May Parker had always been what people would call compassionate. It's what made her a great nurse and ultimately was the reason Benjamin Parker fell so hard for his wife again and again until his untimely demise. However, that same compassion could often lead to her making snappy decisions without really considering the consequences. Maybe that's where Peter got it from. She knew if her husband was there with her he'd have been on her side but what she'd done this time…
She's played the role of a mother long enough to know if she starts to freak out her kid will freak out. She'd seen it happen time and time again when Peter was little. When he'd have an asthma attack and misplaced his inhaler (which happened with alarming frequency) she'd start to panic and sure enough Peter would follow suit. She's gotten better at hiding that panic, she's happy to say but there were still times when it leaked out. Like say, when Peter came home bleeding from some particularly rough fight he found himself in.
She glanced over at the boy she found herself harboring at some cheap motel. He was far too skinny and looked lost as he picked helplessly at the hem of his jacket. "Hey, sweetie." It took him a moment to realize she was talking to him and it broke her heart a little more. "I'm going to make a phone call really quick, okay? You stay here."
The boy was quiet a moment and then gave her a sharp little nod. She got up and pulled the door open before stepping out to make her phone call.
"Aunt May, to what do I owe the pleasure? How's England?" It didn't take long at all for Tony Stark to answer her call which she could tell him how much she appreciated later.
"There's been a… development. I sort of need a favor." May stated, keeping her voice calm.
"And here I thought you just wanted to talk to me." Tony stated, his voice flippant and oddly charming. May frowned.
"Don't you have a fiance?" She asked.
"Pep and I have an understanding." Tony waved it off. "Anyway, what can I do for you Mrs Parker?" There's a sort of sad proudness in her heart as he refers to her as Mrs Parker, her mind drifting back to Ben and what he would do in this situation.
"I need you to help me smuggle someone into the country." She stated firmly.
-Eleven Hours Earlier-
May wouldn't have gone if Peter hadn't insisted. Plane tickets to the UK weren't cheap and rent was going to be tight so it made more sense logically that she stay home and send flowers to her grandmother's funeral. She remembered that her mom and grandma were often at odds with each other. Grandma didn't approve of May's dad and she really didn't approve of Ben when she found that Ben Parker barely had two pennies to rub together. May would have been fine not going to the funeral but Peter pleaded with her to go and at least take time to herself.
"A funeral's not a vacation, Peter." May had told him over breakfast that morning.
"Well, no. But it gives you an excuse to get away for a while?" Peter didn't let up. "C'mon May, you've been really stressed about… uh.. Everything and you could really use a break." He pressed. May let out a sigh and watched her nephew carefully.
"And if I leave for a few days, who's gonna look after you? I can't just leave you home alone like that." She countered. Peter just shrugged it off.
"I'll stay at Ned's. It's only for a few days and you deserve this." he insisted and then paused. "Well, not to… go to a funeral but you know what I mean."
Somehow, Peter had won the argument because several hours and contingency plans later May was disembarking the plane that brought her to London where she was to meet up with her cousins. She didn't remember much about them- she'd met them once when she was a teenager and if memory served, she hadn't been all that impressed. But once she'd been in touch with Vernon's wife the family had agreed to put her up for a few days. At least she wouldn't have to pay for a hotel.
"May?" A big beefy man with very little neck greeted her where a woman that looked very similar to the man was standing nearby with a small bulldog in a pet carrier. May assumed this was probably her cousin Marge. Neither of her cousin's looked what one would call healthy with their near purple complexion and she fought the urge to fuss over them.
"Yes." She nodded, moving forward to shake the man's hand. "I'm sorry about Grandma." She stated solemnly. "But thank you for putting up with me for a few days."
"Nonsense, you're family." Vernon assured her in a tone that felt very shallow but she supposed if he didn't want her to stay with him and his family he wouldn't have agreed to let her stay. "Is this everything?" He glanced down at May's bag, just a small overhead bag that looked tiny in comparison to Marge's large suitcase. She suddenly felt a little subconscious.
"Yeah." She nodded. "I'm only here for a few days-there's a teenager I have to get back too." She stated, hiding her discomfort as best as she could. Clearly, her cousin's had done well for themselves.
"Oh?" Vernon asked in a way that was clearly asking why this teenager didn't come along. In truth, it was because the ticket would be far too much for her to afford but she wasn't going to tell him that.
"He's staying with a friend." She started calmly. "They have a summer assignment to work on for school." Vernon seemed to buy it and nodded in agreement. That awkward encounter over with, he ushered them out of the airport and into his car. The drive back to Vernon's house was filled with Vernon and Marge catching up. They would every so often make an attempt to include May in the conversation but didn't have much in common and May opted to just let them converse amongst themselves. While they talked she pulled her phone out to text a quick message to Peter.
Me: Made it to London safely! Hope you're staying out of trouble!
She's not too surprised when she sees a little text bubble pop up to show Peter was responding.
Me: Why are you typing, aren't you supposed to be asleep?
The bubble disappeared and then reappeared before-
Peter: i was worried.
May felt guilt curl into her stomach. She should have known Peter would worry like that. After what happened to his parents she really should have seen this coming. However, she knew if he caught on that she was feeling guilty it would turn into a whole things between them and Peter needed to sleep.
Me: I'm fine. Get some sleep and learn to use capital letters.
Peter: never.
Peter: goodnight May, love you.
May couldn't help but smile gently at her phone and stored it away after sending a quick 'Love you, too. Now get to bed.' back. She'd check in with him later when it wasn't five in the morning in New York.
May is sure that if Peter had come with her he'd have made a joke about the stepford wives or pleasant view when they turned on to Private Drive. Actually, once they were parked in the driveway of number four, May snapped a picture to show Peter later since he'd no doubt get a kick out of all the houses looking eerily alike.
The front door opened to reveal a small boy with hair messier than Peter's and bright green eyes behind poorly held together glasses. He was in clothes several sizes too big and May shot a suspicious glance towards her cousin.
"Where's my Dudders? Where's my Neffy-poo?" Marge asked, ignoring the presence of the teenager right in front of her. Was the boy a teenager? He might have been twelve or eleven. There was a noise inside the house as a rather large boy-alarmingly large boy in a bowtie came down the hall to greet his aunt. Marge thrust her suitcase into the scrawny boy and May acted before she could think, moving to help the clearly underweight kid with the suitcase. She could tell by the shocked look he gave her that he wasn't expecting help.
"Here, let me help you set it down." She said kindly. The boy nodded and with May's help, set the suitcase down. "I'm May, Vernon's cousin." She introduced herself.
"I'm Harry, his nephew." The boy stated.
"It's nice to meet you, Harry." She stated. Harry looked confused and May tried not to assume ill of her cousin. She didn't really know him, maybe she was misreading the situation.
"Petunia!" Marge cried, hurrying over to greet Vernon's wife.
"Marge!" Petunia greeted, embracing the woman as Marge planted a kiss on Petunia's boney cheek. "And you must be May!" The boney woman turned her sights on the woman. May felt extremely out of place but maintained her composure.
"Yes, May Parker." She introduced, taking Petunia's hand.
"Wonderful, good of you to come visit. Has Vernon told you about our son, Dudley?" She gestured to the large boy that had somehow gotten ahold of a twenty pound note. Dudley looked up at the sound of his name and looked May over.
"Nice to meet you." He said with practiced politeness.
"Yes, you as well." May nodded.
"Let's all go to the kitchen for some tea." Petunia decided. Marge mentioned her dog, Ripper, as his name was, could drink out of her saucer and May wasn't so sure a dog should be drinking tea. The Dursley's all shuffled into the kitchen and May stayed back to let out a breath. She then noticed Harry was still behind, like he'd been forgotten.
"You can go to the kitchen if you want. I can get your bags." Harry stated. May shook her head at the offer and grabbed the large suitcase.
"Don't be silly Harry, if you fall carrying this up the steps you could really hurt yourself." She told him. Harry didn't argue and just moved to help her get the suitcase to the spare room. They went back to the kitchen together and the Dursleys were visiting amongst themselves, Ripper licking happily away at the tea he'd been given. Upon noticing the newcomers he let out a low growl and Marge turned eyes on Harry. May felt the need to push him behind her.
"You're still here, are you?" Marge asked.
"Yes." Harry responded before May could process the tone of complete dislike the woman clearly had for the boy.
"Don't you say 'yes' in that ungrateful tone." Marge growled at him. Were Petunia and Vernon just going to let this happen? "Damn good of Vernon and Petunia to keep you. Wouldn't have done it myself, you'd have gone straight to an orphanage if you'd been dropped on my doorstep."
The words were so cold, and so harsh that it took them a second to register what her cousin had just said. She felt her own blood boiling up and stepped in a little to shield the boy.
"I really hope you weren't serious." May said sharply, eyes narrowing. Vernon and Petunia looked nervously at each other and then at Marge and May who were now glaring at each other.
"You don't know the story with this one, May. Ungrateful little brat that got left to Vernon and and Petunia after his parents-" May held her hand up to silence the woman, all eyes on her now.
"I really don't want to hear your excuses for bullying a kid Marge. You can try and justify it however you want but you're bullying a child." She said icily. She had words for Vernon and Petunia for just sitting there and letting it happen but her thoughts were derailed when Vernon opted to change the subject.
"So, May, you said you're from New York?" May wanted to press the issue harder but if she lost her temper and yelled at her cousins now it was going to make for a very awkward next few days.
"Queens." She corrects, allowing the subject change. Things seemed to settle down and she told her estranged family a little about her life back home. She didn't mention Peter as she didn't want them asking about him and thinking her precious ray of sunshine was some kind of leach. After a while, May let out an involuntary yawn as jet lag hit her full force.
"Why don't you lie down for a while, May?" Petunia suggested. "You must be exhausted from your flight." Against her better judgment, May agreed that she probably needed some sleep.
She woke up to the sound of glass shattering and pushed herself up from the sofa she was borrowing. "Peter?" She started to call out but then remembered where she was, hurrying to the kitchen where there was an almost shocked silence.
"Marge!" Petunia broke it. "Marge, are you alright?"
"Must have squeezed it too tight." Marge assured her sister in law. May was moving into the room and keeping an eye out for injuries.
"No need to fuss, I've a very firm grip." Marge was insisting. Sometimes, May hated being cursed with medical knowledge as most of the time people didn't think about potential disasters from mundane accidents that happened every day.
"Let me look you over just in case." May insisted. "I'm a nurse."
"Well, alright." Marge agreed and May moved to look her hand over for potential injuries while Marge gave Harry, who looked like he wanted to leave the room as quickly as possible, a stern glare. He moved to clean up the glass.
"No." May stopped him. "I appreciate you wanting to help sweetie, but I don't want you hurting yourself."
"It's.. really okay, I help with this sort of thing all the time." Harry tried to assure her but May wouldn't hear of it. It also irked her that her relatives allowed that when it looked like their son had never done a chore in his life. She was half tempted to cut the whole trip short and just take Harry back to Queens with her. It didn't seem like her cousin would care if she did.
She sucked in a breath and focused her attention on checking Marge over. She can't afford another kid, she told herself. There was no way she could take on another one.
She was going to have to take on another one. It was going to be a tight squeeze on their budget but May's mind was almost made up-was made up. She could not in good conscience leave this boy here to be neglected and picked on. Somehow, Marge had managed to start talking about healthy sized men and told Dudley he'd be one. May didn't agree, neither Harry nor Dudley looked anything close to healthy in her opinion.
Then Marge was talking about having the runt of the litter drowned and she lost it. She couldn't help but imagine Peter at five years old, suffering from severe asthma and heart broken when his parents left on their business trip.
"Are you saying they should have drowned him?" She demanded, voice tight with anger. She felt all eyes on her again, a stunned silence falling over the room.
"Of course that's not what I'm saying." Marge countered.
"May, please don't make things awkward." Petunia voiced. May turned to snap at her but Marge was ranting again, clearly she'd had far too much wine.
"I'm just saying, bad genes persist and you have to act. His parents died in a car crash, likely drunk and-"
"Enough." May interrupted.
"That's a lie!" Harry snapped at the same time. He must have finally had enough of being bullied by this woman. No one else was coming to Harry's aid, everyone just looking on awkwardly. "They didn't die in a car crash." He was on his feet.
"They died in a car crash and left you to be a burden on-" Whatever she was going to say, May didn't hear as all she could see was red. All she could think about was someone telling Peter he was a burden on is relatives and how he'd take it and before she knew it she found her fist stinging a little and everyone staring at her in shock.
May Parker had just punched Marge Dursley, hard in the mouth. Yup, it was time to go.
"I'm leaving." She broke the silence. The stunned family nodded. "I'm taking Harry with me." She decided. Harry's eyes widened at this and he looked to his aunt and uncle for what to do.
"Take him." Dudley encouraged.
"You-" Vernon seemed to find his temper again. "You can't just-"
"I know Tony Stark." She threatened before she could stop herself. "Yes, I can." The Dursley's looked helplessly at the angry woman and then at Harry.
"Fine. Take him, but you'll be giving him back." Vernon said harshly. "And get out of my house, you can't come in here and punch my sister and expect me to be okay with it."
"You can't expect me not to punch someone telling a child they're a burden!" May snapped back.
"He is!" Vernon bellowed and May had to stop herself from punching him too.
"That's it." She turned to the stunned Harry. "You're coming with me." She told him. "I can't leave you here, you're clearly in danger."
"I-"
"No, don't defend them, get your stuff. We're leaving." She told him. Harry took a glance at his uncle and then fled out of the kitchen and up to his room.