Spiderman Fan Fiction ❯ The Itsy Bitsy Spider ❯ Chapter 6 ( Chapter 6 )

Peter scuffed his foot on the glass table as Pepper and Mr. Stark talked with Bruce, and the man looked back at him, squinting with a sad smile. "Yeah, I'll help build something for him, but couldn't you do it by yourself?" Wait, why could the boy suddenly hear them all the way over there? He then felt weird.

Tony smiled. "I haven't seen you in so long, I miss you!"

"Plus, I think he wants you and Peter to bond," Pepper said. "He's terrified of you, and he hasn't even seen the Hulk. But, what he's been through, I wouldn't want to be around doctors, either." She made a face.

"Yeah, all right. I'll see what I've got here to make him something." The man stood and headed for the door. "Hey, Peter. Nice to see you again." He frowned when the boy flinched, looking pained. "What's wrong?" Tony took a step towards the boy.

"Your voice...it's too loud.." Peter groaned, holding his ears. It seemed as if his entire body was going haywire at the moment. He didn't even see the hand coming at him, but when the fingers touched his torso, the boy reacted, grabbing the man's hand and bending his fingers back in a painful position.

"OWOWOWOWOWOWOW!!!" Bruce struggled to get his hand away from Peter, but it seemed like the boy had it in a vice grip. He tried a different approach, trying to keep himself calm and calm the kid down at the same time. "Peter," he whispered. "Peter, calm down...no one is going to hurt you here...Peter, it's okay. I'm going to help you. I just need you to calm down, okay. Open your eyes, come on." His technique was working and he could feel the boy's grip loosening, until he was able to pull his hand away. "Are you okay?"

Pepper and Tony stood on both sides of the boy, a look of concern on their face. "What happened?" Tony looked down when he saw Peter flinch and knelt down. "Hey, Pete, talk to me."

Peter's head was pounding and every part of his body was screaming at him to get away. "I...I don't know..." he sobbed, curling up. "Help me.."

"Okay, short stuff, we're gonna have to go into the lab fully, though." The boy nodded and Tony knew at that point something was wrong. Carefully, he slid Peter into his hand, wincing when the teen rolled to the middle of his palm. Quickly he walked towards the table Bruce was set up on, waiting for the doctor to set up a towel to place Peter down. "Okay, kid, Bruce is gonna take a look at you. It'll be okay."

Banner came close, bringing a magnifying screen over the boy. "Pete, you need to calm down, you're giving yourself a nosebleed." He was worried that boy was going to have a heart attack with the way his blood pressure must have been raising. "Come on, bud.."

"Peter," Tony slid his hand over the teen, resting his thumb over his chest. "Pete, feel my heart, listen to my breaths....easy...." He purposefully breathed loud, watching his thumb rise and fall to see if the boy followed his breathing, which he did after a moment. "Good job, kid. Just keep it up." He turned to Bruce. "What do you need?"

"Um," Banner was looking between Tony and Peter, only seeing his friend like that with Morgan. "A new blood sample, definitely." He grabbed the thinnest needle he had and quickly swabbed the boy's arm, wincing when the smell made his face go pained again. He didn't have time to program a bot this time. "Sorry, bud. Okay, a little stick." He slid the needle into where he could see the blue of a vein, sighing when blood started flowing, and a second later he pulled the needle and quickly brought the sample to look at under the microscope. "Tones," he said, voice apprehensive. 

"Friday, project." The room darkened and Friday showed a hologram of what was going on under the scope. "What the hell?" Tony watched as the blood cells mutated right in front of his eyes. "Enhance to a molecular level." Friday enhanced the image. Peter's DNA was changing more than it already had. The DNA strands before them were suddenly twisting and reforming, healing itself before his eyes. It was amazing to watch. 

"What's going on?" A tiny pained voice asked.Tony looked back to Peter, who had calmed down, but still shaking under the man's hand. "Hey, hey, Pete, you okay?"

Peter nodded. "Y-yeah....I don't know what happened.."

"Your healing, how long would it take to heal a bruise?" Bruce asked, his mind working a mile a minute.

"It takes usually twenty minutes from what I've seen...bruises are easy when they're simple. When they broke bones, that took two days..." He was so tired...

"Don't go to sleep on me yet, kid." The billionaire remembered seeing the bruises on the boy's arms when they rescued him. "So, then it must have been that morning that they gave you an IV?" The teen nodded, his eyes closing, his face pale under the magnifying lens. "Do you know what they gave you?" A shake of the head. "Okay, it's okay, Pete...You can rest now." He accepted the corner of a paper towel from the doctor and placed it over Peter's bleeding nose until a few seconds later, the bleeding stopped on its own, which Tony thought was impossible.

"Thanks, Mr. Stark," Peter slurred and his eyes closed, a small snore coming from him a moment later.

"That...that was scary," Banner sighed. 

"No kidding."

"What just happened?" Pepper came from the corner, concern on her face. "I mean...what just happened?"

Tony lifted his hands. "It would appear the injection Hydra gave Pete here took a few days to take hold, and that caused a mutation in his own DNA." He looked to Bruce, who was studying the microscope, as if he'd forgotten Friday was projecting the results.

"Tony...I know what they gave him, I would know it anywhere.." he pulled away, his eyes going to the hologram. "Gamma radiation...they mixed a spider's DNA string with gamma radiation.....It's hard to tell what spider, because the radiation takes it over. I can't believe he survived what those bastards did to him..." He took his glasses off, his face sad and angry at the same time.

"Just calm down, Brucie. Take a breath, the kid is okay, just breathe. You don't wanna turn green with Peter in the room." 

Pepper went to him, placing a hand on his back, and when she wasn't rebuked, she rubbed circles on the doctor's back, soothing him with hushed words.

"I'm okay," the doctor breathed after a few minutes. "I'm good, I'm good...I just...I hate thinking of anyone in the hands of those..." he took a deep breath and looked at the tiny boy on the table, watching his face in the lens. "At least he's okay now. I'll try and figure out how to undo the...the only way I can put it is the shrinking, as childish as it is to say." Banner smiled and shook his head. "And also I'll try to get in touch with Hank Pym again, see what he has to say."

Tony nodded, and looked to Pepper, who was already holding Peter in her cupped hands, brushing the hair from his face with her thumb. "Okay, let's go get this kid to bed. He can take a shower after he wakes up." He wrapped his arm around the woman's waist and they stepped out, only to be greeted by a smiling Morgan. 

"Hi mommy! Hi daddy! Mommy, what are you holding? Can I see it? Daddy, look at my drawing! It's of the team!" Morgan dropped her bag to the floor and dug through her bag.
Pepper stepped back, covering Peter. "I have to go for a minute. When I get back, how do you feel about cookies and milk before you start your homework?" 

The little girl stopped rummaging, her face lighting up."Yes please! Daddy, can you help me? You're super smart." She gave the man big doe eyes, which she knew her daddy couldn't say no to.

"Okay, let's go." He grabbed his daughter's hand. "This is your fault, you know," he told Pepper, who smiled as the man was led away by the six year old.

Pepper quickly went to Peter's room, laying the boy on the pillow, seeing how his body sunk slightly into the surface. "Have a good rest, sweetie," she whispered. She wanted to kiss his forehead, but was afraid of hurting Peter. So, she just kissed her fingertip and brushed it along the boy's hairline. 

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Morgan couldn't sleep. All day she'd been full of energy, but everything she did did nothing to get rid of the energy, and it was starting to bug her. She wanted to go into her daddy's workshop with her plastic tools, and mimic every move, but it was too late and she knew her daddy would yell. So, she got up out of bed and padded to her dolls, quietly taking the ones that didn't talk out and brought them to her bed. She wanted to turn on her music, but she couldn't ask Friday to block the noise from her room. She'd done that once when she was experimenting with the toilet, and her daddy had told Friday to never let her do it again.  

So, she silently went playing with her dolls, but soon her stomach grumbled. She'd had two slices of pizza for dinner, the team all around her at the table, but she found it weird that her dad had left the table with a slice of pizza, then came back a few minutes later without it. Morgan couldn't think on a empty stomach. She needed a snack. Putting her dolls aside, she padded out of her room. 

"Miss Morgan," Friday's voice was loud. "What are you doing out of bed?"

"Shh!! Friday, I wanted a snack. I'm hungry."

"Your father will not be happy to learn that you are out of bed at this time," the AI whispered this time.

"He doesn't have to know," she called up to the ceiling. "Please, Friday? Just this once? And it's the weekend!"

"There are some carrot sticks in the bottom drawer."

Morgan smiled and ran to the kitchen, grabbing her snack, grabbing a few when she looked down the hall curiously. "Friday? Who else is here?"

"It is just your family, the avengers and Peter."

Who was that? "Where is Peter staying?"

"Down the hall, Miss Morgan. I am waking Mr. Stark."

"No!" She ran down the hall, opening each door, but there was no one in any room...maybe they were invisible! She went through again, calling into each room until a watery voice answered. 

"M-Mrs. Stark?"

"No...I'm Morgan Stark. Are you Peter?" She couldn't see anyone. "Are you invisible?"

"What?" The boy laughed. "No! I'm just...tiny, I guess."

Morgan raised a brow and walked into the room and there laying in the middle of the pillow was a tiny boy, the size of one of Morgan's dolls, his face scrunched up in fear.

"Hi," Morgan called softly. "You really are tiny." She crawled onto the bed, being careful with her new friend. "Are you a fairy? Or, were you a doll that Daddy brought to life?" She reached out her hand.Peter scurried back when the child's hand reached toward him, his senses screaming at him that this was dangerous!

"Morgan Stark, what are you doing out of bed?" Both kids gasped, Peter sagged in relief to see Mr. Stark standing in the doorway, a stern yet worried expression on his face.

"I-I wanted to get a snack, but then I though about where the pizza from dinner went, so I looked in the rooms and found Peter." She frowned and looked at the ground. She was only curious.Tony sighed. 

"I see...and how did you know his name?" He came to stand by the bed. "Friday?"

"You never gave an order to not tell anyone who asked, Boss."

Peter struggled to sit up in the softness beneath him when suddenly his hair stood up and he rolled away from the hand that was reaching out to grab him, surprising both him and Morgan, who stared at him with a smile. "That was really cool."She was lifted away suddenly by Mr. Stark, who gave her a stern look. 

"Morgan, you could have hurt Peter if you had grabbed him. He's here under the Avengers protection, so that means that he is off limits."

Peter didn't like being talked about like he wasn't even in the room and he frowned. "I..If she doesn't try to pick me up, she can come and talk to me. I don't mind."

Morgan smiled. "See Daddy? He said I can come see him."

Mr. Stark shook his head and looked to Peter. "You have no clue what you've done," he joked. "But, if you want her company, I won't say no. Just do what he says, Morgan. He may not look it, but he's older than you." He gave the boy a scared look as he turned and smiled. "Come on, back to bed little miss. I'll be back, Pete."

The boy watched them leave the room, and wanted to tell the man not to leave. That he was scared...but, a few minutes later, Mr. Stark came back to sit on the bed. "You okay?" He glanced at the kid. Even though Tony had had the boy for only a couple of days, he felt protective of him. He could blame the parent thing, but he knew that wasn't it. Once you got to know Peter, it was impossible not to love him. Is this what having two kids felt like?

"Yeah, I'm okay." Peter lied, wiping his face. He felt his senses blare again, but he moved too late and he was scooped up by the billionaire and brought up to the man's face, where two large eyes studied him.

"Hmm....sure. What was this dream about?" Tony got up and started walking, exiting the room. He knew a nightmare when he saw it, and knew the boy had been having them since the first day. In a way, he was glad Morgan had gotten to him first. Normally when he got there, the kid was already asleep again, nightmare over. Well, tonight he was going to hopefully make them stay away.

Peter let out a soft sigh, blush reddening his face as his hand pushed his curls from his eyes. "I was back in the lab....there were people all around me, but...this time, Dr. Banner was there." He shivered and held himself, but Mr. Stark must have noticed, because the next he knew, he was curling his hand around the boy, creating a cocoon of warmth. "It's stupid, I know," the boy laughed.

"Nothing you've said has ever been stupid, kid. Trust me, I've known some pretty stupid people."

I've had this dream before, Mr. Stark...it's nothing really."

Tony ignored the boy an walked to his and Pepper's room, shutting the door behind him.

"Wh-what are we doing in your room?" Peter asked, looking around. He'd never been in the man's room.

"Well, it's late, I'm tired, you're tired. We're going to sleep." He slid into the bed as quietly as he could as not to wake the sleeping Pepper, but it seemed she was awake.

"What's wrong?" she glanced at Peter in her husband's hand, concern filling her face. "Peter?"

"It's nothing, honey. Just a little nightmare, that's all. Go back to sleep."

Peter gasped as the man laid down, not having a chance to grab on to something before falling to the man's chest. He sat there dazed for a moment. "Mr. Stark, I'm okay, really. I can sleep in my own room." He looked into Mr. Stark's face with a serious expression, his body moving up and down with the man's breathing. He wasn't a baby. He could handle a bad dream, and he went to tell the man that, when the man opened his mouth.

"Hush," Tony told him, closing his eyes. "It's sleep time."

Peter huffed and started looking for ways to get down, when he felt his body react before he could even think, rolling out of the way of the hand coming at him. "Mr. Stark!" he squeaked, feeling the man chuckle.

"You're tickling me," Tony lied and brought his hand up again, slower this time, letting the boy see it lower. "Now lay down."

Peter shook his head. This was completely embarrassing! Then, out of nowhere a finger knocked the boy down and he turned to see Pepper smirking, her manicured hand going back to her side.

"See? Even Pepper wants you to lay down." Tony brought his hand up before Peter could move, covering him, feeling his fingers over the boy like a weighted blanket.

And it wasn't as bad as Peter thought. The minute Mr. Stark's hand covered him, he felt the anxiety and fear of the dream going away. Under him, the man's heart beat thundered, but it was comforting to Peter. 

Something touched his back and at first he fought it, but Mr. Stark's pointer finger had started rubbing his back, the digit firm and comforting. Slowly the boy felt his eyes closing, when the door opening brought them all to attention, but when they saw it was only Morgan, the adults relaxed. 

"What is it?" Pepper asked sleepily, opening her arms for her daughter to crawl into.

"I wanted to tell Daddy I'm sorry for finding Peter...hi." Morgan waved at Peter, who laid on her father's chest, smiling when he waved back.

"You found Peter?" Pepper asked. "Were you looking for him?"

The girl shook her head. "No, but I found him. Can I sleep in here, too?"

Tony was about to say no, when Pepper brought the girl up into the bed and he sighed, but smiled. "Sure, I already have a kid the size of a mouse on my chest...what's one more titan, huh?"

Pepper chuckled as Morgan got settled and brought her arm across all three of them, her hand covering Tony's. "Good night," she whispered, but all she heard was breathing and she smiled, drifting off herself.