It started out as an off day for Peter... He slept through his alarm, he slept through Friday's alarm, he didn't have time to eat breakfast, and even with Happy's driving, he missed the first five minutes of his calculus class. Not to mention the dull pain in his lower stomach that was growing stronger throughout the day, and his Spidey-Sense that was going off at every little thing.

"You don't look so good, dude..." Ned whispered to him during class.

"Thanks." Peter tried to ignore him and focus on the teacher, blocking out his pain that Ned kept pointing out.

"Are you sure you should be here today?"

"Ned, please... We'll talk about this at lunch, okay?"

His friend nodded as he sat back up in his chair and gave most of his attention to the teacher, but Peter could still feel his gaze now and then.

For the rest of their shared classes, Ned continued to watch Peter in worry, and it wasn't that Peter didn't appreciate his friend's care... he just couldn't deal with it now. The pain was giving him enough to think about without Ned's questions. So after AP History -one of the few classes they didn't share- instead of heading to the lunch room, Peter went to hide in the bathroom. He'd regret not eating later, probably when he was on the verge of crashing because of his metabolism, but he just needed a break now.

He went into a stall and sat on the closed lid of the toilet, just taking a deep breath to try and make the pain go away.

It didn't.

He must have lost track of time in there because Happy was suddenly texting him and asking where he was - as well as the twenty-plus messages from Ned. Was it two forty-five already? He sent back a short text as he stood up, noticing his right leg was stiff. He wrote it off as sitting in the same position for too long and that it would go away soon.

He tried walking it off, but now he was hurting more and adding to the new sensation of nausea that was hitting him. He couldn't wait until he was able to lay in bed and go to sleep...

"Peter, there you are!"

Peter looked up and saw Ned running towards him in the hall with a slightly panicked look. "Where have you been? You missed the rest of school! I was so worried about you, I thought something bad happened because you looked so sick before! Nothing much has changed now either!"

"Sorry, Ned..." Peter offered a small smile to calm him, "I went to the bathroom for some quiet time but I guess I didn't notice how much time passed."

"I kept texting you thinking that a thing came up but you never answered!"

"I'm sorry." He grunted as someone shoved into him and nearly sent him to his knees as the jarring movement made his side hurt even more. He looked up to see Flash's smirk as he walked down the hall. If only... if only...

"We should get you to Happy, I saw him waiting for you outside earlier."

Peter nodded slightly, his body hunching over as he started to slowly walk to the exit, avoiding as many people as possible -not an easy feat when there were so many teenagers trying to get out of the school at once.

Happy was leaning against his car, waiting for the late arrival of the kid. He took one look at Peter when he finally saw them coming out of the building and frowned. "You okay, kid?"

"I'll be fine once I get home." Peter barely looked at the driver as he opened the back door and crawled in. He didn't bother with his seatbelt as he laid down, hoping to ease some of the pain that was moving from his stomach to his side. It didn't do much, but it did help him calm the nausea, so that was a plus.

Peter must have fallen asleep at some point because the next thing he knew, he was at the tower with Happy gently shaking his shoulder.

"Kid, time to get up." Happy's eyes took in the flushed face and far out look in Peter's eyes, slowly taking a step towards the building, "Do you want me to get Cap out here to carry you to bed? You don't look too good."

"No..." Peter got out of the car, his body leaning forward slightly to ease his pain. "No, I'm fine. I just need to go and finish my homework then I'll go to bed."

Happy didn't look too happy as he put a hand to Peter's forehead. "You're starting to get a fever. I think you can skip the homework tonight, kid."

"No, I've got an essay in AP History I need to work on. I'll be fine."

Happy -while still not completely convinced- nodded as he walked with the boy inside.

Peter really wanted to go to his room to work, the short walk to his bed when he finished would have been wonderful. But he didn't trust himself to finish his work with his bed right there... So instead, he headed to his dad's lab. Besides, it would be nice and quiet in there while Tony was away meeting the president.

So Peter was a little more than shocked when he heard the rock music coming from the lab.

"Dad?" Peter placed his hand on the security scanner and stepped inside as the door opened. He looked around the lab, slinging his backpack onto his appointed desk just as Tony stepped out from behind a bookshelf.

"Hey, Pete, what are you doing here?" He asked as he set a file down on the same desk as Peter.

"Homework. I thought you were out of town still?"

"Got back earlier than expected, decided to work on a few things." He sent a wink to Peter, the boy frowning slightly because he knew that meant Tony was working on this super secret project just for him but he couldn't know anything about it... "But if you want to keep your very cool and genius dad company while we work, go right ahead."

Peter shook his head slightly, going to sit at his workbench while trying to suppress his sigh of relief. The pain built more the longer he stood up...

The thought that something might be seriously wrong crossed his mind, but he wrote it off as nothing. It was just a bad stomach ache with a slight fever, nothing to be too concerned over.

If it was something serious then he would probably be in so much trouble later for hiding it, a part of his brain whispered. Peter had been lectured so many times when it came to hiding injuries... But he wasn't hiding this, he was simply not telling anyone about it. Big difference.

Tony noticed that there was something off about his son today. He glanced at him now and then to see if any color had come back to his face, or if his body would relax out of the tensed hunch that was almost a constant thing since he entered the labs. Nothing changed. He couldn't see anything worsening though, so he just let it be for now.

He should probably be more concerned, but his current project wouldn't release its hold on him. It was going to be a gift for Peter's sixteenth birthday, a new suit that was bigger and better than the last. The boy deserved it after everything he had done in the last few months, proving himself to be an amazing hero.

"Dad..." Peter's weak and quivering voice caught Tony's attention as he looked up from his workbench. His skin was paler than before with a thin sheen of sweat beading across his forehead, he was holding his side as he stood up and wobbled forward. "I don't feel so good."

"Peter?" Tony stood up, rushing forward to catch his son as the boy's legs gave out on him and sent him crashing towards the floor just as Tony's arms wrapped around him.

"I don't know- I don't know what's happening..." His arms clutched tightly around Tony, a broken sob of pain escaping him.

Ever since Tony found out about Spider-Man being his son, and even a few instances before then, he went through many sleepless nights and troubled mornings because of him. Tony was sure that the few gray hairs he had were from the kid solely. But nothing -nothing- in all the eleven years he's known Peter could ever compare to the raw terror he was feeling now.

"Peter, it's going to be okay," Tony pulled him close to his chest and rubbed his back softly. "Friday, call the med-bay and get them down here now -tell them to bring a stretcher!"

Peter's whimpering form was starting to go quiet, his body stilling as Tony slowly lowered him against the floor. He stared blankly at the ceiling, his breathing calming down and turning shallow.

"Peter, I need you to talk to me. Where does it hurt?"

"I'm sorry..." His gaze slowly drifted over to Tony, his eyes wide but glazed over.

"You're alright," Tony placed his hand on Peter's cheek, his thumb stroking just below his eye. "You're going to be okay. Just stay with me now, you're going to be alright."

Peter took in how worried and... and scared his dad looked. Of all the times that Tony had been around when he was wounded, he never looked at Peter with this kind of open emotion on his face. He really should have spoken up about this pain before. Now it was causing trouble to those around him...

A noise drew his attention off to the side, seeing the medics come in with the stretcher. That meant relief... the medics were going to help him and make the pain go away and make people stop worrying about him. Tony was saying something to him but he couldn't make it out because all he could think about was how they were going to stop the harsh pain in his side.

"Peter!" Tony shook the boy slightly when his eyes slipped closed, panic unlike any other settling in. He cursed himself for not being more concerned when he first saw how bad the boy looked, for being so preoccupied with the Iron Spider suit, for not being a good dad... Ten years and he was still doubting himself - with good reason! He just ignored the fact that his son was sick in order to further his project! Mary was going to kill him...

"Sir, we need to put him on the stretcher," One of the paramedics said as she placed a hand on Tony's shoulder and gently guided him out of the way so that her companions could move the boy.

"Will he be okay?"

"We don't know yet, please give us time."

Tony hated that answer but didn't say anything else as he followed close behind them to the med-bay. He trusted the doctors that he employed, but he would give anything to get Bruce to look Peter over...

He paced outside the operating room, his mind too busy playing the blame game to acknowledge the other Avengers starting to fill the area. There were so many things he could have done differently... How long had Peter been sick? If Tony had come home sooner, would he have been able to call this out sooner and do something about it?

"Mr. Stark?" The doctor stepped out an hour later, grabbing the attention of the present Avengers. "Peter is going to be fine now."

Tony leaned back against the wall, his body sagging with relief. "Thank God... What the hell happened to him?"

"His appendix ruptured," The doc cleared his throat as he looked down. "We saved your son's life today; his organs were already turning gangrene, we had to take the contaminated ones out and wash them."

Tony's body froze as he heard some of the others take in a surprised breath. No one had ever really given it much thought before... but appendicitis is a thing that exists. It existed and people could die from it...

"Can I see him? Is he awake?"

The doctor stepped aside to allow only Tony into the Spider-Room(as they called Peter's private med-bay room), the man nearly stopping himself from breaking out into a run to see how his son was doing.

The boy was awake in his bed, staring blankly at the ceiling. Tony hesitated with his head peeking through the door before knocking gently against the wood. Peter turned his head, a small and weak smile spreading across his face.

"Hey."

"Hey yourself, slugger." Tony sat on the edge of Peter's bed, his eyes scanning over the teen. He still looked like crap, but not as bad as before. So that was a good thing. Hopefully. He should probably take a medical class at some point. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I was just taken apart, run over with a bus, then put back together."

Tony chuckled and nodded a bit, "Yeah, that's about how it went."

Peter's face morphed into a look of horror as he looked down at himself, Tony unable to hold back the laugh as he reached over to place a hand on Peter's head.

"Calm down, you didn't really get run over."

Peter let out a breath of relief as Tony ruffled his hair, slowly moving closer to the boy and gently guiding Peter's forehead to lean against Tony's shoulder. The older man closed his eyes as he felt his son breathing.

"Don't do this to me again. Next time you feel any kind of pain or if anything doesn't feel right at all, you tell me. Understand?"

Peter nodded a bit as he brought his arms up to hug Tony, "Yes, sir."

He held Peter there for a minute longer than he was normally comfortable with, but Tony thought that this would be a good situation to bask in the fact that his amazing son was still alive. He could handle a little prolonged human contact for that.

The cold in the room felt harsher to both of them as they separated, Tony standing up. "The others are outside, feeling up for some company?"

The boy's eyes lit up as he nodded, his inner fanboy always present when it came to spending time with the Avengers. Tony couldn't help but roll his eyes as he went to the door. His son was a nerd.

A/N: I spent over $200 on almost all of the Avenger movies. I normally just rent the movies on YouTube or something and buy my absolute favorites on DVD, but a family member moved in with me that's been wanting to get into the fandom and I'm not one to disappoint... It's taken a while to finish the Avenger marathon, but I've finally gotten her emotionally attached to all the characters now.

Today we're watching Infinity War.