Hey everyone!

So here's the next chapter for you :)

I wanted to say thank you to those of you who followed and favorited, its always nice to see that. And as has become my tradition, I want to say thank you to:

- the lovely Tonyfan (love that by the way), I can't tell you yet but I'm glad you're enjoying the story so far! Thanks so much and I definitely will.

- the talented Proud Hollander, I totally knew you wouldn't and I'm SO EXCITED to see it, I actually asked one of my good friends about whether some of my theories panned out and she wouldn't tell me so I'm glad I haven't spoiled it myself yet! Honestly, I like where you're going with your story and I'll definitely continue to read whatever you post! I'm glad you like this story so far :) And you're totally not terrible, that all I write. And I'm pretty sure half of fanfiction is just beating the crap out of your favorite characters because we don't get enough of it on the big screen. Hey that's awesome! Do you go to school year round in New Zealand? And I'm sorry, I always had older friends in school too but hopefully they stay relatively close by and phones are awesome for that! And yes, there's always fanfiction :) Thank you for being awesome!

- the awesome JohnGilbertVampirehunter, Holy crap, I'm so sorry for that person and I hope her boyfriend was okay! I kind of figured that type of stuff definitely happens and for a little kid, that would not be easy to deal with. I'm glad you appreciate mature Peter and you'll just have to keep reading to find out ;)

- the stupendous Guest, Thanks :) Honestly, I was debating whether or not to do that and then once I wrote it, I couldn't take it out so I'm glad it worked. As for Pepper, you'll have to wait and see ;) Thank you for commenting!

- the wonderful Jade St. Jms, I'm glad you liked the beginning, thank you for saying that :) Hopefully you like this chapter too!

Well that's all I have for right now, thank you all so much for your support!

So without further ado,

Enjoy!

It was the middle of the next morning when the doctors dragged themselves out of the operating theater. Nearly ten hours on their feet trying to put the broken Iron Man back together had taken its toll. And now they had to deal with what was probably the worst part of their job.

Dr. Elliot Sposek held the door open for Dr. Laura Fry and both stepped out into the waiting room, their shoes echoing against the stone floor and calling the attention of the family curled in the corner. Fry had been with the Avengers for long enough to know the only thing the they would care about and she started talking before the two even reached the small group, her voice was direct but kind, "He's still alive but he'll be in critical condition for a while longer. It's difficult to tell how long that will be because it's impossible to fully assess how much damage the impact did to his vertebrae until he wakes up but we know that all the injuries we could fix are handled." She paused for a moment before she explained the injuries, walking the line between enough detail to give them an understanding and the full procedure. She watched carefully as she did, her eyes darting between Happy and Peter, more often than not landing on Peter as he somehow coiled increasingly tighter with each new injury she listed.

Once she finished, Sposek warily added, "They should be finished moving him soon. If you want, you can see him. But I need to caution you that it is difficult to look at…" He was going to say more when Peter's abrupt movement startled him into silence.

Without hearing the warning Peter stood and started to move toward the interior of the med bay, Morgan still wrapped securely in his arms. Before he could get passed the doctors though, Sposek held his hand out and carefully said, "I'm not sure that you want to take him back there." He gestured at Morgan, his statement was commanding but it was obvious he was attempting to be polite.

Peter didn't take it that way. Instead, he narrowed his eyes and cocked his head at the man before suspiciously asking, "Why's that?"

The doctor took a deep breath before he explained, "Mr. Stark is in bad shape. Almost the entire left side of his body is broken, bruised, or both. We cleaned him up but it's still an incredibly disturbing sight. I'm not sure that you should show a five-year-old that."

Peter balked, his eyes flicking over to Fry. Her face was difficult to read but she seemed almost angry at Sposek's assessment. Knowing he wasn't going to get anything from her, Peter looked over at Happy, silently pleading for help. He was torn, he couldn't put Morgan down but he desperately needed to see his dad.

Happy watched the exchange with distain, Sposek was asking Peter to chose and Happy was not exactly excited about that. Still, he wasn't Morgan's father and he wasn't sure what Pepper or Tony would want him to do so instead, he just decided to take the choice off Peter's plate. He stepped up close enough to hold out his arms, "I'll take him, Pete. That way you can go see your dad."

Peter was reluctant to let go of Morgan but he promised himself that he was just going to confirm that Tony was still alive and then he would come back out for his brother. But subconsciously, he had other ideas and Peter clutched Morgan closer, his hand sliding into the little boy's hair as he held the back of his neck and turned slightly away from Happy. Peter felt trapped and he couldn't figure out why but he didn't want Morgan in the middle of it. The only thing he knew for sure was that he couldn't just let Happy take him, the little boy was smart enough to understand what needed to happen. Peter turned to him and whispered, "Morgan, can you go with Happy for a bit?"

Immediately, fresh tears started to track down his face before he answered in a tinny whispered, "I wanna stay wif you."

Peter's heart squeezed painfully at his request and he tried harder to convince him to go along with it, "I'll be back, buddy, it would just be for a little bit."

But then Morgan found some of his precociousness and maintained his defiance, "No, I wanna stay wif you."

"Morgan," Peter started, unsure of where exactly he was going with this but still talking, "I need to go see dad, okay? You need to stay here. I promise, I'll tell you all about it if you just go with Happy for right now." Unfortunately that was the wrong thing to say because Morgan's red-rimmed eyes lit up at the mention of Tony and that's what his mind seized on. He gripped Peter's shirt tightly and declared, "I'm going wif you. I wanna see daddy too."

Peter's heart dropped somehow farther than where it was already sitting in his stomach, the last thing he wanted to do was make Morgan upset but he didn't want him to see something like that, not if what the doctor described was even a fraction of what Peter was imagining. If it wasn't his dad, he wasn't sure he would want to go in either. Then he wondered how much Morgan would actually remember if he just took him in. He chastised himself as soon as that thought crossed his mind, these people were the best and he knew he should listen to them. Peter tried again, "Morgan, I promise I'll be right back. Please just stay here? For me?"

But the little boy was every inch as stubborn as his parents, "No, you said daddy, I wanna see daddy."

Peter sighed and decided to try explaining the situation, "Morgan, dad's hurt really bad right now so the doctor said you should stay out here for a bit."

In response, Morgan wrapped his hands tighter into Peter's shirt and stared at him, daring Peter to move him. The all of forty pound child was daring Spider-Man to make him do something he didn't want to do.

And Peter couldn't.

Instead, he looked over at Happy, agony written across his face, as he quietly asked, "What do I do?"

"Let me take him, Pete." Happy stepped up and wrapped his hands around Morgan's waist before he slowly started to tug him away. Morgan twisted his hands tighter into Peter's shirt and screamed bloody-murder, the screams turning into gut-wrenching sobs as soon as Happy started to pull him. Happy was trying to be gentle but Morgan had a death grip on Peter's shirt and was trying to pull himself closer to his brother, so the progress was slow.

Hearing the sobs and screams of his little brother broke Peter's heart and it kept him from gently prying Morgan's fingers off his shirt. Instead, he just let his arms fall from around the little boy's back. But that new development pushed Morgan's cries into wailing tears as he fought harder, kicking his feet in a desperate attempt to stay where he was. And as the first fingers finally lost their grip, Peter couldn't take it anymore. He couldn't. He snaked his arms around Morgan's back and shook his head, quickly explaining, "No, it's…it's okay Happy, I'll take him in to see dad. It'll be okay, he'll be good and he probably won't remember much anyway." Peter wasn't sure if it was the right decision but it was the only one he could stomach.

"Peter…" Both Happy and Sposek cautioned in hushed concern.

But Peter's own tears were tracking silently down his pain-scrunched face as he explained, "I can't listen to him cry, Happy…I can't…please, just…just give him back to me."

Happy frowned but yielded, pressing the little boy back into Peter's arms where he promptly curled into Peter's neck and wrapped his fists more firmly into the fabric of his brother's shirt. Morgan's tears rapidly quieted as he got to be where he wanted to be. Once the little boy was settled, Peter sniffled a few times before he squared his shoulders, all semblance of his tears hidden. He took a step toward the doctors and looked between the two, his voice deadly serious, "I won't stay long but I can't put him down so either he goes with me or you get out of my way."

They relented.

Fry whispered "A3" as he stepped passed.

Peter slipped into the room quietly, whispering to Morgan as he did so and reminding him that he absolutely needed to be quiet. Unfortunately, his own advice didn't work when he saw the results of the crash. He audibly gasped before letting out a wavering breath in a low whine. Sposek had been right.

Tony looked like the entire left side of his body had been dipped in a terrible mixture of red, purple, and black paint. His face was scratched and torn, his cheekbone broken, his eye completely swollen shut, and his nose definitely reset. But even that was only some of the damage, a bite block and a ventilator obscured a good portion of the bottom of his face. As Peter tracked the mutilation, he realized that a portion of Tony's hair had been shaved, revealing staples that were holding his skull together. Bile rose in the back of his throat as he forced himself to keep going. His dad's neck showed the distinctly deep, purply bruise of a seatbelt that had pulled too tight. His arm, the one that already bore the scars of his use of the gauntlet, looked like it had been flayed. There were deep cuts that were made by shattered glass but it was also possible to see where bone had broken the skin. And even with the cleaning the nurses had done, it still looked like the appendage was bleeding profusely. But what was almost worse was that it was set with pins and suspended. Peter realized his arm had to have been crushed. A part of him thought that getting to the heavy blanket would be enough to hide the damage but even under that it was possible to see the bulky cast that covered his leg under it. The rest of the injuries were thankfully hidden. As Peter's mind attempted to register exactly what this all meant, he had the overwhelmingly simple thought that his dad was going to be pissed when he realized they had shaved his head. But he couldn't process more than that, even as all the excess information slammed into him. Instead Peter hiccupped a sob before he collapsed in the chair next to the bed and stared. He felt all the color drain out of his face. The doctor had been right.

Morgan must have looked at some point because he was freely sobbing into Peter's shoulder. He had stretched the fabric of Peter's shirt up around his face, probably as a way to hide from what he had seen.

In response, Peter wound his arms tighter and dropped his forehead onto his brother's shoulder. As Morgan cried, the soft shakes made Peter's head bob but also made it obvious that he couldn't cry anymore. He knew in his gut, his own fear and emotions needed to be second or third priority. Now that he had seen the results of the accident, Peter knew that his ability to cry in the presence of others was gone. He was going to have to be strong because this was hard to look at and he knew there was no keeping any of his family out of the room.

Peter had promised to leave after a few minutes but as soon as he saw Tony, he knew that wasn't going to happen. Peter couldn't imagine leaving him on his own, even if his dad didn't know they were there. Happy had slipped in at some point and Peter's stomach turned when he heard the man's unconscious response but he didn't say anything, just gave Happy an understanding frown before he turned back toward the bed.

Morgan was more reserved than normal. Peter assumed he didn't really understand what was going on but it was easy to tell that something was wrong and without even a hint of instruction, the little boy was sitting mostly still in Peter's lap. He had a death grip on Peter's shirt and would shuffle in place from time to time but never released his fingers. Every once and a while, Morgan would sniffle and rub at his nose, which prompted Peter to gather him up a little higher on his chest so Morgan could snuggle into his neck. He would cuddle for a bit, sometimes crying, sometimes sucking his thumb, and Peter would patiently hold him until he shifted again.

Peter couldn't have guessed how long it had been but eventually Morgan burrowed into his neck and fell asleep on his shoulder. Once he felt the soft puffs of air on his cheek, Peter smiled almost contentedly and started rubbing soothing circles on his back, at least someone was getting some sleep. He slouched down and stretched out the best he could in the chair, hoping to make Morgan a little more comfortable. Peter couldn't sleep though, instead, he stayed rooted where his was, keeping Morgan stable and staring at the unconscious man in front of him.

He was so focused that he barely noticed when Happy put a turkey sandwich on his knee, patting him on the shoulder, and taking back up his seat at the back of the room. It took him some time but eventually Peter ate the sandwich because it got annoying balancing it there, not because he felt hungry. He knew he should be but his stomach wasn't devouring itself like it normally would have been, almost like it was too sick to digest anything.

He continued to sit in silence as Morgan and his dad slept.

At some point, Peter heard a soft snore from the back corner of the room and, carefully so he didn't jostle Morgan, he turned enough to see that Happy had fallen asleep too. Peter smirked as the man twitched a little but the amusement didn't last long. The position quickly started to hurt Peter's back and he had to slump back into his chair. He rolled his numb shoulder and laid his hand on Morgan's back again.

As the little boy shifted slightly in his sleep, curling just a little closer, Peter was struck by the strange realization that his mind was quiet.

He really should have been thinking about something, but as he forced himself to ruminate a little longer on why he wasn't, no substantial reason came to mind. That left him to stare at his dad for a while longer until Michelle's voice floated through his mind, reminding him numbness was a defense mechanism.

And that was fine with him. He could be defensive until his dad woke up. His gut told him there was a storm knocking just on the edges but in he ignored it, closed his eyes, and rested his head on the back of the chair. His world couldn't afford for him to be distracted right now.

He was still in that frame of mind when the soft click of the door drew his unfocused attention. Morgan was still asleep so he couldn't move, instead he kept his eyes closed and listened. The newest occupant gasped and whispered, "oh my" before the soft steps moved to a stop behind Peter's chair. Then May's quiet voice broke the droning, mechanical hums of the room when she laid her hand on his free shoulder, leaned down next to him, and quietly asked, "Peter? Are you okay, honey?"

Peter slowly opened his eyes and glanced up at her the best he could before he gave her a melancholy nod. He didn't know what to say, this wasn't okay. He wasn't okay but he needed to be so he was. Unfortunately, his discomfort ratcheted up when he heard another familiar set of footfalls.

Pepper had followed May in but she didn't hesitate at the door. She stepped up to the bed, laying her hand gently on Tony's face and leaning down to press a kiss to his hairline. As he watched, Peter couldn't help but wish Morgan was awake, if only to help wipe the despondent expression still directed at Tony when she pulled back. It was telling even with all her tact and poise, she couldn't hide the fear and sorrow that radiated off her as she took in the state of her husband. When she finally looked over at him, Peter watched the tears well up in her eyes and he hated it. Hated knowing she was that sad.

As he watched her, a small part of him realized his numbness was starting to fade.

Thankfully May was already there and she wrapped Pepper in the tight hug the Peter and Morgan couldn't. The two women clung to each other for a short time until both took up the seats to either side of Peter. Pepper laid her hand on Peter's arm in a gesture of greeting, giving him a badly concealed, miserable smile and flicking her eyes over to Morgan's sleeping form, before she whispered, "Thank you for taking care of him. Happy told me what you did."

Peter nodded blankly before he remembered himself and responded, "Of course, Pepper. It's not a big deal at all, I just came when he called."

Pepper regarded him closely for a few more moments, her sharp eyes flickering over his tired face before she asked, "How are you?"

Peter was a bit taken back by the question, even though he knew he shouldn't be. He swallowed hard, squashing down any emotion that might betray him and rise to the surface, before he replied, "I'm okay. It's just a lot and I don't know that I've totally wrapped my head around it." He winced internally when he realized that might have been a little too honest and he quickly added, "But I know he's going to be okay."

Pepper narrowed her eyes slightly but didn't push, the suspicion just a fleeting glance before she gave him a small smile, "He will be." After another moment of scrutiny, she turned her attention back to Tony, grabbing ahold of his hand and bringing it to her lips before she sat back with it clutched in hers.

May watched the exchange with concern because she recognized the slight monotony of Peter's voice, she had heard it before but the last time she hadn't been in a position to deal with it. In her gut, she knew this had hit her nephew much harder than he was obviously willing to admit, she would need to make sure she talked to him about that. But now wasn't the time so in an effort to make it a little easier, she laid her arm across the back of Peter's chair. Giving him someone to lean on while he held Morgan.

Peter took the opportunity, shifting enough to rest his head against May's shoulder, turning into the comfort she offered. Eventually, it was enough security to give him a chance to get at least some sleep.

Tony's still not out of the woods yet but at least the cavalry's starting to filter in :)

Feel free to let me know what you thought in the comments!

I hope you have a wonderful day/night and stay creative!

-Lily