Congratulations, it's a Boy

Chapter 10

Summary:

Tony finds out about the plane heist, spends the weekend busy thinking and preparing, and then invites Peter to join the Avengers.

(Warnings for a panic attack and some self-loathing.)

In the end, as seemed to be the case with all things involving Peter, Tony was completely blindsided by what happened.

After the incident on the ferry, Tony only received occasional reports on Peter. It seemed that the kid was taking a little time off from being Spider-Man, and was also serving quite a sentence in detention. Since he'd stopped reporting in, Happy took it upon himself to keep loose tabs on the kid, but there'd been no sightings of Spider-Man at all.

It left Tony feeling unsettled; he hadn't wanted to break the kid's spirit, he just wanted to wake him up to the very real danger he seemed so eager to swing into.

Meanwhile, Tony continued to keep up with the investigation. The ring leader had escaped the FBI sting, and though there'd been no activity recently, Tony was sure he'd pop up again.

Tony figured he'd let Peter stew a bit; it wouldn't hurt for him to be more focused on school for a while and really understand the gravity of what happened at the ferry. Then, when the time was right he'd send the suit back and ask Peter to check in BEFORE he ran off to fight criminals, not after.

Actually, he was still trying to work out a system for Peter - which types of crimes he could handle on his own, which ones he'd need to get permission for, and which he was definitely not to touch. A chart might eventually be involved; Tony understood that kids liked visuals.

On a whim he started to work on a color scheme for said chart when his phone rang.

"Happy, what's up? Move all done?"

"Everything happened so fast. I'm so sorry, Tony. The plane… it was attacked."

Tony stood and paced across his lab on auto-pilot. He needed more information, and he needed it now. Happy wasn't talking fast enough for his liking.

"Who attacked it? Did they get anything? Any casualties? Where's the plane now? Come on, Happy, you gotta give me more than that!"

"Uh, it was… it was the arms dealer Peter's been after. And no, he didn't get anything. The plane crashed on Coney Island. Peter… it was Peter. Peter stopped him, Tony."

Peter's name reverberated through Tony's mind like someone had rung a gong. Peter was supposed to be at a dance. Peter wasn't supposed to be going out as Spider-Man. Peter wasn't supposed to be going after this guy at all anymore. Peter didn't have his suit.

Peter didn't have his suit.

Peter didn't have his suit.

"Tony? Tony, are you still there?"

"Was he hurt?"

"Who, the vulture guy?"

"No, the kid, Happy. Was the kid hurt?"

"Oh, I don't know. I don't think so… he left a note."

Of course he left a note. It didn't matter to Peter whether it was a stolen bicycle or millions of dollars in tech… he left a note.

"What does the note say?"

"Let me look at it again. Uh… it says 'Found: flying vulture guy. - Spider-man, ps - sorry about your plane.'"

Sorry about your… so Peter hadn't found the guy after he'd managed to run the plane into the ground; he'd been involved.

In a plane crash.

Without his suit.

Tony put a hand over the phone. "Friday, call Peter's cell phone."

"Calling... Sorry, Boss, it went to voicemail."

He turned back to his conversation. "Happy, oversee the cleanup. Peter isn't picking up his cell at the moment, so try calling to check in on him in a little while. I'm gonna do... something. Let me know when you hear from him."

Tony's legs suddenly decided standing was too hard, and he sat down hard on the floor.

"Friday, start combing through the data. I need to know what happened with the plane."

"Sorry, Boss, there's no data available. The transponder signal was hijacked and made to transmit false data indicating a safe flight. The real data will be in the onboard computer, provided it wasn't erased or destroyed."

Few things bothered Tony as much as not knowing things, and right now there was a hell of a lot he didn't know.

"Search the internet for recent Spider-Man sightings. Hit up social media sites, blogs, police reports, anything that mentions tonight."

"Searching."

Tony leaned back against a nearby workstation and closed his eyes. This was the worst feeling ever. Peter could be out there somewhere, hurt, and Tony had no idea how to find him. He hated being helpless.

By the time Happy finally called again, Tony had been able to piece together next to nothing of what had happened. There was a report of a disturbance at the high school involving a bus or two, and an unconfirmed report of Spider-Man stealing a car, but so far nothing was making any sense.

"Happy, you reach Peter?"

"His friend Ned answered his phone. He said Peter was fine, just asleep for the night."

Tony's breath whooshed out of him as he sagged in relief. "Good, that's good."

"But uh… the kid mentioned something about the vulture guy dropping a building on him. I couldn't get details because he hung up on me."

Tony didn't even know how to respond to that, so he didn't. He was starting to feel a pain at the base of his skull, though. He could only imagine the stress headache he was about to endure.

Happy continued, undeterred by Tony's lack of reply. "He said it was fine because they had ice - I'm not sure if that's real ice, or like a teenage code for something. But he said Peter was fine, so… I'm really sorry Tony. The kid really came through for me, I was wrong about him. He saved me a hell of a mess tonight."

At what cost, though? Tony couldn't even identify the myriad of emotions swirling in his gut. He'd figured Peter had some sort of advance healing, but he had no idea how good it was. Good enough to heal from being crushed under a building? Apparently… either that or he was bleeding internally somewhere next to his friend, quietly slipping into a coma…

"Talk to you later, Happy," he choked out right as the panic started to hit.

The shorter his breath got, the more angry he became. He couldn't afford to lose it right now, Peter might still be in trouble. He couldn't afford to imagine worst-case scenario after worst-case scenario; he needed to know for sure that Peter was okay.

"Boss, you need to slow your breathing."

"I know that, damn it!" He panted.

After a few minutes of struggling, he started to get control again only because he had more to do.

"Friday, look up Ned's address and send a drone."

It was wrong. It was so wrong and he hated it, but he couldn't stop himself. He'd briefly had Peter under surveillance when he'd been trying to protect him from the vigilante before he'd known it was Peter, but he'd moved the drone as soon as he'd found out. He couldn't stomach the invasiveness of it.

But not knowing if Peter was really okay was worse right now.

He had Friday guide the drone to Ned's home, where he assumed Peter was currently sleeping, given who'd answered his phone. He found a second-story window that looked straight into what had to be Ned's room. The window was closed, but Friday was able to get a visual, and do enough of a light scan to detect vitals.

Peter was resting on a bed, his friend on the floor, and both were lightly snoring. Peter, with bags of mostly melted ice on his chest, and his friend clutching a pillow. Friday couldn't get a blood pressure from outside the room, but she was able to get a read on his pulse and determine that it wasn't elevated in a way that would indicate heavy blood loss - internally or externally. So the kid wasn't bleeding to death, thankfully.

Tony gazed at the scene on his monitor for another couple minutes. He had to keep telling himself that Peter was okay, he was okay, he was really okay, even though his brain kept inserting thoughts of plane crashes and building collapses into his mantra.

"He's fine, Friday. He's fine, right?"

"It appears that way, Boss."

"Okay. Recall the drone before it gets creepy. Thanks, Friday."

Tony sighed. That was it. He was going to end this threat.

"Friday, pull up everything the FBI has on these guys. I want to make sure they caught everybody."

Because if any of those bastards were still out there, he was going to get the suit and take care of it himself. Now it was personal.

As an afterthought he added, "And track down the stolen car report. If it checks out, let's send a replacement car to the victim, same make and model. Include a note that says, 'Thank you for helping Spider-Man save the city.'

Wouldn't want the police hunting down Spider-Man for car theft.

-0-0-0-0-0-

Despite his efforts over the weekend, Tony was no closer to tracking down the remaining members of the arms dealers than he'd been Friday. In fact, there wasn't any hard evidence that there were more members… except that from what he'd learned about Mr. Toomes, he just didn't have the background or education to have created the tech he was using. It seemed pretty clear that he'd had someone behind the scenes making his gadgets and creating the weapons, but whoever it was had never been on anyone's radar.

He was on Tony's radar now, though; he wouldn't be able to hide for long.

In addition to doing a little good old fashioned crime solving, Tony had also done a fair amount of thinking. Clearly all his efforts to guide Peter from a distance had failed miserably. He decided it was time for an entirely new tact: he was going to invite him to become an official member of the Avengers.

Joining the Avengers one day had been Peter's obvious destination from the very start, but Tony had always imagined it would happen later. Now that it would be happening sooner though, he found himself imagining how life would change with Peter at the compound.

They'd have to get his Aunt's permission, of course. Though Tony couldn't imagine her saying no once she had a tour of the compound and realized everything they could do for Peter here.

He'd have a private tutor so he could finish his education, a safe place to train, a team to back him up should he get into something over his head… Tony figured it was an easy sell.

He'd also begun to imagine the other things he could teach Peter once they were living under the same roof. He was fifteen now… about time someone to taught him to drive.

He stopped short of letting himself see it as a father-son arrangement. It wouldn't be that. It couldn't be that. But that didn't stop him from imagining all the time they would spend together as mentor and mentee. All the things they could do together…

He'd finally have Peter around when he was working on updates for his suit. Maybe the kid would even want to help. He'd been able to manufacture his own web fluid; he was definitely smart enough to have some design input.

"Friday, call a press conference for early this evening. We'll have it here at the compound. Just tell them that I have an announcement to make, and that they aren't going to want to miss it."

He'd pull the newest Spider armor out of storage and show it to Peter once he arrived. He could wear it for the big announcement.

"I'll contact your usual press outlets, Boss."

"Great, and dial Happy for me."

Happy picked up on the second ring. "Hey, I'm just getting to the school."

"Fantastic. Listen, I don't want to give away the surprise early so make sure no one sees you. And I want to be the one to break the news to Peter and make the official invite, so just tell him I want to speak to him and get him up here."

When he'd realized it was time to bring Peter into the Avengers, Happy had been the first person he'd discussed it with. Unsurprisingly, he'd been all for it. Happy had gone from thinking of Peter as a minor annoyance to being his biggest fan. The kid had really proven himself in the last few days.

"You got it." Happy lowered his voice. "Entering the school now. Peter's supposed to be at a decathlon practice this afternoon, so I'll just get him out if it. I'll send you a message once we're en route."

"Thanks, Happy. You're an officer and a gentleman."

Happy snorted and hung up.

-0-0-0-0-0-

Tony had no idea why he was so nervous. He'd been to Peter's new room twice to make sure it was all set up and ready for his arrival. He'd even checked that the new suit was still in the display case where he'd put it earlier. If he weren't so occupied with trying to make sure this all went to plan, he might've stopped to wonder why he was acting like he was about to bring home a newborn baby.

"Friday, which of my cars would be most appropriate for driving lessons, do you think?"

"Statistically, most teenagers learn to drive in their caregiver's oldest, or least valuable car in case of accident."

"Huh. My Roadster is the oldest, but it's a classic. Should I buy something sensible? I will. I'll buy something sensible. Friday, purchase a sensible car for driving lessons with Peter."

"Make and model?"

"I don't know, surprise me."

"Got it, Boss."

-0-0-0-0-0-

When Peter arrived, Tony was still a bundle of nerves. Though as usual, he thought he did a pretty good job at hiding it.

Apart from a really unfortunate puppy analogy that went on way too long.

Thankfully, Peter didn't know him well enough to be able to tell the difference between his normal rambling, and his nervous rambling.

And when he finally issued the invitation, he was shocked almost beyond words when Peter's answer was "Thank you, Mr. Stark, but I'm good."

Despite how fast his brain tended to work, it took him a minute to parse what he was hearing. He was stammering before he could stop himself.

"You're good? How are you good?"

The kid seemed to hesitate. "Well I mean, I'd rather stay on the ground for a little while - friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. Somebody's got to look out for the little guy, right?"

Those were his words being repeated back to him. He was the one who'd been urging Peter all along to stay close to the ground and to be a 'friendly, neighborhood Spider-Man.'

But his brain was still having a little trouble making sense of what he was hearing, despite how clear the kid was being. This was the kid who'd been asking about the next mission literally since before they'd gotten back from Germany. This was the kid who'd been talking about becoming an Avenger non-stop practically since he'd first put on his new suit.

He had to check one last time. He asked again, just to be sure sure. He wanted to hear the answer in the clearest way possible.

"You're turning me down? You better think about this." He gestured to the suit, still in its case. "Look at that, look at me. Last chance: yes or no?"

"No."

Tony couldn't help it, his brain shut down. He completely disconnected what he was saying from anything he was feeling at the moment. All he could focus on was getting out of the situation was fast as possible.

"Okay. It's kind of a Springsteen-y, working-class hero vibe that I dig. Uh… Happy will take you home."

"Yeah?" He glanced behind him to where Happy was lurking.

"Yeah," the other man confirmed.

Then Happy turned to Peter. "Mind waiting in the car? I need a minute."

And no, there was not going to be another conversation right now. Tony was pretty much done conversing for the time being. He turned, tapping his watch to close the case on the new suit.

"Thank you, Mr. Stark."

Tony turned to see Peter, slowly making his way towards the exit. "Yes, Mr. Parker. Very well," he said, most of his conversational skills abandoning him.

"I'll see you around." Peter hesitated on his way out the door. "This was a test, right? There's nobody back there?"

And what else could he say? Tony gave the only answer he could. "Yes. You passed. Alright, skedaddle there, young buck."

"Thank you, Mr. Stark."

"Yeah. Thank you," he answered mechanically, watching his son finally walk out the door.

"Told you he's a good kid."

All Tony could do was send Happy a helpless shrug because, yeah, Peter was a good kid. Too good to have been raised by a Stark. And even though he'd honestly been doing the very best he could for Peter since he'd found out about him, the truth was that he didn't deserve to have him. He never would.

There was a tidal wave of disappointment getting ready to crash over him, but Tony forced it down and bottled it up. There was a mess to clean up now. Pepper was asking what they'd done to make Peter leave and what she was supposed to tell the press, and he honestly had no answers.

-0-0-0-0-0-

Later that night when no one else was around to see, Tony went back to Peter's room one last time and sat heavily on the bed. Looking around the pristine room he couldn't help but imagine what it might've looked like with Peter's things strewn all over.

A backpack on the floor, clothes crumpled in the corner, books scattered across the desk… the room was well-furnished, but it seemed empty and lacking without those things.

Tony got up and wandered to his own room. It wasn't terribly far. Peter would've been close. Closer than he'd ever been. Close enough that if he'd had a question, or just wanted to share something he'd figured out, he could've walked over to Tony's room and knocked instead of texting Happy.

And Tony would've opened the door. And he would've let Peter in, no matter what time it was. And they would've had long discussions about stupid random things that were vitally important to young 15 year-old boys.

And he would've listened. He imagined he wouldn't have always had the answers Peter was looking for, but he would've been there. Always.

Yep. There was that wave of disappointment, coming back with a vengeance, threatening to crush him.

He sank down onto his own bed, head falling into his hands. He took one deep breath, and then another. He tried to tell himself that it didn't matter. Peter didn't need him.

And by now Tony was used to things not working out the way he'd hoped.

It was fine.

Until Friday interrupted with news. "Boss, a message from the Honda dealership just came through. Your sensible new car will be delivered tomorrow at 10am."

Peter's car.

Tony intended to snort, but what came out was closer to a sob.

He viciously scrubbed the wetness off his face.

It didn't matter.