End Of Beginning

Peter

The last thing that Peter expected on his birthday was the sheer amount of force Karen was going to bombard him with in the morning.

On the few nights that he slept, he slept like a baby. He found he often woke up around noon if he wasn’t working ealy in the day. Lucky for him, he didn’t have to work on his birthday.

Peter clambers out of bed at the sound of knocking, content with the amount of sleep that he had gotten. He trudges towards the door rubbing sleep out of his eyes.

Peter opens the door and is hit in the face by a party popper. He swears his heart stops and starts again. Confetti rains down over him as Karen snaps a party hat onto his head, the elastic stinging as it comes into contact with his chin.

“Happy Birthday Peter!” She whisper shouts. Peter laughs, brushing confetti off of the shoulder of his sweatshirt. He was lucky that he had caught up on sleep and ate some solid meals as it meant that most of, if not, all of his injuries had fully healed over the past couple days. He did not need Karen to see his bruised face.

Matt was not as lucky. His face was still bruised, Peter wasn’t sure if his eye was still red as he stood behind Karen wearing his sunglasses. The two men hadn’t seen each other since taking down Scorpion.

“Thank you, Karen, this is really thoughtful.” Karen smiles knowingly.

“Get dressed and meet us on the roof, yeah?” Peter nods, closing the door once Karen walks away.

He pulls on some nicer clothes, which were a pair of jeans that were less worn out than his others and a simple button up, then he switches into a t- shirt once he remembers that it’s August and he would probably sweat through the button up.

Karen had set out a small folding table and three folding chairs for them to sit at. A cake sat in the middle with the numbers two and one propped on top. Matt stayed seated, his ears tilted. Peter sighs, walking towards him as he makes it onto the roof.

“You’re always on high alert, take a day to relax.” Matt laughs turning towards Peter.

“That’s ironic coming from you.” Peter pouts.

“Please, c’mon it’s my birthday.” Matt laughs, shoving him lightly.

“Don’t ever pout your lips again.” Peter laughs, taking a seat next to him. Karen rushes up from Matt's apartment holding a small lighter.

“It was in my purse. The lighter, I found it in my purse.” She announces to Matt, making her way over to the cake. “Peter, how do we feel about cake for breakfast?” Peter nods, smiling.

“I feel great about cake for breakfast. I’d feel great about anything you make for breakfast.” Karen smiles, walking around the table and hugging Peter.

“You’re too sweet. Happy birthday Peter.” She lights the numbers, which turned out to be candles and pushes the cake towards Peter. “Make a wish Peter.” Peter closes his eyes, eyelashes tickling his cheeks. He thinks for a minute, tilting his head as he thinks. There were so many things he could wish for, and even more things that wouldn’t come true. Finally he opens his eyes and blows out the small flames.

“What’d you wish for?” Matt asks as Karen moves to cut the cake.

“Peace. Maybe some sleep.” Peter says, laughing. Karen turns towards him, a sad look on her face.

“Pete, you’re not allowed to share your wish or else it won’t come true.” Peter waves it off. He always told his aunt his wishes as a child, but most of them were material which meant his aunt would end up buying them for him eventually.

Mat’s head continued to twitch and shift while they were eating their cake slices. Peter and Karen watch him intently as he pauses his bite to listen to things.

“Everything okay over there Murdock?” Karen asks, smiling. Matt flashes her a quick, obviously fake, smile before he takes another bite of his cake slice, humming delightedly as he chews.

“Yeah. Everything is fine Karen.” They both know that he’s lying but don’t press further. Karen leaves to take their plates downstairs and Peter leans over to Matt.

“What’s going on?”

“Lots of police sirens. But I’m taking a break, for your birthday.” His smile is tight and Peter suddenly feels bad.

“Matt, I was kidding, if something is wrong you can go help. I’ll help when I can shake off Karen.”

“What are you saying about getting rid of me?” Karen asks, reemerging from Matt’s apartment. Peter shakes his head, smiling. Matt frowns, standing up abruptly. His chair clatters down to the ground loudly and Peter follows, his spidey senses thrumming lowly.

“Karen.” Is all that Matt is able to get out before both him and Peter are turning towards the far side of the roof. A green flash bursts over the edge, lighnting fast, and pummels into Peter. Karen screams as Scorpions tail whips with lighting speed towards Peter, who he has pinned to the ground.

The tip lodges in Peter’s stomach, just above his right hip. Peter shouts, squirming and trying to push him off. Scorpion just pushes the barb in harder and the loud squelch makes Matt shutter.

“Matt, go get Karen out of here.” Peter gasps. He’s cut off as Scorpion wraps his hand around Peter’s neck. He only needs one hand to wrap completely around it. Removing his tail from Peter’s abdomen he lifts Peter up to eye level. Matt can hear Peter’s blood pitter pattering against the floor like rain as he rushes Karen downstairs.

“How does this feel Peter?” Scorpions voice is just over a whisper, his voice husky. “You fucked up my vocal chords when you did this… Peter.” He smiles as he says his name again. Peter brings his arms up, trying to pry the man's fingers away. The mechanised man's fingers don’t budge.

Peter is blinded by panic, his vision spotting with the lack of oxygen.

“You’re a lot less discreet than you think. I thought it would take me far longer to find you, but my little friends were very helpful.” Peter realises now that the people that he saw on the roof a few nights prior were not his exhausted brain playing tricks on him. He’d probably been watched for days.

Peter opens his mouth to speak but he simply gurgles as Scorpion tightens his grip on his neck.

He had thought he was going to die when he was choking himself out, but that had nothing on how he was feeling right now. The last time that he got stabbed by Scorpion he felt numb, but now he felt as if acid had replaced all of the blood in his veins . He couldn’t think straight.

“What?” Scorpion laughs, shaking Peter around. “What? Got something to say? C’mon, say it.” Peter clenches his teeth and tugs again. Scorpions grip slips away completely as he screams.

Peter lands on his feet, falling to his knees as he sucks in burning breaths of oxygen. At his side is Scorpion's metal clad hand, sitting in a pool of blood.

“Consider that my birthday gift. Sorry I’m late to the party.” Peter’s head whips up and his eyes land on Wade, dressed in his suit, katana drawn and bloody. Scorpion stands a few feet away, staring at the bloody stump where his hand used to be.

“Are you actually here right now?” Peter grunts out. Wade nods.

“Get out of here Peter, let me handle this.” Peter shakes his head, moving to stand up.

“No I… I need to do this.” He stands on shaky legs, falling back down to his knees. Everything was moving slowly, it felt as if he were running in a dream. He couldn’t stand or move.

“Peter, you need to get downstairs before the drug shit kicks in.” Peter nods, crawling sluggishly towards the door down to Matts.

Behind him Deadpool runs at Scorpion, jumping and knocking both of them off of the roof and onto the street below.

Peter tumbles down the stairs, landing on Matt’s hard, cold, wood floor. He rests his cheek against it, sighing. He still felt like he was on fire.

Matt and Karen stand in the living room watching him. Matt is half dressed in his Daredevil suit, Karen standing next to him.

“Peter? Oh my god Peter.” She runs to him, collapsing to her knees beside him. Peter pats her thigh weakly.

“M’okay.” He mutters against the floor. Matt shoves his cowl on his head before moving over to Peter.

“I’m sorry Peter, I heard him coming, I should have done something. He was so fast, ended up here faster than I thought he would. I didn’t know he was coming here. I wasn’t even sure it was him, he should have been in the raft.” Peter shushes him and Matt shuts his mouth, surprised.

“You’re saying too much, I can’t, I don’t know what you’re saying.” Peter slurs out. Karen looks up at Matt, a scared look on her face.

“Get him out of here. No matter what he says you guys need to get out of here. He’s been drugged, you need to leave before it kicks in.” Karen opens her mouth to argue, to question everything Matt was saying, but she shuts it. She had to save Peter.

“Okay, yeah. Matt.” She stands up, grabbing Matt’s shoulders, staring him in the eyes. “Don’t die.” Matt smiles and nods before running up to the roof and disappearing. Karen turns back to Peter, who had started to drool on the floor. “Okay, Pete, let’s get out of here.”

The stairwells are full, bustling bodies all moving to escape from their building. Karen struggles to get Peter out of Matt’s apartment let alone down the stairs. Less and less people are making their way down as she goes, none of them offering to help her get Peter down. “Oh, God, okay, I’m sorry Peter.” She lays Peter down, grabbing his arms and pulling him down the stairs. His lower half thumps every time it meets a step. Peter groans.

“M sid.” Karen props him up against a rail, crouching next to him. The building shakes and the railings rattle.

“What did you say?” Karen whispers, pushing Peter’s hair away from his sweaty forehead.

“M side.” Peter whispers, indicating to his wound. His shirt had a large crimson stain around the wound and it continues to darken and spread. “Lemme stan.” He continues to whisper. Karen nods, helping him up. They continued to get the rest of the way down the stairs with Peter holding onto both the railing as well as Karen. Karen had her arms propped under both his armpits, trying to hold him up.

On the bottom floor Karen has a view of flying green out the front door, and two red blurs fighting.

“Peter we have to stop here for a second, I’m going to call for help.” Peter nods, slouching down at the bottom of the stairs. He was pale, the wound in his side still bleeding. Karen calls Foggy. He was going to meet them a few blocks from Matt’s house.

Getting Peter out the back door and down a few blocks was the hardest yet. Peter continued to lose strength, hanging limply off Karen. Foggy came to a screeching halt beside them and helps her shove Peter into the back. Karen crawls into the back with him, resting his head in her lap and finally applying pressure to Peter’s wound. Peter rouses with the pain, groaning and moving to push Karen’s hands away.

Foggy pulls as many illegal driving moves as he possibly can, trying to get through the crowds of cars and people before Peter dies from blood loss in the back seat. At a red light, he quickly changes course, cutting through a parking lot to skip past the light. Peter chuckles, clutching at his side where Karen’s hands are.

“Why are you breaking road rules, aren’t you a lawyer?” Peter asks, laughing. Foggy shoots Karen a nervous look in the mirror.

“I don’t care about road rules right now Peter, I’m trying to get you to a hospital. Karen, what’s the closest hospital to here?” Foggy asks, frantically driving around more cars and people. Peter’s whole demeanour changes, and he frantically shakes his head, groaning.

“No. No hospital.” Karen frowns.

“Peter, we have to take you to the hospital.”

“No. I, um, don’t have money.”

“We’ll cover it.” Karen reasons. Peter sighs, weakly hitting his fist against his leg, frustrated.

“I can’t, Karen. I just can’t. Do not take me to the hospital or I will run.”

And run he tries. Foggy pulls into the hospital, which is bustling with people dressed in scrubs rushing around outside to meet people. People that were most likely injured in Scorpions rampage.

“Okay, I’ll help you get him out the back.” Foggy says, getting out of the car. Karen opens the back door for Foggy at the same time as Peter opens the opposite one. Using his last bit of strength he pulls himself out of the car, tumbling to the ground with a surprised yelp.

“Peter!” Karen quickly climbs out after him. “Peter, stop it, let us take you inside.” She moves to grab Peter and he grabs her wrist, stopping her.

“We’ve got about five minutes before I could accidentally hurt someone, Karen. Those drugs, they’re the ones from last time. You have to get me out of here, tie me down or something.” Karen pauses, looking up as Foggy appears on the other side of his car, waving over a nurse.

“Jesus christ.” She mutters, standing up fast enough to feel faint. “Foggy we have to leave.” Foggy gawks at her.

“What do you mean?” Karen peers over Foggy’s shoulder where a group of nurses with a gurney are approaching.

“I don’t have time to explain, just help me get him back in the car and I’ll explain on the way to the office.” Foggy pauses before nodding. Once again, they haul Peter into the back of the car, climbing in and driving away, leaving the nurses in their wake.

Karen applies more pressure to Peter’s wound, which was now slowing its bleeding. Peter’s body started weakly convulsing, muscles spasming under her hands.

“You’re telling me that the big Scorpion guy attacked him?” Karen nods. “And you’re telling me that this has happened to him before?” Karen shrugs this time.

“I don’t know, he hurt himself a little bit ago and I just thought he was on drugs, cause that’s what Matt had told me, but Peter just said that it was Scorpion that caused what happened last time.” Foggy nods, eyes peering back through the rear view mirror as Peter starts to twitch harder.

Finally they park behind their office and Karen realises how bad of an idea this was. There were a lot of stairs.

“Foggy, we’re going to have to take the elevators.” Karen decides once they make it into the front foyer.

“Those things barely work. We can get him up the stairs.” Foggy starts to drag Peter towards the stairs and he thrashes, Foggy’s grip slips and Peter hits the ground with a loud thud. Foggy stares at him for a moment. “Okay, fine, yeah let’s take the elevator.”

The ride up is rickety and reeks of cigarettes, the carpeted floor covered in stains. The walls are lined with smudged and dusty mirrors, Karen’s own dishevelled reflection surrounding her.

They lay Peter on the floor in the front office and lock the door behind him. Peter was muttering incoherently the whole way up, his eyes flicking back and forth, rarely blinking.

“Okay, he said he could possibly hurt someone so we need to tie him down with something.” Karen tells Foggy before she moves to rummage through the storage closet. All they had was duct tape.

She grabs a tea towel from the kitchen and duct tapes it to Peter’s wound before moving to duct tape his limbs together.

“Karen. Karen watch out.” Peter dissorientedly mumbles as she tapes around his upper arms. Karen whirls around, worried about what Peter could be talking about. She sees nothing, her eye’s meeting Foggy, who is equally confused. There’s nothing in the room that seems to be coming after her.

She moves to turn back towards Peter and her feet are suddenly knocked out from under her. She lets out a surprised gasp before crashing to the ground. She catches her fall and her wrist throbs with the force of landing on it. Peter looms above her, torn and frayed duct tape hanging off of his arms and legs.

Foggy, who had disappeared into the other room, emerges with a folding chair over his head. He swings it down on Peter, who catches it mid air, throwing it down by his side with a loud clatter.

“Foggy, you need to get out of here.” Karen orders. Foggy stares down at her in shock.

“What? Are you crazy, no. Karen let me help.” Karen shakes her head.

“It’s okay, leave. Peter won’t recognize you in this state, he knows me better, maybe he’ll recognize me or something.” Foggy pauses, staring between the two before finally nodding tentatively, before backing out of the room and into the hallway, eyes trained on Peter. Peter glares back.

Karen is only able to tell that Foggy has left when Peter trains his eyes back on her. They’re wild, pupils blown so wide they almost cover the brown of his eyes. Karen takes in a shuttered breath, moving to stand up. Peter puts a foot on her chest, stopping her.

“Peter, hey it’s okay. You know me, I’m Karen Page.” Peter’s lip wobbles as he nods.

“Yeah.” He whispers. He lifts his foot, stepping backwards. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry Karen.” He crouches down to the ground, head hanging between his legs. Karen stands up, approaching him slowly.

“It’s okay Peter, I know you didn’t mean to do it.” She reaches him and his head whips upward, eyes trained on something behind her. She glances over her shoulder and once again sees nothing. “What is it Peter? What do you see?” Peter's nostrils flare. “Peter.” Karen pushes.

“Doctor Strange is here.” Karen furrows her brows, confused.

“Doctor Strange?” She asks. Peter nods. “What’s he saying?” Peter’s lips move like he’s talking and then his eyes meet Karens and his pupils are blown wide again.

“I’m sorry. I know it’s my fault, I’m sorry.” He stands up, eyes meeting Karens. He brings his hands up slowly, resting them on Karen’s cheeks. She flinches. “I shouldn’t have done that.”

“What did you do?” Her voice wavers as Peter’s grip on her face tightens, his blunt nails digging shallow grooves into her skin.

“I changed the spell too many times.” His grip loosens momentarily before tightening again when Karen moves to step away. “I changed the spell too many times and now I’m alone.”

“You’re not alone Peter, you have me and Matt.” Peter shakes his head.

“You guys forgot.” His grip tightens more, this time painfully so. Blood blossoms under his nails as deep crescent moons are dug into her skin. Karen sucks a pained breath through her teeth. “You guys forgot me. The same way MJ did and the same way everyone else did.”

“Peter.” Karen brings her arm up to his, trying to pull it away from her face. His forearm is hard under her fingers, his muscles taut. “I don't know what you’re talking about. I know you. Matt and I know you.” Peter shakes his head, finally letting go of Karen’s head pushing her away. Karen stumbles slightly, regaining herself when she catches herself on the wall.

“What aren’t you saying? What spell are you talking about?” Karen pushes. Peter continues to stare where she previously stood.

“The spell that got rid of me. I wanted to be normal. I just want to be normal.” Peter's voice wavers as he begins to cry. “I just wanted people to forget who I was, but not my aunt, and not my girlfriend, or my best friend and I messed it up.” He sobs, curling in on himself once again. “I messed it up and now I’m alone.” Karen moves back towards him slowly, moving quicker once Peter starts banging his head against the wall.

“You’re not alone. I’ll never let you feel alone.” Karen reassures, placing her hand between Peter’s head and the wall. Peter brings his hand up, shoving her hand away. His head slowly turns towards Karen and cold fear settles in her chest.

Peter seethes as he shoves her back against the floor, climbing on top of her and pinning her down. “You’re supposed to remember me.” He yells in Karen's face. “You know me, you know me and you don’t remember it.” He brings his arm up, fist tightening in a ball.

Karen turns her head to the side, closing her eyes and preparing for the blow. It never comes. Peter’s weight is suddenly off of her as he crashes into her desk, sending it backwards. Matt stands above her, breathing heavily. He looks down at her and his expression changes into a softer one.

“Are you okay?” He asks, quickly helping her up. She nods, moving behind him. Peter sits against the desk, once again staring off towards the wall, tears streaming from his eyes. “How long has he been like this?”

“He started freaking out about ten minutes ago.” Matt nods approaching him.

“It shouldn’t last too much longer.” He sits down next to Peter, wrapping his arms tightly around Peter’s, pinning them to his chest. Peter doesn’t move, he just continues to stare at the wall, fingers twitching against the floor.

“What about Scorpion?” Karen stays where she is across the room, not wanting to get too close to Peter again.

“Deadpool, the guy with the swords, is taking care of it until I can bring Peter back. I could hear him freaking out, I didn’t want you to get hurt.” Karen lets out a curt laugh.

“There are probably so many more people you could be saving right now Matt.” He nods, tightening his grip as Peter squirms slightly.

“Yeah, well, I don’t care about them right now.” Peter stays mostly calm for the next ten minutes, occasionally muttering and twitching in Matt’s grip. He only yells and trashes a few times, but Matt was able to tighten his grip enough that Peter couldn’t move in any way that would hurt himself or Matt.

He quickly shot his head back at one point, cracking it against Matt’s nose, which his cowl luckily protected.

Ten minutes later Peter goes limp in Matt’s grip and Karen inclines towards him, worried. Peter takes a deep breath before sighing and opening his eyes again. He looks confused, panicked for a moment before his eyes land on Karen. He pushes Matt off moving towards her and she flinches.

“Oh god, did I do that?” He asks, finger coming up to point at the small bloody scratches on the sides of her face.

“It’s fine Peter, they’re tiny. They don’t hurt.” Peter reels backwards as if he’d been burned, turning away from Karen.

“Where’s my suit?” He asks Matt, Matt opens his mouth and Peter pushes him back against the desk. “I know you have it, where is it?” Matt points towards the door where a plastic shopping bag sat. Karen didn’t notice him bring it in, but really she hadn’t even noticed how or when Matt had come in. Peter grabs the bag and disappears into the bathroom.

“What happened Karen?” Matt asks, approaching her. He runs a tentative fingerprint over the small cuts in her cheek, the dried blood flaking away under his touch.

“We really need to talk to him about Peter’s life before we knew him.” Is all Karen says. The bathroom door swings open and Peter emerges, dressed in a Spider-Man suit. Karen gasps. Everything was making so much more sense now.

“Where’s Scorpion?” His voice is monotone, straight to the point.

“I’ll take you.” Matt replies. Peter shakes his head.

“Just tell me.” Matt rattles off a street name and Peter disappears into Matt’s office. They hear the sound of Matt’s window opening and closing and then Peter is gone.

“I’m going to go with him and make sure he’s okay, are you okay to bring his clothes back to my apartment later? I’ll call you.” Karen nods as Matt disappears out into the hallway, and then Karen is alone.

She stands rigid in the same spot for what feels like an hour, processing everything that just happened. She breaks down, coming down from the sudden adrenaline rush. She sobs ugly, loud, sobs that echo off the walls of the office, gasping in oxygen like she was deprived of it.

She was supposed to be back at Matt’s apartment, packing up the birthday cake that she had made for Peter so that he could eat it for the next few days. She was going to take Peter to a bar and buy him his first legal drink and laugh with him about how repulsive alcohol is.

He was going to have a perfectly normal twenty-first birthday and instead he had almost bled out in Foggy’s car and had disorientedly attacked her. She didn’t care, she would have let him do it time and time again if it meant he wasn’t hurting himself but she knew he was never going to forgive himself.

Karen calls Foggy to let him know that she’s okay before she buries herself in paperwork, face crusted uncomfortably with dried tears and blood, waiting for Matt to call her.

Waiting to know that Matt is okay.