The Prince and the Sol

*Europe Pt. 3*

ELIZA'S POV

"Eliza, stop it," Happy tells me. I throw my hands up in the air and stop nervously pacing. "You're freaking me out."

"Happy, to be honest, I don't how to not freak out right now." We've been flying for hours and I haven't sat down once.

"Well, we're just about there anyway. You need to be calm for him, okay? You don't want to give him worse emotions. Neither of us know what's going on."

I take a deep breath. He's completely right. "Okay."

Happy lands the ship in this really pretty tulip field famous in the Netherlands. It's the kind of place I would love to explore on my own time, but I barely notice it. I'm too busy running out of the jet and to the ground. My eyes widen as I see Peter in a bright orange shirt limping towards us about fifty feet away. His face is all cut up, too.

"Peter!" I yell, instantly starting towards him, Happy at my heels. But he throws a hand out.

"Stop!" I stop dead in my tracks. "Tell me something only you would know!"

"What?" Something only I would know? I decide to go with it. "Um, when we were in space, you told me you made a bet with Ned about which Odinson I married and you lost."

"And something only I would know..." Happy mutters, thinking. "Remember when we went to Germany? You pay-per-viewed a video in your room? They didn't list the titles, but I could tell by the price, it was an adult film at the front desk and you didn't know how I knew?"

"Okay, okay! Fine, it's you," Peter shouts, moving towards us as fast as he can. I immediately throw my arms around him, careful not to hurt him in any way, and he mumbles, "it's so good to see you." My heart breaks a bit. The emotions I'm gathering from him are scared and mistrustful and self-hating, not to even mention the physical pain he's in. He hugs Happy next.

"Peter, you've got to tell us what the hell's going on," Happy says softly. He barely nods back. The three of us trudge into the jet.

"Here, let's see what you did," I say in a quiet voice once we're all seated in the back. I let my magic wash over him, scanning for potential injuries. "You're bruised and cut all over. And you somehow fractured your wrist. Peter, what in the world happened?"

"I was an idiot, that's what happened," he mutters, shaking his head. "And I got hit by a train."

"A train?" I whisper. I take his wrist and gently start healing the fracture. He sighs with relief as my magic begins to work. "Peter, what did you do? What really happened?"

"Beck happened. I gave him the glasses because I trusted him, because he reminded me of Mr. Stark, and I'm an idiot, I really am. He's using illusion tech to fool us all, and I'm pretty sure that's why you were called to Venice, so the CEO of Stark Industries trusted him, too. So no one was on his back. He fooled us both, Eliza."

"Quentin?" A man I trusted so willingly is the one who did this. I had absolutely no doubts about him. Anger flashes in me, so much I momentarily take my hand off of Peter's wrist when I realize some of it transmitted to him. He calms back down after a few seconds. "That-"

"Don't say something you're going to regret," Happy says, shooting me a pointed look.

"Have it your way, but I wouldn't have regretted it." I don't generally curse, especially because I'm a mom now, but right now I don't think there's a word bad enough for Quentin Beck. Peter seizes up as my hands move to heal some pretty nasty bruises on his neck.

"Ouch!"

"I thought you had super strength," I comment, easing up on my touch.

"It still hurts," he mutters.