"Get your hands off the boy and step away from him – now."

Instinct had Spencer going still. That was obviously a weapon being pointed at him. His electrical powers could feel the build up there and recognized it as some sort of blast. That was the best his powers were able to tell him, though, or even do for him. All of his energy was focused on his empathy. On pulling the pain out of Peter and taking it into himself. Not all of it, no. He wasn't sure he'd be able to function if he did that. But he had to be taking a good three-quarters of it, at least. Spencer knew the pain of being shot and he could feel it now in his side and shoulder. The exact places that Peter had been shot. Spencer felt them as if they were in his own body.

Too caught up in his head and his powers, and the pain that was making him grit his teeth to keep from screaming, he didn't respond quick enough to the man in the suit. Peter, however, did.

The teen called out "Mr. Stark, no!" as he tried to push himself up from the ground.

Agony flared like a white-hot poker in Spencer's shoulder and across his side. With great effort he swallowed down the high-pitched sound that wanted to leave him. His hand pressed firmly down on Peter's good shoulder and forced him back to the ground. It was a sign of how weak Peter really was; Spencer shouldn't have been able to move him if he didn't want to be moved. "Woah!" Spencer managed to croak out, voice just a bit hoarse. "Stay still, Peter. You need to stay still."

Like an idiot, Peter actually tried to push against Spencer's hand again. "It's fine, I'm healing. It doesn't even hurt anymore." His head turned towards the suit – Mr. Stark, he'd called him. That had to mean that this suit was Iron Man and it was Tony Stark inside of it. Spencer should've put that together on his own. If he'd been more clearheaded, he might've. "Mr. Stark, it's okay, he's not a threat. He saved me."

"Peter." This time Spencer's voice was a growl. He pushed harder, forcing Peter back down. "You're still very much injured, I assure you, so kindly quit trying to move!"

"Trust me, it's nothing." Who he was trying to convince, Spencer had no idea. His eyes were going back and forth between Spencer and the suit, which had lowered its hand, thankfully. "I told you, I barely even feel it anymore. It was just a scratch."

Spencer gritted his teeth and arched his back as the pain kept flaring up with each of Peter's movements. Pain made his voice a bit sharper than he wanted it to be. "That's because I'm acting as a human anesthetic. Kindly refrain from moving around too much and making my job harder than it needs to be, if you don't mind." His heart pounded hard in his chest and his breath was coming a bit quicker. Spencer ignored Peter's surprise and turned himself to look up at the strangely silent suit. "He has two GSW's, one to the lower left abdomen and another to his right shoulder. The one to the abdomen went clean through, but the bullet is still in his shoulder. He needs immediate medical attention that I sincerely hope you can provide, Mr. Stark, considering his quick healing rate and resistance to medications."

"What?" Peter exclaimed at the same time that Tony spoke, his voice suddenly clearer and much less robotic. "You've blocked his pain?"

Spencer looked up at the man above him and saw that the faceplate had opened on the suit. Underneath was a man, likely in his forties, with sharp eyes and a frown twisting his lips. Spencer nodded and watched as Tony moved forward to come and kneel by them. "Most of it." Spencer said. "I can't get it all, but I've got most of it." Without the worry now that he was going to be attacked, it left Spencer free to move his hand off of Peter's shoulder and down to his stomach. He sucked in a breath in preparation of the pain before pressing down to apply pressure. Healing factor or not, Peter was bleeding a lot and he needed help. Now.

It seemed like Tony was of the same opinion. At least, he wasn't arguing Spencer's presence anymore. He brought a hand up, smoothing back Peter's hair. The only question he asked was, "You trust him?"

"Yeah." Peter swallowed visibly and gave a small nod. "Yeah. May does, too."

Those words had Tony raising his eyebrows with surprise. The fact that Spencer knew who May was had to tell Tony just how much they trusted Spencer. After a short pause, the man nodded. "All right." He snapped the faceplate down on the suit and shifted himself as if to get his arms down underneath Peter.

Spencer stopped him before he could. He held one hand out and that was all it took to freeze Tony. He waited for the mask to tilt up towards him before speaking. "I don't know if physical contact is a requirement for keeping him pain free. Until we're within close access of pain relievers, I'd rather not risk it. I'll carry him. You lead the way."

"How exactly are you planning on doing that, small fry?"

Without saying a word, Spencer called up what little he could of his powers and formed the energy board beneath him and Peter. It lifted the both of them until they hovered a few feet above the rooftop. Spencer, still kneeling over Peter, arched an eyebrow at the man below them. It was a silent 'well' that he had a feeling might've elicited a response any other time. For now, there was only a brief hesitation and then Tony was straightening up and the suit was hovering in the air. "Tell me if I need to slow down or stop." Was all he said. Then he was taking off into the air. Spencer curled his hand over the wound on Peter's side, trying to keep pressure on it, and he sucked in a breath at the pain it caused him. "Hang on, Peter. Just hang on."

Without another word, they flew into the sky, following silently after the suit in front of them.

It seemed to take forever and yet no time at all before they arrived at a rather large building. Tony flew them down to a landing pad where someone was already waiting for them with a gurney. Spencer tried to aim for the gurney. He brought him and Peter down to hover over it. When they were right above it, Spencer shifted his weight, throwing his injured leg over Peter so that he was straddling his legs, better able to keep pressure on both wounds at once. Then, as gently as he could, he let go of the energy below them so that they landed on the gurney with only a soft little thud.

The landing had Spencer making a low, pained sound that he couldn't completely choke off. Worry darkened Peter's eyes just a bit more. He didn't try to move anymore, but he did lick his lips and stare up at Spencer with a look that Spencer couldn't bring himself to meet. "Spencer," Peter murmured his name lowly, just for the two of them. "Are you… are you taking this into yourself? Please tell me you're not. Please. Because you gotta know I don't want that. I don't want it at all. I can handle whatever it is you're blocking me from feeling, I swear I can."

Spencer couldn't meet his gaze. Instead, he looked up at the man beside the gurney. "He's lost too much blood. Any more and his body is going to go into hypovolemic shock."

The man that Spencer was speaking to was an older looking gentleman with a tired looking face, sharp eyes, and brown hair that seemed to curl ever so slightly. He wore a lab coat and had the look of someone who knew what they were doing as he reached out to Peter and checked his eyes. Peter tried his best to smile at him. "H-Hey, Dr. Banner. I hope you weren't busy or anything like that. I don't want to drag you away from anything, like, important…"

The doctor – apparently Dr. Bruce Banner – cut Peter off before he could really get going. "You're important." Bruce told him. He gave a small smile as he let go of Peter's eyelid. "Who else is going to help me keep Tony in line if you're not around to do it, huh?"

Peter's lips curved up, which was obviously Bruce's intention. Bruce straightened up and looked over his shoulder at someone that Spencer had only vaguely noticed before. "Vision, come help me get him inside." That said, he looked back at Spencer, taking him in with a quick glance before making a decision. "Can you keep pressure on there until we get inside?"

Spencer didn't speak. He just nodded, his hands never once moving, not even when a rather unique looking man came strolling towards them.

He got a nod in return from Bruce. "Good. Let's move."

Twenty minutes later found Spencer sitting inside a rather spacious waiting room, still dressed in his 'costume'. He'd been escorted here as soon as they'd knocked Peter out. Once brought inside this room, the door had shut, and Spencer doubted he was imagining the feel of the electrical lock clicking into place. For all that this 'Vision' – the red-skinned guy who'd brought him in here – said that this was a room to wait, it felt a lot more like a jail cell to Spencer. One that he was having a hard time forcing himself to stay inside of.

Now that his empathy wasn't focused so totally on Peter – meaning that Spencer wasn't in immense pain – the rest of his powers were more readily accessible and his brain was back to its usual speed. It didn't take him long at all to notice all the different forms of electricity coursing around him. The whole building felt full of energy in a way Spencer had yet to encounter anywhere before. He wondered if that was because of the AI that Peter had rhapsodized about – FRIDAY, he said she was called. Only the fear of any tricks he might encounter kept him from reaching out to try and see.

There was nothing that Spencer could really do in here. No TV, no books, nothing but some chairs and the pale yellow walls around him. If this really were a waiting room it was likely that the yellow was chosen to be some sort of calming influence. Spencer's brain supplied him with the facts and statistics on that, wholly unnecessary though they may be.

He counted another twenty-two minutes before he felt the presence of people coming towards him. The whole time, Spencer had been sitting there on edge. No matter how he stretched himself out, he couldn't feel Peter in this place. He had no idea where he was or what was going on with him. That might just be because of the anesthesia, he knew; when they'd first put Peter under it'd been a bit terrifying to realize that Spencer couldn't feel him anymore. It was the first time he'd encountered that sensation with his empathy and it was a terrifying one.

Now, though, there was not just one person coming towards him, but two. Spencer looked up just as he felt a little spark of energy in the door. A second later it opened and Tony Star and Bruce Banner came walking into the room.

Everything else that Spencer had been thinking about faded away as he got his first real, unfiltered feel of Dr. Bruce Banner.

When Spencer had met Bruce back when they'd first arrived, all of Spencer's focus had been on Peter, all his empathy trained on the young teen. There'd been no room for Spencer to really notice anything else. Now, his mind and powers were all too free to focus on things, and what he felt off of this man was enough to have him tensing. It wasn't that Dr. Banner felt bad. It was more that he felt… strong. He hadn't felt anyone or anything like it before.

His tension didn't go unnoticed by either man. Tony's eyes narrowed and his emotions sharpened into something protective with an edge of threat to it. Bruce, on the other hand, seemed to sink on himself a little bit. "Maybe I should wait outside." He suggested.

Tony's lips pressed together briefly. Then he was glaring at Spencer. "No, I don't think so."

"Tony." Bruce pitched his voice lower, obviously trying to make it for Tony's ears alone, but Spencer was still holding a bit of his electrical powers at the ready inside of him and it sharpened everything, making it easy to hear Bruce's words. "There's no reason to make him uncomfortable. You'll have an easier time talking to him if he's not freaking out because of me."

Surprise had Spencer's eyebrows going up. "Your presence doesn't bother me." He blurted out before he could stop himself. When the two turned to look at him, Tony's eyes narrowing more and Bruce raising his eyebrows – obviously surprised that Spencer had heard them – Spencer hurried to add on "Honestly, Dr. Banner, you don't. I just… I just need a second to adjust, that's all. I wasn't expecting…you feel so much stronger than the average person."

That had the two exchanging another of those conversational looks. This time Tony was the one to break it. His glare had lessened, though it wasn't completely gone, and his voice held only the hint of sharpness to it. "What do you mean, he feels stronger?"

Hadn't they figured it out yet? He thought Tony would've understood earlier when Spencer spoke of being a natural anesthetic for Peter. Maybe they just wanted confirmation about it. Or maybe he hadn't understood. Either way, Spencer banked a lot of trust on Peter's faith in these two, and hoped desperately it wasn't going to bite him in the ass. "On top of the powers you witnessed, I also happen to be an empath. That was how I dulled Peter's pain, earlier." He chewed on his bottom lip and looked at Bruce, who had a light of understanding and interest in his eyes. "My apologies, Dr. Banner. You just, you have the strongest emotions of anyone I've ever met. Controlled, but strong. I just needed to adjust my shields a little for it." Which wasn't easy, considering how raw he felt right now. Often he pictured his mental shield like a nice, heavy blanket wrapped around him, one that crackled just a little with the addition of his electrical powers. Right at the moment it felt as flimsy as silk.

"You used your powers to dull Peter's pain?" Bruce asked. His face was lit up with that light that Spencer knew too well; it was one he'd seen on his own face before. One that usually got there when the scientist in him was excited by new information.

Spencer nodded his head. "I did. I could feel how much he was hurting, so I just…" He wasn't quite sure what he'd done. It'd been mostly instinct. Twisting his fingers together in his lap, Spencer tried to figure out how to put it into words. "I pulled it away from him and…held on to it. I put myself as a barrier between his pain and his mind. The pain was still there. His body was still reacting to it. He just, couldn't feel it anymore."

"But you could."

That made Spencer shrug. He didn't say anything, though. It wasn't a big deal. He could handle pain like that. It wasn't the first time he'd felt it and, God forbid, it likely wouldn't be the last time, either. Instead of focusing on an event that had already passed, Spencer focused on the present one. The most important one. "Is Peter going to be okay?"

There was a moment where he wasn't quite sure the men would answer him. They'd exchanged another of those looks – and seriously, how often did they do that? – before Bruce answered him. "He'll be fine. We've got him in a recovery room now. With his healing factor, I'd say he'll recover rather quickly. The more dangerous the injury, the quicker his healing factor seems to work. It's like it prioritizes the worst injuries first and works to solve those. The interior damage will likely be healed before the night is out. The rest of it…two days? Maybe three?" Bruce shrugged his shoulder. "I don't have enough documentation to make an accurate guess."

A few days. It would only take Peter a few days to heal from his injuries. The relief that Spencer felt at that had him slumping. The worry and adrenaline that had sustained him so far now left him. He leaned forward and brought a shaky hand up towards his face, not even realizing that it still had blood on it. Not until a hand caught his wrist and stopped him. "Woah there, kiddo. Might be best to not rub that all over your face, don't you think?" Tony asked him.

Spencer's eyes traveled up from the hand holding on to him and over his palm. The sight of the dried blood there made his stomach clench, only slightly more than the hand holding on to him. Spencer licked his lips and stared at the hand curled around his wrist. Years with his friends – and plenty of speeches from Derek – had taught Spencer that he had the right to say his next sentence, though it never got any easier. "I… don't like to be touched."

He was surprised when Tony immediately let go of him. The man didn't even look bothered or weirded out by Spencer's words. He didn't apologize for it, but he didn't make fun of him for it either, so that was a win in Spencer's books.

Before either of them could decide to make anything of it or start asking him questions he didn't yet want to answer, Spencer blurted out "Can I see him?"

Tony opened his mouth, what Spencer could guess was a protest building on his lips, only for it to be cut off when Bruce placed a hand on his arm. "Tony." That was all it took, just that murmur. Tony deflated a little and lifted a hand to wave it in Bruce's direction as if to say 'fine, whatever, get on with it'. Bruce nodded at him and turned to flash a small, somewhat gentle smile at Spencer. "I don't see why not. He's not conscious yet, but he's in a recovery room." Then he tilted his head and looked Spencer over, adding on, "You can keep the mask on if you want but you need to lose the jacket if you want to go in there."

That made sense. There was probably plenty of blood on his cloak. Without hesitation, Spencer slipped it off and rose to his feet, letting Bruce take the cloak from him. Then, because he saw no real reason to hide this, considering what was going to happen soon enough, he added the mask as well, not thinking anything about what their reactions might be. However, despite his time here in this universe, he still had trouble remembering sometimes what his face looked like to people. How young it was.

Both of the men in front of him looked like they'd been slapped. Bruce covered it quickly, though his shock stayed strong, but Tony didn't hide it at all. "Jesus! You're even younger than he is!" he exclaimed. Any of his previous animosity was gone, unable to be held up in the face of a kid. "You're… you're a baby. Bruice, he's a baby. Why are all the superheroes babies?"

Spencer twisted his lips a little in something that wasn't quite a smile yet wasn't a frown, either. "That's… a bit of a long story. One I'd like to wait for Peter to be awake to tell. May I see him now, please?"

His luck seemed to be getting worse. Bruce had furrowed his brow and was taking a step towards Spencer, eyes down on Spencer's leg. "Are you injured?"

"No." Spencer denied instantly. He didn't move, didn't try to hide or shelter his leg, because he knew that would only draw further attention to it. However, he did straighten himself up, ignoring any of the ache that was there. It didn't hurt anywhere near as badly as it had before. For the most part he'd been able to forget that anything was even there.

It wasn't hard to see that they didn't believe him. Trying not to sigh, Spencer changed his answer. "It's fine. I'm fine. I just need to clean up a little, that's all."

Tony arched an eyebrow at him yet again. "Seeing as how you've been in here forty minutes and still haven't done taken care of yourself, you can see why I might doubt you, kid. Now, either you let the doctor take a look at you, or you can wait right here until Peter wakes up. Take your pick."

There was no real choice there and, judging by the smirk on his face, this smug jerk knew it. Spencer resisted the urge to glare at him. He wasn't expecting his empathy to show his annoyance from him.

Surprise hit both the men in the room. Bruce suddenly turned his head and lifted a hand to cover up a cough that sounded way too forced to be real, while Tony laughed outright. "Okay, yeah, wow. Definitely an empath. You're projecting awfully loud there, Tiny Tim. I've had some pretty nasty looks thrown my way, but I gotta say that's the first time I've actually felt it."

Wait a second, what? Spencer's annoyance melted away under a wave of shock. It was followed quickly by embarrassment. He took a full step back, followed by another one. At the same time he tried to think of how the hell to put strength into his still flimsy shield. So far he'd only ever found rest or close proximity to someone – really, only Peter or May, the only two he knew and liked and trusted in this world – to help get his strength back up. But since when had he started projecting? "I'm sorry." Spencer blurted out. He took another step back for good measure and hoped that it was far enough. "I'm sorry, I'm not… I'm not trying to…"

Either they were still able to feel his emotions or they were able to see the panic growing on his face. Whichever one it was, the two reacted immediately. Bruce took a step back as if removing himself from the situation, or trying to give Spencer space – which was great, thank God, his emotions were so strong and hard to work around – which left Tony as the one to step forward, though he shot a quick glare at Bruce first. Tony stepped towards Spencer, hands held out peacefully on either side of him. "Hey, hey, you're all right. No harm, no foul, right? I promise you, it's not the first time someone's been annoyed with me. It definitely won't be the last. Hell, if I haven't annoyed someone by noon, people start to wonder if I'm getting sick or something. It's just a special talent of mine. So really, no need to panic about it."

As was normal in times of stress, the minimal filter that Spencer had between brain and mouth vanished and he found himself blurting out the first thing that crossed his mind. "You babble just as much as Peter does when he's nervous." Immediately after saying it, he flushed a little. He'd learned better than to blurt out things like that. "I'm sorry, that was terribly rude."

Luckily, Tony didn't seem bothered by it. He slowly lowered his hands down and a hint of his smirk was back. "Are you always this unfiltered?"

"I really try not to be." Spencer admitted. "It doesn't always work, though." Though he wouldn't say it out loud, the easy teasing in Tony's voice was relaxing him just a little. It reminded him of the way that Derek would try and tease him out of his moods.

"I bet you and the Spider-ling have some interesting conversations." Tony teased.

Oh, he was good. If Spencer really were a teenager and not a trained profiler, he doubted he would've even noticed what Tony was doing. Most teenagers would've taken the opening and likely said something, given something away. But Spencer was trained and he recognized when someone was leading a conversation. He knew – he'd done it himself often enough with witnesses on cases. The right question, asked in an easy tone, and people tended to open up far more than they normally would. Especially the younger ones. Spencer debated only briefly about playing along and pretending to be the teen that Tony thought he was. Then he sighed and shook his head. What was the point? Any chance of hiding from this man was gone. What Peter had told him about Tony said that he was someone who didn't give up when he had a puzzle in front of him. Someone connected to the kid that it was blatantly obvious he cared about? Yeah, everything Spencer had heard and what he was piecing together now told him that Tony wasn't going to walk away without answers. Spencer's secrets weren't going to be secrets much longer. There was no point in playing stupid.

That in mind, he tilted his head and kept a calm, smooth expression. Then he deliberately turned his gaze to Bruce, who was still behind Tony and was watching them with calm and assessing eyes. "I'm assuming you're the doctor I need to see before gaining clearance to see Peter?"

"Yeah." Bruce said, stepping backward once more. Only, this time, it was to gesture towards the door. "Why don't we go down this way? There's a room right near Peter's where we can take a look at things."

That was how Spencer found himself inside of an exam room – something he usually avoided at all costs – stripped down to his boxers in front of two men he didn't know. That was a feeling that would never get less uncomfortable. He hated stripping down even in front of doctors. He absolutely hated being so exposed. Thankfully, Bruce had grabbed a blanket for him to hold on to and at least cover the parts of him that didn't need to be exposed. Only his injured thigh was left out in the open. When Spencer caught sight of it, he was surprised enough by what he saw to almost forget about his lack of clothes.

Where he'd been expecting a pretty decent sized wound, at least, it instead looked more like he'd been healing for at least a few days.

Spencer's eyebrows climbed up as he looked down at his leg. Since when did he have a healing factor? He knew for a fact he'd bruised himself the other day when he'd run into the coffee table. His shin had borne the bruise for most of the day. Though, come to think of it… he hadn't seen it the next morning. So, not an instant healing factor? Or… Spencer's brain sped through the possibilities before settling on one that sounded ludicrous… and yet… There were studies that showed electricity could be harnessed and used for healing. He was holding on to a bit of his electricity now, and if he focused he thought he could feel it doing more than the usual tingle over his skin. Was it tingling a little more over his thigh? Theoretically, it could be his powers using the electrons he drew in to stimulate the molecules, renewing damaged cells.

He was broken from his musing by Bruce's voice. The doctor was on a stool by his leg, gloved hands on Spencer's leg – after having gained permission first – tilting it for a bit of a better view. "This isn't quite what I was expecting. Do you have a healing factor?"

Spencer continued to look at the injury that was far better than it should be. "It would appear so."

His words had Bruce's eyes flashing up to him briefly before going back to his leg. "New to your powers?"

The question was asked with a casual, slightly professional edge, like a doctor just trying to gather information. Spencer hummed low in his throat. "You could say that."

Because of the level of healing, there wasn't really anything that Bruce could do except clean the wound and dress it, giving it a better environment to heal in. Spencer took the information and logged it away in the back of his mind as something to add to the questions section of his notebook. He bore the cleaning and dressing as best as he could. The longer he was away from Peter, the more on edge he was getting. Being here with two men he didn't know, plus others around here he didn't know at all, wasn't helping him relax. He just, he needed to go see Peter.

They must've been able to sense that desperation on him. In short order Spencer found himself with a pair of too-big sweatpants that he had to tie off to keep up. Then he was back in his shoes and being led out of his room. The little group stopped in the big, white hallway, This whole place was huge. Any other time and Spencer might've been a bit in awe of it all.

"Just wait here a second, kid." Tony said, interrupting Spencer's thoughts. "The grown-ups need to have a real quick conversation. You stay over here."

With that Tony took hold of Bruce's arm and moved them away from Spencer, angling them in a way that let him keep an eye on Spencer while at the same time keeping their conversation low. The two fell into a whispered, half argument between Bruce and Tony that Spencer deliberately didn't listen to. He might've tried if he didn't suddenly pick up on something in the back of his mind that had his whole body snapping to attention.

Peter was waking up.

Peter was waking up. That shouldn't be possible. It'd been, what? Maybe another twenty or thirty minutes since Tony and Bruce had come to tell him how things had gone? There was no way that Peter should be awake yet. Spencer's brow furrowed as he stood in the hall, ignoring the two still arguing nearby. He was feeling Peter more and more with each passing second. Way too much. He shouldn't be that awake yet. He definitely shouldn't be in that much pain.

There was absolutely no thought in Spencer's mind. He didn't have to think. He simply reacted, moving towards his sense of Peter as quickly as possible. He heard one of the men – it sounded like Tony – snap out a sharp "Hey!" behind him. It didn't stop him. Spencer moved towards the door he could feel Peter behind. When the door didn't immediately open, Spencer reached out to that same place he'd felt in the last few rooms when the doors had unlocked. That little spark of power. It was simple to replicate it. In seconds, the door was open and Spencer was hurrying inside of a larger, fancier version of a standard hospital room. There was a hospital bed taking up the middle of the room, with machines on its left and chairs on its right, as well as a couch and a big window on the far right wall.

Spencer wasn't surprised to find Peter trying to push himself up on the bed. The blanket was thrown aside, and Peter – in a hospital gown and nothing more – was pushing himself up on a shaky arm, wide eyes focused on the door. The stubborn little brat. Spencer ran forward and right up to Peter's side, already reaching out for him and scolding him simultaneously. "What do you think you're doing? Get back in that bed right this instant, Peter Parker. You've barely been out of surgery! You shouldn't be awake and you definitely shouldn't be moving around."

The comforting feel of Peter's emotions was like a balm on Spencer's raw mind. The most predominate feeling was relief, which seemed to grow as he stared at Spencer's face. "You're here."

Spencer continued to push him down until Peter was lying flat again. He ignored the two hurrying into the room behind him and leveled a glare at Peter. "Of course I'm here. You're the one that said I could trust them, weren't you? Are you retracting that statement?"

"No!" Peter hurried to say.

"Then you had no reason to worry, and no reason to try and get up and further injure yourself." He pressed his hand against Peter's good shoulder in emphasis. He also discreetly used that touch to reach out once more with his empathy and start to siphon off some of Peter's pain.

At least, he'd thought he was being discreet. Peter almost instantly started to glare at him. "Don't do that!" The teen protested. He pulled as if trying to escape Spencer's touch, actually breaking their contact, which only ended up letting Spencer discover that he could do this without physical contact, albeit with a little more conscious effort required. Peter must've realized the same thing because his glare grew. It was edged with a pout that made him look about as dangerous as a kitten. "Stop it! I can handle a little pain. Quit trying to take it on yourself!"

Their argument was cut off by Tony before it could really start to get going. "As cute as this little domestic moment is, and trust me, it is adorable." He walked over to the machine on the opposite side of Peter and reached out, hitting a button. A second later Spencer felt as Peter's pain started to fade away. Tony gave them both a bright grin. "There. Problem solved. You don't have to hurt, and you don't have to play martyr, which means that someone can start answering my questions."

As Spencer slowly drew his empathy back, making sure that the pain relievers were kicking in as he did, Peter turned to look at Tony and the glare just melted off his face until he looked more like a kicked puppy than an angry kitchen. "M-Mr. Stark. I, ah, well…maybe, maybe we should, um, wait? I'm really tired, you know. Just had surgery."

Now that was just a little sad. Spencer actually had to smother a smile at Peter's slightly pathetic attempt at putting this all off. He hid his smile by turning his head and reaching out for the blankets so he could draw them back up over Peter's legs and settle them around him. As he did, he heard Tony snort and could just imagine that the man was rolling his eyes. "Nice try, kid. Considering I'm the only one here who knows your healing rate, not to mention how chatty the good drugs always make you, do you really think that's going to work on me?"

Any other time and it would've been amusing to watch Peter slump down in the bed. Some of his hair flopped down into his face, only succeeding in making him look even younger. Like a child sulking at getting caught doing something wrong. Spencer refrained from making the comparison out loud. He had a feeling Peter wouldn't appreciate it.

It also brought a rather unexpected protectiveness into Spencer. This was his fault. He was the one who'd asked Peter to keep things quiet from this man. He couldn't just let Peter get blamed for it. Drawing in a breath, Spencer curled his hand over the railing on the bed to try and steady himself. You can do this. "For the record, Peter wanted to call you from the start. I'm the one that asked him not to."

The look that Tony shot him was one that would've done Aaron Hotchner proud. It was sharp and had Spencer feeling like the man could see straight to the core of him. "I'm not exactly finding myself reassured by that."

Time to come clean. Spencer licked his lips, searching for the right words. He felt Peter's hand come up and rest over his and he drew strength from that touch. With one final breath for bravery, and a look at Peter – who nodded supportively – Spencer straightened his spine. "This is going to sound ridiculous, so I beg you hear me out before you start arguing. I met Peter a week ago…"