It's Not Over Yet

Ch. 8

Pepper was the only one to return to bed after both nightmares.  Tony and Peter stayed up in the living room watching Star Wars and eating popcorn.  Around 6am, Peter suggested they make Pepper breakfast and Tony agreed.  After all, she had been up with them both last night after they both had nightmares within minutes of each other.  Since Peter was better at cooking, Tony let him work at the stove while he chopped up peaches.  Peter made chocolate chip and regular pancakes then made eggs.  By the time Pepper walked into the kitchen, Tony had finished chopping the peaches and Peter had everything else prepared.

"What's this?"  Pepper asked after kissing Tony quickly.  Peter covered his eyes and Tony rolled his eyes.  Once he saw Peter had uncovered his eyes, he quickly kissed Pepper again and Peter squealed.

"Nasty!"  he said.  Pepper gave Tony a look and he grinned at her.  "We made you breakfast,"  Peter said, answering Pepper's question. 

"I can see that,"  Pepper replied.  "What's the occasion?"  She took a peach slice out of the bowl and Tony scowled at her.

"Because you were really nice to us last night after we had nightmares,"  Peter told her shyly.  Pepper smiled and thanked him.

"I helped too!"  Tony said.  Peter raised an eyebrow.  "I cut the peaches."

"Yeah,"  Peter snorted.  "And it took you the entire time it took me to cook both kinds of pancakes and the eggs."  Pepper laughed and Tony glared at her.

"Are we gonna eat or just bully me?"  Tony asked.  Peter grinned and grabbed a plate to fill with pancakes.

* * *

Later that afternoon, Pepper had to go to Stark Industries to finish up some work.  That left Tony and Peter alone in the penthouse.  It didn't take long for them to come up with something to do.  It wasn't fun like going to get donuts, though.  Instead, Tony suggested they go ask all the local authorities and funeral homes to see if any recognised May's photo.  It was possible she had fled town in a hurry, so they were going to go out and find her.  Peter found a good photo of her on his phone as they drove to the nearest police station then set it as his background so it would be easy to access.  He smiled down at the happy memory; his 16th birthday.  Tony had taken the photo of him and May before he blew out his cake candles.  It was actually the last photo he had of her. 

"Ready, kid?"  Tony asked, parking in front of the sheriff's office.  Peter nodded and they got out of the car.  When they walked inside, the receptionist greeted them.

"What can I do for you?"  she asked.

"I'd like to talk to the sheriff and any other officers in today that would have worked on cleaning up the city after the battle,"  Tony said.  The receptionist asked why and he explained they were looking for someone. 

"I'm sorry, we don't keep track of everyone that comes through,"  the receptionist said.  Peter stepped forward.

"Please,"  he begged.  "I just want to see if they recognise a photo of her."  The receptionist seemed skeptical, but let them back to talk to the officers.  None of them recognised May, though, and Tony and Peter were sent to another office.

"They played a bigger part in the cleanup and rescue,"  the sheriff told them.  Tony thanked him and they climbed back into the car.  They drove to multiple different police stations, a couple fire stations, multiple search and rescue centres, and even stopped by multiple morgues and funeral homes.  It wasn't until they showed the photo of May to a woman at the last search and rescue centre that someone recognised her.

"Yeah, I found her buried under some ruble,"  the woman said.  Peter's face lit up only to darken again when he realised that probably meant she was dead.  "She was alive, but barely.  I had her rushed to St. Margaret's Hospital on Third and that's all I know about her."  Tony thanked her and they were about to leave, but she stopped them.  "The hospital might not recognise her, but I have a photo of what she looked like when we found her.  We took photos of everyone without identification so family members could find them.  I'll print it off real quick."

"Thank you so much, ma'am!"  Peter said.  The woman smiled at Peter and walked over to the printer.  She waved the photo so it would dry quicker then handed it to Tony.  Tony took it from her, but refused to show Peter the photo.  May looked very injured and Tony wasn't sure he wanted Peter to see that.

"Good luck,"  the woman said, waving as they left.  Peter happily got into the car and Tony slipped the photo in the pocket on his door.  He pulled out of the search and rescue parking lot and drove towards St. Margaret's Hospital.  Peter jumped out of the car and couldn't keep the grin off his face as they walked into the hospital.  Tony explained to the receptionist that they were looking for someone search and rescue had brought in.

"Did they come in with a name?"  the receptionist asked.  Tony shook his head.

"It would have been a Jane Doe,"  he said.  "About 43.  Here's a photo."  He slid the photo over to the receptionist and sent Peter to the vending machine to get some chips.  The receptionist searched through the computer until she came across May's profile.  It was nearly two years old.

"I'm sorry,"  the receptionist said.  Peter came bouncing back over with a bag of Doritos.  He was grinning, but stopped when the receptionist gave him a sad smile.

"What?  Is she not on your computer?"  Peter asked.  The receptionist shook her head.

"She is,"  she said.  Peter frowned.  "I'm afraid she passed away on April 7 over a year ago.  Her injuries were too much and she didn't survive surgery."  Peter dropped his bag of Doritos and looked up at Tony.

"Can we go home?"  he whispered.  Tony nodded and cleaned up the mess of Doritos quickly.  He thanked the receptionist and guided Peter back out to the car.  It wasn't until they got back to the Tower and Pepper asked how things had gone that he started crying.