Paralysis - Tumblr Posts

https://archiveofourown.org/works/43251883

Poison

What will happen when Peter is poisoned with tetrodotoxin? 

TW: Poison, attempted murder, language, paralysis

Disclaimer: I do not own anything.

@badthingshappenbingo

Tony greeted Peter warmly as he and Pepper picked the kid up after school. They had made plans to try out a new restaurant that was started by a close friend of Pepper’s as that night would be opening night, and Peter was excited.

“Hey, Mr. Stark, Ms. Potts. I’ve already texted May that you’ve picked me up. I can’t thank you enough for inviting me to try out the new restaurant on opening night.” Peter said as the two adults smiled.

Pepper said “It’s no problem, Peter. Tony and I just got out of a meeting, and we have a few hours before the grand opening and people are allowed to be seated. It’s a rather formal event so we’ll have to dress up a bit. You still have a dress suit in the guest suite right?”

Peter nodded and confirmed that he still had the dress suit.

They got to the tower and Peter flocked to the guest room which was pretty much his own room with how often he’d been staying there ever since Tony had bought the tower back after the Vulture fiasco.

Peter absolutely dreaded having to wear the suit, but otherwise, he had been very grateful to have been invited to join Pepper and Tony. It would only be a few more hours until they’d leave for the new restaurant.

Peter worked on some of his homework for a little bit before getting dressed. Eventually, the time to leave had arrived.

It didn’t take them very long to get to their destination. Peter was slightly surprised as it seemed that there was quite a bit of press covering the opening. He knew that it was going to be a busy event, but he hadn’t really expected it to be that busy.

The three left the vehicle and entered the building after briefly waving to the cameras. Peter was used to having to deal with the cameras due to the public announcement of the internship a few months ago. He just wished that he had remembered to bring his sunglasses.

He wasn’t really surprised when his spider sense tingled. It tended to do that when his senses were overloading, and he could tell that it was most definitely going to be a sensory overload night. They were eventually escorted to a table in a dimmer area of the restaurant.

Tony had noticed his slight discomfort and questioned “You okay, kid? Do we need to leave?”

Peter smiled briefly and said “I’m alright. The flashes just got to me again, so my senses are a little bit off. I’ll be okay.”

Pepper and Tony both frowned as Pepper questioned “Are you sure? If you’re not feeling good, we can leave through the back where the press doesn’t have access to.”

Peter smiled and said “I’m fine. I just forgot to bring my glasses.”

Tony and Pepper nodded in understanding and reassured him that he should tell them if his sensory issues get worse.

Once most of the guests were seated, the host of the grand opening, Pepper’s friend, gave their speech of thanks and hoped that everyone would enjoy their meals as the night went on. Soon, their orders were taken.

Peter was impressed as it only took about fifteen minutes for their orders to arrive at the table. He sipped his drink as another wave of irritation hit him as his spider sense spiked while their waiter grinned at them.

Peter just took a calming breath and started eating. He hoped that his senses would calm down soon. It had been a while since his senses had been overloaded by camera flashes like that. He had thought that being inside would have dissipated the sensory overload feeling, but it really hadn’t helped.

Over time as he ate, he started feeling more and more queasy. By the time he had gotten half way through his food assortment after about twenty minutes, he was feeling awful, and his spider senses were screaming. He had a feeling that something more than just a regular sensory overload was going on.

A wave of intense nausea hit him and he gripped his stomach as he did his best not to get sick at the table. He really regretted ordering the sushi assortment. He really should have heeded May’s suspicion that sushi wasn’t safe unless it was made with fully cooked meat, but he had wanted to try something new. He was regretting that decision.

He was also startled as it became harder for him to breathe. He was confused as the feeling continued to worsen. At this point, he was doing his best to stay upright in his chair. He could hear Tony and Pepper both asking him what was wrong, but his senses were screaming at him. He could barely focus on what they were asking as he fell out of his chair.

The feeling was becoming worse. His spider sense was screaming as he could no longer breathe, and he soon lost consciousness, unaware of the terror running through Tony and Pepper’s minds.

~~~~~~

Tony and Pepper were terrified as they called Peter’s name when they noticed that he wasn’t looking too good and no longer responded to their questions.

Pepper noticed that Peter’s breathing was off and said “Tony, his breathing’s off. Is this an allergic reaction?”

Peter then collapsed off of his chair and the two knelt beside him as Tony quickly pushed some buttons on his watch to signal a distress call. They could hear people from tables around them expressing their concern and surprise, but they weren’t worried about that.

Pepper was terrified as she noticed that Peter was no longer breathing, and less than a minute later he started seizing. It most definitely was not just because of an unexpected allergic reaction.

Tony cursed as they stayed beside Peter. Neither of them were sure what to do or how to help the kid. They were both dreading the fact that they had stayed even after the kid had said that his senses were going off. They should have known that it wasn’t just going off because of the sensory issues with the camera flashes.

Pepper kept a hand on the kid’s shoulder while she listened to Tony trying to get some information from F.R.I.D.A.Y. on how to help with the situation. She checked Peter’s pulse. It was still present, and it was rapid. The kid just couldn’t breathe, and she had no idea how to help. She had no idea if rescue breaths would help at all.

She watched as Tony checked Peter’s airway for obstruction, but there was nothing. The kid’s lungs had just seemingly stopped working. They’d been paralyzed.

It felt as if it had taken hours for medical help to arrive. Tony and Pepper reluctantly stayed back as the emergency team tried to help Peter. They were both worried as they heard the word poison being discussed.

Pepper had opted to stay behind as Tony decided to go with Peter to whatever hospital was nearest. The police were already present and they were collecting possible evidence of poisoning.

Everything was a complete mess, but all Pepper could worry about was whether or not Peter would be alive by the time she would get to the hospital after notifying everyone.

~~~~~~

Dan Tong smiled as he watched the commotion. He and his partner Rick had been ecstatic when they found out that Stark and friends would be coming for dinner. They were part of a much larger group who wished nothing other than to bring the wealthiest people in America to their knees. Dan was ecstatic when he first heard that he was assigned to find a way to eliminate Tony Stark or someone close to him and another wealthy man who was a secondary target to take out later in the month.

Now had been the perfect time to execute their first strike, and it was just glorious that one of them at the table had ordered the sushi platter that included pufferfish products. It had been the perfect opportunity since Rick was licensed to handle pufferfish among many other deadly chemicals.

They would have preferred that it had been Stark himself to get the improperly prepared pufferfish products, and it was kind of a bummer that they’d likely killed a kid, but at least Stark was going to feel the pain of losing someone. He was one of their many targets, and with luck, they'd soon be able to strike the other person that they'd been observing for the past month.

Dan watched with a small smile as Potts remained standing, almost unsure of how to proceed. He soon turned back and went into the kitchen to grab something for another guest and hopefully keep his cover.

~~~~~~

Tony directed the ambulance to take them to the tower. He had the authorization to order them to go there. He knew that his medical bay would be Peter’s best chance at survival. He was incredibly worried. He was riding in the front of the ambulance, but he could still hear the people in the back scrambling to try and stabilize his kid.

It took longer than he would have liked to get to the tower. He knew that the emergency medical crew would be waiting. He had pressed his emergency alarm while still at the restaurant, and whenever that happened, his medical team went on high alert.

He stood to the side as Peter was eventually rolled into the MedBay and orders were being relayed by the doctors. He watched with worry as multiple blood samples were taken. It was times like this when he was glad that he had the best doctors in the world and iron clad NDAs.

Soon, Peter was rolled out of his sight, and he reluctantly had to stay away. He ordered F.R.I.D.A.Y. to give him updates as frequently as possible on the kid’s condition. He felt as if he’d aged twenty years already as he collapsed into one of the waiting room chairs.

~~~~~~

Helen Cho analyzed the blood sample that she had been given. She was not pleased with the results. The kid had been poisoned with pufferfish tetrodotoxin. There was no known cure in existence. She was unsure of how to proceed since the toxin was already in the kid’s system.

She consulted other doctors, and they agreed that the kid’s stomach should be pumped since the toxin seemingly came from the ingestion of pufferfish. They had already started an IV to combat the hypotension and administer something to try and get the poison out of the kid’s system faster.

She and the other doctors were highly worried as nothing seemed to be helping the kid. They just couldn’t stabilize him, and the kid’s healing factor didn’t seem to be helping the situation at all. If anything, it seemed to be making the symptoms worse.

Helen bit her lip as an outrageously odd idea came to her. She quickly approached Tony, and hoped that he at least knew what was going on.

Tony looked up at her as she entered, and she did not wait to speak.

“Dr. Stark, I’m sure you already know, but nothing that we’re trying is helping his situation. I wanted to come to you before discussing a possible solution that may give us time to find something to help him. As you know, the poison in Peter’s system right now is a type of tetrodotoxin. I started thinking about possible connections between this tetrodotoxin and Dr. Banner’s derivative called Tetrodotoxin B. Bruce changed some of the tetrodotoxin’s chemical composition, and I was thinking that we could inoculate Peter with a larger dose of Tetrodotoxin B to put him in stasis and give us more time to save him. It will appear as if he’s dead, but he’ll simply be in a stasis-like state. I need yours and S.H.I.E.L.D.’s approval to get access to the drug.” Helen detailed as Tony stared at her in stunned silence.

F.R.I.D.A.Y. was the one to answer “I have already sent the request to Director Fury, Dr. Cho. You should hear from Director Fury soon.”

Tony wasn’t sure what to say. He pulled his phone out and started dialing Director Fury. He hoped that Fury would answer even though he was notorious for ghosting the man. Tony stood up and started pacing as the phone rang. Helen waited with him, as there wasn’t much that she could do until she received authorization to access Tetrodotoxin B.

An answer finally came, but before Tony could say anything, Fury spoke “Agent Hill will arrive in your MedBay with a parcel containing Tetrodotoxin B, Stark. I’ve already assigned agents to the case, and we’ve already apprehended those who poisoned the kid. We’ll debrief later. Keep me updated on the kid’s condition. We can’t lose that kid, Stark. He’s a major asset.”

Tony furrowed his brow as he replied “Thank you for the help, Fury, but why are you so interested in my kid, and why did you already know what was going on before the request for the drugs was sent?”

Fury huffed as he replied “We got intel that someone part of a larger criminal group that S.H.I.E.L.D. has been monitoring was going to make an attempt on your life tonight. We didn’t catch the perpetrators until it was too late, and the kid ended up getting poisoned. Oh, and you know why he’s on our radar, Stark. Just keep me updated on the little spider’s condition.”

Fury then hung up. Tony was concerned that S.H.I.E.L.D. was watching Peter and that they knew who he was, but that would be something to worry about for another time. For now, he just had to worry about whether or not his kid would survive through the night.

He then cursed as he realized that he hadn’t called May. He excused himself from the waiting room and dialed May’s number.

He grimaced as she answered with a worried tone on the first ring.

“How bad is it, and what exactly happened? I was on my break when I saw footage of Peter being rolled out of the restaurant.” May worriedly questioned.

Tony took in a deep breath to calm himself as he answered “It’s not good, May. He was poisoned with tetrodotoxin, but the doctors are doing their best to help him. He’s not getting better yet, but Dr. Cho’s found a temporary solution to give the team time to find a cure.”

He could hear May sniffle on the other side of the line.

May responded “I’ll be at the tower soon. My boss just saw the footage. I think that he’s waving at me to let me leave. I’m going to clock out now. I’ll be there in a bit.”

She hung up and Tony took another deep breath. He absolutely hated that their kid was so close to death, and he could only hope that Cho’s team would find a cure before the poison could kill the kid.

~~~~~~

By the time May had arrived, Hill had dropped off the package. Cho had not wasted time when injecting the drug into Peter’s system. She knew that they’d have to watch closely to ensure that the kid was still breathing. They had intubated the kid when he’d first arrived, but with the Tetrodotoxin B, so many things could go wrong.

Tony was allowed in the room while the team monitored Peter’s vitals closely as the Tetrodotoxin B took effect. He was able to hold Peter’s hand. The kid’s heartbeat was already irregular because of the posion, but soon, his heartbeat became nearly undetectable.

Tony was soon ushered back out of the room. Cho and the team could tell that Tony was becoming more and more worried as Peter’s vital signs declined. He was aware of what Tetrodotoxin B does to people, but it was still distressing to hear and see the signs that your kid appeared dead.

May hadn’t been in the room at that point. Tony had only been allowed because he’d followed Cho, and she hadn’t stopped him. Now, Tony and May sat in the waiting room, eager for updates on their kid’s condition.

~~~~~~

Helen Cho took another blood sample twenty minutes after the initial Tetrodotoxin B injection. The good news was that it was slowing down the deadly spread of the toxin in Peter’s system. She quickly took her blood sample back to the lab for analysis, and was thrilled with what she found.

It appeared as if the Tetrodotoxin B was binding with the tetrodotoxin that had been ingested. The only problem was that the quantity of poison in Peter’s system was in excess of what the Tetrodotoxin B could bind with. She’d either need to acquire more Tetrodotoxin B or find another way to get the poison out.

She hoped that they could find an alternate cure as opposed to using more of the Tetrodotoxin B. The more Tetrodotoxin B a person is injected with, the more chance it has to have deadly side effects. If too much Tetrodotoxin B is used, it could stop Peter’s heart before the poison could kill him.

Cho and her team would have to proceed with caution.

~~~~~~

Dan Tong and Rick Wong did not have a fun time as they were forcefully escorted into an armored S.H.I.E.L.D. vehicle for transport to prison. They knew that S.H.I.E.L.D. would question them relentlessly until they gave up their leaders and ratted out the rest of their group.

Fury observed the scene as the two attempted murderers were driven away. He knew that those two definitely weren't going to have fun when the interrogations would start.

Fury glanced around and sighed as he took in the amount of press that was covering what had happened to Stark’s kid. He casually walked back into the restaurant and approached Happy and Pepper. Happy was waiting with Pepper as she had to stay back and give a witness statement even though S.H.I.E.L.D. had shown up to handle things.

Fury made no indication that he noticed Happy Hogan’s scowl as he approached the two.

He spoke “Ms. Potts. I trust that you did not ingest anything poisonous, as you are not currently fighting to breathe.”

Happy’s scowl deepened.

Pepper questioned “What are you even doing here? Why did you come? This isn’t an Avengers level threat. Oh. Oh my gosh. Was it supposed to be an Avengers level threat?”

Pepper’s eyes were wide as Fury answered “It had the potential to be an Avengers level threat. We got lucky that the situation turned out as it did. Tonight's events have allowed S.H.I.E.L.D. to catch a couple of people from an upcoming criminal group.”

Happy practically growled as he said “What do you mean by it being lucky?”

Fury rolled his eyes as he said “Calm down, Hogan. I don’t mean that it was a good thing that the kid was poisoned. I just mean that it was a good thing that the perpetrators were caught before they could kill Tony or go after another target. Though, I must admit, losing the kid would be a major blow, especially where spiders are concerned.”

After that sentence, he was greeted with surprised looks from Hogan and Potts. Fury had tried to keep it on the down low that he knew Peter’s identity until Cho needed the Tetrodotoxin B. Fury hadn’t even needed to know the specifics of the kid’s enhancement to know that someone like Spider-Man would need an elevated dose of Tetrodotoxin B for it to work like Cho needed it to work.

Fury spoke again “My business here is finished. You and Stark are free to release whatever information you need to or want to release so long as it does not mention that a new criminal organization tried to make their first move tonight. This matter became public as soon as the first reporter caught sight of my S.H.I.E.L.D. team. I do have to say that it was nice working with your friend Ms. Potts. She’s a wonderful agent, and her idea for this was brilliant to weasel the stalkers out.”

Fury then turned around and left. Happy and Pepper watched as he left, surprised looks covering both of their faces.

~~~~~~

After another hour, Pepper and Happy had made it to the tower. Pepper had regained most of her composure as she had begun to compose a press release to post on SI’s website. They were all still waiting in the MedBay. Only a couple at a time were allowed in Peter’s room at a time. It was quite distressing to see that the kid was paler than usual, and wasn’t moving at all.

They all hoped that Cho and her team would come up with something to help Peter quickly. The longer the kid was under the effects of Tetrodotoxin B, the more chance there was that the kid wouldn’t recover.

~~~~~~

Earlier the next morning, Tony reluctantly had to debrief with Fury. He was enraged as Fury gave him the full details of the situation.

“FURY! WHY THE HELL DID YOU DO THAT?! YOU COULD HAVE AT LEAST WARNED US SO THAT I COULD KEEP MY KID AND PEPPER SAFE! HOW DID YOU EVEN KNOW THAT PEPPER AND I WOULD ACCEPT THE INVITATION ANYWAY! WHY DID YOU CREATE SUCH AN ELABORATE SET-UP?!” Tony angrily questioned.

Fury calmly looked at Tony and replied “It would have jeopardized the mission. Had you known that the threat was there, you would have overreacted, and things could have gone worse. Had you known that the whole thing was an undercover operation to weed out who was actually trying to get to you, you would have gone in guns blazing and there would have been more casualties. You’re too reckless, Stark.”

Tony glared at Fury as he gritted his teeth.

He eventually replied “I don’t care what you think about me Fury, but if you ever allow my family to enter a potentially harmful situation again just so that you can attempt to subtly catch someone who’s targeting one of the team, I will not hesitate to knock you off of whatever pedestal you hold yourself on! My son is dying because of your stupid decisions! If he dies, I will have your head!”

Fury rolled his eyes as he listened to Tony’s rant continue. He knew that Stark had power, but he was pretty confident that Stark couldn’t get him fired. Even if he could, it’s not like he’s worried about it. Looking at the plan again though, it had been a bit oafish that they hadn't weaseled the criminals out quicker.

He soon started listening to Tony’s rant again once he did hear a pertinent question.

Tony questioned “Why didn’t I ever detect that someone was stalking me? Why wasn't I informed that another criminal organization had formed?”

Fury grimaced and answered “Your A.I. did have the information, but I’ve had my team monitoring your servers and I had them block that information from your access. This wasn’t just a random hit on you, Stark. They’d been tracking your moves. You may have thought that it was just some random cook who got a lucky break, and yes it was lucky that they just so happened to have the supplies needed to poison the food, but they had plans far worse than just poisoning you. They’re going to a maximum security prison because you are only one in a long line of people they had plans to execute. This was not simply just a plan for revenge, Stark. Many of these details will remain classified until we can reform the Accords and get the team back together again. S.H.I.E.L.D. has been going through hell while trying to keep track of every single threat that the Avengers used to may have handled.”

Tony stared at him with stunned silence until he growled in anger.

“How the FUCK did you ever get that much access to my servers?!” Tony emphatically questioned.

Fury leveled him with a look saying “You really have to ask.”

Tony then balled his fists up in anger as he cursed Natasha Romanoff. The traitorous woman had done more than simply betray him.

Tony knew that he’d have to rectify that later and see if he could undo any damage that the S.H.I.E.L.D. idiots may have done to any of the coding within his servers.

He leveled Fury with another angry look as he said “This meeting’s over. I’m done here.”

Tony left before he could pound Fury into the ground. His anger had reached a new level.

~~~~~~

Ming Lee sighed as she tried to call Pepper again. She hated that she had lied to her friend when it came to the true reasons why she had opened a restaurant. It was just another assignment from Fury after she'd come up with the initial idea, and she had taken it without a second thought of how it could hurt her friendship with Pepper.

Now, Pepper was ghosting her. Ming couldn’t really blame her for that very much. Not to mention, they were going through a hard time right now because the kid that always hung around Stark was poisoned.

Pepper no doubt knew that she was a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent now.

Ming was slightly surprised when Pepper answered after the fifth ring.

Pepper questioned “What do you want, Ming? Was our friendship ever real?”

Ming winced as she replied “It was real, Virginia. You’ve known me ever since you were in college. I just hid my S.H.I.E.L.D. agent status from you because I was supposed to, even after you got further involved with Stark and learned about S.H.I.E.L.D.. I’m sorry about the kid.”

Ming heard Pepper sigh over the line and then say “I’ll talk to you again eventually, Ming. At this point, I don’t even know if I ever knew you. Give me some time. I’m getting tired of things like this being hidden from me. First it was Natasha being undercover here, and now you were undercover when I thought that I was just coming out to celebrate a friend opening a new business. I’m sorry, Ming, but I need time to think about a few things.”

Ming bit her lip and responded “I understand. I hope to talk to you again later. Bye, Virginia.”

Ming turned her phone off and rubbed her hands over her tired face. Sometimes it was hard being a secret agent for S.H.I.E.L.D..

~~~~~~

It was still a waiting game as Helen was trying new methods of treatment on the blood samples she had taken from Peter. The toxin was slowly clearing from Peter’s system, but not at a rate that would allow him to recover properly when coming out of being comatose due to the Tetrodotoxin B.

Helen wasn’t about to give up. She wasn’t going to let the kid die. That kid had been through so much in just the short amount of time that she’d known him, and she was never going to give up on trying to flush the poison out of the kid’s body.

She’d known him for about five months at this point, as she’d met him shortly after the incident with the Vulture, and they’d developed drugs that would actually help dull his pain when he got injured. She’d also helped him with calorie consumption problems.

She may be a geneticist, but she was also one of the few known people that had the expertise to work with enhanced persons. She once again observed the sample of Peter’s blood.

She knew that the Tetrodotoxin B was helping, but she was unsure if she could enhance those effects to fully flush the poison out of the kid’s system. Maybe she could try to modify the Tetrodotoxin B further so that it would attract and nullify more of the bad tetrodotoxin.

She had read the unpublished research papers written by Dr. Banner ages ago when she’d first started working with Tony Stark and Dr. Banner before the whole mess with the Accords. She knew the process of how to modify tetrodotoxin. She was confident that she could do it.

She quickly got to work on isolating samples that she could use.

Hours later, she smiled as she tested her new Tetrodotoxin derivative on a sample of Peter’s blood. She was happy as when she tested it, it was ten times more efficient at detecting and eliminating the bad tetrodotoxin.

After another few rounds of testing her new derivative, she was ready to attempt treating Peter. She had already received approval from Stark to do as she needed in an effort to save Peter’s life. She and her team were soon on their way back to Peter’s room.

~~~~~~

Peter felt awful as he regained some awareness. He could smell that he was in the tower’s MedBay, but he was confused as he couldn’t even open his eyes. He couldn’t even breathe on his own.

His spider sense was elevated to a painful level. He was panicking inside his head as he took note that his body was not responding to anything he was trying to get it to do. It also felt kind of painful that he wasn’t consciously breathing on his own. He could also feel that he was connected to an IV line as cool fluid entered his veins.

He could also hear the beeping of some of the medical equipment. He had no clue why he couldn’t move. He wished that his body would at least react to his sense of panic, but his heart rate remained the same at one beat a minute.

He was eventually brought out of his spiral as he heard Dr. Cho coming into the room while directing the nurse to check his vitals again. Peter was only a little bit relieved when he could hear Tony and May’s heartbeats. He knew that they were likely watching whatever was happening from outside his room.

He then heard them talking about something called tetrodotoxin. He’d vaguely heard about that before in school. Something about it was toxic if ingested. It then dawned on him that that was likely what had happened to him. He was so confused.

Peter was zoned out from the words the doctors and nurses were saying until he felt something get injected directly into his arm instead of intravenously. It was distressing to still be able to feel things, but not be able to move.

He wished that he could lose consciousness again, but it just wouldn’t happen.

~~~~~~

Helen smiled as she approached Tony and May in the hallway.

She spoke “I’m not sure how much of an update F.R.I.D.A.Y. has given you, but I can say that I have possibly found a cure. I formulated a modified version of Tetrodotoxin B that should be working to bind with the poisonous tetrodotoxin and get it out of his system. In a way, his body will still be absorbing the chemicals, but they will no longer harm him as the Tetrodotoxin B derivative is neutralizing the poison. I project that in a matter of a few hours, the poison will be completely gone from Peter’s system. It will likely be another couple of hours after that until he will wake up, as we did have to give multiple doses of Tetrodotoxin B and the derivative dose which will keep him in a comatose or death-like state.”

May and Tony let out a relieved breath. Their kid was going to be okay.

May happily said “Thank you Dr. Cho. I can’t express how much it means to both Tony and I that you figured out a way to save our kid’s life.”

Tony nodded along with May’s statement as he stared at Peter’s prone form through the glass while smiling. Helen smiled as she left the relieved parents. She’d continue monitoring Peter’s condition until he would wake up. She wanted to make sure that the poison would be out of his system completely before she celebrated.

~~~~~~

Peter’s internal panic calmed minutely when he heard Tony and May come into the room. He could hear when they sat down in the chairs that had been brought for them. He could feel when Tony ran a hand through his hair and kissed him on the forehead while May gripped his hand and soothingly rubbed a finger over it. It was almost as if they could tell that he was conscious, but just couldn’t move.

They stayed with him for hours, and he listened to them converse. He knew that they were both extremely worried about him. At a few different moments he’d even been visited by Happy and Pepper.

Eventually, he was able to slip back into unconsciousness, hoping that what Tony and May said about him waking up soon would become a reality.

~~~~~~

Dr. Cho was in the room when Peter finally began to stir. She had recently done another check of his blood, and was happy to report that the toxin was almost completely out of the kid’s system, and that the Tetrodotoxin B would be wearing off soon.

Peter happened to begin the process of waking up while Happy, May, Tony, and Pepper were all in the room. May held his hand while Tony kept a comforting hand on his shoulder. Pepper and Happy stood at the end of the bed while Dr. Cho monitored his waking process.

Peter groaned as he regained consciousness. Helen checked his IV once more and monitored Peter’s vitals. She was happy to see that they were mostly within normal range for a mutated spider-kid.

Eventually, Peter was fully awake, and tearful as his family members gently hugged him. Dr. Cho called her team into the room. She could tell that Peter was uncomfortable. They’d have to extubate soon.

She kindly requested the family members to back up for a little bit while she coached Peter through the extubation. It unfortunately had not been the first time that the kid had ever had to be extubated.

She advised against his speaking for a little while after extubation, as his throat would be sore for a little while, and luckily he heeded her recommendation, but she could easily see the longing in his eyes when he looked towards his family.

She and her team soon left the room after taking another blood sample for analysis.

Tony and May soon flocked to one side of his hospital bed while happy and Pepper flocked to the other. Peter smiled in relief as tears filled his eyes. It was a comfort when May gripped his hand and did the familiar motion of rubbing her thumb over it. It was even more calming when Tony gently passed a hand through his hair.

Once the tears had cleared a little bit, he motioned that he wanted hugs. His wishes were granted as a group hug occurred. He knew that F.R.I.D.A..Y. would have a photo of the hug on record for future uses.

Soon, Pepper passed him a Stark tablet which allowed him to communicate with them without straining his vocal cords much. He smiled and typed out a long message.

The message was dictated by F.R.I.D.A.Y. “Thank you for staying with me. I was so scared when I got sick in that restaurant and couldn’t breathe. I was so scared when I first woke up here and couldn’t open my eyes. You guys helped me get over the panic from that and relax. Thank you for not giving up on me.”

Tony then said “We’d never give up on you, kid. You’re a part of this family. I hate that you were scared and conscious during some of this mess.”

Peter smiled and Tony hugged him again.

F.R.I.D.A.Y. then announced “Dr. Cho has done analysis of the most recent blood sample and would like me to report that all of the tetrodotoxin has been removed from Peter’s system. He will make a full recovery.”

Once that announcement was made, more hugs were shared. Everyone was glad that the kid had made it through that horrific experience.

~~~~~~

Peter yelped in surprise as he fell off his lab chair. It had been about a month since he’d been poisoned, and he and Tony were now fixated on working on strengthening Stark servers. They were going so far as to create entirely new servers and encrypt them much better than the previous ones.

Peter had fallen asleep at his bench while finishing up the last parts of the encryption on the Spider-Man files. Tony had told him about everything that had gone on that night with S.H.I.E.L.D. and how they’d basically been spying on all of them using old codes that Natasha Romanoff had given Director Fury.

Peter had been a little bit alarmed that Director Fury knew his identity, but Tony had assured him that nothing bad should come of it. Though, that didn’t stop Tony from adding more safety protocols to Peter’s suit for if Director Fury ever did try to mess with him.

Peter shook himself out of his thoughts and yawned.

He wasn’t startled when F.R.I.D.A.Y. called out “Peter, I must insist that you go to your room and sleep. Mr. Stark has asked me to warn you that he will come down if you do not agree to leave the lab. He will also tell Ms. Parker if you do not sleep.”

Peter groaned as he said “Yeah, I know. I’m going. I just came up with the last touches to finish my encryption and make it stronger.”

Peter soon made his way up to the penthouse and went to the guest room that was pretty much his own room, especially since it was basically stated after the poisoning incident that Peter was his kid in everything but blood. That had been a PR nightmare for Pepper to clean up after Tony had posted that without her reviewing it first. Luckily, since he was a minor, he was not being bothered very much.

He flopped on his bed and almost immediately fell asleep.

~~~~~~

Tony woke up as his phone pinged. F.R.I.D.A.Y. had sent him a text alert that Peter had arrived back from patrolling and entered the lab. She did not want to wake Pepper.

Tony briefly pulled up the footage of his lab and watched with a smile as Peter worked on some of the encryption data for the Spider-Man files. The kid must have thought of something to add while he was out on patrol.

F.R.I.D.A.Y. texted “Should I warn him that it is late, and that he should wait for normal hours to work in the lab with you instead of by himself?”

Tony texted “No. Let him work. If he starts to fall asleep, issue a warning and tell him to go to his room and sleep. If he doesn’t do it, send me a notification, and I’ll try to convince the spider-kid to sleep. Oh, and tell him that I'll tattle to May if he doesn't sleep.”

Tony smiled warmly. The kid was a bit too much like him when it came to how much he liked to sleep, especially when he got an idea of something to do in the lab.

Tony sat his phone back down and yawned. He was happy that Peter was doing so well after everything that happened with S.H.I.E.L.D. and the poisoning. Soon, Tony fell back asleep.

As all the early buds open and the sun rays get warm, the motivation, inspiration, the life from me, unlike from others, disappears. The light too bright, the world so loud I cannot survive there sometimes not but for a while. So I drift away, far beyond, by diving and losing myself deep within my soul. A state of absence is the only way I am able to be present. A paralysis, a hibernation. Until all the havoc finally begins to die, my limbs losen, my lungs stretching in a ravishing pain with a first real breath after more than thrice the month. My mind has a new passion to move, my soul a new desire to exist. My being no longer feels the ashes of a burnt, dead land on it's tongue, the cool breeze, the nature's return to peace awakens the life. And I, again, feel something honest, something real, the yearning... The yearning so natural for a soul, the curiousity, to create, to live, to grow.

Emily Yvonne, 𝐓𝐨 𝐃𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡 𝐚𝐧 𝐄𝐧𝐝