To those of you who have been reading and reviewing, I cannot thank you enough. I have loved writing this story, and am sad to see it come to an end. But I hope you have enjoyed it.

Tony's Epilogue

Tony drummed his fingers on the table, firmly ignoring Pepper who was doing her best to hide her smile behind her menu. He tried to stare at his own menu...tried to focus, but he couldn't. Couldn't tear his eyes away from the girl on the other side of the room. It was the second gala he'd invited her to, but this time, there would be no poisonings...he'd made triple sure to have Happy check every single caterer that came into the building or worked at the company he'd hired. This gala wouldn't end in him being rushed out of the room on a gurney...or in the intern he'd started to think of as his own kid sobbing at his hospital bed.

But it may end up in the same intern getting just a little too close to a certain Osborn.

Thankfully, Rhodey and Sam had managed to take down the Vulture no problem. Once he was facing two superheroes who could also fly, he'd been a lot easier to capture. The girl had been on his sofa, dressed in dry clothes, a cup of hot chocolate in her hands while he'd been trying to figure out why her parachute had deployed before she'd even been falling, and why it hadn't been able to sense the fact that she would fall into it thus rendering it more dangerous than useful, when Sam had walked in, sporting a nasty looking cut on his face and a bloody lip.

"Are you okay?" Penny had asked, sitting up and nearly spilling her hot chocolate in her panic, but the man had just given her a tired grin, waving her off.

"I'm fine, kid. We got him. James has him cuffed in a holding cell downstairs, and I'm pretty sure he's gonna sing like the Vulture he is."

"Vultures don't sing...they can kind of scream and make this weird laughing noise. Actually, did you know that they're one of the only types of birds that…"

"Thanks for the lesson on birds, kid. I'm gonna get my face sewn up, but we'll continue this later I'm sure." Sam had grinned to show her that he wasn't really upset, ruffling her still-damp hair as he'd gone by. "You did good, Pen. We got him a lot earlier and with less danger to civilians this way."

And then he'd been gone, leaving an open-mouthed and faintly blushing Penny on the sofa watching him leave.

He was right. Penny had done well. Really well. She'd called for back-up when she'd needed it, something that had frankly surprised Tony. He got the feeling that the girl was used to doing things on her own. He was proud of her. In the weeks since, she'd been steadily improving during training, keeping her grades up, and patrolling several days a week after school. But she'd also gone on a date with Harry Osborn.

Tony didn't feel like it was his job to tell her who she could and couldn't date. He liked Harry, really. After capturing the Vulture, who had sang like the proverbial canary about Norman, they were working on building a case against the guy. He hoped that, after Norman's inevitable arrest, he'd finally be able to convince Mrs. Osborn to defect to Stark Industries. He'd also been looking into Harry's school records...the kid hadn't applied for an internship, but he was probably smart enough to have one.

If that wouldn't just rub it in Norman's smug little face...but that wasn't why he wanted to do it, he reminded himself. The kid had really helped them out...had tried to look after Penny as best he could, even if she'd ended up getting shot. Harry certainly wasn't responsible for what his father did.

But Tony still had his reservations. Maybe they weren't about Harry, he admitted to himself as, across the room, the boy joined Penny at the intern table. She sat between him and Jasika, and the three talked softly, laughing at something Harry said as he handed both Penny and Jasika a drink. They were kids. Not soldiers or superheroes or assets to his company. They were children. And Penny...Penny was like his kid. Not just in a superhero sense. He did feel responsible for Spidergirl, of course. He had from the start when he'd discovered the young woman vigilante...when he'd learned sign language for her and had given her an upgraded suit. He'd planned on mentoring her. Planned on taking her under his wing...at least, he had before he'd gotten caught up investigating Penny Parker and her family and teachers and anyone else she ever could have come in contact with to find out who was hurting her.

As it turned out, the criminals of New York had been the ones hurting her.

As his intern, she'd fit into his life startlingly well. Tony had never imagined himself as a father, but it was impossible not to now, especially since he was practically co-parenting the girl with May. And as Spidergirl, she was...well, part of the team. She slipped into his life and into his team and honestly, it seemed like everything she did only made his life better. Only made it fuller. After the Accords and their almost big fight, he'd worried about the Avengers...about the people he thought of as his family. But in the end, they'd managed to talk it out. Had managed to keep themselves together.

He couldn't directly thank Penny for that, but some part of him thought that having a kid around...having a new superhero to look out for and a kid around the tower that they all worried about, might have made the others more open to conversation...to keeping the Avengers a unit, no matter what it took.

At the other table, Harry had a hand under the table, and Tony just had to lean forward a little to see that he and Penny were holding hands. Harry and Penny...Harry and Tony's kid. It was a protective instinct he'd never had that made him want to get up and pull Harry aside. To warn him. To assure him that the Avengers would all be watching. And it was true. Thor and Natasha had their eye on the couple from across the room where they talked at the bar. Steve and Sam sat only a few tables away, and Sam kept throwing glances back at the kids. Bruce gave them a long look as he passed, a glass of wine in his hand. And Tony...he'd barely been able to tear his eyes away.

Penny seemed oblivious, but he doubted she actually was. The girl was never oblivious. She seemed to see everything...to hear everything. But she was good at pretending to be oblivious. It was a trait that Natasha had noticed first. One that she said would serve the girl well in their line of work. Tony had reminded her that she wasn't a spy...that Penny would never be a spy, but Natasha had only given him a sad smile.

He was surprised when the waitress blocked his view of the girl, making him jump a little, and Pepper smiled into her menu, hiding her face. He'd had the whole thing catered and menus printed primarily for his interns, figuring they would be hungry and wouldn't be able to fill up on finger foods. Everyone else seemed pleased with the changes too, so he figured this was what he'd do from now on.

After ordering his food, he went back to stealing glances at his kid, unable to help himself. Harry was sitting so close, and they were laughing at something he couldn't hear once more. Penny turned to her food before Harry did, and in that brief moment, he could see the boy's face as he stared at her. By all accounts, he was enamored with the girl, eyes always seeking her out, watching her...and Tony had to admit, his puppy love was cute.

But Penny was his kid and he had to protect his kid, no matter how ridiculous it sounded, especially considering the fact that she was not, in fact, his kid. She was May's kid. But...okay, she was his too. He gave up trying to rationalize it as Penny glanced up from her food and locked eyes with him. For a moment, he was worried that he'd been caught. That she'd caught him staring and was going to be upset. Instead, she gave him her usual smile, a hand lifted in a quick, almost guilty wave, and he had to chuckle, waving back before turning to Pepper as if that had been his plan all along.

His fiancee was smiling at him, eyebrows raised, and he rolled his eyes. "I worry, okay." He admitted. She laughed outright then.

"Oh, I know." She softened quickly. "It's sweet. All fathers worry about their kids."

"I'm not…" He started, but she just brushed his token protest away.

"You are. But it's a good thing. She needs as many people in her corner as she can get."

Tony thought about all the Avengers in the room who stole glances her way...who were all making sure that she was okay. Of the trainings she'd been invited to and the movie nights they'd started having as a team mostly because the others had stumbled upon them watching Star Wars once and had wanted to join. He thought of getting the alert from Karen and flying into the river to grab her, so afraid for a moment that he'd been too later...of feeling her cough in his arms, face twisting up to find him behind her own mask, and the relief of knowing he'd been in time.

She had the whole Avengers team in her corner. More importantly, she had Spidergirl, one of the toughest superheroes he'd ever met.

After dinner, the band played music, and Tony was the first to reach for Pepper's hand, pulling her onto the dance floor and placing a hand at the back of her waist, the other grasping hers. The lights dimmed a little, and several other couples joined them on the dance floor. Through the group of people, he could only catch glimpses of the intern table, which was suddenly empty. Furrowing his eyebrows, he looked around the room before Pepper gave an amused snort.

"Check your six," She instructed, turning them around so that he could see Penny and Harry across the dance floor, fairly close to Jasika and her dance partner, the four of them making their own space away from all the adults. "She's fine. They haven't snuck upstairs to be alone yet." She teased, laughing at his half-hearted glare. "Are you going to show her tonight?"

He hesitated. He wanted to. It had been a whim at first and had formed into a fully-fledged plan. But she was having a good time, and he still had his doubts. His fears. She was a good kid. The best kid. But she was, in fact, a kid. Was she ready? Was he?

The others had already agreed, albeit conditionally. There would continue to be training. Lots of it. Karen was programmed to always inform the closest Avenger if Penny needed help. She wouldn't be doing anything big alone. She would work closely with either Tony or Steve on serious missions, not that Tony was even sure about her going on those. But he hoped that there wouldn't be anything big, not for a while. And in the meantime, well...they'd had a vote. Tony had proposed it and Steve had agreed...and it had been unanimous.

She was in. If she wanted to be in, that is. First, he had to ask her.

Tony waited until she'd had a chance to dance with Harry who was her...boyfriend? He hadn't asked about labels and couldn't imagine himself doing so. He wasn't her father, that was for sure. Still...he wanted to know. He wanted to know what exactly her relationship was with Harry Osborn, the boy whose father they were doing their best to arrest. Tony shook the thought away, giving Pepper a quick kiss on the cheek before heading across the dance floor.

The girl wasn't dancing anymore. Practically no one was. Instead, she and the other interns had sat down, along with Harry, Penny with her hand on her chin as they all listened to Jasika tell a story he couldn't hear. He waited until she was finished before approaching, and Penny was the first to spot him, turning around in her seat to smile at him. "Hi, Mr. Stark."

The others followed with their own choruses of 'hello, Mr. Stark' and he smiled at all of them.

"Good evening. I hope you all had a good time." Once they had all assured them that they had, he continued. "Penny, I needed to talk to you about something. Think I could borrow you for a minute?"

"Oh...sure!" The girl hurried to stand, and Tony watched Harry watch her before the boy quickly turned his attention back to him. Tony forced his face into a neutrally friendly expression, trying to hide his suspicion of the boy. Suspicions that Harry was going to hurt Penny...either in the normal first boyfriend way or in a 'my father is a supervillain and I'm following in his footsteps' way. Either way, he pushed it all away and led Penny to the elevator.

"Having a good time?" He asked.

"Yeah, it's great...um...so did you find out anything new about Norman Osborn?"

He chuckled. This kid was relentless. She'd already asked him four times, and that was just in the last 24 hours. "Nope. Not yet, but don't worry, you'll be the…" He pretended to count on his fingers. "Tenth? Eleventh to know? Maybe twelfth."

She rolled her eyes, leaning against the elevator wall and crossing her arms.

He thought about asking then...thought about asking about Harry and what exactly he was to her. She looked so young. Too young to be on a team of superheroes. Too young to be going out on patrol every night in New York City and fighting criminals. But looks were deceiving, of course. She wasn't just a kid. She was Spidergirl. And he wanted Spidergirl on his team. They all did.

When they stepped into his lab, she gave a quick glance around before looking back at him. It was a marked difference from the first time she'd stepped into his lab, but she was comfortable in his lab. Felt at home there. And he was glad. He wanted Spidergirl to feel at home here. He wanted Penny Parker to feel at home here. And this was the next step.

"So…" Penny asked, prompting, and he smiled, leading her further into the lab. "You needed to talk to me?"

"More like...I needed to ask you something."

"Oh. Okay." He gestured to the wall and she stared at it, confused. "Something about...the wall?"

Tony snorted. "Not exactly." He pulled a remote out of his pocket and pressed a button, watching with her as the wall opened up, a compartment pushing itself forward until it revealed the suit. The words 'Iron Spider' were on the plaque beneath it, the four metal legs sticking up at an angle and pointing themselves at the two of them, and she stared at it, eyes wide, before turning back to him.

"Is...Mr. Stark, is that for...for me?"

He chuckled. "Nah. I thought I'd change my image a little. You don't mind sharing your branding, do you?" The looks she gave him was hesitantly amused, and he patted her shoulder. "Kidding, Spiderling. Two spiders on one team is enough." Her eyes widened at that and he went on. "I thought about calling a press conference, but I thought I'd better ask you first."

"Ask me…" She started, shaking her head.

"I knew from the beginning that I'd want Spidergirl on my team eventually...hell, I knew it from the moment I saw you on Youtube. But after meeting you...after finding out that Spidergirl was my intern and one of the best kids I've ever met…"

Penny was staring at him, eyes huge, mouth open, and he squeezed her shoulder, leaving his hand there.

"What do you think, kiddo? Want to be on the Avengers?"

"The...the Avenger?" She asked, her voice a whisper.

"Yeah, Pen. We voted, just to make it official, and the results were unanimous. We want you on our team. So what do you think?"

"I...you want...you want me...you all want me to be…"

He nodded, waiting for everything to click.

And then her arms were thrown around him, her face pressed against his chest, and he wrapped his arms around her as if it were instinct. As if his own father had ever shown him an ounce of affection. But it came so naturally, the way he wrapped his arms around her, one hand pressing against the back of her head. This was his kid and this was a superhero and he'd have to figure out how to live with both being true, just like May had. "Is this a yes?"

The girl's chin bobbed up and down, her nose pressed into his shirt.

"Good." He pulled away after a moment, hands on her shoulders. This girl was going to be the best of them. He just knew it. "Welcome to the Avengers, Spidergirl."

The End