Hi guys! So, here's the last chapter for this little story! I want to thank you all for reading and accompanying me so far. I hope you enjoy the ending!

See you around on other projects of mine :)

Best Regards! ~ Arsad

Healing Was Never Easy

IV

Gift

~.~

On one of the nights when Peter was unable to sleep, he wandered through the semi-dark corridors of the Stark Residence without really caring to where he was going. His feet moved by themselves as the teenager saw again in his mind him and Tony working silently in his suit; his hands moving correctly following the engineer's instructions. Their shared company had given him a great sense of comfort and familiarity and he knew that the man had also felt it, something that related to the time when they both worked together in the Tower's lab after Peter left school.

They both have truly enjoyed it, but still... there was something missing and he knew exactly what it was. He missed seeing Tony working on his projects with his own hands and the sheer glint that he usually had in his eyes back then when he was about to accomplish something.

When Peter realized he was standing in front of the garage's door and he stared at it in surprise; he hadn't even realized he had left the house. Thinking for a moment, the young hero questioned the panel next to the handle.

"FRIDAY?"

"Yes, Peter?" AI responded promptly.

"Can you tell me if Mr. Stark gave me access to the laboratory?"

"Sure; you can go anywhere in the Stark Residence at any time; the only exception is the master suite." FRIDAY informed him. "If you wish, you can use the lab now."

The latch inside the handle made a sound and the young hero knew that AI had unlocked the door. He entered the lab and FRIDAY turned on the lights; the teenager watched the workstations and some of the tools disposed on the open shelf beyond for a few quiet minutes. Everything was perfectly tidy and clean, a contrast to the mess the place probably used to be while his mentor worked on something in the past.

As Peter stopped in the center of the room, his gaze met once again Iron Man's suit resting inside the glass capsule, with the red and gold of its titanium skin still broken and stained with dirt and dried blood, just like the last time he saw it.

"Would you like to work on a project, Peter?" FRIDAY inquired with a hint of curiosity.

The teenager stared at the mask's empty eyes and in his memories he saw it glow fiercely and intimidating once more. He frowned, his thoughts running wild like gears turning furiously on his head.

"I think I do, FRI." Peter replied; his gaze never left his mentor's suit.

"May I be of assistance?" AI then inquired.

"Yes, indeed." A grin started to sprout on the teenager's face. "I will need your help, but you will have to keep it a secret; it's a gift for Mr. Stark"

"If he doesn't ask me directly about it, I can do that." FRIDAY agreed and Peter couldn't help but laugh at the conspiratorial tone in the AI's voice.

"Just as KAREN helps me with my suit, you were programmed to help Mr. Stark while he was wearing the iron armor; you know all the configurations and his body structure..." The young hero started to walk around one of the workstations, his fingers skimmed the smooth surface absently.

"That's correct." FRIDAY stated and he stopped.

"Show me it on the 3D hologram." He asked. "Show me Iron Man in his suit before the last fight against Thanos."

The AI immediately materialized the requested image from her recordings through a hologram and Peter found himself watching the perfect replica of his mentor, standing before him wearing his suit with the retracted faceplate showing his expressionless face, eyes that stared ahead without any trace of the warmness that the engineer usually had. FRIDAY reproduced it faithfully.

"Separate him from the suit." He asked and AI changed the image; now Tony was standing beside the armor, wearing casual clothes. "Change to blueprint format now."

FRIDAY again modified the image and his mentor disappeared to show instead thousands of lines that showed in rich details his body structure, as well as every detail of the suit design next to it. Peter approached the bluish hologram and watching Tony's projection, he asked the AI in a voice slight louder than a whisper.

"Highlight in red all the injury that Mr. Stark suffered when he used the Infinity Gauntlet."

The man's right arm immediately changed color on the hologram; the lines that drew from his hand to almost his entire shoulder turned completely red, showing the real extent of the damage the engineer had suffered in the battle and currently reflected on his missing limb. A few small lines were also distributed on the right side of the man's face showing his current scars, and also in the nerves of his left hand also showing its current atrophy. FRIDAY, just as she had often done for her Boss, attuned to Peter's thought and realizing his intention she immediately repeated the action in the holographic suit without the young hero having to ask for it.

Peter examined the two images for a moment and then touched the suit's design; with his hands he took it apart and separated the pieces, discarding most of them in a holographic trash can that FRIDAY made available to him until there was only its right arm and some small pieces of material used in other parts of the armor, but that could be useful to him.

Nodding to himself, he thought then he would need to talk to Pepper to get the missing material, but it could work ... he had to try.

"Would you like me to download all the readings I have recorded in the past few years that Boss used to build his suits?" FRIDAY questioned him, going straight to the point.

"Yes; we will start from there."

Peter's gaze went back to the capsule of glass and at the real suit, and the teenager could only remember his mentor's words telling him.

...It became a part of me... The suit and all its features were all here, in my head... like an extension of my body... I just ... felt ... and when I felt, it happened, exactly as I wanted it to... All of this... is me.

~.~

Peter jumped when he felt a hand stroking his hair. Lifting his wrinkled face from his workstation, he blinked sleepily and perceived Tony sitting beside him, watching him with mild curiosity. The man's hand dropped from the teenager's hair and rested above his shoulder.

"Hey, kid... What are you still doing here? Shouldn't you be sleeping in your bed?"

"Working..." The young hero yawned, straightening up in the chair and rubbing his eyes.

He gave the lab a quick look; everything was clean and his project was safely stored, the files he was reading on the computer before falling asleep FRIDAY had saved them and turned everything off. He sighed in relief and his mentor raised an eyebrow.

"You have been staying here longer than at the house for the past few days. Tiring yourself out is not good for your health."

"Say's the man who used to do it every night." Peter grinned. "I've learned it from you, Mr. Stark."

"Oh, shit; you're screwed then." Tony chuckled good naturally and glanced around in curiosity. "What are working on, anyway?"

"Some upgrades for my suit." The young hero shrugged.

"I thought we were doing this together." The engineer frowned.

"It's a little bit different, actually; it's something I'm trying to build."

"And you don't want my help?"

"It's not like that! I want to impress you." Peter observed his mentor with genuine appreciation: "I will consider myself the worst mentee in the world if after learning from the great Tony Stark I'm unable to build something on my own that doesn't explode in my face."

"Kiddo..." Tony laughed heartily and the teenager grinned. The man shook his head, amused. "Very well, I will respect your secrecy."

The man watched his protégé tenderly.

"I'm proud of you, Pete."

Peter's eyes widened in surprise; it was the first time he had heard those words coming from the engineer. Tony looked at him again with that different gaze that spoke a lot even while the man stayed silent, and in those days living at the Stark Residence, Peter had learned that it was a look that Tony usually directed at him and also at his daughter, and he had already understood its meaning. The teenager felt warmth spread within him.

"Peter." Tony called him again and the young hero met his gaze. The man shifted in his seat and spoke. "I'm not very good with words on this kind of stuff; I learned a lot in the past five years with Morgan, but still..."

The engineer chuckled softly.

"You... you are very important to me... have I ever told it to you this plainly before?" Tony asked and the young hero shook his head, speechless and wide-eyed, and the man nodded, agreeing with the answer. "I know ... there are so many other things that I wish I had told you before and that I thought I would never do it… I thought I had lost you… This is one of them."

The billionaire took a deep breath.

"I really missed you, Pete... A lot in all these years. I lived here in this house with Pepper and we raised our daughter; I could only imagine what it would have been like for her growing up with you in her life."

"Morgan is a formidable girl; I like her very much..." Peter spoke in a slightly shaky voice.

"She adores you, you know that?" Tony smiled. "And it's really hard to not like you, kiddo; you even managed to make me like you, and believe it, that's something only a few people on this world have accomplished."

"Tony Stark has a heart... it wasn't that difficult." The teenager snickered softly at Pepper's personal joke and the man snorted fondly, nodding.

"I have... and you are an important piece of it." Tony told him seriously and indicated the scenario around them. "You know, I spent my entire life dedicating myself to all of this. My passion for the labs and for each of the things I did here ... I had never met anyone who also shared this feeling until I met you. After we worked so long together, this laboratory that I built at the Stark Residence could have all SI's state-of-the-art technologies, but it was still empty, missing one of the two brilliant minds that really made it all work here."

Peter's eyes widened and the engineer's face lit up while he watched the lab.

"Watching you working here because you like it, because you want to be here, building or fixing things like I like to do... You don't know how much it makes me so damn happy, kid."

Tony's hand rested on the teenager's face; the man grinned.

"Before, Pepper and I had no one to leave our legacy; now we have two wonderful kids to share it, and there's nothing in this world we wouldn't do for them."

Peter's gaze was filled with deep emotion, impacted by the true meaning behind those words. Tony leaned in and hugged the other and his protégé leaned against his chest, embracing him back tightly. The engineer rested his head above his kid's and whispered tenderly to him.

"I'm glad I got you back, son."

The teenager cried; the tears slid down his face and wet the man's shirt. He opened his mouth several times to speak, but the words didn't come out, choked in his throat by emotion. Peter wished to thank the man for being there, for teaching him, for saving him, for being his friend, his mentor and so much more, but even without being able to say anything out loud, when he felt the engineer's fatherly kiss on his cheek, his embrace never faltering, Peter knew that Tony had felt them.

~.~

The next time someone decided to visit him in the lab at night it was Pepper, and FRIDAY had warned him about her approach; the teenager didn't spared her a glance when the woman entered the place, as she already knew it all being his supplier, main supporter and had played a strategic role in diverting her husband's attention when Peter needed to remove the iron suit from its resting place, claiming to Tony that she had decided to keep it in another place out of sight because she thought it would be better for his recovery. Tony didn't complain about it, even though his protégé noticed the man sometimes glancing at the empty capsule while they were in the lab.

"How's your project going, dear?" The auburn-haired woman asked as soon as she saw him, his figure slight bending over his workstation.

"Almost done." Peter grinned, looking over his shoulder. "Want to take a look at it?"

Pepper stopped beside him and looked at the teenager's project; her eyes widened with genuine admiration.

"This... It's wonderful, Peter." She stared back at him, and there was only gratitude in her gaze.

~.~

"Why the hell I need to do another surgery?" Tony stared at Helen's face as if the doctor had suddenly grown another head.

"We have been studying a new surgical technique that could fix the nerves of your left hand, giving back stability to your fingers; in theory, if it works, you will be able to hold objects in a tight grip as before." The woman explained. "It won't be a big intervention at first and won't take more than two hours of surgery. As a direct benefit you will be able to work with objects that require handling minute details like you used to do before on your projects."

It made the billionaire think, considering the matter.

He had already gone through the worst shits someone possible could enough to fill the curiosity of a lifetime, and return to the hospital after he almost died and bargained to get out of it in the first place was the least thing he wanted to do, but to think that he could go back to work in his laboratory again was something that pleased him immensely; being able to work with one hand was better than no hand at all and he would be able to help Peter more efficiently than sitting in front of his kid telling him what he should or not do.

He didn't want to go back to the hospital, but the offer tempted him too hard.

"How long would I have to stay?" The engineer decided to inquire then.

"A day or two at most for observation, just to be safe; after that, May could assist you here at Stark Residence and will keep me informed."

"Say yes, Daddy!" Morgan spoke to him, jumping on the couch next to her father, giving those brown puppy eyes that made him snort and pat her head.

"Why are you suspiciously agreeing to this, Little Miss?"

"It's because I finished my project." Peter replied and Tony looked at him. "I told Morgan that I only would let you see it if you have the surgery."

"And this is supposed to motivate me?" The man gave him a fondly smile and the teenager grinned.

"Of course! I really want to work with you again, Mr. Stark! Hand, fingers and all!"

The man looked at his family watching him back expectantly and Pepper placed a hand on his thigh.

"What do you say, honey?"

Tony observed his wife and he read in her blue eyes exactly what he was considering before; it was a way to get a piece of himself back.

"Alright... I will do it." He finally agreed.

~.~

Tony regained consciousness slowly and gradually, waking from a good, dreamless sleep; he felt rested as he hadn't felt since before the war. With his head tilted partially to the left, the first thing the man saw when he groggily opened his eyes was his left hand resting on the bed completely covered in bandages up to the elbow. Rising his gaze, he looked at the window and saw the sky outside was completely dark and he frowned, confused.

If they had arrived at the hospital early in the morning and the surgery wouldn't be long, why the hell the night looked so advanced?

Tony shifted in his position and tried to sit; a sudden flash of discomfort in the entire right side of his body made him stop and grunt; his head turned abruptly, his eyes widened and his jaw dropped in shock.

His chest was covered entirely with thick bandages and somewhere beneath it was the discomfort; the bandages ended by revealing a shoulder connected to an arm and a hand entirely made of titanium; the limb's red and gold color stand out to his eyes and the engineer immediately recognized that it was built from parts of his suit.

The designer was perfect; it was done in minute detail and the size and shape resembled that of his left arm, suiting his body with elegance. Clearly it was made especially for him. The hand and each of its fingers were redesigned on a smaller scale so that it perfectly resembled a human hand and not the robust form of his iron gauntlet. On the wrist the man saw a small oval orifice where a miniature of his Ark Reactor has been placed, though at that moment it was off.

Tony didn't delve further in his thoughts as the room's door suddenly opened and his daughter and wife entered the room.

"Daddy, you woke up!"

The five-year-old girl rushed to her father's side and Tony instinctively raised his arm in her direction; it was his iron limb that responded and his eyes watched with fascination as it moved and landed on his daughter's face, the golden-red fingers cradled Morgan's cheek perfectly and caressed her gently.

"It worked! See mum! It worked!" Morgan exclaimed in delight; Pepper was so touched that she didn't answer immediately, her trembling hands covered her mouth and the woman's blue eyes shone brightly with tears, watching her husband with genuine joy.

Morgan's hands held her father's titanium arm, her small eyebrows frowned deeply as she looked at the man's hand resting on hers, examining his fingers.

"But... this is still off." She complained. "I know how to turn it on, Daddy, you need to do this!"

The girl touched the Ark Reactor and it come to life, shining brightly before their eyes and expanding inside the limb as blood does to the arteries and veins of the human body, and when it happened, Tony felt himself being suddenly filled with warmth coming from his five-year-old daughter's hands, her touch caressed his red and gold fingers while she watched his face with expectation.

The man's countenance filled in with awe as he stared at their joined hands. He could feel it; he could feel her touch as if Morgan was caressing him directly on his human skin. And when Pepper came over and sat on the edge of the bed, she landed her hand above theirs and the engineer felt the exact moment her fingers touched and intertwined with his, and his hand responded to the gesture instinctively, curling around his wife and daughter's fingers.

"Why don't you go to your brother and let him know that your father has already woken up?" Pepper spoke to the girl.

"Yup!" Morgan agreed and literally ran out of the room after the teenager.

Tony stared at his wife in wonder.

"How...?"

"Peter did it; it's a gift from him to you." Pepper answered and not a second later the door opened again and their daughter returned bringing Peter with her.

The engineer stood up slowly; his gaze found the teenager's and the young hero grinned softly.

"Hey, Mr. Stark... How are you?"

Shifting on his feet partly, Peter spoke.

"Morgan told me that your arm is working well... I hope you liked it. I'm not as brilliant as you are, but I think my secret project turned out right."

When Tony remained silent, still staring at Peter without showing any reaction, the teenager started to become nervous on the man's lack of response. He fumbled with the hem of his shirt and his gaze strayed to the floor as he started rambling out.

"I-I didn't do it alone, FRIDAY helped me a lot because she knows how you built your suit; you are literally Iron Man now, I guess... sort of... Sorry for dismantling your suit, I needed the remaining arm as the mold for the new one. Dr. Cho and her team helped a lot to connect your nerves to the ironwork structure so that you could feel things again; I sent her a copy of the blueprints of the project when I started to work on it. I'm sure there must be something to fix there, you should check it out; I tried to do my best looking at your files... FRIDAY wanted to keep the repulsor in case you wanted to, you know, blow something up, but I took it off because I definitely don't know how to work on it and I didn't want to risk messing something and ended up accidentally exploding on you, so if you want it you'll have to put it back..."

His ramblings were interrupted when Tony crossed the distance and hugged him, crashing Peter in his arms tightly. His chest right protested in a flash of pain from the surgical intervention, but the man paid no attention; he could only feel his iron hand slide up the other's back, feel the sweat under the fabric of his shirt, the warmth of his skin and the smoothness of his short messy hair sliding his iron fingers through it; and when Tony rested his face on the teenager's shoulder, Peter felt his mentor's tears wet his clothes while feeling his own eyes water, and he returned the man's embrace with the same intensity.

"Hey, dad..." His kid called him timidly. "I'm glad I got you back."

When Tony looked at him, the smile on his lips was one of the brightest that Peter had ever seen on the man's face.