Iron Man: Resurrection

4

Thomas Pov

I lean back against a tree and sit down into a pile of leaves. Yeah. After Peter told me his fucking mission was to gather all my fathers research on vision, I ran for the woods.  I just can't face her, out of all the things in the universe I can handle I don't think I'll be able to handle Pepper. She'll be so pissed if she even knows I'm here.

"Are you okay," I sit up straight real quick as I hear a voice. It's not Peter or Jackson or even Pepper. I'm sure Jackson would be searching for me by now. Or would he? I suddenly remember the tracker in my wrist.  The voice is a little kid.

"Hi there. I'm okay," I tell her as she steps a bit closer. What the hell is she doing alone in the woods. She's way too adorable to be abandoned.

"You look upset. Are you sure you're fine?" She asks as she comes to sit down next to me. Hello stranger danger. You don't know me little girl.

"Uhm. Yeah. It's nothing for someone your age to be worried about."

"Really? You're gonna play that card?" She asks and looks at me all disappointed.

"And what are you doing out here? Alone in the woods? Aren't your parents looking for you?"

"Mommy is, probably."

"And your dad?"

She doesn't answer. Instead she slightly shakes her head.

"Mine too," I say. I could immediately tell her father was dead. It was in her facial expression when I asked her, I'd seen that look in my reflection too many times. "You miss him?" I ask. What a stupid thing to ask. Ofcourse she does.

"Not really," she says softly. "Is that bad?"

I don't know how to answer that. What if her dad was abusive and that's why she doesn't miss him. I can't tell her she's wrong. People grieve differently.

I shake my head. "Everybody is different?" I say.

"Do you miss him?" She asks and for a minute I'm confused because it sounds like she's asking me if I miss her father. She must've meant to ask if I miss mine.

"Everyday. As much as I don't want to. I do," I feel comfortable telling her this. I don't know why.

"I do sometimes. Sometimes really badly but mostly I just come out here and it feels like he's not gone. We used to play in the woods for hours," she says with a slight giggle as she glanced back on her sweet memories and then deadpanned again.

"You live close? Do you always speak to strangers in the woods? I don't think your mother would be happy-"

"You're not a stranger," she interrupts. "I saw you in his pictures. I always asked who you were because he was always looking at those pictures but he never answered. He just looked sad. Then I asked mommy and she told me," she says and I'm confused as shit.

"You're mistaking me for someone else kid," I laugh.

"I thought so too but you're him. You're Thomas," My eyes widen. I didn't tell her my name. "You sound too much like him to not be."

"Like who?" I ask even though I've already put everything together in my head. It's just too unbelievable to assume without confirmation.

"Like dad."

*** *** ***

No matter how much I try to avoid it the last three months of my life have been hell. I've been clouding it with the fact that I was 'living the dream' but nothing can really cloud how much I miss them. Not my apartment , Archie or anything. Nothing can fill the hole they left.