Spiderdad

55

After getting off the phone with MJ, Peter stared at himself in the mirror silently, examining each stitched wound on his body as he ran his fingertips along the swollen skin. While the lacerations had closed themselves, they were still taking their time scarring. Despite his healing factor, wounds still took a few days to heal and the scars would take about a week or a week and a half to fade. Still, he was growing a little impatient. Especially with the itchy, skin-crawling feeling that would ripple through his body when it was healing— that made it hard to be patient.

Another sharp pain split through the nerves in his abdomen and chest, making his eyes snap shut. His jaw clenched until he was certain his teeth were about to break and suppressed a strained groan. His heart palpitated painfully in his rib cage as he waited for the pain to subside. He forced deep, labored breaths in and out of his lungs, only to worsen the agony and make tears prick at his eyes which were squeezed so tightly closed they  were beginning to hurt. His breathing softened into a hardly-adequate, shallow pattern, making him grow lightheaded with lack of oxygen. It was like he'd forgotten how to breathe and it was causing his entire body to tremble with agony. 

Just like in the alley, Peter's legs seemed to fall out of sync with his mind, causing them to give out underneath him. With a gasp, he collapsed to the ground with a heavy thump.

"Peter, is everything okay?" Pepper called from the other side of the door.

Peter whipped his head around to look at the door, pain still burning in his chest, "yeah, I'm fine. Um...I'm gonna head to MJ's house in a few."

"Want me to drive you?" She offered.

"That'd be great. Thank you, Mom," Peter replied, forcing each word out of his throat quickly as if he took too long to speak, he would allow himself less time to breathe, "I'll be ready in a sec."

"Alright. I love you. Peter."

"Love you too, Mom."

He listened to her footsteps trail away then leaned his back against the bathroom wall, his breaths shuddering as he waited for the pain to subside. The fire in his nerves dulled to embers and the sharpness was replaced with a heavy aching. In an attempt to minimize further distress, Peter kept his breathing pattern short and shallow. It hardly helped, but it was an effort.

Finally, Peter managed to rise to his feet. His legs and brain seemed to be a bit offbeat with each other and his chest still held a horrible soreness, but for fuck's sake he was Peter Parker he'd felt worse. Well... he couldn't really think of worse in the moment- oh wait! He got his legs blown off- actually he hadn't felt much when that happened. 

No. Don't think about that right now. 

The drive to MJ's house had been relatively quiet, which Peter was grateful for. That was one of the many things Peter liked about Pepper: she had an unflawed sense of when small talk was and wasn't necessary. In this case, Peter was genuinely afraid of worsening his aches by speaking. 

As Pepper slowed to a stop in front of MJ's house, Peter felt a sudden tightness in the back of his throat. She opened her mouth to wish him goodbye, yet was interrupted by a series of harsh, hoarse coughing.

"Peter, are you alright?" Pepper asked, her voice holding clear alarm.

Peter nodded rapidly as he muffled his wheezes with his hoodie sleeve, "y-yeah- I'm-" he choked, "f-" he coughed violently, "fine."

The cruel torment in his chest was reawakened and his hacking worsened. Pepper forced his posture upright and stroked his back, letting him ride out the fit.