Chapter Text
MJ had complained about being at school countless times in the past, but she’d never really meant it. Despite all of her pretences, she did enjoy school on some level. But today was the start of Peter’s trial, and unlike his hearing where he pleaded, she wasn’t on vacation.
Whilst her boyfriend was going to start one of the biggest moments of his life, she was going to be stuck in class unable to help him. She didn’t like to be left out of the loop, and despite May’s insistence that she would keep her and Ned updated about everything, she knew she couldn’t rely so heavily on May to give them everything.
Until Peter had been arrested, MJ had barely even met May. Their paths had never really had a reason to cross, so she also felt a little awkward relying so much on someone she knew so little.
MJ sighed as she stared up at the building in front of her, its doors appearing as uninviting as they ever had. She looked down to her phone and scrolled through the updates she’d missed as she’d arrived at the school. Peter had been moved to a closer prison in the late hours of the night and there were new photos of him circulating the internet. She hated the way he seemed to have lost more weight since they’d seen him in the school a few weeks prior.
She cringed as she remembered the words Peter had snuck out to them two weeks ago. Neil had assured them that he was starting something and had managed to slip a confirmation to Peter that they’d received the message. Neil said he’d looked relieved, but MJ was angry that he’d cared more about sneaking the message out to them more than protecting his own safety. He was thinking of other people before himself.
MJ met up with Ned by his locker, and they both acknowledged each other quietly. Ned had the same look on his face that MJ was sure she was sporting. They both hated that they couldn’t be there today. They knew they were going to be there on Friday as they had to stand as witnesses. The whole class who’d been in Europe had been called to appear as witnesses on Friday. It had taken a lot of organising with the school, but the teachers had prepared packets ready for them to complete on the weekend so they wouldn’t miss too much of their classes and obviously they’d found a replacement for Harrington for the day.
But until Friday, she was stuck. She was an island floating in the middle of an ocean with nothing surrounding her.
“Peter’s supposed to arrive at 9am.” Ned said uselessly to fill the quiet that surrounded them as they made their way to their first class.
“Yeah,” MJ agreed, “I wonder why it’s going to take them so long, like why does the trial need to be two weeks long?”
“I don’t know.” Ned shrugged, “they probably take six million coffee breaks a day.”
MJ snorted as they settled into their chairs. The one in front of her was still empty. It was Peter’s seat, and it showed that the school was hopeful that Peter would come back some day.
“Good morning, class.” Their teacher, Mrs Underground greeted as the bell rang. A few stragglers slammed through the door as she went to close it, and MJ smiled a little remembering Peter doing the same a few times.
When no one answered her, Mrs Underground sighed and turned on the projector.
“I know this next two weeks are going to be hard for all of us,” She started, clasping her hands in front of her, “Peter is a valued member of Midtown, and we’re all anxious for his return to our class.”
Her direct admission of her thoughts surprised MJ. The teachers, barring Harrington and their principal had taken a more neutral stance in regards to Peter’s case.
“So, the school has decided to take a more approachable route to our classes until the trial is over.” She continued, “it’s not really something we’d encourage, but we live in uncertain times.”
“What are we going to do?” Flash asked from his corner of the room, and MJ saw a look pass between Ned and Flash and wondered what was going on between the two of them. They hadn’t been the same since the video of the war had been leaked online.
“Until the conclusion of the trial, Midtown has decided that we’re going to be splitting our classes. We’re going to spend the last twenty minutes of each class catching up on the trial.” Mrs Underground explained and MJ felt her jaw drop. She was sure Harrington had something to do with this. Since the trip to Europe and his visits to Peter in the Raft, he’d become more outspoken in Peter’s defence.
MJ had tried to get something about the Raft out of him once, but he’d not budged. He’d clammed up, and said he had somewhere else to be, but MJ had seen the look on his face. He knew that Harrington had hated it there. MJ couldn’t wait for this whole experience to be over and so that Peter could be back with them once more.
The class had subsequently passed very quickly, and before any of them knew what was happening, the teacher was loading the livestream of the trial on the projectors. It had been decided that the trial was going to be streamed all over the globe, the press had fought to be allowed into the courtroom, and this seemed to be the best solution to everyone’s troubles.
The trial had already started by the time everything had been loaded, and MJ breathed slightly. There, to the left hand side of the screen, sitting next to Neil sat Peter. MJ wanted to cry at the sight of him shackled so heavily, of the collar still resting lightly against his neck. A warning to him not to try anything. Behind him stood three guards, and MJ knew they were guards from the Raft just by looking at them.
MJ breathed heavily through her mouth. This was it. This was Peter’s trial.
Peter stared out at the jury that would be deciding his faith, and thought he may stand a chance. It had taken them all morning to find a jury that could sit for his trial. They needed to find unbiased jurors, which proved to be difficult when Peter had interacted with so many people as Spider-Man. But, here they were, the twelve people that would decide his future.
It almost felt unfair to be sitting here. He hadn’t even done anything wrong, but people had been so quick to judge him. Neil had reassured him consistently that there were more people on his side than he realised, but sitting in the courtroom shackled like he was made him question Neil’s judgement.
Behind him he could feel May’s worried gaze, and he so wished he could turn around and comfort her, but the guards surrounding him would definitely hurt him. They’d become more liberal with their use of his collar as his trial had been drawing closer, and he swore he could still feel the tremors running through his body.
That didn’t even count the other stuff they’d put him through, but he couldn’t even think about that right now.
The judge in front of him babbled on to the jury about their duties and how they were expected to behave over the coming weeks. How they were supposed to be fair, and he could see them looking over to him occasionally and he was trying to ignore it, but there was a feeling of humiliation growing through him, and he hated the fact that his life had become a spectacle.
When he’d first met Tony he would have done everything to have had all eyes on him. He so badly wanted to be an Avenger and work alongside all of his heroes. After everything with Toomes, he’d decided he wasn’t ready for it. This proved true again after Thanos, and he had finally gained his balance. He felt like he was finally coming to terms with everything that had happened to him, and then this happened.
He couldn’t stop it from happening, but it felt like everything that had happened in his life hadn’t been his own choice and someone was playing a great massive joke on him.
Before he knew it, the courtroom was being called to lunch, and Peter could hardly believe it had already been three hours.
“What do we do for lunch?” Peter whispered to Neil as he stood from his seat. The guards around him shifted, he could hear the creaks in their guns and the rustle of their clothes.
“We get a room just behind this room and we can eat there.” Neil informed him as he was led from the room, the guards following so closely, Peter was surprised they didn’t trip over his feet.
“I’m not sure I can eat anything.” Peter admitted as Neil opened the door in front of them and led Peter and the guards inside.
Inside the room, Peter’s eyes immediately zoned in on one person. Standing by the buffet was May, dressed in a smart dress and her hair was hanging loosely from her head. Peter felt his eyes welling up with tears. He hadn’t been this close to May in so long, he longed to run to her and hug her tightly and never let her go.
The second he entered the room, May’s eyes found his, and he could see her brimming with tears, too.
“Can we get the cuffs off for lunch, please?” Neil ordered the guards, who pretended like they couldn’t hear him, “come on, he can’t eat like that and you know he’s not going to try anything.”
The guards didn’t say anything and Peter sighed as he began walking towards May. He ignored everyone else in the room, it was like he had tunnel vision and May was the only salvation in the place.
“May,” he whimpered as he reached her. May immediately held his face in her hands, and began wiping away his tears with her thumbs, her fingers scratching through his hair in a way that she knew he liked. It reminded him so much of simpler times.
“Baby,” May whispered, her gaze locked onto his.
“I missed you,” he whispered to her, wishing he could wrap his arms around her, but he knew he couldn’t.
“I missed you so much, Pete, you wouldn’t even believe it.” May whispered to him as she leaned forward and kissed his forehead. Peter stood there and breathed in her scent. Let his body relax for the first time in forever. Being this close to May reminded him that everything would be okay one day, and that not everything was as bad as what the Raft made him believe it was going to be.
“Pete.” Peter opened his eyes quickly, and turned to face him. Standing on the side just out of his field of vision was Happy and Pepper.
“Happy,” Peter answered, a smile forming on his face.
“You look like shit,” Happy told him, a wicked grin forming on his face.
“Not as bad as you,” Peter retorted and he felt himself being led to a table and food placed in front of him. Which he began to nibble at despite his body protesting that he was not hungry.
“How do you think it’s going?” Peter asked as they all settled with their food.
“It’s still early, but I’m confident that we’re going to win this.” Neil told him, and Pepper nodded her agreement.
“They have nothing. Neil’s been through all the evidence they submitted and there’s no way they’ll be able to win this one. The jury would be crazy to believe you did anything wrong.” Pepper added. Peter wanted to believe her so bad, but he’d seen some bad things on the Raft. He’d experienced so much wrong with the world lately and he knew now to expect the unexpected and know that there was something around the corner all the time.
“I wish I had the same confidence.” Peter admitted to her, looking at everyone on the table, looking at his cuffed hands that were making it awkward to eat the food that he was trying to put down his throat.
“You will soon.” May told him as she ran her fingers through his hair like there was no other option in the world, like she believed with all her heart that this would be the end of all their troubles. Peter couldn’t help but feel the doubt. This was never going to be the end. This was only the beginning.