Chapter 1
Peter woke up from his sleep on the couch to his phone ringing loudly on the coffee table next to him. He didn’t remember falling asleep but he must be really tired if he fell asleep on the couch.
Peter groaned and reached over to answer the phone call.
“Hello?” Peter answered into the phone very groggy from just waking up, he didn’t even know what time it was or why someone was calling him in the middle of the night.
He sits up while the lady on the other end of the phone begins to talk.
“Hello, is this Peter Parker I am speaking to?” The lady asks hesitantly.
Peter begins to feel a bit weird like something is not right but he forces his voice out to respond to the strange lady.
“Y-yes this is-is Peter- Peter Parker... umm who’s this?” Peter asks kind of scared for the response he is going to get.
The lady on the other end takes a deep breath and continues to speak “Peter, my name is Cindey Binkey and I am calling from Newton Centre Hospital. I am so sorry but your aunt has been in an accident and you need to come to the hospital right now” the lady tries to put as much sorry in her words as possible but it does nothing to help peter.
Peter feels his whole world shatter as he hears the lady say those words. He tries to speak but nothing comes out of his mouth, he just feels his heart beating really hard and loud in his chest. He goes to stand up on shaky legs but had trouble doing so. Peter quickly walks into his bedroom to get something but he doesn’t even realize what he’s getting. He then realizes that he hasn’t responded to the lady on the phone yet so Peter pulls the phone back up to his ear not even noticing he moved his phone to his other hand.
“No no no” Peter quietly whispers out “Is-is my aunt ok? Is she ok?” Peter doesn’t even know what he would do if something bad happens to his aunt.
The lady speaks again, this time sounding really sorry “I’m sorry Peter but I can’t disclose any of that information over the phone, you need to come to the hospital” the lady tells Peter.
Peter hangs up the phone not even responding and putting it into his back pocket. Peter exits his room not grabbing anything but a coat from he coat hanger. He quickly puts it on and opens his apartment door, he runs down the hall and down the stairs not even bothering to wait for the elevator. He gets outside and is immediately hit with the cold air. It’s the middle of October so it’s not too cold but it’s cold enough to send a shiver through your body especially because Peter is not dressed properly.
Peter begins to run down the sidewalk all the way to the hospital that the lady saids his aunt is at. He nearly bumps into a bunch of people along the way but doesn’t care enough to stop. Peter doesn’t even look both ways to cross the road when he sees the hospital in the distance, he hears people honking the horn loudly at him but he doesn’t seem to care as he continues to run into the hospital doors.
Once peter gets into the hospital he begins to look around for the front desk. Once peter finds it he all but spirnts over to the front desk and speaks trying not to cry yet “Hello I- I’m Peter Parker and my aunt May Parker was in an accident”
The girl at the front desk who has long black hair, pale skin and bold red lipstick looks up at his questionably and begins to look back down on her computer with a mumbled “ one second” she types something into her computer then look back up at Peter and saids “your aunt is in room 247 but please wait for the doctor” Peter doesn’t listen to her as he runs away trying to find room 247.
When peter reaches room 247 he sees a doctor outside who is a young male looking through a notebook or something. Peter walks up to him and the doctor looks up and looks down to Peter. The doctor is tall with dark blonde hair and he is pale with a bit of freckles, he has heavy underbags under his eyes and he opens his mouth to speak to peter.
“Hello my name is doctor Bunn and I am so sorry Peter but we did everything we could go save your aunt but she lost so much blood that there was nothing we could do. I am so sorry for your loss”
Peter does not believe what he is hearing. He immediately starts to cry loudly and falls back against the wall and slides down it and brings his knees to his chest and puts his face in his knees. Peter feels his heart just break into half and he has trouble breathing, he begins to gasp for air as he feels someone put their hand on his back, he looks up from his face in his knees and he looks up at the doctor who has knelt down beside him.
Peter opens his mouth to speak but nothing but a sob comes out. He opens his mouth to try again “can- can I please see her? Can I please see my aunt?” The doctor stands up and moves to the door he was once standing at and opens it for peter.
“Yes you can. Her body is in here” he pushes the door a little bit more open for peter to walk in.
Peter begins to stand on shaky legs and all he can think about is ‘her body is in here’ the way the doctor said it made it all so real for peter. This is actually happening to me, Peter thought as he walked into the dark room that was lit by one small lamp in the corner.
Peter slowly walks over to his aunts body that is under a white blanket on the bed.
Peter doesn’t even realize the doctor had left him alone in the room as he goes and stands at the side of the bed. Peter reaches out but pulls his hand away at the last second before touching his aunt. Peter thinks this is not my aunt anymore, this is just a body. I am all alone in this world. I’m all alone.
Peter shakes his head to get those thoughts away but it doesn’t help because he knows it is true. Peter lifts his hand up again and he slowly lifts the white blanket up and sees his aunts pale arm sticking out. He slowly reaches over and grabs her hand stupidly expecting her to grab him back and hold him but she doesn’t move. Peter feels the cold hand against his and he starts crying into his other hand that he lifted up to his eyes. Peter thinks about how she’ll never hold him again how she’ll never play with his hair or hug him whenever she sees him. Peter thinks how he’ll never see his aunts smile ever again or taste her horrible cooking, he’ll never get to watch another movie with her on the couch eating popcorn and joking around together. Peter will never get to see his aunt ever again and this realization hits Peter so hard he moves his hand away like it burned him which is so ironic because the hand is cold. Peter takes a few steps back and leans against a chair that digs into his side but he doesn’t care.
The door opens and Peter doesn’t even look up as a short girl, although still taller than Peter walks into the room and clears her throat.
“My name is Beth and I am the social worker assigned to your case Peter” the girl takes a step closer to peter.
Peter peeks an eye open and looks at her shoes then slowly look up at her face. ‘Social worker’ Peter thinks, she’s gonna take me away.
Peter closes his eyes and turns his body away from her.
She begins to speak up again with her annoying voice “I know that your aunt was your last living relative Peter, so I have to talk to you about going into a foster home” Peter looks up at her and his face turns a mixture of angry and scared.
“No I’m not-not going into foster care” Peter saids brokenly.
The social worker kneels down in front of peter and tries to reason “Peter, there is no other choice. You have no other family members that can take care of you and you are a minor that cannot care for yourself” she stands back up and puts her hands on her hips.
Peter pulls himself further into a ball and quietly saids “leave me alone”
The lady steps forward “Do you have anyone else you can call?” She asks nicely but her voice still annoying.
“Leave me alone” Peter tells her as he thinks about who can can call- no one because he’s all alone, he has no one.
“Fine then. I will be back soon and then we will talk some more” she backs away and begins to walk out, he heels clicking loudly against the floor. Peter watches her walk out and waits until the door closes to pull out his phone out of his back pocket that he forgot he put there.
Peter pulls out his phone and types in his password. He scrolls through his contacts thinking about who he can call. He passes by Neds number about to hit call when he thinks Ned is just a child, just like him what is he gonna do. He pauses about to turn off his phone and wait until the social worker takes him away until he passes by Happy Hogan’s number, he pauses his thumb over the caller button and he just presses it waiting for it to start ringing.
As he waits he thinks about why he is calling him, what is Happy gonna do, nothing. Peter is all alone in this world, no one will help him.
“Hello? Peter?” Happys voice pulls peter out of his thoughts. He doesn’t sound like he has been sleeping which is weird but Peter doesn’t think much of it.
“Happy?” Peter asks sadly.
“Peter what’s wrong? Are you okay?” Happy asks sounding annoyed and worried at the same time.
“No-no I’m-my aunt... I’m at the hospital... my aunt... she’s-she’s dead” saying it makes it all the more real.
“Oh shit. Jesus kid” Happy stops talking and takes a deep breath like he’s trying to decide what to do. “Okay. Okay we’re comimg now okay? Just stay where you are. We’re comimg” Happy hangs up the phone before Peter has time to respond.
Peter looks at the phone in his hand then he just turns it off on cries into his knees again. He thinks who’s we? Who’s coming? Is Mr. Stark coming?
Peter continues to softly cry until he hears loud voices in the hallway “don’t touch me! Don’t touch me or I will call my suit to me right now! Get out of my way!” Peter hears which is no doubt Mr. Stark. He came, Peter thought. Mr. Stark came.
Peter didn’t know how much time had passed since he got off the phone with Happy but he was just glad that someone was now here to take care of him.
Peter looked up and had to blink a few times to get the tears out of his eyes so he could see who was walking towards him. After a few blinks he realized it was Mr. Stark. “Mr. Stark?” Peter asked.
Tony walked into the room and saw Peter sitting on the ground with his back up against a chair. He walked towards him and realized how small he looked just sitting there with his knees pulled to his chest in a poor attempt to self comfort. He walked towards him and knelt down in front of him “oh Peter. I’m so sorry buddy” he said then he pulled Peter up and pulled him up into his arms and held him there. He didn’t really know what he was doing because he didn’t really know all that much about comforting others but he knew he had to do something because Peter was a kid. Tony felt really uncomfortable and tense but then Peter seemed to relax in his arms which made Tony relax and he then felt Peter out his arms around his torso and Peter had his head on his chest and Tony felt tears wetting his shirt but he didn’t care because as long as Peter was being comforted.
After a long two minutes maybe 10, Tony started to get uncomfortable, well more uncomfortable than he was when he first pulled Peter into his arms. Tony not wanting to be rude but wanting to get out of this position tried to stand up but Peter didn’t seem to want to move yet but Tony continued to stand and Peter slid off of him. Tony immediately felt bad and bent down and grabbed Peter under the arms and pulled him to stand up. Peter looked as if he wasn’t gonna stand on his own so Tony pulled him into his side and began to walk with his arm around Peters shoulder.
“Where are we going?” Peter asked in a small voice as his rubbed his eyes with his fist.
Tony looked down at him and his heart swelled at the scene. Peter looked so small and young “we’re getting out of here” Tony kept walking intill they reached the front of the hospital where Happy was waiting.
“Boss!” Happy called Tony over.
Tony was about to say something to Happy but an annoying voice stopped him. “Exuce me! Where are you taking him?” Tony stopped walking and turned around with Peter, he felt Peter siffen as he saw the lady walking towards them.
“I’m leaving! And I’m taking him with me! Try and stop me!” Tony yelled back then turned around with Peter to keep walking.
“You can’t just leave with him sir. That is called kidnapping and I am his social worker I am in charge of him right now” the lady began to walk forward but Tony turned around and let go of Petef as he walked over to the social worker.
“I am going to take him because no way in hell am I gonna let him end up in foster care or anywhere else so you can contact my lawyers all your little heart pleases” he said then handed her a card he pulled out of his jacket pocket then turned around and walked back to Peter who looked so sad and confused who was standing there biting his fingernails. Tony pulled him back into his side and began to walk really fast back to Happy who got the car ready and peter was having a hard time keeping up with him but he isn’t stop walking.
Happy opened the back car door for them and Tony gently pushed Peter into the back seat. Once Peter was in the car he looked sadly up at Tony with wide brown wet eyes and Tony’s heart just broke so he slid in next to Peter “move over a bit” Tony told Peter who barely moved over so he had to push him a bit so he wasn’t hanging out of the car. Happy shut the door once he was in and walked over to the front seat then got in and started the car.
Happy looked in the mirror at them and then he shut the window for some privacy.
Tony didn’t really know what to do so he looked over at peter and Peter looked really uncomfortable and sad so he reached over and put his hand on his shoulder and Peter leaned into the touch and his bottom lip started to shake.
“Hey buddy? Do you want to lie down?” Tony asked awkwardly not really sure where Peter was even gonna lie down or if it was even safe. He though should the kid even be in a car seat? Maybe booster seat? No he was too old for that right? He was 14 so definitely no. Right? He shook his head and looked back over at Peter who was looking at his lap hesitantly.
“Do you want to put your head on my lap?” Tony asked not really sure what he was asking. Him and peter were close but not this close.
“Uhh.. yea” Peter looked back up at Tony then he scooted closed and slowly put his head down on his lap and closed his eyes.
Tony oddly didn’t feel that uncomfortable, uncomfortable but not that much. He put his fingers in Peters hair and started to gently pull at his hair which peter relaxed into and made a comfortable noise.
Tony smiled a little and listened to Peters breathing even out until he knew he was asleep. He was looking down at him the rest of the way back deep in thought. He thought about what was gonna happen now. Was peter gonna live with him? Was he gonna keep him forever or was he gonna give him up after a little bit? Peter was old enough to do everything by himself, he was 14 he could feed himself, put himself to sleep, care for himself, right? Tony didn’t need to do all that for peter he guessed.
Tony didn’t even realize that they were at the compound until Happys voice broke him out of his thoughts “Boss? We’re here” Happy got out of the car and rounded it then opened the back seat and found Peter with his head on Tony’s lap. Happy laughed a bit then said “need help boss?”
Tony looked up at Happy and saw his amused look then he rolled his eyes “no Hap. I’m stronger than I look you know”
Happy laughed “oh I know but I think peter also looks heavier than you think”
“I got him” Tony said as he gently lifted Peters head off his lap and then got out of the car stretched then bent back down and awkwardly grabbing peter under the arms almost dropping him trying to get him into a bridal carry. Was he achieved that he just then realized that the kid wasn’t even wearing any shoes and only had on jeans a t-shirt and a jacket that looked way too big on him and his socks were mismatched, one was yellow with a sun on it and other other was blue and green strips.
Tony walked to the elevator in the garage with Happy following behind him. “I got him Hap I’ll give you a call tomorrow. Thanks for everything”
“You got him” Happy said more of a statement than a question “ call me if you need anything”
“I will” tony said then turned around and walked into the elevator “my floor FRIDAY” the elevator began to move and thankfully FRIDAY didn’t say anything because he didn’t want to risk waking peter up although it looked like he wasn’t gonna wake up anytime soon.
Tony walked out onto his floor which was empty thank god when the elevator doors opened. He stopped with peter in his arms and looked down at him. The kid wasn’t heavily, actually he wasn’t heavy at all he was actually really really light, maybe something to do with the spider bite, he’ll have to ask him about that later. But right now his arms and back was starting to hurt so he quickly walked to Peters room where he would sometimes spend the night when he stayed over but would never sleep there, ending up on the couch in the living room or the floor on the lab until Tony had a couch put down there too.
He walked into Peters room and kicked the door open with his foot then he walked over to the bed and put peter down. He went to take off his shoes but then remembered he wasn’t wearing any so he got a throw blanket and put it over peter and tucked him in. He ran a hand down his face and was about to leave but he sat on the edge of the bed and brushed Peters hair back from his eyes then stood back up and walked out shutting the door silently.
What has he gotten himself into he thought, although he didn’t seem to mind.