Hello everyone! I have another chapter for my awesome readers. It's a bit of a longer one so I hope you're alright with that, I kind of got on a roll and kept writing so I figured I would just put the whole thing up here. Let me know what you think and thank you again to everyone who has already favorited/followed and reviewed, its always so awesome to see.

AvengersFan30 - I don't know if I can work the Guardians in right now because I think the story is a bit too far along for that but I'm going to keep looking for ways!

Well, I'm going to stop typing now.

Enjoy!


"Tony?" Steve's voice cut across the quiet hospital room as the doctor was finishing up with his hand. The supersoldier and assassin strode into the room confusion clear on both their faces but it was Natasha who spoke, "What happened?"

Tony shrugged with one shoulder before making something up, "I fell down the stairs." He really did not want to explain what happened.

"You fell down the stairs and...broke your hand?" Natasha slowly repeated, the disbelief clear in her tone. Still, she could not brush it off. Pressing forward, she asked again, "What actually happened Stark?"

"I was messing with one of my gauntlets and it malfunctioned," Tony actually kind of congratulated himself for that one, it sounded more believable than the first.

Then Steve stepped in, retorting, "I don't believe you. There is no way you would be in your lab while Peter is laying in a hospital bed."

Tony groaned, of course the two of them would press until they had the answer, "Fine," he relented, "Pete had a nightmare and when I tried to help him, he broke my hand. It was an accident and I don't want to hear anything else about it." Tony finally snapped, knowing they would have gotten the story anyway. Then he redirected the conversation to something that actually mattered, "How long have you been back and what did you find out?"

Recognizing the deflection for what it was, Natasha answered him, a hard edge to her voice, "We've been back for a few hours but you and Peter were asleep so we figured we would dig through what we could before woke you up. You're not going to like what we found, Tony."

Tony felt his stomach drop when he heard that, how could the situation get any worse? Still, he forced himself to ask, "So what'd you get?"

Natasha gathered her thoughts for a moment before continuing, "Hammer's people had orders to destroy what they could in the event that someone found out what they were doing but I'm almost positive they thought they would have more time. From what I could piece together, they assumed that if they could get the serums working they would have some kind of protection against the fallout for how they got there." She paused to let that sink in before she gave him the worst news, "Honestly, the data destruction program was pretty sophisticated, if it hadn't been for FRIDAY, we could have lost everything. Even with her programing, some of what they did is lost."

Tony shivered at that, they needed that information, "So what have you found?" While all this was interesting, Tony was getting increasingly annoyed at their unwillingness to give some kind of solid answer. Still he was talking to probably the world's best assassin and a man who had frozen himself so he did not have much choice but to wait until they got there.

Then Natasha threw a glance at the doctor in the room, raising an eyebrow toward him. Tony got the gist and turned to the man applying the fiberglass, "How much longer do you need?"

The man looked down at the cast with a perturbed look, "Mr. Stark, I don't think you really want me hurrying to get your cast on."

"I really don't care about the cast, I'll use a gauntlet if I have to, now answer the question." Tony all but snarled at the man, the realization in the back of his mind was that he was wrong but it did not stop him.

The man threw him a face somewhere between frustration and understanding before providing the answer, "I'll be done in five minutes."

"Good, then get it done." He ordered, with a bit more anger than he intended. He knew the man was just trying to help but at the same time, he was impatient to know what they had found out about Peter and that trumped everything.


The man was practically run out of the room by the time the last piece of fiberglass was placed and Tony tried to hold the hand up to keep it relatively stable while it dried, "Alright, tell me what you found."

"We know exactly what he did to Peter," Natasha could not keep the snarl out of her tone as she said that, "And how he got ahold of him."

"Tony, you're not going to want to watch it." Steve said, stepping forward when he saw Tony's expression change into one of disturbed curiosity.

But that was not the right thing to say, as Tony rounded on him, "How about we work from the assumption that you are never going to tell me what I can and cannot see again?" Tony sniped, anger at Hammer bleeding into every aspect of his being. Still, he saw the guilt on Steve's face and immediately tried to force some of his anger under control, "I'm sorry Steve. I didn't mean that, I just – if I'm going to help him, I need to know what they did."

"It's hard to watch, Tony." Steve said with an air of finality, knowing that no matter what he said, Tony would watch it.

"Yah I'm sure it is, I saw the aftermath, remember? Just make sure I don't know where Hammer is after I watch it." Then he turned his attention back to Natasha, "What did you find out about who Hammer is working with? FRIDAY said that everything was stored on a self-contained server in the facility."

"It was. We got a few names and found the contract he was working on. Apparently, there has been a push to formulate some new enhancement serums. Its nothing new but it seemed to be an idea floated from someone in the cabinet, I'm guessing we know who that was…"

Tony stopped her there with a wave of his hand, "Was Ross's name mentioned?"

Natasha shook her head in the negative, "Not yet but there is still a good amount of data to go through so its possible we find that connection." When Tony did not ask her anything else, she kept going, "They were looking for a way to create soldiers with different abilities useful for spec ops teams. They wanted Peter because of his strength and healing. I don't think the wall crawling was a part of that or at least from what I've read it seems like that was something they thought was a trick of the suit." Natasha kept going filling Tony in on the way they kidnapped him, a knockout shot that took a bit longer than they thought to go into effect, and how they were stumped on the genetic mutations that made his abilities possible.

After a few minutes, Tony stopped her, "How much do you have?"

She smiled wickedly at that, "Enough to know what happened and enough to bury Hammer but not enough yet to figure out who, if anyone, he was working for."

Tony filled that in for her, "It was Ross," he sneered, before ordering, "find out how."

It was a testament to how angry she was that she did not question the order, instead turning on her heel and heading off to wherever she had holed up to work on this. But Steve stayed behind. Silently taking in the man sitting before him, he seemed to be contemplating his next words. Eventually, he explained his lingering presence, "Tony, we need to figure out what we're going to do. I've got ten people locked in different rooms and in varying states of consciousness. If we keep them here, its no different than what they did." He paused and looked at the exhausted man.

Tony pressed his good hand to his temple, "I know Steve, I know but we can't just let them go."

The supersoldier quickly shook his head, "I'm not saying that, we need to talk to them but we also need to be aware of the fallout if we don't take care of this quickly." He stopped as if he was going to wait for an answer but then he continued, "And if we're adding Ross into the equation now, we have a serious problem, Tony. Hammer was bad but if Ross is advocating for this, it's a threat to all of us."

Tony looked up at the concern in his friend's face, trying to reconcile all the pieces of the situation, "Yah I know. We need to talk to Hammer, I need to talk to him," Tony snarled, before reining his rage in, "For now, can you get the people you picked up to talk? If we can get information from them and Natasha finds something, we'll have a fighting chance."


"Peter?" May's clear voice rang through the dim room but when he did not answer, she turned back to Rhodes, "Are you sure this is the room?"

The Colonel looked as confused as she was, "It was when I came to get you, I can't imagine they would have changed rooms…" he trailed off before asking, "FRIDAY, is Peter still in the same room?"

"Yes Colonel, the lights are dimmed at his request."

Without waiting for her escort, May tore the door open but Rhodey held back, "FRIDAY, where's Tony?"

"Mr. Stark is currently in room 12."

For a moment, Rhodey thought about pressing that further but changed his mind, he should be with May and Peter, Tony was probably dealing with something Hammer related and he would fill him in later.


May stepped into the room and made her way to the barely visible bed, only to see her nephew laying back with his eyes closed. Thinking that he was probably just asleep, May quietly whispered his name again. This time though, quiet sniffles answered her. Crossing the floor quickly, May did not hesitate to sit down. One hand quickly finding its way into Peter's hair and the other grabbing his hand as she spoke, "Peter, can you open your eyes for me?"

Instead of simply opening his eyes, Peter sat up and immediately wrapped his arms around her, burying his head into her shoulder. He felt so stupid but he desperately needed someone who was not going to judge him for what he had done.

It only took her a second to wrap her arms around him and when she spoke the panic was clear in her tone, "Peter, honey, what's wrong? Are you in pain? Did you have a nightmare?" She tried to pull away from him to look him over but he followed her so she resorted to holding him close until he decided different.

He just nodded into her shoulder, and her immediate response was to pull back again enough to look at him. This time he let her. "Are you in pain?" She asked quickly.

"No," he managed to squeak out the lie before he forced her to pull him closer again.

"So it was a nightmare then?" She whispered, feeling her heart break when he nodded against her shoulder, "Oh baby, I'm sorry." She wrapped him up a bit tighter before looking around the room. Shooting a confused glace at James, her anger flared up as she addressed Peter again, "Was there no one in here with you? Did someone come in to help?"

Peter could hear the anger and did not want to cause any more problems for his dad so he quickly answered her, although he could not hold back the tears any longer, "Mr. Stark was in here with me. But I – " he dropped his voice and mumbled into her shoulder, "I broke his hand."

"You – what?" She had not heard him right, right? He had mumbled and what he had said was not that, Peter would never intentionally hurt anyone, especially not Tony.

Then he explained through broken tears, loud enough for her to hear, "I – I had a nightmare and he tried to calm me down but I th – I thought he…he was one of them so I bro – broke his hand. I just…just wanted them to go away." He sniffled against her sweater, feeling even worse than he already did because he was ruining her clothes.

May did not even notice. She instead was trying to wrap her head around what had happened to her nephew. Still, there was no way that anything he had done to Tony could be as terrible as it seemed, so she rubbed her hand up and down his back while whispering to him, "Oh honey, I'm sure its not that bad."

He did not respond and instead gave into the pain his body was not dealing with as quickly as he would like, crying himself to sleep on his aunt's shoulder. But as he nodded off, he could not keep the scoffing voice out of his head, god he was pathetic.


Much like earlier, Rhodey felt somewhat out of place watching someone cry and it seemed as though May had forgotten he was there anyway, so he decided to deal with one of the other problems they had. Stepping out into the hallway, he pulled out his phone and dialed Ross. As the phone started to ring, he took up guard outside the room and waited for the Secretary to answer.

On the third ring, he did, "Colonel Rhodes, nice to hear from you." The sarcasm dripping from the tone meant that if he actually decided to listen, he was in for quite an ass-chewing, "I trust you were able to take care of your situation." The mocking inflection was clear.

Rhodes knew him well enough to discern the tone, Ross expected him to answer in the affirmative, to let him continue the rant he had started before. Instead, Rhodes cut him off at the pass and directed the conversation, "Secretary, sir, I need to ask you about Justin Hammer. Am I correct to assume that he is still in prison?" It struck him that he was playing their hand but if Ross was working with Hammer then he knew the man was already missing and if he was not aware yet, he could be when they turned him over for questioning anyway.

Ross give any indication of a reaction as he answered in a flat tone, "Justin Hammer was convicted of federal crimes and sentenced to life without parole, Colonel but you are well aware of that."

God, he had been up too long to deal with this, but he needed the answer so he played the game, "Yes sir, I know his crimes, I'm asking if he's still in prison."

"Life without parole, Colonel." Ross repeated, boredom clear in his voice.

Rhodey felt the same frustration he usually felt when talking to Ross but this time it was so much worse, "Again, that is not what I asked. Just a yes or no answer will suffice, sir. Is Justin Hammer still in prison?" Rhodes could hear the hesitation on the phone and he immediately felt sick to his stomach as he realized that Tony might have been right, that Ross had something to do with Hammer.

"Are you implying I let a man accused of multiple counts of murder and destruction of property along with multiple federal charges out of jail?" The Secretary allowed a measure of anger to color his response.

Rhodes knew it was just an attempt to appear put out, "No sir. We have a situation we are trying to resolve and Justin Hammer has come up in the investigation. I'm simply asking the question, is Justin Hammer still in jail? Having an accurate answer would help with what we are working on." Rhodes knew that whatever the next thing out of his mouth was, it would be a lie. He waited patiently, the phone pressed to his ear.

"To the best of my knowledge," Rhodes groaned at the answer, plausible deniability is a bitch. Dammit, he hated it when Tony was right, "Justin Hammer is still in jail."

"So the documents that we have collected are misdated or falsified because to the best of your knowledge, Hammer is sitting in an orange jumpsuit. Is that correct, sir?"

"That is correct, Colonel Rhodes." The voice was too forced, too controlled.

Yup he was definitely lying, shit. "Thank you for the answer, sir."

"Colonel Rhodes, what is your team is working on that would point to Hammer?"

Now who was fishing, Rhodes thought, "Nothing concrete sir, FRIDAY intercepted a few emails that referred to members of the team and Hammer Industries was mentioned in those messages. We're just covering our bases and ensuring that none of our own will be targeted."

"Let me remind you Colonel Rhodes, your team is a private organization, tread lightly in regards to any projects that might be government related and therefore protected by classified status. If you start looking into that, you will be subject to the full force of the law." Ross made sure the threat was clear.

And Rhodey knew it, shit again, "Of course, sir. I ensure you, that is not what is happening."

Seemingly placated for the time, Ross attempted to redirect the conversation, "Do you have time to finish our earlier conversation or are you still too busy?"

"Sir, I'm afraid this needs to take precedence, I've already spoken to Tony and he's agreed to inform the FAA of any future flights. I'll contact you if we get anything more concrete." Waiting for just enough time to hear a confirmation of that promise, Rhodey hung up, not wanting to get caught in another conversation. Slipping the phone back into his pocket, Rhodes slid into a chair near the door and dropped his head into his hands, this was going to be a fight.


"What's up Rhodey?" Tony called as he stepped into the hallway, shaking Rhodes out of his thoughts.

He responded automatically, well aware that Tony would be pissed about it, "I talked to Ross."

Tony stiffened, squashing the anger somewhat but still growling a response, "And?"

Rhodes looked up at him with a stony expression, speaking bluntly he filled him in, "He won't ever admit it Tony but my gut tells me he had something to do with this."

"Shit," Tony echoed Rhodes's earlier sentiment.

"What are we going to do?" Rhodey asked, he had been thinking about it since the call and he still did not have an answer.

Tony's anger did though, "Stop him. Kill him. Get him fired. I don't give a damn anymore Rhodey. He crossed the line. But it doesn't matter, Steve and Natasha are working on that right now." Tony's voice was hard, with small intonations of mania that made Rhodes nervous.

"Tony…" Rhodes started, thankful that he had been the one to call but also taking in the rest of his answer, "What are Steve and Nat working on?"

Tony quickly filled him in on the documents they collected and what they were trying to piece together. Then he quickly changed the subject, swiping his good hand in front of his face, "What are you doing down here?"

Rhodey took the change in stride, answering with slightly more confidence, "May finally made it in and she wanted to see Peter so I brought her here. I kind of assumed you would already be here." He wanted to know what had driven Tony out of the room because when he had looked in earlier, he could have never imagined him leaving.

But Tony dove right past Rhodes inherent question as he felt a small amount of panic rise up in his throat, "Pete was awake when she went in, right?" Peter would never forgive himself if he hurt his aunt.

Rhodes looked at him confused, "I think so…" he trailed off as he saw the bulking white fiberglass on Tony's hand, "What happened Tony?"

"Peter had a nightmare." It was more difficult for him to lie to Rhodey and so the answer was the truth but a bit quieter and self-conscious.

"He broke your hand?" Rhodes could not help but ask, he could tell Tony did not want to talk about it but he needed to know.

Waving the broken appendage in front of him, Tony just sighed, done repeating the story already, "Yup he did. It was an accident and he already feels bad about it so get your comments out now. If anyone says anything about my hand in his presence I will beat them with this cast." Tony snarled unnecessarily.

Rhodes held his hands up in front of him in surrender, squashing the other questions that popped into his head, "Never mind, I get it."

Thankful that at least one of those conversations was resolved, he asked the thing he was really curious about, "Why are you out here, other than the phone call?"

Rhodes shrugged, "May is in there with him and I thought that given how upset he was, a question I now have an answer to," he said, gesturing down at the cast, "I should leave. But you should definitely go talk to her."


"May?" Tony called when he stepped into the doorway. He saw her almost immediately. She was curled up on the bed next to Peter as he slept on her shoulder.

She carefully rolled her head back, enough to look at him but not enough to move her nephew. As soon as Tony stepped close enough, he could see the worry and concern in her dark eyes. He also saw her eyes move down to the white cast on his hand. Immediately, her brows creased in concern, and Tony heard her whisper under her breath, "I thought he was exaggerating."

"Not this time." Tony said tiredly, sitting carefully down next to her.

"Peter did that?" Even seeing the evidence in front of her, she still found it so hard to believe.

Tony nodded, his voice quiet, "Yah, he did. It was an accident and most of it was my fault, I shouldn't have tried to calm him down the way I did, I just thought I was getting through to him when he grabbed my hand."

She looked him in the eye, intent clear in her question, "How bad is it Tony?"

But Tony refused to answer that. The truth was that his hand was pretty badly mangled and it had been quite a process getting the bones back into place but no one else needed to know that. So he took the other implication, "He'll be okay, May. He's got a few broken bones and they need to keep him under observation for a few days but he's strong. I'm more worried about the nightmares than anything but anything he needs I'll take care of it."

She nodded a few times, taking in his words, "Thank you, Tony." Then she looked back down at his hand, she needed an answer to that story too, "How bad is that?"

Tony decided the lie was better here, "It's a few bones but it'll heal, I've had worse. May, this is not a problem." He held up the casted arm just to make sure she took his meaning and so she could move off the topic.

But she persisted, "It is a problem though Tony because he's upset about it. That's the first thing he told me about."

"I was afraid he was," Tony answered her concerned gaze. "He wouldn't look at me after it happened. I'm sure he thinks I'm mad at him." He glanced at the sleeping kid in her arms.

"Of course he does." May replied, before pressing her own solution, "You need to talk to him about it as soon as you can."

"Well, I'm not angry." Tony said, a hint of petulance in his tone, "if that kid ever actually wanted to hurt me, I would be in a world of trouble and I am well aware of that." He sighed, "But you're right, I'll talk to him about it."

The conversation fell there as both considered the kid curled in May's grasp. Eventually, Tony felt his own eyes start to droop, it had been a long day, and he broke the silence of the room. Looking up at May, he asked, "Would you mind if I stayed in here tonight? The chair is fine, I just - " he paused as he tried to explain himself, "I just would like to be in here."

May looked at him like he had suddenly sprouted another head, "Tony are you actually asking me that? He calls you 'dad', what right do I have to ask you to leave the room?" She smirked at his need to ask.

"I just want to make sure I'm not overstepping, he is still your nephew." Tony said, completely sincerely.

She laughed a bit at that, Peter would have objected to them talking about him like he had no say in the matter but she still answered, "It's fine, Tony."

Tony stood and moved over to the cupboard to grab a blanket before relaxing in the chair closest to the bed. Pulling the blanket over him, his tiredness slammed into him immediately and he quickly fell asleep.


It was the next afternoon before Tony finally woke up. His back was a bit stiff but overall, he felt better, a bit more level-headed. May and Peter were talking softly in an attempt to keep from waking him up but as soon as he blinked his eyes open, they both looked over at him. "Good morning, Tony." May said, her bright tone lightening the inherent sorrow in the room. Tony could not help but notice that Peter mumbled, "Good morning, dad" but did not look at him. Chalking that up to needing to talk, Tony looked back over as May started talking again, "Tony do you think you could watch him while I run home? If I'm going to be staying here, I'm going to need a few more changes of clothes."

"Of course I can watch him." Tony answered, grateful and nervous in equal measure for her intuition.

Turning back to her nephew, May leaned over and kissed his forehead, "I'll be back soon, Peter." He wrapped her in a tight hug and told her he loved her before she turned back to Tony, "Think you can show me out? I don't exactly have a car here."

"Trust me, I can take care of that." Tony smirked, knowing Happy would love to take another Parker back to the city.


Having taken care of May, Tony turned himself back toward his son's room, they needed to have a rather awkward conversation. He took a deep breath outside the room before pressing the door open. His voice carried easily across the quiet room, "How're ya doing, Pete?"

Peter knew his dad would be coming back and he knew they would need to talk about what happened but he did not want to, so he sat as a bundled nerve waiting for Tony to come back in the room. He could not handle it if the man was mad at him for what he had done and a large part of him kept reminding him that he would be so when Tony stepped back inside, Peter could not answer him, instead he resolutely turned his face toward the wall.

Tony just sighed, closed the gap quickly and sat down on the edge of the bed, laying his good hand in Peter's loose one and squeezing it lightly.

Peter flinched at the motion. It was too normal, too comforting, too many things he did not deserve. He could not hurt him again, so he started to pull his hand away but it was at best a halfheartedly attempt and his dad held firm.

"Peter," Tony started, "I'm not afraid of you, okay? I'm not going to stop because you accidently hurt me." His voice was gentle, understanding.

Peter could not take the empathy and rolled his head away farther away but forced his voice to carry, "I didn't just accidentally hurt you, dad. I broke your hand."

Tony did not want to see Peter get worked up again because of him, "I'm fine, I promise. I have had broken bones before and I will have them again but you cannot blame yourself for this." He needed to get the kid to believe him, he needed Peter to understand.

"It was literally my fault." Peter answered the wall in a flat tone.

But Tony was adamant, "No, it wasn't. It was Hammer's. We would not be in this position if it wasn't for him. This isn't your fault."

Peter finally turned to look at him, tears pooling in his eyes and his voice thick with emotion, "Dad." He cried, "I broke your hand. Please just blame me." Peter begged for the responsibility to be laid on his shoulders.

Tony was as stubborn as his son and he had twenty more years of practice. Shaking his head, he remained adamant, "I won't do it Pete. I can't. This isn't your fault and if you haven't noticed yet, I'm here to help, not to blame. Come on kid, gimme this one." Peter finally looked up at him at that but he had such a look of self-loathing that Tony could not handle it. He tugged at the hand he was holding and pulled Peter into his chest again, feeling the kid's defiance break as he burrowed into his neck and shoulder. Tony quickly wrapped both arms around him, "I won't blame you, Pete. I won't do it." He felt the kid start to sob against his collarbone as he laid them both back against the pillow. They settled in easily. Tony relaxed into the, somehow more comfortable, pillow and adjusted Peter on his chest. His kid continued to sob, clutching at the fabric of his shirt, repeatedly whispering, "I'm sorry."

"Pete," Tony responded, tears thickening his own response, "Don't apologize. I've gotcha, remember? Whatever that means, I'm in." They needed to talk but this was not the time, so he simply pulled his son close and held him until his sobs slowed.

Finally, Peter spoke, "I just – I feel so off."

Tony flinched at the despondency in his tone, "What do you mean, Pete?"

"I don't know…" he trailed off, the frustration clear, "I just – why couldn't I stop them? I'm Spider-Man, I was stronger than all of them, why couldn't I stop them?"

Tony immediately responded, desperate to get him to understand, "Pete, you didn't have a chance. They drugged you, beat you, cut you, and I know you fought back beyond when anyone else would have given up. Cap told me about the door, the one you tore off the hinges. He couldn't even figure out how you did it. The problem was they were prepared for you to fight and you weren't prepared for them to force you to."

Peter just hummed into his dad's shirt, not really buying the answer.

Tony looked down to see if he was still awake, thinking he had somehow dozed off but when he saw the bright eyes staring blindly at the wall across from them, he continued, "You know that sedative they gave you ruined your healing ability, right? That means that everything you did, every fight you took, was without any healing." Tony could not help but flash back to the little Natasha had told him about from the tape, "You re-broke your wrist and they broke your leg and you still fought, no one else would have been able to do that." But the kid still did not respond. In muted frustration, Tony curled his finger under Peter's chin, he could not let him wallow. Forcing him to look up, Tony caught his eye, "Peter, I've told you about the time I was in the cave, right?"

"Yah but you got out of that on your own." Peter almost whined, again reminded of how pathetic he was.

"No I didn't." Tony obdurately corrected, "If Yensen had not taken off down that hallway, they would have killed me in the suit. I might have tried to fight back but without him I would have been dead without question. He helped me at the beginning, before anything could even get started. You fought as hard as you could Peter, I just helped a bit at the end."

Peter let that sink in as he held his dad's eyes. He was trying to reconcile what had happened to him with what had happened to Tony and trying to figure out if his dad really believed that or just thought he was just a screw-up and was trying to make him feel better. The longer Peter watched him though, the more obvious it was that there was nothing but love and concern in the older man's gaze.

Tony knew he was studying him, looking for any hint that their relationship had changed but he was also confident he would find nothing to support that. When the kid did not say anything, Tony started talking again, "Pete, this sucks, there is no way around it but it is also not your fault. You stayed alive, you did what you needed to get help and now your only job is to heal. I've told you before that I can't lose you again and nothing about what happened changes that. You're not weak, you didn't fail, you just needed help." Tony saw the tears in the kid's eyes again and just to finish off the sentiment he added, "I love you, Pete." He poured all the honesty he could into that declaration, needing him to understand that they were fine.

Peter could not help but smile at the sincerity, "I love you too, dad. Thanks. For everything." He sighed deeply as he tucked his head back into his dad's collarbone. It was not gone, but it felt like part of a weight had been lifted off his chest.

"Don't mention it, kid." Tony said as he wrapped his arms more tightly around him. The casted arm was heavy but not nearly as painful as it was watching Peter doubt anything about himself. As Peter relaxed, Tony asked, "Do you think you could get a bit more sleep?"

Peter tensed at that but tried to cover it, "I've been sleeping so much already, I think I just want to stay up for a bit."

Tony knew what he was doing so instead of fighting him, he put his hands in his kid's hair, carding through the greasy locks. "FRIDAY, play Return of the Jedi," he ordered, feeling Peter smile against his chest. Twisting just slightly, he looked down, "What? You said you weren't tired so now you can watch the best Star Wars movie with me."

Peter's grin grew, "Dad," he could not help but exaggeratedly whine, "You know Empire is the best one."

Tony shrugged exaggeratedly, "Best story maybe but the better fights are definitely Jedi."


When May walked back into the room, she could not help the warmth that spread through her at the sight that greeted her. Tony was asleep on the bed with Peter tucked carefully into his side. Unwilling to wake them up after what had happened the day before, May took up the closest seat to the bed and pulled out her book, resolving to wait until the two woke up.


So there's the next chapter for you! I'm thinking about two more chapters to finish up this story. Let me know what you think!

I hope everyone is having a good day/night and stay creative!

-Lily