Author's Note: This is gonna get angsty but we're also gonna get a lot of info about Piper's parents, and possibly why they died. So much angst though. I own nothing.

30. Her Old Home

Happy pulled the black Audi up in front of a small house in a quiet suburb. Even from here Piper could see the blue front door, she remembered playing on that now empty porch. She took a deep breath. Happy turned in his seat.

"I'm gonna wait out here for you ok?" Piper shook her head.

"No Happy, dad's gonna need you, Uncle Rhodey's visiting. You know how they get. I'll call if I need you. Thanks." With another deep breath Piper opened the door of the Audi, grabbing her backpack and waving to Happy. She watched him drive away, just to be sure she was really alone, then she turned to the house. The windows were dark, staring down at her, the dead eyes of a past long left behind. She took another deep breath and made her way up the broken and cracked walkway pulling a brand-new key out of her pocket. Pepper had given it to her this morning. That seemed to be the only thing that had changed, the locks. She slipped the key into the lock and turned it opening the door into a dark and tiny front hall.

Everything was so much smaller than she remembered. Then again it had been twelve years since she'd been back here. Everything was covered in a thick layer of dust. Pepper hadn't been lying, nothing had even been moved. Everything was just like she dimly remembered it. She reached over and tried the light switch. To her slight surprise it worked. Pepper must have gotten the power up and working again.

With the living room light on Piper saw that what had been hulking outlines in the dark was just the furniture still sitting in the room. She allowed herself a small smile at the VHS player that rested beneath the TV set. She still hadn't taken more than one step into the room. With another deep breath, slightly inhibited by the cloud of dust her first step had stirred up, she began to wander. The downstairs didn't have much in the way of anything interesting. A living room with twelve-year-old technology sitting unused for so long Piper would be astonished if they still turned on. A kitchen, someone had been through here after her parents' deaths it seemed for every piece of food had been removed and the refrigerator had been scrubbed clean along with the freezer. Piper thought that was a bit odd but at least the place didn't smell like mold. A small guest bedroom and bathroom next to the garage. Nothing special, nothing out of the ordinary. Nothing in the drawers but the usual, spare keys and erasers and the like. Nothing like her dream. Shaking her head and starting to believe it was all her imagination Piper began to head up the creaky stairs.

This was where things got a bit more emotional. Her old room, the one that she'd lived in until she was three was just off to the left and she paused before gently pushing open the door that miraculously still had plastic glow in the dark stars that spelled out her name sticking to it. The room was painted yellow, it had once been bright, now dulled with age and dust. Some of the stars and planets that had once been stuck to the ceiling had fallen to the floor. None of them glowed anymore as if they had stopped when the family that had once been happy here had crumbled to pieces. There was a small bed in the corner, it was simple white with dusty princess sheets still in their place. A desk held an assortment of books, most of them small but some choose your own adventure novels and toys rested on a small bookshelf. Some clothes still lay scattered on the floor, a mix of small fluffy pink things and the much more well used boys clothes. Her parents had let her pick out her own clothes at two and she had turned out to be a tom boy even back then. Piper let out a soft chuckle as she spotted a small snow leopard still slightly under the blankets. She remembered it, her father had bought it for her after her first visit to the zoo where she'd decided she wanted to be a biologist. Her parents had been so proud of her. She picked up the old dusty toy. It wasn't much bigger than her hand. She tucked it into her backpack. Tuning she spotted notches in the door frame and grinned. There were only two. The first one was labeled 'Piper Two Years Old' the other, 'Piper Three Years Old'. She continued down the hall. A bathroom lay next to her room.

She paused at the old end table that sat next to the door to the study. The same one from her dream. She tried opening it. It was locked. She sighed. Maybe there would be a key in the study, but she wasn't quite ready to go in there just yet. So instead she headed into her parents room. There were books on the book shelf and she blew some dust off of the titles. Science journals, a few novels and other titles lay there. One of the books had something sticking out of it. Piper pulled it out, curious. It was a science journal on the theory of cross species genetics written by a Doctor Otto Octavius. The thing sticking out of the book turned out to be a picture from one of those booths you found at carnivals and the like it pictured her mother and father, much younger than she ever remembered them being. She smiled and tucked it back into the journal and tucked it into her bag. It looked like an interesting read. She stepped over to the vanity and blew the dust off of a small picture frame. She smiled tears building in her eyes. It was her father, aunt and uncle gathered around her mother in a hospital bed. There was a small pink bundle in her mother's arms, the red face of a crying baby glaring at the camera. She opened the back of the frame and slipped the photo into the journal. She turned to step to the other book shelf and felt something crack under her foot. She took a step back and saw that one of the frames from the wall must have fallen off. Carefully she flipped it over. The glass had cracked but it was a picture that confused her. Her mother and father standing in the lobby of what could only be Stark Tower, again much younger than she had ever known them. But what confused her further was a young Tony Stark shaking hands with her father and grinning his signature grin at the camera. She took that photo with her as well.

Much of the same rested on the next book shelf. The only difference seemed to be a small jewelry box. Piper tried to open it but it too was locked. She turned back to the vanity and opened the drawers, it took some time but eventually she found a small key that fit the box. It opened with a creek and revealed that, like she'd thought it held her mother's jewelry but what surprised her was that her parents wedding rings were resting in the box too. She pulled them out and slipped them on a gold chain she found in the box before fastening it around her neck. But why hadn't they been wearing them when they go on the plane. It didn't make sense. With a sigh, she set the box back down. There wasn't much else in this room. Just the bed and the closet still full of clothes. It was time to go through the study.