Author's Note: Dad Tony is making a lot of appearances here, were also gonna get some concerned team in this one and maybe something else. I own nothing.

39. Trust

Piper frowned as her fingers flew across her keyboard. The kind of symbiosis that came Venom wasn't the same as any kind of symbiosis that existed in nature. Most symbiotic relationships in nature were beneficial to both parties, but with Venom it seemed that the relationship was entirely beneficial only to the symbiote. Piper sighed as she skimmed through yet another article about a symbiotic relationship between fish. There was a knock at her door. She called for whoever it was to come in and was a bit surprised when a plate of grilled cheese sandwiches and a large bowl of tomato soup was set down beside her computer. She looked up and a small smile worked its way onto her face. Tony smiled and pulled up Piper's second desk chair. One of the Dummi bots had been following Tony and set down a mug of hot chocolate with whipped cream and chocolate syrup. Piper's smile turned a bit more genuine. Tony took a sip of hot chocolate from his own mug.

"You seem a bit down Pipes. I know being a teenager is hard, believe me I know. I was a terror as a teen. But maybe that was because I didn't feel like I had anyone to talk to. I just want you to know I'm here for you no matter what." Piper picked up a square of sandwich and dunked it in the soup before taking a bite and chewing slowly. Tony waited for her to speak. She swallowed her bite of sandwich and stood. She stepped over to her bed and pulled a book out from under it. It was an old photo album. She sat back down in her chair and flipped the album open to the very back. There were a few loose photos tucked into the back of it. She searched through them for a moment before stopping on one photo. Without looking up she spoke.

"We never talk about my parents." Tony frowned. She was right, they had never really talked about her parents. He had never brought it up because he knew how painful it could be when someone ripped open old wounds.

"You never asked, I didn't want to open old wounds for you." Piper nodded and pulled the photo she was looking at out of the album handing it over to Tony. It was an old photo of him and Pipers parents, in it he was shaking hands with her father. He smiled lightly at the photo.

"You knew them well?" Tony nodded.

"Yes I did." Piper looked up tears in her eyes.

"Did you know they were SHIELD agents?" Tony was a bit surprised but he nodded.

"I did. They saved my life when I first took over Stark Industries. Someone tried to assassinate me, I was never sure who was behind it. They didn't say who they worked for back then, it didn't really matter to me. I told them if they ever needed anything to come to me. A few years later they did. They wanted out of the agency they were working for, they wanted to settle down and raise a family. Your father was a brilliant electrical engineer, and your mother was only slightly less badass than Natasha. I gave them both jobs. Your mother was my head of security for a while, your father helped design the Inteli-crops. They had you about three years after they came to Stark industries." Tony ran a hand through his hair and sighed.

"Not too long after you turned two they got an offer from someone for a new job. They took it. I never knew why. They turned up working at Oscorp not too long after. I don't know if Oscorp made them a better offer or if SHIELD got them back into the agency somehow, but less than a year later the plane they were on went down. I didn't hear anything else about them until you showed up on my doorstep with the social workers." Piper frowned.

"The social workers knew about my parents?" Tony sighed.

"One of the women who brought you to the Malibu house wasn't actually a social worker. Her name is Maria Hill, she's an agent of SHIELD and she was there to make sure I took you in that day." Piper's frown deepened.

"What… Why?" Tony shook his head.

"SHEILD had been shadowing you for a while, trying to make sure nothing bad happened to you." Piper scoffed, Tony nodded.

"I never said they did a good job of it. When they found out your Uncle died they sent Maria to take you in, your parents were brilliant agents. According to Maria, Fury thought you could be too and since you didn't have any family or anyone else to take you in no one would really notice, in theory. Then you found your parents will, which listed me because your father made me your godfather when you were born. Maria knew it was possible that I wouldn't take you in. I wasn't in a good place back then we both know that." Piper nodded.

"She pulled me aside and explained what would happen if I didn't take you in. If I didn't, Fury would. And because he's Fury he would have sent you off to some military SHIELD academy at the ripe old age of eleven. He would have completely robbed you of your childhood and molded you into what he wanted you to be, not what you wanted to be. I couldn't let you go through that. I had been there, my father shipped me off to boarding school the first chance he got. So I took you in. I honestly didn't expect to care about you, but I swear you have a superpower kid. You can make anyone care about you, they just have to get to know you first." Tony reached over and rubbed Piper's shoulder. Piper looked up at him from the album in her hands.

What she's heard from Tony meshed with what Doctor Conners had told her and with the timeline she knew to be true. She tried to hold back a sob but it ripped itself from her throat before she could stop it. Tony opened his arms and Piper dove into the hug and sobbed.

Sam was… well he didn't want to say concerned. But yeah that was pretty much the right word. Sam was concerned about Piper, about everything that had been going on with her. She'd been shutting the team out bit by bit for the past week or so. Then she almost died falling out the window of Stark Tower. She had been saved by the Spider-man, but she refused to talk about it. He'd also caught her sketching a weird briefcase in Science class instead of paying attention like she normally did. She was acting weird was all he was saying, not that he really cared… Ok maybe he did, but he'd never tell her that. And maybe he was a bit jealous of her and Eddie talking with their heads together in the corner of the library. Ava glanced at Sam then at what he was looking at.

"Ah, so that's why you've been so distracted these past few days." Sam blushed slightly and shook his head at Ava.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Ava smirked slightly.

"Sure you don't Sam." She shook her head pulling another book off her shelf. Sam's eyes wandered over to the pair in the corner. Piper was tapping away on Eddie's computer, frowning. She swore and slammed a hand down into the desk. Sam couldn't hear what she was saying but she looked very frustrated. Sam glanced at Ava who was no longer paying attention to him. He snuck off to the shelves behind where Piper and Eddie were sitting. Finally, he could hear what they were saying.

"…not sure how long this is gonna take. This encryption is the most difficult I've ever had to deal with, and it's not even the most advanced encryption software out there, might have been at the time but still. Without JARVIS I'm not that great at this. I need to practice." Eddie shook his head.

"I mean you really don't need to. I don't know anyone who could decode any of this, except you." Piper shook her head.

"You clearly haven't seen my dad try and hack anything." Piper paused. "I'm thinking about telling him what we found." Eddie looked a bit confused.

"About the usb?" Piper nodded.

"Yeah. If the evidence on here can prove that our parents were murdered we need to get it out there." Sam dropped his small stack of books. Piper whirled in her seat. She spotted Sam just as he ducked behind the shelves. Sam heard Eddie stand but something stopped him.

"It's probably just someone being a klutz. Don't worry about it." Sam heard Eddie sit back down. The bell rang and Sam heard the laptop they'd been working on click closed.

"You go on ahead Eddie, I need to grab a few books." Sam began to gather his books and turned to grab the last one only to find Piper holding it out to him.

"If you're gonna snoop on someone don't do it to someone trained by the Black Widow." Piper handed him is book and helped him to his feet.

"We have class but I'll explain what's going on soon I promise. I'm sorry I've been such a flake lately, everything has just been happening so fast I haven't had time to do everything I need to do. The team got put on the back burner and I'm sorry for that. I'll try to do better soon." Sam nodded and cleared his throat.

"You found evidence that points to your parent's murder?" Piper nodded.

"Then that comes first. I understand, the others will too." Piper nodded.

"Just don't tell anyone besides the team, please Sam. I'm not sure who I can trust right now." Sam nodded and held out a fist to Piper.

"We've got your back Piper." Piper fist bumped him and smiled slightly.