Chapter 1
AN: So, here it is the second story in the trilogy. I just want to make clear now that Iron Man 1 is going to take place in 2010 rather than 2008, as that is the timeline I like to use. While it won't be relevant until the next story Iron Man 3 will take place Christmas 2012.
Hope you like this story.
Just like with every new story of mine I'll update ever second/third day for a little while, to give people a chance to become interested in this story, before likely moving to daily updates. I will post the next chapter early hours of Friday my time.
May 19th, 2006
Almost five years have passed since Peter's Birth, and Mary's death, and in that time a lot has changed, but a lot has also stayed the same.
Melinda, Natasha, Tony, Yelena, Daisy, Peter, and Bobbi, until she left for SHIELD academy, have all continued to live at the Lebanon house together, with Hope visiting so much that she still has her own room, even though she is mainly living in San Fransisco working for Pym Technologies. While Hope thought her dad would be happy that she joined Pym, rather than accepting Tony's offer to join Stark Industries, something which she only did because she has her own agender, their relationship has not improved in fact Hope's relationship with her biological father is more distant than ever. Their relationship has become so distance and strained that she calls him Hank and not Dad, and while she still calls them Uncle Tony, Aunt Mellie and Aunt Nat Hope has come to accept that the Trio are her 'true' parents.
While Yelena, Melinda and Natasha still have the same rooms they claimed when they first moved into the Lebanon house the room Daisy claimed is now Peter's, as it was decided that as the youngest it would be best for him to be closest to Melinda and Natasha for the times when Tony has to be elsewhere, and Daisy has moved into Bobbi's room. While Daisy has moved into Bobbi's old room Bobbi's room is now the big room above the garage, which has a spare set of bunk beds for when Antoine, Sharon and others stay over, and Tony's room is the room in the basement with the ensuite, though he stays in Melinda and Natasha's room when they are on mission so he can be closer to the kids, and Hope happily moved all her stuff into the second biggest basement room as she isn't around as much as Tony; which leaves two spare rooms that have become bunkrooms for the frequent visitors that stay over, each of which now have four full beds in them. As well as the bedroom changes the only other changes at the Lebanon house is that the back shed is now Tony's personal lab/workshop and the natural language user interface, JARVIS, that Tony created, is accessible in all public areas of the house including Tony's workshop.
Just like Bobbi both Sharon and Antoine have joined SHIELD and the three of them are all about to finish the academy at the same time, even though Bobbi started after her cousins. Like Bobbi Sharon joined right after she finished school, Bobbi having graduated high school early, while Antoine tried a year of college first but realised, he didn't fit so wanted to join SHIELD instead. Like Bobbi Maria has also progressed quickly and is now in charge of the entire New York Field Office, making her one of the highest-ranking SHIELD agents.
While Bobbi, Sharon and Antoine have all joined SHIELD, and Maria has been promoted, Laura has left the agency. It was a difficult decision, but she and Clint decided, due in part to everything they have seen, and heard, members of their family go through, that when they decided to start a family, they didn't want both of them to be apart of SHIELD. While Clint continues to work missions, usually with Natasha, Melinda and Coulson, he returns home to the secluded, secret, homestead he and Laura created in Morgantown West Virginia, which is about four hours away from the Lebanon house, where they live with their two children Cooper William Barton who was born in December 2003, and their infant daughter Lila Kora Barton who was born in October 2005.
As well as the two Barton kids there are also five other people who are now considered to be a part of the family. Kate Bishop, who is still close to both Daisy and Yelena, knows everything about the family and spends a lot of time with them, often due to her parents often being away. After Clint saved her, Daisy, Yelena, and Bobbi from an attacker when they were walking to the New York Apartment shortly after the September eleven attacks, he has become her hero, and she has been doing archery lessons ever since, something which, along with other marital arts, she has excelled at. The Inhuman Alisha is also now considered family as she knows all the family secrets and spends a lot of time with them due to her close friendship with Bobbi, Sharon, and Antoine especially.
Another person who is has become family due, in part, to the friendship he formed with Antoine, and by extension Bobbi and Sharon, is a SHIELD agent and engineer Alphonso Mackenzie. While it has been clear that he wasn't completely comfortable when he first learnt about Inhumans, and aliens, he became a lot more comfortable a month ago when Laura used her gift to save the life of his newborn daughter Hope, who everyone except for him calls Kenzie, and like her father she has been embraced as a member of the family.
The fifth person who has become apart of the family is Pepper Potts who became Tony's assistant a few months after Peter was born and over the years, she has become a friend to him, and everyone in the family, and learnt about his family secrets. Since she learnt the truth Pepper has spent a lot of time with The Family, getting along extremely well with Coulson, Harrison, Rhodey, Gordon, Kora and Peggy, especially and in recent months she and Mack have developed a friendship as they both feel like 'Outsiders' especially because neither of them have been to Afterlife.
As they have officially finished their classes, and are just waiting for their final results, twenty-two-year-old Antoine, twenty-one-year-old Sharon and almost twenty-year-old Bobbi are on their 'graduation' assignment. While the op is a simple item retrieval op in South America, just like all other graduation assignments, they are supervised by another agent, in their case Mack, who is on his first mission since Kenzie's birth is playing the part of supervisor while also running backend.
Just like they have been for the last hour Sharon, Bobbi, and Antoine are all sitting at different places around a market square, while Mack, monitoring everything, is in a van several streets away, prepared to intervene if they need but considering how well he knows the trio he doesn't expect that to be necessary.
"You know, in all the stories we were told, they left out the waiting," Sharon says, through the coms, choosing her words carefully, wondering why their family never mentioned all the waiting involved in being an agent.
"Really did," Bobbi admits, feeling a little bored, but there is a part of her that is also relieved as it means she doesn't have to be extremely careful not to give away the fact that she is gifted during a fight. Even though she is a lot more comfortable with and can do with minimal effort she is still always worried that she is going to lose control and accidently hurt someone with her gift.
"I mean, considering all the times we had to wait for them, we should have realised," Antoine comments, remembering the times they were left behind while their family were on missions.
"Good point," Bobbi says amused.
"Do you think we'll get this done tonight?" Antoine asks his cousins curious.
"Not sure," Sharon answers. "Why you asking?" Sharon asks curious, in a teasing tone of voice.
"No reason, just curious," Antoine responds, causing Bobbi and Sharon to exchange amused looks across the square, both suspecting they know exactly why Antoine is asking.
"You sure? You wouldn't be asking because you have plans with your girlfriend this weekend, would you?" Bobbi asks, clearly teasing her cousin.
"I don't have a girlfriend," Antoine says and even though they are far away from him both Sharon and Bobbi can see the grin on his face.
"Then what do you call whatever you and Ali are to each other?" Sharon asks her cousin, being very sure they are dating even if they keep denying it.
"Good friends," Antoine answers, without hesitation, as that is what he considers Alisha to be first and foremost his good friend, while their romantic relationship is a lot more casual.
"Seriously, you…." Bobbi starts to say.
"Children," Mack says, interrupting their bickering, as he has spent enough time around them to know that no good will come from this bickering, especially while on a mission. "I know you've been preparing for this your whole lives, that taking notice of everything around you is second nature to you, but you should pay attention to this," Mack says, having spent enough time around the trio and their family to know that they take notice of things most people overlook, that they have had to survive, and because of that he is glad that Kenzie will split her time between him and Nicole, that they have joint custody as they decided they want to raise her as co-parents rather than together, as it gives him a chance at being able to protect her from needing to develop the same skills as she gets older.
"We really should, I think we just got our opening," Antoine comments, as he notices movement in the building they are interested in.
"I think you're right AT," Bobbi says, noticing the same thing. "Okay, let's move in," Bobbi instructs, taking change without even realising it, and it feels completely natural. "Mack, let us know if we get attention on us," Bobbi requests, as she knows that would be their biggest concern.
"You know it," Mack responds, and the trio of recent graduates proceed to successfully complete their mission together, without Mack needing to intervene.
While Bobbi, Sharon and Antoine are on their first mission with Mack Melinda, Natasha and Tony, all of whom are well aware of what the trio are doing, are doing their best not to worry about them. While they are trying not to worry about the three young adults, they are having dinner at their home with fourteen-year-old Yelena, almost eleven-year-old Daisy, and almost five-year-old Peter. As they eat dinner together the three adults realise that something is going on with Daisy as she is quieter than usual, not talking with Yelena and Peter, both of whom she considers to be her siblings, like she usually does. Even though she usually considers it an invasion of privacy Melinda is using her gift to try and figure out what is going on with Daisy, something that is proving to be rather difficult as while Daisy is feeling very strong emotions, she is also feeling a lot of different, complex ones.
"I had the quickest time in the class, it was great, these two guys who always give me a hard time weren't happy, totally worth how exhausted I was," Yelena reveals, knowing that unlike her sister she can go all out when it comes to PE, and it is something she frequently does, as she likes to be the best and always works hard to make sure she is.
"That's great Lena," Natasha tells her, clearly proud. "Pete, what were you and Dad working on today?" Natasha asks curious, knowing that Tony and Peter did what they do most days and spent most of the day in the workshop building stuff together.
"We're building a remote controlled floaty to use in the pool in summer," Peter explains, feeling rather proud as it was his idea.
"That sounds exciting," Melinda tells him, being able to feel how excited and proud Peter is.
"It is, I'm really excited," Peter admits, and Melinda feels that Tony is proud of Peter.
"That's great, Pete," Melinda tells him. "I look forward to seeing it when it's done," Melinda says.
"I can't wait to show you! Both of you," Peter says, looking between Natasha and Melinda.
"We look forward to seeing it," Natasha assures him, and Peter grins ear to ear.
"Daisy, how was school?" Melinda asks, trying to get an idea about what is going on with Daisy, trying to make sense of the various complicated things she is feeling from Daisy.
"It was fine," Daisy says, though it clearly wasn't. "Can I go up to my room?" Daisy asks.
"Daze, you've barely eaten," Tony says to her, clearly worried, as he knows how unusual it is for Daisy not to eat her dinner, as even when she is worried about her mom's when they are on missions, she still usually still eats her dinner.
"I'm not hungry," Daisy says, and everyone around the table know that that is very out of character for her, even Peter who is young. "Can I please go up to my room?" Daisy asks, looking between Melinda, Natasha and Tony, clearly asking all three of them, and causing them to exchange looks.
"Sure Daze," Natasha says, answering for the trio, and without another word to anyone Daisy gets up and heads up the stairs behind the kitchen, going straight to her room.
"Aunt Mellie, is Daisy, okay?" Peter asks, worried about one of the people he considers to be his sister as while he is young, he is smart enough, and knows her well enough, to know that there is something wrong with her.
"I don't know, Peter," Melinda says, as what she is feeling from Daisy is so complex and intertwined that it didn't tell her a whole lot, all it did tell her that there is something on her mind.
"Hey Pete, after dinner do you want to play Mario Kart?" Yelena asks her brother, being old enough to recognize that whatever it is that is going on with Daisy would be something that it would be best to distract Peter from.
"Sure," Peter says with a grin, feeling happy while Tony and Natasha are feeling concerned about Daisy and because of what she is feeling form the two of them Melinda is.
Across the country twenty-six-year-old Hope, who couldn't handle being around Hank any longer, has ended her workday at Pym Technologies early and is walking into her two bedroom apartment in central San Fransisco. As she walks into the apartment Hope realises that the apartment isn't empty, and just as she goes to reach for a weapon by the door, she realises exactly who it is.
"Seriously Ria? Do you have to break into my apartment?" Hope asks, turning on the light, as she puts the weapon down and walks over to where also twenty six year old, Maria Hill is sitting on the couch.
"Who's breaking? I have a key," Maria responds with a grin.
"I'd say it's breaking in when you don't call first," Hope says, feeling very glad to see her even if Maria's present is unexpected, as she sits down next to her.
"I would have called before you got home, but you're home early," Maria comments, as she was just about to do that as she heard Hope approaching. "Problems with Hank?" Maria asks, as that is what she assumes, as it's what's usually the case.
"Of course, he's so frustrating," Hope says annoyed.
"So why do you keep subjecting yourself to him?" Maria asks, hating that Hope is causing herself so much pain. "You have options; Stark, SHIELD, pretty up any start up in the country," Maira reminds Hope, knowing that for a fact as she has been with Fury when he tried to recruit Hope, heard Tony remind her about the open job he has for her, and seen the letters Hope has received from different tech startups when she's visited Hope's apartment, something which she does a lot.
"You know why," Hope says, Maria being the only one who knows her reason for certain, though Tony, Melinda, Natasha and Peggy all suspect, something which Hope has realised.
"Ah right, your Ant Man suit,"
"Wasp suit," Hope corrects, as she has purposely been building a suit like her mother's rather than like Hank's. "It's moms' legacy too," Hope says. "Hank may be able to throw that away, but I can't, I won't," Hope says, sounding determined, and because of how well Maria knows her she knows, without a doubt, that once she sets her mind to something she won't be stopped.
"How close are you?" Maria asks curious, realising she hasn't gotten an update in a little while.
"Not as close as I would like, but honestly closer than I thought I would be at this point, basically I'm almost done with the suit, still trying to figure out the particles," Hope admits, and Maria can see the pride of her face.
"Hope, that's amazing," Maria tells her, clearly meaning that as she understands enough to know that what Hope is pulling off is incredible.
"Thanks," Hope says, as she reaches down and pulls of her shoes as they are hurting her feet. "So, what's bothering you?" Hope asks, being able to tell that something is bothering Maria, even though she is a master spy, because of how well she knows her.
"Bobbi, Shay and Antoine have officially finished the Academy, they're on their graduate mission," Maria reveals, not worrying as much as she usually would about classified information as Hope has an, unofficial, SHIELD clearance level equal to a pretty senior agent due to being apart of the family.
"That's great," Hope says, knowing how much the trio wanted that, as they have talked about it a lot. "Are you in charge of giving them their assignments?" Hope asks, knowing that could explain the conflicting look on Maria's face.
"Not exactly. Fury's already decided that, but what I am in charge of is assigning them missions when they're not working with Family," Maria explains, as while the trio will often work with family they won't always, as Fury wants them to be able to gain the skills they won't develop by solely working with family, something which she is going to explain to them during a meeting on Monday.
"And you're worried about how you're going to handle that," Hope realises.
"Can you blame me? They are three people who I have watched grow up, who I love, who are family to me, and now I'm going to be responsible for putting them in danger…. If they get hurt…" Maria starts to say, trailing off, knowing that before she became a part of the family, she would never have left anyone close enough to affect her like this.
"It won't be your fault," Hope assures her. "Ria, they've made their choices, they've joined the family business, they've completed their training, they're as prepared as they possibly could be," Hope says, calling it what the 'younger' members of the family have started to call SHIELD. "If it's not you assigning missions to them it will be someone else," Hope reminds her. "Aunt Peggy once told me that when you do the job of a leader sometimes you have to make peace with the decisions you have to make, it seems to me that this is some of those times," Hope comments.
"Yeah, guess so," Maria responds, as the two of them drift into silence as they sit together, and as they do Hope puts her arm around Maria, offering her comfort. As Maria doesn't have to go back to the East Coast until the following day the two of them eventually have dinner together; something they do a lot.
As they wanted to give Daisy some space Melinda and Natasha waited until Yelena and Peter finished dinner before heading upstairs to talk to Daisy which left Tony to do dishes with the fourteen and four-year-old. Getting to Daisy's room neither Melinda nor Natasha are surprised to find Daisy's door closed with loud music playing.
After exchanging looks Natasha Melinda reaches out and knocks loudly, doing so to make sure Daisy hears over the music, and seconds after Melinda knocked the music stops.
"Come in," Daisy's voice says and both Melinda and Natasha walk into the room.
Once they walk into the room Melinda and Natasha find Daisy sitting on her bed surrounded by the family photo albums which she collected form their place in one of the closets that lead to Bobbi's room.
"Daisy? are you okay?" Melinda asks her daughter, deciding that is the best place to start this particular conversation.
"Don't you already know the answer to that?" Daisy asks, as Melinda and Natasha walk over to the bed.
"I do, but Mama doesn't, and I can also tell how much you need to talk about what happened at school," Melinda says, to Natasha's confusion, as both she and Natasha sit down either side of the bed, across from Daisy.
"Daisy, what happened?" Natasha asks her daughter, and Daisy, with a sigh, closes the photo album she is looking at to look at her mothers.
"We're doing one more project at school, about our families," Daisy explains, and as Natasha tenses at that, having a bad feeling, and Melinda does to due to what she is feeling from Natasha.
"Daze…" Natasha starts to say.
"I know, I was careful with what I put down," Daisy assures her mother. "I mentioned my three sisters, and brother, plus a lot of uncles and aunts, but didn't explain in more details," Daisy explains, knowing she just placed each of her family members in the family relation she considers them to be, knowing the hardest person to place was Tony as while she calls him uncle, he is more than that to her. "But then one of the other kids saw my paper and that I had two moms listed," Daisy explains.
"And they gave you a hard time?" Melinda asks, as that would explain what she is feeling from Daisy.
"Not just that," Daisy admits. "They told me I had to have a dad, I said I didn't, but Tristan was relentless, and the other students joined in, said there must be something wrong me because I didn't …. I ran out of class, Kate followed," Daisy admits, and Natasha finds herself feeling incredibly grateful that Daisy has Kate's friendship, which means Melinda feels the same.
"Daisy there is nothing wrong with you, absolutely nothing," Natasha assures her, knowing they are about to have a very difficult conversation, one they haven't had to have with Bobbi, Yelena or Peter as Bobbi remembers her biological parents, Yelena remembers Melina and Alexi, plus vaguely remembers the Red Rom, and Peter is not just constantly told stories about Mary he also spends a lot of time with May and Ben.
"Then why don't I have a dad? Why isn't he apart of my life?" Daisy asks, looking between her mothers, asking the question she has never been curious about, never once wondered about, as from her perspective she has the best mothers in the world, and an incredible extended family, including Tony who she imagines is like a father to her, so she has never needed a father. But now, who her biological father is, and why he's not in her life, is all she can think about.
AN2: As a way of explanation, I will be referring to Hope Mackenzie as Kenzie to avoid confusion with Hope Van Dyne, I thought a lot about it and I decided it was the best description to go with.
