The Ultimate Fix-It Fic

13| Homecoming

Peter watched from on top of a non-burning container, weathered and weary from his fight with Liz's dad.

"Rebecca, can you call MJ?" he asked, his voice cracking.

His voice wasn't the only cracking thing. Peter was pretty sure his ribcage was as well. He probably had a concussion, several bruises, and maybe even severe internal bleeding.

"Dialling MJ," Rebecca replied smoothly. "Would you also like to contact Mr. Stark or Ms. Romanoff?"

Peter sat down, careful not to upset the bruise on his hip. "No, thank you."

His chest thudded painfully when she picked up. He turned on the call hologram. "Peter?" MJ was projected out from his little spider drone. She had puffy eyes. Maybe she got punched, but it didn't seem to hurt her or leave any bruising. "You're alive."

Peter glanced down, allowing himself to actually and accurately pinpoint his injuries. "Barely," he joked.

MJ glared at him. "Don't. Don't do that. Don't joke about that. Like it doesn't matter."

Peter was speechless, so he was left silent.

After a minute of silence, he looked up to see MJ quickly swiping her hand away from her face. "Are you still at the dance?" he asked tiredly, trying to lift the mood.

"Yeah." MJ didn't meet his eyes. "But Liz left an hour ago. She stopped believing Ned after you 'went to the washroom' for half an hour. Called you a jerk." She finally looked up then, a faint smile appearing on her face. "That was funny."

"Was it?" Peter chuckled lightly, wincing at his ribs' ache in protest. "Are you going to leave?"

"Yeah. Soon." MJ glanced at something that Peter couldn't see. "Are you going to head home? Oh yeah," she added, "that reminds me. Your aunt called, saying that she's not going to be home until 2 or 3 in the morning. I've been asked to bring you home safely and responsibly."

Peter blinked. "Um. Okay." He thought about it, then said his piece. "Do you think... do you think you could call her? I... I don't want to go back to the apartment right now."

MJ hesitated before answering, "Sure."

She dialled up May and conferenced him in secretly. "Hey, sorry to bother you, May."

"Yeah, MJ? Is everything okay?"

"Yep. Everything's fine. It's just, you know how you said I could stay over if I didn't want to walk home alone?"

Peter blinked again.

"Yeah, of course," his aunt said. "What about it?"

MJ glanced at Peter before going back. "Can... can Peter and I crash at the office instead? You know, like how we sometimes do when the Stark Internship asks us to?"

"Did something come up?" May asked, instantly concerned.

"No, no. Psh," MJ smiled slightly. "We have a project due for Mr. Stark soon, so we were hoping to work on it."

"Sure! You can take Peter." May sounded like she was relieved. "Do you guys want to spend the day too?"

Peter nodded, and MJ answered. "Can we? Thanks so much, Aunt May."

There was a short pause before May answered. "Of course," she said, her voice sounding a little weird.

"Great. We'll see you tomorrow."

"Bye, MJ."

MJ ended the call with a sigh. "I'll see you there?" she asked Peter. "You won't break any more ribs while I'm gone?"

"What happened to not joking about my injuries?" he asked, eyebrows quirking.

MJ scoffed. "Oh, please. That's a rule for you, not me. I'll see you in a bit."

"See you."

MJ smiled at him briefly before ending the call.

Peter waited a few seconds before getting up and grabbing his spider drone. "Rebecca, safest route to the office, please."

He swung his way painfully through the city and into a nano-tech wall of the office.

He and MJ had persuaded Mr. Stark to let them replace the wall with nano-technology for ease of entrance for Peter, and this was the first real time he had used it. It was a pity he was in pain.

"Artoo?" he called, activating the voice command for a small toddler-sized android that they modelled after R2-D2. "You there?"

Artoo rolled in, holding a silver platter with a glass of water in it.

Peter accepted it and thanked the droid before easing into the couch. "Rebecca, where's MJ?" he asked plaintively.

"She's en route to the office. She is two minutes away."

"Thanks, Bex." Peter sighed.

"No problem, Peter. Would you like to go to the medical section of the building? I can have a droid to help you with your injuries," the AI offered.

"No thanks," he said. "I'll wait until MJ gets here."

A few minutes later, the door burst open for Peter to see MJ huffing in the doorway.

"Peter!" She made to hug him, something she'd never voluntarily done before, but she stopped when she saw the full scope of his injuries. "You idiot!"

Peter smiled. "I know. Wanna help me clean up?"

"You wouldn't know how to do it yourself," MJ retorted, any previous gentleness gone with the minute. "Let's go, Parker."

She helped him limp to the lab, where she carefully peeled the broken nano-bots away from his torso and cleaned the gashes on his abdomen.

"Ow," Peter complained.

MJ poked him with a Q-tip harder than necessary. "Dummkopf," she muttered, turning to German, a language, for some reason, she was fluent in.

"True."

She gave him a sideways annoyed smile. "Shut up."

"Yes ma'am," he said softly. Peter watched as MJ stuck a bandage on the open wounds on his body and started on the ones on his limbs. "You know, I'm lucky to have you."

MJ snorted. "You think?"

There was a silence as she finished bandaging his various attachments.

"Lie down so I can do an X-ray," she ordered.

Peter complied. "Ooh, more radiation! Yay!" he grinned when he caught the small projectile MJ threw at his face. "Nice aim."

She rolled her eyes and did a scan of his bones. "You have two broken ribs and a small fracture on your ankle." She shook her head. "With your accelerated healing factor, it'll either take the weekend or a month to heal. Avoid getting hit in the chest with a dodgeball. And jumping." MJ pulled him up roughly.

Peter rubbed his arm gingerly. "I mean, I'll try."

"I can't believe you," MJ said after a brief silence. "You just– hmph." She crossed her arms and went into the other room before coming back with the case for the nano-suit. "We'll have to reprint some of the suit because of your idiocy."

"Of course," Peter replied, not even looking at the case. He was somewhat unfocused because of the painkillers and the way the fluorescent lights lit up MJ's face like she was an angel. "Sure. Take it."

MJ looked at him in disbelief. "You're wearing the suit."

Peter shrugged. "So take it off," he said.

She sighed. "Let's get you to bed, Parker. Let's sleep off the drugs, shall we?"