Believer [Peter Parker]

49 - I Love You 3000

Tony and Hannah washed the dishes in the kitchen after dinner. As they finished washing the last dishes, they stumbled upon a photo of Tony and Peter Parker. Peter was holding a picture of his Stark Internship certificate.

Hannah picked up the picture.

"I miss him," Hannah said.

"I know," Tony said. He placed his hand on her shoulder.

Hannah knew seeing the picture of Peter gave him a change of heart. He finally knew what he's fighting for.

"We should do it," Hannah said.

"Yeah, we should," Tony agreed.

***

"Look at a mod inspiration, let us see what check out," Tony said to his computer. It was generating a holographic model of something he's working on. "So, recommend one last sim before we pack it in for the night. This time, in the shape of a mobius strip, inverted please."

"Processing..." FRIDAY said.

"Give us eigenvalue," Tony said. "That particle factoring and a spectral decomp. Gotta take a second."

"Just a moment," FRIDAY said.

"If it doesn't pan, we shouldn't worry, right?" Hannah asked.

"Yeah," Tony confirmed. "We're just -"

"Model rendered," FRIDAY interrupted.

Hannah and Tony looked at each other in shock of amazement. The render came back as successful. Tony fell back, bewildered by this discovery.

"Shit," Hannah said.

"Shit?" they heard a little girls voice repeat.

Morgan was hiding behind them the entire time. She giggled as she repeated the word Hannah had just said.

"What are you doing up, little miss?" Tony asked his daughter.

"Shit," Morgan said.

"No, no, no," Hannah said, "we don't say that word."

"Only Mommy says that word. She coined it, it belonged to her."

"Why you up?" Morgan asked.

"We're doing some important shit going on here," Tony said. "What do you think? No, we got something on our minds."

"Yeah," Hannah agreed.

"Was it Juice Pops?" Morgan said.

"Sure was," Tony said. "That's extortion. Great minds think alike. Juice Pops, exactly was on... my mind."

***

Nora was sitting in the living room, reading a book. Hannah sat next to Nora, watching Tony pace the front of the fireplace.

"Not that it's a competition, but she loves me three thousand," Tony said. "You were somewhere on the low six to nine hundred range."

Hannah rolled her eyes and Nora scoffed.

"What are you reading?" Tony asked, absentmindedly.

"Oh, it's just a book on composting," Nora responded.

"What's new with composting?"

"Just -" Nora began.

"Hannah and I figured it out, by the way," Tony interrupted.

"You know, just so we're talking about the same thing -"

"Time travel," Hannah said.

"What? Wow... that's amazing, and... terrifying," Nora said.

"That's right," Tony said.

"We got really lucky," Nora said.

"Yeah, we know," Tony said.

"A lot of people didn't," Hannah said.

"No, I can't help everybody," Tony said.

"It sorta seems like you can," Nora said.

"Not if I stop," Tony said. "I can put a pin in it right now, and stop."

"Tony, trying to get you to stop has been one of the few failures of my life."

Tony smiled. "I sometimes feel I should put it in a locked box and drop it at the bottom of a lake... go to bed."

"Would you be able to rest?" Nora asked.