"How many times have you woken up hooked up to something in the past two years?" Tony asked from besides Peters med bay bed.

"Too many to count." Peter laughed softly.  "More than what's healthy."

"What's healthy is none," Steve laughed.

They had gotten a little bit closer recently.  While Peter was healing in the med bay, they had come down a lot and they would talk about almost everything but the attack. 

"We want to make sure that you are ready to talk about it," Tony told him soon after he came down yesterday after the attack. It definitely made Peter feel more open.  He knew it would change when they finally asked, but he enjoyed the closeness that they had again, if only just for a little while.

Peter had been in there overnight.  He wasn't in a terrible state, thanks to his healing.  I mean, he had to get a bullet pulled out of his leg before his quick healing sealed it in, but he'd been through worse.

Bruce, Natasha and Sasha came in earlier that morning, when his dads were getting him breakfast (a meal consisting of toaster waffles and pop tarts - now that Thor was gone, they actually had a chance to eat the pop tarts they bought.  Dang, Peter missed that god of thunder.)  Sasha was in her moms' arms and held a piece of paper in her hand.

"Thank you, Pete," Natasha said, setting down Sasha, who ran over to Peter and hugged him.

"Yeah, I don't want to think about what would've happened if you weren't here."  Bruce shook his head.  "Thank you."

Sasha gave Peter the paper she had.  On the paper was a drawing of Spider-Man and Sasha holding hands.  In neat handwriting - Nats, he assumed - it said you're my favorite Avenger!  And Get Better Soon!

Peter, you're stronger than this.  Don't-

Peter was ready to cry. That was really cute.  "Thanks, Sasha.  I really needed this.  It's beautiful."  He hugged Sasha again.

They had talked for a while longer before Tony and Steve came in with his food and they left.

Now, Peter was talking to his dads about random things.

"How are things with MJ?" Steve asked eventually.

"I don't even know. I haven't really talked to her since the reunion. Mostly because I haven't had my phone."

"Now, Pete, you can't rely on technology to keep you in contact with your friends," His dad told him. "I mean, look at your pops. When he was your age, they didn't have any mo-bile phones." He acted like an old man, causing Steve to laugh and playfully hit him.

"'Don't rely on technology.' That's a lot coming right from you, Mr. Ironman." Steve shook his head and kissed Tony's cheek. Tony replied by turning and kissing him on the lips.

"Ewwwwww," Peter laughed. "This is why I don't hang out with you guys."

"You love us," Steve said, an arm around Tony now.

"I never said I didn't love you, I just said I don't hang out with you."

"Fair enough."

"Though, actually, now that you mention your phone, you're able to have it back now," Steve said, pulling it out of his pocket. "I grabbed it when we got your food, but I forgot to actually give it to you."

Peter smiled as Steve set it into his hands.  He turned it on, seeing his usual lock screen photo of a spidey selfie on top of the Empire State Building.  On the screen were a long list of notifications.  Lots of them as messages from MJ and Ned, and one missed call yesterday from-

"No!!!!"  Peter threw his phone onto the bed and held his face in his hands.

"Everything okay, Pete?"  Tony asked slowly.  "Did someone die, or..."

"The one time they call back, I don't have my phone."  He laid back, clutching his phone in hand.  He held it over his chest.  "End me."

"Who was it?" Tony asked, confused. "The president? Thor? No, he doesn't have a phone."

"It's no one," Peter said, shaking his head. "Forget it. I don't think I'm gonna actually get them to respond when I have my phone, so..."

Steve and Tony shared a look. "Okay then..." Steve shrugged.

"Well, anyway, you can get out of here in a few hours. With the bullet taken out and your healing, you should be out of this bed by the end of the day."

Peter sat back up. "Oh hallelujah. I never want to be stuck in a hospital bed again."

"Well, I hate to break it to ya, but if you're Spider-Man, then I'm assuming you're sadly gonna have a few more hospitalizations," Tony told him. "No matter how many heart attacks it causes me and your pops to have."

"Yeah, true." Peter nodded and started looking through the messages MJ sent.

What's going on? You've been acting strange lately.

You okay? If you need to talk, I'm here.

Ned says that he's sorry about what happened.

Did you get your phone taken away?

Jeez, why is everyone making such a big deal out the punch? You didn't kill a man.

Ned sent a few as well.

Pete, I'm sorry. I just got upset. I don't want either of us to be in trouble.

You probably got your phone taken away, but I'm gonna text you anyways.

That lady at the press conference was nuts. I'm sorry about what happened.

Peter felt bad about keeping it from MJ. If he wanted to be closer to her, then he couldn't keep telling her lies. He needed to be honest.

His parents knew. His best friend knew.  The Avengers knew.  A group of men knew.  But not MJ.  I mean, she probably suspected it by now, but she didn't know.  She deserved to. 

Peter heard his dads talking, but he wasn't paying attention.  He was thinking.

He needed to tell her.  If so many other people knew, then why not just tell her?  If he wanted her to trust him more, then she needed to know.

I just got my phone back after being grounded.  Listen, just meet me tomorrow in Central Park.  I'll explain everything there. 

He didn't know how she would react.  He hoped she would understand why he didn't tell her in the first place.

The weight of keeping it from so many people was starting to drag Peter down.  It would be nice to let one more person know.

His dads talked and talked, barely even noticing that he wasn't paying attention.  For the most part, they were only talking to each other rather than Peter.  He was fine with that.

He'd tell her tomorrow.  He needed to.  For MJ.  For himself. 

A/N: Hey guys!  Hope that you enjoyed this chapter.  Not a great chapter, but things are about to get much better.  I have a few things I do want to say. 

First of all: thank you for your comments.  Whether it was on Spider-Man: Unmasked, or on this book, I appreciate them.  I'm always happy when I get a notification saying that I have a new comment.  Whether it is pointing something out, a joke, telling me how much you liked it, I really appreciate it.  Thank you.

Also, I was thinking about the stony wedding thing I talked about earlier.  I was thinking of doing a short... story... thing.  A few chapters, each chapter is sort of like a little... clip of something from Stony's relationship before Peter.  I don't know if that makes sense, but basically one chapter could be them meeting the first time, another their proposal, their wedding, etc.  It wouldn't be long.  Thoughts?  If you're not interested, that's fine, but I just want to know your guys' thoughts.  Let me know. 

Thanks for everything, guys.  💜