They were both in the garage when Pepper drove the car in and parked beside Natasha's Corvette and the empty space that normally held Peter's Pontiac. Both of them were leaning against Natasha's car, but straightened as the car came to a stop and Pepper turned off the engine. Peter moved to the passenger side of the sedan, while Tony stepped up to open Pepper's door for her, smiling.

"How was the drive?"

"Animated."

He looked over at Ned, who was opening his door at the same time, grinning, excitedly, at his friend, who was looking as cheerful as Tony had ever seen him.

"I believe that." He took her bag from her, and kissed her cheek, lightly, as she got out of the car. "Peter? Settle Ned and meet us in the lounge for dinner around six."

"Okay."

Tony offered Pepper his arm, and rather than do more than greet their son with a smile, she allowed him to lead her out of the garage and toward their quarters, leaving the two boys in the garage. Ned pulled his bag out of the backseat and closed the door.

"They left pretty quick…"

Peter nodded.

"Doctor Bird came, today. Tony probably wants a chance to tell her what he thinks."

He wasn't concerned about it; Tony had already shared what Bird had told him with Peter, and there wasn't anything that was embarrassing, or anything like that.

"What did you talk about?"

Ned didn't even consider that Peter might not want to tell him. They'd been best friends for a very long time, after all.

"We told him I'm Spiderman."

"No shit? Tony was okay with that?"

"Yeah. He needed to know, Tony thinks, in order to get into my head, better."

Peter wasn't concerned, and his friend could tell.

"What did he say? Was he shocked?"

"Definitely." Peter smiled, amused at Ned's reaction – and the doctor's. "He asked me to show him some videos from YouTube and then I kind of freaked him out by standing on the ceiling."

"Wow. What else?"

"Not much. Told him how I hurt my hand – and then about wrecking the Pontiac and hitting my head."

"You started fixing it?" Ned asked walking over toward the classic car and taking in all the parts that had been removed.

Peter followed.

"It's going to take a bit to get it right, but Tony's all over it. He already ordered parts, or the metal needed to rebuild anything that we can't find."

"That's awesome. Good thing he's so good at building things, huh?"

"Yeah. I'm lucky."

"Yeah, you are." Ned turned to his friend. "What can you tell me about what happened?"

"With the car?"

"With all of it," Ned clarified, gesturing around them. "You know I won't tell anyone. Tony and Pepper know, too, right?"

"Yeah." He'd actually already had this conversation with his parents, well aware as they all were that Ned would ask – and that he already knew some things. And that didn't even count the dream. With the knowledge that MJ was already mad at him for holding back, Tony and Pepper were willing to allow Ned to know some – provided he understood that it wasn't to be shared with anyone else, including MJ or the other kids at school. "Let's go to my rooms," Peter told his friend. "I can tell you some of it, anyway."

Not about the fight he had with MJ – although through that dream, Ned probably already knew about that, too.

"Okay."

They had to drop his stuff off, anyway. Then maybe they could go find Natasha and see what she was doing.

OOOOOOO

"How did it go?" Pepper asked, almost as soon as they were out of the garage.

Tony wasn't surprised. He gave her hand a reassuring squeeze and a smile.

"He's now one of the very few outsiders who knows Peter's secret identity."

Pepper raised her eyebrow, only somewhat surprised that Tony had actually allowed the knowledge out. He guarded Peter's wellbeing so carefully that she had been uncertain if he would really allow that tidbit of information out to someone who wasn't either a trusted ally, or an Avenger – or had figured it out, themselves, of course. Ned, MJ and a certain mob boss being the main members of that exclusive club.

"What did he say?"

"Oh, he was surprised." Tony smirked. "He's obviously not a superhero nerd, because he didn't know who Spiderman was, really, and we had to explain it a bit."

"Really?"

"Yes. I told Peter to show him some of the videos out there, and then give him a demonstration of some of his abilities, but I wasn't there for any of that."

"And?"

"He took it all in like it was no big deal," Tony said. "Called Peter amazing, but reminded the kid that he'd already thought that he was. Guy's as cool as a cucumber, Pep. No wonder he's so good at relaxing the kids that he works with."

"So he knows about Spiderman, but he doesn't know about Thanos, right?"

"Correct. He knows there was an attempted alien invasion – but everyone already knew that." The failed attack on China had been witnessed by a lot more people than the battle of the compound had been, so there hadn't been any hiding that. The world already knew about aliens after New York, after all. "I told him that the light was from an ancient alien relic that we got hold of to use to protect the earth, and that Peter was too close to it when it was triggered, and that was how his hand was injured."

"Which is true."

"He accepted it. He did ask if we knew if the healing from the light went to the mental level – and I'm not surprised that he thought of that question – but since I'm not sure, I told him we didn't know what all it had done."

"No question why Peter was the only person hurt, when the rest of the world was healed?"

"No. He actually mentioned that a bright light like that would generate heat, and if Peter had been so close, it was a wonder he'd lived at all."

"And since he already knew he's Spiderman, you mentioned that he's tougher than most."

"Right."

Pepper nodded, and opened the door to their quarters.

"What did he say about getting him centered?" she asked, changing the subject from the light and the rest of the world to what really mattered to her. "Any suggestions? And did either of you happen to mention MJ?"

"Peter did," Tony told her, sitting on their bed and watching as she started changing. "He pointed out that he wasn't a couples' therapist, but he suggested a few things. More of his insights, anyway."

"Such as?"

"She's new to the relationship thing, too, and probably uncertain as hell. She's a teenaged girl, right? They're usually full of insecurities. Even one as bright and level-headed as MJ. Being kept out of the loop probably isn't helping those insecurities, and worrying about Peter being hurt – which she is, we know – adds to the problem."

"So he thinks we should let her in on things?"

"Nope. He agrees that it would be a burden that she probably doesn't need to have heaped on her to add to everything else. He did suggest that we allow her and Peter to meet up, somewhere, so they can actually talk face to face, since emails are impersonal and it's very easy to miss subtext in a written correspondence."

"Well, that's true. But Peter's a boy; he's going to miss subtext no matter what."

Which made the billionaire smile at the truth of the statement.

"Too true."

"So we bring her out here?" Pepper asked. "I suppose it's not too late to invite her to D&D…"

"No. We let them go to the park – if she wants to. Peter will email her and invite her to do something with him on Sunday, if she's interested. One of us will be the driver, since Bird was absolutely fine with our punishments for him, and he's still grounded from driving and from his phone."

"That's good. And helping him destress? What did he say about that?"

"Keep him as busy as his health allows. Rebuilding the car as quickly as we can to get it back to previous condition, and the homeschool thing is genius, as far as he's concerned. He thinks the sooner Peter starts working on getting caught up, the better."

Pepper smiled at that, and sat down beside him, willing to be held, now, and feeling relieved.

"We have all of the supplies that we need to get that going, and I've tasked Jonathon with transforming a portion of my office into space for Peter to work."

"Not mine?"

She shook her head.

"If he has a question, I'll be right there to help him, and he won't need to come across half the building to find me. He's unobtrusive, so I'm not worried he'll be in the way – and most of the meetings that I have are in conference rooms. If he needs to go for a while, we'll call it recess, or something."

"You're so smart…" Tony said, approvingly, kissing her cheek. "You know that, right?"

"I try." She kissed him, running her fingers through his hair as she did, but then pulling back, since that reminded her of something else. "Take him to get a haircut," she suggested. "He's looking shaggy."

"He's not going to school, yet…"

"I'm not sharing my office with a beatnik."

Tony smirked.

"Fine. We'll take care of it Sunday – before he hangs out with MJ, if she accepts his invitation. We'll stop by the spa before I take Ned home and the three of us can get pampered a bit. Lord knows we all deserve it."