HOPELESS ☾Peter Parker - 1

TWENTY NINE

Peter woke up from his slumber and slowly pulled himself from Aspen's bed, careful not to wake her up. 

He snuck out of the room and into the living room, hoping to find Tony in there somewhere. 

"Mr. Stark?" He called once he entered the room. 

"In here." 

Peter followed the man's voice and found his in one of the connected rooms. He was seated behind a computer and had his head in his hands. Peter walked behind the desk and once he saw that Tony had the video pulled up on his screen he jumped back and moved to the front of the desk. 

"Why are you watching that again?" 

"Because," the man started, rubbing his eyes tiredly, "When we were watching the first time, I noticed something." 

"What?" Peter asked curiously.

"Come here, I'll show you." Tony scooted his chair over to make room for Peter, but the boy stayed put.

"With all due respect sir, I really don't want to watch that video again.." 

"Just come here, kid." Tony snapped, so Peter quickly obeyed. 

"Watch it again, but focus on the background. Tell me if you see anything strange." Tony commanded before playing the video and muting the sound. 

Peter watched carefully, his eyes scanning back and forth across the faces behind Marie Blue. 

"Oh my god," He mumbled and paused the video once he saw it.

Peter zoomed in on the top left corner of the image and let out a small gasp. 

"It's Aspen," He said breathlessly. 

"But how is that possible?" Peter turned to look at Tony who was staring at the image of the girl's face. 

The girl in the picture was without a doubt Aspen Blue. She had the same hair, eyes, rosy cheeks, and heart-shaped lips (not that Peter spent a lot of time looking at her lips). 

"I don't know," Tony Stark responded, taking off his glasses and rubbing his eyes. 

"I mean she clearly didn't know her mother was killed, you saw her reaction. Unless you think.." Peter turned to look at the man who was already staring back at him. "You think she's been lying to us this whole time, don't you?" 

Tony let out a sigh, "Look Peter, I know you like this girl--I get that--but what do we really know about her? We know that she has parents named Stanley and Marie and they are prisoners of Hydra. We know she was a prisoner of Hydra before Bucky Barnes broke her out. Then what do we know?"

Peter didn't want to believe Tony, but the man was so convincing as he spoke that he couldn't help but somewhat listen. 

"I care about her just like you do, kid. But I don't want to walk into a Hydra base without knowing whether or not it's a trap." Tony said, trying to convince Peter to listen to him. 

"How would we figure that out? How do we find out if she's been lying to us?" Peter asked, unsure of what he should do. 

"I'll distract her. I'll talk to her about the video, ask her more about the Tennessee State Prison, whatever. While I do that, you sneak into her room and search her bag. Go through her computer if you have to, I don't care. We just need to make sure that she's clean. She never has to know anything, just trust me, alright Peter?" 

Peter wanted to say no. He wanted to scream out in protest and say that Tony was crazy for even thinking that she was lying. But the evidence was right there,  Aspen was in the video of her own mother being killed.