up,” Pepper admonished. “You haven’t fucked him up.”

“That’s because May, Rhodey and you are here to protect his mental well-being.” Pepper laughed softly then went quiet.

“Are you going to tell Peter?” she asked.

“I, uh. I don’t know. I think I want to talk to May first before I say anything.”

“Okay, good idea.” Pepper let out a giggle. “Hey. We have a kid.” Tony chuckled.

“Yeah, I guess we really do now. I’ll let Rhodey know he’s a genuine uncle.” Pepper let out another giggle before saying her good-byes. Another glance at his watch told Tony that Rhodey should be out of PT now.

Rhodey was pretty surprise to learn about Peter’s sudden relation to Tony, but seemed to take it in stride.

“Congratulations, Tony, it’s a boy,” Rhodey deadpanned. Tony snorted. “But, wow, Peter’s mom is Mary Fitzpatrick?”

(“Rhodey, this is Mary Fitzpatrick. Mary, Col. James Rhodes,” Tony introduced. They smiled and shook each other’s hand.

“How much did he pay you to make you say you’re his best friend?” Mary asked teasingly. Rhodey raised an eyebrow and his smile turned mischievous.

“Not enough to not tell you all about his college days, ma’am,” Rhodey replied. “I’m sure you can use all the blackmail material I’m about to tell you against him.” Tony let out an outraged squawk as Rhodey offered her his arm and she took it.)

“Yeah, it’s definitely her.” Tony rubbed his face with his hand. “I’m, uh, I’m going to have a chat with May tomorrow morning, after the kid’s gone.” Rhodey hummed in the phone

“You don’t think Mary pulled the disappearing act because of Peter, do you?” he asked. Tony blinked, a worried frown crossing his face.

“I, uh, I didn’t think of that,” Tony replied slowly. “But Mary wouldn’t do that if she had a choice. There’s a reason why Mary showed up here in New York with a SHIELD agent.”

“A SHIELD agent?” A pause on Rhodey’s end. “Tony. Tell me you didn’t.”

“Call up Barton and have his house arrest transferred over to the Compound? No, I didn’t,” Tony said. “FRIDAY did.” Rhodey sighed loudly, his exasperation clear.

“Ross is going to ask questions,” Rhodey warned.

“Ross is always going to ask stupid questions that have already been answered,” Tony replied with a huff. “Besides, Barton isn’t doing anything important, might as well get him to help figure out why a supposedly dead SHIELD agent ran and hid with my ex-girlfriend for almost a year.”

“Just don’t kill him, Tones.”

“No promises, platypus, but I’ll do my best.” Rhodey snorted then let out a chuckle.

“You know my mom’s going to want to meet Peter,” he said. “A new grand-nephew to dote on.” Tony laughed at that.

Chapter Text

May was surprised when Tony called her Wednesday morning. Blinking in confusion, she swiped to accept the call.

“Tony, don’t tell me my kid is skipping school already,” she answered. “He literally just left.”

“What? Oh, no, actually wanted to talk to you about his parents,” Tony said.

“Oh my god, we were right,” May said with a laugh. “Alright, alright, you’re lucky I have Wednesdays off. Should we meet somewhere?”

“No need, I’m landing on the roof now. See you in a minute.” May blinked, looked at her phone as Tony hung up and gave a start when a minute later there was a knock on the door. Quickly she walked over and opened the door, frowning as she let Tony in. The man looked disheveled, as though he hadn’t gone to sleep.

“Wow, you look like shit,” May automatically said, closing the door. Tony rolled his eyes, glancing around the living room as though to confirm Peter was out before making a beeline towards the kitchen. May calmly walked back to the kitchen table, taking her seat as she watched Tony make a cup of coffee.

The man had come over enough times that May was beginning to wonder if Tony was lonely. She had been to the Compound a few times, and while impressive in size, May had the feeling that it was too big, too quiet for Tony. In the beginning the few times Tony came over were a little chilly, but Peter loved having him there so May eventually had to start opening up.

Opening up somehow snowballed to now having lunch with Tony Stark every other Friday, discussing Peter’s classes, decathlon, and “extracurricular activities” before going to pick Peter up for his trip to the Compound. Sometimes Tony would even stay late, Peter sitting between them as they watched movies and ate popcorn together, taking the kid up to the Compound the next day.

(May had taken a picture of Tony and Peter asleep on the couch, the latter curled up against the former. Pepper had loved it while Rhodey teased Tony about it.

Tony scowled, but saved a copy into his own files.)

Tony would offer money for Peter’s after-school activities, but May would always turn it down – Ben’s life insurance and her work at the hospital helped cover the cost. She did, with much hesitancy, take the offer for food – feeding an enhanced teenager wasn’t cheap, and Peter was hungry all the time.

May watched as Tony took a seat next to her and took a sip of his coffee, grimacing slightly.

“I need to get you better coffee,” he muttered.

“Coffee snob,” May teased. He gave her a snort. “So? Don’t tell me you spent the last few days looking up who could be Peter’s biological father.”

“Then I won’t.” May sighed.

“Alright, what’s on your mind?” she started. “What’d you find?” Tony was quiet for a moment.

“You have any pictures of Peter’s mom?” he asked. May tilted her head.

“Actually, yeah. Peter and I found them Monday night.” She got up and went to Peter’s room. “God, Mary and Richard? So camera-shy. I was lucky to even get a picture of them.” May padded back, putting down the two pictures onto the table.

One was of Richard and Mary with Ben and herself, a family picture. Ben had managed to convince the two to take a family photo. The second was Mary in the hospital room holding a baby Peter in her arms, a soft smile on her face as Peter looked up at her with his big brown eyes. May couldn’t help but smile at that one, remembering how happy Mary was.

Tony took the picture and May looked up, blinking in surprise at the sudden shine in Tony’s eyes.

“It is her,” he said softly.

“You knew Mary?” May asked. “That’s a surprise, she lived and worked down in Philadelphia.”

“Mary Patterson, right?” May nodded. “Huh. Peter was born in October?”

“Yup, October 18,” she confirmed. May could see the wheels turning in Tony’s head before he gently placed the photo down and pulled out his phone. He tapped it then placed the phone down, sliding it over to May. She took it, looking down at it then frowned.

“Wait, is this…?” she started.

“Paternity test,” Tony answered.

“But, wait a minute, Tony. This says—”

“Peter’s mine.” He ran a hand over his face. “The timing isn’t just a coincidence.”

“What?” Tony got up and started pacing, and May watched, waiting patiently.

“I met a Mary Fitzpatrick at a conference in Berlin almost, god, twenty years ago,” he started. “Mary was a virologist, worked for the CDC, super smart, and had the audacity to reject me.” Tony grinned at that as May let out a chuckle.

“So, being the young egomaniac that I was, I started going to Atlanta to see her. Really riled her up, that’s for sure, but, uh.” He stopped pacing and looked down at May, a soft expression on his face. “I thought she was the one. You know, the person I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.”

“I get it,” May replied with a smile. That was how she felt when it came to Ben. Tony’s expression turned sheepish and he ran a hand through his hair.

“Anyway, she suddenly disappeared,” Tony continued, resuming his pacing. “Like she was there for lunch with me one day, disappeared when I came by to pick her up for dinner the next day. All her social media accounts deactivated, credit cards canceled, everything. And believe me, I tried everything to find her. Hell, when Romanoff dumped all the SHIELD files onto the Internet, I even went through that.”

“And nothing?” May prompted. Tony stopped, his hands leaning on one of the kitchen table chairs.

“Nothing,” he replied. “Even SHIELD, well known for collecting information on almost everybody in the world, had nothing on Mary. I guess you can imagine my surprise when I got the DNA results back and it lists me and Mary as Peter’s biological parents.” Tony picked up his cup and took a gulp of his lukewarm coffee, grimacing slightly.

“Yeah, I’m totally getting you some of the better stuff,” he muttered as he took another gulp. May hummed as she turned the story in her head. God, it was almost like a Lifetime mystery movie except now it involved her family.

“How does Richard fit into this?” she asked. Tony looked at her.

“Well, Peter said he worked for the government,” Tony said slowly. May nodded.

“Homeland,” she answered. “Both he and Ben were military men. I think Richard preferred the investigation part, he always had a head for mysteries. Ben told me Richard wanted to keep the country safe from inside threats.”

“What if I told you he was a SHIELD agent?” May blinked then frowned in surprise. “Yeah, I found his file in the SHIELD database, along with all the investigations he was part of. Richard was part of Homeland, but it looked like Fury snapped him up soon after. Purely Internal Affairs, I guess he was looking for corruption in the ranks.

“And I think he may have stumbled onto something big,” Tony concluded with a sigh. “Big enough that he didn’t leave any files or notes.”

“What? What do you mean?” May asked, wringing her hands nervously.

“Because the SHIELD files listed him killed in action almost a year before the plane crash.” He straightened, a hand sliding over his mouth. “And whatever that something was, it had to do with Mary.”

“Holy fuck.” Tony gave May an amused look at her choice of words. “That, uh, actually that explains a few things. Richard always seemed to be on the look-out for something, and Mary, well, neither of them acted like a married couple.”

(Mary was humming a tune to herself as she patted her swollen stomach when May wandered into the guest room with a couple glasses of lemonade.

“Almost time, yeah?” May said, handing one over to Mary.

“Just about,” the woman replied, taking a sip. “Not going to lie, but I can’t wait for the kid to come out. Ugh, he’s just so energetic, like his dad.”

May raised an eyebrow. Richard? Energetic? If anything, the man could stand so still, birds would be landing on him, thinking he was a statue.)

A sudden thought and May got up from her seat, padding back into the kitchen. Opening one of the drawers, May dug through it before retrieving a key and a pad of paper. She returned, setting the key down before Tony before taking her seat.

“We have a storage unit,” May began as she picked up her pen and wrote down an address, “because obviously we can’t fit everything in here. Mary and Richard were thinking of moving up here so they brought most of their stuff. Ben and I, well, we didn’t really clean it out because we normally don’t have that much stuff to begin with, so everything in there should still be collecting dust.” She slid the paper over and Tony picked both the paper and key up.

“Thanks,” he said then paused. “I guess there’s just one more question for you, May. The paternity result. Should I… should we tell Peter about it?” May hummed thoughtfully at that then shook her head.

“Not now, I think” she replied. “I don’t think Peter’s in any hurry to find out, but if he does ask, we tell him the truth.” Tony nodded, rubbing a hand through his goatee.

“I’m, uh, I’m still going to redo my will, you know,” he said. “And, well, uh, if you’re fine with it, file for joint custody.” May blinked.

“I’m okay with the joint custody,” she answered slowly, “but the will? Are you sure? Maybe you should think about it—”

“No, I was, well, Pepper and I were already talking about it. Before.” Tony fidgeted with the cup, turning it around with his fingertips. “There was another kid I thought about, but, well, I’ve known Peter longer and now with the whole paternity thing—”

“Now you have a legitimate heir,” May concluded. “Tony, what about after you and Pepper marry? The baby you two would have—”

“Won’t exist,” he said quietly. May blinked and Tony gave her a wry smile. “Age. Palladium poisoning. Too many injuries to count. You know, the works.”

(“I’m sorry,” Pepper said quietly, tears in her eyes.

“I think in this case, it’s definitely my fault,” Tony replied with a sad smile. He pulled Pepper into a firm hug, closing his eyes as she hugged back tightly.)

“Oh, Tony…” May reached a hand out to take his, giving him a squeeze.

“So, I guess I’m saying that Peter really is my one and only son,” Tony said, squeezing May’s hand back.

Chapter Text

“Stark.”

“Barton.” They looked at each other for a moment, Tony taking a gulp of his coffee as Clint scowled at him. “You look good. How’s the family?”

“Fine. Being a stay-at-home dad is kind of weird.” Tony hummed then turned.

“You know where your room is,” Tony called out. Clint huffed but made his way towards his room. It hadn’t changed much, but he could tell the cleaning lady had come by. Dropping off his bag and coat, Clint made his way back out and towards the kitchen.

Tony was there, looking at something on his tablet and drinking his coffee. He looked up as Clint wandered in and towards the fridge.

“So? Why am I here?” Clint asked as he pulled out a bottle of beer, popping the cap.

“You’re here because I need to know SHIELD protocols and personnel, both current and former,” Tony replied, placing the cup down. “Especially the former.”

“Parker?” Tony nodded then picked up the tablet, handing it to Clint.

“SHIELD files had him and two others killed in action,” Tony said. “Gunned down and set on fire by a rogue agent.”

“Yeah, seems right.” Clint looked through the file, nodding. “Report is legit too.”

Tony moved up next to him and swiped the screen. This time an article on a Swiss-bound airline that crashed in the middle of the Atlantic, dated almost a year later. Clint blinked, shooting a puzzled glance at Tony before reading through it. He blinked again when he found Richard Parker’s photo in the list of dead.

“Wait a minute,” he started, placing the bottle down on the counter. “What the hell?”

“Yup.” Tony crossed his arms. Clint looked up at Tony, narrowing his eyes. He opened his mouth to ask how and why Tony would be interested in Parker when FRIDAY interrupted.

“Boss, Peter has arrived.”

“Shit, I forgot,” Tony mumbled, running a hand over his face. “Let the kid know I’m in the kitchen.” Clint frowned as Tony grabbed the tablet from his hand, minimizing the windows. A teenage boy suddenly appeared, eyes bright and a smile that seemed to light up the room.

“Hey, Mr. Stark,” he greeted cheerfully. “I’ve got a bunch of homework to do, but when I’m done I can help… out…” He trailed off, eyes wide as he zeroed in on Clint.

“Holy shit, it’s Hawkeye,” he breathed, and Clint smiled, hearing the awe in the boy’s voice.

“Language, Peter,” Tony said with a groan.

“But, but, but,” the boy Peter said, “Hawkeye.” Clint pushed away from the counter and approached the boy.

“Clint Barton,” he introduced himself, a hand out.

“Peter Parker,” the teenager replied, taking and shaking his hand with wide eyes and a grin. Clint managed to school himself to not show any surprise at the name, and noted a couple of interesting features about Peter as he quickly looked the kid over. “Um, don’t take this the wrong way or anything, but, uh, aren’t you suppose to be, um, under, under house arrest? Or, uh, something?”

“SHIELD stuff,” Tony said flippantly. “You know, HYDRA bad, SHIELD getting back to good, same old, same old. Also figured you can learn a little self-defense, don’t think I haven’t forgotten about that Flash kid.” Clint gave Tony a sharp look, one which the man ignored.

“Really?” Peter asked, sounding oddly happy.

“Yeah, figured the old man could do with some exercise.”

“I am so going to get my butt kicked, and it will be awesome,” Peter breathed. Tony rolled his eyes while Clint snorted, a smile creeping onto his face again.

“Just get your homework done first and we’ll figure out the schedule,” Tony ordered. Peter nodded and with a shy “bye” to Clint, grabbed an apple and walked away. “FRIDAY, let me know when he’s done.”

“Huh,” Clint said. “Didn’t know Parker had a kid.”

“He doesn’t.” Clint looked at him and Tony ignored him. “Parker was protecting the kid’s mom for a reason. I want to know what it was. Probably had her slap his name on the birth certificate so no one can trace the kid.”

“Who was she?”

“Mary Fitzpatrick. Virologist.” Tony scratched his chin. “And by virologist, I mean the worst kind. Ebola-Black Plague-level.” Clint winced.

“Shit. I can think of a bunch of people who could use her skill set,” the archer said.

“And then some,” Tony agreed.

“Doesn’t explain why Parker would be protecting her.” Clint picked up his bottle and took a swig. “Again, he doesn’t do field work, and if he’s securing a witness Parker always had back-up.” He paused then tilted his head.

“Unless Parker realized SHIELD had already been compromised,” he slowly said. “Pull up Parker’s file again. Who signed off on his supposed death?” Tony pulled up the file, scrolling down.

“Barbara Morse,” Tony replied. Clint nodded.

“Bobbi, huh? Yeah, he probably would get her to sign off,” Clint said. “She specializes in covert ops, undercover and the likes. Parker investigated her a couple times after long deep cover missions, just to make sure she wasn’t about to go rogue. Probably had a body for Parker before he ran.”

“Great, where is she?” Clint shook his head.

“Your guess is as good as mine. She got burned a while back, been running since.”

“Damn.” Clint studied the engineer for a moment.

“Kid know about you being his dad?” he asked and watched as Tony froze, eyes wide in surprise. “Yeah, I notice things. Kid’s got your eyes and smile.” Clint took another drink, watching as Tony let out a slow breath.

“Let’s just say I found out a few days ago,” Tony slowly admitted. “And now that I know, well, I haven’t a fucking clue what to do about it. Kid doesn’t want to find out about his biological dad yet, so I’m… I’m respecting that for now.”

“And when he does ask?”

“Well, May and I have decided that we’ll tell him.” Clint quirked an eyebrow. “May’s the kid’s aunt. We may or may not be, uh, co-parenting the kid.” A pause and Clint began to chuckle.

“Look at you, Stark,” Clint said with a grin. “Congratulations, dad, it’s a boy.”

“Shut up, bird-brain.”

.

.

.

Saturday, April 29, 2017, 1:37pm

When Clint started showing Peter some self-defense moves, he instantly became suspicious. For one, the kid was a little too agile for a nerd (and boy, was he a nerd. He seemed to jump from topic to topic, from ‘Star Wars’ to ‘Star Trek’ to whatever science-related thing he and Stark were currently working on.)

Another thing was how Peter managed to automatically catch things without looking – Clint had tossed the boy a water bottle and Peter had been busy wiping the sweat from his brown, not paying attention, yet he caught it without a problem

Most people always seem to think the most observant of the Avengers was Nat, and she probably is, but Nat was also the most vocal in her observations. Clint usually let her take the lead in calling people out, so it was with some amusement when he called out the kid in front of Tony.

“So. You the spider chatterbox in Berlin?” Clint asked casually as they sat down for lunch. Peter froze, confirming his suspicion while Tony narrowed his eyes. “Need to work on hiding your identity a bit better. Then again, you were up against me.”

Tony closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose while Peter seemed to shrink in his seat. Clint just continued eating his chicken wrap.

“How the fu—frick did you figure that out? I don’t think you even fought the kid,” Tony ground out.

“Sam, Scott and Steve did though,” Clint replied, raising an eyebrow. “Speaking of which, really, Tony? The kid was, what, twelve then?”

“Fourteen,” Peter mumbled. Clint groaned, dropping his forehead against his hand and closing his eyes.

“Oh my god, Steve and Scott are going to freak,” he groaned.

“They really shouldn’t, I’ve fought other guys just as, uh, old? Older? And, uh, bigger? M-maybe not as, uh, not as big as the, um, Tiny-Big Dude, that was so awesome, by the way and, uh…” Peter stammered out. Clint lifted his head, studying the boy then sighed.

“Kid, start eating already,” Tony said and Peter nodded.

“So aside from the fact that you desperately need self-defense class while being Spider-Kid—”

“Spider-Man,” Peter mumbled between bites of fries.

“—what’s this about Flash? You could pound that Flash kid into dust.”

“I’ve asked that question to the kid,” Tony said. “Of course, the kid doesn’t want to beat him up because apparently ‘he can take it.’”

“Well, I can,” Peter added, finishing up his burger and starting on the second. “It’d be weird if suddenly one day I can beat up a guy twice my size though.” Tony rolled his eyes and Clint sighed.

“Look, just because you can doesn’t mean you should,” Tony said. “I don’t want to tell May the asshole broke your collarbone again.”

“Wait, what?!” Clint yelped, straightening at that. “The little shit did what?!”

“Broke his collarbone,” Tony started, glaring at Peter. Peter seemed to sink a little lower into his seat. “And that was after he broke Peter’s wrist. Oh, and what happened after the collarbone? The ribs?”

“I can make sure he never does that to you again,” Clint said darkly. “No one will ever know what happened to him or find his body.”

“Please don’t,” Peter squeaked out while Tony gave a thoughtful “I may take you up on that.”

Chapter Text

It had become tradition for May to come up on Sundays for brunch and stay for most of the day before Happy drove her and Peter home. Rhodey and Pepper would also be there, so long as they weren’t on business, and they would all be in the kitchen cooking and talking about what events that happened this week.

Tony suppose Peter should be thanked for it. It had been a while since he had such rowdy get-togethers, complete with May covering Peter’s ears when the adults brought up raunchier tales over mimosas.

(“You guys know I can still hear the story,” Peter said, his cheeks pink from one of Rhodey’s stories about both his and Tony’s days at MIT.

“Yes, we know, but it’s still cute how we all try to preserve your innocence,” May said with a giggle.)

This time Clint was there to join their brunch. Pepper and Rhodey also showed up, the former managing to clear her schedule. Tony happily pulled her into his arms and kissed her, earning a “Get a room!” from Peter. Somehow both Pepper and Rhodey seemed to easily settle back into some normalcy with Clint, which made Tony a little jealous because Clint was still a god-damn traitor.

(Still, to be fair, he didn’t shove a shield into Tony’s chest.)

Clint was perfectly respectful to May when she showed up, and just like Peter, the woman had somehow charmed her way into Clint’s bubble. Judging by how open the archer was as he laughed with her, Tony decided that both Parkers had the innate ability to be friends with everybody in the world.

Though technically May was a Reilly and Peter was a Stark, but whatever, they were both Parkers.

“Damn it, Peter, you’re going to make me fat,” Rhodey joked as he grabbed another waffle. “Between you and Pepper, I’m surprise we’re all not 300 pounds by now.” Pepper giggled into her mimosa while Peter grinned. Clint snagged more bacon, his eyes twinkling as he glanced at the teen.

“He watches way too many of those Tasty videos,” May said. “Also, he practices at home so you guys don’t have to eat the duds. You’re all welcome, by the way.”

“May!” The adults all started laughing, Tony reaching over to ruffle Peter’s hair as he pouted.

It was when they were cleaning up that Peter dropped the question.

“Hey, Mr. Stark, uh, I was wondering,” Peter started awkwardly. Tony glanced over as he rinsed the plate and handed it over to Peter who placed it into the dishwasher. “I, uh, I think I want to find my dad. My biological dad.”

(It took Peter a week of deep thinking and talking to Ned and MJ to finally decide that yes, he did want to know who his biological father was. After Peter got a name, maybe get a background check to see if he wanted to have said biological father in his life.

He’d still stay with May though, no matter what.)

“Huh. Okay,” Tony said. “Go grab May, I may have already found him.” Peter nodded and wandered off, but Tony could hear him mutter a quiet “Freakin’ knew it” under his breath. He started up the dishwasher and went to the furthest conference room.

“FRIDAY, set Protocol Quiet Hours when Peter and May come in,” he said, pulling up the information. A nervous feeling settled into his stomach and Tony looked up when Peter and May came in, Peter closing the door. The glass windows tinted up, offering them privacy. Tony pulled up a tablet with the paternity test result and handed it over to Peter.

He watched as Peter read it, eyes widening in surprise before looking up at him. May reached out to touch his shoulder, and Peter looked at her, taking in her expression.

“Holy shit,” he breathed.

“Language,” Tony and May chorused, earning a disbelieving laugh from the teenager.

“I—what? But— You’re?” Peter stammered out, stopped and took a breath. “You’re my dad?”

“Looks like it,” Tony replied with a shrug. He wasn’t sure what to expect from Peter aside from shock. Would the kid get angry? Freak out?

“Whoa,” Peter said, eyes wide as he stared at the tablet. “I-I always felt like you were my dad, but I always thought it was because you were my mentor and you looked out for me and all, but now you really are my dad and… Wow. Just. Wow.”

Huh. Apparently, Peter seemed to be taking it pretty well?

“You didn’t know?” Peter asked, looking up at Tony. He shook his head.

“Nope. I knew your mom from a long time ago before she, well, disappeared,” Tony confessed. “When I ran the DNA test – which, by the way, was a last resort because for some reason there was absolutely no information on Mary, and believe me, FRIDAY and I dug deep.” He paused, looking over Peter who was now started to look a bit pale.

“Peter?” Tony prompted worriedly.

“S-sorry, I just,” Peter mumbled. “Whoa. You knew my mom?”

“Brain overload?” May asked with a soft smile.

“Just a bit.” Peter looked down at the table, chewing his bottom lip. “So. Um. What now? And-and wait, why did mom disappear?”

“Well, for the first question, May and I have some thoughts and we’d like your input,” Tony said slowly. “As for the second, well, let me figure it out.”

Chapter Text

The storage unit looked like every other storage units. Tony unlocked it, sliding the shutter up to reveal a mess before them.

“So… what are we looking for?” Clint asked, staring at the clutter before them.

“Your guess is as good as mine,” Tony replied with a deep sigh, running a hand through his hair. “Hopefully Parker left notes or something on why he was on the run.” The two men began to dig through the unit. About half an hour, Tony found Mary’s journals, filled with written melodies and lyrics. Thumbing through the pages, Tony smiled as he found her “Lazy Sundays” song.

(Tony found himself humming the tune as he drew up the schematics for the tank, glancing over at Mary when she looked at him, a faint blush on her cheeks.

“What? It’s catchy,” Tony said.

“It’s pop,” Mary pointed out, “You hate pop.” Tony smiled, putting his tablet aside and pulled her on top of him.

“Then make me forget it.” Mary rolled her eyes then kissed him.)

The journals would definitely be coming with him.

Continuing on, he found Mary’s research, full of terminologies and shorthand that Tony would need to sit down and read through to understand.

“Got something,” Clint suddenly said, thumbing through a notebook. “Looks like Parker’s field notes, dated around his disappearance.” He watched as Clint’s expression tightened as he read through.

“Parker thought he found evidence of traitors in the ranks,” Clint slowly began. “Wasn’t sure who they were or who they worked for. My moneys on HYDRA.”

“I think so too,” Tony agreed as he picked up Mary’s journals and research, and sidled up to Clint. Clint was still reading, eyes narrowing as his lips thinned.

“Stark, what weapons were you working on, back in 2000?” Clint asked slowly.

“Shit, that’s a good question,” the engineer replied. “Everything was military-contract at the time, I’d have to go through my files.”

“We should find out as soon as possible,” Clint said. “Especially any weapons that can be modified for biological uses.” Tony’s eyes widened at the implication then nodded, a wave of nausea running through him. They turned to leave, Clint grabbing the other field notebooks before Tony locked up the unit.

(“I’ll have no part in biological warfare, Stromm,” he overheard Mary hissed, yanking her arm away from the older man. “I make vaccines and cures, not lethal viruses.”

The man had an angry look, opening his mouth, and Tony took the opportunity to intervene.

“Dr. Mary Fitzpatrick,” Tony greeted loudly, a hand out. She automatically took it, a smile on her face and suspicion in her eyes. “Nice to meet you, Tony Stark. I attended your speech here, I would love to talk to you more.”

“Of course, Mr. Stark,” she replied with a tight smile. “Excuse me, Dr. Stromm.” He led her away towards the bar, and Mary let out a breath of relief.

“Thank you, Mr. Stark,” Mary said as they stopped at the bar. Tony gave her his best charming smile, leaning in a bit.

“I wasn’t lying about talking to you some more,” Tony said, a purr in his voice. “Perhaps in a more… private setting.” Mary smiled, leaning in a little closer as well.

“Not in your lifetime,” she answered and walked away.)

“Fuck, I didn’t even think about that,” Tony growled, throwing Mary’s journals in the backseat. He dropped his head against the steering wheel, eyes closed. “Fuck, of course SHIELD would know about me and Mary and what we do. Fuck!”

“To be fair, you didn’t find any of Mary’s work in the files, which is probably a good thing,” Clint said. “Also, you were a pretty colorful fellow at the time.” Tony turned his head slightly to scowl at Clint who just grinned in response. With a sigh Tony straightened and started up the car, ready to head back to the Compound, get some food and look through the files.

“Damn it,” Tony swore as he pulled into the Compound and saw the dark SUVs parked there. “Okay, Barton, just stay in the car. If they make you come out, keep your mouth shut and let me do the talking.” Clint narrowed his eyes as Ross stepped out of the SUV, taking a few steps towards their car. Tony put the car in park and stepped out, a stormy expression on his face.

“Secretary Ross,” Tony greeted tightly. “Fancy meeting you here. What’s the occasion?”

“Stark,” Ross said. His eyes slid over to Clint in the car. “Any reason why you had Barton transferred up to your Compound?”

“Target practice,” Tony easily replied. “New feature for the Iron Man suit, checking to see if they can be taken down. Turns out Barton’s really good at hitting the targets.” There was a muffled snort from the car. Ross just narrowed his eyes at Tony.

“And the rogues?”

“As if Barton knows anything,” Tony answered, rolling his eyes. “The minute he and Lang were put under house-arrest, they shut up. You should know, you and I have both been monitoring everything.” Ross grunted.

“And Spider-Man? Going to give him up, Stark?”

“Spider-Man’s small potato, and also, not an Avenger,” Tony said, rolling his eyes. “He was just there to help catch a war criminal, that’s it. Most times he’s helping little old ladies cross the street and getting cats down from trees. He even joined a game of basketball recently and lost miserably.” There was another muffled snort from the car while Ross glared.

“Trust me, Spider-Man’s a non-issue. I’m surprised you haven’t gone after the Devil Dude and his friends in Hell’s Kitchen,” Tony added. “Is that it? Cool, I have stuff to fix and Barton to help break it.” He turned and got back into the car, sitting there and giving Ross a look to move his shit. A smirk crossed his face as Ross glared at him before getting back into the car, and the caravan left.

“Spider-Man is a small potato?” Clint asked curiously as Tony drove them into the garage.

“I wasn’t kidding when I said he helped old ladies and cats,” Tony said. A stifled snicker. “No, you’re allowed to laugh, god knows I did. The videos are all over YouTube, it’s both hilarious and adorable.”

.

.

.

Over lunch they looked over Richard’s notes, and it hadn’t been pretty. The man had figured out the identities of at least three traitors in the ranks, including John Garrett—

(“Knew he was smart, but he caught onto Garrett that early?” Clint murmured. “No wonder he was a target, Garrett was high on the HYDRA food chain.”)

—before he switched to Mary. Richard had noted that she had been profiled at the time to be beneficial in controlling Tony—

(Tony pushed away the remnants of his lunch, eyes closed and fingers pinching the bridge of his nose. Just by being with her had made Mary a high-value target. God, he should have posted bodyguards like he did now for Pepper.)

—and question marks next to Maya Hansen and OsCorp on the side.

“OsCorp?” Clint asked, looking at Tony.

“Squishy science company, not a fan,” Tony replied with a frown. “Osborn’s a power-hungry asshole, but I’m not sure what they would have to do with Mary since they’re geneticists and bio-chemists. Hansen, on the other hand, I knew her.”

(“I need Stark alive!” Hansen hissed, glaring at Killian. “He’s the only one who can improve on the Extremis, make it into what I want and you want!”

“You don’t need him,” Killian replied with a smirk. “You remember Mary Fitzpatrick?” Hansen paused, a confused expression on her face.

“Of course I do, she’s brilliant,” Hansen said slowly. “Part of the Extremis virus is based on her work.”

“I’ve seen her newest liver cancer research paper using nanites,” Killian said, turning slightly to look at the virus on her display. “Fitzpatrick’s figured out how to rewrite the cancer genes and without the stabilization problem.”

“Would she be on-board to help?” Hansen asked, excitement in her tone. “She seems to be the type to prefer saving everybody from incurable diseases.”

“I have ways,” Killian answered and his smirk grew into a smile.)

Richard’s notes ended with him suspecting their location having been compromised.

“Probably when they moved up to New York,” Clint noted. He crossed his arms, looking up at the ceiling thoughtfully. “By now Mary’s due so they had to get to safety, ergo Richard’s brother Ben. I’m betting Ben had some inkling about Richard’s real job, so he backed Richard’s cover story to convince May.

“Mary has the baby and after a few months, knowingly leaves the kid with Richard’s brother because they needed to move. Can’t run with a baby in hand, they’re a lot of work, and plus if they’re being hunted, the kid had a high possibility of dying with them.”

Tony turned pale at the thought, folding his hands together as he watched Clint think aloud.

“People may have come to May’s place during the funeral, trying to look for Richard and Mary’s notes,” Clint continued. “I know I would have come by claiming to be one of Richard’s Homeland buddy. While Ben and Mary are busy with the guests and the kid, I’d be looking into the guest room for anything. Good thing that unit was under May’s maiden name, I wouldn’t have connected it to the Parkers.”

“You scare me, Barton,” Tony declared, squinting at the archer. Clint shrugged. “I’m guessing Parker’s the reason why any information on Mary is missing for the SHIELD database.”

“I think so too.” Clint hummed. “Though he wasn’t exactly a super-hacker. He had to have gone to the server rooms to make sure any and all trace of Mary and her research were gone. Thing is the servers are one of the more protected areas and they’re spread out across the globe. Getting rid of the files at one location doesn’t mean getting rid of them for good.”

“Hacking buddy?” Tony suggested. Clint leaned back in his seat, absently thumbing his lip as he thought.

“That or he had help from above,” he replied slowly.

“Fury.”

“He should be able to get rid of all files with a swipe of a finger,” Clint agreed. “We could ask but…” He trailed off and shrugged, and Tony shook his head.

“No, no need for more ammo for Ross,” he said. “So back to Parker and Mary making a run for it. He had any idea on who might have been gunning for her and her research?”

“Parker left us a shortlist of suspects, a couple of whom you personally dealt with.” Tony raised an eyebrow and Clint flipped to the page. “Obadiah Stane and Aldrich Killian?”

“Seriously?” Tony’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “You’re serious. Obie and Killian.” Clint nodded and Tony swore, dropping his head into his hands.

“Other than those two, there’s Tiberius Stone—”

“Wow, Tibs? Haven’t heard from him in ages,” Tony said, looking up in surprise. “But I know him, he doesn’t seem like the end-the-world type.”

“—John Garrett, which, again, I’m surprised Parker figured out so soon and in turn probably means all of HYDRA; Norman Osborn, so I’m guessing that’s where OsCorp came from; and Serpent Solutions.”

“Who?” Tony blinked at Clint. Clint shrugged and Tony picked up his tablet, entering the name then frowned. “Huh, a mercenary group? Why would they care? FRIDAY, dig up what you can about them.”

“Of course, boss.”

“Now on to the fun part: Mary’s research.” Tony heaved a sigh, wishing once again that Bruce was still there. “Not going to lie, virology isn’t one of my stronger suits.”

Tony was glad he brought Mary’s music journals with him when he and Clint finally figured out the shorthand were code based on music, specifically one of her songs she’d written for him. What they found made drew more questions, and a cold rock settling in the pit of Tony’s stomach. He recognized the cancer research, noting that Mary had started moving on from liver cancer to the brain.

(“This is like Latin to me,” Tony said, staring at Mary’s notes.

“Your toy designs are like Latin to me, so I say we’re even,” she replied, scribbling something.

“Toy design? This is world-changing technology!”

“That may have helped me take a crack into making a cure for cancer,” Mary hummed absently. “Maybe start with the liver.” Tony blinked.

“Say what now?”

“Huh?” Mary looked up and blinked at him. “Oh! Just saw your schematics for your latest toy design and it got me thinking…”)

Mary was also working on a vaccine for a virus that made Ebola look like the common cold, and both him and Clint had paled at both the symptoms and just how contagious it was. Tony made a note to send what she had to Helen, to see if the framework of the vaccine was far enough for just in case this virus showed up.

The last one though made Tony stand up, tense and confused.

The Extremis virus.

He could feel Clint look at him in confusion, watching as Tony reached out with a shaking hand to read what Mary had written.

“Fuck me, she solved it,” he breathed.

“Solved what?” Clint asked.

“Extremis.” Tony let out a shaky laugh. “She figured it out before I did, even figured out how to add in a couple extra abilities without the problem of burn-out. Fucking brilliant.”

“Isn’t Extremis Killian’s thing?” Clint asked, tilting his head slightly. Tony snapped his gaze up to Clint, a frown on his lips.

“FRIDAY, go through Killian’s database, see if you can find Mary in there,” Tony ordered.

“Yes, boss.” Tony grimaced, rubbing his head against his forehead.

“Did he know about Mary and you?” Clint questioned. Tony took a deep breath, hands clenching into fists before he straightened.

“Honestly? Nobody should know about Mary and me back then,” Tony replied. “I’m pretty sure Killian was going to get her for her work, not because of me.”

Chapter Text

For once, Peter was glad that the night was quiet. It gave him time to think.

Because, holy crap, his dad wasn’t Richard Parker but Tony Stark.

He shifted slightly as he watched the traffic below, still processing the information.

“Hey KAREN?”

“Yes, Peter?”

“Uh, does Mr. Stark listen to our audio recordings?”

“Yes, but I can disable that function if you wish.”

“Would you? Just-just for the moment, I kind of need to talk and maybe get some logical reasoning in,” Peter said, settling down.

“Of course, Peter. Audio recording is now disabled.” Peter nodded, taking a deep breath. He wasn’t even sure how to start. “I believe you wish to talk about Mr. Stark.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Peter fidgeted. “He’s my biological father.”

“Congratulations, Peter,” KAREN said cheerfully.

“Thanks, I guess?”

“You do not sound happy, Peter. Why is that?”

“I-I don’t know actually,” Peter confessed, kicking his feet. “On one hand, it’s, like, the best thing ever because he already treats me like family. Well, after May screamed at him, but, you know, he’s Iron Man, but uh.” He trailed off for a moment, fidgeting as he organized his thoughts.

“Ben has always been, like, my dad,” Peter said quietly, “and May, she’s like my mom – I don’t even know my biological mom and, well, I guess he, um, Richard, he’s my step-dad now? And I’ve always looked up to Mr. Stark because of both what he does and how he’s changed to be a better person.”

“You do not want Mr. Stark to replace Ben.” Peter tilted his head at that.

“Yeah, I think maybe that’s it,” Peter agreed slowly.

“Perhaps you shouldn’t think he is replacing Ben, Peter,” KAREN mused. “You already say Mr. Stark is family, perhaps you can say that he is another relative you look up to?” Peter tilted his head thoughtfully.

“That, uh, that actually makes sense.” Peter remembered how Ned looked up to one of his cousins when they were small, how cool the guy was because he was in college. MJ was the same with an aunt of hers who was a pro-choice activist and a lobbyist in D.C. Even Ben had talked about an uncle of his, long deceased, who he and Richard had looked up to that had influenced their lives.

In a way, that was Tony. Speaking of which…

“Hey, KAREN, here’s another question. I’m, uh, I’m not there yet to calling him dad, but, uh, you think Mr. Stark would be okay if I, um, started calling him by his first name? I-I know he keeps telling me to, but, you know, at the time, it didn’t feel right, but now, um.”

“Shall I ask FRIDAY?” KAREN asked in amusement and Peter poked his index fingers together nervously.

“Please?” There was a pause.

(“Boss?”

“Yeah, FRI?”

“Peter would like to know if he could start calling you by your first name.” Tony paused in working on his holo-diagram, hearing the fond amusement in his AI’s voice.

“What brought that on?” he asked. “I’ve been telling the kid to call me Tony for a while now, though maybe I should start telling him to call me dad.”

“It would appear that Peter isn’t comfortable with calling you dad—”

A part of his heart happily squeezed at that.

“—at the moment and continuing to call you Mr. Stark did not seem right due to your new relation now.” Tony ran a hand through his hair, a grin tugging at his lips.

“Yeah, he can call me Tony. Finally.”)

“That will be fine, Peter,” KAREN said, sounding quite pleased. Peter smiled.

It was the sound of thrusters that suddenly caught Peter’s attention. Confused Peter stood up, looking around for said sound.

“KAREN, what time is it now?”

“It is currently 1:03am, Peter.” He hummed – Tony was still in the lab, as confirmed by KAREN, and Rhodey would most likely be asleep. Needing some confirmation, Peter jumped and slung towards the sound. As the sound grew louder, Peter landed on the roof of a building.

“KAREN, zoom in.” He narrowed his eyes as he looked towards the sound. “Uh, KAREN, is that an Iron Man suit?”

“No, it doesn’t appear to be one of Tony’s suits,” the AI replied. Peter hummed and began to follow after the copycat. “Should I let Tony know about this suit, Peter?”

“Not yet, I want to find out where they’re going.” He flew through the air, having KAREN keep a lock on the suit, and groaned when he realized he passed into Brooklyn. “Aw man, May’s going to kill me.”

The suit landed by the piers and disappeared into one dilapidated warehouse, and Peter silently landed, quietly following them inside. KAREN helpfully switched vision-mode and Peter jumped onto the wall, crawling through the warehouse. Beeping caught his attention and Peter looked down to see the person with a tablet and—

“KAREN, is-is that what I think it is?” Peter breathed quietly.

“That appears to be a SI missile, circa 2000,” KAREN said helpfully. “It has been heavily modified. Peter, I am detecting a biological agent within.” Peter didn’t say anything, starting as the person in the suit suddenly moved, walking out of the warehouse and flew away.

“KAREN, call Tony.” He swung towards the open doors, landing against the walls and peeking out. The Iron Man knock-off was busy flying into the city.

“Kid, you should be in—” Tony started, sounding faintly amused.

“I found an SI missile,” Peter quickly interrupted as he landed and carefully moved towards the missile. “Older model, from 2000, heavily modified. And, uh, it has a biological agent inside.” There was a pause.

“What?” He shivered at the suddenly change in tone. “Where are you? What the— Why the hell are you in Brooklyn Heights?”

“Uh, long story,” Peter said, “but Tony, um, I think, uh, I think the missile is active.”

“Fuck.” Clattering sounded and Peter heard Tony shouting. “FRIDAY, wake Barton and Rhodey up! Tell Rhodey to suit up and get to Brooklyn!” Peter’s stomach turned as he heard something click, beeping following afterwards.

“Tony, tell me you’re coming,” Peter said, sounding calm to his ears.

“Rhodey and I are about thirty minutes out, twenty-five if we push it.”

“What’s going on?” Clint joined in, voice still thick with sleep. Peter carefully circled the missile to find the timer.

“Ah crap,” Peter muttered, feeling the pit of his stomach suddenly turning to ice.

“Peter? What’s happening?” Tony prompted, worry heavy in his voice.

“Tony, I— you’re not going to make it. Shoot, I-I think I’m going to have to, uh, deactivate the missile.” His eyes began to trail the wirings, biting his lips as his heart raced.

“No, no, you get away from it,” Tony ordered.

“I-I can’t,” Peter replied, sliding tools from one of his side pouches. His hands shook and Peter clenched them. “Tony, a timer just activated and it’s counting down for ten minutes.” Tony and Rhodey both swore.

“Can I get eyes on it?” Clint asked, his tone suddenly awake and flat.

“Uh, um, KAREN? Can you display what I’m seeing to Tony and the others?” There was a pause then Tony swore again.

“Tony, give FRIDAY control, see if you can help Peter,” Rhodey instructed.

“FRIDAY, take the wheels. Peter, open it up and for god’s sakes, be careful. I do not need May to rip me a new one.” Peter let out a nervous laugh as he clenched his hands once more, the shaking gone, and began to carefully pry open the missile case.

“KAREN, can I, uh, get some light?” Peter squinted as lights shone down and he swallowed hard at the sight of colorful wirings that he knew would never be part of any of Tony’s designs.

“That’s some crazy wiring,” Clint noted.

“A fucking rat’s nest,” Tony agreed. Peter quietly began to follow the wiring, trying to decipher which one goes to a power source or the incendiary device.

“Tony, this doesn’t look right at all,” Peter said, stomach churning in fear. “The power source wiring goes nowhere, and-and-and the one that connects to the motherboard is going to this pouch of something—”

“Pouch?” Rhodey interrupted. “What pouch? Shit, is it a biological agent?”

“Biolog— holy crap, is that what that is?” Peter yelped. “Oh no. No, no, no, no, no, this definitely cannot explode!”

“Calm down, Peter,” Tony ordered. “See if you can disable the countdown.”

“Right, yeah, okay, dad,” Peter managed as he began to look at the wiring. He didn’t notice the surprised silence on the comms or Clint’s amused snort, having KAREN help map out what he was seeing. “Maybe, uh, maybe I should join the Army after high school, take a turn as part of the bomb-unit so I can be prepared for these situations in, um, in the future.”

“Unless you want to be grounded forever, no,” Tony said.

“Also, really? The Army?” Rhodey added. “Air Force is where it’s at, Peter.”

“Don’t listen to Rhodey, Navy SEALS, kid,” Clint disagreed.

“Barton, you god-damn traitorous troll, how dare you.” Peter let out a breathless laugh, squinting at a couple of lines. A glance at the timer told him he had about five more minutes.

“Here, I-I think this one connects the timer to the motherboard,” Peter said, pointing at one, “but it’s connected to this one, which I think is part of the incendiary unit. So, uh, I cut, it blows.”

“Slice them both?” Clint suggested. Peter took a deep breath, waiting for Tony’s answer.

“Pull back a bit, Peter.” Peter scooted back, giving Tony a good view of the wiring. “That wiring there.” A wire lit up on his display and Peter moved forward, finger tracing where it went. He squinted, licking his suddenly dry lips.

“Power source,” he said, pulling out his scissor. “Snip?”

“Cut it, make sure it’s completely powered down before you slice the timer wires.” Peter nodded, took a deep breath and cut. He heard the missile power down, waited until his super-hearing didn’t hear the hum before his hands moved up to cut through the other wires. Done, Peter pulled his hands up and away from the wire and held still for a moment, waiting for it to suddenly turn on again (because that’s what happens in the movies.)

Nothing.

With a quiet “Holy cannoli, I’m still here” Peter dropped to the floor, his legs suddenly unable to support him. He continued to sprawl onto the floor, staring up at the ceiling as his heart pounded up his throat and into his ears.

“Oh god, oh god, oh god,” he whimpered. “You’re right, Tony, I take it back, I don’t think I want to be part of the bomb-unit anymore, that was way too stressful.” A breathless laugh from Tony, along with chuckles from Rhodey and Clint.

“We’re almost there, kid. Just keep an eye out for us.”

“Yeah, okay, sure. I’m, uh, I’m just going to lie here and-and not throw up.” Ten minutes later Peter lifted his head when he heard the thudding footsteps. Iron Man and War Machine (Iron Patriot? Ugh, the War Machine name sounds so much better) appeared and he watched as Tony stepped out of his suit, kneeling down next to him.

“You okay, kid?” he asked, a hand on Peter’s shoulder and worry in his eyes.

“I didn’t throw up, so I call it a win,” Peter said faintly as he gave Tony two thumbs up. “Yay.” Tony chuckled and patted his shoulder before getting up to look at the missile.

“What a mess,” Rhodey said, squinting at the mess of wirings. “Definitely not your work.”

“Course not,” Tony replied with a sniff. “I have standards for my end-of-the-world missiles.”

(“I don’t understand how you can make sure beautiful designs meant for destruction,” Mary said with a frown as she looked at the holo-tablet.

“Pays the bills,” Tony replied. Mary turned to look at him, raising an eyebrow.

“Ever thought about going into clean energy or medical tech?”

“Clean energy? Where did that co— oh no, are you one of those hippie activists who wants to save the Earth, one tree at a time?” Mary rolled her eyes at that, swatting Tony on the shoulder. “Oh, I see, you’re one of those militant hippie activists.”

“You’re such an asshole.” Tony just grinned.)

“Good to know.” Rhodey turned slightly to look down at Peter. “Good job, Peter. Authorities should be arriving soon, so maybe you should head out.”

“Yeah, speaking of which, what the hell are you doing here in Brooklyn?” Peter stared at the ceiling for a moment then gingerly sat up.

“I, uh, I was following a knock-off Iron Man,” he said. Tony whipped his head to stared down at Peter. “I don’t think it’s Hammer tech, but the guy was really going for the Iron Man look. Hang on. KAREN, could you display the video?”

“Of course, Peter.” He watched as Rhodey’s faceplate slid shut while Tony lifted his left wrist to watch. A frown crossed Tony’s face.

“Yeah, whoever it is, they’re really going for your look, Tony,” Rhodey agreed.

“God, I’ve pissed off way too many people to count,” Tony grumbled. “And what the hell, why do they all want to use my look? Do they have absolutely no imagination?” He paused and Peter noticed a confused frown before Tony ran a hand over his face then turned to Peter.

“Kid, scoot on home,” he said. “I do not need May yelling at me.” A display suddenly popped up and Peter groaned.

“Too late, she’s about to yell at me.” Peter got up, paused then looked at Tony. “Could you, um, keep me updated on this? In case there are more of them out there? I can keep an eye out.” The look on Tony’s face had Peter fidgeting.

“I know, I know, it’s dangerous and all that, but it’s still my city!” Peter quickly added. “And-and what if there are more missiles here? You guys are up at the Compound and that’ll take too long to get here. So, yeah, let me help.”

“Kid’s got a point,” Rhodey said quietly, causing Tony to scowl at him. “Weren’t you the one who said he’d still go out with or without a suit? He’s going to go out and try to find Iron Knock-Off and his batch of biological missiles.”

“Okay, okay, you made your point,” Tony groaned, raising a hand. “Fine, just keep an eye out. Might have to hit Times Square or Midtown just in case.”

“Y-yeah, no problem, Tony, I can do that.”

“Right, okay, now get home before May kills the both of us.” With a nod, Peter took off.

Chapter Text

They had been lucky.

Peter had done a hell of a job at disabling the missile (Was that his pride talking? Definitely his pride talking but Peter did do a good job under the circumstances) and the bomb squad had taken care of the rest. Really, Tony had been more worried about the biological agent that was found inside.

(“Honestly I think you’re brave,” Tony admitted. Mary raised an eyebrow, turning to face him in bed.

“Me? Brave?” She smirked. “I think that title’s reserved for Pepper.”

“Pepper?” Tony raised an eyebrow.

“She has to deal with you.”

“You wound me, Mary, right in this tiny black soul of mine.” Mary rolled her eyes. “But I still think you’re brave.”

“How am I brave?” He turned to face her, running a hand down her cheek.

“You go every day into an isolated room full of every deadly viruses and bacteria in the world, wearing just a suit of thin plastic,” he said solemnly. “I just cause explosions which results in mangled bodies. You deal with blood shooting out from the eyes and stuff. How do you do it?”

“Pays the bills,” Mary said with a shrug, throwing his words back at him.)

Hazmat had confirmed the biological agent as a modified nanite virus, not Mary’s super-HVF as he had originally feared. It did, however, looked like a poor-man’s version of the Extremis virus. He hoped that Helen would give him an explanation as soon as possible.

That didn’t stop him from keeping an eye out for any other missiles. Initially he had hoped to keep the threat in-house, but after a conversation with both Rhodey and Clint, reluctantly agreed to bring both the mayor and commissioners of New York City in.

To say they weren’t happy was an understatement, especially with the missiles being missing SI property.

(“Son of a bitch, fifty?!” Clint hissed as Rhodey swore. “How the hell do you lose fifty missiles?!”

“I don’t lose fifty missiles,” Tony snapped back. “Obie did when he sold them. He’s still fucking with me from the grave.” Tony walked away from the screen, his hands against the back of his head as he blew out a breath.)

Nonetheless they agreed to help. The news noted an uptick in police presence in the city the whole day, with reporters trying to find information on what was going on. Even Spider-Man’s presence in Midtown brought more speculations on what was going on.

“Boss, Secretary Ross is on the line,” FRIDAY said.

“Tell him to leave a message,” Tony replied, eyeing the projection of the city and the reports on the make-up of the missile. It was definitely his work and definitely heavily-modified, and Tony had the weirdest sense that he’d seen this sort of modification before.

“He’s rather insistent.”

“Tell him to leave a message.”

“Ross?” Clint asked as he wandered into the lab.

“Yeah, because I bet that the increased police presence in the city is somehow my fault,” Tony replied. “Iron Knock-off has to have more than just one of my missiles in the city. The question is where.”

“Boss, Peter is calling,” FRIDAY announced.

“Answer it. Peter!”

“Hey, Tony, anything?” Tony exchanged a look with Clint.

“Nope, sorry, kid.”

“Right, yeah, m-makes sense, too soon to tell. Not going to lie, all these cops out here are making people fidgety,” Peter said. There was the sound of rushing air and a faint thwip-thwip as Peter swung through the city. “Hey there, fellow citizens, please ignore my climbing up the windows of your building, pardon me, thank you.”

“Definitely your kid,” Clint mumbled in amusement and Tony chuckled.

“Right, sorry about that,” Peter grunted. “Hey, uh, Tony? Did you think of something last night? About Iron Knock-off?”

“What?” Tony blinked at the question. “What do you mean?”

“Well, you looked like you had an idea of who they were,” Peter said. “After you said they had no imagination.”

“Did I?” Tony blinked again. “Oh, right, it sort of jiggled a thought.”

“Of?” Clint pressed.

“I don’t know,” Tony answered with a sigh. “No imagination, can modify my missiles quite well, there’s something there, but I don’t know.”

“Connection with the people who would use the missiles as biological weapons?” Peter prompted.

“What, Killian or Obie?” Tony paused again, frowning. “Huh.”

“Stark?” Clint asked, waving a finger at him. “Something’s there.”

“Something with Obie.” Tony began to pace. “Obie, Obie, Obie… Modification Obie. No imagination Obie.” He suddenly stopped, eyes wide.

“Fuck me, it can’t be. FRIDAY, pull up everything you can on Ezekiel Stane.”

“Who’s Ezekiel Stane?” Peter asked in confusion.

“Obie’s son. Obie super boring idiot of a son,” Tony hissed.

“Uh, for an idiot, he’s doing good work at modifying your missiles,” Clint noted. “That’s assuming he’s the one to begin with.”

“Well, compared to me and Tibs, he was a moron,” Tony snapped then closed his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose. “And like Tibs and me, he also had problems with his dad. You know, trying to prove he can do a lot of things? Except in Zeke’s case, he’s brilliant at modifying but an absolute idiot when it comes to creating things.”

“Boss, it would appear that at some point Ezekiel Stane worked with Aldrich Killian,” FRIDAY stated. Tony jerked at that. “He disappeared after Aldrich Killian was killed.”

“Zeke worked with Killian? Doing what?” Tony asked, crossing his arms.

“I cannot give you an answer to that, boss,” FRIDAY replied apologetically. “The database for his contribution to the group were scrubbed.” Tony swore and began to pace again.

“Boss, missiles have been detected,” FRIDAY suddenly informed, and Tony and Clint tensed. “Missiles have been identified in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Austin—”

“Wait, it’s all over the country?” Tony asked, gripping the back of his seat as it felt like his heart plummeted into his stomach.

“It’s global, boss. All missiles have exploded in the atmosphere,” FRIDAY replied then softly went, “Mass infection have been confirmed.”

Suddenly all Tony could hear was the blood rushing into his head and someone gasping for air.

“Tony,” he thought he heard someone say. Damn it, why was it so hard breathe right now, did FRIDAY turn up the heat all of a sudden— “Tony! DAD!”

“Peter?” Tony choked out, suddenly realizing he was kneeling on the floor, Clint’s hand against his chest and keeping him upright. “Shit. Shit.”

“Easy, Stark, just breathe,” Clint ordered. “This isn’t on you.”

“It’s still my fucking fault!” Tony growled as he tried to calm his breathing. Clint sighed. “Those were my fucking missiles! I just fucking killed all those people!”

“No, no, you didn’t,” Clint replied harshly. “You didn’t kill those people – it was Stane. Stane killed those people.”

Tony shook his head in protest, only seeing the blood on his hands.

Chapter Text

“Judging by the configuration of the virus, it has been modified to rewrite the genetic code,” Helen said, a frown on her face.

“Just like the Extremis virus,” Tony noted. Pepper and Rhodey both tensed at that, the former remembering her time while infected.

“Similar, but it’s been altered,” Helen replied. Holographic displays popped up and Helen moved towards one, raising a hand. “I’ve compared this to the Extremis virus, and the only similarity it has is the healing factor. It would appear that these nanites are programmed to prepare the body for a change.”

“Like the Terrigenesis shit?” Clint asked. Tony frowned at that, eyeing the archer. Helen tilted her head slightly, humming thoughtfully.

“With Terrigenesis, it only affects the person so long as they have the dormant genes,” she said slowly. “This virus is rewriting any and every humans’ genes, possibly to accept a second infusion of the virus.”

“What the hell is Stane planning?” Tony asked as he began to pace.

“Not sure and honestly, I don’t like it.” Helen pulled up another display. “So far the symptoms seem to be high fevers and most limbs being paralyzed, but that’s just the early stages.”

“That’s the early stage?” Clint mumbled under his breath as he leaned against the conference table, hands folded together.

“There is some good news though – whoever engineered the virus sabotaged it.”

“Sabotaged the virus? What do you mean?” Tony asked, stopping and crossed his arms.

“I mean that while this virus is contagious, it has a set life.” Helen pulled up the viral genome, pointing out some of the mutations. “People are going to get sick, yes, but they’re going to survive. Most of the nanites have been encoded to self-destruct after overwriting the genes, but my people have identified some unique nanites that have been pre-programed to repair the overwritten genes.”

“Surprised that it managed to get past Stane,” Tony murmured, impressed by the work.

“Possibly because they look quite similar, and those unique nanites? They may have been based on your work, Tony.” He jerked at that and Helen pulled up another display, this time with code. Tony leaned forward, eyes wide in surprise.

“That’s… FRIDAY, is that…?” he stammered out in disbelief. “Is that the base code for JARVIS?”

(“You missed an if statement,” Mary said, glancing over at his code. Tony squinted.

“Damn, you’re right. Must be getting tired,” he grunted, fingers flying to add the forgotten if statement.

“Or you’ve been working a little too hard,” Mary replied with a chuckle. Tony frowned, hit save and put the tablet to the side.

“We can’t have that now,” he growled, turning to pull Mary into a kiss.)

“It would appear so, boss,” FRIDAY agreed.

“You’re right, Helen,” Tony said as he read through the code. “It’s a little sloppy but you’re right, those nanites are a good thing. I’d still like a vaccine, just to be on the safe side. Let me know what you need from me.”

“Of course,” Helen acknowledged with a nod. “I’m already working with WHO on creating the vaccine. It’ll be a little slow, bionanotechnology is still a relatively new field.”

“Guess it time for SI to break into the medical field. Thanks, Helen.” The hologram nodded and blinked out of existence, and, his shoulders sagging slightly in relief, Tony gave Clint a tired look.

“Well, that’s one positive,” Clint said with a sigh and Tony let out a grunt.

“Base code for JARVIS?” Rhodey asked, frowning. “How’d our saboteur know that?”

“No idea, but I’ll be sure to ask when we find them,” Tony replied then took a deep breath, turning slightly to face Pepper. “What are we looking at?”

“SI is going to get hit hard,” Pepper said with a tense look. “They were all our missiles.”

“Especially with the infection report,” Rhodey added, shaking his head. “It’s bad, Tony, like, real bad.” Tony swore as he started to pace the room, weighing in the options. While SI was doing really well, there was no way they would be able to pay for all the lawsuits that were bound to roll in.

“FRIDAY, what were Obie and Killian’s net worth before I offed them? Enough to cover for the upcoming shit show?” Tony asked.

“Aside from the lawsuits, their combined assets would only cover about sixty percent of the damages globally,” FRIDAY answered. Tony grunted as Pepper winced – SI was still going to get hit hard.

“The vaccine might help in our favor,” Pepper said slowly, “and I might be able to spin it to be the work of the Ten Rings.” Tony took a breath at that, not liking the fact that they would be using Killian’s defunct terrorist group to hide the missiles.

“Boss, Nick Fury is on the line,” FRIDAY announced. Everybody in the room froze.

“What?” Tony asked quietly then spoke again aloud. “Put him through.” The holographic projection of the former director appeared. From the corner of his eye, Tony could see Clint stiffen slightly.

“Stark,” Fury greeted.

“Fury,” Tony acknowledged tightly. “Fancy hearing from you. What can I do for you?”

“More like the question is what I can do for you,” Fury said and Tony seethed as he heard the smirk in the man’s tone.

“You knew about the missing missiles,” Tony growled, his pacing starting again. Clint and Rhodey were watching him now, both tense with a bit of worry radiating from the latter. “You fucking knew!”

“Not enough, apparently,” the former director replied dryly. “Then again, my best agent for figuring these things out died sixteen years ago.” Tony stopped pacing, sharing a look with Clint.

(“Director.” Fury looked up from his desk to see Parker at the door.

“Agent Parker, what can I do for you?” Parker walked in, closing the door behind him.

“Director, we have a serious problem.”

“We have many serious problems, Agent, you’re going to need to be specific.”

“Dr. Fitzpatrick recently contacted me about the Guinea Incident. From what she told me and what I can find, she was the one for created the virus,” Parker reported. “Sir, I’m no computer expert, but I know someone in SHIELD accessed her research in our database.” Fury stilled at that, eye narrowing.

If Parker suspected a traitor in the ranks, there was definitely a traitor.

“Dr. Mary Fitzpatrick, virologist at the CDC,” Fury said, pulling up her file, looking at her research. He frowned when he realized that yes, someone had accessed her research aside from Parker and they had managed to keep their name out of it. “Shit.”

“What should I do, sir?” Parker asked stiffly. Fury pulled up all of Dr. Fitzpatrick’s files, moving them to an encrypted folder. Then, with a swipe of a finger, made Dr. Fitzpatrick disappear.

“Get Agent Morse,” Fury commanded.)

“Parker,” Clint guessed. “And all the other agents who were suppose to be sniffing out corruption in the ranks were HYDRA.”

“Unfortunately.” Fury attention turned back to Tony. “Parker was working on the lost missile case when another problem presented itself.”

“Mary,” Tony murmured, feeling himself go cold when he realized what Fury was talking about, running a hand over his goatee. Fury nodded once, hands behind his back.

“I’m sure you’ve heard of the Guinea Incident,” Fury continued. Tony blanched as the others flinched – the Guinea Incident had been all over the news, the body count incredibly high before a vaccine had been created. “Dr. Fitzpatrick figured out one of her viral research had been used during her time in Guinea, and managed to get in touched with Parker. Parker, in turn, figured out someone from within SHIELD was using her work.”

“You wiped it all,” Tony surmised.

“I did. Everything related to Dr. Fitzpatrick was wiped, and Parker chose to go off the grid to protect her,” Fury said with a nod. “He didn’t know how deep the corruption was. Agent Morse always had a feeling it was deep, but…” He heaved a sigh, and Tony could understand the feeling.

Fury hadn’t wanted to believe that SHIELD had fallen so far like Tony didn’t want to believe that Stane had wanted him dead.

“Parker was right when he said Dr. Fitzpatrick could be used against you, Stark,” Fury said. “I’m sure you remember her calling you about a break-in.”

(“Hey, Tony.”

“Mary? What’s wrong?”

“Don’t bother coming for a couple of days.” An annoyed huff. “Someone broke into my apartment while I was at work, really ransacked the place.”

“What? Where are you staying? No, never mind, I’ll book you a penthouse at—”

“Tony, no, I’ll be fine, I’ll be staying with my friend Sharon and her girlfriend until the police are done.”

“But, Mary—”

“Don’t worry, Tony, everything will be fine.” An amused sigh. “But you’re allowed to look for a good security system. Just! Just don’t go too crazy with it, okay?”

“Sure!”

“Tony.”

“I won’t go too crazy with the security system. Promise.”)

“She had to go into work that day,” Tony murmured. “One of her co-worker had to leave, and she went in to cover for them.” He began to gnaw on his thumb, slowly started to pace once again. The break-in had been the start, Mary becoming a bit more nervous as the weeks passed. Of course, Tony had noticed and asked her about it, but Mary had shaken her head, just passing it off as trouble at work.

“Parker did his best to keep Dr. Fitzpatrick safe but when HYDRA agents started showing up for her at her workplace, he knew they had to go.” Fury looked Tony in the eye. “I believe that’s about the time you earned the ire of one Aldrich Killian.”

“Fuck.” He still didn’t really remember much about Switzerland, just that Mary couldn’t come and he’d been drinking to compensate. At least Tony didn’t sleep with Hansen, just left her stewing as he stumbled back to the bar for whiskey bottle number three. “And then Mary disappeared.”

(She watched him from the window, smiling and waving down as Tony got in the car and rode off towards the airport. With another sip of coffee, she picked up her phone and dialed.

“Let’s go,” Mary said quietly.

An hour later Parker arrived, directing the cleaners. Mary watched as her life disappeared with each box until nothing was there. She took over more sweep around her now empty apartment before grabbing her pack and joining Parker at the door.

“Sorry to do this,” he said, sympathy in his eyes. She shook her head.

“No, it’s fine,” Mary replied with a shaky smile.)

“Yes, north to Philadelphia. Worked as a high school teacher.” Tony snorted at that, the idea of Mary teaching a bunch of little snot-nose kids not connecting. “Don’t scoff, those kids she and Parker taught, most of them became military personnel, government agents and scientists.”

“Don’t tell me, Solomon and Preston were their recruits?” Clint asked. Fury nodded and Clint let out a low whistle. “Damn, they worked some magic.”

“Killian was working with Dr. Hansen and another individual by then. Parker managed to get a message to me before he moved them out of Philadelphia,” Fury finished. “I had hoped Killian wouldn’t follow, but a few months later he made a move.”

“And killed them via plane crash,” Rhodey said tightly. “But, wait, why kill Mary? Wasn’t she important to Killian?”

“You know how easy it is to slip a body onto a plane?” Fury asked. “One that’s the same size, weight and height of a target?”

“Depends,” Clint answered with a shrug. “Easiest way is through the cargo hold, so long as you get the baggage people on your side. A bit more difficult is having the person alive with you when you board the plane, and have them switch place with the target. Planned suicide.”

(The emergency door went out with a bang, and people began screaming. Parker grunted, the woman on his back not letting him go despite the wind pulling at them. He could tell Mary was screaming, but couldn’t hear it over the rushing wind, watching helplessly as the soldiers all jumped.

The explosion started from the back. It pulled Parker’s attention long enough for the explosions at the wings to swallow him and the woman on top of him in a ball of fire.)

Tony’s world came to a halt, ice running through his veins as realization hit him.

“Planned suicide. JARVIS’s base code,” he gasped out, leaning heavily against the table. “She remembered it.” Tony looked up at Rhodey, heart beating so fast he wondered if he was about to have a heart attack.

“Rhodey, Mary’s alive,” Tony gasped out.

(She began to hum, trying to distract herself from the news.

Stane had really done it, the madman. And she had helped.

God forgive her.

Vials clinked, the sound of typing as Mary began working on the second infusion programming, pausing to grab a tissue. She coughed wetly into it, pulling back to see bright red against white. Her lips thinned at the sight and she threw the tissue away, side-eyeing the camera in her lab.

She wasn’t going to let Stane win.

“Let’s go, JARVIS,” Mary muttered to herself. “Time to save the world.”)

Chapter Text

“Mom’s alive?” Peter asked, stunned. That… that couldn’t be right. Mom – the woman who had given birth him before dying in a flaming plane crash – was alive.

May didn’t seem to be taking the news any better than Peter, judging by the look she was giving Tony.

“You’re fucking joking,” she said flatly. Tony shook his head, pacing before them with one hand in his pocket and the other running over his goatee.

“Fury all but confirmed she’s alive,” Tony replied, tone angry.

“We-we’re going to find her, right?” Peter asked, looking at Tony.

“Damn right we are.” Okay, that was awesome! He was going to see – holy cow – his still-alive mom! His knees bounced at the thought, excited at the prospect when another thought entered his mind. Peter looked at Tony, still pacing with a determined look on his face.

“Hey, Tony? What about Pepper?” Peter asked. Tony stopped, turning to stare at Peter, and he squirmed a bit.

“It’s a good question, Tony,” May jumped in, a hand reaching out to take Peter’s hand. “I know you loved Mary, but you’re with Pepper now. When you find Mary, what are you going to do?” Tony stared at them and Peter had a feeling that the question never came up in his head.

“Fuck,” Tony finally said, dropping his head into his hands. “Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.”

“Didn’t think about it, huh?” May said with a sigh. “Peter, keep Tony company while he has a mental break-down, I’m going to get us some drinks.”

“Whiskey for me!” Tony said, voice muffled.

“Nope, alcohol isn’t going to solve this particular problem.”

“Fuck.”

“Maybe we should start a swear jar for you, Tony,” Peter said, earning a glare. “Sorry, just trying to, uh.” He got up and pulled Tony onto the couch, snuggling up against him. Tony dropped an arm around Peter’s shoulder, eyes staring blankly across the room.

“Fuck,” he finally said. “For once, I didn’t think this far.”

“The Mandarin,” May called out from the kitchen.

“Alright, so maybe I haven’t thought my actions through on a few things, this included,” Tony amended. Peter snorted at that, grinning when Tony gently swatted his head. “Don’t be a smart-ass.”

“Can’t help it, it’s genetic,” Peter replied and laughed as Tony swatted his head again.

“So mental break-down is over?” May asked as she came back with a tray of drinks. Setting it down she handed a cup of coffee to Tony, who took a sip and let out a happy sigh.

(“Coffee,” Tony said, handing May a bag. May blinked, took it and looked inside. She nearly dropped it as she recognized the incredibly expensive brand name.

“Tony, what the heck?” she exclaimed.

“It’s better coffee,” he replied with a shrug. May sighed, rubbed her forehead and headed into the kitchen to put the coffee away.)

“I did not have a mental breakdown,” Tony groused, taking another sip.

“Have you talked to Pepper about Mary?” May asked as she picked up her mug of tea, sitting back in her seat. Peter didn’t move, content with snuggling for now.

“Well… she knows Mary’s alive,” Tony said slowly. Peter blinked up at Tony, seeing May tilting her head slightly from the corner of his eye. “She was there at the meeting.”

“And did you talk to her afterwards?” May pressed.

“Um.” Peter could feel Tony squirming against him.

“Tony, sometimes I wonder about your self-proclaimed genius.” May took a sip of her tea as Tony huffed, glared at May and drank his coffee. “I know you loved Mary a long time ago, but people change. Would Mary still be the person you fell in love with?”

Tony looked away, knee bouncing nervously as he thought about the answer.

“To be fair, I think Pepper is more like mom than my biological mom,” Peter said thoughtfully. Tony blinked at that, looking down at Peter, and Peter shifted slightly. “I mean, I may have called Pepper mom a few times, uh, accidentally, and-and before the, uh, you’re-my-dad reveal.”

May snorted into her tea. Peter stuck his tongue out at her.

“Hey, Tony? Maybe I’ll stay here for the weekend,” Peter said, looking up. “You should take time to talk to Pepper, figure out what’s next when we find mom.”

“What are you doing, giving me relationship advice, kid?” Tony gave Peter an amused look, and Peter felt his face burn at that as he shrugged.

“Rhodey isn’t here to help, you’re kind of still mad at Clint, and Vision’s busy sneaking out,” Peter replied then blinked. “Oh, wow, hey, Tony, you have two teenage sons, not one. Does that make Vision the bad one because he sneaks out and doesn’t tell you where he’s going?” May choked on her tea and Tony burst out laughing, quickly setting his coffee aside before clapping his hand over his eyes.

“Technically I think Vision’s an adult,” May said between fits of coughing and giggles. Peter’s positive Tony’s crying from laughter – it’s a rare sight and he’s a little annoyed he couldn’t get to his phone right now to record this. “And I think you may have broken Tony.”

“I think it’s a delayed mental-breakdown,” Peter said, squinting at his father.

“You Parkers are terrible people,” Tony wheezed out. “Terrible. The absolute worst. Possible super-villains in disguise.”

“Look, May, I’ve taken out Iron Man,” Peter said in a deadpan tone. “May I take over the world now?”

“Settle for New York, sweetie, you still have a curfew,” May replied and sipped her tea. Tony just laughed harder.

.

.

.

Pepper looked surprised when she came back late to find him waiting for her.

“Tony!” she said, eyes wide. “What are you doing up?”

“Waiting for you,” Tony replied, shifting from foot to foot. “I needed to talk to you.”

“Oh? Well, let me get changed.” Tony nodded and Pepper smiled, walking towards their room. He turned to the kitchen, pouring a couple glasses of wine and some snacks to go with it. Pepper came back, dressed in a large hoodie and yoga pants, and took a seat on the island with Tony. She took one of the glasses, sipping it and letting out a content sigh.

“May yelled at me tonight,” Tony started, “that I should have talked to you.”

“May doesn’t yell,” Pepper hummed.

“No, May doesn’t yell at you because you’re perfect and she likes you. She yells at me.” Pepper giggled into her wineglass as Tony pouted.

“About?”

“Mary.”

“Ah.” Pepper suddenly looked unsure, something Tony didn’t think he’d ever see. The woman was always so confident, unshaken when the unexpected happened, to see her like this was sort of terrifying.

“So.” Tony took her hand into his own, thumbing the back of her hand. “I’ve been an idiotic asshole and I’m sorry.” Pepper blinked, quirking an eyebrow.

“I know I can get, you know, narrow-sighted on… certain things,” he continued, “and hearing Mary was alive, well, I may have gone narrow-sighted on her, but. But! She’s been gone for fifteen years, and you’ve been by my side for almost twenty. You’re still the woman that I love and want to marry.”

Pepper’s eyes softened at that, and Tony took her wineglass, putting it aside before pulling her in for a kiss. She smiled and kissed back.

“So, Peter’s not here for the weekend,” Tony said with a leer. Pepper rolled her eyes and let out a quiet laugh before letting him pull her to the bedroom.

.

.

.

The ding on his phone woke Clint up, and he groggily reached for it. Squinting he recognized one of Natasha’s many aliases and thumbed the email. With a groan Clint sat up and dialed the number.

“Clint,” Natasha greeted.

“Hey,” he replied with a yawn. “What’s up?”

“Why are you with Stark?” There was a tinge of curiosity in her voice. Clint grunted as he sat up.

“FRIDAY, lights at fifty percent.” He squinted when the dim light turned on then rubbed his eyes with the heel of his hand. “Uh, Stark pulled me in for my expertise.”

“In what, child-wrangling?” Clint snorted – technically it was true. Rhodey, Pepper and May all need a raise in keeping the father-son duo in check.

“Nope. SHIELD protocols.” He could hear the woman tilting her head slightly. “Remember Richie Parker? Turns out he was right on a lot of things.”

“Huh.”

“I wonder if he had been still around, SHIELD wouldn’t have fallen so bad,” Clint wondered aloud.

“No, SHIELD was compromised a long time ago,” Natasha replied firmly. Clint could tell Natasha knew those words were the truth and it hurt. “I want to know what OsCorp has to do with the nanite virus.”

“OsCorp?” Parker’s notes suddenly flashed in his head. “Hang on.” Clint pulled back the covers and pulled on a pair of sweatpants, exiting his room and towards the kitchen.

“FRIDAY, pull up Parker’s notes,” Clint called out as he grabbed a bottle of soda out of the fridge. Holographic projection of the notes appeared and Clint began to scroll. Parker had placed a question mark by OsCorp and Tony had mentioned that they were mainly geneticists and biochemists. Switching the phone to speaker-mode, Clint spoke again.

“Parker was trying to connect OsCorp on his last case,” Clint began slowly. “Not sure what they’re connection is, seeing as the nanite virus is what Stark called a poor-man Extremis. Should be Killian’s deal, not OsCorp. He and Cho are already working on a vaccine, though it may not be needed.”

“How?” Clint sipped his soda.

“Stark thinks that Parker’s case, Dr. Mary Fitzpatrick, sabotaged the virus to repair what the initial virus is doing.”

“No, I know she sabotaged the virus,” Tony interrupted, sauntering into the kitchen. “Vaccine’s still required in case the genes aren’t completely repaired. Also, really, Barton? You couldn’t start the coffee for this lovely conversation at four in the morning?”

“Figured you’d be asleep,” Clint replied, raising an eyebrow. Tony shrugged, starting up the coffee.

“You know I don’t sleep,” Tony said. “So. What do you want, Romanoff?” Clint bristled slightly at the engineer’s tone, thick with disdain.

“OsCorp.” Natasha hummed. “I heard Parker was trying to connect them to…?”

“Dr. Fitzpatrick,” Clint jumped in. “There was no connection between the two—”

“Stromm tried to recruit her,” Tony interrupted. Clint stilled at that as Tony frowned, staring blankly Clint’s phone. “I think. Honestly, I forgot all about that, it’s how we met.”

“Recruit her for what?” Natasha asked and Tony blinked then grimaced.

“This was twenty years ago, and at the time I was trying to piss off Stromm and get into Mary’s pants,” Tony replied, shifting slightly to look at the coffee-maker. “Pissed off Stromm, did not get into Mary’s pants. Probably biological warfare.”

“OsCorp was into biological warfare?” Clint straightened in his seat.

“Maybe.” Tony’s expression turned dark. “They have a contract with the military, but it should be in robotics and medical technology. Wouldn’t surprise me if there’s a contract under the table for biological warfare. I know Obie had a few under-the-table contracts before I ended him. The lawyers had a field day with that one.”

“Shit.” Clint winced at that, watching as Tony poured himself a cup of coffee. Natasha just hummed again over the phone.

“Did you know that a few months ago OsCorp’s work on nanotechnology suddenly advanced quite a bit?” Natasha mused. Tony paused before setting his cup down on the counter, eyes narrowing. “I heard the progress they’ve made came from what was left of A.I.M.”

“Huh.” Tony’s eyes narrowed. “Really.”

“Their Jersey City branch has been doing interesting nanotech work in the industrial setting,” Natasha continued, and Clint could picture the woman examining her nails, snapping her gum with a look of disinterest.

“Good to know,” Tony drawled, a tablet suddenly in hand and he began to tap on it. He suddenly paused. “You’re not infected, are you?”

“No, I’m fine.” She paused. “We’re all fine.” Tony looked away, jaws setting.

“Welp, looks like we have work to do, Nat,” Clint said brightly. “And you should probably leave since—”

“She has plenty of time,” Tony grumbled. “FRIDAY’s scrambled the call, you have a two-hour head-start.” With that, Tony grabbed his cup and left the kitchen. Clint tilted his head and picked up his phone.

“So that happened,” he said. Natasha snorted and hung up.

Chapter Text

“New Jersey. Seriously? New Jersey?” Tony squinted. “Zeke is hiding in the ass-end state of America.”

“New Jersey’s not that bad,” Peter said, grunting slightly. The sound of shouting in the background and people getting punched told the group that criminals were still up to no good at 10:30 in the morning. “Oh, just stay there, far away from the gun, you jerk. Seriously, Tony, you make New Jersey sound like the worst place to live in.”

“They filmed ‘Jersey Shore’,” Tony countered. A beat.

“Yeah, okay, there’s that, but every US state has made dumb mistakes.” Clint snorted, giving Tony a pointed look. Tony responded with a middle finger as Rhodey grinned at them. “By the way, Tony – Hey! I’m punching you here! Time out for you! – um, how’d you find him there?”

“Scary spies,” Tony said, rubbing his forehead. Clint smirked while Rhodey rolled his eyes. Vision, who finally appeared from wherever the hell he was, merely tilted his head. There were more punching sounds then silence.

(“It’s not moving fast enough,” Stane snarled as he entered the room, stopping before the glass wall. Mary looked up and gave him a withering look.

“Infection rate depends on the person,” she pointed out. “You’ve used the virus on the homeless and druggies, both whom have compromised immune systems. Of course the virus isn’t going to move fast.”

There was an unsaid idiot, and Mary’s pretty sure Stane heard it judging by the dark look he gave her.)

“And done. Ladies and gentlemen, please exit the building in an orderly fashion, don’t forget your belongings and to see the paramedics should you need to, thank you,” Peter announced. Tony couldn’t help the chuckle that slipped through.

“Geez, he’s just like you, Tony,” Rhodey muttered. “How the hell did we not see this?” Tony just shrugged and shook his head as he pulled up holographic diagrams.

“Looked into the OsCorp branch in Jersey City, except,” Tony crossed his arms, “the Jersey City branch is closed. Not closed for the day, shut down. There shouldn’t be any research coming out of there.” There was a thwip-thwip sound telling the group that Peter was back in the air.

“OsCorp’s nanotech research that Romanoff talked about is coming from the main headquarters here in New York, but there is definitely something happening in the Jersey City office,” Tony finished.

“OsCorp really likes their secret projects,” Peter mused knowingly.

(“Doesn’t matter,” Stane said with a sigh. “I’m testing the prototype second infusion now.”

Shit.

“It’s not stable,” Mary said, getting out of her seat and walking towards the wall. “All it’s going to do is—” She cut herself off as she realized what Stane was going to do.

“You. Oh, god, you monster,” she hissed.)

“Peter?” Tony intoned, raising an eyebrow.

“Oh. Uh, heh. So, uh, about my powers…” Tony dropped his head into his hands as he heard both Clint and Rhodey groan. He could hear Peter landing somewhere. “A-anyway, we heading up to Jersey City?”

(“No one is going to survive the second infusion, not even if they had the first infusion!” Mary said.

Because I sabotaged the first infusion.

“That’s fine, I have a target already in mind.” A holographic display opened and she watched as the camera few towards a small red and blue figure.)

“No, you’re staying here, the rest of us are going to Jersey City,” Tony replied, lifting his head up.

“What? No, no way, I want to see—” Peter suddenly stopped. “Uh, wait, something’s, uh, I—BUWAGH!”

“Peter?!” Tony was off, armor sliding over his body as he headed out his lab. “Vision, you’re with me.”

“Oh, low blow, Iron Knock-Off, low blow!” Peter wheezed out. “What’d I ever do to you?” Tony was out the lab and in the air within seconds, Vision right behind him. He barely heard Rhodey saying something about following after him on the comms, his priority on saving his son. Activating the jet, Tony grimaced that the flight that would have taken him thirty minutes still took ten minutes – ten minutes too long, god damn it – and absently noted that Vision somehow was keeping up.

“FRIDAY, show me what Peter is seeing.” A display popped up and Tony watched the first-person view of Peter dodging a repulsor blast before flipping dizzying away.

“Dude, is this because of Brooklyn? Not cool, by the way, nobody likes viral infections,” Peter babbled on. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! Do not blow up the park, do not blow up the park, there are kids—oh, screw you, you jerk!”

“Peter,” Tony said warningly as he watched the first-person view of Peter moving towards Iron Knock-off. “God damn it, Peter, get away from Stane right now!”

“Stane?” Peter let out a squawk as he dodged a fist and a repulsor blast. “Oh, yup, you’re Stane. Any relation with Obadiah St—whoa! Yup, okay, good to know!”

Huh. Training with Clint had worked out pretty well as Peter bobbed and weaved away from Stane. Stane had the technological advantage and judging by the way he moved, had some sort of augmentation, but he didn’t have the fighting experience. Tony grinned viciously as Peter proceeded to wiped the floor with Stane, even crushing one of his repulsor gauntlet before he and Vision arrived.

“Well, if it isn’t Zeke?” Tony drawled, slowly circling the man from above. “Haven’t seen you in, what, forever? Still badly repurposing my tech?”

“Stark,” Stane said calmly. “You’re finally here.” Peter suddenly stiffened.

“Back away!” Peter shouted and dove away. Tony and Vision quickly pulled back in time for Stane’s suit to explode. The display on his HUD lit up like a Christmas tree and Tony swore harshly.

“Pe—Spider-Man, is your air-filter—”

“Yeah, yeah, it’s working,” Peter quickly interrupted. “Did he just…?"

“FRIDAY, scan!” Tony barked.

“It would appear the suit was a remotely controlled,” FRIDAY concluded. “Boss, the virus is most certainly the second infusion.”

“Fuck.”

People began to scream, some doubling over in pain, and Tony looked around in panicked confusion. And then he blanched as he recognized the symptoms, the red glowing veins creeping up their necks, their eyes red and the glow in their mouths.

(He smirked, watching the live coverage on every news channel. Mary clenched her fists, dropping her head down and shutting her eyes as she listened to the multiple news casters babbling.

You son-of-a-bitch.

Her eyes suddenly popped open and Mary turned away, coughing into her hand. Blood trickled out from between her fingers, and she hurried to grab a tissue. She paused for a moment then wiped away the blood.

The blood on my hands is worse than yours, Tony.)

“Oh fuck,” Tony whispered. “Fuck, not again.”

“Tony? Tony, what’s going on?” Peter called out, panic in his voice. “What do I—” Peter gasped and leapt away as just someone exploded.

“Holy shit!” Peter shouted then scurried even further back. “Tony, they’re contagious!”

“What?! Fuck! Rhodey! We got a problem, honey-bear!” Peter and Vision moved, the former hurrying bystanders away as the latter attempted to keep the infected within each other. Another two people exploded and Tony cringed. “Stane just let loose an unstable Extremis virus, and the explosions are sending more of the virus out.”

“What the fuck?!” Rhodey exclaimed.

“Boss, more suits are on the way,” FRIDAY chimed in and Tony, Rhodey and Clint all swore.

“Change of plans,” Tony said. “Barton, you on the quinjet?”

“Yup,” the archer replied.

“I’m meeting you. FRIDAY, track the suits and contact Hazmat. Spidey, Vision, keep the bystanders out of the way and wait for the police to get there. Once they’re there, meet us on the quinjet,” Tony ordered. He flew towards the quinjet, the back opening for him to land. “FRIDAY, open up a screen.”

“What are you doing?” Rhodey asked as holographic displays appeared.

“Hacking the suits. FRIDAY, get me a line.” Tony’s fingers flew over the two holographic keyboards, injecting lines of code and uploading them in. He swore quietly then looked over at Rhodey.

(The triumphant look on Stane’s face slipped and he scowled at the holographic display. With a curse he began to type furiously.

“Stark, you son-of-a-bitch!” he swore. Mary smiled tightly as she watched Stane try to counter-hack.)

“Rhodey, I’m going to need you to play follow the leader with them,” Tony called out over his shoulder. “I can’t remotely steer them, but I can get them to lock on to a target and remotely explode them.”

“On it.” Face-plate sliding down, Rhodey took off towards the city as Tony continued his hack.

“Should we just lead the suits to Staten Island? No one likes Staten Island,” Peter said.

“I’d rather send them to the ass-end state of America,” Tony grumbled.

“I’m dropping them in the middle of Upper Bay, Tones,” Rhodey said, his tone tinged with exasperation. “We are not sending them to Staten Island or New Jersey.”

“Ruin our fun, why don’t you, platypus?”

“Ah, this sounds just like the good-old days,” Clint mused. “This is the part where Steve yells at us.”

“Fuck off, Barton,” Tony said with a scowl, ignoring Peter’s sputtered laughter.

“Hitting the water, Tones. Detonate on my mark,” Rhodey said. There was a grunt as Rhodey went into the water. “Mark!” Tony typed the initiate code and watched from the quinjet at the explosion in the body of water.

“Rhodey? You good?” Tony asked worriedly.

“I’m good, Tones.” He heard Rhodey heave a sigh. “Here’s hoping those nanites can’t do shit with the wildlife.” Tony grunted at that, glancing up when Vision and Peter arrived onto the quinjet.

“Well, get you butt back here, platypus,” Tony said then grinned. “And Stane’s still a moron because I just uploaded a virus into his system so he doesn’t have any control over his systems for at least an hour. Oh, what am I say, he’s a moron, he’s not going to get control for another two hours.

So,” Tony’s grin turned predatory, “how’s about we pay Stane a visit and stop all this from happening around the world?”

(A chair went flying and Mary shrank back as Stane shouted curses and threw another chair.

“This is all your fault!” he shouted at her, turning to glare wildly at her.

“How is it my fault?” Mary asked without thinking. “I’m in here, dying.” Stane strode up and hit the glass wall, causing cracks to splinter about. She backed up slightly, eyeing the cracks warily as Stane scowled at her before pushing away and turning. As he stalked away Mary turned her attention back to the news.

If she knew Tony, he’d have back-traced the signal back here. Mary smiled and turned back to her workstation, checking the results. The timing where JARVIS would take over was trickier than expected but if she could get it right, the second infusion would be neutralized before it had any effect.)

Chapter Text

Peter’s leg was bouncing as he watched Tony, Rhodey and Clint making a tentative game-plan in the cockpit. He had to admit, Peter was nervous – they were going to fight a nutjob who had his mom imprisoned. His stomach flipped as Peter realized he was getting closer to seeing his mom.

How should he greet her? Because Mary was his mom, but Pepper was more deserving of the title of mom than Mary.

And May was, well, May so really Pepper was mom and—

“What’s got you thinking so hard?” Rhodey asked and Peter looked up. He glanced at the cockpit to see Tony and Clint arguing over something.

“Mom. Or my biological mom. Should I even call her mom?” Peter began, folding his hands together and looking back up at Rhodey. “Because May raised me so technically she’s my mom but she’s still my aunt, and I feel like Pepper’s more like my mom than, uh, mom and—wow, this is just getting super convoluted.” Rhodey chuckled at that, giving Peter a thoughtful look.

“What’s your gut telling you?” Rhodey asked. Peter blinked at that then down as he thought about it.

“I want to call them both mom,” Peter answered slowly then looked up. “That’s okay, right?”

“I think that’s fine,” Rhodey replied. “Do you actually call Pepper mom?” Peter blushed.

“N-no, well, m-maybe a few times? By, uh, by accident?” Peter admitted. “I don’t know, uh, maybe she’s okay with it, but it’s a little easier calling her mom than calling Tony dad. That’s, uh, that’s still a work in progress.” Rhodey chuckled at that as Peter glanced at the cockpit again, noting that Tony was now looking out, ignoring Clint as the archer flew.

“Huh,” Peter let slipped as a sudden thought popped up. “Hey, Rhodey? Is it okay if I called you Uncle Rhodey? I mean, uh, now that I’m, uh, well, we’re family now, right?” Rhodey stared at Peter, causing him to fidget under his gaze.

Yeah, guess Rhodey didn’t like that.

“Sorry, I—”

“No, that’s fine,” Rhodey quickly interrupted, a grin lighting up on his face. “More than fine, kid.” Peter grinned at that then shifted slightly to the right.

“Tony, are we there yet?” Peter called out. “Uncle Rhodey and I are getting bored!”

“Unc—Wait a freaking minute, you’re already calling him Uncle Rhodey?!” Tony shouted, spinning his chair to stare at Peter. Clint snorted and Peter could barely make out a grin on the archer’s face. “No, no, do not call him Uncle Rhodey, you’re not allowed to call him that before you call me dad!”

“But Uncle Rhodey makes more sense than calling you dad,” Peter protested. Rhodey was grinning widely now, looking back at Tony who scowled at him. “You know it’s still weird for me to call you dad, and Uncle Rhodey is pretty much my uncle since we started hanging out more.”

“You’re out of my will. Out,” Tony growled. “Betrayed by my own flesh and blood, what the hell?”

“I’m sure Pepper will keep me in the will. Besides, you still have Vision,” Peter prompted. Vision raised an eyebrow.

“I distinctly recall you telling Sir that I was the ‘bad teenage son’,” the android intoned. Rhodey and Clint broke out laughing as Peter sputtered.

“Tony! Why did you tell him that?” Peter squawked out.

“I did no such thing,” Tony replied with a sniff. “FRIDAY did.”

“Indeed, I learned of this conversation from FRIDAY,” Vision confirmed. Rhodey laughed harder, nearly doubling over with mirth.

“Christ, Barton, don’t kill us all with your laughing,” Tony said. “Alright, we should be getting to the old OsCorp place, let’s go kick Stane’s ass and find Mary.”

.

.

.

Tony loved making an entrance, especially when he was about to kick some ass.

He even had “Shoot to Thrill” playing loudly as he and Rhodey smashed through the walls and headed towards the middle of the building.

Fuck yeah, he was daring Stane to come at him.

“Are you two trying to get yourselves killed?” Peter mumbled into his comms.

“It’s what they do,” Clint replied. “Let’s us squishier people have more time to do our jobs.”

“Oh, so they’re tanking for us. That’s, uh, that’s cool.”

“I have no idea what that means, Spidey, but sure.”

“Your kid is such a nerd,” Rhodey said as they tromped through the halls, humor in his voice.

“Yeah, I can’t decide if I should be proud or not,” Tony replied. He glanced at the displays in his helmet. “We’ve got incoming, honey-bear.”

“I see them.” Rhodey strode forward, arms up as Iron Knock-offs appeared and began to fire. “Hawkeye, Spidey, find those consoles faster because there’s a hell of a lot of knock-offs here.”

“Are those Hammer’s shitty drones?” Tony asked, squinting slightly as he shot the head off one drone, turning to blast another. “Wow, there are actual shitty Hammer drones here.”

“Gosh, I hope they don’t try to shoot me again,” Peter grunted. “Oh, hey there, server room.”

“When did Hammer drones try to shoot you?” Clint asked curiously.

“At the Stark Expo when they were showing off Uncle Rhodey’s new Iron Patriot armor,” Peter replied. Tony twitched as the ‘Uncle Rhodey’ title, glaring at the back of Rhodey’s head. As though he could sense it, Rhodey stopped shooting from one of his arms and raised a middle finger back at Tony before resuming fire. “Let’s see if I can find the shut-down switch.”

“Uh, kid, the Iron Patriot thing was back in 2011,” Rhodey said slowly, firing a missile at a group of drones. He continued forward, firing away. “Are you telling me you were there?”

“I wanted to see Tony, maybe get an autograph.” Peter hummed. “He’d just come out as Iron Man so I begged Ben and May to go. And shutting down drones now.” There was a few second as the drones continued on before they all stopped and powered down.

“Good job, kid,” Tony said. “And we’re not done talking about the Hammer drones who nearly shot you.” He and Rhodey began to move faster down the hallway, towards the middle of the building.

“It’s fine, you saved me before it happened,” Peter said. Tony frowned at that in confusion. “Uh, wait, uh, Hawkeye, am I seeing what I think I’m seeing?” There was a pause.

“Fuck, really?” Clint said flatly. “Vision, where are you?”

“I’m approaching the fifty-second floor, Hawkeye,” the android said.

“Swing up towards the fifty-eighth and fifty-ninth floors,” Clint ordered. “We’ve got missiles primed and ready to go. Spidey’s attempting to disable them, but I’d like you to disable them physically if he can’t.”

“Understood.”

“Stark, go and punch Stane in the face, he loaded up a bunch of missiles with the unstable second infusion,” Clint said. Tony grunted as he and Rhodey entered the middle of the building, looking around for Stane. The open space made it difficult for anyone to hide, but trying to find where Stane was currently at was a pain in the ass.

“FRIDAY, patch me into the speakers,” Tony said. A tiny microphone icon popped up. “Oh Zeke! Love what you’ve done with the place, very super-villain-esque.”

(Mary jumped at the voice. It couldn’t be.

Hope began to well up in her chest and her breath shuddered.)

“I’m not into hide-and-seek, Zeke, so how about you come out now and I can punch you in the face?” Tony continued.

(“Tony seriously did this when you were all together as the Avengers?” Peter muttered in disbelief, both his eyes and KAREN skimming the code as he hacked the servers.

“Him and Cap,” Clint replied with a sigh. “At least Rhodey’s smarter and has some sense of self-preservation when he’s drawing enemy fire.”)

“Come out, come out, wherever you are,” Tony finished, his tone slightly sing-song. Silence was his reply. “Huh. Guess he chickened out, honey-bear.”

Explosions suddenly sounded, and Tony and Rhodey turned just in time for the hallway they had exited to explode right in their faces. They were both thrown back and falling down before they managed to right themselves, slowing their descent to the lobby.

(Mary tensed at the sound of explosions. What the hell was Stane doing? Or was this another hello from Tony?

She looked back at the results and her lips thinned. Still wasn’t fast enough. Mary sat down and began to type again.)

The loud thud caught Tony’s attention, and he and Rhodey turned at the sound. A second thud and a large hand reached out, holding the wall as an Iron Monger stepped out.

“Oh, that’s a big one,” Rhodey said, his head moving up slightly.

“Yeah? Well, FYI, Rhodey,” Tony said, “bigger does not mean better.”

And then they moved.

.

.

.

“I got it, I got it, I got it!” Peter crowed as he disabled the countdown. “Countdown off-line, remotely firing the missiles is disabled!”

“Good job, kid,” Clint said, rubbing the top of Peter’s head. “Vision, how’s it going on your end?”

“I am continuing to disable the missiles,” Vision reported. “As these are not SI missiles, I’ve had to take some time with the first, but since the missiles all have the same configuration and modification, the difficultly has been minimized.”

“Good,” Clint acknowledged as Peter pulled up the cameras. Peter hissed as he saw Tony and Rhodey fighting against what looked like a Hulk-version of the Iron Man suit. “Looks like they found Stane.” Peter flipped through the camera then stopped, his heart suddenly beating faster.

A woman glanced up from her seat, warily eyeing the ceiling before looking down, typing. Peter recognized her, even if her hair was different from the picture.

“Mom,” Peter whispered. Clint leaned down next to Peter.

“Well, hell, she’s here,” Clint murmured. Peter began to type, pulling up the map to the building and figuring how to get to Mary.

“Peter, your heart-rate is quite fast, should I alert Tony?” KAREN asked.

“No, no, I’m good, KAREN,” Peter quickly said, skimming through the map. “I found my biological mom, she’s here, and-and, holy cow, I’m going to meet her!”

“Go,” Clint said, startling Peter. “I’ll go join Stark and Rhodes, you go find your mom.”

“Wait, but I—”

“Go on, kid.” Clint patted Peter’s shoulder. “We got this.” Peter hesitated then nodded. They moved out of the server room, Clint disappearing down the halls towards the open space as Peter went for the elevators. He pried opened the doors, looked around before shooting a web on a support beam.

“Tony, I’m heading down to where mom is,” Peter commed in as he jumped in and slowly lowered himself down. “Not sure if I’ll have comms when I get down.”

“Wait, what? Mary’s here?” Tony demanded then let out a grunt and a curse. “God damn it, Barton, watch the arrows!”

“Move faster then, Stark,” Clint replied flatly. Tony grumbled out something.

“Kid, get her out of here,” Tony ordered.

“No problem with that,” Peter replied. He wasn’t sure how far he went, but it was far enough that the fight was muffled if Peter didn’t focus on his hearing. He landed on the ground and pried the elevator doors open, scurrying in.

The smell of antiseptic and bleach tickled Peter’s nose, and he followed down the corridor, looking for the lab. He entered the code and slipped in, webbing the cameras as he walked in. The hazardous logos combined with the smell of bleach didn’t make Peter feel any better.

“Tony? Can you read me?” Peter whispered nervously.

“Barely, where the – oof! Oh, fuck you too, Stane!” Tony snarled.

Well, okay, then. Hopefully Vision would finish soon and help out though seriously maybe Peter should turn back and help take down—

“Is someone there?” a woman called out. Peter stopped, his heart racing before he slowly turned the corner. Mary was still seated at the desk, turned to face outside with a suspicious look. “Who are you?” Peter glanced around then quickly webbed the cameras. With a breath he walked up to the glass wall, glancing at the cracks with some trepidation before he pulled off his mask. Mary took a breath, surprise on her face.

“H-hi, mom,” Peter greeted with a shy smile and a tiny wave, heart nearly jumping out of his mouth. Mary stared at him then placed a hand on the wall, the other to her mouth, trembling. Peter reached up to place his own hand where her hand is, watching as tears welled up in Mary’s eyes and she let out a strangled sob.

“Peter?” she choked out. “Oh my god, Peter.”

.

.

.

The ass-kicking of Ezekiel Stane was going splendidly. Again, Stane may have some sort of enhancement in play, but Tony, Rhodey and Barton had the experience. Because, really, after fighting against aliens, HYDRA and Ultron, fighting Stane was cake.

“Tony? Can you read me?” Peter whispered nervously into the comms.

“Barely, where the – oof!“ Tony flew back as Stane hit him with a repulsor blast. “Oh, fuck you too, Stane!”

“I think his armor’s a lot sturdier than Obie’s was,” Rhodey said as he fired another missile at Stane. He took it, charging forward to punch Rhodey only for the man to pull back.

“Just a bit,” Tony affirmed. “Hey, FRI? You done scanning?”

“Yes, Boss. Weaknesses are highlighted on yours and Col. Rhodes’ HUDS,” the AI replied.

“Awesome. Rhodey, you ready to kick his ass?” Tony said.

“Oh, you know it.”

“Okay, bird-brain, you still got those taser arrows?” Tony called out as he and Rhodey ran interference. There was a grunt on the comms and Clint jumping down a floor, avoiding a blast from Stane. “Shoot where I tell you to shoot.”

He began to call out the weak spots, watching gleefully as each arrow hit perfectly at the shoulders, the knees and the back of the Iron Monger’s neck. Then Clint sent the suit crashing onto the floor as he activated the arrows, electricity shooting all over. Stane shouted in pain and anger, and—

“Hawkeye, get back!” Rhodey barked out. Tony and Rhodey few back in time for the suit to explode, and then Tony flew further back as Stane in his own Iron Man suit flew out and crashed into him.

“You don’t get this, Stark!” Stane roared as he and Tony traded blows. Tony grunted at how heavy Stane was punching him, the displays flipping out before his eyes. “You don’t get to win this!”

“Win what?” Tony growled, managing to get Stane off with a repulsor blast. “Saving the world? Because you do know that’s what we do.” He ducked just as Rhodey appeared, firing his guns at Stane. Stane moved to avoid, faster than Tony calculated but not fast enough for Rhodey to wing his boots and send him crashing through a wall. Tony stood up, his hands out and ready to fire as Stane stumbled back to his feet.

“God, you were never smart, were you? Never even made it to Ty’s league and he’s not remotely in my league,” Tony taunted. “Hell, my kid can disarm your modified missile and Iron Knock-offs, and he’s only twelve.”

“He’s fifteen,” Rhodey corrected.

“Yeah, get it right, dad,” Clint added into the comms. Stane growled and spat out a curse, and Tony smirked, moving slightly closer to Stane with Rhodey behind him.

“What’s up? Trying to fire off those missiles upstairs?” Tony drawled. “Again, my kid’s smarter than you.”

“All the missiles have been disabled,” Vision added as he floated down.

“Good job, Vis.” Vision nodded at Tony, his eyes trained warily at Stane.

“Fuck you, Stark,” Stane spat out, straightening and Tony narrowed his eyes.

“Tony? Tony?!” Peter suddenly cried out. “Oh god, oh god, Tony, mom’s, oh god!” Fear exploded through Tony and he was moving, slamming Stane into the wall.

“What the fuck did you do?” Tony snarled. Mechanical laughter sounded and Tony moved to break open Stane’s helmet, flinging it to the side. Stane just smiled at him.

“You killed my dad. I just killed your woman,” Stane replied and spat at Tony’s face-plate. Tony glared then punched Stane out, feeling more than a little satisfied when he felt his fist dislocate Stane’s jaw.

“Barton, Rhodey, come pick up the idiot,” Tony growled out, stepping away from the man. “Spidey, Vis and I are coming, what’s going on?” There was no response from Peter and Tony looked at Vision. The android moved, sliding down through the floor as Tony flew towards the elevators and pried it open.

It felt like forever as Tony flew down and towards the lab, heart thundering in his chest. What happened to Mary and Peter? God, are they alright?

“Peter?” Tony called out as he slammed through the lab. One quick look to see Vision typing at a console and Peter sitting on the ground before a glass wall and talking to someone. Everything seemed to go quiet in that moment as Tony took in the sight. She looked thinner, a little gray in her tied-up curly brown hair, and when she looked over, all Tony could think of was fuck, she’s still so damn beautiful.

“Mary,” Tony said softly, his face-plate flicking up, and the smile she gave him had Tony falling for her all over again.

(He woke up with her by his side, and without thinking he reached over to tuck her hair behind her ear. Mary woke up at the touch, blinking in confusion for a moment before her eyes settled on him.

And then she smiled, and all Tony could think of was how do I get her to keep smiling like that for me?)

“Tony,” Mary said then coughed and Tony froze at the sight of blood dribbling through her fingers. Her shirt (he recognized it as one of his old MIT shirt) and pants were covered in blood, and Peter looked up, tears falling from his terrified eyes.

“Mary,” Tony breathed. “Hang on, babe, I’m going to get you out of there.”

“No!” she quickly shouted as he raised a hand. “No, you can’t! I—” Tony froze as Mary began to cough again, turning away to spit out blood.

“Mary, what is it? What’s wrong?” Tony stepped out of his suit and marched up to the glass wall, kneeling down next to Peter. “Don’t tell me Stane used the virus on you.”

“No, god no,” Mary replied weakly. “This would be a modified virus, courtesy of Killian and Stromm.” Tony swore at that, watching as Mary cleared her throat and took a deep breath.

“Tony, did Stane launch the second infusion?” Mary asked.

“Just the one in Queens,” Tony answered. “Rhodey and I managed to steer the other suits into the water. Peter and Vision disabled the missiles here.”

“Oh, thank god,” Mary breathed in relief, dropping her head against the wall. “Thank god.”

“Dr. Fitzpatrick,” Vision interrupted, walking up to the wall. “I have done my best, but it would appear that the majority of the nanites in your bloodstream have self-destructed. I believe that with the limited nanites, you have at most a week.”

Mary responded with a teary laugh as Tony looked up at the android.

“What does that mean?” Tony demanded then turned to look back at Mary. “Mary, what’s going on?”

“That would be Killian’s work,” Mary replied then smiled. “It’s actually quite brilliant, to have the nanites slowly attack the majority of my internal organs and wreak havoc on my immune system. Hence the sterile room I’m in right now.”

“God.” Tony dropped his head against the glass wall. “God, I looked for you everywhere when you disappeared. Never thought you’d be in Killian’s hands, I’m so sorry for not finding you there.”

(Pepper screaming as she fell into the flames below.

Fuck you Killian fuck you you’re fucking dead.)

“Well, it took a while for him to get to me,” she replied with a little humor. “Now. How about we get out of here? I’d rather not spend the last remaining days in the basement of a defunct OsCorp building.”

Chapter Text

There was a debriefing with Ross that night, one which Tony mostly ignored. He spent his time on his cellphone, checking to make sure that Helen had taken a look at Mary, and that Mary was comfortable in her new room.

Clint looked equally as bored, though he smirked at Ross when Rhodey detailed his involvement with capturing Stane. The look on Ross’s face when Rhodey recommended his house arrest be shortened nearly made Tony laugh.

Of course, Ross also demanded the location of Spider-Man as he had been sighted in the capture of Stane. Tony just shrugged, replying the vigilante had hitched a ride—

(“Hitched a ride, my ass, Stark,” Ross snarled.

“Have you seen the Coney Island fiasco?” Tony replied flatly. “The idiot managed to attach himself to the plane before taking both it and Toomes down. The only thing he hasn’t figured out yet is how to not kill himself from getting off a plane.”

“Don’t spiders know how to make parachutes?” Clint muttered.)

—and proceeded in joining their battle against Stane. Unfortunately, the cameras were out and the hard-drives with videos were wiped by the time the FBI arrived, most likely due to Spider-Man’s work.

(“Look, the guy shut down the drones and missiles, I wouldn’t put it past him to shut down the cameras and wipe the footage too,” Tony said with a huff. “The guy loves his privacy, Ross.”

“You found him for Berlin,” Ross pointed out.

“I got lucky,” Tony replied. “Super lucky, and I paid a visit in full Iron Man mode to make sure he didn’t slip away.”

“And yet you didn’t turn him in after Berlin.”

“This is old news, Ross,” Tony said with a wave of his hand. “I was busy making sure Rhodey was getting proper medical attention. Besides I don’t know where Spider-Man went after he tied up the Rogues. Probably hitched a ride seeing as we fought in an airport, and how much he enjoys airplanes.” Clint snorted at that.)

By the time Ross was done, it was past midnight. Clint slipped away to Facetime his family while Rhodey went to take a shower. Pepper was still working, her office light on and Tony slipped in, moving behind her for a hug.

“Ross is an ass,” Tony grumbled against her neck. “Why did I decide to work with him?” He felt Pepper’s hand in his hair, running her fingers through his hair.

“At the time you thought it was a good thing,” Pepper replied, leaning her head against Tony. He grunted, more than a little annoyed with himself.

“You know what else?” he mumbled. “The fight with Stane? Felt almost like when we fought as a team. Felt good.”

“Are you missing the team?”

“Nope, not at all.”

“Mm-hm.” Pepper always seemed to know when he was lying through his gritted teeth. “Have you gone to see Mary yet?”

“No, I came here first.” Tony sighed and straightened up, starting to pace. “I didn’t want to alert Ross to her presence here at the Compound. I’m, uh, I’m going to check on her after I talk to Helen.”

“Okay.” Pepper gave him a small smile and Tony paused for a moment before moving in to kiss her.

“I love you,” Tony said softly. Pepper smiled at that.

“I love you too,” she replied.

.

.

The prognosis wasn’t good. Vision’s one week had been the most optimistic while Helen delivered the bad news of death in a couple of days.

He was going to lose Mary again.

“Can’t you do anything?” Tony asked Helen as he paced the floor. “Peter just found her. I just found her, this can’t happen.” She shook her head.

“The nanites that were in her body practically destroyed her immune system, Tony,” Helen said. “When Stane set off the self-destruct, they latched onto her vital organs. Her heart isn’t strong enough for major surgery, and…” She hesitated for a moment, her voice lowering.

“Extremis won’t work. Mary figured it out and I’ve just finished running the test results,” Helen finished softly. Tony stopped pacing to face her. “Her organs are too badly damaged, and even if we can program the nanites correctly, an infusion of Extremis would cause more harm than good – they can’t fix what is already damaged without an undamaged template.”

“Damn it,” Tony hissed, his hands moving behind his head.

“Tony, at this point, all we can do is make her comfortable,” Helen said, giving him a sympathetic look. Tony dropped his head and took a deep breath before looking up at Helen.

“Thanks, Helen.” The doctor nodded and the holographic projection winked out of existence. He turned and leaned against his workbench, taking a few more deep breaths.

And then he let out an angry scream, grabbing the closest object and flinging it hard against the wall. Another thing, two more crashed into the wall as he let out a string of curses before Tony crumpled onto the floor, letting out a sob.

He had just found her and she was going to leave again.

This can’t be happening.

“Tones?” Tony didn’t respond as Rhodey crossed the floor of his lab. A grunt as Rhodey settled down next to him, his shoulder warm against Tony’s own.

“She’s going to die,” Tony choked out, not looking at Rhodey. “She’s going to disappear again, and this time I can’t do anything about it. Rhodey, I-I just found her again, this can’t happen.” Rhodey didn’t say anything, just pulled Tony into a hug, rubbing his back as Tony sobbed against his shoulder.

“I’m sorry, Tony,” Rhodey said softly. “I’m so sorry.”

.

.

It’s was almost two in the morning by the time Tony walked into the medical bay, surprised to see Mary and Peter still both awake. Mary was dressed in a hospital gown and robe, tucked up warmly against Peter on the couch, listening with a smile as Peter told her about growing up in Queens.

“—and May isn’t the best cook, but there’s some things she can make that tastes amazing,” Peter said. “So long as it’s Italian. Maybe I can get her to make you some cannoli, they’re so good!”

“Maybe,” Mary replied with a smile, “though from what I remember, she makes an amazing tiramisu.”

“Now she’s going into health-food baking,” Tony added as he strode in with a smile. “Don’t get me started on that avocado-tofu-walnut-date thing.” Peter shuddered as Mary laughed.

“I still can’t believe you found each other,” Mary said. Tony sat down next to Mary, and she raised a hand to cup his cheek. He reached up to cover her hand, his heart pounding as he studied her before shifting to kiss the palm of her hand.

“Hey, there’s a kid here, keep it PG,” Peter chirped and Tony reached over to gently swat his head.

“Smart-ass,” Tony grumbled as Mary giggled.

“Learned from the best,” Peter replied with a grin. Mary laughed then began to cough. Peter quickly grabbed a tissue and handed it to her, giving her a worried look as bright red blood stained the tissue.

“What’s the diagnosis, Tony?” Mary asked as she looked at the blood-soaked tissue. Peter got up to grab the waste-basket and Mary disposed the tissue. Tony scooted closer to Mary, an arm around her shoulder and she leaned against him.

“Vision’s one week was the most optimistic,” he said quietly. “Helen? A couple days, minimum.” Mary hummed at that.

“Tony? Y-you can’t do anything?” Peter asked, giving him a lost look, tears welling up. Tony looked away, pressing a gentle kiss on Mary’s head. It was enough of an answer as Peter looked down and let out a quiet sniffle. Mary held out a hand and Peter took it, getting back onto the couch and snuggling up against her.

For the moment, they could pretend to be a family.

.

.

.

May arrived early Sunday morning with pictures of Peter’s childhood and, while Peter was training with Rhodey and Clint, they flipped through pages of baby Peter, toddler Peter, mini-Peter together. They cooed over baby Peter looking up at the camera with his big brown eyes and a drooling smile, laughed together at mini-Peter covered in blueberry jam, expressed their pride at Peter’s science awards.

And both Tony and Mary hated how they missed every single moment they could have had with Peter.

“Thank you for raising him, May,” Mary said, smiling at her with tears in her eyes. “You raised him into the best kid ever.”

“It was my pleasure,” May replied with a grin, reaching out to take Mary’s hand and giving it a reassuring squeeze. “Though I think half of that goes to you and Tony. Power of science and genes and all that stuff.” Mary and Tony laughed at that.

Rhodey and Pepper also made their appearances with Rhodey telling Mary even more blackmail-worthy stories much to Tony’s exasperation.

(“Really, Tony?” Mary wrinkled her nose.

“I was three whiskey bottles in,” Tony defended himself. “It seemed reasonable at the time!”

“Taking a leak in your Iron Man suit during a party is reasonable?” The cowed look Tony gave her sent Rhodey into stitches.)

Pepper, on the other hand, had been hesitant in meeting Mary now that she was Tony’s fiancée and not his fabled assistant. Mary gave Pepper a warm hug and thanked her for taking care of Tony.

(“Isn’t she’s awesome, mom?” Peter said with a grin as Pepper blushed.

“I know she is. Someone had to keep Tony in line,” Mary teased, earning a giggle from Pepper and an eyeroll from Tony. Peter nodded in agreement, laughing as Tony gently smacked him upside the head.

“You’re suppose to be on my side, kid,” Tony complained with a pout

“Angry moms trump you anytime, Tony.” The engineer tilted his head slightly then sighed.

“Yeah, sounds about right.”)

Tony was more than a little surprised when a few SHIELD agents suddenly appeared at the Compound that afternoon, asking for Mary. How they found out, Tony was pretty sure a certain former SHIELD agent had blabbed, but he wasn’t going to deny them when he discovered they had been former students of Mary.

More people began to trickle in through the day, asking for Mary – FBI, CIA, Homeland, police officers, firefighters, doctors. Tony watched from the cameras as they talked to Mary, thanked her and Parker for giving them guidance at school. Mary would smile, looking a little teary as she listened to her former students talk about themselves, their lives, their loved ones.

(“Look, Tony,” Mary said excitedly, flipping her tablet around. “Raymond’s stem cell research! Oh, this is so exciting!” Tony took a seat on the bed and glanced at the tablet, squinting at all the medical jargon.

“Latin, Mary, all Latin,” Tony replied.

“Nope, all English to me.” Mary swooned. “Beautiful, beautiful English.”

Huh. So this odd confused feeling is how people felt when he and Bruce talked science. Good to know.)

Later that night, Mary and Tony talked.

She didn’t know much about Afghanistan nor the major news items such as the Chitauri invasion, Ultron, the Sokovia Accords. He told her everything and Mary just listened with no judgement, and Tony just bared his soul to her because it was Mary.

Mary went more in-depth on her time with Killian and Stane. She told him about Extremis, the few odd projects at OsCorp—

(“Speaking of, Peter said OsCorp liked their secret projects,” Tony noted casually. “Might have something to do with how Peter got his powers.” Mary stilled at that.

“Did that secret project have something to do with spiders?”

“He mentioned being bit by a spider during a tour at OsCorp’s headquarters.” Mary buried her face into her hands.

“Oh my god, I gave our son super powers,” Mary groaned, her voice muffled.)

—and her meeting with the Winter Soldier. Tony nearly had a heart-attack when she mentioned doing bloodwork on the Winter Soldier, and Mary stopped to watch worriedly as he paced about the room.

“He didn’t hurt you, did he?” Tony demanded.

“What, the, uh, the Asset? No, he was…” Mary paused, a sad expression crossing her face. “He… the way the Russians treated him, he was just a tool. He was just starting to talk to me when they took him away.”

“He talked to you?” Tony stopped in front of her, eyes wide in surprise.

“I think he was shaking off the mind-control or something,” Mary said slowly. “Only managed to ask me what AC/DC meant then looked really confused before his handler whisked him away.”

Tony sat in his lab for a long time, reflecting on what Mary had told him about Bucky. Before he realized it, FRIDAY was announcing that Clint would be leaving soon.

Monday morning had somehow snuck up on Tony, and he stretched his aching back before making his way up. The archer had his bags packed and was lounging in the living room, flicking through channels as he waited for his escort.

“Stark,” Clint greeted. “Not going to lie, but that’s a hell of a mission you pulled me into.”

“What can I say, go big or go home,” Tony replied with a shrug then paused. “Thanks, Barton.”

Clint raised an eyebrow at that.

“I’m sorry, I must be hearing things in my old age. Did I just hear Tony Stark thank me?” he said, sticking a finger into his ear and wiggling. “FRIDAY, am I going insane?”

“It’s a distinct possibility,” FRIDAY replied. “Boss tends to drive most people insane.”

“I did not program you to betray me like this,” Tony said, frowning at one of FRIDAY’s cameras as Clint laughed.

Peter and May talked to Mary about their day via Skype, Mary curled up against Tony on the couch. They listened with a smile as Peter told them about Ned, MJ, school, being Spider-Man.

(“Helping old ladies cross the street?” Mary said with a laugh. “That’s not something Tony would do. I don’t know if it’s even in me to do that.”

“Uh, that is, um,” Peter stuttered out, “more like an Uncle Ben thing.” Mary’s smile turned sad.

“He was a good man,” Mary said, shifting slightly. “Did you know Ben and Richard saved my life in Philadelphia?” Both Peter and May’s eyes widened in surprise while Tony turned to look down at her with a frown.

“I thought Ben had gone down to help you move,” May said slowly. Mary shook her head, settling back against Tony.

“Let me preface this with the fact that Ben really was suppose to just help us move,” Mary began.)

Chapter Text

Mary died on Thursday.

Tony pulled Peter out of class, and had Happy pick up May from work. He watched as the two Parkers bid their farewells through tears, holding Mary’s hands tightly. Mary just smiled, thanked May for raising her boy so well. She told Peter how much she loved him, and to stay by Tony’s side.

His own hand gripped hers tightly, kissing her knuckles while tears fell from his eyes as Mary told him how much she loved him, how much she had missed him through the years.

“You know, you were the one,” Mary said softly through her tears. “That one person I was ready to spend the rest of my life with.”

“You were too,” Tony replied thickly.

(Tony had picked out the ring already, grinning to himself. It was simple, just diamonds on a platinum band. Simple but perfect. Mary would love it.

He’d give it to her over dinner at their favorite restaurant in Paris.

Mary would have said yes with a huge smile, hugging him tight with a long kiss.

It probably meant that Tony was committed in the relationship enough that having a baby wouldn’t scare the shit out of him.)

Tony had May and Peter join him on the flight to London – the plane ride was quiet, and Tony watched as Peter slept against May, tears still stained against his cheeks.

He’d lost his mother again, but at least Peter had been able to say good-bye.

And Tony, he’d lost the love of his life once more, but this time he’d also been able to say good-bye.

But it still hurt so very much.

(A big wedding, maybe on par with Princess Diana. Mary liked London so Tony would have had the wedding at Westminster Abbey because he could. Everybody would be there – Rhodey, Pepper and Obie included. Hell, Tony would invite the Queen of England to join in the festivities.

Because, damn it, Tony was marrying the most amazing woman in the world, and he had to show the world that they weren’t allowed to touch her.)

They spread her ashes at Green Park. Later Tony and Peter sat together on the lawn chairs, watching the people there. No one seemed to notice the famous billionaire, dressed in a band t-shirt and jeans, wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses hiding his face.

“She loved London?” Peter asked quietly, leaning his head against Tony’s shoulder, Tony’s arm around his shoulder.

“Loved it,” Tony replied with a sad smile. “I think we came here the most during our one-day outings. And not any of it had to do with shopping; she was there to look at the National Gallery, the Tate Modern, all those art galleries.”

“The National Portraits Gallery was something I would have liked to see,” Peter said.

“Want to go now?”

“Sounds good, dad.” Tony hugged Peter a little tighter.

(They’d raise Peter together, maybe have another kid or two if they’re feeling adventurous, and thank god for Mary because Tony didn’t need to fuck up their kids with Howard’s less-than-stellar parenting skills. They’d all go to MIT or Mary’s alma mater John Hopkins.

Growing old together sounded like a great future to look forward to.)

He still had the ring. Mary’s would-be engagement ring.

Tony stared at it, a finger tracing the diamonds in the plush black box.

And then he closed it, tucking it back into the corner of the safe.

When Peter found his one special person, he could give that ring to her.

(In the end, it was just a beautiful dream.)