Chapter Text
Peter had been working on some Chemistry homework when he got The Call. May had texted him just ten minutes before telling him that she’d be home in just under twenty minutes. When he had picked up the call, the lady on the other end had told him she was a doctor from the hospital a few blocks over and that he had to come in right away, Peter had almost dropped his phone when his brain had finally registered what she was saying.
Chemistry homework was now abandoned on his desk as he flew out of the apartment, only stopping momentarily to slip on some shoes. The next thing he knew, he was sitting in a taxi heading toward the hospital.
When he stepped through the main doors, a middle-aged redhead lady in teal scrubs approached him.
“Mr Parker?” she asked.
“Y-yeah,” he confirmed.
The lady smiled sadly at him.
"Doctor Beverly Crusher, this way please,” Doctor Crusher led him into a room where May lay prone in a hospital bed.
Peter had stopped as he passed through the doorway, shocked into a momentary stop at the sight of his Aunt lying in the bed.
“She’s alive but fading rather fast,” she told him softly. "I'm sorry, I’ll be down the hall at the desk, you can find me there,” she told him before leaving them alone together in the room.
Peter could hear her heart beating still, so he already knew that May wasn't dead (yet) but Doctor Crusher had no reason to know about his powers.
“Hi, May,” Peter said as he approached her bed.
May didn’t say anything but she did turn her head to watch him approach.
The right words escaped him so Peter took a seat in the uncomfortable-looking blue plastic chair by her bed.
“I’m so sorry,” May told him, softly. “We were supposed to go put...flowers on Ben’s gave,” she apologized.
“Please, don’t apologize, it’s not your fault,” he told her.
May smiled, little did she know it would be her last but Peter did. They both knew that her time was up very soon.
“You’re so strong, Peter. I couldn’t have been more proud to be your Aunt,” May told him before her eyes slipped closed for the last time and the heart monitor started one long continuous tone.
It was then that the tears that had started sliding down his cheeks since May had apologized became full-on sobs and he curled up in the uncomfortable chair.
He lost track of time as he sat there but Doctor Crusher returned, most likely notified of May’s passing from the equipment hooked up to her.
“Do you have someone we can call to come to get you?” she asked as she crouched down to be level with him.
He didn't, at least there was no one that he could think of at that moment and she tells him that she’ll give him time before she leaves him alone with May.
Through his tears, he could hear Doctor Crusher and a man, most likely a receptionist, talking down the hallway. They were talking about him.
“She was his last living relative, he has no other family,” the man told her.
“Is there anyone listed as his emergency guardian or as an emergency contact?” Crusher asked.
“There is someone listed as his emergency guardian but Bev, you wouldn’t believe who it is,” the man answered.
“Who?” she asked.
“Tony Stark,” the man told her.
Tony’s listed as his emergency guardian?
“No way. Regardless, we still have to follow protocol,” Doctor Crusher told him as their conversation is covered by the sound of a phone ringing.
After that, he isn’t really paying attention to what’s happening around him. Or that is until someone is touching his knee and speaking directly to him.
Peter looked up to see that it was Tony who was speaking to him.
When did he get here?
“Mr Stark?” Why he asked when the man was clearly in front of him, he’ll never know.
“Hey kid,” Tony said.
“May, she’s...” he looked to where she lay stock still on the hospital bed. Peter couldn’t bring himself to say ‘dead’.
“I know, the redhead doctor told me,” Tony said.
“What’s going to happen to me?” Peter had mostly run out of tears by now.
“You can come live with me and the others at the Tower, if you want to or-” he didn’t get to finish his sentence, Peter had already made his choice.
“Can I?”
“I offered, kid. Of course, you can,” As Tony is speaking, Peter uncurled from the position he had taken when May had died.
“Do you want to leave? that chair must not be very comfortable especially if you’ve been sitting there for three hours like the doctor said you have,” Tony asked.
It had been three hours? Already?
Peter nodded and stood up.
Tony led him from the room and out of the hospital. A crowd, of sorts, had started to form outside and then some tried to follow them but when the two got into the car, it thankfully dispersed.
“Is there anything, in particular, you want to bring to the Tower right now? We can get the rest later,” Tony asked as he pulled the car out of the parking space and then out of the parking lot.
“Yeah,” Peter told him before he curled up once again, in the passenger’s side seat.
Before he realized where they were going, Tony had been parked outside his apartment building.
“Do you want me to come up with you?” Tony asked. “Or do you want to go by yourself?”
“Could you come with?” Peter asked.
The two got out of the car, entered the apartment building and ascended the stairs to the floor that Peter’s apartment was on.
After jamming his key in the door and shoving it open, Peter stepped inside.
The last time he had been in the apartment had been over three hours ago and he had been trying to get the last of his homework finished before they headed to the cemetery, oblivious to the motor accident that was happening as he wrote down chemical equations.
Shoving the self-guilt to the back of his mind, for now, Peter headed into his room to grab his SI ID badge and backpack which he stuffed his Spidey suit, laptop, a few pieces of clothing and a few other odds and ends into before returning to the living room/kitchen.
“Got everything?”
Peter nodded.
“Okay, let’s go,” They returned to the car and Tony pulled out of the street-side parking spot and set off in the direction of the Tower.