Tony couldn't hold in his sigh as he held the thermometer in his hand; Morgan had chicken pox, yes, but her fever had planted itself at 101.2 yesterday and despite the Tylenol, Pedialyte and chicken noodle soup that had become her diet for the past two days, it definitely was proving to be a stubborn one.
"I think Peter's gonna have to come here next weekend, Morguna."
"No!" Morgan protested while standing on the couch cushions so she was closer to his eye level, "He's supposed to watch Enchanted with me! He's never seen it, daddy!"
"I think he can wait until you don't feel so bad to see it," Tony insisted, scooping his daughter into his arms and setting her back down so she was sitting on the couch once again, "he's waited how many years again?"
"Don't make him cancel. You want to see him too."
Tony winced as his daughter gave him very pointed puppy dog eyes, because she was right; he hadn't seen Peter in person for nearly three months and while he was glad that he was doing well with school and Spider-Man, this trip was also very overdue.
"Fine. I won't cancel if you eat something other than chicken noodle soup."
"So, shawarma?" She grinned, her brown eyes lighting up with excitement.
"You can only get so much from me, kid," he told her as he put two pieces of bread in the toaster, "especially when you were throwing up less than twenty four hours ago."
•••
Peter couldn't hold back his smile as he pulled his car up to the gravel road. He hadn't been to the cabin in months, not since he had gotten into a nasty fight with some guy calling himself Sandman, which resulted in him earning a broken collarbone and shattered kneecap.
He had managed to get himself to Happy, who had taken him to the compound. But, after an agonizing twelve hours of being stuck in the middle of a sensory overload and on pain medication that made him nothing but nauseous, May concluded herself that it'd be easiest for him to recover at the Stark's lake house, instead of his college dorm or their small apartment.
Which, Peter had to admit, it had been; the city noise couldn't override his senses, and the closest people to the cabin were Mr. and Mrs. Smith, who rented in the summers, so he didn't have to worry about anything else besides recovering and making sure Morgan didn't make him sick of Star wars..
That seemed like it was his mission again, this time, though, given that Morgan had come down with chicken pox, and Tony had almost asked him to take a rain check on the entire trip.
Peter turned the key and turned off the car before putting it in his pocket. Then, after grabbing his duffle bag and getting out of the car, he shut the door behind him and made his way up the steps.
He knocked on the door, despite the fact that he had a key, and heard Morgan's excited shout through the door, before it finally swung open.
"Hey, Pete." Tony pulled him into a hug before shutting the door. "How's school going?"
"It's going well, I aced my science test," he relayed before catching the six year old who was running right at him as soon as he was let go by Tony. "Hey, Morg!"
She giggled as he lifted her in the air before relaxing against his chest. " You're getting too big for me to carry, kid." He fake-groaned as he dropped his duffle bag on the floor so he could hold her with both arms.
"No I'm not! You could lift Uncle Rhodey if you wanted to, even if he was in the suit! 'Cause you're Spider-Man!" she protested as he dropped her face first on the couch, being met instantly with giggles.
"Still sick, my ass." He heard Tony mutter under his breath. "You still feverish, kiddo?"
Morgan nodded as she started to curl back up with her Frozen blanket now that the adrenaline of seeing Peter had worn off.
"Tell you what; I'm gonna go unpack, and you can pick a movie for us to watch," Peter explained as he reached over to ruffle up her tangled hair. "Sound good, Morguna?"
She nodded as she grabbed the remote controller and started to flip through Disney+ with Tony's supervision, which gave him the chance to disappear into the upstairs guest room.
"Hey, super genius!" He heard Tony call up the stairs. "Mind getting Morgan's rainbow bear while you're up there?!"
"Yeah, I'm on it!" he called back, plugging his phone into the charger port. Then, after that was done, he headed to Morgan's room and grabbed the rainbow Build-a-Bear, before rushing down the stairs.
"Hey, Morg!" he called towards the living room. "Are we still on for Enchan- whoa!" He shouted, his sock covered feet slipping on the wooden steps and causing him to crash down the stairs. As soon as he did so, though, his head connected with the very last step and a deafening crack sounded through the house.
"Petey!" He heard a small voice scream, but the teen couldn't do anything except groan as black spots dotted his vision. Distantly, he was aware of another person beside him, as they gently turned him over and ran a hand through his hair, but that was the last thing he could take in before he gave in to the darkness and his vision faded to black.
•••
"Peter?" the teen heard as he slowly came to. His head was pounding like he'd just been whacked with a hammer, and he was faintly aware of something streaming down the side of his skull. "Kid?" the voice asked again, and Peter felt something cold being pressed against his head. "You with us, bud?"
"I...I think so," Peter managed to speak as his eyes throbbed, but before he could sit up, he felt a hand gently pushing him back to the floor.
"Bruce is on his way, he's gonna make sure half of your noggin didn't fall out on the stairs, just stay still and stay awake."
Peter relented, trying to keep his eyes open even though they stung like crazy when it hit him, "Morgan." He mumbled, grabbing onto Tony's shirt, "Where's Morgan?"
"Happy got here around the time you tumbled down the stairs, he's got her and her bear is going for a swim in the washer. Everything's okay except for your head and my nerves," he felt the cold thing move slightly against his head, "cross my heart."
"Not supposed to do that," Peter mumbled, his eyes fluttering shut, "Pepper said so."
"Hey, eyes open," two fingers snapped together quickly, forcing his eyes open, "Pepper never said that, I would've remembered."
Despite how much it made his head throb, Peter couldn't hold in the snort, "yeah, right."
"Did the stairs bust your sense of humor as well as your brain?" Tony questioned, gently brushing a strand of hair out of his eyes, which felt way too heavy for him to keep open.
'Maybe just a little nap…'
•••
'...ow ow ow!-'
Peter's eyes snapped open to see Bruce hovering over his face, his hand on something that made his head sting really really badly; despite that, however, he managed to speak, "h-how bad?"
"You successfully brained yourself on the stairs," Tony squeezed his hand as he spoke, his joking tone evaporating quickly, "concussion. Jolly Green's thinking it's moderate, you lucky bast-"
"Is he okay, daddy?" Morgan's soft voice cut off Tony's obvious swear as she ran into his arm, her arms around his neck.
"Yeah, he's gonna be okay, pumpkin," he spoke softly as he pressed a kiss to her head before gently pulling her away, "where's uncle Happy? You're supposed to be playing with him while uncle Bruce takes care of Petey."
"Petey, can you hear me?" She seemingly ignored Tony and grabbed Peter's hand instead, which made his heart hurt once he saw the tears.
"Yeah, Morg. Loud and clear." Peter insisted, despite the fact his eyes tried to flutter shut again.
"Hey, none of that," Tony insisted as he shooed Morgan out of the room before asking, "How bad is it that he keeps trying to conk out on us, Bruce?"
Peter couldn't keep his eyes from fluttering shut again, despite the worried call that hit his ears. 'Just for a minute…'
•••
The next time Peter woke up, he could feel the all too familiar sting of an IV in his hand and see the fluorescents that made his eyes sting.
"Well, look who it is," Tony's voice called out, to which Peter squinted so he could properly see him, "Jolly Green had to put you back together again, Humpty Dumpty style."
"Everyone's okay?" Peter managed to ask despite his tongue feeling thick and his throat feeling tight.
"Yeah, everyone's okay now. Morg's got her second favorite babysitter and is having a blast," Tony insisted, gently pushing the hair off of Peter's forehead, "Go back to sleep, you can see her in the morning."
Peter couldn't stop himself from drifting off into darkness yet again.