In Loving Memory [A Marvel Cinematic Universe Fanfiction] *Discontinued*

Not Laughing Now

(Please don't stop reading, the story isn't anywhere close to being over)
1 Minute Earlier

Peter

I can't seem to stop smiling. I just kissed MJ! I can't believe that just happened.
Well, technically, she kissed me. She told me she liked the necklace even though it was broken and then just kissed me out of nowhere!
Not that i'm complaining. No, not at all.
But I am wondering where Frankie is. I called off the drones and saw them leave, but i haven't seen her since she left the plane.
She's fine i think as i pull my mask back on and step off of the Tower Bridge into a now abandoned street. The people will all be coming back soon now that the "monster" and the drones are gone. She's probably fine. She can handle herself pretty well. She's probably one of the most powerful Avengers--
Blood. I see blood. In the water.
I just got off of the Tower Bridge and was about to try and find Happy, but there's blood in the water. I can't ignore that.
But it's the water over which the drones just were, where Frankie was supposed to be fighting them off and it's now filled with blood.
The dots start to connect in my mind and i look around frantically, hoping i'm wrong. My heart races a mile a minute as terror fills my head.
I don't see her anywhere.
She's down there. Down where the now terrifying amount of blood is coming from. My whole body seems to slow down as i run to the edge.
There's a shoreline several feet long made of rocks no bigger than an inch each. I jump over the barrier from the road down to that.
I peel my mask off and throw it and EDITH to the ground and take a huge breath before i dive headfirst into the water. The water stings my eyes and i can't see much at all, but i keep going. The blood goes all the way down to something i can't see very clearly. I see tiny specks of white and something else light next to that.
As i swim down deeper, it gets clearer and clearer. My whole body goes cold as i see who it is.
Frankie.
The specks of white i saw were what little part of her shirt isn't soaked in blood. The light next to those was her face, paler than normal. Probabky from the blood loss. Her eyes are still open some, and i know she sees me.
I swim down as fast as i can, which isn't fast enough, to reach her.
Her hand drifts up and touches my arm. Her fingers barely grip my arm, like she's trying to keep a hold on me, but is too weak to do anything more.
She mouths "i love you" to me while icm still looking at her. I clench my eyes shut as i break into a thousand peuces and try to keep from screaming. All i can afford to focus on us trying to get her out of the water and saving her. I nod and look away to focus on how close we are to the surface, and getting us up there.
My chest burns from the lack of air and my head feels like it's going into overdrive.
I kick my legs as hard as i can and use my free hand that's not wrapped around Frankie to pull us up. The water seems to get brighter as we get closer to the surface. It seems like forever before we get to the top. I gasp for air and swim as fast as i can to the rockly shoreline, keeping a tight grip around Frankie.
I pull us onto the shore and the tiny rocks shift under my feet and her body.
Her eyes aren't open anymore.
No, no, no, no, no, please no!
I grab her wrist to try and feel her pulse, but can't through the fabric of the suit. My heart hammers in my chest.
I curse under my breath and scramble to find EDITH and my mask. I see them a couple dozen feet awsy and don't want to leave Frankie to get and get them, but i have to.
I glance at her again before running across the shoreline, rocks crunching and shifting under my feet.
I grab the mask and glasses and rush right back over to Frankie. I crash back into the rocks next to herm
"EDITH!" i half-yell as soon as i put the glasses on.
"Hello Peter" She says calmly.
"Can you check Frankie's pulse or vitals or whatever it's called?"
"Sure thing," She says. A loading screen pops up with and ID photo of Frankie. A few seconds later, a bunch of words and number pop up under the picture.
"Pulse: Zero beats per minute. Blood Pressure: 0/0." EDITH reads aloud.
"I--how...can we bring her back?"
"Her lungs are filled with water. Revival is unlikely."
Well, at least she didn't say it's impossible.
"EDITH, what do i do?"
"Calling 911."
"No, EDITH, what can i do now?"
"You do not contain the proper tools to revive her."
"GODDAMN-IT, EDITH!!" I scream. My voice breaks and i start to feel heavy. "There has to be something!!"
A scene from The Office pops into my head.
"Ah-ah-ah-ah, stayin' alive! Stayin' alive!" Michael sings in my head. I can't believe i'm about to use knowledge from The Office to try and save one of my best friend's life.
I play the one part from the song in my head to get the beat. I do the chest compression thing they do in TV shows and movies to the beat of that song, trying to focus on just that.
Ah ah ah ah stayin alive, stayin alive. Ah ah ah ah stayin alive, stayin alive.
I never noticed how ironic it is that those lines are the the beat of CPR.
I get so caught up in it, trying my hardest to save her. That's what i do, i save people.
It's not working. She's not waking up.
I start to press harder, thinking that might work better.
"Come on," i whisper. "Please."
Dread fills my entire body, making me feel weak. My arms slack and i slow down.
"No," i say, and try harder. "No, no, no!"
Something makes a low, muffled cracking noise. Something hard shifts beneath my hands.
"Shit," i mutter, and my voice cracks again. "EDITH, what do i do?"
"You can't do anything, Peter," she says, still as calm as she's always been. "She is gone."
The words echo through my mind, bouncing on the inside of my skull.
She is gone.
No. EDITH can't be right. I refuse to believe she's right. Frankie's not dead. There's no way. People like Frankie don't just die like this. I've lost too many people for her to be dead. She can't just...
I take my hands off of her and just stare at her. Her hair somehow got darker with the water. Her lips are a light blue, and there is no color in her face. Just lifeless, pale skin. Her hands look like paper compared to the black leather jacket she is wearing.
"Why did she just let herself sink?" I say to myself. "Why didn't she try and swim or use her powers to get back up?"
"Judging from where she was shot, i would say she was paralyzed," EDITH replies. Her voice sounds cheerful compared to mine. "That's why she didn't swim. As for her not using her powers; she could have been in shock."
I can't tell if it's water from the river or my eyes tearing up--or a mixture of both--but water rolls down my cheeks. My throat releases sobs that are almost violent, and cause me to fall onto my back.
I press my hands to my eyes and just cry. I don't scream, i don't sob. I just cry.
My breath shakes on the way in and out. Tears fall down the sides of my face and into my sopping hair. I pull my hands away from my face and the sun blinds me, but i don't care.
She's so different now than she was about 6 years ago. When i first met her, she was tragic and dramatic. She was just so sad all the time.
But after we all Blipped back, she seemed happier. She seemed happy that we were back, happy to be with Harley; just happy to be.
After we all came back, she was like the embodiment of happiness most of the time. Sure, there were days when she missed Miss Romanoff and Mr. Stark, but most of the time she was funny and happy and...maddeningly amazing. She was so optimistic and loved talking about high school drama when most adults hated talking about that kind of stuff.
I have to admit: 6 years ago when we were both 16, i had a huge crush on her. In fact, i was planning on telling her. But then Thanos happened and i couldn't. Then today she coaxed it out of me and we just laughed at it. I didnct want to, but she made me. She makes me laugh, even when i couldn't feel any worse.
Made. Made me laugh.
I'm not laughing now.
...
The ambulance never came. Of course not, they're busy with everyone else who got hurt in the chaos Beck made. People got hurt really bad...and obviously people died.
Happy came to find me soon. He stayed on the road above me. People have started coming back by now, but i dragged Frankie's body so next to the barrier so no one would see her. I sat beside her.
"Peter? Are you oka...oh." He sees her. "Is she...?"
"She's dead." I say. I sound dead.
"Oh. That's..." He stops. He doesn't know what to say. "I'm sorry, kid."
I stand up. I've been staring at her lifeless body for what seems like an hour now, hoping she'll wake up. I know that's not happening, but stranger things have happened to me. I look away from her for the first time in awhile.
Right after she died, i cried for awhile. I cried until my head felt like it would explode.
Then i just stopped. I felt numb. I felt scared.
"There's another jet coming. Ours got blown up." He changes the subject.
"Oh. Okay." I say. "When?"
"Should be here any minute."
"Where are my friends? Are they all okay?"
"Yeah, Peter. They're all fine."
Good. I can't take the weight of someone else i love dying.
"Peter..." He sighs. "Do you...are you okay?"
"Of course i'm not okay," i say. My eyes start to swell again. "My best friend just died and i tried to save her but i couldn't!" My voice breaks more with every word until i could barely get the last ones out. The last word comes out as a sort of wheeze.
I breathe heavily. My chest is heavy and feels like it's crushing. My head is a giant storm cloud with lightning and thunder, but the rain isn't very heavy. The weight of the cloud is what's so heavy.
"We beed to get both of you out of here before someone sees...her," Happy says. He looks up and i hear what he's looking at. The whine of a jet roars through the sky. I look up and see that it is not like the one we came here in. It's black, but roughly the same size.
Ad it comes closer, people in the road stop and stare at us.  They're not close enough to see Frankie hidden by the edge, but they can see me standing. Luckily, i put my mask back on when people came.
"Peter, are you going to go back with your class or do you want to come with me?" Happy asks. He sounds a little more choked up now.
"I'll go with you since my teachers think i'm staying with family in Berlin."
"Alright."
The jet hovers over the river and a latch in the back opens, touching the edge of the shore.
To my surprise, Harley runs out. I never really liked him, but he made Frankie happy, so i tolerated him.
His eyes go wide the second he sees her on the ground. His hand comes to his mouth and he walks the rest of the distance to us. After him comes Miss Maximoff, Scarlet Witch. I know she and Frankie are really good friends.
Were. Were really good friends.
Her reaction is much different. She just goes back into the jet after she runs her hands through her hair and keeps them there.
I don't say anything to Harley as i crouch down and pick Frankie up, one arms under the bend of her knees and the other under her shoulderblades. Harley just stares with his mouth open as i walk right past him. Frankie's hair is still drenched, and it sways back and forth as i carry her to the jet. I'm careful not to hit her head on the side of the opening and walk to the seats on my right, and set her down in some of them.
The pilot of the plane glances back, but looks straight forward again.
I see that Miss Maximoff is now sobbing into her hands, not even trying to be quiet about it.
After Harley and Happy get in and sit down we take off back to New York.
There's barely any discussion on the way back other than Hsrley asking how she died. It told him what happened, and that was it for talking.
I cried the rest of the way back.