I Can't Live A Lie (Running For My Life)

If you cut me (I will bleed)

But the room he was in was isolated.

Empty. 

A knock sounded on the closed door, and it opened.

"Peter?"

It was Pepper.

She was leading a small girl with dark hair and eyes.

He couldn't bring himself to speak, staring at her with empty eyes.

"Hey." She crouched in front of him, hands cradling his face. "Are you okay?"

My dad is dying! He wanted to scream. He's dying and I can't do anything about it.

But he couldn't scream at her. 

Not with a child in the room.

Not when it wasn't her fault.

So he nodded mutely.

Then he was being drawn into a warm hug, and she was kissing the side of his head. "We missed you so much."

He nodded again.

Words stuck in the back of his throat, burning, but he still couldn't force them out.

The tiny girl stepped up beside him, small hands twisting the front of her dress. "Are you Peter? My daddy's Peter?"

"Yeah." He was surprised that he'd managed to get that one word out. "Yeah."

She tilted her head to the side. "Can I snuggle you?"

He nodded slowly.

"My name's Morgan," she said matter-of-factly, after she had climbed into his lap. "I'm your sister. We have an alpaca. His name is Gerald. I also have a spiderman toy. Daddy said you're spiderman? That's really cool. I wanna be a superhero someday. Can you teach me?"

The questions came so quickly that he couldn't keep up with them.

Pepper saved him from having to answer by stopping in to pick her up. "Come on baby. Let's go see Aunty Nat, okay? I think Peter wants to see dad."

His sort-of mother figure held her hand out, pulling him to his feet. "You can see him for a bit, then I want you to eat and sleep. Alright?"

He nodded again.

She didn't seem satisfied with that, but let it go.

His dad looked like death.

His face was pale, his skin looking paper thin, and charred around his right shoulder and neck.

Eyes closed, he looked like he could be dead.

Other than the beeping of the heart monitor, it felt like he had truly died on the battlefield.

"Dad?" Peter slid into the chair beside the bed, lifting Tony's hand to his cheek. "Hey. I guess- I guess you heard me cause you're not- you're still here."

A sob worked its way up his throat. "I'm scared."

His dad would always make the fear go away.

Holding him, making him laugh, watching movies when he woke up screaming.

But now he was the cause of the fear, and couldn't wash the fear away.

Maybe he never would again.

The tower wasn't their home anymore.

His dad lived with Pepper- they were married?- and Morgan at a lake house.