Happy Monday You Wonderful People!

I know I said I hoped to be able to start posting twice a week in future, and that was supposed to be Wednesdays and Saturdays, but I'm celebrating. I just wrote the epilogue to Story III and sent it to Prongs100 and Snarkymuch for their feedback. The story currently stands at 58k words and 21 chapters which might change with edits. I am proud of the story I've created as it has all the action and characters I've been waiting to write. I think you'll enjoy it as it has the Peter that some of you wanted in Story I and the characters some of you have been asking about in comments/reviews.

I will probably end up posting again Wednesday as I am a junkie for your reviews and have all the patience of a toddler on a sugar rush ;-)

If you enjoy the chapter, please leave a review. I can't overstate how much it means to me to hear from you and how much it adds to the drive to keep writing. I need that drive especially now as I've got to start Story IV and I have VERY little idea of what will happen.

Okay, I'm done rambling. You can read xxx

Chapter Five

Rhodey checked the time and then glanced at Tony, who was busy scrolling on his tablet with a furrowed brow. He looked immersed in what he was doing, so it was probably important, but Peter was due a feed.

He cleared his throat and said, "Uh, Tony, shall I give Peter his feed."

Tony looked around, his eyes vague. "What?"

"Peter," Bucky said. "He needs a feed. Shall I do it?"

Tony looked torn. His eyes moved between the tablet and Peter's face, which was tilted left towards the window. Rhodey thought he could guess the battle being waged in Tony. Since the incident a week ago, in which Rhodey had been hurt and Peter traumatized, Tony had been reluctant to let him take care of Peter. He'd insisted on taking the nights in his room and did most other things himself—not going home for overnight stays anymore, visiting from breakfast till bedtime, and leaving Steve and Bucky to take care of Peter.

Rhodey understood it, would probably feel the same if the situations were reversed, but he hoped it would end soon as he hated not being able to help Peter when he needed it. He wanted to do his bit, spend time with him without being watched.

"Yeah," Tony said slowly. "If you can. Pep's sent me some SI stuff I've got to look at, and I've only got a few more minutes until she's going to call to go over it with me."

Rhodey smiled and got to his feet. "Yeah, I can. No problem." He eased Peter up beside him and said, "Time for brunch, Pete."

Peter followed him obligingly into the bedroom, where they'd been giving him his feeds to provide him with some privacy. It wasn't invasive exactly, but it was still personal, and none of them would want a room of witnesses to them being fed through a tube in their stomach, and they had no reason to believe Peter would either.

"You need some help?" Bucky asked from the door.

Rhodey looked around and said, "Yeah, thanks. If you can sit with him, I'll get the stuff."

Bucky came into the room and sat beside Peter, putting a hand on his shoulder. "You want to get outside when this is done, bud? We can look at the lake for a while." Though Peter gave no reaction, Bucky went on as if he had. "Yeah, thought you would."

Rhodey left the room and went into the kitchen to fetch the bag of liquid feed from the fridge. He measured out the feed and carried it back into the bedroom, where Bucky was engaged in a story about his youth in Queens.

"And there was Steve, all 5' 4" of him facing off against this guy that had to be 6' 6", fists like hams, and the kid was grinning like he was at a carnival. I swear, it was like he liked getting punched…"

Rhodey smiled slightly. He'd noticed after his concussion that Bucky was spending time together with Peter and Tony, more than Tony usually liked anyone to be near them. He'd even heard Tony call him Bucky, which had shocked him. Whatever had happened when they'd gone outside together that day, it had shifted something between them in a positive way.

Rhodey wasn't entirely sure how he felt about it. It wasn't that he was jealous of Tony making a friend, he wasn't a preschooler, but Bucky now seemed to have more of Tony's trust than he himself had when it came to Peter, and that felt wrong.

From the beginning, it had been Tony and him against the world. He was the one that was trusted, and Bucky had been the enemy. Rhodey wasn't the enemy now, he knew that, but he wasn't what he used to be. He'd been developing a better relationship with Bucky before the incident, but that hadn't developed as much in the last week. That was maybe because Rhodey had still been a little withdrawn in his regret and guilt for what he had done.

He laid the supplies on the bed, attached the tube and syringe to the port, then poured the feed into the syringe and held it up so gravity would drain it down.

"Feel good?" he asked Peter.

Bucky brushed Peter's hair back and said, "I don't know how it feels, but it's doing the job. This combination Cho came up with is piling on the pounds, right, bud? You're looking better every day."

That was overstating it a little, but Peter was gaining weight better than he had been on TPN feeds. His cheeks were starting to fill out a little, and his arms were no longer the matchsticks they'd been before. Peter had more energy, too. He didn't fall asleep so often in the day and was in motion more. For whatever reason Tony didn't want a nasal feeding tube to be placed, and Rhodey still didn't know what it was, the PEG feeds were working well.

Peter's fingers ran over his lap, nails scratching the soft fabric of his sweats, and Bucky picked up his hand and said, "You know, bud, unless we do something about these nails soon, Wanda's next salon day is going to be a manicure and polish. Shall we give them a trim?"

Rhodey looked around at him. "You think he can take it?" he asked warily.

Bucky frowned a moment and then said, "I think so. There's no connection to water or what they did to him there—the fact they're growing into talons proves that. I'll get the gear."

He set Peter's hand down on his lap again and then left the room.

"So… uh… a manicure, Pete," Rhodey said awkwardly.

Peter blinked slowly and sighed.

"You not keen?" Rhodey asked, though the sigh could have just been a heavy breath. They were all looking for more in whatever Peter gave them. "You don't want it, you only have to say."

Bucky came back into the room, frowning, and said, "You don't think it's a good idea?" When Rhodey looked blank, he smiled. "Super hearing—I don't miss much."

Rhodey shook his head and said, "You know, it's kinda intimidating being surrounded by enhanced people all the time." He lifted the syringe a little higher to speed the flow and said, "Superheroes are hard to live with."

Bucky frowned. "You're a superhero, too, Rhodes. You were on the battlefield with us."

"I'm a man in a suit," Rhodey argued.

"So is Tony, and he's a hero," Bucky pointed out. "He's not enhanced either, nor is Sam. I think you guys are the ones that are the most impressive since you do it all without our bonuses. The risk is greater for you, so that makes you braver." He nudged Peter's shoulder. "Isn't that right, bud? You and me have the super healing to take the edge off."

"Yeah, I guess you do," Rhodey agreed quietly.

Bucky placed a towel over Peter's lap and then picked up his right hand. With his eyes darting between Peter's face and thumb, he snipped at the long nail. When Peter made no response, he smiled and said, "That's it, bud. It'll feel much better after."

Rhodey watched him as he trimmed Peter's nails, conscious of any reaction or anxiety that Peter might show, but there was nothing at all. He didn't even seem to notice it happening.

Rhodey sat in silence for a while, the only sounds the snips of the nail clippers and their breathing, and then Bucky started talking, telling Peter about the geese he'd seen on the lake the day before and his theory that they might see more if they could scavenge up some bread from the kitchen.

"You're really good with him, you know," Rhodey said.

Bucky looked surprised. "I am?"

"Yes. Did you ever have something like this in your life before, someone that was hurt?"

Bucky blew out a heavy breath and then switched hands, snipping at Peter's other thumb. "No, but I guess I feel I can relate to Peter. We don't know what's going on in his head, what he's aware of and what he's not, but I think maybe he's trapped in there. I know what it feels like to be trapped."

"You mean when you were the Winter Soldier?" Rhodey asked. He was surprised as he'd not thought it worked like that. He'd thought Bucky was programmed and cared about nothing.

"No. That was different. When I was in Wakanda, when… they were helping me get my mind back."—the hesitation was the name he was unwilling to say, Rhodey thought, the name of the man that had done this to Peter—"I would slip in and out. I would be the Winter Soldier, complying and ready to serve, and then I would slip back into James Bucky Barnes, the soldier, man, and friend, but sometimes, I'd be between the two, and that was worse."

"I didn't know that," Rhodey said. "I had no idea what happened there."

Bucky shrugged. "I've not talked about it with anyone apart from Steve. There were times when I felt trapped there, and I think that's how Peter feels now. For me, having people talking to me, giving me things to comfort the way we think he likes blankets and pillows, would have been good. It wasn't like that, though. I was a mission, a task for them, and I was basically alone in it."

He snipped the nail of Peter's left pinky and then dropped the clippers onto the bed, folded the towel, carried it to the wastepaper basket, and tipped away the crescent clippings.

Though he couldn't ask without Peter hearing, Rhodey wondered if that was going to be the same for Peter. They had to get the programming out of his head. Bucky was the only one of them that knew the words to trigger him, but Ross had to know them, too. If he got near Peter, he could use them. Peter had beaten them once, they believed, but he might not be able to do it again. They had to find a way, but the man that had removed Bucky's programming was dead.

Rhodey had no idea how they were going to save Peter from that.

Tony rolled over on the cot and looked at Peter, who was lying on his side, positioned as Tony had settled him an hour ago. His fingers were moving against the comforter Tony had pulled to his chin, but his eyes were wide open.

"Can't sleep, kid?" he said. "You hungry, maybe?"

Peter blinked and resumed his stare through Tony.

"No, me either," Tony said, sitting up and swinging his legs around so that his feet were planted on the carpet.

He ran a hand through his hair and sighed. It wasn't the fact Peter was awake that was keeping him up late, not really. He knew Peter sometimes woke in the night when he slept as Friday always gave him a report in the morning of how his night had passed.

There was no real problem with Peter being awake as Friday would alert them if he got out of bed; he was as safe as he could be. In fact, the only reason Tony—and Rhodey before the shower incident—spent the nights on the uncomfortable cot beside Peter's bed was for their own peace of mind. No matter what was happening with the rest of them, Friday always monitored Peter and would alert them to any issue.

He got to his feet and went to the bed to ease Peter onto his other side so he could get in next to him and settle him against his chest.

"Your old man's going to have to go away again for a while tomorrow, Pete," he said, stroking over Peter's back, noting that his spine was slightly less prominent against his fingers now. "I've got to see Morgan and Pep. Rhodey, Bucky, and Steve will be here, though, and they'll take care of you. And I won't be gone long. A couple days tops. You think you'll be okay?"

He ducked his head down to see that Peter's eyes had fallen closed, and his breaths were now the measured sighs of sleep.

He chuckled. "I got it; you just needed a little extra comfort to help you nod off. Happy to oblige."

In truth, he was more than just happy. He loved that he could help Peter like this. At least he thought he was helping. It was just as likely that Peter had fallen asleep then because his body was finally ready. They had no idea if he felt any of their touches, heard their voices, or saw them. He didn't seem to.

He shifted himself a little more comfortably on the bed and rested his cheek against Peter's hair. It smelled of the conditioner gel Wanda had used to untangle it and reapplied every other day to keep it from tangling again. It was a fresh, slightly minty scent, and its effect with Wanda's efforts was amazing.

It had taken hours for her to do it, working slowly and gently with a comb on each snagged strand. Peter had borne it all without too much fidgeting. He looked so much better for it now. Tony had been worried about what they could do with his hair. He would never have tried to do it in the shower, and the fact Rhodey had infuriated him at first, though now he saw it was just a simple mistake that anyone could have made. He probably needed to say that to his friend, too, as things had been tense between them since it happened.

His eyes grew heavy, and he let them fall closed. If he fell asleep here, he might wake with a stiff neck, but it'd be worth it to know—or at least hope—that he was helping Peter settle. It would be the last time for a couple days, too.

He was going to head home in the morning to spend time with the rest of his family as Morgan and Pepper needed him, too. He would have worried more about leaving after the shower incident, but Bucky had not stepped up and seemed truly invested in being what Peter needed him to be and doing what he could to help him through his days. Tony thought he had now joined the small group of people who would give or do anything for Peter's health and happiness.

Tony's breaths became heavy and slow, his heart calm and steady as he drifted off to sleep. And then he stiffened, and his breaths and heart picked up as he sensed something different in the room. His eyes snapped open and then widened as he saw who was standing beside the bed.

"Hello, Mr. Stark."

"Vision! How the hell are you…" He blinked twice in hopes of banishing the illusion in front of him. "You're dead."

Vision smiled slightly. "I am not your friend, Vision. I am Mind."

Tony's mouth dropped open, and his breath gusted out of him with shock. He could feel his heart pounding against his ribs in an agitating way.

"Mind?" he said weakly. "You're the…" He eased Peter away from him, laid him down and pulled the blankets up to his chin, then got off the bed and walked warily to stand between his son and the apparition.

Mind frowned. "You shouldn't have done that. He likes to be held."

Tony felt a pang of guilt and then dismissed it and addressed the more important question. "How am I seeing you? I've seen you before, and you didn't look like Vis. You're a little yellow glowy rock."

Mind's mouth pinched into a thin line. "You are not seeing me any more than Peter can see me as I truly am. This is just a form I created for Peter to speak to in person the way we all did. And you're seeing me now because I am in your head."

When Tony looked stricken, he held up a hand and went on.

"You are dreaming, Mr. Stark. I was able to come to you because you were connecting with Peter through Soul. We have been trying for a long time, but Peter has been guarded, and you never both reached at the same time."

Tony shook his head as he tried to make sense of his thoughts. "Wait, Peter is reaching for me? He can feel me?"

Mind smiled slightly. "Yes. He went to sleep hearing your voice, and he embraced it. He is very aware that you're here, though perhaps not in a way you can understand. Peter does not see you or hear you clearly, but he senses you, feels you when you're close to him. Not the physical touch exactly, but more the sensation in his mind. It's hard to explain."

Tony pressed his fingers to his temples. "So, he can hear us and feel us, but not the way he did before?"

"Yes. Peter's life now is a flow of sensory input that agitates, soothes, and stimulates him in turn. Imagine you are swimming in the ocean. Each wave that rolls over you touches your whole body, but not your mind. With Peter, it's the opposite. All stimulation rolls over him, touching his mind, but not his body. When he feels a touch, it becomes a thought, as do the things he hears, smells, and sees."

"Bucky said he liked the lake. He was seeing it; I saw the change in his eyes."

"He was, in his way. He likes the sensory input of the light on the water." He gave Tony a small smile. "Many of the things you have been doing for him have helped. He likes to be touched, he likes to hear your voices, and he can feel and smell the things around him."

Tony exhaled in a sigh and looked back at Peter, who seemed to be resting peacefully, though technically Tony was apparently resting, too. To be aware in a dream and holding a conversation with an Infinity Stone was a mind trip.

"Why isn't he coming back?" he asked. "If he knows we're waiting for him, that I am, why is he still…" he waved a hand, "gone?"

Mind looked a little sad. "Because he will not allow us to bring him out of it."

"You mean he's doing this on purpose?" Tony said incredulously.

"Yes. He is utilizing the power of us all to hide. Your friend, the Scarlet Witch, sees a version of us when she looks because Peter is hidden behind us."

Tony squeezed his eyes shut. He'd not imagined Peter would be doing this on purpose, that he would abandon them like this.

"Why?" he moaned. "Why would he leave me like this?"

"He is afraid of hurting someone. He broke the conditioning when he was ordered to kill Captain Rogers and Sergeant Barnes, but he's confused. He doesn't know if that control will remain. He was not fully aware of us or our power and promise at the time he broke free as the conditioning was confusing him. We cannot be sure as we were not fully present, but Soul and I believe Peter was unaware of his essential immortality when he prepared to shoot himself."

Tony sucked in a shaky breath. "He would have killed himself to stop it? God, Pete…" He looked back at his son and felt a swell of pain in his chest that was crushing. "You're going to be the end of me, kid."

Peter's brow furrowed, and he made a small sound of pain.

"No!" Mind said urgently. "You've hurt him! Your soul is… Mr. Stark, you have to—"

One moment he was there, the next, he flickered away like a TV with the power cutting off. With his next breath, Tony found himself jerking awake on the bed.

Peter had rolled off of him and was lying with his face half-covered by the comforter. He tugged it down and cupped Peter's cheek.

"I'm sorry, kid," he said, his voice heavy with pain. "I didn't mean to hurt you. I just…" He drew a shaky breath. "I don't want to lose you. It's bad enough that you're like this, that you would have done that to yourself, to me, and left me behind willingly…" He shook his head and laid down, curling around Peter as if he could defend him from the pain he was feeling.

He had more insight into what was happening to his son, and that might help a little, but he'd messed up, and he didn't know when he'd be able to talk to Mind or any of the Stones again. They were the ones that held the answer. Mind had been about to tell him what he had to do, but Tony had upset Peter and broken the connection before he'd had a chance to hear it.

It had taken a month for the circumstances to match so Mind could talk to him, and they had no way of knowing when it would happen again.

Tony had really screwed up.

So… Mind! That was another thing not planned in the beginning. I didn't even talk it out with Snarks before writing as I usually do. I just threw myself into it and waited to see what she and Prongs100 would say when it was written. They gave it the seal of approval, so I kept going. We'll see Mind again—in a different way—and another Stone, which I think you'll really enjoy as he's a little sassy.

Until next time…

Clowns or Midgets xxx