“Dad?” Peter walked into the lab one night, “I’ve got to show you something and I want you to stay calm.”
Tony rolled his eyes, “Good start, Pete.”
Peter sighed and lifted his shirt exposing his ribs which had angry bruises on them. Tony dropped what he was doing and walked over. He examined the bruises for a bit.
“Hurts to breathe?” Tony asked.
“Yeah.” Peter admitted.
“How old are these bruises?”
“Not that old.” Peter avoided Tony’s gaze.
“Let’s try the truth.” Tony went and grabbed an ice pack from the freezer and wrapped it in a towel and passed it to Peter, “I’ve know you long enough to know you wouldn’t have brought this to my attention if you thought your healing was going to step in and take care of this.”
“I don’t know why my healing isn’t working.” Peter heard the crack in his voice and suddenly his talk with himself about staying tough went out the window. He just wanted his dad to fix this.
Tony squeezed Peter’s arm gently in support, “I think your body’s been through it and your healing can only handle so much at one time. We’re going to have to go visit your favorite doctor.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“Why? It’s a bruise!” Peter argued.
“Tone.” Tony warned, “Because I’m not a doctor but I know your skin shouldn’t be all different colors. I have no way of knowing if your ribs are broken. I don’t know that something internal isn’t happening.”
“You’re overreacting!” Peter argued.
“Am I?” Tony raised a brow, “Because I’m the one whose handled it all with you, Pete. I was there in the NICU with you. I handled the asthma scares. I handled the broken bones and ER visits like a pro. I handled the spider bite and all of your Spider-Man injuries after. I handled it all because I made a promise to you in that NICU. I promised to keep you safe and some days you make it very difficult to keep that promise!”
“I’m not a baby anymore.” Peter crossed his arms over his chest.
Tony’s face softened. Peter would always be his baby. He knew Peter wasn’t really that against going to see Dr. Cho so this bit of teenage rebellion was coming from someplace else—Probably fear, “I’ll be with you the whole time. You’re probably right. She’ll probably say nothing is wrong and then we’ll go watch movies together.”
Peter let his shoulders relax. If his dad was dropping the fight—He would too.
~
“See she told me to rest.” Peter rolled his eyes as he settled onto the couch, “Told you I didn’t need to go to the MedBay.”
“Yes, and remind me where you get your license to practice medicine?” Tony teased throwing a blanket at Peter.
“I could get one if I wanted to.” Peter mumbled.
“Of course you could and if that’s what you want we can look into that, Bub. I’m still happy we aired on the side of caution.” Tony felt his own body relax into the couch. When was the last time he slept? He couldn’t honestly remember. He’d been in the lab every night avoiding his dreams.
~
“Dad?” Peter woke him after waking up in pain again. Tony woke up with a start until he realized he was safe in his living with with his son, “We have to go back to the MedBay. I’m in so much pain.”
Tony took in his son’s pinched face and he agreed, “You can walk?”
“Can I lean on you?”
“Any day, any time.”
~
Tony paced the waiting area while Peter went for his second round of X-Ray’s. He thought he had gotten good at this over the years but he hadn’t. It became normal at a point when you raise a kid prone to illness and injury. Spider-Man had removed some of those concern and added other concerns.
“What do we know?” Rhodey walked into the waiting area still in his pajamas and slippers passing him a coffee.
“We’re hoping his broken rib didn’t cause more problem. We don’t need something crazy happening like a lung collapsing.” Tony sighed heavily, “It could just be pain. He did take blunt force trauma.”
“It could just be pain.” Rhodey nodded, “I’m here, Tones. You’re not alone. I promise.”
Tony finally sat down and Rhodey found the seat next to him. It was the middle of the night but there was one thing Tony was confident in other than his love for his son. It was that his best friend would do anything for him and Peter.
~
“It’s nothing internal, Tony.” Dr. Cho said walking into the waiting area, “This is normal pain from his injury. I’ve admitted him for the night so we can put him on his stronger medication but I want to monitor him while he’s on that.”
“He’s okay? I heard your nurse saying scary things like collapsed lung and I kind of let my brain go to that scary place.” Tony ran a hand through his already messed up hair.
“My nurse and I will talk about when we say things to worried parents—Even parents that are superheroes don’t handle that well. He’s really okay, Tony. This is not the worst injury of his I’ve treated.”
“I hate that.”
“Me too.” Rhodey agreed, “That’s it. No more Spider-Man. My heart can’t take it. I’m taking the suit and I’m locking it up.”
Tony cracked a smile, “He’d just go out in his pajamas again.”
“Buy all of the pajamas in the world.” Rhodey told him, “I mean it.”
“I’ll get right on it.”
“Why does it feel like you aren’t taking this request seriously? I’m not joking” Rhodey said as
Tony started walking toward Peter’s room, “Oh, you’re going to check on Peter first? Cool. Cool.”
Rhodey looked at Dr. Cho, “If he asks—Tell him I’m starting at Walmart.”