"She's going to be okay Mr. Parker. You got her here just in time."
Peter let out a sigh of relief before turning back to the nameless man in the white coat who looked so proud of himself and asking, "can I see her?"
"Yes, you can. She's in the ICU, but I'll take you up to her."
Peter nodded and followed the man into the elevator, his clammy palms clasped together as he watched the numbers go up slowly while they ascended. Despite going up, he could feel his stomach drop with each light flick indicating he was closer towards her.
'What's wrong with me? She's alive, I saved her. I should be relieved.'
But when the doors opened, everything went black for a brief moment.
Peter awoke with an anxious start, his body heaving with sweat and his cheeks wet from tears that were still lingering in his eyes. He tried to shake the anxious feeling and the pounding in his chest away, that 'it was just a dream', but he couldn't.
After all, he had been having the same dream for the last week where he had gotten May to a hospital in time and waiting for hours on end only for the nameless man to tell him that she was okay but being full of anxiety and dread in the elevator only for it to open into darkness and subsequently, his living nightmare.
But by now, Peter knew the rules. Get up, wipe the tears away and study as much as possible for his GED before he had to go to work and then go out as Spider-Man. He looked over at his clock, which read '9;45' before looking at the calendar and realized that it was a Thursday, meaning he had an hour before he had to start his walk to work in order to get there for the lunch rush.
He walked into the bathroom and wiped his face off before changing into his work uniform and his socks so he could slip on his shoes before leaving; after that, he grabbed a cup of the cheapest coffee he could afford and opened the textbook.
He had grown up in New York, so he was used to studying to the sound of the hustle and bustle in the background; what he wasn't used to, however, was the sound of a female scream passing by his window.
Peter didn't hesitate to spring from his desk and open the curtains; he had expected to see some sort of harassment, but when he saw a girl that had to be only a few years older than him in a jean jacket being chased by a horrific looking octopus thing with one eye.
If it wasn't thoroughly terrifying, he would have compared it to one of the monsters in that one live action Scooby Doo movie; but he shook the inevitable movie reference out of his mind and started to suit up.
That was, until he saw Doctor Strange fly past his window which made him freeze with one arm in the suit; he wasn't upset with Doctor Strange, after all, he had been the one to tell him to do the spell both times, he just did what he was asked.
But at the same time, Peter knew he couldn't go down there if he was fighting that alien thing; for one thing, he had a feeling that he would get mad at him for what had happened just a few months ago but for another, he knew it would just be too painful for him.
'I can't fight with Doctor Strange and have him not know me under the suit.'
He peeled the suit off and turned back to the textbook, his eyes scanning the pages slowly because his stomach was sick with worry about that girl; even if he couldn't bring himself to help, he still felt way too guilty about not saving her.
Peter forced himself to look out the window again because he wasn't absorbing any of the information on the pages and let out a sigh of relief when he saw the octopus laying dead in the street, followed by a gag when he noticed its eyeball was detached from its head.
When the nausea dissipated a few moments after he closed his curtains, he sat back down at his desk and read the page again.
It stuck better this time, but he was still focused on that girl and all he could do was hope that things went better for her then it did for him when he got mixed up with Stephen Strange.
