Chapter Text
“Tony…”
“I know Nat.”
“Tony…”
“I know Bruce.”
“Stark!”
“I GOT IT STEVE!”
“You need to snap out of whatever is going through your head and do something!” Steve continued.
“You think I don’t know that?” Tony snapped, looking up for the first time.
“How did this even happen?” Bucky asked.
“I have no idea, all I know is that my kid has a hole in his chest, and I need to fix it!” Tony sighed, his hands beginning to tremble.
“And how do you plan to do that when you don’t know what happened?” Bruce interjected.
“FRIDAY, scan him.”
“Boss, according to previous logs, you know exactly what to do here.” FRIDAY replied.
“What does that even mean?” Steve muttered.
“An explosion.” Tony sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose and noting that he’d have to question how this had happened later.
“And I’m assuming his enhanced healing won’t fix it in time?” Natasha asked.
“It might have, but if FRIDAY’s cryptic comment means what I think it means…”
“Shrapnel.” FRIDAY replied.
“Tiny pieces of shrapnel moving towards his heart. Exactly what happened to me in Afghanistan. Am I right here, FRI?”
“Yes, sir.”
Bucky cursed under his breath.
“And that calls for…” Steve began.
“An arc reactor to keep it out, at least until he’s stable enough for us to surgically remove it.” Bruce stated,
“And he’s the furthest thing from stable right now.” Tony murmured,
“Tony, get to your lab, I’ll keep him stable and stem the bleeding for as long as I can.” Bruce instructed.
Tony nodded, all but sprinting out of the room.
“What do we do?” Bucky asked.
“Stay here and be ready to do whatever I ask, because whatever I ask equates to whatever he needs.” Bruce replied shortly.
The three avengers nodded firmly.
“What is going on up here?” Sam asked as he burst into the room before his eyes caught on Peter, lying on the table, bleeding from a hole in his chest, “Oh my- what happened?”
“All we got was ‘an explosion’ and he wasn’t even the one to tell us that. He swung in here through the window, tore his mask off, collapsed in Tony’s arms and passed out pretty soon after.” Steve explained.
“Where’s Tony?”
“Building something that will hopefully save this kid’s life.” Bruce replied, pressing a rag to the wound.
“How is he even still alive?” Steve breathed.
“I’m pretty sure his enhanced healing abilities are the only thing holding him together right now.” Bruce explained grimly.
“Has anyone seen Tony?” Pepper asked as she briskly strode into the room, “Oh my- Peter?” She gasped, racing to the boy’s side. “What happened to him?” She asked, taking Peter’s head in her hand and gently brushing her thumb over a fresh cut on his cheek.
“He was caught in an explosion.” Natasha replied.
“Tony’s down in the lab building an arc reactor.” Natasha replied.
“An arc…” Pepper murmured, “Oh… oh no.” she breathed as the realisation dawned on her.
“Actually, it might be smart for you to go down there with him, keep him grounded, make sure he doesn’t mess it up, he’s freaking out and we need him focused if we’re gonna save the kid.” Bruce suggested.
“Yeah, yeah, yes, of course, you’re right.” Pepper nodded, hurrying out of the room.
After a minute or so, Peter’s eyes snapped open and he began screaming. Everyone in the room began shouting his name as he thrashed and screamed.
“Steve, Bucky, hold him still!” Sam instructed, the two soldiers immediately complied, holding the boy down by his arms. The teenager was sobbing, his breath heaving and his body shaking.
“Where- where’s- where’s Mr Stark?” The boy cried.
Natasha joined the group, bringing with her the air of stability that they didn’t realise they needed, and taking Peter’s hand, “Easy, easy, it’s okay, it’s okay, breathe, take it slow, just try to breathe.” Her voice was steady, practiced, she’d done this before. Peter attempted to take deep breaths, mirroring the woman in front of him, but they were frequently interrupted by sobs that shook his chest, a movement that was undoubtedly incredibly painful and only induced more scream-like sobs. “Tony is building something that should stabilise you so that we can take out the shrapnel that got in your system from the explosion, but for now, Bruce is trying to stop the bleeding so you need to stay still, okay?”
Peter nodded, his sobs didn’t stop, but his body relaxed and Bruce was able to put pressure on the wound once more, the boy winced in pain but let it happen. Natasha nodded to the soldiers and they released his arms.
“Peter, what happened?” Sam asked.
“I- I was- I trying to- to stop these guys- they had- they-they had hostages and I- I thought they were gonna shoot them, they- they had knives and guns, I got- I got the- the hostages o-out, but they blew up the building before I could- before I could get- get out.” Peter struggled to get the sentence out between sobs.
Sam swore under his breath.
“You got them all out though?” Steve asked.
“Y-yeah, I- I counted them when I left to come here, they were- they were all there.” Peter’s sobs had turned to sniffles.
“You did a good thing Peter, and we’re gonna make sure you’re okay.” Bruce assured him. He would be lying if he said he wasn’t terrified. This was one of the first times that he’d been reminded just how young Peter was. He’d helped patch the kid up after some patrols, there had been some nasty bullet and knife wounds, but he’d always seemed fairly strong about it all. Never really shedding any tears, not very reactive, he’d always held it together somehow. Bruce realised that was an unfair expectation, but he also knew that Peter had likely set it for himself. This was different. He wasn’t holding back, the level of agony wouldn’t let him. Bruce truly wasn’t sure if the boy would pull through. He had to. He would. For Tony’s sake. For the city’s sake. For everyone’s sake.
“T-thanks Mister Doctor Banner.” Peter replied weakly.
“You’re gonna be alright Peter.” Natasha added softly, squeezing the boy’s hand.
Peter gave her a weak smile, his eyes red and still teary, “It- it really hurts, Miss Romanov.” A soft sob escaped him.
“I know.” She whispered as his eyes fluttered closed.
“Nope! No, kid, you gotta stay with us.” Sam urged.
“Peter?!” Bruce yelled, “FRIDAY? Vitals!”
“He has lost 35% of total blood volume, his pulse is weakened and his blood pressure has significantly decreased.” FRIDAY listed off, her voice mirroring everyone else’s stress.
“Can you please give me a heart rate monitor?” Bruce asked, a slow beeping began sounding from the speakers.
“That doesn’t sound good.” Steve murmured.
The group shared a look of concern before Tony’s voice came through the speakers, it sounded like he was running, “I need to put in a canal for the reactor, I need him in the medbay ASAP.”
“On our way.” Steve replied as he promptly scooped Peter up, trying to hold him as steady as possible.
“Let’s move.” Bucky nodded, leading the way.
“Keep him steady.” Bruce instructed as he passed the captain, Steve nodded firmly.
“Get him on the bed, now!” Tony instructed, Steve promptly set the boy down, blood had seeped through most of his suit. “FRIDAY, please display his vitals.” FRIDAY complied, displaying Peter’s vitals on a hologram beside the bed. “Can Dr Banner and I please have the room?” Tony asked without looking up from the boy, pulling on rubber gloves as Bruce washed his hands in the sink in the corner of the room.
The rest of the group left, gathering in the hallway. Pepper had hurried off, mentioning something about getting Peter some clean clothes, and the rest of them gathered in the avenger’s common room, they all simply stood around the kitchen island, none of them really felt like sitting down.
“That kid.” Bucky was the first one to speak.
“He’s too young, he shouldn’t even be in those situations in the first place.” Steve frowned.
“Look, I agree, but he’s also a strong kid, stronger than I think most of us give him credit for, and I don’t just mean the super-strength.” Sam replied.
“I don’t deny that he’s strong, but I just- well, for one thing, you’re right, we don’t give him enough credit, but I also wish we didn’t need to, I wish he didn’t need to be so strong.” Steve replied.
“Tony told me that Peter once said ‘when you can do the things that I can, but you don’t, and then bad things happen, they happen because of you.’ The kid holds the weight of the world on his shoulders because he thinks he should, because of his powers, but he also does it because he’s a deeply good person who wants to help people.” Natasha explained, “Yes, we all worry about him, but there’s something admirable about what he does, I think he described it as ‘looking out for the little guy’.”
“I hope he’s okay, the world needs more people like him.” Sam added, the group nodded in agreement.
“He’s a good kid.” Steve stated.
They stood in silence for a moment, no one quite knowing what to say, before Bucky spoke up, “Did Tony say ‘my kid’ earlier?”
“Yeah I noticed that.” Natasha replied, a small smile playing on her lips.
“He really cares for him.” Steve added, “I mean, I know we all care for him, but something changes about Tony when he’s around that kid.”
“I just hope he can focus on helping him instead of worrying about him.” Bucky murmured. Sam hummed in agreement.
“Someone should call his aunt.” Bucky stated.
“We should wait until he’s stable, we don’t want to tell her that he’s hurt but not be able to report on his condition.” Steve replied, Natasha nodded.