The Road to Recovery

Let's Talk

Peter awoke to sunlight streaming through his windows. He was alone in his room but was fairly certain Tony had come in after he had a nightmare. Gods, how embarrassing. But did that actually happen? Was that real? Ugh, why was real so hard to determine these days.

Peter sat up and grabbed his phone from its charging dock. Sixty-four unread texts from Ned, and one from MJ. Peter chose to open MJ's.

Hey loser, don't forget about dinner tonight.

That brought a smile to Peter's face. He loved MJ so much, everything about her. However, he was very thankful for the reminder. Peter thoughts were interrupted by a knocking on his bedroom door.

"Hey Pete, you up?" Tony called.

"Y-yeah, come on in." Peter responded. The doorknob turned and Tony walked inside his bedroom.

"Listen, I was thinking we could go out for breakfast and talk about, well everything. What do you say?" Tony offered, smiling.

"Oh, um sure. That works, let me just get dressed real fast." Peter said nervously, not at all looking forward to remembering everything that happens the past weeks.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Peter and Tony were in the car with Happy at the wheel only twenty minutes later. They arrived at a small diner not far from the Tower, and chose a booth far away from everybody else, near the back of the restaurant. They picked out a table and thankfully the waiter was able to keep her shocked face and stuttering voice to a minimum as she took there orders. "Y'know," Tony said casually, "I should probably consider scheduling a press conference to tell the world their favorite superhero is still alive."

Peter rolled his eyes, "Yeah, you should, but you got one part wrong."

Tony raised his eyebrows, "Me? Get something wrong? What would that me?"

"People love Spiderman more." Peter said, smirking.

Tony scoffed, "Ok, sure bud, keep telling yourself that. Speaking of the famous Spiderman, what the heck happened in Europe?"

Peter dropped his gaze but was saved from having to say anything when their breakfast arrived. They ate in silence for a few minutes before Tony once again reminded him why they were here, "So Pete, the Mystery thing?"

"M-mysterio." Peter sighed and began to recount the whole event with Tony, including the nightmares he'd been having since the Second Battle of Thanos. Unfortunately he also mentioned he'd had nightmares from Homecoming return which caused him to have to explain the whole 'building getting dropped on him' ordeal. Tony was pretty pissed off that Peter hadn't told him. But honestly, Tony's anger was more aimed at himself for not finding out the whole story, for not recognizing Peter's tired eyes from sleepless nights, and his signs of PTSD. Now though, he was pretty sure the kid had it worse than before.

After Peter finished there was a minute of silence before Tony spoke again. "Oh gods Peter, I'm so sorry you had to go through this. You are way to young, you're a teenager for goodness sake, protecting the world shouldn't fall on your shoulders."

"But I have these powers, I can do incredulous things and so I should. People need to be protected, and I'm perfectly capable of doing so." Peter said.

Tony sighed rubbing his temples, "I just wish you didn't have to deal with the aftermath of it."

"It's ok, honestly, I'll be fine." Peter replied reassuringly.

"If this ever happens again though, including waking up with nightmares, you come get me. Understand?" Tony asked.

"Really Tony, I don't want to be-"

"Understand kid?" Tony interrupted. Peter eventually nodded his head. Suddenly, he snapped his gaze to one of the televisions in the corner. It was a news channel and it was talking about Spiderman. Tony followed Peter's gaze and a troubled look settled upon his face.

Then a picture of Peter along with his full name popped into the screen. "No... No no no no." Peter whispered. Tony looked over to where the teen sat, whose breathing was quickly becoming labored. Tony whipped out his cellphone and called Happy, telling him to come inside ASAP. Everyone in the diner turned their attention to the panicking boy.

Voices started swirling as a semicircle crowd formed around them, phones raised, videotaping and photographing the scene. Tony, who had previously been kneeling next to Peter, trying to calm him, looked towards the door when he heard the jingling of it's bell. He was delighted to see Happy hurry inside but his mood quickly turned when he saw how much trouble the man was having pushing through the crowd.

"This can't be real... This can't be happening... They can't-they can't know..." Peter gasped, tears streaming down his face.

"Hey, shh, kiddo it will be ok. We'll deal with it yeah?" Tony soother. Finally Happy stumbled out of the crowd and to where Tony was.

"What can I do?" Happy asked hurriedly.

"Ask the staff if there's a back exit, then I need you to help Peter out, I'm still to weak to help." Tony finished bitterly. Happy just nodded and turned to some of the staff, whose heads were peaking out from the kitchen. "Quick, do you have another exit?" The chefs glanced at each other before one of them pointed down a hall. Happy nodded and went back to Peter and picked him up, carrying him down the hall, Tony followed as quickly as he could, making sure no one followed.

Thankfully, the car was parked nearby, and they hopped inside before any press, who were surely flocking after the recent announcement, could see them. "Punch it." Tony commanded, and the security guard obeyed, going as fast as he dared. Tony held onto Peter as he continued to cry, overwhelmed by the whole situation.

"I'm sorry, Pete." Tony whispered, "I'm so sorry."

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Authors note:
Bum bum bum! Side note, in this fanfic, he wasn't framed for murder (because well Mysterio didn't die, and also, I have noooo clue how they're going to fix that mess. Thanks for reading!
Lots of love,
Siri