~Iron Family~

...Isn't Always Blood

"Petey's awake!" a little voice shrieked from the doorway. Morgan dashed over leaped onto the bed, followed by Harley. She leaned in to give him a hug, but Mr. Stark pulled her back.

"Ah-ah, don't touch Peter right there, hon. He's got a boo-boo."

Morgan carefully leaned in and kissed the bandages, giving Peter a big smile. "All better!"

Peter glanced at Harley, who's eyes were shining with tears. Peter smirked.

"You didn't worry for me, did you?" he teased. Harley wiped his eyes on his sleeve.

"No," he choked. "It's just dusty in here."

After hesitating, Harley sighed and hugged himself. "All those things I said to you..." he mumbled. "I wasn't acting like a brother. I know brothers tease each other, but I went too far past teasing. I was terrible."

Peter gently waved his hand. "Aw, don't worry about it. Little brothers are supposed to be like that."

Harley laughed and, despite Tony's warnings, gave him a gentle hug. Peter went to pat his head, but his arm decided it didn't want to go very high and he just ended up bumping Harley's back.

"My turn," Pepper dove in and kissed his forehead. Peter gave her a weak smile.

"What happened?" he asked Mr. Stark, who sighed.

"I took you back to the compound, obviously. You were...very injured. It was a miracle Bruce managed to save you. You owe him your life. Literally."

Peter cracked a smile. "I'll have to return the favor."

***

Despite everyone's protests, Peter was up and moving the next morning. Pepper made him use crutches, though, since they hadn't cut his cast off yet. He felt incredibly silly having it on, especially since he knew the bones would be healed by now. His legs felt really heavy, though.

He hobbled upstairs into the living room and crashed onto the couch, trying to ignore the fact that there were several Avengers and all of his family members standing before him, staring at him unblinkingly.

"Guys, I'm fine, really," he laughed. "We can just--ouch."

Pepper's hands flew to her head. "See! You're not fine! I told you!"

"No, it was just a Barbie shoe."

She still made him come back down to the infirmary.

He didn't want to admit it to anyone, but he was scared. What if his powers just stopped working? Sure, the healing factor was taking a really long time to kick in, but maybe that was normal for people with spider powers! He was sure that they'd be back up and functioning smoothly in no time.

Still, if he was feeling weaker and his asthma came back, would that mean that his powers were gone? His eyes were fine, as of now. He decided that if he started squinting to read things, then that would be his red flag.

Peter's chest felt warm and tender, and when he had to have his bandages changed for the first time being conscious it wasn't pretty. It felt like coming out from under a warm, toasty blanket of security and into a freezing winter morning.

He was squeezing his eyes shut as he sat on the bed while Pepper worked, but curiosity got the better of him and he peered down. Bad idea.

His skin was raw and pink around the bullet wound and the place where he'd been stabbed. Gross black thread was woven through his skin, sealing closed wounds he'd rather not have seen open. His shoulder didn't look any prettier. And there were still bruises around his ribs, which should have been healed by now.