Chapter Six: Two Spiders
Clint, Steve, and Natasha met Tony at the Avenger's Tower under cover of darkness. There was a feeling of uneasiness between Clint and Steve; neither of their previous encounters with Tony had been pleasant. Between Tony trying to kill Bucky and having Clint thrown in prison, however, briefly.
They sat in the common area, waiting for Tony in an awkward silence. Nobody wanted to say it, but there was a feeling of sadness in the air; they'd all talked, laughed, and cried in this room at one point or another. It was where the little broken family had been born, and they all missed it.
The elevator opened with a Ding! Signaling Tony's arrival, Steve subconsciously prepared to defend himself, his back foot sliding out and widening his stance when he stood from the sofa. Their eyes locked briefly when the elevator doors opened. "Tony." Steve nodded with a slight smile.
Tony ignored the friendly gesture, his eyes venturing to the other two. Clint's arms were folded across his chest, and there was a look of anger on his face. He expected the same from Natasha, who he'd been at odds with since her return to the Avengers. But to his dismay, she smiled at him slightly, and there was a look of hopefulness in her green eyes. "I'm sure Natasha filled you guys in on why I needed you," Tony spoke as he made his way to the kitchen and opened a bottle of scotch.
"Any word on how Batroc was able to escape from prison?" Steve asked. "I mean, the guy's good, but he didn't do that on his own, certainly not without setting off any alarms." Cap was undoubtedly known for his physical abilities, but he was also brilliant.
Tony quickly pulled up all the information Thaddeus had given him, though none of it told them anything of use. "We're still working on that, but whoever it was is good. They scrambled the prison's cameras." Tony used the holographic projector on his phone to pull up a few pictures of Batroc. Before the footage of Spider-Man's confrontation with Batroc.
Steve winced when the first elbow connected with the teen's face, the yelp of pain hard for even the soldier to bear. "The kid from Leipzig," Steve stated, remembering their fight. Though it was little more than a sparring match for the significantly better trained soldier. "He got a bit in over his head with this one." Steve let out a slight sigh, watching his friend grimace while they watched the one-sided fight video.
Tony looked away from the video, finding it too much to watch. "Yeah," Tony turned the video off. "Little idiot's lucky to be alive." There was the slightest bit of frustration in Tony's voice as he rubbed his forehead with the back of his hand. "I need Batroc found before he kills somebody or before Spider-Man is healed enough for a rematch." Steve watched Tony intently as he spoke. This kid meant a great deal to him.
"The kid's got, heart." Steve smiled at Tony, who again looked away.
"I have Friday sweeping camera using facial recognition to try to find him." Tony got back to the point of why they were here.
"That's a good idea, but I doubt it'll catch him. Batroc isn't dumb enough to be out in public." Natasha recalled her and Cap's mission when they went after him. Batroc wasn't a dumb brute; he had brains that backed up his brawn; security cameras wouldn't catch him.
"What do you guys suggest, then?" Clint finally chimed in. "You and Cap went after this guy, so how'd you catch him?" Natasha and Steve's eyes met at that.
"We didn't." Steve folded his arms and leaned against the counter. "Batroc was only caught because Fury hired him." Tony lightly but audibly slapped his hand against the counter. The idea of Batroc slipping through their fingers was both terrifying and frustrating. "He could be in the wind tomorrow." That wasn't a reassuring thought to any of them. The mercenary was one of the most dangerous men on the planet, and if they let him escape, they'd be responsible for whoever he hurt.
A thought suddenly struck Tony. "I don't think that's gonna happen," Tony stated, gaining a confused look from everyone. "I mean, think about it," Tony stood upright. "If he wanted to vanish, he would have. But he didn't. He came here and then picked a fight with Spider-Man. That doesn't exactly sound like he's trying to lay low, does it?" They all thought about it, and it was true. He wasn't in New York because of coincidence. "We need to figure out what he's after," Tony stated the obvious.
"I think he's after us," Steve remembered his encounter with him on the Lemurian Star. Yes, he was a hired gun, but he wasn't after money. He knew they'd send Rogers, and he wanted to test himself against Captain America. "He's not your standard merc, he lives for the thrill of combat, and he isn't motivated by money." Natasha found herself wishing they'd killed Batroc back then.
"It doesn't matter what he's after," Natasha said, gaining a look of bewilderment from Steve. "We just need to find him and kill him." She had a more important goal on her mind; Batroc was little more than a sideshow to her.
"Well," Tony chuckled slightly, not expecting the outburst from Romanoff. "We aren't going to find him tonight. Why don't you guys try to get some sleep." Tony ended the conversation and headed towards the elevator, followed quickly by Natasha.
The soldier watched the spy curiously. "What's gotten into her?" Steve questioned as he watched her enter the elevator with Tony.
"It's," Clint stopped before spilling Natasha's secret, realizing that telling Cap about her son was different from telling Laura. "You'll see." Cap was both curious and concerned about Barton's secretive demeanor.
The inside of the elevator was dead quiet for the first 20 floors down before Tony spoke. "How're you supposed to conspire against me while in here with me?" He joked, gaining him a glare.
"I need to get clearance for the Damage Control Facility." Natasha tried not to order, but she wanted to find her son sooner rather than later.
"What's your angle, Romanoff?" Tony's curiosity got the better of him. "You gotta give me something here, Nat." He gestured between them. Natasha squeezed her eyes closed, biting her lower lip, and Tony couldn't help but chuckle.
"Tony, I-" She searched for the words to say to him, wanting desperately to tell him. "I can't tell you what it is. Not until I've found it." This brought a frown to Tony's face. He wanted to know just as much as Natasha wanted to tell him. But with every person she told, she felt more out of control of her little world. A control she couldn't stand to lose. "I'm sorry, Tony. I just need you to trust me when I say it's important." Natasha intertwined her own hands and looked at her boots.
"Here," Tony didn't want to push the obviously sensitive issue further. "That'll get you access to all the archives." The elevator reached the bottom floor of the empty building, where Happy was waiting for Tony. Happy waved at her warmly as she gratefully accepted the ID badge. "Good luck." Tony gave her a pat on the back before leaving the tower's lobby and entering the car.
The woman breathed a sigh of relief and clutched the card, a smile gracing her features momentarily.
Peter had always prided himself on being an optimist and seeing the best in every situation. But he'd read through 77 journals, and nowhere had it even mentioned him being adopted, let alone who he belonged to. "She's in here," He tried to assure himself that he'd find her. That somewhere in these thousands of entries that he'd written it down. "She has to be." There was a sinking feeling in Peter's stomach that Richard had never written it down in an effort to keep it from him. Or if he had that, the journal containing it had been destroyed. It was entirely possible that Richard and Mary Parker had taken that information to their graves.
The apartment's front door unlocked, and he could hear footsteps approaching his bedroom. It was Tony and Happy, and he could tell by their heavy footsteps and bantering back and forth. He could have listened in on the conversation if he focused, but that would require energy that Peter sorely lacked.
"Hey, Pete." Happy greeted, readjusting the box in his hands, Peter simply nodded in acknowledgment. Happy chose not to bring up the boy's fight with Batroc. He was sure Tony would rip the fledgling hero a new one for being so foolish if he hadn't already.
The teen's eyes made their way to the box. "What do you have there?" Peter questioned.
"It's the VCR and cassette player you needed," Tony responded as he lifted one of the journals off Peter's bed. Remembering reading his own Father's journals a few years earlier.
"I can't believe you really found them!" Peter scrambled to his feet and removed the box from Happy's hands.
Tony rolled his eyes. "Yes, I can build super suits and create artificial intelligence, but finding a VCR was the REAL challenge." Tony teased the teenager, who was busy opening the boxes containing two items he desperately needed if he wanted to finish looking through his adopted Father's work. He watched as Peter scrambled to open the cassette player and slapped in a tape. The teen was desperate. "Peter?" Tony finally called.
"Yeah?" His eyes came up, and he finally noticed the look of concern in Tony's eyes. Peter had seen the look a few times before. In Germany, right after his Aunt was diagnosed and he discovered he was adopted, and after he'd had his fight with Batroc. But this look was different, somehow. Sadder and less concerned. "What is it?" Peter questioned.
"Peter, I know you want to find your Mom, but I can't watch you lose yourself in this." Tony gestured to the stack of journals. "I mean, what if you don't find her in all those journals?" Peter held back a gasp. Hearing someone else vocalize his fear was a blow to his already shaken confidence.
"I-I," Peter stumbled over his words looking for a way to defend himself. "I can't afford for her NOT to be in here!" Peter finally admitted it aloud, a lump jumping into his throat. "I can't be all alone." Peter quickly wiped the tear that worked its way onto his cheek away with the back of his hand.
Tony and Happy were both shocked, and it even surprised Peter himself. Tony understood the fear of being alone. He remembered feeling it after his parent's death, and he knew Peter had felt it before with his adopted parent's death. "Peter," Tony sighed a sadness in his voice. "You're not alone." His young protégé looked down at the cassette player in his hands. "You have May and me." Tony usually wasn't any good with his emotions and had tried to bury himself in his work to avoid dealing with them. Something that eventually cost him the relationship he had with Pepper.
"You got me too, kid." Happy chimed in quickly. Though Happy had gone out of his way to make Peter think he didn't like him at first, it was far from the truth. The man enjoyed Peter's curiosity, playfulness, and good nature. Not to say Peter didn't drive him crazy at the same time.
Tony finally made his way to Peter, sitting next to him and allowing their shoulders to touch; he took the old cassette player from his grip. He was hoping to get Peter's undivided attention. "I need to know that YOU know that whether or not you find her, you have a family and that you are not alone," Tony spoke in the softest tone possible. It brought a small smile to Happy's face watching Tony with Peter, even if this wasn't the best of circumstances. Tony needed Peter every bit as much as Peter needed Tony.
Peter took in a big deep breath of air, trying not to cry in front of them. The teen's life had been ripped apart, and he wasn't sure how to pick up the pieces. "Yeah," Peter nodded his head. "Yeah, I know I do." Tony patted him on the back again, finally getting Peter to look at him.
"You're flying out to Baltimore this week to visit May." Peter wasn't sure if he was telling him or ordering him, but he didn't care. "I think you could both use a little home right now."
The Damage Control Facility where all SHIELD's records were kept was new and advanced. The floors and walls were made of marble. Natasha figured the Government had spent close to a billion dollars building it. This made the fact that none of the files she needed had transferred to digital files even more frustrating. "Operation Red Vengeance." Natasha laughed slightly when she read the name. She grunted with effort as she pulled it off the shelf and dropped it to the floor before quickly yanking the lid off the green box.
She jumped slightly at a black widow that had made the box's interior its home. She smiled slightly; the irony wasn't lost on her. So she quickly used one of the files to remove the spider from the box, set it on the marble floor, and let it scurry away.
She began reading the mission briefing, something she'd done countless times.
Operation Red Vengeance. February 16, 2004.
Mission Commander: Director Fury, Nicholas J.
Field Officer: Agent Barton, Clinton F.
Location: Magadan, Russia.
Natasha's mind momentarily wandered back to the Red Room, where she had been trained... Where she had been raised. The facility was located in the mountains outside the city, hidden from the public eye and the prying eyes of spy planes searching for it. The United States had searched for the Red Room for nearly 60 years. And they'd have spent 60 more searching for it with the same results had it not been for Natasha defecting. "I hope they know it was me that sealed their fate." The thought came into her mind, and a vengeful grin crossed her lips.
Natasha managed to snap out of her momentary trance and return to the file. She skimmed past most of the information she knew wouldn't benefit her. She scanned page after page, most of which were just field reports from the Delta unit's members. Finally, she found what she was looking for.
"Final report: Mission successful. All members of the Red Room Training program were eliminated. It appears the facility had suffered from the fall of the Soviet Union; only three girls were currently being trained. All 3 committed suicide by ingesting cyanide pills before being reached. No intelligence was gathered; it appears that they incinerated everything when we breached the compound. I recovered a young boy, approximately three years of age-" The air left Natasha's lungs. "Given he was being held separately from the rest of the trainees and the intelligence provided by Agent Romanoff stating they do not train boys or men, I find it likely he was orphaned by our assault on the compound. The child was released into the custody of SHIELD scientists, Dr. Richard Parker and Dr. Mary Parker." Natasha jammed the file back into the box and set it back in its place on the shelf before starting her search for the information on those two scientists.
Natasha went alphabetically, searching row after of box's labeled with the letters until she got to P. Her hands were clammy and shaking as she pulled the box from the shelf. The usually calm and collected spy was practically frantic as she dug through the folders, searching for the people raising her son. She found her mind wandering to thought of who the family was; something that had never really occurred to her till now is that whoever these people were, they were parents to him. She finally reached the file labeled "Parker." But her hand hesitated. It'd been so long, and he'd been so young when she left that he almost certainly had no memories of her. Richard and Mary Parker were the only parents he'd ever known. She could be about to turn his life upside down, and it'd never even really crossed her mind.
Natasha finally managed to pick up the file, her hand still shaking as she opened it. For the first time since she'd decided to search for him, her resolve was being tested. "What if what's best for me isn't what's best for him?" She questioned herself.
The spy's internal struggle was interrupted when her eyes were dragged to the bright red letters that spelled out 'Deceased.' on the bottom of Mary Parker's file. She quickly flipped through the pages till she got to the file that belonged to Richard. Her heart sank when it read the same.
"No," Her voice broke slightly. He couldn't be... Panic took control of her, and she didn't fight it. She couldn't. "No, no, no!" She began searching frantically for anything about the boy they'd adopted. She finally found an adoption form filled out by the two apparently deceased scientists. "Peter Benjamin Parker." She read the name aloud, a smile appearing on her lips, ever so briefly. The smile quickly faded until she found two death certificates, dated July 14, 2007.
A sigh of relief came from her without her evening realizing it, and her pounding heart slowed. Though her relief was short-lived, being replaced with a tinge of guilt that she wasn't there when he certainly needed her. And more than that was a feeling of sadness. He was a child of 6 when he lost the only parents he'd ever known. It made her stomach twist, just thinking of the loneliness he must have felt. "I should have been there for you." Natasha tried to shake off the feeling of guilt and regret that was seizing her chest, knowing they weren't useful to her, but they persisted.
The former assassin continued to search, reading page after page. Most of which were different experiments the two scientists had worked on together and apart. She wasn't a scientist, but she couldn't help but marvel at the accomplishments of the two physicists. "A will!" She whispered to herself in excitement. A will would tell her who had him and where she could find him.
"In the event of Richard and Mary Parker's death, custody of Peter B. Parker will be given to Benjamin Parker and May R. Parker." She read the will aloud, and she knew she was drawing ever closer to Peter. The name was still foreign on her tongue, but just saying it brought a smile to her face.
Her slim hands were practically trembling as she punched the names into the database her phone had access to, courtesy of Tony Stark and Secretary Ross. The database was expansive and accurate and contained information on all of the United States' 323 million residents.
But, nothing came up for Peter, or at least not the one she was searching for. Not even a high school. "Strange." Natasha brushed it off as a glitch, or possibly his information hadn't been entered correctly, and moved on to May Parker.
"Home address blocked." Natasha tilted her head confused. She'd used this database every time she did an operation with American law enforcement, and not once had anything been kept from her. The frustrated spy searched for clarification as to why she was barred from the information she was searching for. "Information has been sealed. Agent Romanoff, Natasha A. lacks proper clearance." Natasha clicked her tongue against her teeth, frustrated and confused by the roadblock.
Peter's information was missing, and his Aunt's was classified. It wasn't a coincidence; it couldn't be.
"There has to be something here." The spy's patience was being tested, but her resolve was only strengthened by being so close. Finally searched the database for what felt like an eternity till she found something, though it wasn't something she wanted to see; a hospital admission for May Parker, just one month prior.
Peter held the last cassette tape and studied it; it had a date written in marker on the front. "7-1-2007." This was it; if they didn't say who it was here, then it was the end of the road. The anxious teen wet his lips, put the tape into the player, and started it.
It was different from every other tape he'd listened to or watched; Richard didn't jump right into whatever he was documenting. Peter could hear papers being shuffled and the man who'd raised him swearing under his breath. "Um," Peter barely recognized the voice on the cassette. It was nothing like he remembered, but he could still sense the uneasiness. "I, in my infinite stupidity, decided to try to see if Peter's biological Parents were still alive. Purely out of curiosity and, fuck. She-" Again, Richard paused. "She is possibly the most dangerous person on the planet, and I have her baby." The most dangerous woman on the planet? Peter was confused, and Richard seemed to be deliberately avoiding saying her name.
Peter could feel tears welling up in his eyes. "Don't do this." His voice cracked when the words came out.
"Mary and I are divided on this," Peter breathed a sigh of relief. "She says it's his and her right to know the other, and we don't get to deprive them of the relationship between a Mother and Son." A smile pulled at the corners of Peter's mouth. "And I fell in love with her for her compassion, but Mary doesn't seem to understand what this woman might do to us if she finds out we have him. Peter can never know she exists, and she can never know we have him." The tape fell silent again. For close to 10 minutes, Peter sat and waited for the voice to return.
Peter shook his head slowly and closed his eyes as tight as possible, trying desperately to ward off the tears. He used his thumb to fast forward a few minutes at a time. Nothing. "SON OF A BITCH!" Peter swore, something he rarely did and tossed the player across the floor. The defeated boy sat in the silent, empty room and sobbed. He tried to remind himself that he had Mr. Stark, Happy, and May and that they cared. But it did nothing to console him; he'd never get to meet the only real family he had left, and all the friends in the world wouldn't change that.
"Hey, Pete!" The sweet voice of Mary came from the cassette player, and he froze. "If you're listening to this, then your Dad and I are most likely gone, and you're searching for your real parents." Peter winced a little bit at that. She may not have given birth to him, but she'd been the only Mom he'd known, and he still missed her. Even now. "We've been butting heads about this for weeks, but I think it's your right to know the truth." Mary paused, clearing her throat. "Your biological Mother's name is Natasha Romanoff, better known as the Black Widow." It took a minute for Peter to register the words, and even when he had, he was in disbelief. "I-" Mary fell silent, probably feeling some fort of guilt for divulging Peter's Mom's identity behind her husband's back. "I'm sure this is all very confusing and hard to swallow, but I love you, Peter. And I'll always be with you." The sweet voice seemed to be assuring him like she knew what he would feel when he finally found this tape.
There was a 'Click' from the cassette player as it ended and fell silent, leaving the confused boy in silence again. Natasha Romanoff? The world's best spy was his Mother? Certainly, of all people, she could have found him if she'd tried.
Peter wasn't sure what he felt at that moment; it wasn't the sadness or the loneliness from before. It was like he'd gone from feeling everything to nothing at all. He was lost in a haze that he didn't know how to get out of. Before Peter even realized he was doing it, his phone was out and dialing Mr. Stark. "Peter?" His mentor answered in a frantic voice. "Is everything okay?" It was the first time Peter had called him in weeks; something had to be wrong.
Peter's thoughts were still scrambled, and even if he had the emotional energy to explain it to him, where would he start? Mr. Stark and Natasha Romanoff hated each other. "I'd like to see Aunt May, please," Peter spoke in a quiet, monotone voice.
Tony was slightly confused by both the request and how Peter was speaking. "Sure thing." Tony agreed, listening for any sign of distress in the boy's voice. "Everything okay, kiddo?" The only response Tony got was a short 'Uh-huh" before ending the phone call rather abruptly.
The road to her was clear for the first time, but the fear that she didn't want him was overwhelming.
The smell of disinfectant was strong, and it flooded Natasha's nose when she entered the busy hospital. It hadn't taken her long to find where May Parker had been moved after leaving Metro-General hospital in Queens. And all it took was batting her eyes at the kid at the front desk to find May's room.
The expert assassin wasn't accustomed to being nervous, and it made moving through the sea of doctors, nurses, and patients that flooded the halls all the more uncomfortable. "I should have just waited and slipped in after visiting hours..." She grumbled quietly. Though breaking into a hospital probably isn't a great first impression when meeting the person who's been raising your baby.
Natasha drew closer to the room. The sounds of the bustling hospital faded away till all she could hear was the sound of her heart pounding in her chest and her boots on the vinyl floors. Her heart pounded against her chest harder and harder until Natasha finally reached the room, her eyes quickly finding the woman quietly reading a book in her hospital bed.
May's eyes came away from her book, and she looked somewhat confused by Natasha's stare. "Mrs. Parker?" Natasha broke the awkward silence with a question she already knew the answer to. "I'm Nat-" The woman interrupted her with a chuckle as she removed her glasses.
She smiled warmly at the young woman in the doorway, noticing how anxious she looked. Natasha's posture was rigid, and her hands fidgeted nervously. "I know who you are." May's voice was calm and sweet, and it helped ease Natasha's anxiety, if only slightly. "Come in and have a seat." May gestured for the younger woman to come into the room.
Natasha took the seat next to May, who looked exhausted, most likely from the chemotherapy being used to kill the cancer in her body. "Mrs. Parker, I'm here because-" She paused, her eyes finding the warm and curious smile hard to ignore. Even after all these years away from the Red Room and their cruelty, people's kindness and compassion felt foreign. "I'm Peter's Mom..." The words came out, and the smile disappeared from May's face, and her brown eyes widened in shock.
"You...?" May was in a state of disbelief. Natasha Romanoff, the world-famous Avenger, was the Mother of the boy she'd raised? "You're Peter's Mom?" With a quiet laugh, Natasha nodded her head. A feeling of sadness and anger popped into her head while thinking of the boy alone and searching for the woman in front of her. "Does he know? How long have YOU known?" May asked the obvious questions, her heart aching for her nephew.
A pained sigh escaped Natasha's lips, and she could hear a touch of anger in May's tired voice. "No, I mean only found out his name a few hours ago." The anger faded while watching the pained look on Natasha's face. "And that's why I'm here. I need to know where I can find him." May gave her a confused stare as if it should have been easy for her to find him.
When Natasha didn't continue, only looking like a helpless kid, it caused May to break into a small laugh. "You really don't know who he is, do you?" Again, Natasha was silent, furrowing her brow in confusion at May's question. "I guess Peter and Stark really did take the secret identity thing seriously." Okay, now Natasha was really confused. Stark? Secret identity?
Natasha tilted her head. "Secret identity?" Natasha repeated back to May with a confused laugh. "What do you mean? Why would Peter have a secret ident-" The light went off, and her brain slowly pieced it together.
"Peter." The name Tony'd let slip. The fledgling hero from Leipzig that had gone toe-to-toe with Bucky and Sam, and even Cap himself. Natasha tried to wrap her head around it. Their eyes met again. "No..." She shook her head slightly. She thought of the boy's scrape with Batroc, who hadn't held back as Cap and Bucky had.
May sighed, knowing all too well what Natasha was feeling. "Yes." She assured her.
"He can't be." He'd been next to her not even six months prior, and she had no idea.
"He is." May and Natasha both fell silent. May allowed Natasha to take in the reality of her baby being Spider-Man, something May herself was still grappling with.
Natasha's hands found their way to her hair and gripped the curly red locks. "I'm gonna fucking kill Tony," Natasha said, taking in a deep breath. Realizing Tony had brought him into war and exploited his powers made her want to wring his neck.
The comment caused May to laugh. "I know how you feel, trust me." Her mind briefly wandered back to catching Peter in his suit and listening to the teen explain where he got it. "But it's not Mr. Stark's fault. Being a hero is in Peter's DNA; it was there long before he met Tony Stark and even before he became Spider-Man." A smile graced both of their faces when she spoke of the young hero.
Finally, after a long silence, Natasha asked the only question she could think of. "What's he like?" Natasha didn't try to fight off the excitement and happiness her voice carried.
The helicopter ride from Stark to the Baltimore hospital wasn't particularly long, but time was dragging by for Peter. "Natasha Romanoff. The Black Widow. The world's greatest spy... Mom." He couldn't make sense of it. When did she leave him? And why? He was lost in a sea of uncertainty.
"Peter?" Tony called from the other side of the cabin. Peter's eyes snapped up to him like he'd forgotten he was there. Tony had grown accustomed to peter zoning out or getting distracted easily, but this was different. "Kid, you're scarin' me," Tony spoke truthfully, though a small anxious laugh came out. Peter stayed quiet, his shooting between Tony and the tape recorder he had a death grip on. Tony wanted to pry for answers, of course. But he managed to keep his curiosity at bay for the sake of the trembling teen across from him.
"Come on, Stupid! Just tell him already!" The voice in his head screamed at him to just say the damn words. Peter shifted uncomfortably in his seat and cleared his throat. "Mr. Stark?" Tony leaned forward to show he was listening. "Is there anything I could do that, um," The anxious kid paused briefly. "That would make you hate me?" As silly as it probably sounded, Peter was terrified of losing Tony. And sure, he'd told him a hundred times he wasn't going anywhere, but Peter had heard that a lot in his life.
Tony sat back and stared at Peter for a minute, his mouth agape. Why would Peter ever need to ask him a question like that? "What?" He shook his head slightly. "No, Peter. There's nothing you could EVER do that would make me hate you." Being emotionally supportive was far from Tony's strong suit, but he did his best to be a comforting and supportive figure to Peter. "Why would you ask-" Tony began to pry for why Peter asked that but was interrupted.
"We'll be at Johns Hopkins in 2 minutes, Boss." Friday's voice came over the intercom. Peter's eyes looked out the window, and Tony decided his question could wait.
The hospital was connected to a University, with buildings of healing and learning sprawled out in both directions. On any other occasion, Peter would have been excited to visit the campuses and libraries but today wasn't a typical day. He wouldn't allow himself time to pick the brains of any doctors like he usually would. No matter how insatiable his apatite for knowledge was.
The helicopter touched down on the landing pad, and the two exited it before Tony ordered Friday to keep it circling the hospital so the landing pad could be used for emergency services. Tony doing the right thing brought a smile to his young face, though he didn't show it to his older mentor.
"This place seems expensive..." Peter commented on the hospital as they made their way through it. All the equipment and even the floors seemed to be brand new.
Tony put his hands into his pockets and straightened his posture. "Well," The billionaire smiled happily and looked around. "I wasn't putting May in just any hospital, and I knew this hospital was one of the best at treating brain tumors." One of the benefits of his absurdly large fortune was being able to do practically anything for the people he cared about.
Peter turned away and hid the smile that had formed on his lips from Tony. "Thank you, Mr. Stark, for everything." The young hero knew that Tony didn't need or want to be thanked, but Peter thanked him anyway. With everything Tony had done for him since they met, he felt it was the least he could do.
The rest of the walk was silent, except for Tony saying 'Good Morning' to the nurses and doctors he thought were cute as they passed them. Most of the things Peter'd heard about Tony since he was a kid turned out wrong. From him being dismissive or selfish to the notion that he believed himself to be better than other people. One by one, Tony proved those things wrong, but the womanizing had been 100% factual.
His musing were ended when they entered May's hospital room.
A flash of curly red hair and green eyes staring into his. Natasha Romanoff was sitting at his Aunt's bedside, and everything Peter had been planning to say left his brain, along with air from his lungs. The stunned teen stumbled back out of the room until his back hit the hallway wall, his eyes not breaking contact with Natasha's.
"It's Her...!"
"It's Him!"
Author's Note: Hey everybody! First things first, I am so so sorry for the late update. I've been super busy and struggling pretty hard with depression which induced some serious writers block but here's chapter six! A couple of things I wanted to say; yes, the room 616 was a reference to the comics for the reviewer who was curious, and no Tony is not the father, and I don't think it's something I'm going to get too deep into. And for anyone who wants to review but is nervous because english isn't there first language. Don't be. I read and appreciate every review and I'm just stoked that you took the time to write it!
I hope you guys enjoyed and I'm sorry for the bit of a cliffhanger but i wanted to get this chapter out to you guys! As always, Read and Review!? Thank you!
