AN: Long wait between chapters, I know. I'm sorry about that, but I hope you enjoy it!
OOOOOO
"So where are you?"
Peter smiled.
"Still in the car."
Ned's eyes widened.
"Seriously…?"
"No, Ned," Steve said from the front of the car. "He's back in the car."
"Where did you go?" Ned asked, cheerfully.
"To the Smithsonian.," Peter said. He looked at Steve and Bucky. "Can I tell him?"
"It isn't a secret," Rogers pointed out. "Go ahead."
He didn't say it, but he was looking forward to Ned's response at finding out Peter's grandfather had been a spy.
"We were checking out some of the World War 2 exhibits," Peter told his friend.
"The one with Steve?"
"Yeah." He grinned at the way Bucky smirked at the reminder that everyone knew about that exhibit. Bucky was used to Steve being famous, of course, but it was still fun when Steve's ears would turn pink at the reminder of it all. "But we were also looking at the ones on the OSS."
"What's that?"
"Look it up."
There was a pause while Ned did just that, rolling his eyes at being forced to do homework on a weekend.
"Spies?"
"Yeah."
"Like Steve?"
"I wasn't a spy," Steve objected, amused. "When we went somewhere, we made sure everyone knew it was us."
"He's right about that," Bucky agreed.
"Not like Steve," Peter said. He paused for dramatic affect. "Like my grandpa."
"Your…" Ned frowned. "Your dad's dad? The one that knew Nico's grandpa?"
"Yeah."
"He was a spy?"
"He was with the OSS," Peter confirmed. "I took pictures…" his fingers flew on his phone as he accessed some of the photos and sent them to his friend. "Check it out."
Ned opted to pull them up on his tablet and Peter watched, cheerfully, as his friend's eyes widened.
"Wow. He was a spy."
"Yeah. Neat, huh?"
"Crazy," Ned said, nodding. "No wonder Natasha likes you so much."
"She likes me because I'm cute and make her smile," Peter told his friend, amused. "Not because of my grandpa."
"Maybe…" Ned looked at the pictures, again. "That's awesome, Peter."
"I know."
"He'll have to call you, later, Ned," Steve said as the car turned into a driveway that led onto a street lined with flags. "We're here."
"Okay. Bye."
Ned knew that Peter would tell him everything later, so he was willing to end the call – for now.
Peter put his phone in his pocket and looked around with interest.
"Where are we?"
"Arlington," Bucky said, his voice slightly hushed as they drove down the paved road. It wasn't all that wide, but Peter couldn't miss all of the gravestones lined up in neat rows. They were everywhere – and there were scattered people in groups and in singles or couples who were wandering among them. "It's a military cemetery," Barnes added, in case Peter didn't know. "Members of the armed services get buried here."
"All of them?"
"A lot of them," Steve confirmed. "JFK is buried, here."
"Wow." Even Peter knew who that was – despite it being well before his time. "Is this where you're going to be buried?"
Bucky smiled, answering before Steve could.
"They'll probably mummify him and put him on display at the Smithsonian."
It made Rogers smile, too, but he pulled into a parking lot.
"We thought this would interest you," he told the boy. "Because your grandpa is buried, here."
"Oh." Peter hesitated. "And my grandma?" he asked. "Or is she somewhere else?"
"She's with him," Steve assured Peter. "Spouses can be buried with here, too, even if they aren't military."
"But from what I understand from Steve's research, she was in the Army…"
"Really? Was she a spy, too?"
"She was a nurse," Steve told him, parking and turning off the car. "In Pearl Harbor. You think your grandpa's interesting," he added. "You should read what I learned about her."
"Really?"
Both men smiled.
"Tony's going to upload the information," Steve told him. "So you'll have a chance to read it when you're ready. Come on," he said. "I'm looking forward to meeting them."
Peter was, too.
OOOOOOOOOO
"What did you learn?"
Alex shrugged, not at all annoyed at the question coming before any kind of greeting – even though he'd been gone a few days.
"He just dropped dead, just like the reports said."
"What killed him?"
"They're assuming brain aneurism, Joel. They already know it runs in the family, right? Apparently it can be a genetic thing. And no sign of a heart attack, or anything like that."
Joel King frowned at that.
"The timing is pretty suspicious. You know Varsto was worried about an attempted take over out there. Now he and his cousin are both dead…"
"Varsto was worried about James, though," Alex pointed out. "When I was out there, he was looking over his shoulder like he was worried he was going to be the next to go. He didn't do it."
"Do you think we have anything to worry about?"
"No. We're solid. I think if I was a member of the Varsto family I'd be heading for the doctor to have my brain scanned, though."
King snorted, softly, in agreement, and then nodded.
"Is James going to take over the west coast?"
"Most likely. He'll be busy consolidating, though, so you won't have to pay him a visit for a while. Even then, you won't need to do much more than just go meet long enough to make sure he doesn't need anything."
"Good enough." He walked over to his desk and settled himself into the expensive leather seat. "Back to business, then."
He'd been away, after all, and Alex needed to be caught up on anything that he'd missed that he hadn't already read on the flight home.
OOOOOOOOOOOOO
It was one stone. White marble in a simple stone square that was the same shape as every other headstone on the row – and across from it. There were two names carved neatly into the marble: Jefferson Parker, and Petra Parker. Both were proclaimed to be beloved parents and grandparents, with the dates of birth telling Peter that his grandmother had been two years older than his grandpa, and that she'd died four years before he had.
"I don't understand the pennies…" he said, after looking at the various coins that were resting on the top of the stone. He'd seen several coins on other stones as they'd walked through the cemetery. Mostly pennies, but sometimes he'd seen dimes and nickels – and even a quarter, or two. Never any paper money, though. "What are they for?"
"It's an ancient custom," Steve said, also looking at the coins. "I won't bore you with the old stuff – you can have Ned tell you, since I'm sure he knows – but the short explanation is that people leave them, as a tribute, of sorts. A penny means you're paying your respects, or letting the family of the deceased know that you've been there. A nickel means that the person who left it went to bootcamp with the person buried there. A dime means they served together and a quarter means that the person was there when they died."
He stepped up and set a penny on the headstone.
"That's pretty neat."
"Yeah." Bucky had clearly known the tradition, as well, because he, too, had a penny to rest on the stone, beside Steve's. "Need any change?"
Peter smiled, his hand going into his pocket.
"I have some." He pulled out a small handful of change, confirming that there was a penny. "One for each? Or just one for both?"
"It's up to you, buddy," Steve replied. "We're going to go check some of the other stones," he said. "But we'll be around if you need anything, alright?"
Peter knew that it was their own way to leave him alone and give him a chance to spend some alone time with his grandparents much in the same way that he spent time with his parents and May. He smiled, because he was looking forward to it – even if he hadn't known either of them, really.
"Yeah. Thanks."
The two men wandered off, looking at the other stones but Peter knew that they were also watching the area, carefully, keeping an eye on things. It allowed him the chance to focus on the stone in front of him.
"You've been here, before," Alec reminded him.
The video his parents had left him had mentioned returning from burying his grandpa, after all, so Peter had been here, before.
"True."
He picked out a couple of pennies and stepped forward.
