"Hey, when's Pepper coming?" I ask to anybody as we watch Aladdin in my hospital room. It was day two of my stay, and my family had brought over some movies. Nobody answered.

"Hello? Anyone?" I jokingly ask again.

"Oh, um…soon probably." Tony answered quite awkwardly, dodging the question with a flick of his hand. Suddenly it dawned on me.

"She doesn't know, does she?" I ask, louder. "That I'm here. That you're back. Oh my gosh. I don't believe it."

"We just wanted to make sure you were okay…"Clint offers.

I put my hands up to my face. "You guys. That's not an excuse. Get her here now." I order. Nobody moves. "NOW."

Tony rushes out the door, whipping out his cellphone.

He comes back after a few minutes.

"Happy is bringing her over. They'll be here in no time." He announces.

BREAK

The movie was at the part where Aladdin is cast onto the snowy mountain with Abu when Pepper bursts in, flinging the door so hard it smacks against the wall.

"ANTHONY EDWARD STARK! HOW DARE YOU!" she yells, her heels clacking loudly as she walks irately up to him. "You have been alive all this time and you never told me! I thought I had lost not only you but everyone else! And I guess you decided that it wasn't a big deal for Beth to be in the hospital with a severe head injury?! I can't believe you…" she trails off at the end, suddenly clinging to Tony and crying in his shoulder. We all avert our attention until she stops after a minute or two.

"I'm going to wash my face and then I better get an explanation." She states plainly and walks into the tiny bathroom.

BREAK

"You guys got some explaining to do…" I say when Pepper comes back. "Please give us the whole story and don't even think of sugar-coating it."

"Well. We were sent to a Russian terrorist base in Siberia." Bruce begins. "We were supposed to simply evacuate the hostages and shut the operation down."

"Unfortunately, when Tony was trying to wipe the hard drive, a virus was somehow passed to Jarvis in his suit. It was extremely advanced, immediately tapping into his personal files." Clint added.

"Personal information. Pictures of you and Pepper. Our address." Steve said. "If they got a hold of that kind of information, you guys would be hunted down."

"I shut down Jarvis and my suit, blocking the virus from copying anything. By that time, the others had already freed the hostages and eliminated the terrorist threat. We decided it would be safest to also destroy our communicators. Just to be sure that the virus hadn't somehow infected them as well." Tony said.

"That explains why you dropped off the map. But, why did it take you so long to come home?" I ask.

"We wanted to be as inconspicuous as possible. So we walked. Also, the quinjet was blown up." Natasha explained. "Until we could hitch a ride on a barge across the Atlantic. It was quite an adventure I suppose."

"Interesting. I guess we're just glad you're back safe and sound." Pepper said. I nodded.

"This just occurred to me. Why were you leaving the Tower?" Thor asked.

I sigh. "Ah. I was wondering when this would come up. Fury said that I was violating multiple government regulations by living there by myself. I had to move in with my next of kin. Which is my stepmom."

"I see. What is a stepmom?" Thor asked again.

"If your parents get a divorce and then your dad remarries, his new wife is called your stepmom." I explain. "To tell you the truth, I absolutely despised her. Remember how my dad wasn't ever around? I was stuck with her all the time because my real mom moved to Indiana. My stepmom hated me too. She was always comparing me to her son Connor, who was just a year younger than me. The only one I liked in that family was my real little sister, Josie. We had been together from the very beginning, back when my parents were still married. Both my stepmom and I were overjoyed when I came to live with you guys, so moving back would have been absolute torture." I finish.

"I guess it's safe to say none of us really had a spectacular childhood. Except I guess Pepper and Thor." Clint says.

"This is the truth. But it does not do well to dwell on the past. This I have learned through my time on Midguard. Let us continue witnessing the tale of the beggar boy and his-what is the word? Ah, yes. Genie." Thor suggests, and I can't help but laugh.