Trust Me

When she opened the door back out into the hall where numerous medical personnel passed by, not having a clue of her predicament, May put on her best act she could muster. She tried to truly believe she was a completely different person to save her life, from the way she walked to the way she thought. Hoping no one would recognize her face, she did her best to avoid eye contact by keeping her head low.

"You'll be fine," Natasha said through the phone May still held up to her. She didn't know how long she would be able to have her on the line, but she knew for certain she didn't want to hang up anytime soon. "Do everything I've said and you'll be fine."

Peter felt good that Natasha was being encouraging to his aunt rather than pushing her over the edge. It was a sort of vibe he didn't always get to see from her. But of course that didn't extinguish all of his worry entirely. May wasn't like either one of them. She didn't have enhanced reflexes to save herself in case of present danger. She didn't have world-class espionage skills to pull herself out of any situation. All she had was a kind heart and a will to protect her only child, and sadly even that wasn't enough.

"Alright," May wearily responded, trying to stay focused.

So far so good. She was passing by people she knew and had only seen working around, but neither of which recognized her or saw her as anything particularly unusual. It's as though she were just another visitor or patient. Good. No one was paying attention to her. She was keeping her cool up until the point when she saw two men wearing black jackets ahead. They just looked like trouble. Their presence gave off a negative energy alone. May knew she had to avoid them the best she could. But they were coming her direction. They hadn't seen her yet, but they would soon. If these men were after her, the hair and clothing wouldn't do much once they got a close look at her. Her face would be all the confirmation they needed.

The space between them went from 15 feet to 10 feet. As they continued stepping forward, the space grew smaller. The men's faces were searching about the halls, trying to find her. May thought of the only thing she could. Still holding the phone up to her ear, she spoke into the phone, making up a conversation with Natasha on the other line, in which she didn't use her actual name, whilst turning over as though she needed to fix something on the side of her jacket.

"Yeah, Anne, I was telling him to make sure not to leave it there so early," May said randomly, as her head turned away from the men.

She didn't even bother to look in the corner of her peripheral to see if they noticed her at all. Once she knew they passed, she kept on walking. All she needed was to reach the elevator and she would be out of here.

"May?" Natasha spoke, puzzled.

"I'm fine. I needed a distraction of some sort," May responded.

An ever so slight smirk grew in the corner of Natasha's mouth. "Ok. Good."

Natasha looked at Peter for a second, to still remind him that his aunt was fine by giving him the thumbs-up, then turned her attention back to May. May didn't see anymore suspicious characters pass her by, but she didn't let her guard down anymore. The elevator was just ahead. She walked just a little faster, but not so much to attract any attention.

"I'm almost at the elevator," she notified Natasha.

"Good…"

Pushing the button to go down once, she waited for the longest 10 seconds of her life. The doors open, and out came a few people. She smiled at them as they left and entered. Once again, she was the only one who seemed to be waiting. Relieved and feeling rather lucky, she stepped inside and pushed the button for the first floor, ready to leave this nightmare. Just as she thought she was the only one who would be taking a ride down, someone else stepped in. It was a man in a suit. She hadn't seen any other men in suits when she was walking by. This threw her off. She was just about to let Natasha know she was in the elevator before he came in. He didn't look dangerous, but the word suspicious still fit. He seemed polite and gave her a smile. She returned probably the weakest one she could muster. Natasha's voice came through her ear.

"Ms. Parker, are you at the elevator yet?" she asked.

"… Uh, yeah, Anne, I'm on my way," May replied.

Once the elevator doors closed, they were the only two inside. This made her too uneasy. Natasha had said something through the phone again, but that's when the reception started breaking up. Typical to happen in an elevator. This only added to the horror. If something happened, Natasha needed to hear. May lowered the phone down to her side, knowing it was no use.

Natasha kept talking, thinking May could still hear her.

"… and keep your head low as you can… Ms. Parker? Ms. Parker, are you there?"

Peter leaned in closer. She turned to him, and he gave her nonverbal cues through his face to ask what was happening, to which she shook her head and shrugged from the same wonder. She put the phone back to her hear, and listened again seeing if she missed anything May might have said, but got nothing.

"She's not answering," said Natasha.

"Why?" Peter asked more to himself than her.

"Ms. Parker, can you hear me? Ms. Parker?" She turned her attention to Peter again. "She might've lost her signal in the elevator."

"Probably," Peter said.

May stood uncomfortably with the man in the elevator with her, keeping her head down and tapping her hand against her leg impatiently.

"Lost your signal there?" the man asked. That really took her by surprise.

"Y- Yeah. Yeah, stupid elevators here always do that. Surprised no one ever figured that problem out," May responded.

"Exactly. The building I work at does that to me all the time. It annoys all of us back at work." The man laughed a little.

"Yeah," May smiled faintly.

They both looked straight ahead again. He seemed polite. He spoke with interest, and May could see that about him. Naturally she was drawn to this type of behavior and was fine with socializing with people. She was a "people person" after all. But she couldn't afford to be fooled like that. And it killed her to act so introverted.

She needed to get to the first floor, but there were a few other stops that needed to be made along the way. Thankfully, that meant more people would be on as well. That being said, that may not actually be the best thing for May. Maybe this man in the suit was just a regular man, maybe he wasn't, but who's to the say the people after her isn't on one of these other floors as well? Regardless, May was ready to fight with all she had, even if it wasn't much. The most she had was some pepper spray. That was good enough to make her feel somewhat secure. As another stop was made, three more women came in, clearly from the same family. One was an older woman, one about in her twenties, and another in about her late thirties or early forties. This made her feel a little easier. She took this time to try and get back to Natasha.

"Anne, can you hear me?" May said. "Hey, Anne? Hey, I'm in a elevator right now, the signal's really bad. Just hang on a sec."

Natasha heard only 12 percent of what she said, but she got the gist of it. Relief took over her.

"She's fine," she told Peter. He let out a sigh of relief.

"Thank God," he muttered.

It didn't help that there were more people around her now, but sweat began forming beneath May's pores from nervous tension. She needed to get to the first floor now. But there was still a few more stops to be made.

Natasha momentarily pulled away from the phone to where she could speak to Peter.

"There's something I think we need to do, but you're not gonna like it," Natasha said.

"Why? What is it?" Peter asked.

"… I've been thinking about it since the day this all happened. And I pushed the idea away because of how crazy it sounded, but…"

Natasha swallowed. If it was this hard to let out, then surely it was something heavy about to be said.

"What Natasha?" Peter said.

"… I told you I would get you out of this. I stand by that statement. And I'm going to do what needs to be done to make sure you and your aunt walk out of this alive. You know that, right?"

"Yes. Natasha what are you suggesting?"

"I'm saying… that the two of you can start a new life. It doesn't even have to be here, it can be anywhere, but a new life for the both of you will assure your safety."

Peter didn't understand exactly what she meant. "What do you mean a new life?"

Natasha was about to speak again, but then May's voice came through the phone.

"Ms. Parker?" she said.

"Anne, I'm almost on the first floor," she replied.

"… Good, good. Okay, listen very carefully, Ms. Parker. When you get to the elevator and back down to the first floor, I have an address I want you to go to, and I need you to trust me that you will stay there. It's safe, okay?"

Peter kept thinking about what Natasha had told him, not even paying attention to what she was telling his Aunt May just now. He could hardly think because of the relapse of losing his powers, but he tried really hard to figure out what it all meant. A new life? Somewhere else even? For both of them? For their safety?

"Find a taxi and tell them to take you there. Are you ready for the address?"

"Y- Yeah. Where am I going?"

"It's a closed off building I know. There are people there who will protect you and keep you safe. I need you to trust me, Ms. Parker. You will be safe there, and this will all go away."

May fell silent. Then before Natasha could tell her the address, she spoke up. "Let me talk to- " She cut herself off before she said his name out loud in public. "Let me talk to him really quick."

Natasha knew who she meant. She looked at him and handed her the phone. He grabbed it without hesitation.

"Aunt May?" he said.

The elevator doors opened, and she could finally speak freely as the people began to leave. Tears began forming in her eyes before she even spoke.

"Peter, I don't know what all is happening, but I need you to promise me you'll be safe."

"I will be. You will be, too."

"I love you."

"I love you, too."

Natasha let the moment sink in. This was the second time she witnessed this phenomenon. She'd seen someone say I love you to someone else many times before, but when Peter and his Aunt May said it, it wasn't the same. Something about it was just different to her. It made sense to her.

"Agent Romanoff is going to give you the address to go to now, okay?" Peter said.

"Okay," May said, tears streaming from her eyes at this point.

He handed the phone back to Natasha. She took the phone and looked at him for a moment, wanting him to be all right, even though that was a stupid thing to think.

"Ma'am?" Natasha said.

"I'm ready," May replied.