Don’t give up on me
Peter woke up in a good mood but then he remembered that he was going to see his therapist today so he was in a slightly less better mood.
He sat outside Karen’s office with his dad, feeling like he wanted to be anywhere there.
Karen opened the door so Peter looked towards his dad. “I’ll be right here if you need me, if not, I’ll see you in an hour.”
He reluctantly nodded and followed Karen into the room and took a seat on the comfy chair, pulling his feet up on it. He had been doing this for years and yet, every time he went to see her, he was still nervous.
Karen took a seat across from him and sat back. “How are you, Peter?”
Peter shrugged. “Good I guess.”
“Your mom told me that you and your family are going to Malibu tonight. Are you excited to see your grandparents?”
“Yeah… I haven’t seen them in awhile. I’m just going with my dad though. Then everyone else will come after.” He pulled the string on his pants to calm his nerves. “And I guess I haven’t seen them since before I was… like taken again. I think they were going to come fly to us but… then I was found.”
“How are you feeling about seeing them again?”
Peter shrugged again. “Good. I wanna see them. I just hope they don’t like… ask me about it cause I don’t wanna talk about it with them.”
“Do you talk about it with your parents?”
“No. Not really. No one brings it up.”
“Would you want them to bring it up? How would you feel if they did?”
Peter put his feet down and swung them back and forth. “I-I don’t know. I don’t wanna not talk about it… but I also don’t want it to be one of those things no one talks about and we all try to avoid. Because it happened. And now… like it took a lot of years for me to like… be okay again, well, okay for the first time and… yeah.”
“You can continue.” Karen insisted so Peter sighed and tried to continue.
“Just… everything I did, it took four years for me to feel at least somewhat normal, I mean I know I’ll never be normal I guess and I’m okay with that, I don’t really care anymore, not really. But-but Steve… he took me for like just a few days and it erased all my progress and everything.” Peter rubbed at his eyes. “I don’t wanna be eighteen and still doing the things I do. But it took four years last time.”
“The road to recovery is different every time. If you try to put a date on the finish line, it’ll only take a longer time.”
Peter knew that, his parents always told him not to rush anything. “Still…”
“Your mom told me that you started wetting the bed again and you have to wear pull-ups to bed, is that helping you?”
Peter’s eyes went wide and his face turned red. “Oh gosh.”
“I’m not saying this to embarrass you, you know it’s a safe space here. I’m just asking to help you, Peter. That’s all I wanna do.” Karen placed her hands on the table, watching the boy squirm uncomfortably in front of her.
“I know. But still.” Peter knew Karen knew but talking about it was a whole different thing. “It’s just… weird.”
Karen nodded and wrote something down. “We can come back to it if you want. Would you wanna do that?”
Peter shook his head. “I don’t wanna talk about it.”
“That’s okay. Can I ask your dad?”
Peter chewed on his thumb nail. “If you want… it’s not even that important.”
“I need to know because I heard you haven’t been sleeping well lately and it’s important for you to get enough hours of sleep. If the bed wetting is keeping you up, I need to know.” Karen insisted. “I’m not doing this to hurt you. I’m trying to help.”
“I know.” Peter forced out. He just wanted the session to be over with. He kept looking towards the door for his dad to walk in but he never did.
After the hour was up, Karen stood up and opened the door so Peter raced out to his dad, burying his face in his chest.
“How did it go?” Tony asked Karen, wanting to hear from her so he got an answer other than ‘good’.
“It went well. I just wanted to talk to you about Peter’s bed wetting?” Karen asked Tony, seeing Peter hug Tony a bit tighter.
“Oh, uh, yeah, he started again a few days ago but it was a stressful night.” Tony ran his fingers through Peter’s curls. “He hasn’t had an accident in a few nights now so hopefully it was just because of that one night.”
“Alright. Keep me updated on it.” Karen waved bye to Peter who wasn’t even looking at her. “Bye Peter. Have fun in Malibu. I’ll see you soon.”
Tony pulled Peter off of him and grabbed his hand instead. “Say bye, Pete.”
“Bye.” Peter gave her a tiny wave and pulled his hand out of his dads to wrap his fingers in between his. “I wanna hold your hand this way.”
“Go for it. Wanna get some ice cream before we pick up your sister?”
Peter squealed. “Yes!”
.
.
.
Peter looked out the window and finished his well deserved ice cream cone just as they pulled up to Morgan’s school. He really missed his sister and wanted to see her, especially after his intense therapy session, he just wanted his whole family around.
Tony parked the van and shut the engine off, turning back to look at Peter. “We have like fifteen minutes to kill since we’re a bit early.”
Peter nodded, shoving the last bite of ice cream into his mouth. “Are we going to grandmas and grandpas right now?”
Tony took off his seatbelt and grabbed the baby wipes in the door. “No. We’re going home to pack first and then you and I are leaving today but everyone else will leave tomorrow.”
The plan was for Tony to take Peter alone on the plane to go to Malibu to visit Pepper’s parents for a bit since Pepper had a meeting at the tower and Harley was going to pick Morgan up from school before they leave, it was all planned out and Tony was more than happy to get to have more one on one time with his youngest boy.
Peter wiped the ice cream on his pants and Tony cringed. “No. Wipe them with this.” He handed back two wipes for Peter. “And wipe your face.”
Tony got out of the van, deciding to just go inside the school now. He slid open up the back door and grabbed another wipe to wipe Peter’s face but Peter turned his head and pushed him away. “Nooo. This is the wipe you wipe my butt with.”
Tony laughed out at that. “What? No, it’s a different pack anyways. Why would I use the same wipe?” Tony tossed it onto the floor of their car with all the other junk that was there. Tony liked it though, before kids, his car was immaculate and that was no fun. He liked it a lot better this way. “Let’s go inside now.”
Peter took off his seatbelt and got out of the car, leaving his dad to shut the door. “I thought we still had fifteen minutes?”
“It’s fine, I don’t feel like waiting and mom wants us home so we can help her clean the house and pack.” Tony looked both ways and crossed the parking lot with Peter.
“But I don’t wanna do both those things.” Peter complained, grabbing onto his dad’s hand as he half ran to keep up with him.
“I don’t either. Hopefully mom will get most of the packing done by the time we get home. We have to stop at the store to grab a few things first anyways.” He held up the key card to get into the school but Peter was grabbing it from him.
“I wanna do it.”
Once they were in, Peter walked towards the office, already knowing which way to go since it was his old school. “Is Morgan gonna meet us here? Or will we go up to her class?”
“Uh, no she’s coming here to us.” They both walked into the office, Tony speaking with the receptionist to show his ID and sign her out.
Meanwhile, Morgan had her bag and was making her way towards the office and as she spotted her brother and dad standing there, a huge smile spread across her face and she was about to call out to Peter so he would look at her but a student from her school in one of the older grades walked up to her.
She rolled her eyes at him. He was a bully and picked on the younger grades but she wasn’t going to take that shit.
He looked at Peter in the office and grinned at Morgan, a sick smile on his face. “Isn’t that your brother? Why’s he here? Is he joining this school again cause he failed high school?”
Morgan stopped walking and crossed her arms over her chest. “No. He’s here with my dad to pick me up.”
The boy scuffed. “Oh please. I heard about him on the news. My parents say he’s a lost cause now. I say he should have stayed with the guy who kidnapped him.” Morgan narrowed her eyes and clenched her fists at her side, feeling her heart start to race with the adrenaline pumping through her veins now. Her mind was already set.
He shrugged. “He would have had a better life with the other man-”
Morgan lunged at the boy and wrapped her hands around his neck, causing him to lose his balance and fall to the ground. She fell with him and used her advantage of being on top of him to punch him in the face twice. “You take that back! Take it back!”
Tony turned around after hearing the commotion and the screaming. At first he thought it was just two kids fighting but he recognized Morgan and ran out to the hallway to pull his daughter off the boy.
“Morgan. Get off. Morgan!” Tony grabbed her by her backpack and lifted her off of the older boy, feeling his heart beating so fast. What the hell was going on?
He lifted her off of the boy and held onto her, with an arm around her chest. “Hey! What are you doing?!”
Peter already had teary eyes. He ran over to his dad and grabbed onto his shirt, hiding behind him and wanting his sister to stop fighting.
Morgan was breathing heavily, her eyes narrowed and glued on the older boy. “He started it!”
The boy had a red lip, no doubt from Morgan’s punches. He pushed himself up on his elbows and laughed at her. “It’s not my fault! You just got mad cause I was telling facts-”
Morgan ripped away from her dad and threw herself onto the boy again, throwing another punch at his face but this time the boy was crying and holding his bloody nose.
Tony pulled Morgan off of him once again and held her firmly. “Stop! What are you doing?”
Morgan didn’t answer Tony, still watching the boy who was now openly crying. “Now what do you have to say?!”
Peter grabbed onto his dad’s arms and chewed aggressively on the tip of his thumb in all the panic. He didn’t want Morgan to fight and hurt herself, it was scary.
Tony didn’t know what to do. He didn’t know why Morgan had fought the boy but he had an idea. At least those self defence classes came in handy. He still didn’t let go of her yet, not trusting her to charge at the boy… again.
The principal came out and was standing between the two kids, more focused on Morgan. “What is going on here?”
Morgan tried to calm down but she was so worked up. She didn’t speak first.
The nurse wiped the boy's blood, helping him stand to his feet. Tony really hoped his nose wasn’t broken, he really didn’t want to deal with a lawsuit.
“I wanna go. I don’t wanna be here anymore. I wanna go!” Morgan turned around to push against her dad but Tony didn’t move.
“What’s going on, Morgan? Why did you do that?” Tony tried to tell if Morgan wanted to cry but she was as thick as steel. That actually concerned him a bit.
She snapped her head at the boy. “He started it and I finished it! He’s a bully and no ones tries to stop him but I did cause he shouldn’t have said that!” She yelled, adrenaline still pumping through her veins. She looked at him. “If you ever say that again, I’ll strangle you to death!”
“Morgan,” Tony grabbed her arm and looked at the principal. “I’ll be setting up a meeting to talk about this but I’m taking my daughter home now.” He pulled Morgan out of the school along with Peter following beside his dad.
Tony opened up the back door for them to get in. Tony just wanted to get home to talk to Pepper and see how they were going to handle this situation with Morgan.
Peter sat in the car and looked at his dad. “Why did Morgan do that?”
“I don’t know, bud.” Tony shut the door and got in. Looking in the rearview mirror at both of them. Peter was looking at Morgan and chewing on his thumb while Morgan had her arms crossed and had her whole body turned away from everyone. Tony wasn’t going to try and talk to her now and the store would have to wait.
As soon as they got home, Morgan ran out of the car and straight to the front door, unlocking it with her fingerprint and running straight upstairs to her bedroom.
Peter didn’t even get out of the car by the time she was in the house. “Why did she do that?” He asked, getting out of the van himself and looking up at his dad.
“I don’t know, buddy. Let’s just go inside and how about you go ask Harley to help you pack while I go talk to mom?” Tony shut the door behind them and went to go look for Pepper but she was already walking towards them.
“Hi Pete. Was that Morgan who raced upstairs?” Pepper asked, concern on her face.
Tony gently pushed Peter upstairs but he refused to go and grabbed onto his dad’s hand. “Noo. Come help me. I don’t want Harley to help.”
“Can we talk for a second, Pep?” Tony gave her a look that told her this was serious.
Pepper's smile completely dropped. “Yeah… Harley?” Harley walked towards them with a bag of chips in his hand. “Can you go help Peter pack while your dad and I talk? Please.”
Harley heard the underlying tone in her voice so he ruffled Peter’s curls. “Yeah, c’mon. I think mom already started but we can finish up.”
As soon as Peter was reluctantly pulled upstairs, Tony looked at Pepper and sighed then walked into the kitchen and started talking in a low voice. “So…”
“What happened? Did something happen with Peter? You guys just went to pick up Morgan, right?” Pepper asked nervously, both wanting to know what was going on but fearful as well.
Tony double checked no one was around. “Yeah, so Peter and I went to her school to pick her up and we went in a bit early and as we were standing in the office to sign her out, I heard this yelling behind us and I see Morgan attacking one of the students there. A boy. She was on top of him, Pepper, throwing punches. She was mad. Really mad. I pulled her off of him and then he said something and she punched him in the face and gave him a bloody nose.”
Pepper gasped. “Did she break his nose?”
“I don’t know.” Tony hoped not. They left before he could find out but he honestly didn’t think so. Morgan was strong but she was still only ten, he didn’t think she had that much power behind her punches.
“I don’t understand why Morgan attacked the boy, what did he do to her?” Pepper tried to think and looked at Tony for an answer.
“She didn’t tell me and I wanted to talk to you before we talk to her. Let’s just let her cool down for a bit longer.” Morgan and Peter were polar opposites. While Morgan liked her space and to be alone when she was upset, Peter needed to be with someone and hated being alone. Morgan didn’t like cuddles or physical contact or reassurances but Peter needed all those things to feel better and calm down from being angry, upset, frustrated or whatever he was feeling at the time.
Harley was like Morgan although he would prefer to have talks about it.
“She’s been up there now for about fifteen minutes. I don’t want her to think she’s getting away with what she did.”
Tony shook his head. “I know. She doesn’t think that… let’s just go up now then.”
When Harley took Peter upstairs, he took him into his bedroom where his suitcase was and looked inside, trying to see what was already packed. “What do you wanna bring?”
Peter shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t know how to pack.”
Harley looked over at the package of pull-ups and opened it up. “Do you still wear these to bed?”
Peter looked at them. “Sometimes.”
Harley placed a stack of them in the suitcase. “I’ll pack a few. I guess dad or mom can buy you some when we’re there.” He tossed the rest onto Peter’s bed. “Wanna bring any other pyjamas?”
Peter opened up his toy chest and pulled out a lego box. “I’m gonna pack this.”
“You probably don’t need that.” Harley tried to take it off of him.
Peter turned away from his brother. “I will. I’m gonna add it in.”
Harley didn’t bother to stop him. His parents could deal with that later.
While the brothers were doing that, both parents went upstairs and Tony looked at Pepper before knocking on her door, still not knowing how to approach the situation. “Morgan? It’s mom and dad. Can we come in and talk with you?”
“Yeah.”
Tony opened up the door and shut it behind them. Morgan was drawing on her drawing board but stopped when they walked in. She sat on her beanbag chair and looked down at her lap.
Tony and Pepper took a seat on her carpet. “Let’s talk about what happened at school today.” Tony started. “Did you attack that boy first or did he attack you first?” Tony already knew Morgan did but he wanted to hear the full story from her.
Morgan crossed her arms, closing in on herself. She shrugged.
“Morgan, we’re not going to be angry at you but your dad and I need to know what happened so we can help you. We won’t be mad.” Pepper tried.
“It doesn’t matter anyways.”
The door was being pushed open and Peter ran in, plopping himself down in his dad’s lap and sticking his thumb in his mouth. “I wanna sit with you.”
Tony tried to lift Peter up but he gripped onto him. “Not now, Peter.”
“Noo.”
Morgan stared at Peter, not daring to speak with him there.
Harley walked in to grab Peter. “I can’t pack with him. He wants to pack everything but clothes.”
Tony lifted Peter off his lap, ignoring his whines. “Just take him for a bit. You can’t come in here right now, Pete.”
“Fine!” Peter flopped in Harley’s arms so he was carried out. “Carry me to your bedroom.”
Harley shut the door with his foot and carried Peter down the hallway into his bedroom then tossed him on the bed. “How do you not fall off the bed? Do you ever when you sleep?”
“Uh… no. I never did. Oh that’s right, you still have a bed rail.” Harley didn’t think it mattered since Peter didn’t sleep anywhere but their parents' bed now. Harley cringed at the thought of himself sleeping in between his parents now.
“Yeah…” Peter trailed off and opened up Harley’s nightstand table drawer so Harley quickly slammed it closed so Peter couldn’t see what was inside and accidentally slammed it on Peter’s finger so he quickly grabbed his hand.
“No. No, don’t cry. I’m sorry. It was an accident, I’ll give you a hug, come.” Harley grabbed Peter and pulled him in for a hug to stop him from crying, he knew his parents were dealing with Morgan anyways.
Back inside Morgan’s room, Tony waited for the door to close then turned to Morgan. He saw the way she was just looking at Peter. “Did that kid say something about Peter?”
Morgan froze. “Yeah…”
“So can you tell us what happened?”
Morgan took a breath of air. “He’s so rude. He’s even older than me and my friends and he’s asking saying mean things to us and taking our chalk or jump rope and no one stands up to him because he has an older brother in grade eight who is even bigger and meaner than him and I already hate him and today I saw Peter in the office and I was already so happy to see him but then Charles walked down and said a rude thing about Peter and so I punched him.”
Tony didn’t show any reaction to the story, not wanting to scare Morgan off. “So you hit first?”
Morgan hesitated. “Yes. And I’d do it again!”
“Well, what did Charles say to you?” Asked Pepper.
Morgan shrugged. “I can’t remember.”
“Yeah you do. Tell us, Morg.”
Morgan looked at her dad and sighed. “He said that Peter was at my school because he failed high school and then he said that his parents saw the news and think Peter’s a loss cause and he said he thinks that Peter would have been better off with his kidnapper.”
That hurt for both parents to hear. Suddenly, Tony didn’t mind the fact that that boy got punched a few times and didn’t even get one hit on Morgan. “I understand why you did that. We’re not mad at you, actually, that Charles kid deserved it.”
Morgan looked surprised that her dad was saying that. “Really?”
“Yeah, he deserved it. I’m glad you stood up to a bully like that, especially for your brother.” Tony reached over to rub her knee.
“I’m proud of you and I admire your bravery so much, Morgan.” Pepper smiled warmly at her daughter and even though she was somewhat glad Morgan did what she did for Peter, it still wasn’t okay. “The only thing is that you’re not allowed to do that at school… or anywhere for that matter.”
Tony nodded slowly. “While your mom and I understand why you did it, you have to understand that it was wrong. You could have used your words instead or come and have told me or even a teacher there.”
“They don’t do anything about it! We always tell them, they just talk to him once and nothing is ever done!” Morgan stood up and yelled, getting worked up again.
“Okay… sit down and we’ll talk about it.” Tony gestured for Morgan to sit down again so she did. “We gotta go in and talk to your school about this and we will talk to them about that boy as well and something will be done.”
Morgan crossed her arms over her chest. “I will punch him again, I will kick him again, I’ll pour bleach in his eyes if he says stuff like that again and I don’t care if that stupid school kicks me out or-or expellees me. It’s a stupid school anyways.”
Tony and Pepper were taken back for a second. Tony understood her completely. “I understand, Morgan. That kid upset you and you didn’t think first, you just reacted because you love Peter and that kid was picking on him, I do, I understand why you did it and while your mom and I are okay with it because we understand why, we aren’t going to punish you but we’re going to talk to you and explain to you why what you did was still wrong because you could have really hurt him, or he could have hurt you.”
Morgan didn’t respond.
Pepper tried this time. “We just want you to see that there are different ways to handle that situation.”
“I’m not saying sorry to him. I won’t accept his sorry either. If I have to go to that school and say sorry, I’ll punch the teachers as well.”
“Okay… enough, Morgan.” Tony was seeing an aggressive side of Morgan he’s never really seen before. “You don’t need to apologize. A forced apology means nothing and does nothing and I know you’re not sorry anyways, I don’t expect you to be. I just- I just want you, we, just want you to understand that even though you did it for all the right reasons, it was still wrong. Can you see that?”
Morgan shrugged and thought about it. “Yeah… but I also don’t care. I don’t regret it.”
Tony nodded. “Okay… Pete and I are leaving in a few hours for Malibu so we might have to talk to the school about this when we get back-”
Pepper cut him off. “No, I’ll call and do it. I don’t want this lingering around.”
Morgan looked between the two. “Can I go now?”
“Can we have a hug first?” Tony held his arms out for her, getting a quick hug, nothing like Peter’s hug.
After they were done with their talk, Tony stood up to go find Peter. They had to leave for the airport in just under two hours and so far Tonydidn’t pack anything. He really hoped Pepper was already on top of that.
He walked into Harley’s room to find Peter and found them in the bathroom. “What are you guys doing?”
Peter put the razor down as soon as he saw his dad, knowing he wasn’t allowed to touch them. “Nothing. Just looking.”
“Peter wants to shave his face and I told him he can’t.” Harley grabbed the razor off the counter and put it away. Harley just had everything out on the bathroom counter while Tony and Pepper had to lock all their stuff away from Peter.
“You’ll shave your face when you grow hair.” Tony held his hand out for Peter to take. “Let’s go finish packing. We have to leave soon.”
Peter took his dad's hand. “When will I grow hair?”
Tony had no idea, not anytime soon by the looks of it. “I don’t know. Maybe when you’re eighteen. Some guys don’t even grow facial hair.” Peter was like a Sphinx anyways, he didn’t have any hair on him but his head and eyebrows and Tony selfishly hoped he stayed that way for a long time, he missed out on seven years of Peter’s childhood so it was okay for him to want that and hold onto any childish thing Peter did.
“Can I shave your face then?”
“I don’t think so.” He walked into Peter’s room, thankful to find Pepper already in there. “Is he all packed? Am I all packed?”
Pepper smiled fondly at them. “Yes, you are packed. I’m just packing Peter’s stuff right now, can you pick out what bathing suit you wanna bring?”
Peter squatted down to look in his drawer, pulling out two bathing suit briefs, the shorter the better, he didn’t understand how his dad and brother wore such long ones. “These ones. So I can wear this one one day and then one the next day and this one the other day then this one.”
“Good plan, bud.” Tony grabbed the pull-ups off the bed. “Should we bring these?”
Pepper pulled the ones out of the suitcase to think about it. “I think Harley packed some in here… I don’t know, what do you think?”
Tony wanted them to come. “Yeah, just in case. I doubt your parents will have any there.”
“They might from the last time when he was twelve but we’ll pack them anyways.” Pepper took them from Tony and packed them in.
Peter chewed on one of his lego pieces while he watched his parents decide so Tony looked over at him. “What do you think, bud?” He saw something in Peter’s mouth and moved his hands away. “What is that? Give it.” Tony sighed, he definitely thought that phase was over but he didn’t think it would ever be over. “That’s nasty. Are you saying we don’t feed you?”
“You’re nasty.” Peter giggled. “Noo, actually yeah, I’m hungry.”
Tony smacked his knees. “Alright. Let’s go feed you so you don’t resort to eating lego pieces.”
Pepper stood up before him. “You finish packing and my baby and I will go downstairs and spend some time together since I’m not gonna see him for one full day.”
Peter waved bye to Tony as he and his mom left the room, yeah, he was gonna miss her a lot but he knew it was only going to be for one night and one day. He could do it.
Plus he had his dad so he would be okay.
He would always be okay as long as he had his dad and the rest of his family by his side.