LEGACY (T.Stark's Daughter)

CHAPTER TWO

Dinner and a Show.

[ Present day; 2038 ]

"Stevie, dinner!"

Stevie Stark had her eyes drawn to the work in front of her as, in her humble opinion, work was all that mattered in that particular moment. She dutifully ignored her sister's call for the third time and let AC/DC's Back In Black drown out any further interruptions.

"Stevie, I'm not calling you again!"

She rolled her eyes and turned the volume dial on her speaker up another few notches; the bass actually began to vibrate the tools on her desk. Then, she flipped her welding helmet down so that it covered her eyes and began to heat up the chunk of metal sat in front of her. After a few minutes, Stevie set the blow torch down and flipped her helmet back up, blowing on her work to cool it down as she slowly bent it into place, being careful not to snap it.

But then the music stopped abruptly and she flinched, cracking her work in half with one swift jolt of her arm. She scowled, dropping the ruined sculpture onto the floor and ripping off her helmet.

Morgan Stark stood impatiently at the bottom of the basement stairs. She looked awfully smug for somebody who had just caused unfixable damage to her sister's science project.

"What the fuck, Morgan?"

"I told you to come up for dinner." Smoothing out her dress, Morgan made her way towards her sister and bent down, picking up the side of Stevie's work that hadn't been heated. She held it out to Stevie, waiting for her to take it. "You know mom doesn't like it when you're late."

"And you know that I don't like to be handed things while I work." She watched as Morgan put the chunk of metal down on the table and folded her arms angrily. "I've been working on that all day. It was nearly done." Stevie's teeth gritted together in annoyance — her science fair was on Monday, and the helmet for her 'Iron Man' suit replica was the finishing touch. "Are you gonna help me fix it, or are you gonna go upstairs and sit on the phone with your boyfriend all evening?"

"Don't talk about Bradley like that!"

"He's a dick. Dad would hate him."

"You didn't know dad." Morgan slipped past her sister, shoving her shoulder harshly before stomping back up the stairs. She immediately regretted spitting out something so mean, especially as it was such a touchy subject for Stevie. "Peter's here for dinner." She muttered as she slipped around the corner.

Stevie stood frozen in shock for a while, but she eventually pulled off her lab coat to reveal her father's old Led Zeppelin shirt and a plaid flannel that had belonged to Pietro Maximoff many years ago. She'd received the flannel as a gift from Wanda; it was supposedly a symbol of trust and remembrance, but Stevie didn't know Pietro, so she didn't exactly have much to remember. As usual.

"Ah, there she is. Finally out of her man-cave!" Peter Parker sat proudly in his usual seat at the head of the dining-room table, helping himself to a spoonful of salad and wearing a smirk on his face. "Have you finished your science project yet? 'Cause I'm free tomorrow, so I'm all yours." He placed the salad bowl down and turned to face the brooding teen.

"Might need a hand. Morgan broke it." She slumped into her seat and Peter patted her on the leg sympathetically.

Morgan scoffed, "I didn't break it!"

"Did too."

"Did not!"

"Did-!"

Pepper reached over and flicked both girls in the forehead, sending them into silence. They both looked up at their mother, giving her their best 'I'm sorry' faces.

"What's got you in such a mood, Underoos?" Peter's tone was calm and soothing. It was as if he already knew what was wrong.

Stevie ignored the question, distracting herself by swirling her spaghetti around her plate for a minute. There was silence as they all painfully awaited her answer – nothing heard except for the scraping of cutlery against plates.

"Morgan kindly reminded me of the fact that I never knew my father." Her remark was spiteful, but it came out in a croak and tears were already threatening to spill.

"Morgan H. Stark!" Pepper scolded, "How many times do I have to tell you?" She dropped her cutlery onto her plate with a sigh and reached across the table for the orange juice. There was no reply from Morgan, as she knew it was a rhetorical question that her mother had asked, and she didn't dare utter an apology in fear of letting her sister win yet another argument.

The silence was awkward until Stevie decided she'd break it. "Where's Michelle, Pete?" She turned to look at Peter who swallowed his mouthful before replying.

"She has an art show tonight." He told her, "Said to tell you she was sorry she couldn't make it." He smiled over at Pepper, indicating that the apology was directed towards her.

"It's no problem, Peter. She's a real busy woman, especially with the baby on the way. Tell her everything's fine, would you?" Peter responded with a courteous nod before diving back into his food, loving Pepper's cooking just as much as he always had. He was the first to finish and had second helpings to cure the hunger that his enhanced metabolism had cursed him with. "So, Morgan, Bradley was over today, yeah?"

Morgan nodded, stealing a glance in Stevie's direction. "Yeah." She replied, "We were talking about going away for his twentieth. Vermont, maybe." She bit her lip with anticipation, hoping that her mother would allow it. Stevie knew that she'd been waiting for the perfect time to ask about the trip for weeks, and she'd already told Bradley that she'd go with him.

"Away? For how long?"

"Just a day trip... We might stay overnight, maybe."

There was a long pause as Pepper's brain whirred in thought. She scrunched her brows together and pondered on it for a moment, but Stevie swiftly entered the conversation, "you're doing that thing again, Morg." Stevie chuckled, "that thing where you say 'maybe' at the end of your sentences. That means you're lying."

"Shut up, Stevie!" Morgan snapped, "God, do you ever know when to stop?" She slammed her fists against the table, her eyes the size of golf balls.

"Well I'm sorry if I'm ruining your chances at finally having sex with your dumb boyfriend." Stevie grinned widely – she was proud of herself for getting on her sister's nerves after what had happened in the basement.

Morgan scoffed, "you think this is funny?"

"No, no." She tried to hide her laughter as she shoved more pasta into her mouth. "I mean, go spend a night with your boyfriend. Is it so terrible? I don't think it is." She swallowed. "Spidey, what do you think?"

"Uh, MJ and I waited 'til marriage." He spoke quietly, hinting at his disapproval towards the idea of Morgan and her boyfriend sleeping together. "But it's different for everybody."

"I'm sorry, honey, I just don't think that you and Bradley are ready to... go away together. You've only been dating for a few months and you just turned eighteen. You can never be too careful with-"

Pepper was cut off abruptly by the screech of Morgan's chair against the ground. She stood up and began to walk away from the table briskly. "I bet dad would've been fine with it!" She yelled back.

"Well dad's not here, is he?" Stevie stood up and turned to face her sister who had stopped in her tracks. "Dad has never been here. Never."

"That's not his fault!"

"I didn't say it was, Morgan!"

"Yeah, well, maybe if you didn't spend every waking hour moping over the fact that he never loved you, you'd grow up and realise that the only reason you set foot in that lab is to try and be like him! You'll never be like him, Stevie! You're nothing!"

The echo of Morgan's footsteps as she left the room was the last thing that Stevie Stark heard before she crumpled to the ground and let her head whack against the floor, seeing stars before blacking out.