Summary: Tony is no stranger to paternity claims from his female conquests, there's a system in place for them. But when one of the tests actually comes back positive, he makes a rash decision to not tell anyone about it, not even Pepper Potts. All Mary Parker wants is for Tony to spend a little time with their son, and she'll badger Tony Stark into showing up at least twice a month in any way that she can.
And then he goes missing for three months in Afghanistan. Tony has a lot to think about in his life now, how he wants to run his company, how his life is going to change with the arc reactor, and what he's going to do about his son, Peter. Then, the Avengers Initiative pops up, and in waltzes his childhood hero, and enemy, Captain America.
Follows IM1, IM2, Avengers, Cap2. Not canon-compliant, but follows the plots.
A/N: The next chapter will finish up IM1.
This is un-Beta'd so I apologize for errors, I'll catch them as I go along.
I own nothing except my imagination, everything else belongs to Marvel.
Tony wrinkled his nose a little. He had closed his eyes to give them a little relief as the sun acme up, shining through the window, and now there was something on his nose. No, wait. Something was, petting his nose? Tony opened his eyes and saw Peter's eyes were open, looking at him, his little hand petting him. When Tony's eyes opened he grinned, letting out a little squeal.
"Daddy," he exclaimed, sleep still in his voice. "Still here."
Tony's arm tightened around Peter a little more, and he dropped a kiss on his forehead. "Yeah, I'm still here, Petey." Pete snuggled against Tony's chest, hand tapping the arc reactor a couple times.
"You have a light," Peter said softly, looking at the blue white glow.
"Yup," Tony nodded a little.
"Does it hurt?" Bright brown eyes looked up at Tony, then back down at the reactor.
"It used to," Tony told him. Of course it hurt him, it was huge compared to his chest, and it had a strange energy running through it that a human body wasn't meant to handle. The latter he had gotten used to though. But the weight of his sitting on his ribs, on his chest? That he didn't think he would ever get used to. Jarvis would have specs for a thinner, more efficient, model ready by now. But he wasn't about to tell his two year old son that it hurt, or how he had gotten it.
"I like blue," Peter said, running his fingers around the outside, tracing the circle. "Mama say bad people hurt you." Tony blinked a little. He wondered just how much him being gone had affected Peter. "That they took you."
"They did, when I was working," Tony said carefully. "They wanted me to make them something, something bad."
"Did you?" His little voice asked.
"Nope." Tony shook his head back and forth. "Because, those bad people would have used that bad thing to hurt lots of other people. They might have hurt you, and so I had to make sure that that didn't happen." Tony carded his fingers through Peter's hair. "But you want to know what's more important?" Little hazel eyes looked up at him. "That today is your birthday!" Peter suddenly grinned and jumped up, hands and knees knocking into Tony, making him grunt and chuckle.
"I'm two!" Peter went to jump off the bed and Tony wrapped his arms around Peter's waist and sat up. He let the toddler down on his feet and watched him scramble out of the bedroom, to no doubt wake up his mom. Now that Peter was gone from the room, Tony took a moment to run his hands through his hair, and let out a yawn, the night of no sleeping catching up to him. He wanted to watch Peter sleep, but he also knew that he would have nightmares, and he couldn't subject the little boy to that.
Tony brushed his shirt a little, trying to smooth it out a bit, before heading out into the hall. "Pancakes!" He heard Peter shout excitedly. Tony pulled out his phone, pulling up the recording option. "But it's not Saturday!"
"But it's your birthday," Mary told the ecstatic little boy as he pulled himself up into his booster seat. "That means your get special pancakes." There was a little gasp as Tony leaned against the wall, filming Mary and Peter.
"Blueberry?!" Peter looked like his eyes might pop out of his head. Mary was standing over the stove, flipping a pancake out of the pan and onto a plate. Turning around she put the plate in front of Peter, the dark little berries visible on the perfectly cooked food. Peter squealed and jumped, almost falling out of his seat. Tony rushed forward, grabbing the collar of Peter's shirt and pulling him back straight. "Daddy!" Peter turned his head to look up at Tony, and unknowingly into the camera. "I get blueberry pancakes!"
Tony chuckled and smiled at him. "I don't think that Daddy knows why that's so important," Mary said as she helped Peter cut his pancakes. "Why don't you tell him?"
"Every Saturday Mama makes pancakes," Peter smiled, reaching for the syrup bottle with both hands. "But on reallllllly special days, she makes blueberry! I like blueberries."
"I like blueberries, too," Tony said, smiling, as he shut off the recording. He turned on the mobile data on his phone, and sent the video to Rhodey. He was glad that he had gone through all the messages at the mansion before coming over.
"I made plenty of pancakes," Mary said, smiling at Tony. "Sit next to Peter."
"I'm not used to eating breakfast," Tony said, even as he sat in the chair anyway.
"You're not used to being awake at this time, let's be honest," Mary countered with a smirk.
"Touche," Tony snorted a little, smiling as Mary put down a mug of coffee. He blinked when a little plastic fork with a few pieces of pancake on the end appeared from the side of his face. He glanced over and saw Peter holding it out to Tony, smiling with syrup already around his mouth, little splotches of blueberry on his lips
"Eat, Daddy," Peter said with a smile, waving the little fork. "Birfday pancakes!"
"But, it's not my birthday," Tony told him, turning into his chair a little to face the little boy. "Those are your cakes, buddy."
"I wanna share." Peter grinned. Tony blinked then leaned in to take the bite that Peter was offering, and the little boy happily turned back to his plate. Mary sat down at the other chair at the table, putting down two plates on the table for them.
"We've been working on sharing," Mary told him, pouring some juice for herself. "Getting him ready for school."
"Have you been looking at schools? Like I told you to so long ago?" Tony smirked a little at the look she gave him. "I get that look a lot, usually from my personal assistant, when she's secretly hoping that I'll just stop talking and generally making her job harder."
"And yet, it doesn't stop you?" Mary tilted her head at him.
"Character flaw."
Mary snorted.
Tony phone dinged and he grabbed it, seeing a response from Rhodey. 'Don't forget what you said on the plane.' Tony let his lips turn up just a little in a smile.
Tony looked at the guest room, leaning against the door jamb, taking in the current decor and layout. It was right by his room, the Master Bedroom.
"It seems a little big, Sir," Jarvis intoned.
"But he'll grow into it," Tony countered. "I'm sure teenagers need lots of room."
"We're still more than a decade from that eventuality," Jarvis said as Tony took his tablet and moved some furniture around on the generated layout. "I believe that it is natural for children to change their rooms several times during their adolescents with their parents."
"Yeah, I wouldn't know about that," Tony muttered, moving the bed. "Although, does it count if I changed rooms with different boarding schools?"
"I'm afraid not, Sir."
"Didn't think so," Tony nodded.
"Sir, Colonel Rhodes is arriving," Jarvis said, bringing up the camera view of outside the front door.
"Go ahead and let him in." Tony swiped away the camera. "Go ahead and let him know where I am, maybe he can help me."
"I was not aware that designing a child's room was that difficult-"
"Mute," Tony grumbled. "I think you're developing Sass, and I don't like it."
"Upset that your AI is starting to take after you?" Tony looked over as Rhodey walked down the hall, over to his friend. "Consider this a warning, for what Peter might be like."
"You mean awesome, he'll be Awesome." Tony pointed at Rhodey. "Good job on the present by the way, he loved it."
"You practically gave me the SKU number, Tony," Rhodey rolled his eyes good naturedly.
"Every Stark needs their first "Little Scientists Kit"," Tony urged as Rhodey leaned over to look at what was on the tablet.
"And if he doesn't want to go into science, or anything else like it?" The military man asked, moving the bed around on the screen. Tony wrinkled up his face a little, but didn't undo what Rhodey had done. "What if he wants to be an artist? Or a chef?"
"Then I'll get him a paint set, or a shadow with an executive chef," Tony answered simply. "But, until he's old enough to start to figure that out, I'm going to cultivate the genius brewing inside of him."
Rhodey watched him for a few moments, watching as Tony threw himself into this, like he did with most projects, but there was something different about him this time. "You know what the weirdest thing is right now?" Tony hummed, but didn't look over at him. "Is watching you actually act like a Dad, with responsibility, and all that. Have you even had a drink, yet?"
"I had three glasses of scotch last night," Tony said automatically. "I don't drink when I'm going to see Peter."
"Sir has done since the discovery of young Master Peter," Jarvis filled in and Tony grunted a little.
"It was one of Mary's rules," Tony told him. "I mean, back then, it was an annoying rule, but now I'm glad that I at least listened to it. Made me less like,..."
"Judging from that video you sent me two days ago, he's a happy kid." Rhodey knew that he was comparing himself to Howard, he always would compare himself to that man.
"That's all Mary's work," Tony said shaking his head. "I showed up a few times a month, talked to the kid and played with him."
"And believe it or not, that actually helps, Tony," Rhodey assured him. "Specially for growing kids, who need their social-"
"Why are you here again?" Tony stopped and looked over at Rhodey.
"You asked me to come over," he told him. "Remember, you called me yesterday and we had this whole conversation. I said that the end of my 72 hour leave was coming up,and then I'd actually have to go back to doing my military job, and you said-"
"Right, I remember now," Tony said waving his hand to stop him. "I need a favor."
"A favor?" Rhodey raised an eyebrow at him. "You're going to ask me for a favor?"
"I was held in captivity for three months," Tony turned to face him. "I had to traumatize my PA into hooking up my new arc reactor," he tapped the new model to emphasize his point, "and-"
"Tony, alright!" Rhodey rubbed the bridge of his nose. "What do you need?"
"I need you to go pick up Peter." Tony grinned. "Pepper is gone for a couple days, I was told to lay low by Obie, and all the work that I could be doing down in the workshop can't happen until Jarvis is done running models and specs."
"I am working diligently, Sir," Jarvis assured him.
"I talked to Mary, and she said that she had to work late tonight, and that Peter had been spending a lot of nights at his grandparents place-"
"Which doesn't make it a bad thing," Rhodey interjected.
"-and I asked if it would help, and if it would be okay, if maybe Peter spent the night here." Tony finished, like Rhodey hadn't said anything. "And you Pooh Bear, don't have to be back to base until tomorrow night."
"So you need a chaperon for you to be a chaperon?" Rhodey asked with a smirk.
"... I'm keeping my promise of letting you meet my kid," Tony grumbled back to him. He wasn't about to let Rhodey know that he was a little correct. That he would feel more comfortable if Rhodey spent the night, so that he wasn't alone.
"Count me in," Rhodey said with a smile. "I'll need to get an overnight bag-"
"Like you don't have one in your car, already," Tony said, eyebrow raised. "Also, I'm giving you the most important task, right next to saving my handsome ass from a desert, of taking me to pick up Peter." Rhodey raised both eyebrow, a little surprised. "I can't take any of my cars, and I can't ask Happy. If the press sees my car, even the town car leave, they'll follow and they'll see Peter."
"And you and Mary have agreed to not say anything yet?" Rhodey asked.
"Nope, not yet," Tony shook his head. "She kind of works for the FBI, and Pete's only two, so he doesn't need that kind of attention."
"Probably good thinking, but that's going to make being an effective Dad a little hard."
Tony walked into the guest room and started to strip the blankets and sheets off the bed. "Yeah, I'm working on that plan. I've got a few things on my mind."
"Enough things that keep you from sleeping?" Rhodey asked, watching Tony pause, but kept at his task. "I can see that you haven't slept in a while."
"Sleeping is overrated," Tony mumbled. From the other side of the bed Tony pulled out some fresh blue sheets. Rhodey blinked, unaware of where the sheets had come from. He stopped questioning things, well most things, with Tony a long time ago. Maybe at MIT.
"Have you slept since coming home?" He walked over to help Tony put on the new sheets.
"Of course I have, I even have the unmade bed as proof," Tony responded easily.
"Perhaps I should have asked if you've gotten any good sleep," Rhodey amended, rolling his eyes a little. "It's okay if you haven't, Tony. Like you said, you were gone for three months. You beat all the odds, and-"
"I'm Tony Stark, I always beat the odds."