As she was leaving, she saw Bucky and the agent kissing, hidden behind a column.
She got into her car and drove away. Half an hour later, she could be seen entering a ruined building. She parked her car and went to her apartment. It was almost 4am when she finally dropped her bags in her room. She collapsed on her bed and let out another tear, which she wiped away, exasperated with herself. She took off her shoes and crawled under her covers, closing her eyes.
She was awakened by the sun rising through her open window. It took her a minute to remember where she was and why. When she finally remembered, she got out of bed with a sigh to change into something more comfortable, before sitting in her kitchen, a bowl of fruit and her laptop in front of her. She worked for two hours before deciding to go for a run.
MEANWHILE, AT THE COMPOUND
Everyone started waking up and filling the kitchen, whispering because of the huge hangover they all had (except Bucky and Steve, but you knew that). Mj had left at 8, an hour ago, leaving Peter with no memory of last night. He felt he had done something wrong, but he didn't know what. He was in his head, eating his cereal, when Tony walked in. Everyone stopped what they were doing to look at him, knowing he was about to speak.
"Good morning, everyone," he began "before I say anything, do you have any questions about last night? Or in general?"
"I do," said Wanda "where's mer?"
It was then that Peter remembered what he had said at the party "Shit..."
"That's why I'm here actually," he replied, taking a deep breath "she left, right after you all went to bed."
"What?"
"Oh, my God!"
"This is my fault."
"Where is she now?"
"Why didn't she tell us?"
"Guys! I don't know exactly where she went and she didn't want to tell you because she knew you were going to try to convince her to stay...," he replied "and yes, Peter, what you said is the main reason why she left but I think it's for the best."
"How can you say that? I was completely drunk yesterday, I didn't know what I was saying!" replied Peter
" 'You can't lie when you're drunk', that's what she said," Tony explained "and it's better because if it's the truth, you can get over it and when you see her again, everything will be... okay."
"How do you know I'll ever see her again? She'll never want to see me again, and I can't even blame her..."
"Because despite everything, she loves you so much, Pete."
"I have to find her!" he said, getting up and heading for the door
"No, you have to let her go!" Tony replied blocking him "she'll come back to you, I promise. I don't know when, but she will."
Peter looked Tony in the eye and collapsed into his arms, crying.
"I don't know why I keep hurting her, Tony," he whispered "I don't know why..."
"It's okay, kid, it's okay."
When Peter pulled away, he went straight to his room, leaving the rest of the Avengers.
"Is she going to ignore us, too?" asked Nat
"I really don't know guys," he sighed "that's up to her. She has your numbers, she'll text or call if she wants to see you."
"Did she go back to her best friend?" asked Sam
"No, she told me she was going to her apartment."
"Do you know when she'll be back?" asked Steve
"I don't know, but like I told Peter, let her be. She'll come back."
"We're not losing much to be honest." interjected Bucky
"Oh, shut up!"
"Buck!"
"Shut up!"
"Ooh get out of here!"
BACK WITH EMERSON
3 hours later, she went home and took a well-deserved shower. She changed into a gray jogging suit and a gray crop top with dark green sleeves, before grabbing her bag and heading out to run errands. On her way back, she noticed a black car following her, but to be sure, she changed her route and took a left instead of a right.
The car took a right.
She sighed and continued on her way. A few minutes later, she sensed a person behind her, she prepared to attack and stopped at the last second when she heard the person ask her mummy for a piece of candy. She sighed and continued on her way.
She finally arrived home and began to put away the groceries.
After everything was put away, she plopped down in a chair and took her head in her hands, sighing once again.
"I sigh way too much today." she muttered to herself
All of a sudden, she opened her laptop and looked up what she had just thought of. Three days later, she went to a store to pick up her purchase. She gently persuaded the seller that she didn't need help and went home with a sense of longing in her heart. She had prepared a place in her living room where she could put it and it only took her an hour before she sat down in front of it. She let her right hand run over the keys, smiling sadly as the memories flooded into her head. Then she finally pressed the keys and a soft melody was heard, a soft melody from a piano... from her piano.
Let's go back three days. It was almost 8:00 p.m. when Emerson walked into the restaurant that Tony had communicated to her. She was wearing a white shirt with a pastel blue strapless dress over it, along with her Doc Martens and jewelry. She followed the waitress to a table where Tony was already seated. He'd greeted her with a tight hug, a kiss on the cheek and a "you're beautiful". And as they sat they started talking right away, first about the morning, Peter and the Avengers' reaction, and then about whatever else there was to talk about. She was in bed by 2 a.m., a small smile plastered on her face.
A week later, her new routine was in place. After the dinner and a few days of peace, the nightmares came back, which meant she woke up every day around 4 a.m., then went for a run, trained, worked on her programs, played the piano, read (she read a lot), and went out with Tony, Nat, Loki and/or Wanda every once in a while. The only ones willing to actually see her. But after a month, these meetings stopped without any explanations nor reasons.
Emerson wasn't happy, but she was satisfied with the life she had managed to achieve, she just missed the missions and the adrenaline that came with them, and her brother of course. As for the others, they had managed to act again like Emerson had never been here. They had their own routines. Breakfast was the only meal where all the Avengers had to be present. At the end, the teams for the day were formed and schedules were set. They alternated between missions, training and rest days, and Peter's classes. They were all quite comfortable with this program. Nat and Wanda, despite wanting to do the opposite, stopped responding to Emerson's requests after a month. They could both see the pain in Peter's eyes every time they returned, so they chose to stop them, forgetting to warn Emerson, caught by missions.
As usual, Emerson woke up from her nightmare, then went into her kitchen to get a glass of water, sat on the chairs at her bar with her head on her hand, looking out the window at the rising sun. It had been two months since she had left the compound and a month since she had seen any Avengers. She missed them every day, but she was less and less sure that the feeling was mutual. She sighed and walked over to her piano. She had been playing for an hour when her phone rang. It was Tony.
"Hey, pumpkin," he said "already awake at six?"
"As you can see," she replied "what do you want?"
"Okay so um, I know you're most likely mad at us for pushing you away and I don't really have time to explain why we did it," he began "but we really need your help. "
"We? "
"Okay, I... I really need your help."
"... "
"Look, we have this big mission tomorrow and," he cleared his throat "and I'm afraid for Peter."
"He hates me, Tony," she reminded him "what do you expect me to do?"
"First, he doesn't hate you and second, I want you to come with us."
"You all hate me, why would I come?" Emerson scoffed, starting to lose her cool
"We don't hate you."
"You've been ignoring me for a month!!!" she shouted "and I haven't even been given an explanation! Not one! Don't you think I should have!? Don't you think I deserved it!?"
"It was for a good reason, I swear." he said pleadingly
"I don't give a shit if it was for a good reason or not! That doesn't justify your sudden disappearance! And anyway, you could have explained. I don't remember ever being against a supposedly good cause!" she stopped, struck by what she just figured out "Peter."
"What?"
"You ignored me because of Peter, didn't you?"
"Wha-ho... how do you know?"
"I fucking guessed," she chuckled sadly "glad to know I'm no one's choice."
"Mer..."
"Don't. Don't call me that, Stark," she cut him "what's this mission about?"
"Hydra, again. They started again but they're more efficient this time," he explained "we sent Barnes and Rogers in, and they didn't come back in top form."
"When?"
"Tomorrow."
"I don't think I'll come." she replied after a few seconds of silence
"...that's okay. I knew that there would be consequences to what we did. I'll send you the coordinates of the base we're going, just in case you change your mind."
"I'm not going to," she replied " goodbye."
"Mer?"
"Tony."
"Sorry, Emerson?"
"What?"
"I really am sorry, I hope you can, one day, forgive us."
With that, Emerson hung up and began to do some research on tomorrow's mission. Because it was about protecting her brother so she was obviously going, even if he hated her or not. She would do everything and anything for him.
The next morning, Emerson was up well before the sun, packing everything she might need. But unfortunately, before she left the compound, she didn't think to pack her suit and so had to settle for a simple pair of cargo pants and a black tight, long-sleeved t-shirt. She had made holsters for her gun and weapons, and put on a cap with a ponytail. Slipping on her Rangers, she went down to her gym to warm up before leaving. Tony had informed her that they would be leaving at 7am. She didn't want to be seen by anyone as she was just there to be Peter's backup, and eventually the others. Therefore at 5:30 a.m., she was already flying to her destination. She arrived at about a quarter to eight (07:45am) and found a hiding place behind a large rock, near an empty space where Emerson was almost certain to see the Quinjet land.
10 minutes later, Emerson heard a noise, that if you weren't looking for it you wouldn't have been able to hear it. Looking behind her rock, she saw the Avengers getting out of the Quinjet, ready to fight: The Scarlet Witch, Black Widow, Captain America, the Falcon, the Winter Soldier, Hulk, Thor, Loki, War Machine, Hawkeye, Iron Man and the last one, Spiderman.
They were all ready and running in different directions 5 minutes after they arrived. Emerson saw Peter swinging from tree to tree and followed him by the ground. She had caught Tony's thoughts and knew he knew she was there, but luckily he didn't tell anyone.
After a few minutes of running, Peter finally dropped to the ground and began to fight. About an hour later, there were no fewer soldiers and instead more and more were arriving. The Avengers had found themselves close together, each fighting one, two, three or more enemies. Even Emerson had to fight a few but managed to stay hidden anyway. After another 30 minutes, the Avengers were overwhelmed and Emerson was weighing whether she would fight next to them or not. In the midst of her thoughts, she sensed danger and looked up, searching for Peter. She saw him 25 meters away from her, fighting two people. He was so engrossed in his fight that he couldn't sense the third man on the ground reaching for his gun. In a second, Emerson was out of the woods, running toward him.
"PETER!" she yelled
No one heard her.
"PETER, BEHIND YOU!"
He still didn't hear her.
Emerson had one last choice, she saw in slow motion the soldier holding his gun toward Peter and shooting. She jumped in between him and the bullet, while creating a force shield to protect Peter from any more danger. However, she failed to protect herself and received a bullet in her lower stomach, another in her shoulder, sent by another soldier, and a last one a few millimeters from her heart, shot by a third soldier that appeared to help his teammate. As she fell to the ground, she unleashed a wave of energy knocking everyone (except the Avengers) and killing all the closest one. Peter turned around, more surprised than shocked, before laying eyes on a bleeding Emerson.
"Oh god, no, no, no..."
He was laying her head on his leg in a split second, screaming for help.
"PLEASE! PLEASE HELP ME! TONY, PLEASE!"
He lowered his head and rested his forehead on Emerson's.
"I'm so sorry mer, for everything," he whispered "I'm sorry, I love you so much. Please don't leave me. Please..."
"It's okay Pete," she sadly smiled, blood dripping from her mouth and tears falling from her eyes "I got you."
With that she closed her eyes and Peter let out a sob, tears streaming down his face.
"What happened?" asked Steve, the moment he saw Peter on his knees with a body in his arms
When Peter looked up and revealed Emerson, Steve took a step back, startled. He was about to say something when Tony landed with a big thud. Without warning nor waiting, he grabbed Emerson from Peter's arms and flew away.
"Get back to the Quinjet, NOW!" he said, through the com "we need to go home immediately!"
As soon as everyone had boarded, the jet flew away.
On board: one gravely injured, near death and thirteen people, each one more worried than the others.
Bruce and Tony began working on Emerson immediately afterwards, but there was little they could do because all the necessary equipment was inside the Avengers compound. Peter had called Pepper to inform her of the accident so she could get everything ready for their arrival. And as soon as the Quinjet landed, a group of people could be seen rushing out of the jet. Emerson was directed to the hospital right after Tony realized she needed professional help.
Two and a half hours after the accident, Emerson was still on an operating table as doctors tried to heal her. Taking the first two bullets had been easy, but the last one... one false move and there was no longer an Emerson Parker. That's why the other one, the other Parker was shaking with fear, waiting for news, more than ready to blame himself more than he was already doing. Tony walked over to him, placing a comforting hand on his back.
"It's going to be okay, kid," he began "she's a strong woman. She'll come around. And if not for her, for you."
"That's the problem!" he said, clenching his jaw
"What are you talking about, Peter?" he chuckled nervously
"You don't see it!?"
"No, I don't! So please, explain."
"It's always my fault," he said, letting his tears flow "I always hurt her, and she always comes back to me..."
"Yes," he replied, softly "because she loves you for who you are, and she understands the pain you are going through."
Tony paused for a moment, looking at Peter, who was still crying silently.
"Don't you think she would have had the strength to stop you from yelling at her the first night, or to stop you from telling her how you feel two months ago? Hmmm? Don't you think that if she didn't care one bit about you, she wouldn't have come to look after you today? Don't you think she just wants to be here as your sister and not as the stranger she was to you two years ago?" he said "she is more than capable of making her own decisions, Peter. If she didn't want to be your sister again, she wouldn't have stayed with us after all that has happened to her since you called her!" he paused for a moment "so for her sake, stop blaming yourself."
When he stopped, Peter looked up at him, tears still glistening in his eyes but no longer falling. He didn't say much but put his arms around Tony's waist, hugging him tightly, whispering "thank you" and "sorry" over and over. They had to part when the door to Emerson's block opened, and the surgeon stepped out. All of the Avengers, who had been sitting in the waiting room got up and went to position themselves right behind Peter and Tony.
"I'd rather talk to the family first." the surgeon said
"We're all family to her." Tony replied
"Blood family." he pointed out, looking at Peter
Peter looked up at Tony and nodded before following the doctor into a separate room. He instantly froze when he saw Emerson's body lying on a bed. The doctor stood behind Peter, his hand on Peter's shoulder.
"I'm sorry, we couldn't do more."
--------------------
A/N: well I forgot to publish this chapter yesterday ':) I'm sorry
Anyway, I wish you a merry Christmas and I hope you had all the presents you wanted :) if you could let a comment or a vote, it'll be an amazing gift for me
I don't know when I'll post the next part but I'll do my best not to make you wait for too long
Before I stop annoying you, did you see SpiderMan: No Way Home!? It was a master piece, best movie ever I said. What did you think about it?
Have a great day/night, love you 3000 <3
25th December 2021
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