Chapter 1

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As he looks at his photo of the Stark tower, Peter starts to break down, remembering the terror and deep sadness that entered him when he saw the person he loved and looked up to the most take his final breath. Peter starts to sob as he thinks about Tony Stark; when he thinks about how much his father loved him, and how much Peter would give to see him again. "Father?" Peter asks himself. "Do I really think of him as a father?" And the truth is he really does.
He glances at the Spider-Man suit that Tony made specifically for him, where beside the suit is the camcorder Peter used when he first saw his suit- his special, real suit. That's when Peter decided he would never wear the Spider suit ever again. And why? Because his father loved him. Because his father would've done the same. Because his father risked everything for him; died for him. Peter grabs the black blanket Aunt May had made for him after Tony's funeral and made his way toward his closet, where the suit hung, and carefully draped the thin piece of warm, loving fabric onto the shiny, Stark-made masterpiece.
"Peter!" May calls from outside the door. "Peter? You haven't made a sound over for an hour..." Peter takes a hard look at the door his aunt is behind and sighs. On the other side, she sees Peter's shadow under the door and notices her tears start to form. She takes off her glasses and wipes her eyes. "Morgan called. She wants to see you today, Peter. She says she wants..." May chuckles softly, "she wants to climb on the Empire State Building again."
Peter stays silent.
"Peter, will you please? That's the only time you're ever happy, and- and I hope you go, hun."
Peter sits down on his bed for what seems like eternity as he thinks about Morgan. Ever since he met Morgan, she's loved to climb on his back while he crawls up the wall and towards the ceiling. Morgan loves Peter's "Spider-gifts." Peter smiles for a moment as he remembers Morgan reading him a picture book Tony had given her when she was born, but the smile disappears quickly. He realizes that she is the sister he'd always wanted, but never had. He sighs once again as he takes off his flannel Iron Man pajama pants to change into jeans so he looks half-decent for the Starks and grabs his web-shooter; he knew Morgan would want to play "Superhero." Before he steps out the window, he checks his phone for the first time in a month. For the past month, education, professions, and governments have been down so everyone can have more time with the loved ones that have returned. His phone read:
72 UNREAD MESSAGES
NED: 71
MJ: 1
NED: Dude we're alive! Where were you?
Wait I just turned on the TV
He died?
Peter can I come over
Peter
Peter
Peter
COME OOOONNNN
Please answer
Did you die too?!
Omg did you die
Peter this is crazy
READ MORE...
Peter laughs quietly to himself as he swipes to MJ's message.
MJ: If you're dead I'll kill you Peter btw in case you've forgotten it's MJ I'm guessing no one remembers shit ok see you at school Parker

Peter stuffs his phone into his denim blue pocket on the back of his old, too-small jeans as he climbs onto the brick wall of the apartment building he called home, and swings into the city. As he walks, rides, and swings across New York, he thinks of Tony. He wonders if Tony pictured him as a son. Pepper had told Peter the reason why he worked on time travel was because he remembered him. And then he remembers the embrace he received before Tony died. He remembers the simple, yet so complicated hug that he and his father shared before the final fight. "Father. There it is again," Peter thought. "Am I even allowed to think that way?"
"Peter!" Was the first thing he heard when he stepped out of the bus and onto the quaint stone path that lead to the Stark home. Morgan came skipping toward Peter in a flower-yellow skirt and a shirt that says, "Daddy's Girl." "Peter!"
"Morgan!" Peter brushes away his guilt and sadness and tackles Morgan in a bear hug that she liked to call the "Uncle Thor hug." Before the funeral Morgan was able to meet everyone from the battlefield- who was good, of course, and Thor had a particular infatuation with Morgan. 
"Are we going to the top of the statue of the green lady in the robe again?" Morgan asks Peter.
"Peter! Good morning!" Pepper looks exhausted to Peter; her hair is in a messy updo, and she had large, dark bags under her piercing blue eyes. You can see clearly, even from several feet away, the remnants of rivers on Pepper Stark's rosy cheeks. "Just in time for our brunch! Come sit down!" She's good at pretending for her daughter. 
"We'll be right there, Mommy!" Morgan exclaims with such vigor and happiness to give an entire village as she places her father's red and yellow helmet atop Peter's head, who can't help but shed a single tear. 
"Morgan, eat some carrots," Pepper says sweetly to her daughter as she silently hands Peter the chocolate strawberries for safe keeping.
"Shit!" Morgan gleefully responds to her mother, who sighs as her eyes say, "Tony."
"Hey, now," Peter says as he struggles to laugh at the innocent five-year-old. He knows how intelligent Morgan is for her age, but he knows she isn't quite sure what that lovely word means. If only she could ask her father.
"Morgan, if you don't eat your carrots, you can't eat the chocolate strawberries," Pepper sing-songs to her sweet daughter, and as Morgan squeals with joy at the thought of chocolate strawberries, Pepper turns to the grinning Peter and mouths, "Sorry."
"Where are they?" Morgan asks to the world. She turns to her mother. "Does Daddy have them?"
Pepper turns pale as her sweet Morgan waits for a response. "No, Morgan," Peter jumps in to save Pepper from the heartbreak that comes with a statement like that, and at that moment, everything sinks in more than it ever had before for Peter. Tony was gone, and there was nothing that they could do. Pepper gives Peter a relieved, yet concerned look as she quietly scoops some baby carrots onto Morgan's plate.
"Okay," Morgan says in pure bliss. Her eyes widen as she turns toward Peter. "Do you have the strawberries?" She asks. Peter swiftly takes the bowl out of his hands to show Morgan.
"Nope!" He smiles, and winks at Pepper, who mouths a "thank you."
After brunch, Peter quietly excuses himself to the restroom, but quietly turns to Tony's memorial room, where Pepper has put all the things people have given her to honor Tony. He then sees it: the photo of Tony and himself at Stark Industries. He picks up the photo and looks at the back. "Tony and his 'son', 2018," the writing says. His son? Peter smiles as he reads it again, and again. His son.
"He loved you, you know. He wouldn't stop talking about you once he got home from Titan," Pepper sighs as she comes through the doorway.
"I just wish I could have... I should have..."
"No, Peter. There's nothing you could've done." Pepper puts her arm around the boy she thinks of as much her child as her daughter.
"It should've been me..." Peter says softly as he weeps. "It should have been me." Peter slowly feels himself breaking down again, with his hands starting to shake as he reads the words again and again once more.
"Peter? Where are you?" Morgan calls.
"Talk later?" Pepper says as she lifts Peter's head up.
"I'm coming, I'm coming!" Peter calls back as he smiles bitter-sweetly and nods to Pepper. "Let's go!"

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