(Thanks for the comments and support! You lovelies are the best! I hope this is a good ending)

Bruce shoved the Parker door open and bustled inside, bags hanging heavy in his hand.

"Tony?"

"Bruce? Hurry!" The reply came called from deeper inside the apartment and Bruce made his way through, spotting Tony bundled up with Peter, his wide eyes finding the doctors as he entered. "He's so cold."

Bruce dropped his bag and started pulling supplies from it, one hand shooting out to press against Peters' throat to check his pulse.

"Has he said anything?"

Tony shook his head, rocking the boy back and forth in his arms. "He hasn't woken up yet and Bruce, his heads bleeding."

The doctor snapped sterile gloves on and grabbed an IV, pulling Peters arm from beneath the blankets and starting a line of warm saline. "What happened?"

Tony tried to keep calm but the kid he was holding was limp and so, so, cold and he could feel blood drip down the inside of his wrist from the shirt he was holding to Peters' head.

"Uh...Ned, his friend called and said Peter had gotten hit by a car and hurt his knee. He'd probably been laying in that tub for hours before I got here."

Bruce pulled the blanket away from the two a little, gesturing to the heavy bruising painted across Peters hip and thigh.

"He must have slipped. It'll be okay, we'll warm him up and get him to the compound."

Bruce held the IV bag up with one hand while the other gently prodded at the back of Peters' neck, carefully examining the bruises that lay across his skin.

The poor boy looked like he'd laid down in paint, bright bruises stained across his shoulders and neck where he'd hit the tub. Bruce frowned and pulled his fingers away, grabbing a c-collar from his bag. "He fell pretty hard. I'm just going to brace his neck to be safe."

Tony only grew more worried as Bruce placed the collar around Peters' neck, stabilising his head in case he'd injured his spine during his fall.

"He'll be okay, right?"

Bruce nodded, hands already on other things. "From my initial assessment, yes. He should recover, but I haven't even managed to check his head yet."

He pulled out his phone and pressed speed dial and speaker, tossing the device onto the bed so that he could talk and use his hands.

"Yo."

Bruce took out a penlight and gently lifted Peters eyelid, flicking the light back and forth as he spoke. "Sam, I need a stretcher and some heating blankets here at Peters."

"Is he okay?"

The answer was obviously not yes if Bruce was asking for those things but the doctor humoured him anyway. "He will be. Bring Steve."

:::::::::

Steve and Sam pulled Peter from Tony's arms and laid him down on the backboard as Bruce directed. But Tony wasn't happy about it.

"Are you sure that's necessary? Shouldn't I be keeping him warm?"

Bruce watched Sam and Steve tuck heating blankets close to Peter before pulling the bright orange straps across his chest to keep him still. "He fell, Tones. Badly. He's sustained deep muscle bruises, a concussion and what looks to be a badly damaged knee. We need to be careful with him."

Tony nodded as Steve and Sam picked up the backboard and lay it on the stretcher, strapping that down too. "Bruce if Ned hadn't called me if I hadn't been up if I hadn't gotten here-"

Bruce put a hand on his shoulder and led him to the door. "I know."

::::::::

Tony stood back, watching as Steve and Sam lifted Peters backboard onto the bed. They were being as gentle as they could but it still looked so rough and Tony's hands shot out on instinct, only serving to remind him they were stained in blood.

"Sam, go grab the oxygen. Steve…" Bruce gestured to Tony and the soldier nodded, making his way over.

"You okay?" Tony's head snapped up at that and Steve amended.

"I mean-I know you're not but what can I do? What do you need?"

Steve was being his gentle giant self which made it really difficult to be mad at him. Steve hadn't done anything wrong of course but anger was easier to deal with than anything else. Tony wished he could have the burn of anger to fuel him rather than the worry that ate at his stomach.

"I need him to be okay. I need him to not be blue, I need him to wake up."

Steve offered a careful smile. "He will be, Tony. How about for now we just get you cleaned up?"

Tony blinked, looking down at himself. He'd used his shirt for Peters' head. How had he forgotten about that? His bare chest was slicked with water from holding a soaking wet Peter and his hands were still stained in red.

"Thanks, Steve."

The first avenger had such careful hands for someone who'd used them for a hundred years and Tony let Steve wipe his hands and pull a warm hoodie over his head.

"You want something to drink?" Steve rubbed his palms up and down Tony's arms to try and warm him but Tony couldn't keep his eyes off Peter.

"No, I'm fine. How's Peter doing?"

Sam looked over from where he'd been placing monitors on Peters' chest. "He's doing okay, his temperatures up and he's breathing a little better. Bruce is getting some scans ready so, Peter needs to stay on the backboard for now but you can come hold his hand if you like."

Steve pressed a warm palm to Tony's back, urging him forward but he didn't need any encouraging. He made his way to the bed, trying to think of something to say.

"Hey, buddy."

Peter didn't look like Peter. He looked like a doll or some nightmare version of the kid. Pale and damp, strapped down with his neck in a brace. Was it really the same lively boy from that morning that had lifted a car so easily?

Steve tucked one of the warming blankets tighter around the boy as Sam grabbed a stool for Tony to sit on. Both of them busy and moving while Tony felt as frozen as Peter was.

"You really scared me, buddy. You're still scaring me so, if you could just open your eyes or squeeze my hand or… anything, I'd feel a lot better."

Peter didn't open his eyes and his fingers lay limp in Tony hold, but something else did happen.

He started to shake. His hand trembled in Tony's, breaths stuttering as he shook.

"What's happening?"

Sam smiled, palm pressing to Peters' forehead. "He's shivering."

Relief poured into Tony's chest and he smiled, squeezing Peters hand in his. "There you go, buddy. Good job, I knew you were listening."

Not caring who was watching or how sappy it was, Tony pressed a kiss to the back of Peters' hand, before rubbing his own warmed palms across Peters pale skin. "You'll be okay."

:::::::::::::::::

Peters' head felt like a brick. If bricks throbbed. His mouth was dry to a painful degree and every inch of his body ached. God, what had he gotten into now?

"Pete? You back with us?"

Peter hadn't yet made a noise but he must have frowned because Mr Starks voice was eager and close to his side. The teenager managed to pry his eyes open, spotting the blurry figure of Tony looking down at him, a slight smile on his face.

"Mhh...Mi-"

Peter winced, throat feeling as though someone had sliced it up while he slept and Tony quickly leaned over to grab something. "Here."

Peter blinked again, trying to clear his vision as Tony leaned over him again, pressing something cold to Peters' lips. "It feels weird giving you ice after all that trouble we took to warm you up but I don't want to try water with you laying down like this."

The ice melted across Peters' lips, dripping onto his parched tongue and he gratefully accepted more as Tony fed them to him. Finally, throat feeling marginally better, Peter was able to get his words out.

"W-what happened?"

Tony frowned, putting the cup of ice chips down somewhere, past Peters line of vision. "You don't remember? I guess that's not surprising given how hard you hit your head. Do you remember going on patrols and getting hit by a car?"

Peter thought for a moment. The last night he'd gone on patrols he'd been chasing down those guys that...ah. Yep, he remembered.

"I hurt my knee. I was going to tell you."

Tony nodded, rubbing a frustrated hand over his forehead. "Yeah, Ned said you were going to except that didn't happen did it, kid? Instead, you decided to ignore the fact that you could barely walk and had a shower instead of calling me."

Memories trickled into Peters mind. Water, pain, freezing cold. "I slipped."

Tony sighed, nodding. "Yeah. You went down hard and laid there for a few hours before I found you."

Peter looked away, embarrassed. How on earth had he managed to screw up a shower?

Tony mistook his expression for a different kind of discomfort and quickly reached for him. "Pete? How bad's the pain? We can try upping the dosage of meds but-"

Peter tried to shake his head and reach for his mentor, to reassure him, only he found he couldn't lift his arms or turn his head. "No, I...Mr Stark. I can't-I can't move."

The mechanic didn't seem as worried as he should have been at that statement, nodding as he rubbed a careful hand over Peters' chest to calm him down. "I know, it's okay. You bruised yourself up pretty bad and everything's a little stiff. Not to mention you've been asleep for a day and a half."

"What?!" Peter tried moving again, only succeeding in causing himself more pain. He cried out as agony lanced up his leg and he froze, trying to breathe as Tony tried to keep him still.

"Peter, stop. Friday, get Bruce in here."

"Yes, boss."

Peter couldn't hear what Tony was saying, too focussed on just breathing through the pain but when it finally eased he looked up to see Bruce leaning over him.

"Hi, Peter. It's nice to see you awake. I'm just going to check you over. Tell me if anything hurts, okay?"

Peter didn't dare even nod as Bruce's gentle fingers slipped under his neck and gently prodded.

"Ow." Peter winced, face screwing up and Bruce mirrored his expression in sympathy. "I know, sorry. Pretty much everything is going to be tender for a while. You've got some deep tissue bruising across your hip, back and shoulders so, you won't be moving about for a week or so-"

"What? A week?" Peter hated to be stuck in bed and Tony only rolled his eyes and Bruce nodded, fingers gently inspecting every vertebra in Peters' neck.

"Yes, it takes a while to heal and even if you didn't have the bruising to keep you in bed, You have a concussion, stitches in the back of your head and you've just been through surgery."

That was way too much information for Peter to understand all at once and he simply lay still as Bruce explained. "When you were hit by that car, you hurt your knee, right?"

Peter didn't move, just blinked up at the doctor and listened as Bruce's fingers moved to his jaw, gently holding him still as he pulled out a penlight and swiped the beam across his face.

"That pain you felt was your knee dislocating and your ACL and MCL tearing. I had to operate to repair it. That was yesterday. Now, it's in a brace until it heals."

Peter's eyes blew wide and Bruce nodded, putting the penlight away. "Yes, it is serious. Why wouldn't you tell someone about that, Peter?"

Finally, the teenager spoke, caught between the disapproving glares of Bruce and Tony. "I didn't know it was that bad! It felt weird and then it was fine. I thought it was just a fluke."

Tony crossed his arms, looking mad. "Karen told you it was bad and she tried to call me. You want to tell me why she couldn't?"

Peter just wanted to go back to sleep. Mr Starks tone and level of anger clearly indicated that he knew exactly what happened but wanted Peter to say it. How cruel.

If he could have hung his head in shame laying down he would have. "Ned and I programmed her with a protocol to stop her from telling you when I got hurt."

Tony grit his teeth, furious. "And why the hell would you do that?!"

Peter looked away again, voice quiet. "Please don't be mad."

Tony sighed at that, looking away as he pressed a hand to his forehead. "I'm not. I'm...I'm just disappointed."

Peter tried not to whine. "Oh come on, everyone knows that's worse."

Bruce adjusted Peters IV before excusing himself to the other side of the room, tapping away at Peters charts.

"Do you have any idea what it was like for me to find you laying there, blue and barely breathing? And what about Ned? He was worried sick about you! He's the only reason I even knew to come find you, Pete."

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean for that to happen."

Tony's voice wobbled a little and Peter felt even worse. "I had to call him, and your Aunt and tell them you'd been hurt. Ned cried, Peter. He was so worried about you and I had to convince May not to walk out of her job to come see you."

"I'm sorry."

Tony sat on the chair next to Peters bed, where he always was when Peter got hurt. He let out a tired breath, shoulders sagging.

"I just don't understand why you would do this to yourself."

"I didn't slip on purpose."

Tony narrowed his eyes a fraction, too wrung out to humour the kid. "I'm serious. I can't believe you would ignore Karen, ignore my rules, and just do whatever you wanted. You're smarter than that, Pete. When you get hurt you ask for help. I don't know what's so hard about that."

Peter wished he could cross his arms but he knew it would hurt too much. "It's not hard, it's just stupid."

Tony froze. "What?"

Peter didn't want to make him angrier but he also wanted to get it off his chest. "Everyone always babies me! You think I can't do anything on my own. You have to watch me all the time and make sure I don't screw up and the others always treat me like a kid."

"What others?" Tony was actually listening, eyebrows pinching in interest as he tried to understand so, Peter let it all out. Everything he'd kept inside.

"The Avengers! I'm not a kid who needs babysitting or an idiot that needs help tying his own shoes. I'm supposed to be an Avenger but no one even trusts me enough to make my own lunch. Sam calls me weird names all the time and Pepper thinks I need help tucking my shirt in. Steve is constantly making sure I've eaten and...I just hate that I'm the one everyone has to watch out for. I want to be part of the team, not...not the baby."

Peter didn't know what he was expecting but it wasn't for Tony to start laughing. "Peter-"

"It's not funny. You all think I'm stupid and that I can't do anything myself. But it's not true."

Tony shook his head, suppressing his laughter as he sat carefully on the edge of Peters bed. "Buddy, no one thinks you're stupid. In fact, it's just the opposite."

Peter wasn't convinced, watching Tony as he tried to explain further. "Peter, all those things that you think are bad? They just mean the Avengers love you.

"Do you know how many times I've tried to leave the house with my pants on backwards because I was so sleep deprived I didn't notice? You know who made sure I fixed them? Pepper. And in case you hadn't realised, Steve makes lunch for me too. He makes lunch for everyone that's just how he takes care of people. Sam doesn't call you names to make fun of you, that's just how he bonds with people. Tease him back, and you'll see. I know it seems like we are targeting you specifically but...Peter, this is how a family behaves, they take care of each other."

Peter watched as Tony's smile slipped, eyes flickering down to his hands as he grew sad. "It took me a while to figure it out too. My parents weren't exactly the warm and fuzzy type and because of that, I distanced myself from everyone in any way I could. But Happy, Pepper and Rhodey broke me down and by the time the Avengers rolled around I had finally learnt how to say 'I love you' back even if it wasn't with words."

Peter stayed quiet as Tony placed a hand on his arm, gentle as could be, voice softened to match. "I know its just been you and May for a long time now, and before that, with just you, May and Ben there wasn't really any opportunity for you to be surrounded in family but...now you can. The Avengers aren't just a team, Pete. Were a family and whenever one of us tries to take care of you that's just our way of saying that we love you. You just have to learn to say 'I love you' back."

Peter wasn't quite sure he understood but he could see how hard it was for Tony to have the conversation at all and so he tried. "How do I do that?"

Tony shrugged, looking more relaxed than he had since Peter woke. "Let them take care of you, spend time with them. That's all any of us want, really."

Peter wasn't sure if he understood what any of it meant. How could babying someone be a sign of love?

But Tony was right about most things so, Peter kept an eye out for those signs and those silent expressions of love. And pretty soon it was easy to spot them.

"Bruce said those bruises are going to hurt for a while but he said warm baths might help. You want to try?"

Steve watched Peter hopefully, wanting to make the teenager feel better. "I can't get up by myself."

Steve immediately moved to the kid's side, offering his hands in permission. "Do you want some help?"

Peter was about to say no, he didn't want Captain America to help him take a bath. It was embarrassing and silly and...that's when Peter remembered what Tony had said. He took a moment to look into Steve's eyes and to actually listen to what he was saying and he found that Tony was right.

Steve was asking because he cared, he was offering him help when he needed it and Peter really would like to take a bath. He nodded, carefully, and allowed Steve to slip his hands under the kid, cradling him easily and carrying him to the bathroom.

The bath felt amazing, melting his stiff muscles and easing the pain of his bruises and Steve taking care of him actually felt really nice.

"Awww is Petey having a bubble bath? Do you need me to make your bed and turn your nightlight on too?" Sam walked in, smiling, and Peter was very glad that he'd kept his shorts on in the water. At first, he bristled at Sam's comment but then he decided to try Tony's advice.

"Better leave it to Steve, I don't know if you could lift me. Hey, where are you sleeping anyway? Cause Tony only gives out rooms to actual superheroes, right? What are your powers again?"

Sam smiled as he and Steve laughed at Peters jab. "Ooohh, that's harsh, kid. And after I came here to give you something. Here, Bruce said it could help."

Steve leaned into the bath and lifted Peter out as gently as he could, Peter too stiff to be of much help. Steve took the bottle and carefully patted Peter dry before smoothing the cream across his bruises, using as little pressure as possible.

The bath and the cream made Peter feel much better but moving was still difficult and he sat patiently as Steve helped him pull a shirt over his head.

"I'll get the knee." Sam knelt, taking Peters brace and slipping it back on, careful not to hurt the teenager and Peter almost laughed at himself. If he hadn't let them help he'd have been trying to dress himself and be miserable the whole time. In fact, the only reason he was so badly hurt was because he hadn't asked for help. If he'd just told Tony right away that he'd hurt his knee he could have been fine on just crutches, but nope he had to have Steve carry him out.

"Everyone ready for some fun? Not you Barnes. Twelve is too many broken controllers."

Bucky frowned, looking at Steve for help and only getting a smile. "It's not my fault! Sams the one that keeps cheating!"

Steve placed Peter on the couch as gently as he could, Peters bruises complaining and pulling a whimper from him. Everyone went quiet at the noise, eyes flickering to their youngest team member but the only one that moved was Natasha. Her gentle hand swept quietly through Peters' hair, soothing him in an instant.

She didn't say anything, just lightly scratched her fingernails behind Peters' ears as if he were a pup, carefully avoiding his bruises and stitches. Peter relaxed, shoulders sagging as his breathing calmed and everyone went back to their bickering.

"No, we always play crash bandicoot and I hate it! He looks ridiculous! Bandicoots don't even look like that!"

"If we play Mario Kart again, someone's going to flip a table and we all know who."

"I am not teaming up with Tony he eats all the snacks!"

Peter couldn't move very much and yes, all his invented protocols had been removed from his suit but watching the team, his family, he found himself happy to be a part of it. Even if he was the baby.

(I hope you liked it? I added another scene in at the last minute so I hope that scene with Steve taking care of Tony and Peter starting to shiver fit well. Let me know?)