mended 🕷️ peter parker [3]

10

Jessica and Peter sat together on the bus to Prague. They were kind of left by elimination since the rest of their mates had paired up. Ned went with Betty and Brad asked MJ to sit next to him. Now that they weren't hiding anymore, there wasn't a problem with them sitting together. They didn't need any more excuses. 

Or at least they didn't before getting to Prague.

Once they would get there, they'd need to ditch the group, lie to everybody to avoid involving them. They knew Fury had changed their plans to get them to accomplish the mission, not so they could relish an upgraded vacation.

To try and ease her mind, Jessica had been reading a book during the long drive. MJ had lent her that book, she had told her it would blow her mind. It was titled Dark Matter by the author Blake Crouch and so far, even though she wasn't even halfway through, it was only puzzling her. She was reading while resting her head on Peter's shoulder and for one second her sigh diverted from the page of the book and fell on Peter's phone screen. He was looking through an article about the most romantic places in Prague. He hadn't even realized she was leaning closer to get a better look.

"What are you looking at?"

"Nothing, just-" Peter jumped. He was really focused on the article and she had startled him. He locked his phone, making the screen go back to black as if that was going to make her forget what she had already seen. "Information about Prague. I like to learn."

Jessica sat up straight, shaking her head as her lips uncontrollably curled into a grin. She decided to stop reading, but when she left the bookmark and leaned over to leave the book in her bag, she caught a glimpse of the box Fury had given Peter the previous night. 

"Do you want to try them?" She picked it up, handing it to him.

He frowned, remembering she was implicated. "You knew about this?" 

"It was on his will," Jessica explained. Peter opened the box to find a pair of glasses in it. In the middle of the inner lining, they could perfectly see the Stark Industries logo. "and it wasn't complete yet so I took care of that. There's a note." To be honest, Jessica didn't know to whom the note was. She definitely knew that the glasses were meant for Peter, because Tony had stated so, but the note...

For the next Tony Stark. I trust you.

P.S. Say Edith.                                                                                   

                                                              - TS

She wanted to believe it was Peter. That's why she said it was for him. It mentioned the next Tony Stark and, even though she was officially the next Stark now, she wasn't so sure she could live up to her father. She knew the boy looked up to Tony and he was more than capable to fill up that position. After reading the note, Peter looked at Jessica looking for help. He didn't know if it was the right move to try them on, but the girl nodded her head, thrilled to see how he interacted with them. 

"Hello?" He said once he got them on.

"Hello, Peter." A voice coming from the glasses answered him. "I am EDITH, Tony Stark's augmented reality security and defense system."

He had to take them off for a second to talk to Jessica. "He made this for me?"

"No, but you have access to all the protocols." She said. "The glasses were his, though."

"Would you like to see what I can do?" The system asked. "EDITH stands for: Even Dead, I'm The Hero. Tony loved his acronyms."

"Yeah, he did." Jessica chuckled. "He remarked that he didn't want the name changed."

"I have access to the entire Stark Security network. Including multiple defense satellites. As well as entrance to all major communication networks."

"Wow... I can see everyone's texts." Peter said in awe while exploring what the glasses could do. He stopped when his gaze fell upon Jessica. "I can even see beneath your clothes."

"No, you can't." She replied, recognizing he was lying. "You wouldn't say it if you could. And your face would be red." Peter smiled at her accurate reasoning. She knew him too well. 

Suddenly, the bus pulled over. They were stopping for a bathroom break. As soon as they stepped out, Jessica could feel the difference between the warm Venice weather and the chilly air of the eastern alps. The service stop looked really cozy. There were little wooden houses, picnic tables and a great lot of bikes. 

"Ten minutes, everyone!"

Dimitri held them back after everyone else had gone. He pointed at what seemed to be a bar, but Jessica wasn't sure because all the signs were written in a language she didn't understand. They interpreted that he wanted them to go inside. Even so, when Jessica started heading towards the bar, the man stopped her.

"Only boy."

"Alright..." She slowly said, weirded out after hearing the man speak for the first time. "I'll see you in ten minutes." She gave Peter a peck on the lips, but he grabbed her by the arm, preventing her from leaving. 

"Wait, can you keep these for me in the meanwhile?" He handed her the box with the EDITH glasses. "I don't want them to get lost."

She took them and watched Peter go. She went the opposite way, with the rest of the group. There was a line to get into the restroom and she had arrived last. That was when she looked down to the glasses. She knew what they could do, but she had never tried them on. She was curious to discover what would happen. She looked around and make sure nobody noticed her leaving. She found a quiet spot between the wooden houses and put the glasses on.

"Beginning face scan - Face scan complete. Hello, Jessica." She heard the artificial voice talk to her. "There's a message stored on Tony's private server addressed to you. Would you like to listen to it now?"

"What?" She frowned. How didn't anyone see that before? The people at Stark Industries that had been working on the glasses must have found it. Or maybe it could only become visible once Jessica herself was recognized by the system. Bewildered, yet intrigued, she approved the system to play the message. "Yeah."

"C'mon kid, you didn't think I was going to leave without properly saying goodbye to you, did you?"

The glasses reproduced Tony's voice and Jessica became paralyzed. Of all the recordings they had found, none were directly addressed to her. They mentioned her, of course, but this was different. This was personal.

"I know you'll find this soon enough, you're smart. And you're strong. I know you will be okay, I've always known." The recording continued. "Take care of Peter, will ya? Let him know... Let him know I did this for him. I did this for you. All of you. For a long time, all I wanted was to leave a good legacy. Thanks to you I know I will." 

There was a pause and for a second Jessica thought he was done. She chuckled when she found out he wasn't.

"What else can I say? Yeah... don't teach Morgan any bad words, please. Oh! And one last thing: if I know Pepper, and I know I do, she will probably have adopted you by the time you hear this. 

"So, in that case... make your old man proud. What the heck? You already did. I love you 3000."

Jessica took off the glasses. She stood unmoving, not really knowing what to feel. Then a wave of emotions overwhelmed her. Everything collapsed at the same time. Everything that had been building up for the past months. Seeing Tony die, hiding her grief from Morgan and Peter, the pressure of living up to Tony's legacy... She broke down in tears and didn't stop, not even when she heard someone calling her.

"Jess?" It was MJ. When she saw her crying she felt awkward and didn't know what to say to her. "We're leaving soon... Are you okay?"

"No..." Jessica looked up to her, sobbing. Her voice was almost unintelligible. "I'm not okay."