Chapter Text
As Peter was finishing up his evening patrol he noticed a strange figure looming in the alley between two large buildings. That in its self wasn't troubling. People often hovered between buildings at night. Usually, they were drunk, lost or homeless and not of any threat to anyone. However, this figure grabbed his attention immediately because his eyes seemed to be glowing a bright yellow hue, almost like that of a cat. More so, he seemed to be watching his every move which for most people would be impossible. He was high up on the top of a building and it was dark.
As he went down to investigate he noticed that the man was wearing what looked like a dark cloak and Peter suddenly wondered if the whole thing was some sort of costume. but the second he approached the large man he was already having to dodge hits. "Whoa, man. Calm down. I'm just your friendly neighborhood Spider-man. I'm not going to hurt you or anything. I just wanted to see if you were okay.", Peter said as he continued to duck and block the man's fists. However, the only answer he received was the man taking a vile out of his pocket and drinking it. After that, something changed. The man went from large to huge and suddenly possessed super strength and reflexes that could rival Peter's own.
After going a few rounds with what Peter had now deemed as the Glowy-eyed Monster Man, it became clear that he was going to be unable to keep up. So he did what he did best. He ignored every bit of advice that Tony had ever given him about calling for backup and pushed himself to try harder only to end up being repeatedly knocked to the ground. Then an idea popped into his head and he was soon swinging high above the man's head with the intention of taking the high ground. Only he didn't expect the man to then leap onto the side of the building to climb up after him. "What are you?", Peter asked mostly to himself before scurrying out of the man's reach and begrudgingly calling for Tony's help. "Hey, Mr. Stark. If you're not busy, uh, could you, um, maybe come help me? I, I'm in a little over my head here.", he hesitantly admitted while trying to keep the majority of his attention on playing hide and seek with the devilish looking man.
By the time Tony got there, Peter was out of breath, out of options and running low on web fluid. "Thank God!", he called out the moment he had Iron Man connected to his comm system. "I can't, I can't keep going... He's kicking my ass and--", he breathlessly replied before being knocked off of his web and falling to the ground, with Tony screaming his name in his ear.
Having spent the entire seven minutes it took to fly to Peter's location getting the cliffs notes about what who this... thing... was from Karen, Tony was prepared for everything except that. Watching Peter fall to the ground, hitting it so hard that he could hear the sound of his body smacking against the cement was enough to make him nauseous. "FRIDAY? Get the kid's stats. Now!", he bellowed as he flew towards the boy's limp body, taking note that the man, thing that had caused the damage was looking nearby as if he were waiting for Tony to descend.
"Mr. Parker's is currently unconscious and several broken bones have been detected. His vitals are outside of the normal range but would be considered life-sustaining.", the AI dutifully announced and that was enough for Tony to make the decision to call in more back up so that he could get Peter to medical.
After confirmation that it wouldn't hurt him, Tony swooped in to quickly grab Peter's body and took off for the sky so that he could track the demon-like being until help arrived. The second Steve Rogers and his band of merry men hit the scene, Tony was out. "Thanks, guys. Let me know when you've got him. I really want to know what this deal is and why he was going after the kid.", he called out as he shot through the sky and into the medical bay of the Avenger's tower.
Once inside he was met by none other than Dr. Cho who happened to be in town for a conference and Tony couldn't have been more grateful. Bruce was amazing, a great doctor and scientist but this was currently worried that this might be above his paygrade. Though Tony had no doubt that he would figure it out in a pinch. He just prayed that the AI was right and it was nothing more than a few broken bones.
It didn't take long for Peter to be diagnosed with, as FRIDAY had relayed, several broken bones including his right arm, four ribs, and his right leg along with a significant concussion. All of which were non-life-threatening especially given the kid had a kick-ass healing factor. In fact, once that was taken into account it seemed like he would be as good as new in no more than four weeks. However, for the first week or two of that, he was going to be basically bed-ridden.
As Tony was contemplating how God awful it was going to be for Peter, the biggest ball of energy he'd ever met to be tied to a bed for over a week, he remembered that he needed to call the kid's aunt. Sighing, he pulled his phone out and dialed her number. "Hey, May. I've got the Spider-kid in medical here at the tower. He's fine... well, he's not completely fine but he's going to be fine...", Tony rambled before going into a better explanation of exactly what had transpired over the last hour or so. Including the fact that he had people still chasing after then instigator. He was actually rather surprised that May wasn't threatening to castrate him for not being able to prevent the disaster, to begin with.
"I'm glad he's going to be okay but you're talking like he won't be able to get out of bed on his own for over a week.", May said with some amount of hesitation. "Tony, I can't take that many days off. It's only July and only have one vacation day left to get me through to the new year. I can take family leave but that's unpaid..." She felt guilty for sounding like she was more worried about the money that her nephew but the fact was, in the end, Peter would be fine. Her paycheck, on the other hand, couldn't handle another hit. Rent would be due soon and they needed a home.
"May, you know he can stay here. I've got him. No big deal.", Tony said with ease. He knew he could just as easily offer to pay the rent for her but she would never accept it. Not in a million years. They had already been down that road.
"You're sure it's not too much trouble? He'd not going to be a great patient I can tell you that right now.", May said sounding solidly between worried and amused.
Having already considered that, Tony huffed a laugh. "We'll be fine. I'm a genius, I'm sure we can figure out somewhat to keep the kid from going stir crazy.", he said with a shake of his head before noticing that Dr. Cho was waving him back into Peter's room. "I've got to go, apparently he's waking up. Should I send Happy by to get you?"
"I'm on my way out the door now. I can stop by there on my way to work."
"Alrighty, see you soon, May.", he said as he ended the call and waltzed back into the hospital room to find a tired and disoriented looking kid staring back at him. "Hey, kid. Met your match, huh?"
Peter sighed deeply waiting for the part where Tony was going to start yelling at him for not being a little quicker about calling for back up but it never came. Rather the was approaching his bed with a tight smile before reaching out to place a gentle had on his shoulder. "Aren't you going to yell at me?", he finally asked after a few moments had passed in silence.
"Nope. You actually called me for once and I'm sort of proud of you for that. Do I think you could have called me sooner? Yes but I'm going to take the fact that you called me at all a win. Now, how are you feeling?", Tony asked with sympathy. He'd never seen the kid this bad off before and it was painful to look at.
Swallowing back some of the nausea from the still healing concussion, Peter turned to look at his mentor for the first time since he'd entered the room. "Honestly? Really, really bad. Everything hurts and I--" He was going to say that he thought he might throw up but that was suddenly unnecessary as he gagged over the edge of the bed. "I'm sorry.", he quickly spouted out before gagging again and adding to the embarrassing puddle on the floor.
The first thing Tony did was press the nurse's call button in hopes that they could give the kid something to stave off the upset stomach but after that he was standing at a safe distance away from where Peter was still trying to vomit up things he'd eaten in kindergarten, while still being able to gently rub his back. "You're alright, Buddy. The nurse is on her way."
After a few more hours of observation and one more round of vomiting that Tony was grateful to have missed out on, thanks to May's presence, he was wheeling the miserable kid up to his room in the penthouse. "Alright, kiddo, let's get you into this bed.", he said as he assisted Peter into the bed without any major incident outside of a few painful hisses and a general wobbliness due to the pain medication. "It's really late, Buddy, so we're going to get some food and some more pain medication in you and then you're going to sleep, yeah?"
Unable to argue, Peter nodded his head gently and tried to find the least painful way to lean his body up against the headboard. "What if I throw up?", he asked listlessly. "I don't want to throw up again. It really freaking hurts."
"You won't.", Tony replied with moderate confidence. "They gave you medicine for that and your healing factor is already working on that concussion of your's so you should be okay. ... but if you do, we'll clean it up and get you some extra pain medication. Sound good?" It didn't sound good but Peter nodded his head all the same. He didn't want to be a bother. He was sure the man had better things to do that to babysit him for the next ten to fourteen days.
Once Tony had walked out of the room, Peter closed his eyes for what he thought was only a second but when he opened them again, Tony was back with a bowl of lightly buttered pasta and a glass of white grape juice on a wooden lap tray. Now, Peter had always considered himself to be fairly ambidextrous. Even before the spider bite gave him a whole new level of motor skills but for some reason using a fork in his non-dominant hand was not working. It could have been the concussion, the pain medication or his general lethargy but whatever it was, trying to get the pasta into his mouth was becoming frustrating enough to make his eyes water.
He finally had to toss the fork aside and look away from Tony when he once again dropped the noodles down his chin with a grunt of resentment leading to one of the pending tears to escape the corner of his eye. "I'm not hungry.", he lied because that was easier than admitting that he couldn't get the damn fork to work right.
"Oh, kid. Come here, look at me.", Tony said gently. "I'll help you and in a few days, you'll be able to use your right hand again. We'll stick to sandwiches or something until then, alright?"
When Tony reached over to pick up the discarded fork, Peter tried to knock it out of his hand. "I said I'm not hungry.", he reiterated with as much venom as he could force out of himself at the moment, though admittedly it wasn't much. The idea of being sixteen and spoon-fed by none other than Tony Stark was fairly humiliating at the moment. Even if he did consider the man practically his father at this point. It wasn't like he would have let May feed him either. He was too big for this. "please."
Tony sighed and set the fork back down. "Hey, I get it, you don't want me to feed you but I'll tell you what. I promise not to make airplane noises or anything and as an added bonus, I'll make sure FRIDAY doesn't record it. How about that?", he said with a smile, hoping the kid would just take him up on the offer. It was well after one in the morning, there was very little in his pantry that would suit the needs of a still slightly nauseous kid and even if there was, he was too tired make it. "You have to eat something to get the pain medication, kiddo and the stuff they gave you downstairs is going to wear off soon."
Those seemed to be the magic words to get Peter to cooperate because if he was already uncomfortable he couldn't imagine what he would feel like once the medication wore off. So, he allowed Tony to feed him most of the large bowl before insisting that he didn't need anymore. It was sitting heavily in his stomach and he was starting to get worried. Thankfully the man didn't push the issue and just went to get a straw for the glass and doled out the necessary tablets. "There we go, Bud. I'm going to go to bed too but if you need anything, I want you to wake me up." When Peter paused before nodding he repeated himself a little more firmly. "I mean it. If you need anything, have FRIDAY get me. You can have another half of a pain pill if you're still hurting in an hour, so if you are... call me. If you need some water, call me. If you need anything. Call me. Got it?"
"I got it. I promise.", Peter said as he started to try and scoot himself back into a more horizontal position already deciding that he was going to do whatever he needed to do to not have to call the man in the middle of the night, well, morning at this point. If he had to deal with some discomfort until it was time for his next dose, so be it. However, by the time four in the morning rolled around, he was awake but not from pain.
Neither Tony nor Peter had considered that he should probably use the bathroom before bed and now he was laying there staring at the ceiling trying to decide what to do. He couldn't get up on his own, partially because he had nothing to balance himself with and one of his legs was in a cast, partially because his head was still a little foggy from the medication but mostly because he knew it would hurt.
Once he had laid there for an hour, dreading the idea of getting up and fretting over the idea of waking Tony, the pressure had gotten to the point where he could no longer ignore it. "FRIDAY? Can you get Mr. Stark for me please?", he said miserably once he'd decided that getting the man to help him was going to have to be necessary.
Not even three minutes later, Tony was opening the door with a pill container in one hand, a water bottle in the other, and pillow creases etched across his left cheek. "Hey, Buddy. I've got your medicine, right here.", he said tiredly.
Clearly, the man had gone to bed with the pills and water at his bedside to save time and Peter suddenly felt bad for waking the man up for something so unanticipated. However, the guilt wasn't going to prevent him from having to say something. He really didn't want to wet the bed. "Oh, um, that's not why I called you. I, uh... I need to pee.", Peter admitted quietly. "I'm sorry."
Having not even considered how that was going to work, Tony hesitated. "Okay. That's fine.", he replied calmly as he tried to decide the best way to handle this. He considered going down to medical and finding a bedpan or a medical urinal but decided the kid would probably balk at that, not to mention he probably didn't want to clean something like that up. Then there was also the fact that the discharge instructions he'd been given said that it would critical that he make sure Peter got up for at least a few minutes a few times a day to help with circulation. He supposed walking to and from the bathroom counted. " Well... let me help you up, I guess."
"Mm-hmm.", Peter agreed as he started to try and sit up by himself. It was obvious that his healing was doing its job because the movement didn't cause his stomach to flip but it still hurt his head. Once they had both of his feet over the edge of the bed and Tony was haphazardly trying to figure out the best way to help him balance without hurting him, Peter had to say speak up. His bladder was screaming and they weren't going fast enough. "Mr. Stark? I really need to go to the bathroom. Can we please hurry?"
"Alright, alright.", Tony said having not realized before that moment how dire the situation was. "Let me know if I'm hurting you so I can ease up, yeah?", Tony said before hoisting the boy up with one hand around his waist and the other holding onto his good elbow so that the boy could use him as a human crutch while not toppling over. Once inside the bathroom, Tony really didn't know what to do but Peter was quick to issue some instructions.
"Just help me get my pants down and leave.", Peter ordered not unkindly. He was just in a bit of a hurry and didn't have time for Tony to overanalyze everything.
So, Tony propped the kid up on the counter and did as instructed while staring at the ceiling before turning to make a hasty exit in order to offer the requested privacy. Once outside of the door, Tony ran his hands down his face. With the urgency having passed, the circumstantial awkwardness was setting in. Then, with the okay to return he helped Peter get his shorts back in place before slowly getting him back in bed. "You good, now? Need any medicine?", he asked once Peter seemed to have settled back down onto the pillows.
"I'm fine. I don't need anything yet. I'm sorry I woke you up, Mr. Stark.", Peter said tiredly. Without the anxiety of the situation rushing through him, the wooziness of the pain medication was quickly returning.
Sighing, Tony rested his hand on the boy's forehead. "Stop saying you're sorry. I told you to call me if you needed anything and needing the bathroom definitely counts. Tomorrow night, I'll make sure to take you before I go to bed."
After cringing at the way the man had said he would 'take him' to the bathroom as if here were three and a half, Peter took a deep breath and considered telling him that he could manage on his own. Though the truth was, he couldn't and he knew that. As such, he just nodded his head and watched as Tony flipped the light back off and exited the room.
Later that morning, Tony was back in the room looking slightly disheveled. "Hey, Buddy. How are you doing?", he asked as he started opening the pill bottle. He'd overslept and was very aware that Peter was more than overdue for his next dose of pain relief. His plan at this point was to have the boy go ahead swallow the tablets and then talk him into being fed some yogurt to cushion them because he still didn't have any real food in the house. Not even a cracker or a loaf of bread.
"I don't know.", Peter said through his teeth as he suppressed the urge to whine. The pain was radiating through what felt like the entire right side of his body. He'd actually been seconds away from asking FRIDAY to call him when the door opened up.
"I'm sorry I over-slept, kiddo. I wish you would have called me.", Tony said as he placed the pills in Peter's hand and started getting the straw into the water bottle so he wouldn't have to sit up too much. Once the kid had swallowed them down, he decided it was time to spring the next part on him. "You have to eat something with those and I haven't had anything delivered yet. I'm going to go get you a yogurt. If can't do it, I'll help, yeah?"
Already knowing there was no way out of this, Peter nodded his head and allowed himself to be fed once again, though this time it didn't feel nearly as embarrassing. Probably because he was more focused on trying to breathe through the pain while willing the pills to hurry up and dissolve so that they could start working. Tony sat with him the whole time, wiping away the tears and quietly apologizing over and over again. "Stop... saying... you're sorry. It's a-annoying.", he hissed after the man had repeated the same words for what felt like the eightieth time. When the man laughed it took him a moment to realize why and then despite his agonizing discomfort he was smiling. "I'm allowed to say it. Not you."
"Alright, Buddy. Whatever you say.", Tony said as he smiled at the hypocrisy of it all. The kid apologized at least ten times a day.
The second, Peter was back to resting comfortably Tony, took a few minutes to wipe the sweat off of his brow, help him to the bathroom and get him into some clean clothes. Then sat down with him so that they could place a grocery order filled with enough finger food to feed a kid with an enhanced metabolism for at least two weeks. By the time they had done that Peter seemed to be shifting in bed. "You need some more medicine?"
"No. I think I'm okay for now.", Peter replied honestly because, after the amount of pain he'd endured over the last hour or so, he didn't plan on holding back when it came to asking for medication again. He was pretty sure he'd never hurt so bad in all of his life. Even being shot had been better than that. Probably because being shot was very different than practically shattering one entire side of your body.
"Do you need the bathroom?", Tony answer in return and when Peter shook his head no, Tony started to get slightly frustrated. Something was obviously wrong and he didn't know what it was. "Then what is it, Kid? What do you need?"
"I'm hungry.", Peter said with a bit of guilt lacing his tone. All he'd had was a small cup of yogurt and that had been over an hour ago but he didn't want to say anything since Tony had indicated that there wasn't much there and the order hadn't been delivered yet. "It's okay though, Mr. Stark. I won't starve before the food gets here."
Sighing Tony got up from the chair he'd been sitting in to scour the kitchen for any kind of sustenance to hold the kid over. The best he could come up with that didn't require eating utensils was a stray hot pocket that he didn't even know the flavor of. "I've got a mystery Hot Pocket. Do you want it? It's that or I can make you some more pasta... or oatmeal. I have instant oatmeal and...yep... one more yogurt. What'll it be?"
Unsure if he wanted to eat any kind of mystery food. Peter thought about declining all of the current options because he also didn't want to have to ask the man to feed him again either. Then his stomach started to cramp and he was forced to make some sort of choice before he made himself sick. "Whatever's easiest for you.", he finally called out, deciding that he didn't really have any room to be picky. Tony's already gone out of his way enough and he didn't want to sound ungrateful.
Popping his head back in Peter's door, Tony rolled his eyes. "Kid, it's all easy. I'm more than capable of boiling water and using the microwave. You can thank my years of college life for that.", he said with a smirk. "Seriously, what do you want?"
Peter ended up settling on the yogurt because it was the quickest option but this time he tried to feed it to himself. It went just about as well as it had the night before but Tony just took over without saying a word while Peter bit back the urge to apologize again. The remainder of the day was spent alternating between watching television with Tony when he needed a distraction from the pain, talking to May or Ned on the phone when he was up to it and napping through the worst parts of the drug-induced haze. It was as if he was only allowed to feel tired and pain-free or achy and awake but thankfully they had both been extremely diligent about not letting his medication lapse again. Not that they could if they tried. Tony had made sure to have FRIDAY start tracking that first thing that morning.
"Alright, kid, It's after midnight. You should probably get some sleep.", Tony said when Peter was no longer paying attention to the movie they were watching. "Actually let's take some medicine first. It's a little early but that should be fine. What do you want to eat with it?"
Ignoring the later questions, Peter frowned. "I've been sleeping all day, Mr. Stark", he said as a yawn managed to skip past him before he could stop it.
"You always sleep more when you're healing and that pain medication messes with you. Now, what do you want to eat with the pills? If you don't pick then I'm going to feed you yogurt again.", Tony replied without missing a beat.
"How about some grapes and maybe one of those drinkable yogurt things.", Peter returned with a sigh because he couldn't really think of a way to argue with any of that. Tony was right, his healing factor tended to suck up all of his energy and the pain medication seemed to dull his senses and make his head swim. Though the relief they offered from the amount of pain he would be in without them was well worth it.
"You went to the bathroom an hour ago, do you want to go again before I turn out the lights?", Tony asked gently. He knew Peter wasn't fond of the added company when it came to getting to the toilet but it couldn't be helped. Even with a crutch, the medication left him far too shakey on his feet to be trusted to get there and back without reinjuring himself. When Peter looked at him somewhat unsurely he made the decision for him and wordlessly started helping him up.
The next day went about the same. Peter hovered between being exhaustion and general achiness and Tony did what he could to be an adequate distraction. This meant that whenever the kid was awake he was in the room rewatching movies he'd seen over and over again or pulling up various designs on a tablet for them to go over and discuss.
May came by to visit at some point in the evening before work, giving Tony a couple of hours to disappear into the workshop, a welcome distraction of his own. He enjoyed taking care of the kid but it felt nice to have some, worry-free, time to himself for a while. With May there he knew all of the boy's needs would be more than met and he could focus solely on the work he'd been neglecting. He'd hoped he could get in a little extra time even after she'd left but his presence was requested the moment she stepped out because apparently, asking her to help him to the bathroom was unacceptable. Therefore by the time, he was alone and able to request the person that he preferred to receive that sort of assistance from, it had become a rushed situation.
~o~o~o~o~o~
The next morning, Tony entered his room already dressed in a three-piece suit and carrying a tray stacked high with breakfast foods. "Morning, kiddo. You doing okay?", he asked before noticing the grimace across the boy's face.
"Actually. I was, I was just about to call you. I know it's not time yet but can I have another pill? My arm hurts like hell.", Peter said through his teeth. Somehow or another he'd ended up with his arm dangling off the bed as he slept and woke up with it absolutely throbbing. He'd thought that by elevating it on one of the extra pillows Tony had placed on the bed it would stop but it hadn't.
Setting the tray aside, Tony walked over to the bed to assess what looked like some very swollen fingers and winced in sympathy. "Yeah, we can do that. I'm going to get some ice too. We need to keep an eye on those fingers, they're not tingling or anything, right? You can feel them?"
"Mm-hmm. I can feel them alright.", Peter replied quietly as he swallowed down the extra half a pill being handed to him. "I slept wrong and it all swelled up."
After getting the ice pack for the kid's arm and placing the tray over his lap, Tony checked his watch. He was supposed to be attending an early morning meeting downstairs but it was going to have to wait at this point. He wasn't about to leave Peter when he was in so much pain. He'd make it to the afternoon ones. It would be fine. Pepper already knew what was going on so she couldn't get too mad at him about it. That's what he hoped anyway as he went into his office to give her a call.
With the extra medication in him, Peter slept off and on for the majority of the morning, though by lunch he was much less lethargic and more than ready to eat. The swelling in his fingers had gone down by at least half and the pain was now manageable. That meant that Tony was definitely going to those afternoon meetings. He had sort of mixed feeling about it. He certainly didn't want the kid to be in pain but at the same time, he was ever so slightly disappointed that he no longer had an excuse to stay home. "I need to go downstairs to a couple of meetings, okay, kid? I'll be back in no more than two hours and a half hours but if you need anything, call me. I'm only a few floors away, yeah?"
"Of course!", Peter said with wide eyes suddenly realizing that Tony had been in a suit all day and had probably missed a few meetings on his account already. "I won't need you though, I'll be fine until you get back."
Tony looked Peter over skeptically before asking him if he needed anything before he left and heading down the elevator, worry eating away at the back of his mind. By the time he'd made it to the board room, he'd gone over a mental checklist at least three times. He'd given the kid lunch and left him with snacks and a water bottle. Reminded him that he could ask FRIDAY about any movie he could possibly want, made sure he didn't need to pee and triple checked that his medicine wasn't due until well after he got back.
So when his phone buzzed and hour and a half later, he sort of panicked. "Hey, kid. You alright?", Tony asked with concern as he stepped out of the meeting he'd been sitting in. All he could think was that maybe his fingers had swollen back up and that had been listed as an 'automatic call me without hesitation' situation.
"Mm-hmm. I was just, just wondering when you were coming back. That's all.", Peter replied anxiously, something, Tony picked up on immediately making his own heart start to flutter a bit.
"Not for another hour or so. Why? What's wrong?", Tony asked only to be met by several seconds of silence that managed to send his anxiety through the roof.
"Please don't be mad.", Peter finally spat out, allowing Tony to breathe again because there was nothing the kid could have done from his bed to make him mad.
"What could you have possibly done for me to be mad about? You've been in bed for two and a half days.", he asked with a relieved laugh. There was literally nothing that could have happened. Even if it had, FRIDAY would have alerted him long before Peter did.
Paying no attention to the way the man was now laughing, Peter rapidly began to explain his current situation. The last thing he'd wanted to do was to have to call the man at work but his body wasn't giving him much of an option. If he'd known he was going to be left alone for over two hours he definitely wouldn't have had that second soda with lunch. "I didn't do anything... It's just that I know you're in a super important meeting and all but I need to go to the bathroom really really bad. I'm so sorry."
"Oh, kid.", Tony sighed out because this was no longer a laughing matter. The boy was sounded borderline embarrassed with a touch of frantic tossed in there for good measure. "I'll be right there, alright?"
"Mm-hmm. Can you please hurry? ...I'm really sorry.", Peter said again because despite the man's gentle tone he was still slightly worried about having to call him back home only an hour and a half after leaving.
"It's fine. I'm coming right now. Five minutes.", Tony assured him before hanging up the phone. Only he didn't get very far before Pepper was exiting the boardroom and catching him by the shoulder.
"Tony!", she shouted in annoyance. "Where are you going?"
Turning around to meet her eyes, Tony sighed. He should have known she would stop him. "Kid needs me for a minute I'll be right back. I promise.", he explained, hoping she would let it go.
At those words, Pepper was looking at him with deep concern. Even she knew Peter well enough to know he wouldn't call Tony back for no reason. "Is he okay?"
"Yeah, he's fine just needs my help with something really quick.", Tony hurriedly replied before attempting to walk away again. He'd told the kid five minutes and he'd already killed two of them in the hallway trying to get away.
Having known Tony long enough to know that he would use absolutely any excuse to get out of any kind of business meeting, she contemplated his words carefully before grabbing him by the shoulder once again. Just to make sure he wasn't using Peter an out. "Tony, we're almost done in here, if he's okay then can whatever it is wait a few minutes."
"It probably can but I don't know for how many before I'm locked into changing the sheets instead.", Tony replied with an eyebrow raised as he waited for his words to sink in and for Pepper to get catch on to what he was eluding too. When she did, her reaction was well worth the sarcasm.
"Oh.", she said with a slight surprise before fumbling over her next words. She'd not considered that in the least. "Well, I suppose you should go help the poor kid out then."
"That's my plan." , Tony said as he began to quickly walk away, still talking over his shoulder. "...but I need to get going because I was asked to 'please hurry'. Which translates to, 'I didn't want to disturb you so I tried to wait until the very last second. Which is like a perpetual thing with this kid, I swear. ...be right back.
~o~o~o~o~o~
"Alright, kid. I'm here. Let's get you to the bathroom.", Tony said the second he made it to the boy's room. However, when he held out his arm for Peter to pull himself up his weight-bearing knee seemed to buckle and he ended up back on the bed. "Whoa, slow down there, kiddo."
Shaking his head lightly, Peter started to try and pull himself up again only to have Tony try to stop him. "I just got dizzy for a second. I'm okay, we can go now.", he assured as he once again tried to rise to his feet.
"No, let's wait a minute.", Tony replied, not wanting the kid to rush and pass out on him. "That pain medication really messes you up, doesn't it..."
"Mm-hmm", Peter agreed before reminding the man why he'd called him to begin with. "...but I can't wait a minute. I need to pee, like, right now."
"Alright, well let me get both hands on you, then.", Tony sighed out as he leaned over to get his hand around the boy's waist. "Okay, up you get."
Once upright with Tony's support, Peter began to hop and hobble towards the bathroom as fast as his aching body would allow. They went through their now practiced routine with ease, except this time instead of waiting until after Tony left the room to lower himself onto the toilet, he dropped down onto the seat and began to relieve himself the moment the man had his pants out of the way. Having decided that at this point, retreating was unnecessary, Tony simply turned his back and waited until Peter had finished.
"I'm so sorry, Mr. Stark, Peter said as they made their way back to the bed. "I didn't mean for that to happen. I tried to wait until you were done with your work but--"
"--You're fine, kid. No big deal. Maybe don't put it off so long next time, yeah? You're not bothering more or interrupting me or whatever it is that you think you're doing when you call me for help. You come first.", Tony assured as he arranged the boy's pillows so that his leg and arm were both elevated again "Do you need anything else before I head back down? How are your fingers?"
"I'm fine. My fingers are fine.", Peter said before hesitating. "...You'll be back in an hour?"
"..or so, yes. Why do you plan on needing something then?", Tony asked with a laugh but he was somewhat serious. He wasn't sure what it was going to take to prove to Peter that he really did come first. "...because whatever it is you can ask me now. I have time."
"I don't need anything else right now. I'm just bored.", Peter admitted with a huff. He'd been in that bed for two days now and without Tony there he was getting restless.
"Hmm. You miss me huh?", Tony teased with a wide grin.
"Shut up.", Peter replied with a mildly embarrassed laugh. He wasn't even sure why that comment had flustered him as it had but it did. "I didn't say that."
"So rude to me! What would your Aunt May say!", Tony then interjected, placing his hand over his heart however Peter never got to answer because, at that moment, FRIDAY interrupted them.
"Boss, Steve Rogers, Same Wilson, Natasha Romanova, and Clint Barton have returned and are requesting your presence on the common floor."
Tony paled. He'd somehow managed to forget about the entire incident that led to Peter requiring so much of his attention. He'd been so focused on that, that he'd not even attempted to check on the others or the progress they'd made towards catching the thing that had done all of this to his kid. He wanted to feel guilty but then he looked at Peter and realized that maybe his priorities had been just fine. "Uh... Tell them I've got meetings. I'll be down after unless it's critical.", he said before turning his attention back to Peter.