Tony wiped the sweat off his forehead as he dropped the fifth box of files next to his desk. One left to go. He had been working on a 'new Arc Reactor' for the last couple of days, but in reality, he, being the curious person that he is, was going through Michelle's files.
He wouldn't die if he waited just a few more days before making the new reactor. Right?
Ever since he heard about MJ from Peter, he wanted to know more (overprotective much). He of course knew her from Pepper, but he had never actually seen her, let alone properly meet. Pepper didn't talk about her that much, knowing he didn't have any specific interest in kids. Until Peter, of course. Well, Harley, but he had never really told her about him (whoops).
Anyway, when he found out she knew Peter, Protective Dad Mode was activated and he began searching on her, just like he'd done when he heard about Ned, who he'd seen once or twice when he picked Peter up from school. They seemed very close, it was rather cute to see. Especially their handshake, it was just adorable. But he hadn't found anything interesting on him, he seemed like a normal kid.
So with Michelle, he just started with looking her up on the internet. But to his surprise, there was not a lot to be found. He found out she had been adopted at the age of 5 by a lovely couple, and that that lovely couple was, well, no more. So he started pulling out Jones files. He had been a little bit more than very surprised to find out that she was from HYDRA. But every path he started led to a dead end. The only thing he knew about her so far was that she was created and trained by HYDRA, and was not, well, born.
He ran his hands through his hair once more before opening the last box, hoping for answers. Hours passed, and as he started to get to the bottom of the pile, he lost his hope.
But as he came to the last 5 pages, he found something he wished he didn't.
--
"I already told you, I'm fine," Peter turned his face dramatically towards Ned, who had been asking if he was okay for the past 4 hours, and started to walk back home, until an arm stopped him.
"Dude, tell me the truth," Ned looked at Peter with a slightly worried look in his eyes. "You haven't been sick since, you know, and even before that, you've only been sick a total of, like, 3 times. And with some hospital-"
"Wait," Peter cut him off. He quickly glanced around and pulled his friend to the side. "How do you know about the hospital? Did you see anything? Were you there? Did May tell you? No, she wouldn't. Right? Yes, she promised. Then how... How much do you know? Where did you find that out? Shit, this is bad. Who told you? How long have you known? Did you tell anyone else?" He rambled, never once stopping to take a breath, shaking his friend's shoulders.
Ned blinked a couple times after the rambling stopped and Peter looked intensely in his friend's eyes.
"Okay, calm down. I only know what I read in the texts-" Ned said, hands raised to try and calm Peter down. It didn't work, of course.
"You read the texts?!" Peter whisper-yelled.
"Yeah, well I was worried about you and you wouldn't tell me anything!" Now it was Ned's turn to get angry. Peter sighed, running a hand through his hair.
"I know, I'm sorry. I should've told you something. It's just, I can't right now. It's kinda secret. But I promise I'll tell you. Please, just- trust me when I say I'm fine."
Ned didn't like the fact that he still knew nothing, but nodded, glad to know his friend was okay.
"Tell you what," Peter said, trying to cheer his friend up a bit. "Tomorrow, you take your new Lego sets with you and we'll build them at my place after school. I'll tell you then, when no one else can hear. Deal?"
Ned smiled and reached out his hand. Peter answered with a big grin, doing their handshake.
"Deal."
--
Tony was reading through the 5 pages, eyes wide with disbelief.
It can't be... That's not possible, is it?
Suddenly, a sting of pain went through his chest. He dropped the papers as he was paralyzed for a moment. The pain was getting worse, and he started to see black. He held his hand over his heart as he stumbled away from the desk, towards the door.
Just as he was about to reach it, it opened to reveal Steve. He looked like he was about to say something, but stopped when he saw Tony stumbling out of the room.
Steve watched the billionaire push past him, holding his chest in clear pain, barely able to walk properly. For a moment he was unable to do anything. It wasn't until the man fell on his knees with a grunt that he started moving again. He quickly grabbed Tony's arm and draped it over his own shoulders, helping the man stand.
He heard Tony mumble something very unclear.
"Excuse me?" Steve asked, trying to be patient.
"Lab" Tony mumbled so soft, it was incredibly hard to hear. Luckily for the both of them, Steve did.
He seemed to hesitate for a moment, but when he heard Tony groan in pain at his side, he practically dragged the man down to his lab.
As soon as they arrived, Tony got to work. Steve helped him whenever the man's hands trembled too bad to hold things. After a few hours, and a couple times almost passing out on Tony's side, Steve was looking at some sort of glowing triangle.
Tony struggled to get the old arc reactor out. Once he did, he quickly grabbed the new one and pushed it in his chest (okay, that sounds gross, but Steve had absolutely no idea how it worked, so to him it looked like it was pushed in his chest).
Tony sighed in relief.
And passed out.
--
Steve caught Tony before he could hit the ground. He sighed as he looked at the passed out billionaire.
"If anyone's gonna kill you, it's you." He said while rolling his eyes.
He carried his friend over to Tony's room, laying him down on his bed. He decided to be nice and clean Tony's desk because, honestly? It looked like a complete mess.
He quickly piled all the boxes, not looking at the files for privacy.
But when he picked up the fallen pages, he saw something that caught his eye. It was a picture of Bucky. And one of the girl he had seen earlier.
And they were linked as family.
YOU ARE READING
The End Game | MCU FanFiction
Fanfiction*set after the events that occurred up to Black Panther, but the Civil War has been changed* This takes place before Infinity War -- Michelle Jones has had a hard life. Being an orphan was never easy, of course. But her life had been good, up to a p...
