Author's Note: Let me be clear, no Richard Parker had nothing to do with creating the spider that bit Piper in this one. Neither did Mary. We'll be at the old Parker residence next chapter. I own nothing.

29. A Step Back

Over the next few weeks while Tony was in recovery Piper went though life on auto pilot. She fought with the team against baddies as Spider-girl and tried to be herself but she couldn't get the dream she'd had out of her head. It had been so vivid so real. Luke sat down next to her during one of the breaks between rounds of Save the Citizen.

"The other's told me your story." Piper nodded not looking up from her sketch she was working on.

"If you ever need someone to talk to, I got you. I know how it feels to be alone." Piper looked up and smiled, her mask was sitting beside her.

"Thanks Luke, I appreciate that." Luke looked over her shoulder.

"What ya drawing?" Piper glanced down at her paper and frowned.

"I had a dream a few weeks ago, about the night my parents left, the last time I ever saw them. Not all of it made sense but I'm almost certain that it's how it actually happened. But it almost couldn't have been. My mom opened a wall in their study, there were guns in this end table that was always locked. I don't know." She showed Luke the drawing she'd been working on. She'd been recreating the room she remembered seeing in the study. The one her mother had opened the wall to get to. She couldn't seem to get the symbol on the briefcase right though. She'd erased and redrawn it so many times a permanent black smudge on it. He shook his head.

"It doesn't look familiar, and I'm not all that good with dreams but it sounds important. Have you thought about going back to your old house, see if there's anything left? Maybe there's a clue." Piper frowned she actually hadn't thought of that.

"I mean it's a twelve year old trail but maybe?" Luke patted her on the shoulder.

"Let me know if you want somebody to come with you." Piper nodded and thanked him. He stood and entered the training room for his round of Save the Citizen. That night she approached Pepper.

"Pepper?" The strawberry blonde looked up from her paperwork.

"What's wrong Piper?" Piper sighed.

"I had a weird dream the other night and it made me wonder, you don't happen to know what happened to the house I lived with my mom and dad in do you?" Pepper looked down at her tablet and finished typing before she set it down.

"When Tony took you in, I convinced him to purchase everything your Uncle had owned at the Estate Sale. Because he's Tony he went a little overboard. He bought your aunt and uncle's house and the one where you lived with your mother and father. They're in Tony's name until you're eighteen. But he never did anything with them. Everything at your mother and father's house should be where it was when it was abandoned. It never sold, until Tony bought it, and no one ever came to clear it out. Your aunt and uncles things are still in boxes from the estate sale, you know how forgetful Tony can be." Piper nodded and sniffled slightly before she asked the question burning in her mind.

"Can I go see it?" Pepper nodded.

"Absolutely. I can have Happy drive you there tomorrow." Piper hugged Pepper.

"Thanks Pep. I'm gonna go see dad." Pepper nodded and Piper walked away to the medical floor of Avengers tower. Pepper sighed and began to make some calls.

Tony grimaced as one of the doctors he had on retainer changed his bandages. When they finished he laid back on the bed and a soft knock sounded at the door. He called for them to come in and Piper entered carrying a tray full of food.

"Hey dad! I brought dinner." Tony smiled.

"Yay, not hospital food." Piper set down the tray and stepped aside to talk to the doctor for a moment. When she was done she sat down next to her father.

"So they say you'll be up and around in the next few days." Tony nodded his mouth full of mashed potatoes. Piper looked down at her hands for a moment. Then she spoke.

"Dad, I'm gonna go to the house where my mom and dad used to live." Tony paused.

"Makes sense you would want to go eventually. Let me know if you need me to go with you." Piper shook her head.

"No I think this is something I need to do myself." Tony nodded. It had taken him time to go through his parent's things after the car accident, admittedly not twelve years but still every person grieved in their own time.

"Pepper making all the calls?" Piper nodded. She was still looking at her hands.

"I was thinking of going tomorrow." Tomorrow was a school day, but Tony knew this was important to her and really she was too smart for Midtown High anyway.

"I'll call you out." Piper smiled slightly and nodded.

"Thanks dad." She got up to leave.

"Pipes?" She turned and looked at him. Her eyes were red and puffy and slightly bloodshot.

"No matter what you find, you've still got a family here. Sleep good kiddo." Piper nodded and left the medical wing. She didn't sleep that night, she went on patrol and beat up a few muggers, helped a lost kid find her mom and went back home but she didn't sleep. After a few hours tossing and turning in her bed she got up with a sigh and went to her lab. A few hours later JARVIS piped up.

'Miss Parker, Doctor Banner is requesting entrance to your level shall I allow him access?'

"Yeah J, go ahead and let him up, let him know where I am too." She didn't stop tinkering with the SHIELD issued web shooters as the door opened and closed. Bruce sat down in the chair opposite her as she fit the new casing into place on the now smaller web shooter.

"Wasn't that SHIELD issued?" He asked as she placed the whole thing back on her wrist and flexed it experimentally.

"Yes, and I don't care if Fury's mad, Doctor Conners said I could play with them all I wanted. And it was too big. I may go for the around the wrist design again, holds more web fluid. But some of the features on this are too cool to get rid of." She shot a line at the ceiling and climbed up it testing the tensile strength of the new formula. Bruce followed her with his eyes as she gripped the line with her bare feet and hung upside down above her table before pulling the shooter off and setting it aside. She turned and looked at him hair hanging around her face.

"What can I do for you Uncle B?" He sighed.

"Your dad told me what you're gonna be up to tomorrow." Piper sighed reaching out for a smaller device on the table and tinkering with it.

"And?"

"I wanted to see if you were ok. You've been dealing with a lot over the past few months." Piper nodded and sighed setting down what appeared to be a gutted version of her old web shooters.

"I wouldn't say I'm ok. With dad hurt, someone very dead set on finding Spider-girl, and this whole team thing I haven't had time to breathe much less deal with any of my shit lately. It's a miracle I can keep up with my school work, let alone spend time with Harry and MJ. I don't know." She sighed and crossed her arms.

"I don't know. There are days I wonder if I'm cut out for this hero business." Bruce shook his head at her.

"I think that to myself all the time. The other guy isn't exactly hero material after all. But then I look at everything I managed to do here, and around the world thanks to your dad and my place in the Avengers. It's a tough life, there's no denying that but sometimes you need to take a step back." Piper nodded.

"Yeah, I told Fury I'll be unavailable tomorrow. He seemed like he was hiding something, but then again, when doesn't he?" Bruce laughed lightly. He stood.

"I just wanted to make sure you were ok kiddo. You should get some sleep though." Piper flipped off the web line and hugged him.

"I'll try Uncle B." Bruce wandered back off to his own level and Piper sighed sitting back down with her projects. She never did get to sleep that night.