Author's Note: I know I haven't worked on A Storm Of Fire for a while I promise I will. I have to go back over the next few episodes, and I've been on a roll with this story. I own nothing.

30. On Her Side

Piper got home around midnight that night, slipping into her level with no difficulty. She grinned as she pulled off her mask and the top of her costume, switching it out for a pair of Captain America PJs. Ava had sniggered slightly at the amount of Avengers merch Piper owned but Piper just smiled. Most of it was manufactured by smaller subsidiary companies owned by Stark Industries after all. It was probably a good thing that they got a new shipment of shirts every two weeks or so. Piper was incredibly hard on her clothes. The other teens had their choice of Avengers merch too. Sam now had an autographed Captain America t-shirt framed on his wall. Piper had pointed out that the man himself was living five doors down from him and Sam had blushed bright red.

She slipped into the elevator and headed down to the family level. She walked into the kitchen and was only mildly surprised to find her dad nursing a glass of whiskey. He rarely drank anymore, only when the stress became too much.

"Dad? You ok?" She snagged a Powerade bottle out of the beverage fridge. He nodded slightly taking a sip of his whiskey. Piper downed her Powerade before snagging another and opening the other fridge. She pulled out a container of leftover Thai food and popped it in the microwave.

"Wanna talk about it?" He sighed.

"Not really but you're not gonna drop it are you." Piper glanced at the decanter on the counter.

"Not when you broke out the Yamazaki for whatever problem this is. What is that eighty proof?" Tony shook his head slightly.

"Eighty six proof. But at least you know your whiskey." Piper scoffed.

"Of course I know my whiskey. I also know my wines and sake. I'm your kid. But that doesn't answer my question." She retrieved her food from the microwave and grabbed a fork. She plopped herself down on the couch and took a bite of the food looking up at her dad expectantly. Tony shook his head at her.

"You've been taking staring lessons from Pepper, haven't you?" Piper shrugged as she took another bite.

"Maybe so." Tony laughed lightly.

"I'm worried about Doc Connors." Piper stiffened, all humor draining from her expression.

"What's wrong with Doc Connors?" Tony shook his head.

"I hate to say it but I think he's got a screw shaking loose. Don't get me wrong, he's a fantastically smart scientist but I think everything he's been through may have been too much." Piper shook her head.

"What do you mean?" Tony took another sip of his whiskey.

"He was conducting an unauthorized test with low level radiation tonight. Based off Octavius's research." Piper almost dropped her take out. She set it down on the coffee table.

"No way! He knows Oc's off his rocker." Tony shook his head.

"Does he? Because the way he was talking about him tonight you'd think he thought Oc was the next Einstein." Piper shook her head.

"I mean he used to know Oc, like personally. They were roommates in college." Tony nodded.

"And you used to know Norman Osborn. Would you say he was a fantastic person in hindsight, especially knowing what you know?" Piper shook her head. No she wouldn't call Norman a good person, or even a decent father, but the benefit of hindsight gave her a view of him she hadn't had before. She could tell the times when he'd been plotting against Spidergirl from the look in his eyes as he'd had in Oc's lab.

"Hindsight helps you see people as they are, and I think Doc Connors' view of Oc is a little too rosy." Piper sighed pulling up the work Doc Connors had been working on earlier that night.

"I think he's desperate for Oc to be right. We made some minor progress with the Lizard idea but we're not making the progress we were hoping for… I… I think he wants things to go back to normal for him. The first step to that would be getting his arm back which is what we were hoping this formula would do." Tony nodded.

"Yeah but I'm worried about the lengths he'll go to make that a reality." Piper closed the screen she'd pulled up and sighed.

"I'll talk to him tomorrow." Tony finished off his whiskey.

"I gave him tomorrow off." Piper nodded.

"I figured as much. I'll head over to his house, I'll take one of his interns with me. Maybe he can help me talk some sense into him." Tony raised an eyebrow.

"This wouldn't be the son of the police chief who invited you to dinner would it? The one who figured out your secret ID." Piper went bright red. Tony grinned. "I know everything that goes on in this tower, at least now I do. Now that you don't have JARVIS on your side." Piper rolled her eyes.

"JARVIS is always on my side, right J?" The AI spoke up.

'Of course Miss Parker.' Piper grinned.

"Alright, I'll talk to Doc Connors tomorrow. And yes I'm gonna bring Glen. Doc knows he knows so it won't be a problem." Tony nodded and sighed.

"Alright. Take your boy toy along to convince your mentor out of his crazy. Good luck with that by the way. Just promise me you'll be careful." Piper stood and nodded hugging her dad. She took her food with her as she walked towards the elevator.

"He's not my boy toy." Tony rolled his eyes.

"Sure." Piper rolled her eyes as the door closed. She shot a text to Glen who agreed to meet her the next morning. He'd just gotten an email telling him not to come in tomorrow. Dr. Connors wasn't going to be in so what was the point of having his interns come in. She smiled slightly at the heart emoji that accompanied the last text he sent her. Her face must have been bright red when she stepped off the elevator. She figured that out when she spotted Ava grinning at her like the cat that caught the canary.

"Had a good night?" She asked gesturing to Piper's neck. Piper blushed bright red as her hand slapped over a rapidly fading hickey her father hadn't noticed.

"Maybe." Ava shook her head.

"Is that a gift from this Glen I've heard so much about?" Piper's darkening blush was all the answer Ava needed.

"I better hear all about him later." Piper grinned and nodded as she slipped into her room.