A year to Remember. Part 2, the Internship

Ned and MJ stayed around for another half hour, helping Pete clean what was left before having to head to their own homes and families. Leaving just late enough to shortly greet May as she arrives.

Surprisingly to Peter, she chooses not to question anything. She knows something happened, 100%, but after a 12 hour shift and 20 hours awake she decided to leave it at: "I know something happened, I trust you but we are talking about this later". May asleep in her room leaves Peter in his with plenty of free time to ponder, his guilt, curiosity and worry festering, begging for release.

-

Peter

Hey Ms Nat

I heard a little about what happened

Is everyone ok?

‏Ms Nat

‏I told you not to worry

Peter

I know Ms Nat, but after everything with Mr Falcon and the Sinister Six

Are you all ok?

‏Ms Nat

‏On bike, call

Peter

Oh, ok, if you don't mind

-

Pete sits by his desk, setting his phone down expectantly, a call with Nat's contact info appearing immediately. "Ms Nat? Hello?", He asks as soon as he presses the green button. "Hey Peter, how're you doing?", she responds, her sweet voice backed by the murmur of a motor.

"Sorry if this is a bad time", Natasha pays no mind to his apologetics, waving him off. "Nah, I'm in Medford. It's over an hour's drive back so I could use the company", she assures, "what do you wanna know?". Peter goes through the many news articles opened on his laptop, all a mere couple hours long. "What happened last night? I heard it lasted for hours are you guys ok?".

Nat smiles under her helmet, Peter's worry for them in spite of everything they've done to him. "We're all fine", she groans, her way to pass off a lie, "we were just... overwhelmed and a little banged up. Nothing to worry about".

This does not work. "But I am worried Ms Nat!", Peter whines back, "I was right, they are my problem, I left them to you guys and look how that turned out!". Nat can hear the guilt in his voice, an emotion she's not unfamiliar with. She sighs, "You're catastrophising, it wasn't that bad".

To her surprise, it produced a sharp and demanding tone from Peter, punctuated in each word. "What. Happened?", Pete asks again, much closer to a demand than before. "I know about Sam, I presume you're gonna want to hear that first?", Peter nods, forgetting what an 'voice call' is for a second, "Umm, yes".

She pulls up her report voice. "Barton and Sam were both sent after Vulture, took them hours for him to resurface again. Tried out flying and shooting him down but he overpowered Wilson and that's how you found him-". "Hang on", Peter cuts in confused, "Did they fight Toomes in the air?".

"Yes", Natasha responds, unsure where he was going with it. He whined again in response, with undertones of frustration, "You can't beat vulture in the air", he replies, "You need to keep him low, use the extra obstacles to your advantage and immobilising him".

Nat narrows her eyes, curious and pensively on her end. "What would you have done? Who would you have sent?", She tests, wanting to see the kid's strategy. Didn't even bother him, Peter summoning up an answer within a second. "You and Mr Hulk", he supplies matter of factly, "He has the strength to wreck his wings and catch him, and you'd have the agility to lead him into the trap. Avoids a direct fight".