His stomach woke him, finally.

Peter opened his eyes and looked around, tiredly. The light in the room was dimmed to minimal amounts, giving him the impression that it was probably late, even though there were no windows to confirm that hypothesis one way or the other. He didn't need a lot of light, though, and was able to see Tony sleeping in the bed near his own, blankets tucked up to his armpits and his head turned toward Peter, allowing the boy to see the bruises and small cuts on his face.

Nothing too serious, Peter decided, but evidence enough that he hadn't escaped from the explosions unharmed.

Peter's eyes moved, even though the rest of him didn't, and he saw Pepper sitting in the chair between their beds. She wasn't asleep. Her feet were propped up on the edge of Tony's bed, and her ever present laptop was resting on her thighs, providing Peter the light to see by, and illuminating her face in the near darkness. She was turned just enough by the position of her feet that he could see the display on the laptop and saw it was a search engine result for the metal vibranium.

He'd never heard of the stuff until the man holding the gun on Shuri had mentioned it, but he knew what it was, now. Not by looking it up – he hadn't been in any condition the last four days to really think of anything – but because the Mind stone had pulled the knowledge from T'Challa and Shuri's memories and had willingly shared them with Peter just then. He hadn't had a lot of time to process that, or even really consider it, but he knew it was a metal and that it was extremely useful and not at all common. Which also made it valuable.

Peter shifted in the bed, causing the cloak to shift with him. It was humming cheerfully in his mind, pleased that he was awake and not so distracted by the pain as he had been the few other times that he'd been awake. He winced as a different kind of pain shot through his chest and his stomach, but he bit back the grunt of pain that tried to force its way from him.

Pepper must have heard the mattress move when he did, or maybe the sound of the bedding. Or maybe she just had that maternal instinct, now, that let her know he was awake. Whatever it was, she turned her head toward him and smiled when she saw his eyes open. She set the still open laptop on the bed beside Tony's sleeping form and sat up a little more, but didn't stand. Her hand came to his forehead, and slid along the cheek that wasn't against his pillows.

"Hi, sweetheart," she whispered, unwilling to wake Tony if she could avoid it.

"Hi, Pepper."

His voice was a mere whisper, too, but only because his throat felt sore and raspy.

"How do you feel?"

"My stomach hurts."

"I know. It's getting better, though, I promise you."

He gave her a tired smile.

"Not that," he said. "That hurts, too, but I'm hungry…"

Pepper smiled, too.

"That's probably a good sign," she told him, gently. "I think that we should probably wait to feed you anything until Stephen has a chance to look at you, though."

"Is he here?"

The cloak was, after all.

"Somewhere. He's been short on sleep, lately, so hopefully he's getting some rest." Her hand brushed his hair back from his forehead. "Can you wait a little while, or should I find a different doctor to ask?"

"I can wait." His gaze went to Tony. "Is he okay?"

"He's just sleeping. They're planning to let him out of bed tomorrow, I think. But he might refuse to go, so he can stay and keep you company."

"That doesn't make much sense," Peter whispered. "He can visit me without being stuck here."

"Maybe you can tell him that, okay?"

"Okay."

"How are you?" he asked, catching her hand with his and holding it against his side. He realized he didn't have a shirt on, but he was swathed with bandages, because he couldn't feel the touch against his skin. "They let you go?"

"Two days ago," she confirmed. "I'm fine. Just a little sore when I wake up."

"But you're here…"

"Someone needs to keep an eye on Tony," she told him with a smile. "To keep him out of trouble if he wakes up."

He had a feeling she was there for him, though, more than Tony. It made him feel good; wanted and loved and maybe even a little doted on – which he probably shouldn't be enjoying nearly as much as he had to admit, to himself, at least, that he was. It wasn't rare for him to be loved; May had loved him, and he knew that his parents had, but Pepper and Tony had a way of making him believe that he meant everything to them, and it was still astounding to him.

The thought warmed him to the core.

"He's really okay?" Peter pressed.

"Yes. He'll be the first to tell you that," Pepper assured him. "Tomorrow. Let's try not to wake him up, okay? He needs as much sleep as he can get."

"Yeah."

"So do you," she added, squeezing his hand, lightly.

"I'm not sleepy."

"You look sleepy."

He smiled.

"Maybe a little," Peter admitted.

Maybe a lot.

"If you sleep now, you can be awake when Tony is," she said, gently. "He'd like that, I imagine."

"Think so?"

"Mm-hmm…" Pepper leaned over and brushed a kiss against his cheek. "Go back to sleep, sweet boy," she crooned, gently. "I'll stay with you."

"Promise?"

She smiled. That was hardly a commitment that had to be forced from her, after all.

"Yes."

"Okay…"

He closed his eyes, again, secure in the knowledge that he was loved, and wasn't alone. His stomach rumbled, gently, but the lassitude that overtook him was much stronger than the hunger that had woken him, and he was asleep again in minutes.

Pepper watched him sleep for a while, his expression much more peaceful than it had been in days, even though the laptop display threw his face into shadows. She resisted the urge to kiss him again, and knew that with the cloak keeping him warm she didn't need to adjust his blankets, but she was tempted to, anyway, just because she wanted to make sure he could feel her and knew that he wasn't alone. She forced herself not to, though, to keep him from waking again, and went back to her research.

When she grew tired, she'd join Tony in his bed, and when he woke – which he would – she'd be able to tell him that his son woke and was hungry, and that he'd be able to talk to him in the morning.

OOOOO

Peter was sleeping when Stephen walked into the recovery room the next morning, but Pepper and Tony were both awake. Stark was in his bed, sitting upright and looking alert – if not a little sore – and Pepper was once more in the chair between the two beds, even though she'd spent the night cuddled beside Tony in his once shed gone to sleep.

She could have gone to their quarters, of course, and slept in their bed, but why bother?

"Good morning."

They both decided that he looked like he'd finally managed to get some sleep, himself, and some of the lines on his face were gone. Clearly, a good night's sleep had been good for all of them.

"Morning."

The doctor went to the side of Tony's bed, first, and checked the readouts of the monitors that were constantly keeping track of Tony's vitals.

"Any light-headedness?"

"No."

"How's the pain?"

"It's there," Stark admitted. "But I can live with it."

"Then I'd say you're ready to be released – into light duty, only. No Ironman unless it's an emergency, and no running marathons or anything like that. Stay out of trouble."

Stark smiled, practically beaming.

"I can do that."

The doctor didn't look convinced, but he was in a good mood, so he didn't even make a wry comment. He just shrugged.

"I'm sure Pepper can assist with that."

She smiled, too, her expression rueful.

"I've been trying to do it for years," Pepper pointed out.

Stark rolled his eyes, and Strange chuckled as he went around to check the equipment next to Peter's bed as well.

"He woke last night?"

Pepper nodded.

"Tony was asleep, but Peter told me that he was hungry."

"That's good, right?" Stark asked, watching as Stephen asked the cloak to move so he could check the bandages covering the boy's chest and stomach.

"Yes. Even better that it was an actual conversation," Strange said, pulling the blankets back, checking to make sure there was no seepage going through the bandages, and checking the edges of the tape. "If he's sleeping through the night and he's alert enough to hold a conversation, we might be able to lose the wires and tubes and get some solid food into him."

Peter woke, just then, either in response to the examination, or to the sound of the voices around him. He opened his eyes and winced as the doctor started checking the bandages on his stomach, but he didn't complain.

"Hey…"

"Good morning." Strange put his hand on the boy's forehead. "You're running a bit of a fever. Is it the cloak, or are you feeling ill?"

"I think it's just the cloak. I feel okay."

"Well enough to try eating an actual breakfast?"

"Yeah."

"We'll start with something easy," Strange suggested. "Oatmeal – and not much of it. Maybe some toast."

"Okay."

"Good."

Tony and Pepper watched as Stephen ran Peter through a series of tests to check reflexes, reactions and a ton of other things, and both almost held their collective breath, waiting for a verdict when he was finished.

"You're doing well," he said to Peter, and then looked over at the other two. "He is, really."

"Not well enough to be out of bed, though, right?" Pepper said.

"No. We're not there, yet. We'll keep him in here, today, and see how he handles solid food and being off the equipment. If there are no setbacks, we can transfer him to his own bed to finish his recovery where he'll be more comfortable."

"Sounds good," Tony said, clearly relieved.

"Any questions?"

He looked at Tony, first, but then to Pepper and Peter. They all shook their heads.

"You'll be around, though?" Stark asked. "Just in case?"

"Yes."

He wasn't quite ready to relax, just yet, and Peter meant to much to him to turn his care over to anyone else.