Chapter 5

Ali had been asleep up until the door opened. She was glad it had woken her up though as her usual nightmare had managed to start playing through her dreams. It had only managed to reach the start of it though before she got woken up.

Peter was at her door. She didn't need to look up to know that it was him, which was good because she was sure that if she did move even the tiniest inch then she would throw up.

She heard him place something down on the table next to her bed and heard his feet as he started to back away out the door.

"Peter...?"

Internally she cringed at the sound of her voice. It was so croaky and was even she could barely hear it so she was surprised that he had.

"I am sorry, I didn't mean to wake you."

He whispered it which Ali was grateful for since her head was still pounding.

"It's fine."

"I brought you some crackers and water."

"Thanks."

She tried to pull herself up to a sitting position on her bed which was the wrong move. As soon as she lifted her head an inch, she felt her stomach tighten and so sprinted to her bathroom.

How she managed to run there when she had no energy left, she had no idea. Ali could barely hear or feel anything apart from the roaring that was in her head as she continued to throw up. There was hardly anything in her stomach since she hadn't eaten anything since yesterday.

Once she had finished, she rested her head against the wall that her back was leaning on and took deep breaths. The cold tiled floor that she was sitting on made her shiver, but it was a nice distraction from her turning stomach and painful head.

Only when she moved her head back did she notice that Peter was in the room and she soon realised that the only reason her hair wasn't covered in puke was because he had held it back.

He was now crouched down in front of her with a glass of water in his hands. Ali took the glass of water but didn't even have enough energy to bring it to her lips. All she wanted was to sleep.

She closed her eyes for what she thought was no longer than a second but when she opened them she found that a straw had been placed in the cup of water that she was holding.

Peter's expression gave her the impression that he was not going to let her do anything until she drank some water.

For some reason the water tasted horrible, but Ali managed to take a few small sips before handing it back to Peter who now had a small comforting smile on his face.

He had also brought crackers but there was no way that Ali was going to give in and eat some. She would just throw them back up again as soon as they hit her stomach.

Ali had no idea how long she sat there for. She didn't even have enough room in her head to process how she felt about Peter being there. He was looking after her and there even though she hadn't asked him to be.

She was so close to sleep when she felt herself begin to rise. Her eyes were closed but as soon as she could no longer feel the wall behind her back or the cold tiled floor beneath her, she opened them.

One of Peter's arms was under her legs and the other was around her back. He was carrying her back to her room. Peter carefully pulled the covers back on the bed before laying Ali on top of it.

Ali didn't know what happened, but once she was no longer in his arms she started to miss him. She knew that she was being irrational but when he started to once again head towards the door she couldn't stop herself from whispering,

"Please, can you stay."

She sounded pathetic even to her own ears, but her mood quickly changed when Peter stopped and walked back over to her before sitting next to her on her bed.

Peter's warmth next to her made the pain lessen and for her stomach to stop turning so much. Instinctively she moved closer to him and ended up laying her head against his chest.

When Peter moved his arm to wrap around Ali's back she almost sighed in relief and happiness. Even though she was ill she had never felt so comfortable before.

With Peter next to her, Ali quickly fell asleep.

When the Avengers came back at midnight, Natasha went in to check on Ali and found her fast asleep. Her only thought of concern was her bright red cheeks but she decided that it was due to her being too hot from the duvet, so she took it off of her and replaced it with a blanket. After realising that she still had her school clothes on she comforted herself in the fact that if she didn't look any better in the morning then she would get FRIDAY to scan her and maybe call in Jemma.

Peter had stayed with Ali until 10pm which was when he started to realise that if he didn't leave soon then he would probably not leave till the morning.

He didn't want to leave her but managed to slide out from under Ali. He left her a note which just had his phone number written on it before he left and went down to Mr Stark's lab.

Once there, he collected his bag before pulling on his Spider-Man suit and hopping out onto the nearest window.

May knew about the internship though would probably have started to worry by now so he moved quickly above the lamp lit streets until he reached the apartment. He crawled through his window before taking off his suit and stashing it back in his backpack. He pulled on his pyjamas and walked out of his room to find May brushing her teeth in the toilet.

"Hey May. I just got back but I am really tired, so I am going to go to bed. Night."

"Okay but first, brush your teeth and tomorrow I want to talk to you about what happened today."

"Okay May. Night."

"Night Peter."

Peter had no intention of going to sleep. Instead, he pulled his suit back on and left through the window. He swung his way back to the tower before trying to find Ali's window.

On the outside, all the windows near the top of the tower were extremely darkly tinted and only if you pressed your face right up to them would you be able to see through them. Though it was obvious that whoever designed the building believed that to be impossible since most of those windows were over 1000 feet in the air.

Of course, Peter had managed to scale up the building. His sticking feet and hands always came in handy. Ali's room wasn't hard to find since all he had to do was listen for her heartbeat.

The window didn't open but Peter didn't try and find another way in. He knew the Avengers would be back soon and didn't want them catching him in Ali's room.

He was content to watch her and make sure that she was alright through the window.

Peter did go on patrol though kept close to the tower and came back to Ali's window every ten minutes to check on her.

At around midnight, Peter saw a jet land on top of the tower and after checking for the last time that night that Ali was alright, he left to go back to his room and get some sleep.