Tony
“All I’m saying, Mr. Stark, is that if we’re going to make a real profit on this clean energy initiative, we’ll have to charge more for our products.”
Tony rolls his eyes very obviously. “And all I’m saying, Martin, is that it’s not going to be much of a clean energy initiative if no one can afford to buy our products, is it?” He asks harshly, putting as much sass into his words as possible.
They’ve been at this for ages. He hates these idiotic financial meetings. He kind of wants to fire Martin and replace him with someone who is smart enough to find the logic behind his words, but Pepper won’t let him.
“Boss, Mr. Parker is in need of your assistance.” Friday comes over the speakers.
Peter needs him? This early in the morning? What could he possibly be doing?
“We’ll need to postpone this meeting for now. Something urgent has come up.” He tells the group as he stands up from the head of the table and walks towards the door of the conference room.
“Let’s reschedule this for a different day. Actually, scratch that, reschedule it with Miss Potts. I’ll be busy.”
He steps out into the hallway and forcefully closes the door behind him. He definitely didn’t slam it, that would be unprofessional.
He starts quickly towards the nearest elevators.
“Okay, Fri. What are we dealing with?” He asks her.
“Peter lost consciousness about 25 seconds ago. It appears he’s been injured in an apartment fire.”
“A fire?!” Tony practically yells. The elevator doors open and he sprints for the balcony, throwing the doors open. His suit is forming around him on the way as he leaps off the roof and into the skies.
“Take me to him as fast as this thing goes. What’s his status?”
“Peter has been unconscious for less than one minute. He appears to be suffering from effect of severe smoke inhalation as well as bruises, lacerations, and burns to a majority of his body. I’m detecting multiple broken ribs, but no other broken bones. The most severe affliction and the most likely cause of loss of consciousness is hypoxemia.”
Tony forces himself to keep breathing through Friday’s analysis. Can’t this stupid machine go any faster? His kid is hurt!
“Get a med team ready for when we get there.” He tells his AI.
After what feels like forever but is probably only a minute, he finally spots a speck of red on top of a rooftop. He can see a large fire being put out just down the street, but he completely ignores it. All his attention is on Peter.
He slams into the rooftop at high speed, collapsing to his knees next to the too still body of his kid.
“Peter!” He yells, grabbing onto the boys shoulders. “Pete! You gotta wake up, kid! Friday, scan him.”
“Oxygen levels are in the 70s and dropping. Immediate medical assistance required.”
“Shit!” Tony shouts, wrapping Peter quickly but gently into his arms and taking back off into the skies. He can feel Peter start to struggle, gasping and trying hard to breathe.
He lands on the balcony of the medbay and immediately passes the kid on to the team of medical professionals waiting for their arrival. They immediately start wheeling him away on a gurney.
“I need oxygen, now! Get this suit off.” One of the doctors yells.
Tony runs after them, stepping out of the suit on the way. They wheel him into a prepped hospital room. There are so many people around that he can’t get through.
He gets a glimpse of Peter laying motionless on the bed, the suit pulled down to his waist. He has an oxygen mask strapped to his face and wires attached to his chest. He looks so pale and still. Nothing like what his kid is supposed to look like. Everyone is shouting and he can’t tell what’s going on. Suddenly, he feels hands on his chest and he looks down to see a woman in scrubs trying to push him backwards gently.
“Mr. Stark, I need you to stay out of the room so we can work. We can’t help him if you’re in our way.”
Tony glances back up towards the kid, then back down to the nurse.
“But…he’s my…” Tony begins, but he can’t get the words out.
“I understand, and you can see him as soon as we have him stabilized. But we need space to do that. Do him a favor and wait outside.” She says firmly but not unkindly. Tony doesn’t know what else to do, so he just nods and lets he direct him to a chair outside the room.
He buries his head in his hands and tries not to completely panic. Peter’s going to be okay. He’s going to be fine. He’s always fine. The kid has gotten himself in way worse situations than this. He’ll be fine.
He waits out there forever, losing track of time as he can’t concentrate on anything but the kid in the hospital room next to him.
Eventually, the people all start filing back out of the room. He lifts his head up to see them, standing up quickly and rushing to the doorway to look in. The doctor he saw barking orders earlier comes out last and redirects him from the doorway with a pull of his arm.
“Mr. Stark, let’s talk somewhere a little more private.”
Tony feels his stomach drop all the way to his feet.
“Private?!” He asks loudly. He tries to push past the doctor, but the man holds him back.
“Let me through!” He yells. “Let me see my kid!”
“Mr. Stark!” The man says firmly. “The boy is fine. He’s stable and should make a full recovery, especially if what I’ve heard about Spider-Man being enhanced is true.”
Tony calms down as soon as he hears the word stable.
“He’s okay?” He asks, holding onto the man’s shoulders for dear life. “He’ll be fine?”
The doctor nods. “Yes, and I’ll let you see him after we talk somewhere.”
All Tony can do is agree. “Okay, okay, sure. Let’s go then.”
He ducks into the first empty room that he can see, dragging the doctor behind him.
“Let’s make this quick. What’s this about?” Tony asks, trying to regain his composure and most likely failing miserably.
“Okay, I’ll get right to the point then.” The doctor agrees. “How old is that boy in there and what is his relationship to you.”
“What?” Tony asks in surprise at the questions. “Well he’s obviously Spider-Man, and I’m going to have to have you and your team sign NDAs before you leave today that you won’t reveal his identity to anyone. He’s fourteen, and I’ve been giving him some hero training of sorts I suppose, and he’s my personal intern for the company. I can’t tell you his name for obvious reasons. How is this relevant?”
“So he’s not your child?” The doctor asks him, completely ignoring his question.
“No, he’s not.” Tony responds, trying to be patient with the man who just saved his kid.
“Has the boy talked to you at all about anything that goes on at home?” The doctor asks cryptically.
Tony shrugs, not understanding the point of all this questioning. “Not really. He’s an orphan, lives with some foster parents that I’ve met a couple times. He doesn’t like to talk about it. Who would? Now again, can you tell me why this is relevant? If it’s about the fact that he’s a minor going out and playing hero, I’ve got it handled. He’s been signed off by a government agency and we’ll be having a talk after this about not running into burning buildings.” Tony insists. He doesn’t want the foster parents to get in trouble because Peter absolutely insists on putting himself into danger. It’s not like they can stop him.
The doctor opens his mouth once to speak, then hesitates and closes it again. He appears to be thinking for a moment about what to say, then takes a breath to try again.
“You’re really not the one I should be telling this too, but since I’m sure I’ll be fired and sued if I try to notify anyone else, not to mention the fact that I have no information about this boy other than that he’s Spider-Man, I’m going to trust you to do something about it.”
Tony waves his hand for the man to continue, anxiously waiting to see his kid.
“Peter has injuries on his body that aren’t constant with a house fire.”
Tony almost sighs in relief at that statement. “He goes out as Spider-Man every day in the summer.” He explains. “He might’ve gotten into something yesterday and not told me about it. He hides injuries pretty frequently. He’s not really one to ask for help.”
The doctor hesitates again.
“That’s not exactly what I’m trying to say here.”
Tony rolls his eyes, getting irritated with this conversation quickly even if this doctor did save his kid’s life. He’s tired of being in this tiny room and not with Peter.
“Just spit it out, doc.” Tony demands. “What are you hinting at here?”
“There’s really no way to know for sure without talking to him of course, but the injuries on his back, well, there’s really no easy way to say this. They look like they’re from a belt.”
Tony literally freezes in shock. Did he hear that right? Did this doctor just say what Tony thinks he said?
“…a belt?” Tony manages to mutter out.
The doctor nods sadly. “Unfortunately, yes, they look to me like belt lashes. I can’t imagine anything else that would cause marks like that.”
Tony gulps, trying to keep his wits about him. He needs to see this for himself.
He stands up and manages to hold his hand out to shake the doctor’s.
“I’ll talk to him about it. Thanks for helping him and bringing this to my attention.” He says distractedly, already heading for the door before the man is even finished shaking his hand.
He stumbles down the hallway, barely able to keep himself upright anymore, until he falls through Peter’s door, shutting it behind him.
Seeing the kid laying there so still and quiet almost breaks him. The quiet beeping of the heart monitor and the rise and fall of Peter’s chest are the only things reassuring him right now.
He walks slowly over to the kid, noting the burned through spider suit sitting on a side table on the other side of the room. They have his bottom half covered up with a blanket, but his torso is exposed.
Tony can see some nasty bruises forming already on his ribs, probably where Friday said he had some fractures. He looks thin, like he hasn’t been eating properly again. He’s been at a healthy weight for the last few months since Tony was forcing him to eat so much. His skin is surprisingly almost entirely intact still. He has a few small burns here and there, but luckily nothing major.
Tony steels himself for the worst before very gently turning the kid over to his side slightly by his shoulders.
Tony thinks the closest he’s ever come to passing out is when he sees Peter’s back. He feels like he’s going to throw up, but he doesn’t let the kid go.
His back is just a mess of bruising and scabs, clearly in straight lash marks. Tony can’t even count how many that must’ve been. His breath hitches and he lowers Peter back down onto the bed before collapsing in a chair next to the kid.
Tony can’t think. He doesn’t even feel like he can breathe. Peter, his Peter, was literally whipped with a belt, and recently too. That isn’t any kind of mark from any Spider-Man heroism. That was a belt.
He really feels like he’s going to be sick. Those marks have to be from his foster parents. There isn’t anyone else that would be able to do that to him. But why would he let them do that? Why would the kid just sit there and take it when Tony knows he could’ve protected himself. And why didn’t he tell anyone? Why didn’t Peter tell him? Has this been going on the entire time he’s lived there? The entire time he’s known Tony? He knows they didn’t really get along at the very beginning, but they’ve come so far since then. Tony thought he made it clear that peter could come to him with anything. He’s…he’s Tony kid! Peter even called him dad once. Doesn’t that mean anything? Does peter not trust him enough to tell him?
“Missr Star?” Tony hears a raspy voice moan quietly.
He looks up through his hyperventilating to see Peter’s eyes open and looking at him. Tony finds he has a hard time meeting them.
The swallows roughly. “Hey, Pete.” He mumbles back.
Peter’s eyes scrunch up in concern as he glances down at his body.
“Wha happen?” His voice is muffled through the oxygen mask.
“What happened?” He repeats roughly. Tony’s strife is suddenly replaced with a furious anger. He knows it’s not with Peter, but with himself for letting things get this far. He doesn’t want to let it out on the boy, but he’s so upset and angry that he can’t stop it. The words just come out.
“What happened is that you were a complete idiot and you ran into a burning building instead of calling for help, that’s what!” He practically yells.
Peter’s eyes widen in surprise. “I helped those people, Mr. Stark!” He says as loudly as he could manage. “I saved them!”
“Well whose supposed to save you, huh?!” Tony asks harshly. “Clearly you don’t want me to do it!”
“What do you mean?” The boy asks. “You did save me.”
“This time I did, Parker, barely. If I was even a couple minutes later than I was, you’d be dead right now! All because you’re too stubborn to call me when you have life threatening injuries. We’re you planning on taking care of this by yourself? Do you not trust me to help you? Haven’t I proven to you enough that you can come to me?”
Tony’s voice raises back to a yell, almost against his will. He doesn’t want to be screaming at Peter right now. He wants to hug the boy to him and tell him that everything is going to be alright, and that he’s going to keep him safe from now on, but he’s completely blindsided by his worry and his anger with himself for not noticing what the kid is going through.
Peter flinches back slightly. “It’s not about that!” Peter exclaims before breaking into another coughing fit. He crosses his arms across his chest protectively. “Of course i trust you.”
“Oh yeah?” Tony questions. “Then why didn’t you tell me what’s going on with your foster parents?” He wishes it didn’t come across like an accusation, but he doesn’t take it back.
Peter’s eyes widen in shock and fear, which only feeds Tony’s anger. Now he’s really done it. Peter is afraid of him.
The kids expression only remains that way for half a second before it goes back to normal and he shakes his head. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He denies.
“No? What are those marks on your back then? Because they sure look like belt marks to me.”
Peter’s face steels into hard anger. Tony hasn’t seen that expression directed at him since the early days.
“I’m Spider-Man, Mr. Stark.” Peter replies angrily. “I get into a lot of fights and I get bruises. You know that.”
Tony rolls his eyes. “Do you think I’m stupid, Peter?” He asks harshly. “I know you didn’t get those from any common criminal on the streets. I’ve seen you fighting with Natasha. You’re way better than that.”
Peter yanks down his oxygen mask, fury in his eyes. “What do you want me to say? That I let someone do this to me?!” He yells, voice still so hoarse.
“I want you to tell me the truth, Peter!
Peter sits himself up on the side of the bed with a wince that doesn’t slow him down. “What does it matter where I say they came from?! You’re not going to believe me since you’ve clearly already made up your mind! Now, stop fucking interrogating me about things that are none of your business! I can handle myself!”
He starts yanking off all the wires attached to his chest and stands up with a wobble. It looks like the nurses put some scrub pants on him to preserve his modesty.
He tries to push past Tony to get to the door, but he reaches out his hand to grab onto the kid’s elbow as he tries to walk past.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Tony asks sarcastically. “Planning on walking home?”
Peter must sense Tony’s hand coming towards him, because in a show of strength Tony didn’t think the kid could still have after everything else today, he flinches back and practically leaps away from Tony’s outstretched hand.
“Don’t fucking touch me!” Peter screams. “I’m going anywhere you aren’t, asshole!”
Peter pushes through the door with one hand, the other wrapped protectively around his injured ribs. Tony doesn’t follow him out, which might be his biggest mistake of the day.
He stands there stunned for a moment before storming out of the room, not to follow the kid, but up to his penthouse. He goes straight to the bar, where he got rid of all the hard liquor but still has some locked up wine bottles for when any important guests come over.
“Friday, unlock the cabinet.” He commands, already knowing it’s futile.
“I cannot unlock this without another person with you. That’s what I’ve been programmed-“
“Friday, override!” He screams, kicking the cabinet in frustration.
The door pops open without another word.
He grabs the first bottle of wine he sees and stares at it a moment, contemplating. He tries to get the bottle opener and open it, but he just cant. He can’t even force himself to do this without being eaten by guilt.
Then, with no warning, he turns around and chucks it at the wall as hard as he can with a angry scream.
Chunks of glass fall to the floor and a spray of red wine covered the scene. He doesn’t give it a second glance before turning around and walking away.
He makes it down to his lab next and puts it on total lockdown mode. When his lab is on lockdown, so is his mind. There’s no thinking of anything except for what he’s doing. He sits down, shoves all of his problems down deep, and works.
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
He has no concept of how much time has past when his lab doors finally open again. He’s in his room with no windows, and time doesn’t exist here. It could’ve been a few hours, could’ve been a few days.
He turns to the open door. He wants to be upset someone is interrupting him, but he’s also suspected Friday did some interfering.
“Hey, man.” Rhodey says gently, coming over to sit down next to him. “Friday called me and let me in.”
Tony just nods, hands still engrossed in whatever project he grabbed last.
“She said that you broke open the wine cabinet?” His friend asks him, still very calm.
Tony nods again. “I did. I didn’t drink anything though. I couldn’t.”
He hears Rhodey’s sigh of relief.
“Do you want to talk about what happened that made you want to in the first place?”
Tony tightened his grip on the metal in his hands. No, he really didn’t. He didn’t want to think about it, let alone talk about it. Now that he’s sat here alone for so long, his anger has had time to dissipate and he can see clearly again.
Tony is the problem, not Peter. He knew that all along, but he was so angry that it clouded his mind. He yelled and got angry with the kid for something he should’ve been gentle and compassionate about. He supposes he’s just not capable of that kind of thing.
“I fucked up, Rhodes. Ruined everything.”
“I’m going to need a bit more of an explanation than that.” Rhodey replies.
Tony takes a deep breath and starts talking.
“Peter, he, uh, he got injured rescuing people from a house fire today and I had to go get him. He didn’t call me. He promised me he would call me when he needed help, but he didn’t.”
He glanced at Rhodey who is just nodding along.
“He was unconscious when he got here, and I, god I was freaking out, Rhodes. It’s not even…I don’t even remember most of it. He was pale and still and I couldn’t even think.”
Tony stops for a moment to compose himself, and rhodey takes that opportunity to interject.
“Is Peter okay now?” He asks, voice full of concern.
Tony nods. “Yeah, yeah they fixed him up. It wasn’t quite as bad as it seemed at the time.”
“Okay, then what happened? Did you two get into a fight about it?” The man prompts him.
Tony takes another deep breath before the rest.
“He…when they took his suit off to get his burns clean, they found…god this is fucking hard. They found belt marks on his back.”
Tony is staring straight ahead of him, but he hears Rhodey audibly gasp at that piece of information. There’s a pregnant pause before the man speaks.
“Peter…they think those are from home? Like from his foster family?”
Tony nods. “I can’t think of anything else it could be from. I wanted to ask him about it, but when he woke up I just…I lost control, Rhodey.” He admits, suddenly very embarrassed of his actions even though the man he’s talking to is his best friend, been with him through everything, this is something he almost wants to hide.
“I was just so angry that he didn’t call for help about the fire, and that he didn’t tell me about what was going on at home. I thought he trusted me, and I just went off on him. He lied about his back and said they were just bruises from patrol which I know isn’t true. He hardly gets hurt on patrol anymore since Natasha started training him. We got in a huge fight, and I was so pissed off. He ended up storming out and I didn’t go after him.”
His head is buried in his hands as he waits for Rhodey’s response, but it never came. He lifted up his head to glance over at his friend in hopes that this doesn’t make the man completely hate him.
Rhodey is just staring at him, expressionless. The man clears his throat.
“Wow, tones. That’s…thats a lot.”
Tony nods his agreement. Yes. It really is a lot.
“I can’t believe his family has been abusive this whole time and we didn’t know. That poor kid. And he never said anything.”
“No, he didn’t.” Tony huffs. “Not to me at least.
“Come on, Tones. I’m sure Peter had a good reason for not saying anything. He might’ve been embarrassed that this was happening because he feels like he should be able to stand up for himself since he’s a hero. Or he might e been afraid of what would happen if he said something.”
“Afraid?” Tony asks incredulously. “Afraid of what? Of what I would do?”
“I don’t know, tony, I’m not him. We can ask him when we go get him.”
“What do you mean?” Tony asks.
Rhodey looks confused by the question. “We’re going to get him, aren’t we? We at least have to make sure he’s somewhere safe while we beat the shit out of his foster parents.”
Rhodey stands up like he’s going somewhere, but Tony doesn’t move.
“Rhodey, I can’t. Were you even listening?”
The man just stares at him like he doesn’t understand.
“I screamed at the kid after finding out his family has been beating him. I acted exactly like Howard, Rhodey. I knew this would happen. Peter was afraid of me. I could see it happening and I couldn’t stop. I lost control.”
Rhodey gets a sympathetic look on his face and sits back down.
“You’re not Howard, Tony. We’ve talked about this. Peter loves you. It makes even more sense why he’s started to see you as a father.” Rhodey tells him like it’s completely obvious. “Time with you is probably one of the only times he can get away and feel safe.”
Tony scoffs. “Feel safe? Clearly not. He flinched away from me when I reached for him. He thought I was going to hit him. You keeping saying I’m not Howard, but today I bet I looked exactly like he used to when I was Peter’s age and about to get smacked for saying the wrong thing.”
“I’m sure Peter knows you wouldn’t hit him.” Rhodey says, trying to be comforting. “If he’s getting hit frequently at home, he’s probably flinching from everything. Who wouldn’t?”
Tony just shakes his head. He doesn’t know what he’s supposed to say to convince Rhodey of what a terrible person he is. Doesn’t his friend realize what he’s done? The mistakes he’s made?
“Come on, man. Get up and go find your kid. You can apologize and we can set everything straight.”
“I’ve already told you, Rhodes. I…I can’t.” Tony admits sadly with another shake of his head. “I can’t trust myself around him right now. Not after today. He deserves better than someone who treats him like I do.”
“Anthony Stark.” Rhodey says sternly, voice rising with anger. “Get your head out of your ass and think about the shit you just said. Your kid is getting beaten by his foster parents and you don’t think we should go get him because you’re ashamed that you yelled at him?”
“He’s not my kid!” Tony screams, getting fed up with Rhodey trying to make him feel guilty when he’s just trying to think about what’s best for Peter. “He can’t be my kid, Rhodes! The thing I was worried about the most happened, and there’s no coming back from that. Peter deserves better than me!”
“What do you want to do, then?” Rhodey asks, sounding very irritated.
“I don’t know!” Tony yelled back. “I don’t know what to do, Rhodey! He didn’t even admit that his foster parents are the ones who did that to him. I feel like I should call CPS but I’m not even 100% sure that’s what’s going on.”
He grips his short hair and pulls on it in a fit of anxiety. Rhodey looks on at him, losing the irritation in his face at Tony’s distress.
“Although, now that I’m suspecting it, it would make so much sense.” Tony continues. “The flinching, the constant bruises, how protective he is of his things. He was always so thin and he said his foster family didn’t have enough money to feed him, but now that I know what I know, maybe that was part of the abuse all along. I just don’t know what to do Rhodey.” He whines, burying his head in his hands in anguish.
Rhodey clasps a hand on his shoulder. “If you’re really insisting on not talking to the kid, then give me a chance to.”
Tony scoffs. “You can try if you want, but I doubt he’ll tell you anything. Especially after what happened today.”
Rhodey shrugs. “Maybe not, but I want to try before we do anything drastic. I’ll see if I can pick him up for lunch tomorrow and we’ll talk. Okay?”
Tony thinks about it for a moment, and eventually decides that Rhodey is right. Someone needs to go after the kid, and it can’t be him.
“Okay, Rhodey. You talk to him. You’ll let me know if he tells you anything?”
“Of course.” His friend replies. “I’ll send him a text in a minute. And you need to come upstairs with me to get some food and go to sleep. It’s after 10.”
Tony reluctantly follows Rhodey upstairs, feeling horrible with himself, but knowing nothing can be done until tomorrow. He’ll just have to wait it out for now.