Hey, Little Spider || Peter Parker One-Shots

Alone Among Allies || Part 2

The ride back to the compound was tense. As soon as Wanda brought Peter aboard, the pilot had pursed her lips and rushed to the cockpit. Apparently, the boy left a very profound impression on everyone he met.

Well, almost everyone.

Nobody present was very good with medicine. However, you didn't need a doctor to tell that it wasn't good for Peter to be that pale, or have that much blood oozing out of him. Apparently, the lasers acted kinda like gunshots, but left no visible bullets. Also, they burned stuff.

Yeah ... nobody present (and conscious) was much of a scientist, either.

***

Once they arrived at the compound, Peter was first out of the jet. Wanda rushed him to the Medbay, with Bucky clearing the way ahead of her. Running behind them, Steve called Bruce, who then called Helen Cho.

When they arrived at the Medbay, Peter was immediately put into a private room, leaving the rest of the Avengers to sit in the waiting room. Steve took it upon himself to call Tony.

Less than a minute later, Tony showed up in the Medbay. Without saying a word to anybody, he rushed into the room with Peter in it, closing the door behind him.

The team sat in silence, one thought echoing through all of their heads.

What have we done?

***

After one very tense hour, Bruce came into the waiting room. He had blood on his shoes and white lab coat, but his body language indicated that he was relieved about something.

He opened his mouth, and every Avenger in the room turned to look at him.

"He's going to be okay," he said, and everyone sighed gratefully, "He's awake and stable. He wants to see you guys."

The team stood up, but Bruce stopped them before they could go inside. "Just so you know," he said, glancing behind him, "Tony doesn't know ... anything about what happened. Peter's waiting for you to explain it. Says it wouldn't be fair to hear the story without knowing both sides."

Steve nodded, not trusting himself to speak. How had they ever been rude to this kid?

They filed inside.

Peter was lying on a hospital bed, propped up by about 5 pillows. He was still deathly pale, and had a thick, white bandage around his waist, but he was awake.

No one could meet his eyes.

"Right," Tony said tightly, "Underoos here won't tell me anything about what happened. Care to explain why my intern arrived at the compound bleeding out while the rest of you are just fine?"

It was true. The worst injury any of them had (besides Peter's) was the shallow gash on Sam's cheek. The robots hadn't been all that good at fighting.

Steve started talking.

He told Tony everything, starting from the moment they'd been introduced to Peter, and only faltering when he got to Peter's stunt with the key card.

"I ... I don't know exactly what happened," Steve confessed, "One moment he was behind me and the card was falling, the next, he was bleeding out on the ground and the card was in the control panel."

"Peter?" Tony asked, turning to his protégé, "Can you explain how you pulled it off?"

Steve was surprised to hear the gentleness in the man's voice; it was quite the contrast to the icy glares he'd been sending the team just moments ago. Peter smiled slightly, fiddling with the sheets. Steve could tell he'd noticed it, too.