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It was around six in the evening when the call came in. Tony was upstairs reading Morgan her bedtime story when Pepper came upstairs and stood in the doorway to their daughter’s room, her face ghostly pale.
Something was wrong.
Pepper was a tough woman and it took a lot to shake her up like this, especially with everything she’s been through in their relationship.
“Tony…” She began but paused, glancing over at Morgan in her bed, who was almost asleep. “May’s on the phone.”
Just from how she says it, Tony already knows that something happened.
Something bad.
Tony stands up from the edge of the bed and takes the cell phone she presses into his hands before going into their bedroom.
“May?” He asks.
“Tony,” May’s shaky voice comes from the other end. There’s talking in the background, with beeping noises and other different chaotic sounds. “I’m-are you sitting down?”
“Why should I be?” He questions, feeling his stomach twisting with worry.
“Tony… just… T-There was an accident. I’m-we’re at the hospital now-”
“Are you and Peter alright?” He quickly asks.
“N-No. I-I’m fine, but Peter… he’s hurt. We’re in the ER right now and the doctors are out back with him.”
Worry flows through him in an instant and he feels slightly lightheaded all of a sudden, his stomach dropping.
“Is he alright? What happened?”
“H-He was out with his friends and there was a truck… the brakes went on it and the driver couldn’t stop it. Peter jumped in front of it to save an older couple that were crossing the street. It clipped him… but the doctor said he thinks it’s minor injuries.”
Tony closes his eyes, relieved to hear that at least but the thought of Peter getting hit by a truck flashes through his mind, and it scares him.
“What hospital are you at?” He asks as he rushes over to the walk-in closet and grabs his jeans and his MIT sweatshirt.
“Queens Memorial.”
“Alright. I’m on my way. I’ll be there in…” He glances down at his watch for the time. “Thirty minutes. I’m going to take a suit. Did you call Happy?” He asks as he quickly swaps out his flannel pajama pants for his jeans and throws his hoodie over his t-shirt.
“Not yet. I wanted to call you first.”
“I’ll call him so you can worry about what’s going on at your end, alright? Keep me updated. Just hang in there, May. He’s a strong kid.”
“I know he is.”
“I’ll be there soon.” He promises.
Once they’re off the phone, Tony grabs the nano-tech housing unit from his nightstand before running out of the room as Pepper walks out of Morgan’s room, softly closing the door behind her. She looks to him worriedly, brows pulling together in concern.
“Peter’s in the ER right now at Queens Memorial. I’m going to call Happy and meet him there.” He quickly explains as he attaches the unit to the center of his chest.
“Call me when you hear anything.”
“I will.” He says, giving her a quick kiss before he’s running down the stairs.
Once he’s out the door, he slams his fingers to the housing unit, activating the nanites. He steps off the last step on the front porch when the suit is fully formed around him and takes off into the sky.
He doesn't think he’s ever pushed a suit this hard before.
…….
Tony arrives at the hospital and lands on the sidewalk outside, startling a few bystanders in the process, and disengages the nanotech that crawl back into the housing unit. He rushes through the ER doors and walks over to the desk, ignoring the shocked look on the receptionist’s face when she recognizes him. He thankfully has no trouble being allowed to see the kid, with being his second emergency contact.
“Room 314A , right through those doors, past the nurses station and take a left down the hallway and it’ll be right there.” The receptionist tells him with a polite smile.
“Thank you.” He tells her before he takes off in that direction.
A mixture of fear, dread and worry gnaws away at him, his stomach coiled like a tight spring, as he walks down the cold, too white hallway as he passes by hospital room after hospital room, eyes scanning the numbers painted on the walls.
310A
312A
314A
Tony stops at the closed door, unable to really see anything through the skinny rectangular window with how dim the lighting is in the room. His hand pauses on the doorknob for a moment and he closes his eyes, praying that his kid was alright. He had to be. If he wasn’t… he didn’t know what he was going to do.
Tony breathes in deeply, grounding himself, before he turns the knob, the door opening with a soft click. His eyes immediately land on Peter, who was lying on the hospital bed with multiple beeping machines hooked up to him and a nasal cannula under his nose, giving him oxygen. His eyes were closed, seeming to be asleep.
Hopefully not unconscious .
May turns around in her chair that’s situated at Peter’s bedside, and she softly smiles at him as she stands up. “Hey.”
“Hey.” He says as he steps further into the room, quietly closing the door behind him. Tony walks over to her and they both hug, May holding on a little tighter.
“Thank you for coming so quickly.” Her voice muffled against his shoulder.
“Of course. I called Happy after I got off the phone with you, he should be here soon.” He tells her as they pull away.
“Thank you.” She sadly smiles.
Tony’s eyes fall on Peter once again, and now that he was standing closer to him, Tony was able to see just how banged up the poor kid was. He was pale, the dark blue and purple bruises littered on his face stood out more, along with all of the cuts and scrapes.
“He’s alright… in a pain because I don’t think the medicine they’re giving him is doing anything. But he managed to fall asleep a while ago.”
Of course the pain meds weren’t working on Peter with his enhanced metabolism. They probably weren’t even making a dent in the amount of pain the poor kid was in, so he had no other choice but to conk out to escape it.
“I called Dr. Cho on my way over and she’s on her way to the Compound now. I’ll have him transported there if he’s alright to move when he wakes up. I don’t really feel comfortable with him being here if the nurses notice he’s healing faster than usual.” Tony softly says as he goes over to the bed and sits down on the edge, reaching a hand out to brush back a loose strand of curls from Peter’s forehead.
They’re both silent for a few moments, the beeping heart monitor filling the silence of the room. Peter’s face scrunches up in his sleep and he turns his head to the side, unconsciously leaning into Tony’s hand that’s still carding through his curls.
“When you called me… I got so scared.” Tony quietly admits, eyes never leaving his kid. “I was afraid that it was worse, that he was…” He stops and closes his eyes and shakes his head. “I didn’t know what to think.”
“I’m sorry, I know my phone call didn’t help. I wasn’t the calmest . I just saw him on the stretcher and… I didn’t know what to think either.”
Tony nodded in understanding as he looked at Peter, breathing out a laugh through his nose as a smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.
“You hear that? You’re making us both grey with getting into trouble so much.” He softly says as he continues to run his hand through Peter’s curls.
Happy arrives after a few minutes, and Tony sends May off with him to get some coffee and something to eat since she hasn’t had anything to eat. Tony settles down into the chair at the side of the bed and takes Peter’s limp hand in his own. It’s warm, and he can feel the slightest occasional twitch of fingers against his palm.
Tony slumps back against the chair, almost lightheaded with relief that Peter was okay. Injured, yes… but alive .
…….
It’s into the early morning hours, around one-thirty, when Peter stirs. May is sound asleep in the extra chair a nurse had brought in a few hours ago when she came to check in on Peter, while Tony reads off his phone in his own chair.
Tony glances up from the paragraph he’s reading when a small groan comes from the bed. He put his phone down on the end table beside him and scooted forward in his seat as he reached a hand out, fingers carding through the kid’s hair. He watches as the teen’s brows pull together, face scrunching up a bit.
“Peter, you with me, bud?” Tony softly says as he cups the right side of his face and slowly rubs his thumb over the kid’s cheekbone.
Peter’s head slowly rolls in his direction as his eyes squint open, taking a few seconds before they land on Tony.
“There he is.” Tony says with a soft smile.
“Mmh…” Peter murmurs, a small, lazy smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. “Hey.”
“How’re you feeling? Honest answers only.”
Peter closes his eyes once again, brows pulling together more. “Mmh… not s’ great.”
“No? You in pain?” Tony asks as concern and worry flood through him.
“Yeah.”
“I’ll try to see if I can get a nurse to raise your pain meds.” Tony tells him as he lifts his hand back to the kid’s hair, running his fingers through it once again. It’s one of his secret weapons with trying to get the kid to relax or fall asleep and it’s worked every time whenever he does it. “Do you know where you are?”
“H’pital?” Peter sleepily mumbles.
“Yeah. Do you remember what happened?”
“Mmmh… a truck… didn’t stop in time.”
Tony pushes away the horrifying image of Peter lying on the ground after getting hit, bloody and bruised. He feels for the kid’s poor friends that had to watch it all happen, reminding himself to ask the kid to invite them to visit him once he was all settled in back at the Compound.
“Yeah. But you’re going to be just fine, buddy. You’ll be up and running in no time.” Tony says, more to himself than Peter, for the added peace of mind.
“Mhmm…” Peter hummus, his head tilting to the side a bit as he starts to drift off.
Tony softly smiles down at him as he continues running his hand through the kid’s hair. It doesn’t take long before he’s sound asleep once more.
It had been a close call today.
Too close.
If Peter didn’t have his powers… he would’ve been killed today. Tony read the police report that had been filed an hour ago, with FRIDAY’s help, and found out that the truck had been going sixty-five miles an hour. Sixty-five . That would have killed a person right then and there. And Peter knew that, too. That was why he jumped in and saved that couple before they got hit.
Tony closes his eyes and breathes out through his nose, pausing his hand on the kid’s head. He stood up, ignoring his knees clicking that protested against the movement, and pressed a kiss to Peter’s temple. He pushed his hair into the teen’s hair and breathed in the scent of vanilla shampoo. Tony pressed another kiss to his head, his lips lingering for a few extra seconds.
“I love you… so much, Pete.” He whispered as he pulled back and watched his sleeping kid’s face.
…….
The next morning, Peter was allowed to be transferred to the Compound, where Dr. Cho was able to give him the proper dosage of pain medication, and come to find out, the kid was in a lot of pain with his broken arm and four fractured ribs, plus a mild concussion. Peter was out like a light after a few minutes once the medication was administered through an IV, falling into a peaceful, painless sleep.
After a few days of strict bedrest, Morgan frequently visited Peter down in the medbay, the two of them watching a bunch of Disney movies together while eating fun snacks and juice pops, enjoying eachother’s company. May, Tony, and Pepper all fused over him, of course, making sure he was comfortable and getting him food or anything else he wanted while he rested, and it was obvious the kid wasn’t too thrilled with all of the mother-hening.
Peter’s friends came to visit after a few days when he was feeling better, Ned and MJ, who Tony hasn’t bet before. He’s met Ned quite a few times, yet the teen was always so star-struck to see him and be at the Compound. But to Tony’s surprise, it seemed as though Peter and MJ were close. Pretty close . But Tony held back his teasing for the time being. He’d ask Peter about it when he was feeling better.