I hope you like this chapter all of you! Sorry its late, I am out of town for Sukkot and I only have WiFi sometimes, please don't be mad at me. now lets find out who Kennedy's surprise is!

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Kennedy's POV

"Mom?" Is all I can manage to say through my daze. I glance at Pepper and Tony who are smiling widely.

"Kennedy, you're so grown up." She takes a step toward me, prompting me to step back.

"Get out." I demand, the other three faces change to expressions of surprise.

"What? Kennedy it's me." She steps forward again and I step back, bumping into the couch.

"Get out." I say louder, I can feel my face flushing with anger.

"Woah, relax Firecracker, What's going on?" Tony asks stepping in front of me and puts his hands on my shoulders.

"Why did you bring her here Tony?" I snap accusingly, my hands starting to tremble.

"Oh, I don't know, maybe I thought you might like to see your own mother after so many years alone." He defends himself.

"Yeah, of course I want to see her after all these years ALONE." I say sarcastically, "You don't understand." I shake my head, practically fuming.

"Alright, just take a deep breath you're gonna set off another attack." Tony tries to soothe.

"Can you excuse us for a minute Mrs. Grayson?" Feel free to wait in the lobby." I hear Pepper whisper to my mom, who nods and steps back to the elevator. "Then make us understand," Pepper comes closer, putting a hand on my arm, "Tell us what's wrong."

"Why would I possibly want to see that woman? She left us, she left when Jason was diagnosed. She didn't want to deal with us so she just left, went to the store one day and never came back." I rant, eyes watering from anger and raw emotion. Out of my eye I see Natasha quietly get up and leave the room.

"But that was years ago, she could have changed, she must regret leaving or she wouldn't be here, can't you at least give her a chance?" Tony argues, But I laugh as if it was some kind of cruel joke.

"If she regretted leaving then why didn't she come back when dad died? Why didn't she take custody of me when she found out i went to an orphanage? Why didn't she look for me when she heard I ran away? She doesn't care about me, or Jason, She doesn't deserve a second chance." All other emotions have faded from my mind, all that's left is anger

"But she's back now, she heard about Jason and found out about you and wants to have you back in her life." Pepper persuades.

"Tell me this, did she contact you, or did you contact her?"

"I found her and called her, invited her to come see you again. When I mentioned Jason she said she found out but couldn't get down here sooner." Tony explains.

"Really? It's been over a week since he died, do you think she couldn't have gotten here sooner? What a coincidence that when Tony Stark calls her she magically has the time to drop everything and come to New York." I raise an eyebrow at them as if to say 'you do the math' The two of them are silent for a minute, insure what to say.

"You could be right Kennedy, or she just had no way of knowing anything that happened to you until we called her. Tell you what, you give her a chance, talk to her, go out to lunch with her or something, and if you're still convinced that she doesn't care then we won't talk about it anymore. Sound fair Tony?" Pepper proposes, and Tony nods in agreement, they both look at me for approval. I think hard for a minute, every fiber of my body telling me to stay away from her, then hesitantly, slowly, I nod my head.

"Good girl. Should I tell her to come back up?" Tony asks, seeming satisfied. I swallow hard, my eyes fixed on the ground, and reluctantly nod again. Not a minute later, my mother had been summoned from the lobby and we're all standing face to face again. I stand in silence, a sick feeling in my stomach and anger still burning on my cheeks as Tony and Pepper talk to her. She doesn't seem very interested in me, considering she supposedly came back to meet me, and seems contented to be talking with Tony. After a few minutes of conversation, Tony says,

"Well don't let me get in your way, you must have a lot of questions for Kennedy."

"Oh, yes." She says, turning toward me like she had forgotten I was there. "You've gotten so big, you're a young woman now. The last time I saw you, you we're only about eight years old." She says smiling, and steps toward me, it takes every ounce of my self control to allow her to come closer.

"Yeah, well, that happens when you disappear from your children's lives for seven years." I say passive aggressively.

"I'm sorry Kennedy." She begins, putting on an expression of remorse that is not very convincing in my opinion. "I was scared, when I found out that Jason was sick, I didn't know what to do, so I left. I wish I didn't, I wish I got to watch you grow up, but I didn't think any of you would want to see me again, and now it's too late to watch you grow up huh?" I shake my head and try not to yell at her, I decide it's best to just stay quiet. She stands awkwardly for a few seconds waiting for a reply that won't come.

"Uh, well, how have you been all this time?" She asks uncomfortably.

"Oh, you know, as good as a girl can be when her dad dies and she grows up alone for five years." Pepper gives me a look, not at all pleased with my attitude. I sigh, and with some effort manage to mumble, "You wanna grab some lunch or something?" Tony hears me and jumps on the opening.

"Great idea Kennedy, you guys have a lot to catch up on, lunch would be perfect, here, I'll pay." He pulls out his pallet, handing me some cash, I give him a look that begs him to let me out of this, but he obviously won't so I take the cash and huff away. My mom thanks him happily before following me just as the elevator door closes. Once in the elevator I close my eyes, taking a deep breath and trying to maintain my composure. We get out to where her car is parked and I hesitantly get in. We start to drive and to my surprise she doesn't try to talk to me the whole drive, besides asking me if Happy burger is alright for lunch. I don't object to this and sit quietly, trying not to think about who I'm with. I wonder why she chose a greasy fast food place when Tony gave us enough for any fancy restaurant we could want. We get to Happy Burger and she asks me for the cash so she can pay, I comply and hand over the wad from my pocket. We order and she pays the twelve dollars then pockets the rest of the money. I watch the action in disgust, but not surprise. Now I see, she couldn't care less about getting to know me, she's just after Tony's money. We sit down and I struggle not to blow up at her. She pulls out her phone as we wait for our food, scrolling away, never once do her eyes leave the screen. When the food comes I eat in silence, until even I can't take it anymore.

"So, why are you here again?" I ask, breaking the silence. She looks up briefly and responds,

"I heard about Jason, and wanted to see you, you know that." Her voice contains much less emotion than I would expect from someone talking about their dead son.

"And, when's the funeral?" I ask with a bit more actual interest.

"Funeral?" She sets her phone down for the first time, looking like she has no clue what I'm talking about.

"Yeah, Jason's funeral, I assume that's one of the reasons you came, to plan the funeral." She pauses for a minute seeming not to know how to respond, I've tripped her up.

"Of course, the funeral, I'm getting it all worked out, it should be, um, in the next few days." I grumble at her quick excuse. As soon as we finish our food we get back in the car and another silent drive ensues. I jump out of the car the second we pull up to the tower, not wanting to spend another miserable second with that woman. I walk quickly but don't manage to get the elevator closed before she catches up, so I'm forced to ride up to the common room with her. I step onto the floor to make sure Tony and Pepper are there, they get up from the couch to greet us.

"How'd it go?" Pepper asks as Tony starts talking to my mom.

"Wonderful," I say sarcastically, "I'm going to my room." I jump back in the lift and as the door closes I hear my mother say something about the funeral, and how much money it will cost that che can't manage to pay. My blood boils when I realize what she's trying to do. Knowing Tony he will feel bad and offer to pay for it. I stomp onto my floor headed toward my room to go be angsty. On my way down the hall I see that Peter's door is open. I change courses and walk into his room, I need to rant. After a quick investigation I find Peter on his bed playing guitar, then I plop down on his couch.

"Uuu, nice to see you too." He greets, coming over to sit beside me, "What's with the mood?" I take a deep breath before starting.

"My mom is here." His brow furrows, and he ventures,

"Isn't that a good thing?" He lays down his guitar so he can fully pay attention.

"No! She's a terrible person! I just went to lunch with her and she hardly looked at me the entire time. And, we went to a cheap fast food place, and after paying she kept the rest of the money Tony gave us for lunch! And now she's down there telling Tony how she can't afford the cost of the funeral, and I bet when he offers to pay for it she will do the exact same thing she did at lunch!" I rant, letting out all the anger that has been building up since she arrived. Peter sits quietly thinking about what I said.

"And there's not even the tiniest part of you that's happy to see her?"

"No, I'd be happy if I never have to see her again, she doesn't care about me and she doesn't care about Jason, all she's after is Tony's money."

"Well, what are you gonna do about it?" He leans back against the couch crossing his legs underneath him.

"I guess I'm gonna tell Pepper and Tony and hope they beleive me." Peter nods in agreement. I glance around the room as I think, and for the first time since I came in I notice the guitar by peter's feet. "You play?" He looks up, snapping out of his thoughts, then looks down at the bright red acoustic on the floor.

"Some," He says smiling and picking up the instrument, "Uncle Ben taught me." He starts to strum a little tune that sounds peaceful and calming. I close my eyes as he plays and let the music relax me. After a minute or two he messes up on a chord and grumbles, trying to find his fingering again.

"Can I try?" I ask, holding a hand toward the guitar.

"Wait, you play?" his voice betrays no small amount of surprise.

"Yeah, I got a street musician to teach me in exchange for a computer I built." He looks impressed and hands over the instrument, now very interested to see what I can do. I run my hands over the strings, plucking them one by one and remembering what I had learned. I start to strum through the chords that I know, messing up a few times and having to fix my fingering.

"Do you know any songs?" Peter wonders as he listens to the chords.

"No, he taught me one but I don't remember how it goes." I tell him and he leans forward.

"Here can I-" He is cut off by the door opening farther and Pepper peaking in.

"Can I come in?" She asks, standing politely at the door.

"Of course, come on in." Peter permits.

"So Kennedy, how did lunch go?" She interrogates, sitting down beside me.

"I told you, it was wonderful. If you count, my mom basically stealing Tony's money, as wonderful." She raises an eyebrow, prompting me to continue, I don't hesitate to launch into the story.

". . .and I bet she's gonna do the same thing with the funeral." I finish, watching Pepper's face for a reaction. She looks thoughtful for a moment.

"Maybe she truly just doesn't have much money." Pepper offers optimistically.

"But she did ask Tony to help pay for it right?" Pepper nods in affirmation. "Then I predict that either, one, there will be no funeral and we'll never see her again. Or two, the funeral will be cheap and half hearted, and she will take the rest of the money for herself."

"I guess we will have to wait and see." She tells me, I nod, satisfied that I might just be able to see my mother leave my life once again.

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