To All Those Brave and Lovely

The After

It turns out that Peter is right, because the Avengers do come for them in a wake of explosives and vigilante justice, but not in time to save Nora.  She'd taken more than she could bear, this time, and even though she had promised herself she would be brave, she couldn't, not for one second longer, and the tears slipped out of her eyes and over her cheeks and into her mouth, burning when they drip across her cuts and bitter on her tongue.

"You killed them."  She spits the words out in the middle of blood and tears and they scatter across the floor, falling into every corner of this horrible white room.  The blood was dripping off her, scarlet splats between her fingers, but Nora didn't pay any attention to that.  "You did it.  You made me into this."

Because he did, this was all him, Spider-Man, he killed her father and made her into THE GIRL WHO WALKED AWAY, like some comic book freak, and he got her sent to Tony and that's why she became friends with him, that's why she was friends with Evangeline, that's why she kissed him that night and why she went to that party she tries not to think about and why she's here with every part of her screaming in pain.  everything, everything, everything came back to him.

"Nora,"  He's got tears in his eyes and his voice cracks when he speaks, throat tight around the tears.  If this had been an hour ago she would have been racing into his arms, but now she only flinches back.  He doesn't look like a superhero, she thinks, and wonders why it matters.  Tony never looks very heroic outside the suit, either.  "Please, Nora."

"Don't touch me."  She tries to push herself up and away from him, but her arm folds beneath her, sending her crashing back down the floor.  "You killed them."  She repeated, her tongue twisting in her mouth and tripping the words, clumsy in her mouth.  "You killed him."

He cries, then, and even though she can hear Evangeline trying to calm both of them down (because she's still here, for some reason, she really should be running, but that's not important), but Nora doesn't listen, just turns her back on him and stares at the wall.

Tony is the one to find her.  He isn't wearing his suit, so when he opens the door and runs to her it's just him, his real voice and his human hands on her shoulders, pulling her close.  He's crying, too, and so is Wanda when her face floats up behind his shoulders.  So many tears, but Nora doesn't have any of her own left to shed.

"I didn't tell them anything."  She lifts her good hand up to grab at his shoulder, because it seemed desperately important that he know that.  "No matter what they did, I didn't tell them anything."

"I know."  He chokes on the words and holds her tight, and she doesn't complain even though it hurts, because this is one of those thank god you're safe I thought you were dead hugs.  "I know you didn't.  You were so brave."  He doesn't seem to know what to do now that he had found her, not when every touch causes her pain and she's so weak her head swims when she lifts it.  "I knew you were going to be brave."

"I wasn't."  She's crying then, because apparently she wasn't out of tears, after all.  "I tried to be, but I wasn't."

It's all the permission he needs to gather her up again, and in the distance she can hear more screams and explosions.  She wants to tell him not to hurt the one guard, the nice one, the one who gave her the food and showed her pictures of his kids and never hit her even when Margot told him to, but then she thought of all the others, and she just wanted the whole thing to burn to the ground.

"It's alright," He tells her, just like he had after every shitty moment of her life, and just like he would for all the ones that would follow.  "You're safe now."