T̷̨͐͌h̴͍́͜e̶̼̩͊ ̷̯̬̏M̵͔̜̉u̵̺͈̽͒ẗ̵̪́̈e̵̙͗̍

P̸̞͒á̵͕r̵̠̃t̸̩͝ ̶̫͠1̷̭͛0̵͙̊

Natasha stands in Spencer's doorway, watching her. She waves to get her attention. Spencer glances at her and closes her laptop. "Yes?" Natasha gestures to the bed, and Spencer nods. Natasha sits next to her and stares at her face. She can see it now, clear as day. "You're his kid, aren't you?" Spencer tries to hide the shock, but Natasha catches it.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Spencer looks away. Natasha sighs and closes the door. "I won't tell him. I'm sure you've got some reason for him not to know." Spencer searches Natasha's eyes trying to see if she is telling the truth.

There is a long silence and Natasha decides to break it. "So? Are you Stark's kid?" Spencer bites her lip and nods. No one has ever known. Spencer can't tell if it's relief or anxiety she feels in her chest. "Spencer Stark." Natasha smirks. "Not bad." Natasha stands. "I'll keep my lips sealed, but he's probably going to figure it out sooner or later." Spencer nods and smiles a bit. "Thank you." Natasha nods and leaves the room.

Spencer lies on her back and stares up at the ceiling. She knows Tony is going to figure it out. He's not stupid. But neither is she, and she's going to put off the inevitable as much as she can.

•

Pepper Potts stares at her computer screen in shock. Phoebe Jackson. She was one of the few people Tony slept with that she actually liked. Phoebe was sweet, and in all honesty, too good for this world. Pepper and her actually became quite good friends. They would hang out together, but one day she dropped off the face of the Earth. Pepper had looked, but there is a point where you realize someone doesn't want to be found

Apparently she died 12 years ago in a car wreck. Not before having a daughter 5 years earlier. It was Spencer. Pepper didn't need a DNA test to prove it. She had Phoebe's eyes with Tony's hair and genius. Pepper wasn't sure what to do. Did she tell Tony? Did Spencer even know?

Natasha sees the shock written across Pepper's face. "You found out, huh?" Pepper jumps a bit, but relaxes when she sees it's just Natasha. "Yes. How did you find out?" Natasha shrugs and walks further into Pepper's office. "Just pierced the little things together." Pepper sighs and leans back in her seat. "What do we do?" Natasha purses her lips. "We keep our mouths shut until Tony finds out." Natasha shrugs. "For whatever reason, she doesn't want him to know."

Pepper raises an eyebrow. "So she knows?" Natasha nods, then glances at the screen. "You find out who her mother is?" Pepper nods and reveals the screen. "She died in a car accident 12 years ago. She and Spencer were trapped in the car for 5 days." Natasha raises an eyebrow at the date of the wreck. The anniversary was three days ago. That explains why Spencer was so upset. "How did first responders find them?"

Pepper laughs a bit. "Spencer. She was only 5, but managed to create a radio signal from the old car stereo. They tracked it and found them." Pepper frowns. "I can't imagine. Being stuck upside down for 5 days with your dying mother." She shakes her head. "It's terrible."

Two Weeks Later

The security on the tower was lifted a bit, allowing some people return to work, and some of the Avengers to go out to do their daily needs. Steve was grateful that he could go on his morning runs again. Sam wasn't. Steve kept taunting him.

Spencer wasn't allowed to leave, but that didn't stop her. She would leave everyday to explore New York, or even occasionally make an appearance at Peter's school. The two of them started to become close, even though Peter technically had no idea who she was.

Peter told her about his uncle, and Spencer returned the favor by talking about her mother, which she's never done with anyone else.

Natasha and Spencer eventually became more comfortable with each other. Natasha was the one who Spencer would go to if she was having a panic attack, and she didn't mind this at all. She was glad she could help Spencer and that she could trust her. She had also learned about Spencer's time growing up. How she went into foster care, and ran away at 12. She could see why she didn't tell Tony. She thought the reasoning was a bit weak, but she understood nonetheless.

Clint and Spencer bonded over being able to use ASL together, and even taught some of the team common phrases. Bucky had a bit of trouble, not having total control over his metal fingers. In short, his hand-eye coordination sucked. Spencer made a silent promise to find a solution to his predicament.

Tony had announced that they would be leaving the Tower and moving base to the compound. He had already shipped out most of their things, and now it was just a matter of getting on the jet and flying over there. Spencer was a bit conflicted with the move. She didn't want to meet the Avengers and now she was practically one of them. She wanted to curl back into her shell and stay there, but unfortunately her life was on the line.

The billionaire had also spent some time trying to find out who Spencer was. He kept her search on a global scale, not wanting to miss a thing. He was utilizing facial recognition for any twelve year olds, but he kept coming up with nothing. Spencer had been the cause of this, back hacking him and keeping his search away from her.

Spencer spent a lot of her time in the lab working on her inventions and a neural chip for Bucky. She was using Tony's tech from the Mark 47 so the chip could be used to move Bucky's arm with subconscious commands. So far things were going as planned. She'd have to find a brain surgeon that would actually put the chip in Bucky's brain, cause she sure as hell wasn't going to. Not after last time.

•

"Alright! Moving day! Move it people! We don't have all day!" The other Avengers groan. Tony had been saying it was moving day for the past 3 days. Apparently today he was being serious.

Spencer cleans her plate and walks over to the elevator. Tony groans. "No! Where are you going! It's moving day!" She waves as the elevator doors close. She wants to have a proper meeting between her and Peter. She wouldn't be able to just stroll into the neighborhood after the move.