"Are you sure you don't want me to drive you guys down?" Happy asked for the fifth time since dropping Peter off from his weekend with Tony.
Peter was currently unpacking his stuff in his room, giving his Aunt some time alone with her boyfriend, and pretending not to be listening in on them.
"I'm sure. You may be Tony's driver but you're not mine Hap." May answered as she stirred the tomato sauce on the stovetop.
Spaghetti was the only dish May somehow never ruined.
"I never meant to imply that – "
"I know you didn't hon, relax. We'll be fine. It's just a few hours drive and then I'll call you when we're at the hotel. Now, are you going to stay for dinner?" May asked as she turned off the burner.
Peter took that as his cue to enter the kitchen where Happy was setting dishes out at the table and May was pulling slightly burnt garlic bread out of the oven. The trio ate in companionable silence with Peter occasionally recounting what he had built with Tony or what movie he had watched with Morgan or what Pepper had baked for dessert.
After dinner Peter offered to clean up the table and shooed Happy and May off to the living room. As he was scrubbing the dishes clean Happy came in to bid him goodnight before heading to the door and kissing May goodbye.
"If you change your mind…" Happy trailed off with a slight smirk.
"Then I'll call you. Which I won't." May smirked right back.
"It was worth a try," Happy sighed, "What time are you guys leaving in the morning?"
"Around nine. We have to pick up Ned and then we'll probably grab something to eat before hitting the road."
Happy nodded as he opened the door and stepped out into the hallway.
"Well you guys be safe and call me when you make it there. I love you." Happy said, leaning in for a kiss.
"I love you too." May whispered against his lips.
Peter made a face and tried to focus all of his attention on a particularly stubborn bit of sauce.
The door closed which signaled to Peter that Happy was gone.
"Go to bed early tonight Pete, we have to be up early tomorrow. Here, I'll finish the rest of this. Why don't you call Ned and make sure that he'll be ready by eight." May said as she pulled the sponge out of Peter's hand.
"Thanks May! Love you!" Peter said, wiping his soapy hands on his pants and hurrying to his room.
"Love you too!"
At 8:15 the next morning, May had a backseat filled with two overly excited and caffeinated teenage boys. May smirked as she listened to them argue over which museums they should definitely go to versus which ones they wanted to avoid. They were currently sat at a red light and May took this opportunity to enjoy her second coffee of the day. A part of her regretted not taking Happy up on his offer to drive them to D.C. but she knew how busy he was during the week.
After the reversal of the snap, the Avengers all moved back into Stark tower. Tony, Pepper, and Morgan had also made the move back to the city but went back to their lake house every weekend. During the week Happy drove Pepper to Stark Industries meetings, the Avengers to meetings with government officials, and Morgan wherever she wanted. He also picked Peter up from school every day and took him to the tower where he spent three hours either training with Steve Rogers or working in the lab with Tony.
The light turned green and May set her cup back down, waiting for the cars in front of her to move. It wasn't long before she was pulling into the intersection when Peter screamed out from the backseat.
"May look out!" Peter shouted, his left hand shooting out to grab her right shoulder.
That was all the warning May got before the semi-truck running its red light slammed into the driver's side of the car. The semi tried to turn on impact, resulting in it jackknifing into oncoming traffic and causing May's car to flip over into the cars next to it. May's car flipped over a few times before careening to a stop on its roof near the sidewalk, its inhabitants completely unconscious.
Peter came to almost immediately. The first thing he realized was that he was hanging upside down. The next thing was that every part of his body hurt. Peter tried to take a deep breath but instead cried out in pain when the action caused his ribs to burn in agony. Peter couldn't figure out what was going on or where he was. He looked over and saw Ned with his eyes closed and his head lolling against his seatbelt. Why was he asleep when they were upside down? Where was Aunt May? Before Peter could try to figure out what was going on, the watch on his wrist began to beep.
"Multiple contusions detected. Calling Mister Stark." Karen's voice interrupted the noise of Peter's ragged breathing.
Multiple contusions? What happened?
"Peter? Karen gave me your location I'm on my way. What happened? Are Ned and May with you?" Tony's voice came out of his watch.
Peter furrowed his brow. Where was May? Peter tried to crane his neck to look for his aunt but was interrupted when a man stuck his head through the space where Peter's door window used to be. Where was his window?
"Hello? Hey you're awake – what's your name?" The man asked as his eyes roamed over Peter's face.
"Peter? Answer me! I called my medical team, they're on their way." Tony's voice filled the car again.
"Is your name Peter? My name is David. The paramedics are on their way. How old are you? Is that your mom in the front seat?" The man – David – asked.
Peter couldn't respond. His mom? She was dead, wasn't she? Peter's confusion must have shown on his face because David leaned further into the car.
"That is a woman up there," David muttered to himself, "Is she your friend's mom?"
"She's his aunt. Can you check her vitals?" Tony's voice responded when Peter made no move to.
David glanced down at Peter's watch before nodding and crawling out of the car. He appeared a few seconds later near May's side of the car.
"She's breathing but it's really shallow. She's still unconscious." David said as he held his fingers to her neck.
Suddenly the sound of Iron Man's repulsors cut through the chaos of the accident as it landed next to their car. Tony stepped out and knelt down where David had been a minute ago.
"Hey buddy, how are you holding up?" Tony asked as he began to assess Peter.
When Peter still didn't respond Tony raised his eyebrows, trying not to show how panicked he was.
"Do you know who I am bud?" Tony asked, fingers prodding at a nasty cut above Peter's left eye.
Peter flinched at the contact but nodded in answer to Tony's question. Said boy reached up and gently rested his hand over Tony's, trying to convey what he couldn't through words. Tony turned his hand over and squeezed Peter's.
"The paramedics are here." David suddenly said as sirens grew louder and louder in the direction of the intersection.
"Direct them towards the other cars and tell them my personal medical team is taking care of this one please." Tony responded, eyes never leaving Peter's.
David nodded and left to do as he was told.
"It's going to be alright Pete. I'm right here."
Tony's medical team had showed up not even a minute after the ambulances had begun to arrive. Police on the scene were trying to take statements from witnesses and were in the process of arresting a heavily intoxicated, but otherwise unharmed, truck driver.
Tony stepped back, much to his own hesitance, to allow his team to expertly begin to extract the Parkers and Ned from the completely crushed car. Peter was the first pulled out and settled into a gurney so Tony sat with him in the back of one of the medical vans since neither May nor Ned had regained consciousness yet. Peter still hadn't spoken a word and Tony immediately knew that he was in shock.
"Once they pull Ned and May out we're going to the tower and we'll hook you up to the good stuff. Bruce and Dr. Cho are already prepping the place to take good care of the three of you." Tony said, trying to keep up a constant stream of conversation to both distract the boy and keep him awake.
Peter still had not spoken a word. Every now and again he would squeeze Tony's hand or nod his head but otherwise his eyes were trained on the medics trying to get his best friend and his aunt out of their car. At one point a group of medics huddled together before breaking off, one coming towards Tony and Peter while a couple of others went off towards a firetruck.
"We're going to need the jaws of life to extract the female driver. She's pinned in multiple places and we can't safely remove the metal with our hands. Once she's secure we need to move fast because she's going to start bleeding out." The medic informed his boss, unawares of how each word that left his mouth made Peter's breath more and more panicked.
Tony squeezed Peter's hand in what he hoped to be a reassuring manner before throwing a glare at the medic. He knew the guy was just trying to do his job but he didn't have to be so crass in front of the kid. Tony wanted to ask about Ned but he was scared of what was going to come out of the guy's mouth.
"Thanks." Tony replied instead.
The medic nodded before turning back to the car where a group of firemen were now preparing to extract May. Ned was almost completely pulled out of the back of the car and was soon placed on a gurney before being wheeled off to his own van. Peter tried to sit up, neck craning to watch his friend being loaded up, but was pushed back down by Tony's unoccupied hand.
"Hey, he's fine. They're just securing him in the van so once they get May out they can transport all of us to the tower. Easy-peasy." Tony tried to soothe the boy's nerves.
Normally Peter and Ned's vans would have already left for the tower and both boys would already be settled in the medbay but Tony knew that Peter would only work himself up with anxiety on not knowing how everybody was. If only the boy would lose consciousness. Then he wouldn't be in so much pain and they could go ahead and leave. Yet a part of Tony was scared of what would happen if the boy closed his eyes. Ned and May had yet to wake up and it made Tony sick with worry.
A sharp high-pitched squeal cut through the thick silence that had fallen over the medical van and Tony felt Peter tense up. Tony began to question whether he had made the wrong call in having the vans wait to leave until everybody was loaded up but was interrupted by shouting.
"She's out! We need to go now!" One medic yelled as May was pulled from the wreckage and placed on a gurney.
More medics immediately began to hover around May – hooking her up to various IVs and packing her tight with gauze pads to try and stop the bleeding. As soon as May was pushed towards her van another medic ran over and shut the doors to the back of Peter's van.
Peter, understandably, started to panic.
"It's okay Peter we're just going to the tower now that May and Ned are secure. Then we're going to hook you up to the good stuff – the stuff reserved just for good old Captain America – and you'll be able to sleep while Bruce and Dr. Cho work on Ned and May. Then you guys will be able to just chill out in our newly renovated medbay while you heal up and get better." Tony rambled, trying to calm Peter as the medic started their van up and headed towards the tower.
Peter, who hadn't spoken a single word since the accident had occurred approximately thirty-seven minutes earlier, suddenly turned to look Tony in the eye.
"You promise?" Peter whispered, hand gripping Tony's tightly.
"What? That you'll get to be the first ones to hang out in our new medbay? Hell yeah!" Tony responded.
He wasn't stupid.
He knew exactly what the kid was asking.
He wasn't going to answer that question.
"No." Peter ground out, eyes fluttering as he tried desperately not to lose consciousness, "Promise me we'll get better. That they'll get better."
Everything in Tony screamed for him to not answer Peter's request. He knew nothing good would come out of it and that he couldn't predict the question despite how badly he wanted to reassure Peter. And yet, with the boy staring at him with such raw and desperate hope, Tony couldn't help but open his mouth and let the words fly out.
"I promise."
A/N: Hey guys! I'm back! But this time with an Avengers/Spider Man story. The first time I published on here was my freshman year of college and now I'm starting my senior year next week. Isn't that wild? Also I created an AO3 account and moved my stories over there as well so if you're coming from there and this story looks familiar IT IS NOT STOLEN. Anyways I hope you like this fic. Give it some love. Thx. :)