A/N: here we goo!
welcome to the very first chapter into what is going to be one hell of a rollercoaster ride!
today's date: july 14, 2021 for purposes of celebrating the anniversary
in all seriousness, i want to preface the entirety of this book by saying: this is adelaide and peter's story.
the last book focused on adie and tony and while there will definitely be huge chunks of this story focusing on adie and tony, the overarching theme of this book is peter and ada's love story— from how it all starts to how their journey goes up and down along the way. this book will truly be the peter parker x oc you guys have been anxious for for the past like three years lol (i think you've all waited long enough)
before we go into it, i just want to take a second to once again thank everyone who read the first book and helped it reach so many views/votes/comments. your love for this book has truly been inspiring and it feels incredible to have this story always be the one steady thing in my life 💛
without further ado, here is...into the light!
————————————————————
"I swear I wasn't the one who
broke the vending machine.
It was already broken."
————————————————————
When Adelaide Rivers woke up in the hospital, she had no idea how she got there or why her head felt as if it was being repeatedly hit with a hammer.
No, she didn't know why Peter was pacing in front of her. No, she didn't have any recollection of anything before she opened her eyes. No, she couldn't figure out why Peter looked so worried. And no, she didn't know why she felt so dizzy.
There was a loud ringing in her ears that she couldn't shake off and it seemed to block all other sounds. Her vision was blurry, yet she couldn't clear it up no matter how many times she blinked or shook her head.
"Oh, my god," he breathed when he realized she was awake.
She winced. It felt like something was piercing her brain. Her lips felt dry and throat felt like it had been rubbed with sandpaper when she swallowed. Her entire body ached badly. The more she came back to consciousness, the more the pain overtook her. Her mind flooded with confusion.
She closed her eyes. She had just been standing in a strange white room, how had she gotten here? Her head hurt. Everything hurt.
"D-Doctor!" Peter shouted from the doorway, "W-We need a doctor in here NOW!"
Everything just hurt so much. She wished she could go back to sleep. She wanted the pain to go away. It just kept getting worse.
"H-Hey, hey th-th-the doctor's on his way, okay?" Peter breathed nervously, coming to her side. She barely heard him. He reached out to comfort her but then hesitated. She groaned in pain. Peter took her cold hand, gently squeezing it. She was in pain and Peter wished there was something he could do. He wasn't even sure if she knew he was there to begin with. His eyes filled with tears at the sight of her in pain.
Just when he opened his mouth to say something, the doctor and nurses rushed into the room. They ushered him out and surrounded her bed, injecting her with various things and taking several measurements and shouting technical things to each other. Peter watched it all through the other side of the window as Ada continued to writhe in pain. At one point, she even let out a scream.
"Where is she! Is she awake?" Mr. Stark breathed.
He had run over the moment he had heard. The billionaire followed the teenager's gaze into the room where the medical team was working their magic. The doctor had given her an oxygen mask after she had started to gasp for air. The nurse gave her a dose of morphine in her arm.
Adelaide still thrashed around the bed as if her body were on fire.
"How long has she been awake?" Mr. Stark asked quietly. Peter swallowed painfully.
"N-Not long," he mumbled, "Sh-She woke up and sh-she was in pain so I-I called the doctor right away."
Suddenly, Pepper, May, and Happy ran around the corner, their faces casted in panic.
"Is she okay?!" Pepper asked worriedly. Before the billionaire could answer, the door to Ada's room opened and the doctor walked out. They all glanced at the teenager who was still struggling under the hold of the nurses. They assumed she thought the nurses were dangerous or trying to hurt her.
"Who was the first person she saw when she woke up?" the doctor asked.
"M-Me," Peter stuttered, "It was me."
The doctor nodded, "Come with me." Glancing back nervously at Mr. Stark whose eyes hadn't left Ada, Peter quickly followed the doctor inside the hospital room where Ada was still struggling. The doctor closed the door behind him and pulled him over to the corner.
"It's common for coma patients to wake up confused about their surroundings. Usually, we give them a sedative that puts them to sleep for a bit, but I'm not sure that will be best idea for Adelaide's delicate situation," the doctor explained. Peter frowned.
"So what do you need me for?" he asked.
"It might help if you talk to her and bring her down because you were the first person she saw when she woke up," he said.
"Oh," Peter breathed, "I can do that."
"Good. Remember to be gentle. She's in a very fragile state right now and thinks she's been captured by enemies."
That made sense to Peter. The last time she'd been conscious, someone had shot her. Obviously she thought she was still there, but she had been captured and everyone around her was trying to hurt her. He couldn't imagine how scary it must feel to wake up in an unknown place with masked strangers surrounding you, trying to inject you with things when the last thing you remember is being shot at.
"Let me go!" Ada screamed desperately, trying to push the nurses away.
"Her stitches are breaking," he heard one nurse say worriedly. Peter carefully walked up to her bed, stopping to stand just beside her head. She didn't notice him at first.
"Ada," he said quietly. Somehow, she heard that small, three-lettered word even through the noise. She stopped struggling and turned her head to look at him. Her wide blue eyes instantly flooded with hot tears.
"Pete?" she whispered. She sounded scared out of her mind. Her voice was scratchy and rough from not being used for days. "I-I thought y-you were dead."
"I'm okay, I promise," he said gently, "And you are too. You're in a hospital right now. These are just nurses trying to help you. And Mr. Stark, Pepper, Aunt May, and Happy are all waiting outside for you. You are completely safe here."
Her body tensed.
"And Lukov?" she asked quietly, as if he would appear from thin air if she said his name aloud.
"He's dead," Peter said firmly, "He won't ever hurt you again."
Adelaide was overwhelmed with so much relief all at once, she began to cry. She felt him wiping her tears away with his fingers.
"Shh," he said softly, brushing her hair aside, "It's okay, Ada. You're safe now."
"I'm sorry, but we really need to fix her stitches," a nurse said. Peter glanced at the doctor who nodded in understanding.
"She's not bleeding," the doctor said, "We can fix them in a few minutes. Let's give her a minute to recover."
The nurse nodded and left the room with the doctor. Peter saw through the window that the doctor was talking with the others waiting outside, explaining the situation to them. Peter brought his focus back to Ada, who was finally starting to calm down.
"I...I can't believe he's...gone," she whispered, "Just like that."
Adelaide had imagined feeling happiness and triumph the day she killed Ivan Kazimir Lukov. But instead, all she felt was pain. It was like all the trauma and suffering he had caused her he resurfaced and she was reliving it all over again. All those years of her life...every single day he had controlled her like his pawn.
He...He was gone.
She couldn't believe it was really over.
She was finally free.
Free from HYDRA, free from him, free from...her past.
The past that she had been running from for so many years that it had become a part of her identity...it was finally lost. She had outrun it. It was really, truly gone. The fight, the war...it was finally over. She looked at Peter with wide blue eyes.
"He was going to kill you," she breathed, remembering the last time she'd seen him. Lukov nearly did kill him and she wouldn't have been able to stop him. She thanked the universe that he hadn't. She couldn't imagine what she would have done if Lukov had kill her Peter. Of all the murders, his would have pained her the most. Her eyes scanned his body for injuries. When she looked up at him again, all she spotted was a faint scar under his eye. Something was off. She frowned, reaching up to softly run her thumb over his scar. His brown eyes softened at her touch. "You were so hurt. What happened?"
Peter looked away uncomfortably. He wasn't sure how to tell her this. Or if he even should.
"Ada..."
Her frown deepened and she began to worry. Something was wrong. She could just feel it in her bones. She saw it in the doctor's eyes and she saw the same thing right now in Peter's.
"What is it? Just tell me, Peter."
"Ada...you were in a coma for seven days."
—————
The next few hours were a blur.
Everyone came to hug her and tell her how happy they were she was awake. The nurses fixed her stitches. The doctor gave her medicines. More people told her how happy they were she was back. More medicines. More nurses taking tests. Even more medicines.
And then, when everything had finally settled down Tony was left standing in the doorway, not sure if he had the guts to walk into the room.
"The door is open, you know," Adelaide told him. Even though it had been a few hours since she had woken up, she still felt like her head was a little fuzzy. Maybe it was because she was on an insane amount of drugs and could hardly think for herself, let alone figure out what 2 plus 2 was. She was actually only 67% sure that it was actually Tony standing there. She began to think she was hallucinating him until he spoke.
Tony half-smiled, "It is. Just don't know if I should come in."
"Why not?" she asked him. He shrugged, staring at the floor.
"I don't know, Adie. I made a promise to protect you and now you're in the hospital again, surviving a week-long coma by some miracle. What kind of person does that make me?"
Adelaide smiled softly, "A kind of person who over promises things because he wants the best for those he loves." She wasn't entirely sure, but she hoped she had said that out loud. Her deliriousness made it hard to keep up in a conversation.
"I'm happy you're okay," he smiled, "You scared me."
"If I don't scare you who will?" she asked. He still stubbornly stood at the doorway, not fully entering the room. Adelaide sighed. "Tony, this was all my fault, okay? I was the one who snuck out of the Tower when you were asleep. I was the one who kept all this from you. There's no way you could have stopped this from happening. It's not your fault, it's mine."
Finally, the billionaire sighed and let himself inside the room, closing the door behind himself. He sat down beside her on the bed, wrapping her up into his arms and pressing a long, relieved kiss on the top of her head. She closed her eyes, resting her head comfortably against his chest.
"You never have to go through anything alone, okay? I'll always be there for you. I love you more than anything in the world. You're my family," he mumbled, pushing strands of her hair away from her face and tucking them behind her ears.
Adelaide smiled to herself, burying her face into his warm sweater. She closed her eyes. He smelled mostly like the hospital, but she could still smell a faint scent of the Tower, of home.
"And you're mine."
They hugged each other like that for a long time. The drugs made her sleepy but they also made her want to jump on the bed. Instead, Tony hugged her closer and she let him. It felt like she had only been gone a few hours, but for everyone else, she had been gone for a week. It was almost impossible to wrap her head around.
"The nurses told me what you did," she whispered after a while. Tony stiffened.
"I swear I wasn't the one who broke the vending machine," he mumbled, "It was already broken."
Adelaide rolled her eyes, "I meant how you gave me your blood."
"Oh. Right. That. Of course I did. Why wouldn't I?"
"Thank you," she said quietly, "You saved my life."
"I would have given you my heart if you needed it," he murmured, kissing the top of her head again. Adelaide felt sudden tears in her eyes.
"You really love me that much?" she asked. Tony chuckled softly.
"More than you can ever imagine," he whispered. Adelaide blinked back more tears. Suddenly, she had an overwhelming feeling of safety and comfort in his arms. He was incredible and he loved her and she never ever wanted to let him go.
"I love you so much, Tony," she whispered into his shoulder. Her voice was shaky and muffled. Tony smiled to himself and tightened his arms around her.
"I know, hon...I know."
Tony gave her a moment to calm down before he spoke again.
"You know, now that you have my blood...you know what that means," he said. Adelaide sniffled.
"That I'll live?" she mumbled, wiping the tears on her cheek away with the back of her hand.
"We're related by blood now. And that means that you really do have Stark genes," he said, looking down at her. He tapped the tip of her nose with his finger.
Adelaide laughed for the first time in weeks. A happy, free, honest laugh.
"I guess I do feel smarter already," she grinned.
"That's my girl," he smiled.
—————
Pepper was in the middle of giving Adelaide her medicines the next day when Peter knocked on the door.
"Come in," Pepper told him with a smile. The boy let himself inside nervously.
When he had confessed to Ada that...that he loved her, he had done it almost as a goodbye. He had started to believe she was going to leave him and it brought out the honest emotions he was feeling.
Now she was awake and healthy and Peter wasn't sure how to face her again. It was scarier than fighting the Vulture and Sandman together. He was afraid that he would act differently around her and Ada would know something was wrong. Ada always knew.
"J-Just checking to see how you were doing," he said nervously.
"I'm too stubborn to die, remember?" she joked. Peter smiled.
She felt so familiar it was painful.
Everything about her just felt like...like home. Especially those eyes. God, he had missed those endless depths of an ethereal shade of blue that easily made him lose his grip on reality.
"How could I forget?" he said, hesitantly taking a seat beside her. His senses were working on overdrive. Even with the few inches of space between them, Peter could feel the heat radiating from her body and it was making his brain malfunction.
"Last two," Pepper said, holding out two big capsules for her. Adelaide scrunched her nose up.
"I hate medicines," she mumbled.
"I know. You've said this only twenty times now," Pepper smiled.
"One for each pill," she grumbled, taking the pills from the woman's hand. She swallowed them down with water and cringed at the aftertaste. Pepper took the glass of water from her hands.
"Tony and I are meeting with Dr. Patel, okay?" Pepper said, standing up. She fixed her teenager's hair, neatly tucking it behind her ear. "Please call me if you need anything. And in the meantime, Peter, I'm hiring you as junk food police."
"I can't believe you don't trust me," Adelaide pouted.
"I really, really don't," the woman said and she was right. Adelaide had Ned smuggle her some Twix bars from the vending machine from when he had visited her yesterday and they were currently hiding under her pillow, waiting to be eaten the moment Pepper left the room.
"I'm deeply offended," she mumbled and Pepper pointedly looked at Peter who nodded.
"I'll watch her," he assured her. Nodding, Pepper headed towards the door.
"Can you tell Dr. Patel that I feel great and he should let me go home now?" Adelaide asked.
"I'll think about it," Pepper replied before leaving the room. Adelaide pouted.
"That's always a no," she grumbled to herself.
Peter watched her with a smile.
Suddenly every little thing she did was the most adorable thing Peter had ever seen. Deep down, in his heart, he knew that he was a goner. This blue-eyed girl had his whole heart in the palm of her hand. Anything she did made Peter just fall for her harder.
Even when she reached behind her pillow and pulled out a couple of candy bars. He frowned at her.
"Ada," he scolded. She bit into the bar with a mischievous grin.
"Pete," she said mockingly, her mouth full of chocolate.
"Pepper just said—"
"If you start reading my Miranda rights, I'm actually going to hit you. I've been fed through a tube for seven days, please let me have this," she said. Peter sighed. He was physically incapable of saying no to her. Pepper chose the wrong man for the job.
How could he refuse those blue eyes that he loved?
"You know, you can't always use your injuries against me," he mumbled. Adelaide frowned.
"Well, something good has to come out of them," she reasoned, "Besides, it always works so well with you."
Something good did come out of this, Peter thought to himself, I realized I'm hopelessly and madly in love with you.
"I won't tell if you don't," she said, holding out a bar for him. He sighed, knowing he had lost and took it for himself.
"How did you get this anyway?" Peter asked as they ate them together. Ada smirked.
"I don't smuggle and tell," she said.
"It was Ned, wasn't it?" he said.
"It was Ned," she sighed. Peter rolled his eyes. What was he thinking, giving her a Twix bar at a time like this? He would have to have a serious talk with him later. The last thing he needed was for Ada to get sick.
Peter watched her, wondering if he should tell her how he felt about her. Then he thought better of it. Last time he had...things hadn't exactly ended well.
"Hey, um...so I owe you an apology," he said quietly. Adelaide frowned.
"What for?" she asked.
"For...For that night at the dance. When you told me the truth about your past...I-I just freaked out. I didn't know how to react. I shouldn't have run away like that, I'm sorry."
"Oh," she said quietly, suddenly very interested in her candy bar, "I thought you'd never want to talk to me again."
"Ada...you're my best friend. And I— I need you," he said. She studied him for a moment.
"I need you too, Pete," she said quietly, "You're my rock, you know?"
Peter caught her blue eyes and smiled softly.
"Yeah," he said, "I know the feeling."
—————
A/N: idk about you but this chapter just felt like a breath of fresh air for me 😌
so like i said up there, this is adelaide and peter's story and it will very quickly escalate (like you're gonna love me by the time chapter five rolls around). there's just a couple loose ends to wrap up from the previous book but after that, ALL ABOARD THE PADIE SHIP!!
i know i've literally said this a million times already, but you have no idea how EXCITED i am for this book. you thought the last book was brutal? good god, i'm going to sever your heart and soul from your body in this one. seriously. be prepared.
once again, thank you for reading this far and i love you all very very much and can't wait to watch this new book unfold with you!
question: what are you most excited to see happening in this book?
see you all soon!! xx