Peter Reid

Chapter 21 ~ Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Peter's POV

TW- blood!!!

Peter's vision was going blurry, and his breaths were sharper. He could feel his body try to heal itself but all it was doing was making him stick onto the rebar more. Gritting his teeth, he tried to unbend it, but everything went white at the pain. He leaned his head back against the wall and tried not to cry. He's Spider-Man, he should be able to break free.

He gives up on the rebar for now and looks around. It's a building, it takes a few minutes for the realization to hit. He wasn't on the floor but a wall. Did he mean to do- no, the man had been right side up as well. The building was fallen over. He was inside the building that had crushed him. That had forced part of him into hiding. Panic started to swell inside of him as the information seeps in.

The man clicked the button and the building behind him lit up in fire. Then Derek was shooting the man to the ground. Everything was moving too quickly. The man had known where to explode because instead of it collapsing in on itself it was leaning. The police were running and so was Spencer. However, they weren't the only people Peter had to worry about. He sprang into action, shooting web after web, making a makeshift net. He tried to work faster and harder but every second that passed was another loss. Peter's right-hand web shooter clicked, and he cursed fumbling for an extra web cartage, but he was going too slow. Scanning the area, he used his left hand to grab a few people and swing them out of the way.

There was a gunshot and Peter turned to the sound. The man who detonated the bomb was propped up with his hand out. A blonde woman went down, and Peter ran towards her. Shooting a web over he grabbed her bleeding form, words of surprise on her lips.

He tried not to panic as he ran with her, but the building was faster than him. The woman in his hands was choking on her blood and Peter tried to be faster. He could see people watching and in one last attempt he shot a web, but it didn't even have the chance to make it out of the range. The building hit the ground.

"P-"

"S-"

"P-" ... "M-"... "I-"... "W-"

"I-"

"Pl-"

Sounds were in and out nothing sticking, nothing staying. The pain was the only true thought in his mind. No shapes he saw made sense. He couldn't question, he couldn't form words. Nothing was happening.

He was scrambling, gripping the bar that pinned him down. Breathe. Breathe. God damn it! Just fucking breathe! He wanted to scream at himself, but he didn't have the air for words. Smoak, screaming, his brain swimming in forced silence. The woman's arm was a couple of feet away. Still reached out to him, as if he could save her. He couldn't save her. She died because he was too slow. Too slow. Go faster. Move! He couldn't hear her heartbeat over his own. But his was faltering and he could feel himself taking the steps up to Death's door. Just a few more steps-

"Peter?"

"She's gone."

"Peter?"... "Morgan!"... "I've got a pulse!"... "We need a medic."

"I'll carry him out."

"Please be okay."

Spencer's voice was in his head, and he couldn't remember when his dad had said that to him. No, that wasn't right... he heard that after he was crushed by the building. Derek and Spencer had found him. They had seen him fail to save the woman. He wanted to apologize to them, to her. But he had no voice. His panic was washing away in a sea of surrender. He was giving in, giving up. He surrendered.

"Peter... happiness is beneficial for the body, but it is grief that develops the power of the mind." Aunt May whispered into his ear the day after Ben died.

"With great power comes great responsibility." Uncle Ben said, leveling him with a stare that meant business.

"Mistakes have the power to turn you into something better than you were before," Tony shrugged as they worked on his suit.

"You do good work here—I see that every day, responsibility is about a lot of things, but first and foremost, it's about selflessness and sacrifice. And seeing you throw yourself into danger's way it's clear... you understand both of those things, let your heart guide you." Cap says after a fight.

"You know, a family is forever," Wanda murmured to him over dinner after May passed away.

"Take every shot, Peter. If it's worth caring about, no matter how impossible you think it is. You take the shot." Clint told him in the med bay.

"When we live our lives every day. We're met by opportunities, most of us don't even recognize them." Natasha explained once during a game of chess.

"You know what the issue is with this world? Everyone wants some magical solution to their problem, and everyone refuses to believe in magic." Bucky grumbled as he stitched up a wound on Peter's thigh.

"Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls. The most massive characters are seared with scars." Hotch said to him as Spencer read to Jack.

"Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light," Garcia said over the phone after a bad case.

"There are things we don't want to happen but have to accept, things we don't want to know but have to learn, and people we can't live without but have to let go," JJ said softly as Spencer slept in the hospital bed.

"Love is giving someone the ability to destroy you, but trusting them not to," Derek assured him as they rode the plane home from Texas.

"I'm here now, I've got you. Got you, got you, got you."... "It's going to be okay," Spencer whispered to him between sobs.

Peter wanted to find him and tell him it was going to be okay. Repeat his dad's words. But he couldn't even open his eyes.

He turned away from death and forced himself back. The words from his family gave him the strength to crack open his eyes. He gripped the rebar and pulled with all this strength. Pain raced through him, but he used it as adrenalin. The bar straightened and he slumped making the pain worse. He just knew he can't give up yet. There's still time.

Heyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy.... anyways hope you enjoyed this chapter. It's more angsty and sad but alas, Peter is kinda stuck and can't do much at the moment.

Love y'all <3