Chapter 17
Peter had been in surgery for two hours when the team came running into medical. Natasha had been sat in one of the waiting chairs the entire time, she knew she needed to go and clean up but there was absolutely no way she was going to leave Peter on her own. If he woke up and no one was there then what Strucker had told him about no one caring about him would just sink in further, she needed to be here when he woke up.
“Nat, how long has he been in surgery?” Bucky asked her, sitting in the chair beside her.
“For about two hours now, there’s been no news, no nothing. I don’t want to leave him alone so could you stay here so I can quickly go clean up? The moment I come back you can leave but I don’t want to look like this when he wakes up you know?” She whispered to him.
“Yeah of course, you go sort yourself out I’m not leaving him don’t worry, if something happens while you’re gone then I’ll make sure to get Friday to tell you instantly. Don’t worry he won’t be alone.” James once again placed a kiss on her head before she ran off to get out of the clothes she had worn to the mission.
While in her room she made sure to be quick, of course she made sure she had done everything she needed to do, washed off all of the dirt and blood she had collected in the fight. Normally it wouldn’t bother her, she’d been in worst states than this one, but she knew that Peter would freak out at the blood which had covered her, would have feared that she was hurt, and right now he didn’t need any more fear than he already would feel when he woke up.
Natasha picked the jumper from her closet, the one Peter had complimented, even stolen multiple times because ‘It’s just so soft Tasha.’ Maybe wearing it will remind him of the peace he felt here once. She put on a random pair of jeans before making her way back down, knowing it was James’ turn to go get sorted now, so she sat back down in her chair while he went off. The rest of the team had either also gone to clean up or were off doing something else entirely and if she was completely honest, she didn’t really care, she is right where she needs to be and right now that’s all that mattered. The moment she was allowed into that room she wasn’t leaving him, not unless he wanted her out, she just didn’t want Peter to wake up alone, she needed him to not wake up alone.
Eventually Wanda walked in, sitting down on the chair next to Natasha, the one opposite to the one James had sat himself in. Natasha knew Wanda loved Peter, after the death of Pietro Wanda had become so much like a broken doll, she knew there were other factors affecting Wanda, but the death of her brother was what truly broke her. She had gotten better, in the year before the teams little, extremely embarrassing, argument which led to the fighting at an airport. Yes, Natasha was still embarrassed by that. But in that year Wanda had grown, she became more comfortable with all of them, but it wasn’t until Peter joined the team that she completely opened up, Natasha knew at first Wanda felt guilty for seeing Peter as her brother, believing that she was replacing Pietro.
Eventually though she began to realise that loving Peter as her little brother wasn’t replacing Pietro and when she accepted it, when she let Peter in completely the team had never seen Wanda so happy. Natasha knows that even now she feels guilt over it, but not because she felt she was replacing Pietro, but because she wishes that her brothers could have actually known one another, without ever personally knowing Pietro Natasha knows that the two of them would have gotten along extremely well.
Natasha turned to look at Wanda and just saw her staring at the door Peter had gone through.
“Can you feel him?” At her words Wanda swirled around to look at her, clear confusion etched on her face. “You told me while he was at the tower you could feel his pain, I was wondering now he’s back here can you feel him again?”
“I – No. I don’t know how but in some time during his abduction he blocked me out, I mean I can still sense that he’s there, but I can’t actually feel him, I can’t reach him. Does that make sense?” Wanda spoke to her, looking back at the door.
Natasha can imagine this disconnect is breaking Wanda, she knew the two of them liked to speak to each other telepathically. They would be in a room with the whole team and without even making a sound Peter and Wanda would be having a whole conversation in their minds, despite not having that power herself Natasha was pretty good at reading Peter, or well she thought that she was.
“When do you think he’s going to wake up Nat?” Wanda whispered into the air, the silence suffocating them.
“If I’m honest, I have no idea. You didn’t see him but Wanda he’s in bad shape.” Natasha continued to stare ahead as Wanda looked at her, “He has a lot of wounds but not only that he’s extremely malnourished. I wouldn’t be surprised if they finish the surgery and he sleeps for a day. From the way he was looking, I wouldn’t blame him.”
When she had finished speaking James walked back around the corner, looking to Natasha but then glancing to Wanda, concern on his face.
“Wanda you really should go to bed.” James told her. Natasha doubted Wanda was actually going to listen to him.
“No, I’m staying here.” Ah, she was right. But James wasn’t wrong, out of everyone involved in the mission, other than Peter himself, Wanda was the one who needed to go rest.
“He’s right Wanda. No, you glaring at me won’t change my mind.” That made Wanda slump back into her seat. “I know you want to be here, and we aren’t trying to get rid of you, but you used your powers a lot in that fight, more than you have in a while. I know you’re feeling drained, you said it yourself on the mission so don’t try and argue against that, but if you don’t rest at least a little then the moment Peter sees you he’s going to freak out over your health and then that’s going to freak you out and it’s going to spiral into a whole thing. So, please just rest for a little while.”
For a moment Wanda just stared at the two of them, until finally she sighed, “Fine I’ll go to bed. But the moment he wakes do you promise me that you’ll let Friday wake me?”
“Of course.” James and Natasha spoke in sync. The two of them watched as Wanda rounded the corner, the second she was gone Natasha slunk down into her chair and rested her head against James’ arm.
The silence which swallowed them this time wasn’t as bad, the fear for Peter was still there but James sitting with her made the panic diminish just a little. Natasha wouldn’t be alone no matter what the news was going to be. Three hours now, three hours of waiting for some kind of information from Cho or any of the doctors really, she just needed to know that he’s okay. The imagine of the way Peter looked when she found him in that room still haunts her every time she closes her eyes, she had tried to wash off the blood and the dirt that was on his face but she didn’t want to aggravate any wounds he had so she left it at that, as well as the fact that he was freezing and the only water she had on hand was cold.
Natasha wondered if that was purposeful, did Hydra know he couldn’t control his body temperature, that the spider bite made being cold dangerous, did they know? If they did know then it would make some sense, when Peter gets too cold, before he goes unconscious, it makes him sluggish meaning that he wouldn’t have been able to fight back against their experiments. That added to him being malnourished, the lack of food and the cold would have made him be in a zombie state, she noticed that herself when she picked him up, he spoke to her for a second before falling back unconscious.
They’d been sat there for another half an hour before Helen Cho finally came out, the moment Natasha and James saw them the two of them bolted out of their chairs, finally they were going to know something.
“Okay first of all I need to say that he’s stable, he’s going to be okay but there’s still problems. As you noticed he’s been starving, it looks like it started as soon as he left, he hasn’t been getting the right amount of food the entire time. Which is obviously is a problem, but we’ve got him on an IV now which will hopefully help but the moment he can eat he needs to get back on track quickly. Because of the lack of food his wounds haven’t healed themselves the way they normally would. The cuts on his body, I’m not too sure about, it seems they’ve been cut open more than once, which I’m guessing is because they wanted to see how long it would take to heal, but right now he’s healing the way a normal person would, so unless he gets enough food in him soon he will take a while to heal. As well as all of this we had to reset his right leg and his left shoulder, they had healed wrong after being broken so we had to fix that. The cold state he was in has also affected his healing factor, we knew it made Peter himself sluggish but apparently it also slows down how quick he heals, thankfully somehow it didn’t fall down to a really dangerous state but we still need to ensure he stays as warm as we can make him while he heals. He hasn’t yet woken up but I can imagine there’s going to be more problems when does wake up, but more psychological damage rather than physical, you can go sit with him now.” Cho listed off to them before walking off.
The moment she said they can sit with him Natasha set off, James following a step behind her, and when she finally got in the room she paused for a moment. There on the bed was Peter, he still looked rough but this time there wasn’t a man with a knife stood behind him, he was laid tucked up in what looks to be three blankets? He was also covered in bandages from the skin she could see, his left shoulder was wrapped entirely but his right still had bandages wrapped around it. Peter had more wounds than she had originally thought, the doctors had put him in shorts and a tank top apparently, they knew they needed to make him warm, but they also needed easy access to his wounds.
Finally, Natasha was able to walk forward and sit down in the chair next to Peter’s bed, James taking the one opposite. Grabbing Peter’s hand Natasha was happy to realise that he was getting warmer, his hand not feeling as cold as it was when she got him out of that room.
“He’s finally home Natalia, we did it.” James whispered to her, he had also grabbed Peter’s hand, despite speaking to her his eyes never left Peter.
Peter might finally be home but the nightmare wasn’t over.