Tony had been sitting outside the apartment complex for at least an hour. And this he only knew because at least every fifteen to twenty minutes FRIDAY would check in and make sure her boss was okay, as he was sitting in a car, not moving, with an elevated heart rate and her sensors were giving off potential health alerts. He had finally ask her to drop it, and that he was aware of what he was doing an in no need of assistance for any sort of distress.
He was, of course, in tons of distress, mostly of the mental variety. When he left the house, he'd carefully chosen his car, his clothes, everything to give an impression of his normal self. He'd carefully planned every single bit of this trip. Pure reconnaissance. A chance to see if his obsessive hypothesis about the kid were true. And it was only one o'clock in the afternoon- The kid wouldn't even be there. No real need to be this nervous.
"Tell me you remember the plan, FRIDAY?" Tony ask, popping open the corvette door.
"You're going in, talking with the Aunt about The Stark Foundation scholarships and grants, and I am sending the nano-bees to get a DNA sample and running analysis." The AI repeated for what must have been at least the forth time. "Give off the alert like you're getting a call, deliver results to the headset. You react like it's a call for Iron Man and excuse yourself."
"That's my girl." Tony replied as he crossed the street.
"Hey Boss?" FRIDAY questioned, and Tony rolled his eyes. He missed JARVIS at times like this, because he was at least used to Tony's scheming and did not question of give opinions. He blamed this on him basing her off of Pepper.
"Hmm" came his annoyed grunt of reply.
"If he isn't you kid, we're going to keep good on the cover story, right?" She ask. Tony huffed.
"Pepper put you up to that?" He knew the answer to that already. "Yeah, of course we are. That's literally the least the kid gets after today. Now, can we get this on the road?"
"You got it, Boss." She finished, giving the double click of her exit from conversation mode. Tony adjusted his earpiece as he walked up the sidewalk to the boarding house.
It was a nice building, classic brick with a few climbing vines. There was a small fenced in playground to the left of the house, a small parking area and bike rack to the right. It seemed like a fairly nice place to grow up, Tony decided. He stood at the door and took one last deep breath before knocking.
It took a few moments for the door to swing open, and he had ended up knocking twice, but finally May Parker opened the door. She looked as though she had been cleaning- Hair piled on top of her head and old t-shirt with stained shorts and all. Tony couldn't help but note she was very beautiful- and really did look a bizarre about like her sister had. Tony blinked a couple of times, regaining his composure, and he stuck a hand out. "Hi. Tony Stark." He said, as the woman grinned in a surprised sort of way and shook his hand.
"I know who you are." She replied, or blurted really. "How can I help you, Mr. Stark?"
"Can I come in?" He ask, nodding into the house. He could talk here, but it would be less noticeable for the nano-bees to go unnoticed if he released them as she led him inside.
"Ah-" She paused, and she seemed nervous. Tony suddenly wondered if the bees were even necessary. "Yes! Of course." She gestured and he stepped in and followed her down the hallway into a sitting room. As she moved into the room and turned her back, Tony tossed three life-sized nano-bee bots into the air and the soared off silently down the hall.
"This is a gorgeous place." Tony complimented, noticing her many lace and floral accents. "Matches you." He winked, trying still to be what he knew the public had come to expect. She gave a small, polite laugh.
"Thank you." She said, gesturing to a pale blue couch for Tony to sit. "Can I get you a drink? Water? Lemonade? We have some cola, I think..." She rambled.
"I'm great, thanks." He said, nodding to the seat next to him.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Stark," She confessed. "I'm doing my best to figure out why exactly you're here."
"I wanted to talk to you about that nephew of yours, Peter." Tony explained. He couldn't help but notice how pale she seemed to be, but she smiled.
"Peter?" She ask, tilting her head. "My Peter?" Tony did not miss the emphasis.
"Smart kid." Tony replied. "Stark Industries keeps feelers out for just his type." Not totally a lie, he assured himself. It was how he had found the kid in the first place. "I don't know if anyone has told you- Midtown and my company work closely..." Again, stretch of the truth maybe, but not a lie. He knew at least five of their graduates the year prior had Stark scholarships. "I believe he has a real scientific knack- It just needs the right help to groom that talent."
"Oh!" She seemed oddly relieved, and Tony took it as another sign he was probably right. He could feel it. "He really is. It's why I put him in Midtown. He defiantly has a gift." She nodded, over enthusiastically if anything.
"Mmm." Tony said, sitting back. It was just then his phone alert went off. He cleared his throat. "Actually May- Can I call you May? A lemonade would just do me a world of good, if it isn't too much trouble. And I'll just deal with this call..." He smiled and winked, and she gave an idol reply of agreement and small smile before leaving the room for the kitchen. Once the coast was clear, he tapped the com device in his ear with shaking hands.
"Yes ma'am?" He addressed his AI.
"It's a boy." She replied, her voice set to its soother setting. Tony felt the air leave his lungs. He clutched the back of the couch so hard his knuckles turned white.
"At what percent probable match?" Tony ask quietly.
"Ninety-nine point six percent." FRIDAY answered. "Bees are on their way back to your pocket."
"When can I have the specifics on my phone?" Tony demanded, not meaning his tone to be so harsh. His heart was pounding in his ears. Sure, he was pretty sure he knew before. But here was the absolute truth. And he'd been hit with entire spaceships that didn't feel quite so crushing.
"Already there, boss." She replied, clicking off again as May Parker came back into the room and handed him his requested beverage. He gave a quick glance at the doc FRIDAY had sent and slipped the phone back in his lapel pocket.
"Thanks." He said, lifting it slightly before downing the entire glass, mostly as a nervous reaction. "So, tell me-" He said, sitting forward and gently settling the empty glass on a coaster so the sweat from the remaining ice did not drip, "Peter's scientific talents. When did they start? He always been into it or...?" Tony prodded.
"Oh yeah, ever since I can remember. It's really a good thing that the Discovery Channel and National Geographic both have toy lines for home science experiments because I'd have no idea." She laughed.
"Sure, yeah." Tony nodded along.
"He's such a brilliant kid, and sometimes I can't keep up with what he's telling me about. He gets very passionate." She explained. Tony nodded along. "He especially loves robotics, but chemistry seems to be a close second."
"Think he'd be interested in a tour with us?" Tony ask, still trying to calm his stomach. He felt like he may throw the entire lemonade back up onto her lace- covered coffee table. "Maybe guided by yours truly?"
"Oh! He'd die! He's really a huge fan of yours." She laughed. Tony did not know how to feel about that- But he hoped in the back of his mind it would eventually work in his favor. "I had to bring him to the Stark Expo a few years back. Nothing would do him until I promised we could go-" May explained. "Actually..." She paused and picked up the remote. The kid had obviously upgraded her tv, and it had a USB photo stick slot he could see, which she switched over and flipped through files until she found one labeled 'EXPO'. There were a few pictures she slid through quickly, obviously looking for something. She found a video and pressed play. "Do you remember this?" She ask.
The video was news footage of the Expo in pure panic, the footage shaky, but it showed Tony land behind a young boy in a toy Iron Man mask with matching light-up toy repluser gloves. A rogue bot was targeting the boy, who had his hand raised to it. Tony shot it down and flew off to deal with the rest of the chaos. "Nice work, kid." He said out loud.
"Yeah. That's what you said to him!" She said. "You remember it. That was Peter!"
"Holy Shit, small world." Tony said involuntarily. He remembered saving the child, but the realization it was his child landed in the pit of his gut like a load of gravel.
"Right?" She laughed. "He still talks about that."
"It was a wild night." Tony agreed. "So- When could I come back by?" He ask, knowing he couldn't trust himself much longer.
For the third time, Tony shouted the 'ignore' command to the ringing call incoming from Pepper. He grabbed a car, tossed it into the air, and blew it in at least five good chunks with a repulser. He was so angry. So hurt. This junk yard was the best place for him to deal with that. Destroy already dilapidated machines, no real harm. And great for rage.
Sure, May Parker seemed nice. And he was sure she had her reasons. But she sat there, obviously knowing that was his son and didn't say a word. He grabbed a scrapped tractor tire and flung it straight up before hitting it with a beam, sending it splitting into shards.
"I'm sorry, Sir, but she's overriding my-" FRIDAY tried to warn him, but Pepper cut her off.
"Anthony Stark." She warned. "Are you seriously not going to answer me?" She sounded as hurt as he felt. It made him realize how much this effected her too.
"Pepper-" He sighed.
"I know." She said quietly. "Baby, believe me, I know." She sounded like she might even be crying. "I can't imagine how you feel right now."
"It was just- She obviously knew, Pepper!" He wanted to scream. "And she just pretended to be stupid about the whole thing."
"Tony- Please come home. I have the lawyers here waiting. We're going to see what the next step should be." She suggested. "Please?"
"Sure." He said, throwing one last truck cab up and blasting it apart with his chest canon. "Give me ten."
"I love you." She replied gently.
"I love you too, Pep." He said, and he heard her click the phone off. He looked around at the new mess he'd made in the junk pile and sighed. He felt a little better, but not much. He clicked his feet together and boosted off to fly for home.
Tony lay awake that night, going over the day in his head. He stared up at the ceiling, lit pale blue by the reactor in his chest. Beside him, Pepper slept quietly, her back snuggled tightly into his side, clinging to his right arm which he'd wrapped around her. He wondered what he'd do in this situation without her to guide him, and to keep his temper in check.
His lawyers had assured them that if they so wanted, they could arrange it so that Tony could just walk in and take his child. It appealed to his furious heart, but he knew, as Pepper pointed out, that would be a great way to get Peter to hate him. That was the last thing Tony wanted. He had too much time to make up to waste on something like that. So revenge fueled custody was out of the question.
Then there was the more simple, assertion of his rights. That plan he liked. Simply put, he could go to the courts (which he planned to do tomorrow, anyway) with his DNA results, and get a document of paternity. Then, when he did return to the before planned meeting of Peter he'd set up under his false pretenses, he could simply hand the letter to May. Get at least visitation, or maybe even partial custody if Peter wanted something like that. Either way, he was pushing for his name to go on Peter's birth certificate.
It made him anxious. That was four days from now. Would he even want Tony to be a part of his life now? Tony rubbed his hands over his face. He had this idealistic version where Peter, Pepper and himself became a little family. Where Peter even eventually changed his last name and Pepper and he eventually added one or two more to their numbers. He wanted it so bad he could taste it. But it did not depend on him.
He and his father had many of their own problems. Problems he's vowed that if ever given the chance, Tony was not going to do. But he couldn't help but wonder- What if Peter hated him for being out of the picture for so long. He felt the anguish at that thought burn in his chest. "I didn't mean to." He said into the darkness.
"Didn't mean to, what?" Pepper replied sleepily, clapping for the lights as she rolled over and moved to be on the pillow next to Tony.
"Miss everything." He said sadly, and she watched a tear roll down the corner of his eye and around his temple, hitting the pillow.
"He'll know, honey." She said softly, running her fingers through his hair. "It's pretty obvious."
"My son very well might have my temper." He reminded her. She gave a small, sad laugh.
"You're worrying way too much." She pulled away and went over to the medicine cabinet in the corner of the bedroom. She took out a bottle and brought Tony two small green pills and a glass of water. "Here, take these. You have got to sleep."
"Are these the REM blocker kind that Bruce made?" He questioned, throwing back what was handed to him. "I don't think I can handle the nightmares anymore."
"They are." She confirmed, taking her place back at his side, wiggling back into the covers. "And even if they fail-" She kissed him briefly on the lips, laid back, and placed another on his temple, "I have you."
"Thank God for that." He replied as he pulled her as close as he could, feeling the drowsiness wash him over at last.
Happy Father's Day. Thanks for reading!