Just A Normal Kid

Chapter 38

Clint had gone out to get them some coffee from a shop nearby when Peter woke up. He tried to sit up immediately, but Rosie pinned his relatively uninjured shoulders down, preventing him from doing so. "Lie back down, Peter. You're in the hospital right now, you've injured your spine. The doctors said you have to be on bed rest for some time, okay?"

Thankfully for her, he obliged and lay back down before asking, "Doc? What are you doing here?"

"Do you remember what happened?"

"We were driving to the cemetery, when I thought I saw something. I tried to swerve out of the way, but... How is May?"

Rosie didn't have the heart to tell him, but he seemed to assume the worst from her hesitance. "She's gone?" He breathed out and Rosie could practically hear him begging her to tell him that May was still alive.

"She was hurt much worse than you, Peter. The doctors tried their best." What she didn't say was, 'I'm sorry.' which was what most people would, but having lost two parents herself - Arnold was as good as dead to her- she knew how shallow those two words sounded.

She kept a sharp eye on Peter, which was the only reason why she noticed his breathing begin to hitch slightly. "Hey Pete? Breathe, kiddo. Calm down. Deep breaths, do you hear me, deep breaths."

A strangled sob escaped from his throat. "I killed her, Doc. I killed all of them. It's my fault."

That wasn't what she was expecting, "What do you mean, Peter?"

The entire story came out in short, shuddering breaths and broken words. How his parents had come to leave him with Aunt May and Uncle Ben and their plane crashed on their way back home from where they were going to fly to Europe for work. How an argument between him and Ben had led to his Uncle going out of the house to look for him and being shot by the mugger. And finally, how he and May had been driving to the cemetery to visit his parents' graves.

"It's Parker Luck. Just being close to me killed them all." He said at the end. "I'd suggest that you leave, before something happens to you too."

Rosie just shook her head, placing a hand on his cheek, while the other grasped his uninjured wrist. She was horrified that the teenager was blaming himself for what had happened. To deal with all that guilt for years... "It was a series of unfortunate accidents, Peter. None of it was your fault."

"But it was!"

"Did you cause a mechanical failure in the plane? Did you hold a gun in your hands and shoot your uncle? Did you drive the car that caused the accident? Unless that is the case, I really don't see how you're responsible for any of their deaths. I know it's hard to lose everyone around you, but I promise it'll get better."

"You act as if you're talking from experience, Doc." His voice was very small.

"I am, Peter. Haven't you ever wondered why I don't look like Dad?"

His eyes widened as the realisation hit him. "I was adopted by Dad when I was fourteen. It's a long story, but I'll tell you as best as I can. A few days before my adoption, a close friend of Tony's betrayed him and helped arrange a kidnapping for the sake of the ransom. This was shortly after the "I am Iron Man" debacle, so Tony didn't have all the tech or the training that he does now, making their job much easier."

He was looking interested in her story, so she continued, "The friend double-crossed the thugs and called the cops on them, resulting in a car chase through the city which ended when the thugs crashed their car into the sidewalk. I was walking on the sidewalk at that time, so they took advantage of that and held a gun to my head and dragged both me and Tony to a cop car, while half a dozen cops stood by helplessly.