Chapter 16
There in front of her was Peter. Peter strapped to a table, bloodied, broken, cut open, alive but not conscious. Behind him, Strucker, the monster torturing, the monster Natasha was going to end.
“Well, well, well I see you found him before the forty-eight timer ran out! Good job there Widow, I’m impressed I was hoping I’d be able to keep our little friend Spidey here, you see I haven’t found out makes him tic just yet. We were trying to find out the Avengers secrets but no matter how far we dug, no matter how badly we hurt him he wouldn’t spill. He’s one tough spider I’ll give him that.” He cackled at her, knife twirling in his hand, far too closely to Peter as she would like it to be.
“Alright, well we played your twisted little game, unlock the restraints on him so I can take him home, that was the point of the game.” Natasha reminded him, “So let him go.”
“You were much quicker than I had anticipated I’m not going to lie.” Strucker continued on, “I’m surprised I thought we would be able to keep him, well anyway. I will let him out in just a second but first a little story on what went on so you know what to expect when he opens his eyes. First of all, we convinced him, almost completely I would like to add, that you were never coming, that no one cares about him so if it’s not true good luck with fixing that one. Second of all well look at him, we cut him open, quite a bit really. I just wanted to see how quickly his body fixed itself and well he’s been starving for a month now at least so it’s quite slow as you can see, he might be dying right now actually? I’m not too sure and – “
“Unlock him. Now.” Natasha demanded.
“Won’t even let a guy finish his story, fine.” He placed his knife down next to Peter and grabbed the keys from the table next to him. “You’re going home Itsy Bitsy, sadly the game is over and our time together is up.” He whispered into Peter’s ear as he unlocked the cuffs attaching him to the table.
The moment Peter was no longer strapped down to the table Natasha lifted her gun and shot Strucker between his eyes, he’d gotten away once he wasn’t getting away again. Racing forward to Peter she saw that the gun shot had woken him, not enough to be fully conscious but enough to know he wasn’t alone.
“Hey sweetie.” Natasha moved her hand to run it through his tangled curls, “It’s me, Tasha. I’m here to take you back home now Petya, let me just see if I can find something to cover your torso with.”
Looking around the room, in the corner was one of Peter’s tops. The top Peter had left the tower in that day, it was torn and tainted with Peter’s own blood, but it was the only thing in the room she could find to cover him with, once she had him on the jet she could get him in something better. Pacing back to the table Natasha gently lifted him into a sitting position, the whimper Peter let out indicating just how much pain he was in, he hated showing his pain to anyone.
Pressing the comm in her ear she made sure she was connected to both teams before saying, “I’ve got Peter, he’s in a really bad condition, so either we all head back and leave Hydra or I go back to the jet with whoever can come with, or even by myself, and Stark you signal to the tower to send another jet for when you’re finished.”
“Get to the jet Nat, we’ll finish this. Stark contact Helen Cho to be ready at the tower.” Steve radioed back to her, with everyone else agreeing, right now Peter couldn’t wait for everyone to finish up, he needed medical attention as soon as possible.
At the confirmation she slowly began to gather Peter in her arms, she could lift him before he left, something to do with the spider bite making him lighter, basically science none of them really understood. But right now? He was lighter than he had ever been a clear indication of just how malnourished he really was, other than the sharpness of his bones she could feel through his skin. When she finally lifted his eyes slowly lifted open to look at her.
“Мама? Что? Что Вы здесь делаете? Это опасно?” (Mom? What? What are you doing here? It's not safe?) He slurred, still quite out of it.
“Эй, дорогая, все в порядке, что я довехаю тебя до дома. С тобой все будет в порядке.” (Hey, darling, it's all right I'm taking you home. You'll be fine.) Natasha whispered back at him, careful to not aggravate his senses. She was quite shocked that he was speaking to her in Russian, as much as she had taught him it, he would usually only speak it if she started speaking it first. But at least he was speaking.
Getting back to the jet was easier than getting to the building Peter had been hidden in, since they’d either killed or knocked unconscious any Hydra agents on their way, meaning none were there to stop her. Once she was on board she made sure to close the door behind her so no one else could enter, the team had controls to board if needs be, and she focused on getting Peter into something cleaner. Natasha grabbed a pair of spare clothes they kept on the jet for missions, they had luckily though ahead and brought some of Peter’s in case of this, she grabbed his largest jumper and a pair of joggers, making sure they were both soft and loose to prevent them hurting his wounds.
Peter had fallen unconscious on the way back to jet and she ensure he was comfortable on one of the medical cots they had on the jet before setting off, putting it into autopilot on route to the tower before going back to Peter, making sure to grab a blanket on the way. When Natasha was walking back with him her fears were confirmed, Peter was cold, too cold, she knew he couldn’t control his temperature and right now she wasn’t sure if him being unconscious was due to him being drained from his injuries or if he had gone into hibernation, because that’s something he could do apparently. She hoped it wasn’t that.
Natasha picked up the thickest blanket they had on the jet and wrapped Peter up in it before slowly pulling him in until he was tucked up next to her body, so she could hold him. He was here in front of her but that doesn’t mean she was going to let him go, not yet at least she needed to feel that he was here with her. She had also made sure to have some of the pain killers that were made specifically for Peter on her person and now that he was in a comfortable position, she rolled up his sleeve enough so that she could inject it into his arm, for the first time she had found him she was glad he wasn’t fully conscious, Peter despised needles.
The medicine wouldn’t be enough for his body to start healing itself, Peter was way too malnourished for that, but it would be enough for the pain he was certainly feeling to fade away for a little while until they were at the tower and Helen could start helping him. As well as finally getting some much-needed food back into him.
The sight of Peter on that table, the wounds surrounding him and his ribs being so prominent under his skin, she knew would haunt her forever. From the moment Peter had found his way into her heart, before that even, she knew no matter what she wouldn’t let the kid get hurt. She had failed. He was hurt, he’d been hurt, from someone they had been against before, from someone they had naively thought was dead. That was now dead.
When the jet landed, Natasha once again lifted Peter into her arms, when she exited there waiting for her was Cho and some of Starks other trusted doctors with a table to wheel Peter into medical with. Slowly placing Peter onto the table, Natasha rushed into the tower alongside it explaining to Cho everything she knew about his injuries, everything that Strucker had said before she had shot him in the head.
As they got to medical Cho slowed down pulling Natasha to a stop as the other doctors rushed Peter in.
“I know you want to go in there Natasha, but you need to stay out here, the moment we’re finished I will come get you and you can come sit with him.” Cho demanded.
“But – “
“Let us do our jobs Natasha. I promise you I will do everything I can to make him better, trust me please, you being in there won’t help.”
“Fine. Okay, I’ll stay here.” Natasha finally relented and watched as Cho raced through the doors and preparing to perform the surgery Peter would need while also making sure to make note of every problem and injury she found on him as she did so.
Natasha trusted her with Peter, she truly did. Just the thought of Peter in there alone, without her to hold his hand in case he woke up, woke up afraid, killed her. She hoped her teammates were out there removing every Hydra agent they could get their hands on, but no part of her wanted to be out there with them, she was exactly where she needed, and wanted to be, with Peter.
Part of what Strucker had said before she had killed him did eat away at her though, that they had been capable of convincing Peter that the Avengers didn’t care about him, from the way Peter reacted when he saw her almost convinced her otherwise. She knew though how it felt when you saw someone who wouldn’t hurt you after enduring torture like Peter had, the relief of it removed everything else in that moment, there was a high chance of when he woke up again that he would be closed off, scared. Scared that what they had told him was true, the way May had spoken of him confirmed to her that he’d been hearing it before he was captured, hearing it from someone he loved made it much easier for Hydra to manipulate it into your mind. Especially after over a month of isolation.
Natasha wasn’t sure how she was going to fix this, how she was going to help Peter, but she most certainly wasn’t going to leave him, she hadn’t known how she was going to react when she found him, everything she did felt like she was autopilot, maybe she would feel the same with this. Natasha didn’t need to worry about how she would help Peter but focus on actually helping him, she knew James would be right by her side. They hadn’t expected this, hadn’t thought they would be seen as parents by a fifteen-year-old with spider abilities, but she knew that neither of them would trade this for anything, they hadn’t expected to gain a son out of Peter, but they also weren’t willing to let him go now that they had.
Did Peter still see them that way? Did he still see her as a mother? Of James as a father? Of Wanda as a sister? Maybe despite all of his reassurances that he had to do it on his own, that he didn’t want them looking for him, all of this time he had been waiting for them to come to him, to scoop him up and tell him it would all be okay.
Would he want to stay with them after everything?