Take Care of My Heart

Chapter 19 - The Aftermath

Since her son's departure, Rio Morales spent the longest hours of her life glued to her little device that monitored his heart rate, the one given by their doctors, to make sure it didn't flatline or go into overdrive. Every second was torturous to the poor woman. She hardly ate or drank, but even when she did, she could barely taste anything. Every minute was spent in tearful prayer for her family to return in one piece.

The one instance that turned her insides out was when his heart spiked above one hundred beats per minute near dark, which was most recently. Her joints froze, waiting for the worst while hoping for the best... it felt like her building was about to come down on her... but even when his heart settled after about a minute, it did very little to stoke her dwindling sanity, for this had happened more than a few times throughout the day already.

When her phone rang, she held her breath hesitantly before picking it up.

"Hey, honey!" spoke Jeff through the phone; his tone was spirited.

"Mi amor?" she answered, her voice cracking.

"We're on our way home! Miles is with me... he's okay!"

"Hi, mom!"

"Oh, ¡gracias a Dios!" As soon as she heard her baby's voice, Rio collapsed to her knees sobbing, relief washing over like a warm shower. "You're alive!"

"Si, ma!" Even through the phone, Miles sounded hurt and fatigued.

"Are you okay, baby?"

"Yeah..."

There was a pause before her husband took back over. "We'll see you home, okay?"

"Okay." she nodded, clutching her phone with both hands, before he hung up.

Getting up off the floor, Rio took her first real breath that night, as if she had been underwater for all that time. The knot in her chest and stomach loosened, her lungs freed from their iron entrapment at last.

*****

Soon enough, Jefferson arrived home with Peter B. Parker, who had changed out of his costume to avoid drawing suspicion from the neighbors. Embracing her husband, she checked past him with a raised eyebrow, wondering why she couldn't see her son anywhere, until he and his Earth 42 counterpart uncloaked in the middle of her living room, one supporting the other on his shoulder.

"Thanks... other me... but you didn't have to carry me all this way."

"I'm fine, hermano. I'm not gonna die from a broken arm."

Miles smirked at his Prowler variant. "I don't know as much Spanish as you... but I think you just called me brother."

"Si."

With one hand, Miles G. Morales lowered his Spider twin onto the couch where he slumped against the cushion, exhausted beyond belief. Rio came around, intending to treat their injuries, when she recoiled at the sight of the former's broken arm, her hands muffling her gasp.

G could only chuckle at her reaction, which she didn't appreciate at all. "It... doesn't feel as bad as it looks..." he commented, waving the detached limb, and then wincing. "... unless I do that."

"Then don't do that, idiota!" She held her hips with a bold-lined scowl, then motioned him to come over. "Come, let me put that in a cast." Grabbing his good hand, she dragged him off like a naughty child. Miles pointed and laughed until his mother shot him a warning finger. "Don't make me use the chancla!"

That shut him up right away.

Shortly after, his dad treated his son's facial injuries before taking him into his room, Peter in tow, to help him out of his sticky spandex suit, which would have otherwise taken longer to do on his own for obvious reasons.