Subway Spider: Peter Parker Superfamily Story

Its Ok

Warning: mentions of torture and death/ child abuse
Natasha POV
They were all sitting outside of the med bay, anxiety rolling off of them in waves. Especially from Natasha and Bucky. That wasn't surprising considering they just learned that Peter thought of them as parental figures.

Bucky was pacing a hole in the floor- literally. Nat couldn't tell if Tony was more worried about Peter or the noticeable dent in the tile.

Natasha took her eyes off of Bucky's stomping feet when she heard a door open. Out came Bruce, lab coat on.

All of the team sat up straight as he walked closer, but their faces paled in unison as they saw just how much blood covered his clothes.

Steve jumped out of his seat and approached the doctor since he was the most put together Avenger. "Is he ok?"

Bruce sighed and took off his glasses, rubbing his eyes. Nat felt her heart drop at the action.

"Remember whenever Natasha was telling us about what they did to Peter when he was originally in one of their bases?" They all nodded, so he continued. "Apparently they used some of those torture methods again, including locking him in a freezer. This would cause a lot of issues in even a regular person, but considering Peter is just a child and has spider-like powers, it's even worse." He took a deep breath to keep away the green crawling up his neck. "It caused Peter to have multiple long lasting seizures that drastically affected his health because of his trouble thermo-regulating. That combined with his extreme blood loss has put him into a coma."

Tony and Stephen hugged each other, seeking comfort. Bucky, Steve, Sam, and Thor just froze in place. And Natasha looked more angry than anyone had ever seen her in their lives.

"Will- will he wake up?" Tony risked asking, keeping his voice quiet so that no one could hear it crack.

Bruce looked at them solemnly. "There's only about a 20% chance of him coming to. If he shows no signs of waking over the next month or so we'll have no choice other than to take him off of life support."

Bucky cracked. He lunged at the doctor, not getting far before Sam and Steve grabbed hold of his arms and dragged him back. "You can't do that! That's my kid, you can't do that to him! You can't you can't you can't," he kept mumbling tears running down his flushed face in a never ending stream.

Nat ignored the commotion and used her spy skills to sneak into Peter's hospital room. Closing the door behind her after making sure no staff members were in the room, she sat in a stiff plastic chair beside his bed.

"Hey, my little spider monkey," she started, cringing at how her voice cracked. "I don't know if you can hear me but I need to say this before everyone else barges in."

Natasha took in a deep breath and fought back the tears pooling in her eyes before she started. "I never told you this Petey, but I can't have kids. I went through some bad things when I was younger and it lead to me not being able to have a family of my own. But the minute I saw you, my little паук обезьяна, all of that went away. I felt a connection to you like you were my own from the very beginning. And I truly do love you Peter, I love you like a son."

By now the Black Widow couldn't control the small sobs escaping her lips and the fat tears trailing down her cheeks. And it only got worse as she reached the next part of her little speech.

"And as someone who loves you, Peter, I want to give you permission to leave."

A loud sob escaped Nat's lips. She hated this. She hated that the world had been so cruel to Peter, to her baby, to her son. She hated Hydra for hurting him, she hated his real parents for dying on him, and she especially hated herself for letting them get to him again when she had promised that they would never hurt him again.

"You've been through too much, Peter, and I understand if you don't want to stay here anymore. I understand if you have too many bad memories on this Earth, if there are too many reminders of things that never should've happened to you. And I know you would say that you're a superhero, and superheroes don't give up, but you have already done so much for us, my little spider monkey. You got Tony to eat regularly, you got Bucky to smile more than once a week, and you got all of us to love you so much in such a short time," she hiccuped out.

Natasha took his little hand in both of hers, making sure not to disturb the many wires sticking out of his arms. She placed her forehead against their joined hands and choked out, "But Peter, I'm going to be selfish one time. One time in my life. If you can't decide what to do, if you're on the fence, please god stay with me. You're my baby boy, my son, my little spider monkey, and I can't lose anyone else without knowing they had no choice. I can't have anyone else ripped away from me unwillingly. I love you so much Peter, and I want you to stay with me so bad. I want to see you grow up. I want to see you on your fourth birthday and all the ones after it. I want to meet the first person you go on a date with. I want to see the smile on your face when you get your driver's license, when you graduate, when you get into college, when you get married. But this is your choice, Peter, and you shouldn't let my wishes get in the way. Just please remember all of the memories we could make that maybe, just maybe, could make the bad ones seem a little less bad."

Nat raised her teary eyes and traced her fingertips across his face, committing it to memory. And then she sat up straight, wiped her eyes, and started singing.

She sang every song she knew, every lullaby Peter loved, in every language she knew. She sang for hours, the Avengers secretly watching from the hall. And once her voice was raw from singing and crying, she simply ran her fingers through Peter's messy curls and pretended he was only asleep.