Author's Note: Sorry it's taken me so long for this update, I kept rewriting it until I liked it. Hope it helps that it is a longer chapter!

SDMIRM

Chapter 8: Connections

SDMIRM

Someone rough handling his face and making desperate demands began to crack the icy haze Tony had been trapped under. Though it was strange that his mind had conjured up Peter's voice to bring him back to the land of the living, to remind him that he couldn't lie down and die. Just went to prove that the kid was imprinting on him deeper than he realized, than he even wanted.

It certainly shouldn't be innocent, good-hearted Peter Parker's specter there, witnessing his biggest failure to date. No, his dad should have gotten tapped for that role. Tony could almost envision his father glowering down at him, kicking his foot, lambasting him for not sucking up the pain, pointing his finger at him like there was any doubt who his father thought was dishonoring the Stark name. Then his dear old dad would hiss out the vilest charge he could level at him: 'You couldn't even avenge my murder like a good son should!'

Yeah, now that, that was all Howard Stark gold.

It made Tony want to keep lying there just to piss his old man off more, give another round of 'screw you's to his father. But it wasn't just his father's disappointment haunting him, was hers: His mother's. It was her murder he hadn't avenged either. 'What an awesome "Avenger" I am,' Tony sardonically cursed himself at the misnomer when it came to him.

But then again, his mother wasn't the kind to want revenge in her name, which was kind of funny considering her husband had been in the arms business. Tony had always wondered at the dichotomy; the old opposites attract thing. But that opposite? Really? Regardless, he knew if she were standing there looking down at him, she wouldn't be ripping him a new one for not killing Barnes, she would care about him instead. Would say the words he'd heard spoken in Peter's voice just now: 'You can't go.'

She wouldn't want him to give up. Tony knew that soul deep. It had seen him through her death, and it would see him through the revelations of how she died. It had to.

So Tony fought to break to the surface of consciousness, partly to reassure himself Peter's voice was just a figment of his imagination and partly to honor his mother's love for him, her belief in him. She always told him that he could be a better man than he showed to the world, that he was stronger than he thought he was. Besides, Pepper had faith in him to not quit, to come back to her. Then there was the Spiderling. For their short acquaintance, the kid seemed strangely attached to him. (Ok, yes, so Tony admitted he was attached to the kid but, though he could say he'd only "met" Peter a few days ago, he'd known of the kid for months. And ok, had been obsessively worried about him the entire time but they weren't talking about Tony here but Peter, who shouldn't care all that much about him.)

Having decided to open his eyes, accomplishing the feat felt like too far a chasm for Tony to cross. His eyes felt like they were glued shut with Spiderman's tensile web goo. He had a gross image of him ripping his eyelashes off as he stubbornly forced his eyes open. Luckily the action didn't cause him pain. Yippee! One single part of him didn't hurt.

Almost instantly he doubted he had accomplished his goal, was actually seeing what he was seeing. It couldn't be real. Him hearing Peter's voice, sure, that had been his imagination. But now, the vision of the boy hovering over him?! There with him? That had to be a side effect of the concussion he probably had. Right?! Right!?

Aching to see if the boy was flesh and blood, if the tears tracking down Peter's wretchedly distraught face were wet to the touch, Tony made to reach out, to console the illusion. But his arms wouldn't obey his commands, none of his limbs would. Panicked first thoughts..he feared he was paralyzed like Rhodey (talk about just desserts) before calmer rationale returned, reminding him that the Iron Man suit was nearly kaput. It wasn't a stretch to assume the hydraulics manning the suit's joints were full on frozen. Which explained why his arms and legs felt encased in cement, were immobile and stuck to the floor. And if all his essential systems were offline, maybe even fried beyond restoration, he was, for all intent and purposes, in a metal coffin.

Since moving of his own volition wasn't an option, Tony had to use his words to verify what couldn't be true. "Peter?" his doubt and shock bleeding through the boy's name.

Hearing the strength in Mr. Stark's voice, seeing that, unlike Uncle Ben, no blood sputtered out with the call of his name, Peter had no hope of holding back his sob, any more than he could stop himself from dropping his head upon the Iron Man's chestplate in an overwhelming flood of relief.

Tony was startled at having a child sobbing onto his chest, a real child, not a figment of his concussion. Peter was there, no matter how inconceivable it was. Then the boy was pouring out a stream of words in heart wrenching distress.

"I thought you were leaving me too! You weren't waking up and your breathing is wonky and your heart…it's always had its own pacing, Mr. Stark, but it wasn't sounding the same. And your arc reactor..it's..it's flickering..getting dimmer and I know it's tied to your heart and you might die if it….it… His heart…I heard it…it…it stop…" voice shattering on the last word before he dissolved into another round of body wracking sobs as his memories of Ben's death washed over him, threaten to drown him all over again.

Tony cursed fate that he couldn't hold the boy, draw him against his flesh and blood chest and comfort him. It wasn't a thought he'd had before…well, before Peter Parker came into his life. Remembered how…fragile and amazing and loved he felt when Peter had fallen asleep against his chest in the waiting room in the hospital, giving him comfort. And now when the kid needed him to reciprocate…his hands were tied, or like, frozen due to a hydraulics malfunction.

"Hey hey, I'm not leaving you, Peter. I'm not," Tony vowed in the softest and yet more resilient tone he could pull off with his metal suit pressing against his chest and a kid laying on top of him to seal the deal of uncomfortableness. Uncomfortable, that is, if he didn't actually willingly bear the pain to have the kid this close, to hopefully give Peter what connection he could, albeit through metal and not flesh on flesh. But Tony prayed the kid knew where his heart was at.

When Mr. Stark didn't reciprocate the hug, didn't even brush his hair like he'd done before, Peter stilled and forcibly reigned in his emotions, cut off his sobs. Clearly Mr. Stark's lack of response to his proximity was a silent but blaring message of 'get out of my personal space. Now!' Maybe too a 'There's no crying in superheroing. Suck it up!'

For Tony, the seconds that passed before Peter choked back his sobs, got himself under enough control to raise his head off of his chest were soul crushing. Thought Peter in emotional distress might be worse than any torture anyone had every threatened him with yet. For all that, he felt bereft when Peter stopped crying, drew back and removed his touch from him, leaving him in his metal suit prison without his light.

Regardless that Mr. Stark didn't appreciate his childish breakdown, Peter still asked for reassurances from the man, "You're really not dying?"

The boy's vulnerable earnestness charged the very air Tony was already struggling to bring in. Wanting to lighten the oppressive mode, Tony quipped, "Cross my Arc Reactor and hope to die." But felt like the worst human being on earth when his attempt at humor had Peter's eyes welling again "Oh underoos, you're supposed to laugh," he nearly cooed. "My humor has been rated one of my best features…maybe by a biased crowd but I'll take the win."

Embarrassed by his resumed breakdown, Peter looked away, wiped his eyes with the back of his hands as he croaked out, totally not believably, "Yeah. Yeah, you're funny Mr. Stark."

"Now that we've established my injuries aren't life threatening, want to tell me how you're here?" Tony's tone flipping to the steely tone of a mentor seriously displeased with his mentee. "Because right now, you should be talking Happy's ear off in my jet bound for New York."

Peter's eyes went wide like Mr. Stark had just suggested he spit on the American flag. "I couldn't go when you were going to meet up with Captain America and Mr. Barnes, alone. They betrayed your trust, Mr. Stark. They couldn't be counted on to have your back taking down super soldiers."

'Out of the mouths of babes,' came to Tony, wished he'd had the kid's clear insight coming into this. But the Raft visit, seeing his friends imprisoned, seeing firsthand Ross's pleasure at locking up some of the Avengers, bitterly realizing that the Accords were being used as a leash, not a guideline, it all ate through his rationale like acid. Then to know it was all a manipulation, some by Ross but mostly by Zemo, Tony embarrassingly realized that he'd been the biggest fool. By trusting Steve, trusting his fellow teammates, trusting Ross, trusting the Accords' good intentions. He would say he'd been wrong on all fronts if he hadn't put his trust in the kid now beside him. His faith in Peter, he'd gotten that right.

It wasn't right to pay back that kid's trustworthiness by dragging him into this shitstorm. Tony fiercely wanted to protect Peter's innocence as long as he could. So there would be no talk of what truly went down there, of the bloody betrayals between the "good guys". "I seem to remember you swearing you wouldn't put the Spiderling suit on until I met you in New York and we decided, together, the safest course for your superheroing career," Tony drawled but his tone wasn't cutting, more long suffering at the kid's hero streak.

Without missing a beat, Peter countered the allegation, "Technically, Mr. Stark, you didn't say I couldn't put on the suit in Germany…or here in Russia. You said I couldn't put it on 'when I got home'. That's mean New York."

Tony cursed a blue streak in his head. Hadn't he used those types of loopholes his whole life to be able to do exactly what he wanted to. That was fine for him but not for Peter! Especially when that type of thinking put the kid in danger, almost smack dab into Tony's murderous rage fueled fight with two supersoldiers. Had Peter right then and there in a frozen wasteland with a useless Iron Man who couldn't move, so therefore couldn't get them both out of there. "You shouldn't be here, Peter," Tony decreed even as his voice caught. outing just how upset he was at the turn of events, of the danger Peter was in for being there in a building half crumbling in a unhospitable deep freeze, a madman manipulator on the loose and Steve and Barnes still nearby.

Tony's statement had Peter's features brimming with stubborn determination. "Yes I should be. I should have been here sooner..at your side so you wouldn't have gotten hurt like this."

Tony felt a wave of revulsion imagining Peter there: witnessing Tony seeing his parents murder, absolutely getting involved in his battle with Steve and Barnes, the almost certainty that the teenager would have gotten hurt, the scary as hell possibility that, in Tony's blind rage, he might have even hurt the boy himself. Tony swallowed down queasiness at the thought of any of those outcomes. His next words were desperate rejections of any of those scenarios playing out, "No! No! You shouldn't have been here then. And you shouldn't be here now!"

Peter felt hurt by the chastise, the rejection but didn't regret his actions, even if Mr. Stark didn't want him there. Deciding it would do no good to argue with the injured man's opinion, Peter changed tactics, even as he feared he was stepping into darker waters. "Captain America, Mr. Barnes, were they here? I thought you were going to take on the super soldiers together?"

The word "together" was like volcanic ash to Tony. There would never be a together again for him and Steve. They were irrevocably on opposing sides now. Briskly Tony retorted, "Let's recap later, huh. Right now I need my suit restarted or, barring that happening, I need to get peeled out of it." Couldn't help thinking of Rhodey, of how his suit had become unresponsive after it was hit, dropped to the ground like dead weight. The paramedics had instructed Tony to not take him out of the Iron Patriot suit because, if he had internal bleeding, he might bleed to death before they even got him in the ambulance. But right now, the Iron Man suit wasn't preventing Tony from dying but it was consigning him to become a frozen metal popsicle in this winter wasteland if he couldn't get out of it.

It took a moment for Mr. Stark's words to register with Peter, made him stammer, "Your suit…you can't…it's not responding…Wholly crap, Mr. Stark, can you move? Like at all?" That possible reason for Mr. Stark's lack of physical interaction with him bringing a smile to Peter's features. That maybe Mr. Stark wasn't giving him the brushoff, the 'don't be a cry baby', wasn't purposefully cutting off offering him physical comfort but couldn't.

Seeing the incongruent smile on the fourteen-year old's face at his troubles, Tony grumbled, "You don't have to gloat so hard over my situation. Maybe you need a taste of your own medicine, to get tangled up in your webs and have to wait until I dig out the dissolving solution next time."

Peter looked horrified that Mr. Stark thought he was delighting in his pain. "Oh no…no it's not that! I'm not happy that your suit froze up on you. Not at all! And for the webbing thing, I got myself stuck for like hours when I was just creating it so I totally understand immobility being a pain in the butt, Mr. Stark."

Appeased a little, Tony quipped, "Maybe try not smiling when you're commiserating with someone in distress."

"Totally! My smile wasn't…was because," Peter felt his face heat up in embarrassment.

But Tony was intrigued, found he wanted to know what the kid was thinking. "Because of what?"

Peter looked away, got that 'aw shucks' look on his tender features, lowly admitted, eyes skittering across Tony's features, "I thought you were…that I was ….before you …like…almost…"

"I almost what?" Tony truly didn't know where the kid's distress was coming from but wanting to stop it.

Peter sighed and told the truth. "I thought you were rejecting me…my closeness, thought my…breakdown was….stupid..unherolike. That you weren't…weren't hugging me back because…" Peter shrugged, didn't know what descriptor to use for that rejection. Because Mr. Stark didn't love him wasn't correct. Mr. Stark didn't love him, he wasn't delusional enough to think he did. They didn't really know each other. Peter thought Mr. Stark liked him at least but maybe that was a stretch too. Maybe Mr. Stark simply endured him for his Spiderman attributes, what he could bring to a fight. And that was fair…should be good enough but felt like a rejection in Peter's soul.

Tony heaped curses on his hunk of junk suit for malfunctioning in a way that hurt this amazing kid so spectacularly. "Trust me kid, if I was giving you the brush off, I'd be blunt about it. I've perfected the jackass 'I'm too important and rich to be touched by you' glare. No words necessary. Works on the likes of reporters, rich moguls, world leaders and despots of SHEILD."

Peter's smile was like the sun after a storm. "Really? You didn't mind…would have …like hugged me back?"

This kid was pushing all of Tony's lines in the preverbal emotional sand and Tony found he wasn't even upset about it. "Sure, maybe, might have." Then Tony teased, "But the moment's passed," and gave a wink that had the kid laughing and smiling even more brightly. "So how about you get me out of my suit no so we can go somewhere warm?"

"Yeah, sounds good. I'm a bit cold," Peter admitted, though cold wasn't the word for the way his entire body felt like it was enveloped in ice ten inches thick. Putting his mind to the task Mr. Stark had assigned him, Peter ran his hands down the chestplate of the Iron Man suit, over the flickering Arc Reactor but soon withdrew his touch. "I don't feel comfortable ripping your suit apart, Mr. Stark," Peter voiced his hesitation and worry. "I might hurt you worse or really break the arc reactor. And it's keeping your heart beating and if I do something…and it stops…" a shiver wracked through Peter that wasn't accredited to the cold. "If it…If I…I shouldn't…

His voice consoling not judgmental, Tony interrupted the boy's trembling expansive list of worries. "Take a breath, Peter. "First thing, the reactor isn't what's keeping me alive, not anymore." The kid's wide-eyed hopefulness made Tony feel like he'd done something wonderful and, at the same time, shamed that he was putting the kid through an emotional wringer. "Got an upgrade and have the RT unit to keep any lingering shrapnel away from my heart. So take that worry off the table. Now give me a moment to think it through." Amid the boy's words Tony caught on the point that Peter didn't say he didn't have the strength to rip the Iron Man suit apart, only that he was reluctant to do it and hurt him further. Which, ok, Rational Tony knew that made sense. He had done a lot of trial and error on how to get out of the suits manually, some attempts more painful than others. A lot more painful. And this right now, seemed a painful one.

It made him wistfully regret he hadn't thought to put lasers in the kid's suit, or a saw or something useful to them now. To his credit, Peter was already busy brainstorming. "I know the suit is mostly generated by the Arc Reactor but your AI and other circuits must use electricity or else all the Iron Man automated suits would need their own arc reactors. So if we find a power source and attach it to the suit, we should be able to manually trigger the suit's hydraulic system enough to get you out of it."

Way beyond impressed, Tony demurred, "Sure, treat me like a jalopy car that needs cable cord jumped."

"But it might work, should, right?" There was hope glistening in the boy's eyes that spread optimism to even Tony's battered-on-the-verge-of-shattering-apart soul. "Yeah, kid, it should work." Seeing Peter's pleasure at being useful to him, Tony found himself smiling, his pride in the boy chipping away at the rage and despair Steven and Barnes had left in their wake.

Peter swiveled in his crouched position beside Mr. Stark to eye up the offerings of the cold war installation. "Be right back," he bid Mr. Stark but before he left, like the friendly neighborhood Spiderman he was, he earnestly reassured, "Everything's going to be alright, Mr. Stark." Then he zipped off to corners of the bunker Tony couldn't track from his location.

Tony called after him, "Hey that's my line. I'm the adult here. I do the 'hero comforting the victim' thing. You don't get to one up me!" But he knew it was more a grumbling to himself, the kid too absorbed in his treasure hunt to mind him. Though he couldn't spot where the kid went, he was speculating what components in this place could be utilized to get juice flowing back into his suit.

Peter disembodied voice called back reassurances from across the bunker. "Finding good stuff, Mr. Stark."

A sudden shower of sparks from a corner of the room he couldn't see startled Tony, had his heart lurching as he fearfully called out, "Kid? You ok? Peter?!"

"Uh, yeah, wasn't expecting it be live live," came Peter's embarrassed voice and Tony sighed. Arc Reactor needed or not, the kid wasn't doing his heart any good. "But I think it's exactly what we needed," Peter's excitement was like its own sparkly shower in the gloom.

Tony raised his voice for the boy to hear him across the expansion that separated them, "We are totally going to discuss your insubordination. Just because you're saving me from turning into a big frozen paperweight that doesn't mean I'm going to overlook your recklessness in coming here." Then a quandary hit Tony. "How did you get here?" all the answers he came up with were down right terrifying.

Peter froze at the question, had hoped to not have to explain that quite yet…or never. He joked feebly, "Uber?"

At the kid's deflection, Tony's gut churned, knowing that one of his terrifying explanations was correct. He gave a sharp inhale as he latched onto the most feasible one. "You stowed away, didn't you?!"

The outrage in Mr. Stark's voice told Peter he was in serious deep crap for his tagalong method. But like always, he tried to talk himself out of trouble. "I wouldn't say stowed away, Mr. Stark. I wasn't technically "on board" the helicopter. Because "stowed" implied something inside a form of transportation and I was OUTSIDE the copter, so stowed away isn't all that accurate."

"Outside?!" Tony found a surge of nearly blinding strength to be pissed and terrified as the mental images of Peter hanging onto the copter's fuselage for dear life. Felt himself toeing the line of having a freaking panic attack considering how badly that could have turned out for the boy. "Clinging to the freaking OUTSIDE of my copter. Damn it, kid! Do you have a death wish?"

Peter ignored Tony's rhetorical question, exclaimed from across the bunker, "This will totally work! Just give me a minute to see if I can get it to reach you or if I have to drag you over here."

"Way to make me sound like a piece of furniture, Underoos," Tony called back but found he had complete trust in the kid. Peter would get him out of the suit and together they'd leave the bunker that Tony never wanted to see again in his life. But he wasn't naïve enough to think it wouldn't haunt his nightmares. Just like that black and white video would of Barnes murdering his parents.

Peter bound back to him with his puppy dog enthusiasm and crouched down at Tony's side. "Ok they apparently didn't believe in extension cords back when creating super soldiers was a thing, so I'll have to move you to the power source I found."

"I'll concede to this plan with one condition: no bridal carrying shall ever happen," Tony stipulated, had a reputation to maintain, even if only the kid was there to see him being so vulnerable.

"Ah…sure..fine," Peter stammered, making it real obvious he had thought he could pick up Iron Man, do this the easy way. None of the other victims he had ever rescued had a problem with that mode of being carried to safety. But Mr. Stark wasn't a victim..well not a normal one.

As a different mode of getting Iron Man across the bunker came to him, Peter smiled. "I can drag you there by your boots." But he honestly cringed, didn't think that would feel too great on Mr. Stark's obviously already banged up body. It gave him an idea because he suspected that Mr. Stark might not worry how that mode of transporting might hurt himself, but, surprisingly, he would care if it hurt Peter. "I should probably warn you, dragging your suit across the concrete might sound like fingers on a chalk board, which, to me, is like getting an icepick in my ears," matter-of-factly revealing his vulnerabilities with Tony. "Super hearing has its bad points. But not really a problem, Mr. Stark. If I pass out…in excruciating pain, don't worry, I'll totally finish dragging you to the power source when I wake up…no matter how many times I pass out or for how long."

Tony couldn't determine if Peter was totally manipulating him or if there was some truth in his alarming prediction that he might pass out in agony if he dragged him to the power source. "I can't tell if you're pulling my leg…literally, or not."

"Mr. Stark, I wouldn't …" Peter began, putting on his most earnest look.

"Zip it," Tony commanded, saw the kid obeyed him on the quiet order but was still searing him with his darling little boy schtick. "I'll let you carry me…"

"Awesome Mr. Stark!" Peter exclaimed, relieved he wouldn't be putting the man in more pain.

Tony wasn't through putting out a threat of compliance. "..but if this particular detail ever gets out…"

"It won't. I swear," Peter vowed solemnly as he bent down and slid his hands under the Iron Man suit and picked him up, like he was a freaking lightweight metallic baby.

"I will never live this down," Tony groaned, half in mortification and half in pain because movement, even when Peter was the one doing most of it, hurt like a mother.

"Live what down? This isn't happening, remember," Peter quipped as he was making his way across the bunker, careful to not tilt or jostle Mr. Stark in the process.

"Kid, you might have a great future in politics," Tony retorted, thought if the kid did take that route, he'd be the first politician he'd endorse wholeheartedly.

"No offence Mr. Stark, but I'm sticking with the superhero business, even if Ross and the Accords will make that more difficult. I owe it to my Uncle Ben." Even as Peter knew it would never be enough, the lives he saved, the number of people who called him a hero, the thanks he got from people he rescued. It would never wipe clean his sins against his uncle.

Eyes having swung up to the kid's face in surprise, Tony didn't like Peter's reasonings, coiled all up as it was with debt and honor and guilt. "Your uncle Ben can't have possibility been the hardass my dad was. Which means he would already be prouder of you than you can imagine, Pete."

"You don't know that..and he wouldn't…" Peter hoarsely contradicted before he shut himself off. This wasn't about his past failures, was about him needing to not fail now. He had to save Mr. Stark. That was his only goal right then. "We're about at the power source." He took another few strides before he was bending down, laying Iron Man on the ground with care, like he was made of glass instead of metal.

Tony rolled his head to see what they were working with and cringed. Seventy-year-old electric outlets and wires, some of which were frayed and sparking due to the redecorating he'd done fighting Steve and Barnes. "Peter, this doesn't look up to code..even a hundred years ago code," he worriedly judged.

"But it's our best shot at jumpstarting your suit," Peter insisted, having already checked other wiring around the bunker. Whatever had happened before he got there had left Iron Man's suit immobile and had damaged the other outlets he had located.

Tony, however, wasn't thinking of time but risk, not to himself but to Peter. "Excuse me if I think a little caution is in order." He drew a sharp breath in disgust. "Oh crap. Right there, I sounded just like Pepper." Couldn't believe his worry for the kid was taking him down that road. At least Pepper wasn't there to witness it…and hold it against him until the day he died.

"Pepper, she's your fiancé and the head of Stark Industries. She's so cool. My friend ..who's a girl," Peter pointedly qualified, "..thinks she's awesome."

"More cool than me?" Tony projected disbelief at that implausible notion.

Chagrined, Peter tried to soothe Mr. Stark's bruised ego. "Nothing personal, Mr. Stark, I swear. It's just… MJ is a girl power kind of girl."

"But let me guess, she still thinks Spiderman is pretty awesome," Tony remarked with a knowing smirk, enjoyed the blush that heated Peter's face.

Still Peter demurred, "Maybe. We don't ..talk about him," as if Spiderman was an entity not him. Wanting to stop thinking about how cool Spiderman was and how lame Peter Parker was in most of his schoolmates' eyes, Peter shifted closer to the electric outlet, flinched a little when it sparked near his hand.

"I don't want to surge too much power into your suit or not enough. Any guesses on what that amount would be?" Peter looked back to Mr. Stark, watched as the genius did the mental calculations.

Tony had been thinking along those lines as well. "I figure enough juice to keep one of those super soldiers in their cryo tubes should do the trick."

"Yeah, I thought that too," Peter agreed, swiveling on his heel to look at the tubes. The one to the left of his position still had a light glowing at its base even though the tubing had been broken and a lifeless super soldier was slumped in the chair. "Found one still working," he announced as he went to the tube, ignored the corpse a pulled the power plug from its base. Back kneeing at Tony's side, a black electrical cord in his hands, he followed the cord to the outlet and pulled out the plug so no current ran through it right then. "I'll have to cut through the wiring," wondering exactly how to do that since his earlier searching hadn't turned up any tools. "You ever see that old James Bond movie where there was a guy with metal teeth, if he were here, he could chew through the wires."

"Ah, yeah, I'm not volunteering to be your Jaws," Tony shut down the kid's hopes, heard the boy's chuckle and it was like something eased in his chest, though the metal dented suit hadn't given up its crushing pressure against his chest. So it was an emotional easing, something Tony didn't have much experience with, well, except for Pepper. She had a way to make his stress dial down. Funny this kid could work the same miracle. 'And he's a genius engineer too,' he praised, watching the kid using a shard of broken glass from the super soldier tubes to cut through the cords plastic and begin to saw at the exposed wires.

As he began visualizing their next step of Peter handling a live exposed wire, Tony felt his brain surge with alarm. "You're wet!" just realizing that fact. Felt embarrassed, a full on self-centered jackass for not noticing before the kid's snow wettened hair, his suit glistening with dampness, the boy's face beaded with moisture…not sure if it was residue of snow or, more alarmingly, sweat. And now that he was looking at Peter, taking note of him, the boy's face was as pale as he'd ever seen it on their short acquaintance and his lips, they looked blue. Hypothermia blue.

"Yeah, it's kind of snowing out there," Peter wryly stated the obvious, knew what led to Tony's sudden observation. But it wasn't like he had any dry clothing to wick away the moisture on his hands. But as Spiderman, he was getting used to safety not coming first, to working with what he had and in whatever conditions existed.

Tony's mind snagged on the unforgiveable flaw he'd just uncovered in his Spiderman suit design. "Your suit needs a heater," upset he hadn't thought of that need before. Say before Peter started going hypothermic on him.

"That'd be cool, Mr. Stark. But I could just wear thermal underneath, should have thought of that when you said we were heading to Russia during their winter season," the boy easily passed the blame onto himself instead of Tony.

"WE weren't heading anywhere! It was supposed to just be me. You should be warm back in Germany." And safe. The kid should be a million miles from this ground zero of shattered friendships, betrayals and uncovered murders, and revenge machinations.

"More stamps on my passport…well would be if we went through customs to get here." Peter rose his look from the wiring to the man he admired most in his world, "Do you mind if we just talk about where I need to put the wire to jump start your suit? We might not have a second chance if I put it at the wrong place." He refused to blow his one chance to get Mr. Stark out of the suit and alleviate some of his pain.

"The arc reactor is our best shot to jump start my systems," Tony announced, like it was a sure thing. Didn't give away that he also knew it could overload and kill him if too much power surged into it.

Peter's heart jolted and his eyes got wide eyed in terror. "No! No, Mr. Stark, I can't..I shouldn't…there's got to be another circuit I can boost."

"All roads lead to the heart, kiddo," Tony lightheartedly countered with a smirk but the kid was looking at him like he'd told him to kill the Easter bunny. "If I could move my arms, I'd do it myself. That's how sure I am that it's the only way."

But was it the only way? Peter wasn't so confident now, because if he messed this up, Tony would be in more dire straits then he'd started with. Might die. "I'm risking your life and I don't know what I'm doing and this could ..well I could kill you." He suddenly dropped the exposed wires like he was terrified to continue holding them.

With the kid's luminous scared eyes meeting his, Tony hated that he couldn't reach out, touch the kid, make sure he didn't skitter away and let his hurts and fears fester. Since movement wasn't an option, Tony put all his confidence in the kid into his voice, in the look he latched onto Peter. "Hey, you got this. I trust you."

"Maybe you shouldn't trust me," Peter's voice cracking apart. 'Like Ben trusted me to be a good son, to come when he called me, to do the right thing like he taught me to.'

"Too late. Already do," Tony zinged back with a smile. "Find something to dry your hands before you give the cord any power." Didn't want any chance of the kid getting hurt trying to help him.

"On what? Your metal suit? My snow soaked suit?" Peter scoffed, lifted his head to give a cursory glance around their surroundings. But then he saw a towel hanging on one of the pipes, greasy but seemed dry. He pushed to his feet and wavered, felt the world tilt but he moved ahead anyway, hoping he wasn't listing to the side. The lightheadedness was getting worse and his fingers, they were kind of numb. He hadn't noticed right away that he'd cut his palm clutching onto the shard of glass he was using as a wire cutter. He had quickly wiped the blood on the leg of his suit before Tony noticed.

He might have got there on slightly wobbly legs but he reached the towel, and luckily, it was stiff with cold but wasn't frozen, allowed him to wipe his hands of any moisture. He carried it back to Tony's side. Felt more like he collapsed down to his knees more than did a planned descent. Didn't look at Mr. Stark in case he noted his weakness but had to eventually raise his eyes, only to see Mr. Stark watching him. He pulled on a smile that he wasn't feeling, "Never thought I'd get the chance to see the Iron Man suit up close like this. It's mind blowing."

"It was heart blowing that made it a necessity," Tony quipped felt bad for his offhandedness when Peter paled, stammered out an apology.

"I wasn't …shouldn't have…made a joke.." appalled that he'd joked about Mr. Stark's captivity, him being tortured, his heart being severely damaged. "I'm so sorry…"

"I started the joke, even made the punchline, kid," Tony quickly forgave Peter. "Besides, I'm pretty thick skinned. I didn't take what you said as insult or that you're cold hearted and only like me for my tech."

Peter's face telegraphed his horror at the very idea. "No no no..Mr. Stark, you're tech is like….20% ok, maybe 30 of what I liked about you. But that was before I met you, knew you as….well, you."

"Now you like my tech 60% more, right?" Tony joked with ringing self-hatred. Feared that, after meeting him, getting to see him as just a very screwed up man instead of a hero worthy of his worship, he had really sank in Peter's opinion of him.

"What?" Peter's voice squeaking in objection. "Totally not! Your genius…your tech..it's cool and all but getting to know you…it's way better."

Tony didn't remember the last time someone didn't want him for his tech, for his genius, including his father and honorary uncle. Ok, there were a handful, like Pepper, Happy, Rhodey…and now surprisingly, this wholly good and awesome kid. This kid who would die of hypothermia if he didn't get him out of there. To save Peter, he had to pry himself out of the dead Iron Man suit, regardless of the risks. "Let's heap on the accolades after we're baking in the sun somewhere, huh?" he said, but there was affection in the look he bestowed on the kid at his side.

Peter nodded. "Ready to try this?" he asked, praying he wasn't about to hurt Tony with his improvisation.

"Yup," Tony gave his go ahead. Watched the kid holding the exposed wires in one hand while he leaned over and plugged the cord into the outlet. The hum of electricity ebbed from the end of the wires and Tony found himself praying this would work, for both his sake and Peter's. Mostly Peter's.

Peter hated that his hand trembled a bit. Wrapping his other hand around the cord to steady it, he lowered the live wires closer and closer to the arc reactor that was barely giving off any light anymore. Might never shine again if this wasn't the right move. Peter's anxious eyes skittered to Mr. Stark's, who nodded. It was a go.

Peter lowered the exposed wires until they connected with the arc reactor. There was a snapping of electricity and Peter felt heat by his hands and watched in awe as the arc's light welled brighter.

Tony could feel the suit coming back online, like a breathing thing taking an unsteady breath. But there was heat there, a whine of energy building. He had only a millisecond to panic before the feedback on the suit, on the arc reactor sent out a pulse of electricity.

Tony felt it through the suit like locks flying off with explosive force.

Peter felt it like a million volts of electricity surging up his arms and through his body. He screamed at the all-encompassing pain and then he was shoved away by a wave of energy strong enough to crush his bones if he were solely human. Then there was nothing at all.

IRMSDM

TBC

IRMSDM