A/N- Sorry this chapter took so long to come out! I spent a few good hours yesterday and today working on this and getting it done! Thank you guy for all of the love chapter one received, you're all incredible! Also, there are a few lines in here that Shou_CloudLord mentioned in a comment on chapter one and I couldn't help but include them! (I'll talk more about those in the end notes.)

Also, happy Easter to those who celebrate, and happy 56th birthday to RDJ! (I also think it's pretty cool my dog and Robert have the same birthday haha. She's 10 today)

000

By the time Tony was finally able to pull off his tie and jacket, it had been six full hours since he had left the compound and his kid, far longer than he wanted and intended to be gone. His first meeting had lasted more than an hour than what was planned, therefore delaying his second meeting for an hour, and then his third.

He had taken a break with Pepper while they waited for their second meeting by grabbing some lunch and going through some paperwork. His mind had been distracted enough for him not to feel the need to check in on Peter. His thoughts had only traced back to Peter as he left his last meeting, and by then he figured he would be back soon enough so he wouldn't need to call.

He walked back to the living room he had met Sam and Bucky in earlier that day, somewhat surprised to find it empty. There weren't many places for them to hang around while staying close to Peter. He figured one of them would be in his kid's room, but that didn't stop him from checking in with FRIDAY as he started walking towards the closed door.

"Fri, who's with the kid? They in his room?"

His step's faltered when he got no response, hand pausing as it started to turn the knob on Peter's door. His worries were quickly swept away when he remembered he had muted his phone, FRIDAY included when he forgot to turn it off during one of his meetings.

"Unmute. You there now, hon-"

His AI cut him off before he was able to finish his sentence, something she was only designed to do under certain circumstances.

"Boss, Mr. Parker's body temperature is at 106.4 degrees and he appears to be in high levels of distress. I would recommend getting him in lukewarm water and giving him his fever reducers."

Tony barely gave himself a moment to process her words before he shoved past Peter's door and into his room.

Sure enough, as he rushed into Peter's room and nearly knocked the door off its hinges, he caught the sight of Peter whimpering on his bed, blankets kicked to the floor and silent tears running down his face. Peter looked up when Tony rushed to his side, his face pinching even more when he caught sight of his mentor.

Peter's mouth opened as if he wanted to say something but wasn't sure what, but the small action must have hurt his body as he froze for a few moments and then whined, more tears falling down his cheeks.

"...Ow," he whimpered, hiccupping over his voice as he barely managed to speak. Peter's cries only continued from there, and Tony didn't even have to feel his forehead to see how hot he was. His heart broke as he watched Peter in shock for a few moments, but his instincts kicked in soon after.

Remembering what FRIDAY had told him before he rushed to Peter's side, Tony worked one of his arms around Peter's shoulders and the other around his waist, lifting him bridal style so he could get him to the bathroom. FRIDAY already had the bath full when Tony stepped into the en suite, something Tony was grateful for as he walked over the tiled floors and to the edge of the bath, not hesitating before lowering Peter down.

Peter gasped the moment his foot hit the water, cries picking up as Tony set him in the rest of the way and removed his hands from around him.

Peter had forced some of the water over the edge of the tub, but in his weak state he wasn't able to put up much more of a fight. Some of it fell on Tony's knee, and even though he wasn't the one with the 106-degree fever, he winced at the difference in temperature between the boy's skin and the water.

"C-cold," Peter whined, glazed eyes seeming to pass over Tony as he looked for some form of comfort.

The pieces of Tony's shattered heart crumbled even more, causing him to lose his breath and momentarily wonder if the arc reactor stopped working.

It took him a few moments to realize he had it removed several years ago.

Even through his panic, Tony pushed as much comfort as he could into his smile and looked at Peter with a façade. "I know, buddy. I know it's cold but we have to get your fever down. Just hang on for a few minutes and we'll get you out of here, okay?"

Peter only squirmed in response, his now soaked clothes only adding to the pile of things making the sight heart-breaking. It was only then that Tony realized it was possible Peter wasn't even registering his words. Or where he was. Or who Tony was.

Tony quickly pushed those thoughts away and thought to his next call to action. He wouldn't be sitting around while his kid looked like he was dying next to him.

"FRIDAY, please tell me Helen is in today."

"She wasn't boss, but I contacted her immediately after Mr. Parker's temperature spiked. She is getting prepared in the medbay."

Tony sighed, but his relief was short-lived when he realized why he was there in the first place.

"Where are Barnes and Wilson?" Tony's voice was hard as he looked at Peter, knowing he himself was an idiot for leaving Peter in those two's care.

Peter whined at Tony's tone, looking blearily around him for what Tony wasn't sure. The man's face softened as he reached a hand out and brushed back Peter's hair, the action comforting for both of them.

"Both Mr. Barnes and Wilson left minutes after you did this morning. I am unaware of their location, and they have yet to return."

Tony saw red the moment FRIDAY finished talking. His subconscious was already planning on what he would yell when he was in the same room as the two again, but he couldn't let that break the surface as Peter still whined in front of him.

"Boss, I believe you may now remove Mr. Parker from the water. Helen is awaiting his presence."

Tony nodded and grabbed a towel, wrapping it around Peter after helping him out of the tub. He quickly got the boy down to the medbay where Helen took him off of his hands immediately.

000

Sam hadn't planned on being gone for six hours, but he wasn't going to come back to the compound until he was sure Stark was back and would take care of Peter for the rest of the day. Redwing had let him know the moment Tony was back, so he made his way back to the compound in a short fifteen-minute flight.

He planned on dropping onto the roof where he would have quick access to an entrance, but then he recognized a familiar silhouette walking towards one of the entrances on the ground, so he decided to take a detour.

Sam dropped behind Bucky, making no effort to conceal his grand entrance as he slammed into the ground. Bucky jumped and spun around, eyes rolling when he was met with Sam's snickering face.

"Never has been funny, never will be," he said dryly, turning back around and continuing his walk inside.

"Nah, always has been for me. You jump like a little girl every time. If Steve were here, I'm sure you'd be clinging to him." The smile on Sam's face widened as he pictured the image.

"When Steve gets back, I can personally guarantee he'll break your nose." Bucky pulled open one of the many doors leading to the compound, these ones mainly used after missions because they were closest to the medbay.

"Please, we both know that's not true. Why would Steve punch his wingman-"?

"Hold on, you are not his wingman. I was his wingman decades before you were even born."

"You're kidding, right? I've got wings. That's my thing, I'm literally-"

"Just because you have wings, you're not the wingman. Besides, you look like nothing more than a pigeon up there."

"Oh, do you really want to go down that road, Mr. Metal Arm? I-"

Sam stopped talking when he noticed Bucky had stopped a couple paces back, head turned to the side where he was looking through the glass windows displaying the waiting room of the medbay. Sam followed Bucky's gaze, eyes landing on Stark pacing back and forth across the room.

Things seemed to click in that moment.

"Why do you have your wings on?" Bucky asked at the same time that Sam said, "Why weren't you in with Peter?"

Both of their faces visibly paled as Sam stepped closer to Bucky, his voice lowering to a whisper. "Do not tell me that you were gone all day."

"You were supposed to be here too!" Bucky's voice raised above a whisper as he scolded Sam, catching the attention of the man walking a hole into the floor on the other side of the windows.

Tony's head snapped up when he heard Bucky's voice, eyes more murderous than ever as he walked to the door Sam and Bucky rushed through.

"What the hell is wrong with you two? Where the hell have you been?"

The pair stepped back at the fire in Stark's tone, the way his voice was so calm it was worse than yelling.

"Please tell me you aren't in here for Peter," Bucky said, any hint of regret going right over Tony's head.

"Of course I'm in here for Peter! You two had the audacity to leave a sixteen-year-old kid with a fever alone! By the time I found him he was close to brain damage, and the two of you did that to him!"

Bucky clenched his jaw. He and Tony had been getting on better terms, and he had even started to believe he was gaining his trust. All of that had just been thrown out of the window.

"Stark, you know we didn't mean for this to happen-" Sam had started to say.

"And what were you expecting to happen, Wilson? If you and Barnes could get your head's out of your asses for five minutes, maybe my kid wouldn't be in the medbay right now!" Tony was yelling by the end of the sentence, something he had hoped he wouldn't let happen. "I can't look at either of your right now. Go," he said, voice back to the coolness it was before.

"Tony-"

"Get. Out."

Helen walked out of the doors behind Tony, ignoring the two new men in the room as she wrote something down on her clipboard.

"Tony, he's a bit more coherent now, but he's agitated. I believe your presence will help."

With a final glare at the two in front of him, Tony turned and followed Helen through the doors to Peter. Sam and Bucky decided to do one thing right by respecting Tony's wishes and leaving the medbay.

000

Luckily enough, Helen was able to get Peter's fever down with some antibiotics and cold fluids. Peter had basically passed out at one point, but after he heard Tony shouting from the other side of the door, he woke up again, this time fairly lucid.

Tony had walked in the room after Helen, his entire body relaxing when he saw Peter's eyes open and meeting his.

"Wha's wrong?" Peter asked, his brows furrowing over his heated skin.

Tony smiled and walked over to him.

"You're in a hospital bed, Pete. I'll leave this one for you to figure out."

"No, you yelled. 's not good. Are Mr. Barnes and Mr. Wilson in trouble?"

Tony's face fell a bit at the reminder of the two who put his kid in the hospital.

"Yeah, kiddo. They kind of put you in here themselves. I'll take some credit because I was the one that left you with those two idiots, but they were supposed to watch you."

"They're not idiots, Mr. Stark. I'm sure they have a good reason why they were gone. It was an accident."

Peter sighed, not seeming stressed in the least for someone who looked like they were dying just minutes ago. His eyes slipped shut as he moved to a more comfortable position.

"Hm. Don't know if I can totally agree with you there, bud, but we'll see. Why don't you go to sleep and I figure this out?"

Peter hummed in response, already half asleep as Tony suggested the idea. The last thing he heard was a shaky breath before he was out.

000

As Tony looked at the footage of Bucky and Sam running out of the compound in different directions, he decided that there definitely was not a good reason why they were gone. FRIDAY had told him that they both were back in the living room he left them in this morning, so he started to make his way there as the last of the footage tapered off.

Sam was pacing when he walked in, and Bucky was sitting on the couch with his head in his hands. Tony walked past both of them and headed to the same coffee pot he left that morning, turning it on and saying nothing as the pot began to fill.

"How's the kid?" Sam finally asked as he made his way towards the kitchen.

Tony rolled his eyes before he turned to face Sam.

"Oh, you mean the kid you two left unsupervised and sick? The kid that is now in the hospital because you two can't act your own age for once? He's great. Sleeping things off in the medbay." Tony made sure to add a glare for good measure as Bucky glanced up from the couch.

"You know we didn't mean for that to happen," he said, voice quiet from his suddenly dry throat.

"Now tell me this, you two didn't have a mission, or some sort of emergency. You two didn't leave because you needed to, did you?" Tony asked, but his voice showed he already knew the answer.

The silence that followed was an answer in itself.

"No, you two left Peter alone because you were fighting over who had to take care of him!"

Sam sniffed and looked down to his feet, and Bucky's eyes seemed to be anywhere but on Tony's.

"Christ, where's Steve when you need him?" The coffee machine behind Tony beeped, so he turned away from the two and grabbed himself a mug.

"Look, is there anything we can do? We want to make it up to you-"

"To me? I'm not the one in the hospital, am I? Granted, I won't be forgiving either of you for this anytime soon, it's not me you should be apologizing to."

Both Sam and Bucky's eyebrows rose at that, and the fact at how big Tony was being about the whole situation. Tony seemed to have gotten his point across, as he turned and left in the direction he came from, leaving the two other men in the room speechless.

Peter had to have been a mess for Tony to be that worked up, and who knew how upset Peter would be with them for putting him in so much pain?

Little did those two know that the moment Peter woke up the next morning to find Tony sitting at his bedside, the first thing he asked was if they had patched things up.

Even though he was still pissed with Sam and Bucky, Tony couldn't help but be amused with the kid.

"That one's up to them, kid. Hate to burst your bubble, but I don't think they had a very good reason for leaving. They were arguing over who had to take care of you, and then ran out of the building like little kids."

The memory of watching the footage was making Tony's anger rise again, but before he could get too worked up, the sound of giggling interrupted him.

Peter was sitting up in his bed, a fit of laughter taking over him as tears started to build in his eyes. Tony noticed FRIDAY had the footage of Sam and Bucky running away from each other playing on the tv in the corner of the room.

"You're... laughing," Tony said slowly.

Peter spared a glance at his mentor and wiped his eyes when he saw Tony's confused face.

"Oh, come on Mr. Stark. You have to admit that that's pretty funny."

Peter giggled again when he glanced back up to the now paused footage.

"Peter, you're in the hospital," Tony said exasperatedly.

"Yeah, which was completely unintentional. I feel fine and I got a great new story for Ned, everyone wins in the end!"

Tony was sure that his heart had literally stopped in his chest as he watched Peter laugh off the fact that he was in the hospital, but that wasn't the worst of it.

No, the worst part was when Peter was released from the medbay and they entered the living room Sam and Bucky were once again in, and Peter started laughing as he complimented them on their dramatics.

It was at that moment Tony officially decided he hated Peter's generation.

Things were still tense between the three men in the room, but Peter seemed to ease that as Tony led him over to one of the couches and sat him down. Peter didn't seem to mind being near Sam or Bucky, something they were both grateful for as they said their apologies and Peter blew them off.

Tony still wasn't happy with what had gone down and how things had turned out, but at the moment he was happy to be with his almost-perfectly-healthy kid.

Sam and Bucky were still stepping on eggshells around Tony for the following weeks, but eventually when Peter brought up the story again, Tony couldn't help but do the same as Peter did and laugh the whole thing off.

FIN

000

A/N- The lines that Shou_CloudLord inspired were these: ""No, you two left Peter alone because you were fighting over who had to take care of him!" Sam sniffed and looked down to his feet, and Bucky's eyes seemed to be anywhere but on Tony's. "Christ, where's Steve when you need him?"" This was probably my favorite line in the story, so props to them for inspiring these!

Thank you for reading!