Chapter 13
"Clint, I need you to bring me another unit of O Neg," Bruce ordered as worked diligently to stitch the deep gashes on Harry's arms up.
Clint appeared at his side in seconds, beginning to hook Harry to another liter of blood. Behind him, through the double doors, Tony was pacing back and forth while watching his friends work hurriedly to save Harry.
"Tony!" Pepper appeared breathlessly, looking disheveled despite her professional attire. "Oh God, is he okay? I came as fast as I could."
Her eyes landed on Harry lying pale and unconscious on the bed. Thick dressings lined the already stitched wounds, and an IV was hanging loosely from his non-injured hand, the tube intertwining with heart rate monitors, tubes for the oxygen mask that was strapped to his face, and the tubes that were delivering more blood to replenish what he had lost.
Tony turned to face her, but he couldn't quite manage to reach her eyes. This was his fault- he should have stayed with Harry after he got the news.
He knew it wasn't a good idea to let him be alone.
"Tony, don't you dare blame yourself for this," Pepper scolded gently, pulling him into a tight embrace. She already knew what was running through his mind- it was the same thing that always did whenever someone got hurt. He always had to blame himself.
"She's right. There's no way you could have predicted this," Steve placed a hand on his shoulder and gave it a reassuring squeeze as he appeared from where he had been informing Natasha of the news.
The spy hadn't taken it very well, and had disappeared to the roof so that she could think. But she told Steve to call her the moment anything happened. Good or bad.
"How's Nat?" Tony asked, lifting his sad eyes to meet Steve's baby blue ones.
"She didn't take it too well," Steve sighed, shaking his head sadly. "I think it's because she's been through all of this before."
"What do you mean?" Pepper asked with a confused look between the two men who shared a solemn look of agreeance.
"Pep, when Nat was a teenager, she dealt with all of this, except she was where Harry is now. It took her months of therapy to be able to recover enough to live at home, and another few years before she was able to live on her own. Her family practically disowned her after that. They were ashamed of how weak she was."
"Poor Tasha," Pepper whispered, "nobody deserves that. Ever."
"How are you holding up?" Steve asked the couple with an empathetic expression.
"I just don't know how to feel. I thought he was doing better. I should have expected this. I'm hurt. I'm sad. I'm angry, I'm-"
"Tony, listen to me," a voice said behind them, and the three Avengers turned to face a tearful Natasha. She took a few steps towards them, a look of seriousness on her face.
"You have to promise me that no matter how angry you are, you will not take it out on Harry. I know this all seems like it's his fault and could have been prevented, and in a way, it is and could have been, but he didn't do this for the attention. He didn't do this as an act of defiance. He did this because he didn't know how else to protect us and himself. He was trying to save himself the pain of being hurt again."
Tony swallowed the anger towards Harry, and the feeling was instead replaced with blinding guilt.
"And don't blame yourself either. You didn't know what was going to happen. You didn't make him do this. He didn't do this because of you," Natasha was now standing in front of Tony, staring at him without breaking the intense eye contact.
"Tony, we are probably the reason he didn't go all the way. The reason he's still here. Fighting."
Pepper anticipated the sobs before anyone else. Quickly, she pulled Tony into a tight hug and he buried his face in the crook of her neck.
"Shh," she cooed softly, letting tears of her own fall. "We've been here before, and we'll get through this once more. It's all going to be okay."
Natasha stepped forward and leaned into her best friend's tense body, sighing when he relaxed at her touch.
"Where's Peter?" Tony asked, guilt hitting him like a bus as he realized he had momentarily forgotten about the person that had probably had the most traumatic experience out of all of them.
"Bucky's upstairs calming him down," Steve sighed. "We thought it would be best to get him calmed down and Harry stable and conscious before we let Peter visit."
"That's a good idea," Pepper agreed with a nod. The last thing Peter needed was more stress of seeing Harry, or any of the Avengers for that matter, in such vulnerable positions.
"I agree. I'm going to go check up on him though," Tony said, knowing that it was the right thing to do. He didn't want to leave Harry's side, not now, not ever, but he knew that upstairs there was a kid that had just walked in on one of the most traumatizing scenes he could possibly think of.
"Let me know immediately if anything, and I mean anything, changes," Tony declared with the voice of steel.
"Okay, we will," Steve nodded with a weak smile.
"Good. I'll be back in a few."
*
Tony didn't know what he was expecting when he stepped out of the elevator, but it certainly wasn't what he was seeing.
Bucky was sitting in the corner of the sectional, koala hugging Peter who was cocooned in what appeared to be his own webs.
"Wha-?" Tony began, but Bucky shot him a look over the top of Peter's head that said 'don't ask'.
"In science class, we learned about pressure points," Peter began, his eyes slightly glazed over as he began to ramble. "Being swaddled and keeping pressure tight around those points will help relieve stress. That's why babies like being swaddled- it reminds them of the safety of when their parents hold them. Sergeant Barnes is helping me relieve my pressure points."
He continued to ramble, still staring straight ahead which concerned Tony.
"We also learned in science class that the human body has 5.5 liters of blood. That's roughly 1.4 gallons. About 11.6 pints. Almost 23 cups. The human body can survive with only .4 gallons of blood. That's one and a half liters of blood. That's roughly 37% blood loss, which leaves 63% of blood in you. That's a lot of blood. That's roughly 9 pounds of blood lost, which would be a lot-"
"Peter!" Tony knelt in front of the boy's face, cupping his cheeks in his hands. "Peter, buddy, stop. You're in shock, that's okay. You're okay. Harry's okay. I'm okay. Everyone's okay."
"A lot, that's a lot," Peter murmured, continuing to ramble. "A lot of blood. Blood is red. I wear red. Do I wear blood?"
"Shit," Tony swore under his breath, glancing up at Bucky who was staring at him with wide, concerned eyes. "Peter, I need you to listen to me, okay? Look at me, can you do that? Can you look at me kid?"
Peter blinked with heavy eyelids before looking up at Tony with big doe-like eyes. He seemed to be present and aware of his surroundings now, unlike before when he seemed to be floating off somewhere else.
"Harry's okay. I know what you saw was scary- it scared me too- but you've seen much worse," Tony paused when Bucky shot him a look that said 'you're not helping'. "But everyone's okay, okay? We're all still here."
"Can-can I see hi-him?" Peter hiccupped, eyes widening as he begged. "Please, I just need to make sure he's okay. Please."
"I'll tell you what. I'm going to go call your aunt and tell her you're going to stay here for a few days to help me out in the lab. After that, we'll go down and see Harry together, alright? How does that sound?"
"That sounds good Mister Stark," Peter yawned.
"You can take a nap if you want," Tony offered, deeply hoping that Peter took him up on that. It wasn't that he didn't want him to see Harry, but Steve, Pepper and Bucky were right- they needed to wait until the right moment for the boys to meet again, properly.
"M'kay," Peter hummed, head lolling to the side lazily. Within a matter of seconds, he was asleep, still swaddled in his silk cocoon and held in the winter soldier's embrace.
"I'll call his aunt," Bucky told Tony softly, nodding towards the elevator. "You just go make sure Harry's okay."
"Thank you," the billionaire replied graciously before disappearing back into the elevator and re-entering the waiting room of the medbay. He had grown to very much dislike the color of the walls, and he made a mental note to have them repainted.
Suddenly, the glass doors slid open and Bruce stepped out with an exhausted but relieved expression on his face.
"We've moved him into a more private, quiet room for the time being, and for now, I've decided to keep the number of visitors down to a minimum of two at a time to help prevent Harry from becoming overwhelmed..."
"What else?" Steve asked, knowing that Bruce had paused before delivering the second half of the news.
"Well, the good news is, he's regaining consciousness, which is good because he did suffer from minor hemorrhaging, which luckily did not cause much damage. He will just have to remain on bed rest for the next week or so. However, he did suffer a bit of a relapse..."
Bruce trailed off and Tony felt his jaw clench.
"How bad?" He grimaced, bracing himself for the answer.
"Well," Bruce began grimly. "He- He thinks I'm... him. He thinks I'm his uncle."