Pepper was beyond irritated. She strode through the front doors of the compound on a mission, with Happy stoically following behind.

Lately, Tony's nightly messages and calls were the opposite of reassuring, and Pepper was determined to not leave without rectifying every issue Tony skirted around on the phone each night. She was so focused on the potential difficulty of the task ahead of her that she was surprised to find her quarry as soon as she walked into the common room.

A teen boy with loose brown curls sat on the couch. His posture was completely relaxed, as though he belonged there and lounging in the Avenger's living room was his habit. He was reading Introduction to Autonomous Robots: Mechanisms, Sensors, Actuators, and Algorithms. But as Pepper stepped further inside, the boy peered at her over the heavy, hardcover with wide, shocked eyes. Happy came to stand beside her so that they were both towering over the teenager. She didn't know why she had anticipated that the boy would be locked away somewhere.

"Hello, I'm Pepper Potts. You must be Peter." Pepper extended her hand.

The boy stood quickly, his book tumbling onto the floor, completely forgotten. He wasn't very tall, or exceptionally muscular-looking. He had the slim-but-strong build of a swimmer or dancer. The kid didn't cut a particularly intimidating figure, for all his supposed super-strength.

"Hi," he said simply as he shook her hand.

Pepper looked him up and down as surreptitiously as possible, but she knew he felt the weight of her scrutiny.

Yes, it was as bad as she thought, Pepper concluded. She was going to have some words with that man. She sighed heavily. "FRIDAY, where is Tony?"

"Boss is in the lab."

"Of course he is. And where is Harley? With him, I presume?"

Peter and FRIDAY answered over top of each other, "Harley is in his room." "Harley is in his room."

"Jinx. You own me a Coke," FRIDAY announced matter-of-factly.

Peter gaped at one of the sensors on the ceiling. "No way! Did Mr. Stark teach you that? How am I supposed to get you a coke?" He shook his head, smiling a little. "No, don't tell me, I'll figure it out."

Pepper raised her eyebrows at the exchange. "Looks like you two are on friendly terms."

Peter nodded. "FRIDAY has been a big help." But he didn't elaborate on the sort of help. Pepper narrowed her eyes, scrutinizing the boy until he shrank back a little.

She cleared her throat. "Excuse me, Peter. I'll be back to chat with you, if you'd be so kind as to remain here and wait."

"Oh. Ah, yes, Ma'am. I'll be right here."

She attempted a reassuring smile, but Peter still looked a little uneasy, or perhaps starstruck. Meanwhile, Happy loomed menacingly, staying behind to frown at the boy in silence. As Pepper walked away, she could hear Peter asking the man timidly, "Your nickname wouldn't happen to be 'Happy,' would it?"

Pepper stepped into the hall where she lingered for a moment. "FRIDAY, let me check in on Harley first. Tell him I'm on my way to his room."

"Consider it done, Deputy Boss."

FRIDAY opened all the doors ahead of Pepper so that she could glide through the compound unimpeded, until she came to a guest room door in the residential wing. Before she could even knock, Harley opened the door with a grin. "Pepper! FRIDAY told me you were out here."

"Hi sweetie." Pepper pulled the tall boy in for a hug and kissed his cheek. "How are you? I heard you had a pretty scary experience." She held him at arm's length to get a good look at him, scanning for injuries. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, it wasn't so bad." He shrugged off the concern but wouldn't quite meet her eyes.

"Well, I'm glad you're here. I just wish it were under different circumstances."

Harley hummed in agreement.

Pepper glanced into the room, looking over the boy's shoulder and noted a desk full of miniature tools and small electronics parts. "Why are you up here? I thought you and Tony would be attached at the hip."

"Oh we've been working nonstop on some new projects, but then Bruce came in and they kicked us out so they could talk."

Pepper didn't miss the 'us' in that sentence. "Peter has been working with you guys? What's that like?"

"It's cool. He's really smart. I bet he could keep up with Tony." Harley gave a wry smile. "Might be good for him." And Pepper wondered if he meant it would be good for Peter, or for Tony.

"I'm just putting together a phone for Peter so we can keep in touch." Harley gestured behind him at the mess strewn on the desk.

Pepper raised her eyebrows at that but left it alone. She gave the boy another squeeze. "I'll leave you to it. But I want to have lunch with you before you go home, okay? It's been months since we've chatted."

"Sounds great, Pepper. Thanks." He pulled her into a hug and then ducked back into his room with a wave, apparently eager to get back to work on the phone.

Pepper had not anticipated arriving to find more questions than answers at the compound. It was equal parts intriguing, and irritating.

Even in the lab, Pepper discovered more puzzling details. FRIDAY opened the door and Pepper stepped in to find both Bruce and Tony huddled over lab equipment, deep in thought. Neither noticed as she approached and Bruce continued speaking in a low tone.

"I don't know Tony, his X-rays showed a lot of callus formation which indicate past breaks that healed, but they couldn't all have been from combat. I mean, look at his finger bones. How did they all break like that? And some of the others look like…."

Pepper cleared her throat and both men snapped up to attention.

"Pepper!" Tony stood up with a wary smile. Pepper noted a faint bruise around his eye before he awkwardly turned sideways to address her. "What are you doing here?"

Bruce shoved Tony lightly. "It's good to see you, Pepper. What can we do for you? Do you need to steal Tony for a while?"

"I'm here to clean up yet another mess." She looked pointedly at Tony before giving Bruce a warm smile and a hello.

Tony cut in, "Yeah, I've been meaning to introduce you to the kid ever since we determined that he's relatively safe."

Oh, so he did know which mess she was speaking of. Pepper drew herself up, ready for any pushback. "Well, I'm glad I dropped by. I can't believe you'd let this go on for so long."

Tony tensed, ready for a fight. "Now, Pep, the kid is not so bad. I know you might not want him around, but he doesn't have any options, and Fury basically ran away as soon as we weren't looking. He completely lost interest the minute he knew he couldn't detain Peter.

Pepper stared at him, flabbergasted. "Wait. You think I want you to get rid of him? Tony, He's a traumatized 14 year old child!"

"Oh." He frowned. "What am I in trouble for, then?"

"Tony, that poor boy doesn't actually have anything of his own, does he? He's been here for a week and you haven't gotten him clothes, shoes, anything. I know you've had your hands full but you never even reached out to me for help."

Tony gaped at her, looking like one of his robots when they shorted out. "I know he needs some things, but Harley keeps giving him things to wear, and it's not like we're starving him."

"Not anymore." Bruce added helpfully.

"Yeah FRIDAY reminds us to feed him and everything." Tony grinned.

"This isn't a joke. And Harley isn't going to be here much longer. Is Peter just going to have no clothes at all, then?"

He shrugged. "He's got a Hydra jumpsuit."

Pepper glared at him.

Bruce chose that moment to chime in. "Well, the jumpsuit's covered in blood stains. And his shoes, too."

"Okay! Okay. Sheesh. I'll have FRIDAY order some things. It's not like I didn't plan on doing all that." Tony huffed.

Pepper waved him off. "No, I'll handle it. Happy and I are here to take him shopping."

Tony's jaw dropped. "Um. No? You can't do that." He sputtered. Pepper didn't know what her expression looked like just then, but Bruce quietly wheeled himself away in his chair, effectively fading into the background.

Tony rushed to explain. "Pep. The kid has superstrength, anxiety, and amnesia. He could be a flight risk, too, for all I know. Never has a wild card been more wild. The most predictable thing about the kid is that you can expect the unexpected."

"Is he a danger to anyone or himself?"

"Maybe?"

Pepper didn't buy that for one minute, and she was sure her face showed it. Tony must trust the kid on some level to have him working in his workshop, keeping Harley company, and bantering with FRIDAY. She arched a single, well-manicured brow.

"I do have a black eye, after all!" Tony gestured to the shadowy bruise around his left eye.

At this Pepper pressed her lips together and tried not to smile. "Don't worry, Tony, you won't be accompanying us, so you'll be perfectly safe."

"Haha. But if I'm not there, how am I supposed to catch him if he decides to run?"

"I'm sure you'll think of something."

The man shook his head.

"Put a tracker in his shoe if you're worried. You can't just keep the boy locked away forever. Children need normalcy and consistency. He needs school, and friends, and clothes he can call his own. And he needs an identity-an official one accompanied by all the typical paperwork."

Tony looked uncomfortable. "For now, he doesn't have an official identity. He doesn't exactly exist. With Peter's situation, we thought it was best if he continued to fly under the radar. And it's helped keep things simple with the Accords…"

"And how sustainable is that?"

"Not very, but it's not like we've had a lot of time to figure it all out."

Pepper frowned. That was true enough. Maybe this wasn't a case of Tony being self-absorbed and oblivious. Maybe it was just a complicated situation, and he was spread thin. But if that was the case, Pepper wished he would just ask for her help.

She tilted her head, considering the myriad difficulties and responsibilities Tony was taking on. "How are you feeling about this? What do you think about being in charge of a teenager suddenly?"

"It's a lot. I admit I'm completely in over my head." Tony leaned heavily against the lab bench and ran his hands through his hair, sighing heavily. "I don't know, Pep. The kid has nowhere else to go, but I just know I'm going to screw this up." Tony shook his head silently to himself.

Pepper pursed her lips and hummed, contemplating the circumstances.

"Do you want to do this?"

"What?"

"Do you want to be responsible for a teenage boy?"

"I don't have a choice, Pep. We can't exactly put him into the foster system with such an inadequate understanding of his abilities or his needs. He has amnesia. Hell, he probably has PTSD. And if HYDRA ever comes looking for him, the fact that he lives with the Avengers would be the strongest deterrent to them trying to take him back."

"I get that, Tony. What I'm asking is, do you want to be responsible for him?"

Tony silently examined his shoes for a long time and Pepper wondered if he'd even answer her. But then he shook his head slowly. "No. If it weren't for all these extenuating circumstances, I'd drop him on the first acceptable doorstep I could find."

Pepper considered that for a moment. She wasn't sure if she could take that at face value, or if it was really Tony's deep fear of turning into Howard that was speaking right now.

"Okay. So, let's think of this as a short-term arrangement. What do we need to accomplish in the short-term to help Peter transition to a more traditional living arrangement?"

"There are no available traditional living arrangements."

"Humor me. You never know what might happen."

"Well, he needs a birth certificate. I can get Fury to whip something up. It's the least he can do."

Pepper nodded. "A birth certificate will be helpful. Peter needs that to be enrolled in school."

"I don't know about enrolling him…"

"If you don't intend on keeping him cloistered in the compound for the rest of his life, he's going to need some normal socialization. Some therapy couldn't hurt, either."

Pepper pulled out her phone and started on a list. "Will you be returning to the Tower with him?"

Tony shrugged. "I hadn't really thought that far ahead."

"You rarely stay here at the compound for long, so, you'll have to have a plan in place for when you leave him here. You can't expect FRIDAY to babysit."

Tony's mouth quirked up. "Actually, between Harley and Peter, she's been successfully running several babysitting protocols."

Pepper rolled her eyes. "I'm sure she has."

Tony smirked. "And Natasha seemed eager to adopt him. I'm sure she'll watch the kid."

"Natasha isn't always around."

"I get it. Don't worry. I'll bring him with me to the tower."

Pepper gave a small sigh but nodded and started another list. "He'll need a room, furnishings, a clearance badge. Do we know what he likes? I mean, he has amnesia so I suppose he doesn't know what he likes." She pursed her lips thoughtfully. "I'll figure it out"

Tony hummed in agreement and grabbed her around the waist. He drew her close, eliciting a small gasp. Pepper peered at him over the growing list on her screen.

"Have I told you recently how brilliant you are?"

She smiled. "No. But you certainly like to reward my brilliance with more work. If I squint hard enough, that's almost the same thing."

Tony continued, unfazed. "You're brilliant. You're amazing. Take a break from all that work and have dinner with me."

Pepper smiled. "I'm not sure you'll find much time for dating now that you're a single dad."

Tony's smile faltered and Pepper winced inwardly. She'd struck a nerve; Tony was still afraid of being a father. Afraid of being Howard.

"I'll have dinner with you at the Tower when things settle down." She soothed. "I know you have your hands full. But I'm here to help. And I brought Happy."

"Oh, good. He can run and get us some food while you're out."

Pepper swatted at him. "No, he's going to be busy." Pepper just hoped Happy would be busy carrying all their shopping bags, and not busy chasing after a runaway.