A Spider's Web

Tony hesitated outside Penny's bedroom door, hand raised to knock, then thought better of it, dropping his hand and going back to the kitchen. He doubted she was even in her room, and if she was, she'd be upset, and he didn't think she'd want to see him. She'd been afraid when she'd come running into the penthouse. Afraid and crying. But why? Tish had to be behind her, and she had to be safe. He knew she'd die before she ever left her sister. Hadn't she been with Happy? His head of security hadn't called him. Had something happened at Coney Island?

Not three minutes later, Happy stepped through the elevator doors with Tish who had her eyes on the floor, lips trembling, and he hurried forward to meet them. "What happened? What's going on?" Tish refused to look up and he dropped a gentle hand on her shoulder, ducking down a little to try and meet her eyes. "Tish? You okay?"

Tish nodded but he didn't believe her.

"Reporters found them. It's already online," Happy informed him. His old friend hadn't exactly been enthusiastic about the idea of driving two kids to and from school every day, but he seemed to have gotten attached over the last few weeks based on the look on his face. "They mobbed the two of them and their friend as they were leaving. I dropped their friend off at his place."

He swore under his breath, pulling out his tablet and swiping so the hologram of the first video result Friday had found appeared over the screen. First, the woman just yelled questions at them, and Penny and the boy who must have been her friend tried to move away, Penny's arm around Tish as she bit out one word answers to the questions hurled at her. Even on someone's grainy cellphone footage, Tony could tell that she was tense as she tried to shield her sister from the camera.

In a quiet, obviously frightened voice, Penny asked the woman to just let them go home. That was when he knew he'd make sure this woman was punished.

Instead of leaving them alone the reporter got even closer. He watched, grim faced, as the reporter grabbed Penny's wrist. He saw her eyes fill with tears and go wide and distant, jaw tight as her whole body froze. And he watched Tish step out from under her protective arm and shove the woman who'd grabbed her, ordering her to leave Penny alone.

"I'm sorry," Tish whispered, still not meeting his eyes. "I shouldn't have pushed her."

"Hey, you did great. If someone's harassing you, I want you to protect yourself. Is Penny okay?"

Tish hesitated, then shook her head. "She was scared."

He could tell just by her tone that Penny being scared was the worst think Tish could imagine, and he squeezed her shoulder. "Friday, find out who that reporter is and send me the info for her newspaper or magazine or whoever the fuck she works for. Tell her Iron Man wants a meeting. Ask Pep if we can set up a press conference for tomorrow morning."

"She touched her," Tish went on in a near whisper, sounding close to tears herself. "That lady…she touched her. And Penny doesn't like that. She gets scared when strangers touch her."

"I know," he assured her softly, ignoring the way Happy turned his face away, going pale. "She's going to be okay. I'm going to take care of it. I promise."

And he meant it. Penny had been coming out of her shell that morning, just a little. She hadn't mentioned the little cave he'd built her, but that morning after she'd left for school, he'd finished cleaning the kitchen, then grabbed his tablet off the living room table, only to find a little blue post-it note.

'Thank you, Mr. Stark.' And, next to the words, a little sketch of a spider, mostly just a little circle with eight legs, but he hadn't been able to stop smiling as he'd picked it up. He'd wanted her to have a place where she felt safe, and although he hoped CPS never found out that his foster kid slept on the roof, he'd still wanted to make sure she had somewhere comfortable to sleep if she couldn't sleep in her bed. That's where he figured she was as he went back to the kitchen to finish making the pasta sauce he'd been following the recipe for, glancing back when Tish followed him.

"Want to help?"

Nodding, she joined him at the stove, and he handed her three cloves of garlic and a knife. "Can you peel that and chop it up?"

Nodding again, she got to it.

Pepper showed up when they were almost done, kissing him briefly on the cheek and resting a hand on Tish's back. "I heard what happened. Are you okay?" When Tish nodded, Pepper glanced at him and he shrugged. "We're going to make sure that reporter gets in trouble for what she did. I'm sorry she scared you."

"Penny was scared," Tish corrected, and Tony knew that was the thing that made all the difference.

"I know. That reporter shouldn't have been shouting at you, and she shouldn't have touched Penny. We're going to talk to the press, and we're going to make sure someone goes with you if the two of you go out in public again."

"Happy?"

Pepper smiled. "Probably. Would you like for it to be Happy?"

"Penny isn't afraid of him. She trusts him."

That, Tony knew, was the highest praise Tish could give.

"Good. Are you feeling okay?"

Tish nodded.

"Okay. Why don't you go get cleaned up and we'll have dinner. We can watch a movie too, if you want."

"I don't know if Penny will come down," she whispered, dropping her eyes.

"That's okay. We can save her a plate."

Tony wasn't sure it was okay. That morning, it had been easy to see how quickly Tish's mood had changed when Penny had promised to come to dinner. It was important to Tish that Penny be there, and he had a feeling that the younger girl liked it when they were all together. Like a real family. He also had a feeling that a promise made to Tish was sacred in Penny's books, and that no matter how she was feeling, she'd be at dinner.

He was right.

They sat down to eat, just the three of them, but it wasn't five minutes into the meal before a shadow appeared in the doorway.

The girl had obviously taken a shower and had tried to wash her face, but her eyes were still red-rimmed and her face was still blotchy from crying and he wanted to find that woman who had grabbed her…no, he wanted to go back in time and pick them up himself. He wanted to bring out the armor and show those journalists how Iron Man felt about the people who tried to hurt his family.

Foster family. But still.

He knew just by looking at her that she wouldn't be able to stand it if they made a big deal of her coming to dinner, so he just stood up and headed to the stove. "Sit down, kiddo, and I'll make you a plate. Tish, can you grab her a glass of water?" He could have easily done it, but he wanted to try and distract her before she asked Penny if she was okay or another question that might make her break down. She was scared. She'd been panicking. He knew that look and he knew that feeling and he wanted to make this as easy on her as possible, so he filled her plate with food and sat it in front of her, then continued his conversation with Pepper about Rhodey. And he could have sworn that Penny gave him a grateful smile, but when he turned to look at her, she was focusing only on her food.

That night, the girls watched a movie in the living room while he and Pepper cleaned the kitchen. Pepper had been throwing glances towards the living room for a while, and he understood her concern…he also didn't think for one second that Penny would be comfortable discussing any of what had happened. So he just focused on washing the dishes until his phone rang, and he wiped his hands on the towel before checking the number and then answering it. "Hello?"

"Mr. Stark? This is Carla with your PR team. We have several requests from news outlets wondering if you have a statement regarding your two foster daughters and what happened today?"

"Oh, I've got a statement, aright," he told her, trying to temper his tone, knowing it wasn't her fault. Still, the woman sounded tentative when she answered.

"Can I go ahead and get a draft of that?"

"If any one of those reports ever ambushes my kids like that again, I will end their fucking careers."

"If I might make a suggestion…"

"Thank you, no. Go ahead and run that. I'll be saying the same thing at the press conference tomorrow."

The woman sighed. "Yes, sir. I'll let everyone know."

"You can't ruin the career of every single reporter that tried to get the girls to do an interview," Pepper told him casually.

"No. But I can ruin the career of every reporter that physically assaults them."

Pepper didn't bother arguing with that.

Tony had fully expected not to see Penny for the next couple of days. Theoretically, he would have done something with the kids that weekend since he was acting as a guardian or something and, at least from what he'd seen in other families, parents and guardians spent time with their kids, but he doubted Penny would want to do anything with him. Especially not now. So he'd planned to go see Rhodey the next day.

He and Pepper sat together on the couch after the kids finished their movie, heading into their own rooms without a word, and Tony wondered if he could be doing better…if there was something he was missing. He was providing her with a safe place to stay. He would protect her as best he could.

What else could he do?

Putting his feet up on the coffee table, Tony rested his head against the back of the sofa as Pepper turned the page of her book, her own eyes heavy. It was only eight o'clock, he thought with a sigh. Usually he'd be awake still, down in his lab, tinkering with something or working on plans for a new Stark Phone or improving his suit or something for the company…but he was so tired. So he closed his eyes, telling himself it was just for a few minutes.

A tiny voice calling his name jolted him awake, and he jumped, eyes flying open, a gasp escaping that made the figure standing in front of him flinch back. Pepper was gone and the room was almost completely dark, and Letitia crossed her arms over her chest, looking as nervous as a blurry figure in the dark could.

"Hey, Tish…what's up?" he asked, rubbing his eyes.

"I'm sorry…"

"It's fine. I didn't mean to fall asleep," he told her with a self-deprecating chuckle. A quick glance at his watch told him that it was nearly two in the morning. "What's up? You okay?"

The girl bit her lip, glancing out the window into the darkness. "The weather app said it was supposed to start raining soon."

He nodded slowly, his half-asleep brain still trying to catch up. He hadn't paid attention to the weather forecast but a quick glance out the windows showed dark clouds…then again, it was almost two in the morning so that made sense. "Yeah?"

"It's going to storm."

Maybe she was scared of storms? "Friday can darken the glass…she can be a noise machine too, if the storm gets loud."

Tish shook her head, glancing out the window again when lightning flashed in the distance, just barely visible. "Penny's asleep outside. What if she gets hit by lightning?" Her voice wobbled, and it hit Tony suddenly that she was right. Of course she was right! He couldn't let his foster kid sleep outside in a storm! Swearing under his breath, Tony sat upright.

"I'll get the armor on and go get her, okay? She needs to sleep inside tonight if it's going to rain anyway. Don't worry."

"Mr. Stark? Don't touch her. She…she'll be scared."

Closing his eyes and swallowing hard, Tony nodded. "I won't. I'll be careful, I promise."

He found Penny in her nest behind the Avengers sign, curled up in the far corner against the wall, her stuffed spider clutched in her arms. He'd half bought it as a joke, and it made his heart ache to see her holding it like that. He could practically feel the electricity in the air and he was faintly surprised that she didn't feel it. She seemed to have a second sense for danger. Then again, maybe she just wasn't in danger yet. Either way, he couldn't risk leaving her out here. He felt bad enough that she slept outside anyway…that's why he'd built her the nest.

"Penny?" he called, trying not to be too loud. Whatever danger senses she had hadn't gone off when he'd landed at the edge of her platform in his armor, quietly disengaging it and taking a step out of the suit, wondering if just him was any less scary than the Iron man armor.

She jolted awake the second he said her name and he put his hands up, unable to take a step back but trying to make himself smaller anyway. "What? Mr. Stark? What's going on?" she demanded, looking around like she was trying to find a threat.

"Sorry kiddo. It's going to storm. You need to sleep inside tonight, okay?"

Penny hesitated, then nodded. "Okay…I'll…I'll come inside."

Tony stepped back into the armor, wasting no time in getting back inside as thunder rumbled in the distance, but he waited in the hallway outside her door to make sure she got inside okay, leaving the door open and pressing his back to the wall in the hallway. Penny crawled into her window a minute or so later, the duffle bag thrown over her shoulders. As soon as she was inside, she tossed her blanket into the corner, which told him where she'd be sleeping. But before she could close her bedroom door, he took a step forward, not entering her room, but hovering in the doorway. "Hey, Pen?"

Blearily, she looked at him, a question in her eyes. She looked so tired, but at least she didn't look afraid.

"I think I might have an idea…I'll be right back, okay?"

Hesitantly, she nodded, and he hurried down to his lab to get the supplies. He wouldn't need much. Eyebolts and a drill. And, of course, the object in question. It had been a gift from Rhodey when they'd gone camping once. Tony had never used it…twenty minutes into the hike, he'd gone on his phone and had booked a hotel instead, Rhodey rolling his eyes and laughing the whole rest of the hike. But it was finally going to get some use.

Back upstairs and now encased in his suit, Tony knocked on her slightly ajar door, and when it opened, he found her sitting in a chair, the blanket wrapped around her. He dropped the fabric on the ground, holding up the drill and the eyebolts. "Mind if I come in?"

Hesitantly, the girl nodded, and Tony moved to the opposite corner from where she was sitting, using the repulsors to lift him up in the air until he'd nearly reached the top of her vaulted ceiling, and flipping the mask over his face. "Alright, Fri. Show me the studs."

It only took about five minutes to get the eyebolts secure, and by then, Penny seemed more curious than anything, watching as he flew down to grab the cloth hammock, then back up to loop each end into the eyebolts. It wasn't exactly the best hammock money could buy…hell, Rhodey had probably bought it on Amazon. But it was high up, which he had a feeling she would like, and it was inside where she'd at least be dry and warm.

Down on the ground, she'd stood up, mouth agape as he came to land beside her, making sure to keep a few feet of distance between them. Gesturing with his chin, he lifted the mask once more. "Well? What do you think? Think this is a suitable web for a spider?"

Then, for the first time since they'd first met in that library, Penny Parker smiled at him. Really, truly smiled. Her whole face lit up with it, eyes brightening and seeming to fill as she nodded, arms wrapping around herself. This, he thought, was her. This was who she'd been. Tony found he couldn't help but smile back.

"It's…it's great. Thank you, Mr. Stark."

Feigning nonchalance, Tony nodded as though his heart didn't feel like it might be bursting inside his chest. "Sure thing, kiddo. Now get some sleep."

Deciding to take his own advice, Tony headed to bed, crawling in beside Pepper, a smile still on his face.

He woke a few hours later, sitting up and looking at the empty space beside him on the bed as he yawned. "Fri? Where are the kids?" he asked, checking his watch. 9:12am. The windows went from opaque to transparent, and he saw that the rain still fell in sheets.

"Letitia is attempting to make pancakes in the kitchen. Penny is still asleep in her hammock."

He grinned. "Good. Alright. Better help Tish before she burns the place down."

When Penny emerged from her bedroom, he was in the middle of supervising her sister as she carefully ladled batter onto the hot pan. He was surprised at himself…never before had he thought he'd enjoy supervising a preteen while she made breakfast, but when he'd walked into the room, her eyes had gone wide and she'd given him a sheepish smile.

"I wanted to surprise you and Pepper," she'd told him, and he'd felt a rush of affection that was foreign to him, but not unpleasant.

"I think Pep is on a call in her office, but I'm sure she'll be surprised," he'd told her with a smile that had felt fond. "Need any help?"

Penny looked…different that morning. Almost at ease. She smiled at Tish and leaned on the counter beside her, watching as she flipped a pancake, greeting them both with a soft 'good morning.'

"Morning, kiddo. You sleep okay?"

She nodded, a soft, grateful smile making her seem to glow. He didn't think he'd noticed how little she'd smiled, or even how little she'd made actual eye contact with him, until suddenly she did.

"The storm was loud," Tish put in, sliding the pancake onto the plate.

It had been. In fact, the rain still beat against the window, the thunder soft now, but still audible.

"I asked Friday to be a noise machine, and that helped."

"I didn't know she could do that," Penny put in, and Tish nodded.

"She can make the windows dark too! So you can't see lightning."

Penny went to set the table as she spoke, glancing back at Tony as she reached for the plates. "Is Pepper eating with us?"

"Yeah, she should be off her call soon." He hesitated for a second, thinking before coming to a conclusion. "I have to do a work thing after breakfast, but afterwards I thought you two might like to meet a friend of mine."

Penny gave him a quizzical look, but Tish lit up. "Falcon?" she asked with a gasp, nearly dropping her spatula, and he huffed out a laugh.

"Uh…no. Falcon is kind of busy right now. But this is even better." They both waited. "War Machine."

"Iron Patriot!" Tish cried, and Penny snorted at the look on his face.

"War Machine," he corrected, lips tugging into a smile when Penny looked away, obviously trying to suppress her laughter. "Iron Patriot was a stupid name."

"But he's a superhero! Iron Patriot is a superhero name. War Machine sounds like a bad guy!" she reasoned. "It has the word 'war' in it!"

"Tish, pancake," Penny reminded her, putting forks at each place at the table, and Tish jumped, hurrying to flip the pancake that was about to start burning.

"Regardless, his name is James Rhodes and I'm going to visit him today, and he wants to meet you."

"Us?" Tish asked, surprised.

"Sure. But if you'd rather me tell him that you think Falcon is cooler…"

"No! He's really cool too! I want to meet an Avenger!"

Penny snorted again, but her back was to them as she folded napkins and placed them beside the forks.

"You do know that I'm an Avenger, right?" he asked, bemused, and she waved him off.

"Yeah, but…" she trailed off, shrugging, and Penny's shoulders shook as he barked out a laugh.

"I see how it is. Alright. I'll introduce you to a real Avenger after breakfast, alright?"

"What about Black Widow? Can we meet her too?"

"Maybe someday."

"Is she nice? She's really pretty, but she looks scary."

"She can be scary, but yes, she's nice," Tony told her, grabbing the bowl of fruit and placing it on the table. He was careful to do so from the other side of the table as Penny, but she didn't so much as flinch, and he took that as a victory.

"Is Pepper an Avenger too?"

"Um…no, not really."

"But she had a suit that one time, right?"

"She did. But she prefers running the company."

"Can I have a suit?"

"Probably not, kiddo. You're kind of young to be fighting criminals," he told her, patting her shoulder as he passed.

"But Penny gets a suit!"

"Penny has superpowers."

"If I get superpowers, can I have a suit?"

"Sure," he told her with a huff of laughter.

"I want to be Spider-Girl too!"

"There's already a Spider-Girl," he reasoned.

"There can be two of us. I'll find the spider that bit Penny and then I'll have powers too and we can work together!" she cried, putting the final pancake on the plate with a flourish, and Penny grinned at her.

"Sorry, Tish. The spider's dead."

The girl's jaw dropped. "You killed it!"

"It bit me!"

"Are those pancakes?"

They all turned to find Pepper in the doorway, and the pure domesticity made Tony smile. "They are. Tish made breakfast."

"Thanks, sweetheart," Pepper told her softly, squeezing her arm, grabbing the syrup from the cabinet and placing it on the table. When she met Tony's eyes, her smile told him that she might just enjoy domesticity too.

They all dug into their breakfast, Penny slicing up a banana and eating the slices on top of her pancakes while Tish peeled an orange and stuck the peels in her mouth to smile a big orange smile at Penny who laughed. Pepper watched them both with a fondness he felt too, and he wondered if maybe, just maybe, this whole parent/guardian thing might not be so bad.

Only he wasn't their father. He was just giving them a safe place to live. His lawyers were working on Tish's father's case. With any luck, she'd be back with her real family soon. And Penny…well, he'd figure that part out. He could vet families. Have Friday start looking for possibilities…people who would understand her and be understanding…

Who would build her a place to sleep on the roof and hang a hammock at the very top of a vaulted ceiling for her, some part of him whispered. He shook his head a little. There was no reason to start looking for her a new family just yet.

After breakfast, Pepper volunteered to do the dishes and Penny and Tish helped clean the kitchen while he got dressed, then headed down to the lower floor boardroom where the press conference was scheduled. Pepper had wanted to attend, but he'd promised not to say anything that would get the company in trouble. She obviously hadn't believed him, but she hadn't argued anymore. Happy would be there, and representatives from the legal department, so that would be enough.

By the time Tony approached the podium, the room was full of reporters, all of them with recorders and most of them with photographers standing right beside them. They were all seated in the folding chairs that had been put out, and he had to fight not to glare at them. He didn't see the woman who had grabbed Penny the day before, but he was sure the Daily Bugle had sent someone. Good, he thought. He wanted to make sure they heard him loud and clear.

Everyone got quiet as he surveyed the room, feeling the same fury from last night when he'd first seen the footage. And no matter how hard he tried to hide it, which wasn't very hard to be honest, he was sure they could see it.

"Thank you all for coming," he greeted them, not bothering to glance down at the index cards he'd placed on the podium that had been given to him by his legal team. He could practically feel their nerves from where he stood. "I'm sure you've all seen the footage online of what happened yesterday, and most of you have probably heard the official statement I put out in response."

A few of them got tiny smiles and dropped their eyes. Others seemed to shrink back a little.

He took a deep breath. "I have lived my entire life in the spotlight. I knew who reporters were before I started elementary school. And that has been something that I have learned to live with…just a side effect of who my parents were and, later, the life I chose to live. And I knew, when I took in two children, that some reporters would try to dig into their lives and write stories about them. I expected it. I warned them."

He paused, looking out across the room as cameras flashed.

"But ambushing two children who are just trying to get to a car, refusing to let them pass…grabbing a teenage girl when she's trying to protect her sister…that was completely unacceptable, and it is not something I will tolerate. Not from reporters. Not from anyone. Those children did not get to choose who took them in when their families could no longer care for them, and I am going to do everything in my power to make sure that they are safe."

More camera flashes. Recording devices held up a little closer.

"So let me make myself abundantly clear. To anyone that thinks they might be able to make a quick buck by harassing my kids, know that there will be consequences. I will end your fucking career."

There was an explosion of camera flashes and the sounds of photos being taken as he spoke, but not one of them opened their mouths. Tony had been uncooperative with the press. He'd been irritated by them. Rarely had he been openly hostile. But he remembered how Penny had wrapped an arm around Tish…how she'd begged him to help not herself, but her sister. He remembered the look on her face in that video when the woman had grabbed her…how she'd looked when Happy had touched her, even to protect her.

And he glared into the cameras that flashed, leaving little dots of light in his vision even when he closed them.

"There may come a time when they are willing to answer questions about themselves, or a time when they give me permission to answer questions about them. But for now, consider this a warning. Leave my kids alone."