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Penny held onto her parent’s hand and jumped as they went through the automatic sliding door, the momentum swinging her forward. She let out a little giggle before letting Peter have a turn as she ran ahead to wave at the receptionist.
“Hi, Mrs. Duncan!” she said, and the kind older woman smiled back. Mary’s heart tugged at the fact that her 3 year old had so frequently visited this hospital that she knew all the staff by name.
“Well, if it isn’t my favorite little Parkers,” the kind, older lady said, her thick southern accent and answering smile making the twins smile wider as well. She leaned over to greet Penny and Peter, who had quickly run up to join his sister. “How are you both today?”
Well, if the kids are gonna know the entire staff, at least they’re all so sweet. Mary thought, the knot in her chest loosening a little. She turned towards the clipboard to sign in, letting her kiddos do the talking.
“Good. I’m going to get shots today!” Penny said.
“Well, bless your heart, aren’t you a brave little girl? You know, I know a lot of grown ups who aren’t as brave as you!”
“Yeah,” Peter giggled. “Like our dad! He hates shots.”
“Well, maybe you can teach him to be as brave as you!” Mrs. Duncan said, shooting a grin at Richard, who looked quite stricken. “Maybe some stickers will help. Would you like some?”
Both kids eagerly nodded and accepted the packet of animal stickers offered.
“Thank you,” they chorused.
“Ain’t no problem.” The receptionist turned to accept the paperwork as Mary finished and held it out to her. “Now, you’re all set, you go right down the hall to your usual room.”
Penny and Peter ran towards the room, and got settled in to wait.
“Mom? Dad? Are the shots going to hurt?” Penny asked.
“Well, they might sometimes,” Mary answered truthfully. “But it’s a very small needle, sweetie. And you know why we’re getting shots, right?”
“So I can grow tall as a giraffe!”
That had been what they told the little girl when they had talked to the doctor about growth hormones. The doctor had explained that without the shots, Penny would only be about 4’8” (1.4 meters). They were lucky, he said, that she’d been diagnosed so early and would be able to have years of treatment so she could grow to a normal, healthy height.
Mary smiled. “That’s right. Your body doesn’t make the stuff that makes you grow, so it needs a little help to be that tall.”
Peter, who was sitting next to his little sister, took her hand protectively. “I’ll hold your hand if you get scared, Penny. I’ll keep you safe, I promise.”
Mary and Richard met eyes as they looked at their two brave little ones, and knew they were both trying very hard not to melt right to the floor.
Luckily, they were saved from turning into mush at the hands of their three year olds as the door clicked open.
It was a fairly quick visit. The doctor showed the entire family how to put the needle on the pen, how to dial it to the right dosage, how to mix a new vial of medication. Then he held a foam lion- Penny did love animals- and had them each practice giving the lion a shot with the small needle, teaching them to wipe the spot clean with a little alcohol swab first. He placed everything they needed in a bag before sending them home.
That night, Penny pulled her shirt sleeve up, staring at the needle in her dad’s hand. The doctor had shown her all the different sizes of needles, so she knew this was a tiny one, but it looked ginormous to her now that it was about to be stuck in her arm and not the toy lion. She squeezed Peter’s hand, which was clenched tightly in her own.
“You’re so brave, sweetheart,” her dad murmured, seeing her nervousness. He held the needle away carefully as he leaned forward to give her forehead a kiss. “I know it’s a little scary.”
“Why don’t we get a shot, too?” Mary suggested. “To help you be brave. Daddy can give me a shot, and I can give daddy one. Would that help?”
Penny nodded, and watched carefully as each adult took their turn receiving a shot like she would (just without the medicine). It looked no different than when they’d given the lion the shot. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad.
Peter let go of his sister’s hand to brandish his own arm bravely. “I get one too.”
Their dad squeezed Peter’s shoulder. “That’s very brave of you, buddy. Are you sure?”
“Yeah. I gonna show Penny to be brave.”
Pride shining from his eyes, Richard wiped his son’s arm down and gave him a shot. Peter winced a little, but once it was done, smiled widely and turned to his sister.
“See Penny! It doesn’t hurt!” He settled back into his spot and took her hand again. “But I’ll still hold your hand. Squeeze it if you get scared.”
As the cool alcohol swab touched her skin, Penny squished her eyes shut, turning her head towards her brother.
“I’m gonna count to three, okay?” their dad said. “Ready? One, two, three, boink! ”
Penny could feel the needle and the medicine going in. It burned a little, but it wasn’t too bad. She relaxed as her dad pulled the needle out.
“That didn’t hurt, daddy!” She shouted. “I was brave!”
“You are, baby girl. You are so brave! Now, let’s go pick out a sticker!”
Every night, Penny would settle in, her brother’s hand in her own, and her daddy would give her a shot. Sometimes it would be in her leg, sometimes in her arm, sometimes in her bum. She didn’t like it in her stomach, but she sometimes got it there, too, if the other areas were too sore. Sometimes the shot would make her bleed, but her dad would always kiss it better, and when some shots hurt more than others, Penny would just squeeze Peter’s hand and then it would be over.
And every day, her parents would remind her that she would grow as tall as a giraffe. She was so proud whenever they lined her up against the wall and she could see how much she’d grown. Peter was always taller than her, though, but that was okay, because he was the oldest.
Penny’s mom didn’t like giving her shots. It was her dad’s job even though he did really hate them. According to one story Mary had told her giggling twins, he had once almost passed out at the sight of a needle.
So when Penny and Peter went to stay with their Aunt May and Uncle Ben while their parents were away on a business trip, Penny set the shot up before bed as she always did and went to hand it to her uncle.
He nearly jumped off the couch to get away from her. Or rather, the needle in her hand. It had come to look very small to Penny as she had grown from three to six, so she couldn’t help but giggle at her uncle’s antics.
“No, sorry, sweetheart,” he said, still backing away. “But I don’t do needles. Your aunt’s a nurse. She’ll do it!”
“Are you afraid of needles like our dad?” Peter asked.
“Actually, he’s worse than your dad, bud. Your dad actually gives Penny the shots, right?” May said, grinning at her husband as she came over to take the pen from her niece.
Penny giggled. “Uh huh. Uncle Ben, you’re silly. It’s a baby needle!”
May chuckled as she wiped the little girl’s arm down. She was about to stick the needle in when Penny suddenly shouted: “Wait!”
May jumped, luckily away from the little girl so the needle didn’t touch skin. “What!?” she asked, eyes wide.
“You didn’t count to three. Daddy always counts to three and then says boink! ”
May smiled. “Alright then, one, two, three, boink!”
“Penny, I know it’s scary, but if you want to stay the week at Ned’s place, you’ve gotta learn to give yourself a shot, sweetheart. You can’t go that long without your medicine, and the Leeds can’t give you the shot themselves.
“I know, but it’s so scary looking at the needle,” the eleven year old wined, turning her wide doe eyes on her aunt, who was still the one in charge of the shots after all these years. “It’s just...I look at the needle and I can’t poke it in my skin. What if I put it in crooked? What if my hand shakes?”
May pulled Penny into her side, smoothing her hand through her niece’s brown curls. “I know sweetheart. It’s hard. But I believe in you, and once you know how to do this, then you can do anything!”
“Yeah, Pen,” Peter said, still keeping his promise of always being there for his sister’s shots. “You got this.”
Penny took a deep breath, and tried again to stick the needle into her right thigh. She got about a quarter inch above the skin when her hand just stopped. She let out the breath in a gust, then tried again. And again. Finally, she was able to get the needle all the way in. Slowly, carefully, she tried to push the dial down to inject the medicine, but it was too hard.
“Aunt May, I can’t!” she said, her voice shooting up with panic as her hands shook. She just knew there’d be a nice bruise right there the next day.
“Alright, alright. I’ll do it,” the nurse said, taking the pen and finishing up the injection. “I’m so proud of you, baby. You did it!”
“Mostly. Pushing the dial down was really hard.”
May frowned, and the next day she spoke with Penny’s doctor. The pen that her niece was using was an old one, she knew. There had to be a better option.
Luckily, there was.
May came home with a new pen. This one had a needle guard, a sheath with a spring that covered the needle so Penny wouldn’t see it as it went in.
“No, you dial it this way,” the nurse murmured, showing her niece how to spin the dial to the right dosage.
“And the needle guard just slides on like this?”
May nodded, and Penny placed the guard against her leg. With little hesitation, she slid the pen straight down and then easily pressed the dial.
Her eyes widened as she let the pen spring up, moving it away from her leg.
“I did it! May, that was so much easier! Thank you!”
The two hugged, the young girl’s enthusiasm infectious.
“There’s just one problem, Pen,” Peter interjected, a grin that foretold trouble on his lips.
“What?”
“You didn’t say boink.”
He didn’t even try to avoid the slap his sister aimed at his arm.
Penny’s cheeks burned as she took in her best friend’s wide, incredulous eyes. She wasn’t sure if it was from pleasure that he seemed so impressed or embarrassment from all the attention.
Probably both.
“And you get them every single night?”
Penny rolled her eyes a little, turning back to wiping her thigh with an alcohol swab. She’d brought loose pants so she could roll them up rather than pull them down. “Yeah. You knew that, Ned.”
“Well, yeah, but it’s totally different actually seeing it.”
“I know,” Peter interjected, grinning. “My sister’s pretty metal.”
Penny shook her head, not even blinking as she pressed the needle and medicine into her skin.
“Woah,” Ned breathed. “You didn’t even look.”
Penny giggled as she cleaned up, pleasure winning over embarrassment. “Nope. And I’m not even gonna look when I beat you in Mario Kart.” She grinned.
Ned grinned back. “You’re on.”
“You’re so going down, Leeds.”
“Uh, I think you’re both forgetting who won the great Mario Kart tournament of 2011,” Peter interjected.
The three continued to bicker as they headed up to Ned’s room, where Penny did end up winning Mario Kart.
When her twin brother had gotten sick after a field trip to oscorp, Penny hadn’t expected him to wake up with renewed eye-sight and lung capacity. She hadn’t expected their uncle to die and for Peter to come to her one night after a nightmare, his face and body shaking from the dream as he explained the particulars to her, complete with a display of his strange new powers. She hadn’t expected him to come home with a sweatsuit and ask for her help to create a web formula so he could be a superhero.
She really hadn’t expected to meet Tony Stark, and she really really hadn’t expected that he would invite them both to help him in his lab.
“He’s trying to make up for the dumpster fire that was homecoming,” Peter said to her and Ned in lieu of an explanation, bouncing on his bed like he liked to do.
Peter, who had always been horrible at keeping secrets, had outed himself to their friend a few weeks into the last school year. Penny never let him live it down.
“Yeah, but that doesn’t explain why he wants to meet me. It’s you he has to make it up to.”
Peter blushed. “I may have bragged about how you helped me make the web fluid and he wanted to meet you, too.”
“Dude,” Ned said, awe dripping from every syllable. “You’re gonna meet Tony Stark!”
And meet Tony Stark she did. Slightly stilted lab days had slowly relaxed into watching movies and eating dinner together, which had ended up turning into an invitation to spend Spring Break with the Starks since May would be working crazy hours at the hospital the whole time.
“You’ve got your medicines, right you guys?”
“Yes, May,” Penny said, goodnaturedly rolling her eyes.
“And your-“
“Toothbrushes, yep, we have them,” Peter interrupted with a chuckle.
May gave the twins a look. “Very funny,” she said, but then hugged and kissed them each. “Have fun, okay? I’ll call you tonight and if you need to come back for any reason, I’ll be right there.”
“Thanks May,” Penny said, and as her aunt left, she couldn’t help the excited grin from spreading across her face. She felt a little better when she looked at Peter and saw a matching grin on his face.
The entire evening, Penny’s smile didn’t fade. Through the car ride joking around with Peter and teasing Happy, dinner with Tony and Pepper, tinkering in the lab. She’d never imagined she would have a desk of her own in Tony Stark’s lab, getting to help him with new inventions and even create her own things. Peter was more into chemistry, but she loved biology. Tony had let her tinker with some nanobots and she was trying to figure out how to use them as prosthetics.
Her smile only faded as she prepped her shot that night, only to be startled by the door suddenly swinging open. It was her fault, really. She hadn’t closed it all the way, so Tony could clearly see the needle she was twisting onto the pen.
“Penny? Whatcha got there?” he asked tentatively.
Penny’s heart raced and she felt her cheeks heat up. She purposely hadn’t talked about Turner Syndrome or her shots with Tony. She wasn’t one to hide it, not after her mom and aunt had been so adamant that she not hide the disorder. But she also didn’t talk about it with just anybody, and she hadn’t been ready to let Tony know just yet. She didn’t want him to see her as abnormal.
“It’s not drugs, Mr. Stark,” Penny laughed, trying to hide the quaver in her voice with humor. “At least, not those kinds of drugs. It’s medicine.”
His head tilted. “What kind of medicine is it?”
Penny searched his face. Seeing only curiosity, she took a deep breath. “Do you know anything about Turner Syndrome?”
“I can’t say that I do.”
Penny forced her voice to stay slow and calm and not speed up to match her heartbeat. It helped that she’d rehearsed this little speech so many times. “So, girls have two X chromosomes and boys have an X and a Y, right? Well, I’m missing an X. It’s just a fluke happening. We don’t know why it happens, but one of the side effects is I don’t make as much growth hormone, so I have to take a shot every night to be a normal height. I’ve been doing it since I was 3.” She shrugged, her gaze lowering to the floor and her cheeks surely flaming with how hot they felt.
“You’ve gotten a shot every night since you were three?” Tony whistled lowly. “You just might be tougher than Peter.”
Penny slid him a small smile. “I don’t know that getting a tiny needle every night equates to being able to pick up a car with my bare hands,” she said dryly.
“I don’t know, Pen,” Tony said, sliding his arm across her shoulders and squeezing her closer to his side. “I think you’re incredibly brave and strong.”
Penny tucked her head into his shoulder to hide the sudden moisture in her eyes and cleared her throat to get around the lump that had formed. “Thanks, Mr. Stark,” she whispered.
“Thank you for sharing this part of yourself with me, sweetheart.”
Penny’s smile was back on her face as she went to sleep that night.
+1
They were in a shoe store when they got the call. May always took each of the kids shopping to get a new outfit, backpack, school supplies. It doubled as a way for her to spend a little quality time with each of them, which she loved. Their shopping spree was cut short when her phone rang and Penny’s endocrinologist’s name lit up the screen.
May’s heart dropped, but it turned out to be good news this time.
“Penny’s growth platelets have closed, which means she’s done growing. She can stop the shots now,” the doctor said.
“I’m done?” Penny asked in disbelief. “Like, done with shots?”
She could hear the smile in her doctor’s voice through the phone. “Yes, Penny. No more shots, you’re free!”
The fifteen year old was so excited she couldn’t help it. She jumped up and down in the store and cheered, not caring who saw.
May chuckled. “I think this calls for an ice cream cone as a celebration!”
They brought some home for Peter, too, and the three ate their ice cream as they watched a movie together that night.
“You know what the only problem is, Pen?” He asked.
“What?”
“You’re not as tall as a giraffe.”
Penny rolled her eyes. “No, I guess not.”
“But you know I’ll always keep you safe, right?” he whispered, suddenly serious, squeezing her hand that wasn’t holding the spoon.
She leaned over and bumped his shoulder with her own. “I know. I love you, Pete.”
“Love you, too, Pen.”
She might not have grown as tall as a giraffe, or even as tall as her older brother. But she knew she would always have friends and family keeping her safe.