Things are almost calm by the time the doctor comes into Peter's room, pushing a machine on a cart in front of her. She smiles at him.

"Peter," she says, "I'm Doctor Cho. I have people working on some medicine for you, but I'm the meantime I thought we could do an ultrasound. Is that alright?"

Peter looks to May, who nods at him. Her hand hasn't left his since they got to this building, and her thumb rubs up and down the back of his hand. Her free hand reaches up to push his hair back where it's sticking to his sweaty forehead.

"We'll do whatever it takes," she says.

Dr. Cho's face scrunches up in a pained expression, but it's gone as fast as it came.

"Help me get his shirt off?" she asks May.

Peter doesn't say anything as they move him around, pulling his arms over his head and disentangling him from the too-big Stark Industries t-shirt he has on. He feels like his brain is under water. They lower him back to his bed, but this time his pillows are gone. Dr. Cho pushes a button, and Peter starts to straighten out, his bed slowly flattening.

"This is going to be cold," she says and squirts a glob of clear gel onto his chest. It feels good against his overheated skin, but a shiver runs up his spine just the same. The wand presses into his rib cage. He stares at the tiles in the ceiling numbly. The whoosh sound of his heart fills his ears from the speakers.


"Well, that is pneumonia," Dr. Cho says. May feels the air leaving her body. "Most likely, he aspirated dirty water and the bacteria grew. Has he been in a lake recently? Or inhaled standing water?"

May looks at Peter, but she doesn't really expect him to respond. Not when he's staring through the ceiling like he's on a spirit quest. For all she knows he is.

"You'd have to ask Stark," she replies. "He's the one who keeps his stats from that suit."

Dr. Cho blinks. Her mouth opens, but it takes a second for anything to come out. "Of course there is a suit." Her lips twist into a scowl.

May had assumed she knew. "What's that supposed to mean?" She's aware of just how defensive she sounds, but there's nothing she can do to stop it.

"Tony would not be Tony without some kind of Stark Tech complication," Dr. Cho answers as she packs up the ultrasound. She seems decidedly unworried about whether or not May is going to hit her. It's a nice change of pace. "And Peter would not be Tony's... protege without one." She moves to leave the room, but turns around before she gets through the door.

"I am sorry, Mrs. Parker," she says. "I know how it feels to see a loved one in pain."


"So it is pneumonia," Tony says. "Why did he crash so hard?"

Helen nods. "Our working theory is that his enhanced immune system went haywire trying to fix it. His temperature spiked, and he went down."

"So we can fix it?" Tony doesn't want to get his hopes too high.

"This time," Helen says. "But you should know that this could happen again. It's essentially an autoimmune disorder. If his body is faced with an illness strong enough, it could shut down entirely."

"So what do we do about that?" he asks.

"Just—" she sighs, "monitor his temperature. Make sure he gets all his vaccinations. Don't let him get dunked in a dirty river without putting him through a course of antibiotics. We've got the modified drugs headed to him right now. He should be feeling a bit better by tonight."