"And why do I have to find out my nephew is in surgery from Karen?! Do none of you have the decency to tell me yourselves?", May finishes, hugging Bruce quickly before walking out. Nat disappears behind, Steve and Bucky getting caught up by Bruce on Peter's condition.
A minute later, Tony walks out. Rhodey had seen him beating himself up for the last couple of hours, while Peter was in surgery, not speaking a word or looking at anyone. He's seen Tony like this before, sometimes in college after a really bad breakup, worst of all was after his parents died, this time seems to be heading to that level. He follows, "FRIDAY, Protocol Iron Oxide".
He runs behind, chasing up to Tony who'd holed up in his lab. "Iron Odixe?", Pepper asks worried catching up with him outside the door. Rhodey nods worried, "We got an update on Peter and May showed up, nothing about that went well but he's lost in his mind again". Sighing and rubbing her eyes Pepper asks, "are you ready?". Be or not, they go in.
The lab walls are soundproofed, so the second they open the rest of the floor is drowned out by AC/DC on blast. "FRI, music!", Pepper yells. FRIDAY kills the music, Tony turns back already angry at the interruption. Bad start. "What do you want!?", Tony spits, Rhodey replying in turn, "you know what Tony, we've been here before, we need to talk".
"What's there to say", Tony's voice sounds strained, "I hurt the kid". Tony slouches in his stool, the lab falling silent while Rhodey and Pepper walk in closer, "We all did Tony, but he won't hold that against us, you must know that". Tony's unconvinced, teeth gritting as he scowled through a few oily and unkempt locks of hair towards the two trespassers, "Doesn't matter if he won't, I'm bad for him, that's a fact James".
Using his actual name makes Rhodey freeze, makes him tremble; Tony has never done that. Pepper notices his sudden restraint, and replies instead, "that's not true Tony, I know that, you know that, and Peter knows that. He couldn't disagree more". She answered in such a way that would have you believing she'd had nothing but passion for the matter, instead of the quiet sadness and worry behind her mask. Tony chuckles, cracking, "oh yeah, well he's in a coma Pep, how can he disagree then".
Makes everyone twitch, hitching their breath as another heavy silence wafted over the room. Rhodey and Pepper shared a saddened look, as Tony twisted back away from them. "Yeah Tony, because he was protecting you. He cares about you, that does not make you bad for Peter". Pepper argues, trying to chase after and hug Tony. He could hear it behind him, the click clacking approaching; he flinches back, "don't forget what May said... I put him in that Coma, I'm bad for him, just have to accept that", Tony shrugs.
Rhodey's not done, "she said what she said because she's worried. Same worry you have. You care for him just like her and you know she wasn't thinking straight nor being fair. You aren't either, be fair to yourself-". Pepper interjects, "and stop blaming just yourself. If this is on you, it's on all of us".
He didn't like those words. Anger starts bubbling to the surface, particularly Pepper's sentence. "No. I brought him into it", he spits, quieting them. "Into the group chat. I insisted on the internship and I convinced him into it when he didn't want to. I had him come over Fridays and convinced his aunt to let him come early on Thursdays just in time for him to get iced harder than cap", he grits his teeth, suppressing rage, "I was the one hurt, I was the one that got him into the coma in the first place".
They try and hug him again to even more flinching and backing away, the wheels of his stool screeching as they slid across the floor of the lab. "Tony, he's the one who kept chatting with you, he chose to come to the internship and chose to fight today", Pepper hums, with a sadder tone than her frown, a tone that ached with concern for him, "That's not on you".
Anger bursts, he throws everything off his desk, kicking his stool as it flew off and bounced off the ground with an echoing thud. "It's not just the coma Pepper!", he screams, louder than any other noise from his mess, scaring his friends, "I hunted him! beat him! Used my armours against him!". He grabs what he can, throwing a few more pens, pliers and prototypes in every direction but the windows. Till he ran out, "I broke him Pepper, and every time he gets close he gets hurt".
YOU ARE READING
A year to Remember. Part 3, The Conclusion
Fanfiction(Part 3 of A Year To Remember) Peter finally knows who his Zoo friends are, and everything is finally settling down. However while his friends - The Avengers - don't have any more secrets from him, he still has one last one he's keeping from them. S...
