ɴᴏᴡ ᴘʟᴀʏɪɴɢ: Apologize by Timbaland
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It’s been 2 years since Uncle Ben died. That’s when May started drinking. That’s also when she had started to hit Peter. She didn’t blame him for his death exactly. She understood he couldn’t save him from a gun. But she also grieved in that way while drunk. Which was a lot. Peter has been wearing sweaters a lot since he’s been bitten so that assisted in hiding the bruises until they healed. Which didn’t take long thanks to his healing factor.
“Hey, Peter! Do you plan on going golfing later?” Ned asked as he went up to Peter, who was gathering his belongings from his locker for class. ‘Golfing’ was their code word for Spider-Man. MJ had recent;y figured out he was Spider-Man and made them come up with some code words for when they were in public.
“Yeah. I can’t be out too long though because of homework. I seriously can’t believe our teachers piled us with homework because state testing is in two weeks,” Peter said, closing his locker as he spoke.
“I know, right?! It’s so not fair. But, call me, okay? I am your ‘guy in the chair’ after all.” Ned said, a small smirk lingering on his lips as he spoke to his best friend.
Peter laughed a bit at his best friend's antics. “Of course.” He quickly pulled out his phone to check the time before speaking again. “I should get going if I want enough time for golf .”
“You better tell me how it goes if you don’t call!” Ned called as Peter started making his way out of the school.
“I will, Ned!” Peter called back as he quickly left the building. He made his way off school grounds and found an alleyway far enough from the school to change into his suit. Taking a deep breath with a smile plastered on his face underneath his mask, he shot a web and went off on patrol.
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May was becoming extremely annoyed in her half drunken stupor. Peter was an hour late home. She even tried to make dinner! Which clearly failed as she had no knowledge of cooking at all. She ended up burning everything and ordered takeout instead. Because of her failed attempt at cooking and Peter’s ungrateful ass being late, she was furious and needed to let out her stress and anger.
Instead of sitting around and waiting this time, she went out to look for him. She had secretly put a tracking app on his phone without him knowing. She pulled it up as she left their apartment.
After what seemed like two hours, which was only 40 minutes, of searching for her nephew, she heard something not too far away from her. Not really thinking straight, she followed the sound. To her surprise, May saw Spider-Man fighting some… dinosaur? Spider-Man seemed visibly panicked as he was trying to calm the said dinosaur down.
“Doctor Connors! Please!” Spider-Man called, panic evident in his voice. “Think of all those people you’ll be hurting!”
“I’m not hurting them! I’m saving them!” The dinosaur, Doctor Connors, yelled before attacking Spider-Man.
May quickly found somewhere to hide where she wouldn’t get hurt as she watched the scene play before her. She was stunned at what she was witnessing. No one ever hears half the stuff Spider-Man says, unless he’s saying it to the criminal or just a close bystander. Or if you’re the one he’s saving.
Suddenly, May heard a yell of pain as she saw Doctor Connors create a deep scratch across Spider-Man’s chest. He was then thrown hard against a brick wall not too far from May, creating a deep crater in the brick. Spider-Man fell down, doing a small flip causing him to land directly on his back.
What May saw next made her heart skip a beat and quickly sobered her up. She saw Spider-Man… without his mask. She saw Peter . Bloodied and bruised. Beaten and dirty.
Peter tried to sit up, but Doctor Connors landed right on top of him hard, creating a Peter-sized and shaped crater in the concrete below them. May had to cover her mouth to prevent any noise from escaping her as tears formed in her eyes, blurring her vision slightly.
Doctor Connors grabbed Peter by the throat and lifted his weak, slightly limp body off the ground. “I told you to stay out of my way, Parker. But you didn’t listen. It’s unfortunate you have to die. You would have made a wonderful scientist.”
Using the last of his strength and energy, Peter shot a web at seemingly nothing. Yanking the web hard, a vile of green gas came flying towards them. Doctor Connors turned just in time for the vile to break on his head, exploding in his face.
In his shock, Doctor Connors dropped Peter onto the ground in favor of trying to wave the gas out of his face. Coughing, he slowly transformed back into himself. Meanwhile, Peter laid on the ground in pain. You could hear every wheeze in every breath loudly as he tried to breathe.
Once Doctor Connors was himself again, he looked around, confused. He spotted Peter and quickly made his way over to him in a panic. “Peter! Oh god, what have I done…?”
Peter gave out a weak laugh. “I-It worked.” He slowly sat up, leaning his back against the brick wall behind him. He leaned a bit to his side, pulling out his now very cracked phone, and checked the time and sighed. “Damn… late again. May’s gonna kill me.”
Speaking of the woman, May slowly made her way out of her hiding spot, making her way towards Peter as tears were flowing freely down her face.
Peter looked over at the movement. His eyes widened at the sight of May. “M-May!” he called as he tried to sit up quickly. Pain shot all throughout his body at the movement. He immediately started coughing hard, wheezing as he tried to breathe.
May dropped to her knees next to Peter, a small sob escaping her lips. She looked Peter up and down in horror, looking at every injury the boy had sustained. She made a mental note of each she saw. A black eye, busted eyebrow, busted lip, bruises scattered across his cheeks, jaw, and forehead, and what seemed like a broken nose. That was only on his face. She noted the three large, deep wounds down his chest starting at his right shoulder, down to his left side. From the wheezing she could mark down a punctured lung and definitely a broken rib or two.
Peter, wearing a worried expression, forced through the pain to sit up and get closer to May. “M-May, are you okay? Are you hurt? W-What’s wrong?”
Peter was asking if she was hurt? If she was okay? He’s here, blood and bruised, and he’s worried about her ? After all the times she’s hit him? Realization hit her like a speeding truck. Peter could have defended himself this whole time. He could have stopped her. But, he never did.
“W-Why?” She managed to ask.
“W-Why what?” Peter asked, confusion written on his face.
“Why… d-didn’t you s-stop me?” She amended her question.
Confusion left Peter’s face. Guilt took its place instead as he looked away, leaning back against the brick wall behind him. “Y-You were- are grieving. It’s wrong for me to stop you from doing that. Plus, I could handle it.” He then gave a pitiful, humorless laugh. “I’m Spider-Man after all.”
May sobbed out as she covered her mouth. He took all her beatings just so she could grieve Ben? At that moment, she noticed Peter looked so much like Ben did when they were in high school. Ben had gotten into so many fights so he always had some kind of injury on his face. How could she not see it before? She didn’t lose Ben. He was still with her. He has always been right there. Right in front of her.
“I… I’m so sorry, Peter… I’m so, so, so sorry,” May sobbed.
“Hey, it’s okay. But… What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be home?” Peter asked, confusion returning to his face.
“I-I came to look for you s-since you missed your curfew… I have a tracking app on your phone for stuff like this. At a certain time of you being late, I’d check it and you’d be close to home,” May explained, avoiding eye contact with her nephew.
“Oh,” was Peter’s initial response. “How late am I this time?”
May took a moment, leaving silence lingering in the area, before speaking. “I’m dropping curfew,” she responded as she wiped her eyes of tears.
Peter’s head snapped up to her, eyes blown wide. “Wait… really?”
May nodded before a stern look appeared on her face. “But you tell me anytime you get injured. Do you understand?” She said, trying to make her broken voice stern to match her expression.
Peter nodded. “Yes, Ma’am.”
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Doctor Connors was taken to jail, Peter went home and got cleaned up, much to May’s disapproval. She was worried about him bleeding out. After explaining to May about his healing, she finally conceded, getting Peter as much food as she could gather to make sure he was healed up. She even helped set his nose.
Tony had ended up finding out about what happened and scolded Peter for not calling him for backup or trying to contact Happy to tell him. But then he was cut off by May scolding him for taking a 14 year old into a fight against other Avengers in Germany.
May stopped drinking, dumping all alcohol she had in the house. She started getting therapy to grieve her late husband in a significantly more healthy way instead of alcohol and violence. She found it easier that Peter was around, getting a serious wakeup call that she gladly picked up and had a very lengthy conversation with the truth. The truth was, what she was doing was wrong and that she was extremely proud of her nephew.