No Days Off
Just like the way cancer doesn't care about holidays, cancer doesn't care if you're sleeping peacefully either. Cancer never takes a day off.
Peter woke up and his body thought it would be cute if he started crying, and so he did. He felt pain and he was freezing, so very freezing. He was squished between his parents in bed and you'd think that he would feel warm, hot even, but nope all he felt like was an icicle.
Tony turned over onto his back with a groan, snapping his eyes open a second later.
"Peter?" Tony sat up and tried to focus his eyes in the dark, "What's wrong Roo?"
Peter breathed heavily through his cries and didn't say nothing more. Pepper woke up too and was out of bed turning the lights on. Tony put his hand on Peter's shoulder, he shifted his hand to Peter's forehead after feeling the warmth radiating from the touch.
"Oh- Pep, I think he has a fever," Tony got off the bed and open the suitcase in a fluid motion, grabbing a thermometer and putting it across Peter's forehead. "Shit, 101."
Pepper was groggy with sleep a second ago, not anymore. "You take him, I'll stay here?"
"Yeah, yeah." Tony put Peter's feed backpack onto his back and then crawled onto the sheets to address Peter, "Hey buddy, do you think you can walk?"
Receiving no response Tony lifted Peter into the air bridal style, he raced out of the house in probably a record speed that the walls had never seen. He gently placed Peter in the passenger seat of the SUV and buckled him in the best that he could. It was difficult when Peter was curling in on himself and was on his hip to the side, rather than sitting up straight.
"Fri- get me the location to the closest hospital."
"Helen Cho has been informed, ETA 20 minutes."
Tony stepped on the gas putting the car into drive, "Make it 10 Fri."
It was two in the morning, Tony was surprised he didn't get pulled over. Boy was he so fucking happy about that though. Tony pulled into the ER parking lot and gathered the boy into his arms and ran.
The nurses didn't just see a frantic father, they saw Tony Stark. When they realized he was in fact also a frantic father they snapped out of it, immediately calling for a gurney.
"Hi, my son- my son he has leukemia- he has a fever. Please- help."
"Alright, I'm gonna need his name and date of birth."
Tony was thinking and he couldn't think. Fuck he couldn't think. He wasn't used to this- Helen just knew, Helen just knew their names and everything. Shit. Shit.
"Peter Parker-Stark. Uhm- it's August 10th uh- 2001."
The lady typed and it felt like forever, it must've been long because there was a nurse guiding him to another nurse that had a gurney for him to place his kid on. The front desk lady forgotten, he went with the male nurse to help comfort his son.
They were brought into a private room so quick, that worried Tony. It definitely wasn't because he was a billionaire. They started attaching Peter to some IVs right away and taking vitals. They were talking and it was going into Tony's ear, taking a swan dive out the other.
"Sir, we're going to start him on antibiotics and give him some fluids." Tony nodded.
Peter was still crying, he must've blocked it out. Peter wasn't cooperating, he was trying to lay on his stomach so they couldn't touch his port and insert the medications.
Tony took shallow footsteps and got between the nurses. Here we go again. He gently pushed Peter onto his back and held his hands, Peter gave him a look of betrayal underneath his cries. Tony just closed his eyes and made sure Peter didn't squirm around.
"Peter this one's going to make you very sleepy, don't worry it's normal," the male nurse took liberty in pushing the medication into his port.
Tony felt the effect at the same time Peter did, Peter's squirming came to a halt. Tony opened his eyes to see Peter blinking lethargic and rhythmed, his fight completely gone. Tony grabbed one of Peter's hands and put the other on Peter head and rubbed in a smoothing pattern. This was the first time he comforted Peter like he used to, except this time there was no hair to play with. Peter blinked one last time and then succumbed to the medicine. Tony didn't stop his movements.
"His breathing is fast, get Dr. Connors." Tony could finally hear what they were saying to eachother.
"What's happening?"
"We believe it's sepsis, his intrathecal port looks infected, I'm going to assume it's from that. We're going to have our doctor look at it and we'll go from there."
"Oh uhm, I had his Doctor back at home send in some stuff before he arrived-"
"Yes Mr. Stark, we are aware of Peter's enhancements, that's how we knew how much medication to give him," The nurse, now that he was looking, named Chris, gave him a reassuring smile.
Tony felt content with just sitting and holding Peter's hand, it took almost thirty minutes before the doctor arrived.
"Hi Mr. Stark, I'm doctor Connors. Let's take a look at what's going on," Connors applied a generous amount of hand sanitizer. After looking at Peter's vitals he gently lifted his shirt and looked at the infected port. "Have you noticed any new symptoms lately from Peter?"
"Last night he got sick, but that's a pretty normal occurrence for him. He tried some mashed potatoes last night, first food he's had in a long while. I just thought maybe it didn't sit well, or the medications were just giving their usual side effects."
"Okay, have you noticed Peter breathing faster, confusion, peeing less than normal, or sleepiness?"
Tony found it odd, how was he supposed to pick up on those specific things. "He's tired a lot, but it's not a crazy amount more than usual. No confusion or breathing problems that I picked up on. And I don't make a habit of watching my 16 year old go to the bathroom." Tony may have got a bit snarky towards the end.
"We're going to let these fluids run their course and then we're going to remove the port. He'll be given more antibiotics afterwards, I know he's enhanced, but as long as we get him stable I think we can transport him only if he needs to be. I don't find it necessary, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there." Tony thought he was too chipper for three in the morning. Ha. Doctor Chipper, Tony thought.
After Dr. Chipper left the room Tony called Pepper, she had to be worrying her ass off.
"Tony," Pepper breathed.
"Hey honey, he's got sepsis from a port. They're going to remove it and then give him antibiotics, they might have him moved to the tower if it gets worse." Tony heard Pepper give a shaky breath.
"How is he right now?"
"He's asleep, they gave him some medicine when we came in, he was fighting it pretty bad."
"Alright, let me know if anything changes, I'm going to try to sleep some more so I can face- dear god, everyone in the morning." Tony could hear the sigh that she was holding in.
Once the bag of fluid was all gone and the device started beeping, the nurse walked into the room to shut it off. He looked over Peter's vitals, he nudged Peter's shoulder to see if it would rouse him.
"He should be waking up anytime, his vitals are showing signs of it. I'm going to go see if the OR is ready and once he's awake we'll prep him and take him over."
"Is he going to be asleep for the surgery?" Tony knew how much Peter hated the procedures where he had to stay awake.
"Yes, because we're taking the port out, but we also want to check surrounding areas as well. He won't want to be awake for that, I'll be back."
Tony decided to nudge Peter's arm as well, getting a scrunched up nose in response. He watched on as Peter slowly regained consciousness.
"Goodmorning Roo." Technically it wasn't a lie, it was almost four in the morning.
"It would be good if there wasn't three kids screaming in this building," Peter put his hands over his ears.
Tony could only hear one kid screaming, right super hearing still in tact.
"I think it would be good if we weren't here period," Tony rubbed Peter's leg.
"Yeah. Did they say what's wrong?" Peter was still waking up and blinking rhythmically.
Tony sighed, "They're just going to do a small procedure, no biggie."
Peter's eyes went wide, "no! No- no."
"Hey, it's going to be okay, you get to sleep for this one."
Apparently that wasn't as comforting as Tony thought it was because Peter was already crying again.
At the worst possible moment, the nurse came back with the doctor. The doctor knelt beside the bed to get to Peter's level.
"Hi Peter, I'm Dr.Connors. Do you want your dad with you while you get sedated?"
Peter looked frantic, eyes moving from Dr. Connors to Tony back to the doctor again. This is not what he wanted, he wanted them to leave him alone. He wants to sleep.
Not getting an answer from Peter, Dr. Connors nodded to the nurse to wheel the bed to the OR. He motioned for Tony to follow them. He couldn't wait for an answer, sepsis was serious.
They got Peter into the OR and onto the table, they were hooking up more monitors and changed Peter into a gown. Peter just let them do it, not helping at all.
Tony grabbed Peter's hand to comfort him.
"We're going to put you under now Peter, can you count to ten?"
"No, I hate you," Peter turned his head away from everyone.
"Peter, we need to get this done an infection is serious bud." Tony knew it wasn't good to be put under while in a bad mood. They always said to think of a good memory.
Peter looked at Tony, "I hate you too."
Tony rubbed Peter's chest, "Buddy, you can hate me all you want, but I'm still going to love you."
"I-if you love- if you loved me you wouldn't make me do this." A tear slipped down the side to Peter's face and into his ear.
"I do love you, that's why I'm making you do it," Tony helped Peter sit up and held him in his arms to hug him. Tony silently nodded to the doctor who grabbed Peter's IV line and started putting the meds in.
Peter shifted when he felt the effect from the first little bit, he looked at the doctor in shock and then slowly gazed back to his dad.
"Wha-" Peter tried to push away, he failed when his vision blurred and then his world went black.
Tony held Peter as he lost consciousness, once he was out he slowly put him on the table. He placed a kiss on his forehead and swiped his hand down the side of his face.
"You did good Mr. Stark, Chris will take you down to the pediatric oncology unit in a room that we cleaned for Peter."
Tony called Pepper as soon as he could, he needed to break down. Crying in a room that's decorated with the looney tunes is not something he thought he'd be doing at his age, but here he is. Tony ended the call on the first ring. He didn't want to disturb her sleeping.
His phone rang, guess Pepper never got back to sleep.
"Hi Pep- ugh." Tony put his head in hands.
"Tony, what happened?"
"He said that he hates me and then I tricked him into getting sedated. Pep you should've seen the way he looked at me when he realized what I had done. I'm such a bad father- I don't know what I'm doing."
"Hey, no parent knows what they're doing. If you need a break I can come up there and stay with him."
"Maybe you should come anyways? Have Rhodey watch Morgan. She'll be fine playing with Nathaniel, maybe wait till they wake up and you can have breakfast with them."
"Sounds good honey, call me when he gets out of surgery." With a click the phone call was over.
Being a parent to a kid with cancer was not as easy as one might think. He had to sit and watch his kid in pain which he couldn't prevent. He watched as his kid was content to starve himself because he wouldn't eat. He watched as his emotions taxed on him, getting angry or upset suddenly with no explanation. He watched as his kid couldn't stay awake for longer than five hours without falling asleep again, he watched on as his kid got medication after medication pumped into him that made him shake like a leaf in the wind. The chemo that made him sicker and sicker when it was supposed to be the thing helping. It was difficult to watch, he was supposed to be his kids protecter.
When he adopted Peter the judge made them state how they were their to support him and love him during all stages of his life from that point on. He loved his kid, nothing would change that. He thought he was supporting him, taking care of him, but it never felt like that. Tony thought he was exhausted when he took care of Morgan as a newborn, this exceeded the exhaustion scale. Whenever Peter stayed up in pain, Tony stayed up with him, he would grow exhausted with his baby.
The procedure took 3 hours, Tony expected it given the fact that when they put it in it took around 4 hours. Tony watched as they wheeled a still unconscious Peter into the room. He looked small under the wires he was attached to, he always did.
"We made sure he was awake before coming down here, he slipped off again as we were transporting. He should wake up again soon. He'll still be loopy, it should wear off in about two hours or so. When he can pee we'd like a sample, so if you can take this." Dr. Connors handed him a bag with a cup and some wipes. "The procedure went well, we'll check on the infection in a little while, myself or another doctor. I'll definitely be checking up on it when I get back tonight, let them know if he feels excruciating pain there or if it puffs up."
Tony wishes he could take a video or write down what he just said because it was hard committing it to memory.
"That should be all, I hope you guys have a better day today. I'll see you later in the night." Tony waved at him as he left.
"Friday did you get all that," Tony forgot he had the power to record.
"Yes boss."
"That's my girl."
"Fri call Pepper, speakerphone."
The phone rang three times before she picked up.
"Hey he just got back from the surgery, he's asleep right now but they said it went well. I won't know how Peter is until he wakes up."
"That's good. I'll probably be there around nine or ten depending on when we eat. I'll text you when I'm on my way."
"Alright, love you."
"Love you."
Peter shifted to the left a little, moving his hands to rub at his eyes. Was it bright in here or is that just him? There was an obnoxious grip on his arm and a horrid noise to his right. He lifted his left hand to grab at what was gripping him, but something interjected his path.
"Don't touch that Pete."
"Tou'h wha'?"
"It's just to keep an eye on your blood pressure."
"Oh. Haha," that was a funny joke. Blood pressure. Blood doesn't pressure anything. Aunt May always told him to stay away from blood pressure, no matter how many times people asked you to try their drugs. You just say no. Say no to blood pressure. "No blood press-her. Tha's bad."
"Hmm- it can get bad sometimes. How you feeling Roo?" The man raised a hand to his head, oh that felt nice.
"Mm- feels nice, like I'm in th' room but there's no floor." He giggled to himself.
"Wanna sleep some more, you're eyes are closed so it looks like it."
Oh? He closed them? Peter blinked his eyes open and leaned into the mans hand. "Your hands are nice."
"Thank you. I try." Yeah right, he does not try.
Peter sunk into the pillows some more drifting back into sleep, that felt nicer than the hand.
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Pepper walked down the stairs into the kitchen where all the adults were talking amongst themselves. They looked at Pepper as she entered. They knew something was wrong because Clint had a camera on his front door and saw the footage of Tony carrying Peter into their car in the middle of the night.
Pepper let a breath escape through her nose, "Tony took Peter to the hospital last night, he got a fever."
The group stayed silent, they could tell she was going to say more.
"He has sepsis from a port, so they took him into surgery last night. I'm going to go over there after breakfast, so I was wondering if you guys could keep Morgan entertained while I go."
They knew she was asking to be polite, but Laura knew if her kid was sick in the hospital she would just say 'here's my other kid, bye'. She couldn't grapple with knowing what it was like to have your kid get so sick that you had to rush to the hospital for a small fever. And sepsis? God, that was a serious infection that kills.
"It's not a problem Pepper, we got her."
"Thank you, don't tell the kids. I don't want them to freak out and google it, just tell them he's feeling a bit sick or something." They nodded in response.
▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎
Peter woke up for a third time, still dazed but he was getting there. He looked around the room, everything looked familiar but at the same time it was foreign. He knew it was a hospital room, just it wasn't the one he was used to. This one had bugs bunny on the wall.
"Hey Spiderling, want some water?" Tony shook a cup that had ice water in it.
"No, I'm okay but thank you." Peter laid there and then remembered what happened before the procedure. Fuck.
"Dad?"
"Yeah Petey?"
"I'm really sorry- I'm sorry. I didn't mean it, I swear I didn't mean-"
Tony tapped on Peter's wrist to get him out of his funk, "hey. Earth to Peter- it's okay. I know you didn't mean it. You were just hurting, I understand."
Peter bit the inside of his cheek, trying to calm himself down. Sometimes he couldn't control his emotions. He would just snap. He didn't even know where it comes from, it happens so quick and then it's over like it was never there in the first place. It makes him feel like he's just as bad as the criminals he locked away on the streets.
Before Peter could spiral his mom walked into the room caring a bag with her and a teddy bear. Peter smiled knowing that she brought it because she knew it secretly helped him. She leaned down and kissed his cheek, caressing his face with her finger, "Hi baby."
"Mom," Peter whispered while grabbing the bear.
Pepper opened the bag and showed Peter that she brought his favorite pajamas. It was more like sweats than pajamas, but the star wars set was labeled as pajamas. So pajamas it was.
"I'll talk to a nurse to see if you can change," Tony stepped out of the room to go ask.
"How are you feeling, be honest because a mom can always tell when her child is lying," she crossed her arms and put her mouth to the side.
"I feel good, the drugs are still kicking it. I feel loopy?"
"Yeah, that'll wear off soon." Peter didn't want to tell her that he wished that it wouldn't wear off. He liked feeling like he was floating towards the sky with no purpose to come back down.
Pepper took a seat in a chair and brought it to sit near the bed so she could hold his hand.
"Mom," Peter's voice started out shaking, "I told dad that I hated him. Now I'm scared he won't like me as much."
"Well Peter, that's the thing with parents. You can kick and punch us and even tell us to 'fuck off' and here's the secret." Pepper looked around the room like someone was in the walls, she leaned in close and whispered, "They're going to love them either way."
"Really?"
"Yeah, let me tell you something," Pepper sat up straighter and crossed her legs, letting go of Peter's hand so she could use her own hands to enhance the story. "When I was around your age, I was 17 at the time, I wanted to go to Sarah Smith's party. My dad was very strict with me being home at around eleven. If I was even a minute late I would be grounded. But Sarah's party didn't start until ten, so I wanted to stay past eleven." Pepper was using her hands to tell the story, making Peter smile as she went on, "so I told my dad, 'hey dad I'm going to Sarah's party, I won't be home until after midnight.' He didn't like that very much, he said," Pepper lowered her voice for this part, "Virginia you will not be going to a party, especially one that takes place after midnight. You want to take drugs you can move out of my house.'
"Now I wasn't going to do drugs, but he was set on it. So I told him to fuck off and I left. Don't tell Tony, but I totally got wasted that night. I ended up calling my dad to pick me up, I was crying and I threw up in his car. I was sure he hated me after that, he was going to kick me to the street." Pepper looked at Peter as the story came to a halt.
"Sooo? What did he do? Kick you out!?" Pepper found Peter's concern adorable.
"Hmm. No, you know what he did?" Peter shook his head in anticipation. "He said he was happy that I called him instead of getting in another drunk person's car. Sure, he grounded me for a week. But he hugged me that next morning and said he loved me for not being irresponsible."
"I think I get it. I love Tony even when he does stupid things." Pepper laughed at his response.
"Yeah, just like that."
Peter smiled, "Mom, I can hear a baby laughing."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah, she was crying a second ago, I think they gave her a shot, but the doctor made her laugh."
Pepper was always amazed with his super powers, it frightened her sometimes, but in moments like these it was a gift.
"What else can you hear?" She was curious as to what he could know that was going around him when there was a lot of people.
Peter closed his eyes to focus. "I hear some people sleeping," Peter scrunched his face up, "someone is pooping, I really didn't need to hear that. There's a boy-" Peter quiets down, probably listening to a conversation. "He- he says he's scared to go back to school next week. His mom, or somebody is telling him not to worry." Peter opened his eyes, "I miss school."
"Well good, because we gotta keep your brain in shape," Pepper softly went to push his head, Peter dodging it.
"I think it's sharp enough, I do all the worksheets that Ned sends me," Peter looked sheepish, "although, I think he doesn't give me all my homework. Only the stuff he deems as easy."
Pepper had the audacity to laugh, to laugh at his pained voice. He was complaining about homework. Homework. "You're such a goof Pete."
"He's very lucky, the infection was caught early. If he came any later he would be down in the ICU. We've been in contact with Helen Cho the whole time and we both agree that it is probably best for him to be flighted back to your tower. Just because of his enhancements, they are more equipped to work with it." Dr. Connors had stepped out into the hallway with Tony and Pepper as to not disturb a sleeping Peter.
"But he's stable, yeah?"
"Oh yes, he is stable. He has all the antibiotics he needs to fight this, but it could turn worse as his body is already fighting the cancer. His body is exhausted."
Pepper was holding onto Tony's arm.
"We've been told that Helen sent a helicopter out already, so now it's just waiting for it to arrive."
Tony ran his tongue over his bottom teeth, "is it normal that he hasn't woken up again?" Peter had fallen asleep after Tony had helped him change and hasn't been awake since.
"Yes Mr. Stark, like I said his body is exhausted and fighting off the infection while simultaneously fighting the cancer. He will probably be sleeping a lot during this, the body fights better while in rest. It's a good thing," He gave a reassuring smile to Peter's parents and excused himself to make some more rounds.
Tony and Pepper toed their way into the dimly lit room, "Should we get Morgan? I-"
"No," Pepper grabbed at Peter's hand, "Let's call Rhodey and let him know, they can sleep another night at Clints and then we can send the quinjet their way tomorrow."
Two hours later the helicopter arrived and they were watching Peter be transfered onto a gurney, wires and IVs still attached. They wrapped him up in a blanket so he wouldn't get cold, Peter woke up in the middle of their process dazed and confused. Tony made his presence known by touching his arm and talking softly to him.
Pepper was gripping the Teddy Bear that she had given Peter earlier. Then they were walking the halls up to the roof level to get on the flight. Dr. Connors was there the whole time, handing over a file to Helen Cho and wishing Peter a luck to recovery.
Everyone was wearing bulky headphones, except Peter, he had some ear plugs. Not that they helped any, with enhanced hearing and all. Peter was so tired, but the noise was making it hard to get back to sleep. Tony was the best when it came to technology though, so he said something to Friday and the inside of the helicopter quieted down. Everyone in the back taking off their headphones.
"Nice right? It's my prototype noise canceling bubble, I'm shocked it's working." Tony was proudly puffing his chest out at his accomplishment.
Peter couldn't care less about it, he just wanted to sleep, so he did. Pepper placed the teddy bear on his chest and he weakly grabbed it and drifted off.
Helen comforted Tony and Pepper during the whole flight. Peter really was a fighter, yes sepsis can lead to death, but Peter was already better than when he first arrived at the ER. It was really promising. He had only been experiencing mild symptoms.
Back at the med-bay they put Peter back in his usual room, Helen left to go discuss the chemo therapy with Bruce. They didn't know if they wanted to start the next round of chemo until after he was better from the infection, it was a tough decision considering how that had turned out last time they gave him an extended break.
Helen and Bruce were looking over all his tests. They didn't know if they could keep up with the cancer if they stopped his chemo for more than a week to recover from sepsis, it was so aggressively rapid. They couldn't put him back on it until he was a bit more healthy or his health would decline and he would probably regress tremendously.
Helen didn't know if he was going to be okay after they made a decision. They were both dog shit options.