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It was Tony’s fault when it came down to it.
It was very clear how little thought he put into recruiting a kid to join in on his little kerfuffle with Team Cap. His intentions were to just borrow the kid, give him a shiny new suit and then return him to the wilds of Queens, washing his hands clean. Never did he suspect he’d become so stupidly attached to a 15 year old spider kid.
This meant that Tony was woefully unprepared in dealing with said 15 year old spider kid. Hell, he didn’t even know how Peter got his abilities to begin with, or anything else really. He knew the kid was strong, agile, fast, and sticky, that was the extent of his knowledge. And worse of all, he didn’t even think to ask any questions or find anything else out.
And Peter had to suffer because of it.
After the Vulture mess, the kid had done a pretty good job staying out of any major trouble. Especially since his Aunt now knew about his activities, it took some of the burden and worry off of Tony’s shoulders.
Mostly because May was able to talk sense into the kid, especially when it came to his curfew and just how many hours he was allowed to put in suit time. Tony had no leg to stand on when trying to reign in Peter’s enthusiasm, but May was his actual parent and she knew exactly how to create and enforce the rules. And Peter, surprisingly, listened to her.
Peter had been dealing with some guy, the Tinkler? Toy Maker? Something villain nicknamed guy who was planting very small but very dangerous bombs around Queens for Spider-man to find. Apparently Spider-man had annoyed him at some point, but Tony really didn’t know too many of the details.
The kid was making jokes about it, saying the guy reminded him of a knock off Riddler, straight out of a Batman comic, so Tony didn’t put much thought or worry into it.
Peter had been doing a great job of figuring things out on his own. The only reason why Tony showed up was because Peter had called him, asking him to. The kid was out patrolling when Tony got a frantic message from an out of breath Peter, who told him he needed help. Apparently he’d chased down a bomb, but he wasn’t sure if he’d be able to dearm it before it went off.
Tony dropped everything, calling up a suit and making his way out to Queens in a matter of minutes.
Too bad he was a little too late.
Peter had been holding the bomb when it went off, curling himself around it to lessen the blast. It wasn’t a very sophisticated bomb, which Tony later learned was the only reason why Peter survived the explosion at all. The bomb was full of rusty nails, all of which had embedded themselves into the kid’s skin.
Arriving seconds after the bomb went off, Tony found Peter lying on his back, surrounded by shrapnel and debris. Seeing the kid’s motionless body on the ground was beyond frightening, Tony held his breath as he ran, screaming at FRIDAY to tell him if Peter was even alive.
Getting closer he could see the rise and fall of Peter’s chest, as well as the hundreds of pieces of nails that littered his entire body. Some of them were deep, others looked superficial, Tony couldn’t even count how many there were. It was a waking nightmare, seeing Peter looking so hurt and broken, blood staining nearly every visible part of him. He looked so painfully young, just like he had when Tony saw him motionless on that tarmac and Tony felt the same amount of fear.
Dropping to his knees, there was very little space he could touch Peter that wasn't going to hurt him, he settled on a hand on Peter’s shoulder, not sure what he could even offer the kid at this point. The medbay at the Tower had been alerted, Tony knew the fastest way to get Peter help would be to fly him there, he just had to find a way to do it without hurting the kid even more.
Letting out a little moan, Peter moved his head to the side. Tony was shocked he was still awake, he had wished the kid would stay knocked out for the journey, simply to avoid the pain.
“Hey there,” he said, trying to sound strong and reassuring, not worried. Rolling up Peter’s mask to his forehead, he wanted to make sure he was looking at the kid. There wasn’t anyone around them and he’d be long gone before anyone came over.
The damage to his face was minimal, mostly small cuts on his cheeks. The real damage looked to be the nails embedded into his chest and stomach.
“T-tony,” he stuttered. “E’vryone okay?”
“Yeah kid,” Tony said, bringing a hand to the side of the kid’s face, reassuringly. “You did well. Now c’mon, I’m going to pick you up very carefully and take you to the Tower, okay? It’s gonna hurt, I’m not gonna lie.”
“Noo,” Peter moaned, he made a little movement and let out a very loud yelp, before stopping himself. “Hurts,” he grunted out, clenching his teeth.
There wasn’t much Tony could do for him, the longer he waited, the worse damage the nails could be doing to his kid. Trying to block out the sounds of Peter’s little pained sounds, he carefully scooped him up. “I’m sorry, Pete,” he said softly, taking off from the ground, trying to push out the tiny yelp Peter made. “I know it hurts but I’m getting you help, okay? I promise it’ll all be over soon.”
The only thing he could do was hold onto Peter and fly as fast as he could to the Tower.
-
Dr. Cho and her team were waiting for them when he arrived. Peter kept letting out muffled screams as they flew, Tony had to try and ignore them, pushing himself to move faster. He had hoped so hard that Peter passed out during the flight, but he didn’t, stubbornly keeping awake and fully aware of how painful everything was.
Carrying Peter through the Tower and towards the medbay, a team of nurses followed closely behind, one of them trying to pull Peter’s mask off, but the kid let out a yelp and tried to stop her. “It’s okay,” Tony said to him. “You’re safe, Pete. They are trying to help you, it’s okay.”
With reluctance, Peter stopped moving and let the woman slip the mask off and replace it with an oxygen mask. Peter’s face was frigentlying pale as Tony gently laid him on the hospital bed. He made a pained sound as Tony moved away, Peter’s wild and unfocused eyes looking panicked as more people descended on him. All Tony could do was step aside, stuck between wanting to stay with Peter and not wanting to be in anyone’s way.
“As he had his tetanus vaccine?” A woman asked him, startling Tony out of his stupor. He had no idea if the kid was vaccinated, in fact he knew nothing at all about Peter’s medical records. Another mistake on his part, another thing he didn’t think of needing to know.
“I don’t know,” he answered truthfully. “I don’t have any of his medical records available. I could.. I could call his Aunt, but it might take some time.”
“That’s okay,” the woman said calmly. “Do you think you can ask him? I know he’s a bit out of it, but I think he’ll respond to you.”
Nodding his head, Tony moved back towards Peter, kneeling down so he was eye level with the kid’s face. “Pete,” he said softly, hand moving up to push aside a strand of hair from Peter’s forehead. “Pete, can you look at me?”
It took a second but Peter finally turned his attention towards Tony, his eyes finding his, but not looking any less panicked and confused. “Did you have your tetanus vaccine, kiddo?”
Blinking a few times, Peter nodded his head, before turning back away from Tony, giving a little whine of pain. Tony figured it was the best answer he was going to get and stood up to look at the woman. “He nodded, but I don’t know if he really understood the question.”
“Understandable, given his current state, we are going to err on the side of caution. Giving him another booster certainly won’t hurt him.”
The woman disappeared, and Tony looked back to Peter, his eyes darting around the room, frantic and unfocused. “You’ll be alright in a minute, kid. They are giving you the good stuff now.”
Peter whined, a sharp sound in the back of his throat that made Tony’s heart stutter in his chest. He couldn’t stand to hear the kid like this, wanted nothing more than to hear Peter’s giggles and laugh, hell he’d even take sobbing tears or angry shouts over the sad sounds he kept making.
“Won’t,” Peter said softly, his breath fogging up the mask. ‘Won’t,” he repeated when Tony didn’t respond, tears were pooling in his eyes as he took in a deep breath. Tony was amazed the kid was able to talk at this point.
“Won’t, what Pete?” Tony moved closer, he was almost nose to nose with Peter. He could see the sheen of sweat on his kid’s face, and feel the warmth coming from his skin. Tony reached out and placed a careful hand on the side of Peter’s face. He could only hope he wasn’t in the way of any nurses, but right now he needed to figure out what Peter was trying to tell him.
“Medicine,” he whimpered, and tears started to pool in the corner of his eyes. “Not strong enough.”
It took Tony far too long to realize what Peter had said but when he did, he stood up, keeping his hand still on Peter’s cheek. He looked around until he spotted Cho standing off to the side of the room, speaking with one of the nurses.
“Cho,” he called out. She came over to him in a hurry. “We need to find Cap’s medicine. The kid’s metabolism works just as fast as he does.”
Cho looked to Peter, who was still making keening sounds, more and more desperate it seemed. “Have you given this to him before? Do you know what dosage he can take?”
“No,” Tony admitted, the fear settling down his stomach. He had no idea how much Peter’s body could take, how much he would even need to make it painless for him. “I don’t know anything about it. We never, we never looked into it.”
Cho didn’t say anything else but instead seemed to put a stop to the general flurry of activity. She squatted down until she was level with Peter. Tony regretfully let go of the kid’s face, so he could turn his head and look at Cho instead. Cho spoke closely to his ear but Tony heard exactly what she said.
“Peter, we don’t know if Roger’s medicine is going to help you right now. I’m concerned about the dosage level but we need to get the shrapnel out now. We’ll start slow and try our best. I’m not going to lie to you, this might be very painful for you at first. I’m hoping the medicine will provide some relief but I need to be honest with you, it might not. It’s too risky to give you a higher dose if we are unsure of how your body will handle it. I want you to have a say in this, are you okay with us proceeding if we are unable to give you proper antistic?”
Tony could tell Peter understood what was happening now, he bit down on his lower lip but nodded yes head before letting out a breathy. “Yes.”
She locked eyes with Tony as she stood up. “You might want to put your gauntlet on. We might have to restrain him and you might need to hold him at some point.”
Things were happening way too fast for Tony’s mind to comprehend. He never felt dumber in his entire life, realizing exactly what Cho was saying to him. They might have to remove the shrapnel without even knowing if he’d be properly numbed or knocked out. Peter would feel all of it and he would be in more pain than imaginable.
And Tony might have to restrain him, hold the kid down as he screamed in pain.
Suddenly Tony was flung back to his surgery in the Afghanistan cave. He had something, it wasn’t nearly enough, he couldn’t imagine feeling all of it. He had to take several measured breaths before squatting back down to Peter’s side. Someone came over a second later and placed a chair for Tony to sit in.
“It’s okay, Pete, I’m here,” he said, unable to say anything else. He didn’t think he was equipped enough to say anything else. “I’m here.”
Peter nodded, weakly and let out another sound, this one a little louder. Tony looked up to watch the nurse administer some of the super drugs into Peter’s IV. They were already trying to cut away from his suit from the bigger bits of shrapnel, much to Peter’s discomfort. They had already begun taking away smaller pieces.
“Breath Peter,” Cho said, appearing to his side again. “Relax. I know this is hard but try to relax the best you can. The ideal situation would be for you to pass out, but I’m not sure we’re going to reach that right away. I’ve given you some muscle relaxants now too.”
Peter was trying, but Tony could tell the drug provided little if any relief. He knew they couldn’t keep waiting, the longer they did, the more of a chance the shrapnel could do major damage to him. There was no time to wait, no time to try and make sure Peter didn’t feel a thing, or even felt a little bit more comfortable.
Cho seemed to be on the same wavelength as Tony.
“Peter, we’re going to have to start. We’re going to restrain your arms and legs, it’s to keep you from hurting yourself. I’m going to give you foam to bite down on. We’re going to do everything we can to help you through this. You need to try and stay as relaxed as possible, tensing up will only make this more difficult for all of us. I know this is a big ask of you, but you need to try to remain still.”
Tony wasn’t sure how much of everything Peter understood, but nodded his head. Watching helplessly as they tied down Peter’s arm and legs, Tony knew full well that Peter could break free in a matter of seconds.
“I’m going to remove the breathing mask Peter and give you a nose cannula instead. We have something for you to bite down on if the pain gets too intense,” said a nurse who had popped up out of nowhere. She carefully removed Peter’s mask and he moaned a little, mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water.
“Hey, Pete, it’s okay,” Tony soothed as the nurse placed in the cannula. “You’re going to be fine, kid. Just try your best to relax and breathe.”
“S-s-s-stay,” Peter mumbled, eyes pleading with Tony. He was trembling slightly, biting down on his lip so hard it was already turning white.
With the gauntlet on his arm, he took Peter’s hand in his, moving closer to Peter’s ear. “Of course, Peter. I’m not going anywhere, kid. I’m gonna hold your hand and you can squeeze as tight as you need to.”
The nurse gave them a sympathetic smile before placing the foam in Peter’s open mouth, the kid seemed to clamp down on it right away.
There was very little that scared Tony anymore. Seeing Peter tied down, bloodied, pale, and sweaty, in front of him, tears falling freely down his face was enough nightmare fuel to last him a lifetime.
And then they started to remove the nails.
Cho had already told him there wasn’t a lot and none of it was in danger of getting into Peter’s heart at the moment, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t going to be difficult to get out. Peter’s stomach was littered with tiny bits of metal pieces, some visibly sticking out, others leaving behind just trails of blood. Tony was forever thankful the team worked quickly, several people going for bits of skin with lightning speed but still taking the utmost care.
Muffled screams escape from around the foam piece, high pitched ones, turning into a short gasp, or worse, long moans of pain. He screamed the loudest when a long nail came out of his abdomen, the length, and width of a pencil. Tony could feel his gauntleted hand starting to crush inwards, Peter was squeezing hard enough to dent it. But he wouldn’t let go, he’d walk away with two broken hands if it helped Peter.
“You’re doing good,” Tony said softly, leaning in as close as he dared. He moved away some sweaty hair from Peter’s forehead. “You’re doing so good, Pete. I’m so proud of you right now, kiddo. When we’re done, I’m going to buy you anything you want, okay?”
“Mr. Stark,” he heard from one of the nurses but he didn’t look away from Peter to acknowledge her, she talked anyway. “Colonel Rhodes wanted to let you know he’s suited up and available to take over, if needed.”
“No,” Tony said firmly, “tell him it’s okay. I’m going to stay here.”
There was no way Tony would leave him now, he was going to stay here for as long as it took.
He gave Peter’s hand another squeeze, not taking away his eyes from the kid’s face. He wished the kid would just pass out already, but it seemed like he was cursed to stay awake for each incision, each scalpel poking into his skin, each long jagged rusted nail being pulled away and put in little trays. His eyes remained mostly closed, his hand still squeezing Tony’s, mouth still biting down hard on the foam piece.
At one particularly bad piece, Peter’s eyes opened, looking around unfocused and it seemed to make him even more agitated. The nurses had put up something to block Peter’s view of his body, but that didn’t seem to comfort him.
“Try to keep him still,” Cho said, poking her head behind the curtain. “One of them has broken off, we’re trying to keep the pieces together.”
“Hey, Petey,” Tony said, leaning in as close as he could to Peter’s face. It took a second, but the kid looked back at him. His eyes were red rimmed, glossy, and unfocused, but he seemed to calm down just a little. “That’s good, Pete. Real good, why don’t you keep your eyes on me, okay? It’s just me and you, kid, it’s just me and you.”
It might have been Tony’s imagination, but he was sure he saw Peter nod his head, just a little. Even if the kid wouldn’t pass out, he certainly shouldn’t be lucid enough to really understand what’s happening.
Tony kept his face as close as he could and did the only thing he could and just kept talking.
Telling Peter stupid stories about building Dumb-E, exploits he and Rhodes had during college, and even embarrassing childhood stories with Jarvis. Peter didn’t look as if he heard anything, he kept his eyes on Tony’s face, muffled screams and whimpers still coming from behind the foam.
Finally, after what seemed like a lifetime, Cho was back to hovering at Peter’s side. “We’re just finishing up now, Peter. You did so well, we’re all very proud of you. We’re just going to finish a few stitches and then it’ll all be over.”
Peter let out a keening sound, behind the foam but Dr. Cho didn’t move it. “I know, but just a little bit longer. We don’t want you hurting yourself,” she said softly, before looking up at Tony and then disappearing behind the curtain.
“Hey kiddo,” Tony said, getting Peter’s attention. “I’m not gonna be mad if you pass out now, okay? Anytime you want, you just take a nap, and then when you wake up, things will be better. I promise you, Pete. I’m going to make sure you’re never in this position ever again. I’m going to do everything in my power to protect you and keep you safe. Wrap you in bubble wrap, make the whole world baby proof, I don’t care, it’s happening.”
And then Peter smiled, it was a bit weird around the foam, but Tony could see it. “There you go,” Tony said softly, his other hand coming to rest on Peter’s forehead. “Close your eyes, Pete. You’ll be just fine.”
And then, blissfully, Peter’s eyes closed and a second later, the hand holding Tony’s went lax and the kid finally passed out.
-
The next afternoon Peter looked much better, Tony walked into the room to find him sitting up in bed, eating from a cup of jello.
“Hiya, Mr. Stark,” he chirped, the spoon dangling from his mouth. He looked happy and whole, no longer pale and red faced. His hospital gown covered the thick bandages Tony knew were underneath.
It was like yesterday never happened.
But it had and Tony wasn’t about to forget it.
“Hey there, Pete. Feelin’ alright?”
Tony walked over to his bedside, pulling up the chair he knew May had recently abandoned. Peter pulled the spoon from his mouth. “A little sore but alright. Um, thank you for uh, helping me yesterday. I’m uh, sorry things got a little crazy.”
“Oh kid,” Tony started, there was so much wrong with Peter thanking him and being sorry when it was all Tony’s fault in the first place. “Don’t apologize, okay? You did good, you did so well. I should be the one apologizing, it’s my fault you suffered so much.”
“Oh,” Peter said, shrugging his shoulders. His voice was a little hoarse still but sounded a lot better now that he wasn’t screaming. “It’s not your fault, it’s not like I said anything before.”
“You shouldn’t have to,” Tony replied. “You're my responsibility and I didn’t even stop to consider that you might need special medication. I promise, Pete, that it’ll never happen again, okay? We’re working on something right now. We’re making the best spider kid medicine possible, for any situation you might find yourself in. Pain meds, cold meds, sleeping pills, allergy pills, you name it, we’re making it.”
“Thanks, Mr. Stark,” Peter responded, a light blush across his cheeks. “But really, it’s okay. It wasn’t even that bad, you know?”
Tony blinked at him, not believing that for a second. “You don’t have to pretend with me, Peter. I saw you, I know it hurt you, I know it hurt a lot.”
“Yeah,” Peter said, shaking his head a little. “But it was okay because you were there. And you held my hand and told me it was going to be okay. And you told me stories too, that helped a lot.”
“You remember all that?” Tony asked, amazed since Peter had looked pretty out of it the entire time.
Nodding, Peter added a shrug at the end. “Yeah, I mean it would have been so much worse if you hadn’t been there to help. Focusing on your voice and just, uh, well um, knowing you weren’t going to leave…it really helped.”
Peter had put his head down, seemingly embarrassed about the omission. Tony leaned over, placing his hand on Peter’s shoulder, hoping he wasn’t near a bad spot. “Pete, there was no way I was going to leave you, okay? Like I said you’re… you’re my responsibility now, okay? That means you get access to Tony Stark, whenever and wherever you need him. 100% no questions even asked.”
“Even at birthday parties?” Peter questioned, a glint in his eye that told Tony he was feeling much better.
“Well, I mean, I’m not going to sit around telling jokes or allow little kids to pet me, but yeah sure, you want Tony Stark for your birthday party? You got him, I’ll even come in the suit.”
Looking up, Peter’s eyes were a little red, his face still flushed red, but he smiled shyly. “Um, do you think uh, we’re there yet? Maybe?”
Tony furrowed his brows in confusion for a second, before remembering the comment he’d made when Peter first tried to hug him all those months ago. It only took him a second to know the answer to that. Opening his arms, Peter didn’t even hesitate before launching himself into the hug.
It was nice, Peter held onto Tony, not like he’d done yesterday, but in a meaningful and… well, loving way. They pulled apart after what felt like a lifetime passed, Peter looking a little sheepish like he still wasn’t sure if they were really there yet.
But they were, Tony had realized when he was holding Peter’s hand, cradling his face, that he cared about Peter and his well being a lot more than he thought he could.
“I think we’re there Pete,” Tony added, reaching over and ruffling the kid’s hair, laughing when Peter tried to squirm away.