Dependence

Chapter 2

            Peyton only paused for a second after knocking before letting herself into her brother and his best friend's hotel room. She crossed her arms as the door fell behind her.

"Hey! Ned just found this thing called Training Wheels in my suit! Can you believe that?!" Peter asked in annoyance.

"Yes. You really think the little bit you have control of is all Stark put in your suit?" she sighed "Peter, I really don't think you should do this." she glanced down where Ned was sitting on the bed, typing away furiously on his computer, she knew he was removing the new found restrictions from her brothers suit.

"That's what I said, but he won't listen." Ned commented, not looking up from the screen. She sighed.

"Peter, can't you just let the authorities handle this one and come swim with the rest of us? Come on, can't we just be teenagers? Aren't you tired of carrying all of this on your shoulders?" she begged. She had always supported Peter, even though she didn't always want too. If she had it her way, he wouldn't be constantly putting his life on the line, but she never said that because she knew he needed it. Needed to be a hero. Being Spiderman gave him so much joy and she didn't want to take that away from him. She was just worried he was getting himself in too deep now. She was also exhausted from all of the anxiety and fear she had been feeling almost 24/7 because of her brother. She herself needed a break.

"I have to do this, Peyton." was all Peter said. She sighed and walked over to him, the two instantly embraced.

"Please be careful." she murmured.

"I will, I promise." he replied. She let go and nodded.

"Well, I'm going to swim with the rest of the team. I love you." she said.

"Love you too!" Peter replied. With that, she was out of the door.

~~~

Peyton was full of anxiety and concern. Peter wasn't answering his phone and he never came back to the hotel. What happened to him? She didn't have time to think as she was pushed through the school and onto the stage.

"Where's Peter?" Liz asked yet again.

"I know the same amount that I knew a few minutes ago, Liz." she sighed. Typically she wasn't so short with people but Peter had gone out last night and not come back and that probably meant something bad happened and she really couldn't lose her brother.

"Are you okay?" Ned asked her quietly.

"I- no... Peter's gone I can't- I can't- Ned, what happened last night?" she looked at him with tear filled eyes.

"Come on, he's Spiderman, he'll be fine!" Ned offered, trying and failing to reassure her. She bit her lip.

"Maybe I should call Happy." she said.

"No, no, no. At least wait. If Peter is fine and you call Happy, we would get in so much trouble!" he exclaimed in a whisper.

"And if he's not fine?" she asked.

"He will be. He always is, right?"

"I just don't know."

~~~

"Don't stress so much, I'm sure your brother is fine." Mr. Harrington assured the young teenager as she stood outside the large monument, ringing her hands together. She had done terrible at decathlon, getting her some teasing comments from Flash that the rest of the team shut down, knowing Peyton's anxiety had just overwhelmed her. She shook her head.

"I just don't know where he is." she cried.

"Come on, Peyton, come with us, you can try and take your mind off of it." Liz said. She nodded and let the senior girl and Ned lead her into the building and in a security line. Suddenly, her phone began to ring.

"Oh my God, Peter," she breathed after she answered it.

"Peyton? Yes, yeah, no I'm fine. Thank God you're alive, listen the Bird's Egg-"

"Is that Peter?" Liz took the phone and Peyton almost took it back but then sighed. If he was fine then she was fine and she would proceed to angrily ignore him.

After they got through security and Liz had handed the phone back to her, they got on an elevator. It got almost all the way up before something exploded... From Ned's backpack. The tour guide began to promise them they were all safe but Peyton wasn't buying it. She sent a quick text to Peter but there was no response.

Her jaw clenched and she stood frozen in her spot, shaking slightly, her eyes squeezed tight. She felt the elevator shake again and she whimpered.

"Please, Peter," she whispered. All of a sudden something banged against the window. She looked up to see Spiderman trying to break in and felt her nerves go down slightly. Slightly. After several tries, the moments in between hits getting longer, Peter was in, but the elevator was getting worse.

Peter slowly began to help people out until Peyton was all that was left. She stared up at her masked brother, still trembling.

"Are- are you sure it's safe?" she asked quietly.

"It's safer than staying there. Come on, Peyton, I know you're frightened, but you have to trust me. It's me, okay?" he asked. They ignored the sounds of the students behind them murmuring in confusion.

"I- I'm scared." she admitted.

"Come on, just grab my hand, I won't let you fall, okay?" he asked. She nodded and reached out. He grabbed her and pulled her in right as the elevator fell. She fell onto him, hugging him tight.

"It's okay, it's okay, it's okay." he said. She calmed down some and stood.

"Uh- er- thanks, Spiderman. Peter isn't here right now, but I'm sure you'll see each other at Stark tower later." she said. Peter instantly caught on, remembering that the students had seen everything and knew they knew that he knew Peyton.

"Uh, yeah, yeah, of course! Peter's great! Tell him I said hi!" he exclaimed. She nodded and with that, he swung away.

"No way. He actually knows Spiderman." Liz mumbled.

"My brother doesn't lie." Peyton said shakily.

"Come on, gang, I think we could all use some ice cream."

~~~

A few days later:

"He's not even answering you?" May asked, fear sketched into her features. Peter never ignored Peyton. She shook her head, anger and concern filling her insides. She had seen the news. She knew he was on that ferry but that had been long enough before that he should of been home by now. Why wasn't he home? Why wasn't he answering his phone? Peyton had considering sending him a 911 text, the one either of them, sent when they needed the other so desperately that consequences didn't matter, the other needed to drop everything, but this time it didn't really fall under that category so she refrained from it.

There was a loud knock on the door and both women raced over to it. The instant Peyton saw Peter she knew something was wrong. Of course she had already known since he wasn't answering but this was just confirmation. All of her anger melted away at his defeated expression. What happened? May turned and walked away as the two twins followed. She ranted about all of the people that she had called and how worried she was.

"I'm fine." Peter continued to repeat, trying to ensure her.

"Cut the bull shit. I know you left detention. I know you left the hotel room in Washington. I know you've been sneaking out at night. I know you've even been bailing on Peyton. That's not fine. Peter you have to tell me what's going on! Just lay it out. It's just us." she said. It was true. Peter had been becoming more distant and Peyton longed for her brother back.

"I- I lost the Stark internship." Peter said, his eyes beginning to gloss over.

"What?" Peyton asked.

"Yeah." he said.

"What happened?" May asked.

I just thought that I could work really hard and he could- He would- You know. But I screwed it up." he said, tears began to fall and Peyton felt anger twist in her gut at the billionaire and she didn't even know what had happened yet. May went over and hugged him as he cried.

"It's okay, it's okay. It's okay." he said.

"I'm sorry I made you worry." he muttered.

"I'm not trying to ruin your life." she sighed.

"Yeah, I know."

"Just... I used to sneak out too.... And take a shower. You smell. You smell like garbage."

"I know." Peter stood to go do as said, but Peyton followed him into his room so that they could talk first.

So Peter told her everything, in the midst of the story he broke down in tears and Peyton's anger just grew. She understood where Tony was coming from but he still totally screwed up and went about everything in the wrong way. A lot of this was his fault.

"Peter... I- I'm so sorry, Peter." she sighed, leaning her head on his shoulder. He sighed.

"I should be the one apologizing, Peyton. I'm sorry I've been shutting you out lately it's just... It's a lot..." he sighed. She nodded.

"I know, Pete. I know... You should take a shower and get to bed." she told him. He nodded this time.

"Okay... I love you, Pey." he said.

"Love you too."

~~~

The only thing Tony regretted was giving Peter that suit. How could he put his child in something like that and let them run around? He also felt stupid, he shouldn't have trusted the kid. Peter may have been his kid, but he was still a kid. He should have given him a suit but only one with protective tendencies so he at least wasn't running around in spandex, but of course Tony had to show off. In the midst of his brooding, Friday spoke.

"Sir, Miss Parker is here and she's insisting she speak with you." she said. He frowned.

"What does she want?" he asked. Peyton was still pretty much out of the picture. After Germany she went back and continued to just be a side support of her brother. She had Happy's phone number in case she for some reason needed it, but she hadn't bothered to use it. He still watched her from a far of course, but he didn't have any contact with her.

"I'm not sure, sir, but due to her increased heart rate, rapid breathing, and clenched jaw, she appears to be angry." she replied.

Of course. After that argument with Peter, he hadn't expected her to come over, yet it wasn't a surprise. He sighed, he really didn't want to deal with another angsty teenager but it seemed he didn't have a choice... Well, he could just make her go away, but that would do nothing to diffuse the situation.

"Alright, tell her I'm coming down." he said.

When he arrived he saw his daughter standing there, arms crossed, long curly brunette hair a frizzy mess around her head, sweatpants and a loose t-shirt, rage clear on her face. It had clearly been an impromptu visit, if he didn't know any better he'd have guessed she had been in bed only moments before.

"Peyton Parker, the underappreciated sidekick. What can I do for you?" he asked.

"I would appreciate if you avoid the smart ass quips for the next few minutes. I was trying to refrain from coming here but I'm so angry I can't even sleep. It only got worse when I could hear my brother cry himself to sleep through the thin walls. So, really, the joking around will only add to my irritation." she snapped. Tony blinked. He knew she was angry but the outburst still caught him off guard. Plus that had a little snippet of information that had his stomach sinking.

'I could hear my brother cry himself to sleep'

That hurt. He knew the kid was upset, he even saw the kid cry as he gave him the suit, but that had been hours earlier. He couldn't help but think of Howard and all the times he cried himself to sleep because of his own father. He shook his head and looked back to the girl, focusing on the part of him that was angry with her.

"Listen, kid, I know the two of you might not be happy, but you don't get to come in here and be a brat about it. I made my decision and a little girl throwing a tantrum won't make me change my mind." he snapped an awful lot like he had done with Peter. God, was he going to push both of his children away? Peyton was quick to fire back.

"You're kidding me right?! Keep the stupid suit, I could care less, but someone needs to call you out on the way you treated my brother and you need to shut up and swallow your pride and just listen for once in your life!" she shouted. He crossed his arms.

"Peyto-"

"No. Like you so lovingly told Peter earlier, this is the part where you zip it. I may not be an adult but I actually care about the person you've been using. You don't get to just treat my brother like a weapon, string him along, and not hear his family- you know, the ones left to pick up the pieces you leave- out. Peter Parker is a person, you don't get to use him to fight your battles and throw him away like it's nothing!" she exclaimed.

"Okay, I let Peter keep the suit. I was prepared to continue letting him do his little friendly Spiderman thing, but he went behind my back to do something I specifically told him not too. My taking that suit was justified, there was no using of anybody here." he said. She shook her head.

"You really believe that, don't you?" she asked. He looked at her in confusion.

"God you- you don't even realize you're doing it! I don't know if that makes this better or worse. You dragged Peter and I onto a plane to spend an entire weekend in Germany where he fought by your side. You then let him keep an extremely expensive suit. You then tell him you'll keep in touch. Then you stick him on your security guy who's also a huge jerk. The only other two times you speak to him- you yell at him. You know he looks up to you. All he wanted was your approval but you ignored him, avoided him, shouted at him, and gave him no explanation of your decisions and let him believe you didn't care by not telling him you had the FBI handling something he was worried about. Had you told him that, it might have been different, but you said nothing. Even though he barely even knew you I can tell he was already seeing you as a father figure. Tonight only proved that, you think he was that upset over the suit? He was of course sad about it, but his main issue was you. He's upset because he feels like he let you down and now he thinks you've abandoned him. The thing is, he's fifteen, he shouldn't feel like he let you down because he didn't do the superhero thing right. He shouldn't even have to worry about that, but he does, and the superhero stuff isn't your fault, but, the lack of communication is." she ranted.

Tony felt like a complete ass at this point. She was right, though. He was afraid to have communications with his son and because of that, he hurt his son instead. He was turning into his own father.

"You know, he saw our Uncle die." she said. Tony looked at her, eyes widening slightly. He didn't know that. How did he not know that?

"What?" he asked.

"He was there when they were mugged and Uncle Ben was shot. He even had his powers. He blames himself. Why do you think being Spiderman and helping people is so important to him? You wanna know what else he's been through? Our mom and step-dad died in a plane crash when we were five. We had to live with our aunt and uncle. Peter's been being bullied for most of our lives.

"Peter's favorite color is red. He loves mint chocolate chip ice cream and Star Wars movies. He would never admit this but he also loves the movie Mean Girls. He knows how to play the piano. He has a crush on this senior girl at our high school. His best friend besides me is named Ned.

"I have really bad anxiety and whenever I have a panic attack, he pulls me in, walks me through a breathing exercise and talks about mindless things that have to do with my favorite things like Doctor Who and Sherlock until I'm calmed down and distracted. When May is gone on business trips occasionally, we make a fort in the living room, popcorn, and hot cocoa and watch movies on the laptop. On the rare occasion I really need him and he's not around, I send him a text that, says 911 and it doesn't matter what he's doing, he'll leave to come find me and help me out. Same goes for him, he sends the code, I come running.

"Now this all probably doesn't seem important to you because all you see him as is that radioactive spider, but to his friends and family, he's a person. I just wanted to remind you of that." she didn't give him any time to respond, she turned on her heel and walked out.

~~~

"Where did you go?" May asked when she had gotten back. When Peyton had stormed out of her bedroom and past her aunt the only information she gave was 'I'll be right back' and with that she was gone. When her aunt texted her to ask what was going on, she only told her everything was fine. Now she was back and May wanted answers, she already had to deal with Peter's secrets, she didn't need Peyton going crazy too.

"Stark tower. I needed to shout and I wasn't going to take it out on anybody else." she sighed, falling back onto the couch. May paused the hallmark movie she had been watching and turned to her niece.

"Do you know what happened? What's been happening?" she asked desperately. Peyton gave her a look.

"I think you know the answer to that." she said. May waved a hand.

"Okay, I know, Peter tells you everything. What I mean is can you tell me?" she asked.

"Aunt May, all I can tell you is that Tony Stark is a jerk." she said. May scoffed.

"Well I knew that." she said.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Peyton asked, sitting up some. May shrugged.

"Nothing. Just that he's- you know a rich arrogant jerk so..." May bit her lower lip and Peyton raised an eyebrow but didn't push the topic.

"Yeah."