Air I Breathe

Chapter 25

Chapter 25

Friday, March 6

"No! No!" Peter's chilling screams echo through the residence, but Tony's already halfway down the hallway, his bare feet pounding against the wood flooring, Pepper following behind him. FRIDAY had woken them just before Peter had started screaming, alerted them to Peter's falling oxygen level and sudden high fever. He flicks the lights on and finds Peter in a ball beneath his duvet, face and body twisting in anguish. "Uncle Ben! Please don't go, please don't go! You can't go! You can't!"

"Peter," Tony's cooing, pulling the blankets away as he tries to wake him and sit him upright. He can hear the struggle in the kid's lungs, feels the warmth and dampness of his t-shirt. His hair is wet with sweat and is matted and wild against his forehead, oxygen off and buried beneath the blankets. "Pepper, get a wet washcloth! He's burning up!"

"Uncle Ben!" Peter's screaming as he looks at Tony with wide and glassy eyes.

"Shh," Tony comforts as he rests him against the pillows, "It's me, Peter. You're okay. I need you to try and relax for me."

"T-tony?" Peter asks, voice shaking with confusion.

"Right here, Underoos. You had a nightmare. You're okay."

"Don't feel good." His breaths are hitching, airways straining.

"Your oxygen level dropped. FRIDAY says you have a high fever." Tony grabs the oxygen and adjusts it beneath Peter's nose and around his ears, brushes his hair so that it's out of his face. "Slow breaths."

"Everything hurts."

"Think you can do two puffs for me?" Tony asks, pulling Peter's inhaler and spacer from his nightstand. He's afraid that with Peter in his current state, the nebulizer might cause him to panic. "Two puffs, three breaths each." He manages to get the teen to follow his directions, though he isn't sure the medication ends up helping much with the wheezing.

That's when Tony's chest squeezes. He doubles over and forms his hands into fists to handle the pain, breathes through gritted teeth and hopes that it passes. After a few deep breaths it does, the adrenaline kicking back in.

Pepper returns with two washcloths. She gently lifts Peter's head and places the first one at the base of his neck before draping the second one across his forehead.

"Peter's temperature is currently 104.4," FRIDAY relays. "Would you like me to contact Dr. Banner? I believe this qualifies for our Sepsis Protocol, sir."

"W-where's May? And Uncle Ben?" Peter asks, shivering under the coolness of the cloths.

Tony and Pepper exchange worried glances.

"Yes, FRIDAY! Tell Bruce to meet us in MedBay! Get any other available staff there! Tell them it's urgent!"

"Of course, sir. Would you like me to contact May Parker?"

"I'll call her," Pepper insists, her eyes locking with Tony's for an extra beat.

"W-where are we going?" Peter asks as Tony cradles him in his arms in the elevator, Pepper following with his oxygen. "Where's May? Ben! Ben?! Help me!"

He tries to speak again, but suddenly, he can't get air, feels like he's falling. He hears Tony talking to him, but is having a hard time seeing, hearing. There's air whooshing past them, but he can't get much of it in, is having the apnea spells that happened when he had his allergic reaction.

The wheezes coming from Peter's chest on every extended, forceful inhale on their way to MedBay are enough to crack Tony's tough exterior fully and completely. Tony's never heard such a terrifying sound, didn't think it was possible for something so horrid to come from Peter's lungs, but it is and he's praying.