The call finally came through about thirty minutes after they had first heard news that there was a battle happening...
Mary Jane and Ana were still sitting down on the couch, anxiously waiting for something when Ana's phone rang. She instantly pulled it out and relaxed just a fraction of her body.
Gwen...
She clicked the accept button and put the phone on speaker before she called into the phone, "Gwen, is that you? Why haven't I been able to reach you? Are you ok? What happened?" She started to ramble on, not even letting the woman on the other end get a single word in.
"Ana..."
As soon as Gwen spoke, both Mary Jane and Ana stiffened a little bit. She sounded completely broken at the minute. Her voice was hoarse and they could hear the panic that was there too.
"What's wrong Gwen?" Ana asked hesitantly, not knowing if she wanted the answer.
After a couple seconds of silence, she spoke up, "Is Mary Jane there?" She asked instead, not answering her girlfriend's question.
"Yeah I am, what's wrong?" The young woman said. She was growing a bit more worried with each passing minute that Gwen didn't answer her, she didn't like where this was going at all.
"I think you should pack a bag for May and get over here quickly."
Mary Jane and Ana looked at each other in confusion, "And...why is that?" She asked.
"...because Peter's hurt really bad...and we don't know if he'll make it..." she said, causing both of Ana's and Mary Jane's eyes to widen in shock. The young woman's eyes were already starting to get wet, Peter couldn't die, not now. She needed him, she couldn't lose him.
"W-what? W-what happened to him?" She asked with a tear now flowing down her face. Ana was also pretty close to tears too at the moment but she refused to let them fall.
She needed to be strong, for her brother...
"Let's just say that Peter finally got his revenge on Thanos, but to do so...he needed to snap his fingers and we all know what that almost did to Thanos the first time." She said.
"Where are you?" Mary Jane demanded, she needed to get to him.
"We're in Wakanda, we'll send a Wizard to come and get you in five minutes though."
"Ok, we'll be ready, just...where is he now?"
"They sent him off to get surgery, his whole right side was charred Mary Jane, he was bleeding pretty bad and...his heart stopped for a minute while he was with Natasha." She admitted, which only made the two women want to crawl into a ball and cry.
Mary Jane would have hated it if his heart had stopped while he was in her arms, so to know that that did happen, but to Nat...she knew the woman had to be going through so much pain at the moment.
"Alright, I'll go get May and wake her up, we'll be ready in five minutes." Without another word Mary Jane left the room to go get her daughter.
When she was out of earshot, Ana asked what she has been meaning to ask since Gwen got on the phone and told them, "How bad is it? And don't bullshit me Gwen, I wanna know."
There was a second of silence before Gwen responded, "Really bad..."
———————
The Avengers haven't spoken a word since Natasha and Steve had entered the room...
They were all sitting in tense silence, no one wanting to break the atmosphere of the room. Everyone was sitting down in comfortable chairs, not like in normal waiting rooms where the chairs were so uncomfortable you wanted to sit anywhere else but there.
The comfort did little to help the situation though...
All the heroes were there, Steve, Bucky and Sam where sitting next to each other looking at the floor, not sure what to do. Clint was up and pacing around the room, worried about Peter but also anxious to see his family again. Wanda was sitting with her legs tucked up to her chest, trying to keep her mind off of everything. Tony was leaning against the wall with Rhodey next to him, both with somber looks on their faces.
They had gotten to the young man first and saw the damage and it wasn't pretty whatsoever...
The worst in the room was by far Natasha and Nebula. The alien cyborg was feeling so guilty about everything. All of it was her fault and no one could deny that, she was the one that past Thanos captured, she was the one who lead him straight to the present and let her past self take her place.
She was responsible for what happened today, and if Peter were to die, that would be on her.
And she'd never forgive herself for that...
Natasha was a whole other story...
She was a complete mess, her eyes were all red from all the tears that had leaked out of them without her permission, her red hair was all tangled up and some of it was out of her braid, and she was looking at the ground while muttering in Russian that no one else in the room could understand.
Natasha only had one thing on her mind, Peter. If she were to lose her son, she'd never be the same again. These past few years with him, meeting him for the first time, sparring with him, growing close with him, watching movies, just spending time with him in general, has made her life feel...complete for the very first time.
Growing up she never thought she would be able to have a family. Eventually, she learned to look at Yelena as her sister on that stupid undercover mission in Ohio back in 1995. And with a little more time, Melina and Alexei became part of her found family.
The family that she always wanted to have.
But with the death of them, or most of them, since one was stuck in a Russian prison, she thought she'd never be able to have another, full family.
But then Clint found and saved her from a life of blood and death...
And she found comfort in him and his family. They were nice enough to eventually allow her into their little family and she couldn't have been more grateful to them.
Then the Avengers came along and she found even more people that were suddenly in her corner. Even with all these people, she still didn't feel complete though. She watched as Clint and Laura would care for their children and eventually she came to the conclusion that the reason she felt that way, was because she wanted a kid.
But that was impossible for someone like her...
Until Peter...
No matter how cliche it was, it seemed like whenever he walked into the room, she'd be in a better mood. She'd be happier, more open and overall just a lot of fun to hang around, not like she was in the past.
She'd be the first to admit that she was cold and closed off to most of the people in her life...
But he made her open up to the others in her family and overall made her a better person, and in return she tried to do the same for him.
If she lost him...she'd never be the same...
Yelena, who was sitting down next to her sister, saw her distress and laid her hand on her shoulder to try and comfort the older spy, offering the little comfort she could to her.
Natasha looked up and over to her sister and gave her a small, sad smile in return. She placed her hand on top of the one that was on her shoulder and squeezed it gently, silently thanking the blond for the support.
Just then, a portal opened up and a couple people walked through. Laura and the Kids were the first ones through the portal and once they saw Clint, they instantly raced to the man. He quickly brought them all into his embrace and started to mumble reassuring words to them.
The next people through the portal was Pepper, Morgan and Happy, and once they saw where Tony was, they quickly made their way over to the man and hugged him too.
The last people that walked out of the portal was Mary Jane, May and Ana...
The little two year old was laying on her mother's shoulder, and looked to be asleep again. While her mother and aunt had worried looks across their faces. Ana looked around until she saw Gwen and instantly rushed forward and brought her into her arms
While the couple was in each other's arms, soaking in the comfort from one another, Mary Jane moved over to Natasha. As soon as she sat down on the other side of the woman, Natasha circled her one free arm around the younger woman's waist, bringing her against her side.
"How bad?" Mary Jane said just above a whisper.
Natasha shook her head, "We don't know, he just went into surgery."
"How bad do you think it is?"
"...bad." No other words were needed, Mary Jane got the picture.
Everyone sat in that room for hours, waiting for any information about their teammate, their family member but with each passing minute, they all grew more anxious and nervous about what the outcome would be for the young man.
Luckily, May hadn't woken up yet which was surprising in itself. She would usually always be up by now but Mary Jane wasn't complaining, she didn't want her daughter to see the obvious distress everyone in the room was in.
When five hours had passed since the battle, the doors to the waiting room opened and revealed Dr Strange, Shuri and Bruce.
Dr Strange's face didn't give away much but he did have a somber look behind his eyes, much like everyone else's, Shuri though was definitely affected much more than the experienced doctor. She had her arms wrapped around her middle and her head was looking down at the ground.
Which did nothing to ease their worries...
Bruce was much like the other doctor, but he looked way more tired. They could see that he had gotten a sling for his arm to rest in though, which was good but it didn't seem to bother Bruce at the moment.
Natasha was the first one to speak, "Please tell me he's gonna be ok?" She asked, practically begged the three of them. They all looked at each other before they came to a silent agreement that Banner would be the one to speak.
"He's alive," he said. All the surrounding heroes breathed a sigh of relief at that but they weren't out of the water yet because Bruce continued on, "But he's in very bad condition. His right arm was way too damaged to save, we had to amputate at the shoulder." He admitted.
Mary Jane buried her head in her daughters hair, trying not to let the tears out but they were leaking anyways. He lost his arm, he lost his arm for doing this and the thought of that made so much sadness and anger swell through her body. He had already lost his hand to the Madman before and now he had to go through with losing his whole damn arm.
She doesn't know why he always had to suffer through these things, it was like the universe loved to torment her boyfriend.
Like he was some sort of plaything to this fucked up game that they all call life...
It wasn't fair...
It seemed to everyone in the room that Bucky didn't give any reaction to the news but internally he was saddened by that fact. Peter didn't deserve to walk around with all the pain that the absence of his arm would give him, Peter didn't deserve anything that happened to him yet still he slapped on a smile and went along with his day like everything was fine.
Bucky has never had so much respect for another human being in his entire life than he did for Parker. If the young man needed him for something, and he told him that he needed to leave Steve for an extended amount of time, he'd go with no questions asked.
Because he knew that if Peter asked him to leave his most trusted friend, it most likely meant that something bad was happening and it could potentially endanger his family.
He never doubted that Peter would always have other people's safety above his own...
It was really starting to get on Bucky nerves though when stuff like this happened...
Natasha's hands went to her mouth and she didn't care who saw her, she let all her tears out. Her son was in there with one less arm and she could do nothing about it, and from the looks of the others, the bad news wasn't over yet.
Proving her point, not a second later Dr Strange continued on, "There was also some pretty...extensive damage to the rest of his right side, not just his arm. His right leg will most likely not want to move when he's back up due to the power surge that went through his body that basically siphoned out all his energy, but that can be changed with physical therapy sessions, he has some scarring on his upper chest that end at his lower neck and the last serious injury he has is his eye. There was no way that he'd be able to see out of it again, so we had to take it out so it wouldn't get infected and cause more damage. At the moment, he's in a coma so, we don't know when he'll wake up."
All the heroes didn't know what to say, this man sacrificed everything just to save them, to save the universe from destruction and he lost so much in doing so, almost lost his life. All of them were holding some sort of guilt at that thought, if he were to die, they'd never forgive themselves.
Natasha though, caught onto the doctors words, "Wait, you said when's he's back up, does that mean he'll make it?"
"It will take time but I assure you Ms Romanov that your son will make it." He nodded at her. Natasha bit her lip and leaned back into her chair in relief.
Her son was gonna live, he was gonna be ok.
She knew that it would all take time, but as long as he lived, she could deal with the rest at a later date.
She just wanted to see her son again...
"I have an idea about how we can fix Mr Romanov's eye." Everyone turned to look at the god who had spoken. Shocking everyone except the guardians, Thor reached up to his right eye and...pulled it out.
Not the weirdest thing they've seen all day.
He got out of his seat and walked over to the doctor to place it in his outstretched hand, "You might want to clean that up first before you give it to him. Also, it might look a little weird when you put it in, the eye is more of an, an orange color than a brown but there's nothing I can do about that..." Thor continued to ramble on about the eye, so he didn't see the grateful looks Natasha and Mary Jane were sending him.
Strange raised an eyebrow at the god, "And you just...plop...it in and then you can see?" He asked.
"Yup, that's all I did." Thor nodded.
Strange blew out a breath before he enclosed his hand around the eye, "Ok, I'll be sure to clean this up and prep it for Peter. Meanwhile, there's something I need to tell you all. We saw that his metal hand, the one he used to snap, had a makeshift gauntlet built into it, meaning that..." Strange didn't need to finish his sentence though.
"He knew what he was gonna do." Gwen muttered but everyone heard her.
Quill furrowed his eyebrows at the man, "Back on Titan, weren't you the one who went forward in time and saw this? You said one out of fourteen million we win, and we've won so you saw this happening, why are you acting like you're surprised?"
All the heroes and their families turned to look at the doctor with varying degrees of emotion. Some were curious, some were confused and others, like Natasha, were angry.
"You knew my son would do this and didn't stop it?" She said in the most sickly, sweet, calm voice she could muster causing most of the people in the room to shiver in fear, this was not gonna end well. But Strange apparently had a death wish because he responded back to her.
"I did. Back on that ship five years ago, when he saved me, and he told me he wanted to cut off Thanos on his planet, I said if it came down to protecting him or the stone I wouldn't hesitate to let him die," Natasha was about to haul off on the guy when he calmly interrupted, "When I saw the only way to save the universe, I knew I had to break my oath. Thanos was about to kill him so I gave up the stone to save him, ensuring that this future would happen and we would be on the right track to win this war. As Sorcerer Supreme, my main goal is to protect this reality, I'm sorry that he had to get hurt along the way, but it was the only way to win." Strange finished, calmly looking her in the eyes. He could see the anger that was brewing in her eyes, anger that was directed at him for what he did but he wouldn't apologize for saving the universe, for ensuring that they won.
"If I ever see you near my son again after you help him, I will make sure you find out why they call me the Black Widow, do you understand?" She said, glaring at the man.
Strange nodded once, "Completely." Without another word, he walked back through the doors towards the young man's room.
Once he was out of the room, Natasha turned to look at the other two, "When can I see him?" She asked.
"They are settling him into his room right now, we'll take you to see him as soon as he's there. We can only allow a few people in at a time though so his significant other, his daughter and mother will be the first ones allowed in." Shuri said to them. They all nodded in understanding before she walked over to where her brother was sitting down and laid her head on his shoulder.
Banner then decided to sit down as well. He walked over to where Clint and his family was sitting before he plopped down into the chair next to Laura. The woman offered him a small smile before turning back to Nate in her arms.
Just then, May decided she wanted to wake up...
The little girl whined before she snuggled down into her mother's shoulder, soaking in her warmth causing said woman to smile down at her two year old daughter. She started to whisper sweet nothings into her daughter's head, slowly bobbing her up and down in her arms.
May then looked up and started to rub her eyes with the back of her little hands. She looked around and when she saw Natasha and Gwen, she instantly lit up.
" Gwen!! Nana!!" She exclaimed as she tried to squirm out of her mother's hold to get to the two women in question. Everyone who was dusted looked between Natasha and the little girl in shock, never had they thought they would hear Nat be called a grandmother before.
Said Russian spy paid no mind to the others and smiled at the little girl, opened up her arms and crouched down to her eye level. Natasha engulfed the little girl into her embrace and picked her up. May snuggled right up to her chest, laying her head down underneath her chin causing so much warmth and love to radiate out of the spy's heart.
The little girl then looked up and her head swiveled around the room, seemingly looking for someone and Natasha had a pretty good idea about who. Not even a couple seconds later May looked back to her with a tilted head, "Where's daddy? He went with you, where is he?" She asked with so much innocence that it almost physically hurt Natasha.
She couldn't save the girl's father from loosing his innocence, so she'd protect her granddaughter from the same thing with her life.
But that innocence, wasn't really helping them at the moment.
Natasha took a breath before she spoke calmly and softly to the little girl, "Your father got a little hurt on the trip we took baby, he's in the other room sleeping. He needs his rest at the moment." She said. There was no way that they could tell her how bad of a condition her father was in, they didn't want a panicking two year old on their hands.
May's face turned a little concerned, "Daddy ok?"
Natasha's face turned a little sad but she answered the little girl's question anyways, "He will be baby, he just needs his rest."
The spy could tell the little girl was slightly distressed at her answer though so she pulled the girl's face back into her chest, holding May against her to offer as much comfort as she could.
Just then, the doors opened and a female doctor walked out looking a little tired. She made eye contact with Mary Jane and Natasha before she spoke.
"We're ready to bring you to his room."