Recovery

.i.

"No, no, no. He's supposed to be orange." Morgan insisted, grabbing the gray crayon from Peter's hand. He raised them in surrender and shot her an incredulous look. "You know, I was there. He was definitely not orange when I saw him." She jutted out her chin defiantly and handed him the orange crayon. Peter dramatasized the rolling of his eyes and did as he was told.

Anything to distract him from the pit rolling in his stomach.

Peter and Morgan were sitting cross-legged in the corner, hunched over the crude drawing of the Final Battle they'd been working on for hours. Morgan demanded story after story of what happened and who was there, and Peter gave her all the good bits and none of the bad.

None of the reason their Dad was laying unconscious in the bed a few feet from them.

It had only been nine days since the Final Battle, so no one was really surprised Tony hadn't woken up to give Peter a lecture about self-preservation - his arm was still in a cast, even with his super healing doing its best. Disappointed, but not surprised.

Pepper sat at the desk to Peter's right, engrossed in something that probably wasn't interesting. On hearing the conversation, she reached over absently and disheveled Peter's curls. She was doing a lot of things absently lately, and only really moved between her desk, the chair beside Tony's bed, and the couch against the wall.

She was endlessly grateful that Peter was there for Morgan. And Happy, god, what would they do without Happy?

He came in shortly after Peter finished coloring an alien, that wasn't supposed to be orange, a very cheesy orange. And Morgan insisted he have blue hair. She was going to have a filed day with Dr. Strange - though Peter could barely remember which one he was since his stick figures were so poorly drawn.

Happy strolled in with coffee and a softly laughing Aunt May, fresh off her shift from the hospital. Peter and Morgan grinned at her, and at that moment May had to stop and puzzle over how the two had the same charming grin despite not actually being related. Tony viewed Peter as his child, but he wasn't actually. It was a little unnerving.

"Hi Aunt May, how was your shift?" Peter asked. He would get up to hug her, but Morgan was leaning her elbow on his knee and he didn't think he could handle any more of her pouting for the day.

"Busy! There are still a lot of people reeling from the UnSnap." She admitted, plopping on the couch beside Happy. "How's your arm?"

Peter looked at the cast on his arm, covered in signatures from the Avengers and Ned and MJ, then colored on by Morgan without restraint. It still hurt, since pain meds could barely take the edge off before burning through his system and he was still a little young to be taking Bucky or Steve's level prescriptions, but it was healing.

And him healing meant that Tony was healing, so it was a nice reminder.

"Better." He smiled at May.

"And how are you, Morgan?" May leaned towards the little girl with a grin, her eyes radiating sympathy as it was impossible to ignore the heart monitor and oxygen pump noises coming from her father's bedside.

"I'm good, Peter drew this picture for us! And then we're going to do a puzzle, and then we're going to watch Spongebob."

Peter turned to May at that with a shocked expression. "Morgan's never seen spongebob! She watches, like, paw patrol and pajama people! I'm going to show her some quality cartoons."

Before May even got the chance to laugh, Stephen Strange walked into the room. He was quite the sight with his permanently-tarnished cape flapping in the non-wind and his imposing body language. But, he wasn't a foreign prescence, so Peter just smiled. Pepper didn't even turn around in her chair.

Strange's cape deserted him almost immediately as he began talking and Morgan squealed excitedly as it settled on her shoulders. It ruffled Peter's hair, which made her laugh. Strange rolled his eyes before continuing.

"Peter, we need you for a mission. We are going to return all the Infinity stones today." He motioned to the eye sat comfortably around his neck. Peter wondered how he was going to feel giving it up a second time.

"What?" May and Pepper turned at the same time. "That sounds dangerous." May commented, and Pepper nodded. Strange dipped his head respectfully. "It will be, but he'll be on my team to return the infinity stone to the Ancient One herself. In our time, we will be gone only one minute."

Pepper let out a sigh of relief at that, though Morgan latched onto Peter's sleeve, prompting the cape to wrap around him protectively. Stephen noticed the gesture and walked over, kneeling in front of Morgan and putting a reassuring hand on Peter's shoulder.

"I'll bring him right back." The little girl finally relinqhished her hold and Peter stood, the cape following the two as they left. When they were out in the hallway, Peter finally voiced his concerns.

"Are you sure I should go? I don't think I'll be of much help with only one web shooter." He gestured to his cast, which had Stephen's signature right at the edge by his elbow.

"I know, and I hate to put you in any more danger." Stephen admitted. He'd watched the battle play out 14 000 605 times; it was hard not to develop a fondness for the most endearing person he'd ever met. "But I've gone through the scenarios," as taxing as it was, he knew such a delicate situation had to be handled perfectly, "and we need you since Tony is out of commision. I had hoped he'd be awake by now, since that would've kept you and Wanda home, but..." Stephen shook his head.

"We have to play the cards we're dealt. I get it." Peter shrugged. He'd been told that by Ben a lot. It helped him not be bitter.

Stephen stopped outside a makeshift locker room and turned to the door. "Your suit is waiting for you, everyone is in hanger bay 1; it's closest to the medbay."

"Will there be any injuries?" Peter asked worriedly. He hated seeing his friends hurt. Stephen looked at him somberly, "I do hope so."