Tony took a deep breath before turning the door handle. Inside the small recovery room in the medical wing of Avengers' Tower was the Parker family, one parent on either side of the bed where little May lay. To his amusement, her eyes widened when they met his- May had the same starstruck look that her father had the first time Tony had introduced himself almost two decades before.

"Mr. Stark," May gasped. Both Peter and MJ turned to see the newcomer.

"Tony, hi," Peter greeted.

"Hey, Pete," Tony replied. "I heard our little Spiderling was back among the living. I wanted to pay a visit."

"We appreciate it."

"If I understand correctly, I owe some appreciation to this young lady here."

"Me?" May wondered.

"You did the city a great service," Tony explained. "Without you, Epitaph might have gone completely unchecked. Besides that, now Rio Morales and I have more ammo to use with our friends on the city council when they say regulations on certain chemicals are unnecessary."

"I-it was nothing."

"That's why I'm going to find you a new figure skating coach, and why I'm going to personally sponsor your club for the next two years."

"That's amazing," May gasped. "Mr. Stark, thank you!"

"No, thank you," Tony insisted. "Just don't ever do this again, okay, May? Covering for you is not something I'd care to repeat."

"Wait," Peter interrupted. "You knew?"

"I had my suspicions. I didn't know for sure until I happened to notice this one eavesdropping on her parents and me."

"You were there that night?" MJ asked, turning to face her daughter. May only gave a sheepish grin as a response.

"Knowing the family, I figured the girl had good reason for not revealing herself," Tony explained. "I hated lying to you, Peter, but…"

"I understand. Kind of. Just, what you said, 'don't ever do it again?'" Peter prompted. "That goes for you, too."

"That's fair." At that moment, his cellphone rang. Looking at the Caller ID, he motioned to the door. "I gotta take this, so I'll just leave you to your family reunion. You all take care now."

"You, too. Thanks, Tony."

Tony waved as he closed the door behind him. Relieved that it was over, he braced himself before he answered his call.

"Stark," he greeted, walking towards his nearby office for privacy.

"What did I tell you?" the caller asked. "The plan worked like a charm."

"Yeah, except the part where I helped put one of my best men, pretty much the kindest and most sincere man I know, through you-know-where and back. Not to mention I'm still lying to him. I knew it, I knew from the moment I saw the girl half-dead in the sewers that night-"

"You knew better than to waste the opportunity afforded you, the opportunity that little May would take for herself. Were it not for her, Lincoln and the wolf might still be out there, or worse. All's well that ends well, and no one ever has to know. You knew when you signed me on that meeting certain ends would take certain means."

"You never said anything about tearing families apart," Tony spat.

"If you honestly didn't think that something like this would ever happen, you're an even bigger fool than I thought you were," the other man insisted. "You want to protect your city, don't you? You hired me, started this little extra-curricular program because I know how to do just that. This week was proof of that."

"Yeah, right." Tony made his voice as flat as possible, doing his best to keep it low until he closed his office door behind him. "This is over."

"How cute that you think you have a choice to back out," the caller's voice suddenly lifted. "I have all of our paperwork, recordings of all our conversations. I can let the whole city, the whole world know about these business exchanges. With how you're feeling, do you think Pepper would be proud of the measures you've been taking? Would little Morgan still love her daddy 3000?"

"You keep my family out of this," Tony growled.

"Oh, believe me, I don't want to bring them in anymore than you do, but, that's quite up to you now, isn't it, Mr. Stark?"

"You son of a-"

"Until next week."

The line went silent. Frustration and anger boiling up inside him, Tony slammed the phone onto his desk with a growl. He swung his arm, knocking several piles of papers onto the floor, before dropping himself into his chair to roll himself closer to the desk and place his head in his hands.