Dependence

Chapter 3

"Peyton!" Peter was running towards his sisters locker and she looked up surprised. This was the first time in days that he wasn't acting totally bummed about the whole suit thing.

"Woah, slow down there cowboy, what happened?" she asked, smirking.

"Liz is going to homecoming with me!" he exclaimed. She closed her locker and turned to face him.

"You're kidding!" she exclaimed. He just grinned.

"Peter that's great! I'm so happy for you!" she hugged him and then he looked at her.

"I need to learn how to tie a tie."

~~~

"I don't understand why you're not going," Peter sighed as he and Peyton messed with his tie. She was wearing a t-shirt and one of his hoodies over some leggings, her hair in a messy bun. She was ready to spend the night eating chocolate ice cream and binge watching Sherlock.

"Because, Pete, it's not exactly my scene. You know that." she said.

"It's just a dance." he said.

"You're right. It is." she replied. She finished with the cloth and stepped back. She smiled triumphantly.

"That's not what I meant." he whined. She rolled her eyes.

"I know. Now shut up and come on, Aunt May wants to take pictures." she said.

They walked out and after May took pictures and the two women gave him tips, he left.

"You should have gone." May said. She stuck her tongue out at the older woman and went to the freezer to dig out some ice cream.

"You know," May continued to speak, "your mom met your Uncle Ben at homecoming." she said.

"That doesn't make any sense. She married Ben's brother and that was after Peter and I were born which means a long time after homecoming." Peyton said.

"Well, yeah, Ben introduced them in high school and then they both went off to college where your mom met your dad and then when you were just a babe she came back to visit home. I was engaged to Ben at the time and we all went out and had lunch and I guess after all that time they just... Clicked." she said.

"How sweet." Peyton muttered sarcastically, moving into the living room. She looked up at her aunt May.

"Seriously though, who is our father?" she asked. May sighed.

"You know I don't know that. Your mother never talked about it. It was some spring break fling." she sighed.

"Yeah but... I'm sure there's gotta be something. Mom had to have told him about us." Peyton said. May just shrugged.

"Peyton, I'm sorry, I really don't know." she said. Peyton nodded.

"Now, I'm gonna go get us some Chinese food." May stood up and quickly left their small apartment.

~~~

Meanwhile:

"I reached Mr. Happy. Don't think he likes you, by the way. It sounded like he was catching a flight. He said something about taking off in nine minutes." Ned said as his best friend sped around the place in their bullies car.

"What?" Peter asked, confusion laced in his tone.

"He was surrounded by boxes." Ned said.

"Boxes?.. It's moving day. It's moving day. He's gonna rob that plane. I gotta stop him!" Peter exclaimed.

"Okay, should I call your sister?" Ned asked.

"What? No! No. Don't call Peyton I don't want her getting involved this. I'll tell her later." he said.

"Okay, if you're sure."

~~~

Peyton kept her laptop on her lap as she typed away at her computer, shoveling noodles in her mouth as she looked.

"What are you doing?" May asked.

"Tumblr."

~~~

"Hello? Hello! Please, hey. Hey, please. I'm down here. I'm down here. I'm stuck. I'm stuck. I can't move. I can't--" Peter stopped crying out, glancing at the Spiderman mask in front of him, hanging from a large chunk of concrete.

If you're nothing without this suit, then you shouldn't have it.

"Come on, Peter. Come on, Spider-Man. Come on, Spider-Man. Come on, Spider-Man.
Come on, Spider-Man!" he pushed the building off of him.

~~~

"Ned? Aren't you supposed to be at homecoming?" Peyton asked as she answered the phone.

"I think something's wrong."

~~~

Peter finished webbing everything up and writing a note. He dragged himself away so as not to be found. He sat on top of a building, feeling his energy fading fast. Something was going on with his body, his enhanced healing wasn't doing him any favors in that moment. The adrenaline was wearing off. His eyes dropped shut, and he fell.

~~~

"Peter!" Peyton screeched as she watched her brother fall from the amusement park ride. She found her legs moving as she darted towards him.

"Pete? Peter? Come on, buddy, it wasn't even that high of a fall. You're Spiderman, you're okay. You have to be okay." she insisted as she tried to get him to wake up. She felt his pulse. It was weak, too weak. She heard footsteps behind her, someone ran up. She turned to see Happy. She glared at him.

"I heard you shout. Is he okay?!" Happy ran over.

"You hung up. You hung up!" she sobbed. Ned had told her what happened.

"I- I know. I'm sorry- I'm sorry. Come on, let's get him to the tower, there are still some medics here." Happy leaned down to lift the boy but Peyton screamed at him.

"No! No!" her breaths were short, her entire body was trembling, she was hyperventilating.

"Peyton, come on kid, we gotta get him medical help." Happy said.

"Don't take him from me. You can't take him. You can't take him." she cried.

"Happy?!" they heard the familiar voice of Tony Stark.

"Over here!" Happy called in relief. Tony could deal with this. He came around in his Iron Man suit and quickly walked out. He was in jeans and a t-shirt, he had been chilling several states over when he got the call about his shipment being broken into and then flown into buildings. Then he got there to find Spiderman had stopped the bad guy.

"The kids hurt, she won't let me take him, I think she's afraid I'm gonna hurt him." he explained. Tony rushed over.

"Peyton, hey, it's alright, we're gonna take Petey here back to the tower and get him some help, alright?" he asked. She shook her head vigorously.

"No! You did this! This is your fault!" she shouted.

"Okay, okay, I understand, let me fix it, I promise we're not going to hurt him, we're going to make him better," Tony said calmly.

"He can't die. You can't let him die, Mr. Stark." she sobbed.

"I won't, okay, I swear on it." he said. She watched him with a mixture of uneasiness and trust.

"Can I take him? Get him fixed up?" he asked. She slowly nodded and he reached out to take Peter. Tony handed him over to Happy for a second so that he could step into his suit. A few seconds later Peter was back in his arms.

"Alright, calm down kiddo, Happy here is gonna take you over to the tower where you can wait while the doctors look at our hero here." he said. She was still shaking and crying but she nodded. Tony didn't wait any longer before shooting into the air and heading for the new tower upstate.

"Come on, Peyton." Happy said.

~~~

Peyton was a lot calmer. She sat against the wall outside the room that Peter was being worked on. Tony walked over and slid to the floor next to her.

"Your aunt is on her way." he said.

"So she knows now?" she asked, not looking at him.

"Yeah." they sat in silence for a few moments, silent tears falling down the fifteen year olds face.

"You said before that if he died it would be on you... That wasn't true." she said. He looked over at her surprised.

"I want to say that it's on you this time as well for taking away a suit that could have helped him, but that's not true. If you had never even given Peter that suit, we'd still probably end up here, only in a hospital where they would discover his powers." she said. Tony felt oddly comforted at her words in a way he wouldn't have expected. He had been beating himself up over this so much, he hadn't thought her reassurance would make it any better at all. She looked down and wiped at her eyes before looking back over at him.

"Is he gonna make it?" she asked. He nodded.

"Due to his enhanced healing, he took it better than a normal teenager would have. He needs some surgery and oxygen due to the smoke but for the most part, he should be okay within a few days." he said. She nodded.

"Are you going to give him the suit back? Like it or not, he's going to do this, it'd be better if he had some sort of protection." she said. He nodded.

"Yeah, I am... What I'm about to do and say is a rare occurrence so appreciate it. You were right, I didn't handle things right. Peter was wrong but so was I. If we had communicated better I think it would have been okay." he said. She looked over at him, shocked.

"What?" he asked.

"Did you just admit you were wrong?" she asked, raising and eyebrow. He smirked slightly.

"Way to ruin the moment." he said. She chuckled through her tears.

"God, I don't know why I'm crying so hard. Like you said, he's gonna be fine." she said.

"You didn't know that at the time though," he said.

"Yeah, but like you said, he heals well." she said. He just nodded and she sighed, closing her eyes.

"I'm so... I'm so dependent on him it's a little ridiculous if I lost him-" her voice cracked "God, I don't know what I'd do." she cried. Tony awkwardly put an arm around her.

"He's safe now, so don't dwell on it."

~~~

"Is he okay?!" May exclaimed, rushing into the new tower.

"He's perfect, he was awake for a little bit but now both he and Peyton are asleep, he's still in his room so we can keep an eye on his vitals, I finally convinced Peyton to lay down in a guest room." he said.

"How did this happen? How could you take a fifteen year old to Berlin to fight a bunch of superheroes? Don't think I didn't put that together. And that suit? That's from you, isn't it?" she asked.

"Ah, well, yes. Mrs. Parker, the kid wasn't going to stop so I put him in a safer suit. He was fighting crime in his pajamas practically." Tony insisted.

"I don't- I- how did I not know this was happening?" she asked.

"Listen, May, it's not your fault." he told her.

"So if they... If they know you and you've been mentoring him then... Do they know... You know, about you?" she asked. Tony shook his head.

"No. I haven't told them." he said, eyes downcast.

"Okay well... Great... This situation is just fantastic!" she threw her arms in the air.

"I really am sorry." he said. She shook her head.

"No. Sadly I can't blame you. This isn't your fault." she sighed.

"Do you want to see him?" Tony asked. She nodded.

"Yes. Yes please."