Abandoned- {Pietro Maximoff}

Before- Chapter 3

In the dining room, there was just Rhodey and Tony. As Chesney pushed the door open, not holding it for Alex who had to throw her hand out to catch it before it hit her, Rhodey looked up and immediately stood,

"I'm going to see if Sam has arrived. Nice seeing you, Alex."

Alex was confused. Tony looked pained. Chesney was the only one who seemed alright, pulling out the chair at the head of the table and sinking into it.

"Hey, Alex. You're opposite to me," Tony said, which meant Alex was also sat next to Chesney. The girl was looking at her intently, curled up on the chair but angled in a way that she could easily attack Alex. It was a Natasha way of thinking and Alex didn't want to be like that, not tonight so she sat down anyway and pulled her phone out, slightly wishing for a message from Pietro that she could use as an excuse to leave.

No such luck.

"So, Alex, now have you been?"

"You mean in the few weeks it's been since we last saw each other? Good."

"No issues with the mutants? Or Pietro?"

"No, it's been going well. Most of them have attitude problems but they're getting to understand we're wanting to help them now and we're having less and less incidents."

"Good," Tony knocked on the table, fidgeting in an anxious way rather than his normal restless way, "I need to tell you something."

"Go for it."

"I'm trying."

"Try better then," Chesney snapped and Tony turned on her immediately. Alex waited for him to get angry too, but instead he seemed to calm down. His fingers stopped fidgeting and his whole body seemed to sag as he looked at Alex,

"This is Chesney, also known as Viper."

"Replacing my role in the Avengers, she told me."

"Not your role. Mine. Rhodey does his best but he's got an actual job and Ces is a bit more prepared than he is for superhero stuff anyway."

"Ces? Did you steal my 'Les' nickname from Steve and just replace the first letter? Shame on you, Tony, I thought you prided yourself on being original," Alex was laughing but no one else was. Out of the corner of her eye, through the large glass window, she could see Sam and Rhodey stood together and watching what was happening.

"Actually, you would find that I've been Ces for longer. It's my initials, Chesney Edwina Stark."

"Chesney Edwina Stark?" Alex repeated, and upon realising what she meant, stood up. Tony also stood, reaching a hand out to Alex,

"It's okay, kid."

"You have a daughter?"

"I've always had you as my daughter, and now you know about Ces."

It was Clint's family all over again, and Alex put her hand over her mouth as though it could stop her from the half hyperventilating, half crying her body was trying to do.

"You...you—"

"I told you, you know now. I wanted you to be the first person to know but it didn't work out."

"How long have you known?" Alex managed to get out.

"I—"

"Twenty years," Chesney said.

"Twenty years?" Alex repeated as Natasha entered the room.

"Give or take a few months."

Alex shook her head in disbelief, anger easily replacing her sadness as she looked to Nat, "You knew, didn't you."

"Tony deserved to tell you. We only just found out."

"You lied about Clint too, you knew about him. What's next? Who else are we going to find out has a secret family? Do you have a sister, Nat, or a set of triplets."

"Alex—"

"Non è possible. No, ti importa solo di te stessa, traditrice. Con te ho chiuso, non posso crederci."

"English, Alex," Tony chided, "Whatever you're saying to Nat, you should say to the rest of us. This is a family dinner, we are a family."

"Tu non sei di famiglia, non sei mia amica," Alex spat, gesturing wildly with her amputated arm, "You want that in English for your tiny brains to understand? You are traitors, all of you, and you're not my family. I tried, I fucked up a few weeks ago but I wanted to try, I want us to be a family and you clearly do not. So no more. Meglio soli che male accompagnati. I am better off alone than with you people, you people I trusted only for you to lie to me, repeatedly."

|| Calm down, you fool. You must stay here ||

"Fuck off," Alex snapped, with her voice then with her fingers,

I'm sorry that updates will be infrequent, I work a fourty hour week with changing hours and life has decided to give me a lot to do