Chapter Three:

Tony's POV

Avenger's Jet, headed home.

I'm sitting up front with Steve, Sam, Scott, and Natasha.

I get up, telling Natasha to watch the controls. There wasn't much to do since everything was set on autopilot, but it was good to have someone awake at the wheel.

I head to the back to use the restroom.

It's not a huge jet, but there's enough room.

As I'm walking I start hearing Wanda and Pietro. I look over seeing them, Vision is there too.

I don't plan on stopping, but I do catch a Wanda say, "How did it go with Elena?"

That peaks my interest and I stop.

"I don't want to talk about it," Pietro says grumpily.

I probably should let it be, but I don't, since that's not who I am. Instead, I make my presence known. "What were you doing with Elena?"

All three heads swivel to my direction.

"You know, eavesdropping is not a good quality," Wanda chastises.

"I wasn't eavesdropping, I was walking to the bathroom and happened to walk by a conversation."

"A conversation that doesn't include you, Stark." Pietro says, walking past me to the front of the jet.

I turn and follow him, unable to let anything be. "Hey, if it has to do with Elena I should know." I say following him.

"What's happening?" Natasha says, now that we have made it back to the main area.

"Nothing." Wanda says.

"That's not what it sounded like." I say.

"Okay. I'll tell you what's happening." Pietro says. "Stark here, thinks he can dip in and out of being a parent whenever he sees fit. You know, not tell her the truth, but then feel entitled to know everything that happens between me and her. If you want to be a parent, be one to Vision. He at least knows you created him."

"This is getting really uncomfortable." Scott says.

"Couldn't agree more." Sam replies.

I ignore them, and focus on what Pietro said. "What do you mean between you and her? There should be no you and her."

"That's what you picked up from that." Pietro huffs. "It doesn't matter because it's none of your business."

I get angrier and lash out harshly, perhaps a little too harshly, "Elena has been through a lot, the last thing she needs is someone like you sniffing around."

"Tony-" Steve chides.

Yet I don't hear whatever he was about to say as a punch comes at lightning speed and hits me square in the nose.

"Pietro-" Wanda yells as she and Vision pull Pietro back.

Steve is at my side as I'm clutching my nose. "Darn. It's bleeding." He says.

"Fuckin hot-headed bastard." I cuss out as Steve leads me to a chair, before adding sarcastically, "certainly proved me wrong."

Pietro shakes his head, sitting down. Then, he puts his head in his hands and leans on the table.

Wanda sits down next to him and puts a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"So, now that we've all calmed down," Natasha starts. "Is there something going on between you and Elena? And does it have anything to do with why you've been so moody this mission."

Pietro doesn't move for a moment, but then lifts his head up. "There's nothing going on."

"Did you talk to her?" Wanda asks.

"Yes. Well, kinda."

Wanda gives him a confused look.

Pietro sighs, "I kissed her."

I open my mouth to say something but a look from Steve tells me to shut it.

"Clearly that didn't go well." Natasha says.

Pietro spits back sarcastically, "no, it went great, it was super great decision making on my part."

"Pietro-" Wanda chides.

He huffs. "Sorry."

Continuing, he says. "She couldn't run out of there fast enough and I've probably ruined our friendship."

He runs his fingers through his head and has this distraught look on his face. I actually feel a little bad for the kid. Kind of.

"Well, when we get home, you can talk to her again." Wanda says comfortingly.

"Yeah, I hope so."

"You will and every-" Wanda starts before being cut off by the sounds of static.

"What's that?" Steve says.

"Hello-" A voice comes through the static.

"Pepper?" I say recognizing my girlfriend's voice.

I press some buttons to enhance our signal and she appears on the screen.

"Oh my God, Tony. You all need to come back right now." She says, panicked.

"We're already on our way," I tell her, freaking out myself a little. I could tell from the background that they were in the panic room and that helped. They should be safe there. "What happened?"

"Hydra." She says.

Scott jumps in, pushing me out of the way, "Holy shit, is Cassie with you?"

I don't immediately push him back out of the frame. I get it, a dad worried about his daughter, trust me, I get it.

"Yes. She is." Pepper tells him. "And she and I are fine. But Tony…"

I push Scott out of the way. "What?" I say dreading the answer.

"Elena, she protected us. She's not in here with us and we can't see what happened on the outside."

I freeze and I don't know what to say.

I stand there for a moment frozen, before Natasha jumps in. "Pepper, you and Cassie stay in there. We'll be back as soon as possible."

That snaps me back to reality. I look at Pepper, "Honey, I love you. Stay safe. It'll be okay." At least I hope for the best.

We hang up and it's an anxious ride home.

No one says anything. The air is tense.

I look at Steve. His head is down in thought.

I wonder if he's thinking what I'm thinking.

That we failed.

That we made a promise, told her she'd be safe, and yet, she wasn't.

How did this happen? I have the state of the art facility, some of the best minds in the world worked there during the week, and of course I made it to be safe.

Yet, it was attacked. Planned for when we were away. Planned for when the least amount of people would be there. And they easily got around all my security measures, even shut down the notification FRIDAY would have sent me.

I let my daughter down… again.