As soon as Wanda realized she had hurt Peter, regret hit her hard in the gut. Now that she was a mother herself, the sight of someone so young who had been hurt by what she did had a whole new effect on her. What if that had been Tommy, or Billy, who she hit?

'What if that was Pierto?' her mind had asked her. She'd hit Peter with that blast, just like Pietro had been hit with bullets, and he had saved Director Hayward, just like Pietro had saved Clint so many years ago.

The scene was all too familiar to her.

Slowly stepping forward, she watched the shallow rise and fall of his chest and let out a small gasp upon seeing the smoke that came up from his body. Beside her, the power in her hands diminished completely and the smell of burning flesh filled the air as the guns were aimed back at her. She didn't care, though. Instead, she blinked back tears of shock and stood still, her stare unmoving as two people, a man in an FBI uniform and a woman with glasses, ran towards the boy, the man kneeling beside him and waving his arms to call medics over while the woman screamed and tried to feel for a pulse.

"Stand down, Wanda! Stand down!" A woman shouted, most likely Geraldine, or Monica. Whatever her name was.

"Look at what you're doing, Wanda!" The man shouted, the one she was aiming for, and she finally looked away from Peter (''Pietro,' her mind supplied) and back to him. "You're hurting people. You've stolen a corpse, taken an entire town hostage, and now you've hurt a child! How much longer is this going to go on?! How many more people have to be mind controlled, hurt, even killed?! How selfish do you have to be?!"

Wanda stopped dead in her tracks and froze. She was doing this for Vision, for her boys, for everyone. If anything, she was being selfless, risking everything she had for them. Couldn't they see that?

With a huff, she turned around, walking back to the barrier and pried it open, ignoring the screams and protests behind her, yelling for her to come back, yelling for her to fix this. She would not allow herself to be ridiculed for helping her family. With that thought in mind, she crossed the barrier back into Westview and made sure to close, to seal, the opening behind her, before she continued making her way back to her home; back to her family, who would be there for her.

'I know what I'm doing is right,' she thought to herself. 'They just don't understand how alone I was and how empty I felt. I'm doing this for my family, no one else. And now one else will get in my way. But that poor boy...'

She didn't want to hurt anyone, especially someone who didn't deserve it. Someone who once again just ended up on the wrong side of things. But that was exactly what she did, and couldn't help but think of it. 'What if he's dead? What if I killed him?'

'Just like I killed all those people in Lagos...'

She ran over to one of the trash cans and barely managed to hover over it before she puked. The images flooded back to her mind of the fact that his body was smoking and he was struggling to breathe.

The same feeling she got when she killed the innocent civilians in Lagos hit her. The regret, the guilt, the terror and panic she felt at being declared a monster, at seeing not only her name, but also the body count flash across the TV screens... everything flooded back, and it hit her all at once.

She coughed a few more times before standing up and recomposing herself. Vision and the boys couldn't see her like this. She had to be strong for them.

She finished the walk back to the house, trying to keep her mind as clear as possible, and opened the door, seeing the absolute mess that was the living room. "What happened in here?" She asked, shutting the door behind her as Billy and Tommy popped up from behind the couch.

"We were trying to fold the laundry for you." Tommy smiled at her.

"But then the laundry war started," Billy finished.

"Okay, I'll handle this." She spoke calmly, picking up one of Vision's dress shirts off the floor and setting it on the couch, smoothing out the wrinkles with her hands. "You boys go clean your room, we'll have dinner in a bit."

She smiled, watching them disappear up the stairs before she got to work on folding the clothing normally, having decided to give her powers a break for a few hours. It was as if she was acting on autopilot, though, arranging the laundry with her hands moving on their own, because as she sorted out the clothes, all she could think was 'What have I done?'

•••

Darcy tapped her fingers against her arm as she stood beside Jimmy and Director Hayward, trying to calm herself down. The scene rushed through her head again and again.

•••

"Wanda!" Monica shouted as she took a few steps ahead. Raising her arms slightly, she commanded the rest of their agents to lower their weapons, trying to settle the situation before it grew too intense. "Stand down, Wanda! Stand down!"

Having raced to Peter just moments ago, as soon as the blast hit him, Darcy stayed on her knees beside him and, instead, hovered her hands over his body, not knowing what to touch or if she could touch him at all, for fear of causing him more pain, even in his unconscious state. Beside her, Jimmy lay on his knees, wagging his arms and calling people over because "Medics! We need medics here now!" and while Darcy was happy that at least one of them knew what to do, her mind was still yelling at her, still screaming at her to do something, because smoke was still steaming from his body and what was the point of being there if she couldn't even offer anything?

Formulating a plan in her head and deciding not to let her emotions show, if only so Hayward wouldn't throw her off the base for getting personally involved in a situation like this, Darcy decided it was best to leave the burning skin on the on the superhero's torso alone ('the medics can deal with that,' she thought to herself), and, instead, started to search for a pulse. That...was the most important thing, wasn't it? Because if Peter didn't have a pulse, that would mean he had no heartbeat, and no heartbeat would mean he wasn't breathing, and Peter didn't look like he was...

'Oh, no...'

Her hands trembling, Darcy placed her index and middle finger against the side of Peter's neck and forced herself to stay still as she checked for a pulse. Around her, she saw the medics racing towards them from the corner of her eye and could hear Jimmy's voice instructing them on what to do, but she closed her eyes and forced herself to tune the sounds out. Peter was what was important now. He was...what, sixteen, seventeen? Definitely no less than less than fifteen for sure, and he was so young. He had so much life left to live in him.

Upon finally feeling a pulse (a weak one, but one that was there nevertheless), Darcy let out a breath or relief and rose to her feet. "He's...He's got a pulse," she told the medics as they ushered her away and, instead, flashed a light in the boy's eyes and snipped away at his burnt clothing. "it-it's weak, but it's there, and...and it could be a sign of shock, so you have to..."

Feeling someone's hand on her shoulder, Darcy let herself be dragged away from the scene, but still couldn't keep her mind off of it and couldn't drag her eyes from it as well. 'All that smoke...' she thought to herself. If Wanda had hit Hayward...

"Hey," the person walking her away from the scene said, and Darcy realized soon enough that it was Jimmy. "Don't focus on that now. The medics are tending to him, and he's gonna be okay, alright?"

•••

And that was how Darcy found herself now; standing with Jimmy and Hayward inside the small medical bay that SWORD had set up at their base. The same one Monica had found herself in when she left Westview, just a week or two prior.

Still finding her mind racing from the events that had just taken place a little over two hours ago, Darcy focused on the tip-tapping of her fingers against her elbow. 'Breathe," she told herself. Her fingers tapping against her arm had been her one constant since Peter was blasted, and she needed something to help her escape from the tick-tocking of the clock. 'You found a pulse, he's being taken care of.'

At that moment, though, it seemed time had finally granted Darcy's wish of not having to wait anymore, as the EMT who had treated Monica a week ago finally came up to the three with a tablet in their hands.

"Well?" Hayward asked, gruffly.

"You three are lucky," the EMT replied and Darcy released a breath of relief. "You, especially, sir," they said to Hayward specifically, before turning their attention back to the group. "If any one of you had taken that blast, you would've died. Luckily, Peter is going to live, but he does have a severe, inflamed burn on his chest that spans down to his stomach. On top of that, I'm also concerned about his fever and a possible concussion, but the fever should break with rest and fluids, and the concussion will be dealt with once he wakes up."

"And that's everything?" Jimmy chimed in.

"Everything except for the oxygen mask, but that's just a precaution because of the smoke inhalation. Otherwise, he's fine."

"Alright. Thank you for the update, sir." Director Hayward nodded at the EMT, who walked back toward Peter, before Hayward turned to Jimmy and Darcy and looked them in the eyes. "Once Mr. Parker wakes up, I'm calling Secretary Ross. Peter wasn't able to help us, so he's going back to The Raft."

"But you can't do that!" Darcy protested, growing increasingly angry at the man. Peter was just a kid! He didn't deserve any of the disrespect he was getting, and she knew that things would only get worse if he went back to the Raft. Besides, he just saved Hayward's life; that had to count for something, right?

"Actually," Director Hayward spoke back, snarkily, "I believe I can, Dr. Lewis; and I believe that sending Mr. Parker back to the Raft was one of the conditions you two agreed to when you spoke with Secretary Ross, was it not?"

Sensing things were getting intense, Jimmy stepped in, but that didn't mean Darcy still didn't feel like yelling at their superior. "With all due respect, Director," Jimmy said, possibly saving Darcy from losing her job, "maybe we could work something out."

Hayward nodded in response, and the two had then walked away, with Jimmy giving her a reassuring smile as they left. Taking a deep breath to settle her nerves a little bit, Darcy had then ran a hand over her face, before she made her way to Peter's medical room and sat down beside the boy, giving his left, IV free hand a gentle squeeze.

Despite his condition, and the fact that bandages were peeking out from under his hospital gown, his eyes were closed and he almost seemed... peaceful.

"I'm sorry for dragging you into this." She spoke in a way that she could barely hear herself, so she highly doubted that he could hear her. "You've been through a lot already, and I just added onto it... I'm sorry, again. And I don't apologize often."

Hearing footsteps behind her, Darcy had then looked up to see Jimmy approaching her and gave him a sad smile. "What'd he say?" she asked, mentally preparing herself.

"We have a week, maybe a week and a half, max. Hayward's giving us 'til Peter's healed because he'll "hopefully have Wanda in custody by then" and can ship them both back to the Raft," Jimmy explained and, despite him keeping his cool during this entire job, she could definitely hear the anger in his voice. "We have to find a loophole to keep him out of there, and we have to do it as soon as possible. I don't want to send him back to that place, even like this."

Darcy nodded, starting to think. There had to be something they could do! Some sort of loophole to get Peter home with his family. That's when it clicked.

"Wait! When's Peter's birthday?" she asked, hurriedly.

"Uh... it was just a few weeks ago," Jimmy replied. "August tenth. He should be seventeen now."

"Seventeen?" Darcy repeated.

"Seventeen," Jimmy confirmed. "Why?"

"Because," Darcy said, excitedly, "Peter's seventeen and he hasn't had his trial yet, let alone a sentencing."

"...Which means he can't be held for longer than twelve hours under New York law," Jimmy finished, smiling in relief. "And the Raft is in New York."

"So we can work something out with Ross, and get him to let Peter go in exchange for not ratting him out to his superiors."

"I'm gonna call him now," Jimmy insisted, as he took his phone out of his pocket. "If he can't be held anymore, then I'm gonna see if I can get him under house arrest, like Scott. He'll still be in trouble, but at least then he'll be back with his aunt."

Seeing Jimmy had left, Darcy turned back to Peter, who was still unconscious, and gave his hand another hopeful squeeze. "We're gonna get you back home, Peter," she told him. "We're gonna get you back to your family."