He knew something was wrong – even though Natasha didn't say anything out of the ordinary and didn't mention it. Not that she gave anything away as they drove; she was still chatting to Ned about the D&D campaign, the homecoming dance and what he had planned for the week ahead, but Stephen knew her as well as any and better than most, and he knew something had caught her attention. He didn't say anything, however, as they drove through the neighborhood that the safehouse was in and to Ned's.

"Thanks, Natasha," Ned told her, getting out when she double-parked in front of his building. "See ya, Doctor Strange."

"Have a good week, Ned," she replied, smiling at the boy who had such a crush on her. "Stay out of trouble."

"I will."

He walked up the steps into the building and Natasha put the car in gear.

"We have trouble at home," she said, immediately, once the boy was out of sight.

Which he understood to mean her home, and not his.

"What's up?"

"Peter wrecked his car."

"What? What was he driving for? Where was he going?"

"I haven't heard. I heard the initial call from Friday to our security system and then Fury ordering up a wrecker to retrieve the car from a ditch less than a mile down the road."

"Is he hurt?"

"Yes. Tony says not seriously enough that he wanted us to let Ned know what was happening, so we needed to wait until we delivered him home."

He could tell she was worried, despite the assurance.

"Take us to the sanctum," Stephen told her. "We'll park the car there and I'll get us back the quicker way."

OOOOOOOO

Peter was still being evaluated when Tony and Pepper reached the medical room. Doctor Adams looked over at the motion at the door to the room and walked over to them, intercepting the worried looking parents of her youngest patient before they could walk into the room.

"How is he?" Pepper asked, first.

"He's got a pretty good knock to the head," she replied. "At the scene it looked like he hit the steering wheel, and he thinks that's the case, but he's still dazed, so it's only a guess. We've done x-rays – chest, head and belly. Aside from the head wound, it looks good, so far."

"His hand and arm?" Tony asked her, remembering the way Peter had been favoring it at the crash site.

"I've called Doctor Thompson in to take the bandages off so we can get a better look and see if he's aggravated the injuries already done. I'm going to leave it as is until he arrives." She looked at her watch. "His ETA is around half an hour."

"Can we talk to Peter?"

"Let me get him settled into an actual bed, first. Then you can have some time with him while we wait for Doctor Thompson. Is Stephen coming?"

"He shouldn't be too much longer. He was on his way to the city."

"I'll hold the fort until he gets here," she told them with a reassuring smile. "Get some coffee, or something. I'll call you when he's ready."

The two didn't argue. With a glance over her shoulder at their son, Tony allowed Pepper to steer him away from the door. They didn't go for coffee, though. Instead, they went to the closest waiting room; there weren't many and the two had been in all of them by then. Tony sat down on the sofa and pulled out his phone, while Pepper settled beside him, hooking her arm through his free one.

"Friday? Pull from Peter's phone records the last call made out, please."

"You don't think that's an invasion of his privacy?" Pepper asked, uncertainly.

"Absolutely, it is," he admitted. "But I want to know what's going through his head, and he's not very good at always letting people know. Something had to trigger this, Pep; he was in pretty good spirits when I left him."

"Communication found," Friday interrupted. "Video capability exists, do you want to see it?"

Tony looked at Pepper, who nodded. In for a penny, in for a pound, as the saying went.

"Yes."

A minute or so later, and they both knew why Wanda had told them that he'd been angry. And upset. A fight with a girlfriend would definitely do it – especially with a teenager. A fight where the girlfriend called you a liar, and stupid, and was clearly feeling left out of things if they were any judge of the conversation was much more serious. They watched it a few times, able to see both teen's faces because of the camera in a camera feature of the video conference, so it was easy to see the way Peter's expression had changed throughout the conversation.

"Wow…"

"Poor baby…" Pepper said, softly, not missing the fact that Peter had mentioned his mom and his ever-present concern about her always worrying about his wellbeing. "She's not happy with him, is she?"

"No. They're definitely squabbling."

"Should we let her come out?"

Neither had missed the way MJ had acted about being left out. It had been pretty obvious – even if Peter had seemed clueless. And she had a valid point, they knew – but her delivery was fairly blunt.

"I don't think so. I don't want him dealing with that, right now. He can fix his relationship once we have him healthier – and we can get him in a better frame of mind. He has enough on his plate already – and definitely added more to it with this. What do you think?"

They were supposed to be a team, after all. That meant asking her what she thought, too.

"I agree. As much as I don't like the idea of allowing the issues to fester between them, I don't want him any more upset than he already is. Or how he's going to be once he sees the car…"

"Yeah. I-"

He was interrupted when Shuri knocked on the door's frame, poking her head in and looking worried.

"I am sorry," she said, uncertainly. "But I heard what happened and wanted to see if there is anything that I can do."

"Not at the moment," Pepper replied. "We haven't been allowed to see him, yet."

"But he's okay," Tony added, giving the girl a reassuring smile, weak though it was. "He was awake and talking to me when I found him."

"Did he really hit a deer?"

"I couldn't find one," Stark told her. "But he said he did – or the deer hit him. We should have footage – it's a monitored road – but I haven't had a chance to look at the recordings."

They been focused on watching the call with MJ, instead.

"Is Doctor Strange with him?

The princess knew Stephen was with Natasha taking Ned him – but she was also aware that he had instant travel capabilities and knew that Strange was (unofficially) Peter's doctor.

"He's in the city with -"

A piece of heavy fabric swept into the room, just then, zipped by Shuri and made a bee-line for Tony. It silently wrapped around him, startling everyone, and Natasha walked in on the heels of the ancient relic, looking at Tony and Pepper.

"How is he?"

"Lucky to be alive," Tony said, trying to see around the cloak, which was now rubbing his ears, clearly trying to soothe – or trying to be soothed – but only making a nuisance of itself without Peter or Stephen there to tell it to behave. "He crashed into a tree."

"Fury said it was a deer."

"I haven't seen the tape, yet."

"You talked to him?"

"Yeah. Before they pulled him out of the car. Stephen's with him, now?"

"We stopped at the sanctum to drop off the car and came right here after we took Ned home."

"He doesn't know?"

"No, we were almost to his place when we got the call."

Might have been further away, except Romanoff liked to drive fast when she could get away with it.

"We'll tell him, later," Tony said. "Peter hit his head on the steering wheel – and maybe his hand. Doctor Thompson is coming in to take the bandages off and see if there's any harm done – Adams wanted him since he's been following the treatment more intimately and knows what to look for. Nothing appears broken, though."

"What was he doing?" she asked with a confused frown. "Why was he driving in the first place?"

Peter wasn't dumb enough to try anything so reckless – especially with his Pontiac. She didn't say that aloud, but she didn't really need to, since they all knew it.

"We'll explain, later…" Tony promised. He didn't really want the story about the argument with MJ to become common knowledge, and while Romanoff was a spy and tight-lipped at the best of times, Shuri was one of Peter's peers, and they didn't want her to know unless it was Peter who told her. Not to mention that if they told anyone, it would become clear to the boy that they'd listened to the call. "We're not quite sure."

But pretty sure.

"I'll wait with you," Natasha said, gracefully sitting in one of the chairs.

Shuri looked at Tony and Pepper, uncertainly, and Pepper smiled.

"You can stay, too," she assured the girl, who looked relieved at not being sent away when it wasn't really her place to be in the room with the family but was worried about her friend and didn't want to leave. "But we get to see him, first. Fair?"

"Of course."

She sat down on the sofa, on the other side of Tony, who scowled when the cloak shifted, again, and started rubbing his cheeks and messing up his hair.

"A little help, ladies?" he requested, moving his head, again, but still enjoying the full attentions of the magical relic.

Whether he wanted them, or not.

"You're on your own, there," Pepper said, reaching over and picking up Tony's phone and turning it off so the newcomers couldn't see the display – which held a still frame of the video chat on it. "I speak several languages, but magic carpet isn't one of them."