Thank you so much Prongs100 for pre-reading.

Good News! I finished writing Story II on Wednesday. It's going to be called Hold On A Second Longer and it's 15 chapters and 47k words. It's shorter as it's a smaller plot. I am now working on Story III which has a plot that's got me really excited.

26. Happy and Ned

Tony pulled Pepper a little closer into his chest, leaning his cheek against her hair and smiling as he listened to his daughter chatter to his son on the couch opposite.

The room was not quiet. Everyone had gathered but were each involved in their own conversations and activities. Rhodey, Steve, and Barnes were playing cards. Wanda was looking at something on her phone. Steve and Bruce were engaged in a conversation about the state of government and following the Snap and what could come next.

Peter and Morgan were sitting a little apart on the floor, Peter was looking into some of the bags of stuff Tony had brought back for him, and Morgan was telling him how she'd chosen them all for him.

"And this is the Lego game," she said happily. "It's got Daddy's special face on it, but not yours." She frowned slightly. "Why don't you have a Lego with your special face?"

Peter smiled slightly. "I was never a real hero like your dad. I just did little things. Not really a hero at all."

Tony opened his mouth to argue, but Pepper placed a hand on his chest and whispered, "Shh. Listen a moment. Watch."

Morgan was staring at Peter with intensity, seeming to be puzzling over something, and then she said, "But you saved the whole world when the bad man came. That's a big hero thing."

The room became entirely silent as they all listened for Peter's response.

Color flushed Peter's cheeks, and he ducked his head, his eyes fixed on the video game box in his hands. "Yeah, but that was a little different. Not really a hero thing at all. It wasn't like I…" He ran a hand over his face. "It was different, Mo."

"Why?" she asked. "What did you do?"

Peter gave a short laugh. "I just put on a special glove and snapped my fingers." He tapped her nose. "See, not a big hero thing."

"How did snapping your fingers save the world?" she asked. "I can do that." She lifted her hand and attempted to snap her own fingers, fumbling until the fifth attempt, and then grinning and saying. "See!"

"I see," Peter said with a fond smile. "It was more a… uh… magic thing. The glove was magic, so when I snapped, it made the bad guys go away. Really, it wasn't special."

Morgan stared at him, her brow furrowed and lips pursed. "Was it scary?"

Tony held his breath as he waited for an answer. Had Peter been scared? He must have been. Even without what he'd done, the battle had been terrifying for them all. They'd been fighting for their lives and the world with no guarantees they could win. The focus had been keeping the gauntlet from Thanos, but at the same time, they'd been fighting against the horrifying enemies that were hellbent on killing them.

"A little," Peter said. "But it worked out."

Morgan chewed her lip for a moment and then climbed onto his lap and put her arms around his neck and planted a kiss on his cheek. "I think you're lying," she stated, and Peter's eyes widened. "I think you're pretending like Daddy does when he says he's not sad but he is really, or when he says he's not tired and goes in the garage to work when Momma tells him to go to bed."

Pepper straightened from Tony's chest and looked at him, her eyes intense. He gave a small nod. He was just as surprised. He never knew Morgan picked up on this stuff, either. There were many nights when he was trapped in bad memories that he didn't want to become nightmares so didn't sleep, and he was sometimes sad when he would have a day in which he particularly dwelled on what he'd lost, but he thought he'd shielded Morgan from that.

Peter considered her for a moment and then he said, "I wasn't scared when I did it, maybe because it happened fast and it felt like the right thing to do, but I was scared after when it hurt. But your daddy was there, and that made it better."

Morgan tilted her head to the side. "He's your daddy, too, you know."

"Oh, I… uh…"

Morgan looked between Peter and Tony. "Daddy says you're my brother, he showed me your picture when you were gone and said you were Peter, my brother, so that means he's your daddy, too." She crossed her arms over her chest and looked across to Tony. "You are, aren't you, Daddy?"

Tony ran a hand through his hair and said," Well, Peter had a different daddy and an uncle that took care of him when he was little, but yeah, he's your brother."

Morgan gave Peter a pointed look and a nod. "See. You're my brother, so he's your daddy." She patted Peter's hair in a way that was endearingly maternal and said, "See."

"I see," Peter said, and he looked pleased, though his cheeks were still flushed.

Rhodey gave Tony a pointed look and raised an eyebrow. Tony gave him a small nod in return. Yeah, that was a conversation he needed to have with Peter still. He didn't want to overwhelm him or take a position in his life Peter wasn't comfortable with, but he didn't want Peter to doubt how he felt about him.

Morgan picked the Lego game out of Peter's hand and said, "I got you lots of games. I'm not allowed to play them, only tic-tac-toe with Friday, and that's fun, but we picked out so many games for you to play." She gave an impish smile and said in a carrying whisper. "I'm not allowed to decide because Momma and Daddy do that until I'm older, but you can decide, so I think if you ask me to play with you, I'll be allowed." She put her arms around his neck again and fixed her eyes on his. "Do you ask me?"

Peter glanced at Tony, an equally impish look in his eyes, and said, "Definitely. Mo, will you please play computer games with me."

Morgan beamed and hugged him tight and then leaned back, arms still around him, and looked back to Pepper and Tony and said, "Peter asked if I'll play games with him, so can I?"

Pepper buried her face in Tony's chest, and he felt her laughing. He formed his expression into something suitably considering and said, "I guess if Peter asked, it'd be rude to say no. So, yes, when Peter is playing, too, you can."

Morgan grinned. "Thanks, Daddy." She turned her attention back to Peter, leaning her head on his shoulder as he rubbed her back.

It warmed Tony's heart to see both his kids so happy and bonding like this. He knew how scared Peter had been, and he'd worried it would hold him back, but Morgan's charms had worked their magic, and Peter was as enthralled as anyone else that met her.

It was strange that both his children, one blood and one not, each had an ability to worm their way into the hearts of those around them, without either of them seeming to be aware of the ability.

"Petey," Morgan said, her voice taking on the wheedling tone Tony recognized and knew was a powerful weapon. "Can you show me your tricks?"

"Sure," Peter said. "What do you want this time? Butterflies? Birds? Or something fluffy to pet? Do you like kittens?"

"Maybe not kittens, Peter," Pepper said. "She'd want to take it home."

Peter nodded quickly. "Yeah, okay, not a kitten."

"I don't want magic tricks," Morgan said, sounding amused that Peter was too slow to understand her request. "I want to see your jumping tricks that you do in your Spider-Peter suit."

Peter's brow furrowed. "Well, I haven't got my suit anymore, so I can't do much, but I guess I can do some flips and stuff outside."

Morgan clapped her hands and slid off his lap and held out her hand with an imperious look. "Come on."

Peter got to his feet and allowed her to lead him out of the room, through the lobby and outside. Pepper straightened up from where she was leaned against Tony and said, "I want to see this, too."

Tony followed her outside, and they stood by the lake as Peter positioned Morgan a little away from him and squared his stance and then did a backflip, landing neatly.

Morgan clapped her hands delightedly and said, "Again!"

Peter obeyed, moving from one flip into the next and then running at the wall, climbing twelve feet, and spinning back to the ground and landing in a crouch with fingertips steadying him.

"That's pretty cool," Sam said.

Tony turned and saw they'd all come out and were watching Peter, too.

"Can you swing?" Morgan asked. "On your webs. Daddy said you used to."

"I can't," Peter said with obvious regret. "I don't have my web-shooters."

"Actually," Tony said, digging in his pocket, "I had these in the garage back home."

Peter stared at him for a moment, lips parted and a quizzical look on his face, and then he said, "Thanks, Tony." He took them and slipped them onto his wrists, gave them a quick tap, and a stream of web shot out.

"That's weird," Morgan stated.

Peter laughed. "It is a little. Come into the forest. It'll be easier for me there."

Morgan trotted after him, and they all followed, coming to a line behind Morgan when Peter stopped her with a hand on her chest and then carried on into the trees.

They were spaced apart enough to give him room, and the pines towered with enough bare trunk for him to attach to.

Peter bent his knees, then jumped up, reaching ten feet up the trunk, and then climbing higher. He held on with one hand and then shot a web at a neighboring tree and kicked away. He swung through the air, shooting another web and swinging from it as Morgan cheered him.

There were impressed murmurs around Tony, but the sound he was listening to was Peter's laughter and occasional whoops as he gradually gained height and then began to add flips and twists into his swings. He released the web and flipped over and over, landing on his fingertips and the balls of his feet in front of Morgan, who was clapping her small hands and squealing. Peter was beaming and breathing hard.

"Welcome back, Spider-Man," Tony said.

"Yeah," Morgan said happily. "Welcome back, Spider-Peter."

Peter ran a hand through his hair, his eyes distant but not vague the way they were when he was talking to the Stones. Tony thought it was more the fact he was seeing what he could still have, even with the Stones' presence in his life.

And he could have it all. He just needed to gain confidence and to become comfortable with the Stones, and then he could have that life.

Once they'd dealt with Ross anyway.

Morgan was asleep on Peter's lap, her head tucked under his chin and her warm breath tickling his neck. He liked the feeling of her weight on him and the fact she was comfortable enough to fall asleep on him at all.

He knew that he'd had a place in her life before he even met her, that was clear from the fact she talked about photos of him, that she called him her brother, and that seemed to have forged a bond before she'd ever laid eyes on him. He felt that bond, too. He'd never had much contact with kids, apart from occasionally stopping to take selfies with them as Spider-Man on patrols, but Morgan was awesome. She was so full of life, friendly and affectionate, and she threw herself into everything she did.

The closest he'd come to seeing her upset was when she'd asked if he could web-swing with her, too, and he'd had to explain it wasn't safe. He might have tried it, just a few feet off the ground with him holding her, but Pepper's quick look and shake of her head when he'd thought about it had made him say he would do it only after her eighth birthday, a statement that had been approved by Tony and Pepper. She'd pouted a little and then cheered up when Peter hooked up the console and they'd played the Avengers Lego game she was so excited about.

"You want me to go lay her down, Peter?" Pepper asked. "She's pretty heavy when she's totally out, and it looks like she is?"

Peter was perfectly comfortable with her, but he thought she might wake up stiff after sleeping like that, so he said, "It's okay, I'll do it. I'll put her on my bed."

At her nod and small smile, he scooped Morgan up and carried her into his bedroom. She stirred slightly, and he shushed her and settled her on the bed when she stilled with a soft sigh, then covered her with one of the blankets Tony had brought back with him. She nuzzled her face into the pillow, eyes still beneath their lids.

For a moment, he just watched her sleep, and then turned to leave, stopping dead when he saw Happy standing in the doorway.

"Hey. Happy," he said. "You okay?"

Happy nodded, his jaw working, and then said, "I wanted to talk to you. Let's get some coffee?"

Puzzled, as Happy hadn't said much since he'd greeted him upon his arrival, he said, "Sure."

He checked Morgan was still peaceful and then led Happy out of the room, though the living area, and into the kitchen.

Peter was in no way gifted in the kitchen, but he was able to brew coffee as he'd always done it for May in the mornings. He filled the pot with water, measured grounds, and started the machine then leaned back against the counter and waited for Happy to say something as he settled himself on one of the stools at the island and drummed his fingers on the counter.

"Is everything okay?" Peter asked.

"Yeah. I just wanted to say something. I don't know how much Tony told you about when you were…"

"Dead?" Peter supplied.

"Gone," Happy corrected. "You weren't dead." His brow furrowed. "And I wasn't the only one that thought so."

Peter frowned in return, fiddled uncomfortably with the band of his web-shooter that was still on his wrist. "Okay…"

Happy sighed. "After the Snap, when you were all lost, Tony was pretty much a mess, no real help to anyone, so I made a point of reaching out."

"To who?" Peter asked.

Happy's fingers curled. "Your Aunt May."

Peter's breath caught. "You saw May?"

"Yeah."

Happy and May had a developed a friendly relationship after she found out Peter was Spider-Man, occasionally walking Peter down to the car to speak to him before they left to go to the compound. At first, she'd just warned him to stick to the speed limits while her nephew was in the car and not to bring him home too late, but that had developed into broader conversation. Sometimes, Peter had stood waiting for them to finish talking so he could leave, get to the compound and Tony sooner.

Happy drew a deep breath. "I went by as soon as it happened, as soon as I could, and she was obviously upset, but she wasn't defeated. She believed you'd come back one day. She never changed anything in your room, she didn't even pick up your dirty socks, since she wanted to make you do it."

Peter's eyes pickled, and he felt wetness gather at the corners. He thumbed it away and said, "I wish I could have."

Happy nodded. "I feel like I got to know her well in the three years we had, and I know she'd be overjoyed now to know you're back."

Peter ducked his head and asked, "Was she happy then?"

"No, not at first," Happy said. "But she was happier than most in the end. The world was pretty chaotic, some people that saw it as end times, that we were all just waiting to be snapped, too, and new religions cropped up around the crisis that people clung to. But there were others that believed you'd come back one day when people fixed it." He cleared his throat. "When the Avengers saved you all."

"They did," Peter said. "It took a while, but they got us back."

Happy smiled. "They did. I guess I just wanted you to know that May was one of the ones that kept hope, and it was easier for them. She wasn't happy in the beginning, but she was better after a while."

Peter wiped at his face again, smearing away the tears, and said, "Thank you, Happy. I needed to hear that."

He nodded. "I figured you would."

"What kind of things did you do with her?" he asked. "I mean…" His cheeks heated as he realized that might be too much information if the friendship he was imagining between his aunt and friend had become romance instead. "Were you very close?"

Happy chuckled. "We went out to dinner sometimes, the movies. One time we went to Coney Island, and she dragged me on the Cyclone."

Peter grinned at the thought of Happy, gruff and severe, riding a roller coaster. "Seriously?"

"Just one time," Happy said with a grimace. "I wasn't going to do that again. I don't know what was worse—her screaming in my ear or the damn twists and turns."

Peter started to laugh, softly at first and then building until he was clutching his stomach, tears of both mirth and sadness slipping down his cheeks.

Happy slid off his stool and came around the counter to Peter's side and laid a hand on his shoulder, a firm and comforting weight.

"Thank you, Happy," he said, wiping at his eyes. "For looking after her, and for telling me. That helps."

"It must be hard to come back to find her gone," Happy said.

Peter nodded, surprised by the gentle tone in the man who had earned his name in counterpoint to the nature that so rarely showed happiness.

"It is," he said. "And I sometimes feel guilty that it's not the hardest thing. So much has happened since I got back, things have been crazy, and I feel bad that losing her isn't always the thing I'm thinking about."

"She'd want it that way. She wouldn't want you to be unhappy. And…" he drew a deep breath, "I don't know what's been happening, Tony just told me what you did for the world and that there were changes for you because of it, but the fact we had to go through some kind of portal to get here and the fact your eyes now look like a kaleidoscope tell me it's big." He sighed. "It's not a bad thing to think about that stuff as well as her, and it's not a bad thing to be happy now. It's what she'd want."

Peter nodded, taking a deep breath to calm himself, and said, "I know, she'd say the exact same thing if she was here." He looked up. "And the eyes… Really, Happy, they're the least crazy part of what's going on."

"Yeah, I figured." He patted Peter's shoulder. "But you can handle it, kid."

Peter stared at him, seeing his absolute faith and feeling bolstered by it, "Thanks."

Happy cleared his throat again and said, "Coffee's done."

Peter turned and saw the pot was full and the button blinking. "It is." He went to the cupboard to get clean cups, and then turned as Tony strode in, face unusually grave, followed by Sam and Pepper who looked tense.

"What's going on?" Peter asked, looking between the two of them. "What's happened."

Tony glanced at Sam, who gave him a small nod and said, "We might have a problem."

"What?"

"The company we developed to reunite the people that came back with their families, Connections Corp, has been attacked a few times, our servers hacked and searched."

"What are they looking for?" Peter asked, his thoughts turning to the conversation about the risk to people using the program to track down victims.

Tony drew a deep breath. "They're looking for you. I didn't say anything sooner since I didn't know, but today a global email was sent to all employee accounts."

Pepper held out her cell phone to Peter, and he scanned the displayed email. It was written in all caps and bold with too many exclamation marks. He read it aloud, a sinking sensation in his gut, "Where's Peter Parker?" He closed his eyes a moment, absorbed the feeling of dread. "Do you think it's Ross?"

"We don't think so," Pepper said. "It came with an image signature. Scroll down."

Peter obeyed, reaching the end of the email where there was an image of a swivel chair that he recognized as he'd sat it in before, seen his best friend spinning it as his fingers flew over the keyboard in his bedroom with its green painted walls—his mother's choice of color scheme—and his Captain America bedding. His stomach swooped, and he began to laugh.

"Uh... what's funny?" Sam asked.

"Is this shock?" Tony asked. "Sam, you're the expert; what's wrong with him? Is he hysterical?"

"No," Peter choked, rubbing at his heaving stomach. "It is a shock, and I'm kinda an asshole for not doing something about this sooner." He drew a deep breath and said. "It's my man in the chair." Seeing their blank faces and realizing he should have expected them, he said, "It's not Ross. It's Ned. He's trying to find me."

"The punk with the hoodie?" Happy asked. "Talks a mile a minute?"

Peter laughed again. "Yeah, that's him." He ran a hand through his hair. "Damn, I can't believe I didn't…" He shook his head. "I've got to call him. I can, right?"

He looked at Tony, who considered carefully and said, "Yeah, you can, you should. Don't tell him—"

Peter held up a hand. "I know, I know, nothing about the Stones or any of the crazy, but I need to tell him something. He's probably been losing his mind."

"Then you have to call him," Pepper said before Tony could answer. "Use my phone."

Peter thanked her and darted out of the kitchen, through the living area and ignoring the questions called after him, and outside to the lake. He sat down on a rock and dialed in Ned's number from memory. The hologram appeared, showing a blank screen until it connected, and Ned's wary face filled the screen. There was a moment of silence as he stared, eyes wide and stunned, and then he let out a shout of, "You're alive!"

Peter grinned. "I am. So are you."

Ned laughed a moment, and then his brow furrowed and he burst into rambling speech, "Where the hell have you been? I tried calling and calling, and I went to your place, but Mom told me about May—I'm really sorry—and no one knew where you were. Mr. Delmar said you'd not been seen, and the school had no record of you coming back, and—" He drew a deep breath. "Where have you been? Is that a mountain?"

Peter looked over his shoulder and saw the mountain on the other side of the lake looming over him. "It's a mountain, yeah."

"Where are you?" he asked.

"I can't tell you," Peter said apologetically. "But I'm okay and with Mr. Stark and some of the other Avengers. Things have been a little crazy, but—"

Ned, whose mouth had dropped open at the mention of the Avengers, shouted, "You're with the Avengers! Dude! What happened?"

"It's a long story," Peter said. "But there was a battle that was crazy, and we won."

"A battle like you and the Avengers?" Ned asked, eyes wide. "You fought with them?"

Peter rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah, I did."

"Whoa, dude. I have to know everything. Who were you fighting? Was it that Thanos my dad told me about, the one that made everyone disappear? Who else? Was it aliens? Were you hurt? God, I bet it was crazy, but you were fighting with the Avengers. Do you know how cool that is?"

Peter laughed, "Yeah, it was crazy, and I guess it was cool. Okay, yeah, it was aliens. Do you remember the Chitauri that attacked New York?"

"You fought Chitauri?" Ned asked breathlessly.

"Yeah, and the suit was… Remember the really cool one Tony made me when I was going to be an Avenger? Well, I was wearing that, and it had these legs that just stabbed them, and I could go so fast, and I web swung from Mjolnir, and it was the coolest thing and…"

Peter told him as much as he could, everything that had happened on the battlefield apart from the snap.

For the first time since he'd come back, he felt like he was a kid again. Ned didn't know about the Stones; he didn't know how different Peter was now; he was just sharing the excitement of his best friend being part of something huge.

It felt amazing.

Ross looked up from the papers he was examining when the door to the Oval Office burst open, and Sinclair Hammond, his chief of intelligence, burst in.

"We've got him, Mr. President," he said eagerly. "The tap on the Leeds boy's phone paid off. Peter Parker just called him."

"Where from?" Ross asked.

"We couldn't nail down a location exactly as the signal trace gave no results, they must have some Stark tech they're using, but he's somewhere in the wilderness as there was a lake and mountain behind him. We're assuming its US soil, though, since that was the information that came from our Wakandan agent."

Ross scowled. "That doesn't sound particularly helpful. How are we going to capture him if we don't know where he is?"

Hammond grinned. "Because of the outgoing number for the call. It was Mrs. Pepper Stark's phone. We have a connection. If we can draw the boy to her, we can capture him."

Ross felt a smile spreading over his face. "Draw him to her," he said thoughtfully. "Yes, we can do that. Stark is the connection we've seen already, and I understand he has a child now. Hmmm… Yes. Make arrangements for his confinement. Do not forget that we're dealing with, though. Until we can bring him under our command, the child is powerful and a threat to us."

"Of course, Sir. I will make arrangements with my best men."

Ross nodded. "Excellent, Hammond. Don't forget, there can be no record of this mission. Until he is under my command and we're ready to reveal what he did, he will remain anonymous."

"Will you interview him yourself?" Hammond asked.

Ross steepled his fingers under his chin. "I think I will. I am due time at Camp David after the recent turmoil, and that is where the press will believe I am." He chuckled. "Camp David, The Raft—each offers me a much-needed retreat."

The power the boy possessed was almost within reach. It would take time to bring him under his command, he knew. He would have The Avengers in pursuit, but he was not just Secretary of State anymore. He was President of the United States. He was the most powerful man in the world. And he had his expert to help.

He would get what he wanted.

So… Good times and bad. Ross is coming — which I'm very excited about — and Peter had a little more Happy time. We're coming to the climax now, and I have lots planned. Buckle in and brace yourself. I'm going to town with this.

Until next time…

Clowns or Midgets xxx