A/N: Sorry this update is late, I had a busy week. Better late than never, though. Enjoy!

—

Happy stared at the man who was webbed up against the crates. He couldn't find any words to say. He was shocked.

Never in his wildest dreams had he expected to find out that Peter had already been to the scene of the crash, much less that Peter seemingly fought and defeated the Vulture. The kid was supposed to be at Homecoming, for goodness sake!

"Did you find the kid?" the tied up man asked, seemingly concerned for Peter's well-being.

"What kid?" Happy asked, trying to remain discreet about Peter's secret identity.

"Spider-man. Peter. Did you find him? He didn't look very good when he tied me here," the man asked, struggling a little against his bonds, trying to see behind him. He didn't want the kid who had saved his life to die. It wouldn't be fair.

Happy sighed and motioned to the police officers behind him. "Here's a gift from Spider-man," he told them, motioning to the Vulture. They nodded and moved to untangle him.

"Hey, could we set up a perimeter and see if we can find Spider-man?" Happy asked the rest of the detail, "He's supposedly injured."

"I found him, sir!" One of the police officers called from a short distance away. Happy picked his way through the hot debris to see Peter lying face down on the sand, bleeding heavily and barely breathing.

Happy swallowed hard. This couldn't be happening. Peter had to be alright. Happy knew he would never forgive himself if Peter wasn't.

"I'm going to call in the Avengers' medical chopper," he told the officers, "You guys see if there's anything you can do for him."

Happy turned away and pressed the FRIDAY emergency button on his phone. He was immediately connected with his boss' AI.

"What is the emergency?" the female AI asked.

"Spider-man's down. Send an emergency chopper to this location and alert the medical team at the compound."

"Done," FRIDAY responded, "Would you like me to alert the Boss?"

"Alert him when we're a few minutes out. There's no reason for him to bring Iron Man into this."

"Yes, sir."

—

Tony watched in horror as the gurney with Peter on it was quickly taken past him. FRIDAY had told him that Peter was being brought in with injuries a few minutes ago, but he hadn't been able to coax any other information out of her or the medical team that was now swarming around the teen hero. He quickly went and found Happy.

"Boss," Happy said as soon as Tony found him, a downcast look on his face, "it's pretty bad. No one would tell me what was wrong with him, but he fought the Vulture and he fought hard. He was passed out and bleeding when I found him."

Tony ran his hand over his face. "How could he do that? After I specifically told him not to, to let us handle it. He's just a kid, Happy. I can't let him die."

"I know, Boss. But you should know that he caught the Vulture. That guy's off the streets because of the bravery of that kid."

Tony gave him a long look. "Or the stupidity," he corrected his head of security.

—

After waiting for four hours to hear of any news about Peter, Bruce came into the waiting area, sadness in his composure.

"What is it?" Tony asked, standing up. "Please tell me he's alive, Bruce."

"He is," Bruce said, and Tony gave a big sigh of relief.

"Well, how bad is it?" Tony asked. If Bruce looked that concerned, it couldn't be good.

"Tony, his healing isn't working."

"Why not? It should be, the kid's got super healing!"

Bruce slowly looked at Tony. "His healing isn't working because Peter has a tumor in his right hip. We think it's cancer, Tony."

Suddenly Tony couldn't breathe. His kid had cancer. His kid might die. He couldn't handle it.

"Tony! Breathe!" He heard a voice say loudly.

He tried to breathe, he really did, but he just couldn't. "Tony, concentrate. Breathe with me. That's right. Deep breath in, deep breath out. Good," he heard Bruce's voice say.

"Can I see him?" Tony asked.

"Yes, but he's not awake yet. Would you like to tell him or should I?"

Tony took a deep breath. "I should be the one to tell him."

Bruce nodded and led the way to Peter's room.

—

Peter woke up slowly. Everything hurt. He vaguely thought that of course everything hurt, he had been crushed by a building and then crash-landed on the outside of a plane.

He felt a callused hand in his and moaned as the bright light hit his eyes when he tried to open them.

The hand left his and he heard footsteps cross the room. "There you go, kid," Mr. Stark's voice said.

Peter opened his eyes again. This time the lights were dim enough for them to not hurt his eyes. He blinked at Mr. Stark, who sat in a chair next to his hospital bed.

"How you feeling, kid?" Mr. Stark looked at him with sad eyes.

Peter moaned, "Pretty crappy."

"Yeah, I know, kid. Your healing's not working right now."

Peter rolled his eyes, "Figures."

"Aren't you the least bit curious why not?" Mr. Stark said, seeming angry, sad, and hesitant all at the same time.

Peter shrugged and looked away guiltily. This wasn't the way he wanted Mr. Stark to find out. He hadn't wanted Mr. Stark to find out at all.

"You have cancer, kid."

"I know," Peter mumbled.

"You know?"

"I know," Peter said, slowly looking up at Mr. Stark through his too-long curly hair, "I found out last week."

Mr. Stark stared intently at Peter, his eyes widening in shock. "Last week? When were you planning on telling me?"

"I don't know," Peter shrugged, "I kind of hoped that I would never have to tell you."

"Kid, you do realize that your treatment is going to be different than a normal person's would because of your mutations."

Peter shrugged again, "I kind of wondered if my mutations could be the cause."

Mr. Stark took a deep breath in. "Have you started treatments yet?"

"I was going to start chemo tomorrow. My doctor decided to let me have one last homecoming dance to feel relatively well before we started."

"But…" Mr. Stark raised his eyebrows expectantly.

"But then my date's dad ended up being the Vulture, so I had to catch him! I was planning on leaving it up to you and the FBI, Mr. Stark, I really was, but then he was just right there!"

"So of course you had to go after him and almost get yourself killed!" Tony let out a huge sigh and covered his eyes with his hand. "I can't lose you, kid."

Peter swallowed hard. "I'm so sorry, Mr. Stark," he whispered, tears falling from his eyes.

"Oh, kid," Tony reached out and hugged Peter as best as he could while Peter was still in a hospital bed and had a heavily bandaged chest.

"You'll be okay, kid."

"What if I'm not, Mr. Stark? What if I die? I don't want to die," Peter said, his lower lip quivering.

"We'll get through this, kid," Tony said, gently brushing Peter's hair out of his eyes.

"Mr. Stark?"

Tony looked down to see Peter's eyes expectantly on his.

"I think I'm going to take a break from Spider-man."

Tony felt a shock go over his system. It must be really bad if Peter was willingly going to give up his alter ego.

"If that's what you think is best for you to get better, Peter. I fully support you."

Tony smiled a little on the outside, but on the inside he was being torn apart. His kid could be dying, and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

—

A/N: So I forgot that Bruce and Hulk went to Sakaar after Age of Ultron. Since this is already an AU, I'm not too worried about it. In this universe, the Hulk turned back into Bruce after the battle in Sokovia. He didn't participate in the Civil War, though. He opted to retire in India, continuing the work he was doing in the first Avengers movie, so he wasn't involved with the Accords and all that nonsense.