Alarms were blaring everywhere, and a heavy leaden door slammed down to the room she was in with the three staff members. Her heart was racing. There had been four, but one of them laid in a crumpled pile in the corner after he'd gotten too close to her and she'd snapped his neck. They'd stabbed her, twice, in the shoulder, with something that was making her limbs feel heavy, and they'd gotten her into a corner of a room empty but for what looked like a stretcher. They'd pulled her away during class -Foliage and Foraging, they were learning about nettle- after a classmate had said something she couldn't even remember but it'd taken only moments before Katya'd had her on the floor, and she didn't know what she'd done but the girl wasn't getting up. That's when they'd stabbed her the first time, four burly men coming to grab each of her limbs and pull her away, and now she was stuck in this room and all she knew was that she was going to have to fight her way out or something- she didn't know what- bad was going to happen. Adrenaline and anxiety coursed through her veins as she scanned the three remaining men for their weaknesses- one of them had a posture that kept him leaning too far back, one of them relied heavily on his right leg, the other was less burly and more gangly and she knew she could snap his elbows in seconds-

"We're not here to hurt you," one of the man had said in Russian,, "It's just nap time, you'll be fine."

She'd heard of naptime before- she'd had naptime before- none of the other girls had to have naptime. They were all already six years old, none of them needed naps, so why did she?

What she didn't trust was the restraints - because she knew that's what they were, they did it before- the taller man held, and she dropped herself into a silat stance in case any of them advanced.

"Code Red, subject is still resisting" one of the men spoke into their radio, and the next thing she knew a dart had come out of somewhere and embedded itself into her neck, her limbs immediately falling useless. One of the burlier men wasted no time in scooping her up from where she'd apparently collapsed on the floor and laid her on the stretcher, where she tried her best to kick and scream and punch and wiggle and anything to stay out of the straps, but they got her, and they were stabbing her with something else again, and her vision was tunneling, and they were going to hurt her, she knew it, she didn't know how but she was laid out and she didn't like that, and she was screaming because she wansn't allowed to cry, but something seized her body, something electric, and she still couldn't move, but her mind was going muddy and putting thoughts together was like slogging through a bog, which they'd learned about last week in Geography and Terrain, and the last thing she knew was a man had a hand pressing down, hard, painfully, on her chest. She could feel naptime creeping up through her ears and her eyes grew hot, and wet, and she didn't want to go, she didn't, she hadn't meant any of it, but no matter how hard she bucked against the restraints- which they were still hurriedly putting on her, and she realized with horror that her limbs weren't doing what they were supposed to, no matter how hard her brain screamed at them for it, they were going to kill her or eat her or send her to the brain place where some of the older girls went and no one ever came out of the same-

That's when she'd woken with a start, and there were people in the room that she didn't recognize, and there were wires everywhere and she had to get out, get out now, they were going to send her back to naptime or worse, to the brain place-

But then someone was slapping her head and a voice filled her ears, a familiar one, Mr. Stark's, helping her reorient herself that she wasn't in the brain room, she was in New York, and the bad people were gone, and she wasn't six or eleven but fifteen, and then she heard Peter's voice and her body immediately relaxed, once it registered, and- everything was okay. She was okay. She still didn't like where she was, she still wanted to leave, but she was surrounded by people she loved and it was all going to be safe, and okay, and no one was going to hurt her.

Well, she was already hurting, her entire left side ached something terrible, but it wasn't hurting in a scary kind of way, just a familiar wounded way that she could handle She could feel a wad of tight bandages around her midsection and bicep, and that was fine, that meant she was going to get better, and that people were trying to help. So the hurt didn't hurt as much.

And then Tony made sure she knew exactly what had happened when she went under and that no one had done anything to her that wasn't okay. The time before her surgery was a bit muddled, and she didn't remember most of it- just a helicopter ride, and being wheeled into a big, loud machine, and then there was an IV in her arm and she started to feel like she was slipping under water, so she tried her best to swim to the surface but at least no one got hurt this time, as far as she knew- and she knew Tony would've told her if they had.

And then Peter had laid down next to her and even between the wires and the beeping and the stickers on her chest, she'd never felt more safe in her life.

When she woke up, though, he was gone. Her heart seized momentarily, and her thoughts were still kind of muddled through what she knew to be pain medication that she was getting through the IV on her arm, and she was still safe, and still okay, so that was okay.

The tracker on the bedside table beeped, and she immediately made to grab it, missed once, but got it the second time. Aneszka was moving out of her apartment, making her way down south a few blocks before entering a different building. Katya quickly googled the address on her phone, and found that it was a grocery store. So still seemingly normal.

If I see you again, I'll kill you.

The words didn't scare her as much as they probably should have. The fight hadn't been that bad- nothing she couldn't handle- but of course now here she was lying in a hospital bed and honestly so, so grateful that it was her and not Peter who was doing so. She'd do it a hundred times over, if she had to.

The nurse- or medical assistant, Katya wasn't sure what her title was exactly- came in with another glass of that thick milkshake type drink they'd given her before, which she thanked her for and started to sip at.

The nurse typed something into the laptop on the wheeled stand and asked, "So how are you feeling now?"

Aside from the aching tear in her side? "Better, I guess." She chugged the rest of the drink- that seemed to be the easiest way to get it down. "My-well, everything- hurts, but, you know, that's how it goes."

The nurse smiled to herself as she tapped away. "I'll be back in a little bit to hang you some more pain medication-" She glanced over the lid of the laptop and saw the empty glass. "Hey! Good job! That was fast."

There was a part of Katya that was frustrated by this infantilization but she tried to keep it to herself. "How long until I can eat bagels again?"

The nurse laughed. "Not too long. We're going to keep you on soft foods for now, but if you respond well, with some medication, you'll be back to eating your bagels soon."

Katya grinned at that, images of Peter waiting by the school with bodega bagels flashing through her mind. She loved him so much.

Katya could mildly hear the ding of an elevator and some commotion down the hallway. She sat up as best she could. "Is that-"

The nurse grinned. "Looks like your boyfriend's back." Katya's face reddened.

"I"m walking around the corner now, Ned, give me a second-" she heard him moments before she saw him, but soon Peter rounded the corner into her room, holding his phone out in front of him. He turned it to face her, waving at her with a grin from behind it, and she saw Ned's face fill the Facetime screen. "See, she's fine."

"Hi Ned!" Katya chimed. "Don't worry, I'm alive and everything. They only had to amputate a few limbs."

Peter laughed as Ned blubbered. "Don't say that! When you guys didn't show up to the Snowball I was like "Oh no is it the Vulture again?!" But then I remembered Operation Government Homework but I didn't get any directions for Guy In The Chair so I knew you were flying blind and-"

"Ned, take a breath, you're going to asphyxiate." Katya told him flatly.

The nurse, who had still been in the corner of the room, smirked as she collected Katya's now empty glass from her bedside tabletop before leaving the room.

Peter joined her on the bed, finagling the wires so he could prop himself up on one elbow and keep Ned in front of both of them.

"-And then Peter didn't answer any of my texts or phone calls and you didn't either and I knew you guys were dead-"

"Ned, we're fine." Peter stressed. Ned took a breath.

"Okay. Peter says you're at the Avengers Compound which is like so cool but also part of it's a hospital? Do you think I could come visit? I won't look at any Top Secret stuff I promise-"

Katya shrugged as best she could, sandwiched between Peter's shoulder and the pillowcase. "I can ask Tony. I don't see why not, but he's got his own stuff going on."

"Oh, that would be so cool-"

Peter snickered. "We'll let you know Ned, okay?" He glanced up at the nurse who was coming back in. "There's a nurse coming now so we'll call you later, okay?"

"Okay- glad to know you guys aren't dead."

"Very much not dead." Katya assured, as the nurse began to hang up another bag on the hook that held a full one of saline and a now empty one of the pain medication. Peter laughed again before hanging up.

The nurse gestured for Katya's arm so she could flush her IV before screwing in the new tube. The flush felt like a weird, cold sensation that traveled up her arm, but otherwise she couldn't feel a thing.

"This might make you feel a bit loopy and tired, but it'll help with your stitches," The nurse let her know. "Just try not to lean on them too much."

Peter and Katya adjusted themselves so her entire weight wasn't on her left side. Once the nurse left, Peter stroked her hair. "How're you doing?"

Katya grabbed his hand to squeeze it. "Better now that you're here."

His face lit up, and he sat up quickly, which made Katya wince. "Oh- shit, sorry- but I almost forgot- I brought you presents!"

"Presents?"

"Yeah, hold on, they're by the elevator-" He rushed out of the room, and came back lugging a potted plant in each arm and somehow balancing a bouquet of sunflowers in the crook of his elbow. Katya's face lit up.

"Presents!"

Peter laughed. "Yeah- when you get out of here I'm taking you to Home Depot, you'll love their nursery."

They spent the next half hour admiring the plants- Or, Katya did- and Peter somehow procured a vase to put the sunflowers in. They'd set the pots on the bedside tabletop so Katya could reach them better.

"This one's called a silver dollar plant, and it's a succulent so you don't need to water it too much-" pointed to the one with the almost vine-like structure and flat, circular leaves. "- And this is a Prayer plant, which I picked because of the colors, but it's a baby right now, it's gonna get pretty big so we'll need to repot it soon." The prayer plant was a gorgeous looking fern with bright, red veins and light green interior all framed by darker green edges. She stroked the plant like it was a housecat. Her brain was getting a bit fuzzy, which she figured was from the medication and wasn't a fan of, but the plants were so enthralling-

"They're beautiful, pauchok, I love them so much-"

His face tinged pink, but a grin split his face. "Where should we put them?"

Katya scooted the table to the side and made to sit up, because she wanted to stand, but the wires kept her down- she kept forgetting about them, stupid tubed octopuses. "I kind of want to keep them here so they can be close, but I know they're going to make me take them off. Maybe…." her eyes scanned the room for a suitable place. "One can go on the table over there, and this bigger one-" she gestured towards the Prayer plant-" we can leave on this but wheel it over there so I can see it, and if they need me to use the tray we can move it."

Peter nodded and relocated the plants as she'd directed, warmth filling her chest as she watched him move about the room. She did like just watching him- in the small moments, like in class during a test, or when he was fiddling with legos, or drinking water after a training session- it was just nice to have those quiet minutes with him.

"What?" He asked, standing up from adjusting the plant. She shook her head, feeling her face flush.

"Nothing. Just…you."