Once Upon an Avenger

Chapter 32: Life lessons

When Hope awoke, she was in the med-bay at the Avengers compound, Peter lying on the next bed over and Aunt May in the chair to his side. It had worked; he was okay and had ended up exactly where she'd intended him to. She could tell it was the middle of the night - the lights in the lab and medical rooms were dimmed slightly at night - but a question was playing on her mind. How was she there?

She pushed herself into an upright position, the aches and pains in her body causing her to groan as she did. She was littered with scrapes and burn marks from the explosion, and she had a few bruises here and there. Hope was about to get to work healing them when she noticed Sam and Loki asleep in the chairs by her side. She smiled, happy to see them, even if she wasn't looking forward to their fussing. They looked so peaceful, and for once, they weren't bickering.

Hope was still exhausted from everything that had happened so settled on leaving the healing of her and Peter's wounds until the morning. Part of her wanted to get up and go to her room, but she knew that doing so would only get her in even more trouble than she probably, well, definitely, already was.

She only got a few more hours sleep, waking up once again when the sun started shining through the skylights, though she didn't mind, seeing as she'd been asleep since around eight p.m. the previous day. Hope was the only one awake in the room and felt it was too early to wake the others.

Both her and Peter's burns now nothing but a distant memory, Hope shuffled into bed next to him. It wasn't until then that she realised just how worried she'd actually been. She would never have forgiven herself if something had happened to him and she wasn't strong enough to stop it. But he was alive and well, no doubt a little rattled, but it was nothing he couldn't shake off.

"I think she's okay," came a voice from the doorway. It was Nat talking to Tony, her fellow early riser.

Hope smiled and went to say hi, but nothing came out; her voice was broken from breathing in too much smoke.

Nat passed her a glass of water then gave her a hug. "You had us worried there for a bit."

"I'm a Jones..." The water had helped, but her words were still croaky. "We're good at surviving."

"Jones or not, you could have died, kiddo." There was no hiding the worry in Tony's eyes. "Both of you."

Hope could feel Peter beginning to stir next to her, something that she didn't want; he needed to rest. Wriggling out of the bed, she got to her feet. "Why don't we talk about this downstairs?"

"You're not getting out of this," he said, following her out of the room.

She sighed. "I'm not trying to, but I don't want us to wake the others."

"She knows there's no point trying to ignore you, Stark," Nat teased.

Hope smirked. "Indeed, I do."

*

"Right, now that we've all got our drinks," Hope said, sitting down at the breakfast bar with her hot chocolate. "Let's get the life-lesson over with."

"This isn't a joke," Tony scowled.

"I know." She smiled at him, trying her best to let him know how sorry she was for making them worry. "I just also know that you're about to complain at me for being irresponsible, telling me that even if Peter doesn't, I should know better."

"Precisely."

"But in my defence." Hope sipped on her drink. "I only ran in because he needed me."

Tony sighed. "He has a filter in his suit. You still refuse to let me make you one."