Chapter 10
Ever since you had the random thought about it you couldn’t let it go. The idea that this disease that had tortured your body for eleven, or technically sixteen years if you count the Blip, could touch your little sister, who is so perfect the way she is, that scares the ever living crap out of you. It scares you so much that you started stress baking. So far you’ve made peanut butter cookies, snickerdoodle cookies, Nana’s banana bread, and today you’re making a cake. There’s no reason for all the desserts, especially since your dad doesn’t even like all this sugar around you or your sister, but the baking makes you feel better.
“You wanna talk about it?” Your mom asks as you pull out the butter to soften it.
“Talk about what?” You say as you put it in the microwave to soften it quicker than letting it sit out.
“Seeing as this is the fourth baked good in four days…” She trails off. “When your dad is stressed he tinkers. You either stress clean or you stress bake apparently. So what’s stressing you out? Do you have a school assignment that you’re avoiding?” She thinks back to the biology assignment you had tried to avoid before the Blip. You shake your head and put the butter in the mixing bowl before adding the sugar you had already measured out. “You know that whatever it is that you’re avoiding or you’re stressed about, I’ll never judge you about?”
You nod your head, but can’t look your mom in the eyes. Instead you just wave a hand towards your shirt before flipping the switch on the mixer to start creaming the butter and sugar. Pepper’s eyes read over your shirt- white lettering reads ‘In Memory of When My Pancreas Cared’ on the black shirt.
“Bad diabetes days?” Your mom asks, trying to figure out where your thought process is at. You shake your head, turning off the mixer to scrape down the sides. “I’m going to have to admit that I’m a little lost.”
“Morgan is my sister, but at least half by blood related to me. So what happens if diabetes decides she doesn’t get to have a normal childhood?” You say as you lay the spatula down on the counter.
“You’re worried Morgan will become diabetic?” Pepper asks, looking at you.
“I was a year younger than her when I became diabetic. So maybe it won’t happen to her, but she shouldn’t be forced through all of that.”
“You shouldn’t have been forced through it either.” Pepper states and can’t help but pull you into a hug. “If Morgan becomes diabetic, we’ll deal with it. Plus she’ll have the world’s best big sister to show her how to deal with it.”
“There’s… um a test that can give an idea of if she has the antibodies to even become Type One or not.” You pull away from your mom as you say it.
“There is?” Pepper asks. You nod slowly, unsure if it’s something that your parents would even be open to the idea of. Do they even want to know? “Let’s bring it up to Dad and we can figure out what to do all together.” Pepper looks into the bowl in front of you. “So what are we making today?”
“Carrot cake. It sounded good.”
“Your dad is going to hate that there’s more sugar in the house.” You just shrug as you add the next ingredient.
“A little sugar never killed anyone. In fact it saved my life a number of times.” You admit.
“Very right you are.”
That night at dinner, your whole family is sitting around the table, eating the burgers, or garden burger in your case, talking about your days. Your dad talks about how he and Peter got ahead on the project they’re working on, although he won’t say what it is that they’re working on. You don’t even know what it is because the last time you asked Peter, he said your dad wanted to keep it a secret until a certain point in time. Your mom talks about SI stuff and you and Morgan mention school stuff. “And what baked goods did you make today?” Your dad asks, knowing that you’ve been baking the past few days.
“I made a carrot cake today.”
“Carrot cake? That’s a step up from the last few days. Any particular reason for it?” He asks, but before you can say anything, Pepper changes the subject slightly.
“Morgan do you want some cake?”
“Yes please!” Your sister says with a smile. Tony looks over at Pepper, trying to get a sense of why your mom changed the subject, but he takes into consideration that if she changed the subject even by a little bit, it must have been for a good reason. “Daddy, I made a new friend at school today. Her name is Maya. She moved because of the Blip. Can I invite her over sometime to play?”
“I don’t see what not.” Your dad smiles at your sister as she starts to regale you all with the game that she and Maya played at recess. It makes you think of the kind of games you and Betty used to play back when you were Morgan’s age. Your sister has a whole innocence about her that you wouldn’t wish to disappear for anything. And you’re hoping that you can keep it for as long as possible.
“Morgan would you like to watch some TV since you finished eating?” Pepper asks. Your dad doesn’t argue with it, sensing something is off. Morgan nods enthusiastically. She never gets to watch TV after dinner, so she will take any time she’s allowed to watch.
“Will Y/N still tell me a bedtime story after it though?” Morgan asks, not wanting to lose her story time just to get to watch TV.
Pepper nods. “I think we can still make that work.”
“Yay!”
As Morgan runs off to watch the TV she’s not usually allowed to watch, Tony looks over to you and Pepper, trying to see if he can guess what’s going on between the two of you. “Giving Morgan cake and letting her have TV time just to talk to me. What did I do?” Tony asks.
“You didn’t do something. There’s an idea that Y/N and I were talking through and we needed to discuss with you.”
“Is there another Europe trip that I didn’t know about?” Tony teases.
“Dad, this is something serious. Can you be serious please?” He looks between you and Pepper trying to figure out where this conversation is going.
“I can do serious. What’s happening?”
“You know that I was four when I was diagnosed with Type One?”
“Yeah. Which seems too young to have to deal with something so serious.”
“I’ve been… worried lately.”
“About your numbers? Or something else type one related?”
“About the fact that Morgan is just a little older than I was when I was diagnosed.” You admit.
“You worry that she’s going to get diagnosed too?” Your dad asks, following your train of thought. You nod your head slowly, admitting where your fears have been laying over the past few days. “Is this why there’s been so much baking?”
“It might have been some stress baking.” You admit.
“Well if it comes to Morgan being diagnosed, we will handle it as well as we can-” Pepper cuts him off.
“Y/N actually had an idea she wanted us to think about.” Tony looks from Pepper to you, wanting to know what he’s missing.
“There’s a test. They can look at Morgan’s blood and see if she has these six, I think, antibodies that are usually markers for if you’re going to get type one or not.”
“Let’s do it.” Tony says. “I don’t care what the cost is.”
“It’s free.”
“What?”
“The test, it’s free. For anyone who has a Type One sibling. It’s done by a company called TrialNet. They want to do more research about the likelihood of siblings of Type Ones also getting Type One, so they do the tests for free. But you and Mom would have to approve Morgan getting tested since she’s five. I brought it up to Mom earlier and she said this was a discussion that both of you needed to be in on.”
“I still say let’s do it.”
“Is it an invasive test?” Pepper asks, not fully agreeing with Tony yet. You shake your head.
“I believe it’s just a simple blood draw. They literally will be doing it at the walk in November. But they also will set up appointments to do it if you want to do it sooner than that.” You had spent the afternoon doing research on TrialNet while your cake baked so you could approach this with all the right information. “It’s similar to when I get my A1C draw.”
“Do you think Helen could do the blood draw? Since Morgan knows her?” Tony asks, contemplating what would make Morgan the most comfortable.
“I don’t know about that. You’d probably have to ask the TrialNet people about it.”
“Let us do some research into it and we’ll make a decision about it.” Pepper says with a smile as you take the final bite of the cake on your plate. It needs some more cinnamon, but that’s a little change. “Now I’m thinking someone has some homework she probably needs to finish.”
“Yeah, I do. Dad, I need some help on my chemistry homework.”
“I’ll be up in a few minutes. Let us finish eating and I’ll be right there.” He says, giving you a smile. You take your dishes to the sink, before making your way up the stairs. “What are you thinking?” He asks his wife, who hasn’t voiced much thought about the conversation you had brought up.
“I think it’s a double ended sword.” Pepper finally says after a moment of silence.
“How so?”
“If we find out she doesn’t have the antibodies it's a blessing. If she does have the antibodies, then are we waiting for a curse?”
“If she has the antibodies then we can put our focus into finding a cure before it sets in.” Tony says, reaching for Pepper’s hand. “And if Morgan becomes Type One, then it’s nothing different than Y/N. Except that she has her big sister to show her the ropes and she has better technology than Y/N did at diagnosis.”
“How are you so positive about all of this?” Pepper looks at Tony with a raised eyebrow. “This isn’t your normal demenior.”
“I have to be positive, because if I’m not, then I have to accept that if both of them get it, it’s my fault.” Pepper realizes the impact of the words. Everyone treats Morgan and Y/N as full blood siblings because why shouldn’t they? But what Tony says is true. If both of them are type one, then it came from Tony’s side of the family.
“It wouldn’t be your fault.” Pepper squeezes Tony’s hand. “It might have come from your side of the family, but it also could have come from my side of the family if Morgan gets it. I don’t know my family history with diabetes. Just because both our kids have it means nothing. So don’t blame yourself.”
“I’m going to focus on doing all I can to make sure they have the best care they can. And I think that means getting Morgan tested. Especially if it calms Y/N down. Her stress baking is bringing so much sugar into this house. And I can’t tell Morgan and Y/N that they can’t eat what she’s baking. That will take away my number one dad status. So if getting Morgan tested will take away the stress then…” Tony trails off.
“We can get her tested. She’s going to hate the needle though.”
“I know. But we’ll bring Y/N along and she’ll make it better. She somehow always knows how to make Morgan smile.”
That’s how you ended up sitting next to Morgan on a doctor’s table two weeks later after you both got out of school. Morgan’s face is slightly scrunched up, looking at the tools sitting in front of her. “I don’t want to do this.” She says, crossing her arms.
“Momo, I know it’s not the best thing, but I hear Daddy said he’s offering juice pops to anyone who lets the doctors do what they need to.”
“Really?” She looks up at you with what you can only describe as puppy dog eyes. You nod at your baby sister.
“Yup, and Peter was thinking about coming over tonight. Maybe he would like to play with someone who’s big and brave?”
“Peter’s going to come over to play with me? Not to come do homework with you?”
“It’s a Friday. We don’t have to do homework tonight.” You’re going to have to send him a text to come over for sure, since he asked if he should come over after swinging around Queens for a couple of hours while you and your family took care of this. “Maybe he will want to play with your Avenger action figures.”
“Will you play too?” She asks.
“Sure, if you don’t want Peter all to yourself.” She shakes her head.
“I want you and Peter to play with me.”
“I think we can do that and have juice pops. But you gotta be big and brave so the doctors can do this.” The TrialNet people had arranged it so that the draw ended up being at your endo in the city so that your sister wasn’t the only one getting blood drawn. “Plus, I have to get blood taken too.”
“Really?” You nod.
“I get blood taken every three months Momo.”
“That’s not fun. I’m going to tell them not to hurt my big sister.”
“But that’s the thing Momo. It’s not to hurt me. It’s to keep me safe. It’s so that they can make sure that my body is doing the best it can.”
“And you have to be big and brave while they do it?” Morgan bites her lip as she asks this. From behind her, you see Tony and Pepper waiting for your answer.
You nod at your sister, pulling her into a hug. “I have to be big and brave. But if that means a couple tears slip out, that’s ok too.” You whisper to her, knowing that Morgan is still young enough that being scared of needles is a thing.
“So I hear we’re doing two blood draws today.” Mary, one of the phlebotomists who was here before the Blip says looking at you and your sister before motioning for another person to follow in. “This is Brennan. He’s going to do your blood draw Y/N while I draw your sister’s.” You nod. You’re used to having many different people do your draws, but Mary is amazing so having her do Morgan’s would be good. But Morgan must not feel the same way because she keeps her arms crossed and leaning into you. “You must be Morgan. I’ve heard a lot about you from your big sister. She said that you’re the best little sister that a girl could ask for.”
“Really?” Morgan says, lifting her head from your side, but her arms remain firmly crossed.
“Mmmhmm. She’s told me all about playing with you and going on adventures.”
“She makes up the best stories when we play.” Morgan says before biting her lip. “Is this going to hurt?”
“Mary is the best. She makes it so it barely hurts.” You look at your little sister. “Do you want to watch Brennan do it to me first?” She surprises you and shakes her head.
“Can we do it at the same time so it’s over at the same time?”
“I think we can make that happen, can’t we Brennan?” He nods his head.
“Course we can.”
“I’m going to need you to uncross your arms Miss Morgan.” Slowly, Morgan’s arms uncross, but her left hand grabs your right one, squeezing it. Brennan wipes your left elbow down to get it ready for your prick. You don’t mind which arm they do the blood draw from since your veins are pretty good no matter which arm they pick. Mary picks out a few different colored wraps for after the blood draw and sets them across the way to pull Morgan’s attention away from where she’s going to prick her arm. “Miss Morgan, I know which one your sister is going to pick, but while I do this I need you to figure out which color you’re going to pick.” Morgan looks up at you.
“What color do you pick?” She asks, the pink, green, and red sitting across the room.
“Pink. Every time. It’s one of my favorite colors. Although if Mary had purple I would probably switch and do that. What color do you think you want?” While you talk to Morgan, you feel the needle prick your arm and draw the blood. Out of the corner of your eye you see Mary wipe Morgan’s arm down and prick in one quick prick. She gets the blood she needs without Morgan even noticing.
“I think I might want the green. I think Peter would think it’s fun.”
“I think he might too.”
“So green Miss Morgan?” Morgan looks over and sees the cotton against her skin.
“We’re done?”
“All done.”
“But I didn’t even feel it.” Morgan’s eyes go wide and then looks up at you.
“I told you, Mary is the best.” You smile at her while Brennan wraps your arm in the pink wrap.
“All done Y/N.”
“Thanks Brennan.”
“Mary, Brennan, thank you for taking such good care of our girls,” your dad says from where he’s sitting with your mom.
“Of course Tony.” Your dad has come to your appointments before and Mary knows your dad would rather be just your dad not Mr. Stark at your appointments. “We’ll send this off to TrialNet and you should get the results in a couple weeks.”
“Daddy what’s TrialNet?”
“This organization that’s going to tell us if you’re an alien or not.” Morgan raises an eyebrow at your dad as you swing her off the table and into your arms.
“Daddy’s being silly isn’t he?” You ask your sister.
“Daddy’s always silly. But him being silly means he has to buy us juice pops.”
“That’s extortion.” Tony says to Pepper.
“You were going to get them juice pops anyway.”
“That’s true.” Tony shrugs as you all wait at the counter to schedule your next endo appointment. Today’s had gone really well. Your numbers are looking so much better since you’re on the closed loop system. Plus, as much as you hate to admit it, your parents choosing to limit how much sugar is in your diet and adding better foods is helping too. At least compared to the data from the last year you were living with Nana and Pops.
“Mom, while we’re in Queens, can we visit Nana and Pops?”
“Who are Nana and Pops?” Morgan asks.
“They’re my grandparents.”
“We have grandparents that live in New York? Mommy why didn’t you tell me?” Morgan asks. Your mom’s eyes fall to your dad, trying to figure out how to explain that your grandparents aren’t Morgan’s grandparents.
“Why don’t we invite them to grab dinner with us?” Your dad suggests, not addressing the question Morgan had asked.