Chapter 1

This is set during post Age of Ultron. Mild Spoilers.

AN1: So after the news that Agent Carter had been renewed I felt the need to write a story with a focus on Peggy/Howard/Steve/Bucky and this was the result. I hope you like.

June 9th 2015

Ever since the battle with Ultron and the conversation with Steve Rogers at the New Avengers facility Tony Stark has been keeping to himself; trying to deal with what he has done. Something which has been relatively easy with Pepper busy working; Rhodey, Natasha, Maria, Fury, Dr Cho, and Steve at the new facility; Clint being with his family and Bruce MIA. Even Tony had to admit that it has been pretty lonely, epically since he doesn't have JARVIS to talk to anymore.

Because he couldn't stand to be at Avengers Tower any longer Tony travelled out to one of his father's properties. He decided to do this because he had been avoiding going through his father's belongs for a long time, and right now it sounded like something which could be a good distraction.

Once outside of the old house Tony spends some time looking around the old property. He didn't get to spend a lot of time there growing up, but he did know that it was a place that his father very much loved. As he looks around Tony spots the house that belonged to Edwin and Anna Jarvis. Even though he is tempted to go inside Tony heads to the main house instead.

As he enters Tony pauses at the top of the stairs for a minute trying to decide where to go first. After a bit of thinking and internal debating Tony decides to head to his father's office. As he pushes open the door and enters Tony realises that the cleaners that come out once a month have done their job correctly; the place is exactly like how his father left it. Before starting to look around Tony heads directly over to Howard's desk; to look at the photo which he knows is on it. The photo is of him, his father and Peggy Carter. It was taken at a collage level engineering contest he won at ten years old. If anyone were to ask about the photo, even the people he considers himself to be closest to, Tony would say that the only reason his father was there was because he told Peggy about the competition and she forced Howard to come; but Tony knows that isn't true. He knows that his father was there because he wanted to be. His father was a much better father than Tony has lead people to believe, but after all these years sometimes he finds it hard to remember that; sometimes he finds himself believing the lies he has been telling.

For as long as Tony can remember, his father has had two different sides; basically two different personalities. There was the one he showed in public, and the one he showed at home. Growing up he always preferred the home personality a lot more than the other. Another thing that has happened as long as Tony can remember is his dad's words to him. "I'm sorry Son, but this is the way it has to be. One day you'll understand why I do this. I love you, never doubt that; but I can't be the person I am with you outside these walls, and you can't ever tell anyone this. You can't tell them who I really am." Tony always wondered what his father meant by that, but after his father's death he figured that he would never know.

Deciding to check the desk first Tony sits down on the chair and opens the first draw. As soon as he does Tony sees one thing that has changed since his father's death, the fact that his father's death certificate is now sitting in the top draw.

Hesitantly Tony reaches down and picks it up. As he looks at the writing that he memorized so long ago, Tony finds himself remembering a morning from a long time ago...

December 17th 1991

It was two-thirty A.M. and it had been less than an hour since Tony Stark found two police officers at his door. The officers informed him that his parents had been killed in a car accident on Long Island. Most of the last hour had been a blur. Tony wasn't exactly sure how he ended up at Peggy Carter's door; an almost empty bottle of scotch in hand. All he knew was that he didn't want to stay home. There was only one place that he wanted to go; Peggy's. As long as he could remember Peggy had been in his life; in a lot of ways she had been more of a mother to him that Maria Stark, who had never really been around much.

Banging on the door, Tony realised that Peggy would likely be asleep. But, hearing movement inside, he shrugged the thought off.

"Finally…" He hears Peggy's voice start as the door opens. "Tony? What are you doing here? It's late. Tony, what is it?" Peggy asks letting him into the apartment, helping him as he is unsteady on his feet. He could tell that Peggy knew something was wrong.

"They're dead." Tony slurred as Peggy closed the door. "They're gone." Tony he told her, tears rolling down his face.

"Who?" Peggy asked of him.

"Mom and Dad. They were in a car accident on Long Island. The police told me." Tony, told her. "They're gone, Peggy." Tony said, the pain evident in his voice even to him.

"Oh, Tony." Peggy said, walking the few steps that separate them and pulling him into a tight hug.

What happened after that is even more of a blur to Tony, but he does remember crying on Peggy for what felt like an eternity. He also remembers Peggy telling him to try and get some sleep, which he did. Another vague memory he has is hearing Peggy talking in a hushed tone and a knock on the door, but nothing much more than that until he woke hours later to food and coffee that Peggy left him.

Not really wanting to dwell on the painful past anymore Tony puts his father's death certificate down on the desk, and gets up and goes over to the book shelf. He feels that that may be a safer choice than continuing to look through his father's desk.

As he looks through the book shelves Tony occasionally pulls out a book to look at. As he pulls out a book that seems vaguely interesting Tony notices what looks like a panel in the shelf behind; he then pulls out several more books so that he can get a better look.

"What are you hiding, Dad?" Tony asks out loud, not really expecting an answer. Reaching into the panel Tony lifts the cover and instead of finding a key pad, which he could easily bypass, he finds a thumb scanner. "Okay, slightly more difficult." He mutters, but taking a chance Tony reaches out and puts his thumb to the scanner. To his surprise a green light appears and the book shelf that he is standing next to moves forward, revealing a small space between the shelf and the wall. Not being able to help his curiosity Tony squeezes into the small space, which takes a fair amount of effort, and looks around him.

At first glance Tony thinks it's just another empty space, but then he notices a shelf on the back of the bookshelves where three large albums rest. Each album is labelled with either a one, two or three and as the number increases so does the size of the album. For a couple of minutes Tony stares at the albums and wonders what is inside. Deciding that he needs to know Tony picks up all of the albums, which are actually quiet heavy, and carries them over to his father's desk.

Once he has placed the albums down in order Tony sits down on the chair and pulls the first album towards him; wondering what he will find. On the first page he sees a picture of his father, Peggy Carter, Steve and someone that Tony knows to be Bucky Barnes looking back at him. The photo was clearly taken at the height of the war; they all look exhausted, and Steve, Peggy and Bucky are wearing uniforms. Despite that, they all look happy and relaxed, and Tony realises that the Steve in the picture doesn't have the look in his eyes that the Steve he knows now has.

"Okay, why would you hide this?" Tony asks as he knows that the fact that the four of them were friends isn't exactly a secret; so why would his father hide photos in a secret alcove on a secret shelf? Wondering what else he will find Tony continues to flip through the album. On every page there are pictures, some of which are hand drawn rather than photographs, of some combination of Steve, Howard, Peggy and Bucky. Sometimes with people that Tony knows to be the other Howling Commandoes; all of which were clearly taken or drawn during the war. As he looks through the album Tony realises that the four of them were clearly very, very close, and that it seems to be something that Steve might like to see; or something that he should take the next time he visits Peggy. Once he looks at the last picture in the album, a picture of Steve and Bucky, both of them grinning like they are sharing a private joke, Tony closes the album and pulls the second album towards him, wondering what he will find in that one.

The second album is bigger than the first. From the second he opens it he knows that these pictures are from after the war. The first picture is of Peggy and Howard standing with their arms around each other clearly happy and, judging by the champagne in both their hands, they are celebrating something. As he flips through this album Tony doesn't find one hand drawn picture, but there are more people that Tony recognizes. There are Jarvis and Anna, his mother, Peggy's former husband Daniel Sousa and his parents' close friends Angie Martinelli, and Jack Thompson. As he looks through the pictures, getting more confused with every picture that he sees, Tony realises that his father and Peggy look like a couple, same with his mother and Angie and Jack and Daniel, which is pretty odd. As he arrives at a picture of Peggy and Howard fast asleep their arm around each other and his mother and Angie awake, but cuddled up together, both grinning happily, Tony realise exactly why these pictures are hidden. For his entire life Tony has suspected that there was more to his parents' marriage then he knew; in fact he has known since he was seven that Maria Stark wasn't his biological mother. That made the fact that she wasn't around much hurt less, but he never asked his Dad about it as he was never sure how to.

"All their marriages were fake." Tony realises, staring at the picture next to the one with his father and Peggy cuddled up. That picture shows all eight of them, clearly taken with a timer. In the picture Howard is kissing Peggy's cheek. Daniel and Jack are kissing, clearly oblivious to the world around them. Angie and Maria are looking at each other with looks full of more love than Tony ever saw them show their husbands, and Anna and Jarvis have their arms around each other. "Okay, them not being publicly together makes sense." Tony says, looking between Jack and Daniel and Angie and Maria, as he knows that up until the late seventies, early eighties, it would have been illegal for them to be together, and that's not even considering the affects it would have on their careers. "But why couldn't Dad and Peggy?" He asks; wondering why Peggy and Howard couldn't be together publicly. After forcing himself to look away from the picture and continue on, Tony finds more proof with every page that he turns that there is so much he didn't know. When he is about five pages from the end Tony almost falls of his chair in shock; as he finds pictures of his Dad and a clearly pregnant Peggy Carter. This is shocking as Peggy doesn't have any children, though she was quiet close to her niece and nephew.

"Peggy is my Mom." Tony realises, pinching himself to make sure he is really seeing what he thinks he is seeing; he always liked to imagine that Peggy could be his mother. But he never thought in a million years that it could be true, even after he found out that Maria wasn't. The last few pages of the album are were clearly taken during Peggy's pregnancy. In every picture Tony can't help but smile at how happy Peggy and Howard seemed, but he is even more confused about why he was raised believing that Maria was his mother. As he reaches the last picture in the album, Peggy and Howard lying together, both of their hands protectively over Peggy's almost fall term stomach, glaring at whoever took the picture, Tony is pretty sure that he knows what he is going to find in the last one, but he can't bring himself to look, not yet. Instead he just stares at the picture and wonders what the hell happened.

"Come on Tony, you can do it. You've come this far." Tony says, about half an hour later, after closing the second album.

Pretty sure that he knows exactly what he is going to find in the last album Tony pulls it towards him, and after taking a deep breath he opens it and unlike the others the first page isn't a photo but a document.

"Certificate of birth?" Tony says confused, as he has his original birth certificate, so how can it be in the album? If everything he has seen so far has been a shock then it is nothing compared to what he finds when he reads the birth certificate. "Name: Anthony Edward Rogers-Barnes-Carter-Stark." Tony says in complete shock, as that wasn't what he was expecting. "Mother: Margret Carter. No surprises there." Tony mutters, but even if the name gave away what he would find it doesn't make it any less of a shock to see. Father, with a apostrophe S added in pen, Steven Rogers, James Barnes, Howard Stark, in Howard's handwriting.