Tell me more
She had left Morgan with Scott’s and Clint’s kids while she met with Princess Shuri, Strange, and Dr. Cho about Tony and Peter’s injuries and recoveries. She was barely gone an hour before three teenagers crashed through the room they were meeting in with panicked and guilty looks. Pepper figured out easily what was wrong given the fact that Lila Barton only held her younger brother in her arms and her own daughter was nowhere in sight.
“We swear she was with us,” Lila said.
“We were playing hide and seek,” Cooper said.
“It’s my fault, I was it and I couldn’t find her.” Cassie added.
“We’ve looked everywhere,” Lila said.
“There were rules!” Cooper said. “We told her not to leave our quarters.”
They all spoke at the same time but perhaps maternal instincts were a thing because Pepper knew exactly what they were trying to say. She held up her hand and that silenced them immediately.
“You can’t play hide and seek with Morgan,” she sighed, trying to stay calm despite the fact that her daughter was missing. “She only wants to play that when she wants to sneak away.”
“Sorry, ma’am,” Cassie said. “We didn’t know she seemed to get pretty upset if we didn’t.”
“Did you check Peter’s room?” Pepper said. “She’s been wanting to meet him.”
The three teenagers looked at each other, somehow panicking even more.
“...Um about that…” Cooper said. “We thought so too so we checked and well…”
“She’s not there,” Lila cut in quickly before hesitating and lowering her voice in a whisper. “And neither is that boy, Peter.”
“WHAT!?” Pepper said. She stood up quickly, Dr. strange, dr. Cho, and Shuri joined too.
“What do you mean he’s not there!?” Cho added. ”He was unconscious!”
They ran out of the room towards Peter’s only to find that the kids were right. Peter was gone.
“You get your brother, and you get your fathers and the others,” Pepper said to Shuri and the other kids respectively. “And someone get Happy.”
Peter hadn’t realized he had fallen asleep until the door to Tony's room banged open And began to fill the room with almost incoherent panicked shouting.
“Peter!” A voice shouted. “Morgan!”
Peter jumped to his feet and blindly shot out a web in the direction of the noise. He jumped in front of the bed with one arm out as if to block out the bed from the intruder.
“Whoa!” Clint said, stepping into the room with Pepper. “It’s ok, kid. Gave us quite a scare there, we didn’t know where you ran off too.”
Peter blushed and moved his outstretched hand to waved awkwardly.
“I- sorry,” Peter said.
“It’s ok, Peter,” Pepper said, “we’re just glad you’re alright.”
She walked around Peter and found Morgan hiding behind the bed.
“And you,” Pepper said, picking up the girl. “You know you aren’t supposed to be here.”
“It’s my fault, Miss Potts,” Peter said quickly. “I told her to bring me here.”
Pepper raised an eyebrow at him and gave him a stern look that made him shrink back.
“Right,” Pepper said. “You're telling me you went to find my daughter who no one has ever told you about and you had never met and asked her to bring you to her father’s room.”
“Technically she found me,” Peter said. “But I still asked her to bring me here.”
“The rooms are coded, how'd you even get in?” Clint asked.
Peter glanced at Morgan and then back up at the two adults staring him down. “I -uh- figured it out. Hacked it. It’s not that hard.”
Given that it was Wakanda it would be that hard. And even without the fact that it was impossible to hack Shuri’s tech, if someone had managed to do it they would have known immediately no matter how good at hacking they were, they knew that wasn’t true and Peter could tell that they didn’t believe him but he couldn’t just let Morgan get into trouble after all the help she had given him despite not even knowing him.
They blinked at him in disbelief before Pepper let out an exasperated sigh deciding this wasn’t worth arguing about.
“Would you mind telling the others to call off the search and rescue.” Pepper said to Clint. “Tell them we found our two escape con artists.”
She gave Peter a side-eyed mock glare. And he grinned back at her sheepishly.
“Glad you're ok, kid,” Clint nodded at Peter before he left.
“Come on, Peter,” Pepper said, returning her attention to him. “Dr. Cho wanted to check you over before you left your room. You gave us quite the scare there, young man.”
“Sorry, Miss Potts,” Peter said.
However, He made no attempt to follow her out of the room. He looked back and the still unconscious Tony. His ears still trained on the now steady heartbeat and hum of the arc reactor keeping him alive. Pepper’s faze softened.
“He’ll be alright, kid,” She said. “You and I both know he’d want you checked out first.”
Reluctantly Peter followed her down the long cold sterile Hallways. His ears still trained on the heartbeat behind him so if Miss Potts was talking he didn’t hear her despite being next to her. (It’s a good thing she was only scolding Morgan for giving her minders the slip.)
Dr. Cho was already waiting for them when they arrived and after shoving him back to the hospital bed immediately started to question Peter with the typical: how long had he been awake? What did he remember?
He explained waking up and finding Morgan,
Being sure to talk about how helpful she had been in calming him from a panic attack (while leaving out the fact that her existence might have caused it) so she wouldn’t get into any more trouble. He had just met the kid but he liked her and found her to be the most adorable thing to wake up to.
“Yes I can understand how disorienting it is to find that five years have passed and suddenly thrust into all this madness. With no chance to get your bearings in order,” Dr. Cho said.
Peter’s head finally snapped up. “You too?”
“Oh yes,” Cho said. “Granted I had a few hours while you all were presumably fighting before Mrs. Stark called me and informed me my favorite patient had passed out from exhaustion, and had yet another stab wound in the side, and a broken ankle.”
“Exhaustion? Is that what happened?” Peter asked.
“Essentially, yes,” Cho said. “See to you, me, and others all of this happened in one long day. You went from fighting Thanos in space to fighting him on earth in what was probably a mere matter of seconds to you. Once the battle was over and your body and mind determined you were in a safe place, the adrenaline that was keeping you going left. Causing you to collapse from exhaustion.”
He remembered the feeling of turning to ash, every little piece of him breaking off before suddenly being snapped back together painfully like a rubber band. He didn’t think it was seconds. It felt like he was being pulled apart so slowly. He wondered if anyone else felt like that. But Dr. Cho didn’t say anything. Maybe they were avoiding it like he was.
“Oh, um, so did everybody else who was, um, disappeared do that too? Pass out?” Peter asked quietly.
“Not that I’m aware of,” Cho said. “But, Peter, you have to remember that your metabolism is higher than everyone else’s and I doubt you ate much in space to prep for hours of fighting.”
“Right,” he muttered slightly embarrassed. If only he was stronger.
“But it appears that your healing is back on track and everything is in order. You're free to go.” She left with a smile leaving Peter along with Miss Potts and Morgan.
He wondered why she was still here with him instead of back with Mr. Stark. He had realized that Dr. Cho had called her Mrs. Stark. So they must have gotten married like they had planned. He had missed the wedding, Mr. Stark had promised he could go.
“You’re why I proposed to her,” Mr. Stark had said. “It’s only fair for you to be there.”
But he didn’t get to go. He had missed five whole years. The little girl Miss Potts— Mrs. Stark was holding proof of that. He couldn’t understand why Morgan had been with him when he woke up instead of her father and why Mrs. Stark was still here with him instead of her husband.
“Peter?” She said waving a hand in front of him. “Are you alright.”
He realized she must have been trying to speak to him.
“Sorry,” he said quickly, “it’s just…”
“A lot,” she said softly.
He nodded. After a moment of her staring at him in wonder and Peter feeling more awkward she set Morgan down and crossed the room and pulled Peter into another hug. Morgan, not wanting to be left out, hugged him too.
“I know we weren’t as close as you and Tony, but I’m so glad you're back, Peter,” she said.
He didn’t know what to say so he just nodded into her chest.
“Thanks, Miss Potts, I mean Mrs. Stark,” he said.
“Call me Pepper, Peter,” she said.
“Right, Pepper,” he said slowly testing it out and she nodded for him to continue. “It’s ok you don’t have to stay with me, you can take Morgan back to Mr. Stark. Dr. Cho said I was fine so it’s ok.”
“Peter,” Pepper said sternly. “Tony isn’t going anywhere, right now you're my number one priority. And until we can get your Aunt to Wakanda I want you to know that you have someone in your corner with me. Even after she’s here, I’ll be in your corner. Whatever you need.”
“My- my aunt.” He said standing up sharply. “She’s ok?”
“She’ll be here in a couple of days, once airways are clear, King T’challa will send a plane for her,” Pepper said. “We only got Cho and Happy here through the Wizards because we needed someone who knew your medical history and it was an emergency. The wizards are a little overwhelmed now so emergencies only.”
Peter nodded, it made sense.
“Did she—“ he hesitated but Pepper seemed to know what he was going to ask.
She nodded and Peter’s heart dropped.
“But she’s ok now,” Pepper said. “She showed back up at your old apartment. So we were able to find her pretty quickly. Happy’s taking care of everything.”
“Yeah and I’m not getting paid this time,” a voice from the hallway came.
“Happy!” Peter said brightly at the same time Morgan cried “Uncle Happy!”
The man had frozen at the door and stared at Peter like he had never seen him before.
“Oh god,” Happy choked out. “Kid.”
He reached Peter in not even a second and before Peter knew it he was wrapped up in another pair of arms. He was shocked. Happy hadn’t ever acted like he cared, and even though Peter knew that he did, he always pretended he didn’t.
“God, Peter,” the man practically sobbed. “I’m never gonna miss a phone call or take your voicemails and texts for granted ever again.”
“It’s ok, happy,” Peter said awkwardly patting Happy’s back. “I’m fine.”
“If Showing up with a broken ankle and stab wounds qualifies as fine then sure,” Happy said.
Pepper had left quality with Morgan to give the two of them some space. (With Morgan complaining as they went that she had finally met Peter and didn’t want to leave.)
“Happy,” Peter said hesitantly once they were gone. “What happened?”
“Nobody’s explained anything to you yet huh?” Happy asked.
Peter shook his head. “I just woke up to some random kid who I guess isn’t so random because apparently they had a kid and it’s been five years! I mean she’s really cute and I think she likes me? And she hasn’t even met me? Well until today. But she knew so much about me? And everyone’s calling Miss Potts Mrs. Stark. And Tony almost—“
Happy put his hand on Peter’s shoulder to stop him and started leading him out the door.
“Let’s take a walk, Pete, I bet you could use some fresh air anyways.” Happy said.