Chasing Demons Chapter 11 Preview
Expanding the hologram, Tony quickly become so engrossed in his work that he didn't even realise that Peter had entered the lab until he opened his mouth, nearly causing Tony to jump out of his skin.
“Jesus, Pete,” Tony gasped, pressing his palm over his racing heart. “You gotta give me a warning or something when you come up behind me like that, okay?”
“Sorry,” Peter said sheepishly. “Just wanted to let you know that dinner’s almost ready. Papa’s making tacos since Uncle Thor’s coming up, so…”
Tony drew in a deep breath as he nodded. Thor had become quite fond of both Sam and Steve’s cooking since he’d been back, and had taken to requesting certain meals when he didn't feel like ordering his usual pizzas or fried chicken deliveries.
“Sounds good, buddy,” Tony said. “You got all your homework done?”
Peter gave a nod. “Almost, just got a bit of history to finish with Papa after dinner. He asked me to wait so he could do it with me.”
“Good, good. You know how much Papa loves his history.”
“Yeah.” Peter fell silent then, his eyes narrowing as he studied the hologram floating in front of them. “How’s this coming?”
“Eh, it’s coming,” answered Tony. “I’m hoping to get it done before we leave for Italy, that way we can test it once we get back.”
Peter nodded again, stepping around the hologram as he studied it while Tony watched him fondly. Peter had always been curious, to the point where it often got him into trouble when he was little, but the fact that he could simply look at a complex hologram and almost instantly understand it was something that both amazed Tony and filled him with pride at the same time. There was no doubt in his mind that Peter was someday going to change the world with his brilliance, and when that day came, he and Steve would be right there in the front row, cheering him on.
“So, what do you think?” he asked once Peter had circled the whole thing. “Got any suggestions?”
Instead of answering, Peter reached inside the hologram, expanding a small section and leaning in closer. “Can I tweak something in here?”
Peter bit his bottom lip as he fiddled with a tiny section of the interface, adjusting one of the settings in such a way that would allow it to connect with the user almost twice as fast as Tony had originally calculated, reducing the margin of error and allowing the user that much less exposure to the electromagnetic field. While the field itself wasn’t considered to be dangerous, Tony had postulated that prolonged exposure to it could eventually lead to headaches, as the human imagination wasn't really designed to be outwardly projected.
“There,” Peter said with a rather triumphant smile. “Look okay?”
“You know it does, buddy,” answered Tony as he ruffled Peter’s hair, earning him a playful scowl. “I should just let you do all the tinkering here, it’d probably get done faster.”
“Nah,” Peter said, giving Tony one of his papa’s aw shucks grins. “Speaking of it, though, there’s something I was gonna ask you about it.”
Peter gulped as he looked down at his long, piano-player fingers that reminded Tony so much of his own mother. It still saddened him from time to time that Maria Stark never had the chance to meet Peter, because Tony had no doubt that she would’ve adored him. Aunt Peggy had done her best to fill in for that grandmotherly role, at least until her mind got too far gone for her to remember him, but it still wasn’t the same.
“I know you said that you were gonna use this on Uncle Bucky,” Peter began. “And that you said—”
“That’s because Uncle Bucky volunteered for it, Pete,” Tony cut in. “There’s no way I’d force it on him, you know that. And he can still change his mind if he wants to, but for right now he’s volunteered. And he’s an adult, so he’s allowed to do that.”
“No, I know that,” said Peter. “What I was gonna say is… I’d like to do it too. The experiment. I wanna do it.”
Fear hit Tony like a sledgehammer, and he curled his hand around his left forearm, squeezing it against the burning pain. He and Steve had been afraid something like this would happen, but they had both just sort of pushed it off to deal with later, not wanting to have to think about it too much.
“Pete, I thought we've already talked about this,” he said. “Papa and I said that there’d be no need for you to—”
“Yeah, you and Papa said there’d be no need,” interrupted Peter. “Especially if it worked on Uncle Bucky.”
“Which it will,” said Tony. “I’ll make sure that it does.”
“I know that, Dad, and that’s exactly why I wanna do it too.” Peter’s eyebrows knitted together as his huge brown eyes filled with tears. “I just… I hate it. I hate knowing that those words are still buried somewhere deep inside my mind, where no one can reach them except the bad guys, and I just… I just want them gone. And if this contraption can make them go away for good, then I wanna use it.”
“Oh God, Pete,” Tony gasped as he pulled Peter into a tight hug, burying his nose into his green-apple-scented curls. “Buddy, you're so young, it’s just so goddamn wrong that you're having to deal with any of this in the first place.”
“Maybe,” Peter said into Tony’s chest. “But the fact of the matter is that I am having to deal with it, and I just don't want to anymore. I just want it gone, Dad, all of it. I’m sick of having a ticking time bomb stuck inside of me, and I just want it out of my head.” He tipped his head up to look into Tony’s eyes. “Please? I don't—I don't want other people to get hurt again because of me. That’s not what heroes do.”
Tony’s breath lodged in his throat at Peter’s statement, at how much he sounded like Steve as he said it. He cupped his son’s cheeks in both hands, unable to even form words as he stared at him in awe.
They are so much more alike than they’ll ever realise.
The full chapter will post on Monday, November 25th 😊
