Living With Secrets

Stupid

Tony laid in bed, restless. He hadn't slept since Peter had been kidnapped, 3 days ago. He hadn't eaten anything either, now that he thought about it, and the unexpected rumble from his stomach forced him to get up. Pepper rolled over slowly, blinking, and asked where Tony was going in the middle of the night.

"Getting a snack, babe, go back to bed." While Tony was the kind of person to skip meals and sleep when he was stressed, Pepper was the opposite, working herself into a fit of emotion, only to crash and sleep for ungodly amounts of time.

The older man trudged into the kitchen, surprised to find Natasha and Wanda at the table, sharing a bottle of wine, and Steve was at the counter, making a cup of tea, where Stephen, Loki, and Bruce were both sitting, nursing their own cups of tea.

"You're all up late," the billionaire sighed, making his way towards the fridge. He pulled it open, looking through leftovers and yogurts.

"Can't sleep," Natasha said simply. "I decided to get up and Wanda and Stephen were already out here, and then Bruce came down from the labs, and Steve showed up with Loki."

"Speaking of, why are you here?" Tony threw his hand towards the God, then padded to the pantry, grabbing a bag of chips and tossing them onto the counter.

"I came to help with the search for young Peter," Loki shrugged. "After the last time, I want to keep a better eye on him. It is baffling to me how a superhero can be kidnapped multiple times, moreover, how his family, all superheroes of their own, cannot find him."

Steve shot daggers at the God, angry that Loki would insinuate that this situation was Peter's fault. The part about the family, though, that was spot on. They should be doing better.

"We're doing what we can," Bruce said softly, reaching for the chips.

"I tried reaching out to him, but he was asleep most of the first day, and then he was too panicked to be reached." Wanda took a sip of her wine, glaring at the God over the rim of her glass.

"I was not trying to blame you for any of this, you misunderstand my motives. I simply mean to draw attention to the young man's affinity for trouble," Loki chuckled lightly, and Tony joined him.

There was something amusing about Peter's luck in the past few years. He'd been kidnapped twice, broken his arm just after the first day of his junior year, crashed his car and had to rebuild it from scratch, and to top it all off, gotten himself an arc reactor.

"Oh, shit!" Tony jumped up, running towards the situation room. The rest of the family, or at least the ones who were up, stared at him in confusion.

"Tones? What's up?" Steve called out to his friend, causing the shorter man to turn around, pausing briefly.

"Peter's arc reactor! I put a tracker in it, but I never activated because I never needed to! I almost forgot," Tony exclaimed excitedly, turning back around and rushing into the situation room. The others scrambled to follow him, each one leaving their drinks behind. Wanda knocked over her glass in her haste to get to the situation room, but she caught it with her magic and set it down carefully, sparring the carpet.

"Get Pepper," Tony barked, booting up the computers and punching in a few lines of code. Natasha ran back out of the room, rushing to get Pepper. FRIDAY alerted everyone that she was waking up the rest of the team. There was the sound of general commotion, as Sam fell out of bed, Bucky ran down the hall, Alyona woke up and started crying, Rhodey rushed down to his and Clint swore as he jumped up, grabbed the toddler, and ran into the room.

"Where is he?" Pepper pushed her way through the crowd of people around her husband. "Did you find him yet?"

Tony shook his head, his eyes tracking the changing dot on the screen. "It's still pin pointing his location."

The team each waited with baited breath, some bouncing on the balls of their feet, others were still rubbing sleep out of their eyes, wanting to be ready to go when they found their teen.

"Yes!" Tony exclaimed as his computer dinged and his son's location came up. "He's-"

The older man stopped short. He was moving. Peter was moving, he was just outside of MIT campus now.

"He's moving. Keep that thing updated," Tony said, gathering his jacket off the back of the chair and jerking his head towards the laptop. Rhodey and Pepper took his place, hitting the refresh button every few seconds. The rest of the team fled from the room, following Tony out to grab their things.

"Go," Clint said, still holding Alyona in his arms. "I'll stay here with her. Go get Peter back."

Natasha smiled, her gratitude shining through. "Thanks."

"Nat, let's go!" Tony called for the ex-assassin, and said woman jogged after the team.

"I can't believe Tony didn't think of this tracker before," Pepper sighed.

"He'd kinda stupid," Clint chuckled, bouncing his daughter on his hip. "No offense Pep."

Pepper smiled. "He's only stupid about stuff that happened too long ago to remember, that's all."

Rhodey laughed, but no one disputed it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Peter hoisted the child on his back up, his arm starting to feel numb. Wade was on a makeshift gurney, being pulled behind the brunet. Wade, having been asleep since the break out, was still regenerating, and Peter kept wishing it would go a little faster. He could really use some help with Morgan, especially seeing as he was working with a crutch for the first time.

It had been a miracle they'd gotten out of the lab alive, to be honest. Peter and Wade had made a dumb plan, one that would have never worked, and when it all went to hell, Wade's solo plan had been half-baked at best. It was stupid, stupid, stupid. Stupid lucky to have worked.

"Come on," Peter breathed to himself. He just needed to make it to the woods on the edge of the campus, to hide Wade and Morgan in the greenery, to lay low until Wade woke up and could help him. He panted, taking in as much oxygen as he could, trying to catch his breath.

"Okay, let's do this," Peter commanded. He was willing himself to keep going, and that's just what he did. He pulled Wade along the last few hundred feet, then collapsed in the underbrush. He set Morgan down, making sure she was in a comfortable position, pulling off his tee shirt, and covering her up as best he could.

He closed his eyes for a moment before pulling Wade further into the brush, and getting him up into his arms. The brunet checked his friend over for other injuries, but for the most part, it was just the legs. The lack of legs, that is.

"Just gonna... rest for a moment," Peter sighed, closing his eyes again. His leg was sore and tired, and his stub had started bleeding again at some point during the escape. "Just a few minutes."

Peter felt his body starting to drift off, felt his mind slipping away into sleep. He pried his eyes back open. Gotta stay awake, gotta keep watch, the teen thought. I gotta get Wade and Morgan all the way out of this, not just half way out.

Peter stood, leaning on the crutch as he pulled himself up. He was about to crumple again when he heard it. The sound of the Iron Man thrusters.

"Finally," Peter murmured, before he swayed and fell to the ground again.