Mistrust || Peter Parker

Seven

Peter's first therapy session went better than expected.

Sam Wilson was the one who recommended the therapist. Her name was Jordan Patterson and she supposedly specialized in child psychology as well as areas of PTSD. It was decided that they would have their sessions in the living room of the lake house, since Peter wasn't allowed to be seen in public yet.

During their sessions, everyone else had chosen to either hide upstairs or leave the house completely, keeping the area vacant for Peter and the therapist. He wished they didn't however. He debated asking May to stay downstairs with him so he didn't feel as uncomfortable around the new stranger.

Said stranger was sitting directly across from him at the moment.

"It's nice to finally meet you, Peter, I've heard quite a lot about you these past few weeks."

"It's nice to meet you too, Ms. Patterson" he said out of respect.

"You can just call me Jordan, no need for the formalities. Why don't you get yourself comfortable before we begin." She eyed the way he was sitting, posture impeccably straight and shoulders rigid. Peter took a deep breath and forced himself to sit back, relaxing his tense muscles.

Jordan kindly smiled. "Wanna tell me a little bit about yourself?"

"Oh" Peter blanked, not knowing where to start. "Well um, I'm Peter... Parker- Peter Parker. I'm seventeen years old. I live in Queens with my aunt. I'm uh... Spiderman?"

Jordan raised an eyebrow at that. "Are you asking me or telling me?"

"I'm Spiderman." Peter tried to say it more confidently. He opened his mouth to share more but he didn't know what else to add. "I'm sorry, I don't really know what to say."

"There's no need to apologize. You can say whatever you want, remember that you have complete control of how these sessions go. I'm just here to listen and offer my advice."

"I've never done therapy before..."

"And that's totally okay, a lot of people get nervous during their first therapy session." Peter simply nodded, and after an awkward beat of silence, Jordan continued. "You said you have an aunt, are the two of you close?" At the mention of May, Peter began to perk up.

"We're the closest, she's the best person you'll ever meet."

"And she knew about Spiderman before everything was broadcasted?"

"Yeah... she wasn't too happy about it at first but she eventually learned to accept it."

They continued to talk about relatively mundane topics. He shared his school life with MJ and Ned, his hobbies and interests specifically in science, as well as a few funny and light hearted stories as Spiderman. By the end of the session, it felt as if he were talking to more of a friend than a therapist.

"Alright, it looks like that's all the time we have for today."

They didn't talk about anything regarding the nightmares he's been having. Peter's confusion must have been clearly written on his face because Jordan was quick to explain.

"Today I just wanted to get a feel for who you are as a person. Next session will be more like what you were probably anticipating."

That knowledge did nothing to calm his nerves.

~ ~ ~

Peter's second therapy session was as expected, an absolute mess.

"Why don't you tell me about Tony Stark." Peter turned his attention back to Jordan at the mention of Tony, not realizing he was distracted to begin with. He only had three hours of sleep last night and it was starting to catch up to him.