Chapter 5 – Far From Home

'Tony you sure you're alright?' Bruce asks from across the car.

'No, Bruce, what part of today has been alright? The questioning from Hammer's asshole lawyer implying I've cheated on Steve with Bucky? The fact our relationship has now been revealed to the public through the bastard's trial? That we haven't heard from Happy or Wade or Peter since yesterday and we have no idea what's happening after that last Elemental attacked in Prague?'

'Don't hold it in, Tony, let it all out,' Clint rolls his eyes.

'Have you tried Fury again?' Rhodes asks, before he can respond to Clint.

'He wasn't picking up last I tried,' he sighs.

'Boss? Captain Rogers is on the phone for you.'

'For the love of God put him through, FRIDAY,' Clint says, 'someone needs to calm him down.'

Tony just scowls at the archer and throws a packet of blueberries from the fridge next to him at his face. Unfortunately, Clint's reflexes are still as good as ever.

'What's happened?' is the first question out of Steve's mouth when FRIDAY puts the call through.

'What's makes you say something's happened?' Tony counters.

'He can read you better than I can, Tones, don't even bother,' Rhodes shakes his head.

'Tony's getting temperamental,' Clint tells Steve.

'No word from Peter?' Wanda's voice comes from off screen before her worried face joins Steve's.

'We're on our way back from the UN,' he explains, 'thought we'd all check in together.'

'No there's no word from Peter yet, nor Wade or Happy since they met up with him yesterday,' Tony sighs. 'And Fury's doing his best Pete impression and ignoring my calls.'

'We've not heard from him for a day or two either,' Steve now has a matching frown.

'I'll see if I can get hold of Hill,' Natasha's voice comes from off screen.

'That's not all, Cap,' Clint adds, glancing at Tony, 'Tony had to take the stand today and it seems Hammer's lawyers are starting with the line of discrediting Tony.'

'What do you mean?' Wanda asks.

'They asked me about our relationship when they were questioning me,' Tony sighs, 'just as a warning: it'll be all over the tabloids by the morning if not before.'

'We always knew this was a possibility, Tony,' Steve's voice is enviably calm.

'I know, but I'd rather it wasn't the first day I was on the stand.'

'We may have an added complication,' Natasha's face appears on Steve's other side.

'Do we want to know?' Bruce asks.

'We're revealing Ross' involvement in HYDRA tomorrow,' she answers, 'and I can't imagine the reaction is going to be pretty over with you.'

'How much longer will you need to be in the States for the trial?' Steve asks.

'Probably two more days and I'll be done at most. Why?'

Steve and Natasha share a brief glance.

'Yeah, see that reaction is not filling us with confidence,' Clint says.

'There's been a lot of…adversity, to the suggestion of HYDRA being involved in trying to control the team,' Steve answers.

When you say 'adversity',' Bruce rubs his forehead, 'what exactly do you mean?'

'Basically: half the world is on our side and the other half is out for our blood,' Sam's voice floats over. Natasha frowns in his direction. 'What? You were going to pussy foot around it for too long.'

'Boss?' FRIDAY cuts across them. 'You might want to see this. News footage from London.'

'London?' Tony frowns, then feels the breath catch in his chest when FRIDAY brings up the footage. 'You all seeing this?'

'Yeah,' Steve's voice is strangled. 'Yeah we are, Tony.'

'Shit is that Peter?' Sam asks.

'Where the hell is Wade?' Wanda asks. 'And what the hell is that thing?'

'FRIDAY? Get me footage from EDITH,' Tony snaps.

'Working on it, boss.'

'Who is EDITH?' Rhodes asks.

'An AI Tony set up to give to Peter in the future,' Bruce pipes up. At Tony's questioning glance Bruce shrugs. 'I was looking through some things and found her files. Looked like a good idea.'

'Boss? It looks like someone else has been given control of EDITH, it's taking me longer to get through.'

'You can still get through though, right?' Bruce asks the AI.

'Yes, Doctor Banner, it's just taking me some time.'

'Who has control of EDITH, FRI?' Tony asks.

'It looks like Peter assigned control to the person that Director Fury was working with,' the AI answers, 'his name is Quentin Beck.'

For a second Tony thinks that his reactor has stopped working.

'Tony? Tony!' Steve's voice finally snaps him back. That and Clint shaking his shoulders.

'Fury said he was from an alternate reality, right? Like Wade is?' he's very aware how desperate his voice sounds but he can't help it.

'Yeah,' Wanda frowns. 'Why?'

'Because the Quentin Beck from this world was fired from Stark Industries for being mentally and emotionally unstable. He also just so happens to be an expert in holographic-illusions. He was one of the key figures in the BARF project.'

'Holographic-illusions?' Rhodes looks to the screen. 'So that giant ass monster we can see? That could be nothing more than an illusion.'

'And if he's got access to EDITH,' Bruce adds, 'he could make the illusions even more elaborate. Not to mention deadly.'

'Why the hell would Peter give someone like Beck access to EDITH?' Bucky demands.

'If he managed to convince Fury he was trustworthy, why would Pete not trust him?' Sam counters.

'Except Fury didn't trust him,' Clint points out, 'which is why he wanted Peter to help.'

'His spidey sense would have warned him not to though,' Wanda points out.

Tony's gut twists with guilt remembering the note he'd sent with EDITH. Please tell me he never doubted he was who I meant.

'FRIDAY do you know where Peter is?'

'He's inside the bridge, boss, I think Beck might be in there too.'

'You only think?' Bruce asks. 'Why can you not tell for certain?'

'The holographic illusions are making it difficult for me to tell for certain who is in there, Doctor Banner.'

'Any luck on getting through EDITH?' Tony asks, trying not to panic as he sees the drones aiming towards the bridge.

'I'm nearly through, boss.'

'Speed it up, FRI.'

'I'm trying…wait, Peter's back in control, boss, he's cancelling the orders for EDITH to strike.'

'Oh, thank God,' Bruce sags back into the seat.

No one says anything again until the news coverage comes to an end and it turns to anchors discussing the events in London.

'I'll message Wade and get him to join us here once they've finished clearing up and debriefing with Fury,' Steve's voice is quiet and strained.

'I'll tell Happy the same,' Tony says, voice quiet. 'And I'll try and get hold of Pete.'

'He's alright,' Wanda says, though her tone betrays her edge of doubt, 'FRIDAY would know if he wasn't right?'

'I can confirm that Peter is alive, Miss Maximoff,' the AI says.

'We'll head out and meet you as soon as my time on the stand is finished,' Tony says.

'Tony-'

'The team of lawyers can update me and I can always use the suit to get back quickly if I need to,' he cuts off whatever Steve was going to say. 'Pete, Wade and Happy have just dealt with whatever the hell that was,' he waves his hand towards the top of the screen where the news coverage is still showing on mute in a small window, 'we've just had Hammer's team reveal relationships within the team, and you're about to reveal Ross' involvement in HYDRA. We cannot be in separate places right now if we can help it.'

'He's right,' Bucky's voice cuts across as Steve opens his mouth to respond. 'None of us are fully focussed on anything because we're too busy worrying about the rest of the team. If we're all here we can focus on the Accords, and Tony's lawyers are more than capable of dealing with the trial.'

Steve sighs as Natasha nods her agreement. 'Alright, but do me a favour and wait until the following morning to leave? So, you can all head over on a good night's sleep.'

'Agreed,' Rhodes cuts across Tony's response. 'We'll see you the day after tomorrow.'

'Stay safe,' Wanda says as the call ends and their faces disappear. Tony wishes more than anything he could just leave the trial now, but he needs to be on the stand again tomorrow.

'Well Mister Parker,' Fury says as they enter the room, Peter still trying to ignore the way his entire body is aching, 'I have to say I'm impressed.'

'I have to say I'm not impressed with the way you ran this fucking show, Fury,' Wade says from behind him, and right now Peter is more than happy to let him take the lead. 'You basically left Pete to fend for himself during all of this shit. How the fuck did you not notice that Beck was insane? And how did you fall for all that alternate reality crap he pulled?'

'Just like your story you mean?' Fury counters.

'I had proof mine was true.'

'Need I remind you that I didn't believe all of his story which is why I wanted Parker here to join in right from the start, and if he hadn't of ghosted me right from the beginning, we might not have been in this mess.'

'So, you're saying my friends wouldn't have been in danger if I'd just joined up right from the start?' Peter asks, forcing his voice past the lump in his throat.

Fury visibly softens. 'No Parker I'm not. I imagine they would have been in danger regardless because that's the kind of guy Beck turned out to be. I'm sorry I didn't take more steps to make sure they were protected and it got this far.' Peter just nods, sitting in one of the chairs and leaning onto the table, staring at the top as the conversation continues around him.

'We're working on finding the rest of Beck's associates,' Hill takes over, 'we should have rounded them all up in the next few days.'

'You need to make sure you find all of them,' Wade says from where he's standing behind Peter, 'they know who Pete is, we can't risk any of them getting away.'

'We'll make sure we take care of him, Wilson,' Fury reassures them.

'Like you did all the way through this you mean?'

'Can we go home now?' Peter cuts across the argument. Wade's hand lands on his shoulder and squeezes. He can't find the energy to reach up and grab it.

'Tony messaged me to say you're to meet the team at the UN,' Fury answers.

'And you?' Wade asks.

'We'll join you as soon as we can. There's some other things I need to keep my eye on other than the Wakanda Accords,' is the response he gets.

'Can we sleep first at least?' he asks.

'You've got a flight booked for tomorrow evening,' Hill says, sliding a packet with flight tickets in across the table. 'We've booked you into a hotel for tonight so you can rest and join the others tomorrow. Someone will meet you once you land and take you to where the team are staying during the talks.'

'What do you plan on doing with EDITH?' Fury fixes him with his eye.

'She's going back to Tony,' he replies. Until I'm not as stupid as I am now.

'That all you guys wanted to say?' Wade asks, snatching the tickets up from the table. 'Can we go now?'

'We'll be in touch,' Fury frowns at the merc. 'We've got someone waiting downstairs to take you to your hotel.'

Wade grips Peter's shoulder tighter and he struggles to his feet and follows the older man out of the room. 'You alright, Baby Boy?' he asks as they step into the elevator to head down.

'Yeah, just tired,' he mumbles, leaning into his boyfriend and fighting back tears. 'I just want to sleep and forget about all of this.'

A/N: Hello everyone. Sorry I'm a little late this weekend - I genuinely lost track of what day it was! We're starting to gain more momentum with this story now, and things will really start heating up next chapter (as you'll see in the sneak peek).

Thank you so much to everyone who has commented so far on this story. I'm glad you're enjoying it, despite it's slower start, and I hope you continue to.

As always do let me know if there's anything you'd like to see in the future, or any characters you would like me to try and bring in.

Love always,

L x

And of course here's your sneak peek:

'Which means you've thought about it,' Bruce sighs in a way that is as long-suffering as any sigh Pepper ever gave him.

'Hey now-'

'Tony get down!' Clint slamming into his side and sending them both sprawling to the ground from his chair cuts off his retort, the next thing he hears is a crack from the table. He looks up over Clint's shoulder to see a bullet hole in the table.