Chapter 4
On Sunday Peter was allowed to leave his hospital room and go up to the penthouse. Helen said she thought he'd be more comfortable there, of course she was going to send nurses down to get his blood everyday and help with his NG tube. Overall he was technically still an admitted patient, but given accommodations for the rest period of chemo.
Tony had brought in a wheelchair for Peter, but Peter refused. There was no way he was going to allow them to take away his walking. Even though he was weak and it really hurt to walk, he pushed through all the way to the couch in the penthouse.
"Welcome home Pete," Tony put his arms out in a grand gesture of showing the room.
Peter smiled and rolled his eyes. It was way too early for this, even though it was lunchtime.
Pepper came in with blankets and Morgan followed with some of her stuffed animals.
"What do you want to do today sweetheart," Pepper was bundling Peter in the blankets, even though he never asked for them.
"I just want to take a shower," Peter pushed the blankets off of himself, which in return Morgan just held the stuff animals closer to herself, not wanting Peter to do the same with her prized possessions.
"I don't think that's a good idea right now."
"Why not? I stink."
"Are you sure you can stand that long?"
"Pepper, have you ever cried in the shower?" After Pepper nodded with a somber look Peter continued, "well me too, and I usually sit down when I cry, so I'll just sit but without the crying."
Pepper didn't look amused, but she had to let him have this. She knows how rough everything has been lately.
"Okay, fine. If you need anything at all, you just shout."
"Okay, like this?" Peter cleared his throat, "AAHHH!"
"Use your inside voice Petey!" Morgan crossed her arms over her chest.
Pepper and Peter looked at her and both burst out laughing. Pepper smacked Peter on the arm, playfully.
"Okay stinker, emphasize on the stink. Go take your shower."
"Thank you."
Pepper watched as Peter stood up slowly and started taking cautious steps. What she really wanted to do was just pick him up and carry him all the way there, but she knew that she couldn't do that.
With Peter in the shower, Tony, Pepper, and Morgan all sat in the living room in silence. Tony wanted to make sure that if Peter were to shout that they'd be able to hear him. Especially since Friday wasn't in any of the bathrooms.
"I say we drive up to the cabin for the week," Tony petitioned his idea while he looked at Morgan while saying this, because he knew Pepper was going to get mad.
He was right, Pepper was looking at him like he grew an extra head. She laughed, "are you serious right now?"
"Yes, why wouldn't I be?" He finally looked at her.
"Oh," Pepper scoffed, "I don't know, maybe because our son is sick? You want to drag him 5 hours away?"
"Yes. I do."
"Morgan sweetie why don't you go find some more animals for Pete." Morgan nodded at her mom and ran off down the hall. "Let me get this straight. You want to, what exactly? Drag our extremely ill 16 year old to the cabin and pretend like everything is fine? He has to stay here," Pepper practically shouted the next part, "because if you haven't notice he still has tubes sticking out of him that need tending to."
"I'd bring a nurse with us!" Tony threw his hands in the air, like Pepper was the crazy one.
"I've read that a lot of kids die from the effects of the drugs making them too weak and ill, than the cancer itself, so no! We are not going to the cabin! We are staying here, where the med-bay is close in case of emergencies! And that is final." Pepper stood up and walked away, she didn't want to hear if he was going to rebuttal her thoughts. She went to the master bedroom's bathroom and locked herself inside.
"Shit." Tony didn't mean for that to get too out of hand. He just needed to get his family away. He needed to get away. He can't breathe here.
Tony heard the shower stop and he strained to hear if Peter needed his help. After a couple of minutes Peter walked out of his room in Captain America themed pajamas. His hair was soaked still and water was falling on his face from the curls sticking to his forehead.
"Pete I'm pretty sure the water is supposed to go down the drain, not stay in your hair like it has sentimental value to you."
Peter stared at Tony and gathered his hair in his hands and then he wrung his hair. The water fell from his curls, straight to the floor creating a puddle next to Peter's sock covered feet.
"Okay? You tryna ruin my wood floor?"
Peter was still looking at Tony, but his face turned sour. "Stop telling me what to do."
Tony was taken back by this, "Uh- Pete, I never told you what to do."
"No, but there are things you want me to do."
"Why don't you come sit down," Tony said it because Peter had grabbed at the wall, but then he realized what he said, "Okay, fair. I'm sorry kid, I'll stop."
"No," Peter shook his head, "I- I want mom."
"You want Pepper?"
Peter nodded slowly, "yes, please. Can you get mom?"
Tony was in shock of Peter willingly calling Pepper mom, but now wasn't the time. Peter sounded really upset, like someone had just died.
"Okay buddy, hey Fri, tell Pepper that Pete wants her."
The A.I. didn't respond, but Tony knew that she was getting Pepper.
Pepper rushed into the hallway, her eyes red and puffy, but everyone around ignored it.
"Hey, honey. What's wrong."
Pepper came over to Peter and wrapped her arms around him, and Peter allowed his weight to fall onto her. Pepper slowly lowered them both to the floor, avoiding the water spot.
Peter didn't say anything at first, he just breathed heavily like he was crying, but he wasn't.
"It hurts." Pepper rubbed his back.
"Where sweetie?"
"Everywhere."
Pepper looked up at Tony and Tony just nodded. He knew in that moment how stupid the cabin idea really was.
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A few hours later Peter was in his room, alone he might proudly add. He had convinced his parents that he just needed some alone time, without feeling so smothered. In about 2 hours a nurse was going to come down to do his feed, so in the mean time Peter was working up the courage to facetime Ned.
He really missed Ned. He wished he could see him in person, but that wasn't possible right now. So he settled for facetiming. He was really nervous though, he knew that Tony told Ned about what was going on, but he didn't know if Ned knew just how sick he was.
Peter took a breath and pressed the call button. It barely even rang for half a second before Ned picked up.
"DUDE!?" Ned screamed without even missing a beat.
"Dude!" Peter echoed, but quieter.
"You will not believe what my mom bought me the other day!"
Peter smiled at his screen, relieved that Ned didn't mention the Cancer or even the visible NG tube. Ned was just.... Ned.
Ned's screen moves around until the room goes dark, Peter's about to question it until Ned's silhouette is outlined by a red lightsaber.
"No way!" Peter was leaning into his screen to get a better look, "is that the new cho-"
"Chosen One Lightsaber!? Yes!" Ned quickly turns the light back on and jumps to his phone that was propped up on his bed. "And guess freaking what! My mom got you one too!"
"What!? No!"
"Yes!"
For a whole hour Peter and Ned just caught up on random stuff, until the conversation lightly shifted to Peter's current situation. Peter caved and told Ned everything.
"Can I see the port?" Ned had curiosity draped in his voice.
Peter didn't even mind because Ned wasn't talking down to him or treating him like a baby. Peter pulled his shirt down to where the port was, technically you couldn't see the whole port, only the tubing that can be attached to more tubing.
"That's under your skin?" Ned sounded disgusted.
"Yeah, it's like kinda bigger than I thought it would be, but it's still pretty small."
"Dude, have you ever heard of sepsis?"
"Ned, dude. Just- stop," Peter was smiling, hard. This was the most he's smiled in days.
"Right. Sorry," Ned stopped in thought. "Does it hurt?"
Peter shook his head, "No. Not anymore. It did at first, but they gave me some pain killers and I was cracked to the teeth with chemo, so the port hurting wasn't noticeable once eveything else was hurting."
"Yeah-" Ned didn't really know what to say to that, the conversation had dipped into a darker spot. "You know when Tony came and told me, I sorta ran away from him."
"Really?"
"Yeah, I couldn't handle it," Ned admitted, "I'm a bit nervous to go back to school, the decathlon team has been asking about you everyday, and now that I know they're going to notice I'm hiding something."
"So just tell them."
Ned looked at Peter in shock and even Peter felt shocked once the words left his mouth.
"What? You want me to do that?"
"I mean.. I was scared to tell you, that's why I didn't say anything. But now that you know and aren't treating me like I'll break, I don't really care who else knows. It's not like I'm going to be back anytime soon at the moment."
"Okay," Ned was speaking slowly and low, "okay, I can do that."
"Yeah, besides Tony and Pepper are telling the school tomorrow. Just the administrators and teachers though, so it won't matter."
"Yeah."
"Yeah."
"You feeling up for a minecraft building contest?"
Peter instantly smiled. Ned and Peter had one day been so bored and came up with a fun game where they go on minecraft, ask Friday to name a random object, then they'd both build said object and finally Friday would choose whose was more accurate. It was a pretty fun game.
"Yeah, you're on."
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After school on Monday, Ned slowly walked into decathlon practice. This week they had decathlon everyday after school because this weekend they were going to a big competition that would determine if they go to state. Ned was already approached by Mj at lunch about Peter, Ned had simply got up and went straight to the library. Basically he blew it, she could obviously tell that he knew something. Also Ned knew the teachers were told because walking into every class that he shared with Peter, the teachers would downcast their eyes at him. Everyone knew Peter and Ned were best friends.
Ned took his usual seat and waited while everyone filed in.
"Huh, Penis is a no show again."
"Shut up Flash, take your seat," Mj wasn't in the mood for Flashes remarks today.
"I'm just saying, if he can't at least show his face to these practices he doesn't deserve his spot. I should get his spot."
"You aren't taking his spot."
"Yeah but Mr. Harrington said that since I'm an alternate that if someone were to miss more than 5 practices in a row I get to take their spot. This is officially Peter's 3rd practice in a row that he's missed."
"Well he'll be back before it hits five," Betty had spoken up, because she was sure that Peter wouldn't miss enough practices to be kicked into alternate. That just wasn't like Peter. Sure, Peter missed practices, everyone did. But Peter took decathlon seriously, he was the best on their team and there was no way they were going to allow Flash to take his spot 5 absences or not.
"I don't know Betty, he's been gone for more than a week. Where is he anyways, huh Ned. Where's your boyfriend at?"
All heads turned to Ned, they were all just as curious as to where Peter was.
"I- I do- don't know."
"He's lying, I can tell," Mj stated with pure confidence.
"I'm not lying!" Ned put his hands up.
"Oh really? Then you haven't spoken to Peter at all for the past week and a half?"
"Nope," Ned whispered his reply.
"Why don't you just call him right now Ned, speakphone." Flash crossed his arms over his chest all smug.
"Uhm- fine."
Ned pulled out his phone and slowly unlocked it, he was glad Peter was in the P's so he could slowly scroll to it. Although he only had about 20 contacts, so the slow scrolling was limited.
"Oh my god dweeb, hurry the hell up!"
"I'm getting to it Flash!"
Ned clicked on Peter's contact and hovered over the call button, but he never pressed it.
Suddenly Flash snatched his phone out off his hands.
"Hey!"
Flash ignored Ned's chants. He clicked the call button, but it wasn't just a call, it was a facetime. Ned didn't see that though, because Flash had stepped onto the table to get away from Ned's hands.
The library that they were seated in was silent. Nothing was stopping them from this interaction, as Mr. Harrington was due to arrive 30 minutes after practice began. He already informed his team that he had to get some paperwork done and he trusted the team to work diligently without him, especially with Michelle as their team captain. Obviously that wasn't the case.
The phone rang out five times, not one person spoke. On the sixth ring Flash groaned dramatically, but then the ringing stopped. There was ruffling on the other end of the call.
"Hello?" Peter sounded groggy, like he had just woken up. Ned thought that he probably had just woken up and he instantly felt terrible about it.
"Hi Penis. Care to tell your team why you bailed on us for the third time in a row? You think you're better than us?"
Peter didn't respond right away, he was probably confused as to why Flash was talking to him and not Ned.
"Uhm- what?"
"You heard me dimwit, Michelle said you're off the team if you don't show up tomorrow."
"No I didn't Peter, don't listen to him," Mj was very defensive about this. She cared deeply for Peter. Woah not that deeply, just as... friends. She liked how he stuttered when he was nervous and he was almost smarter than her.
There was a girl's voice on Peter's end of the call, but it was muffled by Peter's phone in his blankets.
"No, Mo. I don't want more on my bed, please just put it on the floor."
Flash rolled his eyes, "Yo Penis! I'm talking to you."
Peter didn't hear what Flash said, he was too distracted at home by Morgan trying to infiltrate his bedroom with stuffed animals. He had too many on his bed and he felt suffocated at this point. "Morgan, please get out." There was silence for a few seconds, "Mom! Please take her out."
There was more shuffling sounds and then the phone went silent. Flash watched as the screen turned back into the contact screen.
"What the hell was that!"
Flash hopped off the desk and threw his phone at Ned. Ned fumbled the catch and then immediately sent an apology to Peter.
"I don't know, but he sounded busy."
"No, what it sounded like was Parker pretending that he had a mommy to run to. What a freak."
Ned didn't respond, there was no point. Mj's eyes were lingering on him, he could feel her stare piercing through his skin. He didn't enjoy it. Not one bit.
"Anyways, enough with the play time. Let's discuss the Roman Empire."
Groans were let out across the room.
After practice Mj followed Ned outside to the cars.
"Hey Loser!"
Ned wanted to walk off, but he knew it was no use with avoiding Mj, she had her ways.
"Hi."
"Sooooo, wanna tell me the real reason Peter isn't at school."
Ned looked at the ground.
"Come on, I thought we were friends."
"What? I mean, yeah totally."
"So?"
"Oh yeah. Uhm. Well- Peter's just sick."
"Interesting. I don't believe you." Mj cocked her head to the side.
"No, I'm- I'm not lying or whatever. Peter really is sick, but like... really really sick."
"Really, really sick? Like pneumonia?"
God, now Ned knew how Tony felt when he had to tell him. This was awful.
"No," Ned shook his head, mostly for the benefit of trying to reinsert his tears that were begging to come out. "Worse than that," he choked out.
Mj stared at him, expression not present.
"So, like something that he could die from?" Mj wasn't stupid, she had many things pop in her head when she heard Ned say it was worse than pneumonia. She was just to scared to say it, scared she was going to be right. Scared she was going to be right on the money.
Ned let the dam break as he nodded his head. Mj wasn't a touchy feely kind of person, but she wasn't going to be a dickhead. She pulled Ned into a hug and let him drench the front of her shirt.
"Can- cancer." Ned's voice was muffled into her shoulder. "It's cancer. He told me to tell you guys, but it's really hard."
"Okay," she let a tear fall down her face, "okay."
"What?" Ned and Mj turned to their right. Shit.
"Flash I-"
"Ned did you just say that Penis has cancer?" Flash's voice wasn't mocking, but it wasn't sympathetic either. "Fuck."
"Yeah, douche. Happy?" Mj walked off towards a parked car in front of the school and got in.
Ned stared at the tops of his shoes, unable to move from where he was standing.
"So like, that means I'm going to get his spot," Flash swallowed thickly, "right?"
Ned looked up and anger swept over his features, "is being a dick your only setting?" Ned started to walk away.
"I'm just saying, he's probs not coming back. I mean, cancer?" Flash scoffs, "Hell, he'll probably die from it."
Ned never turned around so fast in his life, he didn't even think, he just did. Ned didn't feel pain when his fist connected with Flash's jaw. And he definitely didn't feel it when it happened again and again and again. He didn't feel the hands on him when he was pulled away and he didn't feel the hot breathe on his face when his mom yelled at him. He didn't feel the food going down his throat when he ate dinner, heck he didn't even remember eating dinner. He didn't feel his back burning when he took a shower. He didn't feel the lack of light when he got under his covers to sleep for the night. He didn't feel his phone buzzing when Tony called him 5 times in a row.
Ned just felt empty. But everything was going to be okay, because it had to be, for Peter's sake.