The characters belong to Marvel/Disney and I don't get any profit from this writing.
LOVE MEMORIES
December 16th wasn't a date that Tony Stark had been especially fond of since the night his parents died. More so since he found out that they were killed off by Hydra and at the former Winter Soldier hands, and not in an unfortunate car accident, as he's been believing his whole life. He put the blame on Howard for years. His thirst for secret operations with the government, his drink habits, his way of driving… That still stung. But no, this date wasn't pleasant. He'd spend years wanting it to disappear from existence, wipe it forever. Alcohol was his best friend for a bunch of years, he would drink himself into oblivion and forget the entire day. But there was something he did every year on this day too, he went to the graveyard and visited his parent's tombstone. He would talk with them, especially his mother, and spent some hours remembering all the good memories he had of them, and sometimes, even the not so good ones of his relationship with his cold father.
He'd felt alone for so long, so many years, on this date. It never got him anything good. At all, mostly sleepless nights and drunk days. That was the reason he hated Christmas for most of his adult life. Because the holiday days were a constant reminder that he had no family left, that he was alone. Left behind in this cruel world. The curse of an only child with no parents.
Nowadays, it was different, though. Way different. Because with a loving wife and a joyous, young daughter at his side, Christmas days had all their appeal, he had to admit. That's why he was here, in front of his parent's tombstone, with a tiny gloved hand covered by his, for the first time in Morgan's life. She was 15 years old, and she had started asking a lot of questions concerning them and their past, her family… This had been going on for the last month, something to do with high school work, now that the Christmas festivities were approaching fast, time to celebrate with our beloved ones and all that crap… And Tony supposed his little girl was old enough to understand certain things, now, or at least her teachers at school thought she was, they'll be damned. Some of those innocent questions made Tony sigh deeply, look at her as if their adorable daughter had grown a third head, gulp hard and stare into the ceiling of their living room for whole minutes, not knowing how to answer them in a way she would understand and his own heart didn't shatter in pieces at remembering his young miserable life. With his parents, he thought, it was better to show her… To tell her in front of them. She had asked to come with them to visit her grandparent's tomb for the first time that year, and he'd obliged. So here they were, facing the cold of December in New York, beautiful Christmas lights already all over the city…
Tony relished in the comforting thought that Pepper had been coming here with him even before they started dating, when they were best friends. They even shared a bottle of Scotch once, he smiled fondly at the memory. So she was a familiar, comforting presence draped over his right shoulder. He squeezed his daughter's hand harder in his. A single traitorous tear dropped from his right eye. The girl stared at him, knowingly.
"It's okay, Daddy you can cry. I know it must hurt being here. I don't want to think if I didn't have you and Mommy anymore… It would be the most awful feeling…" She reassured him.
He remained quiet on his spot.
"It's nothing baby." He said in a quiet whisper.
"I'm here with you, I love you." His daughter comforted him.
Tony got the strength then, to tell Morgan what happened to her grandparents and why she didn't get to know them. Stories of how Maria, his mother, would have loved Morgan and Pepper so much. They talked during half an hour, forgetting the wind, the cold… Everything. Until Morgan was satisfied with all the answers she got from her parents. They remained there in silence for some more minutes, until Pepper realized that Tony needed some minutes only for himself, so she made her daughter look at her.
"Morgan, it's kind of late, come with me sweetheart, your Dad will be following us in a minute. Give him some time alone with his parents, will you?"
"Yeah, Mom. Of course. Love you grandma and grandad!" She said as she threw a goodbye kiss towards the tombstone. She then, gave Tony a quick kiss in the cheek and followed Pepper towards their car.
Some hours later, the family was walking hand in hand in the middle of a beautiful Christmas market in the streets of Manhattan. Laughing and staring at all the gleaming decorations, food and goodies they passed by. Morgan's face lit up at the sight of something particularly beautiful and her parents would smile at her, and even buy her some stuff that she really, really liked. Her favourites were all the Christmas tree decorations. The wind was cold and her brown hair got all over her face, Morgan turned her head in time to see an older couple passing by their side, laughing, they seemed to be enjoying themselves, eyes bright and holding hands. They remembered her of her own parents. She could imagine them, Dad and Mom, some years in the future like this old couple, sharing a Christmas evening together. She knew they'd probably would always love each other. Tony and Pepper were talking about the Christmas tree they wanted to buy. Not too big, but not so small that it would get unnoticed by their guests, and hadn't seen their daughter looking thoughtfully towards the old couple.
That's why Tony didn't see the random question come his way until it was too late.
"Daddy, when did you realize you were in love with Mommy?"
He froze, dumbfounded and Pepper laughed hard at seeing his face.
"I… I always loved your mother, Little Mouse. From the very beginning. You already know that."
Morgan furrowed her right brow.
"But I want to know the exact moment you kind of… KNEWWWWWW. When did it hit you? Like this woman is the one? Like when Peter realized he loved M.J… You know? He told me all the little details about that the other night. Their story is super romantic. And I know yours has to be dreamy… Daddy please?"
"I'm gonna kill Parker."
"You can't until Christmas Eve, when he'll be back from the Stark Industries Lab in Malibu." Morgan laughed.
"You're not, we love Peter in this house." Pepper smiled fondly and caressed his arm teasingly. "Yeah, Tony… Did you tell anyone about me? Or keep it to yourself?"
"Please, Pep… Don't do this to me…" He pleaded.
His wife only winked her right blue eye to him and then distracted their daughter. "Look, Morgan, there's little snowmen right there! How cute, right? What if we buy one for Peter and the others?"
"Yeah! Awwwwwww they are the cutest! I can give one to each of them with a handwritten Christmas card!" The girl exclaimed, running towards that market stall so fast she nearly lost her grey wool hat, her burning question momentarily forgotten.
"You know you are going to give her an honest answer sooner than later, Tony." Pepper whispered in his ear. "Yeah, I know" Tony said back, lost in his thoughts.
Then, they followed their daughter.
Later at home, once Morgan became bored in her room, her new Christmas decorations already grazing the living room and the enormous Christmas tree, the question she made in the market, the one she didn't get an answer for, roamed through her mind like wildfire again. But this time she had a great idea. How hadn't she thought about this before?
"FRI, are you there?" She tentatively asked the ceiling.
"Always, Miss Stark." The fast answer came.
"You have video recording of everything that's happened in this house, right?"
"Yes, of course."
"And in the old one Dad and Mom had? The one in the West Coast who ended in the deep of the ocean?"
"The old Malibu Mansion was monitored by my predecessor, an AI called JARVIS who sadly ceased to exist some years ago, but all the video footage and surveillance recorded during those years was successfully saved into a secure Stark Industries Server, yes."
Morgan jumped from her bed, excited.
"And you could access to it, for me?"
Some moments passed as if FRIDAY was doing some internal work or recalibrations in her protocols.
"Yes, Miss Stark." Finally the succinct robotic response came. "Not all the videos, but you can ask and I'll tell you if you have clearance to see them."
"Great!" Morgan shouted delighted. "I need to see a video, a very special video recording. Could you show me, please?"
"For you, Miss Stark, everything." FRIDAY sounded eager to help her young Miss. "What do you want to see?"
Morgan smiled from ear to ear before saying,
"FRIDAY, please show me the moment my dad knew he was in love with my mom…"
Some seconds passed in silence, until the AI spoke again:
Malibu Mansion Workshop system security recording May 2 2007 loading video on TV screen.
Morgan's eyes widened as the TV screen in her room took life and there was her Dad and her Uncle Rhodey, both spread over some kind of old battered couch in what seemed like an exact replica of his father's lab but kind of different… Morgan could recognize some engines, Dum-E and You fooling around in the background as they usually did, the place seemed so familiar to her, and at the same time, so weirdly strange. Like looking into something so old that's already vanished. Like looking into a dream.
Uncle Rhodey was laughing hard, holding an almost empty beer bottle against his chest in a dramatic gesture. Dad's bottle had no beer left. He looked so young. He didn't have any wrinkles in his face, no grey hairs, it was weird. Dad was laughing hard, he seemed like drunk? Dad drunk? She'd never seen him wasted like that in her 15 years of life. Morgan widened her eyes, this was getting interesting.
"I tried to kiss her, Rhodey Bear." He slurred the words. "It was my birthday, you know and I thought what the hell! What was I thinking?"
"Who was this time?" James asked, propelling himself a little over the arm of the couch. "A model, an actress… Wait, sure she was married and the husband made you a new face?"
Tony moved to look at him.
"What? No… It was… It was HER."
"Not following you here, Tones, her who?"
"Pepper." He whispered, feeling kind of guilty.
Uncle Rhodey's eyes widened in the screen, almost popping out of his sockets. "What?"
"Mmmm yes. I kinda, yeah I kissed her… Not my best moment, but whatever."
"Were you crazy? And what did she do?" Uncle Rhodey was clearly as interested in the details as Morgan herself was.
"She… She… Got away in a hurry after three seconds of lip touching and then smacked me in the face. Said I was drunk, and started running towards the door. She didn't even say goodbye. I was right there, near the work bench, looking like an idiot for ten minutes."
"Sounds just like Pepper."
"Yeah, I… I don't know why the hell I did it… It was just some lip touching… Nothing big. I promise. I… Rhodey, this may sound crazy, but she's… I think I love her."
Uncle Rhodey was nearly asleep now, Morgan had serious doubts that he'd listened to Dad's last words. "Mmmm… Yeah I think the same. Maybe you do."
Wow, he had, Morgan thought, staring at the screen with renewed attention, chewing on her nails.
"Do you think that she will, I mean that she can…?" Dad was asking him anxiously now, his hands moving so fast.
"Like love you back? Like for being with you forever?" Uncle Rhodey asked doubtfully. Kind of teasing him.
"Yes?"
"I think she kind of does, like a friend. She's stayed longer than anyone else after all. She may really like you, Tones."
"Yeah, I know that..." Tony whispered sadly. Morgan noticed he seemed even younger - if that was even possible. It was so weird to see him so defeated, no life in his eyes. At least, not like nowadays.
"Tony you can't blame her. Your lifestyle isn't kind of what a woman like her can get into... Not for a relationship. You don't do serious relationships… Don't waste a wonderful friendship if you aren't willing to put your all in a relationship. Don't hurt her."
He sighed hard, defeated. "You're right."
"I am. You won't even remember this conversation tomorrow. We are wasted as hell, Tony."
"I know. Yeah, yeah… She'll get here in the morning and she'll do like nothing happened between us. Nothing at all. She'll be the always put together Miss Potts and I'll be the always mischievous Mr. Stark, like every other day." He sounded harsh. Morgan had never heard her Dad speak like that. "Will that be all? An all that crap…"
"She's smart. And she knows what she does. And you know it's for the best, maybe one day you'll be in the same page of your lives, Tony. Not now." Uncle Rhodey whispered before passing out in the couch.
"Yeah, maybe…"Dad said before closing his eyes too, slowly drifting to sleep. "But, I love her." He said when no one else was hearing.
Morgan did, a whole bunch of years in the future.
She smiled fondly, watching her Dad sleep soundly, curly hair dishevelled and a smile in his lips, maybe dreaming about the brief kiss he gave to her Mom. Now she knew why he was so weary of telling her about the moment he discovered he was in love with Pepper. Maybe Mom didn't even know about this.
The video ended and the TV screen turned black once again.
"FRI, you've got something in there about their first real kiss? I mean one that lasted more than a few seconds? That was real, like real? A romantic kiss? Did dad initiate it or was it Mom?"
"In fact, yes. There's a recording of that moment, but the image quality is not very good as it was taken in a combat suit's camera."
"It's okay FRI, plug it in!" The little girl excitedly asked.
War Machine Mark II armour system video security footage May 10 2010 loading video on TV screen.
The screen went live again. There were Mom and Dad, they seemed to be yelling at each other in all Pepper and Tony couple fashion, like they usually did. It was so them, the girl thought. Dad was inside his old Iron Man suit, all battered and smoking.
"Oh my God! I can't take this anymore!" Mom shouted, distressed. Morgan recognized that navy blue dress she was wearing. Pepper still had it in her closet nowadays. The girl remembered vividly having seen it hanging there.
"You can't?" Dad jokingly asked.
"I can't take this." Mom was losing her nerves.
"Look at me." Dad pointed at himself. The suit was all banged up, full of bullet holes. It must have been a hell of a fight against the bad guys, Morgan thought to herself.
She smiled fondly at the screen. That's my disaster Dad, even when he's saving the world.
"My body, literally, cannot handle the stress. I never know if you're going to kill yourself or wreak the whole company. Or…" Mom's so upset. She needs a hug, Morgan can feel it.
"I think I did okay." The girl can see everything on fire behind him. Buildings, streets… One more explosion, just as he finishes speaking. Typical Dad. She laughs. It's so funny, Mom seems kind of mad, she's been at the receiving end of that same deceived look so many times. Poor Dad.
"I quit. I'm resigning. That's it."
Oh no, Morgan thinks. She's going to ask FRIDAY for the correct video, because this is not what she asked for. But then Dad looks like a kicked puppy on the screen and the girl freezes and keeps watching avidly.
"What did you just say? You're done? That's surprising. No, it's not surprising. I get it. You don't have to make any excuses."
Dad's seriously worried, Morgan can feel it. He's letting her go, oh my God.
"I'm… I'm… I'm not making any excuses." Mom's nervous. No, Mom don't leave him, he needs you. Dad can't tie his shoelaces without you. Damn, you know this…
"You actually were just making excuses. But you don't have to." No, no, no, no… Morgan thinks, worried, don't let her go, Dad… "Don't!" She shouts into the screen, like they can hear her. She hopes that for some magic "I wish I was there with you to get some sense into your stubborn heads." Time travel thingy they do.
"No, I wasn't making an excuse. I'm actually very justified." Come on, Mom!
"Listen. Hey, hey. You deserve better." NO! No no no no… This can't be happening.
"Well…"
"You've taken such good care of me. I've been in a tough spot, but you got me through it, so… Right?"
Dad's moving, walking towards her now. That's good, Morgan thinks, keep approaching her. Keep complimenting her.
"Thank you."
"Yeah."
"Thank you for understanding."
"Yeah, yeah. Let's talk clean-up." "And that's all? You are gonna allow the woman of your life to walk away from you just like that?" The girl shouts at the screen, bewildered.
"I'll handle the transition. It'll be smooth." I hate you, Mom. That's all? Can't you see he's doing the hardest thing he's had to do? He's letting you go. Ugh, GOD, why?
"Okay. What about the press? Because you only had the job for a week. That's gonna seem…"
"Ugh what a pair of morons," Morgan whispers towards the screen.
"Well, with you it's like dog years."
"It still is, every day, every hour. With Dad and me. But you love it, Mom." The girl whispers to herself.
"I know." Of course he knows. Morgan thinks kinda sad.
"I mean, it's like the Presidency…"
And then, everything happens so fast. Morgan is glued to the screen, the moment she'd been waiting for happens, before her Dad could convince himself not to, he leans in and kisses Mom. It is a long kiss, slow and sensuous, and it sure seems like pure passion lit both of them on fire. Morgan realizes, amused, that in that kiss were all the times that they had ever wanted to kiss but hadn't through the years. They are so cute, and are so made for each other. She smiles happily looking at them kiss like two teenagers in love. Like two persons who've loved one another for years in silence.
"Weird." Dad says when they part. It's funny.
"No, it's not weird." "Yeah Mom, you tell him." Morgan whispers, pleased.
"It's okay, right?" Of course is right, Dad you idiot. The girl thinks exasperated.
"Yeah."
"Run that by me again."
Morgan is totally amused with the scene in the video, they start kissing each other again. "YES, YEAH, DAD. That's how you do it!" Morgan yells towards the screen. Hahahahaha get a room, you two. She thinks.
She wasn't the only one.
"I think it was weird." She hears Uncle Rhodey say. Her parents quickly broke apart and turn around, looking exactly towards the camera in Rhodey's suit, the one that's been recording all of this. "You guys look like two seals fighting over a grape."
"Get out Uncle Rhodey!" Morgan shouts bewildered.
"I had just quit, actually." Mom said, nervously. It was cute.
"Yeah, so we're not…" Dad points between the two of them.
"You don't have to do that. I heard the whole thing." That smartass of an Uncle that I have.
"You should get lost." Dad says kind of mad.
Yeah Uncle Rhodey, go away, let them alone. They've just kissed for the first time.
"I was here first. Get a roof."
"I thought you were out of one-liners." I love my snarky Dad. Morgan thinks.
"That's the last one."
"You kicked ass back there, by the way."
"Thank you. You too. Listen, my car got taken out in the explosion, so I'm gonna have to hang on to your suit for a minute, okay?"
"Not okay. Not okay with that."
"It wasn't a question." Uncle Rhodey said, taking flight.
That was the last bit of the recording that Morgan could see, because the video was cut off abruptly since his uncle suit's camera wasn't on the roof anymore. She felt a little deceived she didn't get to see the rest of what happened with her parents on that rooftop.
Just then, a hard knock in the door could be heard. She jumped in the spot as her Mom's voice filled the room.
"Morgan are you okay? What's with all the yelling and shouting? And the sound, so high? Are you watching an action movie in there?"
Crap, the girl thought. Say something, Morgan, quickly.
"Yes. It's a very good movie, Mom. I'm totally okay. It's about some robot saving the world. So much fun. I'll be good." She said right away. Aw, crap. She nearly caught me.
"Okay sweetie, but don't be late for dinner. Dad is leaving the workshop at nine."
"Yeah, I'll be there in time. Don't worry."
"Okay." Pepper said. Morgan could feel a hint of suspicion in her mother's voice but sighed with relief when she heard the sound of her heels disappear into the corridor.
"FRI, what time is it?"
"It's half past seven, Miss Stark."
"Okay. I have time to see some more videos before dinner. Mmmm, do you have in there a conversation that followed this? Them talking about the kiss? Some video in the street? In the old house?" Morgan asked curiously.
"I have a conversation recorded in the Malibu Mansion that may follow these events…"
"Show me!" Morgan shouted. "What are you waiting for? And lower the sound, please. I don't want Mom catching me watching this. I'll be grounded for an entire year or more, if she finds out."
"We wouldn't want that, Miss Stark." FRIDAY answered sarcastically, but doing as asked. Morgan left her bed in a whim and sat near the TV screen in her room's floor, a pink Hello Kitty cushion firmly grasped between her hands.
Malibu Mansion Living Room system security recording May 11 2010 loading video on TV screen.
There was him again, the Young Dad she remembered smiling at her from the old photos in her family albums. He was wearing an old MIT gray sweatshirt and trekking pants, looking freshly showered and rested. Mom was in front of him, in a white blouse and blue jeans, hair styled in a neat ponytail, white sneakers on. They were holding hands. Dad was looking down into their intertwined hands, his fingers moving over Pep's. Morgan could see he was in awe that Mom was still caressing his hand in hers. It was so cute. He stared into her eyes, Morgan could tell he was nervous.
"And now what, Miss Potts?" He hesitantly asked. "Because I really like you. And after what happened yesterday night, I want more kisses and hugs… The whole deal. What do you say?"
Mom smiled broadly at him, and disentangled their hands and started walking towards the kitchen, Dad following behind.
"Well, Tony, you can come to my apartment whenever you please. Or we can see each other here. Either way, we are sleeping on different rooms for a while."
"Oh, yeah? And why is that? I promise I won't take advantage of you Potts." He smirked at her. "I only want to sleep, for now. I want to take it slow."
"You don't deserve the cuddles yet, Tony. How I see it, that's the treatment you get as my insensitive boyfriend, for hiding important things from your girlfriend… For example, the fact that you were dying and never thought about telling me."
Morgan could see Dad's eyes lit up at the mention of the word boyfriend and a wide smile forming in his lips when he heard Mom say she was now his girlfriend. They were such cuties, she was delighted.
"Girlfriend? Did you say girlfriend?" He asked Mom, smiling like the fool in love he was.
"I think you've missed the rest of what I was telling you, Tony. You LIED to me. For months! And you expect that with a kiss or two I will magically forget it all? Like nothing happened? It's not going to be so easy."
Dad was dying for months? Morgan didn't know, they never told her about that. Wow, this was getting interesting.
"It was a great kiss." Dad tried. "Anyway, Pep you weren't my girlfriend at the moment!"
Hahaha Dad you messed it up more. Morgan started laughing at seeing the expression of absolute anger plastered all over her Mom's face. Dad swallowed hard in the screen, realizing his mistake.
"I mean… I didn't mean it like that, like I didn't want you to be my girlfriend. Because I want you to be. I even wanted you by then… Do you still want to be my girlfriend? Pepper say yes, please."
"I'm practically your wife at this point, idiot!" Mom shouted from her spot near the fridge, where she was serving them both two glasses of orange juice. "Honestly, I think that all those years of dedication, of worrying about you, of being by your side, should have made me know that you were nearly dying. I'm sorry I didn't notice, Tony." She ended in a barely audible voice, the glasses forgotten over the kitchen counter.
He started walking towards her, engulfing Mom in a warm hug.
"Hey, hey Pep. It's okay." Dad whispered into her ear, kissing her cheek as he was holding her in his arms. "You would have never known. I did it on purpose, I wanted to keep you in the dark, so you wouldn't have missed me when I was gone."
"God, Tony." She whispered. "How could you? That would have wrecked me. Are you really okay now? Tell me the truth."
"Yes" He reassured her. "Feeling better every minute now. And you are right. You deserved to know… I just didn't want you to worry if it wasn't necessary. Besides, I was already working on a remedy, by the way, and then I found it!" He pointed vehemently towards the triangle of blue light in his chest.
"Are you telling me that if I'd never listened to your conversation with Natalie, you would have never told me about this?"
"Well, I mean... There wouldn't have been anything to tell anymore, Pep…"
"And that's the kind of attitude for which you're going to sleep alone tonight. Do you want to be with me? Fine, but you'll have to be frank from the start. I do not want lies between us, nor do I will tolerate you hiding important things from me from now on... Is that clear?"
Dad nodded once, more relaxed now.
"And speaking of Natalie... Do you want to tell me why the hell she did know about your condition?"
Uh interesting, Mom is jealous. Morgan thought amused.
"What? I did not say anything to Natalie, she found out by herself…"
"What?"
"She's an agent of SHIELD. She's not even called Natalie, her real name is Natasha Romanov."
Silence…
Hey, Auntie Nat you're the best. Love you! Morgan thought to herself.
"You discover that Natalie or Natasha or whatever her name is... Is a secret agent working for SHIELD that's infiltrated into the company and you don't tell me a word?"
She pushes Dad away.
"What the hell were you thinking, Tony?"
"Well, if you had let me talk to you and tell you that I was dying the day I went to your office with the strawberries, I would probably have ended by talking about her too. Anyway, I found out the day before. And since you didn't even let me open my mouth... You were so angry, Pep..."
At that moment, Morgan could see how Mom's face changed little by little from anger to grief and a dozen red alert alarms began to sound inside her head. Oh no, Mom's feeling so guilty. On the screen, Dad noticed too.
"Oh, God, Pepper, I... I'm sorry, okay?" He said in a low voice, approaching her and wrapping his arms around Mom again while she sobbed all over his chest, soaking his sweatshirt with her tears. "Everything went wrong. Worse than planned. And I don't blame you for not wanting to talk to me after how I behaved at my birthday party. You know, I get it Pep. I get it. Don't cry, please."
Mom hugged him tightly against her and then kissed him again hard enough to erase all the pain and worry. When they parted she said: "I hope the memory of this sweet moment will replace all the bad ones. We're starting anew here, Mr. Stark. From scratch. We're going to build a healthy relationship based in love, honesty and trust. What do you say?"
"I say, as you wish Miss Potts. I love you."
She smiled fondly, caressing his cheek. "I love you too, Tony."
They kissed again.
The video footage ended abruptly. Morgan was teary eyed. "That was… So sweet. That was… The moment it all began!" She felt excited and happy. "FRI, now I want to see all the video messages that Dad recorded specially for Mom over all this years of their relationship that you can find in the server, please."
"Of course, Miss Stark." Some seconds passed and then, a random succession of different video recordings roamed through the screen. Some were birthday's messages, anniversary messages, Valentin's Day messages and all kinds of things. Morgan watched avidly all of them, but one suddenly picked all her attention.
It was her Dad, alone in what seemed like some kind of space ship. He looked tired, uncomfortable and weak. He looked bad, so bad. Morgan braced herself.
"This thing on?" She heard him whisper to the recording, looming over her like a shadow. Sighing hard, he forced himself to keep talking. It seemed like a great effort for him in his state. He looked pale, like a ghost. "Hey, Miss Potts. If you find this recording, don't feel bad about this. Part of the journey is the end. Just for the record, being adrift in space with zero promise of rescue is more fun than it sounds. Food and water ran out four days ago. Oxygen should run out tomorrow morning and that'll be it. When I drift off, I will dream about you. It's always you."
He was dying? Again? Alone in space? The recording stopped there. What the hell, Dad? Morgan thought bewildered. That message to Mom, the love of his life, was such deep shit. Anthony Edward Stark was the biggest romantic sap put on earth but, hold on, like he'd always loved Mom. Always, always. Since the very beginning, since he'd known her. The only one in his mind. That surely answered Morgan's question about his Dad's feelings for her Mom. But most importantly…
"What's this, FRIDAY? What's with Dad and dying? Ugh! I lost count of the times he was nearly dying… And that's only in the videos I watched this evening!"
"Unfortunately your Dad's life wasn't always easy, Morgan. I'm glad that's changed nowadays."
"Oh God, me too. Believe me, me too. It feels like a miracle now, all this years of peace and family life and only the three of us living here in our house… Now I get why Dad left to the Uncles and Aunties all the world saving stuff, I'm kind of glad, if you ask me."
"Answering your first question, it's a recording of Mr. Stark's goodbye for your Mom in case he wouldn't survive this predicament. It was recorded on May 12, 2019. He was stranded on space. Fortunately, he was rescued soon after doing this and brought to safety, where he reunited with Mrs. Stark."
"Of course, FRI I get that. I wouldn't be here if he hadn't survived but come on! Did mom see this? It would have broken her heart."
"She did." Was the succinct answer from the AI.
"Poor Mom." Morgan whispered. "I bet there were lots of tears involved."
"Miss Stark, May I remind you it's time for dinner?"
"Already? No way…"
"Your parents are waiting for you at the main table."
"Okay, okay... Just shut everything down. Tell them I'm coming."
"I already did." FRIDAY said as Morgan got up from the floor and started walking towards the corridor. When she entered the living room, she found her parents up, probably ready to go find her. Morgan ran towards them in a whim, brown hair loose.
"Mom, Dad I love you so much. I love you both."
She hugged them fondly. She felt them roam their arms trough her back and Dad pinching her arm lightly.
"And this sudden expression of affection, Little Mouse?" He asked amused.
Morgan looked up, towards his smiling face. His big brown eyes so bright with love. She thanked the universe for allowing her to have his Dad here in this special moment.
"I just love you both, you incredible romantic saps."
"Where did this came from?" Tony exchanged suspicious looks with Pepper. "FRIDAY?"
"Yes, Boss?" Came the fast answer.
"Do you have something to tell me?"
Morgan started praying for the AI to keep silent. "Can't I just love my family?"
"Yeah, right." Pepper added, dubious.
"No breach of security whatsoever, boss. Nor internal or external." The girl was glad that the AI was willing to keep their secret. She loved FRIDAY so much.
"O…kay." Tony added. "We'll see about that, later." He finished still suspicious about what the hell his daughter and the AI could have been up to all the evening. "You've been extremely quiet this evening, Little Mouse. You know I'll find out why."
Morgan smiled brightly and hugged her Dad again. "I know, but until then… I'll just say I got the answer to my question."
"Oh, you did?"
"Yes."
"Enough of that, you two." Pepper said effectively distracting them. "Dinner's waiting and it will get cold. Sit down and let's eat."
"Okay, Mom." Both of them said at the same time. Tony in a mocking voice. Pepper rolled her eyes. They kissed their daughter's hair.
"I'm so glad I have you both with me." The girl happily said while sitting on her usual place around the table.
"We love you too, princess. I hope you know that. What do you say if we start?" Mom happily said.
"Yes!" Morgan screamed, the warm feeling of the love of her parents soothing her soul. "I would like to look to some of your old photos later, before going to bed."
"Oh, sure thing sweetie." Mom said delighted. "Whatever you want." She smiled lovingly at her.
Dad stared at them both, satisfied. "It's decided, tonight is family night. Love my two girls so much."
Tony felt strangely happy, this meant a new meaning for this day, December 16th that he dreaded so much in the past. A day to share with his beloved family: Morgan and Pepper. The family he had fought so hard to have. Life was good, so good.
Tony and Pepper sat around the table and then, all the Stark family started serving the delicious meal while talking about their fun day outside, the Christmas spirit already present in their home. Love filling their hearts with joy.
END
This is specially written for mathewclairmont as a Pepperony Secret Santa special gift.
Hope you like it! :)
A VERY SPECIAL THANK YOU to notgonnabesubtle, my wonderful beta.
I wouldn't have been able to do it without your help.
If there's mistakes in English they are all mine.
MERRY CHRISTMAS to you all! ^^