secret saviour ▹ peter parker

10] sleeping beauty

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It had been a week since the accident that occurred on the bridge during Noah and her mother's departure from Queens, with their new life plans in Philadelphia set out and ready to put into action.

Videos and images captured on mobile devices had gone viral across the internet, news articles reporting Spider-man to be a 'hero who saved a young girl from a car that threatened to tip into the water below'.
Though Spider-man didn't feel like a hero in the slightest. The only thoughts swirling through his naive and now damaged mind were ones of guilt and self hatred, how he 'failed Noah, he let her mother die'.

A funeral for Jackie McKenna was to be held three weeks from the date of her body's discovery, giving her daughter time to recover physically, not so much mentally.

The rays of comforting sun crept through the thin gap in the white cotton curtains, shining directly onto the hospital bed where Noah was resting, she was sent into her own private room.
The doctors had trouble finding a distinct problem with the girl who had passed out shortly after finding out her best friend's secret. They eventually found a chemical imbalance that had weakened the body from the impact of the truck.

The room was silent. The TV in the room hadn't yet been switched on during Noah's stay, and Noah herself had been unresponsive,  but still alive and doing better than she was on the day of the incident.

Cuts and bruises from the crash were still present on her skin, tracing all the way from her face down to just above her knees, a few little cuts dotted here and there from the shards of crystal glass that she had brushed upon when getting out of the car.

She lay completely still in the fresh linen sheets, one hand resting on her stomach and the other beside her, interlocked with the hand of another. Peter.

He'd been there for three days, only moving from her side to use the bathroom or get a drink. He'd hardly eaten anything, he couldn't bring himself to do so, he felt like it was all his fault. Though it wasn't.

"I'm so sorry." He tried to string an audible sentence together, but he choked on his tears and the words came out as barely a whisper.

"I wish- I wish I could've got there sooner, I wish I could've saved Jackie. I'd do anything to get her back for you, she was the only bit of your family left, and now she's gone too. And it's my fault that I didn't make an effort to convince her to stay. I didn't get there soon enough. I'm-" Peter cut himself off before breaking down into tears. He rested his head on the bed, hurrying his face in the sheets that collected his tears.

Minutes went by as Peter calmed, coming to the realisation that there was no point in crying about the past, it had already happened, there was no way he could reverse it. He had to accept it and look after Noah.

'What's going to happen to her?
Where's she going to go when she's discharged, will she go home?
Who will look after her at home? Her dad? No, that's not a good idea. Does he know what happened?
Does he wasn't to look after Noah anyway?
Can she stay with us? Aunt May will probably let her, she loves Noah. She can sleep in my bed, I could sleep on the floor.'

Peter's head began to swirl with thoughts and future plans for his best friend to help her out, but none of them fit together properly.

He just sat and stared, letting out a small sigh as silence overcame the room. He wasn't bored, he never was when he was with Noah, even when barely responsive. Noah looked peaceful as she slept, and Peter couldn't help but wonder what was going through her mind.

Shifting in his seat, Peter rose from the chair and leant over Noah, planting a kiss on her forehead before moving to sit back down. In that exact moment, Noah's eyes every so slowly drifted open between flutters. Her vision was nothing but blurred at first, taking it's time to adjust until Peter's shocked expression became clear.

"Oh-Oh shit, you're awake, wha- nurse!"

Peter, in a flush of embarrassment, began to call for the nurse to alert her that Noah was awake to distract from the fact that Noah was partially awake when he kissed her.

"No-No, don't... don't call for her. She knows."

"Wait, what?" Peter's brows furrowed in confusion, he turned back around to face Noah.

"She knows I'm awake, I've been awake for a while, the medication just makes me a bit dreary."

There was a moment of silence that fell over the room, Peter eventually broke it with a question.

"...So you've been awake this whole time?"

"Yes."

"And you've been able to hear everything I've been saying?"

"Yes."

"Shit." Peter cussed under his breath, causing Noah to let out a tired chuckle.

"I mean, I'm happy that you're awake, of course. How are you feeling, anyway?"

Noah sighed to herself.

"As well as you can feel after a car crash and... losing your mom."

Peter felt that. He felt it deep in his heart, as if he'd been stabbed. No matter how hard he tried, it would always be at the back of his mind.

"Noah, I'm so sor-"

"Stop blaming yourself, Peter, you do that too much, you've been saying it every single day this week! It's not your fault, please don't ever think it is."

Once again, the room fell silent as it did before. A nurse who patrolled the hallway strolled over to the open door of Noah's room.

"Ah! Noah, there's a man here to see you."

Noah furrowed her brows at the comment, looking from Peter, who was equally as confused, and back to the nurse.

"A man? You mean my dad? Tell him I don't want to see him and he can shove a beer can up his-"

"No, no, it's not your dad. He said he was friends with your mom. And um, Parker?"

The boy's head shot around to the door.

"Can you wait outside, please."

Peter looked back around, shrugging at Noah in a 'should I?' kind of way, receiving a nod from the girl.

Peter exited the room and walked down the hallway to a corner with a couple of comfy looking chairs. He could hear the echoey voices down the hallway, he recognised the male voice, he'd probably met the person before as he practically lived with Noah's family, considering them his own too.

Peering around the corner revealed the man, dressed in a black tuxedo talking to the nurse before entering the room. Peter only saw the back of his head, but knew that he'd met the man before.

Time began to pass so slowly that Peter fell asleep in the chair, his head tilted back and mouth wide open. Nurses didn't bother to disturb him whilst Noah was in conversation with the family friend. He just slept, the thoughts of Noah's well-being still swirling through his mind.

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