Chapter Text
one week earlier
Peter heard Tony's terrified scream and paused. What had happened? Was Tony hurt or was it someone else from the team? He wanted to run off, but Natasha held him back. "Stay here, Spidey!" she said firmly. "But I have to see him. What if he's hurt?" His voice shook and he was in danger of losing his rational thinking. "He's not alone, Spidey. I understand your concern, but you can't just run through a Hydra base without your head and mind. You would very likely be killed and that wouldn't do anyone any good," she said gently but firmly. "But I need to know what happened," he contradicted again. "That's why we have the comm Spidey."
As if on cue, Bucky's voice rang out through her earbuds. "Stark, what happened?" he wanted to know, but he got no answer. "Stark, damn it, what's wrong?" Bucky's voice became louder and they could hear deep concern in his voice. "Steve has been injured. He's unresponsive and losing a hell of a lot of blood, Stark is looking after him, but we have to get him out of here." It was Sam who answered Bucky and enlightened the team. "We should retreat! There are far too many of them and we're all battered," Clint almost shouted over the radio. "Barton is right. If we don't retreat now, we'll die," Bucky agreed. "Tony, what do you say?" Natasha wanted to know. "We pull out. We'll meet at the quinjet," Tony replied curtly.
It was only when they were all in the quinjet that Peter could see how bad things were for Steve. He dropped to his knees beside him and took the captain's hand. "You have to fight, please don't die," he murmured, adding in his mind that he was the closest thing to a father he had besides Tony.
The flight back to the tower had felt like an eternity and by the time they got there, a medical team was waiting to take care of Steve. Peter wanted to follow immediately, but Tony shook his head and Thor held him tight. "Let me go!" Peter shouted at him as he tried to free himself from Thor's grip, but the Asgardian god was stronger than he was. "Peter, you can't go after him. The doctors are looking after Steve, but you also have injuries that we have to take care of," Thor said, but Peter hardly listened to him, his fear for Steve was too great.
It was Natasha who had put an arm around his shoulder and accompanied him inside, and it was Bruce who bandaged his wounds. Loki tried to cheer Peter up with a few of his tricks, but it was no use. The boy just sat there and stared out of the window. Nevertheless, Loki didn't give up because he didn't want Peter to feel bad. So he projected an image of himself and then hid, only to scare Thor, who had just got Peter something to drink.
Thor was startled and cursed as the water sloshed out of the glass and landed on him. "By Odin! Loki, did you have to do that?" he wanted to know and Loki nodded before pointing at Peter, who actually laughed. When Thor saw this, he quickly forgave his brother. He fetched Peter a new glass of water and held it out to the boy.
The days passed, but Steve's condition hardly improved. Tony tried to be there for Peter as best he could, but it was harder than expected, because how could he cheer the boy up when he himself was afraid for Steve? He didn't know whether his boyfriend would survive.
Wanda noticed that Peter was alone and it bothered her that the brown-haired boy was so unwell. She decided to be there for him and listen to him. She knocked on his door and when she heard muffled sobs, she entered.
"Hey Petey, I wanted to check up on you," she said and sank down next to Peter on his bed before giving him a hug. "It's going to be okay Peter. Steve is strong, he'll make it," she assured him. "And what if he doesn't? What if he dies?" Peter wanted to know, panting. "I wouldn't survive losing him," he added. "' You would, Peter. You know what it's like to lose someone and so do I. It always feels like you can't survive it, but eventually you can move on, no matter how hard it seems. But we don't need to talk about that because we both know that Steve has survived worse."