2 months later

Healing went for Nora went about as well as you'd think it would.

The first few days were rocky. Nora spent most of her free time at the hospital. She didn't want to go home, it was too quiet. Yes, her brother and sister were home, but not as often as she thought. Aliya had a job, Rafe had his life, most of the time it was her on her own, forced to listen to voice in her head telling her that it was all her fault, that her father was half dead because of her, that her siblings now barely had a mother left while she had no one. To fight this voice, she drowned it out with the din of the hospital, there she could distract herself enough to listen to something else.

So, she practically made her father's room into a second bedroom, she wouldn't take the bus home anymore, and if she did, she'd take the city bus to the hospital. There she would do her homework, watch over her dad and, in the short few weeks she was there, try and reconnect with Cindy. Nora was so shocked when her old friend had asked who she was that night, that she had ran out of the room. She returned a few days later, as if she hadn't bolted out but nothing had changed. Cindy still looked at her with unknowing, slightly frightened eyes at the girl who, to her, seemed to be out of her mind. It hurt, looking into those eyes and seeing yourself as a complete stranger. Nari still had no idea what had happened to her daughter, claiming she just showed up at their new house with no recollection of where she was or who she was.

Nora would've stayed longer, to try and reconnect with her friend and salvage what they once had, but something always stopped her, and that something was the white and gold suit she had folded in her bag.

For awhile, the line between Nora and Mercy became rather blurry. If she wasn't in the hospital, she was out on the streets, sometimes with Peter, but mostly she was on her own. Not that Peter abandoned her, in fact, he didn't even know she was going out to fight without him. Those guns those men had used that night were something she had never seen before, and if they had gotten their hands on them, then chances were there would be more where that came from. She just needed to find out where they came from, and if that meant doing it on her own, then she would.

Right now, she was curled up in the armchair beside her father's bedside, textbook opened as she took down some last minute notes. Summer had come and gone and sophomore year was rearing it's awful head so she had taken to her books for the last few weeks, trying to get her summer reading done. Nora rolled her neck, feeling the yellowing bruise from hours ago become aggravated at the action. Visiting hours were coming to an end, but the idea of packing up her stuff and leaving him made Nora so uneasy. She rubbed the side of her face, the cool feeling of her palm making her sigh before she stood up, stuffing her chemistry book into her bag, careful not to touch the gauntlets. After slinging it over her shoulder, she looked over to her dad, watching his scarred chest rise and fall, wounds unlike the doctors had ever seen before, and bent down to press a kiss to his forehead. "See you tomorrow, dad." she whispered before she walked out into the hallway.

The subway ride home was filled with spotify playlists and checking various social media accounts of hers. She checked a few snapchats, sending a few to Michelle who was asking if she needed to do the human best friend thing and come over to talk. Nora appreciated her want to try, but declined politely. Although a smile did come to her face at the fact that Michelle(or MJ, because her friends called her that) called her her best friend. It was boring, uneventful, which made Nora surprisingly uneasy.

For the past year, her life had been as chaotic as it could get. With her double life, she was constantly on the go, which made her forget how boring and mundane her real life was. School was unbearable at times with how slow everything went. She couldn't wait until the clock turned to 2:45 when she could switch into her costume and play hero for a few hours, but when summer came around, it was hard to balance her real life with her much more exciting superhero life, especially since she had promised her siblings she wouldn't let it take over her life.

She knew it was hard for Peter too, Ned had started to come over a lot more, so he had to make sure everything was hidden and had to walk on egg shells whenever they talked about the red and blue wall crawler. Not only that, but trying to sneak away from aunt May was a hard battle to win too, for she was constantly asking for Nora to come over for dinner, or to officially meet Nora, or something to do with Nora. Peter had told her that his aunt was seemingly obsessed with his girlfriend, or maybe the fact that he had snagged someone as pretty as her. Nora had blushed furiously at that, embarrassed that that stupid line had worked far too well on her.

Eventually, they had all found a night that suited them, and it happened to be that night.

Nora got off the subway with a new set of nerves, walking to the Parker residence as if she was about to apply for a job interview. She texted Ned about it, and he just about lost his damn mind at the fact that they had been dating for two months and they were already taking the "next step" as he called it. Nora had rolled her eyes at his text, before claiming that it was just a dinner with his aunt. Five minutes later she had to listen to a four minute rant about how this was so much more than that. Trust Ned to be the relationship guru, especially since they had broken up before and he wanted to preserve this. At the time, she had dismissed him, but now, as she pressed the elevator button, she probably should've listened a little bit more to what he had to say.

"Okay." she said to herself, taking a deep breath when she came to the door. Rapping on the door with her knuckles twice, the young girl rocked on her heels for a few moments before May answered. Peter had poked his head out from the kitchen, his face breaking out into a grin. Nora's heart fluttered, her own lips beginning to curl into a smile. "Hi, Mrs. Parker."

"Come on, Nora, you make me sound like I'm eighty years old." Nora felt an embarrassed blush creep up her neck. "It's May, okay?"

"Yeah, May, sorry." the aforementioned aunt stepped back to let her in, where she set her backpack down next to the couch before continuing over to the kitchen where Peter was, wearing a stupid apron that made him look like a god with rippling abs. "Loving the look." she quipped, making him groan.

"Ned." was all he had to say for her to get exactly what he meant. Birthday presents from that boy were the definition of a surprise. As she giggled, he snaked an arm around her waist, pulling her in for a side hug. "Hey," he said softly.

"Hey," she said back, pressing a kiss to his cheek. "So, what are we making?"

"My famous chicken casserole." May said proudly, fixing her glasses.

"So, New York's finest Thai restaurant." Peter joked, before dodging a dish cloth being thrown at him. 

"You're lucky your girlfriend here to save you." May pointed at her, to which she held up her hands in surrender.

"Nope, sorry Peter, you're on your own."

The boy feigned an offended look. "I'll remember this."

To the surprise of both Parkers, the casserole actually came out of the oven at the colour it should've been, making it somewhat edible. As Nora took bites of it, she wasn't sure if the chicken was supposed to taste like it was dipped in sawdust, but she choked it down, knowing it would look terrible if she didn't finish. Dinner was filled with menial chatter, returning to school as a sophomore being one of the topics of conversation. Peter was excited about returning to school, telling his aunt he was excited to go back to band and robotics, even though he had quit those well before freshmen year ended because of the fact that he had more of a pressing matter, what with the "stark internship" and all. Nora had supported him, if he wanted to be an Avenger as much as she thought he did, things like band and decathlon would take a back seat. She just hoped he knew how to balance the lying and the stories he'd need to tell to convince his aunt that he was still part of those clubs.

"And what about you, Nora, are you excited to go back?"

Nora thought about it for a moment, truly unsure if she was or not. On one hand, she was, she would get to see Michelle a lot more, she could focus her attention on something other than her father but on the other hand, she wouldn't be with her dad as much anymore. The fear that he would wake up and she wouldn't be there was a constant thing now. Aliya had promised that if it did happen, she would pull her out of school as fast as she could to go see him. "Um, kind of, I mean I won't see my dad that much anymore, but I guess it's better that I don't spend every waking minute around him."

She could see the regret take over May's body as she sighed. "God, I'm sorry Nora, I didn't mean—"

"It's fine, seriously." her hands balling the hem of her shirt under the table spoke otherwise. "He's stable, all we need to do is wait for him to wake up. I suppose a watched kettle never boils."

From the other side of the dinner table, Peter felt his heart sink at her sad smile. It sank even lower when she stood up, bringing her plate to the kitchen, politely declining May's moves to do the work for her. His aunt turned back to him, shaking her head at him. "I'm sorry." she whispered.

Peter smiled at her. "You did nothing wrong." he told her, getting up and placing a comforting hand on her shoulder before walking over to the girl now placing the plate into the dishwasher. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm good." she responded, although she wasn't looking at him. Peter frowned, walking over to her so that he was in her line of vision. Even though it had only been two months that they had been together, being partners for nearly a year made the two of them hyperaware of the others body language. Whenever Peter was down, he'd keep making the move to push up his glasses, which weren't there, or forget to gel his hair back, leaving it curly and wild. Meanwhile whenever Nora was down, she wouldn't look someone in the eye, she would distract herself with something that required her to look anywhere that wasn't direct eye contact. Now, seemed to be one of those moments as she went about the kitchen, cleaning everywhere she went.

Usually, when Nora tried to cheer him up, she reached for the blankets and sweets, putting on the original star wars trilogy and pretending as if this was the first time she'd ever watched them. She'd ask questions about different species, about the Jedi and about certain scenes. She'd keep his mind busy enough to forget about why he was down. Peter needed noise, Nora needed quiet. An idea popped into his head. He placed a soft grip around her wrist, stopping her from cleaning even more. "Come with me,"

"Peter, I'm fi—"

"Come with me." 

-

That little shit had brought her to the roof.

She had thought, when they entered his room, that they would have some sort of therapy session, but when he opened his opened his window and disappeared out of it, Nora was throughly confused. She rushed to the door, closing it shut before running to the open window. "Peter!" she hissed, trying to figure out where her boyfriend had gone. It was only when she saw a thick string of webbing fall in front of her eyes, did she start to get what he was trying to do. "This can't be safe!" she called up to him.

"Just climb up!" he laughed. Nora shook her head for a moment, before clambering out of the window and climbing up the wall. She laughed at herself, now who was the wall crawler.

It took her a few minutes to safety reach the roof, where she found Peter sitting on the edge, chomping into a sour gummy worm. He was right next to the string of webbing, free hand slightly out in case he had to do anything, but when he could see her climb up onto the ledge, he smiled. "Fancy seeing you here." he commented.

"You're an idiot." was all she said as she sat down, a little out of breath. Her eyes caught the gummy worms and dived into them. Peter detached the webbing from the ledge, letting it glide through the air, the wind taking it where it wished. Nora took this moment as an opening to scoot closer to him, moving the gummy worms to her side, much to his protest. It was just beginning to get dark out, so the city was beginning to light up. The sky around them was a beautiful mix of deep purples and fiery oranges as the sun was nearing it's descent. In the distance, she could hear the clatter of the train as the warm august breeze blew around them. Peter was happily kicking his legs around, taking in his surroundings before he felt Nora lay her head on his shoulder. He turned a little to see her sigh. "Your aunt probably thinks I hate her now."

"I doubt it. She's kind of got a knack for stuffing her foot in her mouth."

"I had fun, really, she's really nice and super funny."

"Well, tell her that and she may just fall in love with you."

Nora giggled, and Peter was slightly proud to make her laugh. He pressed a kiss to her hair, before tilting his head so that his cheek was pressed to the top of her head. "What's with all the affection?" she asked. "What did you do?"

"Can't I just enjoy a nice, quiet moment with my kickass girlfriend?"

Feigning reluctance, she drawled out. "I guess."

Peter felt that if he smiled anymore, his cheeks would break, but he couldn't help it. The whole situation reminded him of how they first met, as Spider-Man and Mercy, gummy worms and all. "And besides, you deserve it. You've had a shitty few weeks and it is your boyfriends job to make you feel better." he felt her chuckle against him.

"Why do I get the feeling that Ned told you that?"

"It's shocking how much he knows. I'm beginning to think he has a secret girlfriend or something."

A few moments of silence settled between them. The two of them just watching the city before them adjust to the night life. Every now and then the two would reach for the gummy worms, but it had ended up with their hands just entangled together. "Thank you." Nora whispered, lifting her head to look at him. "I needed this."

"I guessed."

"It's just...hard to deal with this."

"You're not alone, you know. You've got Aliya and Rafe," he seemed to hesitate for a second before he spoke again. "You've got me."

Her eyes softened, staring at him with an adoration that made butterflies buzz in his stomach. "I know, I suppose I'm just feeling sorry for myself." he squeezed her hand, watching her take a deep breath. "Aliya and Rafe are trying, but they are dealing with it in their own ways. Aliya's burying herself in work and Rafe is locked up in his room all the time. Alone doesn't begin to describe how I feel."

"I get how you feel. When Ben died, I thought no one understood how it felt to lose someone so close."

Nora gave him a sympathetic smile. "It's like losing a limb."

"It's like losing all of them."

The atmosphere began to turn heavy at that point, but to them, they needed to talk about this. The two months after the ball was made up of them trying to ignore what had happened, but now it was out in the open, they had talked about it even though it was for a short amount of time. Nora felt like she could stay there for hours, just talking and taking everything in, but they were interrupted by the sound of her phone vibrating.

FROM: THE SISTER ONE

if you have any chance of waking up for school, then you should probably come home soon x

Nora smiled at the text, before turning to Peter. "I'm being summoned at home."

"Yeah, it's getting kind of late. I'm surprised May hasn't gone looking for us." 

They both stood up, balancing on the ledge, the wind breezing past them as he began to fire up his web shooters again. Nora watched him work for a moment before she took a few steps toward him, tilting his head down to bring his lips to hers. It took him a moment to register what she was doing, PDA like this was something he still had to get used to, but after a second his hand went down to sit at her waist. The kiss only lasted a minute, but when she stepped away, he looked like a deer caught in headlights. "What was that for?" he asked, eyes blinking dumbly.

"Because you've had a shitty number of weeks too, and it is your girlfriend's job to make you feel better."

Another string of webbing attached to the ledge before he pulled her close to him.

"Mission accomplished."

-

not edited

A/N: Ugh, I feel like this isn't one of the greatest chapters ever, my writing hasn't been great these past few weeks, so I apologise if this chapter sucks. 

If you expect more fast updates, you've another thing coming. I have study nearly everyday, saturday included, so my writing is going to take a beating. 

However, this chapter was supposed to be about where Nora is in her life, with her dad, her siblings and Peter. I hope it came across well. 

See you guys whenever I can, lmao.

Comment, vote & follow! - Emma