𝟏𝟎:𝟒𝟔𝐏𝐌 ➤ 𝘥𝘳𝘢𝘣𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘴

iii. hailee scott

word count: 1122

Hailee hammered away at her keyboard, the computer screen being the only light illuminating the room, attempting to get out a three page paper that was due the next day. With all the Nightweaver stuff, she'd completely forgotten it (she was still unable to grasp how Joy and Peter did it) and had to put off patrol. It made her feel uneasy for some reason, but Lovebug and Spiderman had done their nightly patrols just fine without her for so long, so tonight shouldn't have been any different.

Hour three into the essay, she heard a light tapping on her window. After the initial panic of "oh my god it's a fucking demon" she checked the time and realized it was 3 am and that patrol would have been over by then. So when she turned around and saw Spiderman at her window, she was overjoyed. Hailee really couldn't be away from this boy for more than a few hours apparently.

Getting up from the disorganized mess that was her desk, she walked over and unlatched the window, opening it so he could get in without so much as a second glance.

"Great! You're here! Listen,"

"Hailee." she was already mid-ramble and he was so quiet, she didn't hear a thing.

"This paper's due in exactly four hours and I've never been more confused." she leaned over the desk, typing some other big science word she really knew nothing about.

"Hailee."

"Oh! Yeah? Sorry I just rambled there, what's up?" she turned around just in time to see him stumble and almost fall. Thank god spider reflexes and speed existed.

"Peter? Peter, are you okay?" The blood that almost blended into his suit, only standing out up close (and that she could now feel it on her hands) told her that, no, he was not okay and she only got a groan in response. Hailee gently lowered them both to the ground against her bed so she could actually get whatever wound he acquired stitched up.

She frantically moved under her bed to grab the first-aid kit she'd shoved down there among all the mechanical bits and pieces for nights specifically like this one.

"What happened? Why did you come here alone? Where's Joy? You know what, you can tell me later, we need to get the suit off." Being calm was definitely not her most notable skill. It was nonexistent, really. So Hailee? Oh she was freaking out, in a complete panic. She should have been there she could have stopped this-

Calm down calm down. Help Peter first, freak out later.

But god was it hard to do when she got his mask off and he looked like he was in so much pain. Seeing the actual wound on his side helped even less.

"God, Pete. What happened out there?" working quickly, she got all the things she'd need to sanitize and stitch the wound, because while it certainly didn't look life threatening, she had absolutely no idea how long he'd had the cut, let alone how much blood he lost.

Luckily, she'd patched up Peter enough times (and herself, whenever she could) to be able to actually steady her hand to do what she needed to get done.

"This is going to hurt a lot. But you already know that."

She sat besides Peter, shaky hands running down her face. Hearing any sounds of pain (especially when those sounds were from her boyfriend) unsettled her. They were the worst sounds.

"Alright. Start talking."

"It was n-"

"Don't. You know I'll ask Joy about it and if she didn't know you got hurt? Not only will she tell me, but she'll beat you up for being an idiot." Hailee leaned against her bed "I'm finding out either way. And I think I deserve to know since you decided to show up at my window, rather than telling Joy to begin with."

He was quiet for a second. "How do you know I didn't tell Joy?"

"Because she wouldn't have let you come here alone. She also would have called me. You've gotten hurt enough for me to know how she'd react to it and just letting you bleed out? Not something she'd do." Peter being reckless was her least favorite thing, though she was one to talk. She'd gotten herself injured just as much and given Peter a scare or two but god his were so frequent.

".....It shouldn't have happened, really. A girl was getting mugged by a group of people, so naturally we tried to stop it."

"Let me guess, they fought back."

"They fought back." he sighed. "Long story short, one of them had a knife and got me pretty good. I didn't think it was that bad and it was already the end of patrol, so I figured I'd be fine not mentioning it to Joy and just come here. Which was," he paused "a bad decision I guess."

"You guess?! Peter it's the worse decision you could have made! You can't-" she sighed in frustration "you can't keep doing this! This is - what? The third time you've done this? One day, you're not going to make it here and you're gonna collapse somewhere out on the streets!" Maybe that's what worried her the most. He always made it out of any battle but if he kept doing stupid things like this? The smallest thing was going to kill him.

"But I didn't and I'm fine." Peter tried to reassure her, and it wasn't working very well.

"This time, yeah, but what about next time, Pete?"

"There won't be a next time." she assumed he picked up on her increasing level of stress and was trying to make up for it. "There won't be a next time. I'll tell Joy next time, alright." Some point during him talking, he'd grabbed her hand and it seemed to ground her. She squeezed it.

"Promise me right now. Promise me you'll tell Joy if I'm not there."

"I promise."

"Okay. Okay." letting out the first sigh of relief that night, she faced her body in his direction and layed her forehead on his shoulder.

He promised, and Hailee was going to hold him to that.

Author's Note

writing pailee angst is the only thing i'm decently good at (or at least it's the only thing i do). they take my entire heart.

maybe someday i'll explain the entirety of their story, nightweaver, steambug, and all, but today is not that day.

don't worry, not all these rambles will be hailee. while numerous are, there are tid bits of my own story that's in the process of creation. so look forward to that, i guess?