T̷̨͐͌h̴͍́͜e̶̼̩͊ ̷̯̬̏M̵͔̜̉u̵̺͈̽͒ẗ̵̪́̈e̵̙͗̍

P̸̟̔a̶̜͛r̶̤̈t̵̻̄ ̷̡̄1̷̭̏6̴̬͑

TRIGGER WARNING: this chapter may be triggering to some readers.

          Spencer was trying and succeeding at avoiding any sort of conversation with Tony. He tried to ask her about... obvious things, but she brushed him off and used her wheelchair to escape the room.

          She went down to her part of the lab and started to do blood tests and came up with several hypotheses about if she would develop new abilities. She was injected with something which she designed to kill whoever used it, and yet she survived.

          And was stuck with a needle of electricity in her arm.

            That was her top priority. Spencer hates needles and didn't want to live her life with one in her arm. Thanks to Cho's experiment she knew that she could draw power from any power source, but nothing was unlimited.

            But maybe there was something she could try.

            She hated the idea, mostly because of where she got it from, but she didn't have much of a choice. The idea was simple and didn't require a lot of thinking. The technology had already been invented and all she had to do was micro compress it. Nothing too hard.

            But, again, she hated it.
            Why?
            Because she had to create an arc reactor.
            Just.
            Like.
            Him.

˘·˘

            Peter Parker totally wasn't freaking out. Nope. No way. He totally didn't spend the first few days of Spencer's disappearance out as Spiderman without a wink of sleep, and his Aunt totally didn't demand that he stop. Nope. And he definitely didn't do it anyway.

            He didn't blame himself for what happened. He never once thought that Spencer was going to die and it would be his fault. He didn't almost contemplate ending it all because he had done the same for her. He didn't hurt himself intentionally when he let his thoughts get to him. His aunt never caught him on his bathroom floor crying, with blood seeping from the cuts he had created.

            He also didn't have a panic attack when the Avengers found her, because he was Spiderman and he doesn't do that. And there's no way he didn't skip a majority of his classes begging Mr. Stark to let him see Spencer. Don't even think that he passed out when the billionaire said that she had been injected with a serum that could potentially kill her. He also didn't shut down and cry himself to sleep because he didn't want to lose her.

            Ned didn't beg him to sleep or even try to calm down. He didn't get mad when his teachers said that he was failing his classes.

            No way.

            Because Peter Parker hadn't fallen in love with Spencer. The girl who's eyes made him feel weak in the knees. The girl who had effortlessly discovered his identity and brushed it off as an everyday thing then gave him answers to a test that he knew he was going to fail. The girl who was so beautiful that he felt like an angel stood before him and had blessed him with eternal life through love.

            The girl that stole his heart and kept it under lock and key in her closet, hidden where no one else could ever find it. He left like he had been suffocating and Spencer was what made him breath again. Like the whole universe and all it's answers had been laid out in front of him and all he could do was look at her.

            Because he totally didn't feel that way.
            Never.

            He didn't forget how to breathe some nights, and his dreams weren't plagued by the thought of her dying like oh so many people had done in his life. He didn't feel a washfall of relief wash over him when he got the call saying she was awake. That she was alive.

            And Peter Parker didn't almost have a heart attack when he heard she wanted to see him.

˘·˘

            Spencer takes a deep breath as she starts her craft on her arc reactor. Her mind started to wonder and her hands started to work on their own. Her anxiety about her father was still bubbling inside her, like a pot on a stove left unattended. Unpredictable and unstable. She knew that the slightest amount of heat to her pot could send the water spilling over the edge, creating a full on panic. A panic she really didn't want anyone to see because the walls she had built up over the years would come crashing down and her father would see just how weak and broken she was.

            Because he wasn't there for her.

            The only relief Spencer has had from her boiling pot of anxiety has ever gotten was from the breeze of cool air that Peter Parker gave her. Because he understood. What it was like to have to hide from everyone. To hide behind a facade. Not one like Spiderman or The Mute, but as normal people who are hurting. People try to see past their masks, but they hide it so well, that some people don't even notice it's there.

            Don't notice how broken they really are.

            Spencer needed to see him. She didn't care what the others thought. She needed him. Desperately. She needed to know that she wasn't dreaming and was still with HYDRA. She needed him to show her how to breathe again. To remind her that she can still carry on despite how much bad was going on in her life. How much she was hurting. Her heart ached for him so much it almost caused her physical pain.

            Now, Spencer hadn't felt any sort of love for anyone since her mother died. She'd forgotten what it felt like. The way loving someone made you feel like floating on air. She'd forgotten how to love because her heart was full of pain and sadness and anger for so long that she couldn't even begin to imagine what love felt like.

            Until he came crashing into her life. She was no longer on the cold, damp ground.
She was soaring.

            And for the first time in years Spencer knew what it felt like to love again.

˘·˘

            Tony walks over to the bar and the Avengers all turn to him. "How's she doing?" He doesn't answer as he takes a swig of whiskey. Natasha raises an eyebrow. "Has she said anything?" Tony shakes his head and pours another glass. "No, but Peter is visiting her later." Tony looks down at his glass of whiskey and frowns. Not enough. He grabs the whole bottle and walks over to the couch. They all look at him with pity.

            "What is she doing?" Tony sighs and points to the TV. FRIDAY changes it to the security footage to his lab. They all watch as she tinkers with a small disk like device. Tony frowns at it. "Is that...?" His suspicions are confirmed when FRIDAY zooms in on the device. It was indeed an arc reactor, but miniaturized and compressed. They watch in awe as the arc reactor flickers to life and Spencer admires it for a bit.

            "I guess she found that alternative she was looking for." Tony nods. He takes another swing from his bottle of whiskey and Natasha stands. She sntaches the bottle away from him and gives him a stern glare. "Spencer is hurt, Stark. Her whole life she'd known her father was a hero that was never there to save her." Tony opens his mouth to protest that he didn't know she existed, but Natasha beats him to the punch.

            "She doesn't care you didn't know." Tony looks down. "She may not admit it now, or ever, but she needs you." Tony's eyes start to sting. "She needs her father."

GETTING THINGS DONE!

I GOT MY Q&A OUT, THIS, AND I SHOULD HAVE THE NEXT CHAPTER OUT TONIGHT TOO.

LOTS OF FEELS AND FLUFF

BTW, SPENCER AND PETER'S SHIP NAME IS.....

✨SPENTARKER✨

ITS THE BEST I COULD COME UP WITH.