Chapter 11

May Parker's face reads fierce determination. Never once during Tony's monologue about her nephew's health did it read anything else. Her fists are clenched and she walks fast. A woman on a mission. Bruce has managed to catch up but only interjects when Tony forgets something or doesn't explain something properly.

"Here," Bruce says. He has led them to the room Peter is being kept in. "It can be intense walking into this situation. Don't be afraid to step out at any time."

"Don't worry about me," May grumbles walking into the room.

When she opens the door, Tony stops dead in his tracks. The kid looks more like a mummy than Spiderman. Unlike the eccentric billionaire, May Parker walks directly up to the unconscious child, grabs his hand and kisses him on the forehead, never missing a beat.

"Hey, there sweetie." May Parker whispers, choking back a small sob. "I see you got yourself into trouble again."

"Ma'ma." Bruce interrupts. "I hate to bother you right now, but it would be really helpful for our doctors to have a couple of Peter's medical history and a copy of his entire biological family's medical history, at least as far back as his grandparents."

"Of course." May sniffs. "Whatever you need. Although I should warn you, he doesn't have any biological family members left, at least none that we know the location of."

"What do you mean?" Bruce asks whipping out a notepad and pen.

"Oh, um, Mary, Peter's mother, had a sister, but nobody had heard from her in years by the time she and Richard died."

"Interesting." Bruce murmurs as he walks out of the room.

Tony has yet to move out of the doorway. He just stands there watching May talk to Peter.

"You know you had me really worried about you," May tells her sleeping nephew. "I woke up on Monday morning and you weren't there. I'm grounding you by the way for going out after curfew. Some people might say what you have gone through is punishment enough, but those people would be wrong. They don't know how incredibly thick your skull is." May bites her lip but then continues. "The doctors said your body will probably be completely healed within two to three weeks, but they said the injection that evil woman gave might have messed up your brain. They said they might not be able to fix what's happened to you."

"How are you doing?" Pepper whispers as she walks up from behind Tony.

"Not well." He answers mechanically.

"I know." Pepper whispers sadly. "I know."

"I need to go home," Clint tells his partner. Its been a couple hours since they approached May Parker. They have rested and refueled.

"It's okay." Natasha smiles. "Kiss Luara and the kids for me."

"I will." Clint nods as he picks up his bag and walks past his longtime friend. Natasha understand's her partner's need to be with his family. She understands that he told his wife he was done with this life, yet he is always being roped back. Luara has always been incredibly understanding of her husband's occupation, she knew what she was marrying into, but that doesn't change her need for him to help with the kids.

Natasha sits in her room, a place she honestly didn't ever expect to see again, and reads a book. She might be a super spy, but that doesn't mean she doesn't enjoy a good read every now and again. She is two chapters in when her text alert goes off.

Clint: Coulson wants us to complete a mission report...

Natasha rolls her eyes before replying.

Natasha: Don't worry I got it.

Clint: Thanks, I owe you!

Natasha: I'll put it on your tab.

With a slight groan, Natasha pushes herself up from her comfy bed and walks over to her desk. All a mission report really is, is a summary of what happened. Although, with all the loose ends left to be tied up, this should keep her busy for a little while. However, this was a good excuse to get the one question that has been bugging her all day answered. How did Happy know where to find Peter? Tony had not been able to hack past Tiffany's coding and firewalls. Sam and Wanda missed Tiffany when she went back to her parent's retirement home. Clint hadn't been able to get Linda Sherwood to talk, and last she heard Eric Sherwood was still in the deep sleep Wanda had put him in. So, the question remains, how did Happy know where to find Peter?

"Friday," Natasha asks the AI. "Where is Happy Hogan?"

"I'm afraid he left the compound hours ago." The AI informs.

"Do you know where he went?" Natasha hopes.

"I do not." It's curious that Happy has just up and left like this. Especially with the kid still in pretty bad condition.

"Do you have a home address for him?"

An affirmative answer sends Natasha Romanoff on a trip back to the city. The drive takes over two hours in the Friday night rush home. Happy's apartment building is nicer than Peter's but its still not exactly Tony Stark's tower.

"Apartment 12... where are you..." Natasha banters to herself quietly. "Ah, here we go." She knocks, no reply. She tries again, still nothing. Once more, and she gets a response.

"Woooaaahhh there bucky!" A funny voice laughs through the door. That voice sounded too high pitched to be Happy's. Maybe he moved and Stark hadn't updated his files...

"Natty!" Happy laughs as he opens the door. "I thought you were the pizza man!"

"Happy?" Natasha questions. Happy Hogan, a usually well dressed and professional looking man, is in a pair of dirty sweatpants, disgusting stained white undershirt, and a bathrobe. The man looks disheveled to put it nicely.

"Yep, that's me!" He burps. "With the help of my friends Mary and Jack I'm feeling super duper happy!"

"Lovely." Nat's lips curl up in disgust. Weed and whiskey, always a fun combo.

"Sorry about the mess boss." Happy tells the red-haired assassin. He leads her to a couch where the two sit down. Natasha has to move a couple empty bottles to make room for herself, but she manages. "Wanna drink or maybe some pot?"

"Thanks, but I'll pass."

"Alright, more for me." Where did Happy even find the time to go out and by pot? Being Tony's personal monkey is a full-time job.

"I'm, here on business." Natasha clarifies.

"Okay, what's up?"

"I came over here to ask you how you knew where to find Peter at earlier today?" The man's face darkens. He takes another swig of Jack Danials before answering her.

"I didn't, it was luck." He begins. "I woke up this morning in the compound and I didn't really know what to do with myself. I've spent the past 5 days doing almost nothing but wondering around worrying. I guess there isn't much a retired boxer can do when looking for a kidnapped super-kid. Anyways over the past couple days, I've wandered over to the kid's apartment building to just... I don't know, stare at the building. This morning I did it again, but this time I saw that crazy computer lady walking into the building and I followed her down to Peter. I was lucky, I had my gun with me. I only bring it along with me like 50% of the time."

Natasha's mouth hangs agape at the sudden realization. This was a fluke. Finding Peter was a fluke, a coincidence. If Happy hadn't been there if Tiffany had lived in another building if Happy hadn't noticed who she was or if Tiffany had moved Peter to a different location, they wouldn't have been able to rescue him. All the work the team did, the hacking, the recon, the waterboarding, all of it, none of it helped.

Luck is the only reason Peter Parker is alive.

"Happy, that's incredible." Natasha breaths.

"Incredibly lucky maybe."

"Well... yes, but-"

"But if I had been doing my job correctly and kept tabs on the kid instead of just giving him space none of this would have happened in the first place!" Happy yells obviously becoming angry.

"Don't do that to yourself, Hogan," Natasha warns. "If you play those games with yourself, you aren't going to like the ending, trust me."

"HE WAS MY RESPONSIBILITY NATASHA!"

"That doesn't mean what happened was your fault! Even if you had called him every day, even if you constantly were checking up on him you couldn't have stopped Tiffany! You couldn't have stopped what happened to him."

Happy is silent. He takes another drink.

"That kid is so annoying you know." He hiccups.

"Yeah, I remember." Natasha laughs lightly.

"But he's still a good kid, a really good kid..." Happy yawns.

"I'm sure he is." Natasha smiles as she stands up.

"How about you get some sleep and I'll come by tomorrow and check up on you." Happy nods in agreement. "And lay off the jack and jane, okay?"

The super spy kindly leads the man to the bedroom in the back where he promptly passes out. As she leaves she notices a small collection of picture frames on his dresser. One is of him as a boxer. Natasha smiles at the memory of the time the two meet. She was working undercover for Tony and Happy tried to best her in a fight. The other picture was of a very young Happy Hogan standing next to three other people, his mother, his father, and his brother. At least, that's what Natasha assumes they are. The third was one of Happy and Tony together. They are smiling and look like a pair of old friends, instead of boss and employee. The fourth picture was the most curious. It was of him and Pepper together. A normal person would have only seen a picture with two coworkers, but her trained eye saw more. She saw, for the first time, the love Happy hid for Pepper. It was clearly not mutual, but Happy must know that. Natasha looks over at the sleeping man. It must be so hard for him to watch his boss, his friend, and a woman he clearly has feelings for, possibly love, and fall in love and now become engaged.

"Oh, Harold." Natasha sighs, and with that, she leaves the booze-filled apartment.