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Peter should have known there would be tracking in his suit, and what's more than that, he should have known that the Tony Stark, wouldn't give him a million dollar suit without conditions. To be fair, blowing up the Washington Monument in DC might have been pushing the limits of those conditions (or of any reasonable conditions), even if he hadn't known what said conditions were.
Peter's in a lot of trouble, he knows he is. He doesn't need Mr. Stark to call and yell at him to know that, though that's what he'd done. He can still hear the man's disappointment ringing through his ears even as he's standing in front of another person that's telling him off now. "I am seriously starting to regret taking a fourteen year old to Germany right now!" "Fifteen. I'm fifteen Mr. Stark." "You were fourteen when you went to Germany! Look… just stay put, I'm coming to get you."
"Peter, are you listening to me? This is serious."
His eyes come up to meet Mr. Harrington's. He's separated from the rest of the AcaDec team by about thirty feet, but they're all watching him get lectured anyway. It's only been a couple hours since the incident at the Washington Monument, and everyone that was there still feels harried by the experience, even Peter. "I'm listening, sir."
Mr. Harrington lets out a frustrated breath and then runs his hands through his hair. "You skipped the competition, and the tour of the monument after." He pauses here, eyes raking Peter up and down and taking in his slightly messed up hair and split lip. "I'm glad you weren't there at the monument," he says seriously, "though I'm not sure that where you were, wherever that was, was any better. I know you weren't at the hotel all night last night either."
"No sir." Peter doesn't deny it. There's no point. He'll probably get kicked out of school for this. The Academic Decathlon team holds a special sort position at Midtown. You can't be on the team if you're not part of the honors society, and since everyone there is part of the honors society, members are considered more mature and responsible than regular students, and are usually given more leeway and freedom at school and on field trips. Peter hasn't been on any honor society field trips yet, but there are supposed to be two a year, plus all the field trips that AcaDec gets to go on for competitions. He thinks now that he might have lost it all… not just his spot on the AcaDec team, but his spot at Midtown as well. Midtown has a low tolerance for student misconduct.
Mr. Harrington sighs again. "I've contacted your aunt, and I've also been notified by the school that someone is coming to get you." He gives Peter a sorry look for a moment. "I'm responsible for you, and while I knew that before, it was really driven home today after what happened with everyone at the monument. I'm sorry, but you can't finish out this trip."
Peter nods, looking down. His cheeks are red and he feels embarrassed. He's Spider Man, but he let his team down, and he let Mr. Stark down, and he almost, almost lost his one and only friend at the monument today.
"You're to stay at the hotel with Mr. Greene until your ride gets here."
"Yes, sir."
Mr. Harrington gives Peter one more wary look before his face softens. He can see that Peter feels bad. Mr. Harrington leaves, heading to the bus with the other kids. The group is going to get lunch and catch a play. Tomorrow they're supposed to go to two museums and have a picnic lunch at a park before heading back to New York. Peter won't be a part of any of it.
"Parker, come on, inside," Mr. Greene says. He looks disappointed in Peter too, though he doesn't sound it. He's the PE teacher and he doesn't normally care if students slack off or not, even on field trips like this one where he'd been wrangled into helping supervise.
"Where'd you go?" Mr. Greene asks.
"Just- around," Peter mumbles.
Mr. Greene nods, and they go to wait in the hotel lobby. The man has already ordered lunch and they're just waiting for the delivery. Peter doesn't know when Mr. Stark will get there, but thinks it can't be too long. He wonders if he's bringing the suit, flying it down from New York just to yell at Peter again before he takes him home so May can yell at him too.
* * *
When Tony calls him, it's usually with the words, "Wanna fly to Vegas this weekend platypus?" or "Hey Honeybear, it's been two weeks, are you still mad at me for that little snafu with the ducks?" ("Sending a box of baby ducks to my apartment is not a snafu Tony, it's a hassle. I had to take them to the animal shelter and then explain to them why I had a box with two dozen baby ducks in the first place.")
Rhodey is used to getting both ridiculous and mundane calls like this from his best friend. Unfortunately he's also used to getting life (or world) threatening emergency calls on occasion from Tony and Pepper both. So when he sees Tony's number calling him, and Tony starts off the conversation with, "I have an emergency," Rhodey goes on full alert. It's not so much the words he'd said, but the tone he'd said them in. Once Tony had called him with, "All the coffee is gone, this is an emergency Rhodes." This isn't like that. Tony's voice is serious… upset even. A chill goes down Rhodey's spine. Maybe the Rogues are back, or something happened to Pepper.
"What do you need?" He's been on medical leave with the military for the last five months since Germany, trying to get used to the leg braces Tony made for him. He hasn't been into the new War Machine suit that Tony built for him yet, but if Tony needs him, he'll don the suit, ready to do so or not. He'll do anything for his best friend who is more like a little brother.
"This is important, Rhodey. I need you to pick up Peter Parker and bring him to the tower as soon as possible. He's in DC at the Greenway Motel."
"I'm on it. Who is this guy?"
"It's better if you don't ask any questions."
"I'll have him there." He wants to ask what's wrong, but Tony has already hung up on him. He stares at the phone for a moment, and then goes to grab his coat and car keys. Tony doesn't need War Machine, he just needs Rhodey to drive this guy, whoever he is, up to DC. He can do that, he thinks.
He worries about Tony and goes over possibilities for what's going on in his head all the way to the motel. He's expecting to find a scientist, or some kind of superhero vigilante waiting for him. Instead he rolls up and finds a 15 year old kid that looks eerily similar to Tony sitting out front with an older man. This can't be who he's here for. Maybe it's the older guy he's supposed to pick up.
Rhodey parks and walks over to them. "Peter Parker?"
They both look up, but it's the kid who stands up and pulls his backpack strap over one shoulder. "Uh… hi Mr. Colonel Rhodes sir."
The older man with him stands up and gives Rhodey a wary look. "The school said a James Rhodes was coming for him when they called. I didn't think it was going to be War Machine showing up."
"Mm," Rhodey agrees. He's confused, but he doesn't let it show on his face. Tony wanted him to grab Peter Parker and drive him up to the tower, and that's what he's going to do, confused or not.
"Let's go," Rhodey says, and the teenager follows him without a word. Rhodey's mind is spinning. Who is this kid?
As they climb into his truck, Rhodey eyes Peter discreetly. This isn't a kid that looks a little like Tony, he looks just like him when Tony was a teenager and Rhodey first met him at MIT. From his hair to the shape of his face, it's almost like he's staring at the Tony Stark he'd known all those years ago.
He opens his mouth to ask, but Tony had told him not to ask questions. He doubts he'll get any answers from his best friend though, so he decides to ask Peter some subtle questions anyway.
They pull out of the motel parking lot and head towards the highway. Rhodey gives it a minute, glancing over at the teenager beside him again. The boy looks equal measures nervous and bummed out.
"So how do you know Tony?"
"Uhh… I'm not supposed to tell anyone." Peter fidgets for a moment, it's not just that he's not supposed to tell anyone that he's Spider Man that makes him not want to tell him. It's the tone of disappointment Mr. Stark had had on the phone… like he was embarrassed to even know Peter.
Not supposed to tell anyone huh, Rhodey thinks to himself. He doesn't want to think it about his best friend, but that sounds an awful lot like something one might say to their secret son that they didn't want anyone to know about. As Rhodey drives, he allows himself to go down the rabbit hole of that implication for a few minutes. If Peter is Tony's son, he wonders if Pepper knows… if it's a secret from literally everyone, or only from Rhodey. He can't imagine Tony not calling him and telling him right away the moment he found out he was going to be a dad, but maybe that's exactly what happened. Somehow, somewhere along the way, Rhodey had been cut out of the loop on his best friend's life.
They pull up to a red light and Rhodey looks at Peter again. Peter's hair looks just like Tony's back before Tony was spending 45 minutes every morning styling it and trying to make it straight. It's wavy and almost the same shade of brown. His profile is similar too… the shape of his nose, his jaw… even the color of Peter's eyes.
By the time the light turns green and Rhodey pulls away, he's already classified Peter as Tony's secret son. He wants to ask Peter all sorts of questions about it, like who his mom is, and how long he and Tony have known each other, and how often Tony comes down to DC to see him. But if Peter isn't supposed to tell anyone about his dad, then Rhodey doesn't want to make him clam up and stop talking altogether. He'll have to be discreet in his questioning.
"So when was the last time you saw your d-" he coughs to cover up his near mistake. "Tony," he finishes a moment later.
Peter glances over at him, seeming just a little less nervous than he was before. "Five months."
"That's a long time," Rhodey comments. He knows Tony has been busy, and recovering from the whole fiasco in Germany and then Siberia, but still… five months without seeing his son? Oof.
"I'm kind of surprised he didn't send a plane for you," Rhodey says. Tony has not one, but three private jets he could have sent to fly Peter to New York.
"Me too," Peter huffs, and then sinks down a little in his seat, still clutching his backpack to himself and staring out the window.
"So is this a scheduled thing or-"
Peter looks over at him, brow raised like he's not sure what Rhodey is talking about.
"I was just wondering why he needed you at the tower today. He made it sound pretty urgent when he called me on the phone earlier."
Peter reaches up and runs both hands down his face. "Pretty sure I got kicked out of school today." Peter's not really sure what else to tell him, and despite that Mr. Stark had been angry with him on the phone about Spider Man, and sent someone to come get him, all Peter can think about is school.
Rhodey stares at him for just a moment before having to return his eyes to the highway. Kicked out of school? That sounds exactly like the kind of trouble Tony's son would get himself into. "What happened?"
"I was supposed to be at an Academic Decathlon competition… nationals. I skipped and- there was other stuff. It's kind of a mess. I'm pretty sure I'm going to be grounded until I'm thirty," Peter groans.
Peter looks like he's having a rough day, so Rhodey decides not to press him about getting kicked out of school. Instead he says, "Academic Decathlon… you have to be pretty smart to be part of that, right?"
"Yeah," Peter says, voice and posture defeated. "I go to a really good school. Our team doesn't make it to nationals every year, but pretty often. Or… I did go to a good school before today."
If there was any doubt left in Rhodey's mind that this is Tony's son, it's gone now. Peter is checking off all the boxes of what Rhodey thinks any kid of Tony's would be like. The two look alike, Peter is highly intelligent, a trouble maker apparently, and seems to go to a good school. Knowing Tony, he's probably paying an arm and a leg for some fancy private school in DC where Peter lives with his mom. The kid's mom must be out of town right now or something for Tony to send Rhodey to bring him straight to New York. Peter has a New York accent, so he must have lived there before moving to DC. Rhodey thinks it's possible that the move is a recent thing, and that Tony has been seeing his son in secret for the last several years.
Tony and Pepper's move to Manhattan from Malibu had always seemed sudden to Rhodey. He knows how much Tony loves the sun and the sand and the lifestyle of living on the coast of California. Tony has traveled extensively, but he always returns to California. Rhodey had expected him to stay in New York for a year at most before moving back, but it's been over three years now. Now Rhodey knows why he never moved back. He wonders if a move to DC will be in Tony's near future.
They stop off for food and gas, and then again for a bathroom break and snacks. Peter might be in trouble right now, and Tony might have kept him a secret, but the cat is out of the bag, and Rhodey needs to get a head start on being Peter's favorite uncle. He thinks it's likely that Happy already knows about Peter, and is pissed that Tony didn't give him a heads up a long time ago so that he could at least have his foot in the door. He buys Peter a bag of gummy worms, a can of soda, and a big bag of doritos. He's got birthdays and Christmases to make up for, but this is the best he can do on such short notice.
He cringes when Peter says, "Thanks, Colonel Rhodes Sir." He wants to tell him to call him Uncle Rhodey, but doesn't want to make things awkward. He'll have to talk to Tony about it later. He wonders if Peter even knows that Rhodey is Tony's best friend… if Tony has talked to Peter about him at all.
Suddenly, with the discovery of Tony's teenage son, Rhodey is calling their entire friendship into question. They'd been closer than this, he had been positive. Sure, he'd been away a lot with the military, but whenever Tony needed help, Rhodey had always been there. There had been the small matter of Rhodey taking one of Tony's suits in Malibu, but Tony had revealed to him later that his DNA had been coded into all of Tony's early suits, that his DNA was the only other DNA aside from Tony's that could access them, and that if Tony had wanted to stop him from taking the suit he could have with a quick command to JARVIS. Tony had let him take it. Once he'd told Rhodey that, he'd thought that was the end of the argument. Now he's not so sure. He's not sure about anything anymore.
He grips the steering wheel tightly, trying to wrap his head around it all again. He hadn't woken up that morning expecting to have a mini crisis and start questioning the existence of his most meaningful friendship, but he's having one now regardless.
In the seat beside him, Peter stares out the window, having a crisis of his own, worried about how he'll see his only friend when he has to transfer schools.
* * *
When they arrive in the parking garage under Stark Tower four hours later, FRIDAY informs them that Tony is expecting them in the penthouse.
Peter starts to look nervous again, wringing the strap of his backpack over his shoulder with both hands. They get into the elevator silently and Peter leans against the elevator wall, slumped forward a little like he's expecting to get yelled at.
Rhodey can't imagine that Tony would yell at his son, not after how Howard had treated Tony for all those years. Rhodey knows Tony… knows he can be immature and difficult to deal with sometimes, but beyond that he's loyal, and caring, and good. At the heart of it all, even if he was none of those other things, he's still good. Rhodey has always thought that Tony would make a great father if he ever decided to have kids. Peter is in trouble right now… may in fact be grounded until he's thirty, like he'd said, but Rhodey is still looking forward to seeing his best friend in action as a father. Or, the man he hopes is still his best friend.
It takes them several minutes to ride up through the tower to the 93rd floor. Peter seems to grow more and more nervous the longer they're in the elevator.
"Hey, can't be that bad," Rhodey says, trying to help calm Peter's nerves.
"Pretty sure it is," Peter mumbles, and when he looks up, he looks pained. Rhodey is struck again by just how similar Peter's face is to Tony's. He's seen Tony make a nearly identical expression dozens of times.
When the elevator doors slide open to reveal the penthouse, Tony comes around the corner from the kitchen to greet them. His eyes sweep over Peter from head to toe, though instead of greeting Peter, he greets his best friend. "Rhodey."
"Hey, Tones."
The three of them stand there awkwardly for a few moments, and then Tony says to Peter, voice tight, "Where are you hurt?" When Peter just stares at him, open mouthed, Tony points at Peter's split lip. "The split lip is what I can see. What can't I see?"
"I'm fine."
"Uh huh."
"Really."
Tony stares at him, willing to wait him out. Rhodey is fascinated. He's never seen Tony in this type of role before. In college it had been Rhodey trying to get Tony to admit to being hurt after getting beat up by the senior down the hall in the dorms or after various trips home to see his parents.
Peter groans. "Just a few scrapes and bruises, it's nothing big, I promise. No broken bones."
Rhodey looks at Peter again, this time doing like Tony and trying to assess if Peter is hurt. He'd wondered about the split lip as they'd driven to New York, but he hadn't asked, thinking that Peter probably wouldn't tell him. He wonders now if Peter is getting bullied, or if he got into a fight at school and if that's part of the reason he was kicked out.
"No broken bones?" Tony asks, just to be sure.
Peter shakes his head, backpack still slung over one shoulder.
"You better tell me now Roo so I can take you to the med bay."
"There's nothing, I promise."
Tony presses his lips together, but finally seems satisfied that Peter is telling the truth. "Good, because after what I saw on TV this morning I was positive that you had died. For the record, giving Iron Man a heart attack is not good for the world kid, or for me."
"I'm sorry, ok, I-"
"You're sorry? What part are you sorry for?" Tony's voice is slowly rising, and Rhodey shifts, uncomfortable. "Are you sorry for messing with a million dollar piece of equipment? Or how about lying to Happy and telling him you're on a field trip when you're really hitchhiking fifty miles west to break into a warehouse?"
"That's not-"
"Or maybe-" Tony's voice has continued rising through his tirade, and is now loud enough that Rhodey thinks he should step in and say something. Tony's not quite yelling, but he's almost there.
"This is kind of your fault for giving me the suit in the first place," Peter blurts out in a rush, interrupting him.
It's that statement that pushes Tony over the edge. "Excuse me? What did you just say to me?" He points at Peter. He's finally yelling.
Rhodey doesn't know what to do or say. He thinks about all the times he asked Tony if he could go home with him over holidays in college, just so that he could give Tony's father a piece of his mind. This isn't Howard in front of him though, it's Tony. Rhodey doesn't want to give him a piece of his mind, he just wants his friend to calm down a little.
"Hey, don't yell at my nephew, man," is what he ends up saying. Rhodey doesn't want to see his friend so angry that he's yelling at his son. Whatever happened with Peter's school, he still seems like a good kid. He's Tony's kid, so he has to be a good kid. Rhodey knows it.
Tony pauses, and then turns to Rhodey. "Really? You spend a few hours driving him up here and he's your nephew now?"
Peter doesn't hesitate. He gestures at Rhodey and says, "See, uncle Rhodes doesn't think it's that big a deal!"
Tony turns back to Peter, points at him and says, "Uh uh, nope. Don't do that. Close your mouth Roo or I'm calling May."
"Don't call May," Peter says, taking half a step forward, voice frantic. He holds up his hands again like he's trying to stop Tony. May must be Peter's mom.
Tony ignores Peter and turns back to Rhodey.
"I'm just saying, you shouldn't yell at him," Rhodey says. "I don't know what all he did, but it can't be that bad compared to the trouble you used to get into. I don't want to see you yelling at your son, Tones."
Tony opens his mouth to say something, a rebuttal ready, but no words come out and his mouth just hangs open. Peter turns to look at Rhodey, confused. Rhodey's eyes flit from father to son. Same expression. There's no question that this is Tony's kid.
"I'm sorry, are you drunk?" Tony asks, incredulous. "Did you drive a minor across state lines while inebriated? Which one of us is supposed to be the responsible one here?"
Rhodey huffs. "I'm not drunk."
Tony shakes his head and gives Rhodey a look like he's crazy as he points to Peter off to his side. "You just called him my son, and you called him your nephew. I'm pretty sure that you're drunk or that you've finally lost your mind. Have the Accords meetings really been that stressful?"
Rhodey crosses his arms and pulls his shoulders back. "Tones, enough already man, your secret is out. I know you have a secret son that you never told me about. I thought we were closer than this."
"Uh… Mr. Stark?" Peter asks.
Tony flashes Peter a worried look, like Rhodey has really lost it, but then looks back at Rhodey. "Ok, number one, if I had a son, secret or otherwise, you'd be the first to know. Number two, and I can't believe I have to reiterate this yet again, I don't have a son."
Rhodey lets his arms drop, scrutinizes Tony's face, and then scrutinizes Peter's confused expression.
"He called me uncle," Rhodey says, suddenly not so confident that he knows what's going on.
"He's a little shit," Tony says, standing up straight, satisfied that he's finally gotten through to his best friend.
Rhodey holds up a hand. "Ok, so let me get this straight." He points at Peter. "This is not your son."
"Not my son," Tony confirms, and Peter nods in agreement.
"Then why was it so urgent that I drive him up here today and why did you not want me to ask questions? I thought it was because he was your kid and he just got kicked out of school and-"
Tony cuts Rhodey off with a loud proclamation of, "You did what?" and spins on Peter.
"Ok," Peter says, followed by a nervous laugh. He starts backing up towards the elevator. "I gotta go Mr. Stark. Aunt May must be waiting for me. The school called her and I'm sure she's probably been calling my cell phone which was destroyed in the-"
"You did not get kicked out of school," Tony says.
"Maybe you're right. Maybe I didn't. Ok, see you Mr. Stark!"
"FRI, lock down the penthouse, no one in or out."
FRIDAY chirps to let him know she's done what she was told, and Peter freezes.
"Aw, come on Mr. Stark!"
"Correct me if I'm wrong, but you were there on a scholarship, weren't you? Your aunt had to beg the board at Midtown to let you in because your test scores and IQ were so high, but she couldn't afford it and they'd already filled all of their scholarship spots for the year?"
"Wait, how did you know about-"
"So what did you do to get kicked out kid? Aside from nearly blow up the Washington Monument and hack a million dollar suit and do everything the opposite of what I told you to do." He makes a 'gimme' motion with one hand towards Peter. "Lay it on me."
Peter looks like he's holding his breath. He lets it out and lets his shoulder's slump forward.
When Peter doesn't answer, Rhodey says, "I actually know the answer to this one this time. He didn't make his Academic Decathlon meet. What I don't know is what you mean by almost blowing up the monument, or hacking a million dollar suit."
Tony glares at Peter and points at him. "We're gonna talk about you skipping Decathlon in a minute after I get yelled at by Colonel Honey Bear. This- me getting yelled at," Tony says to Peter, motioning to Rhodey, "your fault." Rhodey is about to object when Tony says, "Introduce yourself kid."
Peter looks up meekly and says in a quiet voice, holding out his hand towards Rhodey to shake, "Hi, I'm Spider Man."
Now the comment about the monument makes sense, along with hacking a million dollar suit. What Rhodey can't make sense of is the fact that Tony took a literal child to Germany to fight Captain America and the Rogues. He wonders if Peter's mother, or aunt, or whoever, knows that Peter is Spider Man and what all that entails. He can't imagine not knowing that about your own kid.
He reaches up and rubs his face, hard, and says, "Tones-"
Tony throws up a hand. "Great," he mutters. "Disappointment. Way worse than yelling."
"I know," Peter murmurs quietly, but they both catch it.
The penthouse is locked down, so Peter has nowhere to escape to while Rhodey questions Tony about his decision making skills, his involvement in Spiderman's activities, and all about the fiasco in DC with Spider Man earlier that day. Peter sits down on a stool at the kitchen island and watches, eyes going back and forth between both men as they talk. The conversation ends ten minutes later with, "I know you were between a rock and a hard place, but this is bullshit Tones, and you know it."
"Trust me, I know," Tony says. Peter feels bad. He feels like it actually is his fault that Tony is getting told off by Colonel Rhodes. If Peter had been better… made better decisions, then he wouldn't be such an embarrassment to Mr. Stark now. Instead of having to defend his actions in taking Peter to Germany, he would be saying, "See? Spider Man is great, it was a no-brainer to bring him on board." He feels like there's no chance of that now.
"Kid, get your things, I'll take you home," Tony says, sounding tired. "FRI, unlock the penthouse."
Tony moves for the elevator as Peter slides off the stool with his bag. As he passes by Rhodey, Tony says, "I can't believe you thought he was my son. Seriously, what gave you that idea?"
"He looks just like you man, when you were in college, back before you were styling your hair. Not a mirror image, but close."
Tony pauses, looks up at Peter and seems to be taking in Peter's face and hair. With a little laugh he says to Peter, "I didn't know your mom did I? What was her name?"
"Angelina," Peter says. He says it half as a joke, because he's still nervous and wants to break some of the tension still hanging in the room, and thinks it would be funny to catch Tony off guard if he'd ever known an Angelina. He doesn't know why, but that seems to Peter like the kind of name that must have been common in California or of women Mr. Stark's age.
Tony scoffs. "See, nothing to worry about, Rhodey."
Tony takes two steps towards the elevator when Peter says, "Actually, my mom's name was Mary."
Tony flinches hard and stops in his tracks at the same time that Rhodey chokes on his own spit and starts to sputter. "Fitzpatrick?" Tony says faintly at the same time that Rhodey chokes it out.
Peter looks up at them, confused. "Yeah. Hey, how do you know my mom's last name?"
Tony reaches out for something… a chair, or the back of the couch to steady himself, but there's nothing there. Rhodey grabs his arm and holds onto him.
"You're joking, right?" Rhodey asks Peter, eyes wide. "Your mom's name is actually Angelina?"
"Mary Fitzpatrick," Peter says, confused.
"I- I've gotta sit down," Tony says. Peter hurries to grab a stool and pushes it under him. Tony doesn't let go of Rhodey's arm even after he sits. He looks up at Rhodey with a, 'I am so screwed' look, and says faintly, "See Rhodes… first to know."
Rhodey agrees… if Peter does turn out to be his son, then Tony is totally screwed. Spider Man… genius… trouble maker… and potentially expelled. But at the same time, there's mirth in Rhodey's eyes and a small smile tugging at his lips.
Tony is going to be a great dad, and Rhodey is going to get to be an uncle.