Reborn From The Void

Chapter 10 - Free

(Your POV):
Ned and MJ stayed for most of the day as we played games and watched movies just like old times. It hurt that Peter wasn't there with us, but at the same time it just felt like all of the times that he couldn't make it because of Spider-Man duties, as long as I didn't think too much about it.

For the first time in a while, it felt as though a huge weight had been lifted off of my chest, finally allowing me to be happy. The minute that I thought of Peter the illusion shattered, but at least I got those few minutes of happiness. It was something I hadn't experienced for two months now. Granted, a chunk of that time I spent unconscious so I supposed that didn't really count.

Tony let Ned, MJ, and I hang out without supervision for most of the day. But didn't really notice his absence until he came by with food for the three of us around noontime. When he left, he gave us instructions to find him in his lab if we needed anything.

I should have realized that it was a test, that the Avengers were trying to see if I would escape if given the opportunity, but I was too busy enjoying time and catching up with Ned and MJ to actually think about Tony's actions.

"I suppose that we should be heading out. I know Ned's mom will flip if he's not back soon," MJ spoke, standing up and stretching her stiff limbs out.

My heart sank slightly at the announcement of their departure, but I knew the that I was lucky to have gotten to spend this much time with them. I got up from my place on the couch as well, wrapping them both in my arms.

"Thank you so much for coming by, it really made me feel a lot better."

Ned beamed at my comment, "we're glad we can cheer you up. Mr. Stark said that he's going to be giving your phone back to you so you can stay in contact with us. If you're ever feeling down, just let us know and we'll try to swing by. If you can't, we'll at least FaceTime you or something."

"I don't deserve you guys," I smiled, trying to hold back the tears of happiness filling my eyes. "You're too good to me."

"What're friends for?" MJ replied, flashing me a rare half-smile.

I watched them as they left the room, my lips still upturned as I realized just how much they meant to me. Perhaps continuing on with my life wasn't going to be so impossible after all, at least not with them for support. I would find a purpose eventually, for now I just had to enjoy the security offered by being the Avenger's prisoner.

"I'm taking that was a good surprise?" Tony asked as he came into the room.

"Yeah, it was a really good surprise. Thank you, Tony," I replied, wrapping my arms around him.

"Well, I would love to take the credit but it wasn't really me, May thought it would be nice. And they've been texting you for a while now, even after Pete told them what happened. Speaking of which, I believe that this is yours." He pulled my phone out of his pocket and handed it to me.

I accepted it gratefully, noticing the astounding number of missed calls and messages, "thanks Tony, this really means a lot."

He nodded before leaving the room, expecting me to follow him, "it's getting late and I still have work to do, do you mind heading to your room now?"

"Not at all," I replied, although part of me wished to spend a bit longer in freedom. But I did have my phone back, which was a plus. And I had a lot of messages to sift through. So I guess returning to my cell wouldn't be such a terrible thing.

But once we were inside the elevator, I was confused when he pressed the sixty-second floor. I glanced over at him and asked, "shouldn't we be going down, not up?"

He gave no response, but kept staring straight forward. This only caused my curiosity to grow, although not in a positive way. My mind began to run wild, wondering if they had finally decided that it was not worth spending the time and effort to keep me alive, especially with my relatively new freedoms. Perhaps they were finally going to kill me and there was some sort of device to do that with located on the sixty-second floor.

Or perhaps he was going to force me to face Peter. I wasn't sure how I felt about that reasoning. On the one hand, I didn't think I could handle having to face him when he was clearly still very angry with me. But on the other, I needed to see him in relative private. I needed to be able to at least try to apologize. Maybe I could even convince him to give me a second chance. Well, I supposed I was on more like my twentieth chance at this point.

But as the doors slid open I was met with a large sitting area, similar to the one that I had just left. There was no one else around, as far as I could tell, but it must have been the correct place because Tony waltzed right onto the floor with confidence so I followed tentatively behind him.

Off of the sitting room was a long hallway that Stark led me down. The first room to my left appeared to be a small kitchen and on my right a small training room. There was another room with couches and a TV just past the kitchen and across from it a library. It was like there were miniaturized versions of every part of the tower that I enjoyed.

At the end of the hallway was a closed door and Tony gestured for me to open it. I looked at him quizzically, but did as he instructed and slowly turned the knob, pushing open the door to reveal a large bedroom. It reminded me slightly of the bedroom that I had back at my old apartment with its style, but on a much grander scale.

"Closet is to the right and bathroom is to the left," Tony informed me, his first time speaking since we got into the elevator. "There should be everything you need, but we would be happy to fetch you anything that we missed. I hope you like it, we modeled it after your room, but we weren't sure if you would actually want that, so it was mostly just touches here and there. We've also moved all of your stuff in, but you can sort through what you want to keep and what you to toss away."

"This- this is mine?" I gaped, running my finger along the vanity as I walked around the room.

"It's a bit better then the cell, we thought."

"A bit better? Tony, this is amazing! Why have you given all of this to me?"

"Did you really think that we would keep you in that cell forever? Now, I really do have things that I need to do. You're free to roam this floor however you like, but if you want to go anywhere else in the tower, you still need an Avenger escort, for now at least. So if you want to leave, just press this and we'll be alerted," he explained, tossing me a device with a button on it. "Any other questions?"

I shook my head, still processing the fact that I had just received an entire floor as my own. I barely noticed Tony leave the room as I began to explore my bedroom in more depth. All of my clothes had been transferred to the large walk in closet, as well as many addition new garments, which I had a sneaking suspicion Pepper had picked out. It wasn't that they were her style, but I doubted anyone else would have actually gone out to buy me clothes and then have them actually be things I liked.

And sitting in the back of the closet was the sweatshirt I had stolen from Peter. My eyes teared up at the sight of it, but I couldn't resist pulling it on over my head and letting his fading smell envelop me. I was only tormenting myself, but it also gave me an odd feeling of comfort.

Still swaddled in his sweatshirt, I continued to explore my new room, finding the bed almost too comfortable compared to what I had grown used to, and the bathroom more more than I would ever need. There was a great range of soaps, bath salts, and bath bombs (which again, I suspected was a result of Pepper's influence). There was both a tub and a shower, even though in reality I only needed one or the other. And that was only the tip of the iceberg. I still didn't understand why they would do this much for me.

After finishing up in the bedroom, I decided to make myself a cup of tea in the kitchen, which I then brought into my library. I settled down in a bean bag with my mug of tea and a book, beginning to pass the evening away just reading. For the first time since my capture, I felt free. And it was more than that, I felt liberated in a way that I never had before.

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(A/N): Woah look at all this happiness! It would be a shame if someone were to, you know, take it all away... Just kidding (maybe) I hope you enjoyed the chapter and getting your own floor! This is really the dream isn't it?