(Farewell Forever) - If You Love Something, Let It Go
Peter had watched as Morgan grabbed the rations the soldiers had brought in. She set the tray down, and the two of them began to eat. Peter bit into the sandwich, his stomach growling as he tried to think of something to tell Morgan. He had the idea to write a note to Tony, but he knew that they had cameras in the room, and Peter hadn’t touched a single crayon this whole time. But, the cameras, as far as he could tell, didn’t have microphones. He could get a written message to Tony if he told Morgan what to write.
After dinner, Peter whispered quietly to Morgan, encouraging her to start drawing. She nodded. Morgan, after grabbing her crayons and sitting on the bed, looked at Peter expectantly.
“Okay, Mo. I’m going to tell you what to do, and I want you to do it without making it look like I’m telling you to do anything, got it?” He asked, turning his head as he would at any normal point.
“Okay, Petey.” She paused, doodling the sun in the corner of the paper.
“You get to go see Dad and Mom in the morning, okay?” Morgan perked up at that as she stopped drawing. “I want you to draw two lady bugs, then leave a space okay.” Morgan nodded, doing as he asked. “Now one lady bug, a caterpillar, then two rolly-pollys.” Morgan obliged, doodling out the little critters on the grass that she had scribbled.
“Below them I want you to draw a centipede and two worms all in a line, then leave a space. Okay, next -” Peter continued to instruct Morgan on the types of bugs to draw. When she was done he stared at the paper, taking a deep breath. The code didn’t mean anything drastic, to be honest, Peter had no important information to give. But, Tony needed to hear how much Peter loved him. No matter what the future held, he was eternally grateful to his mentor.
After Morgan finished her drawing Peter clicked off the lamp, tucking her up against himself one last time. He felt tears burning his eyes. He could barely do this when he had a good reason to last. He had absolutely no clue how he was supposed to manage this hell-hole by himself.
“What time do we get to go home?” Morgan whispered as she ran her fingers through Peter’s curls. He had fallen asleep every night here to those warm fingers in his hair.
“You get to go home in the morning, Mo. But, I’m going to stay here.” He felt his breath catching as Morgan looked up at him, confusion written across her face.
"I don't want you to stay here!" She cried, tears welling in her eyes.
"I know. I know you don't, but I'll be back soon, okay? Dad will come get me." Peter whispered as he comforted the young girl. His heart screaming that he didn’t want her to leave him! He wanted to go with her! But it wasn’t the time for that. Morgan settled into him, her dark eyes closing as she fell deep into sleep. Peter kept his arms woven tightly around her, soaking in every last second that he had with her.
Eventually, against his will, Peter fell into a light sleep.
___
When Peter woke up, he felt something in his heart break in half. His arms were empty. Peter jerked into a sitting position, despite the pain in his entire body. Peter jerked his head around the room, searching every achingly empty corner. He forced himself to his feet, his right arm being caught in the manacle that had him trapped against the wall.
“Hammer! Hammer! Where is she? Where is she?!” He screamed, like a wild animal. He began to fight against the chain. Wrapping his freed hand around the restrained wrist and pulling with all his might. He could feel the chains beginning to stretch when the door banged open.
Peter paused, looking at Hammer and Knives. Justin looked at Peter with bitter amusement, before taking a deep breath.
“You really ought to calm down Mister Parker. We took the Princess to her father this morning. Here is the video for you. We didn’t need you getting any crazy ideas, so we let out a little more of our ‘spidey-gas’ to keep you asleep while we took the young one home.” Hammer nodded at Knives who pressed the spacebar on the laptop he was holding. A video clip showed Morgan, tied in a warehouse as Tony raced into the room, wrapping the girl tightly into his arms as he sobbed. Knives clicked off the video as Tony turned towards the camera, shutting the laptop. “See, Miss Parker is safe.” Hammer then began to look down, examining his hand as though Peter were the least interesting thing he had seen in his life.
Peter, uncaring of the fact that Hammer was in the room with him, let out a choked sob - dropping his chin to his chest. She was safe. She was SAFE. Hammer could - and would - do whatever he wanted to Peter, but as long as Morgan was safely in her parent’s arms Peter wouldn’t care. Then he felt a spark of indignation rise through his spine. Without Morgan here, holding him back, Peter could do whatever he wanted to Hammer.
Peter began to rip at the chain in the wall - noting that due to his injuries and sickness from the gas created for him, his strength was failing him - and beginning to scream at Hammer.
“YOU’RE CRAZY! TONY IS GOING TO KILL YOU! YOU’RE CRAZY!” He screamed and screamed, not caring that Hammer was looking at Peter with disgust and contempt. Peter raged - letting every ounce of pent up anger and hatred pour out of every inch of his body. Hammer looked unconcerned as Peter tried his best to rip the chain from the wall, Knives watching with amusement from the corner.
Peter was about to give up when a terrible - horrible - awful - heart-aching thought hit him. He would never see Morgan again. He was going to die here, and he would never see her again. That was farewell.
With a new spark of rage he pulled, placed his right foot against the wall and jerking backwards. He heard the chain shatter, and the force of kicking off the wall had Peter falling backwards onto the floor. He grunted in pain, the left half of his body screaming at the stab of discomfort.
Hammer cried out, as he and Knives ducked out of the room. Peter - with boiling rage seeping out of his body turned to the door that had no handle and pounded his fists against it - bang - bang - YOU TOOK ME AWAY FROM MY FAMILY - bang - I HAVE LOST EVERY SINGLE PERSON I LOVE - bang - I HATE YOU - BANG!
This time he smelled it - stronger than it had ever been and sickeningly sweet. He wanted to throw up as his head spun and a heavy fever leached into his body. His limbs growing horribly heavy as he bent in on himself, sinking to the ground and throwing out one more fist - bang - as he heard someone laughing from outside his room.