Chapter 5
Ned woke up in the morning to 7 missed calls from Tony Stark, his heart instantly jumped to heart attack levels. Peter.
He instantly called back and after a couple rings Tony answered.
"Mr. Stark?" Ned was frantic.
"Ned it's you!"
"Morgan?!" Ned was confused as ever.
"I took daddy's phone last night. He doesn't know." She was giggling on her end.
Ned let go of his breath and his heart immediately calmed down after hearing this.
"Why do you have his phone?"
"Uhm Petey wanted to see you, but daddy said no. But I want you here too!"
Ned was smiling like a goof. He really loved Morgan, she reminded him of his younger sister. But she was older now, she hadn't blipped, so he missed out on her life and she was now in 8th grade. That was weird and he didn't like it. At least she wasn't older than him, that would've been too weird for him to handle.
"I think you should listen to your dad."
"No way! Petey's sad and even my stuffed animals aren't making him better." Ned could hear the frown that was most certainly on her face.
"Well give the phone back to your dad and I'll ask him."
"Hmmm, okay!" Ned could hear Morgan jump up and run somewhere, probably to her dad.
"Daddy! The phone is for you!" There was some shuffling noises and then a throat clearing sound.
"Ned?"
"Hi, Mister Stark."
"Hi hacker."
"Can I see Peter?" Ned's voice cracked, man was he nervous. Tony Stark still made him starstruck, he just couldn't help it.
"You know what kid, I've been thinking. Maybe you come down here, I'll send Happy, you can help Peter with his homework? The kid's backed up, said something about not wanting to be held back. How does that sound?"
"Oh, yeah, yeah. That sounds good!" Ned's voice was drenched in excitement.
"Sounds like a plan, I'll send Happy over. Kid you gotta sanitize before you come in and I'm gonna have Dr. Cho check your temperature and everything."
"Okay. Yeah."
"Great, see you in... 2ish hours."
Before Ned could speak again the line had gone dead. Ned looked around his room, he wanted to bring something fun that he and Peter could do. Truth be told he was nervous to see Peter in person. Sure he had facetimed him, but after he hung up he would cry to his mom about how sick he looked and sometimes sounded. It hadn't even been that long.
Ned picked up a lego set that wasn't open yet and shoved it into his bag, along with his nintendo switch and some other knickknacks. Ned had school, was this even allowed? Screw it. School wasn't important right now, plus he's positive his mom wouldn't care. Tony probably already called his parents.
Ned had been best friends with Peter since the 2nd grade. After Peter's parents had died, he moved in with his aunt and uncle, thus moving him to a new school. Ned had no friends and Peter came in like a savior, they instantly bonded to one another. They had sleepovers practically every weekend and went crazy over legos. Ned's family had brought Peter on their family trips and Ned even spent a christmas at Peter's house one time. They weren't just bestfriends, they were brothers. So when Peter was diagnosed, Ned felt like it was his fault. He knew it made no sense, but he was the one that noticed Peter's arm. Maybe it had been there before and they could've done something sooner. Ned didn't even know how bad the cancer was.
Ned was knocked out of his thoughts when a horn was blared, obviously Happy Hogan. He ran out the door and into the car, he muttered a hello to Happy and then just sat in the back in silence. Happy was never one to talk.
When Ned arrived Dr. Cho was waiting for him, just like Tony had said. He got his temperature taking and answered some questions, he then sanitized his hands and finally he was on his way up to the penthouse.
It was early in the morning so when Ned walked inside and only Tony and Morgan were sat at the dining room table eating breakfast he didn't question it.
"Take a seat."
Ned wordlessly took a seat at the far end of the table.
"Why do you look like I'm holding a gun to your head or something, come sit over here." Tony patted the seat that was right next to him.
"Ok sir," Ned obliged and slowly made his way to the seat.
"A little birdy told me that you got in a fight yesterday."
Ned swallowed, hard. He kept his eyes locked on the bowl of cereal that Morgan was eating out of.
"Hey, kid. This isn't a lecture, your mom told me what happened. I actually wanted to say thanks." Ned moved his head up so fast that Tony was scared his neck was going to snap from the force, "Peter would never stand up for himself at school, he thinks it helps the other kids."
Ned kept his mouth shut tight, he was sure there was a 'but' somewhere in there that he was missing.
"You're a good kid, you're an even better friend. You know that?" Tony took a long sip of his coffee. Ned just sat, and he was about to answer when someone interrupted.
"Goodmorning, hi Ned." Miss Potts, No Mrs. Stark, Ned's head supplied, had walked in dressed in a very fancy pants suit. She was followed by a sleepy Peter, who most definitely didn't want to be awake this early.
"Hi." Ned made a small wave and then smiled at Peter, who didn't notice his appearance yet.
Peter looked up and smiled, "Ned!" He rushed forward and instantly collided into Ned.
Ned hugged Peter back as tightly as he could, "I missed you man!" Peter disengaged the hug and went ahead and initiated their 'secret' handshake.
"Ned would you like some breakfast?" Pepper was pouring some orange juice into a glass.
"Oh, sure. I totally forgot to eat before I left."
"What would you like, pancakes... waffles?"
"Uhm," Ned felt it rude to just say what he wanted, so he looked over at Peter, "I'll just have whatever Peter's having."
Silence filled the room, Ned oblivious to the fact that Peter wasn't eating at all. Sure he knew about the NG tube, it was as clear as day on his face, but he didn't know he wasn't eating period.
Peter could eat, it wasn't like he couldn't. He just didn't want to, he was nauseous all the time and he feared throwing up. He threw up so much it hurt his throat. He had eaten some brownie last week that Morgan had offered and he only took one bite and refused to eat the rest. It didn't taste like brownie and he was positive it wasn't because Pepper was a bad cook. Dr. Cho had informed him it was from the chemo, it messed with his taste buds. He didn't want that experience again, but as Peter looked at Ned and ignored his family's sad stares he thought about it. He wasn't really feeling nauseous today, not yet at least.
"Waffles," Peter finally spoke up, once again ignoring the looks of happiness from his parents, "we'll have waffles. They're better than pancakes."
"Okay, waffles coming right up." Pepper got to work on the waffles as Peter took a seat next to Ned at the table.
Tony rolled his eyes, "Pancakes are better than waffles, right Morguna?"
Morgan shook her head back and forth slowly, "Cereal," she pointed to her frosted flakes.
Everyone laughed at that.
Ned unzipped his bag and pulled out the lightsaber that he had shown Peter the other day over facetime. Peter's face immediately lit up. Peter hated getting gifts, because he usually couldn't give anything back to the people who gifted him. But he always accepted anything from Ned, it was just a friend thing, he could give Ned a penny and he would be elated.
"Holy shit!" Peter took the lightsaber when Ned handed it to him, he was inspecting it all over.
"Language," Tony warned.
"That's mommy's word," Morgan said at the same time, she was giving Peter a nasty look with her eyebrow cocked up.
Peter folded in on himself, "sorry." Peter got up and turned off the dining room light, "Tony look at this," Peter lit up the lightsaber and Ned was smiling with his teeth.
"Uh-huh," Tony was trying to act unimpressed, but he was over the moon with how happy Peter was at the moment.
"Mom, come look at this." At this Pepper rounded the corner with a stack of waffles on a plate.
"Woah Peter, that's really something," Pepper wasn't sure what to say, it was just a beam of light.
Ned looked dumbfounded at what Peter had just said and as Peter sat back down at the table Ned leaned over real close, "Mom?"
Peter cocked his head to the side and whispered back, "Yeah, it sorta just happened."
Peter had let it slip the other day when he was in pain and upset, but it felt good. It felt real good. Calling Pepper mom is one of the easiest things that he has ever done and he's proud to call Pepper his mom. He hopes one day he'll work up the courage to call Tony dad, but it's harder than it looks. He's accidentally done it a few times, but it never really rolled off the tongue. Afterwards he always felt a pit in his stomache and his face always flushed, it wasn't like that with Pepper. He wasn't even sure why.
Ned grabbed three waffles and Peter generously grabbed two, it was mostly for show. Before cancer invaded Peter's personal life, he would easily grab ten waffles no problem, but even looking at the waffles was making him regret asking for it.
"Syrup honey?" Pepper was holding some out to Peter.
"Uhm, no thanks. I think I'm good with a plain waffle."
"I'll take some!" Ned reached over Peter and grabbed the syrup, drenching his entire top waffle with it.
Breakfast was a quiet affair, with Tony and Morgan getting up to go get her ready. Also, with Pepper working on some SI stuff on her Stark Pad while eating some granola and yogurt. Peter and Ned didn't really have much to say, it was really early and they were both tired.
Ned ate all his waffles and Peter ate half of one. He quickly got up and took both his and Ned's plates to wash, just so Pepper wouldn't notice the food he didn't eat. He didn't want his mom to be disappointed.
"Alright I gotta go, goodbye sweety. Bye Ned, have a good day boys," Pepper slipped her shoes on and gave Peter a kiss on the forehead, "Morgan, we're leaving." Morgan skipped her way down the hall with her backpack on. She was grinning too much for a Thursday morning, Peter envied her.
After they left Peter dragged Ned to his room. Ned sat on Peter's bed, while Peter sat on the floor. Ned started taking out papers from his bag.
"So, Tony said you wanted to get some of your school work done. Should we do that?"
Peter scoffed at that, "no way man, that's not going to happen. I was thinking you sneak down into Tony's lab and grab my suit." Peter was fiddling with a set of web shooters that was in his nightstand drawer.
"Woah, what? You want me to do that? That's basically suicide."
"No it's not, I'd ask Morgan but she'd have to climb in order to get to the cabinet, too dangerous."
"Why don't you just sneak down there?"
This got Peter's attention away from the shooters, "actually, this is perfect. You can distract him by being yourself, while I grab it."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Hey Fri? Does Tony have any alarms in place if I go to his lab or take the suit?" Peter asked, ignoring Ned.
"Boss has no alarms in place for those particular actions, although he will be immediately alerted if the suit gets put on or if you leave the building with the suit."
Peter was in thought for a moment, "Okay, thanks Fri. Okay Ned, ready?"
"Wha-"
There was a knock on the door and then Tony's head popped in the doorway, "Hey kiddos."
"Hi," they both replied in unison.
"What are you two doing?"
"Nothing," Ned said it too quickly, it was extremely suspicious.
Peter held it together though, "We were talking about Ned's crush," Peter looked at Ned's face, "right Ned?"
"Ha. Ha. Yeah. My crush..."
"Oh? What's her name," Tony probed.
"It's-"
"Betty," Peter interrupted, "Betty Brant, that blonde girl in our decathlon team. You know the one?"
"Yeah, I think so." Tony was eyeing them both, searching for... something.
"I gotta get something to show Ned, I'll just be a second, " abruptly Peter stood up and walked out the room, giving a thumbs up to Ned when he was behind Tony out the door.
"Is he acting like a lunatic to you?" Tony asked, pointing to the ghost of Peter that was there a second ago.
"Peter? No," Ned shook his head, "never."
"Alright, well I'm gonna go get some work done, you have fun kid." Tony started to walk away.
"Wait!" Ned reached one hand out, like he had telekinesis and he could stop him from walking away, "can you tell me about," Ned's eyes searched Peter's room for something, anything and they landed on a wedding photo that Peter had on his wall, "Yours and Pepper's wedding? I was... dead, so I missed it. I totally would've made a good best man." Ned forced an awkward smile.
"Mhmm, okay. What's going on with you two? Are you hiding something?" Tony stepped in all the way. This caused Ned to sit up straighter.
"What? No, why would I be-"
Tony snatched Ned's backpack out of his hands and started dumping everything out. After everything was on the floor, he looked quizzically at it all. He saw nothing out of the ordinary, but squinted at the lego box. He bent down and opened it and dumped it onto the floor as well, he sifted his hand through the pile, everything seemed legoy.
"Uh Mr. Stark, what are you doing?"
Tony slowly got up from the floor and spoke with caution, "Just, checking."
"Checking what?" Peter said, winded. He was trying to hide it though, he wasn't doing a very good job at it, as he was leaning on the door frame for support. Peter had one hand behind his back.
"Just," Tony walked towards Peter, "checking," he eyed Peter up and down. Peter was wearing an MIT sweater and some checkered pajama bottoms, Peter slowly turned with his back against the door frame, his hand was still behind his back.
"Okay?" Peter said.
"Mhmm," Tony quickly looked behind Peter's back, but to his surprise there was nothing there. "Okay, jig is up kid. I'm patting you down."
"Patting me down? Like what, a prisoner?"
"Yup that's the spirit, either that or you tell me what you took."
Peter put his hands up in defense, "I didn't take anything."
"Alright, Fri-"
"Oh my god! Why can't you just be a real parent and be confused by technology." Peter reached under his shirt and pulled out the spider-man suit, slapping it onto Tony's chest.
Tony cluched the suit and man did he feel awful. The look on Peter's face was enough to send him into a meltdown, but he wasn't going to do that. "Pete."
"I wasn't gonna wear it." Peter looked at the floor defeated.
"Peter, I'm not keeping Spider-man away as a punishment," Tony put his hand on Peter's shoulder, "I'm doing it for your safety."
"I know. I just- I want to be normal again."
Tony held back his own tears, now wasn't the time, it wasn't about him. It was about Peter, "I know buddy. You'll get there, it's just gonna take some time. You've got me and Pepper and Morgan."
"And me," Ned spoke up.
"Yeah, and you got your hacker nerd friend."
"Hey!" Ned said defensively.
"You're a nerd too, Tony. So am I." Peter walked over to his bed, swerving around Ned to sit against the headboard.
"Exactly, we're the nerdy gang, like scooby doo, but we're all just Velma."
Peter and Ned looked at Tony with identical disgusted looks on their faces.
"What!? I know my cartoons, I'm not 100 like Cap. Geez."
"Get out of my room Grandpa," Peter shooed his hand af Tony.
"Okay, okay. I'm gone," Tony walked out of the room, he tossed Peter the suit before be went all the way though.
Peter and Ned looked at eachother for a split second before they both got into action. Ned closed the bedroom door, while Peter opened his laptop.
"Alright what are we doing?" Ned asked, while hooking up the suit to the computer, producing the schematics onto the screen.
"Tony added a bunch of protocols to Friday and the easiest way to get to Friday is through the suit. He set up a link from Karen to Friday, so I'm thinking you can access Friday this way."
Ned nodded as he typed through the coding to look for what Peter was talking about.
"Oh look, I found it." Ned opened a code that led to a bunch of other codes. "Oh my god Peter, listen to this, 'Choking Baby Protocol'."
"No way, that has to be for Morgan," Peter squeezed himself next to Ned to get a good look.
Ned pointed to the screen, "Nope, look. It was created a week ago."
Peter's face morphed into irritation, "He's been creating all these wack protocols ever since my diagnosis, I think he's going insane."
"I mean, maybe it's for Morgan," Ned was trying to sooth Peter's nerves.
"Friday, what was the 'Choking Baby Protocol' made for?" Peter asked the ceiling.
"The Choking Baby Protocol was put into place in case of a child choking in the penthouse. Its primary reason for being made was for you Peter."
"See!? He's crazy!" Peter threw himself onto his back, "And he thinks I'm crazy for squishing down my sandwiches at Delmars."
There was a knock on the door and both boys tensed, thinking that Tony had heard them, but in walked a nurse with meds and an empty vial.
"Uughh," Peter sat up, ready for the nurse to just do her thing. Peter didn't notice that Ned was still tense, even more so then before.
"Hi Peter," the nurse, Casey was her name, looked at Ned, "Hi, you must be Ned. I've heard a lot about you." She offered a warm smile at Ned.
She asked Peter to pull his shirt up so she could access his port, she then inserted some meds and took his blood for more testing. The meds looked scary, that's probably why Ned had a horror stricken face. Mostly the meds were for the chemo side effects, pain, nausea, diarrhea, that kind of stuff. Peter didn't like the meds, it made him tired. He knew he was probably going to pass out on Ned, it wasn't like he could help it, but he felt awful about it.
"Your feed is in two hours. I pushed it back a little bit this time, hopefully this new nausea medicine will work better." She gathered her supplies and left the two boys to continue what they were doing.
Ned and Peter got a notebook and wrote down the newest protocols that were made since his diagnoses. Most of them were outrageous, ranging from 'Spilt Milk Protocol' to 'Shower Sadness Protocol'. They were deciding if they should delete it all at once, or gradually so Tony wouldn't be likely to notice right away.
Peter eventually did infact pass out on Ned, he tried to fight it, but his body gave in. Ned surprisingly didn't mind. He just sat next to Peter and covered him in a blanket when he shivered, then he just continued his work. Ned took liberty in finding Peter's homework sheets and completing those as well, he didn't want Peter to stress over stupid school. Ned knew school was important, but Peter's health was more important.
Ned thought about how Tony said he was a good friend, he never thought of himself that way. He wasn't one to be prideful. He pushed Flash because he was angry and upset, not because he was trying to be this big ol' hero for Peter. It was just the right thing to do in the moment. Ned had been suspended for a day for it, but what he didn't know wouldn't hurt him. It was gonna be okay.