Please refer to the prologue for the story disclaimer. This story will not be suitable for all readers.

Thanks again for all the support and wonderful reviews from you all. You all inspire me to be a better writer. I hope you enjoy this chapter! Xx

This chapter contains graphic depictions of injury, sexual assault, hospitals/medical procedures, and kidnapping. Please use your discretion.

4 days earlier...

Peter had genuinely thought that he was being discreet when he snuck in his bedroom window at 2 in the morning, careful not to disturb his (hopefully) sleeping aunt who had (hopefully) not noticed that he was out way past his curfew.

He hadn't meant to stay out that late. In fact, he had been on his way back to the apartment to meet his school night curfew - 11pm - when his spidey-senses had gone off, and Karen alerting him to a robbery about to take place 5 blocks away. He couldn't just go inside and ignore the threat; the people of New York needed him!

He knew that he should've called Mr. Stark because he wasn't allowed to go into a dangerous situation like that alone, but Peter knew for a fact that Tony was busy in the Poconos with some potential investors in Stark Industries, and he wasn't about to bother him with a matter like this that he could probably handle in less than an hour. He would be a little late, and May would probably be a little irked at him, but nothing that he couldn't handle.

Except that Peter didn't count on there being more to the crime than just a simple robbery. The hotel that the criminals had invaded at gunpoint was not only going to be the target of a robbery, but an arson. By the time Peter had arrived, the hotel was up in flames, trapping tens of civilians inside of their rooms.

So Peter had spent what felt like no time at all breaking into hotel rooms and releasing the rattled civilians into the care of first responders, relying on Karen and his senses to do so. Even with his filtered mask, however, the prolonged exposure to the smoke did start to affect his breathing, and as he worked to track down the perpetrators, his chest rattled with coughs as his body tried to purge itself of the harmful substance.

Peter did manage to track down the gang of criminals and left a nice little note for the police, which he tucked into a small pocket in the webbing he had used to tie them up. It was then and only then that he took the time to check his phone, noticing that he was way past his curfew and that smoke inhalation was going to be the least of his worries if May ever found out.

So there he was, silently shutting the window behind himself as he gracefully maneuvered himself through the entrance to his room, careful to make as little sound as possible. Pulling off his mask, he took a deep breath of clean air and slowly let it out, careful not to cough so as not to disturb his aunt.

That was, until he turned the light on and saw that his aunt was waiting for him on his bed, her expression anything but friendly and understanding.

After letting out a gasp at the scare, Peter stuttered out, "May! Why are - what are you doing up?"

May stood, and even though she was shorter than her nephew, Peter felt as though she were towering over him. "I should be asking the same of you. This is the 3rd night this week that you've been out late! We agreed on this, Peter!"

Peter grimaced as May's voice steadily rose in pitch as she released more and more of her pent-up frustration. "I'm sorry, and I was going to be on time, but then Karen told me -"

"It's always something." May paced from Peter's bed to his desk furiously, her words coming out in what seemed to be a carefully rehearsed monologue regarding the folly of Peter Parker. "It's always something with you. 'Oh, sorry May, I couldn't be back in time because I heard someone fighting. Or someone in Maryland had a bad dream and you had to comfort them. Or there was a stray cat wandering around the street and you just couldn't let it roam, lest it get hurt!'" May took a second to breathe, pausing as she looked at her nephew's planner laying open on his desk. "And you didn't even do your homework, did you? Even though you promised me you wouldn't get in trouble with your teachers again!"

"I was going to do it when I got back -"

"I don't want to hear it!" May interjected, pointing a shaking finger at Peter. "I know you think it's fun to swing around the city and do good deeds for people instead of taking care of yourself. But you are still a teenager. You're a kid. A kid who should be focusing on not flunking out of high school because he couldn't take a night off to do his homework."

"You think that I do all this just because it's fun?" Peter interrupted, his face revealing his growing anger at his aunt's assumptions. "If I don't suit up every day, people suffer. People could die. Some people would have died if I hadn't been there to help them."

"What about you, Peter?" May shouted, tears of what were probably both sadness and anger beginning to release down her cheeks. "Who's going to protect you? Who's going to protect you when you inevitably put yourself in a dangerous situation that Spider-Man can't get himself out of? Then who's going to be there for you?" May's voice broke as she finished her rant. "Who's going to be there for me?"

May flopped on her nephew's bed, angrily wiping her wet face, her moment of weakness quickly dissolving back into anger. "I can't - I won't lose you because of irresponsibility. I won't lose anyone because of that ever again."

Peter halted in his defensiveness, taking in the full meaning of what aunt May's words had implied. "You think it was my fault?"

May looked up at Peter. "What?"

"You think I killed Ben?"

May's expression softened as she realized how her words had come across. She hadn't meant to imply that Peter's irresponsibility was the cause of Ben's death. Her tone immediately doing a one-eighty, she tried to diminish the effect of her misspeaking. "Oh honey, no - that's not what I meant at all. That came out all wrong."

"You think that I was irresponsible, and he died because of me?" Peter's voice held no aggression, just pure sadness and grief at May's impassioned declaration.

"No, honey, I don't. That's not what I meant at all." May stood and reached for Peter, but he pulled away, processing his emotions. "I meant the way he died was irresponsible. The person who shot him was irresponsible. I didn't mean you, honey, God, I swear."

Peter looked into his aunt's bloodshot eyes as his own began to fill with tears. "I think I'm going to stay at Ned's tonight."

May shook her head, reaching out to grab Peter's arm. "Peter, no, let's go to bed and talk about this in the morning, when both of us have calmed down."

"I think I need space." Peter allowed May to hold his arm, eventually closing the space and giving her a limp, obligatory hug so as not to make her think he was mad. "I'll talk to you tomorrow."

May wrapped her arms around Peter, guilt filling her chest with real emotional and physical pain. "I understand. Please call me." May pulled away and looked directly into her nephew's eyes. "I love you, Peter. I love you so much."

"I love you too." Peter packed his backpack with his school supplies and a change of clothes before heading back to his window, turning quickly to say, "I'll talk to you tomorrow," before swinging off toward his friend's house.

Aunt May watched Peter leave, shutting the window behind him before setting her sobs of guilt and grief free.

Present

To Dr. Sawyer's surprise, John Doe - now identified as 16 year old Peter Parker - made it through the 8 hour surgery to repair the many, many damages to his body. According to the surgeon, they had lost him once during the surgery, but they got a heartbeat back within 60 seconds, so there was little worry of brain damage. As miraculous as it was, it still humbled the doctor to see his young patient in such a broken condition. There was still a breathing tube in his throat and multiple chest tubes, central lines, IVs, bandages, and splints throughout the kid's body. He was alive, but he was a mess.

That was why, when May Parker arrived after receiving notification of her nephew's hospitalization, Dr. Sawyer had stepped out of the room, the woman understandably wanting to see her loved one before listening to all that was wrong with him. All she knew right now was that Peter was in critical condition and not able to breathe on his own. Mrs. Parker had made it very clear after that that she just wanted to be with Peter, that she couldn't handle hearing any more at that point.

Dr. Sawyer watched through the glass window as Mrs. Parker grasped the less-injured of Peter's two hands and sobbed, the grieving noises muffled by the wall between them. The doctor didn't often connect too deeply with his patients for cases such as this one, but he couldn't help but empathize; he, too, was shaken by the sight of the teenager.

Little did he know, his day was going to be shaken up even further.

"Where is he?" The powerful, demanding, unmistakable voice of the one and only Tony Stark boomed from the end of the hallway, steadily approaching the room where Peter lay. Tony's concern-filled eyes quickly scanned the hallway signs, searching for the number that May had likely given him.

It wasn't long before he arrived at the room where Dr. Sawyer stood outside. Tony's powerful presence caused the esteemed doctor to take a step back. "Are you his doctor?" The billionaire barked, concern for the child's wellbeing unhealthily being channeled into anger.

Dr. Sawyer immediately remembered his place and checked his posture in front of the shorter man. "Yes. I'm Dr. Sawyer, and I have been taking care of Peter."

"Not anymore you're not," Tony growled, yanking the door to Peter's room open and storming in, a well-dressed, stockier man that Dr. Sawyer hadn't noticed before trailing behind him.

"Excuse me?" Dr. Sawyer warned, following the men into the room as well, making the small hospital room feel crowded instantly.

"Peter is my intern, my best intern, and he won't be staying in some city hospital that probably is understaffed and doesn't have the resources to properly take care of him," Tony snarked before turning to his assistant. "Happy, get me an ETA on the helicopter."

"They're landing on the pad in less than 120 seconds, boss," the man, Happy, replied, after checking something on an tablet that probably cost more than Dr. Sawyer's yearly salary.

"Mr. Parker will not be leaving this hospital, so you can cancel that helicopter." Dr. Sawyer crossed his arms at the suited pair, as Tony's beady eyes twisted to meet his.

"I'm sorry, it seems that you have mistaken me for someone who is going to take into account anything you say to me." Tony closed the gap between himself and the doctor with slow, careful steps. "Peter is a," he turned briefly to look at the injured child, "a special kid, and will be in much more experienced and capable hands at my compound, with my staff, and in a room that doesn't smell like dead people."

"He's an enhanced," Dr. Sawyer stated flatly and Tony stopped his rant in its tracks.

"Excuse me?" This time, the words came from the astonished billionaire.

"I've worked in this hospital for over twenty years," Dr. Sawyer started, making the most of his newly acquired authority. "I know how a regular human body works. Peter has advanced DNA, and I don't know the specifics on what powers he may or may not have, but I'm not going to let you transport a severely critical patient out of my ICU, whose condition could easily worsen from a fucking helicopter ride, just because you're scared of his secret getting out."

Tony, visibly stunned, looked up at the doctor, this time with less rage in his eyes, with his main emotion being the concern that had lurked underneath the surface of his anger the entire time. "Who all knows?"

"A couple of nurses, his surgeon, and myself," Dr. Sawyer truthfully admitted. "But luckily for you, there's this thing called the Hippocratic Oath that protects us from leaking any medical information to outside sources without a warrant." The men and May Parker, who had been silent throughout this entire ordeal, seemed visibly relieved. "Now listen, once Peter no longer requires intensive care, you are more than welcome to transfer him to other facilities. But I've taken care of Peter since he arrived at this hospital, and I'm not going to release him until I'm sure that the stress of the relocation is not going to worsen his condition."

There was a moment of silence once Dr. Sawyer finished his impassioned statement. "Now, if you'd let me, I would like to take you somewhere private to discuss Peter's condition," Dr. Sawyer added in a softer tone.

Tony and May shared a silent look before Tony turned back to him, his eyes betraying his worry for his intern. "You got an office?"

3 days earlier...

"...and so I decided that I just needed some space." Peter closed his monologue, in which he described to Ned the ordeal that had prompted him to show up at Ned's window at 2:30 that morning. The pair bustled through the traffic of students arriving for the last day of school for the week, excited for whatever the weekend may bring.

"Dang," Ned empathized, mindlessly opening his locker to retrieve his books while Peter leaned up against the locker adjacent to his, waiting for his friend to collect the materials. "That sucks, dude. But if it helps at all, it sounds like she really didn't mean it that way."

Peter, scrolling through social media on his phone, half-heartedly replied, "deep down, I know that - but in the moment, it just brought back all these feelings of guilt from when Ben died. Even if May doesn't blame me, I blame me."

Ned slammed his locker closed slightly harder than he meant to, impassioned by his opposition to his friend's insecurity. The loud sound caused both him and Peter to jump slightly. "Peter, listen to me. Did you point the gun at Ben?"

Peter rolled his eyes slightly, knowing where his friend was going. "No."

"Did you somehow pull the trigger on the bad guy's gun?"

Sigh. "No."

"Then none of that is your fault!" Ned struggled to keep his voice down, lest he embarrass his friend. Peter seemed receptive to his words, but obviously had trouble relieving himself of his self doubt. The pair of friends began the walk down the hallway to their first class, Spanish. "Peter, listen to me: I can't imagine what it was like to lose Ben, especially in the manner that he did. But you can't blame yourself for something that had nothing to do with you."

Peter was silent for a moment, and Ned knew that his words had penetrated his friend's armored exterior. "Thanks, Ned."

"Always, bro." Ned offered his fist to his friend, who half-heartedly completed the fist pump. "So how long do you plan on staying at my place? You know you're always welcome, but I should probably let my mom know."

Peter hiked up his backpack after being shoulder-checked by a jock. "I don't know. I think I'm going to spend the weekend at Tony's. He's been working on some new enhancements to the iron man suit and he offered to let me come help him out. It would give me some space and it would take my mind off of things."

"That sounds like a good idea." Ned's statement was punctuated by the warning bell, emphasizing the need to get the class. "I'm here for you, dude."

"Thanks," Peter replied, a warm smirk brightening his face, although Ned could see the turmoil still boiling underneath.

They both entered the classroom just as the bell rang again.

Present

Doctor whats-his-name looked slightly intimidated by Tony Stark, now that the adrenaline from his little speech had worn off. It probably didn't help that May had gone from a weepy mother-figure to a determined mama (auntie?) bear that was hell-bent on getting answers.

None of this should have happened.

When Tony had received the call from Happy that Peter had been admitted to the hospital, Tony hadn't immediately thought the worst. Peter had been injured on patrols before. A broken bone here and there, a couple of concussions, nothing that didn't heal up completely in one or two weeks. But when Happy had elaborated that he was in critical condition, that had shaken him.

How did this happen?

He wasn't proud of how he had yelled at Happy when he didn't have the answers to Tony's questions - What happened? Is he going to be okay? - but he had made record time flying in from the Poconos to the city hospital where Peter Parker was clinging to life.

And he, like May, wanted answers.

After a few moments of awkward silence following Dr. Whosawhatsit closing the door to his office behind them and settling behind his desk, May cleared her throat and addressed the elephant in the room, her voice raspy from crying. "What happened to him?"

The doctor clasped his hands in front of him on his desk. "Peter was brought in early this morning after being found in an alleyway, barely breathing. I was not informed of the circumstances surrounding him being found, but I'm sure that police officers will be able to fill you in on any relevant details." The doctor took a deep breath before continuing. "There's no easy way to talk about his condition so I'm just going to start going through his injuries and what he have done to mitigate those injuries. If at any point you are feeling overwhelmed, we can take a break. I understand that this is a very stressful time for you both-"

"Just get on with it," Tony growled. Tell me what I need to blame myself for.

Doctor Smartypants pursed his lips and began. "As I'm sure you noticed in the hospital room, Peter is not able to breathe on his own and is on a ventilator. This is because Peter has several broken ribs, 9 to be exact, and one had been displaced and punctured his left lung. This is known as a pneumothorax. Surgeons were able to repair the laceration on his lung, but he will need to be on assisted breathing apparatus for a few days yet to allow his lung to heal. The surgeons were able to successfully pin any displaced ribs back into place so that they can heal correctly as well.

"I wish that were the extent of it, but I'm afraid that there is much more. Peter had been stabbed repeatedly all over his chest, back, shoulders, and upper legs. We counted 34 wounds in all. Some were more severe than others. As a result of some of the stab wounds, we had to remove his right kidney and also a portion of his spleen. The main issue we are encountering as a result of these injuries is infection. Quite a few of the wounds have festered, and Peter's temperature has spiked even since he was admitted this morning. It's obvious that whoever inflicted the injuries had not cared enough to keep them sanitary, and Peter has developed an infection. He is on IV antibiotics and Lasix to remove any excess fluids from the wounds. We are carefully monitoring his temperature and if we need to get more aggressive with our efforts to fight this infection, we will.

"The last issue that was dealt with in surgery was a compound fracture of Peter's left femur. We were able to reset the bone and, like the ribs, it was pinned in place and should heal okay. It's hard to determine right now how much if any physical therapy could be necessary for him to gain full use of that leg, but we are confident that he will be able to walk. In addition to the broken leg, Peter also suffered from 7 broken fingers, a dislocated shoulder, a fractured wrist, and a sprained ankle.

"Peter also is suffering from a decent-sized concussion, but all our imaging has showed no swelling or bleeding in the brain, and we are confident that there is no brain damage." The doctor paused after the information dump that he had thrown upon the two unsuspecting adults. "There is also another issue that I need to discuss with you, but this is not something that, as an ICU doctor, I can treat."

God, what else?

"In foul play instances such as Peter's case, it is protocol for doctor's to examine everything the victim has with or on them to deduce all types of harm that may have fallen upon the patient. When one of my nurses was going over Peter's clothing, she noticed a bloodstain on the inside of the jeans he had been wearing, around the groin area."

Oh God, no.

"As a precaution, we did perform a rape kit on Peter to determine if he had been sexually assaulted."

Please say no.

"I'm sorry to tell you that there is evidence to prove that Peter had been raped anywhere between one to three times."

Tony squeezed his eyes closed and put his head in his hands. He didn't have to look to know that May was handling the news just about as well as Tony was. It was one thing for the kid to be on life support...but for him to be sexually assaulted? Tony couldn't handle that.

"How did this happen?" May's voice sounded far away in Tony's mind, weak and tiny. "How could this have happened?"

To the stuffy guy's credit, the doctor did seem to be genuinely empathetic. "There will be police here soon to question you on Peter's whereabouts the last few days, and I am not qualified to discuss those details with you. For now, I suggest you go back to Peter's room and wait there in case he wakes up." The doctor gave a sad smile. "It would probably be good for him to see a familiar face."

"Yeah," Tony breathed, still processing all the horrible information he had been presented with. "I bet."

What happened to you, Pete?

3 days earlier...

When school let out that day, Peter said his goodbyes to Ned and walked towards the bus station, dialing Happy's number as he walked.

"Hello?" Happy's permanently annoyed voice greeted him after a couple of rings.

"Hey Happy, I was wondering if Mr. Stark is available this weekend?" Peter boarded the bus, putting his free hand by his open ear to eliminate the outside noise as he stumbled to an open seat. "I know he mentioned he's doing some upgrades to the suit -"

"Tony's gone all weekend in the Poconos. Short-notice meeting with potential investors of SI." To Happy's credit, he sounded slightly bummed for the kid. "Is something up?"

Peter quickly shrugged off his disappointment, masking his negative feelings with a bouncier tone. "Yeah, no, it's good. I just wanted to, you know, help out with things. But I'll just catch him later."

"All right, kid. Don't forget to keep me updated on your patrols. Don't do dangerous thint the gs."

"Never do," Peter half-heartedly joked. "Bye Ha-"

Peter was interrupted by dial tone. Typical. Guess he would be spending the weekend with Ned after all.

After a moment's hesitation, Peter pulled up May's contact in his phone and sent a quick text. Spending the weekend with Ned. Not mad, just stressed and need to distract myself. Larb you.

Send.

Peter quickly shut his phone off, not wanting to see if it had delivered or if she would reply. He really did need to distract himself - maybe he and Ned could work on the LEGO Death Star again, or could watch old Star Wars movies together.

As Peter got off of the bus and headed towards Ned's house, He pulled up his friend's contact, intending to inform him of the changed plans.

That is, until his senses were overwhelmed with electricity - literally.

The next thing Peter knew, he was face down on the concrete sidewalk, his cheek smarting and every nerve in his body on fire. He barely had time to wonder what the hell had happened before the electricity coursed through his once more, his body stiffening as volts of energy shot through him.

Peter's brain had essentially turned to soup at that point, but the word taser went flashing in his mind like a warning signal that had come far too late.

As his senses slowly returned to him, Peter became aware that he was being dragged somewhere and that someone was saying words to him, but he just couldn't make them make any sense. It all sounded like Simlish.

It wasn't until he was in the trunk of the car that he realized he was being kidnapped and he finally tried to fight back with what little strength he had, clenching his left hand into a weak fist -

Then the electricity came for him again, and it was lights out.

I know for a fact this is not my best work, but I really wanted to crank this chapter out so I could get to some more juicy scenes in the chapters to come. I love you guys, please continue giving me feedback! Xx