Left in the rain

thirty-five

Friday 22nd July 2022

I hate you.
Pepper feels her heart break, Tony goes to hug her but she can feel the tears welling up and she refuses to cry in front of Peter, even if he caused them.

She pushes past him and runs the her and Tony's bedroom, she locks the door behind her and lies in the bed, she can feel the tears pouring now, her heart hurts and she wants to hug Peter and also not see him anytime soon.
She's so conflicted and her heart is trapped between loving him and being mad.

Tony enters the room a few hours later, he places a baby monitor on the side "he's sleeping in the nursery, do you wanna talk?" he asks while stroking his hand through Pepper's hair. Pepper goes to open her mouth to speak but all that comes out is a slightly choked sob.

Tony pulls her into his arms, holding her against him.

"I know he didn't mean it but it still hurts" Pepper sobs against her husband's chest.
Tony thinks for a moment "why don't we let Peter spend tomorrow with the others, go to the park or something, and we can sit and just have a moment to calm down and rationalise the anger?" Pepper nods, even with the guilt building in her.

Tony pulls his phone out and sends a message to the group chat.

Tony: Can you guys watch Peter tomorrow, as early in the morning till as late as possible

Natasha: Why? I didn't realise you and Pepper were busy tomorrow. Is everything okay?

Tony: It's complicated.
Tony: Something happened today and Pepper needs some time away from Peter. I'll send him with toys and everything, he's got milk that Pepper pumped recently and hopefully he'll take the bottle. If you need anything, call me. Not Pepper.

He then clicks his phone off after the avengers all agree that they'll babysit. He curls up against his wife who had tired herself out and fallen asleep against him. Eventually, his eyes droop shut.

///

The sound of crying through the baby monitor wakes him. Peter is crying out for his mama. Before Pepper has a chance to get up Tony is already out of the room, he quickly walks to Peter's room and his heart hurts at the sight of the boy sat in bed, using a fist to rub his eyes. Tears pour out over his cheeks and the sobs get louder when he realises it's not his mama.

"Mama" Peter cries, Tony just pulls the boy into his arms and starts rocking him to sooth him but it doesn't work. Peter just keeps repeating mama and trying to get out of Tony's arms.
"Do you want some milkie?" Tony asks, bouncing the wailing child, Peter nods, thinking that he'll go to his mama. But when he gets taken to the kitchen he realises that he isn't gonna get his mama. Tony prepares the bottle and then takes Peter to the sofa and rubs the teat against Peter's lips but Peter refuses to latch on to the bottle "c'mon Petey, drink the milk" Tony coos but Peter just turns his head into Tony's chest "no hung'y dada" Peter states. Tony sighs and rubs his tired eyes "you didn't have your baba earlier, you have to drink it. And now Peter." Peter just ignores him and refuses to open his mouth so Tony grabs the bottle and Peter to take to the nursery. He places Peter in the cot and locks the bars up again "your bottle will be on the side if you want to drink it. If not, go to sleep. Auntie Tasha is coming to grab you in a couple hours so you can spend time with the others and me and mama can spend some quiet time" Tony says before leaving the room.

He makes his way to the bedroom and collapses in exhaustion against the bed, Peter is whimpering 'mama' every so many seconds until, after about half an hour, he falls asleep. And Tony is quick to follow.

a mere 4 hours later Natasha comes up to the floor to collect Peter, Tony is practically inhaling the coffee and Pepper isn't even in the room. Nat hasn't spotted Peter yet and so she asks "Is Pete with Pepper?" Natasha questions and Tony cocks his head to the corner of the room where Peter is fully dressed in overalls with a pacifier between his lips.
"He's in time out for another.." he checks his watch "three minutes" he states Natasha questions why "he tipped a bottle of milk all over the sofa this morning, and he decided to strip out of his clothes and diaper last night, I'm sure you can guess how that happened."  Tony sighs, just after he finished is when Pepper walks in. Peter starts saying her name but she walks past him, straight to the dishwasher.
She grabs her pump out, says hello to Nat and then settles herself on the sofa so she can pump out the milk that Peter usually drinks.

"Bab'es 'Ilkie mama" Peter whines from the corner, she just ignores her and as soon as the timer for his time out is done Tony is passing him off to Natasha.
"Tones, I'm gonna go lie back down okay, be good for Nat." She directs the last bit towards her son who's trying too wiggle to his mama.

"Mama" Peter starts crying again so Natasha quickly grabs the diaper bag that Tony prepared and she makes her way into the elevator, Peter's cries echo loudly.

As soon as the doors close Pepper starts crying, she just slowly slides to the floor, Tony wraps his arms around her body, pressing a kiss to her head "am I a bad mum, I mean. He hates me Tony" Pepper sobs and Tony's heart clenches at the tone and defeat in his wife's voice "Pep, last night, I couldn't get him to drink his bottle and when he woke up he cried for you, I tried another bottle of milk which he refused to drink once again. He then cried for you for thirty minutes before crying himself to sleep. He loves you Pepper, he just got mad." Tony assures, Pepper sniffles and Tony decides to help her up.

"C'mon, let's go have a nice bath together and then if you want to, we can go down to Peter, I'm sure he's hungry and wanting his mama." Tony states and Pepper agrees. They soak in the bath for a hour and a half, by then their skin has wrinkled and the water has cooled.

Once dressed they go down to where they instantly get hit with the sound as the cries of their son. They walk around the corner and they can see Peter who is throwing a tantrum, one that has seeminly defeated the all mighty avengers.

Pepper locks her eyes onto her son.
"Peter, I don't believe that's being good. Stop it right now" she states sternly and all of the adults finally notice their presence. Peter stops flailing his limbs and sniffles while rubbing his eye with his fist "how long was he having a tantrum?" Pepper asks, watching as Peter calms himself, suckling on his thumb to sel sooth.

"He hasn't stopped crying for you since I took him earlier." Natasha admits "he hasn't stopped crying in almost two hours?" Pepper states in disbelief.

She walks over to Peter who's curled up into a ball and is slightly rocking,
"Hey baby, mama is very sorry for how she's been acting, you just made mama's heart owie." Pepper coos and pulls Peter into her arms, patting his bottom. 

"Tones, bring a diaper here, he needs a change" Pepper asks while carefully laying the boy back down and starting to strip him of the clothes, Tony passes her the diaper and she quickly swaps them, choosing not to put the overalls back on and just leaving him in a short sleeved onesie. She then takes him to the sofa where she starts feeding him as soon as she possibly could get her boob out of the top she's wearing. Peter grasps her hand tightly and silent tears run down his face as he feeds. Pepper just keeps whispering too him, the same thing each time.

"I'm so sorry baby boy, mama loves you"