" I have died everyday waiting for you "

Chapter 12:

Come Find Me

Tony hadn't had time to grasp what had been happening for the past two days. He had been rescued, fussed over, warned and all of that.

But then, he was Anthony Stark— he was used to 'all of that'.

What he couldn't really get over was the fact that Yinsen died to save his life. The man always planned to die in the end. He wanted to make sure Tony found his family before he reached his own.

[Do you have a family?— I used to but I am gonna get them back]

It was surreal.

And Annabeth...

Back when Tony had thought he was dead— back when he had absolutely no idea if he was going to survive, he always saw her, smiling at him... begging him to come back home.

She would sing to him sometimes— perhaps a lullaby but he couldn't hear her as the shrapnel in his chest grew closer to his heart.

The moment Tony realized that he wasn't dead yet, he made it his life mission to get back for her. She had already lost so much.

He had to get home for her.

He had to get home to her.

Now here he was, in Malibu with a sorry Rhodey and tearful Pepper whose mood had thankfully lightened over the minutes passing by.

"Where's— Where's Annabeth?" He hesitated in asking, not wishing to look too desperate.

Pepper and Rhodey smiled, both wishing that the two would just get over themselves and get back together.

"On her way," Pepper replied as she set up Tony's press conference that he for some reason insisted upon.

"Oh— on her way," Tony nodded, "From where exactly?"

Rhodey looked at him as if he was ready to just burst out laughing.

"From wherever she is, Tones," he replied instead.

Pepper  broke— bursting into fits of laughter.

Tony frowned.

"You wound me, Potts," He remarked.

"And I get payed for it," Pepper shrugged him off with a smile.

"Hey, would it be all right if everyone sat down?" Tony said sitting in front of the podium, " Why don't you just sit down? That way you can see me, and I can... A little less formal and... "

He took a bite of his cheeseburger as everyone sat down on the floor.

"What's up with the love-in?" Rhodey asked Pepper with a confused face, "Annabeth will freak out when she comes."

"Don't look at me. I don't know what he's up to," The strawberry-blonde replied, "And Annabeth has already texted me a hundred times asking if Tony has seen a doctor yet."

"Good to see you," Tony said as Obadiah Stane smiled.

"Good to see you."

"I never got to say goodbye to Dad. I never got to say goodbye to my father. There's questions that I would have asked him. I would have asked him how he felt about what this company did. If he was conflicted, if he ever had doubts. Or maybe he was every inch the man we all remember from the newsreels. "

"I saw young Americans killed by the very weapons I created to defend them and protect them," Tony said with the gravest expression on his face, "I saw that I had become part of a system that is comfortable with zero accountability."

"Mr. Stark!" A reporter yelled which the millionaire recognized as Ben.

"Hey, Ben."

"What happened over there?"

"I had my eyes opened," Tony replied standing up and moved behind the podium, "I came to realize that I have more to offer this world than just making things that blow up. I realized that there are people I want to make proud and that is why, effective immediately, I am shutting down the weapons manufacturing division of Stark International —" Everyone stood up in commotion— "until such a time comes where I can decide what the future of the company will be and what direction it should take, one that I'm comfortable with and is consistent with the highest good of this country, as well."

After that interesting press conference, Tony just wanted to go home.

Dare, he admit it in front of his 'not' child labor— meaning JARVIS, Dum-E and his other babies but he had actually missed those idiots.

JARVIS  wasn't an idiot though— just too sassy.

Tony decided to try Pepper on Annabeth again considering the two took less than a week to be two best girl friends standing up against... well, everything he did.

"Hey Potts?"

Pepper turned back— she had been talking to an agent from Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division.

"Where's your friend?"

Pepper smirked but decided to finally answer him, considering she had tortured him enough.

"New York for her practical examinations," she told him but then suddenly her face lit up with even a brighter smile.

"Is there something on my face?" Tony asked, worried, "It's the burger isn't it? I haven't had one for—"

"No, Tony."

"Then?"

Pepper gestured behind him.

The moment Tony turned, he was clashing with someone's body who seemed to be crying on his shoulder.

It was Annabeth with her strawberry shampoo and her hazel eyes that he missed so much.

Tony had imagined this moment countless times in his head but nothing could even begin to compare to what the man felt right now.

"Don't do that to me ever again Anthony,"  she whispered as he stroked her hair with his good hand (since his other one was in a cast).

He was finally home.

"Never plan to, Annie."

She was his home.

When May came back to work after her long break, one could say she really expected to get fired.

But this was a matter at which she didn't mind getting fired at— finding Annabeth, the mother of her adopted nephew.

Annabeth had become the biggest mystery in the Parker family.

She was Peter's mom, the kid May had saved (kidnap seemed wrong considering she did save the little boy) after some bald man wanted him killed.

Nobody deserved to be away from their kid and May had absolutely no idea who Peter's father was.

Annabeth Carter seemed to be a ghost.

But Peter's Aunt May still had hope.

[AUTHOR'S NOTE]

Hey guys! sorry for the late update but I have been busy with school and my new social media fic. It's a chris evan's fic so be sure to check it out :)) Did u guys like the chapter?

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