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Peter doesn’t remember what happened, exactly.
One minute he was up on the bridge fighting the Shocker alongside Johnny until the Shocker hit Peter with one of his powerful vibrational air blasts and sent him flying through the air… and right off the bridge.
And of course, Peter’s web-shooters got fried from the blast so he had no way of catching himself.
Parker Luck strikes again.
He doesn’t even have time to panic before he feels his back slam into the Hudson’s freezing water, his body tensing up painfully from how cold the water is. Peter tries to move his arms and legs to stop himself from sinking any further, only to find that he can’t.
He can’t move.
Dread pools in his stomach at the sudden, terrifying realization as he descends further down through the murky, frigid water, his eyes wide and frantic as he tries to get his body to cooperate with him. This can’t be how Spider-Man goes out. He can’t die. He can’t leave May, Tony, and his family and friends. Peter struggles and thrashes in the water, feeling his lungs burning and screaming for air.
That’s when he makes a terrible mistake of breathing in, allowing the water to immediately rush down his throat and into his lungs. And it hurts, like knives are being repeatedly stabbed into his chest.
Everything around him seems to slow down. His limbs stop moving as his body decides to give up fighting. Peter slowly blinks as his vision blurs, being able to see the surface of the water a good ways away above him. He’s not even afraid anymore. It’s peaceful. He should probably be concerned at the fact that he’s no longer cold...but he’s not. He doesn’t feel anything… but calmness. Ease.
Black dots dance around the corners of Peter’s vision as he sees something fall into the water above, coming towards him. For a second he thinks he’s hallucinating it from the lack of oxygen to his brain until he sees Johnny’s panic stricken face come into view.
Peter’s barely aware when a pair of strong arms wrap around his chest, feeling himself being pulled up through the water. When they breach the surface seconds later, Peter lets out a choked gasp as Johnny pulls him through the icy water towards dry land.
“Just hang on, Pete—I’ve got you. Please just hang on.” Johnny gasps as they finally reach the shore, rolling Peter on his side and yanking his mask off his head.
Peter feels a hand roughly rubbing his back as he coughs, feeling a rush of water spew out of his mouth until he finds himself dry heaving, puking up more water and the contents of his stomach.
“That’s it, Pete,” Johnny’s voice comes out shakily above him as he pants, out of breath. “Get it all out, man. Just get it all out.” He says as he continues rubbing Peter’s back.
It feels like forever until Peter stops throwing up, leaving him feeling terribly sick and shaky on the cold ground. But he’s never been happier to feel so crappy in his entire life—that means he’s alive.
“Ugh,” Peter groans out as he drops his head to the ground, not even caring that his puke is right in front of his face. “G-Gross.” He rasps out with a cough.
Johnny lets out a relieved, shaky breath as he drops a hand to Peter’s shoulder. “God, Peter I-I thought—I thought you were dead.”
“M-Me t-too,” Peter admits as he lays there, still not believing what had just happened.
He would be dead right now if it wasn’t for Johnny diving in the water after him.
Peter opens his mouth to thank him, but he ends up throwing up again instead.
“You’re alright, Pete,” Johnny says as he continues to rub his back.
Peter’s too exhausted, sick, and cold to even have room to feel embarrassed about all of this. He’s just so relieved to be alive right now. The images of being down there in the water flash in front of his eyes and Peter has to squeeze them shut, shaking his head to get rid of them as he tries to sit up on shaky elbows, almost falling back to the ground if it wasn’t for Johnny wrapping an arm across his back.
Johnny helps him sit up but Peter’s so weak and shaky, he drops back against Johnny’s chest like a puppet being cut from its strings.
“T-Th—” Peter stops and tightly closes his eyes, his teeth chattering so bad it’s hard to get the words out. “T-Thanks f-for s-saving m-me.”
“Anytime but let’s not make this a regular thing, dude. Okay?”
Peter manages to laugh at that, only to break out into a painful coughing fit that rattles his chest. “N-No p-promises.”
Johnny breathes out a small laugh from behind. They both sit there for a few moments to catch their breath, but Peter can’t seem to catch his with how badly he’s shaking.
“Shit,” Johnny says suddenly. “Pete, you must be freezing—especially with you not being able to thermoregulate that great.”
“A-A l-little.”
“Here—just a warning though, it might get a little hot,” Johnny says before Peter feels his back warming up.
Peter lets his head roll to the side against Johnny’s chest as a violent shiver wracks his body as he looks up at him, seeing that his skin and eyes are glowing slightly red.
“S-S’ c-cool.” Peter slurs with a smile. Johnny’s powers never cease to amaze him.
“Right?” Johnny says with a grin as he wraps his arms around Peter’s chest and rubs his hands down his arms.
Peter sucks in a shaky breath through gritted, chattering teeth as he squeezes his eyes shut, feeling a little more warmth flow through him but not enough to help him stop feeling like a popsicle.
“You know… this reminds me of that one time I had to dig you out of that dumpster after you fell the first time we patrolled together,” Johnny says after a few moments with a small laugh. “You had garbage all over you and you weren’t able to wash that smell out of your suit for at least a month.”
Peter breathes out a small laugh, blinking slowly. “Y-Yeah… M-May wasn’t t-too… happy ‘bout that.” He murmurs sleepily.
All he wants to do is just lie down and wrap himself up in this warmth. He doesn’t realize that he’s not shivering as much as he was before—and it’s not because he’s feeling better. If it’s even possible, Peter feels even colder than before, along with a new odd, numb sensation running up from the tips of his fingers and toes.
He’s close to almost dozing off until Johnny shakes him slightly. “Pete, you with me?” He asks worriedly.
“Mhmm…” Peter hums, struggling to open his heavy eyes anymore than slits.
He feels himself being moved slightly until he sees Johnny’s worried face in front of him, feeling his warm hand on his chin. “You with me, man?”
Peter lazily blinks up at him, his brain moving too sluggishly to understand his words. He could really use a nap right about now. Peter’s eyelids start to close until he feels himself being shaken again.
“Hey, hey, this is no time to sleep. Peter. You have to keep your eyes open for me, man.” Johnny says in a serious tone, one Peter’s never heard him use before.
“C’nt…” Peter manages to slur out, shivering. “M tired.”
“I know but you’ve gotta stay awake, okay? We have to get you help. I thought Stark got updates if your vitals drop or something? Shouldn’t he be here right about now?” Johnny asks as he looks up at the sky, searching it for any signs of Tony.
I want Tony. Peter suddenly thinks to himself, the thought alone almost sending tears to his eyes. He wants Tony here with him, to tell him that everything’s going to be okay. He feels safe with Johnny for sure, but it’s not the same feeling he has when he’s with Tony.
“Well, we can’t wait around for him to get here,” Johnny says and suddenly Peter feels movement from behind him as an arm slides around his back and legs, before he’s being lifted from the ground.
Peter has to close his eyes against the dizziness he’s met with from the new position and lets his head fall against Johnny’s shoulder with a groan.
“Just stay with me, Pete, okay?” Johnny says in a pleading tone.
Peter manages to crack his eyes open long enough to see Johnny’s hair light up into flames before his eyes slide shut against his will, darkness rushing up to meet him.
…
Consciousness slowly creeps back to Peter in waves and the two things he’s aware of is how warm and heavy he feels. There’s a dull ache deep in his chest and his head hurts but it’s not too bad, all things considered. He manages to slowly blink his heavy eyes open with a small groan, finding himself lying on a bed in the medbay, wrapped up in blankets. Peter frowns, unable to remember how he got here.
There’s a shift on the bed by his legs and when Peter turns his head, he’s surprised to see Johnny sitting in a chair beside him, his sneakered feet propped up on the bed.
“Well if it isn’t Sleeping Beauty himself,” Johnny says with a small grin when he notices he’s awake. “How are you feeling?”
“Tired,” Peter says, his voice coming out a little raspy as he tries to sit up, only to find that he can’t with how weak he feels. “H-How-?”
Johnny’s eyes widen as he lowers his legs from the bed and quickly stands up and helps Peter sit up, much to his embarrassment. “Take it easy, Pete.” He says gently.
“H-How did we get here?” Peter tries again, now comfortably sitting up with pillows propped up behind him.
“I flew us here,” Johnny says as he sits back down in the chair. “Apparently, Stark was on his way from upstate but... he wouldn’t have made it in time.” He says with a wince.
Peter frowns. “What do you mean?”
Johnny stares at Peter for a moment before he drops his eyes, sighing. “You went into shock from hypothermia… Dr. Banner said you would have died in less than twenty minutes if I hadn’t gotten you here in time. Thank God I did.”
Peter’s stomach drops at his words—he almost died twice.
“Do you remember what happened?” Johnny asks.
“Yeah,” Peter says with a small nod. “I got thrown off the bridge and—wait. Did the Shocker get away?”
Johnny raises an eyebrow at him. “You almost died and you’re worried if a bad guy got away?”
“Um...yes?” Peter answers unsurely.
Johnny looks at him for a few seconds before he sighs. “Yeah, he did—I’m sorry. I saw him hit you with that blast and you went flying right off the bridge. When I didn’t see you come back up from the water… I just panicked and dove in after you. I didn’t care about him… I was worried about you. But we’ll get him next time.”
Peter smiles tiredly at that. “We will,” he agrees. “But… thanks. I would have done the same thing for you.”
“I know.” Johnny says with a small smile of his own.
A sudden knock comes on the door, causing Peter to turn his head, only to see Tony standing in the doorway.
“How come whenever you two hang out it always involves my kid getting hurt?” Tony asks, pointedly looking at Johnny, who shrinks down a little in his seat.
Peter knows by Tony’s tone that he’s really not angry at Johnny, he’s just being an overprotective mother hen.
“You,” Tony says as he points at Johnny. “Out of my seat. It’s my turn to sit with the patient and make sure he keeps his spider-butt in bed.”
Peter opens his mouth to object, only Johnny beats him to it. “Hey, it’s true. You do suck at following doctor’s orders and staying in bed.” He says in agreement as he stands up.
Peter shoots him a weak glare and crosses his arms over his chest under the blankets, even though they can see it. “Traitor.” He grumbles.
Johnny laughs as he walks past Tony and heads to the door. “Good luck with him, Stark! I’ll see you later, Pete—feel better!” He calls over his shoulder as he walks out into the hallway.
Tony lets out a sigh beside him and Peter looks over at him, finding Tony’s worried eyes on him. “How’re you feeling?”
“Better.” Peter answers, offering him a small smile to ease his worry.
“Good,” Tony says as he sits back, rubbing a hand down his face. Peter can tell that he’d just woken up a couple of hours ago—probably due to a notification from Karen, warning him about Peter’s vitals suddenly tanking. “I have to hand it to the hot-head… he’s a good friend to you,” he says before he smiles. “Almost reminds me of Rhodey and me when we were back in college.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah,” Tony says with a nod. “But please, let’s try not to make this a habit, okay? My heart can’t take it.” He says sarcastically, holding a hand on his chest.
“Sounds like a plan to me.” Peter says.
Honestly, he means it. He never wants to go through what he went through tonight ever again. But Tony’s right… he’s lucky to have such a good friend like Johnny, who he knows he can depend on to have his back. And Peter hopes he can be as good of a friend to him too.
And when Peter wakes up the next morning, he finds that his web-shooters have been upgraded—courtesy of Tony—and are now fully shock-resistant.