Secret Injury - Tumblr Posts

Whumptober Prompt #24- Secret Injury and alt.#1- “Wake Up”

I’m still sick, but have some Irondad and Spiderson.

...

Having Peter around for an actual internship had improved Tony’s mental health more than the mechanic cared to admit.  It was often just too hard to be miserable about the Rogues, worried about his and Pepper’s upcoming wedding, or anything that terrorists or fanatics could throw at him when he was surrounded by infectious smiles and puppy dog eyes.  Peter had somehow worked his way into the hearts of Stark Industries, even Happy likes the kid and Pepper adored him.  If Peter hadn’t had his Aunt Hottie, Pepper would’ve immediately applied for custody after she’d met him.  The kid was just too good.

Which is why Friday’s had become his favorite day.  Friday was lab day. Friday, Peter had a later curfew, as it wasn’t a school night, and often spent the night at the Tower, recently repurchased after the whole Vulture fiasco.  Because Peter has been the one to save the Towers tech, he’d renamed one of the intern labs “Soon to be Parker Industries”.  Peter had almost died on the spot.  Tony still had the footage saved for when he needed a pick-me-up.

So when Peter was late, without calling no less, Tony’s wonderful new mental state began to crumble.  Peter was never late, never wanting to burden Tony or act as if he didn’t want to be there.  Tony had found that out when Peter came in with a skyrocketing fever and enough nausea to light up the city of Toledo.  Worry was starting to eat at Tony’s normal Friday happiness.

“Peter is now in proximity to the Tower.”  FRIDAY’s voice soothed Tony’s mind.  “He’ll arrive on the landing pad in approximately fifteen point seven seconds.”

“Thanks, FRIDAY.”  Tony headed out to the landing pad to see a web above his head and a spandex Spider-Man landing badly on the landing pad.  Another shot of worry ate away at Tony’s heart.  Peter was usually so graceful.

“Bambino?”  Tony called out, heading over to the stumbling kid.

“I’m fine, Mister Stark.”  Came Peter’s strained voice.  “My healing factor will kick in a sec.  Spider-Man caught another mugger today.”

“Alright, kid.”  Tony clapped Peer on the back.  “You sure?”

“No need to worry about me, Mister Stark.”  Peter said.  “My healing factor is already working, I can feel it.”

“Well, let’s just take it easy tonight.”  Tony led the kid inside.  “Maybe just a movie and some popcorn?  You can finally show me some of those me-me’s you keep referencing.”

“Ugh, Mister Stark, it’s memes.”  Peter groaned.

The only thing he loved about getting older was making fun of the younger generation.  Peter had to know Tony was mispronouncing it on purpose, but that didn’t take from the fun.

“If you say so.”  Tony smirked. “Come on.  Let’s take the couch in the rec room.  No one should be using it.”

“I can work, Mister Stark.”  Peter protested.  “I just need a few minutes, nothing more.”

Tony frowned.   Peter was just like him, always pushing himself too far, never quitting until he crashed.  So he decided to intervene, taking a page out of Rhodey’s book.

“Eh, I’ve got nothing big to work on right now.”  Tony lied, knowing he could put the Iron Man upgrades until next week.  It was small stuff, nothing life-threatening, but he knew the kid would love to work on the Iron Man suit.  But it could wait until Peter was feeling better.  “Why don’t you sit at the counter and do your homework and I’ll get the food and drinks?”

“I mean, if you’re sure.”  Peter shrugged, his body language relaxing.

“I’m sure.”  Tony said.  After all, there was nothing more important than Peter’s health.

Peter then pulled his mask off and shoved it in the backpack he always carried.  He always picked it up after patrol around Queens so he could bring his homework to the Tower. Friday may be lab day, but May said homework first, and when May said something everyone listened.  She was just like Pepper that way.

Peter spread his homework across the counter, the normal routine easing Tony’s mind.  He was sure Peter wouldn’t outright lie to him.  If the kid said his healing factor was working strong, he was going to believe him.  He wasn’t going to be Howard and question everything out of the kid’s mouth.  He wasn’t going to create that kind of mistrust.

So Tony went about preparing for a movie night, fondly reminiscing on the movie nights between the Avengers to get Steve and Thor caught up on Earth pop culture.  He shoved down the more unfriendly memories that tried to poison his new life, wanting to just enjoy a movie night with the kid.  He couldn’t wait until the kid relaxed enough to cuddle up close, like a cat near a heater, and they could just sit and enjoy the movie as they did on nights like these.

“It’s funny, Bambi, I don’t think we’ve had a movie night since your midterms.”  Tony said aloud, knowing the kid didn’t do well with quiet.  It made him nervous, that he’d screwed up somehow, and Tony didn’t want to stress the kid out.

A small thump echoed in Tony’s ear.  He turned away from the popcorn he was about to put in the popcorn and found Peter with his head on his book.

“It’s okay, kid, you’ll figure it out.”  Tony sighed.  “Just try looking at another angle.”

Peter didn’t move, didn’t acknowledge his words.

“Bambi?”  Tony asked, starting to get unsettled.  “Bambino, wake up.”

Peter lay still.

Tony raced over to Peter and gently pulled him back, his body limp in Tony’s arms.  Peter was pale, paler than he should be.  It was then Tony saw it, his blood running cold.  A patch of dark spreading across Peter’s back, staining the Spider-Man suit.

“FRIDAY, alert medbay!”  Tony shouted.  “Peter’s been stabbed!”

Tony hauled Peter into his arms, racing down to medbay.

“Wake up, bambino, wake up.”  Tony pleaded.

Peter’s eyes stayed firmly shut.

Tony thanked whatever was up there, God, the universe, Thor that he had restaffed the medbay in case New York was attacked again.  He had wanted help close by, and now he truly needed it.

The doctors he had on staff immediately loaded Peter onto a gurney and whisked him into surgery.

“FRIDAY, call May Parker.”  Tony announced.

“Yes, Boss.”  The rings of the phone broadcasted across the room.

“This is May.”

“Hey May, it’s Tony.”

“Hey, Mister Stark.”  Like nephew, like aunt, he supposed.  “Is everything alright?  You don’t usually call on Fridays, is Peter there?”

“Yeah he’s here.”  Tony sighed.  “May, I have bad news.”

“Oh god, what is it?  Do I need to get over there?”

“My doctors are on top of it, giving him the greatest care in the world.  But… he got stabbed tonight.”

“Oh my-”  May cut off her choked gasp.  “Will he be okay?”

“According to my doctors, yes.  It wasn’t too deep but he is in surgery now. He hid it from me, May.  I didn’t even know he was in pain.”

May chuckled humorlessly.  “He was probably trying to protect you.”

“Self-sacrificial-” He cut himself off.  “I’ve already sent Happy to come get you, he should be there soon.  He was running some errands for SI.”

“Thank you, Mister Stark.”  May said.  “And thank you for looking out for him.  I can repay you-”

“Absolutely not.”  Tony interrupted.  “I will not hear a word about payment.  Your kid is one of the greatest things in my life, and I don’t want you to worry about spending a dime while he’s in my care.  It’s my fault, I missed it.  I should’ve checked him over when I first suspected he was hurt.”

“Don’t blame yourself, Mister Stark.”  May said, trying to sound more put together than she was.  He could hear the cracks in her seams.  “Peter’s always been like this.  Trying to shield the people he loves.”

He nodded before remembering May couldn’t see him. “I understand.”

And he did.  He often did the same thing, but he wasn’t going to let Peter walk down his same path.  He was going to teach the kid to prioritize himself if it was the last thing he did.

“I think that’s Happy.”  May said.  “Thank you, Mister Stark, I’ll see you soon.”

“I’ll keep you updated if anything changes, May.”

One of Tony’s doctors then came to Tony.  “He’s alright.  Just lost a lot of blood, that’s why he passed out.  He’s going to be fine, his healing factor has already kicked in.  He shouldn’t even scar.  He just needs a lot of rest.”

Tony sagged in relief, thanked the woman, and then raced to Peter’s bed.

Peter looked much better than he had when he first collapsed, with a saline IV and more color in his cheeks.  He texted Happy to tell May that Peter would be fine, he just needed rest, but she was more than welcome at the Tower.

“What am I gonna do with you, kid?”

Whumptober day 24 - Secret Injury; 25 - Humiliation; 26 - Abandoned

Another fill for @whumptober2019​, and another one that’s pre-WinterIron and an amalgamation of multiple prompts. It’s also available on Ao3.

----- ----- -----

"Never again," Clint groaned.

From around the Quinjet there were sounds of agreement, though none of them had the energy to do more than that.

Today's battle had been simply awful, and none of them had gotten out of it without at least a few bruises, if not worse. Hours upon hours of fighting meant they were also completely exhausted.

Most of them had collapsed where they'd been standing when the fight finally ended. Bucky and Natasha had held on by a single stubborn thread, but Tony had carried all of the others to the Quinjet in the armor, trying to get them as comfortable as possible before getting behind the controls and starting to fly them back somewhere they would have medical attention they could trust.

Once he had the jet in the air and set to fly under JARVIS' control for a while, Tony stared out of the window for a little while. Then, shutting his eyes briefly and taking a deep breath, he got up again.

The Quinjet might not have a large amount of medical supplies, but it did have some emergency things stocked. "J, keep track and order new supplies." He knew he didn't have the energy at the moment to make note of whatever he was using, let alone remember it to replace it later. Fortunately, that was why he had JARVIS.

Sam was the first he saw to, if only because the gash on his arm still hadn’t stopped bleeding. He honestly didn’t imagine it would without stitches, but it was at least important to staunch the flow a little. So, after rinsing it out quickly to make sure there would be as little dirt in there as possible, he smeared some disinfectant cream over there and wrapped it up. The doctors would do better later, but for now it was important to keep him from bleeding too much.

“Any other big wounds?” he asked, managing to sound far less tired than he felt.

“Nothing open,” Sam admitted. “Bruises, wrist might be sprained or broken.”

Grabbing one of the multitudes of cold packs was quickly done, and after putting it down on Sam’s wrist and seeing him relax, Tony moved on to Steve. His supersoldier healing was already at work repairing the damage, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t a lot of it.

It took some bandages and cold packs, but soon Steve relaxed at least some. Bucky had the same deal, though he did admit his leg might be broken as well. Since he honestly didn’t know enough to be sure of how to set a leg so it’d heal right, Tony just made a mental note to have it checked out by a doctor as soon as possible.

Slowly but surely, he worked his way through all of them. Most of his work involved applying cold packs to wherever things hurt the most and hoping it’d help with the pain at least a little, since he didn’t want to play with medicine when the doctors might need to give some of them something and it could possibly interact. He did at least notice some of their strain easing a little, so he had to be doing something right.

Finally, Bruce only needed a blanket - the Hulk had taken damage, but that didn’t transfer to Bruce. But he was even more exhausted than usual, not even responding when Tony gently eased him up a little to drink a meal replacement shake. It was cautious work when he wasn’t entirely conscious, and Tony almost wanted to skip it, but he knew the Hulk spent enough energy that leaving Bruce to just sleep it off might mean he’d end up in the medical wing anyway due to a dangerously low blood sugar level. At least this way, he wasn’t in immediate danger, though it was likely he could still use an infusion for the first few hours.

“Dude… How?” Clint groaned as he finally stepped away from Bruce, empty packet in his hand.

“Regular insomniac,” Tony told him with a fair attempt at a grin.

“And a suit that protects you extremely well,” Sam noted, managing to sound both complementary and a little jealous.

“Regular genius insomniac,” he allowed. He couldn’t say he was too surprised when both Clint and Sam graced him with a look only slightly better than if they’d stuck out their tongues. His huff was close enough to laughter that it made both of them glare playfully. “You’re just jealous.”

“Very,” Sam deadpanned, but since Clint hissed out a “Yesssssssss” at the same time, he didn’t take it to heart.

“I mean, our protective suits are great, but it’s gotta help when you’ve got your mechanical suit to do a lot of the fighting.”

Tony just grinned at them. He was well-aware of how easy it was to assume the suit did most of the work, especially since he usually managed to look pretty bright-eyed and bushy-tailed even after a long fight. It wasn’t always ideal, but he preferred it over having them worry about him.

Once they finally landed, he took them to medical one by one. Bruce, as expected, got an IV line and a bed to rest. He didn’t even wake up when Tony picked him up, so he was glad there were experts to look after Bruce now.

Sam got stitches for the gash in his arm and had, unfortunately, broken his wrist. Once that was taken care of, the doctors ended up setting a couple of bones for both Bucky and Steve, though their healing would have to take care of the rest. Little by little, Tony watched as his teammates were taken care of, the doctors busily working around all of them as they switched tasks smoothly.

Perhaps, for situations like these, he should see if there was any more trustworthy personnel that could work on the Avengers? They were enough after regular missions, but now even the less human members of their team needed extensive treatment.

Still, he was sure they were in good hands.

Abandoning them to the care of the doctors, Tony headed off to his workshop. Once the door closed behind him, JARVIS immediately spoke up. “Sir…”

“I know.”

Now that he didn’t have the others to worry about worrying, he didn’t bother putting in effort to keep the strain from his voice. Instead, he stumbled over to the corner he’d designed for when taking the armor off on his own was either too much or simply impossible.

“I would advise you to see a doctor, Sir,” JARVIS informed him as he went to work gently removing the armor.

“They’re busy with the others,” Tony dismissed him. “Not to mention that, even if my ribs are bruised or broken, there’s not a lot to do except take pain medication and cooling it.”

“They would be able to tell if anything was displaced, however. Not to mention there appear to be some other injuries as well that should be checked out, including but not limited to a possible fracture in your left arm and a sprained or broken right ankle.” JARVIS was matter-of-fact about it, and Tony knew he was right. He didn’t think anything was too bad, but without a scan, there was simply no way of being certain.

Still, he shook his head. “I’ll just take it easy for now. They’ve got the others to worry about. I’ll go see them later.”

It was obvious JARVIS disapproved, but rather than push it, he simply guided DUM-E to support Tony for a quick toilet visit before moving over to the couch. Then, he encouraged the ‘bot to grab some cold packs for the injured areas, as well as some bottled water. Tony was grateful for it, resolving to do something nice for his creations when he was feeling better.

One advantage of the suit was certainly that it tended to keep his bones in place, meaning he wasn’t too worried about anything starting to heal wrong. Especially in the few hours it would take for the doctors to take the best care of the others.

He dozed off a few times, but only slightly. The pain made it impossible to truly relax, and every breath hurt just enough to keep him awake despite his exhaustion.

“Sir, the doctors are done with taking care of the others,” JARVIS alerted him.

As he started to get up, he found that he simply… couldn’t. The exhaustion and pain made it so he could hardly even move his mostly uninjured right arm, let alone the rest of his body. So rather than getting up like he knew he should, he just remained where he was.

“Sir?”

He wasn’t too sure what to say. ‘I can’t move’ was incredibly embarrassing, but he’d also sort of promised to go see the doctors once they were free. “I… think my body might be a bit done with today?” he settled for, grimacing a little at how silly that sounded. “I’m trying, but…”

Before he could get too worried, or doze off again - it was honestly a toss-up at the moment - JARVIS announced he had a visitor. “Sergeant Barnes is at the workshop door, Sir.”

Frowning in confusion, Tony couldn’t help but let out a surprised “why?”.

“From what I can gather, he appeared concerned for you upon noticing you weren’t in the medical wing with everyone else. He then asked me if you were on your floor or in the workshop, and I informed him the latter was the case.”

Part of Tony was embarrassed to be seen like this, but another part of him was honestly warmed that Bucky had actually worried about him. It was that part that won out, nodding to JARVIS for permission to let the supersoldier in.

Of course, he regretted it almost immediately when Bucky frowned with concern, sharp eyes noting the multitude of cold packs that DUM-E had kept regularly taking off and reapplying.

“How hurt are you?” was the first question he asked, moving straight past worrying and into caring.

“I was going to see the doctors after they were done with all of you,” Tony justified himself.

At that, Bucky’s eyes softened just a little. “Not blaming you - your body, your choice. Not gonna pretend I like it, but you do what you think is best. Just worried about you.” He stepped closer, giving DUM-E a pat on his claw as the ‘bot came to say hello. “Docs are done with us though - nothing left to do but wait for everything to heal now. Steve and Thor are keeping an eye on the others for now, since we’re mostly healed already.”

His face felt like it was burning up, though he wasn’t sure if it was exhaustion or embarrassment. “I… can’t move,” he admitted, and yeah, it was humiliation.

Despite the way worry sharpened his eyes, Bucky remained gentle and respectful. “Do you… I mean, are you okay with me helping you over there? Or is there anything else I can do?”

And yes, he was incredibly embarrassed. Ever since he’d been young, he’d been taught that needing help was weak, and that he should be able to do things on his own no matter what. But even though there was nothing he could do at the moment, even though his body didn’t even listen to him, Bucky did. Rather than let his concern take over, he asked Tony what he wanted, and there was no doubt in his mind that Bucky would respect his decision even if he decided to just keep sitting there.

It was that respect that enabled him to overcome his embarrassment enough to nod just a little. “I… If you could? Support me?”

He didn’t think he’d be able to handle Bucky carrying him, no matter how much that might be the wiser option for his ribs. And rather than argue, Bucky just nodded, gently helping him off the couch and supporting him as much as possible while still allowing him to stand on his own.

If he had to pinpoint it, that was the moment that started to transform his basic attraction into more.