Chapter Text
Despite all odds, and thousands of other spider people chasing him down, getting slammed into a train, and having chronic pain from a 6 '9 guy who seemed to still grieve a daughter that technically wasn’t his, Miles saved his dad.
Well, kind of. Considering his dad was in a coma now with a 50/50 chance of him waking up from it. When the doctors told him and his mom that, he could feel something going off concerning his mom, but he didn’t exactly know what it was.
Maybe if he paid close attention he could’ve prevented this.
The car ride home was strangely silent, with no reassurance from his mother, nothing from the radio playing like it normally would, and not even a bad driver caused her to start screaming at them. It felt… wrong. Even when his dad was in the hospital before, there was always some noise in the car. The silence made him worry that his mom was about to blow up on him for hiding the fact that he was Spider-Man for over a year.
When they got home, his mom was still silent. He didn’t blame her though, his father looked like he did die and didn’t just land in a coma. Maybe if Miles was just a bit faster, and didn't focus on the other spider people, his dad wouldn’t have been in a coma. And he felt even worse because his mom wouldn’t even talk to him, not even to say goodnight.
The next day, Miles was home due to the whole spot situation as it would take a couple of days for the dorms to be repaired. So in the meantime, they would do their classes virtually and stay home. And Miles hated it. He hated the way his house felt… dead. His mom had a day off and he hasn’t seen her at all.
The only sound he heard from outside of his room was his mom crying in his parents’ room before she went to the kitchen. Then, it was the sound of a cabinet opening and closing and a bottle being opened. And finally, the sound of footsteps slowly fading out as a door closed.
Hours later, around dinnertime, Miles got out of his room and walked to the kitchen to see it looked the same as it did the day before. The only noticeable thing was an empty glass bottle on the counter, and takeout at the dinner table. Miles went to the table first and decided to take a to-go container and put the food on a plate before heating it.
While he was eating, his mom walked into the kitchen and smiled at Miles. It was clear that she was not taking her husband being hospitalized easy at all. Her eyes were red from crying, her hair looked messy, tear stains all over her face, and her eyes were also duller than usual. “Hi Miles, how were your classes?”
“They were okay. One of the teachers had a horrible internet connection so AP Physics was asynchronous for the day. Ganke and I were going to FaceTime later to work on this assignment together. How are you mami?”
“I’m fine. Woke up late and didn’t have the energy to make dinner so I ordered takeout.” Rio had been up since 5 a.m. and just stayed in her room, laying on Jeff’s side of the bed in his morning robe to try and feel like he was here and not in a hospital. Despite this, she knew she still had to take care of Miles, especially considering that he might be feeling extremely guilty about the situation. Even if she couldn’t get the energy to clean the house or do anything but drink and cry, her baby boy came first.
Right?
On Saturday, three days after his dad was put in a coma, Miles woke up early and saw his mom in the living room, watching the news. She had a cup of tea in her hand, silent as she took a sip and turned to Miles, hearing the floorboard creak in a way that his footsteps always caused. She gave him a small smile before turning back to the TV, smile dropping slightly.
“Good morning Mami, how did you sleep?” Miles was hoping that his mom would engage in a longer conversation than just “Good morning Miles”, “Good night Miles”, and “I ordered some food for dinner again”. It was starting to drive him crazy with worry that his mom was clearly in pain with Jeff being in a coma but wouldn’t express her worries to him or someone else.
“I slept okay, woke up a bit early. Are you hungry? If so, I made you some breakfast after I heard that you were up.” Rio’s voice sounded more monotone, losing the energy that was usually in her voice even when she would be sad.
Miles still felt uneasy, and a faint buzzing in his head started to appear, despite no danger being around. He decided to ignore it and went to the dining table to eat his breakfast. Looking up from his food, he saw his mom pick up her car keys and turn to leave. “It’s still 7:30 in the morning, Mami. Are you already going to work? You normally don’t go until 10:00.”
Rio was silent for a second, deciding what response would get her out of this house the fastest. “You know how work is, plus there’s a rise in patients and I have to start work early! There’s money for delivery.” She left shortly after saying that, not giving Miles time to even digest it. She wasn’t completely lying, after the Spot, a lot of people were injured or got sick due to the chemicals that got released from one of the destroyed labs and the hospital was at 70% of its max capacity.
However, her workplace offered her two weeks off considering her husband’s situation so she and her son could digest this and overcome that hardship. They understood that not only she would need support, but her son as well.
So why wouldn’t she want to be there for him?
Miles just sat there in silence. He didn’t touch the rest of his food and he didn’t feel like eating any more of it. He was confused about why she didn’t try convincing them to give her another day off, or at least let her work the night shift. Were they that busy to where his mom had to go? Or did she intentionally go early?
She wouldn’t do that though. She loves Miles a lot and would want to stay with him in the house and spend time together and get through this together. If she didn’t want to see him, she wouldn’t have made him breakfast and waited for him to come to the table.
But another small voice in his head, one more condescending said, “But what if she’s seeing you as the mistake you are? All you tend to do is hurt the people around you. Now she won’t even look at you for more than five seconds.”
Miles decided to finish his homework and wait for his mom to come home to watch a show with him when she came home from work. Since it was taking a while, he also decided to do both their laundry loads and dry the clothes. As he was ironing them, he looked up at the clock and noticed that it was already 3 p.m.
She normally calls me during lunch hour…
He shrugged it off, thinking that maybe her lunch hour was cut short or it got pushed back. He decided to put the dishes in the dishwasher and start it while he hand-washed the ones that weren’t exactly meant to go in a dishwasher and put them in the drying rack. He got a bit sad when an hour had already passed and he had no message or even a missed call from his mom.
Maybe her phone died? He still believed that she would contact him soon but he was already finished with most of the housework, so he went to his room and decided to draw in his sketchbook.
Two hours later, still no calls, text messages, or even emails from his mother. He was starting to think that maybe she was avoiding him. But, he doesn’t know why she would. Was it because he didn’t say anything to her during the car ride? Or was it the fact that he let his mother cry and didn’t try comforting her? Or was it that she blamed him for what happened to his dad?
An hour later, he was upset that his mom was working early and still wasn’t back yet. It might’ve been selfish, but couldn’t someone else cover for his mom so she could come back home early? Or maybe they needed the extra hands. Why didn’t she at least call or text him to let him know?
He decided to doordash some food with the money his mom left, watch some TV, and wait for her to come home before he went to bed. He went to Max and turned on The Boondocks and started from season 1 episode 1. He was still eating his food when he got a notification. He jumped up thinking it was his mom and frowned when it was just a message from the Spider Society group chat he had recently been added to. He just muted the group chat and kept watching the show, eyes starting to tear up as it was already 10 p.m. and still no response or even the sound of her car pulling in.
At 11 p.m., Rio Morales came home to the sound of the TV still on and her son asleep on the couch. She put her bag and keys up and walked to him and frowned when she saw tear tracks on his face. She checked her messages with Miles and cursed when she saw the “not delivered” after each one.
“12:30 p.m
Good afternoon Miles! Did you get something to eat for lunch? I might have to run errands this week. They said I could leave early so I might be back by 4 p.m.!”
Not delivered.
“3:00 pm
They said that one of the nurses called out so I had to stay until 6 pm. I’m so sorry. Please don’t wait for me too long and order something nice for yourself for dinner. Maybe we can watch something tonight?”
Not delivered.
“5:50 pm
I’m about to go to HR and yell at these damn idiots. They said I could leave early and all of a sudden it’s I can’t leave until 10 p.m.. They should’ve just told me from the start. Don’t stay up too long and go to sleep. I know some of those “spider society” people are watching over New York for this week and the next so you shouldn’t be out on Spider-Man business today.
I love you. I’ll try to take a day off soon so we can spend time together”
Not delivered.
“You must’ve thought I was ignoring you, huh?” She sat down on the couch next to Miles and started running her fingers through his hair. “I’m so sorry that I didn’t double-check and make sure the messages were sent, you know that most of the time they do. You grew up too fast in the past two years. Hopefully, I can make sure you can still be a child and not be afraid to come to me for comfort as we wait for your father to get better. I love you so much and I’ll try harder. I was only rushing my response because I didn’t want to be late and have to stay there longer.”
She got up to get a blanket and pillow for Miles since she couldn’t move him to his room without him waking up, and he needed sleep. After gently lifting his head to place the pillow on and putting the blanket over him, she kissed his forehead and went to bed herself. She went to bed not knowing that Miles heard the entire thing and smiled to himself after she left, knowing that she didn’t intentionally ignore him.
At least for now.