Irondad and Penny Parker

Spooktober Mark VIII

...Continued from the last.

✨Sirens✨

Penny went from facing Beck's dead body to waking up in a house she didn't recognise.

A bit anti-climactic? I know.

She was still wearing the glasses, the only evidence to tell her that all previous occurrences had in fact happened and couldn't be blamed on a nightmare.

Something told her she shouldn't take the glasses off. No matter what.

As she lay in bed, getting lost in thought after thought, getting darker as she delved deeper into her mind, the door burst open.

Penny, herself, practically flew out of her skin whilst the figure who had just walked in let out a bark of laughter.

"Ha sorry kid. Made you jump?"

Tony.

Her mind was working at a thousand thoughts a minute.

What?

How?

When?

It was too good to be true. He was alive.

And she wasn't going to doubt it.

Maybe Beck never happened, maybe she just wore the glasses last night, fell asleep with them on and woke up as normal.

Maybe it was just a nightmare.

And she wasn't going to challenge that.

She was happy like this.

"Tony!" She exclaimed, allowing a smile to finally cross her face.

"Penny!" He mocked, doing that thing he did when he was confused by what one of his kids were on about. The head tilt and eyebrow scrunch.

He had done it when they had hugged for the first time during the battle.

Don't think about that now. Enjoy this.

She looked around, trying hard to recognise where she was.

"Where am I?" She eventually asked, giving in to her helplessness and relying on Tony.

"You're at my cabin kid? Remember? Are you alright?" His voice was laced with concern as he walked over and put a hand on her forehead.

This was so weird.

This was not the Tony she remembered.

But she liked it.

He was- he was like a dad?

Not that he wasn't before but now he was living in a cabin, checking kids temperatures? What happened to just getting FRI to scan her or something?

It was like he was always a dad but now he had finally accepted it.

"Kid, do you really not remember where you are?"

His voice broke through her train of thought.

"No? Should I?"

His worry grew at this. She could practically see the cogs whirring in his brain as he tried to figure out what was wrong. She was doing the same.

Then something weird happened.

She blinked and suddenly she was back, laying down in bed as Tony walked through the door.

She jumped again and he let out the same bark as earlier.

They proceeded to repeat the exact same scene until they got to the bit where she mentioned where she was. Except this time she didn't.

"Where's Pepper?" She asked hesitantly, afraid she would slip up again.