Silence

Twelve

Clint took us home after my shift ended. It was silent, my head was swimming. Natasha looked extremely happy yet disturbed as well. Did they find something in Sage's file that I don't know about? Would it be wrong to ask?

I entered the compound and circled to the kitchen, hungry. "Are you going out on patrol?" Clint asked, leaning his back against the counter. "Yeah." I muttered, reaching up to grab the strawberries on the top shelf.

After eating, I retreated to my room where I proceeded to jump out of my window and start running to the city.

I must've ran a good five miles before I reached the outskirts of the city. "Good evening Peter." Karen greeted and I smiled against the mask. "Hey Karen, find anything out there?" I swung up to the nearest building and began working my way to Queens. "There's a jewelry shop robbery in Hell's Kitchen." I swung around and began heading west of my position. I reached the jewelry shop in no time. "Access point to your left." Karen told me and I ran for it, shimmying myself in through the ceiling shaft. I dropped down between a group four and I immediately shot a web into the eyes of two men. "Sorry boys, it's passed your bedtime." I kicked one of the men and punched the other. "You said Spiderman has been off for a few days!" One yelled and I started to round them up. "How was I supposed to know?" I rolled my eyes at their bickering and pulled them into a group. I began to web their feet together. "Police!" Two officers came in to the store and one began to shoot. "Woah!" I shouted and dodged a bullet. "Here are the perps." I slid over the group of men and the officers thanked me. "You're bleeding." One of them told me and waved toward the upper half of my body.

There is a hole entering my neck. "Karen is there an exit wound?" I clutched the wound. "Peter you have a bullet lodged in your trachea." I swallowed a panicked breath and began to walk out of the store. "Do you need us to call an ambulance?" An officer asked and I shook my head. "Karen are there any Avengers in the area?" I stumbled out onto the street and heard people talking. The blood had seeped out of my fingers and down my chest. "Steve, Bucky, Sam and the Maximoff twins are at a bar and restaurant in Queens." The directions came up on the left and I shot a web up to the building on that side.

I walked into the restaurant and walked to where I could see Steve. I came to a stop at their table and Steve immediately stood up. "P-What happened?" I pulled my hand away from my neck and blood spilled onto the floor. "Steve I don't see an exit wound." He pulled up the top of my mask and blood seeped out of the corner of my mouth. "His trachea." Bucky breathed and I coughed, blood coming up and into my throat. "Wanda call Clint. We need to get him to the nearest hospital." Pietro stopped him and picked me up. "I'll run him to the med bay, he won't survive being rushed into the hospital." I choked on blood and began to violently cough. "Go!" Steve urged and Pietro ran.

It took three minutes before Pietro and I arrived at the compound. He rushed me inside and started yelling. "PETER'S BEEN SHOT!" He yelled and ran me down to the med bay. I pulled off my mask and started to cough more, blood coming out of my mouth in waves. Bruce ran into the room and began shouting. Clint followed and his eyes widened. "Where was he shot?" Bruce questioned and I started to blink slowly. "Trachea." Bruce cursed and started to hook me up to machines. "WE'RE LOSING HIM!" He shouted and I heard several people starting to cry. I started to cough again and Bruce propped me up. "He's choking on his own blood. I don't see an exit wound." He cut the suit away from my neck and put a scalpel to the scarring area, where the bullet went in. "Pete this is going to hurt." He reached a pair of tweezers into the cut he made and I choked on an influx of blood. The room started to go black and I felt my body shaking. "I GOT IT!" Bruce called and the last thing I saw was him holding up a semi-intact bullet covered in my blood.

Clint
Peter slumped in the bed, his eyes closing and the heart monitor started beeping slowly. "Shit." Bruce breathed out and started to do chest compressions. "O negs in here?" He called over his shoulder and Sage rose their hand. I hadn't even noticed they came down here. Natasha pulled them into the room and she started to prep her kid for blood transfusion. "Ready for this?" Sage nodded and Natasha stuck the other tube and needle into Peter's arm. "Karen pull up tonight's footage." Tony ordered. The room grew dim and a display of footage came up on the wall in front of us. We watched as two officers burst in and one began to shoot. We heard the bullet enter Peter's body. "You're bleeding." The officer who shot Peter pointed out. That's when Peter started to panic. Karen told Peter of the nearest Avengers and he started to swing there.

Wanda, Steve, Sam and Bucky came in about ten minutes after the blood transfusion started. "I want to speak to the officer." I muttered and left the room.

Peter
It was all dark. I could hear beeping and muffled talking. "Peter?" That was clear. I looked around and spotted four dark figures. "Where am I?" I asked, my voice sounding as if I never had hearing aids. "You're dying." I dropped to my knees and shook my head. "Pete you need to go back. You aren't supposed to die this soon." One of the figures walked to me and the black melted to reveal Aunt May. "Peter listen, you're going to have a good life. Go back." She grabbed my hands, pulling me to my feet and she pushed me into the darkness.

"...it's stronger...seventy four..." I waited and the beeping became clearer. "Sage saved his life." I felt a weight on my chest lift and I gasped, sitting up quickly. I quickly opened my eyes and gasped for air. "Peter!" Someone rushed to my side and I started to cough. "What's going on?" Clint asked, his hand on my back. "He nearly died from choking. He's probably having trouble breathing." Bruce muttered, checking my vitals. "Okay Pete, I'm going to need you to strip off your suit and walk around a bit. I need to make sure that you have ample blood flow." I nodded and wheezed a bit. I slowly got out of the bed and peeled off my suit. I stumbled a bit when trying to walk, but I managed to feel my legs. "Okay, can you speak?"

I coughed and breathed in deeply. "I-I think so." My voice is coarser and deeper than normal and I could see Clint was worried by that. "That's normal, the bullet lodged itself in your trachea and just about shattered it. I unfortunately had to finish the job by getting the bullet out and your voice is probably not going to go back to normal." I nodded and felt my stomach sink. I shouldn't have been so reckless. "Can I go see Sage?" Both men nodded and I grabbed my suit before leaving the med bay in a long sleeve shirt I wear under the suit.

I make it back to my room and quickly change into a pair of sweats, stripping from the long sleeve shirt and throwing it away. The shirt was covered in blood and I know there is no way to get that out. Not even with a Tide pen.

I left and went out to the common room, playing with my fingers. "It was terrifying. He just came in, his hands wrapped around his throat. It wasn't until he removed his fingers that we saw what was really going on. If Pietro wasn't there, he probably would've died." I choked a bit on air and came around the wall. "Pete." Steve stood up and pulled me into a loose hug. "How are you feeling?" Sam threw a piece of popcorn at Steve. "He just got shot in the neck, I doubt he can talk right now." I pulled away from Steve and swallowed past the pain in my throat. "I'm o-Okay." My voice cracked and Steve's face dropped. "You're never going to get your voice back are you?" I shook my head and put a hand to my throat. I coughed and felt the scarring where the bullet entered.

"Where's Sage?" Natasha sat up and smiled softly. "They're working with a group of mute and deaf kids, teaching them sign language." I smiled slightly, proud of their dedication. "I'm going to go get ready for work." I muttered, checking the time. "Pete you just got shot!"