Revenge...

Checkups

Tony's POV-
I sat at Peter's side as he slept peacefully, me, on the other hand, not as great a sleep. I felt the need to stay awake, stay right next to him for the rest of my life and never let him be afraid ever again. He was still in jeans and underneath the sheet on the hospital bed, my fingers were wrapped around his. And, luckily enough, he didn't have any nightmares. I took out my phone with my other hand and checked the time, 10:43. Jesus, it doesn't feel like that long. Peter's hand twitched and I jumped, I looked down at him and put away my phone. He opened his eyes slowly, he looked around the room and then up at me.
"Good morning. Are you okay?" I smiled at him. He nodded and looked around again.
"Wh... what happened?" He yawned, looking slightly scared.
"It's okay. Nothing important, you just had a panic attack and then fell asleep. Okay?"
"Umm...yeah. Yeah, how was... was your sleep?" He asked.
"It was fine. But listen, you need to focus on yourself, Banner's lab results have came back on your head. You need to be in good health today. Don't be worrying about me." I squeezed his hand tighter.
"Bu... but he said I just needed to take some pills." Peter's eyes widened.
"Yeah, I know. But he texted me this morning, it's nothing big, I promise you. And he's just making sure that your healing process is functioning normally again." I tried to sound happy but it came out more as terrified. Peter's grip loosened on my hand.
"I don't wanna... I can't get hurt again. Please dad. Don't let him hurt me." His eyes welled up with tears.
"No, no, no. Of course not! No one is ever going to hurt you again, do you understand? I will never let anything bad happen to you until the day I die." I said sympathetically. He nodded but kept his eyes down, looking at the plain blanket wrapped around him.
"I'm gonna call Banner now, okay? We can bring Ned down too." I brought out my phone again.
"What about Auntie Nat? Can she come?" Peter whispered.
"Yeah, of course. She would do anything for you, all of us would." I nodded and dialled Bruce's number.
"Hey Banner? Hey. It's Tony. We're in the lab again, long story. Anyways, do you wanna come down and talk to us about the whole healing thing? Okay, yeah, that's okay. Do me a favour? Bring Nat and the kid down too, Peter's request. Thanks, yeah, thanks again. Okay, alright... see you soon." I hung up and sat my phone on the desk beside Peter's bed.
"Banner's coming down now. I promise, I swear, I will not let him hurt you. He just wants to make sure you're okay. Your head injuries still haven't healed up yet, that's not normal for you, and you know that. I just wanna make sure you're okay." I put my fingers through his hair and he let out a sigh of relief. The doors opened quietly, Banner walked in first and started looking about in some drawers, next was Ned, he stood in the doorway and smiled. Nat waltzed right up to Peter and sat down on the bed. She placed her hand on his good leg.
"Ned, kid. I'm sorry we left you up there, I know we were supposed to watch a fil..." I started, but Ned interrupted me.
"That's okay, it was cool! I sat beside Black Widow and watched Die Hard. Who else can say they've done that?" He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly and I noticed that he didn't once look at Peter.
"I... why aren't you..." Peter obviously noticed it too.
"It...it's nothing, Peter. I just... have never seen you like this before... you're always so... so... I don't know. But not lying in a hospital bed or having anxiety attacks and nightmares. You're face is never so bruised and...and... hurt... It... I don't want to... to see you like this." He shifted on the spot. Peter stayed quiet.
"Listen, we have some work to do today, maybe it's best if you call back again, say at around... seven?" I nodded at him. He nodded back, eyes still planted on the ground and walked out of the room.
"Aha! Found it, finally." Banner sighed. He pulled out a tube, it was small and white, it definitely didn't look like much. "This," he pointed it at Peter, "is to measure how fast your healing factor is."
"How does it do that? Where did you even get that?" I asked suspiciously.
"It's okay. I used it when I first met Peter. It was a way of comparing him to normal humans, to see what was different." Bruce said plainly.
Natasha stood up and folded her arms across her chest.
"What do you have to do to him?" She asked, sounding annoyed at the fact that Peter has to be touched again.
"It isn't painful, just uncomfortable. Watch." He said as he took out a small screen from the cabinet and plugged it into an outlet, the tv lit up and came to a black background.
"Can I have your arm Peter?" Banner asked.
Peter put out his arm hesitantly but pulled it away again as soon as Bruce went to touch him.
"I...I'm sorry." He tried again but the same thing happened. "I... I can't have... touching me." He choked.
"Bruce? Can... can I do it?" I asked, Peter looked up, less afraid than before.
"Yeah, I'll walk you through it." He smiled again. "Just run it down the inside of Peter's arms, then set it down for a minute." I held Peter's arm in my hand gently and slowly made my way up using the tube thing. I had to let go of Peter's hand though, so Natasha, surprisingly, took it instead.