Really Peter?
Tony was already in the garage when they arrived. He was pacing in circles while a small medical team with a gurney waited off to the side. When Happy pulled up in front of them, Tony rushed to the vehicle. He opened the door on Peter’s side, and when he saw him, froze. His face went slack and he paled.
Michelle glared at him while she unbuckled her friend. “Are you going to help?”
“Is it okay to move him?” Tony asked tightly, his pitch rising.
May climbed out from the front and peered over the open door. “Nothing bad happened when we carried him to the car. There’s nothing wrong with his head or spine. I checked. No bumps, no bruises–nothing. That’s the problem. Now move so we can get him to Dr Banner.”
“Right,” he squeaked and shifted, so the medical people could reach him. Michelle helped by gently pushing Peter towards them. Soon enough, they’d placed him on the gurney with everyone following them into the elevator. Tony, May, and Michelle watched as the nurses checked him over.
The silence lasted about five seconds.
His eyes never leaving Peter, Tony asked, “So, you just found him like this?”
May nodded and jerked her head to the girl pressing herself into the corner. “Michelle did. He’d slept on the couch. He’d fallen asleep while we were watching TV, and we didn’t want to wake him.”
Tony nodded absently, then tore his eyes away to look at her. She forced herself not to shrink under his gaze and even lifted her chin. He regarded her, eyes searching, before nodding and turning back to Peter.
When the elevator doors opened, the crew rushed him forwards, and the three of them followed at a slower pace but no less urgent. They entered a small room that observed the larger area fully fitted with medical equipment that Michelle didn’t have any hope on identifying. She didn’t have the urge to either. Her eyes, instead, sought out Peter, whose gurney had been placed in the center of the room and the staff was starting to hook him up to different devices.
As that was happening, a short man with dark, floppy bangs, over thick glasses rushed into the room. His eyes surveyed the people there before locking onto May. “What do we know?”
She blinked at him, then drew herself up. Quickly, she filled the man in on what she'd found, blinking a little more than she normally would. Banner nodded, and without another word, disappeared into the medical room.
May went up to the glass, observing stoically, her gaze never leaving her nephew. Stark stood beside her for a moment before he caved and started to pace the length of the room. Michelle found herself collapsing quietly into one of the waiting chairs. Unlike a normal hospital, they were plush and comfortable—not that she could truly appreciate that then.
She stared numbly down at her hands, twisting the cuff of her sweater between her fingers. She was probably damaging it, but she was too distracted to really care. Her mind was basically blank, her eyes staring vacantly down at her ministrations. To the point that when her phone pinged, she–Michelle Jones–jumped. It was her texting sound, the bell chime obnoxiously cheerful for the heavy atmosphere of the room.
May didn’t even look away from the glass, her head only slightly turning towards her before returning her undivided attention to her boy. Tony, on the other hand, paused in his pacing to frown at her then pulled out his own phone, tapping away on it.
Michelle grimaced and quickly fished it out of her pocket, seeing the notification on the lockscreen. One message from Ned. She bit back a groan when she saw who it was from. Tapping out her passcode, she opened the messenger app.
Ned: You guys are late and Peter isn’t answering me. What happened?
Michelle snorted. Of course, he immediately knew that something was wrong. That was the only thing that was constant when dealing with Peter’s lateness. Muting her phone, she quickly tapped out a response.
MJ: Wow the school is still open? You would think that with the snow it would be closed.
Ned: It’s Midtown.
Okay, fair.
Ned: You’re deflecting. What happened?
Michelle chewed her lip and glanced around. May had crossed her arms, shoulders hunched, looking like she wanted to curl into herself. Michelle watched her for a moment, debating on what she should or could say. Ned already knew about the whole spider problem–he knew before she did. Or before she fully knew–she’d had her suspicions since the field trip. So that crossed out the could, but should she tell him? She dug her teeth a little harder into her lip before making her choice.
MJ: Peter won’t wake up.
Ned: What.
Ned: Did you threaten to burn his Legos? That normally works for me when he’s being lazy.
Michelle pressed her lips together to keep herself from snickering. Yeah, that sounded like the two dorks.
MJ: As much as I appreciate the effort, it won’t help. Peter won’t wake up, no matter what May and I did. I found him like that this morning. He’s paler than normal and his heartbeat is stupidly slow.
Ned: Wait, you found him? Aww did you spend the night ;)
MJ: Ned. Not the time.
Ned: Right, sorry.
MJ: I did spend the night, but because May didn’t want me out in the storm.
Ned: Right.
Ned: So, what’s going on?
Quickly, Michelle filled him in on her morning, skimping slightly on the details of it, playing down just how… deathly their friend looked. He still needed to focus on class, after all. Her own stomach was in knots, and she didn’t have to sit still and listen to a teach drone on and on.
Finally, she’d caught him up. Her phone was silent for a few minutes before another message came through.
Ned: … is he going to be ok?
Michelle drew back and stared down at her screen.
MJ: I don’t know.
Silence.
God, that’s all she was hearing lately–empty silence. It’d been a long time since she’d had to put up with just an empty void of noise. Her eyes started to unfocus while she stared down at the cracks between the tiled floor. She blinked out of it when her phone vibrated in her hand.
Ned: I’ll take notes for you.
Michelle smiled down at the screen, thankful for having a friend like him. He was so kind and almost as selfless as Peter. She nodded and pocketed her phone again, slumping back in the chair.
Something came into her field of vision, and she saw a styrofoam coffee cup held out to her. Happy Hogan was on the other side of it.
She eyed him for a moment before taking it with a quiet ‘thank you’.
He nodded and walked over to his boss, holding up another cup for him. Tony blinked dumbly at him before taking it. He downed a large gulp, grimaced, eyed the cup suspiciously before drinking more of it. Job done, Happy walked to stand by May, offering her a similar cup. She turned to him, eyes slightly red, and accepted the cup with a nod. They stood in silence after that.
Michelle watched them, sipping at her bitter coffee, her old habit of observing people taking over. She stayed still and silent, her eyes slightly unfocused as she took everything in. She was only snapped out of it when the two-way doors creaked open and a slumped shouldered Banner stepped out, scrubbing at his face.
May snapped to face him, stepping forwards with Happy at her heels. Michelle jumped to her feet, power walking over. Tony clicked his phone off and joined their huddle.
The doctor eyed them wearily and sighed. “First of all, breath–all of you. He’s going to be okay.”
May’s shoulders relaxed, and she tipped her head back. “Oh, thank god. Is he going to wake up soon?”
Banner winced and pushed his glasses up his nose, although they were fine. May gave him a funny look and Tony frowned at him. “Brucie? What’s wrong?”
Banner crossed his arms under his chest and looked down. “When did his exhaustion start?”
Michelle, May, and Tony exchanged a look. “About a week ago? I just woke up and he was sluggish and not wanting to move. Which was completely different from the day before.”
Banner nodded at May’s answer. “Did he complains about being cold at all?”
“Yes,” Michelle interjected. They all turned to look at her, and she lifted her chin.
Banner tilted his head and frowned, clearly not recognizing her. “Do you know how cold?” When she shook her head, he sighed. “Well, I’m not positive, but I think I know what’s wrong with him–he’s hibernating.”
He’s what? Michelle stared at the meek doctor, his hands shoved into his lab coat. He had dark circles under his eyes and his shoulders were hunched forwards.
He winced when May squawked and blinked owlishly at him. “Excuse me?”
Banner grimaced, and his eyes flicked to Tony, whose jaw was hanging loosely. He sighed and took his glasses off and started to clean them. “Spiders can’t thermoregulate–the ones that don’t die each year, fall into a state similar to bears. For spiders, it’s not actually called hibernation–it’s diapause–but it’s easier to understand what he’s going through. He’s perfectly fine, his heartbeat and breathing are constant–even if the rate they’re going at would be fatal for a normal human. Basically, he’s just sleeping.”
“But–” Tony started, his jaw working uselessly. “He’s been like this for what–two years?” He jerked around to look at the people around him, and when they nodded in agreement, he swivelled back to stare at Banner. “Why is this happening now?”
Banner shrugged. “That’s what I’m not sure about. He’s not fully spider–it’s only like 35% of his DNA, so he doesn't need to go into diapause to survive. His human half allows him to still function. Something must have triggered his system to start making the antifreeze.”
“Wait,” May interjected again. “He has what in his system?”
Banner blinked up at her, confused before his face slackened slightly and he grimaced. “Oh, um… Well, it’s how spiders slow themselves down so that they can survive. It’s not actual antifreeze. It just acts like it. He’s producing a compound unique only to him that slows down all of his functions. It’s what’s keeping him under.”
“Okay…” May started slowly, her eyes still wide. “So, how do we fix it?”
“Well, we first need to know why he’s hibernating now.” Banner turned to Tony. “Do you know if anything happened to him that would cause his system to kick in? Anything to do with sudden drops in his temperature.”
Tony opened his mouth then looked up at the ceiling. “Friday?”
“On it, Boss. I have Karen on the line now.” Stark nodded and scratched at his nose.
Banner frowned, glancing between them. “Karen?”
Tony nodded. “She’s the AI that I put in his suit. Peter named her, don’t ask me why he chose it.”
Happy snorted, shooting his boss a smirk. “You named Friday on the day of the week you finished her coding. You have no room to talk.”
“Eh, shut up.”
May’s lips twitched at their bantering but then all of them looked up when Friday's voice sounded above, slight amusement tinting her Irish accent. “Karen and I have found the source of Peter’s issue. Last Wednesday, he was fighting by the docks when he fell into Jamaica Bay. His core temperature dropped dangerously low, and Karen suggested calling you so he could get proper treatment. He denied doing so, stating it would be ‘uncool’. He expressed embarrassment that he was thrown into the bay because of a man dressed up as a walrus.”
“Oh my god, Peter.” May closed her eyes and tipped her head back, looking resigned.
Tony shook his head “Goddammit, kid.”
“Well, that would do it.” Banner mussed with a bewildered smirk on his face. “Getting tossed into freezing water would definitely start the diapause–shutting down his functions.”
Tony groaned, covering his face with his hands. “And he didn’t think that something bad could happen?”
Friday made a sound similar to a hum before answering, “Karen said that she’d reminded him constantly that his core temperature was way below normal. He didn’t think it was that big of a deal–that just being a little sleepy was nothing to worry about.”
Stark sighed, running his fingers through his hair. “Goddamn that kid. I’m going to throttle him when he wakes up.”
“Get in line,” May snapped and sighed heavily, covering her eyes with a hand. “Really, Peter?”
Tony grimaced but didn’t object. “Fine, then I get to chew him out after–”
“Me,” Michele interrupted. “I get to yell at him after May.”
Tony looked over at her, indignant, opening his mouth to argue, but something caused him to slowly close it. Maybe it was the glare she was giving him.
“Fiiine,” he pouted. “I get him after the scary girl.”
Michelle blinked at the nickname but didn’t comment. May rolled her eyes then turned back to the doctor. “When will he wake up?”
Dr Banner took off his glasses, cleaning them on his shirt. “That… I’m not sure.” May’s face scrunched up, but before she could say anything, he plowed forwards. “Yet. What’s going on with him is hormonal and chemical. His body is reacting to his environment, so we have to do the same thing—introduce the counter chemicals into his system. Basically, turning on his internal alarm clock. But, we don’t know what that is yet. You’re going to have to give me a couple of hours to figure it out.”
May stared at him for a moment, incredulous before sighing, nodding. She rubbed her hands over cheeks, pressing hard enough to leave red marks. She glanced down at the watch on her wrist and her shoulders slumped. Looking back up to the men gathered around her, she bit her lip. “You’re sure that he’s not in danger?”
Dr Banner shook his head. “None–he’s perfectly safe. I set him up with an IV, so he doesn't get dehydrated, but his body has slowed so much that he doesn't really need it.”
She nodded then admitted, “I have work in a couple of hours. I hate to leave him but…”
“I’ll stay with him,” Michelle interrupted. Tony, who’d also opened his mouth, raised a brow at her. She glared back at him.
May frowned but didn’t dismiss her. “You sure? School should have started not that long ago.”
Michelle gave her a little smile. “I’m sure. I can miss a few days of school. You can’t miss work. Peter would never forgive himself.”
May nodded, rubbing a thumb along her chin before stepping forwards and wrapping Michelle in a hug. She melted into the embrace, clinging a little tighter than she normally would. She closed her eyes and breathed in the woman’s scent–lavenders and coconut. A few years ago, that particular combination wouldn’t have meant anything, but now she associated it with warmth and kindness—maybe even home.
Finally, Michelle pulled away and gave the woman a small nod. May smiled back before glancing over to Happy.
The man answered her silent question. “I’ll drive you back.”
She nodded and started towards the door but not before she shot Tony a look. “Keep him safe.”
The man scoffed and adopted a blinding smile, acting like he was in front of cameras. “When do I not?” At May's blank stare, his bluster dropped away. “Yeah, I got it. Don’t worry, shoo,” he added, flapping a hand at her.
May shook her head and left, Happy trailing behind.
When they were gone, Michelle approached Dr Banner. He glanced at her, eyes weary. Digging her hands into her pockets, she raised her chin, eyes drifting towards the glass window. “Can I sit with him?”
“Oh, sure.” He looked towards the door and back. “Yeah, that’s fine. Actually”—he turned towards Tony, who perked up—“Peter doesn’t need to stay in medical. We can move him to his room. It’ll be more comfortable for him.”
Tony blinked then nodded more enthusiastically, his head bobbing. “Oh, yeah–we can do that.”
Dr Banner jerked his head in a sort of nod then disappeared back into the medical room. Probably to start transferring him.
Tony spun on his heel, walking a few paces before freezing and swivelling to look at Michelle. “You haven’t had breakfast yet, have you?”
Michelle blinked at him, fighting to keep her jaw from hanging. She had not expected that. Tony smirked and jerked his head towards the hall. “Come on, I’m sure the bots can whip something up for you.”
Following him, she raised an eyebrow at him. “I’m not sure I’d trust anything made by your robots.”
He gasped scandalously and put a hand on his chest, leaning away from her. “How dare you. My babies are perfectly fine at cooking. The kitchen ones anyway–don’t accept anything from Butterfingers or Dumb-E.”
“Noted.”