It took a few days for whatever was happening to be over, and your dad and Vision both returned home looking completely different.  Tony had been bruised and walked like every muscle in his body hurt, and Vision barely acknowledged you when he first saw you again.  That hurt more than anything, since the last time you saw him, you were sure that Wanda had killed him.  You thought maybe that's why she wasn't there with him when he came home, because he was too mad at her and didn't want to see her; you had no idea what was really going on with the team that was your family.

You were in your room on that evening when they returned, so your dad made his way there first thing once his bag of gear hit the floor.  When the gentle knock on the door came it made you jump slightly in reaction, even though you knew that he was home.  You had figured that he'd probably have FRIDAY send you downstairs like she usually did when he came back from a trip.

"Come in," you answered, sitting up straighter on your bed to wait.  When the door opened, rather than your smiling father moving to greet you, Tony stood in place, staring at you with eyes brimming with moisture. "Dad?  What's wrong?"

"Hey, kiddo.  I could, uh...I could really..." he stammered, shaking his head at his own ineptitude, "I could go for a hug, if you're up for it."

Without another word, you hopped down from your bed and ran across the room to him, all but throwing yourself into his arms with the tightest hug you could muster.  "You're okay, Daddy.  I've got you."

He held onto you for what felt like forever to your young mind, but you didn't mind; you had missed him so much, and you had no idea why he was gone in the first place.  Happy had kept you occupied during those days, but he could never assure you that your father was safe, and that Vision had made it out of the giant pit that Wanda slammed him into without permanent damage.  You hadn't been told anything, so to have your dad in your arms was beyond a relief that you had waited too long for.  When he finally pulled back from the embrace, his tears had still left a shine on his cheeks, but his eyes had dried of them and he seemed to be better already.

"I'd like us to go away for a little while," he smiled softly, "how does that sound?"

"Where?  Just you and me?"

"I'm thinking Florida.  We'll hit up Disney, Universal Studios, all of those standards, and wherever else you want."

"Dad, you didn't answer. Who's going with us?" you repeated, now skeptical and he knew it.

"Pep, of course. She'll officially be your mom pretty soon, so I know she wants to spend time with you too...and there's also someone I want you to meet.  I feel like the two of you are gonna get along really well.  He's got way more energy than I do, so when you wear me out, he can make sure that you can keep going."

"I've never met him, and he's going with us?"

"Well, I know him pretty well, if that helps.  You trust me, right?"

"Yeah, I do.  So, who is it?"

Tony stood and took your hand, his other taking his phone from his pocket to type out a quick message. "Okay, he should be here any second." The two of you waited there for a few minutes, silent and watching the door to open; when you were just about to give up, it finally moved, and the guest of honor made his appearance with a hand outstretched to you in greeting.

"Hey, (Y/N), I'm Peter. Peter Parker."

Your eyes shot open wide in realization, and your adrenaline began to surge at the idea of exactly who it was that you were taking with you.  This was going to be the greatest vacation ever.  "Oh my gosh, you're Spider-Man!"

"What?!" Peter gasped, pulling his hand back.  "How does she know that?  Did you tell her?"

"No, she's just very smart," Tony laughed openly, slapping a supportive hand on Pete's shoulder.  "That, and one of the sleeves of your suit is sticking out of your bag."

~~~

Standing on a curved platform that spiraled up a narrow entryway, you and Peter waited in line for your turn on the Incredible Hulk ride at Universal, listening to the story of Bruce Banner playing loudly on speakers from every direction.  Tony had tried to insist that you get special consideration and that you should be able to move to the front of the line, but you wouldn't have it.  You had spent enough years learning how to live the life of a Stark, in the public eye and in private schools, and all you wanted on this trip was to be a normal kid for as long as possible.

"Pete, what's Gamma radiation?"

"Um, well," he coughed nervously, "it's the most energetic radiation in the electromagnetic spectrum. It has the lowest wavelength and the highest frequency.  Gamma rays are sent out by radioactive nuclei.  Unlike alpha radiation and beta radiation, gamma rays aren't made up of particles, and they have no charge.  Gamma rays are the most energetic type of light that are strong enough to pierce through metal or concrete barriers."

"Oh," you nodded along, "okay."  You had learned a remarkable skill from your father, to give the best poker face when you didn't understand something, but also when not wanting the other person to keep talking about it.  Tony had to listen to pitch after pitch about new designs and projects that in no way interested him, and he had learned the skill early on as a way to get out of nearly any conversation.  "Thanks, Pete, that helps."

"Really?  It does?  You got that?"

"Totally."

"Wow, that's awesome," he mumbled to himself as he looked on in awe.  "Mr. Stark said that you're adopted, right?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Um, no...n-no reason," he stammered, "I mean...I just...you seem really...r-really smart, is all-"

"I can't be smart and adopted?"

"No!  Whaaat?" Pete almost shouted in panic, beads of sweat beginning to cross his brow.  "That's not what...w-what I-I meant..."

You began to laugh aloud and couldn't stop, leaving the poor guy to stand by and watch, his feelings undulating in a confused mess that knotted his gut as he waited to find out if he had actually hurt your feelings and if Mr. Stark would be killing him soon. You felt a little bad about it, but this line had been taking far too long to move and you needed something to do.

"I'm just messing with you, Pete," you finally said to let him off the hook.  "Dad was right, you arefun."

~~~

After a run through the Harry Potter park and a few too many butterbeers, the first day of your vacation was done and you had fallen asleep on the ride back to the hotel.  Tomorrow would bring your first of several days at Disney, with your dad promising that it would be just the two of you for the whole day.  You hadn't been able to spend much time with him lately, and a day alone was something that never happened anymore.  Peter was really fun to hang out with, and he was the best at going on rides, but you were sure that he could find ways to have fun on his own without you for one day.

The next thing that you remembered was waking up around 5am to the sounds of your new friend snoring from across the room.  Of course, with that many butterbeers working their way through you, it was lucky that you had woken up because your bladder was ready to burst.  Tiptoeing your way across your room, you stopped at the sound of voices coming from the other side of the door that joined your room to your dad's.  He and Pepper were trying to whisper about whatever it was they were discussing, but they weren't doing a very good job of it, so it was their own fault that you were able to overhear it all so easily.

"Maybe you should talk to him," Tony suggested, only to be met with a snicker of disbelief.

"Right, because what Vision needs is a woman's perspective on this."

"Well it's gotta be better than what I could say.  I'm barely able to not screw up an adult relationship here, so I know you agree. How do I tell an android what he's feeling and how to act around a girl when I'm lucky that you tolerate what I'm getting away with?"

"Tony, it's probably better that we just let the two of them figure this out on their own.  We don't even know if he wants advice in the first place."

"Hmm, maybe you're right..." he paused, letting out a sigh that was loud and clearly filled with frustration that he hated to carry, "I don't know, honey.  All I know is that he turned down this trip with (Y/N) because he's sneaking off around the world to see Wanda, and he doesn't seem to care if he gets caught.  He has to know that I know, right?"

"I would imagine so, yeah," Pepper agreed readily.  "Where else would he be going?  I'm sure that Cap knows Wanda is sneaking out to meet him too.  I've got to say, it's nice that the two of you aren't using this against each other."

"Yeah, that's growth, I suppose.  Don't get me wrong, it still pisses me off."

"Of course it does, honey. I would expect no less."

The conversation died out and you took a step back, quickly glancing over your shoulder to see that Peter was still soundly asleep so that he wouldn't be able to see the glistening of tears in your eyes even from so far away.  You had no idea if he had better sight than everyone else, but you figured as much when he had told you the story of his fight with Steve and Sam, and some new guy that was Steve's friend and that your dad really didn't like.

As you continued your way to the bathroom, all you could hear replaying in your mind was your dad's voice, saying that Vision had chosen Wanda over you.  He had promised you that you would always come first, and that he would always protect you from being hurt, but that was a lie.  All of it was a lie.  If he didn't want you to hurt, then why did it feel like your chest was being ripped apart with each new wave of tears and caught breaths?  You wanted JARVIS back now more than ever, and Wanda could have Vision all to herself because you didn't want him at all anymore.

~~~

When you returned home to the compound a week later, with bags full of souvenirs and no desire to eat another ice cream bar ever again, it became quickly obvious that everything would go back to life as usual.  You returned to school, as did Pete, and your dad was working on one thing or another at all hours of the day.  It was a reassuring and comfortable feeling to have everything this way after so many wrong things had happened with the team, and even having Vision home every now and again was starting to feel a little better.  You were still mad, but not as mad as you were during the trip.

After a long time had passed, and you had celebrated two more birthdays, it became clear that Steve, Sam, Nat, and Wanda were never coming back.  Your Uncle Clint hadn't been there anyway, but when he came to get Wanda on that terrible evening when they all fought, you realized that you missed having him there; he was always fun and like to play jokes on Steve.  It was the one time that your dad actually encouraged a little misbehaving.

On this day, Pete was supposed to come by to take you out for dinner, promising that he would use a few safely flung webs so long as Tony said it was okay to do.  He had a field trip to go on, to some art museum in the city, which always meant a souvenir for you, so you couldn't wait to see him once school had finished.  You ran to the compound from the bus at a record pace, throwing your backpack on the floor of your room without a care.  Hurrying to change into more casual clothes, you got ready and ran down to the main floor, watching and waiting for your friend to arrive.

But he never did.  The only person to come to the door that day was the one who always meant trouble, and that your world was about to be flipped upside down once again.

"(Y/N)," Happy greeted sorrowfully, kneeling down in front of you, "I'm so sorry to have to be the one to tell you this, but Tony is missing.  So is Pete.  There was an alien ship that came into the city and they followed it out of the atmosphere, so we can't track them.  We hope that they're okay, but we don't have a way to know."

"W-what?" you whispered, your voice barely audible.  "I don't understand..."

"All I know right now is that your Uncle Rhodey is going to take care of you until Vision and Wanda get here.  Tony made it very clear that if anything happened to him, you would go with Vision."

"What about Pepper?"

"She can't right now, sweetheart.  She's helping to find your dad, but she wanted me to tell you that she loves you and she's going to do everything she can to get him back home, okay?"

"Okay," you whimpered, not fighting your body when it collapsed into him for a hug just to keep you from hitting the ground when your muscles gave out.  "Uncle Happy, I don't want to lose another mom and dad.  That's not gonna happen, right?"

All Happy could do was silently suffer with the knowledge that you might have that loss again, not knowing what he could possibly say to make this any easier or hurt any less. Rather than risking that he might say the wrong thing, he simply held you tighter and promised Tony, wherever he was, that he could count on him to do his best for you until his last day.

None of you knew just how soon that might be.