Chapter Text
It’s a cold, stormy night when a four-year-old Peter Parker is gently shaken awake by his mother.
“Mama?” He questions, rubbing at his eyes with his tiny fists.
“Hey baby,” Mary cooes, “We have to go to Aunt May and Uncle Ben’s house, okay? You’re gonna have a sleepover!”
The boy’s eyes light up despite his groggy state. He loved going over to his aunt and uncle’s house. He doesn’t even pick up the way Mary’s eyebrows crease and she looks at her son for what might be the last time. Her baby.
“Honey? We have to go.” Her husband’s hushed voice and a gentle hand on her shoulder pulls her from her thoughts.
“Right.” She picked up the suitcase they almost always kept packed for Peter, putting in a few stray things before clicking it shut. Richard picked the boy up, and the family of three were on their way.
The drive to Ben and May’s house was short. It always was. Mary held Peter close instead of putting him in his carseat, and he was already drifting back to sleep, snuggling into her embrace.
Once they made it there, they ran into the apartment building as fast as they could, rain pouring. Once they reached the floor they were looking for, Ben was already there and waiting.
“Hey bud!” Ben greeted after they had walked into the apartment, setting a now-awake Peter on the ground to take his Uncle’s hand. “Let’s go sleep on the couch, huh? You can pick out a movie if you want!” The little boy nodded excitedly as they headed over to the living room.
May stayed with her brother and sister in-law, giving them both a hug and a kiss and saying their goodbyes. Richard and Mary acknowledged Ben with hugs and then walked over to where Peter was sitting, and crouched down to his level. “Hey, Pete, your mom and I have to go, but we’ll see you soon, okay?” Peter nodded dutifully, just a little bit afraid by the way his father’s voice quivered. “We love you so, so much.” Richard hugged him and placed a kiss on his forehead, Mary moving in to do the same, holding onto him longer than she should have, because he began to squirm. She chuckled, “We love you baby. See you soon.”
And with that, they were gone.
They got the call later in the day, as things were winding down and Ben was cooking dinner. May picked up the homephone, but then screamed and dropped it like hot coal, staggering back. Ben rushed over to hold her in his arms, whispering words of comfort as he rocked her back and forth.
All that night, they cried. And so did Peter when his parents never came back.
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“Aw, come on!” Tony cried as Peter beat him in their fourth Mario Kart race.
“Face it, Tony, you’re condemned to a life of shame.” Peter said smugly. “Another round?” Tony pouted, but took to the challenge.
“You’re on.” Tony said, despite himself.
Tonight was a family night at the compound, or, more correctly put, family week. May and Peter were spending the week with Rhodey, Pepper, Tony, Happy and several of the other Avengers if they decided to show. May was using up vacation days for it, and though Tony offered to go somewhere more remote for those “vacation days you’re wasting on us,” she just scoffed and said she’s rather be somewhere quiet.
Happy, May and Pepper were currently at the kitchen island, laughing loudly and drinking bottles of expensive wine. Peter assumed they had a few glasses, because he’s almost never seen Happy laugh as hard as he was right then. Tony and Rhodey were both playing Mario Kart with him, though he had already won a few times, Tony consistently ending up in twelfth and Rhodey in sixth.
As they started into their second race, a voice rang from overhead, filling all corners of the room. “Boss, there’s someone at the gate.”
“Who are they? I’m sure they can wait two minutes.”
“Facial recognition has identified them as Mary and Richard Parker.”
Suddenly, the world came to a halt. May looked up, startled, and Peter dropped the remote in hands where it fell with a crash onto the hardwood floor. Tony paused the game and immediately stood up. “What?”
“Boss, I believe the Parkers are requesting entry.”
“H-how is that possible?” May’s voice shook. Everyone was visibly shaken, like they had just seen a ghost, Peter and May most of all.
“I do not know, Mrs. Parker,” FRIDAY sounded almost just as confused.
Tony rubbed a hand over his face, “Are they human?”
“My scanners do not suggest otherwise, so yes, it is safe to assume so.” They must have all stood there for an hour, all staring at each other, before Rhodey spoke up, “Well are we just gonna stand here or see what’s going on?”
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As they headed down to the compound’s entrance on foot (Peter had insisted after they saw that it was, in fact, Mary and Richard at the gates,) Tony was wary and stayed close to him.
As they honed in on their destination, he could see the faces of the two adults. Richard was slim and tall, with dark dirty-blonde hair like Peter’s, and was wearing jeans and a t-shirt. Mary had short red hair, and was also wearing casual clothing. As they got closer, he could take in the small details that only pictures had shown them to have. They both looked just the same as they had twelve, even fifteen years ago, but they had wrinkles here and there and showed obvious signs of age.
The two’s eyes got wider and wider as they watched who was walking towards them. Tony was sure it wasn’t because of him, Rhodey, Happy or Pepper-- no, they were most surprised to see May Parker, and a boy the age their son might have been today. They stopped at the gate, a physical barrier that Tony could tell made Peter fidgety.
“Mom?” He asked warily, looking between the two apparent strangers beyond the gate “Dad?”
Mary just stared, her hands over her mouth as she held back tears, and Richard looked shocked, holding onto her arm as if to reassure him it wasn’t a dream.
“. . .Peter?” He nodded vigorously, much like he did when he was little. At his son’s confirmation, tears began to well up in Richard’s eyes. Rhodey nudged Tony, who had been staring almost dumbly at the scene before him, and he moved to open the gate.
As soon as it was open, they rushed in and embraced the boy in a bone-crushing hug. May was behind him, sniffling as tears streamed down her face. Mary opened her arms and she joined them.
Suddenly, Tony felt incredibly out of place, like he was intruding. He could tell that Rhodey was somewhat uncomfortable as well, but Happy and Pepper just watched on, touched. As they parted, Tony could see that Peter was full-on crying then. He almost moved to comfort him, but stopped himself when he realized. His father was right there, a hand placed protectively on his son’s shoulder.
As they walked back to the compound, Tony trailing behind, he could not have felt more lonely than he did in that moment.
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“Would you like some lasagna?” Pepper offered to their guests when they arrived at the residential area of the compound. They looked nervous, out of place among the fancy decor that decorated the multi-million dollar facility.
“No, thank you,” Mary smiled politely, downcasting her gaze. Tony could see where Peter got certain mannerisms and habits from just from observing his parents. After a few minutes of silence, Peter asks, hesitantly, “Where were you guys all these years?”
Richard stiffens and sighs, as if he were expecting this question. “Well? Where to start? Uhm . . .maybe when the plane crashed, all those years ago. In 2005.”
Peter nods. “Yeah. We. . .we thought you died. They couldn’t find your remains in the wreckage.”
“Well. . .let’s start with the basics,” said Mary. “We weren’t just scientists for Oscorp. We’re agents of SHIELD.” The room got that more silent, if it was even possible, and Tony heard May gasp. Her sister in-law looks up at her, “I’m sorry, May. We couldn’t expose ourselves for fear of being compromised.”
She continued on. “When we boarded the plane, we knew what might happen. There had been reports from the higher-ups that HYDRA was hijacking planes and taking them down, taking the surviving passengers to work in camps, almost like the holocaust.” She shuddered.
“I remember that,” Rhodey commented, “We were sent out after two places disappeared off the radar. Thought it was just your run-of-the-mill terrorists. Didn’t think about it being HYDRA, especially since we thought they were all gone at the time.”
Mary nodded “SHIELD kept it’s suspicions up, and they were right to think that they were still out there. We even suspected there were members of HYDRA within our ranks, but no one was able to prove it.” She shifted her gaze towards Peter and May “We had a very small task force that kept it close to their chest. Couldn’t very well let it get out there that we suspected HYDRA to be within our ranks when they could have been listening. Only five people knew about this, including Nick Fury and us.”
“Fury. He keeps a lot of secrets, doesn’t he?” Said Pepper.
“Yes, I suppose he does.” Mary says thoughtfully, “But I could understand why. He has to keep the secret from getting in the wrong hands.” As she spoke, Tony watched her, arms crossed. He didn’t know whether to believe her story or not just yet.
“Well, while we were on it, the plane was hijacked and we went to take down the agents who were responsible. Though it turns out one of them was a suicide bomber, and he blew up half of the plane. We went down, but not before getting the information we needed from the surviving agent about a local base from where the plane was.”
She looked to Richard, who continued the story, “We walked for a few days until we found it, using a tracker the agent had on his person. I went undercover under his identity and Mary stayed a few miles out of range. We infiltrated the base and took it down, no problem.”
Tony raised his eyebrows, “You took down a HYDRA base on your own?”
“Internal shutdown. You get to their computers and shut down their communications and they’re blind. I then sent the base to self-destruct, something all HYRDA bases had according to the information we acquired, and it turns out it was correct. I fled before it blew.”
“We then walked for a day or so until we came across a road and caught a ride with a passerby, who took us to the nearest town. He spoke russian, though, so we couldn’t really understand him. From there we contacted one of our operatives at SHIELD, who told us to keep our heads down until HYDRA was off of our scent. And, well, that took a while, as you can see,” He indicated his wrinkled features. “We were in New York on a recon mission when we were chased out of the city by HYDRA agents, supposedly living underground as crime lords. We kept driving until we came here, and decided this was good as any place to regroup, if we were allowed.”
“So. . .the night I got that call, you were alive?” May asked, voice cracking.
“Yes,” replied Richard, “I’m sorry, May. And Peter, of course. I’m sorry we caused you both so much pain. But we did what we had to do.”
Peter shook his head, “Twelve years, though? That’s a long time.”
“I know,” Mary stated, “But we needed to disable HYDRA bases all throughout Europe and Asia. We never stayed put for more than two seconds. I’m sorry baby,” she gave him a sorrowful look, placing her hand on knee. “We couldn’t come home because we knew they might hurt you if they followed us. We had to do it to keep you safe.”
Peter sniffed, and gave his parents a tearful look. “I know. I’m just glad you’re back now.” He reached over and hugged his mother. May could only stand there and cry, letting tears fall silently down her face.
Tony, however, had a hardened expression, his heart being crushed as the boy he loved as a son was stolen away from him in an instant.