(Glass) - Walking On Thin Ice
Peter groaned - his throat feeling as though he had swallowed glass. He was freezing - his whole body shook as he fumbled his hand around - trying to find something to help warm him up.
Peter didn’t know why May had the AC down so low, but it was time for him to have a talk with her about his lack of thermoregulation.
“Hey- buddy. You’re okay.” He knew that voice - maybe he had spent the weekend at the lakehouse with Tony. In that case, he’d have to talk to Tony about turning the AC up. “You still cold? Hang on.” He heard Tony say, then there was a low clicking, and something on Peter began to warm up. He sighed, nustling down into the blankets further. “Think you can open those eyes for me, pal?” Tony asked.
Peter grunted, and with as much effort as he could muster, peeled his eyes open. His chest felt so heavy - like a weight had been sat on top of it. He took a deep breathl and immediatly began to cough.
Peter’s head pounded and his chest burned as he began to cough, hands turned him to the side as he continued to hack. Peter spit up something into the bowl that was held under his mouth - groaning at how disgusting it was.
“Ew.” He whispered - his throat making his voice sound as broken as it felt.
“Yeah - you’ve got a nice case of bronchitis, but Bruce is pretty certain it’ll clear up soon… how do you feel?” Tony asked, as he pulled Peter’s blankets back up to his chest.
“Mm - not great. My head - ‘nd my knee - I -” Peter paused, blinking heavily and looking at Tony. The moon - Hammer’s blood - water in his lungs - He sat up straight. Ignoring the pain in his - well his entire body as he looked around.
“Calm down - Peter - I need you to breath, buddy.” Tony said, grabbign at Peter’s shoulders. There was an increasingly loud beeping noise in the background, but Peter just grabbed at Tony’s arms, shaking his head.
“No! No! Hammer - he - I - I killed him! He’s dead! I can’t - No!” He screamed, trying to push Tony away, knocing the oxygen mask from his face.
“Hey - you need that. Peter, if you don’t calm down then Bruce is going to have to inject you, but I don’t want that to happen. Let me talk to you, okay?” Peter tried to listen, but then he was hacking up a lung, his head turned as he continued to cough. He winced, falling forward into Tony’s arms. The man put the oxygen mask back over his face, laying Peter back when he quit coughing.
“Alright - I’m going to get you some water. Then we will talk. I’ll answer all your questions. May and Happy just left, but they’ll be back tonight.” Peter nodded, lifting the mask up as he drank some juice from the straw.
Tony pulled a chair up closer to Peter’s head, and sat down.
“Where do you want me to start?” He asked, as Peter watched him, blinking the sleep from his eyes.
“Um - Ham- he’s - he’s?” Peter didn’t know how to say it. Every single blink brings back the vision of the man floating, pale face illuminted by the moon, red staining the water around him.
“Yes. Natasha clipped him while he was dragging you into the woods. You didn’t kill him. He’s gone, and he won’t touch you ever again, okay?”
“I saw him - in the - in the water. He was - it was… he was already dead.” He said.
“Yeah. You guys went into the water together. He knocked your head against the ice pretty badly. Bruce said you’ll have some pretty bad headaches for a while, and got a solid concussion there. But, you’ll be better soon.” Peter grimaced, now understanding where the pounding headache was coming from.
“Um - what else-” He cut himself off with a cough. “What’s wrong with me?” Tony rubbed his face, wincing as he nodded and looked down. He looked - guilty. Peter couldn’t let that happen.
“Well- you tore up your knee pretty bad when he made you walk. Took a hit to your leg, but it went clean through your thigh. By some miracle it missed your femoral artery. Like I said, you’ve got a bad concussion. You - well you swallowed a lot of water. Almost - almost drowned. We had to bring you back with CPR. Hypothermia due to the cold. But, Bruce got you all taken care of.” Tony seemed like he was doing his best to spit all of this out so he didn’t have to speak of it anymore.
“Tony.” Peter waited until the older man looked up at him. “It wasn’t your fault.”
“Well - Hammer managed to get past Friday, disable her, and grab you from the one place I promised you that you were safe from. So, you'll excuse me if I’m feeling like this was my fault. Not to mention that he took you because of me in the first pla-” Peter turned his head and shook it quickly.
“No. No, this isn’t on you. Tony, I don’t blame you. So please, please don’t blame yourself. I can’t - I can’t handle that.” Peter looked down. “They told me not to blame myself, and I need to tell you that here, too.” Peter said, stifling a cough. Tony tilted his head, looking terribly confused.
“What - I don’t know what you’re talking about, kiddo? But I won’t. I won’t blame myself, alright?” Tony leaned forward, taking Peter’s hand.
“They - um - you’re going to think I’m crazy.” Peter wiped furiously at the tears that caught around the oxygen mask, before ripping it from his face altogether. “I can’t talk about this thing.”
“You can tell me whatever you need to tell me.” Tony said.
“I saw them.” Peter whispered, needing desperately to tell someone. “I saw my family - Ben and my parents -” He choked on a sob. “Michelle. I talked to them - they told me I had to choose. And I
came back, but what if? What if I was wrong? How am I supposed to move past this?” Peter was sobbing now, snot and tears running down his face as Tony moved forward, wrapping Peter tightly
in his arms.
“You’ll be okay, because we’re here. We’re here. You have such a big family here just for you. We’ve got you, Peter.” And Tony sounded calm, because that’s what Peter needed right now, but he felt his chest siezing up - because his kid had really - he had been dead. And Tony would need his own meetings with Sam to get past that.
“I can’t - I can’t do this alone -” Peter said as he continued to weep. He felt exhaustion beginning to pull him down as Tony slid into the hospital bed beside him. Tomorrow would be time for therapy, but tonight - tonight Peter just needed someone to hold him.