Revenge...

The Talk

"Umm no. I'm gonna keep them for you, and make sure you take them." I warned.
"I can do that myself." Peter looked down. I hid my smirk and turned to Ned.
"Ned, kid. What do you think little Peter here would do if I gave him these?" I asked.
"Dump them down the toilet and tell you that he took them." Ned replied, without even missing a beat.
"Is that what you did with your painkillers when you hurt your leg last time?! You told me you took them!" I laughed more than yelled.
"I...Ned...why would you say that?" Peter whispered.
"Cause Ironman is your freaking dad! I'm not gonna lie to him!" He looked to me. "I would never lie to you, Sir." He saluted me.
"Call me Tony, kid."
"Ironman has a nickname for me. He called me kid." Ned said under his breath. "Oh! Right...right. I had to come here because Peter's legal guardian has to go into the school and explain his "sickness." I made it up." Ned smiled.
"I'll go." I nodded.
"Dad... no offence. But you might umm...cause a scene." He whispered.
"I won't. I'll just tell them and leave straight away." I lied.
"Okay. I need to come with you and make sure though." Peter said quickly. This was code, I knew my kid, it meant 'please don't leave me alone ever again.'
"Okay. That's fine." I sighed. "You need to get better first, we can go in two days. If Banner permits you?"
"Yeah. That's fine. Just for a small period of time." Bruce nodded.
"Cool. Well, I'll tell them tomorrow that you'll be in on Tuesday." Ned said. "I gotta go do homework, see you later Peter. Bye Tony. Bye Dr.Banner." He said happily before running out the door.
Two hours of Peter lying there went by before he finally fell asleep. I lay up beside him and he tiredly put his head on my shoulder. That's the way I woke up in the morning, that's not the reason I wanted to wake up though.
I opened my eyes lazily, the bed shook lightly and I heard muffled crying. "Peter?" I tensed. "Peter?!" He was twisting and turning, he faced me, shaking with his eyes closed.
"Mhm...MM... you're hu....hurting me... stop... stop..." He spoke quietly to himself. I grabbed his shoulders and squeezed his arms.
He suddenly pushed me off of him. His eyes shot open and he grasped at his chest. He sobbed loudly and brought his knees up to his chin.
"...mmh...MMH..." He was choking, as if he was gagged again.
"Peter?! Peter! Jesus! You can talk! You're okay! You're okay... I'm right here." I held his arms and pulled him into me. "Cmon Pete! Say something..."
Peter took in a huge breath. "Da...dad. I couldn't... couldn't breathe...he was above...then he was gone and...and..."
"It's okay...it's over... come here." I hugged him again. "Lie down. You're not strong enough yet to be sitting up." Peter looked upset but lay back anyways.
"It...it doesn't hurt... my stitches." He lied. I sighed.
"Come on then. Take your time and tell me exactly what happened."
"Wh...what?"
"What did he do to you? What did he tell you? You need to tell me before you can get better." I smiled sadly at him.
"I...I woke up in that cell. And then Loki brought in this TV. It showed you on it, the main room. You were arguing with Auntie Nat, telling her that the boy you found wasn't your son." Clearly he had skipped parts but I thought it would be best if I just listened to him.
"Okay. What happened when you didn't eat?" I asked. Peter took in a breath before starting again.
"Loki told me to eat, I didn't want to, he gave me an hour and then came back in and shot me with the gun thingy." He avoided my eyes.
"Did it hurt?" I asked sympathetically.
"No... no. It was sound waves. Or something. I don't know."
"Okay. When you woke up on the bed, what did you do?" I asked slowly.
"I panicked, I struggled to get out, so Loki tightened the restraints, the one around my neck barely let me breath. There was this brown stuff in a bag that he injected into me to make me eat." He sighed. "Is that it?"
"What about the soldier? Last question, I promise." I reassured him.
"He came in the door, I screamed for him to help me. Loki killed him from behind, then he stomped on the Walkie Talkie the soldier was using. Then I cried some more." He spoke softly.
"We could hear you." I told him.
"Wh...what? How?" Peter's eyes met mine.
"The Walkie... it wasn't broken. We could hear you from it. You said you wanted to die, that's not normal. I can't live without you, okay? Do you understand that? You told Loki that you would stop crying, let him kill you." I crossed my arms.
"I...I didn't know that...I don't wanna die, I don't... I wanna live here with you forever and fight bad guys and...I only wanted to because I wasn't with you." I noticed the tears on his cheeks. "I only...only said that I would let him kill me because he...he said he would kill you..."
"Jesus..." I whispered. "No more secrets... ever again. No more leaving either." I sat back up on the bed and was taken aback when he wrapped his arms around me from behind. "Do you want some breakfast? Bad question. You're having breakfast." I smiled at him.
"Mhm." He nodded quickly. I called Nat on my phone.
"Hey... sorry it's early. Can you bring down some food for Peter?" I asked.
"I'm not eating if you don't." He said, sitting up quickly.
"Fine, me too." I smiled sadly.