Chapter 61 - For the Greater Good

The suit was necessary, he knew that. This wasn't the time to look like he was losing it. Not when there was still a chance that he could run into someone. Even though the sun hadn't even risen yet, hospitals famously ran on a different schedule. There was always someone around and all he could do was be hopeful that Natasha was right, that the time was right and that he wasn't spotted. There was a chance though, a chance that someone would see him, even if it was just a patient or even a nurse at the end of a long night shift. This was the time to look like the authority figure he had tried to sell to the public for years, decades really. Without the tie, he would have looked like a hippy wannabe, so it wasn't negotiable, but he couldn't deny how that slim band of fabric stoked the flames of his deep seated anxiety. It pressed the collar of his shirt so tightly around his neck, he had to resort to mental exercises to draw his thoughts out of their current downward spiral. Whenever he felt the fabric brush against his skin he couldn't help but picture the bruises the Soldier had left on his son's throat. The long thick lines on his skin that had been bright red at first plain to see in that viral video and had turned into an array of blue and purple by the time Helen had examined the injury at the Tower, a perfect imprint of the Soldier's hand who had tried to squeeze the life out of the boy.

His watch vibrated with an inaudible buzz. It was time. Head held high, thoughts of the boy's state pushed to the back of his mind, he pushed open the door that led him out of the staircase he had just climbed all the way up onto the 7th floor. A short glance to either side confirmed that the hallway was empty. His pace was fast just on the brink of looking too hurried. 729. On his left. That's what Natasha had said.

"Mr. Stark," she croaked, eyelids almost closed.

"Mrs. Parker." He pulled the chair closer to her bed and sat down next to her. "How are you feeling?"

"Where is Peter?" The oxygen tubes blocking her nose made her voice sound off. His eyes lingered on the bandage around the woman's neck for just a moment. "Is he... He got shot and nobody... nobody wants to... wants to tell me anything it—"

She stopped herself, fighting against her emotions.

"He's at the Tower. He's going to be fine. He's safe."

"Is... is he really? God, is he okay?"

"He really is. He's receiving the best care money can buy, I promise you that."

She dabbed away the tears running down her cheeks with a shaky hand.

"You're in police custody, do you know that?"

She closed her eyes and nodded. "The officer constantly standing in front of... of my door is a bit of a statement." She looked up at him. "You told them then? About the switch."

"No."

He held her gaze. He didn't even know why he wanted her to know that he had kept his word. Tony had every reason to turn her in. Every reason to want her to pay, to blame her for keeping his son hidden like she had. The Parker's, all of them, had financed a criminal organization that trafficked children. Had supported an operation that facilitated this whole mess in the first place. Who cared if she and her husband had been desperate for a child? Or Richard and Mary Parker... Who cared if they knew the extend of the underlying criminality or not? They sure had known that it was dodgy.

But she had also kept his son safe after she had lost her own and then her husband. Prevented Peter from falling back into the hands of those people with all the legal threats that came with that, at the possible expense of her own freedom. Had cared for him. Had loved the boy with all her heart.

He did believe that. That she was sincere when it came to the kid.

And it hadn't been her fault that Aiden had been taken in the first place. It didn't redeem her, but it was an argument in her favor. That and of course the fact that Peter, that his son wanted nothing more than for her to be safe.

"But you told him. He... he knows."

"I didn't. Not about your role in any of this at least..." Tony blew out a shallow breath to keep a grip on his emotions. "Not until yesterday."

Her wet eyes were on him, unblinking. "Don't... don't lie now, Mr. Stark. You... you kept him all... all weekend and... and then he camehome and he knew. Started... started asking questions."

He pushed down the anger bubbling in his chest. He hadn't buried that all that deep anyway. He was sick of people thinking he was a liar, people blaming him, judged him. People like May Parker who had lived a lie for years. Fucking Steve Rogers. Even... worst of all... his boy who would keep too many secrets from him, went out and did what Tony had explicitly told him not to do. He was still so mad at him, mad that he would go out the after Rogers, not just once.

Two deep breath. This wasn't the time. None of that mattered until the kid was truly safe. It didn't matter how mad he was, all that was important now, was that he could keep his boy safe.

"Between the two of us, I seem to be the only one without a tenancy of lying. He found out that he was adopted. He knew that you were lying to him, kept him in the dark for years. All I did was connect some of the dots."

She turned her face away from him, not even bothering to hide her tears now. Tony refused to feel sorry for her. If the Parker's had filed a report he could have had his son back on his arms for years. Years. He might have never had to go through any of this, might have never even had to deal with that mutation and would have just lead a normal teenage life, away from Super Soldiers and trigger-happy police departments. She had made her bed and— He swallowed the frustrated groan that was threatening to escape him. Arms tightly wrapped around himself, he couldn't deny that he would hesitate to lie and break the law, not a second if it would keep the kid safe. He already had, exchanging that DNA sample.

She had to find out the truth at some point. It might as well be from him.

"They ran Peter's prints after... after what happened at your apartment. They figured things out from there."

"Wh—what? His... his fingerprints? But... but why?" She shook her head. "No, that... That's impossible. His prints... they aren't in the system. He was never arrested. He never left the country. They wouldn't... We made sure that there was nothing that... We made sure—"

"The first time he left the country was when he was 2 months old."

May Parker's eyes went wide, then she shook her head. "That's... that's not true, they... they told us—"

"I know because I was the one who took him." Tony leaned away from her, back against the chair, arms still crossed in front of him. "I had a presentation in Toronto that couldn't be rescheduled and I wasn't going to leave him so I took him. I did the whole shebang, fingerprints, passport, retina scan, Pepper just about stopped me from putting a microchip tracker on him." He shrugged. "Biggest regret of my life."

"I..." she frowned and slowly tilted her head from one side to the other. "I don't understand."

"Peter is my son. He was kidnapped when he was 2 years old and then trafficked across the country where they falsified his birth certificate and sold him to your brother-in-law, hiding him in plain sight."

Her eyes were glued to him, unblinking. There wasn't much color in her face to begin with, but the last bit of it drained away completely, leaving her white as a sheet.

"You're lying."

"No, Mrs. Parker." He shook his head. "I'm not. The hospital ran a DNA test just yesterday." From a sample he had planted to be fair, but that was besides the point. Between his own tests and the fingerprints, there was no doubt.

Her breathing hitched and she struggled to sit up. "You can't... you can't do this. Why are you doing this?"

Tony stood up and put a hand on her shoulder, an effort to settle her down. "You're going to hurt yourself."

"Please... please, don't do this. You can't... you can't take him away from me. He's all... He's everything I have left. Please, I—"

"Alright, calm down." Tony shot a glance in the direction of the door but everything seemed to be quiet outside. Natasha had given him 15 minutes and time was running out. "The only reason I'm here is for him. He wants you safe and for him, I'll try to help."

"Please, please don't—"

"May, listen to me. You are in serious trouble with the authorities. Between identity theft charges and abduction of a child under 16 across state lines you're looking at something between 7 years and a life sentence."

Her mouth gaped as wide as her eyes now. She didn't even bother to wipe away the tears on her cheeks.

Tony kept his voice low, his eyes intent on her. "You cannot speak to them without a lawyer. I will... I will make sure that you have legal representation."

May blinked at him, then shook her head. "Why... why would you do that?"

He stepped back from her, took a couple of moments to breathe. Why indeed? He could get her that, a life sentence. If he would lean into the kidnapping. Maybe with the possibility of parole but still... Even just a considerable amount of years could buy him time with his kid, time that had been stolen away. He wasn't ready to share the boy, would never stop despising the bond she had formed with his kid just because she had been there when it should have been Tony who was supposed to talk the boy down for a bad dream, to hold him when he fell and to praise him, celebrate him when he succeeded. All that was supposed to be his, his boy, his life. At his worst, the devotion the kid had for her was nothing more than a living reminder of what Tony had lost.

If he put everything on the table and testified against her, he was sure that he could effectively maneuver her out of their lives.

Physically. No point in humoring himself with the idea. May Parker would never be out of their lives, always a dark shadow that would loom and spread between him and his kid. Helping her was his only option. And still...

"I get your reasons, why you did it. Kept him hidden, I do. I..." Tony pressed his lips close then decided on the honest truth. "I would do a lot worse to keep him safe and I do believe that you wanted to keep him safe."

One of her hands covered her face and Tony could only watch her fall to pieces. This wasn't ideal and he would have preferred to do this another way, possibly in a lawyer's office with a specialist and possibly a trauma expert present but this wasn't over yet. There were still a lot of risks that he had to shield his own family from and May Parker was lucky enough that her destiny affected his son's happiness.

"Mrs. Parker. Listen to me." He waited till she looked back up at him, eyes red with shed tears. "There is a lot at stake here. I know you don't like me. I get that. I'm not your biggest fan either." Her face twitched but he couldn't get hung up on sparing her feelings right now. "All I care about is the boy. He wants me to help you so that's what I'll do."

"You... you will never... never buy Peter's affection." Her voice was hard, crumbling face non-withstanding. "Never. He's too smart, he'll see... see right though you!"

Two deep breaths. She was desperate. Of course she was. She was losing everything and if she hadn't realized it before, she sure knew it now. He shouldn't take it personally, but who was he kidding. After everything was said and done, the woman had still kept his little boy hidden away for years. The bit of patience he had with her was fading quickly.

"I don't have to buy his affection. I already earned it."

A couple of quick tabs on his phone and he pulled up one of the videos of Peter's arrest. Even with the volume off, he couldn't handle to watch these assholes put their hands on his kid again.

"What... what is this?"

He kept his gaze firmly on May Parker's face instead, her eyes wide as she stared at the projection. "He went after the man that attacked you. He shot him and they arrested him for it."

"I..." Her face was void of anything but shock. "Shot? He... he shot... but... oh... oh god..."

"They pushed him around, threatened him, had him tied to a hospital bed for hours. Hurt him. He trusts me because I'm the one that got him out of there. Like I have done before." Tony dropped his arm and shut down the projection along with it. "When Clarke shows up here and wants to cut a deal with you, when he shows up here and spins you tales of freedom and how you and Peter could just go back to how things were before if you only help the police, remember what they did to him. And know that Clarke is lying through his teeth. That they don't give a fuck about what happens to the boy. Or to you. You're just pawns to him."

He could only hope that was true. That the boy was just a pawn for Clarke, but as the plot thickened Tony was more and more certain that Clarke new something. That he wouldn't hesitate to go after the kid, no matter Tony's involvement.

None of that he could discuss with her. Not in that hospital room, maybe not ever, but he had said his piece and his time was up. The officer in charge of watching May Parker's hospital room would be back at his post any moment. The consequences of being found now would be negligible but he'd rather avoid the confrontation. The press. He'd need control over how this story unfolded for the public. Being overseen with her would not be to either of their benefit.

She didn't look at him so he cleared his throat, aiming for a little more softness in his voice. "He's worried about you. He wants to see you and... and we'll figure out how we can make that happen."

"I hate you." Her voice was low but distinct, the tone on the side of miserable more so than venomous.

"I know." He gave a small nod. "I'll send my legal team. Take it or leave it."

With that, he turned away from her, no looking back, and stole out of the room back towards the staircase. His heart was beating in his throat, his steps echoed louder than he liked. He didn't stop until the door to the stairwell had fallen shut behind him, then he froze, listened for any sign of someone that could have followed him, but there was only silence. He waited a beat, two, three. Nothing. He was in the clear.

No alerts had popped up on his phone, no calls, no warnings from Nat. Now, he just had to hope that May Parker was not too vain to accept the help he was offering. That she would swallow her pride for the kid's sake, just like he had done. And if she didn't, well... then she didn't.

It was on the second level while he was mentally going through his exit strategy from the hospital that the shadow to his right all of a sudden moved. He almost jumped out of his skin, his pulse hammering away like a freight train.

"Holy fucking mother of shit, are you trying to fucking kill me?"

"Keep your voice down, would you?" Natasha pulled him with her into the tiny alcove she had just appeared from.

"Jesus, Nat." He was ringing for air like he had just sprinted for his life.

"Don't be so dramatic!"

"What the hell are you thinking?"

She crossed her arms. "I'm thinking that I won't get out of here any time soon. It's faster to catch up in person but we can't be seen together can we..."

"Right." He shook his head, still focused on getting his breathing under control.

"How'd it go?"

Tony blew out a huff. "Peachy."

"How much did you tell her?"

"Just what she needed to know. That he's my son. That the authorities know what she did." He shrugged. "That we'll provide legal assistance if she wants it."

Natasha's eyebrows rose. "If she wants it?"

"Can't force it on her, can I?"

"You're willing to pay for her lawyer? That's..."

"Generous?"

"I was going for suspicious."

He looked away from her, down to his phone, checking for any messages. "Well, it is what it is."

"The kid asked you to?"

He met her eyes head-on. "Stop analyzing me."

"Yeah, I thought so." Natasha tipped her head to the side, her mouth pulled into a crooked pout. "She not gonna get off, you know that. The facts are pretty straight forward. Can't just blame it all on the dead husband."

"I know that," Tony pressed out through gritted teeth.

She waited another beat, lips pressed together tightly. "Don't make him any promises."

"I'm not."

"Tony..."

"I am not!" The doubtful look on her face annoyed him to no end. "I told him I'd try to help and I will."

"He looks up to you, Tony. He'll think you helping her will mean her going free."

"Come on..."

"Come on what? He looks at you like you hung the fucking moon."

It was too damn narrow in that alcove. His legs were twitching to get away. "I told him there's nothing we can do if they prosecute. That it's out of our hands."

"Was that before or after you told him you'd help her?"

He crossed his arms, held them close to his body, and turned away from her. He'd been clear to the kid. He'd told him all that. "He's smart. He knows—"

"Tony, he's still a kid. He's smart, yes, he's also exhausted and overwhelmed because he's just a boy."

His eyes closed in resignation, he rubbed a hand over his face. This whole thing was such a damn minefield. Whenever it seemed that he dodged one thing, three new obstacles just popped up out of fucking nowhere. "Fine, I... I'll talk to him. I'll explain, again."

The best he could at least. He'd deal with it, but later. May Parker was not his first priority. As much as he wanted to make sure that the kid was happy, none of it would matter if Clarke jumped in and blew their whole plan to smithereens. The guy was up to something and even with Rhodey looking into things now as well, they needed to act fast and precisely.

Tony cleared his throat, determined to get things back on track. "What about the apartment?"

"We took care of that."

He blew out a deep grunt. "Nat, I need a little more information than just—"

"No, you don't. Clint and I took care of it. There's nothing to worry about."

He couldn't stand still anymore, as much as he wanted to, as much as he knew that fidgeting like he was, made him look nervous and weak, out of control. Clarke was still out there. He was still plotting and Tony couldn't—

"My god, man." She pulled him close by both of his arm and looked straight at him until his feet were finally planted firmly on the ground. "We made sure there wasn't any trace of blood left. I swept the apartment of all the obvious spots. They didn't take any DNA when they took May Parker. It's not like they were hunting for a suspect. Clint did a second sweep. I can go back again, if you need anything out of there right away, but the injunction Pepper has pending should transfer access to you by midday today so you can retrieve the boy's personal items. You can take a look yourself then."

Tony nodded, feeling somewhat lighter.

"He's waiting for you at the corner of Pearl Street. You should get going."

Tony's eyes were still cast down, staring at where she was holding onto him to keep him still.

There was a moment of silence that had her grip only tightened. "You're the one who asked for this. If you can't do it, if you can't go then—"

"It's fine." He shook his head, the only part of his body that seemed willing to move. "I can. I'm fine, I need to—"

"Tony, fucking look at me."

He hated her tone. Hated how she could see through him when he least wanted her to. When nobody was supposed to be able to. The shortest moments of hesitation, a glance in the wrong direction and she just knew. He pulled himself together, met her eyes, her face only a few inches from his.

"You can't fight with him. You can't do the whole damn 'I told you so' routine no matter how much you think he deserves it."

"He does!" The little control he had was waning. "He does deserve it."

"Tony, now is not the time to—"

He pushed himself as far away from her as the little cove allowed. "Don't you lecture me on Rogers! I'm sick and tired of that!"

She kept her eyes on him, her hold on him still tight. "This is not about me giving you a lecture. This is about you keeping your focus on what's important. We don't need you to wallow in how much Steve screwed up. What he did doesn't matter right now! None of that will help you or the kid."

He knew that. He knew all that. "You know perfectly well that—"

She had stepped closer so much faster than he could even register her movement. Her hand was clasped over his mouth, effectively shutting him up, a finger of the other hand was pressed tightly on her own lips.

It was the door that fell shut with a loud bang that pulled his focus to what Nat had reacted to. Two women had pushed their way into the stairwell and Tony's pulse shifted up into the next gear. They couldn't be seen together. The women were laughing and babbling along. It took a couple of beats until Tony could make out some of what they were saying.

"...know if I could deal with that. It's gotta be cold, right? When he touches you?"

"Yeah but those eyes. Just imagine if he looks at you with those when he—"

"This is no break room!"

It wasn't until Nat's Russian accent echoed through the staircase that Tony realized that her hands weren't even on him anymore.

"Shift is not over for 30 minutes!"

Both nurses had fallen silent immediately. There was a bit of rustling as they shifted on their feet.

"I'm sorry, Nurse Griffin, but I swear we already finished everything you told us to do. We even—"

"You even had time for unauthorized trip to basement, I hear that!"

A cold shiver ran down Tony's back. Barnes was still there then.

The two nurses groveled a bit until Natasha pushed them along onto the next floor, distributing new tasks and effectively clearing the way for Tony's descend. The gist of her lecture had been clear. He wasn't supposed to lose his cool, which was a super helpful suggestion. Like he was making his way into the bowels of the NYPD's headquarter just so he could blow up at Rogers and get caught by the foot soldiers down there as a reward.

He exited the hospital on the southern side without further incident. It was just a few minutes walk uptown and it wasn't like anyone was expecting Tony Stark to be walking through the streets of Manhattan, hiding in plain sight. Certainly not at daybreak just hours after he had recovered his long-lost son. He did feel like shit for leaving the boy, but he was safe with Pepper and Rhodey at the Tower and all this was necessary to keep it that way.

Barton was waiting right where Natasha said he would be, not far off a side entrance to the NYPD headquarters. The hospital had been one thing but stealing into that building was a whole other level of nerve-racking. There would be consequences if he was caught.

He swallowed hard, no point in freaking out about it. It had to be done. "Barnes is still at the hospital?"

Clint didn't shy away from him, met his eyes not turning away. "Natasha's keeping tabs." The spy shrugged. "If we want to get him out, now's the time."

"Do we want that?" He couldn't keep the strain from his voice.

"You tell me." Clint moved his feet now, arms crossed in front of himself. "Soon as they transfer him to headquarters he'll be a sitting duck. Just like Cap."

Tony bit his lip hard, desperate for some clarity. He had never wanted to make those decisions, had surrendered his CEO position to Pepper for a reason after all. How was he back to having to maneuver them all through this bullshit. "Breaking him out is not an option."

Barton stayed quiet, eyes not straying from Tony's face and Tony just huffed out a low breath.

"We can't break him out and leave him on the run. Who knows how many triggers are still buried in that brain of his."

"That your final word?" The archer's fingers twitched, giving away some part of the tension he was fighting. "So, we'll just let him rot in a cell then. On the Raft. Both him and Steve?"

"You wanna break them out then?" Tony couldn't help the flippant tone. "Didn't you say something about wanting to see your family again? About not making the same mistake twice?"

Clint pulled in a deep breath through locked teeth and kept them that way, visually forced his voice to stay low. "As ill-advised as Steve's action might have been, he doesn't deserve the Raft. Having sat there myself, how do you expect me to sit back and just let them—"

"Clint, the Raft is all Ross." Tony stepped closer to him, careful to have his voice drowned out by the nearby traffic just in case anyone was nearby but out of sight. "If we bring down Ross, we cut off the beast's head. Breaking them out, what then? We just underline all the propaganda Ross is spewing. And what happens if we're caught? Then we all sit in? Who's left to get us out then?"

Barton let his head drop, chin to his chest.

"I want a quick fix, too. Believe me, I want to sit at home with my family doing all the boring shit, but none of us can do that while these assholes are still out there."

"I know that!" Clint turned to look up and down the street, cursing under his breath. "Fine. We bring it down from within."

Tony nodded when the other man looked back up at him. "We bring it all down in plain sight. The only way it stays dead!"

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[author's note:

Thank you guys as always for following the story along and leaving votes + comments. They always make my day. :) Even if I don't get around to responding to everything, know I love them and they totally make me want to publish chapters a little faster than maybe I sometimes should ;) #whatsabetareader #oops ]