Into the Light | Peter Parker x OC

Chapter Fifty-Four

A/N: hellooo

double update today! i'll just let you guys get right into the chapters :)

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"It's okay, hon.

You're gonna be okay."
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FEBRUARY
3:23 AM

Adelaide had just fallen asleep when the sound woke her up. Every night without fail. She sighed heavily, looking over at the clock hanging on the wall, illuminated by the nightlight. Three in the morning.

Right on schedule, she thought to herself as she slid out of her bed and pulled on her robe. The lakeside cabin was dark as she quietly padded through the halls, towards the room. She bit back a yawn, running a hand down her face. Just as she was walking through the dark living room, the lights turned on.

Adelaide looked over to see Pepper there by the switch. She looked exhausted and her under-eye circles had definitely seen better days.

"It's okay, I've got it," she mumbled to Pepper, itching her eyes. Pepper hesitated. Adelaide knew why she hesitated, and she pretended it didn't hurt. She couldn't really blame her for her lack of trust after what she'd put both of them through in the past few months. "Really, I'm fine. Go back to bed."

"Thank you," Pepper said quietly. She stood there in the living room for a minute longer as she watched the teenager walk into the room. Yawning, she turned around, heading back to bed.

Adelaide carefully opened up the bedroom door, fumbling for the lamp by the door. Soft yellow light flooded the room. She walked over to the source of the sound.

Morgan Howard Stark. The loudest crier Adelaide had ever met. Even louder than her sometimes. At least, that's what Tony said. The jury was still out on if he was joking or not.

"Shh, it's okay, it's okay," Adelaide whispered, picking up the four-week old into her arms. Her face was red from crying with big, fat tears rolling down her cheeks like there was no tomorrow. She patted her back gently, swiveling her own torso slowly to calm her down with the motion. "Oh, I know. I know, baby. It's okay, you're okay."

Nothing. Not even a few decibels of change.

Adelaide sighed, grabbing her blankie from her crib and carefully wrapping it around her to keep her warm. She turned off the lamp and walked out of the room with her little sister still crying into her shoulder.

"Look, Morgs, it's your favorite," Adelaide said with feigned excitement, waving around her favorite rattle. She was definitely a Stark, alright. She'd never met a baby this stubborn before. Well, she hadn't that many babies to compare her with, but still. She went through about four more of her favorite toys before she gave up and decided she might be hungry instead.

She took out one of the pre-prepared formula bottles from the fridge to warm and gently rocked her in her arms as she waited for it to heat up.

After almost eight months of suicidal thoughts and death scares, Tony and Pepper started keeping knives and other weapons out of her reach and hiding any medicine bottles they had around the house. Tony took all the pictures and videos of Peter out from her phone and into an external hard drive so she wouldn't spiral and obsess over them until it threw her into an episode again. All the glass in their house had disappeared overnight.

She was on some medication her doctor had prescribed to help with her intrusive thoughts and anxiety and PTSD, amongst many, many other things. The pills helped, but they made her feel a little fuzzy so she didn't tell Tony and Pepper, but she'd stopped taking them a while ago. They were all sitting in a little drawer in her dresser.