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

If you cut me (I will bleed)

There was an alpaca named Gerald, and a room for him.

Painted in red, grey, and blue, with all of his old belongings.

His dad wasn't awake.

Wouldn't be awake.

The doctors said he was in a coma.

Medically induced.

In the meanwhile, Pepper had taken Morgan back to the lake house, Peter refusing to leave the bedside. 

Days passed.

Then weeks.

Weeks turned into months.

Peter refused to go back to school.

Pepper kissed his head and assured him that he didn't need to worry about it- that after the five years, the school systems were still adjusting from half the world's children reappearing.

Tony woke up on month three, day eighty two.

Peter had been curled into a small couch beside his bed, blanket tucked up to his chin, feet hanging off the end, when the heart monitor sped up, jerking the teen out of his light doze, and sending him to the side of the bed. 

His heart pounded as his dad's eyes met his own. "Dad?"

Tony's eyes darted from side to side, wide, and panicked.

Peter's hands lifted, coming to a stop just before Tony's shoulders, half afraid to touch him. "Dad? Hey, you need to- you need to calm down-"

The searching eyes locked onto the teen's face, and he felt a shiver of foreboding.

Something wasn't right.

"Who-" his dad started, voice dry and raspy. "Who are you?"

Retrograde amnesia, Bruce called it.

He went off into a long winded spiel on how it progressed, what to look for, symptoms, but Peter zoned out.

His dad had looked at him, and didn't know him.

The son that he had raised, since birth, and he didn't know him.

It hurt.

Tony was lucid.

Well, enough to understand what was happening around him.

And to comprehend what they were telling him.

He had nodded slowly, gaze drifting from one face to another. "Thought I was missing something."

A small smile pulled up the corner of his lips, and he gestured for Peter to move closer with his good arm. "You're my kid then?"

Peter forced a smile, sitting on the edge of the bed. "Yeah. Are you- are you feeling okay?"

"I've felt better." His dad sighed heavily, wincing as he tried to sit up. "C'mon. Help me out."

Doctor Cho stepped forward quickly, pushing him back down onto his pillow. "Behave or I'll have to sedate you."

Tony subsided quickly, eyes narrowing. "Just tryna hug my kid."

His arm flailed weakly, clasping onto Peter's shoulder. "Need hugs."

The teen gave him tense smile, leaning down to hug his dad. "Happy now?"