If We Must - Fully Rewritten

Chapter 9

Michelle was hot. Her skin was burning and everything felt a little too loud and bright, but she didn't dare mention it to Peter. With his eyes closed and his head against the wall, she didn't want to worry him when he was trying so hard not to.

It had been her who insisted on ignoring whatever she'd been injected with and she was not going to be the one to bring it back up. Certainly not when there was an open wound in Peter's side.

At first, she hadn't felt any different. She'd covered Peter's side with her hoodie―thankful she'd been wearing one to begin with―and focused on keeping pressure on the gunshot wound. It wasn't until it began to show signs of healing that she started to feel strange.

She could feel sweat beading on her forehead as Peter's side finally stopped bleeding. As it slowly began to close, her neck prickled and she felt something whisper danger. When she glanced toward the door, though, it was still closed. Peter hadn't even opened his eyes.

"MJ?"

She turned back to Peter to see him watching her with a small frown.

"You're not bleeding anymore," she told him, setting her bloodied hoodie aside to show him the closed wound. "I'm sure it still hurts, but as long as you don't―"

"You're sweating," Peter muttered. His hand found hers. "I told you to tell me if anything happened."

"It's a new development," Michelle assured him. She wiped her arm across her forehead to rid it of sweat and Peter's frown deepened.

"Didn't you have a cut here?" His fingers brushed the skin above her eye. "It's gone."

"What?"

Michelle reached up to feel where he'd indicated the cut used to be, but there wasn't so much as a bump. Peter watched her with an unreadable expression as her fingers moved to where the needle had been injected into her neck. There wasn't a mark, not even a bruise that hurt to poke at.

"What?" Michelle whispered, wiping again at her forehead. "What the―"

Her eyes snapped up to Peter's, but he still looked confused. She held up her hand between them.

"Arm wrestle," she demanded. Peter's eyes narrowed.

"Em, you know that's―"

"Just humor me, nerd," she said, grabbing his hand and holding it up between them. "It's just a theory."

Michelle wasn't exactly sure what to expect, but at least she didn't look half as surprised as Peter did when she slammed the back of Peter's hand into her thigh.

"What the hell?" he exclaimed. Grabbing her hand again, he said, "I thought you were kidding!"

"I'm testing a theory," she said shortly, readjusting her hold on his hand. "Give me all you got, tiger."

He did.

At first, he held off, but Michelle narrowed her eyes at him and pinched his arm with her free hand and that was enough to convince him to actually fight back. With a furrowed brow and a frown, Peter stared as Michelle pushed against his hand. Grunting, Peter pushed back, only failing when he pulled his side and groaned in pain.