Hold Onto Me 'Cause I'm a Little Unsteady

Chapter Twenty

Tony was losing hope.

The understatement of the century.

When has he ever really had hope when it comes to his parenting skills?

It's been three days since they brought Peter, unresponsive and limp, back to the tower and got him to the Med-Bay.

Banner and Cho did all they could to fix him up to the best of their abilities over the course of a long twenty-four hours. It was apparently even harder than they thought it would be to decently hydrate and nourish Peter after the insane extent he had been dehydrated and starved.

He's still not eating solid food, instead he has multiple IV drips for pain medication and for fluids to keep him on the mend for getting healthy.

His actual mental state though? To Tony, it feels like Peter's hit rock bottom and has been buried there, miles underground. And there's no way any of them can dig through all the dirt to get down to Peter without digging themselves under in the process.

It's an uphill battle, but Banner and Cho still have some sort of absurd faith that he'll be just fine if they keep trying.

Nat, Rhodey, Sam, and a few others are still in Tennessee waiting for the man who did this to make their appearance. Luc and Elodie have been kept in custody on the Quinjet, but it's unlikely they'll get many consequences for what they did after Harley fought so vehemently on their behalf.

Harley and Morgan haven't been let into the Med-Bay since they got back for their sakes. Steve and Tony have been taking turns in the Med-Bay or in the penthouse with the other kids.

But Tony's losing hope now that it's been three days with Peter lying there.

The teenager hasn't moved, hasn't slept, hasn't responded to anything at all.

Tony would prefer him to be an emotional wreck over this nothingness he's getting right now.

But there's nothing he can do, but continue to be gentle and encouraging, and hope that Peter can hear him somewhere in there.

*

"All I'm saying is that maybe it's worth it to give it a shot," Helen Cho says with an empathetic shrug as she changes Peter's fluids.

"Peter isn't the same thing as one of my robots in the lab," Tony bites back, rolling his eyes and squeezing Peter's hand. "I'm not going to order him to do anything. That's- That's just going to be worse, isn't it?"

"Talk it over with Steve. He's gone through something similar with Barnes, right? I'm not telling you what to do, I'm just giving you a new perspective. He did everything we asked when we were getting him all fixed up as long as we didn't use his name and when we didn't leave it open-ended. Maybe it would be a step forward in, at least, getting him lucid," Cho explains as professionally as she can.

Tony sighs. "Yeah... I'll see what Steve thinks and we might give it a shot. I suppose it's better than this."

Tony lifts up Peter's limp hand, watching his whole arm go slack in response to the movement, eyes lazily tracking the ceiling fan.

"Don't take the positives for granted, Tony," Cho says, as she finishes up checking over Peter. She looks at him carefully as she continues, "Be glad that he's home and that he's physically improving and definitely on the mend towards being okay. Be happy that you have two kids perfectly healthy upstairs and that you have a husband to lean on. Be happy that your family is together again, even if there's still time and effort needed for you to be a happy family again."

"Thank you, doctor. Steve's taking over after dinner tonight, so I'll reflect on your words of wisdom," Tony says, pretending to tip a hat in gratitude.