I Have a Bad Filling About This
The last time Peter had ever been to the dentist was when he was 9 years old. The memory itself was blurry as he had been in a state of panic for the whole day. He had tried everything to get out of the appointment, even resorting to trying to run away to Flushing Meadows. However, it had proved to be a futile plan, and with the combined forces of Ben and May he was dragged to the dentist’s office.
The whole time in the waiting room Ben held him as he cried and begged to leave. Peter’s sobbings grew even worse as Ben carried him to the examination room. It took more than two hours for the whole visit to be done as the dentist had to fix a cavity, which had made him panic even further. While he couldn’t remember much of what was done to him, he did clearly remember the fear and panic he felt as two nurses held him down while the dentist worked on his back molars.
Five months after that May had tried to make an appointment for him once again. However, the receptionist had informed her that Uncle Ben’s health insurance had been slashed drastically, which meant that dental visits was no longer covered for any of them. The receptionist had told her they could pay the fee out of pocket, but Ben and May’s combined budgets could not afford the steep fee. On one hand Peter knew he should be worried that his family’s insurance had been lowered, but he couldn’t help the childish relief that had settled in his chest when May had told him that he would no longer be going to the dentist any time soon. And for the next seven years his luck held firm.
However, like always, his luck did not hold out forever.
It was a Tuesday when May told him the news.
“So Pete,” May began slowly as she twirled a piece of spaghetti with her fork, “You remember how I was promoted at work last week?”
“Yeah?” Peter answered, glancing over at his aunt curiously.
“Well, turns out that there were some more benefits than what I was told,” May smiled slightly.
“That’s great, May! Is it more vacation days? Cuz you really deserve them.”
May laughed. “No, I wish! It’s actually something more useful than that.”
“What is it then?” Peter asked, tilting his head to the side. For some reason he could feel a warning go off in his head, but he tried to ignore it.
May took a deep breath and beamed at her nephew. “You and I now have full health benefits!”
Peter began to smile but froze as realization hit him. Blinking slowly he tried muster a shaky smile. “I mean, t-that’s awesome May. I’m glad, I know you’ve been wanting to see an eye doctor for forever.”
May hummed approvingly. “I already made an appointment for next week. But Peter, that’s not the only reason why I’m telling you this.”
Peter paled as his worst fears were realized. “Please don’t say what I think you’re about to say.”
“I’m really sorry, baby,” May sighed as she gripped her nephew’s hand gently. “I was hoping that maybe next week you could go see the dentist. It’s been over seven years now and your teeth have changed a lot since then.”
Peter shook his head quickly. “My teeth are fine! No tooth pain or anything like that, so I really don’t need to see a dentist.”
“You don’t know that, sweetie, I’d rather be safe than sorry. I’m going to call their office tomorrow morning.”
Peter bit his lip, looking down at his food as he tried to think of anything to stop May. His eyes widened as he realized he did have one card to play.“May wait, I can’t go to the dentist!”
“And why not?” May questioned, raising an eyebrow at her nephew.
“M-my metabolism! It’s a lot faster than normal, so that means a regular d-dentist would have trouble giving me anesthetics and stuff like that. It’s the same reason why I can only see Dr. Cho now, not just anyone can treat me,” Peter rushed to explain.
May groaned. “I completely forgot about that. Still not fully used to all this weird science crap when it comes to you.”
“Y-yeah,” Peter laughed shakily. “So I guess no dentist then, right?”
May pursed her lips, staring at Peter for a long moment before giving him a wry smile. “No dentist for now then.”
“Great!” Peter exclaimed, relief settling in his chest. “Thanks May, love you!” He leaned over to kiss his aunt on the cheek before dashing off to his room.
May sat their in silence, staring at the doorway where Peter had escaped through. She sighed as she closed her eyes. “Sorry kiddo, this is for your own good,” she whispered, getting up to grab her cell phone from the nearby countertop.
She guiltily glanced at Peter’s closed door before sending her co parent-in-training a text message. Tony, I need your help. Call me asap.
The next morning Peter sat in his usual seat in his third period Lit class. All around him his classmates were in various stages of boredom as his teacher, Ms. Troiano, continued to drone on about the importance of milk in Macbeth.
Peter knew he should be paying attention to whatever Ms. Troiano was attempting to teach, but all he could think about was the fact that today he was supposed to have a lab session with Mr. Stark later that day. Peter was dying to show him some new web formulas he had made the previous night, including one that could potentially last indefinitely.
In the margins of his Macbeth book Peter continued to write the various complex chemical formulas, lost in his own little world of science and heroics. However, he was brought back to reality when the school’s loudspeaker system crackled to life inside the classroom.
“Peter Parker, please report to the main office immediately. I repeat, Peter Parker to the office,” the school’s loudspeaker announced. He blushed as his classmates “ohhhh-ed” at him. Ms. Troiano tried to shush them all as Peter stood up.
“Should I bring my backpack or…?” He asked awkwardly.
“Just take it with you, Peter,” Ms. Troiano said, waving a hall pass towards him. “And if you don’t come back, remember we have a test an Act II of Macbeth this Friday, so please study for that.”
Peter thanked her quietly as he turned to leave the classroom, but not before tripping over someone’s bag, earning him laughter from the rest of his class. Red faced, Peter practically ran out of the room.
As he walked towards the office Peter tried desperately to think of why he would be called down. He hadn’t been in trouble in school ever since May and Mr. Stark made a long list of rules that he strictly had to follow in order to continue being Spider-Man. One of the biggest rules was that his grades could no longer dip because of patrols or lab time, while another was that he had to be on time for school from now on. He also had to behave completely, which meant no more detentions.
Peter honestly couldn’t think of a good reason why he would be called down today, so he hoped that maybe he was about to receive good news or something like that. Maybe for once his Parker Luck™ would give him a break.
He burst through the office doors but abruptly stopped in his tracks as he saw Mr. Stark sitting on a nearby chain, an air of calm boredom projected around him as he stared down at his phone. “Mr. Stark?”
Said man looked up and smiled at the teen, pocketing his phone as he went to stand up. “Finally, there you are! You know I hate to be kept waiting.”
“What are you doing here?”
“Signing you out, of course,” Mr. Stark answered. He turned to the nearby secretary and asked, “Do I need to sign anything else or can I take him now?”
“You’re free to go,” Ms. Hernandez cheerfully replied. “Bye Mr. Stark, bye Peter!”
“Um, bye Ms. Hernandez,” Peter mumbled as he followed Mr. Stark out of the building. “Is everything ok? Is May ok?”
“Geez, you’re way too young to be a pessimist,” Mr. Stark snarked. “But yes, everything is fine, May is fine, and before you ask, yes she knows I’m signing you out today.”
“Wait, do we have a mission!” Peter blurted out excitedly as he entered his mentor’s car. “Cuz I have my suit in my backpack, so I’m ready to-”
Mr. Stark snorted, leaning over to ruffle the teen’s hair. “Down kid. No mission, but I do need your help with something important at the compound.”
“Oh.” Peter tilted his head to the side like a puppy as he stared at his mentor. For some reason there was something… off about the older man. It was as if he was trying harder than usual to be aloof and careless. On top of that, Mr. Stark almost never signed him out of school without a prior warning. Both him and May had double downed on Peter’s academic career, which meant always attending classes, practises, and completing his homework on time. But as Mr. Stark started the car Peter decided that he was over thinking things. Maybe his mentor really was just busy and did need Peter’s help.
“Well, that’s still cool! Thank you for breaking me out of school then, Mr. Stark.”
Tony shook his head, a fond smile on his face. Peter could have sworn he saw a hint of something else (guilt?) in his mentor’s eyes, but he shrugged it off as Mr. Stark replied, “No problem, kiddo.”
The drive to the compound was pretty uneventful. Tony stopped at a Wendy’s drive thru so Peter could eat some lunch in the car, and by the time they finally reached the compound Peter was just finishing his most recent patrol tale.
“-so then DareDevil showed up! We decided to team up and fought all around the harbour and it was so awesome, Mr. Stark. We took down the whole gang, and managed to rescue all the girls and dogs. We even grabbed pizza afterwards, which was probably the best part of my whole month.”
Mr. Stark chuckled as he turned onto the compound’s private driveway. “Only you would think grabbing pizza with a crazy vigilante would be great.”
“Hey, Double D isn’t crazy,” Peter protested, munching on the last of his fries. “He’s just… really high strung, and really into justice. And really Catholic.”
“The Devil of Hell’s Kitchen is Catholic?”
“Whoops, I thought you knew, please don’t mention to him that I told you that.”
This time Mr. Stark gave a full on laugh as he parked the car in front of the compound. “C’mon kiddie.”
“So what exactly did you need help with?”
“Well,” Mr. Stark started, “It’s a little complicated. It’s better just to show you. C’mon, it’s in the medical wing.”
Peter dutifully followed the billionaire, all the while still chatting his ear off about his awesome pizza party with DareDevil. He abruptly stopped, however, when he entered the waiting room area of the medical unit and saw May sitting on one of the couches.
“Aunt May?”
“Hey honey,” May greeted, getting up to give her nephew a quick hug.
“What are you doing here, I thought you had work?”
“About that,” May said, glancing over at Tony nervously. Before she could continue Peter frantically interrupted.
“Are you ok? Oh My Gosh, are you hurt or something? Is that why Mr. Stark picked me up early?”
“Calm down, Pete,” May soothed. “I’m fine, everything is ok. Tony and I just needed to talk to you about something.”
Peter turned his anxious stare to Mr. Stark, who gestured for the teen to sit on the nearby couch. “Calm down, kid. Everything’s fine, just thought it would be better to do this today.”
Glancing uncertainly between the two adults, Peter sat down next to May and began to shake his right leg anxiously. “So what do you need to talk to me about?”
“Remember our discussion yesterday,” May began to say. However, before she could continue Peter shot up from the couch, face pale and hands shaking.
“I thought we said no dentist!”
“Honey you need to see one,” May gently persisted. “I know you hate the dentist, but I’d rather make sure your teeth and mouth are completely healthy.”
“She’s right, kiddo,” Mr. Stark butted in. “Trust me, everyone hates to see the dentist, Hell even I hate going. But it’s for your own good.”
Peter shook his head violently. “My teeth are fine, I’m fine, I don’t need a dentist! Plus you said I’m not allowed to see any medical people outside of Dr. Cho and her team!”
“Key word there being team,” Mr. Stark stressed. “Luckily she has someone who’s a DMD that’s trained with super humans. She’s also actually my own personal dentist, really sweet woman, you’ll love her.”
“No, I won’t!” Peter yelled. Both May and Mr. Stark stared at the teen in shock. Peter rarely raised his voice, in fact most of the time when he did it was out of excitement rather than anger. But both adults could see the panic etched into the boy’s face as he clenched his hands tightly.
“C’mon kiddie,” Mr. Stark gently coaxed, slowly approaching his protege like one would approach a startled puppy. “It won’t be that bad, both May and I will be right in the room with you the whole time.”
“Wait, you want me to see the her right now?” Peter croaked, eyes widening as he started to back away from them and towards the exit.
“We thought it would be best just to get it over with,” May answered. “If we gave you a heads up we knew you would find a way to try to get out of it.”
“Yeah, cuz I don’t need to see the dentist!”
“Sorry kid, you’re out voted two to one,” Mr. Stark replied. “We wouldn’t make you do this if it wasn’t for your own good.”
Peter bit his lip harshly as his back finally met the wall closest to the door. He squeezed his eyes shut as he tried not to just break down then and there. Blinking his eyes open he quietly asked, “Can I at least use the bathroom?”
“Go right ahead, hun,” May nodded, face worried but still trying to remain gentle. “I’ll go tell the doctor you’re almost ready.”
Suppressing a shudder Peter practically ran to the bathroom. It was a single bathroom that was located down the hall from the waiting room area, with only one stall and sink.
He quickly locked the door behind him and leaned against the wooden door.
“Oh god,” He whispered, sliding down the door until his forehead met his folded knees. “Not again, I can’t do this.”
On some level Peter knew he should be embarrassed by how he was acting. He knew that Tony and May were right and that he should see the dentist. But as Peter thought about sitting on that dental chair he felt his chest begin to constrict and his hands start to shake uncontrollably.
“Nope, I can’t do this.” Getting up from the floor Peter looked around the room. In a corner of the room, near the ceiling, was a small window. Most people wouldn’t fit through it, but since Peter was on the skinny side he figured he could probably escape though there.
Peter went towards it, climbing up the wall with his powers and began to try to unlock it. It did not budge, and Peter felt himself begin to panic even more
He heard someone knock on the door and he froze.
“Peter, are you ok?” It was Mr. Stark. Peter wanted to say no, that he didn’t want to do this today, or ever actually. He just wanted to be somewhere else. But his tongue refused to move and his breathing grew harsher.
“Pete can you please answer me? I’m getting really worried out here, kiddo.”
To Peter’s horror he choked out a sob, which caused Mr. Stark to start pulling on the door handle harsher. “Kiddo, if you don’t answer me I’m gonna have to come in there.”
Even though he knew Mr. Stark could not see him Peter shook his head frantically. In his panic he let his superhuman strength come out, forcing the whole window and some of the wall to break off and fall outside, creating a gaping hole in the side of the building.
The bathroom he was in was located on the third floor, and while he did not have his webshooters on him, he did still have his powers. Taking a deep breath, he clambered out the hole and jumped, safely rolling into a forwards flip as he landed. He ran towards the forested area of the compound, not looking back once.
Peter wasn’t sure how long he ran, all he knew was that he had to get away. He finally stopped running when he reached a small creek. Sitting near the edge of it he gasped and tried to breath normally, falling to the forest floor on all fours. However, the more he tried, the more his breath grew shorter. The edges of his vision blurred so he screwed his eyes shut as tears fell down his cheeks.
Peter felt as if his whole body were numb, as if a thousand bees had stung him repeatedly. He felt weightless, as if he would just float away with any breeze. He probably would have floated away, too, if a strong hand hadn’t gripped his shoulder tightly, grounding him.
Someone was shouting Peter’s name near his ear but he couldn’t tell who it was. It was as if he were underwater. All he knew was that his chest hurt, his hands were squeezed so tightly that his palms bled, and that he didn’t want to float away. He felt the unknown voice grab his left hand and attempt to pry his fist apart. Whoever held his hand was no match for his strength, and quickly gave up. Instead, the voice placed the fist on something that moved up and down. It took a moment for Peter to realize it was a chest that was exaggerating it’s normal breathing cycle.
For whatever reason, feeling someone breathing normally comforted Peter, and he tried to copy the voice’s breaths. After a few moments he could hear the voice clearer.
“That’s it, kiddie, just follow my breathes, you’re alright, you’re safe.”
With sudden clarity he realized the voice was Mr. Stark.
“Shh, it’s ok, you’re safe, just breathe. Feel my chest rise and fall, c’mon Pete you can do it.”
There wasn’t a lot of people that Peter trusted in his life, in fact he could count the amount of people on one hand. But Mr. Stark was definitely on that list, so if Mr. Stark said that he was safe then he knew he was safe. His breathes slowly equalized, and he managed to unclench his fists.
“That’s it Peter, you’re doing great. Can you open your eyes for me.”
For a moment Peter didn’t even remember that he had squeezed his eyes shut. He forced his eyelids to open and was met with the concerned (but trying to hide it, of course) face of Mr. Stark. The two were kneeling by the creek, both of Mr. Stark’s hands gripping Peter’s arms tightly.
When Mr. Stark saw that Peter had opened his eyes fully he tried to give the boy a smile but it came out more like a grimace. “You scared the shit out of me, kiddo.”
“I’m so sorry,” Peter whispered, and he felt more tears build up in his eyes. Oh God he was so stupid, why couldn’t he be normal? Why was he freaking out so badly about seeing a dentist? He had almost died countless times and he barely batted an eye anymore, yet he couldn’t emotionally handle the dentist and oh God, he was a disappointment, May would hate him for this, Tony would be disgusted by how weak he was and take away his suit and-
“Peter! Shhh it’s ok, calm down kid, breathe,” Tony practically begged. Peter hadn’t even noticed that his breathing had begun to pick up and he forced himself to calm down. When his breathing returned to some semblance of normal Mr. Stark pulled towards him towards him. He wrapped one hand around the teen’s back as his other began to gently rub the back of Peter’s head.
“It’s ok Peter, I’ve got you, you’re safe.”
“I’m so sorry, Mr. Stark,” Peter apologize, voice thick as he hid his face in Tony’s shoulders.
“Don’t you dare apologize,” Mr. Stark commanded him. “You have nothing to apologize for, Peter.”
“Yes I do!” Peter cried out, leaning backwards so he could stare into Mr. Stark’s eyes.
Tony’s lips thinned as he watched the teen shake. “You really don’t, but fine, let’s hear why exactly you need to apologize.”
Peter bit his lip as he turned his face away in shame. “Because I’m a coward.” He stared out across the creek where he could see a rabbit poking its head out of a burrow.
“Because I’m so stupid for freaking out. Because I’m a disappointment and a freak and not normal.” Peter turned to stare fiercely at his mentor, who was watching his rant silently. “Because I broke the window and the wall, because I ran away, because now you are forced to have to deal with my breakdown. All of that is the reason why!” By the end of his tirade Peter was panting as fresh tears ran down his face.
Mr. Stark sighed loudly, taking one hand off of Peter’s arms to rub a hand down his face. Peter tried to look away in shame, but Mr. Stark firmly but gently grip his chin so that he had to look at the man.
“Alright shortstack, listen up because I’m about to completely ruin your self deprecation party. Let’s go down the list. First off, Peter Parker is the bravest person I have ever met in my whole life, and I’ve been in a superhero team for years. You are also so incredibly smart, smarter than I was at your age and a Hell of a lot more mature.
“Peter, you are the furthest thing from a disappointment, I am so proud of you, and I know that so is your aunt. We could never be disappointed in you, and I am so sorry if I haven’t told you more often how proud I am of you. And don’t even worry about the wall, I was meaning on doing some redecoration so you just gave me an excuse to start on it sooner!
“But Peter, trust me when I say I am never forced to help you when you’re breaking down, I want to help you. If you need a shoulder to cry on I want to be there, or if you need to just rant at someone, hey? I want to be there for that. Peter, you’re my kid now and I want to help you through anything, no matter what. So please, please, never apologize for needing me because I will always be there for you, and not because I’m forced to but because I want to to be there.”
Throughout Tony’s heartfelt speech Peter could feel body relax and his tears dry as he watched his father figure speak. By the end of it he was even grinning slightly. Tony returned the boy’s smile and pulled the kid in for another hug.
“Thank you Mr. Stark,” Peter said, returning the hug. He felt the older man shake his head.
“You don’t have to thank me, kiddie.”
The two remained hugging for a long moment, the sounds of the creek’s water running down hill the only noise around him. Peter was the first one to break the hug.
“I guess we should head back, huh?” He brought up a sleeved arm to wipe away some of the dirt and dried tears from his face.
“I guess so.” Mr. Stark groaned exaggeratedly as he got up. He offered his protege a hand up. “Are you sure you’re ok? Because we can move this to another day if you can’t deal with it quite yet.”
Peter bit his lip and shook his head. “No, I can’t let me fear rule me. Plus you and May’ll be there.”
“Damn straight,” Tony promised, wrapping an arm around his surrogate son’s shoulders as the two began to walk back to the compound.
The walk back was silent, and by the time the compound came into view Tony couldn’t help but inquire something.
“Kid, you don’t have to answer this,” He began, “But why do you have such a bad fear of the dentist.”
Peter kicked a nearby rock as he thought of a response. Finally, he answered, “When I was maybe 4 or 5 my mom took me to the dentist. I dunno, I think something was wrong with my front tooth. Anyways, my parents had picked a pretty shady dentist. Like office-above-a-sushi-place kind of shady. When the dentist finally saw me he just reeked of smoke. I guess my mom either didn’t notice or didn’t care.
“It started off fine, he took the X-Rays and checked around. Finally he said that by bottom baby tooth needed to come out because the adult tooth was already growing in. He promised it wouldn’t hurt since the tooth was already loose, that it would just an easy pull, and my mom said I would get a prize if I was a big boy.
“So I just sat there, holding my mom’s hand while the dentist grabbed the pliers. I was so scared, Mr. Stark, but I wanted to be brave. And then I just felt this horrible pain in my mouth and blood started just pouring out. Turns out the dentist had pulled out the wrong tooth and basically ripped a whole tooth out.
“I was crying so hard, and my mom started yelling at the dentist while he started yelling at me, telling me it was my fault for some reason. My mom tried to grab my hand to leave, but the dentist pushd my mom down and called for some nurses to come it. One of the nurses held my mom back while the other held me down on the chair. One other nurse came to force my mouth open, and the dentist grabbed the pliers to pull out the right tooth. Well, he actually pulled out a wrong tooth again, and by that point I was almost passing out from pain and fear.
“It took him another try to get the right tooth. I was crying so hard and my mom was carrying me out while calling my dad and it was horrible.”
Peter stopped walking as he remembered that day. He honestly still considered it one of the worst days of his life. He couldn’t eat right for weeks after that, and he had so many nightmares, to the point that he needed to sleep with his aunt and uncle for months.
“Jesus, Peter,” Mr. Stark breathed, face white as he processed the story. “Please tell me that dentist went to prison or something.”
Peter gave him a sad smile as he began walking again to the compound’s main doors. “Not exactly. My mom wanted to press charges, but my dad convinced her not to. They were supposed to go to some genetics conference in Vienna the next day, and my dad didn’t want to postpone the trip. They dropped me off at May and Ben’s the very next morning, and by that night I found out they were dead. So pressing charges against that dentist wasn’t exactly on Ben and May’s mind while my whole world basically imploded.”
By that point the two had reached the steps of the compound. Mr. Stark grabbed Peter’s arm to stop him before he could climb the steps. “I am so sorry that happened to you. That dentist deserves to rot in prison. But I swear to you, May and I will be in the room with you the whole time right now, we’ll make sure nothing bad happens to you. Dr. Song is one of the best dentists in the world, plus she used to actually specialize as a pediatric dentist before she came to work with Cho. You’re in the best hands possible, kiddo, I made sure of that.”
Peter smiled at Mr. Stark and wrapped his arms around his mentor. “I know, I trust you Tony.”
The examination went off without a hitch. Peter quickly realized that Dr. Song was one of the kindest, gentlest women on the face of the planet. The whole time she offered Peter quiet praises and stopped whenever he needed to breath.
May and Mr. Stark sat by his side during every moment of the examination. They took turns holding his hand and softly playing with his hair in order to soothe him. All in all the examination only took 15 minutes. Luckily Peter hadn’t had any cavities, so all Dr. Song needed to do was give him a dental cleaning. It went by quick, and before he knew it the whole thing was done.
“That’s really it?” Peter asked, amazed despite himself.
“That’s really it,” Dr. Song beamed. “Just remember to keep flossing and brushing your teeth and you’ll keep those pearly whites sparkling.”
“Thank you so much,” Peter said, deep gratitude making his voice thick.
“It was no problem, hun,” Dr. Song winked. “Have a wonderful day. Stark, if you need me, I’ll be with Helen.” And with that Dr. Song left the room. Peter turned to look over at the other two adults in the room.
“Thanks for sticking by my side, guys.”
“Aw honey, you don’t need to thank us,” May assured him while Tony just moaned in mock annoyance.
“Kid, for the millionth time, we don’t need thanks, we’ll always be here for you.”
“Still, thanks, it means a lot.” May gave him a loving smile while Tony bent over to ruffle his hair. “And hey! With you guys here, I can’t say I have a bad filling about this anymore!”
Both May and Peter snickered while Tony gave an over exaggerated groan.