Chapter Thirty-Four

Tony nearly fell from his chair when he saw Peter walking into his laboratory carrying a bag of food like he owned the place. He was still skinny, but thanks to the medicine and Dr. Cho and Dr. Banner keeping an eye on him, he no longer looked like he was at death's door. The pinkness has returned to his cheeks and Tony was glad that he didn't look like a walking corpse.

"What are you doing here?" he demanded, avoiding his gaze. "I'm busy, you will have to leave."

Peter ignored the question as he scooted down next to him and placed the bag on the counter. "I brought lunch." His voice was shaking slightly, but he had a stubborn look on his face. "And I'm not leaving."

Tony glared at him, but only for a few seconds before his shoulders slumped. "Fine, but only for an hour."

Peter looked pleased as he handed him a sandwich. Tony cleared his throat. "How are you feeling?"

"Everything is returning back to normal, but I don't want to talk about that." Peter cleared his throat. "Mr. Stark, I want things to go back to how they were before Scott, before Thanos, before everything. You owe me that, to at least try and return back to normal. You know how things were back then when you would pick me up from school and then we would work in your lab."

Peter had never asked for much, but here he was nearly begging for some normalcy and Tony could barely look at him. He was too ashamed, Peter deserved better. "Pete, I never did apologize-"

"No," Peter's voice was sudden and harsh. "Don't apologize. I'm sick of people apologizing, you have nothing to apologize for."

"I should have known something was going on." Tony gritted his teeth. "This was going on for months, Pete. You were nearly dying, and I didn't notice, while Bruce and Strange did. They warned me you were relying too much on the pills-"

"You wouldn't have known," Peter said quietly. "I was good at hiding everything and Scott even more so."

Tony swallowed. "He won't hurt you anymore, Peter. He's dead. I am the jackass that-"

"I said don't apologize," Peter snapped. "There was no way you could have known what was happening. Scott is dead and I desperately want to move on."

Peter didn't realize he was shaking until Tony pressed a hand on his shoulder. "You're shaking," Tony replied. "Breath, Peter."

"Scott is dead," Peter managed to say. "He won't hurt me anymore."

"He won't." Tony found himself wrapping his arms around Peter as he pulled him close. Even though he had been released from the hospital he still seemed frail. "That bastard is burning in hell, I only wish I could have tortured him a bit more."

Peter choked on a laugh. "You're not the torturing type."

Tony gave him a slight smile as he ruffled his hair. "You'd be surprised. Some have said, I have a pretty dark personality."

Peter shrugged slightly. "Do you think we could work on my suit? It's been ages since I put in on."

Tony nodded. "Sure, kid." He started playing some music. "Tell Friday what you need, and she'll give it to you."

Tony wanted to ask him a billion questions: did he truly forgive him? Was he still taking pills behind their back? Could he sleep at night? But he didn't, because Tony wanted to, for a few minutes at least, just enjoy Peter's company and pretend nothing had happened.

One of the agreements Peter had with May in order for her to give him back his freedom to return to his old life was to go to therapy. At first Peter had refused to even entertain the idea, but when Tony told him he wouldn't be allowed to set foot in his lab, not even to repair his suit he had finally caved in.

One month of therapy, Peter had insisted and not a minute more. May and Tony had exchanged weary looks, obviously silently thinking that one month of therapy would not be enough to fix all of the damage Scott had done to Peter. Peter, on the other hand thought it was more than enough.

He wasn't the type of person to willingly express himself, let alone talk about the abuse he had dealt with for months. In Peter's mind, one month was more than enough.

So, the following Monday after school he was picked up by Happy and taken to HQ to speak with Dr. Andrews, a renown child psychologist. Dr. Andrews was a tall woman with short blond hair and pleasant blue eyes.

She led Peter to a chair and Peter was just glad the room wasn't decorated with stuffed animals or other childish objects. He shifted uncomfortably in his chair. "Well, what are we supposed to talk about?"

"Whatever you want, Peter," Dr. Andrews replied pleasantly. "The entire hour is dedicated to you. I know the past few months have been hard, having lived with the man who abused you."

He stiffened as the mention of Scott. "I can handle Scott, in fact I did handle him. I'm alive, aren't I?" He didn't bother mentioned he was barely alive, thanks to the fact that Scott had been secretly poisoning him.

"Still, you had a very hard few months. Your home is where you can rest and truly be yourself. To have that safe space taken from you, it must have been hard, Peter."

Peter hesitated as he thought back to the hours he had spent hiding in his room and the beatings he had had taken from Scott. How small he had made him feel. "Like I said I handled it."

"Why didn't you tell anyone about the abuse when it first started?"

"That's easy, I wanted May to be happy. She seemed happy with Scott at the time. She has given so much up for me. It was the least I could do."

"Do you think May would be fine having known you sacrificed your wellbeing for her?"

"I-you're twisting my words, it's not fair!"

"You're angry," Dr. Andrews said gently. "And you have every right to be, someone hurt you and caused you a lot of pain. You are allowed to be angry and sad. Scott shouldn't have hurt you. You were being a kind young man who was willing to have another person enter the world you and May shared so deeply."

For a second Peter didn't respond, he just looked at his shoes. He thought back to the humiliating words Scott threw around, the strength of his fist, and the amount of pills he had to take just to feel normal.

"Were you afraid of him, Peter?"

Something happened inside Peter, it felt like his heart was breaking. He felt the tears pool in his eyes and no matter how much he tried he couldn't make them stop. "Yes," he managed to say.

Dr. Andrews seemed satisfied by the progress as she handed him a tissue. "You're safe now, Peter. No one is going to hurt you anymore."

-End of Chapter Thirty-Four-