Collapsed
Hour 1
Peter groaned as he held his hands above his head. His arms being the only thing that was stopping the slab of cement from falling on him and the little girl curled up unconscious on the floor.
There had been an apartment fire and the Avengers had gone to help. Peter has swung in and out of the apartment complex, saving civilians and depositing them again on the road outside.
'Everyone clear, the building is going to collapse!' Tony informed them.
'Karen, is everyone out?' Peter asked as he backed away from the building.
'Negative, there is a little girl trapped on the bottom floor.' Karen replied.
'Show me where.' Peter commanded, running back into the building, ignoring the shouts from his teammates. Thanks to his heat vision that Tony had built into his suit, he quickly found the girl. He was about to carry her unconscious form out, when he heard the creak, only putting his hands up just in time.
How long ago had that been? Thirty minutes, or had it been only 10 minutes. As soon as the dust had settled, he had commanded Karen to lock his suit in place, making it easier to hold the ceiling up. It still hurt though. Sure, he was strong, stronger than even cap, but holding up a ceiling: not on his bucket list.
'Karen, show me her vitals.' he groaned to the AI.
'She seems to have a mild concussion, medical assistance is advised.' Karen responded, 'Do you want to know your injuries, Peter?'
'Sure.' Peter ground out.
'You have: 3 broken ribs, 2 torn muscles in your left arm and 1 torn in your right. Your bones in your arms are threatening to break from the weight you are holding up. Medical assistance is required immediately.'
'Nice to know.' Peter grumped, looking over to the girl, then spoke again to his Ai: 'Can you try to activate my coms remotely?' he questioned her, though he feared they might be broken. She told him she had turned his coms on, so that, if they worked, his team could hear him, the receiving end, however, was most definitely broken, so he wouldn't even know whether they had heard him or not.
He let out a shuddering breath: 'Hey guys,' he croaked, hating the sound of his own hoarse throat, 'I don't know if you can hear me, but I'm stuck on the ground level with a little girl. She's unconscious. She has a mild concussion, nothing too bad though, but we need to get her to the hospital.' he took in a shuddering breath, 'I'm holding up the ceiling. I don't know how long I can continue to do so. Karen says my bones in my arms will break soon from the weight I am holding up. Please hurry. Please help me.'
Hour 2
At this point, the pain was constant. Ever-present, always throbbing. Karen had informed him about 5 minutes ago that a crack had appeared in his bone in his left arm. The little girl on the ground stirred and look at him, dazed and confused:
'Hey, little one.' Peter told her with a smile, 'You alright?'
'You're Spider-Man!' she cried out. Peter took that as a sign that she would be okay.
'Kid, can you do something for me?'
'Of course!' she replied giddily.
'Remove my mask.' the girl hesitated:
'I don't think I should.'
'It's okay: I trust you. Just don't tell anyone who I am okay?' he reassured her, and she nodded standing on her tip-toes to remove his mask. She did that. 'Good, now see the little thing attached to where my ear would be? Take that off and put it to my ear, that way I can still talk to my AI and to my team.'
'The Avengers?' she gasped, as she did as she was told. Peter grimaced:
'Yeah, don't worry, they're coming to dig us out.'
'Okay.' she nodded, sitting down on the ground, leaning back against a nearby slab of concrete. Peter smiled:
'I'm going to talk to them for a bit okay?' the girl nodded. He sighed: 'Karen, activate my comm.' Karen did. 'Hey guys, uhh, the little girl woke up. Hey kiddo, what's your name?' he said, turning to the blond-haired kid.
'Margie Brooks.' she answered and Peter nodded, grinding his teeth in pain.
'Okay, so Margie is awake. She seems to be okay enough. The bone in my left arm has cracked though. I'm still holding the ceiling up. We only have a limited amount of water. You guys need to hurry. I don't know how long.... I ....' Peter stuttered as his vision swam then whispered out, barely audible, trying to hide the pain in his voice, 'I don't know how long I can keep on doing this.'
Hour 3
Peter no longer hurt that much. That was good right? Or was that bad? He assumed it was because he was now used to the pain. His left arm's bone was hurting, every time he moved it, it pulsed. This only strengthened his, I'm used to it so it doesn't hurt that much theory.
He glanced over at Margie, who lay curled up asleep on some boulders. He had had less water than he thought he did. Only about 20 ml. He had given it all to her.
He told Karen to activate his comms again: 'Hey guys, Margie's asleep. I gave her all the water. There was only 20 ml left. I uh,,... Good news: I'm getting used to the pain, as long as I don't shift I'm okay and I don't even notice it. And...' his report broke of as he screamed in pain. A crack filled the tiny space he and Margie occupied. Miraculously, the little girl had stayed asleep. Peter blinked back tears and sobs, then finally ventured to talk again: 'Uhh, ha. So uh... My left arm just broke. All good though. I'm good.' he breathed, more to reassure himself than the others, 'I'm good. I'll be fine. Just come quickly please. Its hurting a crap ton. I... ugh... just a sec... I think I'm gonna...I'm gonna faint.' he faltered, then, his head dropped to his chest.
Hour 4
Peter woke up again to Margie calling his name. He looked up, she seemed scared: 'Hey kiddo, what's wrong?' he asked her.
'You were asleep and wouldn't wake up.' she informed him, her lower lip trembling. He smiled at her reassuringly:
'Sorry, I'll try not to do that again.' she nodded sullenly. 'Hey, in my pocket. The right one. There's a chocolate bar. You can eat it.' she nodded as she reached into his pocket, then broke the bar in half handing some to him, but he refused. 'I had two, I already ate the other while you slept.' she smiled and guzzled it down.
Peter groaned silently. There had definitely not been two bars. But she was a kid: she needed the food more than him, even though he hadn't eaten since yesterday evening. Perks of being poor and having a heightened metabolism: you're always hungry. He decided to inform his team again, commanded Karen to activate the comm, and was informed that she had:
'Hey guys,' he stuttered, wincing at the headache that built up as he spoke, speaking was a pain, 'Margie's okay. I gave her my emergency chocolate bar. Sorry for fainting on you guys. It hurts. I'm going to stop talking now. It hurts too much. Please come soon.'
Hour 5
Margie was asleep again as Peter fretted: the surrounding oxygen was running out. Normal humans would have noticed later, but his spider sense was informing him of this, and he could smell the amount of Carbon Dioxide in the air. Weird, he knew that, but hey: everyone has their own weird things. He decided to bring another report in:
'Hey. Oxygens going to start running low soon. Margie's asleep. My bone is healing. I think it's healing wrong. Otherwise, I'm good. I'm going to stop talking: preserve oxygen.'
Hour 6
'Oxygen is running low, Margie's breath is laboured. I informed her of where the emergency oxygen mask is. I'll tell her to put it on when oxygen runs out altogether. Then you guys have 3 extra hours to save her before she dies. Please come quickly.'
Hour 7
'Oxygen is dangerously low. Margie has already positioned the emergency oxygen mask. She'll have to wait for my signal. And if I don't give her one, she'll put it on the second I faint. Please come. We need help.'
Hour 8
'I'm going to tell Margie to put the oxygen mask on soon. Oxygen is low. Hurts. Right arm broke. Knee is not okay.'
Hour 8.5
'Margie will put... oxygen mask...on in a sec. Tony... I love...I love you. Tell momo....and pep... I love them... I love you all...Tony,... it's not... your fault... Margie...yeah? ... put the mask on now... Okay. Will you be okay? Yeah.... just gonna sleep... for a bit....I won't....wake up.... but that's okay....I'll just... be.... sleeping.'
Hour 8.6
'I found something!' Steve screamed through the comms. There was a slab that was oddly being held in place. The other ran over. 'On three.' Steve commanded Bucky, 'One, two, three!' They pulled the concrete slab off and to the side.
They say a sight that stopped all of their hearts. A little girl with an oxygen mask on, blinking up at them. Spider-Man, his suit locked in place, his hands help up, having been supporting the cement only seconds before.
With a shout Bucky jumped down into the hole, lifting Margie up into the hands of the waiting paramedics. He quickly pressed the spider emblem on Peter's chest, making the suit retract, allowing the poor boy to collapse into Bucky's waiting arms.
He was lifted out of the hole. Sam felt for a pulse. There was none. Natasha started resuscitation together with Clint. Nothing. They continued. Then finally, finally, a long, shuddering breath was pulled in.
9 Hours Later
Peter heard the beeping first. The annoying beeping that was typical for a visit to the medbay. His hearing returned more and he heard voices. The Avengers: Steve, Sam, Bucky, Sam, Clint, Nat, Bruce, Thor and Tony.
They were all in the room, they were talking, though Peter couldn't be bothered to figure out about what.
Pain, that came second. Pain coursed through his body and he groaned. Immediately conversation stilled and someone was at his bed. Something was pushed into his neck and the pain dissappeared.
'Hey, Pete, kiddo, can you open your eyes for me?' A voice asked. Who? Oh yeah: that voice belonged to Tony.
Peter concentrated hard and finally, after several painstaking minutes, his eyes flitted over to reveal the worried face of Tony, who glared and smiled down at him at the same time - however that was possible, Peter didn't know.
'The girl...' he coughed and a glass of water was shoved into his hand. He drunk greedily, 'The girl, is she okay.'
Tony rolled his eyes: 'Seriously kid? Yeah: she's fine. YOU however,' he clicked his tongue in disaproval as Peter smirked at him:
'Can't be that bad can it?' he asked innocently, already knowing the answer to that. Nat crossed her arms and rattled off a list:
'3 broken wrist, right arm broken badly, left arm broken badly, 3 torn muscles in left arm, 2 in your right arm, oxygen deprivation, hypoglecemia and dehydration.'
'Oh, so pretty chill.' Peter summarised with a grin and Nat glared even harder at him.
Bruce spoke up: 'What I don't get, is the hypglecemia: sure, you went a few hours without food, but even with your advanced metabolism...' he trailed off, waiting for an answer.
Peter shrugged: 'Had a light breakfast.' Nat glared at him, 'Had a snack instead of breakfast.' he said, changing his lie. She glared again. He sighed: 'Last ate yesterday morning.' he admitted, eliciting gasps from several of his teammates, until Steve shouted out:
'Do you want to starve?! What's wrong with you.'
Peter grumbled: 'Didn't have the money okay?!' he bit back, casting the room into silence.
'What?!' Tony demanded silently but fiercely. Peter shrugged:
'Man, I'm in foster care. They hardly feed you enough to sustain a normal human body. I excedentally insulted them yesterday when apparently I threw out a beer can with some beer still in it. I'm positive it was empty. They weren't. So I didn't get any food.' Tony's face paled, and Peter quickened to correct his mistake: 'Don't worry: normally I just look in a trashbin next to the road for food, jus didn't find the time for it today.' he added sheepisly, then immediately saw that his attempted solving sentence had only made it worse as Tony paled further, Nat seemed to be planning a murder and Clint was uncharicalistically silent.
'Excuse me.' Tony said, rushing out of the room. Peter raised his eyebrows at Steve:
'Was what I said so bad?' he questioned. Steve facepalmed and Peter giggled. That wasn't a sight you saw every day.
***
Let's just say that Peter's foster parents landed in jail. Peter was taken out of foster care by Tony, who adopted him. Peter never had a lack of food ever again, and, for the first time in forever, he felt at hom where he lived. He felt safe. He had a family. A weird, dumb family, but a family nonetheless.