I Dreamt We Had a Kid

Chapter 16

New York has looked better, he decides while walking through the street. Buildings are still in slight disarray and shops are closed down. What overwhelms him most though, is the people walking around, each and every one of them a necklace like his around their necks.

He walks closer to May's apartment, taking in his surroundings. And then he is on Bleeker street. He sees the massive building and the stone eye shape on the top. Tony looks further down the street, a hole still in the ground from the ship landing there. He takes a deep breath.

"I'll come back here later." He says to himself, walking forward to May's apartment once more.

The building looks to be in disarray, some bricks on the ground, but he hides his anxiety and proceeds to walk through the door and up to the apartment. The door looks the same as it always had and Tony isn't sure if this is a good idea. May is going to gut him and blame him for killing her nephew, but he knocks anyway because he has to.

He hears shuffling behind the door and watches as it slowly opens to reveal the small and broken looking woman standing behind it. She blinks when she sees him, a look of confusion on her face, and then she pulls him into a tight embrace.

I was not expecting that, he says to himself.

"Tony Stark," she pulls away, shutting her apartment door and leading him inside, "you don't have to tell me." she isn't making eye contact with him. "He would have come home already if he-" she pauses to collect herself.

"I'm so sorry, May," he breathes out gently, "I should have come sooner, this is all my fault." he places his head in his hands and tries to fight away the panic growing in his stomach.

"No Tony it's not your fault." she shakes her head. They sit there in comfortable silence for a moment. Tony places his hand on his necklace one more time, secretly wishing he didn't have to do this, but he does. He reaches around his neck and slowly takes it off, stretching it out to May.

"He would have wanted you to have it," he puts on his best possible fake smile, feeling the panic of Peter not being near his heart bubbling dangerously close to the surface.

She takes it and rotates it, bringing it up to her lips, she kisses it gently and squeezes it in her hand with her eyes clenched.

"You know Tony," she makes eye contact with him, her eyes shimmering with tears. "I don't think he would have." She gently grabs Tony's hand and opens the fingers to place the vile in them and then closes his fingers tightly around it.

"You meant a lot to him," she purses her lips. "He lost so much in his short life, his mother, his father, his uncle," she takes a deep breathe, "and here you came in, the man he idolized his whole life, gave him a superhero suit, and treated him like a son." her tone is serious now.

"He would have never told anyone this, but he saw you as the father he never had."

Tony doesn't know what to say to that. His heart beat is filling his ears and his mouth does not want to speak, so he just swallows and blinks while he places the necklace around his neck, feeling the familiar clang of the glass on his reactor.

"He was the best son I could have asked for," he smiles a weak smile, but it is genuine. He grips May's hand in his own and they sit in silence for a few minutes, the two of them shedding a few tears in the silence.

"I should get going," he says finally, "i'll come back soon May." She just smiles and on the way out, Tony places a large wad of cash on the kitchen table, just in case she needed it.