Chapter 63: Moment of Rest

A/N: A family interlude before we get into the meat of Thor 2!

-x-X-x-

It wasn't often that they actually got a moment to themselves like this, to be a family. With how busy he and Pepper were these days; Tony could count the amount of times they'd just been able to sit on the couch and watch Morgan play like they were doing right now on one hand.

Their daughter, a little over a year old at this point, is sitting on the floor with her hands brushing against an interactive holographic interface. At her age, she probably should have had some toy blocks to stack on top of each other, or colorful shapes to fit into corresponding holes. But Morgan was the daughter of Tony and Pepper Stark. She wasn't exactly average by any stretch of the imagination.

She certainly liked this toy better than the one 'Uncle Thor' had gotten for her. But to be fair, the Princess Tiara that Thor had sent down from Asgard the moment that the Rainbow Bridge was repaired was made of solid gold and too heavy to sit on Morgan's brow just yet. Maybe one day she would wear it, but for now she'd simply patted it a couple times and then chosen to ignore the gemstone-encrusted golden tiara in exchange for returning her attention to the holographic interface.

The puzzle game that Tony had invented in his free time for her was rated for about five to seven years of age. It had over a thousand levels, and every couple of weeks he or JARVIS would add another hundred or so. Whichever of them could get around to it. Morgan, at a year and some change, was already through about two hundred of the damn things.

Still, Tony wasn't about to try and stifle her. It was obvious she'd inherited something from Tony and Pepper besides their brains and stellar personalities. It wasn't like he wanted to subject his newborn daughter to too many invasive scans, but considering she was the first baby born of parents who'd both had the ES3 and ES3+ treatments, he kind of had to do his due diligence to make sure Morgan wasn't going to fucking explode as she got older.

So far so good, but the rate at which she was mentally advancing was… well, it was telling. As was her increasing physical strength. Ultimately though, she was his baby girl. Tony would move the world for her, if he had to. And he knew Pepper would do the same too if it came down to it.

As they continue watching Morgan play, Pepper leans against his chest and whispers up to him.

"Natasha is expecting soon. Just another month or two left to go at this point."

Tony hums at that, even as he presses a kiss into his wife's hair.

"That's good. Her sister and the other former Widows are adjusting rather well to their new lives. Oksana and her group have taken in those who want to be taken in, and those who have shown the desire for it have been allowed to take some of the younger trainees as their daughters. Probably not going to be completely clean as they all get older, but damn if it isn't better than what Dreykov had in mind for them."

Pepper lets out a shuddering breath at that and Tony fully gets it. They're both still watching Morgan and it's… far too easy to put her in those poor girls' shoes. To imagine a world where it was their daughter taken, likely over their dead bodies, and raised to be a killer, trained to be an assassin and spy. Far too easy.

"His daughter? Antonia?"

"She's doing well. Helen's latest Regeneration Cradle brought her back to full health without a single ounce of scarring. Physically, at least. She's asked to be far away from not just Natasha, but everyone else who made it out of the Red Room as well. I'm doing my best to give her that, to give her the life she should have had. JARVIS is keeping an eye on her."

Pepper can't help but snicker a little at that. They both knew that JARVIS was keeping an eye on a lot of things. Speaking of which.

"How's Loki doing, by the way? Getting used to Earth?"

Tony grins at that and shakes his head before glancing up at the ceiling.

"Getting used to JARVIS, more like."

Here's where the AI interjects, though his voice only reaches Tony and Pepper's ears, leaving Morgan none the wiser as she continues playing on the floor a few feet away.

"Sir. Ma'am. Loki has been… adjusting to her new life quite well so far. She respects and fears me in equal measure, so I've been able to leverage that into getting her to look at things from different points of view."

Tony and Pepper exchange a look at that. On the one hand, JARVIS talking about Loki respecting and fearing him was probably a bit of a red flag. On the other hand, considering how JARVIS had originally felt about Loki after she'd tried to murder Tony twice back in New Mexico, this was actually a pretty big step down from his previous vitriol towards the Goddess of Mischief and Lies. Loki wasn't the only one getting used to things, it would seem.

"Well keep it up, J. You're doing spectacular."

"Of course, Sir. Yours, Ma'am's, and the little miss' protection are the most important things in the world to me. I will stop at nothing to keep you three safe."

Someone else might have been a little worried at their all-powerful AI saying something like that. Tony just smiles and relaxes further, knowing that JARVIS means every word and trusting him implicitly.

For a moment, he and Pepper just sit in companionable silence. Then, his darling wife breaks it again.

"Bruce is doing well too?"

Tony perks up a little bit at that.

"Oh yes. He and the Hulk are… well, they're on speaking terms now at least, which was more than they ever managed before. The trick will be to find more common ground between them then just Betty Ross of course, but I have faith that Bruce can do it. He's working hard on this and the Hulk seems to be tentatively on board with not having to fight to get out more. It's a win-win for the both of them really, they just have to figure that out."

"Mm. Still thinking about bringing Betty in at some point?"

That causes Tony to sigh.

"Think I'm going to have to, yeah. Bruce isn't going to do it himself, no matter how much progress he makes with the Hulk. They both love her, but Bruce is convinced that she hates him for her father's jail time and she's probably the one thing the Hulk is terrified of harming. So… yeah. When it's time, I'll reach out to her."

Pepper reaches out and grabs his hand at that, smiling beatifically.

"We'll reach out to her."

Of course, Tony can't help but give his beloved wife a look at that.

"… To hook her up with Bruce of course… right Pep?"

Pepper lets her smile widen for a moment… before dropping it and laughing quietly.

"Yes, Tony. I'm not going to try to draw Betty Ross into your ever-expanding harem. If it makes you feel any better, I'll pinky promise."

Not hesitating for even a second, Tony thrusts out one of his pinkies. Pepper gives him an incredulous look before grinning as she locks her pinky with his and they shake up and down on it. Only then does Tony snap back, his voice lower than before to make doubly sure Morgan doesn't overhear anything. She's still a toddler, but she's a superpowered toddler, so you never know.

"Last I checked it was your harem, Mrs. Stark. I think you just keep me around at this point for my equipment and my money."

Pepper huffs in amusement, before tactfully shifting the subject.

"Darcy has been doing quite well, by the way. I wasn't sure, but she's really fallen into her role. And she handling having the ES3 fairly well also. We were right to have a waiting period before giving it to her, but I think finally dosing her was the right call. In fact, I think one day I could see her taking a more important job within the company. As for Captain Carter… well, she's a handful if nothing else."

Tony grunts.

"She's keeping 'Agent Thirteen' at bay for the moment at least. Good lord, you'd think Fury wouldn't have thrown another woman at me after Natasha's 'death', but it seems to be the only play he has. Or rather, the play he thinks will work on me. Still, he had to have had suspicions about Natasha's true loyalties by the time she 'died'. The idea that Sharon is going to somehow do what Natasha Romanoff couldn't is…"

"Ridiculous?"

Pepper smirks as she finishes the sentence for him, sharing his sentiment. In fact…

"You're right though. I don't know if our new SHIELD Liaison is going to keep long enough for Project Insight to be finalized. How far away is that at this point?"

Tony hums, doing calculations in his head for a moment before shrugging.

"Another year or two, I think. The original Project Insight would have been finished in 2014, but they would have only built three without me messing around. Still, with the way things work these days, building six simultaneously instead of three isn't going to take that much longer, not really. Timewise, the only thing that happens is you double the chance for accidents and delays."

Pepper runs a hand along Tony's chest, right over where the Arc Reactor used to sit all those years ago.

"And they still don't have any clue what you're really doing."

She sounds both a little amazed and a little fearful for him at the same time. Tony doesn't blame her. He knows Pepper has absolute faith in him, but she also loves him with all her heart just as he loves her. It's only right that she would worry about him.

"Yep. They think they know, but they really haven't got a clue. I suppose it helps that things are ramping up. SHIELD has their hands full dealing with more weird and whacky bullshit then they ever did before. The Battle of New York was like… it was like an inflection event. Like Thor said… or rather, would have said. Messing around with the Tesseract, fighting off the Chitauri… it's drawing attention to our little mudball that otherwise didn't exist before."

Pepper hums for a moment, her eyes growing lidded as she nestles further into his chest. Tony almost thinks she's taking a nap, before she finally speaks again.

"Then we really do have to figure out what we're going to do with Sharon Carter in the short term, Tony. I don't really have any desire to seduce someone that reeks of this much desperation. If she gets too much more insistent…"

Pepper trails off as Tony nods his head in commiseration. Only to pause when she gives him an impish look.

"Might have to send her to the farm."

Tony sighs at that, giving Pepper an exasperated look.

"Right. Let's send a trained spy to live with Bucky Barnes and Steve Rogers on a two hundred acre farmstead. I'm sure that wouldn't blow up in our faces."

Pepper rolls her eyes in response though, not taking any of his shit.

"Just like sticking Captain America and Sergeant Barnes on the proper next to Clint Barton's wife and kids' homestead isn't going to blow up in our faces, right Tony?"

Wincing, Tony forces a grin onto his face. Pepper hadn't been impressed when she found out where he'd put Bucky and Steve. She agreed that the two needed to be moved of course, both for their own safety and to keep the world from finding out about them. It was frankly a minor miracle that Steve hadn't busted out of Stark Tower during the Battle of New York, compelled by his patriotic love for America to try and 'help'.

Fortunately, his love for, or rather his obsession with James Buchanan Barnes was even stronger. Still, Tony knew he'd been playing with fire by having Steve and Bucky in the bowels of Stark Tower during the invasion. If the Chitauri Attack had lasted any longer than Tony had let it, he would definitely have had to explain Steve Rogers' presence in the twenty-first century to some very irritated people.

Now though, Steve and Bucky were on a farm in Iowa, far away from danger. Except for the small fact that, like Pepper had said, Tony had purposefully set them up next door to Laura Barton.

"It's fine Pep. I have JARVIS monitoring the situation, and I'm keeping an eye on it myself. We didn't even have to modify Laura's communications with her husband like I'd thought might happen. She's correctly deduced that neither James nor Steven are there to hurt her or her family so she's leaving it alone for the time being."

Pepper hums.

"And what about when Clint Barton comes home to see his family? Do you think he's just going to leave it alone for the time being?"

Tony considers that for a moment. He considers everything he knows about Clint, everything Clint has been through, and also small details like the fact that he'd helped Natasha hide her survival from Clint… as well as harbored the alien goddess who had mind controlled Clint and put him through hell.

"… We may have to bring Clint on some things at some point in time, just to keep him from figuring out the other things. Letting him and his wife know about Peggy, Steve, and Bucky would be a great way to get him on-side without having to tell him about Natasha or Loki. Though I'm still holding out hope that Natasha will be willing to reach out to him herself once we've finally dealt with HYDRA."

Pepper hums at that, looking out to where Morgan is playing for a moment.

"It'll be strange once HYDRA is gone. They've been a shadow over our lives for so long."

Hugging his wife a little tighter, Tony grunts.

"Not much longer now. I won't let them threaten everything we've built together. Not even for a second. I'll obliterate them before I let that happen."

Despite the ominous nature of Tony's words, Pepper smiles and they fall into another companionable silence for a time, just luxuriating in each other's presence. Finally, it's Tony that speaks up after a while.

"All this about me and my scheming… how are you doing, recently? Anything new in the business world I should know about?"

The CEO of Stark Industries and undeniably the most powerful businesswoman in the world looks up at Tony with a grin.

"What, besides the fact that Stark Industries continues to dominate in every sector and I've made you the richest man in the world ten times over?"

Grinning right back at her, Tony chuckles and inclines his head.

"Yes Pep, besides all of that.

"Well… Justin is up to something."

That brings him up short, his brow furrowing.

"Justin… Justin Hammer? What's that little worm doing? If he thinks he can-!"

"Tony. Shhh, you don't have to worry about it. It's Justin Hammer. And I have JARVIS on my side. He and I are keeping an eye on Hammer's plans. We know what he's trying to do and honestly… it's more laughable than threatening. Maybe if he'd tried a few years ago, but he's too late now. Far too late."

Tony stares at his wife as she gives him a truly diabolical grin. Finally, he lets out a huff of laughter.

"I see I've created a monster. Then I suppose I'll let Justin walk himself right into the maw of my dragon, shall I?"

Purring as she leans against him, Pepper nods.

"That's exactly right, Mr. Stark. Leave it all to me."

"Very well, Mrs. Stark."

They barely have the time to smile lovingly at one another before JARVIS' quiet voice is suddenly in their ears again.

"Forgive the intrusion Sir, Ma'am. But… it's happening Sir."

Tony blinks and slowly straightens up.

"Oh?"

"Yes Sir. The Convergence has officially begun."

Pepper sits up too at that, knowing exactly what that means. Even Morgan looks up from her puzzles, those big bright intelligent eyes of hers going to her mommy and daddy and sticking there.

Tony spends the next ten minutes saying his goodbyes to his wife and daughter, all while monitoring the developing situation through JARVIS and his technopathy. Thankfully, he's had JARVIS on the lookout for this particular shitshow for over a year now, just waiting for it to start. So nobody else is even ready for it. Even Erik Selvig isn't on the scene yet.

Which is perfect. Tony can get there first. And finally snag one of the primary pieces in his plan to wipe Thanos' ugly mug off of the face of this universe once and for all.

-x-X-x-

A/N: Yes, Tony is going after the Aether. Yes, this will change some things. Fufufu~.