If We Must - Fully Rewritten

Chapter 8

By Peter's best estimates, a day passed before he heard anything outside their room again.

Both he and MJ dozed off at some point and despite the hardness of the floor, he slept until even the gunshot wound on his shoulder had disappeared. It was nothing more than a thin sliver of a scar when he woke up and his chest didn't ache when he twisted around to glance at MJ.

She was asleep, but almost as soon as he shifted in her arms, she blinked awake.

"God, this floor is so fucking hard," she groaned, dropping her head to his shoulder. "My ass is gonna be bruised after this."

Peter's lips twitched into a small smile and he turned fully in MJ's arms to face her.

"I've got some web fluid left," Peter said, turning his wrists to show her. "Can I interest you in a spider hammock?"

MJ shook her head with a snort.

"No thanks," she said, "I've seen you fall from those enough times already."

"It's better than the floor," Peter said, already climbing to his feet. He reached down to pull her up as he said, "Come on, it'll be great."

MJ let go of his hand as he climbed up the wall and shot a web at the opposite corner. Above MJ's watchful eye, Peter wove three webs together in the corner high enough that Mr. Hide-A-Name wouldn't be able to reach them. They may have taken his mask, but he still had plenty of web fluid and his suit.

Dropping back down to the floor, Peter held out his hand for MJ. She eyed the hammock skeptically.

"You won't fall out, Em," Peter promised, wriggling his fingers for her to take.

"God, I can't believe I'm doing this," she muttered, taking his hand and stepping towards him.

Peter wrapped an arm around her waist and with a hop, she wrapped her legs around his waist so he could carry them both up to the hammock.

He'd never tried getting into a hammock with someone else before and it quickly became apparent that it was much harder. With MJ wrapped around him tightly, he leaned against a wall and precariously tried to climb into the hammock. It spun and he nearly toppled over, making MJ yelp in surprise and cling to him tighter.

"Parker," she warned, her face buried in his shoulder.

"I know," he muttered, rearranging them on the wall.

With MJ still clinging to him, he shot a web into the corner and tied it to the middle of the hammock in an attempt to prevent it from spinning.

When he leaned forward to climb in again, the hammock tipped but didn't spin. Moving slowly, he crawled into the center of the hammock until both he and MJ were snuggly wrapped in the smooth webbing.

"You can breathe now," Peter teased, shifting so he was under MJ just in case the web did dissolve before he realized it.

"I'll decide when I can breathe again," she grumbled, face still buried in his shoulder.

Despite knowing MJ was anything but relaxed so high up in a web hammock, Peter felt like he could breathe. They were out of Mr. Hide-A-Name's reach and MJ couldn't get down without him, something that he would make sure didn't happen. Up high and in a hammock, he wouldn't have to worry about her whenever their captors inevitably returned.

With a web hammock now in place, Peter had a much more reliable way to tell the time. His webs started to dissolve after so many hours and―based on past experience―the web hammocks began to disappear after three hours.

That being said, he didn't know how long three hours was without a clock. MJ was in the middle of saying something when the first weave broke away from the others.