"Oh...eww. Slime. Not cool man." Peter shakes a glob off his arm. "This suit isn't easy to wash." He webs the alien against a building and ejects the empty cartridge from his web shooters and replaces it.
Sam laughs over the comm. "Looks like Mom has laundry to do."
Stephen grumbles at the nickname. "I hate you."
In truth, he really didn't. He was sadly already used to the Avengers calling him some form of 'Mom', and while they said it to tease, Peter meant it. He would be lying if he said that it didn't make his heart melt. Sure, it was kind of different being referred to in a feminine term but it grew on him. Much like Peter did.
The doctor shields himself from an attack from an alien tentacle while at the same time hearing a shout of surprise from Peter over the comm. Before Stephen can even open his mouth to question Spider-Man's health, Tony curses.
"Mama Bear. Spider-Baby is down."
Strange restrains an approaching alien with his whip. "I'm a little occupied at the moment. Can it wait?"
"Oh sure. He's not going anywhere with REBAR COMING OUT OF HIS STOMACH!" The genius shouts.
Stephen throws the alien away and dispels his whip as he flies to Tony and Peter's location. Once he lands by the unconscious teen, the scene before him had his stomach rolling. He may have been a doctor, but seeing Peter impaled on a metal rod...it was different when the injured party was someone you loved.
He actually froze.
His hands trembled.
The doctor was out.
Tony's repulsor was what brought him out of his momentary panic. That and the fact that the man was actually smacking his cheek with his other hand. Stephen inhales sharply and finds himself looking into dark brown eyes full of concern.
"You back?" The sorcerer nods. "Good. Mama Bear needs to take a step back and let the doctor through."
Stephen studies the rebar and glances back at Tony. "Cut the base. I need to pull it and take him to the Med-bay."
Tony does so and with a nod from the sorcerer, extracts the metal rod from Peter's abdomen. Both men wince when the boy cries out, motivating Stephen to open a portal as he tells the Cloak to gently pick the boy up. It wastes no time going through the portal once it picks up the boy, and Stephen looks back at Tony after stepping through himself.
"We'll finish up here. Just worry about getting the kid patched up."
Nanites reconstruct Tony's mask and the billionaire flies off, leaving Stephen to close the portal and rush to Peter's aid. He knew that the teen would be fine once the doctor tended to the majority of his wound and eventually Peter's enhanced healing would take care of the rest. It still frightened him though.
"I'm going to go as grey as your father at this rate."
Scarred hands tremble as Stephen rinses blood off of them and he looks up when the door to the room slides open. Bruce quietly slips into the room with Tony and the former joins Stephen at the sink while the latter pulls a chair up to Peter's bedside and sits down. Silence hangs on the air when Strange turns off the faucet and he accepts the towel Bruce offers him.
"Tony said you froze." Bruce mutters.
The sorcerer sighs. "What kind of doctor does that?"
"Stephen...he's your kid. I'd be worried if you didnt." Bruce smiles. "Now you can let Mom back out."
Strange groans at the term but nods in agreement as he drags a second chair next to Tony's and deposits himself onto it. Bruce leaves and they spend the next couple of hours in more silence-at one point Stephen leaned to rest his head on the genius's shoulder-until Peter finally wakes. No noise of discomfort was made. He simply opened his eyes, watched the couple at his bedside doze, then proceeded to scratch his cheek lazily.
"Did you get the license plate of the semi-truck that hit me?"
Tony and Stephen jolt to attention at the teen's question before the eldest scowls at the youngest. "I don't want to hear sass from you. You scared the shit out of us Underoos."
Peter looks down at his hands and picks at a string on his blanket. "It's not like I meant to get hurt."
Tony sighs tiredly. "I know kid."
"Any pain?" Stephen asks quietly.
"Just sore. Can we watch Star Wars?"
Tony chuckles. "Sure kid. IF Mom says you can leave the Med-bay."
Stephen predicted the look before Peter even turned his Bambi eyes on him, but he still visibly deflated. Even he wasn't immune to the look and that was troublesome.
"As long as you take it easy."
"Yes! Whoa!" Peter clings to Tony when he scoops the teen up. "I'm not a baby! I can walk!"
"Yes you are. My baby. I won't carry just anyone so you should be grateful."
Tony carries Peter out of the Med-bay and to his and Stephen's room, and the sorcerer opens the door. The billionaire walks in and carefully lays Peter in the middle of the bed before turning back to the door and leaving the room again. Peter turns the television on while Stephen takes the time to change into more comfortable clothing, and Tony returns a couple minutes later with Peter's pajamas.
"I've taken the liberty to dispose of your Captain America shirt."
"Oh come on!" Peter catches the clothes thrown at him and only grimaces once while changing. "It was the only one I had!"
Stephen winks at the teen while Tony changes. "It's a blow to his ego when you have something that isn't Iron Man related."
"Not true!"
Tony chucks an oil-stained shirt at his boyfriend before slipping into bed and Stephen throws the offending article in the hamper. He joins the two after the Cloak settles in the corner of the room and Peter curls into Tony's side when he starts the movie. The genius dozed off halfway into the movie and Stephen kept most of his attention on watching Peter. With how often the teen watched the movies, he could probably quote them word for word so he instead watched for any sign of discomfort from his kid.
There was none.
Peter fell asleep toward the end of the movie, still tucked into his father's side, and Stephen settles onto his side facing his family.
"FRIDAY turn off the television and set the lights to Spiderling levels please." The doctor whispers.
The television goes black and the lights dim until Stephen can barely make out the furniture in the room. It was dark enough to not disturb Tony or Stephen, but light enough for Peter in case the teen woke up from another nightmare. Some light seemed to help stave off any panic from waking from one so Tony made it a custom setting.
Peter slept better because of it.
"Stephanie, I can hear you thinking. Go to sleep." Tony grumbles and wraps a protective arm around Peter and falls back asleep.
With the knowledge that Peter was alive and safe...he did.
But not before threading trembling fingers into the waves of their son's hair.
