Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Ava ducked under Luke as the tunnel collapsed, grabbing Danny as she did so. Sam, Peter, and the rest of the new team were all too far to grab in time.

She braced herself, staying curled up with her head covered even as she didn't hear Luke grunt the way he always did when he had to grab something really heavy.

Luke made a confused noise, and she peeked out carefully.

Holy crap.

Spidey was holding up the tunnel. Spider-Man was holding up the entire subway tunnel.

That was… that was an entire section of the street above them, complete with who knows how many cars or civilians.

She sometimes forgot about the super-strength between everything else.

He grunted and the rubble shifted. "A l-little help here, Power Man? I think the new heroes are knocked out but air's gonna run out soon. Gotta get everybody out. Flash should already be up top." He'd sent him up only a few minutes prior to get backup, so he should be well on his way by now.

"On it." Luke's weight shifted as he grabbed the ceiling and held it.

"Ava, Danny, get the others out! I don't think the part behind Luke is fully collapsed."

Danny offered up a quick salute, looping Dagger's arm over his shoulder and grabbing Sam around the waist. Ava took Cloak- wow, he was light- and Squirrel Girl. 

Danny paused at the opening. "Spider, the tunnel is too small for us all to go. We'll have to go one at a time."

"Then do that!" He grunted again. "Man, what is it with Ock and collapsing stuff on me?"

Ava slapped at Squirrel Girl's face much lighter than Danny was doing to Sam. Dagger was already crawling out, Cloak mostly draped over her shoulders.

The other girl jerked up, fist coming out in an automatic punch.

Nice to see someone was keeping up with their SHIELD training.

"Spider-Man and Power Man are holding up the tunnel while we get out. Follow Dagger and Cloak." She nodded, tail snapping to attention as she moved to the entrance. Sam did the same after her, Danny right behind him.

Ava shot a look over her shoulder. 

Spidey's lenses narrowed. "Go, Ava. Luke, you right behind her."

"Me? Spidey, you go! I've got impenetrable skin."

"And I've got super-healing if anything happens. I can hold it up until you're all out."

"No way."

"Luke, I swear to God, if you don't go I'm going to help Sam paint your costume pink."

Luke looked between the weight they were both holding up and Spider-Man. "Fine. But you better be okay when we get out."

"Go! I'll be fine. I was holding it first, remember?"

Luke nodded, and Ava turned around, ignoring the slight gasp from Spidey at the extra weight settling back onto his shoulders. She set her jaw, crawling as fast as she could so they could make it all the way out.

Behind her, she heard a strained scream. Both she and Luke turned around, but it was too far back for them to do anything about it.

"Was that Spidey?" She asked, already well aware of the answer.

Luke nodded grimly. "We can't help him till we're out."

Ava began to crawl again.

Ava let Sam pull her out, Luke right behind her. She tapped at her comm unit. "We made it out."

Static. 

"Spidey?" Sam grabbed her arm. 

"Spidey? You there?"

They all turned when they heard the street begin to crack. 

Dagger started first. "Is-"

The street caved in with a loud groan.

"Spidey!"

They sprinted to the collapsed portion, all moving in tandem to toss away chunks of rubble, some moving bigger pieces than others.

Luke put his head in his hands after a few minutes. "I never should have left. He always does this."

Danny stopped in his tracks. "Spider-Man has a habit of tricking others to protect them. It's not your fault. The chicken can't always predict the tricks of the snake."

Luke's eyebrows furrowed. "I know you're trying to make me feel better, but maybe next time don't call me a chicken."

"Noted."

They kept digging for almost twenty minutes before Flash broke the steady rhythm they'd gotten going. 

"I think I found something," he shouted, waving them all over. 

Ava grinned at the sight. Red, webbed fingers. They weren't moving, but that wasn't a surprise. Luke and Flash began moving the bigger pieces out of the way, eventually clearing enough away that they could see all of him.

They all winced.

His costume was bloody and torn, covered in so much concrete dust that he looked like he was going for an opposite Venom theme.

Luke picked him up carefully, wiping some of the dust off his mask. "Spidey?"

Danny yanked back Sam's hand before he could slap him awake. "Do not hit him."

"I just wanted to wake him up!"

Ava threw a hard elbow into his stomach, peering over Luke's shoulder to get another look at her teammate.

"He's- he's still alive, right?" Flash sounded uncertain. 

Danny nodded calmly, putting both hands up in a placating gesture. "He is still breathing, though his mind is… stormy."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Ava rolled her eyes. "What do you think it means, genius?"

"Stop arguing!" Dagger snapped, surprising them all. "Spider-Man is hurt and he needs help! We need to get him back to school."

"Ngh… nice work, Dagger," Peter mumbled. "Keep it up."

"Spidey!" 

He flinched away from the excited burst of noise so close to him, curling further into Luke in an uncharacteristically vulnerable move. 

"Hurts…"

"I know, man. I know. SHIELD's on its way with a med evac."

Ava bit her lip. There had to be something they could do until SHIELD arrived. She'd never seen Spidey act like that after a battle, not even after some of their worst. 

"Hey Spidey, do you have any pain meds on you? Bandages, Advil, anything?"

He shook his head weakly. "'S all at home. And the Triskelion." 

Okay. Okay. That was awful. "Nova, can you take him? Cloak is still out for the count and you're faster than any transport."

"Yeah, no problem." He reached out, and Luke handed Spidey over. 

The biggest sign of exactly how badly he was hurt was when Spider-Man didn't even make a comment about being carried by Nova as they took off.

Chapter Text

Luckily enough, the SHIELD transport arrived only a few minutes after Nova took off with Spider-Man. And within seven minutes after taking off on their own ride, they were back at the Triskelion.

Dagger was worried about Spider-Man. There was no maybe about it. Cloak had woken up on the plane, and she'd promptly healed him up. He was okay now, so she only had Spider-Man left to worry about.

She'd looked over at his original team to try and gauge how bad the situation was in Spider-Man terms- they hadn't exactly been working with him for too long, and in that time, he'd never been badly hurt- but they were all quiet. Both Power Man and Iron Fist's faces were wiped completely blank, and White Tiger's mask covered hers entirely.

All of them made a break for the Medbay as soon as the ship touched down, only sliding to a stop outside the doors. When they opened up to the waiting room, they found Nova float-pacing across the entirety of the room.

White Tiger spun him around by the shoulders. "How is he?"

He pulled off his helmet, looking morose. "Doc said it was bad . A ton of cuts, some really bad, plus a bunch of broken ribs and a couple broken fingers from that one big rock. There was also a broken arm, a really bad concussion, and a leg that's already started healing wrong. They said they were going to have to-" He flinched as a loud, piercing scream echoed out from one of the operating rooms. "-rebreak it."

Dagger put a hand over her mouth, feeling like she was going to vomit from the sound alone. Cloak slipped a part of himself over her shoulder in comfort, something she gladly accepted.

Power Man sat down hard. "I should be the one on that table."

Squirrel Girl sat down beside him. "You know that's not true. Spider-Man would never want that."

"Spidey is in there getting his leg cracked in two because he didn't want me, the indestructible one, to get hurt.”

Nova sighed. "No offense buddy, but your pain tolerance sucks. Spidey probably took the fall so he wouldn't have to hear your complaining for weeks like we did last time."

She expected anger, an argument, maybe even a punch or two. She didn't expect for Power Man to shake his head fondly and take off his sunglasses to make sure Nova could see him rolling his eyes. "Bad time to make jokes, man."

"Hey, it cheered you up, didn't it?" White Tiger socked him in the shoulder.

"You're not funny." He opened his mouth, and she hit him again. "Don't."

Iron Spider skidded into the room, sans suit. "Spidey's hurt?"

Dagger nodded. "He's in surgery right now."

"What happened?"

"Tunnel collapse while we were hunting down Ock," Venom scoffed. "Spidey held up the whole thing while we got out."

"You forgot to mention the part where the tunnel was a subway tunnel and that Ock was the one who dropped it on us," Nova added.

"That too."

"Wow," Iron Spider said. "I missed a lot, huh?"

No one answered him, and he took a seat on the opposite end of the waiting room.

She imagined a little montage in her head as the hours passed. Some of them got up and left for a bit to change, get food, or even grab stuff to fiddle with while they waited. Squirrel Girl was sporadically tossing bits of trail mix to her squirrels, while Venom was throwing a baseball up and down in one hand. 

She'd nearly drifted off to sleep in the hard plastic chair when the doors opened.

They all snapped to awareness, offering their full attention to the woman that came out. She tugged off her gloves with an audible snap.

"You're all here for Spider-Man, I assume?"

Nova clicked his tongue. "Obviously."

The woman raised a pointed eyebrow, but didn't take the bait. "The operation's complete, but I expect that he has a long recovery ahead of him, even with his healing. So that means no strenuous activity for at least three weeks."

White Tiger looked between her teammates. "Three weeks ? Spidey's never been off the field for that long. Ever ."

"Yes, well he probably should have been, what with the amount of bones he has that've been broken and rehealed. Poorly or otherwise."

A cough came from behind her, and she whirled around. "Dr. Lewis!"

Dr. Lewis smiled tiredly. "I assume you delivered the good news already?"

"Yes, sir."

White Tiger folded her arms, stepping forward. "What good news? All you told us that he's out of surgery and that he's benched for the next three weeks."

Dr. Lewis squinted. "Yes, I suppose Dr. Natus never did have the best bedside manner." He rested a hand on her shoulder. "Go get some rest, Danielle. It's been a long operation."

"Of course." She nodded at all of them and turned on her heel, walking briskly back through the doors she'd come out of.

"What's her problem?" Venom asked, staring after her.

Dr. Lewis clasped his hands together. "As I said, Dr. Natus has never had the best bedside manner, and it was a very stressful operation. She's never before worked on an enhanced being, even with all of her medical training."

"Oh," Iron Spider muttered. "That makes sense."

"Anyway… I'm assuming you all have questions?"

Power Man stood up. "Yeah, I got one. Can we see him?"

Dr. Lewis made a face. "I'm afraid not. Tomorrow, possibly, but not tonight. It depends on when he's in good enough shape to get off the ventilator. You see, he isn't wearing his mask, and he was very clear not to let anyone in."

Power Man gestured to himself, Iron Fist, Nova, and White Tiger. "We all already know who he is. We had to watch a subway tunnel collapse in on him and I just wanna make sure he's alright."

Iron Spider narrowed his eyes. "Spider-Man told you not to let us in?"

Dr. Lewis pursed his lips together. "Not in so many words, though he did wake up about halfway through. It was quite… disconcerting, if I'm being honest. He requested that we not admit visitors until he was 'ready to rumble', though that was all he got out before the sedative was readministered. His metabolism is remarkable ."

Power Man's lips twitched up, and Dagger felt her own doing the same. That sure sounded like Spider-Man.

Venom put up a hand. "This is a lot of talk, and I'm not getting all of it. I just wanna know if Spidey's okay."

"Yes, he is." 

The sigh of relief they all let out was one that only Spider-Man could induce.

Dagger bit her lip, unsure of whether to ask her question. "Do you think he'll be up by tomorrow?"

"I'm not sure. He's on enough medication to down a T-Rex but with his miraculous awakening mid-surgery, it could be anywhere from two hours from now to late tomorrow afternoon."

Great. 

Iron Spider piped up again, and she noticed for the first time that he had a hologram projected above his arm. "He's right. It's surprising, but there's almost nothing on Spider-Man's healing factor and his enhanced metabolism in his file, besides the fact that he has them. It's all been deleted. He's got no way of knowing."

White Tiger's left mask lens widened. "Really?" She grabbed his arm to read over it herself. "That's…surprising. We had more than that before he joined SHIELD, even if it was all just guesses."

"Perhaps Spider-Man erased the information," Iron Fist offered. "Or maybe even Fury himself, before he left."

"Yeah, maybe," Iron Spider retorted. "Whoever did it did a good job. I can't even track the signature- oh." He turned the screen in their direction, displaying a small, stylized Spider-Man breakdancing across it. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure he did it."

"Nice try, chucklehead!" it called. 

She rolled her eyes, glancing over to Cloak, who shrugged one shoulder and let the corner of his mouth tilt upward in a slight smirk.

Dr. Lewis cleared his throat, drawing back their attention. "No offense, but it's been a very long, very grueling operation and I'd like to get some rest. I recommend that you all do the same."

He got a gentle chorus of goodbyes and thank-yous as he left through the same double doors as Dr. Natus.

Iron Spider scowled at the file one more time before closing it and stretching his arms. "Hate to say it, but the doctor's right. We can't see Spidey in the morning if we stay up all night."

"Speak for yourself," Venom scoffed. "You guys can go take a nap, but I'm gonna guard Spidey. He'd do the same for me."

"You have no idea," White Tiger muttered, then raised her voice loud enough for the rest of the room to hear. "SHIELD'S got state of the art security, Flash. Spidey'll be fine until morning."

"Yeah, but-"

"Spider-Man would not wish for you to exhaust yourself for his sake," Iron Fist added. "You should get some sleep."

Agent Venom's shoulders sagged. "Yeah, you're right. Can't help Spidey if I'm exhausted."

"Exactly," Power Man said, thumping him on the back. "Come on, man. I bet we'll even get the morning off to check on Spidey."

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Luke woke to Ava shaking him awake roughly. Before he could even ask what was going on, she cut him off.

"Spidey's awake. Doc said we might be able to see him in a little bit." When he sat up, he saw Cho waking up Flash and a few others getting up slowly.

It took a few seconds for his brain to register the information, but when it did, he threw back his blanket and stood up. "When did he say we could go in?"

"Right now!" Dagger's words were cheerful as she ran into the dormitory. "Dr. Lewis said we can all come see him right now!"

He and Ava exchanged a look between themselves and then Danny and Sam. 

"Well what are we waiting for?" Sam asked, already halfway to the doors.

Ha. And to think he actually tried to pretend he didn't care.

~~~~~~~~~

Ava was the first one into Peter's room.

She hissed aloud when she got a good look at him, swallowed up in the thin Medbay blanket and cheap paper gown. His mask was covering his eyes, though it was rolled up over his mouth and nose just high enough to show off the cannula there. His leg was stuck out of the blanket, in a cast and elevated off the bed.

He waved with his uncasted arm as she walked in, a loose smile decorating his lips.

"Hey Ava! Hey guys." His smile morphed into a smirk. "I was just gonna stay in here until I was out of bed but the doc said you guys were worried about me. Especially Nova."

Behind her, Sam spluttered and started up a denial.

Squirrel Girl cut him off. "You're darn right we were worried! You freaked us all out, Spidey."

"Oh." The smirk fell. "I'm okay now, really. Just gotta wait till the doc says I can go free."

Dagger's soft voice piped up from the back. "Are you sure? I mean, you're hurt pretty badly."

Spidey waved her off. "I used to get worse before I joined SHIELD. Sometimes. Okay maybe not quite this much at once but I've had it all separately. I'm a pro at wrapping broken arms." He offered a nervous laugh. "Web-slings are actually super useful, if you wanted to know."

"We didn't," Ava said bluntly. "And I know you've never been hurt this bad while you were with SHIELD. With us. Squirrel Girl was right. You freaked us out."

His lenses shrunk, and she could picture his eyebrows coming together in the very picture of guilt. "I'm fine, Ava. Really. I'll just be off my feet for a couple days. If my leg wasn't broken I'd be fine for classes outside of training."

"No, you wouldn't," came Dr. Lewis' voice. He gave Peter a pinched look. "I told you that you need to stay in the Medbay for at least the next four to five days, and you'll be in a wheelchair for another week, likely longer."

"Wait, why can't he just use crutches?" 

Peter huffed, but let Dr. Lewis explain. "He's broken six ribs. Between that, his concussion, and the fact that his broken arm is the one that the crutch would go under, there's no way for him to use them."

"I could. It would just hurt a little."

"And you won't." He shook his head. "Your internal bleeding from the collapse isn't fully gone yet. You have to rest."

Peter huffed again, harder that time. He let out a few weak coughs, jerking stiffly each time. His big white lenses went wide and he brought a hand up over his chest. A few seconds later he was sagging back onto the pillows with a soft groan. "I see what you meant about the ribs, Doc."

Luke snorted to himself, nudging Sam who was already snickering as Peter made a comically pained face at the ceiling.

Dr. Lewis sighed again, moving toward the IV bag with a syringe and injecting it inside. He turned a dial on the pole and stepped back. "Is that better?"

Spidey's eyes drooped downwards a few seconds after he'd put in the syringe and he hummed. "Getting sleepy."

The doctor turned to look at them. "You might want to say your goodbyes now, as he'll probably be asleep soon."

"Wha'?" Spidey slurred. "I've always got time for m' team."

Dr. Lewis shook his head with a surprising amount of fondness for someone who'd never worked with Spidey before. He just seemed to have that effect on people.

"What'd you give him?" Cho asked, peering curiously at the IV bag.

"A highly concentrated dose of trazodone to boost the morphine he's already on. It should keep him happily out of pain for the next few hours if all goes well."

"Didn't he react a little fast for it to just be trazodone?"

"'S a thing 'bout my metabolism. Stuff goes out quicker, but it… it goes in quicker too. Like bruises."

Luke blinked. That made absolutely no sense.

"That actually makes sense," Ava said. "If he heals quicker of course bruises are gonna appear earlier."

"Exactly!" Cho said. "So if his metabolism is so fast, it's only logical that drugs would take effect much quicker than they usually would."

Spidey nodded. "You guys got anything else? 'Cause I'm 'bout to fall back asleep and then visiting minutes 're over.

"Sleep well Spidey," Dagger said, and patted his leg. He gave her a dopey smile, patting at her hand in return.

Dr. Lewis guided them all out as his eyes finally fell shut. 

He closed the door gently, then turned to the waiting teenagers. "This is an… unprecedented request, but could I possibly trouble one of you to be a… guard of sorts? For the next time he wakes up?"

"Wait, why?"

The man sighed. "The last time he woke up, he didn't know where he was. That much was obvious. And well… one of the nurses was adjusting his IV, and he knocked her out. He managed to injure another before we could get him sedated again, but I don't want to risk my team getting hurt, or aggravating his injuries any further."

"I'll take first shift!" Venom stepped forward, his chest puffed out obnoxiously. "With Venom I can totally keep Spidey down if he wakes up again."

"When he wakes up again," Dr. Lewis corrected. "He will, and it'll probably be much faster than I'd like."

"That's what I meant," Flash said, stationing himself in front of Spidey's door with his legs apart and his hands clasped in front like a bouncer.