When Tony wakes the next morning from a fitful sleep, he walks into the bullpen with his usual unbothered air. However, around him, the atmosphere teems with worry and anxiety as uniformed S.H.I.E.L.D. agents flutter this way and that, their attentions firmly inclined toward the earpieces nestled into their skulls, following the orders whispered to them from higher powers watching over from a CCTV wired room somewhere on a floor high above them. First, Tony wonders if the Task Master has arrived in the city yet, but brushes that thought away. If anything major were to happen, he knows they couldn't function without at least garnering a bit of his input. Tony nods in the direction of one of the frantic agents walking in dizzying patterns across the room, calling out cooly.
"What's wrong?" He asks.
But, for the first time in his life, no one is paying him any attention. They continue on their ant-like paths, tapping in communications into their tablets and muttering things into their earpieces. He holds out his arms, as if to say what gives?
"Anyone?" Tony calls again.
The reply, though, is the same. Complete and total brush-off from everyone running about.
"Will someone tell me what the Hell is going on here?" He shouts, raising his voice.
One young man looks up, but quickly looks away before nearly sprinting out of the room. Tony considers running after him, throwing him across a room and demanding answers, but instead, Tony's increasingly nervous voice calls out to the Heavens, where his only constant communication should be listening at this very moment.
"Jarvis? Jarvis? Are you not online?" Tony calls.
The sound of static, and then the clear voice programmed years ago by the genius currently at a loss for information in his own building.
"Terribly sorry, sir. Mrs. Potts turned me offline last night before departing for California," Jarvis answers, as if the computer is simply waking himself up from a long bout of oversleeping through his alarm.
It isn't out of the realm of possibility that this should be the case. After all, in their home in California, in an effort to conserve energy, Pepper often turns Jarvis offline whenever she isn't in the house; she left last night to return to their home on the West coast and Tony decided to follow behind her later this afternoon, after ensuring that Peter would be fine with his training and continuing on his own. If he was being completely honest, he might have admitted that he wanted to say goodbye to Lee before departing, but the last thing Tony ever strives to be is honest with himself. He's just about to ask Jarvis why Pepper might have done such a thing here, where SHIELD is footing the electric bill instead of them, but no sooner has the thought crossed his mind than Bruce is storming into the room, huffing and puffing as though he's been traipsing the halls at a brisk jog.
"Tony!" Bruce says, relief coloring his tone at the sight of his friend.
It takes everything that Bruce has within him to ignore the boulder of shame tugging him to the bottom of the deepest ocean at the sight of Tony. After all, Bruce did just let Lee walk out last night. Just let her leave. But, on the other hand, Bruce thinks with the chip on his shoulder growing more and more by the second, if Tony had wanted her to stay, he would have only had to attempt to be a father. After all, Bruce is almost certain that's the only reason Lee agreed to this whole charade in the first place. Not for money and certainly not for a meal ticket from Stark Industries. But to get close to her father for the first time ever.
"I'll deal with that later," Tony mumbles to himself, thinking about Pepper and Jarvis before turning to face his fellow scientist.
Bruce calls out to Tony once more.
"Tony!"
Frustration coiling his muscles, the other man snaps.
"What?" He nearly shouts.
There's a reason the agents have been combing the halls and ignoring even Mr. Stark.
"Have you seen Peter?" Bruce asks.
Tony furrows his eyebrows. They weren't going to start training until after ten this morning, and he and Peter weren't exactly chummy yesterday or anything. Save for the obvious reasons of Peter "dating" Tony's only daughter, Tony has little reason to engage Parker at all. So, this question naturally catches him off-guard. He folds his arms across his chest.
"Why would I have seen Parker?" He asks.
Bruce's shame now comes from the fact that Peter Parker can't be found by the greatest defense agency this world has possibly ever seen. Bruce rubs the back of his neck.
"No one can find him. We're all-"
An eye roll from the billionaire.
"Fine," Tony says, snapping at no one in particular before raising his voice to the communications system he built. Christ, Tony thinks to himself, I have to do just about everything around here, don't I? "Jarvis, where's Peter?"
The answer comes almost immediately, quieting Bruce's greatest fears that Parker abandoned them when he woke up this morning to an empty bed.
"Top floor terrace. Behind a water tank," Jarvis says, indicating that Peter has found one of the few areas in the entirety of this building that is a veritable blackspot for any and all S.H.I.E.L.D. detection and scanning devices. Not that it's anyone's business, but Tony built in a few such spots this way so that he and Pepper could sneak off and fool around without coming up on the security scans and readings. Nothing's more romantic than New York City at night.
The last thing that Tony wants to do is confront the young man so obviously hiding from the people he's been employed by, so he offers the job first to Bruce, hoping on hope that he will take it.
"You wanna take this?" Tony asks.
While Bruce knows he should, if only to keep the reality of Lee's disappearance from Tony for a few more minutes, he's been asked to personally keep Fury updated on the situation with Peter. And now that the young man's been found, he knows Fury will want no delay in the information. Bruce shrugs and shakes his head before retreating to the door. Tony thinks that perhaps Bruce is being a bit dodgy, a bit twitchy, and he fleetingly wonders why his friend is refusing so absolutely to look him in the eye.
"Gotta go find Fury," Bruce says apologetically before leaving the room, leaving Tony alone.
"Great," the man sighs once Bruce has gone.
It does not occur to Tony, not even for a moment, to ask where his daughter has been during all of this.
When Tony strides up to the rooftop terrace, he spots Peter exactly where Jarvis said he would be. Crouched behind a water tank, he sits on the ground with his knees pulled up to his chest and his head in his hands. He doesn't move. And for a second, Tony wonders if he's even breathing. But breathing he is, though Peter never knew a person could be in so much pain and continue drawing in air as though they're still alive. Taking a few steps closer to the still form curled up, Tony lets his arrogant tone fill the space between them.
"You're exactly in the most obvious place you could have hidden. Can't believe they couldn't find you," he says, the words rolling off with a harsh savoir faire.
But Peter has no inkling, no desire to move. He does not bat an eyelash at Tony's arrival or words, nor does he twitch to take in the new man's presence. Instead, he remains completely locked inside of himself. He's a man struggling for breath under the pain of a knife wound. Only, Tony can't see that Peter's been stabbed. And because he can't see that, his flippant attitude doesn't let up for even a second. With a sigh of frustration, Tony nods towards the door.
"C'mon. Let's go inside. Training and all that," Tony says, pulling the sliding glass door open and moving to usher Peter inside.
"Leave me alone," comes a small voice from the fragile figure curled up on the ground.
In those few words, Tony hears a quiver that disgusts him, a vocal tremble that can only come from crying. He doesn't do a particularly good job of hiding such impassioned disdain from his face or his tone.
"Are you crying? What the fuck is wrong with you?" Tony accosts, reproaching the young man.
And, when he fears that his words might be mistaken for caring, Tony adds:
"Not that I care. I'm just prepping you for what it'll be like when you get in there."
Two small words. Two small words that are the hands ripping open the scar tissue on Peter's heart. He speaks them now, rubbing his eyes free of the silent tears making tiny track marks down his skin.
"She's gone," Peter says.
The broken nature of those two words are enough to make Tony stop and listen for the first time. Oblivious and trapped in a world of his own design, Tony doesn't even see that which is staring him right in the face.
"Who?" Tony asks.
It takes Peter a moment to compose himself enough to get the words out, to say her name. To say the name of the person he failed.
"Lee. She's just gone," Peter finally manages.
Tony scoffs. Lee isn't going anywhere, as far as he's concerned. Lee couldn't leave him. No, she's too obsessed with the idea of being the perfect daughter to Tony to leave. The notion of her just disappearing seems so far-fetched that it borders on the ridiculous.
"I'm sure she just went out to get bubblegum or something," Tony says, rolling his eyes.
But she didn't. And Peter knows that because he thought the same thing when he woke up this morning, alone in bed. He thought she was in the shower. She wasn't. Thought she was eating breakfast. She wasn't. Thought she was wandering the halls. She wasn't. Thought she was in the library or the training facilities or on this terrace. But she wasn't. She left. Lee left him. And the only reason Peter can see for that is because he failed her. She must have been too scared to remain here, too scared that she could be used against him or too scared of the impending threat or too scared that he told her he loved her. Each of those scenarios haunts Peter more than the one that came before it. He struggles to find words to express just how clear this reality is for him.
"No, you don't- She's gone. All of her stuff, everything. I've been calling and calling but her phone just goes to voicemail. The security guard said he watched her leave last night with her backpack."
It takes Tony a moment to work through that series of statements creating a picture in his mind. Lee left, he finally reads out in the back of his consciousness. She just packed her stuff and left. She left. And now, even more startling and black-hole inducing, she's gone. Tony feels like Atlas in that moment; the world has been tossed like a pebble onto his shoulders and is trying to crush him into the dirt below. Because he wants to ask a million questions to the young man with dead eyes currently trying to collect the fragments of his shattered heart in front of him. He wants to shout and throw things and call her and demand that she speak to her father because he knows what's best for her and this was certainly not it. But he doesn't. Because he can't. Because Peter still cannot know that Lee is his daughter.
So, Tony settles for clearing his throat and offering something pithy.
"Well. Um. People leave, Pete," he says, his throat constricting painfully around the words.
But, as always, Peter has an answer to even something as definite as that. Even the laws governing humanity do not interest Peter Parker. He shakes his head and returns it to his hands. He's run over this from the moment he found out that she left, trying to understand why she would leave, why she would go anywhere without him. Why she would leave him behind. So, this is a question he's grappled with.
"Not her. Her dad left before she was born and she-" He trips over his words as he encounters Tony's harsh, abrupt stare, "I just didn't think she wanted to be like him," he finally finishes, his voice almost whispering.
Those words spoken so candidly, so freely, are like electric shocks to every molecule of Tony's body. It takes him a while before he's able to place his mask of indifference back onto his features, carefully composing himself into a somewhat coherent melody.
"Maybe she was more like him than she realized," Tony settles.
And maybe she was more like him that he realized.
Peter thinks of everything that's transpired. He knew, somehow, in his heart of hearts, that he was going to lose her. He just knew it. And now, he's nothing but a fool left alone, fighting in a war, for an army that he couldn't be less interested in enlisting with. Peter shakes his head miserably.
"I knew it would happen, too. It was stupid, but she never gave me enough. It's like she was planning to leave all along."
Like she was getting ready to cut and run at the first sign of trouble, like she was terrified of getting too close to him. Always just out of arm's reach, just close enough that Peter could believe she was as in love with him as he felt he was with her, but just far enough that she could jump into the nearest lifeboat when she felt herself begin to drown under the waves of his affections.
Peter knows that she left because she was scared; he can feel it in his very bones. Somehow, it brings him comfort and agony all at the same time.
Tony gives up on trying to help the young man. Peter isn't interested in feeling better; he simply wants to wallow in his own misery, which Tony understands. Because at this moment, Tony wants nothing more than to do the same. For the last time, Tony returns to the sliding glass doors leading back into the building before turning and asking, just for confirmation. He asks mostly because Tony wants so desperately for it to be untrue.
"You're sure she's gone?" Tony asks.
Peter nods. A final death blow.
"Yeah. I'm sure."
I know it's a little short, but I wanted to make sure this chapter was on time and I'd rather give you guys something shorter and be pleased with it than something longer that I hated. I hope you guys enjoy the chapter! Thank you so much for all of the excellent reviews on the last chapter. I promise I'll respond to them tonight! Can't wait to hear your thoughts on this one! (the next chapter features a...much different scene between Bruce and Tony. Tensions will be high!