Firstly: Oh my goodness guys that was a long ass wait. I'm sorry. My muse got cancer, it was totally serious. Actually, I got a review like yesterday that got a ball rolling in my head, and I finally managed to finish this! Yay!

Secondly: This chapter, as well as various chapters after this are dedicated to JannaKalderash, who at this point is practically a co-author. Her fabulous suggestions were only (barely) hinted at here, but they have greatly shaped the direction of this story. If I haven't mentioned before, I read every single review, they're the best part of my day. And the comments and suggestions you make there help me /tons/ even if I don't use them, I want to make a point to at least reference them. I just can't believe the response I've been getting from this story, and hope you guys stay enthusiastic about it.

And Thirdly: Eh…Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year! Yeah that was majorly late.
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Chapter 3: Thick as Thieves

It was silent as the elevator made its way downward. The three men were tense and serious, an uncommon sight for at least two of the three, who tended to favor sarcasm in all situations.
But not this one.
The light that indicated floor number landed on the button labeled "basement", and the elevator slowed to a stop.
The rush of cold air that flew in the opening doors only darkened the mood, reminding them why they were there.
The chamber was a massive, yawning him hole in the earth that was much too reminiscent of a medieval dungeon for anyone to be at ease there. The shadowy shapes on the walls and floor did nothing to counter that image, except for the large fluorescent lights along the ceiling that flickered and flooded the cavern with light as the approached the center.
Except for the giant shadowy mass that stood right in the middle.
And when the final light flickered on, the three men looked with grim fascination at all six feet and four inches of Dennis Carradine, encased entirely in solid ice, and his partner
Almost as if on cue, Anthony Stark and Captain George Stacy turned to the man between them.
"So can you do it?"
Tony snorted.
"The real question is can you do it without killing him? As much as I'd love to see the bastard fry, we still need him for interrogation purposes."
The young blonde man smirked and cracked his knuckles.
"You insult me, Stark. You'll get to question him."
He nodded, satisfied, just as his phone buzzed.
A text from Pepper:
She's awake.

Tony shoved his hands into his pockets and made to saunter out the door, as if he had not a care in the world.
"I'll let you get to it then," he said, strolling away.
"Hey Storm..." he called back.
Balls of orange flame erupted in the man's hands.
"Yeah?"
"Alive doesn't mean he can't be extra crispy."
Johnny Storm chuckled.
"You got it Tony."
The elevator doors closed, and Tony Stark was gone.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"How is she?" He asked as they made their way to her room.
Pepper gave him a thoughtful look.
"The doctors aren't sure, but Wanda's got an idea it's magical exhaustion. All that ice took more out of her than I think we even knew she had.
She's better though; her and Peter are already making trouble, so I think they'll be fine," she said, a small smile growing on her face.

Her phone rang, and she stepped aside to answer it.

He nodded, and went inside.

"Daddy!" He heard the moment he entered the the hospital room. But he couldn't exactly see Hermione inside. The nightstand, the floor, and the bed were all covered in various presents that had accumulated in the last three days. The short girl was completely blocked from view, particularly by a very large, very green teddy bear, that dwarfed all of her...Except for her hair, which hadn't been brushed in three days. Frankly, it was beginning to look like a life of its own.
Tony leaned over the massive bear and grinned at what he saw.
Her and Peter were sitting tie together on the bed, making the most of the ridiculous amount of gifts they'd received. Much unlike the night he'd found them, their eyes were alight with laughter, and their mouths were covered in chocolate.
"Let me guess, the bear's from-"
"Aunty Jennifer."
He rolled his eyes.
"Yea, real subtle, she is. And the chocolate?"
"Grandpa."

He chuckled. No surprise there, but the stack of books on the nightstand confused him.

"Um, who brought you an Introduction to Astrophysics?"

"Uncle Hank."

Tony grinned, and locked eyes with Peter.

"How are you, Peter?" He asked, not a little bit of guilt gnawing at him.

The boy smiled.

"I'm okay Mr. Stark."

"Kid, just call me Tony. Mr. Stark is my Dad's name," he corrected.

Peter Parker just grinned as he bit into another chocolate candy.

"So other than giving yourselves cavities, what have you been doing in here?"

She tilted her head in contemplation,

"Well we woke up-"

"And she was like, what year is it?"

"And then Pepper spent like forever hugging me-"

"And Aunty May wouldn't stop crying-"

"And then the nurse came in-"

"And she had presents."

"Like, a lot of presents."

"And it would've been a waste-"

"Not to enjoy them!"

The two kids burst into giggles.

Damn it felt good, knowing she was alright. Better than alright even. He was hard pressed to remember a time when Hermione had had this much fun with kids her own age. That was rare, he knew. In fact, he didn't think she'd met a kid that wasn't at the Xavier Institute, or some snobby dinner party.

Note to self, get Minnie some more friends.

Tony grinned.

"Good to see you kids enjoying yourselves."

A middle-aged nurse with short black hair bustled into the room, a tray of medicines balanced on one hip, and bottles of water cradled in her other hand.

"Ah, Mister Stark, I'm glad you caught them awake," she said.

"Alright children, time for your medicine. It'll probably put you to sleep, so Peter, back into your own bed."

"Yes ma'am", he said, getting into the bed next to Hermione and burrowing underneath the covers.

Hermione pouted, but cleared the mess off her bed to make room for herself.

"What's the medicine for?" Tony asked.

"It might have caught the crooks, but those mutants' methods nearly froze the poor dears. Hermione seems mostly alright, but Peter here nearly got hypothermia, and they both seem to be coming down with colds."

He nearly rolled his eyes at her distaste at the word "mutant", but nodded in understanding.

"Also..." she took a quick glance at the children, who weren't paying attention in the slightest, too busy making silly faces at each other.

"Mr. Stark, we had some...issues with your daughter. We couldn't get a read on her at all when we first brought her in, it was like the equipment just...quit. Eventually we managed to confirm that she is perfectly healthy, but that doesn't correlate with any of preliminary evaluations our emergency responders made. They had clear signs of hypothermia, and not a small amount of bruising, but you wouldn't know it from looking at her. I'd say the girl had been to Disneyland, not kidnapped, as cheerful as she is. Frankly, I don't know what to make of it, and I'm sure it's nothing to be alarmed about, but I felt you should know."

He nodded.

"Thank you Miss...?"

"Joy," she said.

"Yes, thank you Nurse Joy."

With a friendly smile, she left the room.

By the time Pepper came inside, Peter was asleep, and Minnie was decidedly drowsy.

"Daddy?"

"Yeah cupcake?"

Her brown eyes were very serious when they met his.

"You got them, right? You beat them up?"
He chuckled.

"Not personally no, but I understand they'll be in the hospital for a while before they can go to jail."

"Tony!" Pepper reprimanded.

He rolled his eyes.

"Don't act like you're not happy about it," he said smilingly.

"That doesn't mean it's okay. They were horrible people yes, but violence is not always the answer."

A some point in that sentence she had stopped chastising Tony, and was advising Hermione instead. However, there was no changing the kid's mind.

"I think it's a good thing. I hope they learned their lesson," she said primly," and the corners of Tony's mouth lifted up at her expression.

'That's my girl,' he mouthed towards his assistant, and the redhead just rolled her eyes.

Minnie tried her best to hold back a yawn.

"Go on kid, go to sleep," Tony said, ruffling her hair. Her face scrunched up in a pout, but relaxed soon enough because within minutes, she was asleep.

The Parkers came in not long after that.

"Oh good, they're asleep again," Ben said mischievously as they sat down.

"Ben Parker!" May hit him on the chest roughly, and he laughed between coughing.

When Tony joined him Pepper gave him a look like she might follow May's lead, but she didn't hit him.

"Oh, don't look at me like that, woman," he said, rubbing his chest.

"You weren't in here when they got all those goodies! They were bouncing off the walls! You wouldn't believe those two- known each other for four days, most of that unconscious and the rest of it kidnapped and they're thick as thieves! Next they'll be completing each other's sentences-"

Tony couldn't contain his laughter.

"Too late for that. It was extremely creepy. Sort of cute, but creepy."

After a moment, the laughter faded into an awkward silence, all four adults unsure of how to continue, until May Parker reached over, and gently took Tony's hand, and smiled.

"Mr. Stark-" she corrected herself- "Tony, I know this wasn't an…ideal, situation, but I want to thank you. Many people didn't care that my nephew had been taken at all. But you cared about getting him back. You're the reason we still have our nephew."

Tony nodded, and Pepper noticed with a smile that Tony's posture relaxed at the words. No surprise, she realized that he had been blaming himself.

"May, Peter is no less important than Hermione is. I would've never settled for anything less than the both of them coming home safe. It's the least I could do."

She patted his hand, and released him.

"I know Tony. You're a good man."

As you might expect, he didn't hear that one too often. Pepper smiled to him from her own seat. For the first time in four days, Tony felt warm.

Alright! Not too much to that, just some fluffy stuff, the bad guys get their comeuppance, and there's massive presents involved, yay!

Alright, first thing. About last time's guessing game:

1 Was Jean Grey, obviously.

2 Was Jennifer Jareau of Criminal Minds. Maybe I should've picked another person to cameo, but the description sort of wrote itself, so I just went ahead and referenced her.

3I've decided to keep this a quasi-secret. Feel free to google it. But for those who don't, I'll be waiting for your reactions later on.

And now for new questions!

1Who's Minnie calling Grandpa?

2Who's Aunt Jennifer?

And 3 isn't really guessing, it's more of a poll. There' two Hanks (that I'm aware of) in Marvel Universe. That's Henry (Hank) Pym (Antman) and Henry (Hank) McCoy (Beast) obviously, I've already introduced quite a few of the X-Men, so Beast would be simplest, but considering Antman's got a movie coming out, I'm curious about your favorites. Whichever one you like the best will be Hermione's "Uncle Hank". Gosh. This girl's beginning to have a massive family. I haven't even introduced the Avengers yet! And dear god, Hogwarts is coming up! In like two-ish chapters!

Edit: For those who were confused, Jennifer Jareau isn't involved in the story anymore. Aunt Jennifer is an entirely different (and also Marvel Canon) character. And her gift to Minnie is a major hint. ;D

Also, if anyone noticed, the slight Pokemon reference was totally on purpose.