"Grace..." Tony starts. He'd called her down from upstairs, asked her to sit on the couch. Calmly. Quietly. Pepper, who's standing next to Tony now, his arm around her, still hasn't spoken.

"What?" Grace asks, confused, worried. "What's going on with you guys? Are you okay?"

Pepper nods. "We're fine, honey."

"Then... what?"

Tony sighs. How does he put this? "Look, sweetheart... the thing is... you're gonna have to start competing for attention in this house. Real soon."

Pepper sighs in exasperation, and Grace's brows furrow, her head tilting a little. "Huh?"

"You're gonna have to start competing for attention," Tony repeats. "We really can only focus on one thing at a time, you know, and adorableness tends to trump everything, so..."

Grace thinks for a moment, squinting a little, then shakes her head. "Yeah, I still don't get it."

Pepper finally reaches down and grabs Grace's hand, sitting on her knees to look Grace in the eyes, and Grace, paranoid, tossing all logic out the window, thinks, This is it. They found out I'm talking to Peter's picture, and they think I'm crazy. They're gonna hire some sort of robot therapist so I don't have to risk talking to real people. Or something.

"Honey..." Pepper starts. There are a few tears in her eyes, and Grace can't tell if they're happy or sad. She's not sure if Pepper can either. She takes a deep breath and continues. "Honey, what your dad is trying to say is..."

Grace waits as she pauses again, worried and curious all at the same time. What in the world are they going to say to her that's this bad?

She looks up at her dad, who's crying too. But then he smiles a little. "Sweetheart... your mom and I are having a baby."

Everything stops.

The shock hits first as the world ceases turning, seemingly no sound reaching Grace's ears as she tries to process the information, her vision tunneled, though she's not focusing on her dad's face very much at all. Pepper is still holding her hand, but she barely registers it.

A baby?

She repeats the question out loud, in a whisper. "A baby?"

Pepper nods, her heart paralyzed by fear, worried that Grace is going to be upset. They never talked about this, not once, and in her fragile state right now... "Yeah, honey. A baby."

Grace looks at her, still in shock, though it's just starting to fade. "Do... Do you know if...?"

Pepper understands and shakes her head. "No. I'm not far along enough yet to know if it's a boy or a girl."

"We just found out yesterday," Tony says. "She's been feeling a little sick lately, so Friday did a scan and..."

"We've been trying to figure out the best way to tell you," Pepper continues. She looks back at Tony. "Clearly we should've talked about it more."

Grace, her shock beginning to turn into something else, something she hasn't really felt for months, chuckles at this. "I think it was perfect. It really sounded like Dad."

Tony and Pepper start to smile.

"So... you're happy with this?" Tony says, making sure. "You're totally okay? Because, I mean, we would've asked first, but this was all really unplanned-"

"I'm very happy with this," Grace replies, beginning to smile. "I'm..." She looks back at Pepper as if it all really just hit her. "A baby," she says, amazed. "You're really... You're really gonna have a baby."

Pepper nods, crying as she laughs. "Yes, Grace. I'm really going to have a baby."

She wraps Pepper in a hug, beginning to cry herself, and Tony leans down and hugs them both, this group hug much happier — and healthier — than the last one.

In the coming weeks, Grace throws herself into all this headfirst.

She starts doing research, mostly on the best foods for Pepper to eat at this point in her pregnancy and what exercises she should be doing and all that. Once Tony figures out she's researching too, they start doing it together, comparing notes, asking Friday all sorts of questions, making plans.

Grace even starts looking at cribs and furniture for the baby's nursery, which will be in the guest room they added partly for this purpose, just in case they ever decided to have a baby in a few years or so. Grace looks at the room, tries to figure out what would fit, what colors would go well together, what theme would work best.

Tony thinks it's a great idea to start thinking about it now, but Pepper laughs and says they're both being terribly premature. Still, Grace shows her possible themes every so often to get her opinion on them.

They begin to talk of a name too, though nothing seems to fit until Tony remembers his dream.

"I dreamt that we had a kid, and we named it Morgan, remember?" Tony says over dinner.

Pepper laughs. "So you really want to name our child after my 'eccentric uncle?'"

"Yeah." Tony shrugs. "And our dream kid, too. Come on, Pep. You gotta admit, it sounds right."

She relents. "You're right. It does."

They look at Grace, who smiles. "I think it's perfect."

They begin to eat again, and then Pepper asks, "Just out of curiosity, what was the gender of this dream baby of ours?"

"A boy," Tony replies, his mouth half full.

"I hope it's a girl," Grace says, "though I won't be mad if it's a boy."

"Well, I guess we'll find out in about two months' time," Pepper replies with a smile.

Through it all, Grace realizes she's been spending much less time in her room, trying to distract herself, as this baby is doing it all for her.

She's missing Peter less. It hurts less to see that picture in the kitchen. It's gradual, but she notices it. She starts to feel lighter, to smiles more. It still hurts, of course, but it's less frequent now, less strong.

One night, the first night she and her dad weren't up exchanging ideas and researching and just talking, she grabs that picture of Peter again, and goes out onto the porch. She sits down, she looks at him fondly, and she sighs.

"Hey, Pete. I know it's been a minute. Sorry about that..." She clears her throat, then continues, a smile starting to grow on her face. "Mom and Dad are, uh... Well, they're have a baby. Which means I'm getting a sibling... that's seventeen years younger than me. So that's fun.

"Point is, I'm really excited about it, and I honestly didn't think I could feel this happy about something again — at least, not for a while. But I do... and it's helping. A lot. And, to be honest, I'm not sure if this is even... healthy. So... I think this is goodbye. Sort of.

"I still promise to never forget you — and I never will. How could I? But I think that it's time I... start to heal, I guess. Maybe I can talk to some real people too." She laughs softly, then turns serious again. "I'll tell them about you, you know — the baby. Dad thinks he'll be a boy, but I'm hoping for a girl. Mom said she doesn't care what gender the baby is, because she'll love them either way, so it doesn't matter. And I guess it doesn't, but I think it would be cool to have a little sister... Their first name will be Morgan, but I don't know about the middle name yet. Mom and Dad haven't said anything to me." She pauses, sighs.

"So... this is goodbye — but, then again, it isn't. I... I love you, Peter Parker. Always."

She looks at the photo for a moment longer, tears in her eyes. Finally, she stands, then quietly heads back upstairs and places the picture on her nightstand before getting ready for bed.

The next morning, when walking through the kitchen, she stops and looks at the picture in the corner before going on her way, and her parents notice and count it as progress.

~~~~

Grace came to the doctor's appointment with them when they found out the gender of the baby, and she cried and laughed at Pepper teasing Tony about his inaccurate dream, while Tony didn't look at all upset that he was wrong.

The baby will be a girl, and knowing that has made Pepper relent on getting more serious about the nursery. Tony wants to make everything himself, right in the house, with Grace's help, even more than just painting it and making it pretty. But first they need to decide on what they want it to be.

Grace sketches some things out with Tony, then paints them to get an idea of what it would look like. They look at zoo animals, flowers, elephants specifically, royalty (as baby Morgan will be not a princess, but a queen of the whole house), and butterflies. None of them seem to fit as well as they would like, so they keep thinking, though Grace is also thinking about something else.

"Hey, have you guys thought of a middle name yet?" Grace asks over dinner, their prime conversation time.

Pepper looks at Tony, then back at Grace. "No, actually. We've talked about it a bit, but... we haven't fully committed to anything yet. Why?"

"Well, I was thinking..." she trails off.

Tony looks at her. "You got an idea?"

Grace nods. "Yeah..." She clears her throat, then says, "Lumina. It's, uh, it means 'light.' In Romanian."

Tony doesn't have to ask why Romanian, but he does ask, "Why 'light'?"

Grace shrugs a little. "She's just... She's been such a light to me, you know? Already. I... I was having trouble... with my... with my grief for... Peter. And she's already helped me so much that I..." She doesn't know how to finish her explanation, but her point gets across.

"It's beautiful," Pepper says, smiling, reaching across the table to take Grace's hand.

"Morgan Holly Lumina Stark," Tony says.

"Holly?" Grace asks, brows furrowed.

"Conversion of Howard into a girl's name. After your grandpa," Tony replies, then looking to Pepper for approval. She smiles widely, tears in her eyes, a frequent occurrence for all three of them with this baby on the way.

"I love it."

~~~~

The new middle name gives Tony an idea a few days later, and he hurries up to Grace's room and knocks on the door.

Inside, Grace is reading The Great Gatsby, something she hasn't done in a while, but the hurt is a bit stronger today, especially with Tony and Pepper going to a routine doctor's appointment that morning, leaving her by herself. But she smiles a little at the knock on her door. "Come in."

Tony opens the door excitedly. "Grace, I got it!" he says. "I know what the nursery theme should be."

She looks at him expectantly. "Well?"

He spreads his hands as if presenting something amazing. "Light."

Ideas start coming to Grace's head, unformed, but there nonetheless. "Light?"

Tony nods. "Yes. I was thinking of her middle name — well, the second one — and then I thought of this. Think light like- like morning. I'm thinking soft yellows-"

Grace is excited about all of this already. "I can paint a giant sun with a cute sleepy face on the far wall."

"Yes."

~~~~

Grace sits in the passenger seat, next to Happy, who's on the phone with the doctor, giving instructions with a raised voice. In the backseat, Pepper is screaming while clutching Tony's hand, and it's mostly incoherent though Tony somehow understands her perfectly. He tries to talk over her and calm her down, but it's not helping, especially seeing as he himself isn't calm at all. Grace doesn't even try to speak, because she knows she'll never be heard over all this noise.

At the hospital, she waits in a secluded waiting room with Happy, a book in her lap that she can hardly read for excitement and nervousness. It takes hours that feel like years, but then she's finally allowed in the room with her parents and baby sister.

Tony is holding Morgan when Grace walks in, and he's looking down at Morgan with one of the softest expressions Grace has ever seen. He looks up at her, beckons her over.

She looks down at Morgan, small and yet chubby, her little eyes closed. She's absolutely beautiful.

"You wanna hold her?" Tony whispers. Grace nods, and he hands the girl over, gently, making sure Grace supports her head. Pepper watches with smiles and tears.

"Get a picture," she says to Tony softly, and he does so, capturing Grace's watery eyes and bright smile.

"Hi," she whispers. "It's me. It's Grace. Your big sister. I can't wait for you to see your room; I painted it for you." She sways back and forth with the baby, gently. "Maybe I'll teach you to paint one day. And I'll help you with your homework. And I'll read you bedtime stories..."

Tony calls Rhodey, and then Nat, tells them the baby is here (he and Grace have been updating them since they first knew Pepper was pregnant, and Happy called them hours ago when they got to the hospital, but told them that Tony said to wait).

Nat arrives first, being closer to the hospital, and Happy is holding Morgan when she walks in. She looks to Grace first, sees her bright face. She noticed Grace's spirits lifting ever since they found out Pepper was pregnant, and it's so nice to see a wide, real smile on her face.

Nat gets to hold Morgan too, and then Rhodey does when he gets there. Everyone is quietly happy, and Pepper is telling Tony to take pictures, and trying to take pictures herself, and then Nat and Rhodey head out so that Pepper can sleep. Tony sends Happy to get something to eat while Grace holds Morgan again.

Tony looks down at the two of them, listens to Grace talking softly to her for a moment. Then, he says, "She is so lucky."

"Why?" Grace asks, still looking at Morgan.

Tony smiles. "Because she's got you for a big sister." He sits down next to her on the couch, smiles at his younger daughter. "Plus, I sort of know what I'm doing now; you were the guinea pig."

Grace laughs. "Yeah, in that case, she's really lucky."