Troubled // Irondad

5

It's been four hours now and Peter was still out like a light. Tony stayed by his side the whole time. Bruce would come in every half hour to check up on him and Steve would come in and out occasionally. Clint came in once to give Tony some food along with Natasha. But that was it.

Steve told everyone in the tower about Peter and Spider-Man and what he was doing in the tower. He got the ok from Tony to do it first of course. Everyone was just wondering what was going on and worrying about someone that was a stranger to them being in the tower.

30 more minutes quickly passed and Bruce walked in to check again. It was almost perfect timing when Bruce came in because just 5 minutes later Peter's breathing began getting heavy and Tony noticed him beginning to sweat. Tony and Bruce didn't have to communicate to know that the kid was having a nightmare.

For a few minutes Peter's breaths sounded like panting until his eyes shot open. He jolted up to a sitting position and looked around confused for a second.

"Peter?" Bruce asked. Tony kept quiet but watched the kid. "Peter slow your breathing ok?"

Peter nodded fast to show he understood, but his breathing continued at the same pace.

"Hey you're alright," Tony finally said something, his voice actually being comforting. "It was a nightmare. Your safe, everyone's ok. Just calm down." Peter was staring at Tony's eyes, trying to focus on his breathing. Tony felt bad saying that though, he just lied to the kid. Everyone's not ok, aunt May isn't and Peter isn't but he needed a way to calm him down.

Then Peter's stare broke and his breathing was back to normal. He attempted to get off the table but Tony put a hand on his chest to stop him. Peter gave him an angry, yet questioning look and all Tony did was point to the needle in his arm.

"Oh," Peter quietly said as he took a look of the IV.

"Are you feeling nauseous?" Bruce questioned.

"Hm?" Peter snapped his head up.

"Do you feel nauseous?" Bruce asked again nicely.

"No, not right now," Peter replied clasping his shaking hands together.

"Dizzy?" Bruce asked.

"A little light headed."

"Hungry or thirsty?" Bruce asked carefully, knowing he wasn't going to receive the answer he wanted to hear.

"No," Peter simply stated, the thought of eating or drinking didn't seem important to him right now. "Oh woah Bruce Banner," Peter just realized who he was talking to.

"Yeah," Bruce chuckled and held out his hand. Peter took it and shook weakly, becoming slightly embarrassed of how weak it was. "Nice to meet you Spider-Man," Bruce said.

"I've read-" Peter began, being star struck but then asked, "wait. You know?"

"You said it was ok for everyone to know right?" Tony asked afraid he heard wrong and just told Steve to tell everyone the boy's big secret.

"Oh yeah it's ok," Peter quickly replied.

"Good because I told Steve he could tell all the rest of the team," Tony stated. Peter slightly smiled at that. Classic Tony.

"What time is it?" The boy asked.

"1:46 PM," Bruce replied.

"Oh shoot," Peter said while yanking the needle out his arm and jumped off the table.

"Wait kid, what the hell?" Peter was running towards the door but once he got their, just his luck, Steve was entering and blocked the door way.

"Hey you're up," he said smiling at Peter.

"Yeah. Nice to see you again Captain but I need to get going," the smaller teen went towards the door again trying to ignore that is was the Captain freaking America in front of him.

"Steve don't let him leave," Tony told him across the room.

"Mr. Stark I need to go, it's my patrol hours," Peter informed. He desperately needed to get out of there. He was bottling up so much rage and sadness that he didn't want to show in front of the Avengers.

"Spider-Man can wait," Tony stated.

"No he can't," Peter became angry. He tried pushing Steve out of the way, but Peter was still really weak and Steve seemed as if he were glued in place.

"You haven't been patrolling for 2 weeks and they're doing alright, you aren't going out right now," Tony directed at him, becoming more stern with his words.

Peter was ignoring him though and continued to try and push Steve out of the way. "Hey Peter, everyone out there is ok right now, you don't need to go out," Steve said softly while getting a grip on the kid's arms to hold him back.

Peter stopped struggling against him knowing he wouldn't win. Next thing he knew Tony was next to him, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Once you're healthier you can go out, now's not the time."

Peter just looked out the doorway and nodded to show he understood. "I have homework to catch up on," Peter said softly, implying that he had to go to his room.

Steve stepped aside and Peter began walking out. "We'll call you down for dinner," Tony yelled after him, getting no response in return.

Bruce and Steve both turned to Tony. "Remind me how old he is?" Bruce asked.

"16," Tony replied, realizing how young the broken kid was.

"Oh wow," Bruce said.

"Yeah... and he's already been through way more than he should have to," Tony stared at the doorway where Peter left.

Then Steve began talking, "we need to get that kid to eat or he's gonna starve himself."

"He'll eat dinner," Tony said then stalked out of the medical room.