Chapter Text
It all happened so fast. Too fast.
One second he had Morgan in his arms, giving her a tight hug after finishing another week at school, the next she caught onto her father’s figure, waiting for her across the road.
She screamed “Daddy!” In her usual excitable way, running to him without thinking.
Peter’s spidey-senses flared before she’d even stepped off the sidewalk.
And everything slowed down.
The SUV seemed to tear down the road in breakneck speed, Tony suddenly screaming, Morgan stopping in the middle of the road, confused by her father’s shouts.
Peter shot into action before his mind caught up, diving into the road, and grabbing Morgan, cocooning her in his body and braced for impact. The SUV hit his back at full force, throwing he and Morgan over the bonnet, crashing into the windscreen. The momentum threw them over the back of the car, Peter tried his best to throw himself down back first to cushion Morgan’s fall, landing hard on the road behind.
Protect, protect, protect. Peter’s mind screamed at him; arms still wrapped tightly around Morgan as they rolled along the tarmac before coming to a stop.
He was on his back now, Morgan lying on top of him. every inch of his body screamed in pain, but he could find it in him to scream or yell, like Morgan was doing above him. And that was a good thing, right? She was conscious. She was alive.
He peered down to her best he could, moving his neck even slightly made his vision white out so he only got a vague glance. Her head buried in the nape of Peter’s neck; arms tucked into his chest. He could see blood coming from a cut in her hairline and no, no, no. he’d failed. He hadn’t kept her safe.
“Morgan! Peter!” he heard Happy and Tony shouting, thundering over.
He saw Tony crouching beside them he looked to Peter for a second, the man’s face unreadable before turning to his kid, touching Morgan gently.
“Morgan. Morgan baby, are you hurt?” Tony asked, assertive in his panic.
Morgan just wailed back, and Peter was sure she must have broken something. Or a lot of somethings because Peter wasn’t fast enough.
He should have pushed her out of the way, stopped the car with his hands, something.
But then she reached out to Mr Stark, who immediately picked her up and moved out of sight, leaving Peter lying alone. Safe. She was safe now.
He closed his eyes, trying to focus on breathing because when did breathing become such an impossible task?
“Hey, Pete stay with me. Come on, kid. Ambulance is on its way.”
Tony was back? No, he needed to be with Morgan. Morgan was hurt, hurt because Peter let her run into a road. “Mo-“
“Morgan’s with Happy, Pete. She’s okay, she’s safe. You saved her.”
Peter shook his head, finding it hard to speak. This was his fault; he could have stopped all of this.
“Friday, stats.”
“Unable to receive stats. Peter’s watch is offline.” The AI responded quickly.
“Shit. How far away is the ambulance?”
Peter wished people would stop talking. His head was killing him like he had the migraine from hell and his ears seemed to pick up every single noise around him. He wished it would stop.
“2.7 minutes away, boss. Dr Cho has been alerted.”
“Hey, Pete. Hear that? Help’s coming. You’re gonna’ be okay.”
As much as he trusted Tony, he definitely didn’t feel okay. His entire body was in agony, and it was getting harder and harder to breathe.
It was getting harder to hold on.
He wanted to, the desperate pleading look in Tony’s eyes made him want to, but he couldn’t breathe, and his vision had begun to black out at the edges.
He felt the familiar touch of Tony’s hand, cupping his cheek so gently it almost brought him to tears.
“Please Pete, just a little longer. You’re doing so good, kid. You’re so brave. I’m so proud of you Underoos. I love you kid. So damn much. Don’t give up. Don’t leave me.”
Peter wanted to reply, he did. He wanted to tell him he loved him too. That he was the best dad he could have ever wished for and he was so sorry he’d failed, but all that escaped was a hissed gasp as the breath caught in his throat.
He was dying. He knew he was.
The spots in his vision were getting worse. He could barely see, and the pain had begun to numb to the point all he could feel was his breath rattling in his ribs.
‘it’s okay’ He tried to mouth, becoming less aware of his surroundings. And it was okay. He was okay with dying. It didn’t hurt anymore.
“No, its not okay. This isn’t fucking okay, kid. Hold on, hold on for me. Hear that? The ambulance is here. They’re going to fix you up before you can say ‘Spider-baby’.”
But Peter couldn’t hear the ambulance. He could only hear Tony’s voice in the waves of consciousness.
“M sorry.” Peter breathed, taking in one last sight of his dad.
He let go.
Tony could tell you about the worst day of his life. It was the day he walked away from his parents without a word, for them to be found murdered the same day.
The regret and despair almost killed him, and he struggled to cope with the fallout for years.
But that didn’t even scratch the surface when he saw Morgan hurtling towards him through the road, seeing the car shooting down the street, watching Peter grab her. Hearing his kids’ bones breaking in front of him whilst he stood helplessly watching the scene unravel.
Happy had grabbed him, stopping him from charging to Morgan himself.
He would come to thank him later, for practically saving his life. they were on the opposite side of the street, had he run out he’d have likely caused a crash in the other lane, not to mention he was way too far from Morgan to get to her in time, unlike Peter who took the full force of the car.
He screamed like the world was ending. And in a way it was. His world, anyways.
He watched Peter’s back snap back, his head breaking the windscreen, his body contorting as the force threw him over the hood of the car. He thought he was going to be sick.
The car came to a screeching halt 20 meters down the road, Peter still rolling from the impact as he landed with a crunch on the other side, Morgan still tightly in his grasp.
Pedestrians who’d seen the crash were now screaming and running from the scene, he could see some calling the police and ambulance service but Happy had been quicker.
Happy and Tony immediately ran to them, shouting out their names.
Relief ran through him when he heard Morgan’s cries. Alive.
He dropped down next to his kids, Peter was conscious, meeting his eyes with a strained look. Morgan was shaking on top of Peter, gripping onto the MIT hoodie Tony had given Peter when he returned from the blip. The hoodie looked ruined but at this point Tony couldn’t care less.
He reached over, stroking a hand lightly through Morgan’s hair to get the girls attention. “Morgan. Morgan baby, are you hurt?”
Hearing his voice, she turned and reached out to him, revealing a stream of blood coming from her forehead that made Tony wince. She also seemed to hold her wrist at an awkward angle but that was okay. He could fix that. She would be okay.
He carefully lifted her off an unmoving Peter, giving her a kiss. “Happy’s going to look after you okay? I need to stay with Pete.”
“No! I want daddy!” Morgan wailed when Happy took her from Tony.
It killed him to deny her pleas, but Peter needed him, and he trusted Happy with his life.
He turned to the teen still lying in the road, his eyes had closed and for a second he thought the kid was dead.
“No.” He groaned brokenly, dropping to his knees beside Peter. he pressed his fingers to Peters neck and thankfully found a pulse. Alive. “Hey, Pete open your eyes. Stay with me, ambulance is on its way.”
The kid was a mess. His leg was definitely broken from the unnatural way it stuck out, he was littered with cuts and bruises, skin paler than he’d ever seen.
Peter slowly opened his eyes, Tony immediately noticing how dilated the kid’s pupils were. He couldn’t even begin to wonder what injuries the kid sustained. A severe concussion would be getting off lightly.
Blood streaked almost every inch of his face and into the curls that covered his forehead and he wondered if he’d fractured his skull. This wasn’t good.
“Mo-“ Peter breathed out shakily.
“Morgan’s with Happy, Pete. She’s okay, she’s safe. You saved her.” Tony reassured, desperately wanting to wrap his son in his arms.
Peter shook his head slightly, making the kid wince.
“Friday, stats.”
“Unable to receive stats. Peter’s watch is offline.”
He looked to Peters wrist, catching a glimpse of the shattered watch. “Shit. How far away is the ambulance?”
“2.7 minutes, boss. Dr Cho has been alerted.”
God, he wasn’t sure if the kid had two minutes. “Hey, Pete. Hear that? Help’s coming. You’re gonna be okay.”
The kid looked up to him with glassy eyes, chest moving at irregular intervals as Peter struggled to breathe and Tony could do nothing to help.
He was going to watch his kid die. He was going to watch Peter die again and he couldn’t even hold him. gingerly he placed a hand on his son’s cheek, trying to give the kid a last comfort.
“Please Pete, just a little longer. You’re doing so good, kid. You’re so brave. I’m so proud of you Underoos. I love you kid. So damn much. Don’t give up. Don’t leave me.” Tony repeated over and over, tears streaming.
‘it’s okay.’ Peter mouthed, not taking his eyes off Tony. Tears ran down his bloody face as he fought to keep his eyes open.
“No, it’s not okay! This isn’t fucking okay, kid. You hold on. Hear that? the ambulance is here. They’re going to fix you up before you can say ‘Spider-baby’.”
He stroked the kids cheek with his thumb, leaning so his face was inches from the kid’s.
“M sorry.” Peter rasped, barely over a whisper before his eyes closed and his features relaxed.
Tony blinked. No. “No! Peter!”
He reached for the kids neck, finding no pulse. “No. Don’t do this to me, don’t you dare.”
He immediately started chest compressions, looking up when the ambulance came to a screeching halt in front of him.
He couldn’t hear Morgan behind him, and he only prayed Happy had moved her, so she didn’t just witness her big brother dying.
“Sir, you need to step away.” A paramedic spoke from above him, others following, manoeuvring around Peter.
“No- hi-his heart.” Tony’s voice broke, trying to contain his tears.
A female paramedic kneeling next to him touched his shoulder. “I’ll take over as soon as you move back, okay?”
Tony closed his eyes and nodded.
“Three. Two. One.”
Tony fell back, watching the woman immediately take his place, allowing the other paramedics help Peter.
One paramedic pressed a mask over his face, pushing air into his lungs whilst two more placed a stretcher down next to him.
The man that appeared from the driver’s side of the ambulance helped Tony to his feet. “We’ve been told to take him to the tower, is that correct?”
Tony just stared at the man for a second, trying to process his words as if he were translating them from a foreign language.
“Oh y-yes. The tower. Can I stay with him?” Tony asked, watching his son being rolled into the ambulance, paramedics still performing CPR.
“I’m afraid he needs all the medics he can in the back with him. We’ll get him there as fast as we can.”
Tony nodded once, watching the ambulance doors close, sirens springing to life before the ambulance whisked Peter away.
Tony was left in the chaos of the crash, watching his kid get further and further away from him. he was panicking. He couldn’t breathe. His kid wasn’t breathing. His kid was dead.
This was the worst day of Tony’s life.