Chapter 10
"Come on Happy! The plane is supposed to leave in twenty-five minutes and Air Traffic Control is not going to allow it to leave late during this time of year!" Tony called out to his friend. The billionaire currently stood in the compound front lobby, surrounded by suitcases, a half asleep toddler on his shoulder, and staring at his head of security who was fiddling around on the front desk computer.
The other man sighed in frustration as this was Tony's third time telling him to hurry up in the last five minutes. "Tony if the compound doesn't get locked down properly, we'll be coming back to find the place robbed blind or that squatters have moved in." It was a very rare occurrence for the compound to be completely empty of all people since there were usually Stark Industry employees around 24/7. But usually around this time of year- it being Christmas and all, everyone took a week off for the holiday which left the building empty. So when this did happen, the whole place had to be put on a tight security lockdown with deadly weapons ready to fire at anyone trying to break in. Happy finally clicked a final button and then stood up. "All right let's go.
Tony picked up one of the suitcases with his free hand, and left the rest of them for Happy to carry. "Friday lock the place down, when we leave," Tony told his A.I.
"Already on it sir."
Peter had his head resting on the billionaires shoulders, eyes half lidded in drowsiness. The child had slept deeply all the way up until Tony had woken him up twenty minutes ago. Even after that, the kid had wanted to go back to sleep again, but Tony couldn't let him do that for several reasons. The main one being that they had a flight to catch, another being that if the kid slept all day then he'd be up all night. Tony had been discouraged to find more diarrhea in the kid's diaper after waking him up. He had hoped that the change of diet would fix that problem. Happy did point out that one meal wouldn't instantly cure it, and it would probably take a few days. The billionaire certainly hoped that was the case, because if this wasn't caused by the gluten then he had no idea what the problem was.
It was surprising to find no paparazzi waiting for them outside of the building, though Tony was grateful for it. He knew that he would eventually have to come up with some sort of press release explaining why he had a child with him, he just wasn't sure what story to come up with. Pepper was always the one that came up with that stuff, and they currently weren't on speaking terms. He had tried calling her several times, and she was either too busy to answer, or refusing to. Most likely the latter. Hopefully she just needed a few days to cool, but all the media about Tony Stark having a secret child probably wasn't helping. He just hoped that he could catch Pepper at the hotel and try to smooth things over before things got even worse.
"Wow, I'm impressed," Tony commented as they approached the limo, not really sounding impressed at all. "You got rid of all the media.
"Word leaked out that your plane is flying out today. So there probably all waiting at the airport for you," the other man responded, opening the back door so that the billionaire could put Peter in the car seat. Tony noted that the child's cheeks flushed a shade of pink at being set in the child seat, but he made no verbal protests.
The drive to the airport was fairly uneventful. Tony spent the time on his phone keeping up to date on the media circus that currently surrounded him. Why couldn't the little vultures just stay out of his business. Who cares if he's currently toting around a small child. Peter was silent most of the way, still trying to wake up, and the only noises he made were the frequent sniffling and occasional cough. The billionaire eyed the child from over the phone when he gave a particularly chesty cough. There was no denying it anymore, the kid was sick with a cold of some sorts. He probably should have given him some more of the medicine, but he realized earlier that the bottle he got was for children aged 6 to 11. So he ended up just giving the spiderling a small dose in hopes that it would counteract enough. Nothing bad seemed to have happened to the boy, other then waking up a little groggy. Peter was still yawning widely while rubbing his eyes.
Just as Happy predicted, the airport was swarming with paparazzi, particularly around his plane. They crowded around the vehicle, when it slowed to a stop, microphones held out ready for any quotes they could get out of him. "Want me to try and get rid of them?" Happy asked.
The billionaire shook his head. "We don't have time for that. There's already pictures of Peter out there, I don't see how a few more could make things much worse. Just don't say anything," Tony unbuckled his seatbelt then moved to undo Peter's.
"The longer you stay silent, the more out of hand this is going to get," Happy warned but knowing that the other man's mind was set he didn't wait for a response and opened the door.
Even in the brief seconds that the driver door was opened, there were about a dozen clicks and flashing going at them. Peter's blue eyes were wide with terror. "Mr. Stark- I mean Tony I don't want to go out there…" his small voice was laced with fear.
"Don't worry," Tony picked him up in his arms and held the boy against his chest. "We're just going to the plane, and the media can't follow us on board. But whatever you do, don't say anything to anyone. In fact don't speak at all- actually I want you to hide your face in my jacket." Tony moved the child so his face was pressed against his shoulder and wrapped the tailored jacket he was wearing so it was covering most of the boy's head. Most of the pictures that were online didn't have a very clear picture of the kids face, and it would be better to keep it that way.
Taking a breath to prepare himself, Tony opened the door and stepped out. The thundering sound of a million questions, mixed with the sounds of camera clicks, and binding flashes bombarded him. He felt Peter's body stiffen in his arms. He was able to make out a few of the questions thrown at him. "Mr. Stark! Is that your son?"
"Who's the mother?"
"What's his name?"
"Is this going to affect your upcoming marriage?"
Tony pushed through all the people and questions, without saying anything. Happy walked behind them, making sure that the reporters couldn't follow too closely. Except for the regular sounds of a running plane engine, the plane was blessedly silent compared to the outside. It seemed that the airport security had finally decided to go do their jobs and came up help hold back the media. This gave Happy the way to come onto the plane and see them off. "So you going to be ok?" his friend asked giving a pointed stare at the child as Tony set him down onto his feet. Peter wasted no time going to find a seat.
"Don't look out any windows," Tony called after him before bringing his attention back onto the other man. "Yeah I think I got this. Gotten this far taking care of the kid. I don't think there's much else that can be thrown at me."
Happy clapped a hand on the man's shoulder and smiled. "Take care then buddy. I'll see you when you get back."
Tony returned the gesture. "Thanks for everything Hap. Merry Christmas."
After Happy left the plane, Tony went to the seat that was across from where Peter was sitting. The boy sat slumped in his seat, frowning in almost a pout. The man noted the paleness of the kids skin, and hope that whatever he picked up would just be a common cold and he'd shrug it off after a few days. He did bring the cold medicine with him, so he considered offering the child another dose. But a part of him suspected that there was something more than just feeling crappy going on with the boy. "What's eating you kid?"
The child made eye contact with his mentor and gave a sigh. "I'm just bored…" a distinct whininess was laced in the child's voice, which Tony chose to ignore. "I haven't been able to do anything fun in days.
God the kid sure sounded like the two year old he spoke like, and puppy pout didn't help things. His instinct was to brush this off by saying, 'What do you want me to do about it' but felt like that would be a little tactless. It was true that the most fun he saw the kid having since he turned into a child was when he was messing around with his iron suits, and the kid got told off for doing that. "So what do you want me to do about it?" the man's instincts won this round.
Luckily Peter didn't seem offended by this tactless response, but instead looked up at him with eager blue eyes. "Do you have any games on your phone? I lost mine back in Queens?"
"Oh yeah!" the question reminded Tony that he still had the kid's phone. He had been meaning to give it back to him, but things had been pretty crazy since they returned from the little Manhattan city and he had yet to do it. "I found your phone- it was under a dumpster. Was going to give it back to you, but I forgot and it's back at the compound. Remind me to give it to you when we get back."
The child nodded his head, looking relieved that his phone was no longer lost, but still a little bit down since he still had nothing fun to do. The guilt won over and Tony pulled out his phone and unlocked it with his fingerprint. "All I got on here is Candy Crush, take it for leave it?" he handed the phone over to the spiderling who accepted it gratefully. Apparently the game was good enough to entertain his mind. He personally thought the game wasn't complex enough for his genius brain but if I got to kid to stop pouting with those puppy eyes then he wasn't going to voice his opinion. "Don't look at anything else on the phone, and whatever you do don't buy anything, delete anything, or close anything that's opened."
The game entertained Peter through take off, and Tony took advantage of the small break by pulling out one of the contracts he was supposed to read and sign 3 days ago. He needed to do everything possible to try and smooth things over with Pepper. She was probably fuming at him, thinking that he had an affair with someone two years back and knocked up some chick. It would explain why she was ignoring all of his calls. Maybe he should try leaving her a message, explaining himself- but no. This couldn't be done over message. They needed to talk, preferably face to face. Hopefully she would still be at the hotel when they arrived.
Just as the were reaching 10,000 feet, Peter suddenly dropped the phone into his lap. Blue eyes wide, and both hands flew to his ears. "What's wrong?" Tony asked him, wondering if the kid was trying to be silly or if something was wrong. Peter only whimpered in response, clenching his head even tighter, a grimace plastered on his face. None of this helped Tony figure out what was wrong. "Got to help me out here kid. I can't read your mind."
"...Hurts…" The child whimpered and this was followed by a cry of pain.
"What hurts? Your ears?" the man asked using the visual clues the kid showed to try and figure out what was hurting. The child nodded his head, making Tony suddenly realize what the problem was. The kid was sick with a cold, and they just few 10,000 feet in the air. Of course the extra fluid in his ears would protest. Why didn't he think of this earlier. He could have bought something to help with this. They were already airborne, so there wasn't much that could be done now. "Try yawning or swallowing?"
The little spider attempted both, and it must have helped some because the grimace left his face, and the hands that were covering his ears fell to his sides. But he still didn't look quite comfortable. "Feeling better?" Tony asked hopefully, but the child only shook head much to the man's displeasure. This could be long flight.
Peter had tried going back to playing on Tony's phone, but that only lasted about ten minutes before he dropped the device into his lap again, both hands going back over his ears. A soft whimper fell from the spiderlings lips, and the man noticed with horror that his blue orbs began to fill with tears. Quickly picking up a nearby water bottle, Tony offered it to the child. "Here, try drinking some water. See if that helps." The child accepted the bottle, but once again struggled with the cap for a few moments.
Seeming to have thin patience with the bottle cap, Peter suddenly threw the bottle away from him and burst into tears. "Wow… chill out a moment kid, I'll help you." the billionaire got up from his seat to retrieve the water bottle, noting that his gentle rebuke was a little hypocritical, considering his many tantrums of impatience he's displayed in the past couple of days. He tried to justify it by telling himself that the tantrums he threw were over real problems. This was a water bottle, that he could easily open himself. There was no need for the kid to react the way he did.
Tony opened the bottle and handed back to the child. Peter took few sips but couldn't seem to hold the bottle steady, and it soon slipped from his hands and poured all over the floor and seat causing renewed tears to sprout from his eyes. With a soft groan, his own patents beginning to wear thin. The billionaire picked Peter up and sat back down in his seat with the child in his lap. The boy pushed his head into the man's' rib cage, still clutching both ears with his hands. "Can I get another water bottle?" he asked the onboard flight attendant that was standing nearby waiting to be of service.
He adjusted the little spider so that the child was lying in a half upright position against his arm, and a moment later another water bottle was being handed to him. Tony accepted it without saying thank you, his mind too busy to be thinking of curticies. He opened up the bottle cap, and gently tipped the contents into the child's mouth. Peter took slow sips of the water, and his cries slowly began to die down. Tony knew that swallowing was a way to relieve the pressure in your ears, when they got clogged from high altitudes, and assumed that the swallowing of water was helping the kid feel better.
That seemed to be the calm before the storm because an hour and a half into the flight, Peter was a sobbing hot mess in the billionaires arms. The man was at a complete loss what to do to help the child, and they still had an hour of the flight left. One of his onboard flight attendants suggested giving the child more water to drink, but the boy had been refusing all food and liquid for the past hour.
By the time that the plane landed in the Bahamas, and disheveled looking Tony Stark exited the plane holding a still whimpering spiderboy. What should have been a nice easy two and a half hour flight had turned into a loud crazy flight that felt like it lasted nine hours. He was ready to vow at never ever flying with a child ever again. One thing was for sure, that he was wasn't flying back to New York until the kid was over the cold, or at the very least pump him up with decongestants before hand. The pressure on the kid's ears seemed to have let up since they landed, as the boy had finally let go of his ears and laid his head against the billionaire's chest breathing deeply. Only the occasional hitch of breath was leftover from the nightmare of a flight they just went though
The car that Tony had called ahead for was waiting for them next to the plane. The airport also seemed to have fulfilled his request of keeping media and reporters away when they handed, as he did not see any around and detected no nearby flashing of cameras. Originally he had requested this to try and quench some of the media fire that was quickly getting out of control, but now he was just glad there were no pictures of him looking so hot and bothered. There had been many raised eyebrows as he passed by the airport personnel and security, so he probably did look pretty bad.
The billionaire set Peter in the car seat he had also requested to be in the car that picked him up, and buckled him in before sliding in next to the kid. Peter rested his head against the head rest of the car seat, looking pale and exhausted. He reached a little hand up to rub had his left ear. "Your ears finally pop?" Tony asked the child who just nodded his head without saying words but letting out a few coughs.
That cough the kid had was progressively getting worse. They had been kind of on the go non stop since returning from Queen's, so Tony hoped a good long rest would be the cure. Now that they were finally in the Bahamas, the could reunite with Pepper and they could all finally relax. Once there bags were put in the trunk, the car began driving them to the hotel. Peter began to doze in his seat but still gave a fair amount coughing, sniffling, and sneezing as if the child's body wanted to keep reminding Tony that the little spider as sick. He was really at a loss of what to do for the kid except pump him full of meds, and hope that it will just go away. He tried to think back to when he was sick as a child. Jarvis had been the one take care of him anytime he had fallen sick, and he recalled being fed a lot of soup, and resting in his bed until he was bored to tears.
So far the man had been toting the kid around so much, he hadn't gotten much sleep or bed rest. That could change as soon as he got to the hotel. First thing he was going to do when they got settled in the hotel room, besides giving Pepper his rehearsed apology, was to put the kid to bed and order him some soup. It would have to be gluten free though.
God everything was going to get so much easier when he had Pepper around again. She seemed so much more of a motherly type to help him out in taking care of the kid, and she could probably even help getting the boy gluten free meals. They were almost at the hotel, and it was almost time for Pepper to come in and fix everything that he had messed up.
Tony had spent the rest of the car drive looking at the latest damage that the airport scene had done. The article he was currently reading was titled:
Stark Spotted at John F. Kennedy International Airport
Tony Stark with his alleged child, were seen getting on his
private airplane earlier this afternoon. Mr. Stark refused any
and all comments as he boarded the plane carrying the child
in question. The child was well hidden from the press, as no
one on the scene got quite a good look at the child. Eyewitness
accounts conclude the child is a male around two year old.
Tony stopped reading at that point because the driver pulled up to the front of the hotel. He sighed deeply in frustration. So now Peter was his 'alleged child,' before it was just 'who is this kid and why is he with Tony Stark.' Now they had to nerve to just assume that the kid was his.
The hotel was abuzz of activity with Holiday travelers coming in. The billionaire slipped a pair of his trademark sunglasses over his eyes, opened the car door and stepped out as a bellhop approached the vehicle to get their bags. Peter had woken up a bit since dozing off in the car, and insisted on walking again. He didn't make any arguments about this, as his arms were beginning to get very sore with all carrying around he's been doing. "All right there's a lot of people around and I don't want to lose you, so you have to hold my hand," Tony said to the kid and grabbed the child's warm hand. Was his skin warmer than usual?
He led boy by the hand through the hotel lobby, and up the front desk. The lady sitting at the desk, was looking at her computer when they approached. She did not look up at him, but raised a finger in acknowledgment of their presence. A moment later she looked up at them and said in a Bahamian accent. "Hello, what is your reservation number please?" It seemed that she didn't recognize him. Tony pulled the number up on his phone, having never been very good at memorizing numbers, and read it off to her.
After punching the number in on the keyboard, a confused look crossed her face. "I'm sorry sir. That reservation number has already been checked in."
"Yes I know," Tony responded. "My fiancé checked in a couple days ago, and I was a little late in arriving. The room should be under Potts?"
The lady's mouth went thin as if she was about to give him some bad news. "Yes, Ms. Potts did check in on Friday, but she checked out this morning and we've already given away the room that was reserved."
Tony felt his heart sink down into the stomach. She had already left… she did not wait for him. This was proof that his beloved Pepper was very upset with him, to actually leave without even trying to contact him. Was it because he had missed his flight… or what the media has been saying about him and his 'alleged child. Or maybe it was both. "Ok… fine. Can you just hook me up with another room," Tony rubbed a hand tiredly over his forehead. This had been a really long day.
"I'm sorry sir, we are completely booked through Christmas-" Tony took his sunglasses off and gave the woman a look. It seemed that the sun glasses, even though they were practically his trademark, was the veil that stopped her from recognizing him. As soon as the glasses were off his face, the lady's eyes widened with recognition. "Oh my… goodness gracious Mr. Stark, I'm sorry I didn't recognize you." Tony rolled his eyes. This is why he should have put the reservation under his name. Things get done so much faster when his name is attached. But no Pepper had insisted that it was better to put the reservation under her name since she was currently head of Stark Industries.
The flustered woman wildly looked around in hopes that someone would pop up to help her. When no one did she looked back at the man. "Um… just give me a minute Mr. Stark," she said and walked away.
Tony tapped his fingertips against the counter, and suddenly felt something lean against his leg. He looked down to find that Peter had leaned up against his leg, and rested his head against the soft part of his calf. His thumb was back in his mouth again, making soft suckling noises, eyes beginning to droop. It wouldn't be long before the kid fell asleep on his leg. Now what the hell was he supposed to with a kid who obviously sick. He didn't have Pepper to fall back on anymore, as she was not here.
With a soft sigh, Tony reached down, snaked both hands under the spiderlings armpits, and lifted the child up into his arms. Peter who seemed to be completely taken by his toddler side, snuggled into the man's chest with a content sigh and continued sucking on his thumb. By this time a different woman approached the desk with a professional smile, but her eyes were bright with admiration. "My apologies for the confusion Mr. Stark. Your room will be ready momentarily. Do you know how long you will be staying with us?" The woman's eyes drifted over at Peter in confusion, but she didn't ask any questions about him.
Tony gently set Peter down on one of the beds in the suite they had been given. The child moved to lay down on his stomach, eyes drooping and thumb still in his mouth. The billionaire sat on the nearby couch with a groaning sigh. What a day this has been. He had thought for sure that everything would get better when he got to the Bahamas, though he didn't count on Pepper not being here when he arrived. Now I got to figure out what's the best thing for me to do now…
Something suddenly came over the genius billionaire after having that thought. He stared at the child lying on the bed, cheeks flushed red against his pale skin, mucus running from his pink little nose, having a small coughing fit every five minutes or so. What he had just thought didn't sit right in his mind as she stared at the sickly child, and it took him a moment to figure out why. It was because he had thought- what's the best thing for me to do. The man suddenly realized how selfish he had been since the kid had first dropped into his life. First it had been needing the kid to help him deal with the rogue Avengers. Then it was all about how he had to go out of his way to clean up the kid's messes.
And it had gotten even worse when the suddenly showed up pint sized, asking for help. It was still about how him getting on the plane for his vacation, and wanting to fix his relationship with his fiancé. He had been thinking about nothing but himself the last few days. Even when the kid he was mentoring, the kid he was supposed to be helping and supporting, comes to him with a problem he can't fix on his own, it's still all about Tony Stark. In some ways that made him just as bad as his own father.
This line of thought sent him spiraling into a pity party about how he ruins everything he touches, and how he didn't deserve Peter or Pepper and should have never touched them in the first place. Then something Rhodey once told him came to the front of his mind. "You don't have to be like your dad Tony. You can choose not to be like him. That's really all it comes down to- a choice. A choice on whether or not you're going to follow in your father's footsteps. But you can't keep blaming Howard for all your faults. Eventually you got to take responsibility for yourself."
Tony glanced back over at the child as he had rolled over onto his back and was coughing into his elbow. He could start making the better choice now, and he changed that thought to. Now it's time to figure out what's the best thing to do for Peter. The kid was obviously sick now, so it was probably best to wait until he was feeling better before flying back to New York. Peter suddenly sat up in the bed, and moved to crawl off of it. "What's up bud?" Tony asked him.
"I need to go potty…" the child mumbled and than headed towards the bathroom once he got his unsteady feet on the floor.
The billionaire watched the kid with raised eyebrows, wondering if the little spider realized he just used a very childish term for bathroom. He didn't dwell on that wonder however, and went back to unfamiliar mental exercise of thinking about someone else before himself. The first person he ever did that with was Pepper, and to be honest he didn't need to do it very much because it was usually her taking care of him. Now he had someone else relying on him. It was a strange feeling having someone rely on him, a heavyweight of responsibility he usually didn't feel. He was now responsible for a sick child. What to do?
Soup! The billionaire suddenly remembered his mental rambling from earlier. He could order some room service for the two of them. With this plan in mind, Tony began looking around the room for the room service menu. It had to be around here somewhere. He found the laminated paper on at table in the suite kitchen. That should have been his first place to look. Just as he was glancing down at the list of soups, he heard the boy's voice calling for him. "Mr. Stark!"
The voice was timid but didn't sound hurt or scared, so Tony didn't feel the need to rush towards the bathroom with his armor ready. He still walked in a quick pace until he saw the bright blue eyes peeking out from behind the bathroom door. "Yeah what is it kid?"
The child's cheeks which had already been flushed with sickness turned a deeper shade of red.
"I… I need help... With the diaper…"
Tony couldn't help but hope that he wasn't about to walk into the bathroom that was covered with feces, but still walked over to the where the kid stood without hesitation. He was thankful that the child wasn't covered in his own waste, he was naked from the waist down however. The diaper he had been wearing looked both clean and dry still, and was laying on the bathroom floor. It was obviously now that the child only needed help getting it back on, and Tony was grateful that was all it was. He picked up the diaper off the ground and seeing that there was no room on the bathroom counter, and there was no way he'd be getting down on the floor with his back, he said. "Come on, we'll it on over here."
The two walked into one of the bedrooms, and Tony lifted Peter up into the bed and laid him down on his back. Becoming familiar with the routine Peter lifted his legs up on his own, and Tony took this moment to examine how the kid's rash was faring. It was still an angry red color, but the blisters seemed to have gone down significantly, which meant that at least the billionaire was doing something right. "Let's get some of the the rash cream on," he told the child and walked away to go find it.
Tony didn't really remember where he exactly put the cream, so he spent a good five minutes digging through pockets, before finally finding it in the bag he packed for Peter. The child was lying flat on the bed again, completely lost in his toddler instincts, as the thumb was back in his mouth and free hand twirling around his brown locks, a sleepy expression on his face. What was going on in the kid's head while he was lost in toddler mind. The billionaire took a moment to really look at the child's face. The spiderling had glanced up at Tony's face when he reappeared and what Tony saw in his child's blue eyes almost frightened him.
It was affectionate love. The type of love you have when your looking at a parent or a parent figure. Tony had never felt parental love towards either of his parents, but he had when Jarvis was still alive and taking care of him. Was this the look he gave Jarvis as a little boy? Even though such an affectionate look scared him, he also felt a pool of warmth fill his chest, and it felt so good it was almost worth the fear that resigned inside of him. Tony did not know what suddenly came over him, but the next thing he knew he was leaning down and planting a gentle kiss on the child's forehead. Peter's hand that had been mindlessly twirling around his locks of hair, moved down to run through the man's beard. Brown eyes stared into the loving blue ones, and Tony suddenly realized that he was ok with this. The man was now filled with a feeling that he only felt around his beloved Pepper. It was slightly different though. Was this what parental love felt like?
The two stared at each other another moment until a look of recognition passed through the child's eyes, and he quickly popped the thumb out of his mouth. With a pang, Tony realized that teenage Peter had returned. A sigh fell from the man's' lips, but was that of disappointment? Tony tucked the child's legs so they were pressed against his belly again, and began applying the rash cream into the child's tender red skin. He applied more baby powder before quickly putting the diaper back on. "All right," Tony gently smacked the boy's diapered backside in an affectate way. "Go get your pants back on. I'm going to order us some food."
Peter slipped off the bed, and headed back towards the bathroom. "I'm not really hungry Mr. Stark…" he mumbled over his shoulder.
Another sigh escaped out of Tony's lips. They were back to Mr. Stark again. He couldn't believe that he was admitting it, but at the moment he would have preferred 'dad' over Mr. Stark. Seriously, when was the kid going to cut it with the Mr. Stark crap. He let it slide since he was still a bit disoriented by the affectionate moment they shared, but he did plan on breaking that kid of the habit. "I know your feeling like shit kid, but honestly not eating isn't going to make you feel better," the billionaire called back and headed back into the suite kitchen to look at the menu again.
Discouragement settled into the man's chest as he realized that there weren't many gluten free options. In fact not a single meal appeared to be completely gluten free, let alone the soups. This would be so much easier if Pepper had been here. Why did she have to leave without waiting for him. Why wasn't she returning his calls. He hadn't yet left her any voice messages, and debated briefly on calling her one more time and leaving an apology message, and explaining everything. But no… maybe he was falling back into selfishness again, but if she was going to throw a hissy fit without given him a chance to explain himself, then she didn't deserve to find out over voice message.
Just when he was thinking that he'd have to settle on ordering the child fresh fruit, he saw a note on the bottom of the menu that said, "Ask about gluten free options." This certainly looked promising; Tony picked up the hotel phone and pushed the button that would call for room service. The line on the other end rang two times before a lady's cheerful voice answered. "Room service, what can I get started for you today?"
"Yes… thanks. Do you have any soups that are gluten free?" Tony decided to cut right to the punch. The sooner they both ate, the sooner they could both hit the hay. It was painfully obvious that they both needed to turn in early tonight.
"Our vegetable soup is gluten free if you don't eat the crackers that come with it."
The billionaire frowned at hearing this. He really hoped that there was no green beans in the soup, as the kid had thrown a fit the last time he tried to serve him vegetables, which happened to be green beans. But the kid was gluten free now, and couldn't afford to be choosy, so Tony just hummed in approval. "That sounds good, I'll take an order of that and hold the crackers."
"Would that be all for you sir?" the lady asked after a pause, probably to write it down.
"Um… no, hold on." Tony glanced back over at the menu, deciding what to get for himself. He was pretty hungry, so he decided on the steak dinner for himself.
"All right sir, we'll have that all ready and delivered up to your room in about twenty minutes."
Tony thanked her and hung up the phone. He noticed Peter stumbling into the kitchen at that moment, looking pale and flushed, bark like coughs falling from his lips. Hearing this made the man frown deeply, "That cough doesn't sound too good." The first thing that came to his mind when he thought about childhood illness and a bad cough was whooping cough. Then it jumped to all the commercials and ads about vaccinations and how many children die from whooping cough every year, and how this is preventable by getting the vaccine. Tony didn't know if the kid had been vaccinated from whooping cough. "Did you get all your vaccinations as a baby?" the man asked suddenly.
The child blinked in confusion for a moment. "Um… I don't know. I think I did."
Tony wasn't at all convinced by that response and was soon sitting on the couch, phone in hand, looking up the symptoms of whooping cough. Peter had crawled up onto the couch next to him. Tony had given him his Starkpad to play games on, and he was currently leaning his back against the billionaire on the couch. What Tony was reading online did nothing to help him feel better. Scary words and phrases stood out like, seizures, rib fractures and pneumothorax. The main symptoms of whooping cough that are usually the first signs are runny nose, fever, and cough. Tony was already aware of the runny nose and cough. He hadn't really been paying attention to how warm the child's body temperature was but he assumed that the kid probably had a fever also going by his flushed cheeks.
By the time the man set his phone down, he had no more doubts that the boy had developed whooping cough and would soon be on death's doorstep. Tony glanced down at the little spider, who had let out another harsh cough that sounded terrible. Was that what the whooping sounded like? He had never been around anyone with the disease, so he wasn't sure what it actually sounded like. The man unexpectedly wrapped his arms around the child and brought him up close into his chest. "Mr. Stark?" Peter asked, confusion in his voice.
Bringing a hand up to run over the child's face, Tony attempted to check for a fever. The kid might have felt warmer than usual… he'd need a thermometer to know for sure. He felt the child squirm in his embrace, and the man held him tighter. "It's going to be ok kid…" Tony said trying not to sound choked up but he was terrified right now. The kid had a life threatening illness and he had no idea what to do about it. "I promise we-we're going to make it through this…"
Before Peter had the chance to respond to this, a knock on the door made them both turn their heads towards the sound. "Room service!" someone on the other side of the door called out.
Sorry about the lack of fluff in this chapter. This was more of a transition chapter, that got the characters to where they needed to be for the next thing I have planned. I'm really excited for next chapter. Get ready for sick Peter and all the fluff that comes with it.
With the Holidays fast approaching, things are getting busier for me. I'm going to try and keep up with updating at least once a week, but I might not always be on my every five day update schedule. Or my chapters might just start getting shorter. Haven't decided yet. But no worries 10 chapters in and I'm still going strong. That is only because your all your nice reviews. So I want to thank each and every one of you that has reviewed on this fic. You are truly the only reason I've made it this far.
