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Peter woke up with a start. He’d been dreaming about his parents again. He was almost four years old and he didn’t understand what was happening around him. He remembered waking up and being in an unfamiliar room, the same room he was in now. At least he thought he remembered that it was unfamiliar. It wasn’t unfamiliar now.
There was a man and a woman living in this house as well, they had said they were his parents, but as far as Peter knew he already had parents. And his mom and dad never had to remind him that they were his parents. At least he thought so.
Maybe if he got out of the house he could figure out more, whether there were familiar or unfamiliar things around.
Peter got out of bed and walked over to the door. It was unlocked at least. He remembered it had been locked sometimes. He opened it and quietly walked to the front door of the house. That was unlocked as well and Peter stepped into the early morning of New York City.
He didn’t recognize the street, but he started walking.
At some point the houses changed to stores and in the back of his mind he remembered he could go into a store and they might call his parents.
Unluckily it was very early in the morning and all the shops were closed.
Peter frowned. There had been other options. His father had said so. He could go to a police station, his dad had pointed out to him how they looked, but Peter didn’t see any around.
If he couldn’t go to a store or a police station he needed to find another adult. But there were few people walking around and Peter had recently learned that not everyone was helpful.
He watched the people walking along the streets for a while, before he picked out a kind looking lady to talk to.
He walked up to her and she already turned to look at him.
He racked his brain for what to tell her, it wasn’t like he actually knew what he wanted to do. He just wanted to know where he’d been before, whether the parents he dreamed about were real.
“Can you call my parents?” He decided to ask.
She crouched down to him. “Do you know their phone number?” She asked.
“Uhm,” Peter frowned. There was a niggling in his mind, but… “No.”
“Okay, alright,” she said. “What’s your name sweetie?”
“I’m Peter,” he said.
“Hello, Peter, I’m May,” she said. “How old are you?”
“I’m almost four,” he told her proudly.
“Okay, Peter. Do you live around here?”
He glanced back in the direction of the house uncertainly.
“Dunno,” he said.
“Were you out here with your parents?”
He shook his head.
“Okay, well let me call somebody who might be able to help us find your parents.”
She took out her phone and dialed a short number.
“911, what is your emergency?” Asked the person on the other end.
“There’s a four year old boy here who doesn’t know where his parents are,” May explained.
“Alright, what is your name?”
“May Parker, I’m at Jewel Avenue, corner Main Street, in Queens,” she said.
“What’s the boys name?”
“Peter,” she said. “He said he doesn’t know his parents number, he wasn’t out together with his parents and he isn’t sure whether he lives around here.”
“Alright, we’re sending someone there,” the operator told her.
“Thank you.”
“Could you ask for the names of the boys parents?”
“Sure,” May turned to Peter. “Hey, Peter, do you know your parent’s names?”
Peter considered this. He didn’t know the names of the people from the house, he knew that his dad from the dreams was named Tony… But he still didn’t know if the dreams were real. “I…” he began. “I don’t… maybe Tony,” he said. “My dad is maybe Tony.”
“Okay, thank you Peter,” May said. “He says his dad’s name might be Tony.”
“Does he know his birthday?” The Operator asked.
“Peter, do you know your birthday?” May asked.
Peter shrugged again. “Soon,” he then said. “I’m three years and more than ten months old.”
“He says he’s three years and over ten months old, but hasn’t had his birthday yet,” May relayed.
“Does he go to kindergarten and maybe know the name of his kindergarten?”
“Peter, do you go to kindergarten or daycare or something?”
Peter shook his head.
“No, he doesn’t,” May said.
“Alright, two officers are almost with you,” the operator said. “Please stay where you are.”
“Of course,” May agreed.
A few moments later, a police car stopped next to them.
An officer stepped out. “Are you May Parker?”
“Yes,” she said with relief.
“My colleague will take your information, then you’re free to go,” he said as another officer stepped out of the car.
The woman attended to May, while the first officer turned to Peter.
“You must be Peter then,” he said.
Peter nodded.
“Do you know your last name, Peter?”
Peter looked at him confused.
“Well, I’m Michael,” the officer explained. “My full name is Michael Stan, so Stan is my last name.”
Peter nodded along, then shook his head. He didn’t know.
“That’s okay, Peter, we’ll find your parents.”
May was finished giving her information to the second officer and said goodbye to Peter, he smiled at her and she left for work.
“Do you know how you got here, Peter?” The officer asked.
Peter nodded. “I walked from the house.”
“You walked here from home?” The officer asked.
Peter bit his lip in consideration. The two adults had told him that it was home… “I don’t think so.”
“You don’t think the house you came from was your home?” The officer clarified.
Peter nodded.
“Were your parents at the house?”
Peter didn’t know what to say to that, that was what he was trying to find out.
“It’s okay, Peter, take your time,” the officer said. “But we can’t help you if you don’t tell us what’s wrong.”
His dad had said something like that as well, once, Peter was sure. “They say they are my parents,” Peter told him. “My mom and dad never say they are my parents.”
The officer looked confused for a moment.
“I want to know if they are my parents,” Peter clarified.
“Okay,” the officer said. “So you aren’t sure if the people you are living with are actually your parents?”
Peter nodded. “I have dreams,” he said. “Of my parents. And they’re other people in the dreams.”
“Alright, how about we go to the police station and we’ll figure out who your parents are?”
Peter nodded.
Once they were at the police station Peter got to play with toys while the officers searched for his parents.
They found out that Peter’s parents were Mary and Richard Parker, yes connected to May Parker who had found Peter. There was no record of an adoption or moving houses, which could have led to Peter’s confusion.
They called in May Parker, the wife of Richard’s brother who hadn’t recognized her nephew on the streets and she confirmed that she hadn’t known Mary and Richard had a son, but they weren’t very close at the moment. Ben Parker, her husband said the same.
At this point the police decided to run facial recognition on the child and to everyone’s surprise, there was a match. And not just any match.
Tony woke up in a groggy state. Pepper had forced him to sleep after he had stayed up the past few nights, searching for their son. Peter had disappeared ten days ago, in the middle of the night, leaving literally no trace. The FBI and police were on the lookout for him, but after ten days, he could be on the other side of the planet.
“Sir, you have a call from Agent Ganilli,” Jarvis told him.
Tony perked up. Even though he spoke with the FBI agent assigned to Peter’s case regularly and usually there was no new information, there was always a flicker of hope.
“Agent?” Tony asked.
“Mr Stark, is Miss Potts with you?” She asked.
“No,” Tony said. “Jarvis, where’s Pepper?”
“She’s across town for a meeting. Shall I tell her to come home?”
“Agent?” Tony forwarded the question.
“Yes,” Agent Ganilli said. “You need to come to New York. They’ve found him.”
It took almost three hours for Pepper and Tony to get to the FBI headquarters in New York, where Peter had been moved.
The place was crawling with agents. They were immediately led to their son.
Both of them stopped and simply stared, when they laid eyes on him. Pepper gripped his arm, “Peter!” She gasped. Their son was sitting on the floor with paper and colored pencils, drawing what seemed to be a boy and a robot.
At Pepper’s exclamation he looked up. “Mom!” He screamed and ran towards her.
She embraced him tightly and the only reason Tony didn’t see her tears was because his own vision was beginning to blur.
After ten long, hellish days. They finally had their son back.