Something cold and metallic is pressing against my neck. It takes every ounce of my willpower to fight against the darkness drowning me, but I have to wake up. There are hands on me, and I immediately think of Toomes. He's woken up, and he's going to really kill me this time.

My hands react before my eyes do, and I am gripping Toomes's wrists with strength I didn't think I still had.

"Easy there, Turbo, it's just me."

My eyes pry open.

I blink once.

Twice.

The grey spots slowly dissipate, and I am looking into Iron-man's metal face. It is his gauntleted wrists I am gripping so tightly.

"Oh," I say, and my arms drop to my sides. "H-hey, Mr. Stark…Sorry, I thought-"

"No harm done. That's quite the grip you got there, considering you look like absolute shit," he says, his voice slightly muffled and mechanic sounding through his helmet.

My lips twitch into a small smile despite it all. If I look as bad as I feel, Mr. Stark is being generous.

"There he is. Ok kid, I got to get you up now, kay? That's it, nice and easy."

A groan slips from my mouth as his hands slip under my armpits and ease me to my feet. The moment I am standing, my knees buckle, my limbs feeling like jello, and pain spikes through every raw nerve and open wound.

"Geez kid, what did he do to you?" Iron-man's voice is light, but I can hear the tightness beneath it. He catches me before I fall, one hand moving underneath my knees, the other sliding behind my back.

I can't even muster up the humiliation I should feel as Iron-man holds me bridal style. Damn it, I must look like an absolute damsel in distress. But I am too relieved that the nightmare is over, that someone is here, that I might actually live through this.

My relief is so profound, so deep, I immediately go limp and start to slide back into the darkness.

My body jostles violently as Iron-man takes off with a sudden lurch. I cry out in pain, but stay limp in his arms. Wind rushes through my hair and dries the blood on my face and chest.

"Sorry, kid. Gotta get you some help. Think you can stay awake for me?"

"…No…" I say apologetically. I can't even open my eyes.

"That's a damn shame. Thor's flying right next to us, and I was going to introduce you, but you go ahead and nap. I'm sure he has better things to do, like show up for his Pantene hair commercial, or return to Asgard for an undoubtedly ridiculous party involving all sorts of medieval looking cosplayers or LARPers or whatever you wanna call them."

My eyes pry open. I squint against the wind, seeing nothing but the red and gold glint of Iron-man's chest, and the cloudy night sky, tinted orange from the city lights.

"That was…a dirty trick."

"Was it? I could have sworn he was just here. Is that a flash of lightning I see in the distance?"

"Y-you're a terrible liar, Mr. Stark…No offense."

"None taken."

The wind is too harsh on my face to keep my eyes open long without my goggles or mask. And despite my best efforts, and Mr. Stark's, I eventually slip back into unconsciousness.

A steady beep and a rapid tapping sound greet my ears when I wake. I feel remarkably better than the last time my eyes opened, but I am groggy, my limbs are heavy, and my head is swimming.

I slowly open my eyes, and when they finally focus, I see Mr. Stark sitting in the chair beside my bed.

My hospital bed.

I glance down briefly, taking note of the many bandages, patches of gauze, wires, and monitors. I am sore, but it is completely bearable. Somehow I am feeling light as air and heavy as a freight train all at once. I look back at Mr. Stark, who's staring off towards the doorway, his fingers drumming rapidly on his knee.

He looks back at me and jumps slightly, his fingers stilling. "Jesus, kid. Don't do that."

"Do what?"

"It's a common courtesy that when you wake up from being unconscious, you tell someone you're awake instead of staring at them until they notice you. You scared the shit out of me," he rises, peering at my face. "Damn, how many drugs did they put in you? Your pupils are insanely dilated."

I blink. "Dunno. Feels like a lot. I feel like… like I'm underwater."

"That's probably a good thing. Toomes did quite a number on you. Are you in pain?"

"No…I don't think so. Maybe, just a little sore. It's sort of hard to think straight."

Mr. Stark scoffs. "It better be. You're higher than a kite at the moment. You're lucky. The only thing anyone around here will give me is coffee and aspirin, and those only go so far."

"Where is here, exactly?" I ask, blearily realizing I have no mask, and this definitely looks like a hospital room. Albeit, the nicest, most high tech hospital room I have ever seen.

"Avengers compound," Mr. Stark says, reading my face. "Don't worry kid, your secret's safe. Everyone here can be trusted. You're in good hands."

"Oh. Good," I look down at my hands, at the thick white bandages around my wrists. I know they are the least of my injuries. "Toomes…is he-did you-"

"Adrian Toomes is behind bars, awaiting trial. Although it will probably be awhile, considering how long he has to recover from his injuries."

I frown. Injuries? Had that alien weapon hurt him that badly? Liz's face flashes in my mind, and I feel queasy. "What-"

"He resisted arrest."

"Wait, what?"

I look up at Mr. Stark's face, which is darker than I've ever seen it.

My brows narrow. "He was unconscious, and trapped in my webbing. How did he-"

"After I dropped you off here and made sure you were stable I flew back to get Toomes. Like I said, he resisted arrest," Mr. Stark's tone brooks no argument. He was able to read the thoughts on my face, and I feel like I might be able to read his. And I don't think Toomes was able to resist arrest after the shot I fired at him. Which means Mr. Stark had-

My eyes suddenly notice the bruising and dried blood on the knuckles of his right hand. I am overwhelmed with the thought that a man like him would do...that on my behalf. Mr. Stark notices my stare, and before he can speak again, I open my mouth.

"Mr. Stark, I'm sorry," I begin in a rush. "I'm so sorry for everything. Your plane-all that equipment, for getting myself captured. I-"

He holds up a hand, cutting me off. "Okay, here's where you stop apologizing. You screwed the pooch, kid, there's no denying it."

My stomach lurches.

"You also saved my ass. And a lot of other asses. You stopped Toomes from taking some very irreplaceable items and selling them to some really bad people. You stopped a plane from crashing into a very populated area, something we are definitely talking about in detail later, by the way. You did good. And you have nothing to apologize for."

"He…he knows who I am," I say in a small voice, unable to meet his eyes. Instead I stare at the bruises I can see peeking out from underneath my bandaged wrists.

"You told him?"

"Well, no, not exactly. He...figured it out," I admit.

Mr. Stark raises an eyebrow. "How'd he manage that?"

I squirm uncomfortably. "Um...my date, to homecoming, he's sort of her dad. He gave us a ride to the dance. And uh- he recognized my voice. Liz, she kept talking about all those times I disappeared...and he pretty much was able to put it together."

He stares. "Damn. That's...unfortunate."

"Unfortunate?" I look at him skeptically. "That's the word you'd pick?"

"No? Okay then, how about disastrous? Cataclysmic? Hapless? It sucked balls? Any of those work better?"

"You don't seem to be taking the fact that a really bad guy knows who I am very seriously, Mr. Stark."

"I don't think you'll have to worry about that."

I look at him sharply, and Mr. Stark's eyes are hard. "Why?"

"When he was being arrested the idiot managed to hit his head. Several times. I wouldn't be surprised if his memory is a little foggy after that. If not, I'll take care of it. No one else is finding out who you are, kid."

Ice skitters down my spine. This is a darker side of Mr. Stark I am unused to seeing. I'm not quite sure how I feel about it, but I can't deny that I am relieved my secret is safe. That Aunt May is safe.

Oh. Oh shit.

"Aunt May-"

"Is totally fine, and I mean that in every sense of the word. She's at home, under the impression that I stole you away from your homecoming dance in order to offer you your internship back and take you on another retreat. Weirdest thing, she gave me the strangest impression that she doesn't like me. No idea where that's coming from."

I relax. Thank God. Despite everything I got myself into, Aunt May is safe, and it sounds like my identity might be too. I didn't totally ruin everything.

"Kid…Peter," Mr. Stark says my name heavily, looking weary and suddenly much older than he is. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have let this happen. I shouldn't have taken your suit."

That I didn't see coming. "Yeah, you should've. I mean-I wish you hadn't. But I deserved that. I screwed up. It was a good call."

"Yeah, I thought so too until my plane went down in flames, and all Happy was able to find among my equipment and the wreckage were the remnants of a fight and your mask half buried in the sand next to your blood. And if that wasn't bad enough, when we tried to track your phone, we found it completely demolished at the wreckage site, and hey, we couldn't track your suit because I took it away from you. So while you were busy getting the absolute shit beaten out of you, I was here twiddling my thumbs like some idiot because I had no way of finding you," Mr. Stark falls heavily into his chair and rubs his hand down his face. He looks so guilty, so worn out.

"It's okay, Mr. Stark. Really. I'm ok."

"Don't. Don't give me that crap. Do you want me to list your injuries? The list would fall to the damn floor."

"Um, no. I'd rather you didn't," I reply. "Look, it was my fault this happened, not yours. If I had listened to you in the first place and let the FBI handle it, you wouldn't have had to take the suit, and maybe Toomes would have been dealt with and none of this would have happened. There was a lot I could have done differently. Maybe things you could have done differently too. But it doesn't matter because it happened. It's done. Can't we just…forget about it?"

"Do you want to forget?"

Toomes's face looms over me, his sweat covered face twisted in fury as he raises a jagged metal shard, ready to carve something else into my chest.

I shudder, and note distantly that a monitor is beeping from my increased heartbeat.

"Yes," I say. "More than anything."

"Well I can tell you from experience that that's not gonna work. You're not going to forget. And if you try, it's just going to screw you up more. Trust me," Mr. Stark says, leaning forward. "I'm not saying you have to talk about what happened right now. But eventually, with someone you trust."

I nod, but promise nothing.

He sighs heavily. "Not quite the homecoming you were expecting, huh kid?"

I let out a short laugh. "You can say that."

"Mine was terrible."

I give him a look. "Was your date's dad a supervillain who found out your secret identity and proceeded to drop a building on you and pummel you to a pulp?"

"No, it was her mom," Mr. Stark gives me a tight smile and a wink.

I roll my eyes and laugh, my sore muscles contracting painfully at the movement.

A series of muffled beeps sounds, and Mr. Stark pulls a phone from his pocket. He stares at it with a frown before sighing and returning it to his jacket. "Duty calls, kid. I gotta step out for a bit, take care of a few things, but I'll be back, I promise."

"Ok, yeah," I nod, trying not to look phased. The last thing I want is to be alone right now, but there's no way in hell I'm going to tell Mr. Stark that and cling to him like a little kid. Not after all he's done.

"Want another hit of the good stuff before I go? You're looking a little pale," Mr. Stark says with another frown.

"Nah, I'm good. Any more drugs, and I might get really loopy, and no one wants that," I say with a tight smile.

He gazes at me for a moment, his eyes searching with an unreadable look on his face. He sighs softly. "Rest up, kid. Hopefully this won't take long. Otherwise Happy may bore you to death."

"Was that really necessary? I'm standing right here," scowls Happy from the doorway.

"Were you? Didn't notice."

"Sure, boss."

Mr. Stark hesitates, then ruffles my hair awkwardly, his small smile still not quite meeting his eyes. "You two have fun. Don't let Happy have any of your drugs."

"Oh for crying out lou-"

I chuckle as Mr. Stark sweeps from the room, and a disgruntled Happy Hogan stalks in, hands in his pockets. He shoots a dark look at the now empty doorway before shaking his head and looking me over.

"How you doin kid?"

"Hey Happy. I'm okay. I'm…really glad you're here," I admit. "Sorry about moving day."

"You're kidding, right? Do you know how screwed I would be if you hadn't done what you did?" Happy takes Mr. Stark's seat, his hands clasped over his stomach. "Seriously, I want to say thank you. And I also want to say how sorry I am."

Looks like everyone's apologizing today. It's more than a little bizarre.

"If I had listened to you, taken your friend's call, this might not have happened," he says, regret lining his face and voice. "That was a shitty thing to do, and I promise, it won't happen again. You call, I answer."

"Even if it's just to say a lady bought me a churro?"

"Even then," Happy smirks. "Can't promise I won't be annoyed, but I do promise I will always answer, kid. Alright?"

"Ok" I nod. "Deal."

At this point, my eyes have grown so heavy, I can barely keep them open. I now feel more heavy than light, and though I try and fight it, all my body wants to do is sleep.

"It's ok, kid. You can sleep. I'll be right here," Happy says.

"I'm tired of sleeping. Feel like all I've been doing lately is going unconscious," I reply, and then promptly yawn.

"Yeah, well sleep isn't tired of you. Get some rest, you need it. That's an order."

I sigh, my eyes already betraying me and falling shut. "Fine, fine."

I have a ways to go before I recover, and even longer before I think I can process what's happened to me. I know there will be nightmares to face and more enemies to fight, but I also know I have people who have my back, who came for me when I called.

Besides, I'm Spider-man.

And Spider-man can face anything.

Author's note: Thanks to everyone who has read and reviewed! It's a short little story that's kind of pointless, but it was fun to write out an alternate direction for the movie. I hope you all liked it, and make sure you follow me, I might have a few more Spider-man stories coming up in the future. By the way, if you are looking for a REALLY amazing Spider-man fic that's much more in depth and overall more awesome than this one, I highly recommend PippinStrange's Down Came the Rain. Seriously, it's the best one out there.