Living With Secrets

Morgan

"How's my leg?" Peter decided to change the subject.

"Brilliant, I made you a new one," Shuri said, playing nonchalance as she picked at her nails.

Peter flipped the blankets over her leg, his eyes settling on the new part. He flexed his foot, surprised to see it respond just as any other foot would. "Neural interfacing and environmental response input?"

"And synthetic cartilage and bone," Shuri smiled.

"Sick. Nice color combo, Dad." The teen knew that his dad would have designed this, seeing as Shuri would have made it more flashy.

Tony beamed. Praise from his son, the king of design, was a huge achievement.

The door swung open, and every turned, expecting to see Wade. Instead, a child wearing one of Peter's science pun shirts ran in, and jumped up on the bed next to Peter.

"Peter!"

"Morgan, oh, I'm so glad to see you!" The teen seemed to forget his family and his new leg, and wrapped the girl in a bone crushing hug. "You feeling okay? Did Wade get you something to eat and drink? Did you nap?"

"He got me apple juice and fruit snacks!"

"Of course he did," Peter sighed. "That's not real food, we'll get you something upstairs when my Uncle Bruce lets me get out of bed."

Morgan laughed, then turned serious. "I was scared when I woke up, but Wade told me everything was fine and I kept Venom under control."

"Very good, sweet heart. See? I told you. You are strong enough to take control whenever you want."

"I think she likes you more," Wade said dryly from the doorway.

"Of course she does, I was the one who talked to her for hours when Venom ate your legs. How would she even know you, man, you were asleep most of the time we were there." Peter shot his friend a shit-eating grin.

"Har de har har," Wade mocked.

"I'm sorry, who is this?" Pepper had been glancing between her son, Wade, and the little girl throughout the whole conversation, and was still trying to work out the connection. "Is this the friend you were talking about, Wade?"

"Wait, you didn't tell them who she was? Or let her meet them?"

Wade shuffled his feet and said something under his breath.

Peter rolled his eyes again. "Everyone, this is Morgan. She was one of the people Doc Ock had in the labs, and she helped us escape. Morgan, this is my Mom and Dad, my Unlce Steve, Clint, Bucky, Bruce, Stephen, Rhodey, and Sam. That's my sister Wanda, and my Aunty Natasha. My cousin, Alyona, is upstairs sleeping, too. Oh, and my friend Shuri."

Everyone gave a little wave to the little girl, and she smiled shyly.

"Do they know about Venom, yet?" Morgan turned in Peter's arms, whispering into his ear. The teen shook his head at the child, and she seemed to think about that for a moment before turning back around.

"Hi, my name is Morgan. I was an experiment for Doc Ock, and now I have a friend named Venom. Before I met Peter, I couldn't keep him under control and he would make me eat people, but then Peter helped me and now I can make him do what I want."

Everyone seemed pretty stunned at that, but Wade chuckled to break the tension. "I don't think I've told you this yet, but the legs thing? We can just forget that ever happened."

Morgan giggled, and everyone smiled, seeming to forget the huge detail that she was hosting a people eating monster.

"How old are you, Morgan?" Tony took a seat on Peter's bed.

"Uhm," Morgan stalled, glancing back at Peter for help.

"I think she's probably around 6, but I honestly don't know. I'm gonna have Ned try and hack the system this week to see if we can find anything."

"I'll get it started now, Ned will be here tomorrow," Rhodey said, and headed back out of the room.

"Ned will be here tomorrow? Why?" Peter scrunched up his nose. "He has school."

"He wanted to be here for the rehab, and MJ will be here in a couple hours." Tony smiled at his son, ready for the barrage of disappointment from the brunet.

"Oh, God, why'd you guys call them? They have school and now they are gonna be behind and all worried!" Peter complained.

Before Tony could reply, Morgan pressed her hands to Peter's cheeks, squishing them together. "Peter, this is very important. Venom is hungry and wants to eat soon."

Peter nodded, ignoring the uncomfortable shifting of the other people in the room. A hungry, man eating... Venom thing can't be good.

"Wade, could you try giving him some raw meats upstairs?"

The blond nodded and scooped up the girl. "Come on, you, time for food. We'll try everything in the house until he's happy, okay?" They started to make their way out of the room when Peter called them back.

"Get her some real food, too, yeah? Some scrambled eggs and toast, maybe?"

When they were both gone, Peter flopped back onto his pillows. Pepper squeezed his hand.

"You're really good with her, Pete," Natasha said, smiling at her nephew.

Peter shrugged. "I like kids, and she needed someone to believe in her. The Doc turned her into some host for a symbiotic creature called Venom, who was used as a weapon. She keeps him under control now, though."

Pepper and Tony shot each other worried glances. "So she's all alone in life? No parents?"

"Nope," Peter said sadly. "She's pretty much all alone, besides Venom."

"Jeez," Steve muttered. There was silence in the room, then Tony shocked everyone with 3 words no one was expecting.

"We're adopting her."

Peter nearly choked on his own spit. "I'm sorry, what?"

"I said, we're adopting her. She has no one, and you said she's doing better, so we might as well! It'll be good for her to have family, and to have a friend for Alyona, and I think she's adorable, totally a spitfire." Tony rambled for a bit, and Pepper contained a laugh.

"Your father means to say that we were thinking of adopting again, and you've brought us the perfect little girl."

"I'm sorry, but perfect? Did you guys miss the part where she said sometimes she eats people?" Clint seemed baffled as to why Tony and pepper would want a man eating kid.

"She used to get used by a monster to eat people, but she got it under control now. Plus, Venom recognized me in the torture room and that's why he didn't eat me, so once he knows you, he's much more controlled," Peter said with a shrug and a soft smile. 

"Yeah, used to!"

Pepper rolled her eyes at her husbands excitement. "More than that, she needs us. Who better to help someone with a strange super-human trait than a group of people with super-human traits themselves?"

Everyone seemed to mull this over for a bit, and no more objections were raised.

"Now," Pepper continued, smoothing out Peter's blankets. "Bruce, when can Peter leave the room?"

Bruce thought about it for a moment. "I want him to rest some more, but he's welcome to try a few steps and sleep in him room if he wants." Peter beamed and moved to get out of bed. Stephen pushed him back into bed, moving to remove the IV and other sensors. When he was done, Peter grabbed onto his arm and took a shaky step from the bed. Despite how strange it had felt to be without a leg in the lab, the feeling of walking on something like his old leg was disorienting, and Peter wobbled.

"Feels like a leg, just different," Peter chuckled. Taking a few more steps, he was starting to feel more confident, and the teen headed into the hall.

"Don't get too-" Pepper's warning was cut off by the sound of Peter slumping against a wall and groaning.

"-cocky."