The World I Knew [Discontinued]

Doctor's Appt.

Peter was such a scaredy-cat.

It was official.

He'd been scared of a doctor's appointment, when all he had to do was take his shirt off, sit on a bed, and breathe.

Well, that was what he had to do for the first half of the visit, at least. The other half, he could pull his shirt, and let his leg kick out when Bruce tapped his knee with the rubber hammer, then sit still when Bruce pulled out the smallest needle he'd ever seen, and draw a blood sample that Peter couldn't even feel. Not a speck of scarlet showed when the needle came back out, full of the same scarlet liquid, the 'wound' not even eliciting the need for a Band-Aid.

Then he had to wait for a minute while FRIDAY pulled up results, Tony sitting by his side and just talking to him to keep him distracted from whatever he could've been worried about, until Bruce came back up to them, looking worried.

"What is it, Bruce?" Tony asked, leaning back in his chair.

Bruce's eyes flicked between Peter and Tony for a moment, before settling on the billionaire. "I, uh... I need to talk to you."

Peter and Tony looked at each other, the older hesitating before standing up straightening his shirt, and following Bruce out of earshot, leaving Peter to nervously play with the crinkly paper, accidentally ripping the fragile material in a couple places, and watch the men carefully, as if he could gauge reactions.

Tony kept his face as passive as possible, but Peter could still sort of see it when he tensed, going rigid, his face falling stony. When Tony went still, Peter's anxiety about the whole thing rose, and he forced himself to look away for his own good.

It took two more minutes for the men to come back, and it was only then that Peter looked back up.

Tony's face was still stony and cold, something hard behind his eyes, but whatever it was wasn't directed towards Peter himself, it was... something else--something else that had Peter's nerves working up again.

"So... what is it?" he asked.

Tony looked at him for a moment, considering him, before softening. "There's... a complication."

Peter frowned. "Mr. Stark, I'm not twelve. I'm seventeen. You can tell me what's up."

The man stared for another moment more, before sighing and sinking down into his previously abandoned chair with a stressed sigh. "The scars are... infected, still; but there's something... different about this infection. It's..." Tony took a steadying breath, a signal that made Peter grab the edge of the bed to steady himself too, "It's the zombie infection."

Peter went rigid. "What."

"It's not as bad as you think," Tony quickly said, leaning forward slightly, "It's not going to do anything if we leave it as it is, but it'll hurt. The infection is essentially trapped in the scar tissue, so everything is fine as it is, but I don't think you'll want to live a lifetime of back pain, right?"

"Right."

"So you'd want to get rid of it?"

"Yes!" Peter said eagerly, sitting forward, "Yes! I don't want to take that chance. I did not come this far to just start the apocalypse all over again."

Tony hesitated. "It'd..." he sighed. "It'd require a risky surgery."

"I--wait, surgery?"

"... yeah."

Peter watched his mentor for a moment, before taking in a breath. "I guess... whatever it takes."

*****