Hendrickson and Martinez jumped as Peterson practically kicked open the door to the station.
"The 3rd precinct caught Spider-man!"
They all felt their hearts stop.
.
Peter stared up at the ceiling at a drug induced daze, trying his best to get his thoughts together. He knew that he was chained down to a hospital bed, or at least, he could put it together. His thoughts kept on slipping through his fingers like a moving fish covered in Vaseline. Every time he got a grip on his thoughts, somehow, before he could completely process it, it would just fall apart on him. It felt like the time he had gotten a nasty concussion after one of his more painful falls, but at the same time no. an angry face appeared in his vision. A face he was somehow able to register as the chief of the 3rd precinct.
"and why isn't his mask off yet?!" he snapped to an officer that was out of view. Peter smiled under his mask. It was an odd recent power he had just gotten, but it was really convenient in the sense that it allowed him to make his mask stick to his face so people couldn't pull it off. Kinda ironic that he had discovered it while he was somewhat on the run from the police.
"sssorry," his slurred words caught the attention of Chief Mendez," I only le' pre''y women sseee m-my faccce." He would have laughed until his stomach hurt if he was able to when he saw the way he saw the chiefs face turn red with anger. The chief started ranting, but Peter wasn't listening as he tried to remember how exactly he got caught by these guys.
He was on the run from the 7th precinct when he ran into the third. That was were things started to get a little bit…iffy, to say the least. He remembers silently dying inside when he saw the 3rd precinct, and he remembers the back-breaking acrobatics he did to avoid getting caught. But after he felt that little prick in his leg, that was where things got weird. He was in the air one second, and the next second, he was face down on the pavement with a terrible pain in his entire body. The last thing he remembers would be the triumphant voice he heard before waking up here.
He felt his head turn sharply to the left, his brain telling him that something should at least hurt from the impact.
"I'm talking to you! you bastard!" Did the chief just slap him?
"Hey! I don't care if you're the police chief! You hit him like that one more time and I will have security escort you out!" Peter loves nurses.
"h-hey," three different heads snapped to Peter, who was barely keeping his head up, glaring at the chief. And with as much hate, spite and every negative emotion that he felt in that moment, he said two words that he would never regret.
"Fuck you."
Ok in hindsight, maybe that wasn't the best thing to say to the already annoyed/enraged police chief.
But by god was it worth it.
If Peter had the mental coherency to do it, he would definitely say something along the lines of "ten out of ten, would do it again," just to further spite the man. But it had taken nearly every working braincell he had just to say that with as much spite and hate in that moment. The officer struggled to take his chief out of the room before he got himself kicked out, leaving Spider-man and the nurse by themselves.
"I'm sorry about that sweetheart, how are you feeling?" the drugs were making him a little bit weird.
"P-pleassee," his voice cracked, now that he was awake more, he knew what they were putting into his veins," please 'ake it ou'." Peter was just so tired. He was so tired of taking risks all the time. So tired of getting punished just for trying to help people.
"…I juss' wan'ed to hel' people…please…I jus' wanna go home." The nurse felt her heart break. Instead of the happy, silly superhero that she has treated multiple times, she had a tired and defeated man in front of her. She gently grabbed his hand, trying her best to ignore the chains that were around his wrists.
"…I'm sorry Spidey," she rubbed her thumb on the back of his hand," I don't have the key yet, they haven't given it to me." She didn't like the way the fabric around his eyes got darker, or the way he tried to take control, shuddered breaths.
"…I'm so'ry, I'm so 'ired." She didn't like the tone in his voice. She heard that tone when someone gave up. When they were too tired to keep on fighting. She heard that tone almost all the time when she worked with the long-term cancer patients.
"…p-please, jus' le' me go home." His words broke her heart. She gently put down his hand before looking around the room. It was protocol that the handcuff key was left with the attending doctor for emergencies. And most of the time, the attending doctor left it on the clipboard so the nurses could use it. It was a method that was unorthodox compared to other hospitals but it worked here.
Fortunately for the hero, there was another method she learned after she saw the head nurse do it in an emergency.
She got onto her knees and messed with a few screws. Before Peter knew it, the handrails to the bed were disconnected and she was sliding his handcuffs off.
"you got to hurry up and go," she helped sit up and get him to the nearby window, "hurry, before they come back in. she left him leaning against the wall as she opened the window as quietly as she could. When she turned back to him, she was in gulfed in a strong hug against a shaking body.
"…'hank you." She hugged him back and tried to give him her most comforting hug before she had to break it off and help him out the window.
"Spider-man." He stopped at the sound of his name," Thank you for everything," she knew what the hero was planning to do," I'm sorry it had to come to this." The hero was silent for a little bit.
"…I'm so'ry."
"Don't be sorry Spidey," she gave him a small smile, "you tried your best, but you can't help the people who don't want it. "she got a grateful nod of his head, and then he was gone.
New York took a couple of weeks to get over what happened next.
