Life Changes

Six

Peter's words cut Tony like a knife. He backs out of the room slowly, making his way out in a daze. He should have known better than to make those promises. It was a stupid thing to do. How was he supposed to make this up? Would he even be able to? Where did he go from here? He leans against the wall and just breathes for a moment. He needed something to keep him busy so he heads down to the ER. He needs something to distract him. Anything really. He looks around then leans over the desk.

"What do we got?"

-----.-----

Peter lay still, still a bit shocked at the news. It is just his luck that he lands his dream roll and it's ripped away from him. What was he supposed to do with his life now? He presses the heels of his hands to his eyes, stopping the tears that slipped out. He wanted to scream but he knew it would be pointless. He had a hunk of metal in his leg and no amount of screaming himself sick would change that. He looks down at his injured leg and carefully touched it. A spike of pain shot up his leg and he winces, biting his lip. His mind wandered to Tony. Tony with his stupid pretty face and kind words. Didn't he know better than to give a dancer false hope of getting their leg back? What an idiot.

Peter looks up when another person enters the room. It looked like a nurse. She had kind eyes and red hair. Peter couldn't help but smile.

"Dinner time." She announces.

"Thank you." Even though he didn't feel like eating, he was raised with manners.

"Between you and me, the burgers in the cafeteria aren't bad but don't trust the fish sticks." The nurse says, looking up and winking playfully.

"Noted." Peter shifts and groans softly. "My name is Peter, but you probably already knew that."

The nurse with the kind eyes smiles and nods.

"My name is Wanda."

"Can I ask you something?"

"Sure. Go for it."

"Are there a lot of redheads here? I-I've seen like seven redheads nurses just walk by while I was laying here, plus there's you and Dr.Romanova."

Wanda looks up from the chart and laughs. It was a light pleasant sound.

"There are quite a few. Maybe we should start a club."

"Yeah, maybe you should." Peter agrees, picking at his food.

"I'm not going to leave until you eat." Wanda warns. "I'll go get Tony if you don't."

Peter tenses, looking up at her. No Tony. He couldn't face Tony right now.

"No." He says, it sounding a bit harsher than he intended. "I'll eat."

Wanda looks at him, seeming to be in deep thought. She nods once, before turning to check his vitals. Peter eats in silence, glancing at her every so often. She seemed to have good intentions. Peter respected that much.

"Thank you." Peter says, breaking the silence and pushing the empty plate away.

"You're welcome." She smiles. "Full?"

"Yeah. It was pretty good."

"I told you. God knows I've eaten in that cafeteria more often than I care for."

"Yeah but is it worth it?"

She stops writing and meets his gaze. "Yes. More than."

"If you couldn't do this....what would you do?"

Wanda is silent for a moment before tucking her hair behind her ear and sitting on the edge of his bed.

"This is about you not being able to dance any more, isn't it?" She asked softly.