TONY

It was about thirty minutes past midnight, and Tony Stark was up high in his tower working on a new project; something to do with S.H.E.I.L.D and the fact that their helicarrier used up too much power and needed to be made more efficient and clean. Tony had skipped over the little details, but knew what he had to do and how to do it, and was hoping to get it done sometime before morning. He wanted to take a test run on a new suit he was developing.

But no, instead of having fun and hurtling myself through the air, I'm sitting in here building engines, he thought sarcastically.

Tony took a swig of rum and Coke and sighed. Ever since he and the Avengers defeated Loki six months ago, there had been absolutely nothing of substance to keep his mind on other than the usual comings and goings of Stark Industries. Though he had altered Stark Tower to be the headquarters of the Avengers, there hadn't been a major threat since Thor took Loki back to Asgard. And since there was no threat, everyone was off pretty much doing their own thing.

Bruce was working with S.H.E.I.L.D on a top secret gamma radiation project (though Tony knew everything about the project from who was working on it to the type of shoes they wore.)

Thor was back with his girlfriend What's-Her-Face and occasionally checking up on minor problems around the world, doing his "protector of Midgard" gig.

Clint and Tasha were working on the red in Tasha's ledger. How, Tony had no idea. Tasha was able to keep herself off of Tony's radar if she wanted, something that annoyed Tony to no end.

Even Pepper was gone, at this point. She was taking a small vacation with her parents in Florida, and would be back "as soon as I manage to stop them worrying about me because I'm dating a metal freak."

Her words, not theirs, apparently.

The only person who had stuck around was Steve, who was still trying to adjust to being seventy years in the past. Tony had originally been against the idea of being roommates with the Captain, but Steve eventually began to grow on Tony, and they had become great friends. Steve even started becoming interested in some of the new gadgets that Tony had been coming up with, and with Tony's help had become fairly savvy technology wise, despite the huge time gap between what Steve had previously thought was "high tech" and what was actually high tech.

I wonder if Cap would like a drink, he wondered to himself as he thought about his star spangled friend.

Steve didn't usually drink all that much with Tony, mostly because Steve could no longer get drunk due to the effects of his condition, and partly because it's not very fun to be the sober fellow around a drunken Tony Stark.

Tony was going to see anyway.

He got up from his chair and away from the table where he was working on design plans for the new helicarrier engines, and said "I'm heading upstairs, JARVIS, let's go."

"Yes, good idea sir."

Tony turned off everything in his workspace, grabbed what remained of his drink, and made his way into the main part of his living area. He stumbled a little, but given the fact that he wasn't piss-your-pants-drunk yet, he managed to make it without nearly killing himself.

"JARVIS," he said, "put Stevie on the speakers for me, will ya? I want to—"

But before Tony could finish his sentence, the alarms that were set to go off when someone was approaching his little bit of the tower sounded.

"Sir, you seem to have a visitor," JARVIS said.

"Really JARVIS, you don't say?" said Tony sarcastically. "I bet it's Steve. Never mind calling him, but I don't see why he didn't put his code in…"

Tony set down his drink and made his way to the door.

"Steve, I gave you a code for a reason, the alarms are—"

As Tony opened the door, he stopped in mid-sentence. Because in front of him was not his friend Steve, but instead Richard and Mary Parker, two people Tony worked with extensively in regards to medical advances at Stark Industries, and who were in liaisons to Stark Industries sister company (and soon-to-be newest addition to Stark Industries,) OSCORP. They had worked their way up at Stark Industries, and had become top employees after Tony's decision to stop making government-grade weapons. Aside from working for him, they were also good friends.

Tony cleared his throat and smiled.

"Richard, Mary, how unexpected yet totally awesome of you to show up. I thought you were Steve, but you'll do just fine too, I suppose." Tony moved aside so that they could come in, and he noticed that Mary was carrying their son, Peter, in her arms. "And the baby too, wonderful. I can put his drink in a sippy-cup, yeah?" he chuckled, though he realized once he closed the door and turned to them that something was terribly wrong and the smile that had been on his face slid off. "Or—or not, that's cool too. I can drink by myself, no big deal."

Richard sighed, pushed his thick glasses up his thin nose and started. "Tony, we've come into some trouble, Mary and I, over at OSCORP. We need your help."

"Ok, no problem," Tony said, slightly taken aback by the urgent tone on Richard's voice. "What do you need? Money, place to stay, car, what?"

"We need to go away and we want you to take care of Peter."

Tony's brow furrowed and the corners of his lips turned down. "Say what?"

Richard sighed and pushed up his glasses again, which had slid down. "Tony, there is something terrible going on at OSCORP, something that has the potential to put the entire world in danger. We would have come to you sooner, but there was so much that Mary and I had to prepare for, so much that we had to plan and calculate… it's just too late for us to involve you any further, but in order to keep this from getting out and in order for us to keep our son safe, we have to leave. I'm sorry. There's no one else with the skills to help us."

"There's things like nannies and adoption, I think, that could handle this a lot better than I can," Tony said bluntly. "I mean, give me a psychotic terrorist or a demi-god bent on world domination and I have your back, but this is a little bit out of the realm of Tony Stark and what he can and can't do. And I'm not usually the one to say that I can't do something."

Richard chuckled. "I think you underestimate yourself."

Tony shook his head. "Unlikely. I estimate myself correctly approximately one hundred percent of the time. In fact, I could probably tell you the exact percentage where I haven't correctly estimated myself and I would still—"

"Tony," Richard said firmly.

"Ok then." Tony raised his hands up in front of him, backing off slightly and getting back to the point. "So what is this threat to the safety of the world going on at OSCORP?" He was trying to avoid discussing the whole baby issue by seeing if he could do something about the "terrible threat" that had somehow made these people think that he of all people was the person needed to take care of their son while they escaped into the darkness.

"Tony, if you knew, you'd know why we couldn't tell you. Suffice to say, I have everything needed to keep this from blowing up into something that will lead to a catastrophe. If I could tell you without compromising you, I would, but I can't. The only thing I can do is ensure that my son is safe, and I know he will be safest in the hands of a super hero, and you happen to be the only one I know."

Tony sighed. "So I can't even know what this big threat is?" he said, disappointed. "At all? And, speaking of this threat, how don't I know about it? I know everything that goes on in my company." That was the bit that Tony found the most incredulous; if there was something going on at his company or at a partner company, he was always the first to know, especially if it was something threatening.

Tony Stark did not like not knowing things.

Richard laughed. "Even Tony Stark can't possible know everything. As far as being allowed to know, the fewer people who know, the better. So far those who know are the people involved, Mary, and myself. As I said, Mary and I took the information needed to launch the project; the others involved cannot move on with the project if they don't have the information they need."

"And how do you know that they won't just redo what you've taken? Or for that matter, figure it out?" Tony asked. He didn't think it'd be hard; he tended to employ and work with the most intelligent minds he could find.

"Because I came up with the formula, so to speak," Richard replied. "I was the one, along with Mary, who came up with the numbers and the formula. The people have the ideas, but Mary and I had the numbers that backed up the ideas; they wouldn't know a photon from a proton, Tony," he said chuckling before getting serious.

"At the time, we didn't know what the plans for our formulas were really for… so we helped," Mary interjected. "We thought it was going to be a great progress in the advancement of medicine and human evolution. But it wasn't. And when we found out the truth, we planned to take everything they'd need to make the plan come to fruition, and to leave with that we had, fall off the gird so to speak."

Richard took a deep breath. "Tony, I know that you like having all the information at once, but you must understand that it is for your safety and the safety of others that we keep the information from you. And under no circumstances are you to interfere at OSCORP in any way that would arose suspicions. I know there are plans to merge the company with Stark Industries, but you must not do anything out of character. Any hint that you know something is amiss and they will make sure to find out all you know." He paused. "When I say that it is better for you to be in the dark, I mean it Tony. If not just for yourself, then for my son. He is the only connection to our family, the only one that has the chance to do something with his life. Mary and I have lost that chance, and if he gets involved with this, he will too. I am begging you, Tony, to keep my son safe, to keep him happy, and though it goes against your nature, I am begging you to let this be, let Mary and I do what we must, and keep our son safe."

Richard and Mary were on the verge of tears at this point. Richard's voice was cracking the whole time and Tony could tell that Mary was struggling to keep a brave face. Tony didn't know how to take the words that Richard said to him. He didn't know how to take Richard telling him he was the only person right to take care of his son, he didn't know how to take not being told all the information, he didn't know how to take not being able to help people he considered his friends stay out of trouble.

"Look, Richard. I don't know if I can do this. This is a kid. This is a kid you're asking me to take care of. And to not get involved! You're asking me to not get involved in something and to take care of a kid and to just let you go off and handle this yourself."

Richard smiled a little.

"Tony, I have the utmost confidence in you. You're a little rough around the edges, but if there's anyone who can protect my son, I know it's you."

"I think I need a drink," said Tony wearily. Then he sighed. "Ok. So if I do this, what about you guys? Where are you going? When are you coming back? What are you doing with this information that for some reason I can't know?" Tony needed to at least know something.

"We're going to be going someplace where we can't be found, by anyone. As far as when we're coming back, we don't know. We may never be back. Which is why we wouldn't entrust our son to anyone else but you."

Tony had to hold back telling them that he thought they were insane; he wouldn't entrust his own son to himself, let alone someone else's.

But Tony knew that Richard and Mary wouldn't do something so crazy or seemingly random without there being a legitimate point or reason to it. And he knew that if he didn't help them, that they would have no one else to help them.

He groaned.

"I don't know if I can do this."

Richard frowned. "Tony—"

"I said that I didn't know if I could do it, not that I wouldn't," Tony interrupted. "I just need time to think, that's all."

Richard nodded. "I understand. Let's explain everything to you, and then we'll go from there, ok?"

Tony nodded.

From there, Tony listened as Mary explained the cover that she and Richard had come up with to protect Peter and cover their tracks. Peter would keep his name, but Mary and Richard had procured papers that traced his lineage back to distant relatives of Tony's, who, according to a doctored will, had died recently in a car accident, leaving their only son with no family, accept for his "uncle," Tony Stark, who would be given immediate custody of the child and would act as his guardian until Peter's 18th birthday.

All of the Richard's assets that weren't going to be used for their disappearance were turned over Tony to use for Peter; money from Peter's college fund, a portion of his parent's savings account, and money acquired through discretely selling some of the Parker's property had accumulated into a large sum of money. And though they knew Tony didn't technically need the money—Tony was loaded, as pretty much everyone on the planet knew—they wanted to leave something for their son, even if they couldn't be there for him.

The plan for Richard and Mary was then explained. In two days' time, Mary and Richard would make their escape, making it look like a home invasion in which they were all kidnapped. Important documents would be taken from their safe, to make it look like they had been taken for information on something that they had been working on. One week from their disappearance, they would send a message to Stark Industries from their "kidnappers" informing the company that the couple and their son had been killed as punishment for noncooperation, and that the coordinates for their bodies would be sent for retrieval. Obviously Richard and Mary weren't going to actually be killed; they had apparently "settled everything the way it needed to be" in order to pull the entire thing off. This was how they would manage to completely wipe their family off the face of the planet, figuratively speaking.

"That's pretty much everything," Mary finished. She then hesitated, as if there was something she needed to say, but couldn't bring herself to do so. "We—we do have an alternate plan, one that we came up with if you weren't able to do this for us."

"Oh?" Tony asked, interested. If they had had an alternate plan, why didn't they mention it before?

"Mary, I don't think—" Richard began to interrupt, but Mary cut him off.

"I need to make sure he knows the full weight of his choice, Richard," she said firmly. She then turned and looked directly into Tony's eyes.

What she then proceeded to tell him would change Tony Stark's life forever.