A/N: thanks for the response! Here's chapter two!

Happy arrived a little later with a few bags of fast food, and Tony met him at the door.

"Thanks for coming," Tony said, taking a bag.

"No problem," Happy replied. "Anything for May and the kid. Can you tell me what's going on?"

Slowly Tony described the situation, repeating what Dr. Caldwell had told them as best as he could.

Happy looked devastated to hear the news about May. "God, this is awful. Will she wake up?"

He shook his head. "They didn't give us a time table. But honestly, they don't sound very optimistic. I guess we'll have to wait for them to have more information."

Happy took a shaky breath. "Well, we should get this food to Peter. He probably needs it more than you. I can't imagine how he's feeling right now."

"Yeah, he needs it. Whether or not he'll actually eat it is another thing," he replied.

The two of them walked over to where Peter was sitting.

"Hey, Pete," Happy said. "I brought dinner." He placed one of the bags in Peter's hands.

After Peter had finished crying, he'd become quiet again. Now, he said only a small, "Thank you."

"Eat up," Tony said, pulling a burger out of his own bag. "It might make you feel better."

The next few hours as they waited for May to be moved to the ICU somehow passed mercifully quickly compared to waiting during her surgery. It was nice to know exactly how long they had to wait, anyway.

Peter picked at his food, but Tony noticed that he didn't really eat anything. Well, at least he wasn't still staring off into the middle distance anymore.

When the time came, Happy stayed behind in the waiting room and a nurse named Marissa led him and Peter to May's bed in the ICU. Tony moved to step inside, but she stopped outside the door.

"Alright," Marissa said. "There's a few things you need to know before going in. First, you'll only be able to stay for fifteen minutes. She's in delicate state right now, and the doctors will need as much access to her as they can. The two of you can go in together, but don't crowd too closely around her bed. It's better to go up one at a time. Do you understand?"

Both of them nodded. Tony looked at Peter. The kid's face looked like it was set in stone.

"I also want to tell you about what you'll see when you get in there. May has been in a terrible accident, and it's likely she'll look a little different to how you normally see her. There'll be tubes and wires attached to her that are monitoring and delivering medication. This stuff can look scary, but it's all there to help her, okay?" She looked between the two of them.

When she got the confirmation again that they were listening, she continued, "There's a few things in particular that I should warn you about. The first is on her head. You heard from Dr. Caldwell that May had a craniotomy? So, on the side of her skull you'll see that some of her hair is shaved, and there is a line of sutures from where the surgical incision was. There's also some equipment attached to her head. This looks scary, but what it does is monitor the pressure inside her brain. It's not hurting her."

Tony felt overwhelmed with all of the information. And there was more.

"Moving down to her chest, you'll see a small chest tube. This is to help treat her punctured lung, as it allows air to escape her chest cavity. Again, this device is helping her, so don't disturb it."

Peter's face had grown pale again.

Marissa continued, "Finally, the doctors had to intubate May. This means you'll see a tube going down her throat. This looks scary, but what it's doing is helping her to breathe." She paused. "Okay, do you have any questions about anything I've said?"

"No," Tony forced out.

"Great. You can go inside and see her now." She opened the door, and the two of them walked in.

Peter's steps stuttered beside him as they got their first glimpse of May.

Somehow, even after all of the nurse's warnings, Tony didn't expect to see her like this. Honestly, she looked dead. Her skin was pale and covered in bruises. Her leg was covered in a cast. Various wires connected to her chest, and IVs went down into her arms. He could only see a portion of the chest tube, but that was enough to set his teeth on edge. Machines beeped around them.

But what was worst was her head. Her face was slack and her mouth was pulled to the side by the breathing tube. Not much of her hair was shaved - just a thin line travelling around her ear. But the stitches looked awful, and reminded him of what was happening underneath. It was weird as well to see the monitoring device he knew went down into her brain.

He put a hand on Peter's shoulder. "It's okay, Pete," he said, even though he knew it wasn't.

Peter stepped away from his hand and towards the bed, hesitating for a moment before gently grabbing his aunt's hand.

Tony quickly grabbed a chair and moved it over so that the kid could sit next to her.

When Peter spoke, it felt like Tony was intruding in a private moment. He went as far into the corner of the room as he could, but he could still hear Peter's soft voice over the sounds of the machines.

"Hi May," he said. "It's Peter. I-I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." Tony saw tears running down his face again. Not the desperate ones from earlier, but quiet ones this time. "Please wake up," Peter continued. "I can't… just please wake up, okay?"

Tony's heart broke a little more at the quietly desperate words.

Fifteen minutes later, the nurse came in and brought them back outside the room.

"Just so you understand," Marissa said, "May will be here at least a few days to a week, if not longer, depending on the prognosis."

"Okay," Tony replied. "We understand."

"It's unlikely we'll have any more information for you tonight. You'll be able to visit her for fifteen minutes every hour." She flashed Peter a soft look. "I know you want to stay by her side. However, there's no current danger of her condition worsening, and it might be better to go somewhere that you can get some rest. At least for a few hours."

"Thank you," Tony said when Peter didn't reply.

"Her doctor will give you a full update in the morning." With that she gave them another one of those kind yet condescending smiles and walked off down the hall.

As they moved back to the waiting room, Tony spoke to Peter. "I know you don't want to go, but I think she's right. We should leave for a little while, and come back in the morning. What do you think?"

Peter shrugged. "I guess."

Tony frowned. He hadn't expected Peter to give in so fast. "Really? Okay, well, why don't we stay another hour so you can see May again, and then we'll go."

"Yeah, okay."

Despite how weird Peter was acting, Tony was glad he wasn't fighting him. It was around 10 PM at that point, and there was no way that any of them would be able to get any sleep there. Well, it was pretty unlikely that they would get any sleep anywhere, but at least they could pretend if they left the hospital.

May looked the same when they went back an hour later, and Tony couldn't tell if that was a good thing or a bad thing. Maybe it was neither. From what he gathered from the nurse, they weren't expecting her status to change through the night. That probably didn't mean anything good, considering where she was. But when he told Peter he tried to spin it in a positive light.

After they were pushed out of the room they gathered their things and Tony walked close behind Peter as they left the building.

It was dark outside, and relatively quiet. The moon shone faintly over the parking lot.

Peter didn't say a word as they travelled to the car and got in. Since Happy had come here in another car, he was taking that one and meeting them back at Peter's apartment. He wished they could go back to the compound, but it was too far for tonight, and it was probably better for Pete to be somewhere familiar.

They pulled out of the parking lot and onto the street, lights slowly passing by their windows. "You have your keys, right?" Tony asked.

"Yeah," Peter responded shortly.

He looked over at the kid. He was leaned up against the window, watching the street roll by. Tony opened his mouth to say something, but then closed it again. He wasn't sure if talking would help or hurt.

Peter decided for him. "What's going to happen?" he asked quietly.

"I don't know," Tony answered honestly. "But I'm sure we'll hear more tomorrow."

"I mean, to me," he added. "There's no one else. Where do I go?"

Tony was confused. "We're going back to your apartment. Me and Happy are gonna stay with you."

"But she's gone," Peter said.

Suddenly, Tony understood what he was trying to say, and had to pull the car over. "Peter," he said firmly, "May isn't dead. She's alive. And she's going to get better. Okay?"

"No. It makes sense."

Tony frowned. "What?"

Peter shook his head slowly. "Everyone leaves me. First my parents, and then Ben. And now May. I'm cursed, Mr. Stark. The people around me always die."

"No," he said quickly. He felt his chest clench in sympathy. "Peter, no. You're not cursed. You have had a lot of bad things happen to you. And I'm sorry you've had to deal with any of it. But it's not your fault."

Peter swallowed roughly. "Yes it is. You don't understand."

Tony put a hand on his shoulder. "Peter, look at me," he said firmly. Peter hesitated, but eventually turned his eyes to him. "What happened - you are not to blame. I know what it is to lose people - to have the people you love be hurt, and feel responsible." His parents faces flashed in his mind, and he saw Rhodey unconscious in that field in Germany. "But the truth is that sometimes you get dealt a bad hand. Then when you lose, it feels like it's on you. But the world didn't give you the chance to begin with. So listen to me when I say: you are not to blame, okay?"

Peter took a shaky breath and hurriedly wiped his eyes. "Y-yeah."

Tony knew that it would take time for Peter to believe him. But for now, he could support him as best he could.

The next morning they got back to the hospital early. Tony had managed to sleep for a few hours. Peter said he had gotten to sleep, but from the bags under his eyes Tony was doubtful.

Happy dropped them off at the front and went to go park the car.

They wandered inside and found their way to the nurses' station in the ICU. The man behind the desk told them that May was currently out of her room for a CT scan, but would be back soon. He also told them that her doctor would have an update for them soon.

As they waited for them to bring May back, Tony's thoughts wandered. Mostly he was concerned for Peter, but he couldn't help thinking about SI and his business with S.H.I.E.L.D. He knew that he would have to get back to it soon. He could probably do most things from wherever he needed to. But hopefully May would wake up soon and this whole thing could go back to normal.

A voice in the back of his head told him that was a futile thing to hope. This was going to last a while.

A half hour later, nurses brought May back to her room. They were let in to see her for their fifteen minutes, and Tony noted that she looked pretty much the same as she had the night before. He wondered if they were keeping her sedated, or if she was unconscious.

Happy arrived, coffee in hand. "How is it in there?" he asked.

Tony shrugged. "Looks like not much has changed. Which could be good, I guess. We'll see."

"How's the kid?"

Peter was sitting down the hall, looking at his phone. Hopefully he wasn't googling depressing facts about traumatic brain injuries.

"Well, I don't think he's doing so great," he responded tensely. "But he has a pretty good reason to feel shitty."

Happy frowned at him. "Hey, don't take it out on me. I'm just trying to help, here."

Tony sighed. "Yeah, I know. I'm sorry. This whole thing's just got me on edge. I wish Pepper was here. She's better at this kind of stuff."

"She'll be back from D.C. tomorrow," Happy replied. "And you're doing alright. This would be hard for anyone."

"Yeah, I know." He looked back over at Peter. "I feel like he's sick of me. You wanna go keep him company?"

Happy raised his eyebrows. "Sure, if you want. But I don't think that kid could get sick of you."

It felt like a long wait before the doctor appeared to update them. He brought Peter and Tony into another room and they sat down together.

"Good morning," Dr. Caldwell said.

Not really, Tony thought. But he only said, "Morning. You have news for us?"

"Well, I can say that May made it through the night with no further complications," he replied.

Tony was relieved for a moment - that is, until he noticed the doctor's hesitation. "What is it?" he asked, willing his voice not to betray the anxiety that he was feeling.

Caldwell looked at Peter, then back up at him. He looked sympathetic. "While May's condition hasn't worsened, it hasn't improved either. We were hoping for to show signs of waking, since she was taken off the sedatives a little after midnight last night."

Well, this was headed nowhere good.

The doctor's voice had a finality to it. "This morning we conducted a number of tests that measured brain activity and pain response, and unfortunately we have determined that May is in a comatose state."

God, no.

Tony saw Peter's hands clench into fists out of the corner of his eye.

Before either of them could say anything, Caldwell continued. "I know that this is a frightening prognosis, so let me explain what will happen from here."

"Okay," Tony said. "Explain."

"The truth is that there is no specific approach to waking someone from a coma. In this scenario, what May needs most is time. Time for her body and her brain to heal itself. There is no sure way to estimate how long her coma will last, and what state she will be in if she comes out of it. You should understand that she could wake up fine. But she could also wake up with loss of motor function or memories, or not wake up at all."

Tony looked at Peter. His jaw was clenched and his face was screwed up like he was trying not to cry. "What can we do for her?" he asked.

"Well, Mr. Stark, we will supply medicine that will hopefully help the swelling in her brain, but unfortunately this is really a waiting game." Dr. Caldwell looked down at the papers in his hands and back up again. "However, I would say that I expect May to regain consciousness. There's no guarantee," he quickly warned, "but other patients with a similar level of brain injury have recovered. This next week should provide us with some answers. If she doesn't show signs of waking after that time, her chances of recovery drop significantly."

"Okay," Tony said, taking a deep breath. "Well, that gives us a timetable at least."

"Right. This is a scary situation, but at this point there is still hope for a full recovery. We'll know more as time passes. Hopefully she'll wake much sooner than the end of the week. But even if she does wake soon, this will likely still be an extended process. But we can talk about that as the situation progresses."

"Right. Well, thank you."

"Thanks," Peter said quietly.

Damn it.