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"...Stark! Mr. Stark!"
That voice he knew that voice. It was young and sounded terrified.
"Mr. Stark!" The voice was closer now.
Then everything came flooding back to him. The aliens, the fighting and the explosion that threw him back. He could hear a lot of noise. There were sirens, people crying, voices yelling.
"Mr. Stark, please wake up. Please," there was that voice again, and it sounded close to tears, desperate.
Peter.
That was Peter.
Tony groaned as his eyes fluttered open, taking a moment to focus on the face above him. Brown eyes flooded with relief and a smile broke out on the teens face,
"Tony," he breathed out.
Suddenly a bullet ripped through his chest from behind.
Tony's ears rang and the world slowed, a voice screaming out. Peter looked down at his chest then back at Tony. His eyes were scared. He coughed once, blood coating his lips, before he crumpled next to Tony.
Tony woke up gasping. That damn nightmare again.
He took a few minutes to calm his breathing before scrubbing his hands over his face. Tony got out of bed and padded to the room right next door. Slowly opening the door Tony looked inside and let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. Laying there fast asleep was Peter.
Tony had adopted him not long after Peter's Homecoming.
Aunt May hadn't been happy when she found out who Peter was, and threw him out. So, the teen came to Tony in tears, and Tony took him in straight away.
After a month Tony adopted him. Three months after that Tony had to put an Arc reactor in the boy’s chest. He still winced at the memory.
It had started off as a normal day. Peter had been having some chest pains after Homecoming, so Tony had gotten him X-rayed. Turns out there was some shrapnel in his chest from when the Vultures wings exploded. Bruce managed to remove it, now they all believed it was phantom pain. Although Tony made sure to keep an eye on the boy.
So, when Peter woke up and told Tony his pain was worse, he was worried.
"You think you may have strained yourself?" Tony asked worriedly.
"I don't think so," Peter replied rubbing his chest.
"Okay well, we'll take it easy today, and you tell me if they get worse. Could be something serious," Tony said.
"Okay Dad," Peter smiled.
Tony gave a smile back and the two started to tinker. Peter was his normal bubbly self, despite the pain in his chest.
The two of them worked for hours chatting and listening to music. Tony was talking happily when a crash made his head shoot up,
"Peter!" He yelled running to where the boy had fallen to his knees.
"Peter what happened? Peter talk to me," Tony cried desperation in his voice.
"Can't breathe," Peter managed to gasp out, clutching at his chest.
"FRIDAY get Bruce down to medical, NOW!" Tony yelled as he lifted Peter into his arms, already running to the med bay.
"Hold on underoos, just hold on," Tony found himself saying.
He burst through the doors and over to a bed.
"What's wrong?" Bruce asked as Tony set Peter down.
"He said he can't breathe, get him on oxygen Banner," Tony demanded, worry clear in his voice.
Bruce hooked Peter up to some oxygen and inserted an IV in the boy’s arm, instantly pumping him with morphine to help ease the pain.
"You're gonna be alright Peter. I promise you everything's gonna be okay," Tony said softly, running a hand through Peter's hair as his eyes slipped closed.
Bruce X-rayed Peter while the boy was under and checked over the results. A few minutes later Bruce turned back to Tony, who hadn't left the boys side, looking a little grim.
"What? What is it Banner?" Tony asked with worry.
"Tony I'm sorry, but he still has shrapnel in his chest from the Vultures wings, and it's headed for his heart," Bruce told him. "It's in too deep to get out and once it gets to his heart...Tony he's not gonna make it, these machines won't be able to keep him alive," Bruce finished.
Tony looked down at Peter and felt his whole world around him shatter. He was back in Afghanistan, where he only had a car battery keeping him alive, then later an arc reactor to...
Wait a minute.
The arc reactor. He still had some for when he was Iron Man.
"No," Tony whispered as he faced Bruce, "get him ready for surgery."
"What? But Tony...." Bruce started only to be cut off by Tony putting his hands on his shoulders and getting up in his face,
"Now you listen here Banner, I'm not losing him. I almost lost him once, I'm not letting it happen again. Get him ready for surgery," Tony seethed before running out the room.
He grabbed two arc reactors and saw Peter ready for surgery when he returned. He placed both reactors on the table, before going over to the boy.
"Hey, Pete it's gonna be okay, we got you," he whispered brushing his hair back smiling slightly. Then he and Bruce got to work.
They managed to hook the arc reactor up to Peter, and all through the night Tony modified the extra arc reactor just for Peter. Then he and Bruce swapped the reactors over, and were finished in the early hours of the morning.
Tony stayed by Peter's side, holding his hand, waiting for him to wake up.
Tony woke up to someone gently nudging him, and lifted his head to see his son awake.
"Peter," Tony breathed out in relief. Sitting on the side of the bed Tony removed the IV and oxygen mask.
"Are you alright?" He asked.
"What happened?" Peter asked at the same time.
Tony stumbled over his words as he told Peter what happened, his throat and chest growing tighter with every word.
Peter was quiet when Tony finished, gaze fixed on his blanket.
"Peter?" Tony's voice was soft.
Peter gave no answer.
"Underoos?" Tony tried again, "you alright kiddo?"
Peter looked up and the expression he wore, broke Tony's heart. He looked so scared and upset.
"So, does that mean..." Peter's voice was soft and trailed off as he looked down at his chest, a circle of soft blue light in the middle of it. As Peter looked back up at Tony, tears sprang to his eyes.
"Peter I'm so sorry baby," Tony whispered, answering Peter's unspoken question. As tears began to fall Tony wrapped Peter in a hug, his own silent tears falling as the teen gripped his shirt sobbing into his shoulder.
After that the nightmares attacked Tony. He had been so scared of losing Peter that night, he lost him every time he closed his eyes.
"Dad?" A sleepy mumble brought Tony back to the present. He smiled slightly at a bleary-eyed, barley awake Peter.
"Hey sweetheart," he said softly sitting at the edge of the bed, running his fingers gently through Peter's hair.
"What’s wrong, another nightmare?" Peter asked softly, still not fully awake.
"Just checking up on you sweetheart," Tony smiled.
Seeing and being able to physically touch Peter helped the last remnants of worry slip away from Tony. His son was here, he was alive and breathing.
Looking back, he saw that Peter's eyes had closed again, his reactor casting soft shadows on his face.
Tony brushed back the teens bangs.
"Don't you worry Bambi, Dad's gonna find a way to fix this. I promise," Tony whispered before leaning down to press a soft kiss to Peter's forehead and, knowing he wasn't going to go back to sleep anytime soon, headed down to the lab.
Tony made a promise and he was gonna damn well keep it.