What a great day Peter had. He was late to his first class of the day, got detention, lost some homework, and got beat up by Flash Thompson. What a fine Monday. He might've been to school on time if he had woken up on time. But he went to sleep at 4 am, after a full night on patrol as Spiderman. He had stopped an armed robbery, stopped two muggings, and one attempt at rape. All in all, he did a good job, but he was damn tired afterward. It's not like he intended to stay out so late, things just got out of hand.

But Peter at least made it to school, thanks to Aunt May. She's the real hero here. In return for his gratitude, Peter offered to get the groceries after school. And that's why Peter is carrying 4 bags of milk, eggs, bread, flour, sugar, orange juice, and paper towels along with his backpack. And Peter is usually quite awful at remembering what he needed to pick up, so it's not his fault that he's so wrapped up in trying to remember. Maybe if he'd been paying more attention and listened to his spidey sense last minute, he would have dodged the high velocity projectile coming straight towards his head from behind. But a las, this day needs to get worse before it can get better.

WHAM! Something hits Peter square in the back of the head with a lot of force. So much that he falls to the sidewalk despite his super abilities. His milk and OJ hit the pavement unscathed, but Peter is scared to think of what happened to those eggs.

Grunting, he slowly tries to push himself up, only to find the change in elevation to make him a bit nauseous and dizzy. Just great. He probably has a concussion now. Just what he needs.

Peter tries again to lift his face off of the disgusting New York sidewalk and reclaim his groceries and dignity. He manages to get to a kneeling position without losing all of his balance, but his head is killing him, along with his funked up vision.

"Are you alright, son?" a voice says behind him as a firm hand clamps down on his shoulder. Peter jumps and turns around (quite delayed from his impaired reaction time). He looks at the man, trying to discern whether he is trustworthy or not. Sandy hair, broad shoulders, set jaw, kind but sad eyes, muscles. This guy really can't be more than 35. And spidey sense says not a threat.

"Kid?" he asks again, more concerned now that he hasn't heard a response from the kid.

"Huh?" Peter intelligently asks. Great. Now this guy's gonna think he's an idiot. The man frowns at Peter. Something's definitely wrong. He looks at Peter's eyes: unseeing and vacant. Definite concussion.

"Here, kid, let me help you up," the man says, gently grabbing Peter's arms and lifting him to his feet before grabbing the kid's groceries.

"Thanks," Peter manages to tell him. "Who are you?" he stupidly asks out loud. The man chuckles.

"Anytime, kid. The name's Steve. And I'm sorry about the thing that hit your head. It was from a colleague of mine."

"You don't have very nice colleagues," Peter says under his breath, but Steve hears him anyway and chuckles.

"Guess it just comes in the business."

"Oh yea? What do you do?"

"I used to be in the army, but now… I'll tell you all about it, but I'd like to get your head checked out first." Peter's jolted by that. Rule number one in New York: don't talk to strangers, even if they're nice. Rule 2: definitely don't go with some one you just met. But Peter is Spiderman. His spidey sense would have told him if Steve was a threat. And it was dead silent right now. So Peter agrees cautiously, ready to bolt or pounce at any given moment.

"We're going to my friend's tower. I have a friend who's a doctor, and others who can asses battle injuries. And then the one who did this to you."

"Sounds like you have a lot of friends. And a rich one that is, if he or she has a whole tower."

"Yea. He's Tony Stark." Peter stops dead in his tracks at the name.

"T-Tony Stark? You're joking. I've read loads of his papers on his new tech and admire his research." Steve's eyebrow raises at that as he gets Peter to continue moving.

"You like science?"

"Like science? It's my favorite thing. I love chemistry, I love physics. Forensics is great too, but no offense, I don't like earth sciences. It's so boring to learn about sedimentary rock. And I've learned the layers of the Earth since third grade, I don't need to spend a month on it in my AP class…" Peter rambles on, a symptom of the concussion, he assumes. Steve doesn't try to stop the kid. It'll keep him occupied until Bruce can see him. Or at least Natasha. She knows more than a little bit about a lot of things.

"Well, if you like science, you'll like Dr. Banner," Steve interrupts the teen's rant of erosion.

"You don't mean to tell me he'll be there too?" Peter incredibly asks.

"Yep. He lives there."

"Great. Two of my idols in one day while I'm concussed. Who knows what stupid stuff I'll say. It'd be worse if I met Captain America too. Could you imagine? Me rambling off to him about this meaningless stuff like I am to you. Which I'm sorry about by the way. I can't seem to help that. It's not even as if I have a lot of thoughts right now. I just don't seem to have a filter in between the brain and mouth right now. You know, Gwen would know just what to do. She always knows. That's why she'll be valedictorian. And I won't be. Which is fine. She totally deserves it. I'm constantly late to class and missing homework when Flash takes it and rips it like today. Wish I could teach the guy a lesson. But he's huge and I've always been tiny. Gotta stay that way too. People would notice me if I didn't."

Steve just listens to Peter's one sided conversation as they enter Avengers tower and enter the elevator where JARVIS alerts Dr. Banner of Steve's situation.

"… and I got detention because I was late to class because of him and without homework because of him. And because there was blood on the floor."

"Steve!" Bruce says as the elevator doors open to his lab.

"Dr. Banner," Steve says in greeting and ushers the suddenly silent Peter in to the brightly lit room, making the teen wince at the pain it induces.

"It's nice to meet you, I'm Dr. Banner," Bruce sticks his hand out to Peter. Peter eventually shakes the man's hand due to his slow reaction time.

"I know," Peter stupidly says. Berating himself, he tries again. "It's nice to meet you, I'm a huge fan of your work. I've read your papers on the uses of gamma radiation. They were really fascinating." Bruce chuckles.

"I didn't think anyone under the age of twenty read them," Bruce laughs. Peter grows a tad shy at that.

"Dr. Banner, he got hit with one of Tony's test gauntlets. Right in the back of the head," Steve informs. Bruce shakes his head.

"I'll get Tony. He needs to fix this. Especially if you have a concussion," Bruce makes to leave but Tony walks in the room, quite somber. He sees Peter and walks up to him.

"Sorry kid. My gauntlet went through an open window and I couldn't call it back," Tony apologizes to Peter.

"It's ok, Mr. Stark." Peter jumps in realization. "But I do need to get back home. Crap, where are the groceries," Peter starts frantically looking around, but Steve gently pushes him back into the chair.

"You need to get checked out first, son. We can't have you walking around with a concussion in the middle of a busy New York street," Steve looks Peter in the eye. He just nods in understanding.

"Geez, Cap. Give the kid a break," Tony tells Steve. Wait. Did he say Cap? Oh no.

"You're Captain America?" Peter asks bewildered. Steve chuckles in response.

"Yep. But I still don't know your name."

"Peter."

"Well, Peter," Bruce continues, "I need to test you for concussion. So if you don't mind, let's get started."

The whole situation went better than Peter planned. He does have a concussion, but in a couple of days, his advanced regenerative powers should help it clear up. No point in telling Aunt May then. Tony profusely apologized about twenty times, only serving to give Peter a bigger headache. They let him go only on the promise that he'd call if unforeseen problems arose, so that Tony would help cover the bill.

Tony seemed awesome to Peter. The man was a genius. And Tony thought Peter was pretty cool too. So cool that he offered Peter to come over on Tuesdays to work in the lab. Of course, not tomorrow with his concussion, but next week, should he be cleared. As if Peter would go to a doctor.

After promising to call and come next Tuesday, Peter is handed back his groceries and sent home. Not too bad of a Monday after all.

Peter arrives home happy. It's been a while since he's actually felt happy after Uncle Ben's death. He drops the groceries on the kitchen table and begins to unload them.

"Peter?" Aunt May calls from upstairs.

"Yea, Aunt May?"

"Did you remember the groceries?" Peter rolls his eyes. He did manage to remember this time.

"Yep," he shouts back as he finishes putting the items away in their proper spots. As he closes the fridge, Aunt May comes down the stairs.

"How was your day at school?"

"Oh, same old, same old," Peter dismisses. "But I do have a lot of homework. And I'd like to get started on it as soon as I can."

"Well then, get to it," Aunt May orders. Peter bounds up the stairs two at a time before closing the room to his door. He throws his backpack onto the floor and lays down on his bed, thinking. What a crazy day. He met the Avengers. Well, some of the Avengers. And it was as Peter Parker, not Spiderman. Pretty cool.