A/N: Hey friends! I apologize if this update seems a little un-edited, I'm working on a time crunch. I'm getting my wisdom teeth taken out in about 8 hours. The good news is, I only have 3 wisdom teeth. The bad news is, I'm deathly terrified of being put to sleep. So, please distract me in the comments with kind words and funny stories please and thank you!

I'm not entirely sure when the next update will be. I'll be on some nice pain meds for a few days so I might not do much writing. I'm leaving my family's house on Saturday and going back to my apartment because my last semester as an undergrad starts next Monday!

One of my new year's goals is to spend more time doing what I love (aka writing) so I'm going to try my hardest to update this work every two weeks.

Thank you so much for all of y'all's constant love and support! I hope you've had a great start to your new year!


It was around eight in the morning when Tony was abruptly woken up by a sharp, incessant poking on his cheek. Flinching back and cracking an eye open, Tony was met face to face with a very determined looking five-year-old.

"You said I could see Peter in the morning." Morgan stated.

Tony blinked a couple of times to wake himself up. Behind him he could feel Pepper shifting around, most likely having been woken by their daughter as well.

"Yes… I did…" Tony eventually agreed.

"It's morning." Morgan said bluntly.

Tony's eyes widened at the same time Pepper snorted from behind him. Seriously, this girl was her mother with his hair color. Unbelievable.

"Honey, Peter is probably still asleep." Pepper explained when her husband didn't respond.

"No he's not. Uncle Rhodey and Bruce are in his room right now but they said I had to ask you guys if I could come in." Morgan explained.

Tony's heart started to beat a little quicker. Why were Bruce and Rhodey in Peter's room? And why hadn't he been notified? Had something happened to him? To May?

"I think you should have breakfast with mommy first while I check on Peter and make sure he's up for visitors." Tony said, throwing the blankets off of him and sitting up.

"I think that's a great idea, what do you want honey? Waffles?" Pepper asked, sitting up as well.

Tony smiled softly as he went into the bathroom to brush his teeth, listening to his wife and his daughter discussing breakfast options. After using the bathroom, Tony quietly slipped down the hallway and into Peter's room.

Peter was sitting up in bed, propped up by no less than a dozen pillows (courtesy of Pepper), listening to Bruce talk while Rhodey stood off to the side. All three of the room's occupants looked up when Tony entered and Peter gave him a small smile.

"Why am I never invited to these parties?" Tony asked, walking over and gently sitting on the bed next to Peter.

"Well Friday had said you were asleep but I guess that didn't last long after Morgan left." Rhodey said, a small smirk on his face.

"She is debating with her mother whether or not cold pizza is breakfast food." Tony said.

"It totally is." Peter said at the same time that Bruce responded with, "Absolutely not."

Rhodey chuckled as the teen sat up a little straighter, fully intent on arguing with the doctor, which Bruce saw immediately.

"Nope! You are not getting out of this talk that easily." Bruce exclaimed.

"What talk?" Tony asked.

Peter's shoulders slumped as Bruce turned to Tony and began to explain their latest prognosis.

"Well Peter is healing exactly how we thought he would, however I'm a bit concerned about his knee. As we discussed when he was first brought in, we had to do surgery on it because of his advanced healing trying to fix it prematurely. Therefore, I would like to start him on some physical therapy regiments to make sure all of his tendons and ligaments are healing properly. Rhodey offered to help him." Bruce said.

Tony shot Rhodey a grateful look before glancing back down at Peter. His cheeks were tinged slightly red, as though he were embarrassed, and he was playing with the tips of his fingers.

"What's up bud?" Tony asked, leaning over and lightly tapping their shoulders together.

Peter looked up at Tony and briefly made eye contact with Rhodey before looking back down at his hands.

"It's just… I mean do I really need physical therapy? It's just a little messed up. It's not like I'm – "

"Paralyzed?" Rhodey cut him off with a small smile.

Peter's face grew even more red at Rhodey's comment.

"Kid, listen, physical therapy is for anybody that needs it. It's not something that only really, really bad injuries need. Sometimes people need it to help them stretch out their muscles and others need it to learn how to walk again." Rhodey explained, sitting down on the end of Peter's bed.

"Exactly. I needed physical therapy when I got back from Afghanistan, I mean you saw the pictures when I got off the plane, my arm was in a sling for weeks." Tony chimed in.

"Might I add, Peter, you just had some pretty intense surgery on a serious injury. You're quite lucky that all you need is physical therapy." Bruce interjected, slipping his glasses off his nose and folding them into the breast pocket of his shirt.

Peter sighed and slowly nodded at Bruce's words, but he refused to look up at Rhodey or Bruce. Tony looked over at his friends and slightly nodded his head towards the door. Rhodey nodded and stood up from the bed.

"I would like to start physical therapy this afternoon, if that's okay with both Peter and Rhodey." Bruce announced.

"That's fine with me. Kid?" Rhodey asked.

Peter looked up and made eye contact with Tony who gave him a small, encouraging smile.

"Yeah." Peter said.

Satisfied, Bruce left the room, Rhodey following shortly behind him.

"How does three sound?" Rhodey asked from the doorway.

"Good." Peter said, "Thank you."

"You don't have to thank me. I'll see you soon kid."

And then it was just Tony and Peter.

"You have nothing to be embarrassed about Peter. Physical therapy isn't a sign of weakness and, no matter how small you think the injury, sometimes they'll only heal with a little extra help." Tony said, wrapping an arm around the teenager.

"I just… I feel bad because Rhodey literally had to learn how to walk all over again, has to wear those braces every day, and he's helping me bend my knee a little easier." Peter grumbled.

"Hey now, if it bothered Rhodey, which it doesn't by the way, then he wouldn't have even offered to help out in the first place. You're gonna be totally fine Pete, I promise." Tony said.

Peter seemed to relax a bit at his words and slowly leaned into his side.

"Okay."

The pair sat in silence for a couple of minutes before there was a knock at the door. Slowly, said door was pushed open and in walked Morgan, carrying a plate of bacon and toast, and Pepper, carrying a bowl of oatmeal.

"We thought you would be hungry so we made you breakfast." Pepper announced, setting the bowl on the nightstand.

"I helped." Morgan chimed in, smiling so big her dimples were showing.

"Yes she did." Pepper said as she grabbed a tray and slid it over Peter's lap.

Tony smiled as he watched Morgan put her plate onto the tray before clambering up the side of the bed and sitting by Peter's feet. Pepper set the bowl of oatmeal down onto the tray and sat down on Peter's other side, gently brushing his bangs off of his forehead. Peter thanked the girls as he carefully dug into his breakfast, weary of putting too much food onto his stomach.


It was currently four in the afternoon and Tony was tired. He could only imagine how tired Peter was though. Literally. Only imagine. After five minutes of trying to put all of his weight on his knee Peter quietly asked if Tony would leave. Tony knew the kid was embarrassed, and normally he would have pushed the issue, but Peter looked like he was on the verge of tears and Tony didn't want to make it worse.

So, Tony had gone up to Happy's floor but found his driver's bedroom door locked. He knocked a couple of times but didn't get an answer. So, Tony decided to whip up some spaghetti and left it on the stovetop, telling Friday to let Happy know the food was out there.

This whole interaction, or lack thereof, only took about thirty-five minutes so Tony still had more time to kill. Tony decided to head down to the medbay and see if he could get an update on Ned and May from Bruce.

Pepper had actually been able to get in touch with Ned's parents earlier in the afternoon. The two of them had been in Kentucky visiting family and were on their way back to the city. Tony had offered to send a private jet to get them there faster but they declined, thanking him profusely for the medical care he had been providing for Ned, and assuring him they would be there soon.

Once in the medbay, Tony just about ran right into Bruce. The doctor was leaving Ned's room and heading towards the elevator.

"Oh, Tony, I was just about to go looking for you. Ned's healing quite well and I'm cautiously optimistic that we'll be able to slowly begin to ease him out of his coma within the next week." Bruce said, smiling slightly.

"Seriously? That's great! Can I tell Peter? What about Ned's parents? Pepper got in contact with them and they're on their way." Tony said.

Bruce nodded.

"Yes, you can tell Peter and Ned's parents. I really think things are looking up for him." Bruce replied.

"That's really good news… What about May?" Tony asked.

Bruce's smile immediately fell from his face.

"I just… I don't know Tony." Bruce sighed, running a hand through his hair, "She's not doing any worse but that's mainly because there's really not much worse she can be. She's not doing any better either. If she doesn't show signs of improving soon, even the most miniscule of signs, I'm concerned that she may be too far gone."

Tony felt like someone had punched right him in the gut. May had to make it, there was just no way around it. Peter couldn't afford to lose another parent-figure in his life, it would absolutely destroy him. The only silver lining in all of this was that it appeared that Ned was getting better.

"I'm sorry Tony. I'll keep you updated." Bruce said, patting Tony's shoulder before heading towards the ICU.

Tony let out a breath he didn't realize he had been holding before stumbling back towards the waiting room and sinking down into one of the chairs. He propped his elbows on his knees and dropped his head down into his hands. Tony felt tears prickling his eyes but tried his hardest to hold them in.

He couldn't cry. He had no right to cry. If anybody should be crying it should be the boy who could possibly be paralyzed for the rest of his life or the kid upstairs about to lose another part of his family or the grieving boyfriend about to lose his love.

Not Tony.

And yet, he couldn't help but let a few tears slip down his cheek, dropping onto his pants legs and leaving behind tiny little stains. Because the thing was, Tony remembered everything that was said in the back of that medical van the other day, even if Peter didn't.

Tony had made a promise.

And he wasn't sure if he could keep it anymore.