Seperate Ways
Tony hated hospitals. They were annoying and filled to the brim with people asking questions he couldn’t answer and nurses demanding he ‘sit down for just one more damn minute.’ He hated it, especially since paranoia creeped around every corner. Every person he ran into wanted information about the kid, about what happened, and he couldn’t say anything. It took all the patience in the world not to snap when the last nurse cleaned his bandages on the side of his head and asked him quickly before leaving if he could ‘ just explain what happened.’ Tony politely reminded her he owned the Stark industries medical branch and she left with a tight-lipped expression.
“ Hey.” Tony looked up and was surprised to see Happy standing there, his black eye less swollen from the injury two days ago. He hadn’t really seen anyone since the incident except Pepper and Morgan. It had been too crazy trying to stop the FBI from hauling Peter into a prison cell and the legal issues were piling up a mile high. He also had seven missed calls from Sam but that could wait.
“ Hey.” Tony replied with a half hearted smile.
“ Pepper told me you were here but uh you don’t look like you wanna discuss the legalities of this right now?” Happy muttered. Tony shook his head.
“ Not really. I practically had to hold back the FBI from just chucking him in a prison cell.”
“ Where is he now?” Happy asked with concern.
“ A room just down the hall. He hit some arteries and blood loss was great so he was out for like a day. He should be awake now although I haven’t seen him yet.” Tony grimaced. “The nurses here are convinced I will just pass away from leaving the damn room.”
“ You did lose a lot of blood Tony, plus half of your ear.” Happy said with a dry laugh.
“ I don’t understand how that equates to my ability to walk.” the man snarked.
“ Just… take it easy.”
“ Great advice, how’s Rhodey? This place is so damn secretive Pep hasn’t gotten any updates.” Tony said with his eyebrows furrowed with worry.
“ Oh he’s fine. A few broken ribs and a bit of blood loss but nothing to severe. He’ll be released tomorrow.”
“ Good. I’m glad no one’s dead.”
“ Speaking of that… Pep said that Morgan was real freaked out about Peter. Said he looked dead?” Happy spoke carefully. “ What the hell was that about?”
Tony scoffed uncomfortably. He would rather not talk about this but it would have to be eventually. Happy raised an eyebrow expectantly. “ Look when she... you guys were passed out she had both the kids, there was really nothing I could do that wouldn’t injure or possibly kill them so she kind of threw them. Like from the roof and demanded I choose one. I… I flew and grabbed Morgan…and couldn’t reach Peter in time. Friday didn’t show any vitals and I was just… he was gone. For a minute at least, I didn’t do CPR because it had to be brain damage and she was leaving but he’s-he’s alive now.”
“ Geez.” Happy said his eyes wide. “ Tony that, if you need to talk-”
“- I don’t need therapy. I’m fine.” Tony snapped as he tried to get rid of Peter’s dead eyes staring at him out of his mind. “ I’m gonna go see him if you wanna come.”
“ No, I’m helping Pep with some legal stuff which you will be informed of later. But you should see the kid, I’m sure he’s dying to see you.” Tony’s eyes flashed painfully as Happy regretted his choice of words. “ Not dying but like happy. Very happy-”
“ Yeah I get it.” Tony said waving his had at him to stop. Quietly he stood up and wobbling slightly before making his way out into the hallway in a pair of sweatpants and a shirt from the gift shop that read Stark Industries. Waving away Happy to go and help Pepper he walked down the hall and stopped just outside of Peter's room. The kid lying on his hospital bed that had been tilted up at a 60 degree angle so he was practically sitting up, he was staring at the TV and fiddling with his blanket. Peter was wearing a hospital gown with his shoulder all bandaged up and IV was attached to him. Tony tried to ignore the guilt that seemed to never stop whenever he was around the kid as he walked in.
“ Hey kid.” Tony greeted while he opened the door.
Peter looked up with wide eyes before familiarity came through him and he gave a weak smile.“ Oh, hey.” Peter responded numbly.
“ Did they uh- patch you up good?”
“ Yeah… they said I’ll be good but they didn’t say I could leave.”
“ Well there are a few things I’m figuring out but I’m gonna get you out. You aren’t gonna live here.” Tony laughed dryly.
“ Good, they keep asking questions. Too many questions.” the kid said, shutting down the humor.
“ Yeah I know…” Tony sighed as he leaned against the wall.
“ Where is May?” Peter asked tentatively as he looked at Tony seriously.
“ We are trying to find her.” Tony responded carefully, trying not to sound tired of answering the same questions. “ But we don’t know.”
“ When I get out I’m gonna find her.”
“ What? Yeah we are gonna find h-”
“ No. I will.” Peter interrupted with venom. “ I have barely any memories but maybe something will trigger it if I just take a few weeks, search around.”
“ Kid, you aren’t gonna just leave and walk around New York for a few weeks by yourself. We will be lucky just to bring you back to my house without an entire FBI squad.”
“ Why are you in charge of me?” the kid snarled.
Tony was taken aback by the kids frustration, he could get missing his aunt but Tony was trying his best. What did he want him to do, just leave him?
“ Because I’m the only adult who knows you well enough right now and who is not missing who can protect you.” the man explained as calmly as he could.
“ Protect me? From what? Myself?!” Peter raised his voice as Tony looked out the door with paranoia before shutting it.
“ Keep your voice down unless you want everyone here in our business.”
“ Oh that would just suck if I had any actual info to give out. I still barely know anything.” Peter snapped as regret flashed in his eyes. “ Sorry, I-I just want you to...I think I could find her.”
“ Maybe but the risk, I can’t take the chance right now.”
“ Look at this point, if I die saving May… I can die doing a good thing.” Peter explained desperately as he watched Tony’s face fall as much as the man tried to hide it.
“ No. If you can get hurt or heaven forbid die then- I’ll find her for you kid just trust me.” Tony gritted through his teeth.
“ Look I know- I know I don’t maybe know everything. But if I never get my memories back it’s just I want to try and save her. Why won’t you get that?” Peter cried out at Tony, all of the thoughts he’d kept inside now bursting at the seams.
“Because I am not watching you die again.” Tony said so softly it was almost a whisper.
“ So you’d rather have her die?” Peter exclaimed. The older man sniffed as he stared into Peter, a wide array of emotions crossing his face as he pondered what to say.
“ Believe it or not I care about you,” Tony began. “ And May does too. She wouldn’t want you to take this big of a risk- we don’t even fully know what or who we’re dealing with”
“ Your fear isn’t gonna stop me from finding May.” Peter pushed himself up anger written all over his features.
“ My fear?” Tony snapped so suddenly that Peter flinched. “ My fear. Because I don’t want you to go on a sucicide mission, I’m unfair?”
“ It’s-It’s why do you get to like-” Peter stumbled as he tried to find the confidence to say what was ping ponging in his brain. “ Why do you get to boss me around? I
know I’m not your kid so why the hell are you the one taking me in when we don’t share any blood?”
“ Because I’m your mentor and we’ve known each other for a while so that’s that. Plus you don’t have many other options.”
“ What about friends? I don’t have any friends?”
“ You did, I think but I can’t just drop off some off his rocker teenager on there doorstep.” Tony spoke as his tone seethed with anger.
“ Right, but I’m-I want to try and find her without you breathing down my back.”
“ Great plan, with what money? You and your aunt were broke as hell no offense and you can’t get a job-”
“ -Why not?” Peter interrupted with vengeance.
“ You barely know my name!! They know your address so you can’t go back there so good luck finding a house and if you do go with your little friends who you don’t
know the names of or what they look like, and I’m sure they will be put in an immense amount of danger because you can’t decipher anything with your broken down brain!!” Tony said, raising his voice, looking down at Peter, whose eyes filled with tears as Peter tried to hide his face, regret instently filled Tony.
"I just want out of here!" Peter shouted and an uncomfortable silence filled the room.
“ You’ll get out of here soon kid.” Tony spoke finally as a new tension filled the room.
" It's just…. Everything. Everything here just-just reminds me of Hydra…of her."
" Peter," Tony said in a sympathetic tone. " You don't have to worry about them anymore, you are in Stark Industries, I own this building, you are safe, you are no longer at Hydra kiddo. And you certainly are never going back there, not on my watch. " Tony finished looking down at Peter with a small reassuring smile.
Peter didn't reciprocate the look, he looked up with damp eyes and a doubtful look written all over his face. " Look I know I'm at Stark Industries and that I'm 'safe' but it doesn't help when almost everything around reminds me of Hydra in some way. To the loud machines they hook me up to, to the millions of Doctors that come into the room to do who knows what. "
" Peter, all of those Doctors are here to help you. None of them would ever want to hurt you in any way I promise." Tony said, placing a hand on Peter's back.
" You say that but now… I’m not in charge of the fear…” the kid trailed off as he felt his throat constrict. The more aware he became the worse it got as unexplainable paranoia and flashbacks that he couldn’t put into words popped up all the time.
"... Kid. Are you ok?" Tony said concern flooding his features.
" No I'm not. I just-. Do you know what that's like? To just not be in control of anything." Peter snapped as a wave of emotions hit him. He really wanted May now.
Tony felt paralyzed as he tried to think of the right thing to say. He had no idea what it was like to be a puppet, the only relation he had to this was the anxiety which had never left him. It followed him like a shadow and as he watched Peters face he could tell this was something much deeper. It was PTSD but with the memories he had, most likely a living nightmare.
“ I don’t. I won’t lie and if you want to... “ Tony paused and furrowed his eyebrows in concern. “ We can leave, soon. Probably tomorrow if we are lucky, and I know thats a lot but I just need to make sure it won’t kill you to bring you home. Literally. So I promise you that these doctors won’t hurt you. If they make you uncomfortable or hurt you I’ll fire them like this,” he snapped his fingers for emphasis “, okay?”
Peter nodded slowly. He just needed to try and chill out for a day at most. Biting his trembling bottom lip he nodded. Their conversation was interrupted by a knock on the door to the room. Peter almost jumped out of his own skin when he heard the knock, terrifying thoughts swamped his head. The door swung open with a nurse walking into the room looking down at their clipboard in hand.
“ Hey kid quick visit I need to look at your shoulder again-" The male nurse lost his tongue at the sight of Tony Stark in the room. "Stark? What are you-what are you doing here?"
Tony quickly scanned the guy, the man was a tall dark man about in his late twenties, with very short dark curly hair. The man was wearing navy blue medical scrubs and a name tag on his shirt read Donte.
“ Hey Donte, is there um anyway we can postpone this visit, I have some legal stuff…” Tony explained as he gestured to the kid.
Donte raised his eyebrows, “ Look I would love to help an Avenger as much as the next guy but I have to do this-” Donte squinted his eyes as he looked at his clipboard. “ - shoulder wound examination and rebandage needs to be done right now and for patient privacy I need you to leave.” he said gesturing to the door.
Peter shot up his head with a little panic at the nurses statement, the last thing he wanted to do was be left alone in a room with a nurse. Peter tried to form a sentence but was too caught up in fear to make words clearly come out of his mouth. He looked up at Tony with concerned eyes.
“ Seriously? He’s not in the best of moods.” Tony explained as he gripped Peter’s shoulder. Donte looked at Peter who stared at Donte, his posture alert and tense. The whole situation was odd but he had been tipped not to ask any questions and judging by the wary look from Tony that was a smart move. The kid sat up a bit more as Donte gave a small nod and walked towards the bed a small smile on his face.
" Hey it's alright kid, I'm not here to hurt you, I promise. My name’s Donte-” he stuck out his hand but Peter didn’t move and he quickly retracted it.”-I can explain everything I do before I do it. That way we don’t make this too horrible.”
Peter gave a small nod. The tension from the past few days relaxing slightly, the idea of leaving tomorrow a welcome relief. Donte gave a warm smile.
" Ok then I'll explain it out. You see your shoulder, you were shot with a bullet, and when you initially arrived here the Doctors and nurses did everything they could to your shoulder at the time that was safe to do so. Now that it's been a couple of days your shoulder has healed up a bit, so we need to see if there is anything else we can do to help it heal properly. So my job is to take off your bandages around your shoulder, examine it to see if it's healing up properly, and then clean it back up again before I wrap it back up like a big Christmas present.”
“ Sure.” Peter said gruffly as Tony let go of his shoulder, now crossing his arms as he seemed to take in the situation.
Donte stood back up and walked around the room. " I could give you a bit of medicine to help you relax a bit to make you feel more comfortable if you would like." Donte turned around not expecting Peter to answer, looking Tony in the eyes to hopefully see him answering the question for the kid. Which Tony did with the slight nod of his head. Donte put on a pair of blue medical gloves and took out a syringe filled with clear liquid. Walking back over to Peter's bedside trying to keep the syringe out of Peter's sight to not frighten the kid more than he already was. He inserted the syringe into the injection port of the IV bag seeing the medicine go into the tub that led into Peter's arm.
" Thank you Donte" Tony said once again as Donte was finished putting the medicine into the IV without Peter really even noticing.
" Yep no problem," Donte said with a smile as he discarded the syringe before looking back at Peter and Tony, " Ok the medicine should start to take in affect in about five minutes, I'm still sorry but Tony Stark you still need to leave the room while I do this, is company policy."
Tony begrudgingly stood up from Peter's bed, " I can't believe they are kicking me out of my own part of my building, using my own policy against me."
" Yeah sorry nothing I can really do to stop that from happening unless you give me a raise and I can see what I can do." Donte shot back with a playful smirk.
Tony quirked an eyebrow and smiled.
“ Hey it's worth a shot, it's not everyday you meet the CEO of the company you work for."
" Yeah, just tell me when you're done here, I'll be around."
“ Will do, but I actually think Rachel needs to see you right now. To see your head wound. She should be in room B3 just down the hallway a bit then take a right, you can't miss it.” Donte pulled out gauze out of a drawer and Tony took it as his hint.
Tony gave the kid one more reassuring pat on his leg, seeing the drug starting to take effect. Peter's posture had relaxed and he gave Tony a weak smile as he left.
--- ------ ------ ----- ---- ------- ----
“ That was relatively easy.”
“ They could barely throw a punch.” Liv grinned widely.
They had escaped the FBI agents that took both of them at Tony Stark's house. Liv and Leslie had both been stripped of all of their weapons including Livs mechanical arms and then thrown into a black van. Barely they overheard the agents talking about them being sent off to a remote prison island where they kept some previous Avengers a long time ago. Inside the van Leslie was receiving medical attention for her leg from one of the FBI agents, even though she didn't want it. She would have bled out before they got to their destination if it wasn't for the medical aid. But that was the FBI agent's first mistake, helping an enemy. After they had splinted and bandaged up Leslies leg to the best of their ability Liv and Lesile locked eyes and shared a look, it was go time.
Leslie fell off of her chair in the van grabbing her leg wincing in pain, but it was all an act. The two FBI agents also in the back seats focused on Leslie, giving Liv the perfect opportunity to punch one of them in the face with her cuffed hands and snatch the rifle from the agent's hands.
Liv shot the two agents with the gun quickly, the bullets flying up to the driver's seat. Then shooting the chain that connected her handcuffs together along with Leslies. She must have accidentally hit the driver with a bullet because not a second later the car lost control flipping over. Liv was awakened on the ground by Leslie frantically shaking her awake.
Even in Leslies terrible shape she managed to stumble up from the wreck and grab a loose gun off the floor to finish off the last FBI agent that had been sitting in the passenger seat. She killed him, and it was only her and Liv now, but they couldn't stay by the wreck. People would most likely be looking for them soon; they needed to get out of here quickly.
" We need to get out of here " Leslie grunted out as she pulled Liv off the ground to her feet.
" Yeah I see that " Liv said as Leslie put her whole arm on Livs shoulders for support to stand. " You think you can make it that far?" Liv said, looking back at Leslie in pain from standing.
" Yeah- yeah I'll be fine, I found a med kit in the wreck and found some pain killers. Hopefully those will kick in soon." Lesile replied, they started to walk away from the car wreck together with Liv supporting Leslie as they walked into the woods.
“ Now if we just break into someone's house or just steal a phone I can get in contact with base, get us back.” Liv spoke quietly as she glanced around with paranoia. They had walked over five miles and Leslie was able to support herself now walking in front of Liv. Leslie took a few steps away from the woman, ignoring her.
“ What is your problem? We need to get back to base and you keep ignoring me.” Liv snapped.
Leslie finally looks back at Liv. “ I got you out.” she began. “ But I’m not gonna waltz back into damn Hydra.”
“ What? Why-why?”
“ It's just. They don’t pay enough. Plus-” she groaned in pain as she braced herself against a tree. “ I’m not interested in almost dying again.”
“ Pay enough? The amount of respect you get there is worth it by itself, where else are you gonna go? With a warrant out for your arrest don’t be foolish child.”
Leslie shrugged. “ Out of the country. Before I disobeyed your orders to come out here I got a phone call. The person on the other line had done their research on me and wanted to recruit me to the new project, they said they would pay very handsomely for my skills. Said I could be of use.”
“ Who?!” Liv practically yelled. Again Leslie shrugged.
“ Not my info to give out to former coworkers.”
“ You are going to die or get arrested.” Liv spat.
“ Maybe, but not likely, they are going to hook me up with a fake passport and IDs so I can get into Russia. I have a flight scheduled for tomorrow to get me the hell out of here. Let’s just say by the time all is said and done, Hydra will bite the dust." Leslie stopped to let out a painful laugh "You think your mind control research is revolutionary? You obviously have never been to Russia. Never seen the power of the red room."
“ It’s destroyed.” Liv barked.
“ True… but they still have the tech.”
" How in the hell are they going to fix what Black Widow blew up?" Liv asked.
" I don't know, but they said they already have a squad of Widows ready for training. And they want me to help teach them."
" Ha you, a teacher? I don't buy it for a second."
" That's what I thought at first too, but I taught the Wolf Spider to fight. And he clearly kicked ass, so I'm thinking it might work out. Plus I just can't turn down the amount of money they offered me, I will be set for life." Leslie finished with a proud smile.
“ You know what? Fine. Have fun, be young and free.”
Leslie snorted. “ I will grandma. But now what are you going to do?"
It took a second before Liv responded, " I don't know, I'll have to think about it. I definitely need to find where those damn FBI agents took my metal arm but after that, I need to think about it."
“ Well if you get bored join me in Russia. I feel like they could use your knowledge on brain washing.”
" Ha well we'll see about that, I'm not really in the mood to move across the world."
“ Well…” a pause filled the air as Leslie gave a weak smile to Liv. “ I know you're not the hugging type but I better get going if I’m gonna make that flight so…” she held out her hand for a fist bump.
“ Good luck.” Liv gave a tight smile and returned the fist bump. With one last glance Liv saw Leslie flip up her assassin jacket hood and they left, both going their separate ways.