Where Penny gets busted
Penelope Parker was tired. She was out all night as Spider-Girl, wrote two quizzes today, and was currently dragging her feet down the sidewalk to the front entrance of New York Presbyterian Hospital, where May had wrangled her into volunteering twice a week after school.
It went like this: last week, Penny climbed through her window after superheroing with a new three-inch slash along her side. Unfortunately, due to the subsequent blood loss, Penny had forgotten that Mays book club was on Fridays, instead of Saturdays. So Penny, holding a bandage to her side and stumbling out of her bedroom at 12:37 AM, accidentally revealed her vigilante identity to Aunt May, who screamed Italian at her, sewed and bandaged her up while still screaming Italian, and didn’t stop screaming until Penny had eaten three whole bowls of boxed lasagna.
They didn’t say anything to each other for all of Sunday (not counting when Aunt May asked if anyone else knew and Penny confessed that Ned caught her in the suit, and MJ figured it out a few weeks ago).
When Penny got up to go to school on Monday, Aunt May was already awake and nursing a mug of chai tea.
“This is how this is going to work.” She said. And just like that, Penny was allowed to keep being Spider-Girl, granted she kept to all the regulations that May set up.
1. She had to follow Mays patrol schedule. Only 3 weeknights per week, curfew at 11:00. Weekends were free reign, curfew at 2:00.
2. No matter what, Penny always woke May up when she got home from patrol and ALWAYS let May treat her wounds (Penny protested vehemently against this one, saying that there wasn’t any use in wasting bandages when she would be completely healed in three hours anyways. May did not appreciate the input)
3. She had to keep up with her schoolwork and keep May in the loop
4. And she had to volunteer twice a week at Mays hospital, so there were at least four hours per week that May knew exactly where she was and that she was safe.
The two days she didn’t patrol, she would volunteer for two hours. And as luck would have it, Penny was running late to her very first shift.
She slid through the doors of the hospital into the lobby and smiled sheepishly at Oliver, the receptionist. Oliver rolled his eyes at her and directed her down the hall to where May was waiting in the nurses lounge. Penny ran into the lounge, slinging her backpack around.
“May! I’m here!” She called. A few other nurses jerked up at Penny’s entrance, but she couldn’t care less as Aunt May smiled at her.
“Almost on time.” She teased. “I’m so proud.” Penny felt her face flush.
“Sorry.” She said. May shook her head.
“It’s fine for today.” She said, wrapping an arm around Penny’s shoulders and leading her further into the lounge until they stopped in front of a lanky brunette.
“Here, this is Johnny: he’s in charge of the volunteers.” May smiled at Johnny, who smiled back. “Johnny, this is my niece, Penny.” Penny stuck out her hand.
“Pleasure to meet you, sir.” She smiled. Johnny shook her hand.
“It’s nice to meet you, Penny, and just call me Johnny. Since it’s your first time volunteering I figured I’d give you an easier placement today, if that’s alright with you.” He said. Penny nodded.
“Yeah, I’m happy to help.” She said, and she meant it. Even though she was only here under Mays regulations, she truly was happy to be part of something so important. Johnny’s smile grew.
“That’s great. I’ve got you on the pediatric floor in the playrooms. Basically, your job today is to just play with the kids.” Penny grinned. This was way easier than she was expecting, and she liked kids! It would be fun! May left soon after, and Johnny took Penny up the elevator.
“You’ll be on the same assignment for four shifts, so for you, that’s two weeks in the playroom. Then two weeks on your next assignment, and so on and so forth, got it?” Penny nodded.
“Got it.” She echoed. Johnny grinned. The elevator lit up on floor 5 and she followed Johnny down the hallway.
It was colorful. Hopscotch stickers on the tiles, curtains with every color of the rainbow, framed childrens drawing and portraits up and down the hall. As it opened up to reveal the floor station, Penny gazed at all the different murals; ones with princesses, flowers, animals, even one of the Avengers.
Her eyes lit up as she counted them off in her head. Iron Man… Captain America… Black Widow… Thor… Hulk… Hawkeye… Falcon… Scarlet Witch and the Vision… the Winter Soldier… War Machine… Ant-Man… and
Penny stumbled, jaw dropped and eyes sparkling. Johnny paused, following her sight line to the Avengers mural, and grinned.
“We just added Spider-Girl a few weeks ago.” He said as Penny regained her footing. “She’s only been around for a few months.” Six. Penny knew. She kept count. “But she's a local, and the kids just love her, so it’s like the Hospital's own little homage.” Penny beamed.
“I bet she’d be pretty honored if she ever saw it.” She said. Johnny smiled as they came to a stop.
“Okay.” He said. “Here’s the playroom, and here is your volunteer card, you can clip it anywhere as long as it’s visible at all times. You get a break an hour in when you can come back to the nurses lounge for food or a drink or something, and any of the nurses can help you find a bathroom. Sound good?” He asked.
Penny nodded, clipping her volunteer card with her name scrawled in dry erase marker to one of her belt loops.
“Sounds good.” She said. Johnny nodded.
“Okay. Have fun.” He said, and then he left. Penny looked into the playroom and took a deep breath.
“Okay.” She mumbled to herself, stepping through the doorway. “It’s just kids. You can handle this, Penny.”
“Who’s Penny?” Penny couldn’t help the untimely shriek that came out of her - she was lucky her Spidey-sense didn’t take over and launch her onto the ceiling. Once her heart restarted she looked to the left, where the little voice had spoke.
There, sitting at a tiny table, in a tiny chair, was a girl. She couldn’t have been older than five, with brown eyes and brown curls that rivaled Penny’s. She was wearing a faded pink Iron Man shirt and leggings. On her feet were unicorn slippers that looked as big as Penny’s head. A small tube was coming out of her nose and connected to a stand beside her. The girl blinked, and Penny realized she was waiting for an answer.
“I’m Penny.” She said, fumbling with her volunteer card. “Well, Penelope, but everyone calls me Penny.” The little girl gave her a once over, then nodded, holding out her hand.
“I’m Morgan H.” She said. Penny’s lip quirked as she shook Morgan’s small hand.
“Nice to meet you, Morgan.” She said. Morgan surveilled her for a second time, then squinted.
“What do you know about robots?”
By 6:00, Penny hadn’t even realized she spent all her time designing robots with Morgan. It’s was very intellectually stimulating:
“What’s his name gonna be?”
“He’s a her, and I don’t know yet. I like animagrams though.”
“You mean anagrams?”
“S’what I said.”
And then a little while after,
“Robots on TV are always squares, but that’s boring, so this one is a circle.”
“I know a circle robot. His name is BB-8, from Star Wars. You should watch it.”
“What’s your favorite shape, Penny?”
“Maybe triangles, I’m pretty good at them in math.”
“Me too. I just learned how to spell the icicles one.”
“Isosceles.”
“Yeah icicles.”
And then,
“I like your shirt, Morgan. Is Iron Man your favorite?”
“Yeah, I love him a whole lot. I really like Spider-Girl too, cus my Daddy thinks she’s funny. He talks about her a lot.” Penny couldn’t help grinning.
“Iron Man is my favorite too.”
Penny didn’t know her shift was over until May herself popped her head into the playroom.
“Penny?” Penny jumped, almost falling out of the plastic chair, which Morgan giggled at.
“Oh, hi May.” Penny said. Aunt May smiled, amused.
“Hi.” She echoed. “It’s time to go.” Morgan’s eyes grew crestfallen.
“You’re leaving?” She asked. Penny felt her stomach turn.
“Sorry M&M,” She said, the nickname coming to her unbidden. “I’ll be back on Thursday though.” Almost as quickly as they’d saddened, Morgan’s eyes brightened again.
“Really?!” She asked. Penny nodded. May smiled, looking back and forth between the two of them. She handed Penny her backpack and smiled at Morgan.
“Hello Morgan, did you have a good day?” She asked. Morgan nodded.
“Yes nurse May. Me and Penny drew robots.” Morgan held up the pink circle with Iron Man stickers and binoculars for eyes. May grinned.
“That’s a wonderful robot.” She said. “I bet your Daddy will love it. Nurse Tanya told me he’s on his way from work with your mommy, so she’s gonna come and take you back to your room soon.” Morgan nodded. Penny stood.
“Thanks for letting me play with you.” She said, waving goodbye to Morgan as she started to leave with May. They had only stepped out the door when Morgan’s voice rang out after her.
“Penny wait!” She called. Penny turned and watched, eyes wide as Morgan tittered across the hall in her giant unicorn slippers, pulling her IV stand behind her. She held out the drawing she had just shown May.
“Here.” She said. “Now you gotta bring it back on Thursday.” Penny heard May ‘Aw’ beside her and flushed pink.
“Thank you Morgan.” She said, voice as soft as butterfly wings. Tanya came around the corner and called for Morgan, who scurried back the way she came, leaving Penny and May alone with the drawing.
Penny felt warm the entire drive home, and if she gently folded the drawing on her desk so she wouldn’t lose it, that was no one’s business but her own.