Chapter Text
Distractions could only work for so long.
So far, Peter had played a multitude of video games. He had cleaned the entire floor of the Tower, and worked on far too many projects with Tony, who had chalked all of Peter’s projects up to the after effects of coming home from space.
But Peter knew it wasn’t that. Well, mostly not that.
His distractions had layers. The first being Enu’s crazy news that Peter was adopted by Richard and Mary Parker. That bombshell was distracting him from the fact that he had been in space for weeks chasing after a homicidal maniac, and that was distracting him from losing May, only for her to come back as an invincible alien who was more dedicated to protecting the Universe than him.
Peter had a lot of things he needed to work out, and he didn’t want to have a lot of time to do so. He felt like a domino set. One thing could be resolved, but then he would have to deal with many, many more.
But, at the same time, he really, really wanted to know who his biological parents were, even if it was probably a horrible idea.
Peter had given some thought to the whole biological parents thing. But, it wasn’t a lot. Any time he thought about it, his thoughts would turn into a swirling mass of confusion, so he dropped it most of the time.
But you can’t run from thoughts for very long. They always pop up in the worst of times. For Peter, this was when he was hanging out with Ned in the fields of the Compound. Tony was, as always, nearby, but he was in his lab.
“Peter?” Ned was saying, concern in his voice. “Are you okay?”
“Huh?” Peter replied, pulling himself out from his thoughts as he remembered he was not alone, and he couldn’t afford to lose his mind at this very moment.
“You zoned out, dude. Like, for real zoned out. Are you thinking about space?”
No, he was not, though he could have been, if he wanted to zone out even harder.
“Nah, I’m good, Ned. Seriously, don’t worry about me.”
“Uh, you just came back from space and you still won’t talk about anything that happened. I’m worried, dude.” When Peter didn’t answer, Ned continued. “You know if you talk about it, it might make it easier to deal with what happened.”
Peter paused. He had not told a soul about being adopted. Though there was the whole domino effect that could easily happen if he told Ned about anything. Images of dominoes falling down swirled in his brain before he could stop it, and before Peter knew it, Ned was calling his name again.
“Sorry, sorry.” Peter said, and Ned frowned. His friend was not going to let this go. “I got some news that… is a little crazy.”
“More news? Please tell me you’re not leaving again.”
“No, nothing like that. It’s about my past… something that kind of affects me and Tony.”
There it was. The first domino. This could easily lead to disaster, but Peter knew Ned was going to hound him, and if his friend went to his dad about this… well, it would be worse than a mental breakdown, that’s for sure.
“What, are you going to say that he’s your real dad or something?”
Peter wished it was that simple. “No, but you’re heading in the right direction … My mom and dad, the real ones, they adopted me.”
“What?”
“Richard and Mary Parker adopted me. I just found out.”
“How?” Ned aked, confused. “How did you find this out?”
Peter paused. He hadn’t told Ned about Enu being May. “I just did.” Peter said, “It was archived somewhere, and I happened to stumble on it, but how doesn’t matter. It’s true.”
“So… how does this affect you and Tony? He’s still your dad.”
“Ned, my real parents could be out there somewhere.” Peter said, “They’re not dead like I always thought.”
“Your biological parents you mean.” Ned said, “Whoever gave you up for adoption didn’t raise you. Your parents, May, Ben and Tony did.”
“But they’re still out there.” Peter said, “Maybe they want to get to know me.”
“I think you’re not remember the like million Hallmark movies on this. Peter, it doesn’t matter. They gave you up for adoption, and you were raised by people who really cared. This isn’t going to affect you and Tony at all. What was his reaction?”
“He… doesn’t know.”
Ned blinked, “What? Why wouldn’t he know?”
“Only I know. When I found out, I was by myself.”
“I thought you and Tony didn’t separate these days.”
“I was cleaning while he was working in the lab.” Peter said. It was hard to lie, and Peter wasn’t sure that Ned was really believing what he was saying, but it wasn’t like he could tell him the truth.
“So, the info is here? Tony probably knows about it.”
“He doesn’t.” Peter snapped, his tone harsh, “I promise he doesn’t.”
Ned looked shocked, not hurt at Peter’s tone, but Peter himself was filled with regret.
“Sorry, man.” Peter said, “I’m having a hard time with this.”
“Well, you wouldn’t if Tony knew. I’m sure he would say the same thing.”
“But wouldn’t he be hurt if he knew I was curious about who my parents are?”
Ned paused, “I mean… maybe.”
“See, that’s my point. This is the last thing he needs right now.” Peter explained, “After everything that happened out in space, we don’t need to be fighting again on top of it.”
“Would you be fighting though?”
“I don’t know… maybe.”
“Peter, this is crazy. You guys chose to be each other’s families. This isn’t going to come into between you.”
“You never know, Ned.” Peter said.
Ned sighed, “I can’t talk you out of this, can I?”
“Nope.” Peter confirmed, “I need to do this on my own.”
“Okay,” Ned said, “Whatever you say, man. Just… be careful.”
Peter nodded, “I will be, but I am going to find out who gave me up for adoption. I need to.”
“Right.” Ned said, and he changed the subject so suddenly that Peter didn’t have time to consider that Ned still was worried, and didn’t agree with him.
Either way, Peter was glad for the change of subject. He may have said he was going to find his real parents, but that didn’t mean he really, truly, was sure about it.
One domino down, but maybe the rest were going to fall in an entirely different way than Peter expected.
There was a knock at the door, causing Tony to pause what he was doing to look up. Ned was standing there, looking at him awkwardly. Tony knew Ned had come over to spend time with Peter, but normally Ned hung out with his friend instead of coming to find Tony by himself.
“Ned?” Tony asked, frowning. “Is everything okay?” Images of something bad happening to Peter filled Tony’s mind. Over time, they had made far too many enemies and any one of them could hurt Peter at any given time. It was within his rights to worry.
“Yeah, everything’s fine.” Ned said, “Peter is fine. Well mostly. I’m probably ruining our friendship by doing this, but I just think you need to know this before it blows up and-“
“Ned.” Tony interrupted. “Get to the point if you don’t want me to have a heart attack.”
“Right.” Ned said, nodding. He finally walked into the lab, as if he had made the choice to say whatever it was that he had to say. “Has Peter been acting odd to you?”
“No more than any kid would after what he’s been through.” Tony said.
“Right.” Ned said, “I forgot you had been to space and all…”
“Ned, what’s going on?” Okay, now Tony was getting very worried, very quickly.
“Peter found out he was adopted!” Ned blurted out.
Tony paused, “Kid, he should know he was adopted, considering I was the one who did so.”
“No, not like that.” Ned said, “He knows he was adopted by you. I mean he was adopted by someone else.”
“That’s not possible.”
“When he was a baby, I mean. Like, Richard and Mary aren’t his real parents.”
“What? That’s not possible. When we went through the finalization for his adoption, I would have noticed something like that.”
“He said he found out somehow. He mentioned he was cleaning something?”
Tony paused to think about it. There was no way the kid could have found anything about an adoption out, mostly because if it was here, he would know about it. Even if it was in May’s stuff, in storage, Tony would have known about it, because he kept an inventory.
“And why are you telling me this instead of Peter?”
“He doesn’t want to tell you, but he’s sort of freaking out about it.” Ned explained, “I told him he should tell you, but he doesn’t want to. He said he doesn’t want you two to start fighting.”
“Well, I wish he would have, considering he’s wrong. I’ll talk to him about it. Thanks for bringing it up, Ned.”
“Yeah, you’re welcome.” Ned said. He turned to leave, but stopped, “Do you think he’s going to be mad that I told you?”
“Oh, yeah, he’s going to be furious.” Tony replied, “But thank you for telling me. Kid probably wouldn’t have mentioned it otherwise.”
“No problem.” Ned said, sighing. Tony could tell he wasn’t happy about upsetting his friend, but he didn’t say anything else as he left. Tony brought up the cameras to see if he was going back to Peter, but Peter was already back in his room, and Ned left the Tower. Peter must have thought Ned was leaving.
Sighing, Tony pulled up the files from the adoption. He looked through what he was given, trying to see if there was anything that was missed. As he did so, he found a small paragraph explaining that all other adoptions were null and void, and Tony had no rights to know about them due to privacy reasons. Tony cursed. How was this not brought up with him?
“Fri,” Tony said to his A.I. “Start a file about Peter’s biological family. It appears we have some research to do.”
“Yes, boss.” F.R.I.D.A.Y. Said, “I do have an update for you.”
“Already?”
“Yes, a man emailed you last week, claiming to be Peter’s father.”
“And I didn’t know about this?”
“It was the public fan mail address.”
“The point still stands.” Tony said.
“I categorized it as junk mail. Would you like me to move it into the new file?”
“Yes, please.” Tony said, sighing. “Looks like I need to figure this out now.”
“Got it, boss. I have moved the email and brought it up for review.”
Tony looked at the email, a sinking feeling in his gut. Was this going to change things for him and Peter? Was it going to make things more difficult? After everything they had been through, he wasn’t sure that he could handle any more issues with him and his kid.
There was an attachment that filled Tony with dread. When he opened it, he saw the adoption papers, and a DNA test with samples collected in 2001. Sighing, he pulled out his phone and called the one contact he had with the state, Pamela, who answered on the third ring.
After explaining everything to her, Tony heard the words he didn’t want to hear, “Mr. Stark, I can confirm that this test is real.” She said. “It’s been signed off by a colleague and is from a reputable source.”
Tony took a moment to let those words sink in. “So, where do we go from here?”
“Well, that is up to Peter. Technically this man is claiming he did not sign adoption papers, and it is true, only the mother’s signature is here. He could sue for custody, but in the end, it would be up to Peter to choose what he wants.”
“He could sue?”
“Mr, Stark, it would be in your best interest to work with this man. With a high profile case like this, you understand how easily this could be blown out of proportion.”
“Right, I’ll… I’ll talk to Peter about it.”
“Good luck.” Pamela said, before she ended the call. Tony could only stare at the email, wondering if he had made a mistake in bringing this up, and if was going to change things in ways he was not ready for.