Pain Will Always Come Back to Haunt You

The Pain is Supposed to be Temporary

"I'm always happy to help." With a steadying breath, he opens his eyes to show her. "My skin healed over the gravel, so now I have to get it out. But when I try to do it, it feels like, like I can't? It feels like I'm back there and under the drywall and the concrete and it was an entire building on top of me-"

"What do you mean?" Karen interrupts his nervous rambling with her concerned tone. He hadn't realized he said anything about the time Toomes dropped a concrete warehouse on him. "I don't have visual or audio records of a building previous to this night." That's because the suit was taken away .

"Uh, never mind. I just need help getting these out, please."

"Alright Peter, have you disinfected the area?" He nods and follows all of Karen's instructions. Being able to talk to her helps calm Peter's nerves and he's able to get all the gravel out of both of his hands. After he does, he wraps gauze around his hands and decides to let his enhanced healing do the rest overnight. They should be healed by morning.

"Thanks Karen, I appreciate it," Peter mumbles tiredly.

"It is not a problem. Eat something and have a good night's sleep."

"Yeah, good night Karen." With that, he takes the mask off and sets it on his bed. Even though he could fall asleep as soon as he hits the bed, he takes his suit to the washing machine then checks the fridge for a snack. May keeps it even more stocked than it used to be, knowing that she needs to feed a teenager with an insanely fast metabolism. It's 12:46 am, officially making it a midnight snack! He notices some leftover pizza in a plastic bag and decides that a cold slice of pizza is exactly what he needs. By the time he walks back to his room, he has practically inhaled the pizza and it almost tempts him to get another piece. Unfortunately, he knows he has study for tomorrow's History test and it's already almost 1am. He could try winging it, but he hasn't studied nearly as much as he normally does. There just aren't enough hours in the day.

He makes it to around 2:30 am going through his class notes before his body forces him to sleep. When he wakes up, feeling beyond exhausted and drained of energy, May has already left for her hospital shift. The first thing he does is unwrap the restricting gauze from his hands, happy to be rid of it. He's slightly shocked when he sees faint red lines still across his palms. They should be healed by now. He opens and closes his hands a few times, but there isn't any substantial pain. Oh well, they'll be fine by the end of the day. He debates having a shower to help wake himself up, but he's already running late. That's what happens when you hit snooze one too many times. After getting his thankfully clean suit out of the wash and into his backpack, he's ready to face the day!

Well, that's what he thought until he gets to History class...the test doesn't go so well. It doesn't help that History is already not one of his best subjects. Math, Chemistry, and Biology, however, he can do all day long. Then there's economics...his worst class. Luckily, he doesn't have an exam for that class until next week.

Ned and Peter wait outside the school at the end of the day for their rides. Normally they would already be starting patrol, but Friday afternoons are the days he gets to work on the suit at Stark Tower. However, since he's always on business trips and involved with Avengers stuff, Tony isn't ever there. Happy keeps Peter company though, which usually consists of Happy sitting in the corner of the room on his phone and making sure Peter doesn't blow up the workshop.

"You seem kind of out of it today. Everything okay?" Ned asks as Peter stares at his hands. They're still red. His head snaps up to meet Ned's eyes.

"I'm great! Just didn't sleep well. I studied until two in the morning and still bombed the test," Peter laughs halfheartedly.

"C'mon, The Peter Parker failing a test? Impossible! I'm sure you did great." Ned bumps Peter with his shoulder and they smile.