From the Shadows | PETER PARKER [2]

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Eloise becomes aware of her surroundings before she actually wakes up. From under her eyelids, she sees light. There's a steady beeping next to her, and she can hear muffled talking from a different room. Her toes curl under a soft, light blanket and her fingers grip at the sheets below her. Slowly, she starts to awaken from the fog. She turns her head and squints an eye open, followed by the other. The brightness from the lights above her causes her to have to blink a few times for her eyes to adjust.

Once she does, she looks down at herself.  a light gray blanket is draped over her body just under her shoulders. She's in a different bed, and she glances around at her surroundings as she realizes that she's alone in a medical room of the Avengers facility. The dark clothes she wore the night before are replaced by a thin white shirt and cotton shorts. An itching sensation from her arm shifts her attention to it, and she spots an IV needle stuck in the crease of her elbow. When her eyes trail down her arm to her hand, she notices the little clamp-like thing on the tip of her index finger. A wire is stuck out of the top of it and connects to the panel on the wall where a bunch of other medical equipment is.

She starts to sit up, but an agonizing pain in her abdomen stops her from doing so. She lets out a short cry, her breathing labored as she slowly lowers herself back down.

She lifts the blanket and the bottom of her shirt. There's a gauze bandaged over the wound, the cloth stained red in the middle. Eloise leans her head back against the pillow and takes a deep breath. She ends up coughing, her throat incredibly dry. Each cough shoots a pain through her middle.

Eloise glances over at the small bedside table. Her eyes zero-in on the bottled water. She tries to grab it and cringes at the pain, but she reaches more for it. She can't sit up and grab it without doubling over in pain, so she scoots over to the edge of the bed to reach. Her finger tips graze the bottle. She tries to scoot closer, but then she feels herself slipping. It's too late to scoot back, her body falling off the edge of the bed as the IV rips from her arm and the finger clamp falls off. The beeping's volume increases and speeds up in urgency.

Eloise lands on her stomach and elbows. The blanket is wrapped around her legs like a cocoon. The pain comes in a huge wave and she gasps for air, clutching at her wound.

"Dang it," she whispers, trying and failing to push herself back up. It's like her body was drained of all it's strength and her muscles turned to mush.

The door swings open. Footsteps fast approach her and soon someone is helping her up. Eloise feels like a child as they basically hold all of her weight as she tries—and fails—to stand.

"Easy," the person murmurs, and Eloise recognizes his voice as Bruce's. She looks up just as Peter frantically joins Bruce and helps her get back into the bed. She can feel his hands shake against her back.

"I can't stand," Eloise croaks, her voice hoarse and her throat tight. She frowns when Bruce tries to gently push her back into bed and attempts to stand again.

Peter's hand takes her arm and his other stays on her back. "You need to lie d—"

"I can't stand," she mumbles and her voice cracks from the dryness. Why can't she stand? She was shot in the abdomen, not her legs. Why is she suddenly so weak?

"Eloise, come on," Bruce tries.

Eloise struggles to push Bruce and Peter's hands from her and tries to stay out of her bed, her brows knitted.