(for powerandresponsibility)

[thesefirststeps]

Rey didn't try to find trouble. That didn't mean that sometimes, trouble didn't find her first.

She had just finished a workout and was walking home from the gym when the sounds of a scuffle caught her attention, an elderly voice calling for someone - anyone - to help them. She didn't even think twice, just ran as fast as her tired legs could take her until the scene came into view.

Two men, struggling to pull a purse from some poor woman's shoulder. The woman was putting up a good fight, but Rey was afraid that the men would get rougher, would hurt their scrappy target. Rey mentally chided herself for not carrying something that could be used as a weapon, but didn't hesitate to approach, calling out a sharp 'hey!' to get their attention.

She'd take them on with her bare hands, as long as it meant the woman could make an escape. Maybe they'd take off, too, not wanting to attract any more attention than they already had.

Rey should have known she wouldn't be that lucky.

She put up an admirable fight, but the odds were always against her. One of the men landed a hard blow to her ribs (hard enough for her to feel a crack) just as the other grabbed her backpack, throwing her against a hard brick wall, hitting her head so hard that her vision swam.

Before she closed her eyes and did not open them again, she thought she saw a blur of red and blue swinging down like some sort of avenging angel.

Her last thought was - hey, it's our friendly neighborhood Spider-man.

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[powerandresponsibility]

Peter was actively looking for trouble. Of course, that was kind of the whole point of the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man gig. He liked that better than when trouble came actively looking for him. The trouble he found was usually in the form of small time hoodlums. The trouble that found him was in the form of angry crazy former best friends. Compared to that hoodlums were kind of cute.

Except when the hoodlums had already attacked someone and Peter was already too late to stop it. He knew that he couldn't be everywhere at once, he knew that he could stop every attack, he knew all too well that he didn't always arrive in time to save the day. He KNEW those things. But that didn't always help how he FELT about them.

So when he saw from a distance some thugs dressed in some silly white outfits brutally throw a girl against a brick wall he felt his blood boil and his stomach clench. Too late, too late, toolate...

"Hey!" he shouted, firing off a webline at the thug nearest to the girl and yanking him away. "How'd you like it if someone threw you against a brick wall?"

As Peter said that he swung the guy at a nearby wall, cushioning the man's impact with webbing and sticking him there. As angry as Peter was he knew that he couldn't lose control. It would be all too easy for him to hurt or kill someone if he ever let his anger get the best of him.

It was just as easy to take out the remaining guys which was good because Peter knew he needed to do it fast. The girl had taken a pretty bad knock and he needed to call and ambulance for her. One of the guys pulled a gun at him and Peter prepared to dodge but weirdly he didn't even feel his Spider-Sense go off. 10 feet away and the guy pulled the trigger twice and completely missed Peter.

"Seriously? You're that bad of a shot?" Peter asked, yanking the gun away with a web. 30 seconds later the gunman and the rest of the guys were all webbed up, ready to be picked up by the cops. It was until then that Peter turned his attention to the girl.

And he felt all the blood rush out of him.

"Rey!"

He didn't even care about the slip of Spider-Man knowing the name of some supposedly random girl. It felt like the world had dropped out of his feet for the split second he just STARED at her crumpled form and the blood coming from her head.

"No, no, no, no," he cried out as he rushed to her side, carefully scooping her up in his arms. Why did this happen? Why did this always happen to him? His parents. Uncle Ben. Gwen. Now Rey... it seemed like everyone around him always got hurt. All the guilt and grief he'd felt over all of that came rushing back at once and a voice inside his head told him this was his fault.

It didn't matter that she'd just been in the wrong place at the wrong time, it didn't matter that this had nothing to do with Spider-Man or Peter Parker, his entire being was telling him that this was his fault. It might as well have been him that threw her against the wall instead of some stupid gangster it a dumb white outfit.

"Come on, come on talk to me Rey. I'm so sorry but you gotta say something Rey. Please. I can't- I can't lose you too," he said, already feeling the tears well up in his mask. "Please... I'm gonna get you to the hospital just please be okay..."

[thesefirststeps]

Rey did not respond to Peter's pleading voice. She didn't hear him. Didn't even feel it as he gathered her in his arms and held her close. All she was aware of - if she was aware of anything at all - was darkness. All-encompassing and inescapable darkness.

In her subconscious, she tried to struggle toward the surface, where she knew there would be light, but something was holding her back.

In the arms of her best friend, her boyfriend, the love of her life, Rey was still and silent and dangerously pale. In the background, sirens quickly approached, alerted to the situation at hand by the little old woman that Rey had tried to keep from being mugged. She kept her distance, not wanting to disturb the pair, even though she wanted to ask if the girl was going to be okay.

The police arrived first, taking her aside to get a statement, the others immediately heading to retrieve the webbed criminals. One might've asked Peter what exactly had gone on here, but with as deep in his grief as he was, he might not have answered. The paramedics arrived and tried to gently extricate Rey from his arms, reassuring the hero that they would do the best they could to take care of her.

One intentionally let it slip just what hospital they were taking her to, because it really seemed to her that it was the right thing to do.

~

Rey came into consciousness slowly, one slow blink of her eyes at a time, metaphorically sweeping the darkness away. She couldn't quite remember what had happened, but knew it must not have been great if she was in so much pain - her head splitting, her ribs screaming if she moved just the right way.

At first, she didn't even know where she was, but the band on her wrist and the beeping machinery were enough of a hint that whatever had happened had put her in the hospital.

Her heart monitor suddenly started beeping erratically with the change in her own heartbeat. She couldn't exactly get up the way she wanted to, but Rey could look around the room, and didn't see Peter anywhere near.

Where was Peter? Had something happened to him, too? She needed to get up and find him. She couldn't move. Why did it hurt so damn much to move?

Something, somewhere in the room clattered to the floor loudly, but Rey paid no attention to it. That happened, sometimes, especially when she was particularly emotional. It could have been a nurse dropping something, though. It could have been anything. All Rey wanted was Peter.

"Peter - ?", she tried, her voice hoarse from disuse. "Peter!"

Another loud bang as something else toppled to the floor, but she hardly even noticed the noise, so focused on finding her partner, making sure he was okay.

[powerandresponsibility]

Peter had tried to get into the hospital to see Rey but apparently it was "family only" and "after visiting hours". Peter had tried to explain that she didn't have any family but that he was her boyfriend but apparently that wasn't good enough. Deep down he understood the rules and the reason but he also didn't care. He NEEDED to see Rey and he knew that if she woke up he needed to be there for her.

But just because Peter Parker couldn't get in didn't mean that Spider-Man couldn't. A quick costume change and his regular clothes thrown into his backpack and Peter was sneaking along the ceiling of the hospital toward Rey's room. Just as he was about to change he heard a clatter from her room and immediately rushed in. She was calling his name and squirming around and mask or no mask he couldn't NOT help her.

"Rey!" he called out, pulling up his mask as he moved over to her side. "Rey it's okay. It's me, it's Peter, I'm here. You're okay, you're in the hospital but you're going to be okay."

[thesefirststeps]

Hearing Peter's voice call out her name calmed her somewhat, but Rey was still desperate to get up and find him. Or just to sit up at all. Mostly, to go home where she felt safe and comfortable, where it was familiar, where she could recover from her ordeal - which she couldn't completely remember - with her boyfriend by her side.

She hated hospitals. How cold and impersonal they were. How sterile. God, she couldn't stand the thought of staying here longer than was absolutely necessary. She tried to get her emotions under control as she watched a water pitcher tip over before falling to the floor, but it was nearly impossible.

She was just so scared.

But then Peter appeared near the bed, and she could have wept with relief. He was there. Of course he would be. He'd never leave her to deal with the aftermath of the incident alone. At first, her vision so blurred with tears, she didn't notice that anything was amiss, just so grateful to hear him reassure her, to curl her fingers around his and hold on tight.

"You're here. Oh, thank God, you're here."

[powerandresponsibility]

"Of course I'm here. I'd never leave my good girl alone in the hospital," Peter said, smiling at her as he reached out to put his hand on her cheek, almost forgetting that he still had his glove on. All he cared about was making sure that Rey knew that he was here and she was safe.

"But you're going to be okay. And the lady you helped is fine," he added, because Peter knew that Rey would be worried about her as well, that's just the sort of person that Rey was.

Peter blinked back tears, not wanting Rey to see him cry and know just how badly she'd scared him. He'd lost so many people in his life that seeing Rey like that had genuinely terrified him. Seeing her awake and doing okay had helped with that a lot though.

[thesefirststeps]

It was only Peter's voice speaking such reassuring words to her that kept Rey grounded in the here and now. And as she came back to herself, leaning into his touch like she was a drowning woman and he was the only thing keeping her afloat, she started to recognize that something very big was amiss. Because while he was touching her face as tenderly as he ever had before, it wasn't the familiar feel of his hand against her skin.

The erratic beeping of her heart monitor continued as she tried to concentrate on his presence and her memory of the incident as it very slowly began coming into focus, so grateful to hear that the poor woman she had tried to assist hadn't been hurt in the scuffle. But some part of her wondered how Peter would have even known that if he hadn't been there. And - how did he know she was in the hospital in the first place, since the last text she'd sent had been informing him that she was on the way home.

While she wanted very much to reassure him that he hadn't lost her, that despite this little setback, she still intended to spend the rest of her life with him, but instead, she let her gaze slowly drop from his face (that concerned expression) down, taking in the sight of a familiar red & blue uniform and her heart dropped into her stomach.

How ... and why ... and could she really not have known all this time? Would he really have kept this a secret?

Her IV stand suddenly wobbled violently, like a gust of wind had caught it, but before it tumbled to the ground, Rey lifted her free hand to steady it ... without thinking and without touching it at all.

"Peter - ", she started, her brow furrowing in her confusion. "Are - are you ... Spider-Man?"

[powerandresponsibility]

Peter was prepared to offer all kinds of explanations and defenses, a few quips and jokes, and a song and dance or two to answer that question. But Rey had knocked over a pole thing only she DIDN’T knock it over and it just… hovered back in place like magic.

“What, uh… what was that? I mean yeah totally Spider-Man, meant to tell you but wasn’t sure when. But seriously did you just move that thing with your mind?”

Maybe he wasn’t showing the proper level of concern for Rey here but he knew that he had just seen something super amazing and it wasn’t done by him.