Surrogate Son

Unlikely Chance

Inspired by the above post.

Tony was in the middle of a meeting when his watch vibrated, alerting him to an incoming call. He glanced down to see Peter's grinning face looking up at him and smiled subconsciously. As much as he wanted to answer, he knew Pepper would kill him if he walked out of this meeting (again), so he denied it. He'd make sure to call Peter back just to make sure the kid wasn't too hurt by the rejection, but he knew as soon as he mentioned he'd been in a meeting, Peter would understand.

Seconds after he'd denied the call and returned his focus to the meeting, his watch buzzed again. Frowning, he looked back down to see Peter's face grinning up at him once again. He denied the call again and sent a quick message to say he couldn't talk right then, but he'd call him back when he could. To Tony's relief, his watch did not buzz anymore.

"Boss?" FRIDAY asked from the piece inside his ear. "Karen is trying to connect Peter with me."

"Tell him to wait, I'm busy," Tony said quietly. He received a few looks, but they quickly disappeared when Tony looked back.

"He says it's an emergency," FRIDAY replied. Tony paused. Peter emergencies could be anything from a lost puppy needing a vet to him bleeding out in an alley way, minutes from death.

"How big of an emergency?" Tony asked. This time he got a few more looks and the board member that had been talking paused briefly in the middle of their sentence.

"Karen has sent me his stats," FRIDAY said. No longer caring about interrupting the meeting since he already had, he pulled up a holograph of Peter's stats from his watch. He nearly forgot how to breath when he saw them and jumped out of his chair.

"I have to go," he told the board members before hurrying out of the room. "FRIDAY, send him through."

"Connected," FRIDAY replied.

"Mr. Parker, what's going on?" Tony demanded, activating the nanotech in his suit and shooting out of a window. He'd fix it later.

"I have good news and bad news," Peter said, breathing heavily. "Which do you want to hear first?"

"Good," Tony said, pulling up Peter's location and cursing when he saw it would take him nearly seven minutes to get to him. What was the kid doing in Washington DC again? Hadn't they talked about this?

"It is very unlikely I will ever do it again," Peter replied, groaning after his sentence. Tony frowned and tried to speed up even though he was already going as fast as he could.

"And the bad news?" Tony asked. Peter didn't reply. "Peter? I swear to god, if you don't answer me, you're grounded for eternity." Peter still didn't respond and Tony cursed again, louder and more aggressive, before asking FRIDAY to pull feed from Karen to find out what happened.

Apparently the kid had decided to take on some meth-addicts who were trying to make and sell drugs on the upper floor of an apartment building. He'd been about to web the guy up when another guy had hit his head with a crowbar (seriously? How un-original). In his distraction, the men had been able to destroy Peter's web shooters and throw him out the window from the 13th story. Tony found him right where he'd landed: on the ground between two buildings.

"FRIDAY, scan," Tony demanded, dropping down and staring at Peter.

"Scan complete," FRIDAY announced. "Peter Parker appears to have many broken ribs, a fracture on his right ankle, a break in his left tibia and femur, a severe concussion, a dislocated left shoulder, and a broken right arm."

"God, kid," Tony breathed. After making sure Peter was unconscious, he picked him up gently and shot towards the Avengers Compound. It was about twelve minutes away, but it had the better medical staff and there was no way Tony was risking Peter's life by getting him somewhere closer to save time.

When he arrived at the Compound, the medical staff were waiting and took Peter from him immediately. He'd already begun to heal his ribs, so the doctors set to work on setting those first, then took him into the operating room to fix his ankle and leg. Tony was forced to sit in the waiting room anxiously, trying not to focus on the fact that Peter was basically shattered and maybe, just maybe, if he'd picked up his phone earlier, the kid wouldn't be in such bad shape.

It took seven hours before Tony was allowed back to see Peter. Apparently there had been internal bleeding the doctors had to fix before his leg, ankle, and shoulder. The surgery had gone well, but Peter would not wake up for a long time.

"He needs to heal, and his body will refuse to let him wake up until he does so," the head doctor told Tony. He nodded and quietly thanked him before taking the chair beside Peter. He'd already called May, letting her know Peter was with him for the weekend. He didn't want to tell her Peter had been injured because he wasn't sure if she could handle the severity of it, but he also knew she'd likely ban Peter from going out as Spider-Man. Even Tony wasn't going to make Peter give up something he loved despite how much he wanted to.

"Hey, Pete," Tony said softly, settling down beside him. Of course, Peter didn't respond, but Tony wasn't surprised. Rather than just sit and stare at him helplessly, he pulled out his phone and tried to do what work her could while staying beside Peter.

* * *

Peter woke up to a massive headache and pain everywhere. He barely had the energy to breath, but somehow he managed to groan at the pain. To his surprise, he heard shuffling beside him and his eyes flew open. The blurry sight of Mr. Stark made him smile lazily.

"'ay Misser S'ark," he slurred. Mr. Stark gave him a small smile and gently ran his fingers through Peter's hair. Boy did that feel nice.

"How you feel, champ?" Mr. Stark asked.

"Kinna wanna die," Peter said. Mr. Stark nodded, pursing his lips and he looked Peter over. "Wha' happe'd?"

"You were thrown out a window by some methies," Mr. Stark explained. Peter frowned, scrunching up his face as he tried to remember his last battle.

"Oh yeah," he said slowly, recalling the memory of the terrible smell followed by pain in his head. "My head hurts."

"I bet it does," Mr. Stark agreed. "You have a severe concussion among other things."

"Wha' other things?" Peter asked. Mr. Stark listed off his injuries and Peter nodded slowly. It all made sense considering how much pain he was in. He was almost surprised he wasn't still unconscious.

"So yeah, you're never doing that again," Mr. Stark told him.

"I won'," Peter promised. "Didja call Aun' May?"

"Yes," Mr. Stark replied. "But I didn't tell her what happened. I just told her we had a project we were working on, so you were going to stay for the rest of the week. Good thing it's summer break, huh?"

"Yeah," Peter said. His eyes were getting heavier by the minute and Mr. Stark was turning into a triplet, so Peter said, "I'mma go back to sleep."

"Alright, buddy," Mr. Stark said, watching Peter's eyes close. "When you wake up, we'll talk about consequences."

"Okay," Peter said before drifting off into a dreamless sleep.