Chapter 82 - A Happy Reunion

Pepper was nothing if not efficient. When they sat down to lunch the next day, she had already confirmed that visit from Ned. Thank god. Between everything Pete was avoiding - like looking at the news or running into his father - and the Compound itself that was practically on lockdown, he was most of all bored. And with boredom, his mind tended to wander. Even more so because he was just so damn tired.

He had not slept at all the previous night. His senses had been dialed up high, positively vibrating in his chest. It had left him cranky and tired all day, a good excuse to retire to his room early and skip another movie night. At least he had managed not to run into Mr. Stark all day. That remained the only victory though.

Like the night before, Pepper had walked him to the door of his room. "If you need anything—"

"I'll let FRIDAY know," he mumbled, his gaze on the ground.

Pepper sighed heavily, her voice soft. "You know, if you want to talk about everything that happened, whenever you're ready, I'm right here, okay? I'm here and... and your dad—"

"I'm fine." His voice was low enough to hide the sharpness he felt in his chest.

"Darling..." She squeezed his hand. "We're here no matter what."

"I know," Pete said, a little more determined, his fingers clenched around the doorknob to his room. "I know that. It's fine."

His dad . He bit his lip, to keep the bitter huff from bubbling out of his throat. Instead, he pushed the door open.

"Goodnight, darling," she called after him. His cheeks flamed up at the sad tone of her voice.

"Night," was all he mumbled before he closed the door to the bedroom.

The previous night had been a hard one, his mind racing for most of it. Even when his legs had gotten tired from pacing in his room, his thoughts had just kept on spinning.

As bad as he had felt the night before, now he felt even worse. His body ached and even the small victory he had claimed for himself - the way he had avoided Mr. Stark - was slowly being turned in his mind. He hadn't seen him at all, hadn't heard him either. Not around the apartment. Nowhere in the hallways or from a distance. He would have been able to tell, to pick out the ring of his steps, the tone of his voice. The unique beating of his heart.

Their fight had been bad, but after the talking to from Barton, after his short conversation with Rhodey...

His eyes flickered to the door, wondering. Mr. Stark... Tony. He'd be in his lab. Probably? Maybe he had been there all day and all night. It wouldn't have been the first time. While it had been a few months, Pete still remembered how Mr. Stark could get when he was in there on his own for a long time.

No. He shook his head, tearing his eyes away from the door. Turning his back for good measure, too. He couldn't go down there. Not after everything he had said to him. All the anger and frustration. If Tony... Mr. Stark... made a point of staying away from him, it was what he wanted. And it was what Pete wanted, too.

Curled into himself on his bed, it was hard not to fall asleep. Even though he had kept the lights on in his room it didn't prevent his eyes from falling shut. His limbs, his mind, every cell of his body was just so tired. But sleep... he didn't want it. There were shadows looming, waiting for him to drift off. He could feel it, dreaded it, but he only had so much strength left to stay awake.

The memories that he had pushed away for so long had free reign to assault his brain as he drifted off to sleep. Ben's voice echoed in his dreams. It was hard to breathe, from the emotions, yes, but also from the pressure that seemed to grow and grow around his throat. Then the shadows morphed from that dark figure with Clarke's face as he had rushed down the alleyway into the Winter Soldier, his hand cutting off Pete's oxygen. Then all of a sudden, the shadows split into six individual ones instead. They came for him, his back against a wall, and his abdomen exploded with the sharp pain of the knife that had pierced him.

Pete woke with a start, his throat hurting. His hand shot up to his own neck where it felt like he couldn't breathe but there was no hand there. Frantically, he pulled on his shirt expecting to see blood, but there was nothing. It was only a dream. A nightmare. It hadn't even been real but then why was he shaking so much?

With a groan, he let his head fall back onto his pillow, his breathing fast and ragged. His heart was racing and the images from his nightmare were still there, in front of his open eyes.

This wasn't the time for that. This was the time for excitement, the time to see his friend again. Today would be a good day. With a determined shake of his head, he pushed himself up and there he stayed, sitting on the edge of his bed, waiting for morning to come.

After a late breakfast, Pepper had walked him to the lobby where they were waiting when Ned and his mom made their way into the building. Unlike he'd ever seen her before, Pepper was dressed strikingly casual, like that would pull the focus away from the stately Compound itself. Wringing his hand, Pete stepped from one foot to the other, tugging on the light bandage around his neck, then on the long sleeves of his shirt, there to pretend to cover the long gone bullet wound in his arm. Ned's eyes weren't on him at first though. They were up on the ceiling as he craned his neck, gaping at the large lobby-like entryway, the Avengers symbol that decorated the wall next to the door. It was his mom who spotted Pete first and didn't hesitate to rush right to his side.

"Oh honey, it's so good to see you." She had her arms around him, hugging him close. "Are you alright?"

"I'm... I'm fine, Mrs. Leeds," he mumbled against the fabric of her jacket.

"Are you? Oh, honey..." As she let go just enough to let him breathe, her hand patted his hair, then his cheek. "We were so worried for you." Her voice got a little lower, eyes intently on him, not ever flickering to his neck. "We're here for whatever you need, Peter. You just say the word and—"

"Mom, I told you, it's just Pete now."

Mrs. Leeds' back straightened as her attention shifted quickly to Ned and then to Pepper before she smiled back down at Pete. "Of course. Pete. Honey, whatever you need, okay?"

While he silently nodded, honestly touched by the genuine concern Mrs. Leeds radiated, Pepper took this as her cue to step a little closer to them.

"Mrs. Leeds." Pepper extended a hand for her to shake that Mrs. Leeds eyed suspiciously. "Pepper Potts. We spoke on the phone."

"That's right," Mrs. Leeds mumbled. Her own hand came to rest on Pete's shoulder, squeezing it tightly like she was holding onto him before she reluctantly extended the other and gave Pepper's a quick shake.

The smile on Pepper's face was unwavering as her eyes went to Pete. "Why don't we show Ned and Mrs. Leeds to the common area for some refreshments and then you boys can go and spend some time together, hm?"

Mrs. Leeds' eyes were a little narrowed, studying Pepper as she led the way towards the sitting area of the communal floor. The atmosphere between the grown-ups seemed uncomfortably charged no matter how many different coffee and tea options Pepper had to offer. Thankfully, she was quick to incline her head towards the hallway that led back to Mr. Stark's personal rooms, urging Pete on so he and Ned could hang out, just the two of them. Pete sure didn't hesitate to jump on that way out. With a quick tug on Ned's arm, they were off down the corridor.

"Your mom drove you all the way out here?" Pete kept his voice low. There was no telling who they might run into. "She hates driving..."

Ned bit his lip. "Yeah, crazy right? She wanted Dad to come too, but he couldn't take time off work at such short notice."

Pete cringed. "Sorry..."

With a wave of his hand, Ned seemed to dismiss any inconvenience. "I think they were ready to like break you out of here if necessary but..." Ned shook his head, eyes wide spying around every corner they passed. "Dude, I mean... this is insane..."

Pete scrunched up his nose, eyes on his feet. "Yeah, I know..."

"I mean, do you like live here now? At the Compound?"

"For a bit, I think. Pepper said till things calm down." He shrugged and added "whatever that means" under his breath.

He didn't miss the glance Ned sent him. "Well, you should ask Mr. Stark, I mean, he would know, right? I'm sure he has a plan and all."

"Well, we're not really talking right now," he mumbled. "So, I guess I'll have to wait and see."

"What?" Just like that, the Compound became a little less important. "Why not?"

"It's just..." Pete shrugged. Things were just complicated. How was he supposed to explain that to Ned? Without revealing his abilities, his most precious secret, none of this would make any sense to him.

"What's going on? Did you guys have a fight?"

It hadn't been a fight as much as a screaming match. Pete couldn't even quite remember all the things he had said to him, to his father . All he could think of was how mad he had been at Mr. Stark. How let down he had felt.

They got to Mr. Stark's quarters just in time for Pete to sidestep the topic. "My room's over there."

He pointed at the door and then quickly walked ahead of Ned and showed him to his room.

"Dude, you have a room at the Avengers Compound. Are you like pinching yourself every morning to see if you'll wake up?"

Pete shrugged. In a way he was. For very different reasons though.

"So, uh... where's Mr. Stark?"

"Working." That was pobably where he was. Not like Pete had checked.

"Oh, yeah. Course he is. I mean..." Ned shook his head. "That dude must be busy." His eyes went wide as he turned towards Peter. "And by dude I mean like... you know. Your... er... your dad?"

Pete made a face.

"So, you had a fight, huh?" Ned scratched his head. "A fight with Tony Stark. This is your life now. Just..." Ned glanced over at him. "Sorry."

"It's fine," Pete shrugged. In a way, it was almost refreshing that someone else beside him pointed out how messed up this whole thing really was.

"He's okay though, right?"

He was leaning with his back against the desk, trying to remember not to move his arm too much. For a moment he mulled over what Ned had just said. "What do you mean, 'okay'?"

"Well," Ned scratched the back of his head then let himself fall onto the bed. "He looked a bit beaten up after that thing at the courthouse."

"Oh, right..." Peter swallowed hard, even the light bandage uncomfortably reminding him of the Soldier's hand. "Yeah, I think so. He..." Lip caught between his teeth, Pete tried to remember that fight with Mr. Stark less than two days ago. He had looked tired, his face, how he had held himself. There had been a cut on his face. It had been bleeding already at the time when he had ordered Pete and Pepper out of the room, when they were crouching between the benches of the courtroom. But Ned was right. The fight hadn't been over when he had left with Pepper. When they had left him behind.

"I can't believe they actually tried to arrest him. Idiots."

Pete's breath got caught in his throat. Arrested? Mr. Stark... he had been arrested? His pulse was fluttering under his skin as he wrecked his mind, trying to think back two nights ago not about how they had angrily barked at each other but what Mr. Stark had looked like. His face. His clothes. Had there been more blood?

"So... er..." Ned pulled him out of his thoughts. The tense atmosphere in the room almost smacked Pete in the face. "So, what about school? Are you..." Ned shuffled a little on his bed, looking uncomfortable while Pete still tried to pull up the memories from that fight. "I mean, you'll be back, right? I really don't want to have to look for a new lab partner." The smile on Ned's face faded as Pete glanced at him. "Oh, shit. You... you're not coming back? But, you have to go to school, right? You have to."

Pete shook his head - to clear his mind more than as a response to him. "I don't know, Ned," he said, though his voice sounded a little more annoyed than he had intended.

The first day of his new school year was just days away. He'd have to ask Pepper. Maybe... maybe it'd be okay. Maybe it'd even give him an excuse to stay at the Tower instead. Be closer to the city. Closer to his friends.

"Sorry," Ned mumbled. "It's not... I didn't want to like... annoy you, you know? I'm just... I was hoping we'd still be friends."

With a deep sigh, Pete pushed himself off the desk. "Of course, we're still friends." He came to sit next to Ned. After just a second of hesitation, he held out his hand and Ned didn't leave him hanging. With a crooked smile on his face, their knuckles and fingers brushed against each other in their signature handshake.

"I wasn't sure if you still want to, you know..." Pete pulled up one shoulder and couldn't help but glance at Ned. "Everything's so crazy now."

"Well..." Eyebrows pulled up high, Ned gave him a side-eye. "Things were already pretty crazy with you going to the internship all the time."

"Right," Pete breathed.

"Do you think he knew? Mr. Stark? All this time? I mean, with the internship at the Tower and everything?" Eyes wide, he turned towards Pete. "Not like you wouldn't have deserved getting in, I mean, you're like the smartest kid in our year, if not, if not like, most of the school. Well, I guess that makes sense now with Tony Stark being your dad and all it's like—" Ned cringed at the look on Pete's face. "Sorry, I'll shut up now..."

"It's fine," Pete mumbled. "But no, he didn't know then."

There was a different way Pete had earned that internship, but he couldn't tell Ned about that. Not now, with everything around him already going up in flames. Could he?

"Yeah..." Ned waved off the thought. "I mean it's not like you were the only intern there, right? It's not like you were there with him, just... just the company."

Pete pressed his eyes shut. The lie was on his lips. In fact, he wouldn't even have to speak. He'd just have to nod and move on. It wasn't a real lie, just a lie by omission.

"I was, actually..." The words were out of his mouth before Pete could hold himself back. It was enough. The lies. The secrets. He just had enough of it all. Just no more energy to keep up the charade.

"You..." Ned frowned at him, clearly not following. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, I was. His intern. Not... not an intern. His."

"Tony... Tony Stark's intern?"

"In a way," Pete's eyes were on the floor. With a shake of his head, he sat up a little straighter. "There are some things... some things I never told you." He bit his lip then added a little quieter, "never told anyone, actually."

"Like..." Ned was breathing heavily through his mouth. "Like what?"

There was a tightness in his chest. A tightness he had pushed down again and again for a long time. That secret he had kept first only to himself, later with the help of Mr. Stark. It was an instinct that he wanted to give into, to hold onto that tightness but he had already made up his mind. No more. He couldn't do this anymore.

"Ned..." He swallowed hard. "I'm Spider-Man."

A shiver went down his back as the words rolled off his tongue. He hadn't really said that out loud before.

"You..." Ned's eyebrows were twitching, then the corners of his mouth, then his eyebrows again like his face couldn't quite decide if this was a moment to frown or laugh. "You... you're..."

"Spider-Man," Pete breathed.

"Spider-Man." The look in Ned's eyes was blank, sort of on Pete's face but not really seeing him. "Spider-Man."

"Yeah..." Pete's fingers dug into the mattress underneath them, close to pressing holes right through the sheet into the bedsprings underneath.

"That's..." All of a sudden, Ned laughed out loud. One loud bark, then his face melted back into a blank stare. "I'm sorry. I don't get it."

Ned shook his head once then blinked his eyes at Pete expectantly like this was all a big joke that Pete should now explain. Instead of explaining, Pete slowly relaxed his fingers and got to his feet. A few steps later, his hands were on the wall opposite his bed instead. With a deep breath, glancing upwards, Pete scaled the wall, then crawled into the middle of the ceiling. There he paused and craned his neck towards Ned. He was still sitting on the bed, but the questioning expression on his face had morphed into open-mouthed shock. With an apologetic shrug, Pete waved at him before he did a half flip and let himself fall back down onto the mattress. The bedsprings squeaked but not as loud as Ned when Pete landed right next to him on the bed and made them both bounce.

"That..." Ned's eyes were wide, fixed on Pete as he pointed to the ceiling. "You... you were up there. Just... just... the wall and then... what?!"

"Yeah..." Again, Pete only shrugged, his face hot.

"You were... you were just on the ceiling, you..." Ned's mouth was open, eyes unblinking. "You're the Spider-Man?!"

Pete nodded silently, his heart beating fast. It was like he could breathe a little freer, like his heart could beat a little easier, and boy, did it take that chance and pound rapidly in his chest.

"But you... you don't have a suit on and those web thingies and oh my god... how..." Ned got to his feet, both hands twisted in his hair. "Oh my god, Peter, you... you're Spider-Man?"

Ignoring the old name that pierced him like a knife, he simply nodded. "Yeah... yeah, I'm Spider-Man."

It felt a little better, came out of his mouth a little easier every time he said it. He was Spider-Man. Or had been at least. Before.

"Holy shit, does..." Ned lowered his voice and sent a hesitant glance toward the door. "Do they know? Does... does Tony Stark know?"

"They do. Mr. Stark has known for a while. That's... that how the whole internship came about. That's why I couldn't tell you because I couldn't tell anyone. Only Mr. Stark knew and..."

Pete pulled in a deep breath, studying Ned. Sure, his eyes were wide and he looked a little pale but other than that he wasn't freaking out too bad. No outright hysterics or trying to get help from the grown-up because they were clearly both hallucinating.

"So, is this... this Aiden thing..." Ned cleared his throat. "That's... er... like... a cover. You're..."

With a pang, his heart sank a bit deeper. Pete shook his head, biting his lip hard.

"Not a cover?" Ned asked.

"No, that's... that's all true."

"Huh..." For a moment, Ned was staring at him, then the ground. "Can you..." He gestured towards the ceiling. "Can you like, do that again?"

The corners of Pete's mouth twitched just like Ned's did in response. Without a moment of hesitation, he walked back up to the wall and slowly pulled himself up to the ceiling. He made a little more of a show of it this time. After a grin in Ned's direction, Pete lowered himself off the ceiling, hanging on there only by the tips of one hand.

"That's so fucking cool," Ned mumbled.

With a laugh, Pete let go, landing on his feet right in front of Ned.

"Doesn't it..." Ned bit his lip for a moment. "Doesn't it hurt your arm? I mean... you... you were shot."

"I... er... I heal really fast." Probably not the time to mention the super secret cradle.

"You got a healing factor?!" Eyes impossibly wide, Ned was gaping at him. "Spider-Man." He huffed out a low breath, his eyes never shying away from Pete. "That's... When? How?"

So, he started to tell him. Everything. For the first time, he told someone everything. How he had lost his way and walked into the wrong lab at Oscorp. How he had met Mr. Stark. That first night on the rooftop. Then when he was stabbed in the alleyway. How Mr. Stark had helped. How he had saved his life and how he had found out about Spider-Man.

"What you... you just ran?" Ned's eyes were round, the astonishment on his face even more pronounced than it had been when Pete had told him about Spider-Man in the first place. "You ran from Tony Stark?" Ned barked out a laugh. "How long till he found you?"

Pete pursed his lips. "Same day."

The next laugh Ned barked out was even louder. "Holy shit!"

"He came to the apartment. And May, she..." He sucked in a breath, his eyes wandering to the floor.

May.

Ned was still sitting opposite him on the bed, his shoulder leaned against the wall. "You went to see her."

It wasn't a question. "Yeah," Pete breathed.

"It was... er... it was on the news." Shifting in his spot on the bed, Ned made a face. "What was that like?"

"It sucked." He said it without reservation because it had. It had sucked so bad.

"I'm so sorry, man..." Ned blew out a low breath. "My... er... my mom. She talked to her. To May."

Pete sat up a little straighter. "What?"

"Yeah, well... it's... what they charged her with..." His eyes met Pete's for a brief moment then he turned his head down, nervous fingers playing with the bedsheet. "The kidnapping— alleged kidnapping, mom, she... she just wanted to make sure that May's got a good lawyer. That... that she has a fighting chance." His voice was low, the words almost whispered.

"Alleged." His eyes burnt a little. For the first time since Ned had walked through the doors of the Compound. "Did MJ tell you to say that?"

"Yeah, well..." A tiny laugh rolled off Ned's lips then he cleared his throat. "Mom, she said... she said that Mr. Stark has... that his lawyer is representing her."

Pete nodded. "I asked him to." He rubbed the back of his hand across his eyes.

"You... you asked your dad to... to hire a lawyer for..."

For the woman who has kept you hidden for all these years. Ned was good enough not to say it out loud but that was exactly what Pete had asked of him and Mr. Stark had complied. He hadn't liked it but he had done it. For him.

Pete's chest grew tight at the thought, but still...

"She didn't... she didn't take me away from them."

"No... no, I guess not."

"It was Barnes. Or..." Pete shook his head. "Well, they—"

"Yeah, I... I know." Ned nodded at him.

Right. After Mr. Stark's appearance in the trial, all of this had come out. It was all out in the open now. Almost all of it.

"Did you like—" Ned cleared his throat, fingers now playing with the laces on his shoes.

With a sigh, Pete cracked his neck. "Did we what?"

"Nevermind," Ned mumbled.

His lips pressed flat, Pete sniffed out a sigh. "Come on, spit it out."

"Did you ever... like talk about it? What happened back then?"

"With... with Mr. Stark?" Pete rolled his shoulders, dropping his head back against the wall. "Not really."

"I never knew that he even like... had a kid..." Ned made a grimace. "This is so bizarre."

"Yeah," Pete mumbled. "Yeah, it is."

"Did you like... did you know? About... about any of this?"

He shook his head. "Mr. Stark showed me a picture once. When, er..." The icy feeling of regret washed over him. He had wanted to tell Ned everything. It had felt so good to just tell him everything that had happened, but this... Mr. Stark had been laid up in the med wing after Siberia. Some of these things weren't Pete's secrets to tell. "He had a picture with him and... and when I got home, I googled it all."

"Yeah," Ned nodded. Of course, he had done the same.

The details that Pete had found had been horrific. Not just had law enforcement never had a clue where Aiden had been, who had been responsible, the main theory had been that his kidnapping was part of a series of crimes that had struck the Los Angeles area at the time. Half a dozen boys younger than 4 that had been abducted and found dead, with no more leads than there had been for his own kidnapping. Only, he was still alive. Those kids weren't.

Ned's teeth were grazing his lip. "You really think he didn't know?"

"No." His voice was stronger than he would have thought himself capable of.

"But—"

"He built me the suit." Pete had thought about this long and hard and there was only one conclusion to the question of how long Mr. Stark had known. "He built me a new suit so I could go out there and be Spider-Man. Right now, he won't even let me leave the building."

There was no doubt in his mind. Even though Mr. Stark had taken back the suit before either of them knew, it was crystal clear that for Aiden Stark, for Pete, there were different rules Mr. Stark would set than he had for Peter Parker.

In fact, right now Pete wasn't sure if he was ever going to be allowed to be Spider-Man again.


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[author's note:

Thanks so much for reading, your comments - that I adore - and all the faves!

I've taken some time to get the ending in order. Sorry that it's been a bit of a wait. If everything goes to plan, I'll be updating every Tuesday and Saturday from now on up to the last chapter (chapter 87).

I also want to thank every one of you who voted for my story in the Irondad Creator Awards on tumblr. I was so psyched to win the "Best Ploy Twist" category. You guys are awesome!]