A Family of Flaws

Chapter Twenty-Three; The Cruel World

  "Ma'am, I don't mean to alarm you—" Peter started with a shaking voice, not used to trying to help a harmed citizen. "But you need to call for an ambulance right now or this boy might not have much time left." He said as calmly as he could. "Some fluid is in his lung and he's struggling to breathe!"

  The woman turned with wide eyes, fumbling for her phone while tears sprung to her eyes. The little girl looked at the boy with scared eyes that were still swelling with large tears. "M-Mommy? Is... Is Li-Liam okay?" She asked in a whisper, stepping forward to stare at who Peter presumed was her brother.

  The woman sent a pained look at the little girl, but she was too busy speaking with the operator on the phone to answer her. "Hey, sweetie, Liam is-is fine." Peter said suddenly, not even realizing he was speaking until he had already spoken the words. He even surprised himself, not really knowing why he said that. He couldn't just make promises like that! He didn't actually know if Liam was going to be okay, but the look on the little girl's face broke his heart, and painful memories of the night Ben died popped into his head.

  "He's just having some trouble breathing, but your mommy is calling for help and when they get here they'll make sure he's alright." Peter continued with a small, shaky smile that no one could see. "But I bet if you hold his hand and talk to him, he'll feel a lot better, okay?"

  The little girls eyes lit up, the tears slowing down as she gasped softly. She nodded swiftly and sat down beside her brother, grabbing his hand with a determined look on her face. In her small voice, she began to whisper to Liam, and Peter sat back with a small sigh.

  Liam's breathing was labored and getting worse as the seconds ticked by, but he was still alive and help was on the way. Everything would be okay. It had to be. This was just a little kid— he had to alright! Peter rarely had to deal with injured people, usually he made it in time to stop anyone from getting hurt or the injuries were minor. Most criminals actually wanted to avoid hurting people so they normally didn't do it unless they thought they had to.

  But these thugs— they didn't even hesitate! And it was a kid at that! The woman finally finished speaking on the phone, small tears escaped her eyes as she turned to look at Peter. "Is-Is he really going to be okay...?" She asked in a hopeful whisper, staring at him with large, trusting eyes.

  Peter bit his lip nervously, his eyes flickering to the small boy and girl. "Y-Yeah... um, he's still breathing and an ambulance is on the way." He said as confidently as he could. "Once the ambulance is here he'll be in great hands, ma'am." Peter added with a small sigh as she smiled brightly, crouching down to stroke her hands through his hair.

  It took nearly twenty minutes for the ambulance to arrive, and Liam was in far worse condition than Peter was comfortable with, but they got him on a stretcher swiftly and got him into the ambulance with the woman and girl. The woman turned to send an appreciative smile at Peter and the little girl waved as the doors were shut with a click.

  The ambulance took off with the blaring siren and lights going off in a rhythmic pattern, but Peter didn't leave his place on the ground in the alleyway. He just sat there, staring at his hands. A kid? Those thugs really hurt a kid? Why were people so cruel?

  Just like that night with Ben— that man just shot him even with Peter there. Peter was a kid and he still shot him. People were so cruel and he didn't know why. What was the point of stopping criminals if there was just another person out there who was even worse than them hurting more people? Was it worth it? Did he change anything by stopping a few criminals?

  Was Peter even making a difference?

—
—
—
*Tony's POV*

Unsurprisingly, the kid accepted the internship and Pepper sent out the information in an e-mail to the kid. He would be starting in less than a week on Monday, but Tony wouldn't be working with him for at least a month, possibly longer. For this first month, the kid will be in the lower-level labs proving that he can be trusted in the higher labs.

But if he did prove that he could be trusted then he would move up through the labs quickly, hopefully making it to Tony's lab within two months. Tony just had to be sure that he could trust the kid.

At least Pepper and the team (most of them) were excited about the internship. He had no idea why, but it was oddly nice to see them so interested in something like this, despite it being a little annoying. He didn't want any of them to get attached to the kid until he was sure that he would be his intern.

If this kid wasn't going to be his intern then he wasn't sure how he was going to break it to any of them. Pepper would definitely be disappointed, and he had no idea if he would find another person who could be a good intern. It took ages to find Peter, Pepper and him had barely been able to agree on how to narrow down the search for a good intern, and he doubted they would be able to do that again.

So Tony was hoping that Parker would make a good intern— it would make everything easier if he was going to be a semi-permanent intern.

"Are you thinking about that Parker kid again?" Pepper's voice floated through his ears, breaking him from his thoughts. The couple had been watching a movie together and he must have zoned out sometime during it, he looked down to see the unimpressed eyes of his fiancé.

She rolled her eyes but gave him a small smile, leaning forward to kiss his softly before pulling away and shaking her head. "You really can't focus on a single movie?" She asked before sitting up and stretching, letting out a small yawn. "Whatever— I'm going to bed."

She stood up and turned to him, raising as eyebrow as he made no move to follow her. "I'm guessing you're going to stay awake for a while?" Pepper said without an ounce of doubt, not needing an answer as she shrugged. "Just come to bed in a hour or two, okay?"

Tony groaned and stuck his tongue out at her. "Okay, mom." Tony answered, grabbing his Starkpad and typing in his password while he leaned back on the couch.

"I'm going to have Friday remind you." Pepper called out over her shoulder, walking down the hallway towards the bedroom.

Tony stuck out his tongue again, huffing as he turned his attention to his Starkpad, scrolling through the news with a bored expression. Until an article about Spider-Man caught his attention.

He let out a chuckle, rubbing his face. He might have a small obsession over the masked hero, but it was only because he didn't know his identity! Seriously— this guy rubbed him the wrong way!

He gave in to his curiosity, clicking on the article with a sigh. He was going to find out who Spider-Man was one day.