The Interrogation
“ Come in.” said a familiar female voice as Tony knocked on door B3. He opened the door and walked in with small grin on his face as he recognized the woman.
“ Hey.” he greeted Racheal.
“ Oh, Stark. Hi.” she said with a nervous smile. Tony’s expression faltered a bit, she looked different. Almost paranoid as she futzed with the tools on a tray.
“ Is something wrong?”
“ Oh, no I’m fine. Perfectly fine. I just need to uh examine your head wound.” she said gesturing for him to sit down. He obliged eager to get this over with, he needed to talk to Bucky and then get Peter the hell out of here. She pulled on gloves as her hand shook slightly before peeling up the bandage. It was quiet as she pulled off the bandage and began cleaning the wound again, muttering ‘sorry’ every few seconds. After writing a few things on a chart and rebandaging the wound he got up.
“ Thanks, I can go right?” he said pointing to the exit. Her expression faltered as she twisted with her red curls, anxiety written all over her features.
“ Yes… yes er no actually.” Racheal bit her lip as it trembled. “ I uh need to talk to you.”
“ Okay… but I should tell you I’m happily married.”
“ This is serious.” she spoke softly as she fought off tears in her eyes. Tony’s eyes turned fearful as he nodded. What the hell now?
“ Okay…” he prompted.
“ Just uh… do you remember me? I’m Racheal or Dr.Brooks. I helped with you and your uh family was injured.”
“ Yeah.”
“ Okay.” she took a deep breath. “ That night… that night someone came. Someone came to my house. ”
“ What. Why?” Tony snapped.
“ They, well I didn’t know them. But they claimed that the kid you are watching, whoever they are, was is in trouble. They threatened to-to kill me if I didn’t tell them your address and I had nothing to defend myself so I…. I told them.” Racheal took a deep breath and leaned against the wall as well, waiting for Tony’s reaction.
“ You told them my address? I thought the deal was all of the information with my address on it would be burned and so no one could get it?” the man’s voice was calm but a wall of anger was threatening to spill over.
“ I-I had just gotten home.”
“ Was it one of the people who was arrested at my house?”
“ Yeah.” Rachel said with a bit of relief. “ Yeah, it was, uh, I think Leslie. Yeah Leslie.”
“ Leslie? Why didn’t you tell us the minute she left? We could have avoided this entire situation. The kid you are concerned about, a literal teenager, could be recovering at home instead of stuck in a hospital.” Tony’s voice rose louder as he spoke, the rage now filling out. The least she could have done was tell them.
“ I-I understand that, I was just so scared.” Leslie spoke her voice breaking as a few tears slipped out.
“ Scared? Fear is no damn excuse. I could have offered you protection!!” Tony was now yelling, he knew he was making a scene and reporters would be running over but he couldn’t bring himself to care. It was his damn company anyways.
“ I am so sorry.” Leslie cried with sincerity.
“ Well first of all you are fired.”
“ O-okay.”
“ And-” Tony paused as he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. It was Sam, probably with Bucky. He looked at the woman leaning against the wall, this could wait. His temper should probably cool down anyways or this would be a bigger mess. “I need a second.” he said finally and held up a finger. She nodded numbly and he went into the hallway and walked down until he found and empty supply closet a few doors down. Reporter and nosy doctor free.
“ Hello.” He answered finally.
“ You ghosting me?” Bucky joked on the other end.
“ Believe it or not I’ve been dealing with problems all day.”
“ Yeah, I’ve been watching the news.”
“ Did you get any word from the Wakandans?” Tony muttered getting right to the point. He didn’t know how long this blissful privacy would last so they couldn’t afford small talk.
“ Wow, straight to the point. But yeah I did. They said they might be able to set up an appointment with Shuri but it’s not looking likely. There are some problems right now so I-I dunno.” Bucky’s voice sounded tired.
“ So no? Look this is serious Bucky, he’s just a kid. I have a few ideas I am futzing with but I’m no psychologist here.” Tony felt a wave of frustration run through him as he rotated a tongue depressor between his fingers.
“ I know he’s just a kid Tony and believe me I feel terrible. But this world right now… you might wanna try and figure this out yourself. Maybe ask Bruce?”
“ Damn it Barnes don’t leave me hanging here, I’m practically his caregiver now, we can’t even find his aunt, and I’m not gonna leave it to my screwed-up knowledge.” Tony felt his throat burn as he tried to calm down. They weren’t going to just leave him to figure this out. Not now.
“ Tony look. The Wakandans are dealing with stuff I can’t exactly tell you about but I wouldn’t rely on them right now. I’m in damn mandatory thrapy right now though so…” there was a pause as he heard Bucky tap his fingers on a shelf. ‘“ … I might be able to talk you through some of the Sid effects. PTSD and stuff like that. “
“ That would be helpful.” Tony whispered as he heard people talking outside the door. “And if you hear anything from them let me know.”
“ Yeah I’ll stay in touch. And you’ll-it’ll be fine. He’s got you so it’ll be okay.”
“ Wow, quite the sap.” Tony joked.
“ I just feel bad about not being able to help more if I’m being honest but… good luck.”
Tony muttered a ‘thanks’ and hung up, trying not to get swallowed up by the overwhelming feeling that this would be on him. Taking a deep breath he walked out of the supply closet as if it was completely normal, ignoring side eyed glances from a group of gossiping doctors. His heart was racing as he felt the panic rise up inside of him again, not that he could exactly take a vacation now. Although he sure as hell was drinking later tonight. As he reached Racheal’s room he texted Pepper his location to meet him there with Happy.
“ I’m back.” he announced sarcastically. Racheal looked up with wide eyes from her cell phone, her eyes red and a Kleenex box by her feet.
“ Hey.” she responded, her throat sounding slightly raw.
“ So let’s have a little conversation here…” Tony began as he rubbed his chin. “ Because your mistake affected a lot of people I’m rather close to including my wife and child.”
“ Look, I-I thought I was going to die. You-you have made mistakes too.” her voice quavered as she tried to defend herself. “ U-ultron is just one ex-example.”
“ Wow.” Tony felt himself clenching his fist. “ Thats-thats… wow. You’re deflecting.”
“ Who the hell was that kid anyways?” Racheal’s voice was more even now. “ Because from what I-I’ve heard he’s some sort of assassin.”
“ Who he is is none of you of you or your damn doctor friends buissness.”
“ If he could kill us we deserve to-to know.”
“ He’s not gonna kill you! He’s a victim to the woman whom you told our address. They took his free will away. Stripped it away.” Tony explained. This kid would not be known as some killer when he had no say in the matter.
“ What?” Racheal’s jaw was open as her eyes pooled with concern. “ Stark why-why do you know him? Is he an avenger or something?”
“ Since when did you gain sudden confidence?”
“ That’s just, I-I just think it’s odd that you are in charge of him. He-he was in your house.” Racheal muttered.
“ Yeah he was. And you aren’t gonna say a word or I will sue for more money than you could possibly own.”
“ Sue-sue me?” she twisted her hair around her finger nervously. “ What, I thought I was fired? What-what is your problem?”
“ My problem? Oh honey I think you forgot I fired you. Because you almost killed my kid by not following simple directions.”
“ Tony?” Pepper’s head popped into the room, her face covered with concern.
“ Hey Pep meet Racheal. Well you already know her but…” he gestured for her to come in. She walked in quietly with Happy trailing behind holding a boatload of papers. “ As I was saying she told the info of our location and almost killed us. Then she thinks shes entitled to know information about the kid. She’s fired of course. Anyways Racheal this is Pepper.”
Pepper gives a quick glance at Tony before smiling and shaking a terrfied Racheals hand. “Hi Racheal I’m Pepper Potts. As the CEO of Stark Industries I would like to have a
conversation with you about what happened once he is removed from the room.”
“ What. Why?” betrayal filled Tony’s face.
“ Why? You don’t look interested in a fair investigation Tony.”
“ Tony let’s just go.” Happy muttered into his ear. Tony ignored him.
“ No. No look she almost- he’s stuck in a hospital now because of HER!!” Tony exclamied pointing at Racheal. A rise of emotions he couldn’t explain bubbled over as he felt his eyes water a little bit. Damn he wanted a drink.
“ Tony. Listen to me. She doesn’t want to hurt him.” Pepper said with a half smiled as she took Tony’s hand. “ You need to remove yourself from this situation.”
“ Wait is that your kid?” Racheal exclaimed. Pepper shot her a warning glance. “ Sorry it’’s just, that would-would make sense. But maybe- I don’t want to overstep here…”
“ You can tell me later.” Pepper snapped with a smile.
“ Wait. No first of all he’s not mine.” Tony yelled.
“ Well-well then maybe don’t… look you seem unstable…”
“ UNSTABLE?!” Tony yelled as Happy pulled on his arm to leave. “ Unstable. Are you trying to imply I’m not okay enough to help an injured teenager?”
“ He’s more than injured Stark.” Racheal said with sudden confidence. “ And-and with possible brain damage, maybe this is a job for his actual family.”
Happy looked at Tony with wide eyes as he watched him digest the information. Without a word Tony’s face turned white as he left out the door, walking fast. Happy glanced at Pepper. She gave a sad smile.
“ I think he needs a minute.”
--- ------ ------ ----- ---- ------- ----
He really should have left. As he walked down that hallway with his head thudding with pain her knew that he should have left once Pepper warned him, but the stubborn ass part of him refused to let himself leave. That woman’s decision to stay quiet is the reason that Peter died. Even if it was only for a moment, it was hard to shake. As he breezed past people without bothering to acknowledge them, he found himself by a small library. Quickly he peeked his head in and upon seeing it was empty walked in and closed the door. The quietness was a breath of relief as he sat on a worn red sofa and let out a shaky breath. The wave of emotions that had lead him out of that room with Racheal came flooding back.
Honestly a part of him knew he was going downhill; his self-preservation instincts had been long gone. When he had agreed to help Steve, he didn’t think he’d make it back alive. It seemed like a fair trade, half the population for his life. Or more accurately Peter for his life. But he was pleasantly surprised when Carol snapped, and he found himself being bombarded by a very peppy kid asking what happened. Once they had safely transported Carol to a Wakandan surgical room to remove the arm that was emitting a deadly radiation all across her body he found himself feeling such a breath of relief that it was overwhelming. Carol survived and he got to go home. It was happy and quiet for a little bit. Now all Tony wanted was to go back, but he couldn’t. He was stuck in a mess that had no easy solution. If they managed to get permission to allow the kid to recover with him, was it even the right decision? Maybe they should focus on finding May. The kid desperately wanted her, and she was practically his mom. She was smart and stable, and it would probably make the kid happier if he just got his memory back and left him to it. Stayed away for a while. It felt like suffocation to have no real way to just fix him.
If Steve hadn’t left, they probably would have had a lot more information. For the man who claimed to have taken down Hydra he could have helped with inside information. Instead, he left even when Tony advised him that Peggy had moved on. When his dad was cold and stoic the few times, she was over every year she would berate him for his attitude towards Tony. As he thought back it was probably why she wasn’t over very often, she wasn’t afraid of speaking her mind and he admired her for that. Whether or not he cared to admit it to Steve she was stronger without him. Not that he was concerned about what Peggy had done afterwards, he had taken Tony’s ‘get a life’ snark as some sort of motto. Since he had left Barnes and Wilson to take over without much instruction or help Tony had kept his mouth shut about it. Pepper and Happy asked about it many times but he only ever managed to mutter ‘he wanted a life’. The man had seemed rooted in a past that he no longer belonged in.
All the talk about PTSD and kidnapping had brought up a wave of unpleasant memories from Afghanistan. They had stayed away before, mercifully pushed back as a apart of his past rarely brought up, but whenever he thought about the kid being kept inside of a dirty room, being experimented on against his will, it made his skin crawl. The memories were also tainted with the memory of Yinsen. The man was arguably the only reason he was here right now, what would he say? Would he tell Tony to leave the kid alone, or is the kid now his responsibility? Not that he wasn't before but if they couldn’t find May it would become more official.
Tony got up to pace the small room that passed for a library with a few half-filled dusty bookshelves lining the back wall and a dead computer sitting on a desk. The woman’s words rang through his head. He had felt so happy and relieved to have the kid back he never considered how the kid felt. All he wanted was for him to get back to normal, but maybe this new normal shouldn’t include Tony. As the thought passed through it felt like a bitter grape, he had gotten rather attached to the kid and to just cut himself off would be hard. But the kid had died two times since Tony had stepped in all that time ago, if there was a third it might be final. The lack of sleep and the creeping feeling of helplessness since his phone call with Bucky caused him to once again collapse onto the couch. As he listened to the sound of someone pushing a cart down a hallway the pain meds and lack of sleep caught up with him as he felt himself black out, his body draped over the couch.
--- ------ ------ ----- ---- ------- ----
“Okay, that-that’s fair.” Racheal agreed as her and Pepper finished up agreements after her failure to tell them when she was forced to give up their address. After Pepper had gotten the full story, it was hard to blame her. She was shaken up after Leslie visited and told Pepper she was scared if she said that they would get pissed and blame her. It didn’t change the fact that she should have told them, but it made sense, especially sense they hadn’t exactly explained Peter’s presence during Racheal's visit.
“ I will get in contact with all the people needed in order to make sure you are well protected. We will do everything we can to prevent the need for the witness protection program, which shouldn’t be needed unless they miraculously break out of jail.” Pepper joked lightly.
Racheal gave a weak smile; the deal had involved her getting fired from Stark Industries with enough severance to allow her a few years and make sure no one tried to contact her again.
Happy motioned for Pepper to leave as she gathered her briefcase.
“ We will be in touch.”
“ Of course.” Racheal said, shaking Pepper's hand. Happy led Pepper out of the room as Racheal followed, heading for the staff room.
“ Goodbye Ms. Potts.”
“ Bye, thank you for your cooperation.” Pepper replied as they went their separate ways.
Now it was time to find Tony. The meeting had gone about an hour, the entire time Happy bouncing his leg up and down nervously. Pepper wasn’t worried about him leaving, she had been concerned about Tony’s mental health way before that.
“ Any idea where he went?” Pepper whispered as they walked down a crowded hallway.
“ I don’t know. Maybe the kids room? Or where is Morgan?”
“ Morgan is with Rhodey.”
“ I’ll check the kids room first since it’s right here.” Happy muttered, opening the door to find a pale Peter Parker laying on a hospital bed, a nurse with the name tag ‘Donte’ writing stuff on a clipboard. The nurse looked up raising an eyebrow.
“ Can I help you?” Donte asked with his voice laced with confusion.
“ Just looking for Tony. Has he stopped in here?”
“ He was here like two hours ago.” Peter muttered. Donte nodded in agreement.
“ Damn.” Happy swore as he looked at Pepper. “ Well thanks anyways.”
“ Wait. Is something wrong?” Peter piped up. Pepper turned around as his eyes softened to meet hers.
“ He’s just a bit upset.” she replied empathetically.
“ Oh.” the kid seemed to crawl back into his shell.
Donte had stopped paying attention as he sat the clipboard on the tray next to the hospital bed and rustled around for something.
“ He’ll be fine sweetie. I’ll send him here once we find him.” she reassured him. Happy tugged on her arm as he gave Peter an empathetic smile. Peter gave a small nod as they both left. The adults walked down the hall with purpose as they quickly dashed up the stairs to Rhodey’s room. The entered to find the man coloring with Morgan as ‘Seinfeld’ played in the background.
“ Hey, how’d it go?” Rhodey asked as he looked up. Morgan ran over to her mom and Pepper scopped her up, planting a small kiss on her cheek.
“ Has Tony stopped in here at all?” Happy asked as he leaned against the wall, out of breath from the stairs. Rhodey shook his head.
“ No. Why?”
“ He kind of just stormed out after an argument with Racheal.” Pepper explained.
“ Wait. Who’s Racheal?”
“ Long story, Pepper can explain everything. I have to go find him.” Happy muttered.
“ Wait, wait. Hap is he like really upset?” Rhodey said as he tried to get out of bed.
“ I don’t know but she kind of hit a sore spot about the kid.”
“ Do you need help?”
“ No, just stay here with Pepper. She will explain everything but if it gets bad then yeah.” Happy replied as he left, peering into empty waiting rooms for his missing friend.
--- ------ ------ ----- ---- ------- ----
Peter didn’t want to be here. In fact, the furthest place away from here would be the best, but Tony had said it was just one day. One very long and fearful day. Donte had been nice enough; he had felt his guard ease up a bit around him. He had very kind eyes and had a great sense of humor. But he had left to go ‘ask Racheal something’ and now Peter was alone in a room with a bunch of beeping machines and a really annoying show on tv. He kept waiting for Tony to come back in so he could ask to leave. To apologize for saying he didn’t want his help. He wanted the man's help he really did, but he had just missed May so fiercely in that second that it had boiled over. The damage was done he could see it, Tony had seemed on guard and angry at even the mention of Peter possibly dying. His expression had changed slightly but he had seen it, been trained to look for it. Fear. It was pure fear flooding his senses like a flashback and fear was powerful. He knew, he was terrified about the possibility of May being gone. Dead. Possibly at his own hand since had no control and that the thought of having anything to do with his aunt's death made him want to vomit.
He knew she had to be the only family member left because whenever he thought of his parents he couldn’t even see their faces, the only other person that his brain triggered he shared blood with was a very fuzzy memory of a man bleeding on a street with Peter kneeling above him. He hated that flashback. The problem was they had almost stopped, he had very few memories and they had mostly come in dreams, ones that he knew were important somehow. But other than that he had difficulty recalling names and his dreams all center on a particularly clear flashback, one where he was on a table screaming with a rag stuffed into his mouth. It felt paralyzing every time he woke like he was still there, even though he knew that wasn’t likely. Still the first time he had woken up in the hospital bed he had wanted to cry.
“ So you are Peter.” a man stood in the doorway of Peter's hospital room. Peter's eyes bolted to the man, his train of thought halted in its tracks.
The man with brown skin and black hair slicked back poorly, stood in the doorway. Wearing a black suit with a matching black tie. He looked strong and a surge of
intense anxiety hit Peter as the man approached.
“ Do you speak?” the man laughed as he walked in and hesitated. “ Is this a good time? No immediate doctor or nurse coming in right?”
“ Who are you? Where's Tony?" Peter murmured breathlessly as his heartbeat increased.
The man shook his head and laughed. “ No, we aren’t talking to Tony right now.” The man said his name as if it was some sort of disease. “ I’m Amar. I’m from the F.B.I.”
Peter felt his palms sweat as Amar reached into his pocket making Peter involuntarily flinch, not knowing what Amar was about to pull out. His head filed with painful blurry memories of similar situations.
“ Relax, kid. I was just grabbing my badge. Look.” Amar held up some sort of gold badge that meant nothing to Peter.
" I don't care." Peter said in response, looking at the badge. Amar looked offended by the remark and put the badge back into his pocket. Peter wanted Tony to come back and get him out of here, maybe this man Amar was with Liv. The thought caused Peter to squeeze his eyes shut and put one of his hands on his face.
“ Do you need a doctor kid?”
“ No. I don't know, just please leave. ” Peter said as he sat up in his hospital bed.
“ Sorry, I can't do that just yet. " Amar responded, taking a chair with wheels and spinning it around so he could sit on it, facing Peter.
“ What do you want?” Peter snapped as he fought the urge to stand up and leave. Tony said just one day. But nothing about men with shiny badges and mysterious
motives.
“ Hey. Look I get you are messed up or something but your actions have killed many people. I am here to see if you really did do it while brainwashed and if you can go and recover with Tony for a little bit. He’s been very insistent that you stay with him.`` The man spoke sternly as Peter struggled to breath, his palms very sweaty.
" Wh-what do you mean?" Peter stuttered. “ Y-you think I’m lying. I-I didn’t mean to hurt anyone. Did I- who did I hurt?”
" Parker, calm down. That's not exactly what I'm saying. I just need you to answer a few questions. That's all I need from you and then I'll leave. Got it?"
Peter didn't even look at Amar, he took his fingers and laced them through his hair while looking down at his bed sheets. "What part of brainwashed do you not understand?"
" Boy I'm being serious," Amar responded sternly.
" So. Am. I." Peter said through his teeth.
Amar sighed and leaned forward towards Peter " The longer you try to procrastinate this the longer I'm going to have to stick around. Ok so this will be a lot easier if you just cooperate."
“ Fine, just get it over with then, but I want to see him.” Peter repeated again. Irritation fell across Amar’s face.
“ No. We aren’t talking to Tony.” he snapped.
Amars sudden response made Peter feel anxious, looking up at the man's brown eyes that showed the man meant business.
“ Great, now let's begin. Now look, I know they did some MRI scans and stuff showing brain damage but I need you to tell me what happened. Where you were before, can you remember how it all started? Who took you?”
“ I-I can’t remember.” Peter mumbled as he dug his nails into his left arm, trying to stay grounded. Amar scowled.
" Come on Parker, you have to give me more than that. Think."
" I can't. I can't remember anything. Don't you see that." Peter said with anger behind his voice.
" Oh I don't know about that boy. There's definitely some stuff still in there, you still can perform basic motor functions well and you have spunk in you. I feel like you aren't telling me everything." Amar said, standing up and slowly walking to the side of Peter's hospital bed, with an interesting look.
" I-I ummm" Peter mumbled, becoming very intimidated by the man staring down at him.
" Think," Amar said like an angry parent.
" Ummm I don't know," Peter said with a quivering lip.
" You're a lying kid. You have some memories you just don't want to open up about. I can see it in your eyes." Amar pointed at Peter. " So why would you want to hide those from me? Is it because you know you will get in trouble? Or because you are a part of something bigger?" Amar finished as he leaned down close to Peter's trembling face.
Peter felt terrified as he looked at Amar, because he did have some memories, but he didn't trust this man. And the memories were not vivid, and the ones that were, were not fond ones.
Amar stood waiting for Peter to respond but Peter didn't. " I need you to talk.," Amar ordered as he poked Peter's shoulder making Peter wince in pain and grab his injury.
Peter finally broke. " F-fine you know what, yes I do have one memory." Peter paused, seeing Amar face fill with pleasure as he backed away from the bed a bit to give Peter some room. Peter looked down at his bed sheet as he grabbed his throbbing shoulder before sharing. " All I can remember is blurry faces of different people I don't know. That's all I know and can remember."
" Keep talking, kid, there's more in that head of yours I know there is. I'm not leaving until I get more. Now talk." Amar said coldly once Peter stopped.
Peter held his breath, " I-I just, I don't know. I don't know anything. All that's vivid is just me in pain. Me screaming. For reasons I don't know why. That's it."
Peter stopped in the middle of his sentence as he grabbed his head. The memory flooded his head very vividly making it hard to focus and made it hard to continue to describe how horrific it was. He sank back into the fluffy pillows of his bed, and he curled up his legs to his chest and rolled into his side facing away from Amar. He felt overwhelmed by the whole situation, he didn't know what he wanted. He hoped his vague answers were enough to satisfy Amar to make him leave already. All Peter wanted was to be left alone, but he also wanted Tony.
Amar was anxious for Peter to finish his story, walking over to the other side of the bed to find Peter scrunched up into a ball of pity. " That was good Parker. That was very good. Do you think you could finish that? Maybe give more details of what those people looked like or what they did to you. Or how long you were there. Come on kid, please work with me here." Amar said squatting down to be eye level with Peter, who had his eyes shut gripping his head.
“ I-I don’t know, can I ta-talk to-to Tony now?”
Amar stood back up in frustration. “ NO! Damn it.” Amar yelled, slamming his own hand on the metal tray to the side of the hospital bed. Making the metal tools on it fall to the floor. This made Peter flinch and sit up quickly with worry filling his eyes. Looking back at Amars frustrated eyes, his stance arching over the five foot eight teens bed
“ No talking to Tony. Not until you tell me all the information, I need so I can help prosecute the people who did this.”
Peter was silent as he squeezed his eyes shut, his fight or flight going off immensely. He knew nothing else, his memories were blurry and unhelpful, but this man wanted information he didn’t have. He said no talking to Tony until then. Maybe he would just have to find the only person he knew he could trust right now.
“ Parker. Look I’m sorry I yelled but you gotta remember something else,” Amar prodded.
“ No. No, I will tell you the rest when I talk to Tony.” an unknown strength bubbled up inside of the kid as he moved on his bed to let his feet come in contact with the cold floor. He grunted while standing up on his wobbly feet grabbing the side of the hospital bed for support, his arm killing him.
Amar was taken aback by Peter's sudden show of strength; this wasn't normal. He had read the medical reports on Peter Parker and what had happened to him. The kid took one hell of a beating. He shouldn't be able to move around, and he shouldn't be able to stand up so easily. It was all very peculiar for Amar, making him start to question everything about the whole situation. Amar felt alarmed but covered the expression quickly as he stood his six foot five stature towering over Peter who had gotten up from the opposite side of the best.
“ We. Aren’t. Talking. To. Tony.” Amar associated every word sternly, with his shadow casting over Peter, who looked alarmed.
Peter felt a new sensation wash over him as he stood trying to process everything around him. The whole situation was all just becoming too much for him to handle all at once. It was too much for his brain to process, making his head throb. He felt sick to his stomach, it felt like his brain was being over stimulated and was running on fumes. His mind and body felt separated in a weird way, like they both had a mind of their own.
His whole body felt light, like he was floating on air. And his mind felt crowded and clear at the same time. It was a very odd sensation, but Peter began to relax in this state. In this state his body and mind were separate and began doing movement on their own with Peter watching from the side lines in a daze of fog. It felt like a new form of numbness, but it was different. Peter was floating, he didn't have full control over everything he did but didn't care all too much. He was snapped back into reality with Amar yelling his name.
“ I don’t trust you.” Peter's mouth blurted out as he took a step towards the door. He was yanked back by his arm, when he realized he still had an IV in that was connected to a long clear tube to an empty IV bag. He took one look down at his arm and ripped out the IV in his arm, making his arm sting where the IV used to be.
Amar slid in front of Peter putting himself between Peter and the door, then pushing Peter back making the kid stubble. Again Peter flinched and fear filled his expression, Amar noticed as his brows furrowed in confusion.
“ I'm sorry kid, you are not allowed to leave the room. The Doc's said you need to stay in a controlled environment. They don't want you to get over-stimulated while your brain is still trying to heal because they don't know what could happen to your brain when it does. They are worried you could lose control again so please try and calm down." Amar pauses to wait for Peter's response but nothing came out. So Amar tried again, " Peter why do you want to talk to Tony so badly?”
“ I-I just…” Peter tried to speak out but his mouth felt dry.
Amar’s eyes darted between the boy with Peter's eyes still focused on the door behind him. “I know you must be freaked out, okay? But why don't we both just calm down and sit down. Take a breath before coming. Please Parker these questions are vitally important in our investigation. Normally I would give you a bit more space but both Liv and Leslie escaped from-”
“ Escaped?” Peter interrupted softly, his eyes darting to meet Amars.
Amar’s face dropped, did no one bother to tell the kid that those two escaped a few nights ago? Was he not supposed to mention it? Amar placed a soft hand on Peter's good shoulder and took a breath before continuing with caution.
“ Yeah. I mean you are safe here, they aren’t gonna invade with the FBI watching. But this is why it’s vitally important to get all of the information that we can…” Amar continued talking but the words washed over Peter as he felt the mind and body splitting feeling come back again, making him feel like he was floating again. It felt like he no longer had control, when the anxiety reached a peak so high he couldn’t bear it.
Peter's arm reached out with a mind of its own then grabbed Amar’s wrist off of his own shoulder. Yanking it off and digging his nails into Amars arm before swiftly kicking Amar in the chest, sending Amar flying into the wall. Peter was taken aback at what he had just done, not fully realizing he did it. Amar’s eyes went wide and he fumbled with his holster for his tranquilizer gun as Peter headed towards the door.
“ Kid, you can’t leave. It's doctors orders you stay in here," he hissed.
Peter stumbled a bit as he grabbed the handle of the door. He was floating, he wasn’t here. Where was he? It was overwhelming as he felt his eyes fill with tears.
“ I don't care. I just wanna talk to Tony,” he cried. Fidgeting with the door handle.
Amar gave a sympathetic expression but didn’t lower the tranquilizer. He knew this kid was stronger then he appeared and could take him out of he wanted but Peter was obviously not exactly right in the mind.
“ I know you do. Just please kid, cooperate. This is more important than I can express. You need to stay in a controlled environment.” Amar said in an even tone. Peter’s chin trembled as he pulled open the door. Amar shot a blue tranquilizer dart but his aim was off and it hit the door, spilling across.
The two made eye contact before Peter bolted out with Amar racing behind him and shouting orders into a walkie talkie.
“ KID STAND DOWN OR YOU SURE AS HELL WILL NOT TALK TO TONY AGAIN!”
Peter didn't look back; he ran down the hospital hallway and burst through double doors, swiftly jumping over a cart being pushed by a very confused Donte as Amar
shoved him out of the way, close behind Peter. Fear and adrenaline carried the teen as he saw a flight of stairs and burst up them at full speed with Amar on his tail yelling.
He was floating, where was he, he had no idea. Where was he? Why was everyone so mad? Memories. It was because he wanted to know what happened, but that wasn’t fair Peter didn’t even know. All he asked was to talk to Tony and somehow he was now bolting up this flight of stairs. It was overwhelming. Terror filled his body. Maybe Tony left. What if they took him back? As that thought passed through he tripped over a stair and fell, hitting his injured shoulder hitting the back of his head. As he tried to gather himself enough to get up Amar tackled him into the railings of the steps to keep people from falling down the middle of the long fall to the bottom of all the steps. Amar pushed Peter against the metal railings of the stairs and fumbled with handcuffs trying to restrain Peter.
With both of their full weights against the thin metal railing it became too much, the railing creaked and a bolt broke off. The railing behind Peter's back gave way and broke in half, both Amar and Peter fell forward down the center of the long flight of stairs.
It didn't even take a second for Peter to react. He felt something in his body notify him of the danger just about to come like a sixth sense. The railing broke loose and he fell down 2 floors before reaching out his hand to stick to the bottom part of the concrete stairs above his head. With his other injured arm he grabbed a hold of Amars suit jacket to keep him from falling. It all almost felt like a reflex, Peter knew he needed to save himself but he also knew he needed to save Amar as well. Even if he has to use his injured arm to help save Amar, it felt like the right thing to do. It felt like something the old Peter would have done. Peter swung Amar just enough so he could release the man and he would fall safely on the flight of stairs to the right to hit the ground. Then once his hand was empty he reached his other hand up to stick to the stairs above him so he could inch down the side of them to swing down to the right to the set of stairs below and land safely beside Amar.
" What the hell was that?" Amar said breathlessly while standing up. His eyes surveyed Peter with awe and confusion.
" I don't know, it all happened too fast, are you ok?" Peter said, feeling exhausted.
" Kid that's the least of my worries, are you ok?"
Peter was breathing heavily, squeezing his burning shoulder with his head feeling mushy. He didn't have full control, he didn't know what he would do next. Everything felt wrong, the whole situation felt terrible and he didn't know why. It was just too much, but he knew only one thing. He was going to find Tony. No matter how much his head hurt or how much he had to fight the floating sensation in his body that was taking over, he had only that one goal.
Amar was now on his feet standing with his shadow casting over Peter in pain. He didn't want to but he needed to restrain the kid before he hurt himself or others. It was the safest option for them both. Amar took a pair of handcuffs out from his back pocket. But before he even attempted to restrain Peter he used his radio to call for backup, just in case the situation got even more out of hand then it already was. He finally approached Peter, and Peter shot up onto his feet at the very sight of Amar holding the hand cuffs.
“ Stop, please stop… I don’t know what happened. Please don't do this. All I want is Tony” Peter cried, while backing into a wall his vision blurred with tears. Amar
ignored him as he said something into his radio again. He was floating, where was he? Where was Tony? Is Amar taking him back to Liv? Oh no. Peter gathered all of the focus he could and pushed Amar away from him and tried to yank open the door beside him that led to the rest of the building floor. He tried to open it but someone pulled from the other side. Peter lost his grip on the handle and the door flung out, hitting him. Sending him back a few steps before he regained his balance and looked at the person in the door frame.
“ Tony.” Peter cried out as he stood wobbly.
Tony was in the door frame that led to the flight of stairs, his eyebrows shot up as he looked at Amar and Peter, frozen in place.
Just as Peter opened his mouth to explain what happened, how he was floating and couldn’t figure out what happened Amar used the opportunity to push Peter against a wall to detain him. He pulled out handcuffs to cuff Peter's hands and the floating peaked as he felt no control, his mind floating away.