Family Tree ~ An El Hopper and Peter Parker Story

Chapter 16

The group left Hawkins Lab and boarded the Quinjet that the Avengers used to arrive in Hawkins. They ended up relocating at the closed grocery store to help Peter's wounds. Mike made sure to talk to Dustin and Ned to tell them to meet them there. El and MJ were helping Peter walk as they entered an aisle and laid him down. He groaned in pain, but didn't want to cause a scene.

"What did they even do to you?" El asked, concerned about her brother.

"He tossed me around with his arms," Peter explained, looking down. "I couldn't do anything to stop him."

"Well, you have a lot of cuts, Spidey," Max said. Peter sighed in relief as he realized he was still wearing his mask. "We need to stop any bleeding, clean it, then disinfect, then bandage. I skateboard, trust me on this."

"What do you need us to do?" Lucas asked his girlfriend.

Max looked around at everyone before deciding. "Mike, Lucas, Will, you guys go find a washcloth and a bowl. Any Avengers can join them for whatever protection. Everyone go look for any water and soap you can find. I'll help out with that. El, you stay with him and help stop any bleeding."

"How do I do that?" El asked her.

Max looked around and then grabbed a tissue box on the rack. "Here. Use this. Hold it to any bleeding wound you can find and press it as hard as you can. It'll hurt, but it's how it works."

El nodded and everyone split up to look around for the stuff they need. She stayed where she was and grabbed a tissue out of the box. She folded it up a bit and then looked around at the visible skin that wasn't covered by Peter's suit. None of them were bleeding too bad from what she could see.

"Can you take off your mask?" El asked him. "I need to see if there's anything."

Peter hesitated and looked around the store to make sure no one was looking. El gave him a reassuring look as he slowly took off his mask. The girl's heart broke when she saw his face. His eyes were red from crying, El guessed. He had many bruises and cuts on his face, some of which were bleeding. El put the tissue up on his face and pressed as hard as she could. It hurt to see Peter grimace in pain, but like Max said, she had to keep doing it.

"If you want me to stop, just let me know, okay?" El told him.

Peter nodded in response, used to the pain already. "It's barely anything I've felt before," he said in a quiet voice.

El looked over at him with a concerned face. "Peter, what happened in there?" She said. "When we came in, you were on the ground, screaming and crying. What did those bad men do to you?"

Peter felt the tears glistening in his eyes again, recalling exactly what happened. He could still hear the whispers of his dead loved ones in his head. He could still remember his aunt and uncle's faces when they got the call about the plane crash his parents were on. He still felt himself holding Uncle Ben when he died in his arms. He could feel his hand against Tony's chest as he tried to stop the bleeding. He could still hear the gunshot from when Aunt May was shot in the head. 

The voices in his head kept telling him he was worthless. Everyone he ever loved has suffered and died because of him. Peter looked up at El, reminding him of what else he had seen in the illusions. MJ and El, both terrified and falling off a building to their demise. 

Peter help me!

Please Peter!

Peter tried to blink away the tears that were now threatening to fall. He knew that El was waiting for a response, but how could he tell her? She knew everything that happened, but at the same time she didn't. She knew that Peter was upset, but she didn't know what his pain felt like. It felt like his heart had been ripped from his chest and stomped on by every super villain he ever encountered. Now there was nothing but a hole in the spot where his heart used to be. The heart that made him a bright soul and manage to make even a depressed person smile. He was supposed to be this hero, but he couldn't even save the people he loved.