Connor stares blankly. Peter was hurt? How so? it didn't seem like a very important reason to pull him out of school, as the avenger's facility update probably had an extremely capable medical wing to support any injuries that Peter could've acquired.
So why would Tony even consider bringing Connor along?
"You're Peter's friend, right?" Tony asks, even though he knows its true, he just wants the confirmation. Connor nods, and Tony relaxes a little at this. "And he trusts you?" Connor nods once again, Tony physically has to control his breathing, using the techniques his old therapist told him would work to control a panic attack.
Before Connor can ask what's going on, they arrive at the facility, and Tony quietly escorts them in front of a room in the medical wing. He puts a hand on Connor's shoulder and looks him in the eyes, pleading.
"He need's your support, I don't know what I'd do without hi- Just do what you can… please?" Tony's eyes start watering, and a tear rolls down his cheek. Neither of them mentions it, or comment, but Tony wipes it away quickly.
How hurt could Peter even be to warrant this much emotion from Tony?
Connor steps into the room carefully, trying to mute most of the noise that is made from his shoes hitting the white tile floor.
The room is whitewashed and smells harshly of chemicals that one would find in a hospital, and extremely sterilised. Connor scrunches up his nose, the smell is so strong he can almost taste it on his tongue. Peter's laying on his side, with his back facing Connor and his front facing the large bay window.
From this point of view, Connor can't tells if Peter's sleeping or just laying extremely still. Waling a little closer, Connor determines that by the way Peter's controlled breathing is even, long and drawn out, that Peter was asleep. The IV drip was inserted into Peter's arm, and there were flowers in a jar by the bed.
Connor takes a seat by the bed and patiently waits for Peter to stir awake. There isn't anything for Connor to occupy himself with in the meantime, so he takes out his coin and gets lost in the swift movements made by his wrists and fingers, as the coin lightly dances on the surface of his fingertips.
The metal ping noise that comes from the coin is the only noise in the room beside Peter's quiet breathing. Everything was peaceful and Connor finally decided to examine Peter to see exactly how injured he was.
On his left hand it seemed there were many small cuts, and on his right hand, there was a bandage, with what seemed to be dried blood that had seeped through the thick coarse material.
The clipboard at the edge of Peter's bed is in reach, and Connor stretches his arm over to retrieve it without getting up from his spot in the chair beside Peter's bed and quickly scans over the official documented diagnosis, courtesy of one Dr Banner.
An array of incisions on patients right hand, extreme blood loss, needs stitches. Self-harm.
The rest of the document is just information on Peter's weight, height, blood type etc. As a trusted friend to Peter, Connor finds himself placed in the position of emotional support to the young Spiderman.
Connor already knows about self-harm, and doesn't feel confused or heartbroken like a normal person in his position would feel, and instead, he feels determined to help Peter get out of this predicament that he's somehow gotten himself into.
As a friend, Connor wants to do everything he can, but the pressure is starting to stack up heavily on Connor's shoulders.
Connor doesn't know if he could do everything he's determined to do, so many tasks but so little time. He needs to help support Hank, he needs to help out Hydra so by extension he could accomplish his goal of finding a way home, he needed to help find Peter's Aunt's murderer and he needed to support Peter.
There was just too much to do, busily trying to find ways to prioritise took longer than expected, and even all his programs running through his system, it would take far longer than the current time available.
He's sorting out all his files, putting each thing into a different category, and deleting caches he would no longer need, meanwhile trying to figure out how the hell he's going to deal with everything-
"Hey," A voice croaks at him, Connor looks over and sees that Peter has now awoken. He looks drowsy, and Connor can only assume that its due to all the morphine he's been put on to ease the pain in his arm.
"Watcha thinking about?" He mumbles, taking Connor's arm, grasping it. Connor ignores the question.
"Dr Banner says you're lucky to be able to regain full control of your arms and no nerve damage due to your accelerated healing." Peter shrugs but looks away ashamed when his injury is mentioned. He knows how painfully close he got to cutting through a major artery, and maybe then his spider healing wouldn't even be able to save him.
"I know." He tiredly looks towards Connor and slowly pulls off the present beanie. "You don't have to wear that around me y'know. You can trust me." And so Connor does take the beanie onto his lap, feeling free with his head exposed, LED wildly blinking. They breathe comfortably for a while.
"It's red." Connor jerks up from his relaxed position and turns to Peter, confused. "You're LED." Peter clarifies. What? How was his LED red? Connor wasn't in any state of high stress that he was aware of. Maybe it was just a few of his background programs running slower than usual.
Connor hums in acknowledgement. Peter and Connor are in a tranquil state, with their fingers intertwined in a firm hold. A sign of their trust and friendship.
Connor doesn't know how long it takes, but Peter drifts off back into his peaceful sleep and Connor's phone vibrates. It's a message, from Hank.
"May Parker's Assailant identified. Come if interested."
It was definitely something to consider, but what did Connor want more? Bringing justice to Aunt May's murder, or to support a delicate Peter Parker when he needed it the most. Deciding that he wasn't one for emotions and that Peter already had people around him to support him, he straightened his tie with one arm and ran a few fingers through his hair. He tied up his shoes with one hand, and then looked at the hand that was entangled with Peter's own, wondering whether if it would wake Peter to leave.
He tries pulling away gently, but Peter's grip is vice hard, moving with Connor's own hand as he tries to wiggle out of Peter's grasp.
"Huh?" Peter swipes at his face, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. "Where are you going?" His voice is still dazed, but it was definitely clearer than before. Perhaps in Peter's tiredness, Connor can make for an easy getaway.
"New evidence concerning your aunt's case has been found, I'm going to find the person now." Peter's hand is still around Connor's wrist, but in the time it takes Connor to say that sentence out loud, Peter has woken more, and isn't so drowsy, with a harder grip on Connor than before.
"Aren't there police to do that?" He sits up on his bed, now determined to convince Connor not to go.
"Well, yes, but-" Connor attempts to reason, but is harshly cut off by Peter.
"But nothing! It's not your job." Peter pulls Connor back into the chair, having to use his heightened strength to pull the android into a sitting position.
"I'm just trying to make you feel better…" Is Connor's final line of reason, somehow his program of negotiating is failing him, and instead a wall of errors blaring through his inner software.
"Finding her killer won't make me feel better, putting them to justice will certainly be right and just but it's not going to change the fact that she's gone and I'm just a huge fucking screw up, Connor." The raw emotion in Peter's voice makes Connor freeze, as he frantically tries to search through his systems for any pre-programmed instructions on how to deal with this kind of situation, and for the first time in forever, his AI system fails him in finding it.
Connor's extremely confused but seems to at least recognise that what Peter needs is not a hero, or a saviour, but a friend. He needed the support and with Ned much to preoccupied with other important things to his own personal life, and the other girls in their friend group being much to distant to provide any sanctionable help, Connor would now gladly step in to fulfil this role.
Only, he didn't know how to help. He was never a mental support android in his time, and Cyberlife only bothered to program him with relevant programs that were predicted to come in handy for potential deviant situations.
With something other than - and arguably to Connor, more important, to think about than deviants, he felt something flicker through him. Something clutching at the bottom of his thirium pump (no warnings or messages seemed to be warning him about any errors in his pump) and squeezed painfully, feeling like a hole was in the pit of his stomach.
It warmed up immensely when Peter stoop up full height, dragging the Iv behind him with one hand, and then hugged him tightly with his free hand. Because of Connor's immense height difference to Peter, Peter ended up burring his head into his chest, and slowly after Connor carefully considers the situation, he envelops two gentle arms around Peter.
The trust is showing with every passing second, and Connor for once, finds himself uncaring for the police's current investigation.