Disclaimer: I don't own them – so don't sue….I'm just a poor school teacher. The author's note is at the end.


Chapter 16:

"I still don't get why she punched you." Steve said as the group, minus Emma and Clint, sat around an outside table, enjoying the early May night and eating pizza for dinner. Tony was still nursing his swollen eye with a bag of frozen peas that Pepper insisted he keep on it.

"Tony doesn't know how tell things to people nicely or gently." Pepper said bringing him a different frozen vegetable bag. This time it was corn.

"Seriously Pepper, I've been at this for an hour. It's fine now." Tony said, trying to fight his fiancée off. But it wasn't working.

"Thor, do you mind?" she asked.

"I'm sorry, my friend," Thor said, reaching behind Tony and pulling his hands behind his back and holding them there while Pepper pressed the frozen corn to his swollen eye.

"Now you say that you don't get this Steve, but I think I do," Bruce said. "Tony had a sister who died with his parents in the car accident. But a few weeks ago, Fury told him otherwise. So now Tony thinks that Emma Carter is his sister. And since he told it to her in typical Tony Stark fashion, he ended up getting punched by a S.H.E.I.L.D. assassin."

"She is my sister." Tony said, still trying to fight off Pepper and now Thor, which was not working out.

"What proof do you have, Stark?" Natasha asked.

"Fury's word for one. I swear that female S.H.E.I.L.D. agents are all trained from a young age on how to be stealthy like yourself," he retorted as he finally just sat back and allowed Pepper to hold the frozen corn to his eye.

"I wasn't trained by S.H.E.I.L.D."

"Whatever. This is all beside the point. Emma Carter is really my little sister."

"And hopefully it doesn't tear this new team apart." Steve said getting up and leaving the table and bit frustrated by the entire situation. Natasha quickly got up from the table and followed him to try to figure out what was bugging him. Seeing that there was very little that could be done, Bruce retreated to his room to read for a bit.

"Hey big guy, you can loosen your grip a bit," Tony said throwing a look at Thor, who in returned looked up at Pepper. She nodded that it was fine that he let go. Sensing that it might be a good time to leave as well, Thor grabbed one of the half eaten boxes of pizza and retreated into the house as well, mumbling something about going to watch the 'magic box' – which obviously meant the television – leaving only Tony and Pepper outside.

Tony turned to look at his fiancée, who had since dropped her hold on the frozen bag of corn. She was glaring at him. "What?" he asked.

"I hope Steve is right and that by you going and telling Emma that you two are siblings doesn't go and tear this team apart because this has been the most family that you have had in a good long while. And believe it or not, you have been happy these last few weeks Tony. Even before Fury told you about Emma. You should have thought about them before you thought about yourself!"

She too, turned and stormed into the house, leaving him outside by himself.

Leaning back and looking up at the slowly darkening sky, Tony couldn't help but feel that all of them were actually right. He should had waited a while longer to tell Emma, but the thought of his little sister being alive after him mourning her for so long was too much. If he had been given the choice of having just one person survive that car accident, it would have been Emma. And now part of him had almost come back to life simply because he knew that she was alive. Screw how she turned out – being a S.H.E.I.L.D. assassin and all – but she was alive.

"So I take it we missed the party?"

Tony sat up straight and looked in front of him. Standing there was Clint and Emma. "No not really. Everyone just got done eating then went to do their own thing," Tony said.

"I'll just grab some of this and join Thor then," Clint said, grabbing a few of the pizza boxes and heading for the house where the television was clearly audible and Thor's booming laugh could be heard.

Emma sat down next to Tony once Clint had left the patio area. "Look I'm sorry for punching your earlier. It was a reflex of mine to get out of situations. Even my own husband knows not to sneak up on me."

"No harm, now foul." Tony said with a smile. "Pepper will hook me up with some awesome concealer before the party on Saturday and everything will be great!"

Emma managed to break a smile. "Is everything always a joke to you?"

"I honestly try not to make it that way, but it just comes out that way. But when you've been through all that I have, you try to look on the brighter side of things."

"I'm sorry that things happened the way they did." Emma said looking away, trying to fight back the tears again.

"Hey you're here aren't you? That car accident wasn't your fault. Neither was your head injury. Now it is my turn to help you remember what I can about your all too brief childhood. I know that mom and dad kept a ton of home movies and pictures of you. I'll go dig them out if you want and then embarrass you and perhaps myself in front of the rest of the team if you want."

Emma laughed a bit. "I'd like that."

The Stark siblings stood up from the table and for the first time in over 20 years shared a long overdue hug. And finally something in Tony Stark felt right – he felt complete. He had his family back.


"See, he can be a pompous ass, but he also does have his moments." Natasha whispered as she and Steve stood on the other side of the pool deck, watching the hug between Emma and Tony. They were hidden by some bushes as well. After she had caught up with him after he had left the table, they had talked for a few minutes.

She had managed to convince him to give Tony a chance with this entire sibling ordeal. Natasha would never admit, but she had begun to consider all the Avengers her family and she knew that Steve felt the same way. In fact, all the Avengers felt that way about each other and slowly they were beginning to warm up to having Emma around – that was with the exception of Clint, but that was expected.

"I hope you're right about this." Steve replied.

"Me too."


AN: I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter! Sorry it took so long to get up but real life got in the way – being told I'm teaching a new subject next school year, family coming in town, breaking up with the boyfriend – so yeah. Anyways, pleaseeeeeeeeeee review! I have so many people on story alert, that one little review won't kill you will it? It makes me happy to see review alerts! Also, if you would like to see a story about the beginnings of Clint and Emma's relationship let me know and I'll write it. Peace for now!