It had been a long time since Tony had been in contact with Mary Parker.
Although back then he had the reputation of being a playboy who jumped from woman to woman and had more one-night-stands than one would think, he remembered being awed by Mary's presence, and so they saw each other a lot more than once. Mary had been a special woman who was confident and kind, and Tony respected her, knowing that there was more to her than met the eye.
So when Tony was holding Penny in his arms, her small, shaking body passed out from all the crying, he couldn't help but feel like he'd let Mary Parker down.
He'd allowed her children to get abused by someone in his own home. Tony wondered if she would ever forgive him for that.
He knows that he wouldn't.
Penny's eyes had just fluttered shut, her cheek smudged against his chest. She was so tiny, Tony observed—so small and, dare he say, precious. A strange, unfamiliar emotion overcame him, and it wasn't the anger or sadness he had just been feeling five minutes ago. He decided to put a pin in that—after all, he had bigger fish to fry.
"Pep… I can't believe—" Tony choked on his words. "Damnit, May Parker was right. They aren't safe here."
"We're all at fault, Tony," Pepper reminded him gently. Her eyes were shining with tears. "Not just you."
"What do I do now?"
"Well first, you deal with the nanny," Pepper let out a humorless laugh.
"Obviously, Pep. But then what? Do I send them to Ben and May Parker? Or the Watson's—the kids mentioned they want to go back to Cedar Hill."
As Tony went over the options, his gaze rested on the top of Penny's head as he continued to rock the girl back and forth in his arms slowly. To his surprise, he found that he didn't want to let go of her, didn't want to lose her to the world. Once he gave them up, everything would go back to normal, but he didn't want things to back to normal.
That unfamiliar emotion he had just been feeling—was that love? The unconditional love that a parent felt for their children, a love that would never weaken even if they committed the worst possible crime? He would never have guessed that the feeling would come so damn quickly, but it did.
But Tony knew that he had to let them go. He wasn't the father they deserved, and he knew that because Mary Parker's kids deserve the best.
"Tony…" Pepper's voice was soft. "You made a mistake. We all did, but mistakes happen."
"This isn't—this isn't leaving your kid at the damn grocery store, Pepper, this is hurting them badly and it being your fault," Tony refuted. "I mean, who even thought for a minute that I, Tony fucking Stark, would be remotely a good father? Who had that genius idea?"
"Mary Parker obviously had that idea. You were in her will," Pepper reminded him. "Being a good parent isn't measured by the mistakes you make. It's measured by what you do to fix said mistake."
A pause filled the room, silence washing over them to where the only sound Tony could hear was the sound of Penny's breathing.
"I gotta fix this," Tony nodded. He had to—he was Tony Stark. He could fix anything. He glanced down at the girl in his arms who was fast asleep. Suddenly, it hit him that maybe Penny was safe, but Peter indeed was not. He was still downstairs with the witch.
Shit.
"I need to go get Peter. Can you take her?" Pepper nodded, and Tony gently transferred Penny into Pepper's arms. His daughter stirred at the movement, but stayed asleep, both adults sighing in relief. Tony hopped out of bed and all but ran to the elevator, panic rising as he realized just how long Peter had been all alone downstairs, and especially in his current state.
Tony tapped his foot anxiously on the elevator floor as it descended, the severity of the situation crashing down on him. He pulled out his phone and shot a quick text to Rhodey, his fingers shaking as he tried to type. When the elevator doors opened, he practically jumped out of it, racing down the hall to Peter's room.
To his relief, the room was empty, save for a small, fever-stricken boy.
He wasn't sure what he had been expecting—the woman standing over Peter with a knife or something along those lines—but he had to remind himself that sometimes abuse wasn't always visible to the outside. Obviously, it wasn't, or they wouldn't be having issues in the first place.
Peter was still shivering from the fever, curled into himself and his eyes twitching as he slept. The last thing Tony wanted to do was wake him, but when he sat down on the bed next to him, the kid's eyes fluttered open.
"Hey there, squirt," Tony whispered, stroking the boy's curls with his fingers.
"Hi, Daddy…" Peter breathed out, watching him under heavy eyelids.
"I'm gonna carry you upstairs to my floor, okay?" God, the kid was so small. How could anyone hurt a kid so little and cute and innocent? It made him angry, but he was holding it together—for now.
"Why?"
"Because you and Penny aren't safe here," Tony answered. He scooped Peter into his arms, blanket and all, and lifted himself into a standing position. Peter just burrowed into Tony's chest, brown doe eyes closing once more. Tony was almost positive his son was asleep because there was no noise from him as he carried him into the elevator, until he heard the small, weak voice.
"Is Penny okay?"
"Yeah, she's fine, buddy," Tony remembered the way Penny had sobbed in his arms and wondered if his words were lies. "You're both safe and sound."
Penny was still fast asleep in his bed, curled up in Pepper's arms. Tony set Peter down on the couch in the corner of the bedroom, putting a pillow under his head and making sure he was tucked into the blanket.
"You can go back to sleep, Pep," Tony said, looking up from Peter to where Pepper was watching him. Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "I have a few more things to take care of."
The sun was just beginning to rise over the New York City skyline as Ms. Edwards left her bedroom the next morning. To her surprise, the place was abnormally quiet—usually, the twins were making some sort of noise, like watching TV and playing with Peter's Avenger action figures. Were they staying at their aunt and uncle's apartment? She couldn't remember; her memory had gotten worse in her old age.
The living room was empty, looking as it had when she had gone to bed last night—clean and tidy. She smiled to herself as she realized she had the morning off, away from the spoiled brats. However, her smile faltered when she entered her kitchen.
Tony Stark was sitting at the kitchen table in his pajamas, his body leaning back in the chair and his arms crossed to his chest.
"Mr. Stark!" The old woman gasped. Her employer usually rarely came down to this floor, and he certainly never came down when his children weren't there.
"Ms. Edwards," Tony nodded, his face blank and holding no emotion whatsoever. He looked tired, the bags under his eyes faint but still there.
"How may I help you, Mr. Stark? Can I get you a coffee or some breakfast?" Ms. Edwards moved further into the kitchen towards the coffee pot.
"I could use a cup of coffee," Tony said, his gaze still trained on the wall in front of him. "Afterall, I was up all night—we were dealing with some pretty serious stuff."
Ms. Edwards hummed in response, turning on the coffee pot and filling it with water and coffee grounds.
"Are you a mother, Ms. Edwards?" Tony's words made her frown, wondering where the man was going with this.
"Yes, yes I am," Ms. Edwards answered, not turning to look at him. "Two daughters and a son—they moved out a long time ago."
"Then you must know how it feels to find out that you've been allowing them to be terrorized by the monster that lives under their bed."
Silence. Ms. Edwards watched as the brown liquid started to drip down into the mug.
"I never allowed them to believe in such things," she said. "The mind can be harmful to a young child."
"But what if it's not their mind playing tricks on them?"
Ms. Edwards froze, pursing her thin, dry lips together as she replaced the now full mug with an empty one, letting the hot coffee fill that one as well.
"What are you getting at, Mr. Stark?"
"Ben Parker was right about one thing—Peter and Penny are amazing kids, and they deserve the entire world," Tony shifted his gaze to look at her as he spoke. Ms. Edwards brought both coffee filled mugs over to the table, placing one of them into Tony's hands. "And they certainly don't deserve the abuse they've been under the past few months."
Suddenly, the mood in the room became hostile.
"Are you suggesting that I'm abusing your children?" Ms. Edwards scowled, shaking her head.
"Not suggesting, accusing more like. Penny told me everything."
"And are you really going to listen to what a five-year-old tells you?" Ms. Edwards scoffed. "Penelope is not an easy child to deal with. Losing her mother turned her into a sad, difficult girl. Of course, she would say such things to try and slander me. You cannot honestly believe—"
"I do believe her," Tony snapped, bringing his coffee mug back down onto the table with a slight bang. "I will always believe the things she and her brother tell me, because I trust them to be honest with me."
The kitchen went silent for a moment, Ms. Edwards closing her lips once more. Tony's voice was still faintly echoing off of the walls.
"But yes, of course, I realize that kids can sometimes over exaggerate, and I'm also aware that I'm making a huge-ass accusation," Tony continued. "But JARVIS doesn't exaggerate. Don't you know that this entire Tower is always on surveillance? I have mountains of evidence stacked up against you. Enough to make sure you're thrown in prison and kept there for the rest of your life, and then some."
"That is not abuse, Stark," Ms. Edwards shook her head. "It's discipline. Every child needs to have some in their lives, or else they'll turn out as you did. It's a shame Howard died when he did; you could have turned into a very respectable man."
Tony's face flooded with anger at the mention on his father, his eyes narrowed into slits.
"My father's parenting was the reason I turned out so fucked up," his voice was quiet but laced with rage. "I will not let you be the reason Peter and Penny turn out like me. Honey Bear, now!"
All at once, a few police officers entered the kitchen, Rhodey following behind them. The police officers handcuffed the old woman, reciting her rights while she protested. Tony didn't answer her protests, only watching her calmly while sipping his coffee.
"You will regret this, Stark!" Ms. Edwards screeched as the officers dragged her away. "Those children need me! You will ruin their lives just by touching them, do you hear me?"
Eventually, her voice got quieter and quieter as she was taken out of the kitchen and onto the elevator. Rhodey sighed, sitting down where Ms. Edwards had previously sat.
"I've gotta say, I'm not shocked," Rhodey admitted, his face grim. "There was always something about that woman that didn't sit right with me."
"I just don't know what to do now," Tony rubbed his face in his hands, the tiredness catching up to him. He'd gone without sleeping for way longer than this before, so why was he so tired? "How do I tell May Parker?"
"You just… tell her the truth," Rhodey shrugged. "Tell her you're sorry and that you'll never let it happen again. Besides, you're not the one they should blame, for the most part at least. You didn't know what was happening, Tones."
Tony didn't believe his friends' words—he knew that he was mostly to blame for all of this. Maybe not directly, but still. But the thought of losing his kids twisted his stomach into a knot because he didn't want to let them go. The feeling surprised him for some reason because he had never thought of himself wanting to be a father, even when he had found out about Peter and Penny. He just needed another chance, one more try to get this right.
Tony put his all into that chance. His first order of business? Getting Peter healthy again. It took another day to get rid of the flu that his son was suffering from, and so they spent that entire day on the couch in the living room watching Disney movies. When the kids had first moved in, Tony had bought almost every Disney movie there was to buy, and when he told Peter to pick what he wanted to watch his eyes had gone wide.
"There's so many…" Peter had whispered, bundled up in his blanket while leaning against Tony. Tony eventually put his arm around the boy, letting him cuddle into his side. Peter eventually picked Hercules , but halfway through he ended up falling asleep.
Penny was another story. She had slept in later than usual because of all the commotion of last night, but when she woke up, she spent the whole day in the living room, either watching the movie intensely or breaking her attention away to color for a bit. She was quiet, but Tony couldn't figure out if she was shy or just… like that. Tony felt a smile take over his face as he watched the little girl play with her cat, gently reaching out to pet him and giggling when Luke's tail brushed against her face.
Unlike Peter, she kept to herself. That was just fine, but he couldn't help but hope that she would open up eventually. It would be a long road, Tony realized, but when she proudly presented one of her drawings to him that night, he felt like they were already making progress.
The drawing was a picture of a bunch of stick figures standing in an open grass area, the sun shining down on them from the corner of the piece of white printer paper.
"That's Pete… that's me… that's Miss. Pepper, that's Uncle Rhodey… and that's you," Penny explained, pointing to each stick figure when she said their respective names. All the stick figures were holding hands, and Tony had to suppress a chuckle when he realized she had drawn him shorter than both Rhodey and Pepper. What did that mean? Surely he wasn't that short… right?
"This is so good, Pen," Tony praised her, and she beamed with happiness. Tony decided that was his favorite look on her, and he wanted to see it more often. "Can I put it on the fridge?" When she nodded her head yes, Tony clipped it to the fridge using a magnet, stepping back to look at it in the better lighting. And if his heart swelled with happiness at seeing the Peter and Penny stick figures both holding hands with the Tony stick figure, well, that was his business.
Peter got better fast, and soon he was up and running around like himself. It had been two days since Ms. Edwards had been fired, and Tony had been working on something on the other end of the floor while Penny had been coloring and Peter had been sleeping.
"I have something to show you guys," Tony told his kids as they sat at the breakfast table. They currently had a pile of hot, steaming chocolate chip pancakes on their plates, because that was one of the only things Tony knew how to cook, Peter's drenched in syrup.
"Is it Captain America, Daddy?" Peter guessed, eyes hopeful, his mouth full of pancake.
"No buddy, sorry," Tony shook his head. He made a mental note to talk to Steve about coming to the tower for a little bit so Peter could meet him—he knew the boy would probably faint when he saw his hero.
Peter and Penny still ate at a quick pace, obviously excited about seeing what their father wanted to show them. Once their plates were cleared, Tony led them down a hallway close to the living room and his and Pepper's room. He pushed open a door, stepping aside so they could get a better look.
Inside was a huge room, one half painted pink and the other painted blue. There were two twin beds with a huge window in the middle, a nightstand with a lamp on the side of each bed. One bed had Captain America sheets and covers, and the other bed had pink blankets and purple sheets. On the pink bed, Luke the cat snoozed, sprawled out at the foot of the bed. Lined against the walls were all their toys from their old floor, including Penny's dolls and Peter's Avengers action figures.
"This is your new room," Tony explained to them, watching their jaws drop to the floor. "There's another room right next door for when you guys want to have seperate rooms, but until then you guys will be sharing this one. I assumed that's what you wanted."
Penny and Peter entered the room, exploring a little bit to see what all was there.
"Pep and I are right down the hall," Tony said, leaning against the doorframe. "You're not going to have a nanny anymore, so I'm gonna clear up my schedule a little so I can be here more with you guys."
"Daddy, I love it!" Peter cried, launching himself at Tony's legs and hugging them tight. "It's my favorite room ever!"
Peter let go almost as quickly as he latched on, and went back to browsing through his toys. Penny stepped towards Tony, twisting her hands behind her back as she smiled up at him, her brown eyes happy under her long, dark eyelashes.
"Thank you, Daddy," Penny said quietly, hugging his legs the same way Peter had, just a lot more carefully. "I love it a lot too."
"I'm glad you like it, honey," Tony put his hand on her head, messing up her hair a little bit playfully before smoothing it back down with his fingers. She let go,
"Hey Daddy, do you wanna play Avengers?" Peter called from the other side of the room, the box of toys in front of him. He bent down and picked up a red and gold action figure. "You can be Iron Man."
Tony went sat down in front of the box of action figures, taking the Iron Man doll from Peter's hands. Peter picked up Captain America before rummaging through the box some more.
"Penny, come play! You can be Black Widow," Peter held out the Black Widow toy towards his sister. She hesitated for a moment, but ended up taking the doll from him.
"Can I be Hawkeye too?" Penny requested, peering into the box but not touching.
"Why would you wanna be Hawkeye? All he does is shoot arrows," Peter said, wrinkling his nose, and Tony couldn't help but laugh out loud. He couldn't wait to tell Clint the next time he saw the archer—his expression would be priceless.
Tony knew that it wouldn't be easy to reverse the abuse Ms. Edwards had inflicted on them—there would probably be nightmares and crying and all around sadness. But he would be there to help them, even by doing something as small as playing with them when life got tough.
Tony knew it wouldn't be easy, but he would be damned if he wasn't going to do everything in his power to fix them and to fix himself. He was Tony Stark. He could fix anything.
