A/N: I haven't had the chance to address the comments so before I post the next chapter, it's answer time... sometime I wish that there was a reply to comment function on this website that didn't involve sending private messages

A/N #2: Also I haven't forgotten about this fic, between my Master's Thesis, my job and the end of the semester, I've been having a hard time trying to find a moment to write. This chapter has been in the works for 2 weeks in between everything I've had to do. Also it's very very long

A/N #3: Happy Infinity War Trailer Release day!

geekystuffbb04: When I started thinking up this story I had to think about the sheer volume of characters I was about to take on, the MCU alone has more people in it than anything I've even written so combining it with GMW I had the compromise a lot. Since I had Maya and Josh in A Moment in Time, but not Farkle and Smackle, I took them out of it. There maybe a possibility that somewhere down the line they might make an appearance but for now I'm working on fixing the Avengers. The next AU, which is The Agent and the Hitman, the full version not the one-shot, will have the whole group in it. That's my December fic.

Discursus: Yeah... Harley is always going to be a problem lol

naelacy: I'm having a lot of conflicting feelings about the relationships in this story while I'm writing it because I'm liking the Riley/Peter story so freaking much, yes Rucas is my OTP pair but Riley and Peter are so cute it hurts and it's causing me problems. I didn't know this was going to happen when I decided to write this story, I hate love triangles I try not to write them and avoid them when I can. This is causing a crisis of epic proportions for me.

Chapter Seven – Food, Fights, Explosions, and Conversations

Tony didn't move from his chair he refused to let them get to him, yet a room full of the planet's most powerful heroes stood in front of him and his heart couldn't help but pound inside of his chest. He was never sure if he would make a good leader that's why Steve was given the job at first, but now everything was in his hands and it was somewhat terrifying to have that kind of power in his hands. He watched Steve for a moment as the other man looked around the room to see what the others were thinking without actually asking.

"Dinner's ready," Vision said out of nowhere and Tony couldn't help but jump in his seat. As he stood his phone went off with a message from Riley.

Dinner's yummy, eat it all you'll need the energy, save me some pie -R

He loved that kid, and she was worried about him, so he couldn't disappoint his kid, "Come on let's eat in the dining room and talk while we're there."

The group didn't move, no one said anything, so Tony just walked away only to hear footsteps follow him from behind.

"You know I thought you were serious about the whole date thing, but now it seems like it was a ploy to get me to come over without having to explain anything," Steve said as he fell into step with Tony.

"Well I had to get everyone here some way," he said shrugging his shoulders. "Natasha said yes automatically, it was the guilt, she dragged Barnes, Wanda's here because of Vision, T'Challa came because well because he had the time and I think he felt guilty over what happened with the whole… you know, Peter's here because he's almost always is, he likes the workshop. Bruce is well Bruce, and he calls us stupid for fighting over something ridiculous, I'm pretty sure Laura is the reason why Barton is even here. Sam is here because he still feels guilty over what happened to Rhodey, and Scott… I'm not sure why he's here, I'm guessing it's because of obligation."

"Are you sure about all of that?" Steve asked as they walked into a dining room filled with so much food he wasn't sure if Vision had made it or ordered it.

"Yes, I'm sure."

All the chairs were in place as Tony too his seat at the head of the table, somehow the experience felt a tab bit trippy. Riley always ate in his workshop with him, or they ate in the living room while watching a movie, so they rarely ate in the dining room, so this was the first time he had been in there since his parents had been alive. Everyone slowly walked in and settled down, Natasha was all but dragging Barton into the room, so the moment his eyes met Tony's the sneer was there in the man's eyes.

"So, what now you're going to lord over us?" Barton said making Natasha groan before she clocked him on the shoulder.

"No, you're not allowed to do this," she said to him before pulling him towards a chair and shoving him down.

"We're supposed to be talking so I'm going to fucking talk," he said before turning his attention to Tony. "Now where should I start."

"Why not start with the food in front of you before I call your wife to come and slap some sense into you," Natasha said before shoving a piece of chicken in Barton's mouth.

Pulling it out he gave her a cold stare, and that's when Tony knew that this was not going to be an easy night. All he wanted was for the possibility of being a team again but now he was going to have to deal with a lot of anger from the people in front of him.

"Come on Barton give me the best you've got," Tony said making sure that all of the team's attention was on him.

"Wanda was locked up like a caged animal," Barton started.

"Well if you hadn't broken her out of the compound in the first place that wouldn't have happened, so that was your fault," he said throwing it back in his face.

"She was a prisoner here," Barton sneered.

"Not true, she was free to come and go as she pleased we were just trying to keep her out of the public's eye," Vision said addressing the room.

"Thanks Viz," Tony said looking at Wanda who looked uncomfortable because she was the first thing that had been brought up.

"I can admit to my mistakes," Wanda said looking out at the room. "The facility was my home and I all but destroyed it because I honestly still had some anger inside of me over what had happened in my life. My parents' death, my brother's," her voice broke as she mentioned her family. "While I was on the run, I realized that I was safe here, but I broke the trust of the person who was making sure I was safe, and the trust of the only real friend I had in my life. I regret it all, but regrets cannot make everything better."

She smiled at Vision for a moment who stopped walking around to squeeze her shoulder, she turned her attention to Tony for a moment before saying another word.

"I'm sorry, for everything," she said her voice just above a whisper.

"Don't worry so much about it Wanda, just be happy for once, no more running no more sad eyes, because I don't think I can take the puppy eyes," he said realizing just how much he actually meant it, he had held onto his own fears in regard to Wanda, but he also knew that she was young and was prone to her own mistakes. He couldn't fault her for them as much as he blamed himself for what happened. He smiled at her before turning back to the team. "Anyone else?"

"I'm not done," Clint said and Natasha all but groaned before she put her head in her hands. "No, I want to know why my own family likes him more than they like me, I'm the husband, the father."

"Then fucking act like it," Tony said looking the other man in the eyes. "Do you know what I was doing while you were on the run, I was protecting your family, I was making sure that they were safe because the person responsible for that was too busy coming out of retirement to get into a fight that he had no right being in. They're your family Clint, but if you come out of retirement every time spangles over here calls you," he said point at Steve whose face turned bright red. "You're going to put even more distance between you and them."

Clint stayed quiet after that, but Tony knew if Barton had it in him he would keep fighting until he was blue in the face. Tony looked around the room to see if anyone else was going to start something.

"I'm sorry too," Sam said looking at Tony. "I knew about what had happened to your parents, but I was also the one who told Steve not to call you when we found James and if I hadn't said what I had said well maybe a lot of what had happened could have been avoided."

"Damn straight but we can't change the past we can only consider the future, and before you go talking about Rhodey, he's fine, he's in a relationship, he can walk, he's better than ever," Tony said smiling it felt good to hear everyone airing out their own grievances. "Okay that's two, anyone else?"

Sam nodded and smiled before turning to the group looking to see, like Tony was, who else was going to say something.

"Sorry about… well everything," Barnes said next looking him directly in the eyes. "Also about the beating Steve and I gave you in Siberia."

"Yeah well, I wasn't happy about being stuck in the suit… or the hospital stay after I got out," he said wishing that he had kept his mouth shut because Steve's head snapped up so quickly Tony could swear that he had gotten whiplash.

"What hospital Tony? What happened after we left?" Steve asked concern in his eyes.

"Don't worry about that," he said trying to defect but even Natasha was giving him a worried look.

"Your arm," she said quietly. "You went to help them even though you were injured so of course it would affect you badly."

"Yeah well trust me I tried to go on vacation, but I couldn't stop working, especially since we were down to only three people one of which wasn't an Avenger," he said looking at Peter. "And he's still not an Avenger."

"Sorry Mr. Stark," Peter said which made Tony's eye twitch he really hated being call Mr. Stark it felt like he was in some weird alternate universe, even worse now that everyone calls him Director like he's Fury which only makes him gag.

"What was wrong with your arm?" Steve said trying to direct the conversation back to his injuries.

"Well a bunch of cars landed on it," he said giving Wanda a knowing look which only made he shrink down and give him one of those sad puppy face which he hated, he just wanted to get pass that. "And there was also the fact that your best friend, who was back from the past almost shot it off when we were fighting the first time, and of course there was the fight in Siberia and well that didn't end well especially since someone tried to pull out the reactor before someone else shoved their shield right into my chest plate. I got lucky it didn't break the reactor in my chest, but it left some nasty bruising."

Steve could feel as if the air had left his lungs, he had been fighting on instincts that day, he was trying to protect Bucky while disabling Tony's suit, but he hadn't even paid too much to the injuries Tony had already suffered before getting to that Siberian bunker. The injuries they had all caused in one way or another.

"No," Tony said looking at him and then to Wanda. "No more sad faces, it's over, I'm sorry it happened, I'm sorry we fought and everything else since but it's over. We can't change the past so please let's just move on."

"I don't know how we can after everything," Steve said to him knowing that it was the truth, Tony can act like himself, but the damage had been done they had all gone their own ways and Tony had been left a broken man without his family.

"We can as long as we work together," Vision said smiling which was still awkward to Steve because the android had somehow become more human since he had been created. Wanda probably had something to do with that, especially the way that they looked at one another.

Tony sighed from the head of the table, "I became the director is SHIELD because honestly I don't trust the world to people who allowed Hydra to grow from the inside. But also, because I wanted the team back together, I wanted to make the world a safer place especially after dealing with all the shit we've had to deal with over the years. Nukes, aliens, and the end of the world several times over, even with the Accords in play it makes it easy to police the enhanced individuals of the world in the same way the government and the police do for everyone else."

"It's not the same world we grew up in is it?" Natasha said with a sigh.

"Well we all have our own demons," Tony continued looking at the room full of his makeshift family. "None of our childhoods have been relatively normal in anyway, but I always thought if we made it just a little bit normal in our own way then it wouldn't be so bad."

That was when Steve knew that Tony was trying to create a safe space for them, they were his family even though the world sometimes hated him for things he hadn't had any control over, even though he had taken the reigns when they had all been some where hiding. Tony had always in some way tried to keep them all safe and even though they butted heads over a lot of things, they were family and sometimes family fought like Tony's been saying to them over and over again.

"Some place where we would feel at home," Steve said smiling as he looked over at the rest of the Avengers.

"Well we are a group of wayward heroes, and we all need a home," Tony added smiling back at him. Steve could feel something change in their relationship, it was something real, something tangible, something the others have hinted, and him and Tony have danced around for so long. The feelings he had for so long pushed back against, because he thought that it was wrong in one way or another. Maybe he could get a date with Tony, but for now he wanted to work on their friendship and somewhere in the future he could take that chance.

Just as he was going to say something an explosion rocked the house making the cups spill over onto the table. The team was alert the moment it happened, standing and assessing the situation as they made a move to go towards danger.

"Fri what was that?" Tony said addressing the A.I.

"Protocol 23789," the A.I. answer as if it resolved it for everyone, but Steve knew that the only person who knew what it meant was Tony, so he looked over at the genius for answers.

"What does that mean?" Natasha asked.

"Explosion in the workshop," Tony said pulling up something on a tablet that Steve hadn't noticed was sitting in the dining room. Steve noticed that Peter was walking out of the room towards the doors that lead to the back patio. "Peter don't you dare," Tony said before the teenager jumped off the side of the house like it was nothing.

The rest of the team quickly followed. "Sir, the Iron Protocol has been activated," FRIDAY said making Steve look at Tony was a worried look.

"Is it an attack?" Steve asked as Tony sighed.

"No, it was one of the experiments that was running in the lab, from the looks of it something got mixed up and caused the explosion, or something I won't know for certain until I look through the footage, or even looked at what the workshop looks like now," Tony said a worried look crossing his face as he scanned through the footage of the explosion.

"What's the Iron Protocol?" Steve asked, wondering what it meant for the house.

"Nothing, it's just a failsafe in case of an attack so that people wouldn't have access to the suits," Tony said but Steve could see that the worried look on the man's face only increased. He guessed that he was assessing in his mind the amount of damage that had occurred or even how the explosion happened.

"I'll go tell the team what you told me," Steve said before walking off leaving Tony alone.

The moment no one else was around Tony keyed into his private channel and pulled up the video footage of Riley's workshop just before the explosion, it had come from his lab but from the looks of the video it had blown out the windows of his workshop and Riley's, sending her flying as the one suit he made her keep with her surrounded her body, but not before she hit her head. This wasn't an accident in anyway and he knew it, but he also knew that it was meant to cause him harm, no one knew that there would be someone else caught in the crossfire.

"Fri tell me someone didn't break into your secure servers?"

"No sir, it seems as though the explosion was caused by one of the projects from the abandoned Hydra base that had been infiltrated a few weeks ago, it seems as though a failsafe had been activated from within the device, one that I hadn't detected," the A.I. answered. He had brought the device home with him thinking that it had been some harmless device, apparently Hydra made sure of that until the time was right which meant that either someone knew that the Avengers were at his house, or they were waiting until he was alone. The bomb was meant to go off when he was alone with it and it had gone off while the team was in the house. It couldn't be a coincidence, someone was watching them or at least they were watching their movements.

"And what about the Sunshine protocol?" he asked worried about Riley as he watched the footage for a third time as his daughter had been thrown from the couch that was on the other side of the supposed reinforced windows. He was going to have to look into something stronger, or at least he needed to make sure that Riley's workshop had a double reinforced wall so she wouldn't get injured again.

"Sunshine has been activated, Sunshine has a head injury as well as other minimal injuries," FRIDAY answered but judging from the clipped tone of her voice one of the Avengers was close by.

"Continue running diagnostics, and keep me informed," he said before turning to the group as they walked into the room. Peter looked at him worried, he knew that Peter was worried about Riley as much as he was but Tony shook his head at the teenager. He couldn't have Peter outing Riley at that moment especially if Hydra was after the Avengers. They would go after her and he didn't like the thought of putting her in danger if he could stop it in the first place.

"Do you know what caused it?" Bruce said as he walked through the door.

"The team that infiltrated the old Hydra bunker a few weeks ago gave me a few things to look over, one of those things had been activated, but when it was brought in we were sure, that it wasn't a bomb or else I wouldn't have brought it home with me," he said with a sigh as he ran his hand through his hair. If he could he would pull it all out to make sure that his kid was alright but with FRIDAY working on making sure she was alright he had to also be certain that the suit would take Riley to the hospital if any of her injuries were serious. "We need to look over everything that we brought in, because this isn't anything like the tech we've recovered before. I want to know how they were able to hide an explosive so well that we didn't detect it before it went off."

"Does it feel like no matter how many times we go after them, clear out their hideouts, take all of their toys, that they just come back stronger each time," Bucky said as he sat down, Tony knew it was because Hydra was the demon that followed the Winter Solider around no matter how much he tried to do good.

"It does feel like they're getting more advanced," T'Challa said as he walked over to where Tony stood. "I would like to look at this technology and see if I can assist in identifying this foreign entity."

"I'll help with that," Bruce said and Tony could see a slight twinge of green around the man's eyes but seemed as though he had it was under control.

"For now, we should eat dinner while SHIELD agents come to assess the situation," Tony said looking at the table full of food. He grabbed one of the pies and put it aside for Riley, she was going to need comfort food after what had happened, and Tony was going to have to find a way to explain to Pepper that their kid had been injured while she had been at home.

Riley woke up in her room, which surprised her because the last thing she remembered was eating dinner and watching a movie. Her head was throbbing, there was a bandage on her forehead and she felt like something was missing from her memory.

"Hey sweetheart how do you feel?" he father asked as he walked through her bedroom door, he looked back to make sure that no one had followed him.

That was when she remembered the explosion, and the Iron Man suit closing around her before she passed out. The Avengers had been in the house when it had happened, but since she was in her room they were either gone or they had found a way to get her to her room without anyone noticing.

"Peter's worried sick downstairs but since we have Cap down there with SHIELD he's stuck," he father continued.

"How did you get me up here without anyone noticing?" she asked as she watched him slowly pacing the room.

"Well I had to test out the stealth suit sooner or later," he said shrugging.

"How are you up here without anyone noticing?"

"This isn't a Q & A young lady."

"Answer the question."

"I may have accidentally spilled something on my clothes and said I was going to change," he answered before sitting down next to her. "Now answer my question, how are you feeling."

"Like a truck his me, my head hurts."

"It's not a concussion, Fri made sure or else I would have taken you to the hospital everyone else be damned, you have some cuts but they're not too bad," he stopped talking for a moment before giving her a guilty look that made her wince. "Your mother is angry that I didn't call her the moment it happened."

"Mom gets angry if I talk about making anything that could blow up so I wouldn't freak out too much," she said smiling. Her mother was an overprotective hen sometimes, and Riley knew it had something to do with her father and the amount of aspirin she has to take when he won't work on anything for Stark Industires.

"Yeah well, she's on her way here, even though I told her to hold back but Rhodey's with her and they're both freaking out."

"Yeah but Uncle Rhodey is freaking out about other things... like making sure that I'm alright with him and mom dating," she said smiling at her father.

"How do you know that?"

"A little birdy told me... well actually Zay told me, but it's fine, they can date," she shrugged which only made her head hurt from the effort. "As long as mom's happy I'm fine with it, plus it gives me time to fix you up with someone."

"Don't turn into Natasha, she had this period where she tried to set Steve up with everyone under the sun, I don't want that, I'm happy with my bots and my kid annoying me. I have enough on my plate."

Riley sighed but she wasn't going to give up until both of her parents were happy, "Fine for now," she said. "Go before they get suspicious, and if you can send up some pie, I know you saved me some."

"Damn right I did," he said before giving a kiss on her head, which reminded her of those days when she was little, the ones where they were together just the two of them, where he was making pancakes in the kitchen as she told him stories. This was before everything, before the world of heroes, before Iron Man, when they were just father and daughter.

"Send it up with Vision, and tell him to throw some ice cream on it," she said with a smile.

"Will do kiddo," he said before walking out of the room.

It took five seconds after her father walked out the door for her window to open from the outside, Riley almost screamed out if it wasn't for the messy unruly hair of one of her friends to pop up. Peter climbed through the window with a smile and quickly sat down next to her.

"You okay," was all he asked and she nodded which was a horrible idea.

"I need an aspirin or something, but other than that I'm alright," she said with a sigh. Peter sat there nodding for a moment when she realized that if he was caught by the Avengers they would notice that she was there as well. "Why are you up here? Aren't you afraid that one of them would follow you up?"

"Not really, your dad is down there with a whole group of agents and they're in the workshop reviewing the damage, so they're all distracted, all I had to do was say that I was going home and walked out the front before back tracking and webbing my way up here."

"My dad is going to kill you one day I swear," she said with a smile. Peter was really one of her closest friends and she liked that he worried. "Anything else happened, because my dad didn't say anything to me about why I was blown off the couch for no reason. Especially since I'm 100% sure that he wasn't running any test on the suits."

"Hydra happened, I'm still vague on all of the details but apparently there had been a raid on a facility and they brought back a bunch of stuff that they swore was harmless, when in the end they weren't or something. One of those things set off the explosion," he said before laying back onto her pillows.

"Hydra is the reason for a lot of our problems," she said to him knowing it was the truth no matter what. Her grandparents died because of them, all of the attacks since the incident at the SHIELD facility on the Potomac, it felt like they were never truly going to go away. "Cut off one head two more will take its place," she said with a sigh.

"It feels like there's someone pulling the strings on this put who could it be," Peter added as they stared at the far end of her bedroom.

"Don't know but we're not allowed to look into it, we're not agents or anything."

"Didn't stop me before when I was just a friendly neighborhood Spiderman."

Riley smiled at that, "Well maybe if we do it under the radar we could get away with our own little investigation, I mean Ned could hack circles around most of the guys at SHIELD, well with the exception of my father."

"So where do we start?" he said with a grin.

"Well like any good investigation, we need a team of experts," she smiled back at him as they begin planning.

"We already have a team to work with," he said, she knew what team he was talking about and it she wasn't entirely happy about it because of the way that Lucas had acted the day her father had had a panic attack. "Riley, don't think too much about it."

"Get out of my head Pete," she said before shrugging her shoulders. "I just don't know if I can trust anyone outside of the inner circle."

"We don't have to tell them he's your dad, we just need to find a way to mention the explosion."

"Peter, they don't even know that you're Spiderman, how are we going to mention the fact that we know about an explosion that no one should know about?"

"Well they're the team, they'll need to know that I'm Spiderman," he said bumping her shoulder. She realized that he was going to reveal himself to protect her secret.

"I don't want you to tell them if you don't want to," she said with a sigh. "A secret identity as a superhero is important."

"I know but you, Ned and Zay all know and they're on the team, so I think the other three members of our group need to know especially because they've been tailoring our practices to match my abilities."

"Fine spiderboy," she said with a smile. "But don't do it during class please, we can't tell the world we don't know whose good at keeping secrets."

"Fine Iron girl," he smiled back, that's what friends were for, having each other's backs.

"Are you going to be alright for tomorrow's training drill?" he asked while pointing at her head.

"I'm going to be fine, we're only working with resisting magic attacks, so it shouldn't be so bad, plus I've had worse so as long as I sleep tonight and drink some aspirin, I'll be okay."

"Why are we having a weekend drill anyway, it seems pointless," he said with a groan.

"Because an attack happens at all times, so we have to be prepared no matter what," she said with her best Captain America expression before she started laughing. "That and half the staff will be gone so the risk of damage won't be as huge if something went crazy."

Before Peter could say another word, Vision came up through the ceiling holding a pie and some water for her.

"If I wasn't so used to this I would have probably screamed," she murmured as she took the glass and the packet of pills he had produced out of nowhere and swallowed them down. "Thanks Vision, you're a lifesaver," she rubbed her head, talking and laugh was taking its toll on her head, but she didn't mind so much when surrounded by friends. "Now give me pie."

Vision gave her a small smile before handing her the pie, "Please do take care of yourself," he said before drifting off.

"I will Vision," she said quietly knowing he would have heard before he had disappeared. Outside of the guys, and the small amount of people who knew about her, Vision had become as close to family as anyone else, it could have been because of his connection to JARVIS, or it was that they were strangely growing up together.

Peter stayed with her helping her finish off the apple pie, before she passed out from exhaustion, she wasn't sure when he had left all she remembered was a kiss on her forehead before the world blacked out.

As soon as the other Avengers left Tony took a breath, it lasted a minute before Pepper was barreling into the house, he hadn't had a chance to check in on Riley all night, but Vision had assured him that she was alright and that Peter was with her. He wasn't completely alright with the thought of Riley being alone with a boy, even if all of her friends were boys. It was the fates revenge for the way he acted when he was younger he was sure of it.

"How's our kid doing?" Pepper said sitting down on the couch.

"What no, Hi Tony? No, how was your day?" he said before smiling at Pepper for a moment.

"No, our kid is hurt so that's all that matters," she said giving him a pointed look. "What happen, and don't say it's classified or else I'm going to bury you in paperwork and no one will hear from you for a year."

"Geez, and she's fine, Peter's with her now, he made up some lie about having to go home and the sneaky bastard crawled through her bedroom window like he's Romeo," he said with a scowl.

"That's what you get for letting her have mostly guy friends," she said with a smile. "You're scared of her dating, your kid is a genius, she knows everything about what you've done in the past, and your scared that she's going to turn out just like you."

"Can you blame me, she is a Stark after all."

"You shouldn't worry too much, the worse she's going to do is blow up another science lab, now tell me what happened."

"Something we recovered from a Hydra facility turned out to be a ticking time bomb, literally, the damn thing blew up my lab, but the stealth suit grabbed Riley and hid her away while it checked her for injuries. The worse she got was a nasty cut on her head and some bruises, she's fine."

"And how did dinner go?" she asked since his answer was to her liking.

"They apologized, I apologized, the house blew up, we ate as some agents checked out the fragments, it felt oddly normal," he said with a shrug.

"It sounds oddly normal," she said smiling at him. "Are you ever going to tell Rogers that you like him."

"You sound like a teenage girl, what is this gossip hour, are you going to paint my nails?"

"I'm curious honestly, we didn't work for many reasons, but I know you and him, well if you got over your mountain of issues, you could work."

"I don't have a mountain of issues," he said to her with a smile.

"Tony, you have an Everest of issues, and there's also the fact that none of the Avengers know about that kid of ours, and of course your past issues with your father, and then there's the whole thing with James Barnes."

"Fine, geez woman if I knew better I'd say that you were trying to make me relive all of this crazy stuff. The thing with Riley's going to come out soon, so we don't have to worry about that, and if you want I'll try and either tell Cap about my feelings or if I don't you can bury me in paperwork until I die."

"Deal," she said as he heard someone coming down the stairs.

Peter was standing in front of them his eyes looked tired, and Tony knew it had something to do with the long day they just had.

"Hi Peter," Pepper said to the teenager. "How's Riley?"

"She's asleep Ms. Potts," he said reminding Tony of all the time he had spent trying to get the kid to stop calling him Mr. Stark.

"Peter the spare bedroom is free if you want to crash," Tony said not mentioning the whole issue he has with a boy being in his daughter's room, he knew Riley wouldn't do anything. At least he hoped she wouldn't.

"Thanks," he said before drifting off to the guest bedroom that Peter normally stayed in when he spent the weekend with them.

"He's a good kid Tony," Pepper said to him. "Don't worry if Riley wants to date let her, it's not like she's going out with some crazed villain."

"I hope not," he said as the thought entered his mind. His kid with a villain, hell her being a villain was scary enough.

"Go get some sleep, I'll be back tomorrow for our little get together," she said before standing up and giving his shoulder a squeeze.

"Night Pep," he said as she left leaving him alone with his thoughts.

Lucas was laying on his bed thinking, it was all he could do because the facility was quiet for a Friday night, and he didn't know why all of the Avengers had left earlier. He had seen them as they climbed into their cars and drove off, while he wandered around the field thinking about what Sharon had said to him. Wondering why he had never put two and two together because he should have known that if Howard Stark had been involved with SHIELD then of course his Aunt Peggy had known Tony Stark.

The reminder of followed him around like a plague, their families connected because of this, Tony Stark was her godson, and Lucas couldn't figure out why he had grown with the hatred for the man. Only to remember that it had come from his parents, especially when Stark was being an outlandish git on television. So, Lucas had learned from his parents, and only asked about Captain America and the Howling Commandos. So of course, when Iron Man appeared he had been enthralled, only to let that hero worship die down because it had been revealed that it was Stark powering the armor.

"Hey Lucas, you wanna come over and watch a movie," Farkle said walking into his room.

"Do you think I was being unreasonable with Tony Stark," he asked he long-time friend without answering the question that had been posed a moment ago.

"Well," Farkle said as if he were trying to find a way out of the conversation.

"Be honest," he said automatically.

Farkle sat down on the corner of the bed and looked at him with a sad look. "I couldn't understand why you didn't like him. I mean I admire the man, he's a genius of course, but somedays I tried to see it your way to get a better understanding of it all and honestly, I couldn't. He's had his bad moments but he's human, we make mistakes."

Lucas groaned throwing himself on his pillows at the answer. "My Aunt Peggy," he started but his voice was muffled.

"Sorry, say that again," Farkle said forcing Lucas to turn around.

"My Aunt Peggy, one of the founders of SHIELD, all around badass, was his godmother," he said staring at the ceiling like it held he answers to the universe instead of being a smooth white surface. "Sharon told me earlier, and because of all of this hate he wasn't given the chance to go to Aunt Peggy's funeral even though he was family."

"There's more to this isn't there," Farkle said to him.

"Well it got me thinking about how Riley, Zay, Ned and Peter had reacted during lunch when Stark had stormed out and well I can honestly say I was an ass."

"Nah it was more like you had your head up your ass, but they had a right to be angry, I mean Zay is the man's godson, and Peter interned with Stark, did you know he was a genius too. Anyway, Ned knows Stark and Riley of course is Zay's friend, so she's close to him too."

"I have to apologize don't I," he said as his shoulders slumped. He felt awful about everything after his talk with Sharon and with Captain America, they were a team. He had made the mistake, so it was up to him to fix the mess.

"Yes, you do, but think about how it will help our team if we learn from our mistakes," Farkle said before standing up. "Now movie?"

"Sure, why not," he said standing up and followed his friend.

Throughout the movie he thought of how he was going to talk to the group during the training exercise the next morning. After they finished he had let his mind wander away from the thoughts that had been plaguing his mind throughout the day. When he went back to his room he let his mind wander to how he was going to apologize, but his mind turned to Aunt Peggy.

He remembered when she would sit with him, while they visited her, as her mind slowly went away, but she would always tell him the same stories, about her time in SHIELD. He also remembered how he used to fall asleep in her arms while she rocked back and forth. There was a part of his heart that missed her and her stories, he was never ready to say goodbye to her.

"What would Aunt Peggy say," he wondered out loud knowing full well that she would probably yell at him for being stubborn and say that Captain America would be disappointed in him.

He was glad that she hadn't seen what had happened after her death because it would have broken her heart to see the two people she had been the closest to throughout her life fighting one another.

That was when he realized that it wasn't about what his Aunt Peggy would have said but how her actions dealt with the problem at hand. He not only had to learn from his mistakes but act the way she would have wanted him to. Maybe even take the chance and learn more about Tony Stark, and not rely on his public persona.

That's my boy, he could hear her whisper. As if she were approving of what he wanted to do, he was learning not only from his mistakes but also from the lesson she had taught him. Even if she wasn't around anymore, he was going to make her proud and become a stronger person.

The Avengers returned to the compound around midnight, but Steve couldn't let go of the fact that Tony seemed distracted after the explosion had gone off. Steve watched him afterwards especially after they had all gone out to check for damage on the house and Tony had stayed inside. He sat down in the communal area and looked at the blank screen in front of him wondering why Tony seemed so out of it.

"What's on your mind Stevie," Bucky said as he plopped himself next to Steve, while Natasha sat down on the single couch across from him.

"You've been weird since the explosion happened," Natasha said looking at him with a questioning gaze.

"Do you think that Tony was acting weird tonight?" he asked outright, he knew they needed to talk about it before a misunderstanding occurred.

"I noticed, but you have to remember that it was his house, and his workshop, imagine losing all of the work you've been doing," Natasha said looking over at him, making him remember that she had spent time with him undercover and knows Tony in a way that most of them wouldn't. "Yes, he probably backed everything up but you have to remember there was also the possibility of him losing something that would take time to recreate especially if it was something that would help us as a team."

"I think Steve is just trying to find a way to stay close to Stark," Bucky chimed in with a smile. "You're worried about him, especially in that big house alone, Vision came back with us so he's in there all alone."

Natasha smiled over at Bucky before looking over at Steve, "aww he wants to protect him."

"You two are too much I swear," Steve said running a hand through his hair.

"Stevie, you have a crush on him, so of course you want to find a reason to stay there without having to explain it," Bucky said to him.

"It's not faultless, there is a real threat because Hydra might have made sure it was something no one could truly detect, they could be targeting Tony," Steve said looking at his teammates, it didn't feel like a stretch because Tony wouldn't give up the chance to take a look at any kind of tech. "You know I'm right, he's not the type to step away from something interesting."

"Shit," Bucky said as if the realization hit him. "I didn't think to look at it that way, but then again you're the one always looking at everything from a million angles even when you were getting the shit beaten out of you."

"So, if someone is targeting Tony, we have to find out why, but what does that have to do with him being distracted earlier," Natasha said as they looked at one another.

"There's something more, something he's not telling us, and I hate secrets it's one of the reasons that everything went to hell with SHIELD in the first place too many damned secrets," Steve said wanting to hit something. He knew he needed to trust Tony, but somehow whenever he was kept in the dark it never went the way should, and everything went to hell quickly.

Natasha sighed as if they were working on something that normally would involve Tony himself, or Doctor Banner, they were the ones solving puzzles that no one could dream of. Bucky looked at him for a moment, they shared a look, the history of everything that had happened over the last few years. Even what happened before he had found Bucky, all of it haunted them.

"What could he be hiding that would be down there?" Natasha was the first to ask.

"Whatever it is that kid Peter was worried about it too, and Vision kept disappearing as well," Bucky added.

"For all we know we're reading too much into nothing, and what they were studying or doing had something to do with why Peter is Spiderman, or why Vision retains pieces of JARVIS," Natasha said giving Steve something to think about. Peter and Vision were both powered individuals that no one could understand, so if they were checking something they had reason to keep it secret.

"It's too much to think about right now, we should get to bed, we're running that drill in the morning anyway," Steve said feeling defeated for a moment.

"Okay," Natasha said with a sigh. "But Steve remember if you want to know something ask Tony, don't let this get out of hand only to find out that it was nothing at all."

"Also tell him that you love him and put us all out of our misery," Bucky added before Natasha all but dragged him out of the room leaving Steve alone with his thoughts.

Natasha walked back into the room after a moment and looked at Steve, "I wanted to ask, do you think it's really safe for the students to go through that drill tomorrow?"

"They have to learn about it there's no way around it Nat, they have to be aware of what's out there," he said knowing where her concern was coming from. "Wanda has a better handle over her powers, and Tony approved the drill as long as no one got hurt."

"This feels like a vetting process, because if they can't get through this how would they survive a real crisis," she said with a sigh. "I'll see you in the morning."

"Goodnight Nat," he said knowing where her concern was, but his concern was still on Tony.

He kept thinking back to Tony, his hushed whispers with FRIDAY, his constant checking of his tablet, the fact that his faced paled when the explosion happened. Steve knew that there was something he was missing, but then again there were a lot of things about Tony that he didn't know because he had never taken the time to truly get to know the man. For so long it was about missions, and friendly banter, they never went any deeper than that and he regretted it after the whole war.

There was no time for regret, not anymore, and he knew that. If he wanted to have any kind of relationship with the man he was going to have to work for it. For now, he was going to have to trust that Tony was just worried about the overall structure of the house, or any personal experiments that he had been running for Stark Industries.

Early mornings were not her favorite time of day, she knew this but after the head injury the day before Riley resented them even more. She had sat in the kitchen that morning with a cheery Peter, who she had wanted to kill because of her headache, and grimaced the entire time until Vision handed her a glass of orange juice and two little white pills, along with their breakfast. Ned and Zay joined them on the ride to the training grounds, as Peter filled them in on what happened the day before.

Now standing out on this field her head less of a mess, she was starting to regret coming to school when she realized she was still angry at Lucas. So of course, as he walked up to them, Farkle and Isadora next to him she didn't know what she could say or do to make the whole thing better.

"I'm sorry," Lucas said to them which only shocked her for a moment. "I'm a product of my upbringing, which is just me saying that I was taught to hate Tony Stark by my family and would like to have the chance to change my opinions on him."

For a quick moment Zay looked at her, before looking back at Lucas, "We're a team, we all have to learn together, but don't insult my family again or else I send some very powerful people after you."

Peter snorted at the words that Zay had said, Ned just looked over at them and rolled his eyes, while Riley tried to put her feelings together. They didn't know, they only thought that she had been disgusted because her father was Zay's godfather, she couldn't be the one that said that everything was alright. It hurt her more than it did anyone else to see someone paint her father in that light just because of his public persona. The truth about it all was that her father had only kept it up to shine the light away from Riley. So no one would notice.

"Let's just move on from this, we're a team we need to act like one," she said because it was the best she could do, it was the only thing she could do.

"Alright teams," the voice boomed over the field, when Riley looked over she saw Captain America standing at the far end. They all walked over before he started talking again.

"Today you're going to learn how to react to magic based attacks," he said to them as the rest of their instructors made their way toward where he was standing. "Since we're still working on your fighting skills this will just be a demonstration drill, we'll assist you in the formations until you can put together your own team dynamics."

"But why on Saturday morning," someone from one of the other teams groaned, making some people laugh.

"Because when an attack comes they're not going to worry about whether you've had enough sleep or a day off, all that they would care about is the heaviest attack they can implement on the people in the city, town, or country," he answered them before waiting for another comment. "Alright each team will be tested by someone with a magical ability, Vision and Scarlet Witch will work with two teams at a time while your team instructors will help with the team defense. Now assemble."

Riley watched as her teammates walked over to the Winter Solider and Black Widow, it felt strange to be in this group, but she was among friends, some new some old, and even though she was still weird about the whole team up, mainly because their leads are two people close to her father.

"Alright kids, we're going to first work on resisting an attack from a powered individual, you're allowed to use your own abilities to resist," Natasha began before giving a pointed look at Peter, Riley tried not to laugh. "We'll start with small attacks, Wanda is going to help us with this, the most is for you to resist the attack or help your team get to safety and regroup."

"We're working on non-lethal attacks," James said to them. "She's only going to try and disable one team member with her attack and you're going to have to find a way to break her hold on them first. We're not going to tell you who is going to be attacked, but you have to stand on these markers," he said pointing to where there were small flags each a different color. "They will indicate where you maybe in a battle, Wanda will have two minutes to use her gift on the chosen person."

"You're not going to know who it is," Natasha added. "That's why the flags are different colors, they're not in any way an indicator to who will be chosen."

"Now everyone go pick a color," James said the group separated the moment he told them to move.

There were ten flags and seven of them so three markers weren't going to be used, Riley picked a purple flag, Peter a red one, Zay picked a grey one, Ned chose orange, Smackle picked yellow, Farkle chose green, and Lucas picked blue. They were spread out all over the area each of them not knowing where they should look.

"Close your eyes and count to sixty," Natasha said, reminding them that in a normal circumstance they wouldn't see the attack coming.

The seven of them closed their eyes and began to count, Riley took steadying breaths, the thought of an unprovoked attack scared her because she remembered so much of the battles her father had fought. She knew that one of the reasons he had agreed to let her join this school was because he had wanted to make sure that she was protected even if she learned it herself. It was the reason why she trained with Happy, the reason she had taken self-defense classes, and the reason why she had started on her own version of the Iron Man armor.

The feeling of something encircling her arms made her stiffen, the attack was going to be against her, but that meant that the rest of the team couldn't do anything until they reached sixty. She tried to focus on something else, when all of a sudden, she was taken back to that time when Thanos had attacked and her father had put her in an underground bunker while he fought to save the world.

Images of that time flooded her mind, the darkness, the sounds of terror from the television as she kept an eye out for her father. Remembering Peter getting hurt, and then there was no one, everything went black and all she saw was her greatest fear, her father's armor dead on the ground as that mad titan crushed him, blood pouring out of the suit, and Riley screaming for her father before Thanos turned to her and grabbed her by the neck.

As soon as the vision started it ended, Riley felt her eyes pop open and she came face to face with a stunned Wanda Maximoff. Riley felt her eyes go wide before sending a silent plea to the woman in front of her not to say anything about what had just happened.

"Is the attack happening?" Zay said from the other side of the field.

Everyone looked over to where Riley and Wanda were standing, and all of a sudden, she felt Peter standing next to her giving Wanda a questioning look. He had used his abilities as Spiderman because he had known of what Wanda was capable of. Riley knew what Wanda was capable of, and it scared her because Wanda had seen Riley's biggest fear, the death of her father. The headache she had been trying to keep at bay all morning had all of a sudden turned into a migraine, her head pounding like a jackhammer.

"Sorry," Wanda said after a moment. "I started and then Riley opened her eyes and it startled me."

The field was very quiet around them which was unusual since they were running a drill, but that's when she noticed that everyone, not just on her team but everyone running the drills were looking at them. Riley rubbed her head, the vision and the pain she had been in the day before was making her dizzy. The other students mumbling around them, pointing at the three of them, Peter exposing himself as Spiderman to everyone else.

Peter grabbed her before she fell on the ground, and the feeling of being weightless as someone carried her away.

Tony was in his office at NAF working on some last-minute things, but mostly he was worried about Riley and regretting the fact that he had approved the training exercise. The only reason he had come into the facility in the first place was to keep an eye on her, but he didn't want to be seen on the training grounds so he started on his paperwork. The barbeque was being set up by Pepper back at the house, and they all had to be back by four, so he had time to spare since he didn't want to look at the damage to the workshop yet.

Looking at the clock he wondered how long he could stay there without anyone noticing when there was a light knock on the door. Apparently if he thought about it then he knew that someone would notice at some point.

"Come in," he said trying to look busy at his desk instead of being an overly worried father.

The door slowly opened revealing the red hair on Wanda's head and a look of shock on her face. The first thing he thought was that something went wrong at the training, but he tried his best not to show it on his face.

"What can I help you with Wanda," he said hoping it came out as normal as he could possibly sound.

She walked in and closed the door behind her, he thought she was going to do something drastic for a moment, but knew better because she had really changed over the years. When she sat down in front of his desk he looked at her wondering why she was there in the first place.

"You should have told us," she said quietly, he had almost missed it.

"What do you mean Wanda?"

"The reasons why you tried so hard to help us all, the reasons why you worked so hard as Iron Man, the vision I had given you was one of your fears but not all of them," she said as she intertwined her fingers into one another. Every once and a while a small red spark came from her hand.

"You have to give me more than that Wanda I feel like your speaking in code," he said confused by what she was saying for a moment.

"Your daughter," she said finally looking into his eyes. "Her greatest fear, is watching you die right in front of her."

For a moment it felt like the air had been sucked out of his lungs, he couldn't think, he couldn't breathe.

"How did you find out?" he asked his voice barely above a whisper.

"She picked the purple flag, it was the indicator of who in her group would suffer the attack that they would have to work together to fight, except I learned more in that short amount of time than I should have," she stopped to breathe, as if the air was being slowly dragged out of the room. "She watched you get crushed in your armor, she screamed out for you, and before anything could happen it took her too."

Tony could feel his hands shaking, "Did you tell anyone?" he asked knowing that the answer could change so much so fast.

"No, it's not my secret to tell, but I wondered why you hid it," she said watching his face as if it would give her all of the answers.

"She's my kid, I wanted to protect her, so that she could have a normal life, and yet she still chose to become a part of mine."

Wanda ran her fingers through her hair for a moment and sighed. "I will keep this secret for you, since you've done so much for me," she said with a small smile. "You're a good father, that much I can see from how she worries about you."

"I tried my best," he said to her. For Wanda who had no family left to be the first to find out about Riley made him realize just how alone she would have been without the Avengers to help her, to be her family. "Wanda, if you want to you can join us for a family get together later today, just you because Riley will be there, but so will Vision and I know he'll be happier if you're there."

"That's very kind of you," she said with a smile before walking out of the room.

"Well I try," he said to her before she disappeared.