Peter Parker: A New Hope

Cold Hearted Captain

Peter sat in the cold waiting room of the Avengers Medical Bay with his head leaning on the shoulder of his mother, Pepper Potts, soon to be Pepper Stark. Peter had silent tears falling down his face as a dark thought entered his mind. What would happen if he lost his father? He was pretty much the only family that he had left. It sent a chill down his spine at the thought.

When Michelle and Peter approached Pepper what had happened Pepper broke into a mess of hysterical sobs, she swore that all the stress that Steve Rogers and the other Rouge Avengers were what caused him to suffer his heart attack. When Steve bumped into Pepper on her way down to the Medical Bay she tore him a new one and to quote her directly, "If Tony dies you and your no good friends are on the street!" Needless to say Peter swore that the Captain America looked terrified of Pepper.

Pepper had slowly faded off into an uneasy sleep and Peter couldn't even bring himself to even try and sleep. He had sent Michelle home not long after his father went into surgery. He didn't want her to see him at his weakest. He hated seeming so weak in front of her. In those stolen moments with her she admitted to him that he was the strongest man that she has ever known and he didn't want to tarnish that gleam in her eyes when she looked at him. After she had left he allowed all the pent up rage and sadness to flow and eventually he calmed down and sat down next to his adoptive mother and didn't leave her side.

After many hours of sitting in silence it was broken by Doctor Banner, this was the Schrodinger's cat moment. Was his father dead, or was he alive? All he knew was that the man in front of him held the answers and he didn't waste anytime on berating him with questions about his father. Pepper woke almost instantly with a new found energy, this energy was due to the desperation to find out the condition of her future husband.

Doctor Banner placed a comforting hand on both Peter and Pepper's shoulders. He smiled, "Tony is going to be okay, I believe that this was brought on by stress. But in saying that it seems that his heart was being stressed to the maximum. It appears that after the reactor was removed his heart couldn't operate as it needed to...so we had to put it back in."

Pepper gasped, "He has the arc reactor again?"

"Yes he does and it is his best chance of staying alive right now, but maybe after time we may be able to remove it. However I doubt that seeing as Steve is being a prick and all and that just will add to the stress on Tony's heart," explained Doctor Banner with a slight tone of anger underlying his words and making him sound bitter. 

Peter nodded as did Pepper. Bruce took a deep breath and this time his smile is genuine, "He's awake and is looking for you. Just make sure not to stress him out too much." With those words he stepped aside and gestured to the door behind him. Peter looked at him for confirmation and Bruce nodded and nudged his head in the direction of the door. Peter and Pepper rushed through the door and were greeted by the sight of Tony on a medical bed with and IV and heart monitor attached to him, but what stood out the most to the two of them was the faint blue glow that was shining through the pajama shirt that he was wearing. He looked pale and a little sickly but he smiled widely when Pepper and Peter entered.

"Hey you two," he managed to croak out.

"DAD!" yelled Peter and he immediately launched at his father and enveloped him into a hug that he never wanted to relinquish. Tony simply cradled his son whispering comforting words to him as Peter sobbed uncontrollably into his shoulder. Tony stole a glance at Pepper who had a watery smile on her face.

It was moments like these when Pepper truly saw the massive change in Tony's persona. She has known him many years ago to be an irresponsible, drunken mess of a man who only cared about himself. But as she looked on at him comforting the teenager in his arms she realized that he was no longer the asshole that flaunted his money and held crazy parties. Now. Now he was a father, a loving and caring soul who would put his life before everyone else. She loved him for that.