I'm Just Human

Epilogue

Final

{Eighteen Months Later}

Peter slings his backpack off him and onto the floor near the table in the dining room, grinning as his Pops pulls a tray of cookies out of the oven.

"No!" Tony calls out from the living room. "No cookies until you have something better to eat. We have leftovers in the fridge."

"Dad!" Peter whines dramatically. "Just one?"

"Later, buddy. Grab some food and come say hi to your sister. She's been asking about you since you left for school," Tony replies, immediately followed by a loud giggle, knowing she's being talked about.

"You had a good day?" Steve asks as Peter pulls a container out of the fridge and fishes a fork out of the drawer. "Learn a lot at the smart-kid school you go to?"

Peter rolls his eyes. "As if. I knew all this material by the time I was like ten. But, yeah, I had a good day. Got some homework to do later."

Patting him on the shoulder, Steve sneaks a cookie into Peter's hand with a smile. "Don't let your dad see that or he'll kill me."

"Thank, Pops!" Peter grins, quickly scarfing down the cookie, just as Tony turns the corner.

"You better not have given him a cookie," Tony says, shifting the baby on his side.

"Morgan!" Peter gasps, quickly changing the subject. He hurries over and takes the baby off Tony, hugging her tightly against his chest. "I missed you, Mo."

"Miss you!" Morgan shouts in return, little fists grabbing onto Peter's Midtown High sweater. "Petey!"

Peter smiles, squeezing her a little tighter before lifting her up and blowing a raspberry into her cheek making her burst into giggles.

There's a part of Peter that knows he'll always be jealous of the little baby girl tucked carefully into his arms. He knows he'll always be just a little bit envious of what she gets. It's everything he ever wanted.

She has her two dads and nothing will ever tear them apart. She's never going to lose them or be sent away or feel like she's not wanted. She'll never have to go through the tougher life that he had. She'll never have to experience loss and abandonment like he did.

She'll never have to go through poverty or have to watch death like he did.

She gets to have everything he dreamed of having ever since he was just a little kid with unparalleled innocence and optimism.

He thinks he has a right to his little bit of jealousy he keeps tucked away at the back of his mind, but he knows, more than he's envious of her, he loves her with everything he has. And he knows, if he hadn't gone through what he did, he doubts Tony or Steve would've ever adopted her or given her the home she deserved.

So, he understands. He understands that he's allowed to be jealous of what she gets as long as he puts his love and adoration for the little baby above that jealousy.

*

May and Tony agreed on joint custody not long after Peter admitted to wanting to have them both in his life. She still has her apartment in Queens and her job as a nurse in the city, but they have family dinners every night now that Tony's gotten her off the nightshift.

Peter spends alternating weeks at each house, unless they make plans to take him elsewhere while he's meant to be staying there. The family dinner's every night help in making sure he doesn't feel torn between the two families, plus it means getting to see Morgan all the time.