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Ben Parker looked back at the letter his brother had left for him. Finally, two years after Richard and Mary had died, everything had been processed for the investigation and he had gotten the letter.
Peter was eight years old by now. Ben loved the boy to the end of the world and he just wanted to keep him safe. But he knew it wasn’t right. He knew he shouldn’t and couldn’t keep him from his real parents.
He sat May down to talk to her that night, after Peter had gone to bed.
“What is it, Ben?” May asked.
“It’s about Peter,” he confided in her. “About his parents.”
May frowned. “What about them? You know we talked about this, we won’t try to replace his parents, but we will still give him the best home we can.”
“I know, May.” Ben said. “The thing is, Mary and Richard weren’t his real parents.”
He could practically watch as May’s face went through confusion, then understanding and confusion again.
“You mean he was adopted?” she asked.
“No, I’m afraid not,” Ben said. “He was kidnapped from his real parents.”
May’s eyes widened in horror and she clasped a hand over her mouth. Ben put his arm around her and held her as she processed everything.
“So somewhere out there, his parents are searching for him?” she asked.
“Yes,” Ben said.
“Then we need to do something.”
“Yes,” Ben said again.
“Do you know who his parents are?”
“Tony and Pepper Stark,” Ben said.
May sat up. Then she hugged Ben and began to cry.
“How could they do that?” she asked him.
“I don’t know, May. I don’t know.”
“We need to tell them!”
“I was thinking about it,” said Ben.
“Don’t you dare think about keeping him from them,” May started. “I don’t want to give Peter up either, but–“
“But he has a chance at real parents and we couldn’t do that to his parents either,” Ben finished for her. “I know, dear. I meant to say that we should talk to Peter first. He is old enough to decide if and how he wants to meet them. I don’t just want to throw change upon him.”
May burrowed her head in his chest. Then she nodded.
A week later they were ready to talk to Peter. They had decided not to tell him who his parents were yet, so he could make an unbiased decision.
“Hey, Peter,” May said after he came home from school on Friday.
“Hello, Aunt May!” he greeted her excitedly. “We were making circuit boards in school today!” He pulled out a plastic board with wires and a little flashing lamp.
“That’s nice, Peter,” May said and ruffled his hair. “Your uncle and I wanted to talk to you.” She then said.
“Okay,” Peter agreed.
“Why don’t you bring your stuff up and then come to the living room.”
Peter grinned and hurried up the stairs.
When he returned to the living room, May sat him down on the couch next to her and Ben sat across from him.
“Peter,” Ben started. “You know about your parents Mary and Richard, right?”
Peter nodded. Of course he knew, May and Ben made sure that he didn’t forget his parents.
“Well, Peter, they weren’t your real parents,” said Ben.
“What do you mean?” Peter asked.
“Mary and Richard weren’t your mom and dad, Peter,” Ben said as May held Peter tightly against her. “They took you from your real mom and dad when you were little. Your real parents are still alive and looking for you.”
Peter buried his head in May’s side and shook his head again and again.
“If you want to, we can meet them,” May started.
“No!” Peter suddenly yelled and pushed her away.
“Peter,” Ben said.
“No!” He yelled again.
Peter sprung off the sofa and ran up to his room, all the while yelling, “No, no, no!”
May jumped as his door slammed.
“That did not go as I expected,” Ben muttered.
“I’ll go check on him,” May said.
She walked up the stairs and knocked on Peter’s door.
“No!” He yelled.
“Peter, may I come in?” May asked.
“I don’t want to see them!” Peter yelled.
“Alright, Peter, alright,” she soothed. “It’s your decision.”
Three weeks later things were almost back to normal until Peter spoke up at dinner.
“I don’t want you to leave me,” he said.
May and Ben looked at him, then at each other and back at Peter.
“We are not going to leave you, Peter,” said May softly.
“But you aren’t really my aunt and uncle, if my parents weren’t really my parents,” he said quietly.
“Oh, Peter,” May said and walked around the table to hug him.
“I don’t want to leave you!” Peter said again.
“We don’t want that either, Pete,” Ben said. “Is that why you don’t want to meet your parents?”
Peter nodded.
“Oh, Honey,” May said. “We won’t leave you. We would be with you every step of the way, we can still be there for you, even if we aren’t your biological aunt and uncle. You mean so much to us, Peter. No matter who your parents are. As far as I’m concerned, you are still my favourite nephew.”
Peter nodded again.
“Would you like to meet your parents, Peter?” Ben asked. “It’s alright, whatever you decide.”
Peter nodded. “Yes,” he said quietly.
“Alright,” Ben said. “Don’t worry, Peter, we’ll be with you.”
A few days later, they went to the police. They couldn’t contact Mr. Stark directly anyways, and it seemed to be the proper way. Ben took the letter and all other certificates about Peter that they had.
Peter held tightly onto May’s hand and didn’t seem to be letting go anytime soon.
“Hello, officer,” Ben greeted. “We have information about a kidnapping case and would like to speak with someone in private.”
The officer looked at them and at Peter.
“What’s your name?” The officer asked.
“Ben Parker,” Ben said.
“Do you happen to know which case?” The officer asked.
“Peter Stark,” Ben said quietly.
The officer’s eyes widened. Then he escorted them into a room and left to make a few phone calls.
Twenty minutes later, two people walked into the room.
“Good Morning, I’m Agent Williamson from the FBI,” one of them greeted. “This is my colleague Agent Hooper. You must be Ben Parker.”
“Yes, this is May and Peter,” Ben indicated.
“You said you have information for us, I assume it’s about your child.” Agent Williamson looked closely at Peter. “Why don’t we all have a seat?”
“Peter is my brother Richard’s son,” Ben explained. “Or at least so we thought. We met him when he was three years old. When he was six, Richard and his wife Mary died in a plane crash and May and I took Peter in. A few weeks ago I received a letter that Richard left for me, after the investigation was finally through with all of these things.” He handed the letter to the agent.
Agent Williamson read through it with a frown.
“I’ve brought all documents we have for Peter,” Ben said.
“Thank you,” the Agent said. “Would you agree to a DNA test?”
“Generally, of course we would,” May said. “You’ll have to ask Peter though, I suspect you would need to take some blood?”
Peter grimaced at her words.
“I believe a sample of saliva would suffice.” Agent Williamson said. “We must inform Mr and Mrs Stark now, if that’s alright with you I would give them your phone number so they can contact you.”
“Yes, that’s alright.” May said.
“Stark?” Peter asked. “You mean Iron Man?”
Agent Williamson raised his eyebrows. “He didn’t know?”
“We hadn’t told him who his parents are yet,” Ben said. “We figured it would… overexcite him.” He gestured at the beaming child.
They took a sample of Peter’s DNA to do the DNA test. Tony had given them a sample of his DNA, so they could perform the test without him. Just to not get his hopes up too much.
Tony and Pepper were at their weakly dinner with the team of avengers when they got the call.
“No phones at the table, honey,” Pepper chided when Tony’s phone rang.
Tony looked at his phone. “It’s Williamson, I gotta take this.”
Pepper tried not to show it, but she was anxious to hear what the agent wanted. He had been on the case of their son Peter from the start, and she always felt a flicker of hope when he called.
Tony got up and took a few steps to the side, then answered the call.
“Yes?”
“Mr. Stark?” Agent Williamson said.
“You know it’s me agent, why do you call?”
“We found him.”
“You-“ Tony choked. “You found him?”
Pepper stood up to stand besides Tony and grip his free hand tightly.
“Yes, we found Peter.”
“When- when you say… Is he…?”
“He’s alive and well,” Agent Williamson said and Tony let out a shaky and relieved breath. “He’s living with who he thought were his aunt and uncle. They came straight to us once they found out. I can give you their phone number so you and Mrs Stark can set up a meeting.”
“Yes, yes Please!” Tony said.
When the agent was finished, Tony put down the phone and stared into space for a moment. Then he turned around in search of Pepper and nodded to her questioning gaze.
“They found him!” He confirmed. “He’s alive, we can meet him!”
“I’m sorry, but who?” Asked Steve from the dining room table.
All the avengers were staring at them, but only Steve didn’t know about their son yet.
“Our son,” Tony said. “He was kidnapped five years ago, when he was three.”
“When can we see him?” Pepper asked anxiously.
“They’ll give us their number so we can talk to his… his guardians,” said Tony.
The Avengers forced the two parents to eat some dinner, before they received the contact information from Agent Williamson and retreated to their bedroom to make the call.
The Parker family had just gotten home, when the telephone in the kitchen started ringing.
“I’ll get it,” May said.
Ben nodded as he carried Peter into the living room.
“Hello?” May said.
“May Parker?” said a male voice on the other end.
“Yes, who is this?”
“Tony and Pepper Stark,” the voice said.
May was startled, but then she smiled. “It’s good to hear from you, I didn’t realize you would be calling so soon.”
“As soon as we could,” said a female voice. “Is our son really with you?”
“We think so,” May said. “And the police did a DNA test, didn’t they tell you?”
“No, they did,” said Tony. “We just wanted to make sure. It’s rather unbelievable.”
“I can’t imagine,” May said sadly.
“Can we talk to Peter?” Pepper asked.
“I’ll see if he’s still awake,” May said. “We just got back from the police station and he almost fell asleep in the car.”
She walked over to the living room.
“Peter, Honey,” she said, when she saw him in Ben’s lap. He raised his head in acknowledgement. “I’ve got someone who wants to talk to you, you up for that?”
Peter nodded.
“Alright, I’ll just turn on speaker then.”
“Peter?” Tony asked.
“Yes?” Peter said.
“I’m Tony, and Pepper is with me.”
“Tony Stark?” Peter asked. “Are you really my dad?”
“We think so.”
“And is Pepper my mom?”
“Yes, Peter,” Pepper said, tears evident in her voice.
“We’d like to meet you in person, Peter,” said Tony. “How does that sound?”
“Will you take me away from aunt May and uncle Ben?” Peter asked.
There was a hesitant pause.
“Not if you don’t agree to it, Peter,” said Pepper finally.
“Okay,” Peter said and yawned.
“We’re free for the weekend,” May offered. “How about you come over, so we don’t overwhelm Peter?”
“Okay,” Pepper agreed. “How about tomorrow morning, ten o’clock?”
Ben and May exchanged a surprised glance. They were really eager. But, hey, that was a good thing, right? It meant they cared for Peter.
“Okay, ten o’clock,” May agreed.