𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 [𝐩𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐫]

𝐄𝐩𝐢𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐮𝐞

Time passed as it always did. Soon Madison was cleared to leave the hospital and she set back out into the world. The first thing she did was go eat cheeseburgers with her father and then she had spent a week catching up with everything and everyone she had missed in that horrid month that she was gone.

No one ever spoke of that month. Madison wanted to forget it completely. She wanted to forget that she ever had a real mother. In her mind the only person she had ever seen as a mother was Pepper. And she spent her time with her, helping her plan the wedding.

She also spent time with Peter, Ned, and Michelle. Madison wanted to spend time with them. She had missed her girl talks with Michelle. She missed building things with Ned and Peter. And she missed her movie nights with Peter the most.

Madison always found the way Peter looked at her to be weird. It was as if he always wanted to tell her something but he just couldn't. And there was a certain feeling in his eyes that Madison couldn't place. But she soon learned to ignore it because she thought it was just the fact that she was back.

The story she had told everyone was that she was in a lab accident. An explosion had went off from an experiment gone wrong. The only people who knew the truth were Tony, Peter, Pepper, Rhodey, May, and Ned. They didn't know every detail. Only Madison knew everything that had happened within that time.

She also had a large scar now. It ran across her stomach and she couldn't remember how she got it. The doctors had explained to her that they had to do surgery on her and that's where it came from. But she now felt really self conscious about it and during her time back she had gotten rid of all items that would expose her scar.

Madison wanted to cover up the fully reminder of what happened. She thought it made her ugly and made her seem broken. And she never wanted anyone to see it. So she kept the fact of the scar to herself. And the only other person who knew was her father. And he swore up and down never to mention it.

Everything was slowly getting back to normal. Madison had the rest of the summer to heal. And she was healing. Sure she would have nightmares, but she had those way before Nemesis. Those were something that had been going on for years, it was kind of a normalization thing for Madison. Yeah she hated them, but she never had nightmare while she was gone. It was always dreamless sleep from passing out due to pain.

And then Madison spent the summer learning how to control her new ability. She found out that she couldn't just connect to people and feel their emotions. She could also feel what was going on physically. It wasn't anything big, but it was a new ability. And even though she gained it the same way she had her others, she still chose to master it and use it.

She also found comfort in cooking. Madison would cook with May whenever she could, and even though both of them were horrible at cooking, they enjoyed the bonding time and it brought them closer together than they were before.

After summer ended, Madison decided to head back to school. By then people had heard about the cover up story and she had many people asking her questions. Madison always gave the same answer and gave it with a smile.

She began her classed and was happy to see that she had almost all of her classes with Peter, Ned, and Michelle this year. It made her happy that she didn't have class alone. And she managed to get all of they classes that she wanted.

Madison started to feel less and less numb, and she returned to full health in no time. Everyone helped her through it. Tony and even suggested therapy, but Madison instantly shut down the idea. Throughout everything in her life, Madison had never gone to therapy. And she wasn't about to start now. Her father had never been to therapy, and neither would she.

However, even though she hated talking about it, there were times where she would shed the tiniest bit of light to Peter. It would always be when it was really late and they were watching movies. Madison would be tired and never really have control of her words. So she would say a small comment about how she was glad to be back, or she would make a stupid and sly joke whenever it showed that a person was being kidnapped.

The world did look slightly different to Madison. She would take more time with things, and appreciate all the small things. Instead of getting mad, Madison would now smile whenever something in the lab went wrong. She knew that there were second chances.

She also put a lot of work into the lab now. Madison and Tony would spend a lot of time working on new suits for themselves and for Peter and Rhodey. Madison wanted everyone to be even more safe, and Madison understood what her father went through now. She understood why he had constantly built suits. And now she was doing the same.

Madison also listened to music a lot more and started to record and document everything. She had a mindset of one day anyone might die, and it will suck, but she will have memories of them that she can look back on through a video or picture. She did this as she lived in the moment.

Healing came in many forms for her, and she was becoming less and less numb as the days passed. However, there was still a slight ache in Madison's heart and mind. She was missing something, and Madison knew that it had to do with Peter, even if she couldn't exactly figure out what it was. She just believed that it would come back to her one day, and for now she would just enjoy everything.