The Return
Peter woke up in his bedroom in the Tower. He shot up, he unconsciously expected to wake up in the Hydra facility. Thankfully, he was in his own bed, in his own apartment with his aunt only two doors away, and his dad only one elevator up.
He stepped out of bed, intending to grab some water from the kitchen, but his feet led him to May’s room. She woke up the moment he entered the room, and she motioned for him to lay next to her. He eagerly did so. They used to do this a lot after they lost Ben, and even before that, he would lay in between them after a bad nightmare about his parents. Peter didn’t want to think about that, so he pushed those thoughts away. Hugging each other, they fell asleep.
It was two weeks before Christmas break when Peter was saved, and Tony and May had agreed to keep Peter home for those two weeks. That meant Peter didn’t have to go to school for a month. He didn’t mind at all. If he did go to school for even a day, he knew he would be attacked by everyone with questions, no matter how traumatized he had been by the experience. He also knew MJ and Ned would protect him from any unwanted attention, but they probably couldn’t fight the stream of questions.
That was also the reason Peter refused to go online anywhere before Christmas. His return had been announced by the Avengers, but Peter himself had yet to reappear.
Peter thought that those two weeks before Christmas would mostly be sleeping and catching up with homework, but that wasn’t all. Intensive therapy sessions and FBI interviews were not to be forgotten.
The therapist, Dr Susan, was a very nice woman. She insisted Peter call her by her first name and, as a result, he had forgotten her second name within five minutes. She was also a therapist for most Avengers, and as a second job, Head of the Psychological Department of SI. Peter couldn’t imagine the amount of work and stress came with those positions, but she seemed to manage just fine.
She told him to spend time around the people he loved to avoid being alone for too long. That had proven to be a bad idea; him sleeping in May’s room was proof enough for this. They were working towards him sleeping in his own room again, and MJ staying over did help miraculously in this task.
Dr Susan also helped him terrifically in trusting doctors again. After all, the last doctor he had had been Dr Smith and he had traumatized him. Peter woke up sometimes after a nightmare, clearly remembering what happened in the nightmare. The nightmares seemed realistic like they actually happened, only they were much worse than what actually happened and Peter couldn’t for all the life in the world remember that it happened. Dr Susan said that the nightmares were based on something real, something that had actually been done to Peter while he was held captive, but that his brain was repressing the memories. After all this, Peter saw no reason not to kill Dr Smith. He told Dr Susan this, who said that probably wasn’t the best idea. She also told him that, knowing Tony, he wouldn’t get out of prison for a long, long time, if ever. Peter could stand behind this.
Tony had also told him that they had found Dr Smith’s family. Some woman called Melissa Smith and her son lived in DC, in the home the IP-address of Hydra’s Twitter originated. Peter thought it was quite stupid to let the IP-address of your evil organization’s Twitter lead to your wife’s home.
Either way, Tony had interviewed them (not personally, he’d send someone to interview them, because why wouldn’t he), and Melissa had confirmed that her husband was a biochemist specialised in human mutations. She also knew that he was with Hydra and she supported the cause. She was also facing quite some jail time, but since she wasn’t actually part of Hydra, a lot less than her husband. Their son was going to a friend’s family who was willing to raise him as their own. They had, as far as Tony knew, no connections to any criminal cause.
Peter was glad that Tony took care of it all. He had zero worries about all this, except the fact that he had to testify at Dr Smith’s trial. Luckily, he had no reason to come face to face with the man, because the judge agreed to let Peter testify without the doctor present.
All in all, Tony had everything under control quite well, and the legal side and, hopefully, Peter’s mental side of it all were dealt with.
Peter had been in captivity for only a couple of days, but it seemed much more. He had missed his siblings and friends terribly. When he walked out of the jet, supported by Nat, they flew into him. Harley and Alicia were first, followed soon by MJ and Ned. Natasha stepped back for a second, trusting the kids not to hurt Peter.
When he was released from that bearhug, Wanda was waiting for him with Pepper and May. He hugged them all at the same time. He knew that all three of them had lost more than anyone ever should. Pepper had lost her parents when she was ten, May her sister-in-law, brother-in-law, and her husband, and Wanda her twin. Peter could feel the relief in all of them when he hugged them. It seemed like they physically relaxed the moment they touched him, the moment they got the confirmation it wasn’t all a dream.
“I missed all of you so much,” Peter told them, holding onto May now. He was still very weak physically.
Tony came walking out of the jet, where the team was cleaning some things up. “He needs medical attention. I don’t know what they did to him, but it wasn’t anything fun. FRI?”
“The medical team is coming up right away. They were on standby and are already on their way up,” she responded.
Peter relaxed a bit at that and leaned against May some more.
Not only in the Tower but also outside of it were a lot of people happy that Spider-Man was back. New York cared for their super-heroes, and Spider-Man was the one who did most for the ‘common’ people, so the city worried about him to no end.
Peter had a strict no Twitter policy until Christmas, but that didn’t mean his friends and family kept him out. They read supportive tweets to him whenever he was feeling down. MJ in particular often showed him reactions to the Avengers’ original announcement of Peter’s return.
Official Avengers | @avengers
We are very happy to announce that Spider-Man has been rescued from Hydra in an Avengers mission. We won’t reveal anything about the ordeal until Peter has decided to return to Twitter, which will not be before Christmas.
- Kates | @ohhellyesplease
@avengers @mightbespidey Bed empty, no note, car gone. You could have died, you could have been seen!
-- Jamie | @ohheavensnoplease
@ohhellyesplease not exactly appropriate for this, bit too literal, but I completely agree [eye emoji] @yeeterparkour
--- Pepper’s Intern | @behindthebook
@ohhellyesplease @ohheavensnoplease happy to tell you that you made peter smile :)
- Don’te | @notthepoet
@avengers @mightbespidey glad to hear you returned. Are you alright?
-- Potato Son | @harleykeener
@notthepoet Peter will have no lasting physical harm, which we’re all very happy about :)
- Auntie Marvel | @caroldanvers
@avengers I just wanted to say that no matter how far away I am, news always comes through. When I heard Peter was missing, my heart broke. I’m so happy that he’s safe now!
- Spider-Fan | @idonteffinknow
@avengers so happy to hear @mightbespidey is safe! #spideyisback
SpiderWatch | @spidernews
We don’t think we need to say it once more, but we’re going to anyway! @mightbespidey is back and we couldn’t be happier. Those days he was missing were hard, we can’t imagine what it was like for his lost ones #spideyisback
Group chat: AcaDec
Cindy peter!
Abraham how are you?
GITC he’s sleeping, ill tell him to check it when he wakes up
…
Intern Son im back
Sally peter!
Charlie how are you?
Intern Son tired and bruised, and so happy im back
Pepper’s Intern summed up: he’s not dead