Chapter Text
I
Photograph
~.~
Peter stayed motionless, lying in a small recovery room in the emergency medical facility built above the ashes and wreckage of the destroyed Avengers Compound. He stared at the ceiling with faraway eyes as doctors and nurses checked him for any serious injuries from the war.
He was completely numb. He didn't feel them administering the drugs straight into his veins, didn't hear the conversations taking place around him, nor did he notice anything at all. The only thing he was aware of was that they had won.
They did it... Mr. Stark did it... and in his head, he saw, over and over again, his mentor—always strong and indestructible—falling to his knees in the middle of the battlefield. His red and gold armor was destroyed and burned, his body slowly slumping limply against a rock as his breath started to fade. His eyes, before so full of life and determination, had grown glassy as Peter broke down, while someone—he couldn't even remember who—dragged him away from the man.
He hadn't cried since. His unresponsive and silent demeanor worried the doctors, who couldn't find anything wrong with the young superhero, no matter how many tests they ran on him.
Peter didn't care anymore... his grief consumed him completely for hours, days, weeks... he didn't know how much time had passed. He stayed like that until, one day, the teenager became aware of his aunt's presence. She was standing by his side, watching him with relieved, tearful eyes, her slight figure shrunken as if she had gone through hell and back. And she really had, after living in her nephew's absence for five years after the first snap.
May embraced him tightly, cradling his head against her chest gently, caressing his hair and face lovingly.
"My baby! Oh my god, Peter!"
The young hero closed his eyes. The familiarity of her arms, her smell, and her motherly voice grounded him and gave him a sense of security. It made something dormant deep inside him wake up, and as Peter felt his body succumb back to reality, he sank into his aunt's embrace and his eyes welled with tears. He gasped, the air trapped in his lungs.
"H-He died… May… He's… Mr. Stark… he's…" The teenager took a deep, shaky breath as his aunt pulled back slightly, watching him with kind yet surprised eyes.
"They... They didn't tell you?"
Peter watched her in confusion, and she threw a questioning glance at the nurse who stood nearby in the room.
"The doctors thought it best to wait to give him the news," the young woman immediately informed her. "He was unresponsive until now, and they were afraid of what his reaction would be if given this kind of information in his current state of shock."
"May…?" Peter asked in a small voice, and his aunt looked back at him gently.
"Peter... He's alive, sweetheart... Tony is alive."
~.~
He went to see him as soon as the doctors finally let him out of his room. Though the camp was improvised, the technologies available to the staff were state-of-the-art and had been doing wonders in helping the patients who still needed rehabilitation. Peter walked through the corridors of the small building, following the directions previously given to him as he dodged a few passersby and observed the movement of doctors and nurses coming and going from the rooms, tending to people.
It was late at night and the activity was low; he found no difficulty in pursuing his goal, nor did he spot any familiar face on the way. Soon, he reached the part of the building where his mentor rested.
The young hero stood staring at the door for a long time, afraid of what he would see inside or ruminating on the irrational thoughts that treacherously ran through his head, saying that everything was a terrible joke and that the man wouldn't be there. The stupid thoughts running wildly in his mind gave way as the door suddenly opened and two people left the room.
Pepper was the first to notice him. The woman was modestly dressed in a long white dress that fell comfortably loose on her silhouette; her long auburn hair was tied in a high ponytail, and although her face showed evident weariness—the bags under her eyes revealing sleepless nights of worry—her sky-blue irises glowed when she recognized the teenager.
"Peter..." she whispered kindly in acknowledgment, and the young hero stayed still, unsure of what to do or say.
Although he had met the Stark Industries CEO at the Tower several times when he and Tony were working on the suits in the billionaire's private lab, they weren't exactly close the way he and his mentor had been. Pepper had always greeted him when they met occasionally; their small talk had been pleasant and he had found in her only kindness and the wisdom of a truly bright woman. The three of them had dined a couple of times and he had had a great time, but it was just that.
"Huh... hi, Mrs. Potts," Peter replied shyly, and a small smile spread across the woman's tired face.
"Actually, it's Stark now," she corrected him gently, and the teenager opened his eyes wide in surprise.
"Are you already married?!" he blurted out. His own words sank in, and he immediately blushed hard in embarrassment. Kicking himself mentally, he reminded himself of Dr. Strange's words explaining that five years had passed.
It still seemed so surreal.
Pepper laughed softly—it was the first time she'd done it in so many days. Far from being offended, she nodded in confirmation, and the teenager's slip seemed to bring some light back to her countenance. Pepper opened her lips to speak, but a small tug on her dress interrupted her.
"Mommy?" a little girl called, partly hidden behind the woman's dress. Peter stared down at her in amazement, only then truly paying attention to her.
The gears running through his head could be read on his face, and even as he assimilated the new information, the surprise in his voice couldn't be hidden.
"Your daughter...?"
Pepper nodded, and caressing the girl's long dark locks, she introduced them.
"This is Morgan." And bending slightly, the woman spoke to her daughter. "And this is Peter. He's very close to our family. Darling, you remember the stories daddy told you about Pete, don't you?"
The shyness she had shown suddenly disappeared as a glow of admiration invaded the girl's brown eyes, so full of energy just like her father's, and Peter swallowed the lump in his throat. Coming out of her hiding place, Morgan asked excitedly,
"Spider-Man?" A huge smile broke across the younger Stark's face. "Daddy told me that you could climb a really tall building with your bare hands and that you could jump across an entire football field!"
"Yeah, I think that's me." The teenager chuckled lightly. He doubted he could jump the distance of an entire field and probably his mentor had over-dramatized the story, but Morgan's big grin and shining, familiarly warm brown eyes melted his heart, and Peter found himself already captivated by the girl.
"You are here to see him," Pepper spoke softly then, and the young hero nodded, though it hadn't been a question. The woman frowned in sympathy and inquired, "Did they tell you…?"
"Yes," Peter confirmed. The doctors had explained to him his mentor's general condition, and he tried to conceal the involuntary grimace he made at the memory.
Mrs. Stark still watched him with that same kindness in her azure eyes.
"Go on..." she encouraged. "I'm sure he would really appreciate it."
Peter thanked her with a nod of his head, but remained silent. Before leaving with her daughter, Pepper surprised him when she took him in her arms in a motherly embrace.
"I'm glad you're alright, Peter," she told him sincerely, and the teenager returned the hug shyly.
The young hero watched mother and daughter leave until they both disappeared around the bend of the corridor, then turned his attention back to the door. With a small sigh, he grabbed the handle and opened it, entering the room and closing the door behind him.
His eyes immediately fell on the figure lying in the center of the room's only bed, surrounded by equipment that monitored his current condition and helped the man stay alive in those early days after the battle. Peter couldn't hold back the shocked gasp that escaped his lips.
The doctors had tried to warn him, but everything they had said seemed like a poor description of what he saw now.
Tony... looked broken.
So broken that Peter almost didn't recognize him.
His mentor was lying on the bed covered by thin sheets to the waist, while the upper part of his body was completely covered by heavy bandages that, in several places, showed the reddish marks of blood still pouring from deep, open wounds. He was very thin and extremely pale, his face so sunken that his left cheekbone was too apparent. The entire right side of his face was covered by bandages, while the left side was covered in cuts and dark bruises, and his only visible eye was closed in deep slumber.
"We had to force him into an induced coma to better manage his body's recovery; it needs to expend as little effort as possible. The damage was too severe…" The doctor's words came back to him.
An oxygen tube in his mouth made his chest rise and fall steadily, although his breathing was barely perceptible and shallow. The beating of his heart displaying on the monitoring device was so weak that the man seemed to be literally hanging on a very thin and fragile line, where even the most subtle disturbance could threaten to impair his critical condition.
Peter shuddered and tried unsuccessfully not to stare at the bandaged hole on his mentor's right side where his arm was missing, along with a major part of his shoulder.
"...When he snapped, the strength of the stones was so great that even with the protection of the Infinity Gauntlet and his armor absorbing some of the impact, it still passed right through and melted his hand and arm on the spot. The forearm and shoulder structure were so badly damaged that there was no choice but to amputate them to give him any chance of recovery. It also burned the right side of his face; only God knows how, by some miracle, it was a superficial burn and apparently didn't penetrate the skull to reach the brain…"
Peter approached the bed with numb steps. He stood beside the engineer, eyes watching him as if he still couldn't believe that this man was really Anthony Stark—the great Iron Man, his friend, mentor, and father figure. He was Earth's Greatest Defender, and his sacrifice had absorbed all of his essence, leaving behind only an almost empty shell, a shadow of the strong and brilliant man Tony had been.
It wasn't fair, the teenager thought, that the world celebrated while the one who had saved them all was there, lying in that bed alone, broken and forgotten, still struggling to hold on to the last bit remaining of his lifeline.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Parker… There could be several more kinds of still-unknown damage… especially to his brain, but we'll only know after his body recovers enough to pull him out of the induced coma for him to wake up… if he wakes up at all... Unfortunately, there's no guarantee that he will ever wake up again."
Peter grasped the man's left hand in his, cradling gently his mentor's fingers as a sob broke out of his lips and tears slid down his face again in grief—just like that day when the man had looked back at him for the last time.
Tony continued oblivious to all his surroundings and his protégé's presence, breathing weakly as the monitoring device echoed too loud in the room.
~.~
Two months had passed since that day, and Peter visited him whenever he could. Amid the normalcy that had been reestablished in his life—or as close to it as possible—the teenager divided his time between his studies at Midtown High and patrolling the city during the afternoons and early evenings.
Regarding school, he wasn't surprised to discover that almost his entire class had been ripped out of existence by Thanos' snap. Now that everyone had returned, the administration had been running wildly to adjust the curriculum for the students who were victims of the Blip.
He had been so glad to meet Ned and Michelle again and find them well. His friend had been talking nonstop about the technological advances that had occurred during those five years; MJ was less teasing and smiling more. Even Flash was being less of a jerk than usual, which showed a good prospect for his last months at Midtown High.
Peter chose to enter an advanced program to catch up and finish his studies faster, allowing him to start applying for colleges, hoping to enter one the following year. It helped him spend much of his mental energy concentrating on something rather than thinking about all that had happened.
As for patrolling, it wasn't easy to convince May to let him go back out like he used to before. It took him several days of talking and insisting until she finally gave in to his request, on the condition that he let Karen stay connected to her phone at all times, reporting his well-being whenever she wanted, which he immediately agreed to.
Peter didn't blame her. She was afraid of losing him again, and every night after he arrived at their temporary flat—set up in the staff living facility since May was working there assisting the injured—they would spend a great deal of time together talking about their day or watching movies like they used to do.
Living temporarily closer to his mentor's room allowed the teenager to visit him constantly. Sometimes he found another Avenger on the way, sometimes he visited Tony with May, or shared those small moments with Pepper and Morgan. The CEO of SI was becoming a constant in his life, and he grew incredibly fond of her daughter, becoming unexpectedly attached to the little girl as she often asked him to tell her Spider-Man stories.
It took two months of constant monitoring for Tony's condition to stabilize enough for the doctors to bring him out of the induced coma, and another five days for the man to open his eyes for the first time after the battle.
It happened during one of their visits. Only the three of them were in the room, chatting quietly, when the monitoring devices showed a slight change. Alarmed, the teenager, the woman, and the girl all at once looked at the engineer, finding his only visible eye open, watching them back with a blurred, blank stare.
Tony was so heavily medicated on drugs and strong pain killers that he didn't recognize them.
~.~
"I've heard he did it because of a kid who was an intern at SI and got snapped." The teenager heard, with his enhanced hearing, the whispers that roamed the halls that night as he slowly walked back alone to his room. "One of the Avengers told me he initially refused to try the whole time travel thing, but reconsidered because of this kid… "
"Who is he?"
"I have no idea..."
Peter's body collided with the wall for support, and he stood there for a long time trying to contain the trembling that overwhelmed him, trying to fully grasp what he had just heard. Meanwhile, in his mind, he saw Tony again—lying inert in his hospital bed, beaten and broken.
It was Scott Lang who confirmed it. The man excitedly told him the next morning all the details of their heroic stunt, not noticing the nausea that overcame the teenager's face in the middle of his tale. Peter's stomach took such a sudden and violent turn that he almost threw up on the spot.
He didn't visit Tony anymore after that.
~.~
Landing on the rooftop of the staff's living facility, the masked hero sat on the edge of the building and sighed. He watched the sky's orange, gold, and red colors blend on the horizon as the sun faded fast, crossing the borders of their world.
These were the times when Peter missed school. After he finished his studies, he still talked to his friends a lot, but now he had too much free time on his hands, which made him think about his life and everything around him more than he would have liked to.
The amount of hours he spent patrolling had increased, which helped him to get his mind off things. But sometimes, during the day, he found himself trapped in small, very quiet moments where nothing happened—nothing that needed Spider-Man's help, anyway. And Peter always started thinking as a cloud of depression fell upon him once again.
"Peter." Karen's voice mercifully interrupted his distant musings.
"Hey..." the teenager answered.
It was a wonder how she could be so understanding for an AI. Tony had programmed her so well that Karen had been really helpful when he began talking to her about the sad thoughts that plagued his mind.
"Got something interesting for me, girl?"
"Your aunt is asking if you could return to the flat right now."
Peter frowned. It was so unusual for May to call him back at such an early hour. He checked the time displayed on the visor of his mask and inquired, concerned,
"Is everything okay?"
The A.I. took a few seconds to reply, doing so as soon as she got his aunt's answer.
"Yes. She just informed me that she needs to talk to you."
"Alright..." The young man sighed and forced himself up, dragging his body back to its feet.
The hero climbed down the building's side, dropped to the ground in a dark, hidden alley, and tapped the spider symbol on his chest. His Iron Spider suit immediately retracted into a compact housing unit, and he tucked it into his pants pocket before stepping into the light, mingling into the crowd on the streets of the camp.
Peter walked into the flat a few minutes later, and the first thing he saw was his aunt sitting in the little makeshift kitchen with Pepper Stark sitting directly across from her at the table, and Morgan playing with a puzzle on the couch. Both women looked at him, and the five-year-old girl immediately jumped from her seat and rushed to meet him.
"Pete!" She embraced his legs, and the young hero bent down slightly to pat her head fondly.
"Hey, Mo." He raised his face and nodded at Pepper in acknowledgment.
"Hello, Peter." The woman smiled at him.
May stood, approached her nephew, and kissed his cheek.
"Thank you for coming back, sweetheart." Peter gave her a questioning glance, and May explained, "Pepper is here to see you. I think you both should talk. It's important."
Whatever it was, his aunt seemed to already know all about it. She invited Morgan to join her for a short walk outside, and soon Peter and his mentor's wife found themselves alone in the small, humble room.
Pepper stood from the chair to move to the couch and motioned for Peter to come and share it, offering the vacant seat beside her. He accepted after a brief moment.
"You haven't come to visit Tony anymore. It's been two weeks," she spoke, going straight to the point. She wasn't accusing, just commenting softly as she watched him, her attention never leaving his face.
Peter broke eye contact and shifted uncomfortably in his seat.
"I… I didn't… want to disturb him… He needs all the rest he can get," the teenager mumbled, fumbling with his fingers in his lap.
"He's recovering... each day is a new fight he faces, but slowly he's succeeding. He's getting better," she told him. "Tony's managing to stay awake longer, and he's already reacting to the people around him. He's not quite able to speak in full sentences yet, but he's already saying a few words to me and Morgan."
Pepper was silent for a brief moment, sighing softly.
"He's been asking for you, Peter."
That made the teenager raise his face. An avalanche of emotions filled his eyes, and she read them as clearly as an open book.
"I know what you are thinking," the woman spoke so gently, her eyes filled only with understanding, seeming to see into his very soul. She held both his hands firmly in hers. "Peter, it wasn't your fault."
His eyes widened, staring back at the woman, shocked.
"How…" he whispered.
"FRIDAY told me," Pepper answered him.
The young hero was confused for a few seconds, and then it finally dawned on him. FRIDAY still had a direct connection to Karen, and since he considered his AI a close friend, he had practically dumped everything he was feeling on her—his thoughts about Tony, his current condition, his self-blame for being indirectly responsible for making the man consider time travel in the first place, and worst of all, for not having fought harder to prevent what his mentor had done.
He had held the Infinity Gauntlet in his arms... he could have... done anything... he could have been faster... fought harder... anything...
Peter felt his entire face burn red in embarrassment. The woman touched his cheek, her touch light and comforting.
"My husband saved many lives with everything he did, from the moment he first wore his iron armor until now. He never regretted anything before, and I'm sure he doesn't regret anything now, either. The choices he made were his alone, Peter. I would be lying if I told you that you had no special weight in the inspiration that made him decide to dive deeper into the research that led him to discover the elements that would make time travel possible. In the five years we lived together after you disappeared—during our marriage, Morgan's birth, and her childhood—you were always in his thoughts."
The auburn-haired woman sighed and smiled with a slight, distant touch in her gaze, staring somewhere beyond the teenager as if reliving the memories she spoke of. Peter was so engrossed in her words that he didn't dare to say anything to interrupt her.
"Tony spoke of you as I have rarely heard him speak of anyone before. He told me that the time you spent together helped him to understand more about his relationship with Morgan, unconsciously preparing him for the fatherhood role he soon assumed when we were blessed with our daughter."
She looked straight into his eyes again.
"Morgan grew up listening to stories about you. Sometimes her father told her about the amazing achievements that Spider-Man did to help people; other times, he made them up, like the time he told her Spider-Man had helped Iron Man defeat a group of aliens who invaded Earth once." Pepper snorted softly, fondly. "But... sometimes Tony told her stories about Peter—a brilliant young scientist who was her older brother."
The teenager's mouth dropped in shock, and Pepper smiled at him that same motherly smile he had seen her give Morgan countless times.
"Because, in truth, that is what you have always been to him, Peter. Tony didn't go back just to save the world; he also did it to save a son he loved."
Peter stayed frozen on the spot, completely at a loss for words. The auburn-haired woman caressed his hands, warming them. He swallowed hard, shaken.
"H-He… he…" The young hero couldn't get the words out, but Pepper understood them nevertheless.
"It was something he wanted you to know back then. Tony blamed himself so much for not openly telling you this while he could, before it all happened." She watched him. "I decided to tell you this now so that you could understand why my husband did what he did and why you shouldn't blame yourself for the things that have passed, Peter. There's nothing we wouldn't do for our daughter... just as there's nothing we wouldn't do for our son."
Like the night they'd first met after the war outside the engineer's room, Pepper embraced him again, kissing his cheek and softly telling him,
"Go to him, Peter. I'm sure seeing you will brighten his heart."
~.~
Later that night, when the moon hung high in the sky and the activity in the corridors of the medical facility had thinned out considerably, Peter stood again in front of his mentor's door. He stared at the handle with Pepper's words still running wild through his head, and it took him a long moment before he finally opened it and entered the room.
The light was pleasantly low, shrouding the room in semidarkness. Tony was resting in what looked like a calm slumber; the only visible side of his face was relaxed, his skin rosier, and his breathing deeper and steadier. His face's right side was covered by new bandages from a recent surgery to repair the damage he had sustained. The best plastic surgeons in the world had worked on it, and Peter really hoped they had succeeded.
Not wishing to disturb his mentor's rest, Peter focused his attention on the room and realized there were some slight changes to it—Pepper's hand, no doubt. A flower vase rested in the far corner, and close to the bed stood a small nightstand with three photos on it.
The teenager approached to observe them. The first one showed the billionaire holding his daughter in his arms with Pepper standing close by his side, the three of them smiling at the camera. The second showed the engineer next to Happy and Rhodey. The third, however, captured his attention and made him take the frame in his hands and stare at it for a long time; it was the photo they had taken together at Stark Industries for his internship, both grinning madly at the camera.
It... It seemed like a long time ago, so far away... it was a time when both would work for hours straight in the lab, fixing his suit or tackling other projects they shared a common interest in. Tony had just announced his engagement to Pepper and had made his internship official at his company. Everything seemed to be fine, and then Thanos happened.
A shadow of sadness crossed his eyes. If only they had known... could they have avoided it? Could they have prevented the snap and the sacrifices Tony and the other Avengers had made to win?
He truly didn't know...
"Pete..."
The teenager jumped, so startled that the frame slipped from his paralyzed fingers and fell to the floor, shattering the glass that protected the photograph. It lay forgotten as the young hero turned his head quickly, his eyes meeting his mentor's, who was watching him back.
Tony's left brown eye shone with the remnants of the intense gaze he had always had before. Although still weakened, it wasn't blank or unfocused, but clear and attentive with recognition.
"Hey, Mr. Stark..." Peter greeted him weakly. He tried to grin, but it didn't sit right on his lips, resembling a grimace more than a poor attempt at a smile.
Tony stayed silent. The emotion that outlined his countenance was the same Peter had seen on the man's face when they had met on the battlefield; for Peter, it had been only a matter of minutes, but for his mentor, it had been five years.
"S-So..sor..y… sorry…" Tony's voice took him out of his reverie; it was slightly slurred by the medication. "I... d-didn't... last time... sorry..."
Peter's eyes widened. Suddenly understanding, he shook his head furiously.
"It wasn't your fault, Mr. Stark! I'm totally okay with it! If I were as drugged up as you are, I doubt I'd recognize even myself!"
The man's lips quirked up slightly.
"You 'kay?" Tony asked in a breath, and Peter threw him an incredulous look.
Here they were; his mentor, after saving the entire freaking planet and getting the crap beaten out of him, asking if he was alright? The engineer's visible eye shone with a hint of amusement, and Peter could have sworn he heard a snort escape the man's lips.
"I'm okay!" the young hero blurted out.
Fumbling with words that seemed to come to his head in total disarray, he didn't know exactly what to say to the man now that he was finally there, talking to him. He began to say anything that crossed his mind so as to not let the room's silence engulf them again.
"I'm surviving Aunt May's bad cooking—don't tell her that, though! Not that I eat it much, usually we eat at night after school or after I patrol as Spider-Man… I just patrol now, I finished school about a week ago, and I started applying to colleges; hope one of them accepts me… May is staying around here helping people out. I've been patrolling more now; she didn't want me to patrol at first, but I convinced her by letting Karen stay in touch constantly… I didn't do much this week, though, I stayed close to the camp and yesterday I saved this cat from a tree for a little girl. She gave me a cat-shaped balloon that I gave to Morgan…"
Peter suddenly fell silent when he realized he was rambling too far, and his cheeks flushed pink in embarrassment. Tony, however, watched him serenely, showing such attention and interest as if the cat the teenager had saved was as important to him as the tale of Iron Man's recent deeds was to humanity. The billionaire's gaze was gentle and deep, and Peter was so suddenly moved by it that he turned his face away to watch anything else in the room. His attention fell on the broken frame under his feet.
"Give it... to me..." the man's voice slurred once again at the request, and Peter saw the effort he made to raise his hand. The teenager picked up the object and carefully handed it to his mentor.
Tony rested the broken frame on his lap and silently, with very slow movements—fingers that were too stiff in Peter's eyes—he opened the frame and took their picture from it. The teenager gathered the broken pieces of glass and discarded them in a safe place while Tony watched the photo with fondness in his countenance. Suddenly, he peeled off a piece of white tape that held one of his bandages and pressed it to the top of the photo.
"Put it on… the wall," he instructed, and wordless, the young hero obeyed, taping their picture to the wall above the nightstand, next to the picture of the couple with their daughter.
"See..." The man gave him a tired grin. "Fixed it… good… as new…"
Peter's eyes filled with tears and Tony's softened, his left hand subtly patting the small space beside him on the bed.
"Come 'ere... kid..." the engineer beckoned him.
Peter didn't hesitate to sit on the edge of the bed on the man's good side and lie down against his mentor's chest, hugging him carefully to avoid his injuries. Tony's left arm embraced him gently, cradling the teenager's trembling form against him, his fingers straying through Peter's unruly brown curls. His body protested partly, but the man didn't complain aloud as Peter's tears wet his bandages, and he savored every second of his kid's presence. Peter was here, he was real, he was safe, and now his family was whole again.
"It's 'kay… Pete…" Tony muttered, his words slurred, feeling his left eye also wet with tears. "It's 'kay… now…"