Wanted (In More Ways Than One)

13. The Spider Disappearing Act

All of the blood drains out of Greg's face.

"No," he whispers, "He's supposed to be dead. You... he..." Greg trails off and glances down at me, "You can't go through that again..."

Captain America's face radiates worry, concern, and frustration, "What's wrong? Who is it? What can't Spider-Man go through again?"

Greg just stares at them and starts to attempt to calm me down again.

By now I can squeeze out a couple of words between my heaving gasps for air, "He's back.. No... What if he.... What if he gets me.... again.... Can't.... I can't do that again.... no...."

Worry, anger, and sadness coats Greg's face, "I know mister, I know. But you'll have multiple people looking out for you this time. If he ever takes you again, you know that nothing will stop me from getting you back. And that is if he gets you again. You were still pretty new at this when you got captured. You're much better at what you do now than you were back then."

I start to calm down after hearing all of those reassuring words. Once I'm finally completely calm, I am able to stand up on my own.

"You have me now too Peter. I won't let anything like that happen to you ever again if I can help it," FABAE gently says, a hint of anger in her voice.

I stand up with a loud hiss through my teeth as the pain from the bullet lodged in my stomach overwhelms me. My healing has been trying to get the bullet out, but it has just been making it worse. I need it out now.

"What's wrong?" Captain America asks.

"There's a bullet in my stomach," I say calmly, "And it hurts."

"Wait, there's still a bullet in you?" Greg asks.

"Yes. My healing factors trying to push it out, but it's just making it worse. I need it out now or it's going to heal over it."

Greg runs a hand through his hair, "Okay, okay. All of the professional paramedics are still calming people down and tending to their injuries so I'm going to have to cut it out. You know the routine. This is going to hurt. A lot."

"I know. Let's just get this over with," I say through gritted teeth, "And I trust you and have had worse. So this shouldn't be too bad."

All three of the Avengers raise their eyebrows at that sentence. Greg just sighs sadly, "Unfortunately, that's true."

He leads me over to the gurney and sits me down. He takes a scalpel off of a tray and starts to head back towards me. Unwanted memories start to surface at the sight of him advancing on me with a scalpel and my breathing starts to pick up.

Knives. Pain. No, no, no. Stop!

When Greg sees this, he immediately stops walking and holds his hands up in the air, making sure I can see him fully, "Hey buddy. It's okay. I'm not him. We just really need to get the bullet out."

All three Avengers stand there uncomfortably and worried. Captain America starts to step forwards, but Black Widow holds out her arm in front of him, stopping him. I can hear her whisper, "No. You coming closer will make it worse." Captain America nods and thankfully stays where he is.

"Spider-Man," Greg says softly, "I'm going to come towards you now. You're not there okay? You're at the scene of a robbery, where you saved many lives. You're okay."

Reality starts to seep into my brain again. I take a deep breath and nod at him.

"Okay, good. Let me know if it gets to be too much."

"It's... it's okay. Thanks for snapping me out of it. The pain shouldn't be too much, but the... Um... tools you use might bring back bad memories again." I say, embarrassed.