Chapter Text
Peter was finishing up the rest of his homework late one evening in his bedroom when his phone buzzed. He drew his attention briefly to his phone’s screen and saw that Tony was calling him. Slightly nervous, Peter shakingly grabbed his phone and instantly swiped to answer. “H-hey Mr. Stark…everything okay?”
“Yeah kiddo, everything’s fine. I just…I have a little favor to ask.” Tony said almost hesitantly. The man knew he was being paranoid, and he hated bothering Peter with something like this, but he couldn’t stop himself from asking.
Peter was slightly shocked by his response, Tony hardly ever asked him for favors, but Peter was more than willing to help. “Oh, okay. What’s up?”
Tony let out an anxious sigh, “Well, as I’m sure you know, Morgan starts first grade tomorrow…yay.” He said, rather unenthusiastically. “Pep and I have stupidly busy schedules tomorrow, Happy’s dropping her off just fine, but he will definitely be a few minutes late picking her up. I-I know it’s not to far from your…I mean, if it works, times funny, and I know it’s your first day back too… I don’t even know why I—”
“Tony.” Peter said firmly, but caring. “I’d be honored to walk over after school and wait with her till Happy gets there.” He meant it whole-heartedly. Tony trusting people with things like tech, passcodes, and phone numbers was one thing. Him trusting someone with the safety of his daughter was a complete other level, and Peter was thrilled to be one of the few people whom Tony did trust in that way.
Tony lightly chuckled, “Thank you, kiddo. That means a lot to me. I’ll let the school know to expect you, alright?”
“I’m always happy to help! Good night, Tony!”
“Good night, Pete.” And with that, they hung and got both prepared for the day ahead.
School was miserable, but hardly more than usual. Peter enjoyed the process of learning, he also liked his teachers, as well as getting to see Ned and MJ, but the first day after summer break was always tough. As he walked through the bustling of the city to get to Morgan’s school, Peter tried not to wince when busy strangers would brush past his freshly bruised arm, stupid Flash always went on a little power trip after not having anyone to pick on over the break.
Peter felt a weird tingle, as if something was wrong, as he approached the entrance to the school. He brushed it off as nerves and entered the building. He approached the slightly unfriendly looking receptionist, feeling his heart begin to beat unsteadily. “Hey, I-I’m Peter, Peter Parker. I’m here to wait with Morgan Stark till her rides shows up.”
The lady continued clacking on her keyboard, not bothering to look up at him. “Morgan Stark has already been signed out, have a nice day.” She said flatly, almost bothered.
“A-Are you sure?” Peter nervously questioned.
She turned to look at him coldly. “I was alerted that someone previously unauthorized would be picking her up today, and he did.”
Peter’s face scrunched with slight confusion. “Oh…okay.” Maybe plans changed? He pulled out his phone and decided to call and find out. He pressed the contact Happy’s contact and he, sounding rather un-happy, answered quickly.
“Yeah, yeah, I know kid, you’re waiting. I’ll be there soon, okay?” He said quickly, extra tense from driving though traffic.
“So, you don’t have Morgan?” Peter asked, his throat beginning to tighten.
“Have Morgan? No, what’re you talking about?” Happy stammered. Peter tugged at the collar of shirt, his breath quickening, anxiety pressed hard against his chest. “Peter, you’re scaring me.”
“Y-you call and inform Tony, I-I’m sure Spider-Man can find her.” Without waiting for a response, Peter hung up the phone and ran out the building to the nearest ally. He quickly threw his clothes off of his body and pulled his suit on. He carelessly webbed his backpack high against the walls of the ally and pulled himself upon a rooftop to get a good view of the streets.
“Karen, is there a way for you to get into the school’s security cameras and see who walked out with Morgan?” Peter asked, nervously scanning the inside of every car and the face of every civilian to see if he could spot the girl.
“Certainly.” The AI replied. “No clear image of a face, sir. However, I can gather that Miss Stark was escorted into a sliver 2023 Chevrolet Traverse, bearing the license plate of HHFE10.”
“Okay, go through the traffic cams and try to spot their location.” Peter ordered, then jumped off of the roof. He swung from building to building, visually processing every license plate. His hands worked with pure muscle memory as he was paying them no mind whilst they launched, pulled, and re-launched webs to keep him safely air born.
Peter called off Karen’s search when he spotted the vehicle. As he swung towards it, it veered away from the trafficked streets onto a completely empty bridge; a bridge that was empty for the soul reason that it was coned off; coned off because during a previous Avenger’s fight, the middle of the bridge collapsed. Peter was at first inwardly cheering that he’d have the kidnapper cornered, but frightened when he realized the direction was probably intentional.
Once Peter finally caught up with the car, he could clearly see no one was in it. It was carelessly parked dangerously close to the edge of the ruined bridge and a man Peter did not recognize was holding a terrified Morgan at gun point by the crumbling ledge. Peter’s heart ached seeing Morgan so scared. He could tell she wanted to run straight for him as she struggled in the kidnapper’s grasp.
Peter took a few cautious steps forward. “ANY CLOSER AND SHE DIES!” the monster screamed, shoving the firearm closer to the girl’s head; Peter froze in his tracks.
“It doesn’t have to be this way, just let her go.” Peter called out, hoping to handle this as peacefully as possible. Karen scanned his foe and identified him as Justin Hammer, one of Tony’s previously fought enemies. Peter recalled hearing something about Hammer’s disappearance from prison on the news a few weeks ago but didn’t think much of it then.
“Sheesh, you sound young, Stark really hands out tech to anybody nowadays, huh? How old even are you, Spider-Boy?” Hammer mocked. Peter stayed silent, unfazed, strong in his stance. “You have not part in this, kid. This is between me and Stark.”
“Couldn’t agree more, now that we’re on the same page, just let the girl go and I’ll be on my merry way.” Peter sarcastically snapped. The teen slightly flinched and bit his tongue has Hammer nudged Morgan slightly closer the roaring traffic under the ledge, reminding the spiderling that he was still the one with the power.
Peter couldn’t provoke Hammer to hard, the man might pull the trigger. If Hammer pushed Morgan off the ledge, though it’d be terrifying, Peter knew he could catch her before she hit the concrete, however, the man would definitely get away. Peter wasn’t sure how to get a hold of her without either of those two outcomes happening.
“What do you want with her?” Peter asked firmly.
“She’s a trading token. I get an Iron Man suit, and Stark gets his brat back alive. Simple as pie.” Hammer explained with a devilish grin.
“SPIDEY, HELP ME, PLEASE!” Morgan cried out with a pained, raspy, scared voice Peter never wanted to hear again.
“I will, sweet girl. I promise.” He assured with faked confidence for her sake. Peter dragged a slightly shaky breath through his chest, attempting to quickly analyze the situation. After a few agonizing moments of silent contemplation, Peter knew he had to say something to keep Hammer from getting bored. “How about you drop the gun?” Peter asked.
“How about you drop your mask?” Hammer countered. Peter swallowed painfully, not willing to comply, there had to be another way. Hammer abruptly picked Morgan up by her neck.
“STOP!” Peter screamed, fighting the urge to run right over to her. The girl squirmed helplessly in the man’s grasp, tears streaming down her red cheeks as he held her over the busy city streets.
“You know, I’m kind of seeing where this might not have been my best idea.” Hammer monologed out loud. “Maybe she should be more of a warning then a payment, hmm? Remains are more threatening than a disappearance.” Peter’s body froze, he made sure he had good footing on the ground, ready to lunge out and catch her if the moment arose.
Hammer shifted the gun’s aim directly in line with Peter’s chest, Peter would’ve been more cautious under different circumstances, but it was also in that moment that the monster released Morgan from his grasp. Peter launched himself off the edge towards the poor girl’s piercing screams, hearing the fire, barely dodging the bullet as he twisted mid-air. Cold wind whipped his face whilst he plummeted toward Morgan.
He quickly webbed her chest and pulled her closer to him. He wrapped his arms around her protectively, shifting in the air so his back was shielding her from the ground. Morgan clung close, gripping tightly around his neck as he webbed a nearby building, swinging them to safety. Karen suddenly informed Peter he was getting a call from Tony, Peter quickly told her to answer.
“Update. Now.” Tony quickly said.
“Safe.” Peter replied firmly.
“She’s safe?” Tony questioned unsurely.
“Yes.”
“She’s with you?”
“Yeah, where are you? I’ll come to you.”
“T-the tower.” Tony stuttered, justifiably overwhelmed.
“Okay, few seconds.” Peter replied.
Peter quickly made his way to the tower. Holding the girl protectively, Peter stuck his landing firmly against the tower’s balcony and quickly carried her inside. He placed her down, knelt onto the floor, and pulled off his mask. He brought his hand up to her cheek and caressed it gently, Morgan leaned into his palm’s safety.
Peter’s thoughts were suddenly blown off course and Tony practically flew into the room. Peter got up and stepped back as the father got to the floor to question and comfort his daughter. Peter leaned against the wall, catching his breath as his adrenaline lowered. After a moment, Tony stood and made his way to Peter.
The teen nervously prepared for the lecture. Morgan’s safety was entrusted with him, and not only was she kidnapped and thrown off a building, but the monster responsible for it all got away.
He braced for the yelling, the anger, the loss of trust, loss of a father figure. Tony firmly grabbed Peter by the shoulders, the kid trembled slightly under the pressure. “M-Mr. Stark, I—” Peter was cut off as Tony abruptly pulled him into an overwhelmingly loving hug.
“Thank you, Peter.” Tony said with a trembling voice. Peter blinked firmly with confusion as Tony pressed a kiss against his cheek. “Thank you, thank you.” Tony repeated, holding the hero closer.
“You…you’re not mad?” Peter asked, completely puzzled by the affection. Tony pulled back, shocked by Peter’s reply. He gently cupped Peter’s face in his hands.
“Why would I be? You saved my girl.” Tony explained with a smile, he hated how Peter almost seemed afraid of him. Peter’s eyes pricked with tears.
“Sh-She got taken, he threw her off a building, he got away—” Peter stammered as tears rolled down his cheeks.
“All things that would’ve happened whether or not you were there.” Tony pointed out; Peter’s bottom lip slightly trembled. “The only thing you impacted was whether or not she came home, and you did that. I’m proud of you,” Tony jostled his hair, “Spider-Man.” Peter smiled, cheeks flushing slightly as Tony beamed with pride.