Chapter 4 This is too weird

AN: This chapter is dedicated to Alan Rickman since it's his anniversary. Like Maya Hansen he did not like cats.
TW for mentions of kidnapping and of animal abuse. I love cats but I'm extremely allergic so I can never get one. I would never ever harm a cat. This is a work of fanfiction and if you cannot separate it from reality you need help.

Pepper's point of view

Tony came back upstairs with an almighty grin on his face.

"I've got a very important meeting at WWE HQ tomorrow at 12."
"OK" I said "Bruce called, your parents want to talk to you"

"This is too weird Pep… I'm not equipped for this. I can't… I thought they were… and they're not…"

"Tony, they're your parents"

"I know but…"
"Come on, we'll go together"

"OK"

Tony's point of view

We went downstairs to MedBay.

When we arrived, Bruce, Jay, Clint, Scott, Wanda and Pietro were gathered around mom and dad's beds. Severus and Harry were in the vicinity but not right at the bedside.

I froze in the entrance to the ward. Pepper took my hand in hers.

"It's too weird Pep… I can't… I want to but… I can't." I felt my voice break. Pepper reeled me in and hugged me hard.
"Hey… listen Tony… you don't have to go in right now."
"I know I'm going to have to go in at some point but…"

"Maybe if I tell you what happened to me at the hands of Killian the second time it will help you."
"I think that's a great idea"

Severus stood up and came over

"There's hot chocolate upstairs for you and I have asked J.A.R.V.I.S. to run you a nice hot bath in the tub in the master bedroom."
"Thanks Severus"

"Howard and Peggy will be here for a couple of days, till they recover… you'll be able to come down at any point."

"OK, thank you Severus"

Pepper's point of view

"Come on Tony."

He let out a sigh.

I guided him into the newly repaired elevator.

When we got to the penthouse floor, he sat in the window, with his legs in a basket. He was staring out of the windows at the snow. I could feel his emotions radiating out of him, like he was a furnace.

I brought him drinks, snacks, tried to talk him into going to bed but nothing really worked, he would not budge.

"Tony…"
"Pep I think you should take Peter and Maria down to MedBay to meet their grandparents"

"I'll arrange for someone to come up and fetch them and take them down"
"Mom, I can handle taking Maria down to Medbay." Peter blurted "I'm sixteen years old"

"OK"

Suddenly he realised what he said and flinched.

"Peter, if you want to call me mom, you can, it's OK"

"I'd like that"

I decided it was time to take charge.

"J.A.R.V.I.S. put the entire penthouse floor on restriction. Put the windows on night mode."

"Tony, listen, we're going to have that bath ok and I'm going to tell you everything that happened."

I didn't expect the anxiety attack/meltdown…

Tony was sobbing uncontrollably by the time I got to him.

"I'm sorry Pepper… I was stupid… I was wrong about everything… I should have trusted you and put more faith in you… I shouldn't have tried to do this on my own. We're soulmates and I'm a terrible person. I kept you in the dark because I thought I was protecting you. For a genius I can be mighty damn stupid sometimes."

"Tony… stop torturing yourself, OK? You did what you had to do to protect us. I get it. I'm not angry."

"I should have realised that my parents weren't as gone as I was told they were."

"Right… come on… we're going upstairs to have that bath and then we are going to talk about what happened when I was kidnapped. The children, your siblings and your parents will simply have to fend for themselves for a while."

We took the steaming mugs of hot chocolate and went upstairs to the master bathroom. Jarvis had run us a lovely hot bath and put jasmine and rose bubble bath in the water. It was steamy, soothing and fragrant. I helped Tony out of his clothes and into the bath, then I got undressed and joined him.

"Since you're going to be honest with me about Killian… maybe I should tell you what Maya did to me on the night she left? I don't know if I ever shared that with you"
"I would appreciate that. I don't think you ever did."

Tony's point of view

We were in the bath together… No phones, no screens. Just dimmed lights, hot chocolate and each other, it was bliss.

I pulled Pepper close to me and enveloped her in my arms… she sighed and leaned back against me, we kissed.

"Maya had been becoming more and more demanding and less and less reasonable and finally, I decided it was time for her and I to end things. She wouldn't let me do anything. She had to be the boss of everything. She had gone to Bruges with AIM for work — a science conference — I wasn't as involved in the company yet. I was still trying to decide what I wanted to do. I'd been out of MIT for a year and I was helping mom and dad with the company part time while working on my own projects the rest of the time. I'd also been helping Mom with SHIELD stuff. While Maya was gone, I had gone to the local animal shelter to volunteer — I've always loved cats — so I was taking care of the cats at the shelter. A couple of weeks earlier when I had been working there, a beautiful neglected and abused short haired calico came in, she was pregnant. While I was on shift, she went into labour and delivered 8 kittens. Unfortunately, the mother cat had a nasty postpartum haemorrhage and didn't survive. A couple of the other volunteers and I hand-reared the kittens.

There were two that captured my attention. One was a white longhaired fluff ball with bright yellow eyes and a bright pink nose. The other was a short haired grey and black tabby with green eyes and dark grey toe beans. We were allowed to name the kittens so I named the white fluff ball 'Pinky' and the tabby 'the Brain' after the lab mice in my favourite tv show. The other 6 kittens got adopted but Pinky and the Brain were very attached to me so I asked if I could adopt them. The Manager of the shelter came to visit me at home and did the usual inspection and after seeing how well I kept the house, she agreed to let me keep the kittens. Don't forget, at this point in my life I wasn't sure if we would end up back together, or if we'd ever have children or whatever so I wanted something to be responsible for and as much as I would have loved to have got a pet corn snake my mother is terrified of snakes of all shapes and sizes. I knew she would disown me if I got a snake so I got cats instead, not realising that Maya felt the same way about cats that my mother does about snakes and my father and I do about spiders… When Maya got home and found me with the cats on my lap, she was LIVID. She screamed at me for 45 minutes then told me to get rid of the cats. I refused so she grabbed me by the hair and dragged me upstairs to our bedroom. She gave me a buzz cut, she beat me senseless and then she threw me down the stairs. Luckily in the chaos I had managed to grab the cat carrier and put the girls inside. When we were at the bottom of the stairs, Maya punched me and smacked my head against the floor so hard that I blacked out. I know she did something else but I can't remember what it was. I think it might have been something… intimate. I was unconscious and alone for 3 days. Mom found me, Aunt Maria was with her. Aunt Maria was furious, she put the Evil Eye curse on Maya. My mother called her at work and Aunt Maria screamed at her for 2 hours in Italian where the whole office could hear. Maya said that she had told me to get rid of the cats and that since I refused I deserved the beating. My mother filed charges with the LAPD and Maya was arrested. Killian — who was the head of Advanced Idea Mechanics — got her off the charges and sent her to New York for her own safety. 8 years later I found out that I have a daughter with Maya."

"Tony I'm so sorry that that happened to you. How did Pinky and the Brain survive?"
"Maya was so repulsed by them that she didn't want to touch them to harm them so she just put on an oven mitt, picked up the cat carrier and threw it outside into the snow. Mom found them and Uncle Obie took them up to Mom and Dad's house and warmed them up and fed them. He took them to the vet as a precaution. I moved back home… But then of course, tragedy struck, so I moved the company HQ to Malibu, thinking that I would never see my parents again."

"Until now" said a voice from the door.

"Until now"

"Tony, why can't you come and see Mom and Dad?"
"It's still too raw right now Jay… I just… I want to but…"
"I understand, I'll tell the others. Bruce suspected that it would be something as simple as that."

"Pepper is about to tell me what happened to her at the hands of Killian… the second time"

"OK"

"Honey, I was just thinking… maybe we should go down to the MedBay and see your parents so that I only have to tell this story once and maybe we should invite Shane and the others?"
"OK"

Pepper's point of view

Once we were all assembled, with snacks, drinks and blankets, I began my tale.