Tony Stark was in his lab, cleaning one of his Iron Man suits. With a dust cloth he rubbed over the red left shoulder of the suit. He went to the front and blew warm air into the mask. Then he rubbed over the condensation area with the cloth. He took a few steps backwards and looked at it.

"Shining bright like a diamond," he said with a smile.

"Sir, I have incoming message for you."

"Who is it, Friday?" he asked as he cleaned up his stuff.

"It's Mr. Parker, Sir."

Tony looked up, surprised. He smiled. "Send him in." A moment later, Peter appeared in a hologram in front of Tony. "Hey, kiddo," he greeted with a smile.

"Hey, Mr. Stark."

"How are you and how's Belgium?"

"Oh Belgium is a nice country. Except for the fries here. So thick, yuck!"

Tony laughed.

"Mr. Stark, I need some advice." Tony raised up his eyebrows. "There is a girl in our class, Julia. She has a lot of problems in her personal life and…."

"Are you trying to be her Romeo?" Tony interrupted

Peter was shocked. "Huh? Wait…what?" Tony just smirked at him. "Oh no. No. No, it's not like that!"

Tony chuckled. "Yeah, right. But continue." He crossed his arms over his chest as he wanted listen again.

Peter sighed before he continued. "I want to help her, but I have no idea how."

"Well kid, I have to disappoint you," he said as he walked to his cleaned suit. "But I can't tell you what to do." He turned around looked at him as he lift up the suit. "You both have to found out yourself." He carried the thing back to his place.

Peter nodded his head as he looked down, a little bit confused. "Right."

Tony looked back at the boy. "Sorry kiddo," he said with guilt. In the background he heard the high heels of Pepper Potts coming closer. He looked around his shoulder at the sound.

"I think Miss Potts is coming?"

Tony looked amazed at the boy. "How do…"

"I'll leave you two alone," Peter interrupted. "See you next time, Mr. Stark." Before he logged off he gave him a smile and a wink, leaving Tony with a confused look on his face.

"Was that Peter?" he heard Pepper asking. He turned around saw his lovely woman standing there with a green smoothie in her hand.

"Yeah, that was Peter," he answered as he walked over to her. He took over the smoothie. "Thank you," he said before he took a sip.

"How is he doing?" Pepper asked curious.

Tony removed the glass from his lips with a big smile. "He's growing up now."

Her eyes fluttered open, making her realize that she was laying on the floor, in the middle of her room. Suddenly she heard him shouting from downstairs, "Julia, wake up and get your lazy ass to school!"

She sat up quickly and noticed the time on her digital alarm clock. "Shit," she mumbled as she stood up quickly. She jumped to her closet, took out a random shirt and changed it with the one she wore. She grabbed her backpack before she ran downstairs. In a rush she opened the front door, which slammed into a wall. When she left the front garden, she took a left turn. School was just three blocks away, so she ran as fast as she could before she was too late. She made it to the gate when the zoomer went off. Before she entered the school building she had to sit down on one of the benches of the schoolyard to calm down from running. She leaned over, letting her elbows rest on her knees and took her breath.

"It's better to sit up straight to catch up your breathing."

Julia looked up and saw, caused by the sun, a black silhouette in front of her. She sat up and rested her back against the backrest of the bench, taking a few deep breaths.

The silhouette took a seat next to her. "You're early."

She looked at him and could see who it was. "What do you mean?"

"Sociology classes has been cancelled," Peter answered.

Julia sighed irritated as she looked away. "Couldn't they have call me earlier?"

"I guess they hadn't expected you back already," Peter said suddenly. She looked back at him, slightly confused. He smiled. "But I'm happy you're back and I am here for you… no matter what." He stretched out a hand. She looked at it, back to him and vice versa. Suddenly she wrapped her arms around his neck and embraced him. Gently he placed his hands on her upper back and embraced back in return.

She started to cry. All he could do is holding her.

Julien Beckers arrived in his office, inside the Ministry of Foreign Affairs building in Brussels. Carefully he placed his suitcase on the large conference table. He opened it and saw the blue Terrigan Crystals in there, still intact. He took a pair of rubber gloves out of the pocket of his jacket. With gentle care he placed the crystals in the cool mini bar, next to his desk. When he was done he closed the small door of the mini bar.

He sat down at the head of the table, in front of a large TV screen. The screen turned dark blue and the word 'Connecting' with animated dots behind it appeared on the screen. Seconds later, two older men showed up.

"Hail Hydra," all three men said as a greeting.

"Mission report," the man with the grey hair demanded.

"The crystals are safe with me. But I don't know for long. My stepdaughter is very suspicious around me since her mother died," he reported, while he took off the gloves.

"You must protect the Terrigan Crystals. We need them for our new program in Switzerland. If you lose them, whatever the cause, the project will fail," the man with the glasses ordered.

Julien nodded. "I'll do my best." Then he disconnected the video chat. His mind wandered off to a solution to keep the crystals safe. A smile appeared on his lips as a plan came to his mind.

At the last ten minutes of science class, the students were always allowed to do their own experiment. A perfect solution for Peter to make more spider web-fluids for his suit. Julia and Ned were watching how he made it. After he placed all the needed ingredients in a jar, he did a quick stir. Ned and Julia were looking over his shoulders. Smoke came out of the jar and Peter moved the spoon out of it with a transparent sticky substance on it.

"Wow. That's cool," Julia said, amazed.

"I know, right?" Ned replied.

With a smile, Peter closed the jar.

"So, what are you going to do with that?" Julia asked curious.

Peter and Ned felt a little panicked.

"Well…." Peter started as he searched for an excuse.

Until Ned came to the rescue. "He's already making webs for Halloween."

Peter looked surprised at his friend. Julia looked at Peter.

He looked at her. "Uhm…yeah."

"Okay. But how do you keep it smooth like that?" Julia wondered.

"By…uhm… I keep stirring it. Once a week," Peter answered, hoping she believed him.

Then the zoomer went off for their next lesson. Julia left them. The boys looked at each other and they released a relieved sigh.

"Saved by the bell. That was a close call," he said, relieved.

"Will they even know Spiderman in this country?" Ned wondered in a whisper.

Peter shrugged his shoulders because he didn't know the answer. Then they left for their next lesson.

In the SHIELD headquarters, Nick Fury looked over the shoulder of Maria Hill. She sat behind a computer and on the screen was the map of Europe with red dots on it. They both were looking at it until one of their agents came in. Fury looked up at him.

"Agent Coulson," he greeted him while he reached out his hand.

"Boss," the agent said as he walked up to him and shook his hand.

"I am glad you could come as soon as possible. HYDRA is working on a new and improved Winter Soldier program with the Terrigan Crystals," the SHIELD director explained. "I want you and your team to find those crystals and bring them here, so we can destroy them in a safe way."

Agent Coulson nodded as he heard his new assignment. Fury gestured at the map.

"Here are all the HYDRA bases where they could probably store the crystals."

Agent Coulson looked closely to the map, his eyes on a small country.

"The Netherlands and Belgium are small countries, so we better start there. Then we can go further into Europe to get the rest of the crystals," Coulson said. He stood up straight and looked at Fury. "My team and I will do our best to get those crystals out of HYDRA's hands."

Fury smiled at him. "I trust you. That's why I have you on this case." He reached out his hand again. Agent Coulson shook it again. "Good luck," he wished his agent.

After a long day of school, Julia shoved a lasagna into the hot oven. She set a timer into her cell phone while she left the kitchen. With the cell phone in her hand she walked to the stairs. She walked by her mother's room. For a moment she looked up at the closed door of that room. Quickly she went upstairs, went to her room and took her homework from her desk. She went downstairs again and opened the door of her mother's library. She stood still in the doorway and looked around at the room. She went inside and closed the door behind her. A calm feeling washed over her body, while she took a deep breath. Placing her homework on her mother's desk, she walked over to the radio. She turned it on and the calm music of Enya reverberated out of the speakers. She took a seat behind the desk, opened her math book and started to do her homework. Deeply lost in thought, she was focused on her math homework.

"SOMETHING'S BURNING IN HERE!"

Julia quickly looked up as she was ripped out of her concentration by his yelling. In a rush she stood up, opened the door and ran to the kitchen. She shoved her father away who was standing in the doorway of kitchen, facing the oven. Smoke was coming out of it. She grabbed an oven mitt, opened the oven and took out the black lasagna. They both coughed when the smoke escaped. Julia threw the lasagna on the counter and waved the black clouds away. She looked at him.

"Uhm…shall I order pizza?"

He couldn't appreciate her remark and started yelling angry at her. "This is the second time this week that you screwed up dinner! Where have you been?"

She sighed. "Mom's room."

Suddenly Julien slapped her in the face, smacking her face away from him.

"But I did," she looked back at him, "I even set a timer in my phone for the lasagna."

"Prove it," he growled.

Julia walked to the room and went to the desk. She took her phone in her hand and saw the screen was black. She tried to turn on her phone, while she walked back, but it refused her. An annoyed sigh came out of her mouth as she looked up at him.

"My phone died," she said, while she rolled her eyes. "Great," she mumbled as she looked at her phone.

Suddenly Julien pushed Julia against the wall with his hand around her neck. She was looking at him with pure shock.

"I told you to stay out of this room!" he growled again. She could smell the scent of alcohol in his breath. "And once again," his hand went tighter around her neck, "you didn't listen to me!" She gasped for air. "For that, I must punish you!" He released her throat and grabbed her arm with his other hand. He dragged her into the living room and pushed her against the back of the couch. She tried to turn around, but he roughly turned her back and pushed her forward, bending her.

"What are you doing?" she asked scared.

He said nothing and held her hands behind her back. With his other hand, he released the belt of his pants. Then he lifted her shirt. Anxiety raised up in her body.

"No, no, don't. Please!" she begged, as tears welled up in her eyes.

Before she knew it, she felt the first hit of the belt on her back. She screamed out in pain as a second slap quickly followed.

"Stop it!" she begged again, as tears came into her eyes as a third slap hit her back.

"You…" he whipped, "…should," and whipped, "…listen," and whipped again, "…to me!"

After one more whip he stopped and let her go. Julia sank through her knees, but kept holding the couch.

"What kind of father are you?" she sobbed.

"I'm not even your real father," he said as he placed the belt back around his pants and left the living room.

Inside her mind, every piece of the puzzle fell into its place. The man of the wedding picture and the story he told at her mother's funeral. Julien Beckers isn't her real father she grew up with. With that thought she burst into tears.

Weeks went by after the abuse. To keep the peace in the house and between them, Julia did almost everything Julien wanted. She worked hard in the housekeeping, ironed his suits and cooked fresh meals every night. And when Julien fell asleep in his chair or went to bed, it was Julia's opportunity to work on her homework. But the hard working paid off and most of the time she fell asleep during her study.

School was getting harder for her and Peter and Ned noticed it in her behavior. During lessons she was very absent inside her mind and had trouble with concentrating. At lunchbreak she sat with Ned and Peter, but stared at the table.

"Julia?"

No response.

"Julia? Are you okay?"

She still didn't react. Peter laid a hand on her shoulder. Caused by that she got scared and grabbed his wrist, pinching her nails into his flesh as she looked at Peter's face. Ned looked at them in shock.

"Hey, calm down," Peter warned.

She sighed and released him.

"I'm sorry," she apologized.

She looked away and rubbed her hands over her face. For a moment she covered her face with her hands. Ned and Peter looked worried at her. Then her body started to quake. She laid her arms on the table and placed her head into her arms.

"Life is so hard now," she sobbed and burst into tears.

Peter and Ned stood up and walked to her side. They embraced her for comfort.