Guilt
There was only two sounds that Tony could clearly hear within the quiet med bay room.
The rhythmic beep of the heart monitor currently connected to a zonked out Peter.
And the sound of fast high heels making a bee line to this very room.
Tony had mentally braced himself for the inevitable arrival of Aunt May. He knew it was his fault Peter was in the shape he was in. He knew she’d flip out.
But nothing could have prepared him for what did transpire.
She burst into the room giving the whole place a once over, looking right at Tony with a mix of fear and panic.
Honestly, he understood.
Then she completely ignored him.
Taking the chair that was propped up next to the bed, sat herself in it, and immediately cupped Peters hand and ran small circles over his palm.
And just sat there.
They both lived in that quiet for what Tony thought were decades. Was he being dramatic? Maybe. But he wasn’t very good at this sort of stuff. So dramatization was a coping mechanism at this point. One he excelled at.
But he wouldn’t be the one to break the silence. As odd as this all felt to him. He couldn’t. He didn’t know what he’d say.
That Peter had been unconscious the entire trip home?
That every exaggerated movement he put the boy through, wether it was landing on the tower grounds or placing him gently on the hospital bed, Peter let out a small yelp. As if any over exertion was causing Peter physical pain?
That Tony had run diagnostics the moment they touched base, on what ever was currently “swimming” inside Peter, but getting no concrete answers?
“Tony?”
Could there have been more injuries?
No. The moment he was placed on the hospital bed he made sure to check every inch of the kid. Friday said he was ok.
Minus the bugs.
His quick healing factor had finally kicked in the moment he’d passed out.
That still doesn’t change the fact that he might have been in worse shape before he got there.
“Tony.”
Why.
Why did he let the kid go off on his own?
Why did-
“Tony.” Aunt May with her barely a whisper call to attention, did just what it meant to do, brought Tony back to reality and he looked at her with tired eyes.
“You ok? How long you been here?”
There was genuine worry in her voice and a sense of honest care that tugged at Tony’s heart. Which just added to the guilt he was feeling.
“I’m fine May, been here a few hours.”
There was a long pause.
“…how is he?”
There was no judgment in her question.
No malice.
Tony couldn’t handle this kind of scenario. He’d rather she yelled at him. He expected her to lash out. At least he would have deserved it. This was his fault after all.
Tony hung his head down and rubbed his face with both hands trying to get himself together.
“Well, I promised I wasn’t going to lie to you and I intend to keep that promise.”
He watched as her grip on Peters hand tightened.
“Mentally he’s fine. 100%. He’s the Peter we no and love…“
“And physically?” May asked with cautious curiosity.
Tony searched for the words. Because how do you explain this kind of outlandish situation?
“Your son seems to have microscopic nano bugs inside his body. That seem to have been attacking his white blood cell count. Causing him to experience a kind of auto immune shut down.”
Aunt May gasped with her remaining hand on her mouth as she stared at her nephew. As if if she stared long enough she’d be able to see them.
“From what Friday can put together. It looks like the bugs were attacking the bone marrow in his hips essentially killing any white blood cells they can find. They are currently traveling up his spine as we speak.”
Tony braced himself for any warranted outbursts. She had every reason to panic. Hell, though he looked put together, Tony had been panicking on the inside the moment Friday told him the info.
But there was no outburst though.
No blame.
Just calm.
“What are you doing about this?”
Tony was getting frustrated at May’s inability to blame him. This was more anxiety inducing then lashing out at him.
“I let the kid go off on his own May. I knew the dangers but I let him go anyway.”
“That’s not answering my question Tony.” She looked right into his eyes. Not once looking away.
Tony let out the longest sigh.
“Why aren’t you yelling at me? I’m finding your demeanor to be very hard handle.” He spoke in a whisper and almost smirking.
It was May’s turn to sigh.
“Tony do you remember when you handed me a bunch of legal papers to sign. Regarding how you would handle Peters hero work and your responsibility towards his safety and growth?”
Tony simply nodded. “I do.”
“You said and I quote: ‘this kid and I are going to do great things May. You can trust me when I give you my word that your kids in great hands. I’ll die before I let anything happen to him.” You remember that?”
Tony raked his fingers through his hair. “It does sound familiar.”
“When you said this too me, I could see how honest you were being. I had no reason to doubt your convictions regarding Peter.”
Tony took note of that.
“So, if I trust you. That means I have to believe you did everything you could to help Peter grow into the man he wants to be while keeping him safe doing it. A complicated balance act that you seem to have been doing really well with. Never has my nephew spoke Ill with the way you conduct this “hero-ing” thing with him. And I Know my Peter. He can be hyperactive and impulsive. Might not always think ahead. But when it comes to his hero work, he takes that very seriously.”
She put both her hands around Peters arm as if to anchor herself to him. “If there was someone in trouble. There’s no stopping this boy from doing what ever he can to help. I know how stubborn he can be. I don’t blame you Stark, because there’s only one person too blame.”
She looked at him with venom in her eyes. “It’s the man who did this to him.”
“Men.”
Rohdy spoke up as he entered the room watching the other two adults whip there heads to his direction.
“So he’s-“
“Yeah Tony. He’s sporting that badge and he hates you. For an angry guy, dude was real chatty, spilled practically everything.”
May looked at both of them confused.
Rohdy took the lead.
“He’s part of a group known as W.A.T.R. Warriors Against The Rich.”
Tony rolled his eyes.
Rhody continued. “Stupid name I know. But their whole shtick, is to use liquid based weaponry to cause havoc on all sorts of rich people projects.”
Tony swiped his hand and a holographic screen manifested in front of him, spinning it so the other two could see footage of a news report but without the sound. “Like Elenor Travis and her bio plant project to feed poor countries. A tsunami like disaster wiped out all their progress… in the middle of a heatwave… In Arizona.” He swiped the same hand and the screen disappeared.
“Or stealing equipment from vans who belong to a Derek Castillo who’s currently working on new tech to aid on the colonization of Mars.” Rohdy continued on while handing a large file folder to Tony.
“Those Blades you were describing, the ones that created that small dying star like explosion, were untested prototypes for more efficient mining work for that referenced Mars project. Castillo confirmed it to me. He said they were too unstable to keep at the heavily bodied institute, so he had made a deal with the Army to take and dismantle. They would then share their findings with Castillo’s team-“
“And the Army could re-engineer the tech for new weapons for war…” Tony spoke through an unsurprised eye roll.
“The weird thing is they don’t seem to care about the good these affluent folks are doing with their money. This group seems to operate under the idea that: if your rich and are working on something big, there going to destroy it. Like how a petulant child breaks another kids toy so they can’t have it.”
“Still doesn't answer why I’m the face of there hate campaign though.”
Rohdy thought about that for a second. “Well doesn’t it? Your maybe the richest person in New-York. Your probably the guy they want to hurt the most. You just haven’t started anything yet for them to target.”
“Yeah, I’ve been busy.” Tony catches a glimpse of Peter who was still sleeping comfortably all wrapped up in the finest cashmere blankets he could find on such short notice.
He knew about the kids issues with texture, so he made sure the fabrics touching him wouldn’t make him uncomfortable whenever he decided to wake up.
Which made him grateful that the hush-a-bye protocol was working well. All the lights In the building were currently at a low output and on the softer yellow spectrum also for Peters comfort.
“Well the information from the interrogation I was able to gather is as follows: They hate you and “your rich kind”. They’re working on something big and “we won’t stop them in time”. Then the coward took the Hydra way out.”
Tony understood too well what he meant when he used that definition.
Death by Cyanide.
“…What about my son?” May spoke with a sort of desperation to reel the conversation back to the more important topic at hand.
“Wh, what about me?…”