Peter never outright lied about his condition. Usually, he ever so skillfully avoided the conversation altogether. It was a complicated thing to discuss, and a topic that most people didn’t really understand or know much about. And it didn’t help that any time Peter truly thought about it, it make it difficult to keep up his relentless optimism. 

     Unfortunantely the thoughts irritate him now as he reaches up to the top shelf of the cabinet, taking down to bottles of pills. His daily dose of Lamotragine, followed by the smaller dose of his anxiety medication. He hated taking them both. The lamotragine was given to him to treat the non-convulsive epilepsy, that he’d had since he was a child. Unfortunately, in recent years, severe anxiety became a side effect of the medication. So in order to keep that in check, he was given klonopin in order to keep the anxiety at bay. 

     He’d hoped for a little while after the spider bite that the problem would solve itself and go away, so he’d stopped taking his seizure meds. Unfortunately, it was followed by several seizures in one day. Thankfully, Peter’s epilepsy was non-convulsive, meaning that after he’s had a seizure a hospital trip was never neccessarry. Usually he could take an ibuprofin for the headache and a nap afterward, and he’d be just fine the next day. 

     He had what was called Absence Seizures. And, as the name implies, the seizure was almost like he was absent from the current situation. For example, if he was in the middle of a conversation with someone, and he had an episode in the middle of the conversation, he would just check out. To other people, it looked as if he was being rude and wasn’t paying attention to what the person was saying. What Peter saw, however, was as if a movie was being skipped. He wouldn’t know he’d had one until it was over, when he realizes he’s missed at least a minute of time and a good portion of what was going on around him. When the seizure was over, he was left feeling absolutely exhausted with a horrible headache.

     While this kind of epilepsy was defintely a better alternative to convulsions, it still had it’s downsides. If he missed a dose of his medication, he avoided doing lab work or going out as spider-man, fearing an ill timed seizure could have dire consequences. He couldn’t drive until he’d gone 6 months seizure free, which had yet to be the case. And last school year Peter had to drop out of the School play, as he had a time period where he’d have at least one seizure a day despite taking his medication. Plus the anxiety really was no fun. 

     He tried to look on the bright side. It could truly be worse. But sometimes that was difficult, like today.

     “Kid, be careful.” Tony warns, not looking up from his project. Peter chuckles. All it was, was a piece of scrap metal. Dangerous? Yes. The edges were sharp and jagged and could easily cut someone if they weren’t careful. But Peter had handled scrap metal hundred of times. He knew to be careful. “You should be wearing gloves if your going to handle it.”

     “Mr. Stark I’m just moving it away from my work space. I’m sure-” 

     One minute, he was carrying the metal to a small discard pile on the otherside of the workshop. The next, Tony was gently shaking him by the shoulders, trying to bring him back to reality. Peter blinks a few times, trying to refocus his vision. Tony’s voice is muffled at first, but soon enough his words become clear.

     “-an you hear me? Peter?! Peter answer me.” 

     “Y-Yeah, I can hear you. I’m fine.” The boy stutters, his voice shaking. The headache has already started to set in, and his body feels as if he’s fought every villian at once. He’s exhausted. The pain in his hand stands out the most, and he lifts it to find a concerning cut right across his palm. Blood pours from the wound, and for some reason the sight of it makes Peter nausous. 

     “Kid we need to get you to the medbay.” Tony says. 

    “I’m fine, really. It’s just a little blood.” 

“Medbay, now.” Tony’s tone leaves no room for argument, and soon the two are making their way to the medbay. The bright lights of the hospital like area only worsen the headache, and the only thing he wants right now is an ibuprofen and a nap.

“So what happened?” Bruce Banner questions as he begins cleaning and bandaging the wound on Peter’s hand. The bleeding had stopped for the most part, and Peter knew it’d be healed by morning. “Did you miss your meds or is this something we need to worry about?” The teen tries to think back to earlier that morning. He’d been running late for school, and try as he might he couldn’t remember taking his medications today. 

“I think I missed a dose…” 

“A dose of what?” Tony questions curiosly. “What’re you taking meds for, Pete? And why does Dr. Banner know about it and I don’t?”

“Well first of all, I know the medical history and conditions of every team member. Which is important considering I’m the ‘on the field’ medic.” Bruce answers, cleaning up the first aid equipment. “As to why he didn’t tell you, that’s between you guys.”

Bruce gives Peter something for his headache and then leaves the room, leaving Peter with questions to answer and things to explain. 

“Kid, tell me what happened.”

“I had a seizure.” Peter answers casually. It’s a question he’s used to by now. He’s had to answer the same question for teachers, fellow students, Ned, and MJ. 

“A what?”

“A seizure.”

“That’s not usually what a seizure looks like.” 

“What you’re thinking of is convulsive seizures. I have a different kind. Really all that happens is my brain short circuts for a minute or so, causing me to blank out for bit. If that makes sense.” 

“You continued walking though. Towards the discard pile. That’s how you cut your hand. You ran into a workbench and dropped the scraps you were holding.” 

“Well when I have a seizure, sometimes my body goes in autopilot, even though my brain decides to check out and not work right.” Peter answers with a shrug. “I was walking when I went into the seizure, so I kept walking while having one. I actually ran into a door that way once.” Tony’s silent for a moment, processing the information. 

“Kid, you should’ve told me. This is actually something the whole team should know.” 

“You all already see me as just a kid that needs babysitting. You guys knowing that would’ve made it worse.”

“But what if something happened in a fight? And we didn’t know?” 

“I didn’t really think about that.” Peter answers, yawning. He was exhausted. “I’ll answer more questions later, but right now I need a nap.” He didn’t want to admit it, but it was a relief Tony knew. He had no doubt there would be more questions later, and Peter was happy to answer them. But right now he wanted to sleep, and that’s exactly what he did. 

Hello everyone!! So I’ve wanted to write this one shot for a while, simply because this is my current situation. Like Peter in this one-shot, I have what’s called ‘absence seizures’. I’ve had them my entire life, and it’s never bothered me until now. According to my neurologist, me outgrowing them or them going away are incredibly unlikely now that I’m an adult. This means the likelihood of me driving is less than steller as well. (I have to go 6 months without a seizure before I can even learn to drive, which is a bummer considering I’ll be moving out to be on my own at the end of this year).

Fortunately I serve an amazing God who can do amazing things, and maybe one day the neurologist will be proven wrong. 

Until then, I try to look on the brightside. For example, not being able to drive means I’ll have to walk/bike most places. This is both better for the environment and for my health. It also means I won’t have to pay for gas, car insurance, an actual car, or a gym membership 😂. 

Also, fun fact, most things in this one shot are true. While I’m not an avenger (unfortunately), and didn’t cut my hand like Peter did, I did run into a door once mid- seizure 😂. I also had to drop out of the school play, I take medications for the epilepsy and the anxiety, and I’ve given the descriptions of a seizure from my point of view and the after-effects of what an absence seizure is like to the best of my ability. 

If you have any questions about any of it I’d be happy to answer them, and who knows maybe one of you beautiful readers deals with the same thing. 

I love you all my amazing arachnids!!

-Nat