Chapter 23
Chapter 23
Tuesday, March 3
Peter isn’t expecting the entire Avengers team to be gathered around the kitchen island and overflowing into the dining room when he gets home from school after decathlon practice, but there they are, discussing the briefing they’ve just received for a mission.
“What’s going on?” Peter asks, moving out of the way when a hurried Clint squeezes between him and Tony. “When did everyone–”
“Ever hear of the Manhattan Project?” Tony sips from a cup of black coffee while his eyes scan the StarkPad in his hand.
“Is that supposed to be a trick question?” Peter asks, throwing his backpack down.
“There’s an 8-alarm warehouse fire in Chelsea,” Tony explains, watching the confusion grow on Peter’s face. He puts his coffee down and a hand up to stop Peter from unleashing his usual series of rapid-fire questions. “It’s right where the Manhattan project stored their uranium. Apparently, there’s more residual uranium than was removed in the 1990s in a sealed bunker beneath the building, but with it on fire, there’s the threat of an explosion. The firemen can’t get anywhere near it right now. That’s where we come in.”
Peter’s face lights up. “Awesome! What’s the plan? When do we suit up?”
“No,” Tony says, shaking his head. “You know that I can’t let you go, Peter.”
“B-but I’m swinging again, the meds are working! Even Bruce said–”
“That you still need to avoid triggers and smoke is 100% a trigger.”
“My suit can withstand the smoke and radiation, though! I went to space!”
“There’s the threat of an explosion, one that could be big enough to blow a hole in lower Midtown. So go ahead and hate me for this, but you’re not coming this time. End of story.”
“Tony, please!” he begs, desperation in his eyes. “I need this! You know how hard it’s been–”
“No! There will be other times, Peter. Other missions. And Bruce is staying home, too. He can’t be near the radiation or he’ll…you know.” He notices how Tony uses the word home rather than behind, goes back to his StarkPad and walks away without another word.
Peter tries to come up with something, anything, that will make Tony change his mind, but by the time he enters the kitchen, he realizes that everyone is scrambling to leave.
Without him.
“I linked your comms,” Bruce says, handing Peter his StarkPad. “Think you can help me keep track of everyone on the map?”
Peter nods, feeling numb, tries to breathe away the disappointment not in Tony for not letting him go, but in himself for not being able to.
x
“Tony, you just dropped 500 feet,” Natasha asks. “That recovery was shit. Everything okay?”
“Language,” Steve interjects.
“Reactor’s glitching,” Tony mutters, attempting to catch his breath.
Bruce cuts in. “You should get back to the Tower while you still have power, Tony. We can run diagnostics.”
“No, I’m good. I’m good,” he lies between gritted teeth. The reactor surges and pain shoots through his chest, which makes him lose his breath. “I’m not good,” he whispers.
“You’ve never seen me when my heart goes into an arrhythmia,” plays in Peter’s mind as he listens form the living room couch on his StarkPad. He sits up, back straight and heart pounding.
“You’re having an arrhythmia,” Bruce explains. “Have FRIDAY bring you home before your suit’s useless.”
“Where’s Thor?” Natasha asks. “Can he get it back into a normal rhythm with his hammer?”
“Sure, Natasha,” Clint chides. “Let’s just use an electrical current in a mystical hammer from another freaking planet in the middle of a fire with highly explosive uranium nearby. Fantastic plan!”
Bruce’s signature sigh comes through and Peter imagines him peeling his glasses from his face in the other room. “You need to rest, Tony.”
“Actually, I don’t.”
Steve’s voice booms as he says, “Tony, you need to stand down. Get back to the Tower. That’s an order!”
“You’re not the boss of me, I am, and my suit can withstand more radiation than all of you combined if this thing blows. I’m going back in.”
“The fire is nearly out, Tones,” Rhodey argues. “Let it go. Your team has it under control.”
“Rhodey?” Tony asks, surprised. “Who called you in?”
“The President. And Steve’s right. You need to stand down before you get yourself killed!”
Tony grabs two barrels of compound and positions himself directly above the remaining flames.
“You stubborn ass motherfucker!” Rhodey shouts as he dives for his friend. “Gonna get us all killed with your narcissism!”
Peter has to do something. He watches in horror as Tony’s reactor power indicator on his screen blinks in and out, losing masses of energy each time it’s off of the screen for more than three seconds. “FRIDAY?” he asks. “How long until Tony’s suit reaches 10%?”
“About 10 minutes, Mr. Parker. But that’s only an estimate based on…” she drones, and Peter knows exactly what he needs to do.
x
“Sir, you’re at less than 10% capacity. I cannot guarantee full functions of the suit if you choose to continue,” FRIDAY warns before his screen blinks out.
Tony feels himself falling the 1,000 feet, stares up at the sky as his body whooshes between the thick, black smoke gathered between two skyscrapers. He closes his eyes to prepare himself for the inevitable clunk of his suit on the pavement and subsequent darkness, is surprised when he makes contact with a stretchy, net-like material that leaves him bobbing up and down.
A quick glance over, and he can see that it’s webbing with a tensile strength just high enough to hold his suit up.
Peter.
He’s relieved until he hears the sound of brick cracking and metal straining, feels himself falling, and it’s not long before he’s on the ground with brick pinning him down, the sound of car alarms and sirens permeating his suit.
“Tony? We’re gonna get you out of there, just…hold on, okay?” Steve says through the comms.
He wants to answer, but his reactor is continuing to malfunction, heartbeat is irregular, and the strain on his body and suit are nearly too much. He’s panting, trying to claw his way out of the pile even though he knows it’s over.
And he needs to know that Peter is okay, especially in this thick smoke.
God, he’s going to kill the kid if he survives this for even thinking that coming out despite his orders was acceptable.
He knows the fall would’ve left him with broken bones and one hell of a concussion, that his suit in its state wouldn’t have absorbed much of the shock. The webbing, Peter’s webbing, he realizes, is the only thing that’s kept him from weeks of casts and being bedridden in MedBay.
Steve’s face appears through the gap in the fallen brick. “Gonna get you out of here, Tony. Just give us a minute.”
“P-Peter?” he sputters, his breaths coming in short from his arrhythmia.
“I can see three heat signatures in that pile over there,” Rhodey announces out of Tony’s vision. “Gonna try and get them out. There’s no movement.”
“C-civilians?” Tony asks, Steve nodding as he pries chunk after chunk of brick away until he can pull Tony’s body from the rubble.
x
“I told you no,” Tony cries, real, angry tears streaming down his bloodied face as he and Peter sit in MedBay. They’re each on their own bed, Peter just having finished a breathing treatment, Tony waiting for Cho to return with bandages. “As your guardian, I told you no and you didn’t listen! I expect you to listen to me because I’m responsible for you!” He spreads his arms out in disbelief. “What am I supposed to do, Peter, when members of my team, of my family, don’t follow orders and put themselves and everyone around them in harm’s way?!”
“M’sorry,” Peter is rasping through his tears as he wheezes. “Y-you–”
Tony points sharply at him from across beds. “I don’t want to hear another word out of you, you hear me?”
“B-but you weren’t okay! And I couldn’t–”
“And now I’ve gotta fucking hear it!”
“I couldn’t keep listening to the comms, feeling powerless!”
“You blatantly disobeyed direct orders and three civilians are in questionable condition right now, which means Spiderman is grounded until further notice!”
“Grounded?” Peter’s eyes go wide and his hands come up as if that’ll help him plead his case. “No, Tony, please don’t! I just got my powers back!”
“Sorry isn’t going to cut it, Pete! Not this time!”
“I d-don’t understand?” It feels like his heart is actually being ripped into pieces, and he can’t figure out what he’s done wrong, why Tony is so bitterly incensed. He knows his actions have gotten three innocent people hurt, that in his effort to do the right thing, it’s created more problems. But he also knows that Tony refused to stand down, that he put himself in harm’s way, and that fact makes Peter just as livid as Tony. “You’re the one who is always telling me to listen to my body!” Peter yells through his tears.” And then you go and you ignore your own, a-and now you’re mad at me because I saved your life?!”
“Saved my life?” Tony asks, getting up from his bed to walk toward Peter. “You’re a kid, Peter! A kid! You had no idea what you were walking into this evening, had no business being there! And you didn’t save my life! All that you did tonight was put yourself and other people in danger, and people got hurt because of your faulty logic! Innocent people, Peter! I’m taking the fall for it because I want to spare you from the backlash, but do not think for a second that you and I are done discussing what this means going forward!”
“I was afraid that the fall would be f-fatal…and I didn’t...m-mean to mess anything up! I just wanted you safe! I wasn’t…” he sobs, tears sliding down over his lower lip as it trembles.
“Thinking?” Tony offers, and Peter’s heart truly and completely shatters.
“I did think about it! I did!” he argues. “T-the façade, it...I couldn’t have known–”
“Do not pretend you thought this through!” Tony warns, another finger lifted and pointed at Peter. “Just like when you fought the Vulture, and then when you hitched a ride to space! You never listen or think anything through! You just go and do whatever you want and hope someone will be there to pick up the pieces when it’s all over, and I’m done being that person, Peter! You never learn!”
And Peter wants to argue that all he ever does is overthink everything, that his need to fix what ails this crazy world is what keeps him up night after night and fills his soul with absolute dread, but he just bites his lip and looks down in shame. I’m done being that person, Peter, repeats, over and over, clear as a bell, in his head.
He climbs down from the bed without apology, grabs his backpack, and leaves the Tower.
x
Peter shows up on May’s doorstep an hour later.
“I’m coming!” she yells, and Peter hears her voice get louder as she asks, “Who is it?” There’s a split-second pause, and Peter assumes she’s looking through the peekhole, before she opens the door to Peter in a hoodie with his backpack, eyes red and swollen, face full of tear streaks down his cheeks.
“M-May,” he says, bites his lip, and as she pulls him into an immediate hug, he breaks down completely into a mess of sobs and wheezes.
“Shh. It’s okay, baby. Whatever it is, it’s going to be okay. God, you must be freezing in that hoodie. Let’s get you inside and warm you up,” she soothes, closing and locking the door behind them before pulling him onto the couch and helping him get his backpack off. “You’re covered in soot,” she comments, brushing ash from his hair. “Were you? Oh my God, Tony let you go to that fire in Chelsea?!” she asks, incredulous.
“No! No, I fucked up, May! I went after he told me no and people got hurt and n-now Tony’s…furious,” he sobs into her shoulder as she wraps a blanket around his shoulders. “We h-had a mission…and he said I c-couldn’t go…and h-he was having an arrhythmia and his suit…kept failing and I was listening in on the c-comms at the Tower,” he’s trying to explain as he shivers, his wheezing intensifying. “I made a net from my webs…and it caught h-him, like it…was s-supposed to, b-but Tony made the formula weaker so I could still shoot w-webs with my steroids and it pulled a brick façade d-down instead of…keeping things s-secure and there were three people in a car…and he hates me now and…I think I j-just…lost everything?” The last bit comes out as high pitched before he lets out a few deep coughs that completely knock the wind out of him. He grips the couch to steady himself as May pulls his backpack into her lap and digs to find the small blue canvas bag with his inhalers and spacer. “Your inhaler in here, baby?”
He nods, struggles to get his breathing regulated.
May’s head swims as she tries to figure out what’s just happened. Her baby is sitting before her, wheezing heavily and more upset than she’s seen him in months. She’s not sure what to make of the Tony situation, but she’ll figure that out later. First, she needs to get Peter’s awful wheeze under control. Her heart breaks as she shakes Peter’s inhaler, uncaps it, and connects it to the spacer to give him puffs of the medication.
“Slow,” she reminds him, rubbing his shoulder as he breathes in and out, in and out. “One more.” She presses down on the canister and sees the aerosol fill the chamber, watches Peter close his eyes as he takes in two more, slow shaky breaths. His face crumples the moment she takes the spacer away, his lips trembling as he breaks into tears. “I was afraid he was...gonna die, May. His reactor lost power and he…f-fell and I had to… save him…and then he told me three p-people got hurt, and I...I got people hurt! I didn’t mean to! I’d never d-do that, I don’t…hurt people!”
“Oh, I know, baby. I know.” She pulls him close and lets him burrow his face into her shoulder. “He’s just angry right now, probably not even at you. It’ll pass.”
“Innocent people!”
“What, and Tony’s never done the same?” she asks, rubbing his back. “It comes with the job, honey. It’s bound to happen.”
“Wanna come home,” he cries.
It takes everything in her to say, “You don’t mean that.” She has a business trip coming up, one that will extend into the weekend, and she knows Peter can’t stay home alone for those four days. Not with the way he sounds right now.
“I-I do. He told me…told me he was done with me and that he wouldn’t be…picking up the pieces from my mistakes anymore...”
May’s taken aback. “Done with you?! What in the world?”
“I don’t want to go back! He doesn’t want to…see me… I fucked everything up. I always…do. I’m sorry. I’m sorry!” Peter sobs.
“Peter Benjamin Parker, you are not a fuck-up!” May insists, lifting his chin up. “And I don’t give a flying fuck what Tony Stark thinks, you do not fuck everything up, baby!” She wipes the tears from under his eyes and brushes his curls from his face. “Everything, and I mean, everything, that you touch makes this world a better place, you hear me? You make this world such a better place, Peter. You are the furthest thing there is from a fuck-up. And I’m not just saying that as your aunt. I am so proud of you! So fucking proud!”
Peter nods through his tears, even though he doesn’t believe her, wraps his arms around her small frame and squeezes as tightly as he can to try and undo the pain of Tony’s stinging words.
“Gonna get you a hot shower, breathing treatment, and to bed before that wheeze turns into bronchitis or pneumonia,” she soothes, brushing a hand through Peter’s curls to calm him and his breathing down.
The moment May tucks Peter into his bed, her cell phone rings.
It’s Pepper.
She’s frantic as she explains that she had no idea Peter had left the Tower, wants to make sure he’s safe and sound. “Tony’s in one of his moods again,” Pepper states, and May can hear the tremor in her voice, as if she, too, has just had it out with Tony. “I am so sorry, May! I would never have let Peter just leave like that!”
“He’s safe,” May assures her, sitting down on her own bed and running a hand through her hair. She lets out a long exhale and tries to piece everything together as Pepper fills her in on the missing details.