Chapter Text
His breath had come back, and somehow, Peter was stitched back together.
Somehow, his feet were on Earth, though his head still felt like it were still up there, drifting around in space like the dust he’d turn to and reformed from.
Things had spiraled fast, and Peter was left wondering how many things could go wrong, and right, in just a single clusterfuck of a day.
He’d watched his dad get impaled by his own blade. He’d died, and he’d woken up on a planet far from home, and he’d gone through a sparkly, yellow portal to the world that had marched on without him and so many others.
He had played a game of high stakes football with the Avengers, against aliens.
He had had a front row seat to watch his dad snap and save the universe and catch the blowback from the Infinity Gauntlet.
It was the last memory Peter had access to before the Wakanda waiting room. Everything between was blurry, like now, like the fluorescent lights and bright, white walls, and the room filled, overwhelming filled, with battle-worn Avengers Peter wished weren’t there, buzzing around, worrying over his dad like they had some kind of right.
They don’t ignore him, but Peter wished they would.
They send glances. He can’t tell if they’re shocked it was Tony’s son behind Spidey’s mask, or concerned for him, or both. Peter didn’t particularly care what it was. Just wanted them gone.
“Pete?”
Rhodey stood by the waiting room entrance. His eyes looked the same as his dad’s had back on the battlefield, during their brief reunion.
“Uncle Rhodey.”
Warmth spread through him, warmth like the comfort provided from a favorite blanket. He rose from his chair, crossed the room, and sunk himself into Rhodey’s arms, burying his face in his chest. Tears formed, now that they were safe to fall, now that a safe, familiar person had arrived.
“God, Pete,” said Rhodey. He held him tight. Just like Tony had. “You have no idea how good it is to see you.”
“Feelings mutual.”
They hugged it out for longer than Peter would allow under normal circumstances, and when they broke apart, he felt the world, his world spinning, and spinning, and spinning out of control.
“What’s happening?” asked Peter. Desperate, pleading cracks invaded his voice, tears soaked his words. “How’s dad - is he - is he okay?”
“The doctors are confident,” Rhodey told him. “But they still don’t know.”
It was an offer of hope, but Peter wouldn’t take it until he saw his dad breathing with his own eyes.
“Come on,” said Rhodey. He tugged on Peter’s arm, leading him out into the hallway. “They have a private waiting room for us.”
“Just family?”
“Yeah.”
Peter followed Rhodey through the halls until they got to a smaller, closed off room. A cozier one, where Pepper sat on the couch, waiting for them.
It was another reunion where Peter was looked at as if he were a ghost, hugged as if he might disappear. He thought he understood. He’d been gone for five years, or at least that was what he’d been told, but hearing it and knowing it in his head was different than understanding with his soul.
It isn’t until they broke apart that Peter realized someone was missing. “Where’s Happy?”
“He’s on his way,” said Pepper. “He’s… he’s bringing your sister.”
“Oh,” said Peter. Pepper had told both him and Tony about her positive pregnancy test just days ago, it felt like. “Should she be here, though? I mean she’s just a baby, she can’t really understand -”
“Peter,” said Pepper. Her tone was both gentle and firm, the way only Pepper Potts could manage. “She’s four.”
“Four,” he repeated.
“We named her Morgan. She’s really excited to meet you, and a little scared, I think, from what Happy’s told me. Damn that girl has a way of just knowing things, no matter how watered down we try to make them.”
“You were that way, too, Pete,” said Rhodey, clapping him on the shoulder.
His memories took him back to when he was just a kid missing his father. When the world thought he was dead, Peter remained convicted that he was still out there in that desert. It had been Pepper who stayed up with him at night, rubbing his back, and drying his tears, and it had been Rhodey who promised him he’d bring his father back home to him.
He remembered the fear.
It felt the same way now, and he wondered how Morgan was handling it. His sister. As much as her existence was a shock, he resolved to be just as steady as Pepper, Rhodey, and Happy had been for him, when he was just a kid waiting for dad to come home.
“He’s gonna be okay, right,” said Peter. He looked back and forth, between Rhodey and Pepper. “He’s got to - he’ll wake up.”
Pepper took his hand, and walked him over to the couch, where they sat together. “Peter, honey, your dad is way too stubborn to die before having a chance to properly yell at you for following him into space.”
Peter laughed, a shock to even himself. “No, you’re right.”
“That’s really not surprising, is it?” asked Pepper. She patted his hand, stood up, and dug around in a duffel bag, eventually pulling out a pair of sweatpants, some boxers, and a t-shirt. “I had one of the wizards take me home so I could grab a few things… one of the nurses said there’s an empty room across the hall with a bathroom in it. That shower’s calling your name.”
“But-”
“I love you, Pete, and I’ve missed you so much,” said Pepper. “But you smell like sweat and alien blood.”
“I see your point.”
“And you can’t stay in your Spidey suit all night long.”
Peter accepted the clothes from her, and slunk off towards the shower, though he wanted to do nothing more to stew over the uncertainty of life, the chaos of the day.
*
He finished his shower, and returned to their smaller, private waiting room just as Rhodey was fixing to leave.
“What? You can’t go,” said Peter. He didn’t like the way his voice sounded, desperate and childish, as if his hellishly long day of trauma had turned him back into a five-year-old.
“I’m sorry, buddy, I want to stay,” he told him, steadying him with a hand on his shoulder. “But I’ve got a lot of fires to put out. A lot of confusion to clear up… God, it’s just - well it’s going to be a hot mess.”
“Wait, what?”
“You’re looking at President Rhodes, Pete,” said Pepper.
“Really? No way, that’s so awesome,” he said, though he’d missed it. He’d missed being a goofy intern on his uncle’s campaign. He’d missed his victory. He’d his speech. Still, he tried to keep his grief out of his voice. “When can I tour the White House?”
“Wow,” said Rhodey. “Not even back a full twenty-four hours, and you’re already asking for favors, huh?”
“Can’t really be that shocking,” said Pepper. “This is Tony’s spawn we’re talking about.”
“Just do me a favor and don’t disappear again, and we’ll talk about you coming to visit the White House. Just can’t invite Tony. He’s banned.”
Rhodey hugged him and Pepper goodbye, and left, without explaining what Tony had done to get himself banned from the White House. Not that it needed an explanation. Peter didn’t doubt he’d earned his banishment in one way or another.
That stung a little, too. That he hadn’t been around to see his father and the president bicker over security issues.
“You’re gonna have to make me a movie,” said Peter, collapsing down on the couch. He’d never admit it, but he did feel better clean, with comfortable clothes. His eyes started to feel heavy. “Of all the things I’ve missed.”
“We’ll have plenty of time to catch you up,” said Pepper. “When Tony wakes up.”
He sunk further into the couch, and noticed the ring on Pepper’s finger. She was his step-mother now, officially. The Stark wedding had finally happened, and he hadn’t been around for it.
“Yeah, when he wakes up,” echoed Peter. His words sound far away, even to him.
*
Peter was fading in and out of a sleepy fog when the door to the waiting room creaked open. He jumped into a sitting position, hoping he’d see a doctor, or a nurse, or any hospital employee who could tell him good news, but instead he saw Happy.
He wandered into the room, holding a little girl’s hand. His sister. His brand new, four-year-old, little sister.
“Mom?” She broke away from Happy, and crossed the room to climb up on Pepper’s lap. “Where’s daddy?”
Pepper started to explain to her quietly, and gently, the situation with Tony, but Peter couldn’t focus on it. Happy stared at him like he was a ghost, while Peter wondered if this was going to be how it was going to be for the next couple of days.
He stood from the couch. “Okay, let’s get the hugging part over with.”
“You’re a pain in my ass, you know that, kid?” asked Happy, while he hugged him, gripping his arms a little too tightly.
“Been told a few times, actually.”
“But it’s good to have you back,” he told him, once he finally let go.
“Thanks, Happy,” said Peter. “I don’t really remember being gone, but thanks.”
He turned, and watched Pepper and Morgan, who were watching him. Pepper took Morgan by her hand and led her over to him and Happy.
“Morgan,” she told her. “This is your big brother, Peter. He’s back from… heaven.”
Peter crouched down, on one knee. “I guess we’re siblings, now, huh?”
Morgan scrunched up her face, and it gave Peter the impression that she was unimpressed. She turned away from him. She looked up at her mom.
“I thought he was supposed to be a spider,” she said. “Like Miss Spider in James and the Giant Peach.”
“I thought you were supposed to be a baby,” said Peter, before he could stop himself. He stood back up, feeling strangely wounded.
“I’m not a baby,” she told him. “I’m four.”
“Trust me, Mo,” said Happy, interrupting them both. “He’s plenty spider. Just wait until you hear about all his ridiculous allergies.”
“Allergies?”
“Yep,” said Happy.
Morgan huffed, and spun back around to face Pepper. “I want to see dad.”
“We all do,” said Pepper. “But we have to let him rest. For now.”
“He doesn’t even like resting,” said Morgan, pouting as Pepper lifted her into her arms.
Pepper carried her out of the room, mentioning something about getting some snacks or food or whatever. Peter wasn’t really paying attention. So much had happened. Too much. And he didn’t know if he’d ever really catch up, or belong, or have things back to the way they were.
“She’ll warm up to you,” said Happy, as if he could read his mind. “She’s just really scared. About Tony.”
“Yeah,” said Peter, though he wasn’t really sure.
*
Hours passed like days, days passed like weeks, and Peter wasn’t really sure if they’d ever leave the waiting room.
Happy had been right, though. Morgan did warm him to him. Eventually.
All it took was Peter losing over and over in checkers. He wasn’t even trying that hard to lose, but that wasn’t surprising to Peter. Half of Pepper Potts and half of Tony Stark. She was the best of all of them.
Peter was beginning to think everything would be fine. That he could embrace this strange, new world he’d returned to, but then, his dad woke up.
A nurse poked her head into the doorway, gave a subtle nod to Pepper, and she left the three of them to do some more waiting. Nobody spoke. Peter and Morgan abandoned their game of Connect Four, and Happy tapped his foot, occasionally stealing glances at his watch.
It felt like years before Pepper came back, and when she did, Peter saw it on her face that it was good news.
“He’s okay,” said Peter, raising to his feet.
“Yes,” said Pepper. She looked at Peter. “He needs to see you.”
“And me too?”
Pepper kneeled down to Morgan’s level. “In a few minutes. Just Peter, for now, okay? Daddy hasn’t seen him in a really, really long time.”
Pepper gave him a look that clearly said get-out-of-here-now, and so Peter went, but he didn’t really want it to be that way. He’d rather see Tony with all of them together. He’d rather his Uncle Rhodey be there, too.
When the door closed, and he was on the other side of it, he chalked it up to another thing he didn’t understand. Couldn’t understand. Couldn’t even imagine what that five years had been like for those people left behind.
He crept into Tony’s hospital room slowly, his eyes looking over his dad laid up in the bed. One side of his body is mangled, charred even after they’d replaced the dead arm with a prosthetic.
“Dad.”
Tony reached out, and grabbed his hand. “Peter… are you… are you real?”
“Yeah,” said Peter. “I’m right here… remember, you saw me before - well before you -”
“-thought that was a dream,” said Tony. His voice was gravelly, weak. “You’re really here.”
“Yeah.” He squeezed his hand, and he pushed back tears. “You did it. You saved me. And everyone else.”
Peter put his head down in Tony’s chest, gently, in one had to be the most awkward hug. He didn’t care. He let the worry of the last few days wash away, and replaced it with relief. Cause Tony was alive. Everything would be okay, even if it would never be the same.
Which reminded him.
“Dad,” he said. “Morgan really needs to see you.”
“Yes,” said Tony, as Peter stood up straight again. “I need to see - to see both of you together.”
“Okay, I’ll go and get her,” said Peter, but Tony wouldn’t let go of his hand.
“Send a text.”
“Yeah, okay,” said Peter. He got the impression Tony needed to hold on to him just a little longer before he’d be completely convinced he was actually there.
He sent a one-handed text to Pepper, and slid his phone back in his pocket.
Peter held his dad’s hand, and knew that his earlier assessment was right. Everything was going to be fine, but it was never going to be the same.