All The Stars Align

Peter and the new kitten were attached to each other for the whole weekend.

Tony loved watching Peter bond with the kitten and seeing that carefree smile on his face, knowing that Peter was feeling nothing but happiness. He wished he could make sure that Peter always felt that way but he knew it wasn’t possible.

He had expected the kitten to be a good thing for them and for Peter but it turns out that the kitten was the best thing that Tony could have ever gotten Peter.

Peter was obsessed with Mimzy and even insisted on having the cat sit on the table during meal times but Tony had to say no to that. It was definitely unsanitary even though he’s pretty sure he saw Peter actually lick the cat once.

Tony was cleaning up the kitchen when Peter bumped into his back. “Dad. Mimzy is sleeping again. That’s so annoying.”

Tony chuckled. “He’s a baby, Peter. He needs his sleep.”

The fourteen year old groaned and shoved his face into his dad’s chest. “I know but he sleeps all day. I wanna wake him up.”

“You can’t, baby. Let him sleep.” Tony finished what he was doing since he knew it was his turn to entertain Peter. This was their last quiet day at home doing nothing because then they were going to start online school tomorrow and Rose was coming to start with some more separation anxiety techniques.

“Wanna play with me then?” Peter asked, looking up at Tony with puppy dog eyes that Tony always found impossible to resist.

“Of course. What do you wanna do?” Tony asked and started following Peter into the living room since he knew that Peter wanted to build some legos with him.

“Legos. I wanna build a tower with you.” He explained then jumped onto the carpet and waited for Tony to sit so he could sit on his outstretched legs. “You’re so comfy.”

Tony playfully pushed Peter off of him. “Sit next to me. How am I supposed to build my legos then?”

Peter grinned but crawled across the floor anyways and dumped out a pile of his legos so they could start.

The two of them were building for about an hour, with Tony’s butt going numb a long time ago but he stayed with Peter anyways. He was always so mesmerized at the way Peter went into his own little world whenever he lost himself in something that he loved.

It was amazing to watch.

Peter looked up at him so Tony looked away, knowing Peter was going to comment on his staring. “You always stare at me. Stare at your legos, dad.”

“Sorry. You’re just so cute.” He teased but Peter just rolled his eyes at him and pointed to the pile of legos in front of his dad. “Okay. I’m building.”

They continued to build together for a little while longer but then Peter was needing a break and getting distracted so he turned towards the tv and watched the action cartoon that was on. He’s never seen it before but it looked interesting.

Tony wanted to go down to his lab for a bit before it was lunch time and he saw this as the perfect opportunity to go down. “Hey, Pete, I’m gonna go down to my lab for a bit so you watch your shows and keep an eye on Mimzy and I’ll be back up soon.”

Peter turned to him and shook his head. “No. Stay with me. I don’t want you to go.”

Tony sighed sadly. “Petey, I’ll just be right in my lab. You have to stay here because what if Mimzy needs you?”

“But what if I need you?” Peter whimpered and wiped at his cheek even though no tears were falling.

“I’ll just be in my lab. If you really need me, tell FRIDAY and I’ll let you come down, okay?” Tony caressed Peter’s cheek, smiling when he leaned into the touch. “I’ll see you soon.”

“Okay. Bye.” Peter sadly watched his dad leave but at least he wasn’t alone since he had his kitten to keep him company. He climbed up on the couch, next to Mimzy and started petting him then reached for the remote. “You’re gonna watch a show with me, Mimzy.”

Peter ended up almost falling asleep on the couch but he didn’t want to take a nap today since he’s gone almost a week without napping and he was happy about that but he missed his dad now that he had no distractions so he got up and made his way over to the elevator. “FRIDAY, tell dad I wanna come down.”

FRIDAY was silent for a few moments before speaking. “Very well. Boss said you can head down.”

Peter grinned and walked into the elevator feeling butterflies growing in his stomach at his excitement to be seeing his dad in the lab. When he walked out, Tony was already waiting for him.

Peter pushed the door open and walked over to his dad’s work bench. “What’re you doin’?”

Tony lifted Peter up on his lap so he could show him what he was working on even though it wasn’t much. He was just tinkering around. “See this?” He pointed to his computer in front of him that was projecting a 3D project.

“Yeah. What is it?” Peter reached out to touch it but Tony stopped him because he didn’t want Peter messing up anything.

“Don’t touch. It’s 3D computer technology. You can touch this piece.” He handed Peter a screen that controlled the size of his model so Peter started to figure out how to work that.

“Woah. And I can make it even bigger.” Peter was amazed. He never got bored of coming down to his dad’s lab but he knows that there’s a lot of stuff that he isn’t allowed to touch. He turned around to try and see the machine behind them. “I wanna touch that.”

Tony looked behind him and saw one of his exoskeleton models so he swivelled in his chair so Peter couldn’t see it anymore. “Absolutely not. That has an age limit. You know that.”

The first time Peter had come down to his lab, Tony was internally having a panic attack at everything that Peter was touching so he had set up an area where Peter could touch all he wanted and the rest of the lab he had to ask Tony first but his answer would always be no.

Apparently Peter still hasn’t learned. Curious hands.

Peter reached forward onto Tony’s desk and picked up a computer chip so Tony grabbed that from his grubby hands as well. “Did you wanna go sit at your work desk?”

“No. I like your lap.” Peter answered and reached out for some more stuff but Tony kicked off the ground so Peter could stop touching. “Can I see your blueprints for the Iron Man suit?”

Tony rubbed at his eyes. Knowing Peter, he would use his intelligence to try and recreate it.

“Not today. Are you tired? Did you wanna nap?” He asked, knowing that Peter hadn’t napped in a few days and he was trying to stop that habit but he wanted some alone time to tinker some more.

Peter shook his head. “No. No naps.”

Tony rolled back over to his desk and shifted Peter so he was sitting on one of his knees so he could work with one hand. “Here, look at this.” He handed Peter a piece of garbage wires for Peter to pull apart to keep his hands occupied.

Peter pulled the wires apart but he got bored of that and wanted to do something active so arched his back in annoyance and bent his neck to look at his dad. “Dad? I wanna be Spider-Man.”

Tony sighed. “Not today.”

Peter turned to him and whimpered. “Please? I want to. And-and I’ll be back in time for lunch then we can watch a movie together tonight.”

Tony wanted to ignore Peter and get his mind on something else but if he let Peter go out as Spider-Man then he could get at least an hour to himself to work in his lab without tiny hands trying to touch everything.

“Fine. You can go out but I want you back at one. That means you have two hours to swing around, okay? One o’clock. No later.” Tony warned Peter, lifting him off his legs so he could go grab the suit he had locked away.

Peter squealed. “Yay! Thank you, dad.” He hugged Tony tightly and started stripping down to his underwear that were Iron Man ones. He hadn’t even noticed when he put them on this morning. “Look, Iron Man.”

Tony grabbed the suit and looked down. “Oh yeah. I like those, bud. Iron Man is the best Avenger after all.”

“Yeah. After Thor.” Peter teased receiving a flick to the arm from Tony. “Just joking. I love you.”

“I love you too.” He replied and walked over to his desk chair. “I’ll see you in two hours.”

Peter pressed the spider on his suit and smiled. He loved the feeling he got when he put his suit on. “See you later.” He put his mask over his head and that was the last time Tony saw him.

In hindsight, he should have never let Peter leave as Spider-Man.

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Peter would never get tired of the butterflies he got in his stomach when he let himself free fall for a few seconds. He always felt so free and never wanted to forget that feeling.

He had only been out for about thirty minutes but the cold was already getting to him so he might just call it quits after an hour. Plus, he had a kitten to get home to anyways so he wasn’t complaining.

He just wanted to swing around some more and burn off some energy.

Peter jumped on top of a street sign and looked down. “Karen, any crime for me today?”

“I am not picking up any crime as of right now, Peter.” Karen replied in her soothing voice that Peter loved so much. He wondered if that’s why his dad designed it that way for him.

“Alright. Let me know.” He told her at the same time as he swung off the sign and started swinging through the air.

“Will do.”

Peter could hear the love in Karen’s voice. She was so nice for an AI. That was all due to his dad being a genius.

He swung down and landed on top of a two story building, squatting over the edge to look down below him into the alleyway. He thought back to the other day when he found his little, scared kitten and wondered if there was anymore but he knew he wouldn’t be lucky enough to find another kitten.

The thought brought a smile to his face but that was quickly replaced by his spider sense going crazy. Before he even had the time to realize what was happening, he was being kicked off the side of the building and free falling.

He didn’t even have enough time to process anything or try to shoot a web out to catch himself before he was landing on the cold, hard concrete ground and smacking the back of his head.

His version went black. The air was knocked out of him as he tried to sit up but he found that he couldn’t move and for a second, he thought that he broke his back but then he was lifting his head up and grabbing onto the back of it.

Did he fall? Was he pushed? Peter tried to look up but all he could see was a bunch of mixed shapes and colours from smacking his head against the cement so hard. He knew he had a concussion. That much was obvious but he was still having trouble seeing anything.

When he tried to sit up more, he grabbed onto his arm because it felt like it was on fire but he couldn’t tell if it was broken.

He didn’t know how much time had passed before he was trying to stand up. He heard someone talking to him. Maybe it was Karen… but the voice sounded deeper and he heard more than one voice.

Pain shot through his head again and when he went to lift his arm up, he felt the burning sensation again so he whimpered and gave up with trying to stand.

He heard someone walking up behind him just before his Spidey sense started screaming at him to run but he could barely process anything.

“He’s over here.” Peter heard someone say. He tried to turn around and winced at the pain but saw three men walking towards him.

They all looked like they were in their thirties and had scruffy, old looking clothes on, making Peter wonder if they were homeless. He didn’t understand why they wanted to hurt him because he never did anything wrong to them.

He hasn’t even seen them before.

“I can’t believe it actually worked. We thought you were supposed to be impossible to catch, Spider-Man.” The bigger guy had said. Something about the way he said Spider-Man had shivers running up Peter’s spine.

He shook his head and whimpered. “Please.” He didn’t know what he was saying please for but he wanted his dad.

Another man walked around him so he was standing right in front of Peter with one behind him and the other at his side, cornering him. “Wa wa. Suck it up. You know, we don’t have anything against you, we don’t even know who you are but we just wanna have a little fun and then you fall into our arms.”

Peter tried to move away from the man in front of him but he was just backing up closer to the other one so he stopped. He didn’t know what to do, no one was there to help him and no one knew he was in trouble.

He wanted his dad.

“Tell us, Spider-Man, what kind of lab cooked you up?” The man from behind him asked and bent down to grab his head but it caused Peter to whimper again and try to move away. “How do you feel, someone who’s supposed to be tough and fight off criminals is crying behind his mask.”

“Stop.” Peter weakly begged and held a weak arm out but he was stronger than this. He wasn’t a baby scared of these men. He was Spider-Man. “Get away from me.”

They all started laughing and didn’t seem the least bit afraid so Peter went to stand up on shaky legs, trying not to fall over from his head smacking off the ground after he fell two stories.

Peter didn’t even have time to dodge the kick that was being delivered to his back so he fell onto his hands and knees and rolled onto his back. He felt sick.

“You’re not going anywhere.” If Peter didn’t have his mask on, he could have felt the man’s breath on his face with how close he was. “Don’t even think of moving. We’re just getting started with you.”

Peter knew that he needed to get out of there and away from these men so he sucked in a breath of air and then turned around and managed to push himself onto his feet but he was being kicked in the side and thrown into the dumpster beside him with a loud bang.

He fell onto his face, smacking it off the ground and went to get up but he was being turned on his back. Peter didn’t know why he felt so weak. His vision was still blurred a bit and he felt so tired, like he was about to pass out at any second.

There was the sound of chains or something rattling and Peter lifted his head to see what it was but before he could even process what was happening, something snapped around his ankle, sending a wave of agonizing pain wash through his leg.

He let out an animalistic ear piercing scream and then choked on his sobs that followed. The pain took his breath away from him and when he looked down, all he saw was blood.

Blood was pouring out of his ankle and staining the concrete under him. He tried to move his leg but he couldn’t. It hurt so much. Peter fell back onto the ground and screamed from the pain again.

He knew the three men were talking to him but he couldn’t hear a word they were saying.

He was trying to calm his breathing down and not move his leg but then someone was kicking it so Peter screamed louder. There was the sound of chains again so Peter lifted his head up and now that his vision was less blurred, he could make out what was on his ankle.

It was a bear trap.

The bloody sight had his pain increasing so Peter shut his eyes and cried. He wanted his dad.

If he hadn’t hit his head so hard then maybe he could have fought them off but he felt tired and dizzy and he could barely hear anything.

Maybe Karen was talking to him but he didn’t know.

“You aren’t so strong now, are you? You fucking little spider. Spiders don’t deserve to live. They’re nothing but an nuisance.” One guy shouted at him but Peter barely registered what he was saying over the unbearable pain.

He looked up at one of the men and saw something shiny but he didn’t even have time to try and fight him off before the knife was being pushed into his abdomen.

The pain from being stabbed and from the bear claw trap around his ankle were blurring into one and he couldn’t take it.

He lifted up his arm weakly to beg them to stop. “P-please. S-stop. Hurts.”

He was being hit with something in the chest repeatedly and then he felt an extreme pressure pushing on his stomach again, making him cough up blood and start choking on it from his mask.

He looked up at the sky and for a second he felt at peace. He didn’t want to die and leave his dad behind but he didn’t have any more fight left in him and he was in so much pain, he didn’t want to hurt anymore.

Peter shut his eyes and tried to remember back to last night when he was with his dad, cuddling on the couch. The thought brought him some comfort but then he felt tugging on his head and shut his eyes open.

“Let’s go! Fuck this!” One of the guys shouted while the other one stood over Peter and attempted to take his mask off. “Charles! Let’s go!”

“Don’t fucking say my name. I wanna see who he is.” The man, Charles, pulled his mask off in one movement and gasped. Peter weakly tried to grab his mask but he coughed on his blood and felt good that he wasn’t choking on it now.

“Ah fuck. Fucking hell! No!” Charles stood up and tossed the mask. “He’s a fucking kid. Fuck this!”

Peter felt his body shaking. He looked at the other two men to get a better look and then were running down the alleyway. “I fucking told you. Fuck, man. Fuck!”

As much as relief it brought him to see the men who tried to kill him, run away. He was completely alone now.

Even if he managed to stand up, he couldn’t go anywhere because his ankle was stuck and he was bleeding out. He turned his head over and whimpered for his dad.

Peter didn’t know how long he was lying there for, maybe hours. Maybe days. He didn’t know but he heard the sound of the Iron Man suit landing on the ground and then there was a familiar voice making its way towards him.

“Peter. Oh god. No. Peter! Stay awake, baby. Peter!” Tony screamed and jumped out of his suit, falling to his knees in front of Peter. He quickly glanced over his son and wanted to vomit. He was covered in blood and was barely moving, never mind how his breaths were coming out in huffs.

Peter tried to reach his arm up to his dad to tell him that he was going to be okay but he couldn’t say anything or move his arms.

“Stay awake, Peter. I’m here, I’m gonna-I’m gonna-” Tony looked down at the bear trap on Peter’s leg and wanted to scream. He had to get that off of him so he could bring him to the tower and into the medic wing.

He got into his suit and carefully kneeled down to try and figure out how to free Peter’s leg. “Scan FRIDAY!”

Natasha was running out of the car with Steve and running into the alleyway. Tony would have blasted them if he didn’t hear Natasha’s voice first. She immediately went to go try and keep Peter awake while Tony tried to figure out how to cut the jaw trap off of Peter’s ankle without cutting his whole ankle off.

“Oh my god.” Steve had said and fell to his knees next to Tony to pry the trap off himself. “I’ll do it. Move.”

Tony couldn’t breathe. He watched Steve rip open the trap and pulling Peter’s leg out before it slammed shut again. Tony got out of his suit and went to go hold Peter’s head. “Look at me. Look at me, baby. It’s dad, Pete. It’s daddy. Stay awake.”

Peter tried to reach out for his dad but he couldn’t, he wanted to go to sleep. He felt the strong tug towards unconsciousness but something told him he had to stay awake and keep looking at his dad. He went to try and call him but he started coughing up blood when someone pressed on his stomach.

“It’s just Natasha.” Tony tried to stop shaking but his hands wouldn’t stop moving.

He had gotten the alert from Karen that Peter fell off a two story building and had a severe concussion and in the seven minutes it took him to arrive, someone had done this to his kid.

“We have to stop the bleeding, Tony.” Natasha told him and tied a piece of cloth around Peter’s ankle tighter while Steve held his hands over Peter’s stab wound and tried to look for more.

“I-I have to get him to the tower.” Tony carefully got his hands under Peter and lifted him up. He couldn’t carry him in the suit and continue to stop the bleeding so Natasha had to drive there.

Tony looked down at Peter and begged him to stay awake. He couldn’t lose Peter. He couldn’t lose his baby.

“Keep your eyes open, Peter. Look at me. Tell me a story, Pete.” Tony couldn’t stop himself from crying. He wanted to hear his son's chatty voice that he had been hearing only a few hours before. He wanted to go back in time so badly.

Steve opened the back door for him while Natasha ran into the driver's seat and Steve got in the passenger seat. Tony tried to keep Peter awake by shaking his head every so often.

“Open your eyes, Peter. Keep them open. Drive faster, Natasha!” He screamed at her which had Peter flinching.

FRIDAY started speaking in his ear and he felt sick with what she had to say. “Boss, Peter’s injuries will be fatal if you take him to the tower. He won’t make it with all the blood loss so he needs to go to Lenox Hill Hospital.”

Tony couldn’t stop himself from crying. No. Not his kid. He wasn’t going to lose Peter. He couldn’t.

“F-FRIDAY says go to Lenox Hill Hospital. Hurry.” He begged and looked down at Peter again who was staring up at him with half slit eyes. “C’mon. We’re almost there. Stay awake, Peter. Keep your eyes open. You said no naps today, Peter. Okay? So no napping. Stay awake.” He tried to smile but he couldn’t. Peter was about to die in his arms and there was nothing he could do about it.

Peter coughed on more blood and attempted to reach up to touch his dad’s face but he couldn’t. “I-I don’ wan’ go. Don-don’ wanna… leave you.”

Tony shook his head and pressed a kiss onto Peter’s bloodied face. “You’re not. You’re not going anywhere. Okay? You’re gonna stay right here with me. Forever. Don’t close your eyes, Peter. Keep them open. Keep looking at me.”

Peter didn’t know if he could stay awake much longer. He was so tired. “I-I don’ wanna die, daddy. I Don- I don’ wanna.”

Tony shook his head. His heart was breaking a little more as each second passed. No child should ever have to say that. It wasn’t fair. “No, baby. You’re not going to die. Just fight, Peter. You have to fight and stay awake. Don’t fall asleep.”

Peter tried so hard. He heard his dad talking to him and telling him to stay awake so he tried for him. He needed to stay awake for his dad. He couldn’t leave him because they needed each other.

They weren’t only supposed to be together for a few months. He wanted a whole lifetime with his dad.

Tony saw that they were two minutes away from the hospital but he couldn’t bring Peter in with his Spider-Man suit on. “I-I have to take this off. I can’t bring him in as Spider-Man.” Tony pressed the spider on Peter’s chest and had to pull away from him as he carefully pulled it off of him, immediately pressing the saturated cloth back to his stab wound.

He didn’t miss the way Peter whimpered in pain the whole time and the way his hands weakly tried to make grabby hands towards him but he was too weak to fully lift his arms up. “Almost done. Almost done, baby. Stay awake.”

“We’re here.” Natasha announced and ran out of the car to help Tony get Peter out who was now only in his underwear and looked even more fragile.

He cradled him against his chest and looked down at Peter. “Just stay awake, Peter! Stay awake! We’re here!”

Peter tried so hard but he was so tired and he didn’t want his dad to be mad at him but he knew his dad would keep him safe even if he shut his eyes. Just for a little bit. “I’m sorry.”

Tony watched as Peter’s eyes shut and then his body was going completely limp in his arms. His head fell back and Tony felt something break inside of him. “No. No! Wake up, Peter! Wake up!”

Tony felt his phone vibrate in his pocket and a loud alert started to go off telling Tony that the bracelet on Peter’s wrist wasn’t detecting a heartbeat.

He ran through the emergency doors of the hospital and was immediately surrounded by a bunch of doctors who were trying to take Peter from him. He wanted to fight them off but he couldn’t because they were here to help so he did the hardest thing he ever had to do and let a bunch of strangers take his kid.

They placed Peter on the ground and started touching all over his body, working on him.

Tony then heard three words that he would live with for the rest of his life.

“No heartbeat detected.”

He fell onto the floor and looked at his son. Peter wasn’t in his body. He wasn’t looking at him. He wasn’t in there.

“Starting cpr.” Another doctor yelled while Tony watched through a small space.

“Charging to 160. Clear!” Peter's body jolted but there was still no sign of life. “No heartbeat detected. Charge to 180. Clear!”

Don’t leave me, Peter. Don’t leave me.

Peter opened his eyes and the first thing that he noticed was that his dad wasn’t there.

He looked around for him and started walking around but then he realized that he didn’t feel any more pain. He lifted his leg up and saw that he no longer had a bear trap on his ankle so he smiled and started running a bit.

He didn’t know where he was or why it was so bright but he felt warm and loved, wherever he was.

“Dad? Dad, where are you? I’m okay now.” Peter stopped running and felt the smile fall from his face. Where was his dad and why wasn’t he with him? He promised to never leave him. “Dad?”

Peter stopped walking when he saw someone up ahead. He didn’t know why they were but he wasn’t scared so he continued to walk towards them. “Hello? Who are you?”

It was a woman.

She was wearing a long white dress and had long brown hair that looked oddly familiar. Peter froze.

She turned around and Peter felt the tears burn his eyes then started running towards her. “Aunt May?” Peter stopped right in front of her and sobbed out. “Aunt May. H-how-how are you here? You-you-”

May hushed him but didn’t reach out to hug him. “You’re hurt, Peter. You aren’t supposed to be here.”

Peter didn’t understand. He wasn’t hurting anymore. His leg was okay and he wasn’t bleeding out anymore. He shook his head. “No. I’m not, Aunt May. I’m okay now. I’m just looking for dad.”

May was smiling fondly at him. He liked when she did that and he missed it. “Tony’s not here. He doesn’t belong here either.”

Peter didn’t understand. If he was here then he wanted his dad to be here too.

He didn’t have time to ask because he saw someone else behind May so he walked passed her to see if he was actually seeing what he was seeing. “Uncle Ben? You’re here too. Uncle Ben. I missed you. I-I”

“Hey, bear. I missed you too and I love you so much but we don’t have much time.” Ben rushed out but he didn’t look mad. He had a peaceful look on his face. Peter looked at May and saw that she did too. “You can’t be here, Peter.”

Peter shook his head. “I just- I’m just waiting for dad.”

Uncle Ben smiled at him but shook his head and wrapped his arms around May. Peter didn’t understand what was going on but he felt a sharp pain in his chest and winced.

He was about to ask what was happening when he looked over and saw two faces that he only recognized due to pictures and videos.

“Hi Peter. We missed you so much but it’s not your time. Not for a long long while.” Peter looked at the woman and walked towards her.

“Mom?” He asked, feeling the tears fall down his cheeks. He wanted to reach out and touch her.

She nodded. “Hi baby. It’s time for you to go back to your dad now.” Peter looked over at the man standing next to his mother and smiled. This was his biological dad he was staring at. He suddenly felt bad and didn’t want his biological dad to think he was trying to replace him.

His biological dad kneeled down in front of him. “Peter, you’re my son and you’ll always be my son but you’re also Tony’s son. I’m not mad. I’m so so happy that you guys found each other.”

Peter wiped at his tears and nodded his head but then he was feeling that pain in his chest again. He looked up at his mom.

“It was always supposed to be this way, Peter. Isn’t it beautiful?” She wrapped an arm around his biological dad once he stood back up and Peter nodded. It was kinda beautiful.

May started walking away and turned around to wave him over. “Follow me, Peter.”

Peter walked over to her, not knowing where she was leading him. “Am I dead, Aunt May? I don’t-I don’t want to die.”

She smiled at him. “It’s time for us to say goodbye again.”

Peter shook his head and looked back at the rest of his family that was watching him. “To heaven?”

May nodded. “That’s where we belong now. All of us.” She gestured to his parents and Ben then looked back at him. “But not you, Peter. You have to go back to Tony. To your dad. He needs you and you need him.”

Peter wiped at his cheeks. He missed his dad.

He felt the pain in his chest again but it was stronger this time.

May looked down at him. “Peter, in life we are all given what we need. You needed Tony and he needed you. It’s time for you to go now.”

She smiled at him and looked off in the other direction so Peter followed her gaze and saw a warm, bright light that was practically screaming at him to walk into.

He reached a hand out for it and started running towards it so he could see his dad again but then he was being sucked into it and everything went black.

“We got a steady pause. He’s back.” Came the doctor's voice and Tony would have collapsed if he wasn’t already on the ground.

They were placing a bunch of wires on Peter’s chest and then lifting him onto a hospital bed and wheeling him away while shouting orders at each other. Tony stood up on shaky legs to follow his kid. “No! That’s my son! Where are you taking him?!”

Two nurses were standing in front of him and trying to stop him. “Mr. Stark. We can assure you that your son is in very good hands. They are taking him up to surgery right now to try and stop the bleeding and any other injuries he may have.”

“He’s my son.” Tony whispered and ran a shaky hand through his hair. No. How did this happen? How could he have let this happen?

He felt the vomit come up so he turned around just in time to throw up into the garbage bin that was there and then again and again.

When he lifted his head up and wiped at his mouth, the two nurses were still standing there. Tony wanted to be with his kid. Peter was scared to be without him. “I-I need to be with my son. He’s only fourteen. He-he has separation anxiety from me and he doesn’t like being around strangers.”

One of the nurses placed a gentle hand on her arm. “He is in good hands. We will keep you updated if you would follow me to our paediatrics waiting room.”

Tony didn’t want to wait in the fucking waiting room to wait for the news as to whether or not his baby was alive or not. No. He needed to see Peter.

He suddenly thought about the fact that Peter is Spider-Man and that whatever anaesthesia they use on him, won’t be enough. “I want my own anaesthesiologists in there with him. I don’t care what I have to do. I want my own in there with my son.”

They nodded their heads patiently. “Of course. Mr. Stark. We will set it up for them to take over when they get here and are made aware of the situation.”

Tony followed them down a hall, unaware of anything else going on around him. He didn’t care. He just needed for Peter to be okay.

He knew that his anesthesiologists were made aware of the fact that Peter was Spider-Man so they knew how to keep him under with a safe dosage, not that they ever had to before.

He was led into a waiting room so Tony sat down and put his head into his hands. He felt numb.

He just wanted to look up and see his kid. He wanted to hold Peter in his arms and tickle his belly, hearing his innocent giggling.

This was his fucking fault. He was the one who let Peter go out as Spider-Man. He was the one who wanted one fucking hour to himself and now he kid could die. His kid did die. And it was his fault.

Tony stood up. He couldn’t do this.

He somehow found his way into a bathroom and locked the door behind him. He didn’t know what to do. Peter had to be okay. If his kid died… if Peter died, he wouldn’t survive that. He simply could not live without Peter.

It wasn’t possible.

He needed for Peter to be okay or he would be getting buried in the ground right next to his kid. He promised Peter he would never leave him.

He would never break that promise.

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.

Tony didn’t know how long he stayed in that bathroom for. He completely lost track of time crying over the reality of what might happen.

When he eventually left the bathroom and sat back down to wait in the waiting room, he wasn’t waiting long before two doctors were approaching him. He quickly stood up and wanted the answers.

He needed to hear that Peter was alive. It wasn’t a good thing that they were out this early, they shouldn’t be out this early. That means… no. Peter was alive. They had to be.

“Mr. Star-”

“Is he alive? Please tell me he’s alive.”

“He’s stable.” One of the doctors answered so Tony broke down.

Okay. Peter was alive. He could breathe now.

“Mr. Stark, your son’s injuries are life threatening. We have stopped the bleeding in his abdomen but the stab wound went through to his kidney so we are doing everything we can to save them but it’s not looking good.” Tony tried to process everything. Peter might lose a kidney. No. His kid could lose an entire organ. This was not happening.

He wanted to wake up from this nightmare and then never go to sleep again so he never had to live in this hell.

“But he’s going to be okay, right? He’s going to be okay?” Tony asked, begging whatever god was out there that the answer was going to be yes.

The deafening silence that followed was the worst answer. He looked away and tried not to scream.

“Mr. Stark, we are doing everything that we can to save your son’s life. He is still in surgery so we will keep you updated.” There was a gentle hand on Tony’s arm but it did little to help.

He covered his face with his hands and fell down onto the ground, playing to whatever deity that was looking down on him that Peter was going to be okay.

There was another hand on his shoulder so he looked up and saw Natasha standing over him. “Is he…”

She didn’t want to finish. Tony understood the question. “No. The Uh, the doctors told me that he… he’s alive but it’s not looking good. He um, lost a lot of blood and he might lose his kidney and I just… I can’t stay here. I need to see him.”

She squeezed his arm firmly, grounding him. “You will. Peter’s going to be okay. He needs you to stay strong for him right now.”

Tony pulled away from her and stood up. “He- this is all my fault. I let him go out. I let him go out and I couldn’t get to him fast enough. Now-now whoever did this to him is still out there and- I can’t-”

“Tony. You need to breathe.” She ordered, lining her face up with his. “What happened to Peter is not your fault. I know how often he asks to go out so this is not your fault and you got to him. You rescued him and now all we have to do is wait. We will wait until we get some more news.”

She sat down next to him on the waiting chair and let go of his arm. “As for the guys who did this, we’re working on it. Let us deal with it. You need to put your attention somewhere else.”

Tony didn’t respond but he heard everything she said. He looked down at his hands but he felt sick. He knew he was going to be sick again so he got up and went to walk back towards the bathroom to empty whatever he had left in his stomach into the toilet.

He locked the door and shoved open a stall door, bending over and vomiting. He wanted his baby back. It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t fucking fair.

He collapsed against the wall and looked up with tears pouring down his cheeks. “Do not take my kid from me.” He didn’t know he was talking to, perhaps a god he didn’t believe in. “Do you fucking hear me? Do not fucking take my kid from me!”

He broke down after that. He still had blood all over his shirt and pants and dried up blood on his hands and arms.

When he pushed himself up, he stumbled a bit before catching himself and walking over to the sink. He avoided his face in the mirror because he didn’t want to see his reflection. He was the reason Peter was hanging on by a thread and fighting for his life.

After washing down his hands and arms, scrubbing all the blood off of him, Peter’s blood, he left the bathroom and went to go sit back down, not seeing Natasha there but he didn’t care.

After what seemed like hours, and maybe it was, two doctors were walking up to him. He couldn’t read their expressions but he just needed to know that his baby was alive.

Pleasepleasepleaseplease

“Please. Is my kid alive? Is he okay?” He asked, begging for an answer.

“Peter is alive and stable.” Tony let out a huge sigh of relief and bent over to try and not be sick. “He is being taken out of surgery as we speak but we need to go over the extent of his injuries with you so if you would follow us.”

Tony wanted to say no. He didn’t want to hear it because he knew it wasn’t good news. If Peter was okay then they would be taking him to his baby right now but they weren’t.

He prepared for the worse but even that wasn’t enough.

They sat down in their office and a Kleenex box was being slid across the desk. He eyed it. He just wanted his kid.

What he would give to have Peter climbing onto his lap right now and placing his head onto his chest.

“Mr. Stark, Peter lost a lot of blood. We were able to stop the internal bleeding in his abdomen however we weren’t able to save part of his kidneys so we had to take part of it out and work with the damage.” The doctor paused to let Tony wrap his mind around what he was being told.

He put his head into his hands and cried, feeling like a small child that needed to be comforted.

That was supposed to be his job to do to Peter but he couldn’t and he might never again.

“Alright. What-what else? What about his ankle? Is-is-” He couldn’t ask the question. He saw how bad it was. He knew that kind of damage can sometimes be irreversible.

“We were able to repair his ankle although it is unknown right now if he has lost feeling in it. We will be keeping a close eye on it in the meantime but our biggest concern is his head injury.” The doctor took off his glasses and stopped talking to let Tony catch up.

He was just told that his kid might never walk properly ever again if he didn’t regain feeling in his ankle and there was still more…

“In the report, we were told that he fell off of a two story building and that is what caused his severe concussion.” Tony tried to remember if he told the doctors what happened but he didn’t think he did. It had to have been Steve or Natasha.

“Now, I know what I’m about to say may be hard to hear so I would like you to take your time to process everything but because of Peter’s fall, his brain started to swell so in order to prevent him losing any brain cells and brain activity, we had to put him into a medically induced coma.”

Tony stood up to try and not pass out. His child was in a coma. He didn’t want to think about that. His precious baby boy wasn’t even awake. “How-how long will be- when will he wake up?”

“We are keeping an eye on his brain activity for now. Once the swelling stops, we will take him out of the coma and assess things from there.” He explained but it wasn’t enough for Tony.

He needed to know when exactly his kid was going to wake up. “But how long? A day? Two days?”

The doctor looked down at the papers on his desk and that told Tony everything he needed to know.

“Oh god. God no.” He needed to see his kid. He wanted to see his baby.

“Mr. Stark, it’s hard to say exactly when. I would say anywhere between three days and… three months. It’s hard to say and I don’t want to give you any false hope because the brain is a tricky thing. Sometimes it never heals.”

Tony sat back down and shook his head. Peter was Spider-Man. Tony knew he had healing abilities that were unlike anyone else.

“Besides for his injuries I have already told you about, he has a broken wrist, two broken ribs, a fractured skull, a bruised pancreas and bruising on his chest and back.”

Tony tried to process all of that information. He said it over and over again in his head. He had no idea the extent of Peter’s injuries and knowing that Peter had died. In his arms. He didn’t know how he was able to call himself a father after all that.

A father was supposed to protect their children no matter what and he failed at that. Peter died. His baby had died. It was all his fault.

“I um, I want to see him. I need to see him.” Tony wiped at his face and stood on shaky legs.

“Alright. I know the scene may be hard to see so I am going to warn you,” The doctor stood up to lead Tony out of the room and down a hallway. “Peter is incubated so he has a tube down his throat as well as other wires attached all around him so we can monitor everything.”

Tony nodded. He just wanted to hold his kid in his arms again.