The first thing that Peter noticed when he woke up was the consistent beeping that caused his head to feel like it was being split in half. It was like each piercing beep was making his ears bleed. The second thing Peter noticed was that his entire body felt like it had been run over by a bus. He couldn't remember why he felt so crappy, but Peter wasn't surprised to find that he was in the infirmary when he opened his eyes to a squint.

If there was one thing that Peter hated, it was hospitals and he definitely hated being in one. He didn't like the pain of being injured and he hated causing people to feel concerned over something that wasn't their fault. After he became Spider-Man being injured was inevitable. Even then Peter hated waking up to a pissed off Tony Stark and a stressed Aunt May. The lecture from Tony is something Peter could handle, but the disappointment? That was worse than anything else.

Looking around, Peter was surprised to find that he was completely alone. Usually, in the past, Someone was always by his bedside. Nine times out of ten May had been the one camped out in his room, but Tony had always taken over if May had to go to work. The fact that May wasn't there meant that she either was at work or he hadn't been out long enough for her to have been informed. Tony, on the other hand, Peter didn't know whether to have been relieved or hurt that the older man was absent. Peter had a faint memory of begging Steve to not call Tony, but he honestly didn't expect Steve to have kept his word. However, deep down, Peter wished that his mentor was present. In addition, Peter truly hoped that the billionaire's absence was due to Steve keeping his word because Peter didn't know how to feel if Tony knew he had been injured but didn't come to check on him.

Staring at the ceiling, Peter assessed his injuries. Taking deep breaths hurt more than he would've liked which meant at least one of his ribs were still broken and not yet mended. His head was pounding and considering that the hospital lights felt like his eyes were being burned out of his sockets, a concussion was messing with his senses. He was shirtless and a surgical bandage was wrapped around his torso indicating some internal bleeding had to have occurred. Lastly, his arm was in a sling, but the pain in his shoulder was a dull ache.

Overall, it could have been worse, Peter thought. You got lucky, Parker. At least if you consider it being lucky when you're stuck alone in your worst nightmare.

"Hey, FRIDAY?" Peter mumbled quietly.

"Hello, Peter," Friday replied. "I have notified Dr. Banner that you are awake."

Peter hummed in appreciation before realizing he was talking to an AI. "Thanks, FRIDAY."

"Of course, Peter. Do you require anything else?" FRIDAY asked.

"Can you dim the lights?" Peter asked, closing his eyes to reduce the ache of the light hitting his eyes.

Immediately the lights dimmed to a bearable level and Peter was thankful that Tony never removed the AI's protocols for Peter's sensory overload episodes.

"Would You like me to activate the Spider-Overload Protocol?" FRIDAY asked, the AI's volume had lowered to a whisper, but Peter heard the question perfectly.

"No need, FRIDAY, it's not that bad. Just a little sensitive. Should go away in a few hours," Peter replied.

"Very well, Dr. Banner should be up in a few minutes," FRIDAY said before falling quiet.

Peter basked in the quietness of the room. Somehow FRIDAY had also managed to reduce the volume of the heart rate monitor to a dull thud. His entire body was fatigued, an unfortunate side effect of his body healing.

"Peter?" A quiet voice caused Peter's eyes to open. He hadn't even been aware that they had closed again. Glancing over at the doorway, Peter saw Dr. Banner hovering in the doorway, his hair askew and dressed in a hoodie and a pair of sweats.

"Under different circumstances I would be going full geek mode on you," Peter said quietly. "I'm too tired to even think about anything scientific right now."

Bruce chuckled and walked over to glance at his vitals on the monitor beside his bed. "Glad to see you more aware this time."

"I take it that I've woken up before?" Peter asked

"Two times, but that was just protocol." Bruce gently helped Peter sit up by raising his bed to prop his back up. The older man grabbed his light pen before asking, "Is it alright to use this?"

"Right, concussion," Peter sighed." Let's get it over with."

Bruce placed a grounding hand on Peter's shoulder. "Deep breaths."

Peter followed Bruce's instructions as the older man quickly shone the light to check his pupils. The sudden assault on his overloaded senses made his stomach roll and suddenly he had a trash bin in front of him as he vomited painfully.

"Sorry, Pete," Bruce said sadly.

When Peter was sure he wasn't going to throw up again, he leaned back against the bed and wrapped his good arm around his abused ribs. "Not your fault, Dr. Banner. I'm okay."

"Tony was right, you are a terrible liar." Bruce shook his head fondly.

"Okay, yeah, I feel pretty crappy," Peter admitted sheepishly.

Bruce crossed his arms, "I don't doubt it, you took quite the beating."

Peter winced at that. "How bad?"

"Grade two concussion, three broken ribs, a punctured lung, severe abdomen and back bruising and a dislocated right shoulder," Bruce listed.

Peter was taken aback at how much worse it sounded in comparison to what he had initially thought. It made sense however, the fatigue definitely accounted for the extent of his injuries.

"Guess that's why it feels like my entire body feels like it's gone through hell and back," Peter mused tiredly.

"If you didn't heal so fast I would've been more worried," Bruce admitted. "You'll make a full recovery, but it could take a few days."

"Probably tomorrow night," Peter corrected.

Bruce raised an eyebrow at that. "Really? How fast is your healing factor? Even Steve would need at least four days to fully heal from this."

Peter shrugged with his good Shoulder. "I don't know, it's not something I look to test. I get enough lectures from my Aunt May over a mere paper cut."

Bruce looked lost in thought, "Interesting."

Peter just hummed disinterestedly, throwing up had completely drained the little energy that he had left. The ache of his body plus his sensitive senses made his surroundings slow down around him to a sluggish pace.

"Why don't you get some rest?" Bruce suggested quietly. "Your body needs time to heal."

"Yeah," Peter agreed, his speech growing more slurred as he spoke. "Sleep sounds really good."

Bruce chuckled, "Rest easy, Pete."

A few seconds later, Peter was out like a light.

The next time that Peter woke up the first thing he noticed was that he was mostly painless. The sharp aches that had been there before were mostly reduced to a dull ache. In addition, breathing hurt a lot less and Peter wondered if his ribs were mostly healed. He still had a headache but it was a lot more bearable than it had been. His senses were also mostly back to normal since the consistent beeping of the heart monitor was no longer stabbing his brain. Finally, his arm was still in a sling, but his shoulder had little pain.

"No change?" A voice asked quietly and Peter immediately zeroed in on the newcomer.

Something shifted to his right and another voice replied. "Not yet, he's still asleep."

"Dammit, kid," The newcomer sighed as he came forward. A calloused hand came to rest against the inside of his good wrist, fingers resting against his pulse.

"He's alive, Buck," The other voice reassured him. Steve.

"I know, but the kid scared the hell out of me."

"He scared all of us," Steve agreed. "But Bruce said he's going to fully recover in a few days. He's already breathing a lot better."

"I just wish we knew what had happened." Bucky said. "It's all I can think about. What the hell can cause that much damage?"

"I'm guessing FRIDAY is having trouble accessing the camera from Peter's suit?" Steve guessed.

"Yeah and Stark still hasn't answered. Apparently he gave FRIDAY strict orders to not disturb his 'family weekend' unless someone was actively dying and since Peter isn't dying..." Bucky trailed off. "I'm so close to punching him the next time I see him. I swear I'll do it, Steve."

"Bucky," Steve chided him. "Tony's doing his best."

"Best for who?" Bucky sounded unconvinced. "His lack of presence isn't helping Peter. You said he cared for Peter like a son. It's hard to believe he risked his entire family and life to go back in time to bring him back. He's got a funny way of showing he cares."

"Things aren't as simple as before," Steve replied calmly. "Tony has a life that he built from the ground up. He can't be everywhere at once."

"Bullshit, Steve, you can't honestly defend him, he's being a dick, " Bucky fumed.

"I'm not disagreeing with you, I'm just asking you to keep an open-mind."

"I know he's your friend, but he really pisses me off sometimes."

"Yeah, well that asshole is the reason you got pardoned and brought back to Earth."

"So? He's a superhero asshole and nothing can change my mind."

"Tony cares for Peter, Buck, I'm sure there is some misunderstanding, okay? Tony would never willingly ghost Peter."

"Yeah well, the kid is in the infirmary and Tony needs to figure out why the hell we couldn't track him." Buck grumbled. "Instead we had to hope he was conscious enough to swing for help."

"And I admit that is concerning but we can't play the blame game."

"He was coughing up blood, Steve. That's not something I can easily forget."

Steve sighed. "Buck..."

"I mean I know he heals fast but if he didn't..."

"But he's okay." Steve reassured him. "Now we can figure it out together. Don't go borrowing trouble."

"How can you be so calm?" Bucky asked.

"I'm not. Guess I've just gotten good at hiding it."

"You're allowed to be worried or mad, Steve."

"Oh I am mad, but not fully at Tony. I'm more mad at whoever landed Peter in a hospital bed."

"Sometimes I really wish I had your emotional restraint."

Okay , Peter thought, time to wake up.

Pushing against the waves of unconsciousness, Peter willed himself to cross the final step towards the land of the living. He knew he was successful when he made an involuntary groan of uncomfortable pain. He might not be in excruciating pain anymore but he was still uncomfortably sore.

A hand squeezed his wrist, "Peter?"

Another hand landed on his ankle, "Hey, Pete, can you open your eyes?"

Following orders, Peter blinked against the light of his room. He was grateful that the lights were still dimmed from before. His senses might've been almost back to normal, but Peter was not ready to push his luck just Yet. Glancing around he saw Bucky was standing on his good side with his hand wrapped around his wrist. Steve was sitting on his other side with a hand on Peter's ankle.

Steve smiled when he saw Peter's eyes focus on him. "Welcome back."

"Yeah, kid, you scared us shitless," Bucky squeezed his wrist once more before letting go to cross his arms.

"What happened?" Peter asked tiredly, his voice was hoarse and he winced as his throat protested the action.

Steve reached over to grab a glass of water that was on the table next to Peter's bed. "We were hoping you could tell us that."

Peter frowned. "What?"

Bucky helped prop his head up enough for Peter to take a few sips of water before Steve retracted the cup and placed it back on the table.

"You got beat to hell, kid," Bucky said.

Peter winced, "Yeah, I can feel that."

"So, how did it happen?" Bucky asked patiently.

Peter frowned at the question. What had happened? He genuinely didn't know and that terrified him. "I... I don't..." Peter placed a hand on his forehead and closed his eyes, as if he could will his brain to remember.

"Hey, hey," Steve's voice caused Peter to open his eyes to look at the super soldier. "It's okay, Pete, you hit your head pretty bad. Bruce said it's normal for things to be a little fuzzy."

"Let's rephrase, okay?" Bucky prompted. "What's the last thing you remember?"

Peter thought about it and something flashed in his mind. "Did I call you?"

Bucky's face morphed into a relieved expression. "Yeah, you were on the phone with Clint, Sam and I. Do you remember anything past that?"

Peter closed his eyes once more and tried to force his brain to remember. However, all that accomplished was pushing his luck with his senses, causing a sharp pain to stab his brain and suddenly he was throwing up in a waste basket once more. When he came back to reality, a hand was rubbing soothing circles into his back while another hand held his ankle in an anchoring grip.

"Easy, kid," Bucky gently coaxed.

"Don't strain yourself," Steve added. "You've gone through hell and back in less than a day."

Peter laid back down with a groan, the vomiting having caused his sore ribs to flare up.

Guess they aren't fully healed yet , Peter noted.

"You okay?" Steve glanced at him, concern etched on his face.

"How'd I get here if I was in Queens?" Peter asked instead of answering the question.

Bucky looked like he was going to call him out for avoiding the question, but instead he let it go. "You managed to swing here before you passed out on us."

Peter felt a wave of guilt wash over him. "I'm sorry."

Steve shook his head. "Not your fault, we're just glad you're okay."

"How long was I out?" Peter asked.

"You were out for about 12 hours, Pete," Steve answered sadly.

Peter's eyes widened. "12 hours?" He Started to sit up. "I have to go to School! Alex..."

"Who's Alex?" Buck cut in.

Steve shot Bucky an unimpressed look and placed a hand on Peter's good shoulder. "We already told your aunt what happened. She called you out of school."

Peter shook his head , "No you don't understand, I snuck out last night and Alex must've freaked out when he saw that I was gone."

"Who the hell is Alex?" Bucky asked again.

"He's May's step-son." Peter exclaimed. "He doesn't know about my... well that I'm..."

"He doesn't know your Spider-Man," Steve supplied.

Peter nodded , "Yeah." He sighed before finally laying back down with a hiss of pain.

Steve looked alarmed, "Pete?"

Peter waved off the concern," I'm fine."

Buck snorted at that, "You're a terrible liar like someone else I know."

Steve shot his friend an unimpressed look. "Not now, Buck."

Bucky's face quickly fell back into a neutral expression, "Right."

"No, really, I'm fine," Peter insisted but the heaviness in his eyes was betraying him. Twelve hours... his body was most definitely still healing if the fatigue was anything to go by.

"Says the kid that looks like a sleepy spider baby," Bucky smirked.

Peter shot him a deadpan look, "You call me that again and I swear I'll kick you."

Bucky held his hands up and laughed at that, "Got it, don't anger the grumpy kid in a hospital bed."

Steve sighed, and Peter glanced over to see that the super soldier was obviously questioning his sanity. "Leave him be, Bucky." He stood up, "We'll let you get some rest."

Peter merely watched as the two heroes walked out of his hospital room, but the lonely pit in his stomach made him want to ask one of them to stay.

Don't be such a baby, Peter chided himself. You got this, Pete, you've been through worse.

It didn't matter, anyway, Peter knew he was just kidding himself. He really only wanted one person there and that was the person that Peter begged Steve not to call. Honestly, that was one of the most stupid things he's ever done, even if Peter knew that it was selfish of him to think so.

Closing his eyes, Peter tried his best to clear his head of his raging thoughts. He must've been somewhat successful because he drifted off into a restless sleep soon after.

Peter was back on the rooftop with the evening breeze sending a slight chill down his spine. The weather of summer was finally cooling off to the chillier nights of fall and Peter was thrilled. There was nothing worse than sweating through your spandex despite having a cooling ventilation unit to ensure that his thermoregulation didn't screw him over.

He remembers the faint voices that echoed through his head from the phone that he had held up to his ear. There was a sharp feeling of him being watched that made him shiver as if it had been snowing despite the weather resting into the mid sixties. He had only a second to try to shake off the feeling before his head split in half from the warning bell of his sixth sense.

Turning around, it seemed that everything around him had been put in slow motion. There was a figure flying towards him on some sort of glider, and that in itself should've made Peter pause. Who would have that kind of technology other than a genius like Tony Stark? The figure continued to crawl forward and suddenly Peter caught a glimpse of the figure in the faint light that illuminated from the streets below. A gleam of yellow eyes piercingly stared at him and Peter immediately wanted to run, but his feet were glued to the ground. A second later, it was like someone hit play and the figure zoomed straight at him. As soon as Peter's feet left the ground everything went dark.

Voices were the first thing that Peter noticed when he stirred back into the land of the living. The second thing that Peter noticed was the significant lack of pain that Peter had felt the last time he was awake.

Starting to turn into a true napper, Parker, it's pitiful, Peter thought tiredly as he tried to push through the final waves of the realm of unconsciousness.

"I don't damn well care, Rogers," A loud voice was rapidly approaching him and Peter immediately evened out his breathing in an effort to remain the facade of being asleep. Something about the voice sparked a sense of familiarity in him.

"You should care, Tony, keep your voice down," Steve urged. "He's asleep like he should be."

Tony, Peter's heart skipped a beat.

"Why the hell wasn't I notified as soon as this happened?" Tony demanded.

"Are you kidding me?" Steve sounded angry. "We tried calling numerous times Tony but we couldn't reach you. We didn't keep it from you."

"I'm not talking about that," Tony sounded annoyed, but Peter wondered if it was aimed towards himself. "KAREN should've notified me if he was injured, FRIDAY should've told me , I just I don't understand..."

"Who's KAREN?" Steve sounded confused.

"His suit's AI, why wasn't he wearing the Iron Spider suit? I just, I don't understand."

"You tell me, Tony, you're the genius here," Steve sighed.

"Don't remind me," Tony spat bitterly. "God, I'm so stupid, how could I let this happen? Why was he even out patrolling?"

Okay, that's enough. "What's stopped me before?"

Tony inhaled sharply and suddenly a hand was wrapped around his good wrist. "Peter?"

Peter blinked his eyes open to see a worried Tony Stark hovering over him. "Hey, Mr. Stark."

Tony sighed in relief, "Jesus, kid, I don't know how much more of this I can take."

Peter chuckled half-heartedly at that, "Don't get old on me, Mr. Stark."

"I'm not old," Tony had the gall to sound offended. "You just give me gray hairs."

"'Cause you're old," Peter said.

"Can you believe this abuse, Rogers?" Tony rolled his eyes and glanced at the super soldier who was watching the exchange with an amused expression.

"I don't know, Tony, you are getting up there in age," Steve crossed his arms with a mischievous glint in his eyes.

"You're older than me, Cap, I don't know if you can get away with that comment," Tony snarked, but there was a soft-tone that rang in his voice.

Steve held his hands up in surrender, "Whatever."

Tony turned back towards Peter, "Ready to tell me what the hell happened? And don't even think about playing it on the down low, kid."

Yeah, about that, I had a weird dream just now where yellow eyes were piercing through my soul before flinging me off a rooftop, Peter thought but before he knew what he was doing Peter said, "I don't know what happened."

Tony looked unconvinced at that, "Seriously, Pete? I'm not an idiot, there's a reason I'm the designated genius here."

"He's telling the truth, Tony," Steve cut in gently. "Dr. Banner said he had a grade two concussion and missing memory isn't uncommon."

"But what the hell could do something so damaging?" Tony shook his head. "Kid, why weren't you wearing your Iron Spider suit?"

Peter placed a hand over his face to avoid looking at Tony as he mumbled, "It's kinda broken."

Tony paused for a moment before asking, "What was that?"

"It's broken, Tony," Peter repeated louder. "It's been broken since..."

"What?" Tony sounded shocked. "What the hell? Pete, why didn't you say anything?"

Peter removed the hand from his face and shrugged half-heartedly. "The spandex suit still worked and I kinda like it better. Iron may be your thing, Mr. Stark, but it isn't mine."

"But it's more protective," Tony argued. "If you had been wearing it the damage wouldn't have been half as bad."

"There's a difference between protection and fighting efficiently. The iron just doesn't really account for my, uh, flexibility." Peter shifted uncomfortably.

Tony pinched the bridge of his nose in exasperation. "What about KAREN, huh? Why didn't she notify me the moment you were injured? Steve said they couldn't even track you."

"I didn't disable the tracker if that's what you're asking," Peter immediately denied. "As for KAREN, well... When we were fighting before we got pulled into space... When that giant space donut beamed me up... I don't know, I guess the elevation ray short-circuited the mainframe of both suits. KAREN's been offline ever since, and I'm guessing that my tracker also got fried."

Tony's annoyance began to bleed through, "And you didn't think that was important enough to mention?"

Peter flinched at the unabashed frustration in his mentor's voice, "I'm sorry, I didn't think..."

"Yeah and look how that ended up," Tony chided him. "I mean, you got lucky , kid. If you had passed out no one would've found you before your punctured lung killed you."

Peter felt a tear escape as he said, "I really am sorry."

Tony sighed, the anger visibly draining out of him. "Don't be... Just, you promised no more secrets."

Peter felt ashamed at that, "I know."

Tony waved it off, "Stop beating yourself up, okay? Your only task right now is to just rest up a bit more, alright?"

"Not much else I've been doing," Peter pointed out.

"Yeah, well, doctor's orders," Tony readjusted his transition lens.

"I don't even know if I can go back to sleep," Peter admitted.

"Is your head still bothering you?" Steve asked kindly.

Peter was about to deny the rapidly returning headache, but a warning look from Tony made him come clean. "A bit, yeah."

Tony nodded, "I'll go get someone to give you another round of painkillers."

"But they make me tired," Peter protested.

"That's the point, sleeping lets you heal," Tony chided as he left the room.

"You said you wouldn't call him," Peter closed his eyes, trying to bury himself deeper into the hospital bed.

"Thought you didn't remember anything," Steve studied him with a curious look.

"I remember that much," Peter shot back, but there was no heat behind the words.

"What did you want us to do Peter?" Steve asked. "Tony deserved to know. He's also the only one who could figure out why we couldn't find you when you needed us."

Peter felt like an absolute dick when it was put that way. "Oh."

Steve sighed, leaning back in his chair. "For what it's worth, he came in a heartbeat."

Peter wanted to believe that, but he remembered what Bucky had said when he woke up the first time. Before he could say anything else, a nurse walked him to give him another dose of painkillers. Within minutes, he drifted back off into unconsciousness.

Was it good? Was it bad? Feel free to let me know!