Emily da great: Thank you very much! I was hoping to keep this fic going but I have to consider academics first. Also, to be completely honest, some time apart will probably be for the best, as I needed to touch up on the future plotline a bit.
One second, Peter is flying over the Queens skyline. The next, he's in his bed with the Saturn-patterned sheets. Disappointment hits him like a truck, but he's too tired to be upset. He's still so sleepy he can't even figure out why he woke up in the first place.
Then he hears voices, hissed and urgent. It isn't even morning yet, or at least it's so early in the morning that his room is still pitch black—the stars on the ceiling don't glow green anymore, and that makes the sounds coming through his door even more eerie (another word he'd learned while reading).
It's Aunt May and Uncle Ben, but he can't hear what they're saying. He tiptoes out of bed until he can press his ear to the door. They're trying to be quiet, despite how upset they sound.
"We're going to have to tell him pretty early, May, it's going to be all over the news tomorrow."
"We don't let him watch the news anyway!"
"It's going to be all over the Internet, everyone's going to be talking about it…I'm just saying, one foot out the door and he's going to know."
"I know that! I just—don't want to tell him while he's eating breakfast. It'll ruin his whole day."
"I know. But it's not our fault. It's…it's, um…"
"You can just say it's Tony's fault. It is."
"We don't know the details—"
"What details do we need to know? You think Rhodey started it?"
"No, we don't know that, either."
"Well, it was one or the other, and I'm just saying, if I had to take a guess…"
"That's not fair."
"Ben, please just stop. I know you like to see the good in people, but that doesn't mean you can just ignore when they screw up!"
Their voices dip again, like a car outside the window—quiet, louder, loud, quieter, quiet.
Peter thinks he's going to be sick. He thinks he's going to have to blow his own cover so he can run to the bathroom and puke.
Something has happened to Dad. Or Dad did something. And Aunt May and Uncle Ben are upset about it. Again.
He thinks first that maybe that Vanko guy got out of jail and came back, but no, that wouldn't be Dad's fault. "Rhodey started it." What did that mean? Rhodey and Dad are best friends.
Peter thinks about going back to bed. Like maybe this is just a bad dream, or maybe once it's morning it'll be like it didn't happen. But he can't go to sleep before finding out what's going on.
A lightbulb pops on over his head.
Peter reaches down under his bed, still being quiet, and pulls out the tablet Dad had given him. It's still pretty new; it's hard to take it anywhere without drawing everyone's attention, but he's used it to look at the mansion sometimes. Usually Dad's in the lab, but J.A.R.V.I.S. announces when he's looking, so Dad comes up the stairs, pops his head out, and waves.
"J.A.R.V.I.S.?" he whispers. Quickly, he gets back into bed and pulls the blanket up over his head.
The white circle appears on the screen. It's so bright that it hurts Peter's eyes. "Yes, Master Peter?"
"Did something happen with Dad? You're there at the mansion, right?"
"Unfortunately, Master Tony has instructed me to withhold details of this evening's party."
"What? Why?"
"It is to my understanding that the party was expected to have some rather adult events that Master Tony would rather you not know about."
"Can you be quieter, please?"
J.A.R.V.I.S.'s volume drops low. The white circle even goes dimmer. "Yes, Master Peter."
"Can I see the mansion?"
"Your access to viewing the mansion's interior has also been restricted for the party's duration. I can only show you your room at the moment."
Not a second later, it appears—same as always. Rocket ship bed, star shelf, control panel. It makes Peter sad all of a sudden that he isn't there, but he's also relieved that it's just the same. And he's also really frustrated.
"Aunt May and Uncle Ben said that something happened between Dad and Rhodey."
"As that occurred during the party, I cannot give any details on the matter."
"Nothing?"
"My apologies, Master Peter. Until Master Tony gives express permission to me, I can not tell or show you anything further."
He peeks out from under the blanket, clenching his teeth together until they hurt. He's so angry right now, even though no one's done anything to him. He just wishes all the adults would just tell him stuff instead of planning it out. He hates that every time they need to tell him something, they come up with a whole gameplan to do it.
Another lightbulb pops up over his head.
"Is the party still going on?"
"Not any longer. The premises have been vacated."
"So that means I can see the mansion now, right? Did Dad say I could only see after the party, or after he told you I could?"
J.A.R.V.I.S. pauses for so long that Peter wonders if the connection has gone bad, like the computer Aunt May uses for work, but he doesn't want to hit J.A.R.V.I.S. to get him working again.
"I must warn you, Master Peter, that you may find the state of the mansion distressing."
He wonders if he ever warns Dad like that. Or if it's just for Peter because Peter is a kid. "Show me the mansion."
The pictures come up, and Peter remembers that this is why he doesn't tell Aunt May or Uncle Ben about what he talks to Dr. Rittenburg about—because they'll be happy to get the truth, but they won't like what the truth is.
Some parts of the mansion are fine, just like Peter remembers, but other parts are just…
They're destroyed. Smashed. Broken. The windows that used to show Peter the Pacific ocean bright and blue every morning are just gone. There aren't even many shards left. The counters where he and Dad used to eat their pancakes, drowning in syrup and whipped cream, have crumbled to pieces. There's a giant hole in the living room ceiling, the floor beneath it cratered like a meteorite crashed in it. The whole place is filled with that weird kind of smoke, like the building where the Arc Reactor was in before it got destroyed when Dad and Stane were fighting—not cloudy or whispy, but like a fog, staying in the air and making everything look like a haunted house.
Dad isn't there; no one is. Peter thinks maybe he sees police lights flashing red and blue, but he doesn't know.
Someone would have told him if Dad was hurt, right? J.A.R.V.I.S. would tell him, even if Dad wanted the party to be a secret. So maybe Dad is okay. And he had the suit with him. The racetrack looked way worse than this, so if Dad could come out of that just fine, then he had to be just fine now. Right?
But that doesn't really matter, because the mansion is wrecked. One of Peter's homes has been smashed and crushed and for some reason he never thought that could happen. Like even though that was where Stane took him, and hurt Dad, that nothing bad could happen to the mansion—in it, but not to it. At least when Dad was gone, taken away when he was in Afghanistan, the mansion hadn't changed.
Peter takes so long being scared, confused, and angry that he almost forgets that someone did this and that the mansion didn't just wreck itself.
"What d—" He coughs. His voice cracked like a little baby. "What did Rhodey do?"
"I cannot tell or show you that, Master Peter."
"No, J.A.R.V.I.S., you have to!"
"I cannot. I'm sorry."
He is angry, angry, angry, and he wants to throw something or hit something. He thinks about throwing the tablet but he doesn't want to hurt J.A.R.V.I.S. even if he's just a computer that doesn't feel pain.
Why can't he just be TOLD things?
"Why not? Why won't you help me?"
Peter is still whispering, but he's burning hot, and he spits out the words the way Aunt May does when she's mad. He wants J.A.R.V.I.S. to feel bad; he wants him to feel that sting-y, guilty feeling, knowing that Peter's mad at him.
J.A.R.V.I.S. just says, "I cannot, Master Peter. My apologies." In the most simple, calm voice ever.
"Go away, J.A.R.V.I.S."
The circle blinks away, turning the room dark again, and Peter tosses the tablet across the bed—making sure it hits the mattress but still throwing something.
He grabs his pillow to throw it, next, but just when his fingers grab it, he hears slow footsteps in the hallway. He ducks back down, quick as he can, and pulls his blanket back up just when the door opens.
All he sees is the square yellow light on his bedroom walls, then the blurry shadow of either Aunt May or Uncle Ben or both of them. Whoever it is, they stand there for a minute, but don't say anything.
The door closes. Peter is alone again, and he tries to remember the last time he saw Rhodey. He doesn't think he can; it's been that long.
He'd always liked Rhodey, right when he first met him. He'd always been cool, and not just because he was a Colonel. He treated Peter like a kid but not a baby. Happy and Pepper were kind of weird with him at first, but not Rhodey. He wasn't around much but he didn't feel distant.
Peter can't remember when he saw him last because he hasn't seen him since everything that happened with Stane, which seems like way longer ago than it actually was. It must have been when he visited his hospital room. He was nice, and made sure Peter was okay, but what Peter remembers the most is how angry he was, even when he tried to hide it. The other adults were scared or confused or both, but Rhodey was mad. Peter wishes he could have been mad with him. He was mad at Stane the way Peter was mad at Vanko.
And now—
He—
He did the same thing Stane did? He hurt Dad?
He made Dad think he was his friend and then he hurt him?
Peter doesn't want it to be true. It can't be. Not Rhodey. He's too nice. He cares about Dad too much. He isn't like Stane, Peter always knew there was something wrong about Stane, but not Rhodey…
And why? Peter overheard when the people in the black suits talked about why Stane did it—so he could get rich from Dad's stuff and take over S.I.—but why would Rhodey ever do something like this?!
But it has to be true, because the mansion is wrecked and Rhodey was there and Dad wouldn't just attack Rhodey.
Which means Rhodey is a bad guy, and that means he's another friend who hurt Dad, and he's another person who could have been stopped if someone just did something.
Peter doesn't think Rhodey ever did anything to make Peter think he was a bad guy, but maybe he did. Maybe Peter's just stupid.
He isn't crying, but his eyes are hot like they're going to, so Peter grabs the banket and stuffs them against his eyeballs until it stops. He isn't supposed to be sad.
He just doesn't get why things can't be normal for them. Like he remembers when Mom was still alive and they did things like Central Park picnics and movie nights and bagels from a little place called Betty's Bagels on Saturday mornings. Back when guns and bombs and bad guys were just things he saw in movies.
Things just keep happening and Peter just has to keep dealing with them because he can't do anything. He can't help and he can't stop it—all he can do is be okay but it's hard to be okay when no one tells you what's going on.
Peter reaches under the bed until he can touch the glove and the helmet. He still thinks that he could be right, and Dad gave him something useful without telling him.
He knows it was probably to protect himself…but he wonders if maybe he can do more than that.