The scalpel shone in the light of the moon, the sharpness highlighted, glistening in the almost pitch dark room.
Peter tried to remember where he was, what happened, but only emptiness came up. A surge of fear went through him.
He found himself whispering someone’s name. His mentor, his father figure.
“T’ny- Tony.”
A laugh. Female. “He’s dead, Spider-Man. I killed him.”
Her hands were red. Peter hadn’t realised.
“He’s not dead,” he said frantically “No!”
A hand caressed Peter’s hair, his scalp. “I’m here, kid. I’ll always be here.”
Peter woke up, and let his shoulders relax. He shuddered out a breath, and breathed in tentatively.
“Mr. Stark?”
“I’m here, kid. I’m here.”
“It was… a dream,” It felt so real. It felt like he was back fighting, back in that unlit room, where his only distraction, his only escape was the barred window that showed him the sun, the moon, the stars, the world outside.
“Wanna talk about it?” Tony asked. It was routine by now.
“I thought you- you were dead. S-She told me she killed you. I’m so scared. S-She’s still out there.” A silent tear rolled down Peter’s cheek.
Tony’s jaw clenched with anger, and he held in a sigh. Whatever Peter told them about this abductor was always worse than the last thing.
“We’ll get her, kid.”
Tony protectively squeezed Peter’s trembling hand, gently reassuring him. An hour or two later, Peter had drifted back into sleep, and Tony took his leave into the lab.
***
Tony Stark was never groggy. Sure, he was sleep-deprived, he chugged cans of coffee like he needed them to live, but Tony would never let himself look dazed and tired. So when the team saw him trying (and failing) to keep his eyes open, his head up in the team meeting, they knew he'd been working too hard
“Tony,” Steve asked, “You okay? Slept well?”
“Me?” Tony replied, chuckling humorlessly. “Yeah- I’m okay. Let’s just focus on looking for her, hm? For Peter.”
Not only Steve, but the entire team wasn’t satisfied with his answer. They knew how hard Tony had been working on this, how guilty he felt. All of them did too- and did their best to hide it from Peter. They all knew he felt bad for letting himself kidnapped, not fighting the maniac off when she experimented on him. Experimented- like he was something abiotic, like he couldn’t feel pain, fear.
Tony tried to focus on the reports on the screen in front of him, a transcript of an interview, answers that would probably get them nowhere. Tony tried to resist, but his thoughts always drifted to the mission that had gone so, so wrong.
“We have a hostage situation one block away,” Clint said into the comms.
“I can take care of it!” Peter’s energetic, eager to help voice replied.
“You sure, kid?” Natasha asked.
“Yes,” Peter replied- and webbed away before anyone else could resist.
“Ma’am?” Peter said. “It’s Spider-Man, I’m here to help. Are you hurt anywhere?”
“Y-yeah,” the woman said, her voice trembling. “I-I don’t think I can walk.”
“That’s alright. I can stay.”
Peter didn’t expect what came next. He only remembered the woman stand up, and then a harsh blow to his head.
***
It hadn’t been easy for Bucky to trust people after Hydra. Steve used to be the only person he could confide in, the only person he knew would never betray him. His family had all died, only their moss-covered and cracked tombstones remained of them.
Despite this, he’d never thought Steve could be his family. Of course, he’s thought of them as best friends, as the closest two people could ever get. But what didn’t occur to him for a very long time, was that you don’t need to be blood-related to be family. All those days they’d taken care of each other in gross sickness, accepted each other no matter what- isn’t that what family was?
After that discovery, the Avengers came into his life. They fought villains that threatened the calm on earth, and they needed to be together to tackle the powerful aliens. But other than that, they needed to stay together for each other. Like Bucky and Steve, they had found in each other what wasn’t in their families. Unwavering, unconditional love.
And then, came in Peter Parker, Spider-Man. He was a source of joy for all of them. Even Natasha, who, like him, took time to trust people almost instantly fell in love with him.
In their line of work, you were bound to get hurt badly at least once. So when they found out Peter had been abducted, they knew they had to do everything to bring him back.
***
Peter’s disappearance had hurt Clint. More than the man was letting on. Natasha knew, she always did. His frequent disappearances, how he always woke up looking tired- like he hadn’t slept the last night. Natasha tried to talk to him about it, but he always put it off with a dismissive wave of his hand. “I’m fine, Nat.”
Natasha hadn’t been doing too well either, but she was better at hiding it. She couldn’t shake the fear of finding Peter’s dead, cold frame, his body pale and his heart still.
***
When Peter had come back, he’d been unconscious, bleeding out, shaking. The doctor thought he might not have survived if he’d been rescued even an hour later. Apparently, the kidnapper had experimented on him, to know the extent of his power. Peter had various dangerous chemicals injected into his body, cuts and bruises made with medical equipment littering his entire body. Tony, Peter, Steve, Bucky, Natasha, Clint were all terrified. Terrified of what had happened to this precious human being who deserved no pain, no loss. They knew he’d been waking up at midnight, sweating and shaking from another nightmare, with either Steve or Tony there to console and reassure him. Peter had been quieter, and he smiled a little less. He hadn’t begun to go back to school yet.
They’d made it their mission to find the person who did this to him. She didn’t deserve to see the light of day.
***
“Hey, everyone,” Peter said, sitting at the dining table, munching on an apple.
“Hey, Peter,” Steve said. “What’s up?”
“Uh.. nothing, really. But I’m going to meet Ned and MJ today,” he replied, smiling.
“That sounds cool,” Natasha said, appearing out of nowhere.
“Yeah.”
Peter left at noon, Happy drove him to Ned’s house. Today was one of Peter’s better days. They all looked forward to those. He smiled more, talked more. He looked happier.
After a snack, they got to work. They were fuelled with anger, will, spirit. They wouldn’t let that woman go. She had hurt Peter so much, and no one got away with that.
They all sat in Tony’s lab, the desk covered with case reports, charge sheets and wrappers of long eaten granola bars. They painstakingly went through every page of every suspects arrests, checked out their alibis, their charges. For hours, they found nothing.
Until-
“Guys, I think I got something.”
All heads turned to look at Tony.
“Felicia Hardy, 32. She’s Toomes’ sister, villainy seems to run in the family. She was… upset about the Vulture being thrown in jail, did a few violent protests, also got thrown in jail. Has a degree in medicine.”
“It has to be her,” Clint said.
“Yeah, or she’s being framed,” Natasha remarked. “Anyone who’d be against her?”
“None that they mentioned.” Tony replied. “Wanna go pick her up?”
A series of agreements rang in the room.
***
Peter had a great time with his friends. For once after his kidnapping he felt so at peace, so much like his old self. They played with Legos, and finally finished the Millenium Falcon. Happy came to pick him up at 5 in the evening. He hugged Ned and MJ, and sat in the fancy car.
“Had fun, kid?” Happy asked.
“Yeah,” Peter grinned. “A lot.”
Back at the tower, Bucky was questioning Felicia. They had just brought her two hours ago, she was surprisingly easy to find. But she hadn’t spoken yet. She always wore a calm, cool look on her face.
Suddenly, Natasha stood up and made her way to the interrogation room. They heard the door slam, and then only the sound of their stunned silence.
Bucky walked out after 15 minutes.
“S-She confessed.”
They were all quiet for a moment, and then looked at an agent take the woman away.
“We did it.” Steve said.
“What happened?” A voice said from behind. Peter.
Steve looked at Peter. Tears welled up in his eyes.
“Oh no. No, no, no. She’s back, isn’t she,” Peter said, looking down, his tone filled with dread.
“No, kid,” Tony said. “We got her. Positive.”
“Y-You got her?”
“Yeah,” Natasha said.
Peter walked up to them, shaking, and embraced Natasha. Slowly, all of them joined.
“Thank you.”
“Don’t thank us, Peter. We'll always protect you. It’s just what family does. And we are your family. For ever.”