A New Hero - Peter Parker (BOOK 1) | Spider-Man: Far From Home

Chapter Thirty - Stitches

"So, either of you going to tell me exactly what has happened?" Happy asked.

Neither said anything for a while, Clara looking up to see why Peter hadn't answered. He was staring out of a window, tears welling in his eyes. "Have you spoken to Fury?" Clara asked quietly, her brow furrowed sorrowfully as she turned back to Happy.

"Not since he had gotten to Berlin with Hill. He said you and Peter hadn't shown." Happy informed her, looking over the top of his glasses as Clara lowered her voice.

"Did he tell you about E.D.I.T.H.?" She asked, her eyes glancing at Pete, to see if he was listening. She was well-aware he had likely heard, but still felt it was the right thing to do. Happy nodded but with a questioning look to his expression. "We found out Beck's been using projectors to create the 'Elementals'. That why we were going to Berlin – To warn Fury."

"And Beck got there before you?" Happy assumed.

"He disguised himself as Fury to get Peter and I into the car with him, proceeded to drug me, take us to an abandoned construction site, and then... God only knows what he did to Peter." Clara looked at the boy with concern. She remembered hearing her own screaming voice echoing around the building, Peter calling out her name and chasing after the illusion. "Someone carried me outside and, when Peter figured out Fury hadn't come to save him – that was the second part of the trick - Beck brought me over and said if Peter didn't give him the names of the people he told he'd, well, that's what he did." Clara finished, looking down to her arm.

Happy shook his head, not wanting to believe either of the two students had gone through that. He finished the last few stitches as Clara continued. "When Peter told him who knew to get him to stop," she stopped to take a breath, "Beck forced him onto train tracks with more illusions. A train came before he had time to react."

"Okay." Happy pressed his lips together, knowing what he needed to do. "Peter, you're up." His voice seemed to pull Peter from his thoughts.

"I don't need stitches; I'll heal."

"Sit, Peter. You aren't going to heal in time to stop Beck, so come and get some stitches." Happy ordered, Peter walking over begrudgingly. Clara rose from the chair and, knowing Happy wanted to talk to Peter, she sat as far away from them as she could, leaving the two alone.

Taking a seat in the cockpit after pushing the sliding door to, Clara listened in. Happy didn't say anything for what felt like a long time, but she could here from Peter's pained hissing that he had only just started on the stitches. 

Clara lowered herself into one of the pilot chairs, looking over the control panel in front of her. Clara marvelled at the number of buttons and toggles there were considering it was so high-tech. How many of these were ever actually used? Were they all just for show? She wondered idly.

A sigh left her lips as she slumped back into the chair. With her hands sat on the armrests, she watched the now all-too-often seen purple energy pulsating around them. Whatever drug Beck had given her yesterday must've, to some degree, worked. True, it hadn't faded entirely – but it hadn't grown when they had first reached the building site, and there must've been hundreds of drones to create a design of that scale.

"I thought you had super-strength?" Clara heard Happy ask. She turned to look at the door, as if staring at it would make the sound clearer or cause the door to disappear.

"It still hurts." Peter replied, the silence returning for a few seconds before he spoke again. "Happy, come on." He winced.

"Alright, relax!" Happy told him. "Just a few more."

"Oh, my God, Happy." Clara heard Peter slamming a fist onto the table.

"Relax!" Happy told him, raising his voice slightly.

"Don't tell me to relax, Happy!" Peter yelled, his voice breaking. "How can I relax when I messed up so bad? I trusted Beck, right? I thought he was my friend so I gave him the only thing Mr Stark left behind for me, and now he's going to kill my friends and half of Europe so please, do not tell me to relax."

Clara heard a thump as Peter dropped himself down onto a chair once again. She rose from hers, walking closer to the door. "I'm sorry, Happy. I'm sorry, I shouldn't shout." Peter paused again, his voice weaker now. "I just really miss him."

"Yeah. I miss him too." Happy replied, letting Peter get his emotions off his chest.

"Everywhere I go, I see his face. The whole world's asking who's gonna be the next Iron Man and..." Clara heard him sniff again, and she rested her forehead gently against the door, feeling the cool material against her flushed skin. She wanted to go out there, but Peter needed this conversation to just be him and Happy, even if he didn't know that. "I don't know if that's me, Happy. I'm not Iron Man"

"You're not Iron Man." Happy agreed. "You're never gonna be Iron Man; nobody could live up to Tony. Not even Tony."

"Tony was my best friend and he was a mess." He continued. "He second-guessed everything he did. He was all over the place. The one thing he did that he didn't second-guess was picking you. I don't think Tony would've done what he did if he didn't know that you were going to be here after he was gone."

"Now, your friends are in trouble, you're all alone, and your tech is missing. What're you going to do about it?"

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