Thank you all so much to everyone who has been reading and reviewing this story. I appreciate it so much. Here is the final prompt of Febuwhump, Suicide. Warning for mentions and thoughts of suicide and a mention of sexual harassment of a minor.

Day 28: Suicide

Mr. Stark. Miss Potts. Vision. Sometimes Colonel Rhodes.

Penny Parker.

Those were the people that lived in the compound full time. Of course, there were other employees. Secret agents. The occasional rogue Avenger.

Mr. Stark. Miss Potts. Vision. Sometimes Colonel Rhodes. All safe. All avoidable for the most part, especially the last two who she almost never saw.

This was the list that Penny went through at night before she went to bed and when she woke up in the mornings. When she climbed out of bed and straight into a cold shower to wake herself up, the cold water almost unbearable. When she sat huddled in a towel in the corner of the bathroom for almost an hour until Friday told her it was 7 am and time to eat.

Miss Potts had her breakfast at 7 before going to work, and Penny had asked Friday to set an alert just for her so that she could eat with the woman. Miss Potts, soon to be Mrs. Stark, didn't ask questions. Didn't try to make her talk. Instead, she made croissants and sat out plates of fruit. Yogurt. Granola and cream to go with strawberries.

If there were any other breakfast food that she might want, Penny was sure that they would have it for her. But she never asked. Not for anything. Not from them. So she made her way down the hall to find Miss Potts alone at the table, Mr. Stark still asleep.

She sat across from Miss Potts, the woman's hair sleek and blonde and pulled back, her pencil skirt and blouse and black stilettos all perfect. Meanwhile, Penny's hair was still damp, and she was dressed in the T-shirt and sweatpants she'd slept in. But she couldn't bring herself to care. Thankfully, the woman didn't seem to care either. She never asked Penny anything, apart from whether or not she wanted more orange juice or fruit or bread.

She ate fruit. And bread. And yogurt. She ate without tasting because she had to eat to keep living and she wasn't going to stop living. Not now. Not because of this...no matter how much she wanted to. And she did. She wanted to stop. To give up. Because she didn't know how much more of this she could take.

Mr. Stark. Miss Potts. Vision. Sometimes Colonel Rhodes. The ones she avoided but was somewhat comforted to have nearby.

It had begun with a text message sent to Mr. Stark four months after her Homecoming dance. "Does your offer to join the Avengers still stand?" It had been sent from the roof of her apartment building, backpack between her knees, bruises forming on her wrists that would be healed by the time she got back.

May had been two floors down. But she hadn't been able to think about that...about blood and screaming and the second gunshot that had taken every bit of her and shattered it.

She'd called the police and climbed out of the window. To this day she had no idea how Mr. Stark had gotten her to the compound. She'd heard his whispers with Happy, though, when she'd somehow been in the back of a car, eyes closed as she'd leaned her head against the window. The words she hadn't wanted to hear. Boyfriend. Argument.

When she finished her breakfast she went back to her room without a word, her own rudeness chafing somewhere below the surface. May had taught her better. She should have said thank you or offered to help with the dishes. But May wasn't there anymore so what did that matter?

She hadn't answered any of Ned or MJ's texts. Hadn't gone to the funeral. Mr. Stark had wanted to make her but she'd hidden in her room, asking Friday to lock the door, and then had used the vents, crawling until she'd found the smallest, tightest corner where she'd curled into a ball, face buried into her knees, tears falling until she ran out of tears.

When she'd finally gone back to her room, weak from hunger and barely able to stand after being so cramped for so long, she'd found a plate of sandwiches under cling wrap and had eaten them all, then had gone back to bed. Her phone had been beeping and vibrating almost endlessly, so she'd turned it off without looking.

Mr. Stark had come to talk to her the next day. After early breakfast with Miss Potts. About school. "Do you want to go back?" She'd shaken her head, making it abundantly clear that she didn't want his comfort. Or his touch on her shoulder, arm around her. None of it. Don't touch don't touch don't touch! She screamed these words in her mind every time she saw another person.

"Okay." He'd nodded his head, teeth digging into his lip for a moment. Why? Had he been nervous? "I can email your school...set it up so that you can do your work here. Over email. You have your books?" She'd nodded. And he'd looked at her for along time as if he were looking for something or like he wanted to say something. But he hadn't. He'd just left. And he hadn't come back to her room since.

She didn't blame him.

After breakfast she pretended she was at school, locking her door, pulling out her books, and working until lunch. She did her classes in order. Single minded. All she needed to focus on was her English essay. Her history reading. The worksheets. Papers. Videos to watch and responses to write.

Emails from classmates to ignore.

She stopped for lunch at 11, checking with Friday first to see if the kitchen was empty. Usually it was. Mr. Stark didn't eat until later. So she ate sandwiches she threw together from the fully stocked fridge in her bedroom, door shut.

Then more school work until 3, when she would stare at the wall for an hour or more, trying so hard to make it stop. Wondering if this pain would ever dim. Even a little. Surely she couldn't keep living with pain like this.

She avoided the people that lived in the compound at dinner too. Microwave meals and leftovers filled the freezer and refrigerator and she picked from those. No one bothered her.

Mr. Stark. Miss Potts. Vision. Sometimes Colonel Rhodes. These were the ones she did her best to avoid.

Curled up in a ball in her room after eating dinner, she heard voices in the hall. Distant. But it was quiet enough that she could make out words. "It's been a month and a half, Tony." Pepper sounded upset. Almost afraid.

"I know." He sounded defeated.

"This isn't healthy. When was the last time you ever saw her?"

"Since I asked her about school." He admitted.

"Tony. You have to talk to her. You're...you're her guardian now. She looks up to you."

"I…". He trailed off. "Pep, I don't know how to do this." He sounded like he was admitting something terrible...a dark, sad failure, and tears pooled in her eyes. She was doing this to him. She hadn't wanted to hurt him...she had just needed a place to go. And he'd been so kind to help...so willing to offer her his home.

She was a burden for the people around her. No matter how much she tried to erase herself, to ease their pain as she smothered under her own, there was no helping it. They still cared about her and she was hurting them. But she didn't know how to stop. She couldn't bear the thought of talking to him face to face...didn't see a way through this.

There were no pills in her medicine cabinet. Regular drugs didn't work on her anyway. All the strong stuff was in the medbay. So that was out. The thought startled her...she wasn't thinking about…for just a second, her head cleared. But then she realized how much better off Mr. Stark would be without her haunting his home like a ghost. She wasn't even Spidergirl anymore. What use was she to the Avengers?

All night, that thought circled around her brain. What use was she? Her life was basically over anyway. May was dead...the last family she had was dead. Had been shot. Because of her. She'd basically killed her aunt and uncle. She wasn't a superhero anymore. Couldn't bear to even think about putting on that suit. She was hurting her friends and ignoring the people that had taken her in.

She grabbed a knife from the drawer the next evening when she got her dinner. The only problem was her healing...she healed so fast. But if she cut deep enough in the right spot, she figured that wouldn't be a problem. She didn't dare look up the best way to do it...no way Mr. Stark wouldn't have Friday alert him if she searched something like that.

Jumping off the roof had been another thought. She could easily climb to the top floor of the compound and just...dive. It should be quick. But she didn't know if she was brave enough.

"Penny?" She jumped at Friday's voice as she sat at her desk, knife in hand, wondering if somehow, the AI knew what she was doing. What she was planning. Did the AI watch her? Or just listen. She got changed in her bedroom, so she hoped it was the latter.

"Yeah?" She asked, slipping the knife into her desk drawer.

"Mr. Stark asked me to invite you down to the lab." She stared, frowning, then shook her head.

"Can you tell him no thanks, Friday?"

"Of course."

Then she went back to planning, putting the knife away right before her laptop pinged with an incoming...chat? Message? It said "Tony Stark" on the top and she stared at it for a long time before opening the message.

"Hey, kid." That was it. Just a hi?

She didn't want to answer. Didn't want to hurt him. Didn't want him to invest anything else in her when she was planning to...go away. He didn't deserve that after everything.

But every part of her wanted to answer. So she sat at her desk, fingers hovering for a long time before she typed out an answer. "Hi."

That was all she could manage.

"How's the schoolwork going? Do you need any help?"

"No." She replied, glancing down at the drawer that held the knife. "Thank you though."

Then a long wait, during which she found herself longing for him to write something...for a hand that she could use to pull herself up. Because she did need help. Needed it more than anything.

"Just let me know if you need anything, Pen. I know…". The message sat there for a minute before he was typing once more, little dots appearing at the bottom of the screen. "I remember how much this hurts. Sometimes it still hurts. But it hurts less and it gets easier to breathe."

It was such a strange choice of words...but also a perfect one. Easier to breathe. She felt like breathing was almost impossible these days. And...and she wanted to talk to him. Not face to face. That was too much. She didn't know how to cope with that yet.

But maybe...maybe she could tell him another way.

She brought up a blank word document and began to type.

"It was my fault. He creeped me out but I never told her. I didn't tell anyone that he was always looking at me and saying gross things to me but she seemed happy and now it sounds so stupid I can't believe I was so stupid." She took a long, deep breath, closing her eyes, and typed without opening them. "He had a gun he was trying to". She had to stop, stomach turning. But she made herself keep going "...to hurt me." She couldn't bring herself to type the real word. "But she came in and he shot her when she screamed at him May was screaming...it's my fault. She died because of me…"

Without thinking or letting herself hesitate or even editing her words, she copied the whole thing and pasted it into the empty message box, then hit enter.

Then she was in her bathroom, gripping the toilet and losing the dinner she'd just eaten. Dry heaving, she felt tears start to fall as she struggled to breathe, painful cramps trying to force up everything she'd eaten.

She wanted the knife. Wanted it to stop. But she couldn't stop dry heaving over the toilet...couldn't even lift her head. It seemed to crash down on her, making it impossible to do anything other than heave over the toilet and cry.

And then a hand was on her back. She hadn't even heard anyone come in, and her senses were quiet. Then again, her senses wouldn't have alerted her to anyone that lived in the compound...she trusted them too much. The hand just stayed there for a minute, moving in slow, hesitant circles, then moved to her arm, catching her before she started to let herself fall forward.

As Penny stared straight ahead, a warm cloth wiped her mouth, the sound of flushing filling the room as Mr. Stark sat down beside her on the floor, resting his back against the wall, and she gave in, resting her head on him. It had been so long since she'd been held...since anyone had touched her, and the sensation almost brought more tears to her eyes.

He didn't say anything. Didn't try to reassure her, and she was glad. She ended up closing her eyes and almost falling asleep on him until he all but carried her to bed, tucking her in and running a hand through her hair.

"It hurts, Mr. Stark." She whispered, not opening her eyes.

"I know, kiddo...I know." He sat down on her bed, not moving until after she fell asleep.

The next morning she woke up early, took her shower, and joined Pepper for breakfast. Then she went back to her room and did her work. She ate lunch at 11 and finished her school work. But then she stopped, letting herself glance over at her bedside table where her phone sat. Moving over, she plugged it into the wal, watching it come to life and staring at the screen until it showed the multiple missed messages and notifications.

She wasn't ready to answer any of them yet, but she opened a new one to Ned. He deserved that much, at least.

"I'm sorry. I miss you but I can't talk right now."

At four o'clock, she placed the phone back on the table, ignoring the reply Ned had sent her almost immediately. It had been long and sad and worried. She couldn't reply yet. Soon, maybe. But not yet. Instead, she stepped into the hallway, then into the elevator where she stood for a long time, taking deep breaths and trying to build up her courage. She'd barely spoken to anyone in weeks...but maybe it was time. She'd confessed everything and he'd still come to her. Still held her when she was sick. Still comforted her and sat with her. So she asked Friday to take her down to the lab.

Mr. Stark glanced up from where he was crouched over his suit when she entered his lab, eyes widening, and then he smiled, seeming to droop from relief. "Hey, kiddo. Wanna help?"

She nodded. More than anything, she wanted to help. Wanted to think about Iron Man suit or nanotech or whatever Mr. Stark was working on. The girl sat in her usual spot across from him, listening as he gave her the rundown of what he'd been working on, and the two spent the next four hours they worked in his lab.

That night they ate dinner together for the first time since she'd come to live with them. Pizza he'd ordered in large quantities...pepperoni and sausage and Hawaiian. Cheese. Vegetarian. They would have leftover pizza for a long time. And for the first time since she'd arrived, she ate until she was actually full, tasting all of the food and actually enjoying it. The three of them, Mr. Stark and Miss Potts and Penny Parker together on the sofa, eating pizza and watching a movie. A funny, light comedy that made them all laugh. And she dozed on Miss Pott's shoulder, the woman's arm around her, Mr. Stark sitting on her other side. He carried her to bed that night, and she woke up briefly as he gathered her into his arms, her head propped against his shoulder. "Should we wake her up?" Miss Potts asked, and she felt more than heard Mr. Stark chuckle.

"Nah. She's not heavy. I'll be right back."

When he placed her in her bed, she opened her eyes for a moment, glancing up at Mr. Stark who brushed her hair and tucked her in once more. "Hey, kiddo. Get some sleep, okay?"

"Mr. Stark?"

"Yeah, Pen?"

"Thank you." She wasn't just thanking him for carrying her to bed or for dinner. But he seemed to know that, and he smiled, a soft, gently expression taking over his face.

"Any time, honey."

The next morning Mr. Stark was at the breakfast table when Penny woke up. And he was there almost every morning after.

It was two weeks later that she slipped the knife back into its place in the kitchen drawer. Five weeks later that she admitted to him while the two of them were sitting in his lab that she had taken it in the first place.

They were looking at her suit for the first time. He'd been the one to bring it up, and after hesitating, she'd agreed. It wasn't something she'd really wanted to get back to just yet...the thought of climbing into that suit when she hadn't even been able to save her aunt from a terrible, random act of violence. Still, she'd agreed that they should update her suit...reinstall the parachute and install some updates to Karen. The two of them were staring at the lines of code when Penny blurted out the words, her voice barely a whisper.

"I took a knife from the kitchen." She didn't look at him when she said it. Didn't lift her eyes from the computer screen, but she felt him stiffen. Heard him open his mouth and close it again, teeth clacking together as he took a deep breath. "It was over a month ago...I put it back." Her eyes got hot and she took a deep breath of her own.

"I'm proud of you." He murmured, reaching out and putting a hand on her shoulder, then pulled her closer. She let him, resting her head on his shoulder and snorting a little, the sound sad.

"You shouldn't be. I wasn't even brave enough to go through with it." He shook his head, squeezing her tighter.

"You're the bravest kid I've ever met, Pen. I know how hard it must have been for you to put it back, and I'm so proud."

There was more to say, and they would talk about it more one day, but that day, they just sat together, her head on his shoulder, his chin resting on her hair. After a moment, she felt him press a kiss to the top of her head, and then they went back to her spider suit.

That's all for Febuwhump. Thank you all so much for reading! I hope you liked the story :)