A/N: Hey guys! So I apologize for taking so long to update. At the moment I'm anticipating a once a month update schedule. I'm taking four lectures, one lab, one online class, I work Sundays & Wednesdays, I'll be working as a tutor on Tuesday & Thursday mornings soon, and I'm a part of a women's writing club on Thursday nights. I'm super busy and booked this semester so please be patient with me! With that said, here's the next chapter. Please leave any comments, reviews, etc.
The next morning brought some relief to Peter. After hours of little to no sleep, of being woken up by either Bruce or Tony just as he had fallen asleep, Peter was cleared of his concussion around 4:30 and he was allowed to sleep uninterrupted.
Once Peter was fast asleep, Tony stood from the chair that he had occupied for the greater part of the night and decided it was time to get an update about May and Ned. Now that Peter no longer had a concussion he was definitely going to be asking about his aunt and his best friend. Tony was just slipping out of Peter's room when he ran straight into another person – Bruce to be exact.
"Is he asleep?" Bruce asked, glancing down at the chart in his hand.
"Yeah, he passed out about ten minutes ago." Tony responded.
Bruce nodded as he made a note in Peter's chart before setting it down in the clear plastic holder next to his door.
"You're looking for May and Ned." Bruce stated, to which Tony nodded.
Bruce jerked his head down the hall and Tony followed him to a room a couple of doors down from Peter. The door was temporarily labelled 'Leeds, Ned' and the lights were dim inside. Bruce grabbed the folder from its holder, which was significantly thicker than Peter's was, and began to read off from it.
"It looks like Ned has multiple internal injuries and he was rushed into emergency surgery to repair a rupture to his spleen. The rest of his internal injuries are mainly bruised organs and broken ribs. He has a fracture in the lower part of his spine, his lumbar, that they're keeping an eye on. That's the part of the spine that controls your leg movements as well as your bowel and bladder. They've placed him in a medically induced coma so that he won't move around while his spine is healing."
Tony closed his eyes and took a deep breath as he processed everything that Bruce was saying. It sounded like Ned could very well completely recover from all of his injuries. The biggest concern at the moment would be the possibility of paralysis due to his spinal injury. While that would be a huge difficulty to overcome, Ned was young and Tony could definitely build anything that he needed to help him adapt to his new life.
Bruce stuck the folder back in its holder before continuing down the hall and taking a sharp right towards a set of double doors labelled 'ICU'. Bruce mad eye contact with Tony as he scanned his badge to unlock the doors.
"I don't know the exact extent of her injuries but I do know they're not good." Bruce warned as they walked through the double doors and down the hall.
May's room was in the middle of the hallway and while the doors to her room were made of glass, Tony couldn't see her beyond the curtains that were drawn around her bed. Bruce pulled down her charts, opened them, and immediately frowned.
"What?" Tony asked when Bruce didn't read off her injuries as he had done Ned's.
"She's… she's really hurt Tony." Bruce sighed, eyes still scanning the files.
Tony's eyebrows pinched together as he strained to read the charts upside down.
"She had to be cut out from the car, which you probably already knew. The seatbelt cut into her chest and neck so they had to stitch her up. The impact of the collision was on her left side which did an extreme amount of damage. Her ribs are completely shattered on that side of her body and she had to undergo surgery because she punctured her lung. Her arm is also broken and she has suffered multiple fractures in her legs and feet. She has swelling in her brain and she was bleeding internally off and on yesterday so they're monitoring her for both of those things. She…" Bruce trailed off as he reached the latest update on her chart.
"What?" Tony asked, feeling hopelessly lost as he waited for Bruce to respond.
"She slipped into a coma this morning." Bruce said.
"It wasn't medically induced?" Tony asked.
"No."
Tony sighed as he peered back into May's room. In all honesty, he was scared. It didn't sound good. It didn't sound like May was going to pull through completely unscathed. Suddenly Tony came to a realization that made his blood run cold.
What if May didn't pull through at all? What would happen to Peter?
Tony was pulled out of his musings by Bruce laying a hand on his shoulder.
"It's too early to tell anything right now Tony. All you can do is be there for Peter when he wakes up."
Tony nodded, agreeing with what Bruce was saying. It was too early to predict what would happen to May and even Ned for that matter.
"Boss?" FRIDAY cut through the silence that had fallen over the ICU hall.
"Yes Fri?" Tony called out.
"Miss Morgan is asking for you. Shall I tell her you're busy?"
Tony shook his head and began to walk out of the ICU with Bruce.
"No, tell her I'll be right up."
Tony was directed to the common floor rather than his private floor by FRIDAY. Once he arrived he found almost everybody was awake except for Pepper, Wanda, and Vision. Morgan was sat at the table, a stack of waffles piled high in front of her, as she listened to Thor telling her a story of when he was a child. Rhodey glanced up at Tony when he walked into the room before turning back to his task of pouring syrup over Morgan's breakfast. Steve and Clint were in the kitchen, flipping pancakes and frying bacon respectively. The others were either gathered around the kitchen table or the island. The TV was on in the background, Paw Patrol playing on mute.
"How long has the peanut been awake?" Tony asked as he approached Bucky and Sam at the island.
"About an hour. She woke Rhodey up and he brought her down here so she wouldn't wake Pepper up. She was fine until we all started to sit down to eat. Then she asked for you." Sam explained.
Tony nodded as he watched his daughter dig into her food, still enraptured by Thor's probably outlandish story.
"She's been asking about Peter." Steve said, coming over to dump more waffles onto an already huge pile on the island.
Tony sighed. He knew she was going to figure out that Peter was hurt eventually but he didn't want her to worry about it right now.
"Pep and I will talk to her later." Tony answered, grabbing a waffle and chewing it contemplatively.
"How's everybody doing?" Bucky asked as he played with a piece of bacon that Clint had handed him.
"Peter's concussion went away so he's sleeping now. Ned's got some more severe injuries though. He has a couple of lower spinal fractures and he's been placed into a medically induced coma. May on the other hand… it's not looking good at all. She slipped into a coma this morning. Bruce says it's too early to tell anything but her brain is swelling and bleeding." Tony muttered as he began to pick at his waffle.
"Damn…" Clint sighed as he took the last of the bacon off the frying pan, "Ooh if I could get my hands around that truck driver's neck I swear I would kill him in a heartbeat."
"You and pretty much everyone in this building." Bucky growled, biting into his bacon.
"Daddy!" A shrill cry from across the room broke the tense atmosphere that had developed in the kitchen.
"Maguna!" Tony called back as he walked to the table that his daughter was sitting at.
Said girl smiled as her father made his way over to her, syrup dripping down her chin.
"Daddy where's Peter? I heard Uncle Rhodey saying he was here." Morgan asked, cocking her head to the side.
Tony glanced over at Rhodey who was grimacing sheepishly down at his plate. It wasn't his friend's fault that his daughter seemed to have super-hearing abilities that only small children possessed. Tony squeezed Rhodey's shoulder as he sat down next to him.
"Peter's sleeping right now hon." Tony said, hoping his answer would be enough.
"Can he play with me later? We haven't finished building our Lego castle yet." Morgan asked while stuffing her mouth full of waffle.
"Chew before you talk little miss. And no I don't think Peter's going to be able to play for a while." Tony answered as he watched his little girl frown at his answer.
"Why not?" Morgan pouted, setting her fork down on her sticky plate.
"Because Peter's really tired and he isn't feeling good right now." Tony answered.
It was the truth. Peter was drained from healing and he was in a lot of pain so he really wasn't feeling good.
Morgan still looked upset at his answer but picked her fork back up anyway and continued to eat anyway. Thor, sensing an impending storm, opened his mouth.
"Little Stark, have I told you the story of the time that my brother Loki and I snuck away from a dinner that the entire kingdom was attending just so that we could…"
