Some Things Never Sleep

Chapter Thirty

Author's Note: So this is the beginning of the Spider-Man: Homecoming storyline. Just letting you know. It's going to last probably around sixteen or seventeen chapters. We'll see. Thanks and let me know what you think.

"Shhh...we wouldn't want anyone to hear us, Sweetheart."

"The pain won't last long. I promise.

"You're so beautiful...just like your mother."

Emma woke up from her nightmare, her chest heaving as she struggled to catch her breath. Emma placed her hand to her heart, trying to calm herself down. She was about to call for Steve when she remembered that Steve wasn't there. She was completely alone. Steve had always been there to comfort her in the past after a nightmare but he wasn't there anymore. Emma would just have to face this alone. She remembered what Steve used to tell her whenever she had a nightmare. Deep breaths...deep breaths. Think of something that makes you happy. Normally Emma thought of one of her books but that wasn't going to work in this situation. Instead she thought of Steve and the others.

She thought of a simpler time when she first moved into the tower. When the Avengers had their weekly movie night in the living room and it was Clint's turn to pick the movie...he picked some silly comedy and the night was spent joking about how stupid the movie was. That was the memory she would use. When everyone was happy and they weren't all torn apart. Using the memory, Emma was finally able to distract her from her nightmare about Rumlow. She sat up in bed and immediately glanced outside her window to see that the sun was just rising.

Emma couldn't believe how much she overestimated herself. Putting herself in that situation only seemed to bring back thoughts about Rumlow. Emma had been so distracted by settling into her new life that she hadn't had many nightmares about Rumlow. Every now and then she did but the nightmares were never as bad as the one she just had. It was almost as bad as when the witch made her see her old memories. She realized it was pretty stupid of her to put herself in that kind of situation but it was needed. She needed to find out who Spider-Man was and it had worked. She now knew who Spider-Man was.

Emma had stayed up most of the night thinking about Peter and what this would now mean. Emma didn't really think that she was angry or mad about this new piece of information. She was stunned even though she couldn't believe she never saw it coming. Now that she thought about it, it was so obvious how Peter was actually Spider-Man. Emma wanted to slap herself in the face for being so blind. All the evidence was right in front of her the entire time. It was actually kind of amusing to her how she had been looking for Spider-Man when he was sitting next to her in History class this whole entire time. Emma might've felt more betrayed by this information if she had developed an actual friendship with Peter but they weren't really friends...more like friendly acquaintances. Emma didn't really have any hard feelings leftover from the airport fight either. Most of her resentment was focused entirely on Tony. Peter probably didn't even know what he was fighting for when Tony recruited him for his team. It only made her a little more resentful of the billionaire.

Emma understood that she was child as well but there was an obvious difference between her and Peter. Emma knew that this world of superheroes and war was new to the amateur hero. It was obvious in the way he fought as well as how easy it was to manipulate him. He was naïve and innocent. Peter didn't belong in this world...he was much too young and inexperienced. Emma had grown up in this world and she knew how to take care of herself. It was evident that Peter was still struggling to realize his own abilities. That's probably why Tony had him fighting petty crime in Queens rather than training at the Avenger's Facility. Emma couldn't help but feel a little bad for Peter. It wasn't fair to him that he was caught up in this...that Tony was probably just using him. He actually had a choice when Emma was never was provided with the same luxury. The sad part was that Peter probably didn't see it at that way. He wasn't even aware to all the danger that Tony had put him in.