god, your mama, and me
Peter is a single father and Tony finds out.
part one of single parent peter parker
masterlist
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It’s when Peter is nearly two hours late and has missed three of his phone calls when Tony really starts to worry.
It’s just, it’s not like Peter to miss lab days. In fact, in the year and a half in which Peter has been officially interning for Tony at Stark Industries, Peter hasn’t missed a single day. He comes to the tower after school on Mondays and Fridays, and spends most of the day Wednesday, when he doesn’t have any classes, there as well. And that’s a lot of days when Peter hasn’t missed the internship, so Tony doesn’t really have any idea why Peter could be missing today. And he’s not panicking. He’s not.
Except, he kind of is.
He’s known Peter for over two years now, known him from when he was a stuttering fifteen-year-old kid in his small bedroom in Queens. Now, he’s an awkward seventeen-year-old, who sleeps in a bigger room in a bigger apartment in Queens thanks to Tony, when he finally managed to get May to accept the help he was offering and get out of the shitty apartment block and into a nicer town. But his point is, he’s known Peter quite a while, and this is out of Peter’s normal behaviour.
So, sue him. Tony’s worrying.
The worry, however, ebbs away slightly when Peter finally answers the phone on Tony’s fifth attempt.
“Mr Stark?” Tony can feel how tired the kid is the moment he hears his voice.
“Underoos? You alright, kid? You sound…tired,”
“It’s been a long day, Mr Stark,”
“Sounds it. Is everything alright?” When Peter doesn’t answer right away, Tony keeps on talking. Subconsciously, he blames it on the adrenaline crash from the sudden decline in panic after hearing the kid’s voice. “You were meant to be at the lab a couple of hours ago. You never miss lab days. Are you okay? Are you hurt? Has something happened-”
“Mr Stark,” Tony can feel the eye roll through the phone and only frowns slightly at the sigh he hears. “I’m fine. I’m not hurt.”
“Where are you then, kid, becau-” Tony stops talking when he hears another voice on the other end starts talking.
“Mr Parker? Dr Garcia said you can come through now,” Tony waits until Peter finishes thanking the other person to start talking again.
“Are you in a hospital? I thought you said you weren’t hurt? Is someone else hurt? Where are you? I’m coming now.” His frown deepens when Pete sighs again.
“It’s Aunt May. Listen, now’s not a great time, Mr Stark. Can I call you back later?” Peter doesn’t wait for a response before hanging up the phone, leaving Tony frowning in his lab.
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Peter’s been in the hospital since 7am. He’s been sitting around without any answers for ten and a half hours in uncomfortable plastic chairs that are making his back throb in pain. Honestly, Peter hates hospitals enough that this experience would be horrible enough were he alone. But he’s not alone. He is suffering this hell with a three-year-old. And, while Leia may be the cutest three-year-old he’s ever seen and is definitely his favourite three-year-old and has been napping for the better part of four hours on the uncomfortable plastic chairs, she’s still a three-year-old. And three-year-olds and hospital waiting rooms, Peter has discovered, are not a good mix. So much so, that it’s even more of a relief than it might have been when Doctor Garcia finally tells him that May is out of surgery and is in recovery, and they can go and see her. He picks Leia up gently when he finishes the phone call with Tony, holding his breath when she stirs in her sleep, letting out the air when she just rests her head on his shoulder and continues her nap. He carries her and the bag he packed in a rush this morning into a different white room, where his Aunt lies on a bed, wires all over the place and her skin pale. He stays quiet while Doctor Garcia talks to him, her voice quiet enough that Leia sleeps through the whole conversation. Doctor Garcia explains what happened with May; a car crash on her way home from her night shift at the same hospital they are in now, a truck driver over the limit, both alcohol and speed, driving on the wrong side of the road. May’s injured quite badly, but she’ll recover, and she should wake up in a few hours.
Peter thanks the doctor, smiling when she placed a hand on his shoulder before she leaves the room, leaving just Peter, May, and Leia, silent apart from the beeping of the machine monitoring May’s vitals.
Leia wakes up from her nap soon after Doctor Garcia leaves the room, stirring in Peter’s arms, warm brown eyes blinking up at him.
“’Addy?”
“Hi, sweetheart,” Peter whispers, kissing her forehead, smiling when she rests her head on his shoulder again. “Did you have a nice nap?” The child in his arms hums quietly smiling when Peter starts running his fingers though her hair.
“Is Aunt May ‘kay?”
“She’s going to be just fine, baby. She’s just sleeping, and Doctor Garcia said she should wake up soon.” Leia is quiet in his arms for a few moments before she looks up at him.
“Can we get her a get better card?”
“We could do that,” Peter starts, reaching down for the bag he’s placed next to the chair. “Or, we could make her an extra special one!” Leia grins up at Peter clapping her hands together when he pulls out a wad of coloured card and a pencil case filled with her crayons.
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Leia and Peter sit in the room talking quietly, making a card for May and a mess of the floor, which Peter apologises profusely for whenever a nurse comes in. The nurses, a different one both times, just smile at him and tell him not to worry, and praise Leia for her artwork. It has been around forty minutes when Leia looks up at Peter and stops talking mid-sentence.
“Daddy! There’s someone at the door!” Just as she says it there is a knock, prompting Peter to turn around. His eyes widen slightly when he sees Tony standing there, small smile on his face.
“Princess, will you be okay on your own for a minute?” When Leia looks up at him, eyes wide, he is quick to continue. “I’ll just be at the door with Mr Stark. You can shout for me if you need anything, alright?” Peter waits until she nods to stand up, ruffling her hair. “I’ll just be here, sweet. You carry on with your card.” He smiles at her as he opens the door, leaning against the wall. Tony quietly makes his way into the room, eyes stilling on Leia for a moment before he looks up at Peter. “Hey, Mr Stark,”
“Hey, kid. What happened?” Tony nods towards the bed where May is still sleeping, looking slightly less pale than she did before. Peter sighs before explaining what Doctor Garcia had told him before, keeping his voice quiet so Leia couldn’t hear him.
“But they said she should be waking up soon, so,” He finishes with a shrug. He smiles softly when Tony squeezes his shoulder, letting his hand rest there.
“And the kid?” He asks, looking across the room. “She-” Tony is cut off when the girl in question gasps, turning towards Peter.
“Da..Daddy!”
“Leia?” The teen asks, eyes running up and down, looking for injuries. “What’s wrong, baby?”
“I bro…broked the cray..on,” She sniffles as she speaks, eyes filling with tears that threaten to fall. She takes a breath as she holds the crayon up for Peter to see.
“Oh, no!” He sighs heavily as he crouches down, taking the two pieces from her small hands. He looks at them for a few moments, before nodding and looking up at Leia. “I can fix this, Princess,”
“You can, Daddy?” Her eyes meet Peter’s as they widen, a hopeful look on her face. “How, Daddy?” Peter looks around the room, purposely looking at Tony before beckoning Leia closer towards him.
“Magic!” Leia gasps quietly at Peter’s words. “You remember the magic words I taught you?” Leia nods and opens her mouth to reply before Peter puts a finger over her mouth. “Ah ah ah! Not until I tell you to, otherwise it won’t work, turtlebug,” Leia nods seriously as she closes her mouth, waiting for what Peter is going to say next. “Okay. First thing, you’ve got to close your eyes. And you can’t open them until I tell you to. This is very important, Leia, to make sure it works right,”
“Okay, Daddy,” She smiles as she closes her eyes, squeezing them tightly shut. “What next?”
“Next, you’ve gotta spin around slowly, okay? Three times,” As he speaks and as Leia completes her tasks, Peter goes into his bag and pulls out a new box of crayons, replacing the broken red one with a new, whole one, before moving to crouch in front of Leia again. “Okay, now you haveta jump up and down three times as well. Super! Okay, open your eyes for the last bit, pumpkin,”
“Hi,” She giggles as they make eye contact, a smile on her face.
“Hi,” He smiles back, before lifting his hands, crayon clasped within them, up in front of them. “Okay, last bit, babe, got to get it right.” Leia takes a deep breath and nods at Peter. Peter nods back, before looking at his hands. “Okay, put your hands around mine. Good, okay. I’m going to count to three, and then we have to say the magic words together okay? And you remember what we have to do after we’ve done that, don’t you?”
“We have to blow on it. To make the magic work!”
“That’s right! Ready?” He waits for a moment before she nods her head. “Okay. One…Two…Three!”
“A’ra cebabra!” She shouts out before blowing on Peter’s hands. She waits a moment before meeting Peter’s eyes. “Did it work?”
“I don’t know, sweet. We’ll have to have a look, won’t we?” Leia nods enthusiastically, bouncing gently on her feet. She gasps, a smile growing on her face as Peter opens his hands and the crayon is in one piece. “Thank you, Daddy!”
“You’re very welcome, baby. You go and finish your card before Aunt May wakes up, yeah?”
“Okay. Love you, ‘Addy,”
“I love you, too, Princess. Off you pop,” He smiles, ruffling her hair as she grins up at him before dashing off towards her card again. Peter sighs quietly as he stands up, turning towards Tony. The older man is stood in the same position he was when they were talking, a small smile on his own face. “Mr Stark?”
“She’s yours?” Peter looks up sheepishly at his mentor, nodding slowly. “You’re really good with her,”
“Thanks,”
“I mean it.” He says, eyes flittering between the teen and his child. “How old is she?”
“Just turned three,” Peter smiles as he looks towards where she’s digging through her pencil case and pulling out a page of stickers. Tony whistles lowly.
“And you raised her yourself?”
“Well, May helped. Obviously.”
“Obviously.” Tony agrees, nodding. “Not what I meant, though,”
“What?” Peter looks up at him, confused, before his face clears. “Oh. Yeah. There were…complications. With the birth. She, uh…she didn’t make it,”
“Oh. I’m sorry, kid.” Peter shrugs, looking down at the floor. “Must be tough,”
“Just the cards we were dealt, Mr Stark,” He turns his face away and he rubs his eyes as subtly as he can. Tony is nice enough not to mention it, turning his own head away. “Anyway. I’ve got Leia. I’ve got a little bit of her with me every day.”
“And you loved her?” Peter sighs softly as he wraps his arms around himself, still not meeting Tony’s eyes.
“We were fourteen, Mr Stark. I loved her for what I knew love to be,” They stood in silence for a few moments, both unsure of what to say. “I miss her a lot.”
“Does Leia know about her?”
“Yeah,” Peter smiles softly. “There’s some pictures of her in my room and we visit her grave and I tell her stories a lot. I’m not sure Leia understands what I’m talking about, but she always asks about her,” His smile turns sad as he talks, eyes on Leia the whole time. “She’s the spitting image of her,”
“She’s beautiful, Pete,”
“Yeah,” Peter looks back up at Tony, meeting his eyes for the first time in this conversation. “Yeah, she is,” They watch Leia together in a comfortable silence, the peace only breaking when Leia speaks again.
“Daddy?”
“Yeah, darling?” Peter crouches down to pick his daughter up, settling her of his waist. She giggles softly as Peter spins her around, the teen grinning down at her.
“I’m hung’y, Daddy,”
“Well, that just won’t do, will it, princess?” Leia shakes her head quickly, eyes widening and hair falling in her face. “Come on, then. Let’s see what we’ve got,” As Peter crouches down again to shuffle through his bag, Tony clears his throat.
“There’s a café across the road, kid. Go and get a proper meal. Something warm. I know you’ve not had anything proper today,” When he notices the hesitation on Peter’s face, he continues quickly. “I’ll stay with Aunt Hottie. I’ll call you if anything happens,”
“I…I don’t know, Mr Stark. I don’t want to leave her,”
“Okay, then,” Tony sighs and bumps their shoulders together softly. “I’ll take little miss to the café. Get her a proper meal, at least. You stay here with May, get some rest, and we’ll bring you something back, right, Miss Parker?” Leia giggles quietly, nodding up at Tony and smiling.
“I can’t ask you to do that, Mr Stark,” Peter sighs as he stands up again, Leia’s arms still tangled together behind his neck, legs tight around his waist.
“You’re not asking, kid. I’m offering. You need a rest, Peter. Even if it’s just ten minutes while Leia eats,” Peter hesitates for a moment, rocking Leia gently.
“Alright,” He sighs eventually. “Will you be alright with Mr Stark, Leia?” The toddler nods her head as she unwinds her limbs from her father. Peter puts her down on the floor and smiles when she walks over to Tony, tugging his hand.
“Than’ you, Mista Stark,”
“No problemo, Sweetie,” He takes her hand and grins at her, and then looks back up at Peter as they walk up to the door. “Hey, Leia? Did Daddy tell you about the time that he fell over in my lab and broke one of my robots because he saw a spider?”
“No!” Leia giggles, skipping next to the man, looking up at him with wide eyes. Tony smirks when he hears Peter huff behind him.
“Well, I’ve got lots of stories like that that I have to tell you about. Your Daddy falls over a lot, you know,”
Peter smiles as he hears Leia giggle from down the hall.
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