If They Knew All About You

Nothing To Worry About

"I'm not scared. Really. Just... just my senses are a bit—" He shook his head. "Agreed to?" His eyes narrowed. "What do you mean? What was he gonna do?"

She tilted his head at him. "What do you think?"

"Urgh, something stupidly heroic, unnecessary self-sacrificing—"

"Now, now..." She squeezed his shoulder but her face was open and warm. "Pot, kettle, hm?"

His cheeks turning hot, he grunted in frustration. That wasn't... well... was it fair? He bowed his head. Not like he currently had any chance to be an overly self-sacrificing, jump-first-ask-questions later kind of... hero. He pushed out a breath through pursed lips. The kind his father was.

His father who had been worried enough to consider not going back to the Tower after all? Would there have even been an alternative?

He glanced at Pepper. "Where did he want me to go?"

"You to go?" She frowned as her hand rubbed his arm up and down like that would make the goosebumps on his skin simply fade away. "He was looking into places for the three of us to stay for a bit. To lie low. All of us." There was a certain emphasis on those last words.

"Right," Pete mumbled.

"LA would have been a possibility. But mostly, he was looking into us staying at the house in French Polynesia for a bit. Possibly over the winter."

"French Polynesia?"

"Yeah..." The corners of her mouth pulled up into a soft smile. "Tony has a house there that we... we used to go to. Back when..." She shook her head and sighed, cementing a smile on her lips that seemed a lot more genuine. "He was just looking for somewhere to lay low for a bit. Somewhere we'd not have to worry too much about the press and the politics of the city and the country."

"Where you used to go." Pete's eyes were on her hand, which was still trying to soothe him. "We did. Back when I was little," he mumbled, his voice husky.

Her face fell a little before she pushed her shoulders up in a small shrug. "Well, yes."

Endless white sand beaches and turquoise water, the sea calm and inviting. A sense of paradise. He could almost smell the salt of the sea in the air. The idea of seeing it, not just on a screen but in real life. The chance to go there and make new memories, some he would be able to remember. It was only then that it hit him how much he was yearning for a chance at that. The idea to leave everything behind for just a little while. A shot at paradise with his father. His dad. And, well, the closest thing he had to a mom right now.

As fast as the fantasy seemed to steamroll his thoughts as hard was the jerk back to reality. It was like his mind had hit an ice wall.

Pepper might try her best to replace his mother, but there was someone else who had taken care of him like that for years. Someone else who had been the closest thing to a mother he would ever have.

Bitterness rushed through his veins and he bit his lip hard.

May didn't have a shot at paradise. May didn't have anything, anyone. Anyone but him.

"Honey?" Pepper's hand was squeezing his arm where goosebumps had erupted once again. Her eyebrows knitted closer together. "What about your senses, darling? Do you... do you need me to—"

"I'm fine." He shuffled closer to the window, effectively throwing Pepper's hands off him.

How could he be that selfish? Daydreaming about white sand beaches and the warm ocean when May had not left the hospital in weeks. Had no idea when they'd even let her leave. If they ever would.