Peter's mouth was bone dry. Like he'd been lost in the desert. It was the first thing he noticed when a flicker of consciousness returned. The second thing he noticed was his uncomfortable position. He was sitting upright with his head hanging forward on his chest and he couldn't move his arms or legs. He was tied up.

His eyes snapped open.

"Hey boss, sleeping beauty's awake." A somewhat familiar voice said.

He squinted and tried to take stock of his surroundings. His head pounded in time with his heartbeat and the light bored into his skull. His stomach rolled unhappily. What had happened?

He caught sight of a blonde man sitting in a chair in the corner of the room, legs crossed and looking bored. Oh. That's right. That asshole had kidnapped him.

Peter looked down and saw he sat in a metal chair with his feet cuffed together and his wrists cuffed together behind the seat back. He used all his strength to try to tug his arms apart. The cuffs didn't break. They only ended up cutting into his wrists and making him wince in pain.

"Those cuffs are vibranium." A new voice from behind him stated. "Quite unbreakable. Even for you."

A grey haired man walked into his field of vision. "…Spiderman."

His stomach dropped. He thought about playing dumb or denying it, but he figured at this point it was useless.

He licked his lips, trying to create some kind of moisture, before he asked, "Who are you?"

"You don't know who I am?" The man chuckled and Peter wanted nothing more than to wipe the smirk off his face. "What are they teaching you kids in school these days?"

Peter's brow furrowed. He didn't get it.

"Really?" The man prompted as he stood a couple feet in front of Peter with his hands comfortably in his pockets. "You really don't know?"

Peter studied him for a few seconds. Maybe he looked sort of familiar but he couldn't place him. He shook his head.

"Hmm. I'm surprised Stark hasn't mentioned me. Or any of his other groupies." The man mused and the blonde guy in the corner of the room, who'd said his name was Mike, snorted in amusement.

"Maybe because you're only important in your own mind." Peter snarked.

"I can assure you that's not true." The man chuckled patronizingly again. "I'm the Secretary of State young man."

Peter's eyes widened. "You're General Ross."

"Ah so you have heard of me." The man smirked again and cocked his head to one side as he studied Peter.

A small spark of fear ignited within him. He didn't know the details of the recent Accords drama, but he knew enough to understand this was the man that wasn't afraid to go toe to toe with the Avengers.

"I know you're not a good guy." He added.

"And who told you that? The Avengers?" Ross sneered.

Peter lifted his chin up confidently in the air as he answered, "My dad."

"Your dad?" Ross frowned for a second before realization dawned in his eyes. "You mean Stark?"

Peter swallowed hard and didn't answer. Maybe he shouldn't have called Tony that in front of Ross.

"That's cute. You call him dad." Ross smirked then added ominously, "Good."

His heart started pounding at the predatory look Ross gave him, like he was a piece of meat waiting to be seasoned and roasted up.

Peter narrowed his eyes at the man, trying to make it evident how much he detested him.

"What do you want from me?" He asked, glad the question came out strong instead of shaky like he felt.

"And I thought you were supposed to be smart." Ross arched an eyebrow at him before answering, "From you? Nothing. You're leverage."

Peter kept glaring.

"So far, Stark and his groupies have refused to agree to my new terms for the Accords, but this way, now that I have you, they'll have no choice."

Peter scoffed. "Yeah right."

"No? You don't think so?" Ross asked. "Not even to save your life?"

"They'd probably be glad to be rid of me. I'm just some annoying kid they feel obligated to keep around." Peter bluffed, even though it hurt to say the words. A small secret part of him worried they might hold a semblance of truth, especially after how furious Tony had been with the whole hacking FRIDAY incident. What if his dad decided he was more trouble than he was worth and didn't want him anymore? What if they actually left him here with this psycho?

"Nice try. I could almost believe you if I hadn't done my research, if I hadn't had Mike watching you for the past month." Ross said, confirming Peter's theory that his spider sense had been tingling over the past month for that exact reason.

"That's creepy." Peter interjected.

"And if I hadn't seen that the Avengers didn't even hesitate to violate their probation to save you when I released that robot right outside your school." Ross continued. "That makes me think they'll do whatever I ask to get you back."

"You sent the robot?" Peter asked in surprise.

"I did. But it almost backfired on me. It was only supposed to put you in enough danger to get the Avengers in the field before committee approval. It wasn't supposed to come so close to actually killing you. The covalent coating I put on it, the one that repels your webs, the one I had my scientists specially figure out, might have been a bit too much. I almost lost my biggest bargaining chip…but it seems like it all worked out in the end." Ross said with a shrug and another disturbing smile.

"You're crazy." Peter accused.

"I'm just a man that's not afraid to do what needs to be done for the greater good." Ross said haughtily.

"This isn't for the greater good." Peter argued.

"It is. I wouldn't expect you to know about it, being a child and all-"

"A child you kidnapped." Peter interrupted, not enjoying referring to himself as a child, but willing to try whatever it took to get free, even if it meant appealing to whatever shred of humanity that might remain in a man like Ross.

"-but the Accords are vital for maintaining the safety of the American people and the world." Ross continued, completely ignoring Peter's comment. "The Avengers think they know better than us, better than the people trained to make these decisions. They think they should get to decide when and where to intervene and they don't care about who gets hurt or what gets destroyed in the process."

"That's not true." Peter denied.

"It is." Ross insisted. "You just don't know any better."

Peter rolled his eyes. "Pretty sure it doesn't take a genius to see that what you're doing right now is way worse than anything the Avengers have ever done."

"You're wrong." Ross dismissed him. "And it's not even worth arguing with you about it. They already have you brainwashed."

"I'm not brainwashed. And you're going to be sorry you took me." Peter threatened, righteous anger lending fire to the words. "They're not called the Avengers for nothing."

"We'll see." Ross said, obviously not worried or intimidated by the fact that the Avengers would be after him.

Ross took a few steps back before turning toward Mike. The blonde man had remained silent throughout the entire exchange. Peter had almost forgotten he was there.

"Rough him up a little." Ross ordered. "I don't want his face to be too pretty when Stark calls. He might need a little motivation."

"You got it boss." Mike smiled and cracked his knuckles as he made his way toward Peter.

Peter steeled himself for what was coming but figured it couldn't be too bad. A baseline human couldn't do any real damage to him with his bare fists.

Almost as if he heard that exact thought, Mike pulled out a pair of iron knuckles from his pockets and put them on. Ok not as good. Peter swallowed hard and tried to crane away as Mike ambled in closer.

As Ross watched, Mike stopped right in front of him and pulled his fist back. Peter's spider sense flared, anticipating the blow, but there was nowhere for him to go. The hit landed square on his left cheek and his head snapped to the right. Ow. Shit. He couldn't help the small surprised gasp that escaped. That had hurt. Was this guy enhanced or just perfectly trained in throwing a punch?

"Sorry kid." Ross said, looking anything but sorry. Peter hated hearing one of his favorite nicknames come from the asshole's lips. "It's nothing personal."

It sure as hell felt personal.

The Mike guy drew back again and landed another blow, this time to his right jaw. One of his teeth cut into inside of his cheek and his mouth instantly filled with blood. Ouch. Instead of swallowing it, Peter spat it right back out into Mike's face, much to the amusement of Ross who let out a surprised laugh. Mike paused to wipe the blood from his face with a disgusted look before turning furious eyes back on Peter.

"I'll give it to you kid. You've got spunk." Ross said and then walked out of the empty room before Peter had a chance to say anything back.

Mike's next punch landed right in his solarplex and his chest seized up and he couldn't breathe for a few long seconds. Then the blows rained down and Mike proceeded to beat the living crap out of him.

He had no choice but to admit that purposefully antagonizing the man might have been a slight error in judgment.

He couldn't move. He had no chance to evade. And it hurt.

He tried to stay strong, but he wanted to go home.

He wanted his dad.

"We'll figure it out together. We beat him once. We can do it again." Steve said, answering Tony's question of how they'd get Peter back. "He's not as smart as he thinks he is. That's his weakness. We all just need to put our heads together."

"Steve's right. Tony, stop panicking and think." Natasha said as she stepped forward to kneel in front of him. "You need to pull yourself together if we're going to save Peter."

The tough love was exactly what he needed.

"Ok. Right. Ok." He mumbled to himself and tried to do what Natasha said, and think. He closed his eyes and took a few centering breaths. He could do this. What did he need to do first?

"FRIDAY." He said suddenly as the thought came to him. "Track Peter's phone."

"Yes boss." FRIDAY acknowledged and then seconds later added, "Peter's phone is currently located in an alley in Midtown. According to my records, it has remained at this location since 3:07PM."

"They dumped it." Clint said.

"Of course they did." Natasha said a second later. "But we still need to check it out."

"Yeah." Clint agreed.

"You two go. Let us know what you find." Steve said, taking command of the situation.

"I'm going too." Tony said abruptly as he stood.

"No Tony." Steve grabbed his shoulder. "You should stay."

"I'm not staying." He said coldly and shrugged Steve's hand off. "My kid's in trouble."

Steve stared at him for a couple beats before he gave in with a soft sigh. "Fine. We'll all go then."

"Damn right." Clint nodded and everyone in the room, which included Tony, Steve, Nat, Clint, and Bruce, headed down to the garage.

The drive to the location took place in tense, stilted silence. When they arrived, Clint and Natasha were somehow the first ones out, sprinting into the desolate alley. Tony was right behind them. They didn't find Peter, not that he'd realistically expected to, but they found Peter's backpack lying next to a dumpster.

Nat picked it up and cursorily looked it over before she handed it to Tony. At least there wasn't any outward evidence on it that Peter had been harmed. No blood or rips. No evidence of a struggle. Tony wasn't sure if that was better or worse.

He opened it and rifled through it. It was heavy, filled with his kid's textbooks and notebooks. He found Peter's phone wedged in the front zipper pocket.

"Shit." Tony swore. He had no other way of tracking the kid. He took a few panicked breaths. He had no way of finding his son. Why had he never considered this scenario before? He should've thought of something in advance. Should've planned for this. Should've had some kind of back up tracker on him.

"Now what?" Clint asked what they were all thinking.

Tony's brain remained frozen as he clutched his son's backpack in front of him like it was something precious. God, he couldn't think. He could barely keep from falling apart.

"We need to get back to the Tower." Nat said. "One of the city cameras might've caught the license plate from here. If we can figure that out, we might be able to track the vehicle and figure out where they took him."

That…was actually a great idea. Tony couldn't believe he hadn't thought of it. Apparently the whole emotionally comprised thing was really a thing.

They climbed back into the car. Tony hugged Peter's backpack against his chest, wishing it was his actual kid instead of some inanimate object.

"We need to get the rest of the team together." Steve said as they drove back to the Tower. They were in Tony's Audi, but they hadn't let him drive. Nat sat in the driver's seat, Clint next to her with Steve and Bruce sandwiching Tony between them in the back.

"Shouldn't be too hard." Clint said. "I think everyone's at the Tower for once."

"And we need to figure why Ross would take Peter. What he wants with him." Steve said, thinking out loud.

"I know what he wants." Tony mumbled, still only half listening to the conversation around him as he stared numbly at Peter's backpack.

"What?" Bruce asked, eyes wide behind his glasses.

"He called me last night and threatened me. He knew that we'd come to an agreement with the UN and that we were set to sign on Monday." Tony recited the facts in an uncharacteristic monotone. "He said I'd be sorry if we didn't chuck the new amendments and agree to his proposed changes instead. I blew him off. I thought he was full of shit. I didn't think… I didn't know he knew who Peter was… I didn't know he knew about Peter at all or I would've…"

He rubbed his eyes and ran a hand down his face. Why hadn't he made that connection? Why hadn't he even considered the possibility that Ross's threat could've had something to do with his son?

"Don't beat yourself up Tony. None of us knew." Steve tried to comfort him, giving his shoulder a bolstering squeeze. "None of us could've anticipated this."

"I should've." Tony said scathingly. Besides the gut churning worry for Peter, there was a spark of self hatred. That was his job as a father. To anticipate things like this. To keep Peter safe. And he'd failed. He hadn't kept his kid safe. He'd let him get snatched.

He'd been messing up left and right lately. First, Peter had been beaten nearly to death by a robot, one that Ross had apparently sent. And then he hadn't even realized his kid had hacked his AI and had been sneaking out under his nose to be Spiderman. And boy had he yelled at him for it. His breath caught. What if that conversation ended up being last thing he ever said to his son? Oh god. He really was a horrible father.

"No. Ross is crazy." Bruce added from his other side. "That's not your fault."

Tony scoffed and tugged as his hair in frustration. "I let some psycho grab my kid. How is that not my fault?"

"It's not Tony." Bruce insisted. "And we're going to figure it out. We're going to get Peter back."

Tony wished he had his friend's confidence.

"And when we do, that fucker's going to pay." Clint added from the front seat. "I call dibs."

"Not if I get to him first." Nat said.

"If he harms one hair on my kid's head, I'm going to kill him." Tony stated as a matter of fact. He would too. With no guilt or regret.

"As long as you don't make it too quick." Clint said. "Make sure he suffers first."

He expected Steve to reprimand them or to say they couldn't actually kill the man, but he stayed conspicuously silent.

A heavy silence settled in the car. Tony stared out the window as they drove the rest of the way back to the Tower. He tried to focus on the cityscape out the window instead of dwelling on all the terrible possibilities that could result from Ross having his kid.

It didn't work.

"I can't believe we have nothing else to go on." Clint complained in frustration.

FRIDAY had hacked into the city's surveillance system but they'd still ended up with nothing. They'd only been able to get a partial of the limo's plate, not enough to go on. Even so, they'd managed to track the limo through the streets until it'd left the city limits, but then there hadn't been enough cameras to follow its path and they'd lost it.

They'd hit a dead end.

"Dammit." Tony swore.

"Now what do we do?" Scott asked. He'd been particularly sympathetic since he had his own kid and could empathize with what Tony was going through.

The Avengers looked at each other from where they all stood gathered in Tony's workshop, holograms with various information littered throughout the air between them.

"Now we need a plan B." Rhodey suggested.

"Yeah?" Tony snapped at his friend, suddenly irrationally angry. "And what's that going to be? Huh? Should we try to snap our heels together three times and hope we get magically teleported to Peter?"

"It will do us no good to fight amongst ourselves." Vision reminded them diplomatically.

Tony let out a puff of air and ran a hand through his hair in agitation. He knew Vision was right but he couldn't help but feel frustrated at their inability to find his kid. His intense worry had manifested with a hair trigger temper.

"I hate to say it but I think you need to call Ross." Steve said with his own sigh.

"And how's that going to help us?" Tony asked angrily.

"Maybe he'll slip up and say something we can use to find Peter. At this point, it can't hurt. We have nothing else to go on." Steve explained.

"I don't know." Nat added her two cents. "If we call him, the ball's in his court. Right now he doesn't know that we know he has Peter. It gives us an advantage."

"An advantage we could use if we actually knew something, but we don't." Clint argued.

"And what's calling him going to give us? Nothing." Nat said. "We know what he wants and we can't agree to it."

"Can't we?" Rhodey said.

They all looked at him in disbelief. To be fair, it was a solution even Tony himself hadn't voiced.

"What?" Rhodey scoffed at them. "You think if there's no other option I wouldn't be wiling to give up some of our autonomy if it means saving Peter? Because I would."

Tony swallowed hard. He would too of course, but it was a sentiment he didn't think the other Avengers would share.

"You're right, but that's our worst case scenario." Steve said with a nod.

Really? Tony's worst case scenario was not getting Peter back at all.

"But we're all agreed, if it's a choice between getting Peter back safely or defying Ross, we choose Peter." Rhodey said.

"Of course."

"Yeah."

"No shit."

The soft chorus of agreements echoed around the room, and Tony felt his heart swell at what his team was willing to do for his son. To give up for his son.

"Let's just hope it doesn't come to that." Wanda said and they all nodded.

"Ok." Tony said slightly breathlessly. "So I'm calling him?"

"Call him." Steve agreed in his command voice, and Tony pulled his phone out with a nervous exhale.

He didn't actually have Ross's personal number but he had the number for his secretary. He eyed the screen for a long few seconds before typing in the number.

"FRIDAY, once I'm connected to Ross, try to trace the call." He ordered as the phone started ringing.

"Of course boss." FRIDAY responded.

A man answered on the second ring. "Secretary Ross's office. This is Andrew speaking."

"Yeah this is Tony Stark. I need to talk to Ross." Tony snapped.

"Ah yes Mr. Stark, the Secretary has been expecting your call." The man said cheerily, not at all affected by Tony's obvious anger. "Please hold for a moment while I forward you to his personal phone."

Tony clenched his jaw and waited as the phone started ringing.

"Stark." Ross greeted and Tony could hear the undisguised glee in his voice. "I have to admit, you're calling me earlier than I expected."

"You took something of mine and I'd like him back." Tony said.

Ross hummed. "I warned you, didn't I? You chose not to listen, so now this is the way it has to be."

"This isn't a joke." Tony ground out. "Give me the kid back."

"The kid? Don't you mean your kid?" Ross taunted. "I think I heard him calling for his dad earlier. That's you, isn't it?"

Tony paled at that image even though he was sure Ross was bluffing.

"I swear to god if you've hurt one hair on his head, I'm going to kill you."

Ross chuckled. "I don't think you're really in the position to be making threats Tony. Remember, I have your son."

"What do you want?"

"You know what I want. You and the Avengers need to agree to my proposals. Once it's official, you'll get your kid back." Ross said.

"I want to talk to him." Tony demanded.

"I'll do one better. I'll let you see him." Ross offered and a second later his phone was asking his approval to switch to video mode. He thumbed the button to accept it even though he wasn't sure yet why Ross was letting him see Peter.

The video of Ross on the other end shook and Tony could tell he was walking somewhere. The sound of door opening transmitted over the speaker and then Ross was talking, but not to Tony, "I have someone here that wants to talk to you. Say hi to dear old dad."

The screen flipped and then Tony laid eyes on his kid restrained in a chair.

"D-dad." Peter stuttered and Tony had never experienced such fiery rage and icy fear simultaneously before. His son's left eye was bruised and swollen and a trickle of blood ran out both nostrils and down the corner of his mouth. And that was only what he could see. Someone had obviously beat him up, probably while he was tied to the chair and unable to defend himself.

"Hey buddy." Tony said calmly even though inside he was anything but. He needed to do whatever he could to reassure his kid. "You doing all right?"

"Y-yeah I'm ok. Don't worry about me." Peter tried to be strong but the slight tremor in his voice gave him away. Tony could tell he was scared.

"Hey I want you to listen to me. Everything's going to be all right, ok?" Tony said.

"Ok." Peter whispered back but Tony didn't think he believed him.

"You'll be home soon. I promise."

Peter nodded then asked him with wide eyes, "A-are you mad?"

"Not at you kiddo."

"I-I'm sorry for getting grabbed." Peter mumbled miserably. God this kid would be the death of him. Here he was bleeding and captured and he was apologizing when it was Tony's fault for not keeping him safe.

"No don't apologize for that. It's not your fault. There's nothing for you to be sorry for. And it's going to be ok. I promise. Do you believe me?" Tony said.

"Y-yeah I believe you." Peter nodded, then continued, "But just in case…I want you to know I…I really am sorry about the whole s-sneaking out thing."

"I know buddy. It's ok. I forgive you. Don't worry about that right now. We'll have plenty of time to talk about it later." Tony reassured.

"This has been touching and all," Ross drawled, interrupting them, "but it's time to say good-bye. Daddy and I need to finish discussing our terms."

Ross switched the phone back to audio only before Peter or Tony had a chance to say anything else.

"You know my terms Stark." Ross said. "If you want your kid back in one piece I suggest you get to work."

Now that he knew Peter couldn't hear him, Tony lost it. "You piece of shit! I'm going to fucking kill you! You're a dead man! You hear me? A dead man!"

"You have 24 hours." Ross said, unphased by the outburst.

"Are you kidding me? 24 hours? It's Friday night. Even if I wanted to, there's no way I could get all the key people together to get the Accords changed in that timeframe."

"You're Tony Stark. I'm sure you can figure it out." Ross countered. "And you better, for your kid's sake."

Ross hung up with that warning, so Tony didn't get a chance to further scream out his frustration at him.

"Fuck." He spat as the line disconnected. He stared at his phone as if it somehow held the key to finding Peter.

"Unable to trace the call boss." Even FRIDAY sounded sad.

No one said anything. Tony glanced around and saw his own emotions reflected on the faces of his teammates. Anger, fear, uncertainty.

"So now what do we do?" Sam was the one that finally broke the heavy silence.

No one had the answer.

Peter shivered. He was still stuck in the hard metal chair in nothing but jeans and a t-shirt, and whatever type of building he was in clearly didn't have adequate heating. His surroundings didn't do any better of a job at helping him feel cozy. The windowless room he was stuck in was fairly well sized with bare walls and a cement floor. If he had to guess, he'd bet he was in some sort of underground bunker. Or maybe some interior room of a warehouse. The memory of Toomes causing a building to crash on top of him suddenly surfaced. He closed his eyes and gave his head a little shake. Stupid stupid. Don't think about warehouses right now.

His body gave another shiver, partially from the added adrenaline of the memory and partially from the cold.

"Come on Spiderman." He mumbled to himself in agitation before he took a bolstering breath and used all his strength to jerk at his cuffed hands. It was probably the hundredth time he'd tried it and his wrists burned from all the self abuse. Like all the other times before, the cuffs stayed firmly locked in place. He let out a small frustrated growl. At least no one was around to hear it. Ross and his lackey had left shorty after Tony's phone call and they hadn't come back since.

He thought it'd been several hours since they'd left but it might've just seemed that long because of the boredom and discomfort. The cold, along with the distracting throbbing of his body from his impromptu beating, made it hard to focus and keep an accurate track of time.

He vaguely wondered if the two men planned to come back at all or if he'd be stuck here alone until Tony did what Ross wanted. He wasn't sure if being left alone would be better or worse. Probably better, but he'd kind of hoped they'd let him out of this stupid chair at some point so he could get a little more comfortable and maybe lay down.

But right now it didn't look like that was going to happen. Good thing he didn't have to pee. Although now that he thought about it, he'd definitely been here for hours and Ross hadn't given him anything to drink. Or eat. He was kind of hungry, and the slight thick headedness he'd attributed to getting smacked around was more likely from the lack of nutrients. Crap. He wondered if Ross had any plans to feed or water him. He scoffed. Probably not. Great. That would make escape that much harder. Not that he had any wonderful ideas on that front at the moment anyway.

He licked his lips as another shiver ran through him. What would Tony do? Not just sit around and wait helplessly for someone else to rescue him. He'd think of something.

"Think Peter. Think." He whispered to himself as he looked around the room, trying to think of something. Anything. His mind drew a blank like all the other times he'd tried to come up with something. He couldn't even get the chair to budge. It seemed to be anchored into the ground, probably with vibranium if Peter couldn't move it. He wondered how Ross had gotten so much of the supposedly impossible to obtain element. Regardless, he was definitely good and stuck at the moment.

So, if his dad were in this position, what would he do? Peter sighed. Probably bide his time and wait for an opportune moment. Or, more realistically, he'd probably already have some hidden tech on him that would help him get free. Peter wasn't so lucky. He didn't even have any spare change in his pockets.

It almost hurt to think about Tony, he ached for him so badly. He couldn't believe he'd screwed up again and let himself get nabbed so soon after disappointing his dad by sneaking out. But at least Tony hadn't seemed too mad when they'd talked. Worried, but not mad. Peter wondered if that would change if he got him back. When he got him back. Because his dad was Tony Stark. Ironman. There was no way he wouldn't kick this Ross guy's ass.

He just hoped his dad would hurry it up. His position wasn't all that comfortable and Ross and his thug made him anxious. He wasn't sure what they'd do to him, since they clearly had no qualms about kidnapping him for blackmail.

He really wanted to go home. He didn't even care that he was super grounded. Once he got back, he didn't think he'd have any desire to leave the Tower anytime soon anyway.

He shifted around in the chair to try to find a more comfortable position to close his eyes. Maybe if he could sleep, the time would pass faster, and when he woke up, Tony would be there and this would all be in the past like some bad dream.

Time continued to pass, but between the uncomfortable position, the cold, his aching body, his hunger, and his thirst, he couldn't fall asleep. He tried letting his head hang, craning it back, resting it on his shoulder, but nothing worked. Whenever he was exhausted enough to just about drift off, something would awaken him. The cold, or his stomach, or a painful twinge.

He groaned in frustration as his head jerked up again when a whole body shudder ran through him. It had to almost be morning by now, but he hadn't gotten a wink of sleep. He guessed he could add sleep deprivation to his list of tortures from his captors. He couldn't remember the last time he'd been so miserable.

He kept trying to sleep in vain as time kept ticking away.

Several hours later, he'd almost finally nodded off when his stomach growled loudly. He opened his eyes with a defeated sigh. Based on the gaping pit in his stomach, he guessed it had to be well after lunch time. Ross still hadn't been back, and Peter hadn't been presented with any opportunities for escape. Occasional shivers had long ago turned into constant trembling from the cold. Man, he'd love a blanket right about now. Or food. Or some water. Or a rescue. A rescue would be great.

Where was his dad?

A/N: Thanks you so much again for all your amazing reviews! Let me know what you thought of this chapter!