𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐍𝐄𝐗𝐓 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐋𝐈𝐄 𝐑𝐄𝐌𝐄𝐌𝐁𝐄𝐑𝐒 is a bright light shining in her eyes.

"Hi, hon." It's a kind woman with round glasses and long, straight brown hair. Her smile is warm. "You're alright. You took a pretty bad hit- don't move, honey. Can you open your eyes for me?"

The lady's mouth is moving too fast. Charlie doesn't like it.

She blinks. The lady's face is swimming in and out of Charlie's vision, darkness swing and crumbling at the edges. She keeps multiplying- doubling, tripling- before merging back into one, then starting all over again.

Charlie doesn't like it.

The lady's mouth is still moving, and she's holding Charlie's face gently with cool fingers. She knows logically that this is a doctor of some kind- she's in a hospital, she's gathered that much- but everything is happening too fast, and the lights are too loud.

The lights are too loud, but light doesn't make noise, and Charlie doesn't like it at all.

"Someone get Mr. Stark and the Captain, please!" The lady calls, and Charlie squeezes her eyes shut as the sound swims around her. "Easy, honey. I'm going to turn your head a little bit so I can look at where you hit it, okay?"

Then the fingers are back on her skin and- that's touch. That's touch, and Charlie doesn't like touch.

There are memories in the back of her head, but she can't make sense of them.

She can't understand the panic rising up into her chest as the lady's hands stay on her, touching and touching and touching-

Then her dads' faces are there- blond and brown mixing together, their mouth moving as they too flicker in and out of her brain. Tony and Steve. Tony looks sad and Steve looks angry. Dad and Pops.

Dad is looking at the lady who's touching her head. "She's got PTSD. Touch can kind of set her off." But the words are moving too slow for his mouth, and it doesn't make sense.

"That explains... heart rate..." The lady is suddenly right in her face. "Hi, honey. Can you hear me?"

Charlie tries to say she can- she can feel her jaw working, but she's not sure she knows what's coming out until next thing she knows-

It's dark now, the blinds pulled over the windows, and there's a blueish tint to the room.

"Charlie." It's Natasha, her pretty red hair pulled back, her feet propped up onto a chair. "Charlie. Charlie."

Charlie stares at her. "What?" She slurs.

She is wearing an itchy hospital gown, beneath some plain white sheets that aren't keeping her warm.

Natasha suddenly has her hand on Charlie's back, helping her sit up for a moment as Charlie coughs weakly, completely unable to move herself.

"Charlie," Natasha says. Why does she keep saying that? Has she been saying it for a while? "You hit your head, honey. You're concussed. It's alright."

Charlie blinks slowly, trying to focus on her face.

"Honey, do you understand me?" Natasha presses.

"You understand me?" Charlie repeats. She looks at her hand, trying to clench it, but it's too weak. She lifts it up and lets it flop back into the bed.

"No, Charlie," Natasha says, her eyes boring into hers. Natasha has pretty green eyes. Charlie wants green eyes. "Do you understand that you've got a concussion? You're concussed."

Charlie is thinking. She's thinking so hard, but her brain is fuzzy. But concussion... concussion. She hit her head, right?

She wants to feel her head, see where she hit it- but her hand feels like it's full of pins and needles, like the blood has come rushing back into it.

She tries the other hand. That one works. She reaches up and weakly pats her head, but she doesn't really feel anything. Her hair feels tangled, though.

Natasha's hair doesn't look tangled. Charlie reaches up and touches it instead. It feels nicer against Charlie's palm, and she starts petting Natasha with limp fingers.

Nat sighs. She leans over and pushes the nurse call button. "Too soon. Alright, honey. Just hold on. Dad and Pops will be right back."

"I'm concussed," Charlie says.

Nat's brows furrow slightly. "Yep. That you are."

"Yep," Charlie repeats. She blinks slowly. "You are?"

"No, honey. You are."

"Yep," Charlie mumbles.

Natasha is slowly tracing her thumb against her cheek, and it feels nice. "I hope you're not too busted up. This is killing your Dad."

"Busted up. We're busted," Charlie said coherently.

Natasha sighs in defeat. "Sure, honey."

"Busted. Buster. Buster," Charlie hums the last word and she feel Natasha lean her head back onto the pillows.

Buster. Buster... was a dog name. Charlie used to want a dog. Her dads had taken her to the shelter when she was seven, because they were going to get her one. Buster. But right after that... she got stuck somewhere, didn't she? Afghanistan.

Something happened in Afghanistan. Buster. There was a mean man with mean hands and bad breath. He'd stuck his face between the bars of her cell. He'd yelled something. He'd yelled-

"Boo!"

A bewildered nurse looks down at her. Charlie looks around the room- it's light now. Natasha isn't here anymore. Now it's the nice lady with brown hair.

"You trying to scare me?" The nurse says. Her voice is teasing.

Tony's hand is running through her hair and she looks up at him. He looks tired- smiling weakly at her as the nurse fusses with something in her arm.

"You're gonna feel a little poke, okay, Charlie?" The nurse tells her.

"Poke," Charlie repeats, booping Tony on the nose. She smiles lazily at him, just drinking in his face as he looks at her. "Love you three thousand."

"Love you more, bubs," Tony says without missing a beat, chuckling a little bit. He looks up at the nurse. "May, are you sure this is... normal? The babbling? I swear to you she's intelligent- most of the time."

May?

Charlie flops her head back to look at the nurse.

"It's just a concussion," May nods. "There's not any permanent damage. She's going to be a bit disoriented for a little while, but she'll be okay. We're only keeping her here to monitor the active brain activity and make sure nothing goes wrong."

May. Her brown eyes are familiar. So are her glasses. Charlie knows her. Why does she know her?

There's a nametape on her scrubs, but Charlie can't read it. She stares more intently at her, before it clicks. Peter... Parker. He said his aunt was a nurse. His aunt's name is May. This nurse's name is May.

Oh no, she's not supposed to say that. She can't talk about Peter or she's gonna get in trouble for sneaking out.

"S' a secret," she says loudly.

Tony stares at her. "Say what?"

Charlie shakes her head. "Can't tell you," she insists. "Secret."

"Alright, bambina." Tony kissed her hairline affectionately. "That's okay. You'll spill eventually."

May is smiling. She smiles a lot. Charlie likes her. "I forgot you're Italian. It's nice to her someone else speak it; I've been trying to teach my kids for ages."

"You're Italian?" Tony is smiling too.

"Both my parents were born in Florence," May says. "It always had a big influence in my house growing up. My sister, Mary, spoke it better than all of us."

Tony picks up on the past tense, and Charlie watches as he steers the conversation a little bit. "You have kids?"

"Two of them. They're twins- my niece and nephew, Penny and Peter. I took them in when they were about six, after Mary and her husband passed." May says. "They're both fifteen- about Charlie's age."

"No," Charlie says, staring at May with wide eyes. "Secret. Shh."

Tony looks at her strangely. He waves his hand at May. "No idea. Don't worry about it."

May shakes her head. "How are your ears, sweetheart? Still ringing? You said they were a bit earlier."

She did? Ringing, like a doorbell.

"Ding dong," Charlie answers, satisfied.

"What did you just call me?" Tony raises an eyebrow. "She's fine."

"She's got a jumpy brain, I see," May says, checking something on a monitor. "Does she do that a lot? Switch from topic to topic?"

Tony rubs his thumb down Charlie's nose affectionately, like he used to do to make her fall asleep as a baby. "She's got ADHD."

May nods. "Both my twins do as well. Peter is just like this on morphine; that boy ends up in the ER more often than I'd like."

Peter. Charlie likes Peter. Peter is nice to her. He has curls. Charlie likes his curls.

"He's nice," Charlie says, opening her eyes.

"Who's nice?" Tony looks up at her from across the room, frowning. When did he get over there? He's wearing different clothes now. And... oh, that's Pops! Pops is here!

"Pop pop pop,'' Charlie mumbles. Steve quickly walks over to her, from where he'd been staring out the window. "Pop goes the weasel. POP."

"Okay, Charlie."

Charlie nods. There's a little tug on her arm when she moves it to try to reach out to him; she looks at it in frustration. It's a drip IV. "Why's that there."

"You were a bit dehydrated, babydoll. You need water and vitamins to fix your head."

Charlie frowns. "Head?" Shit, did she hurt herself?

"Yeah, you hit your head." Steve frowns, looking at Tony. "Is she-"

"It's normal," Tony says tiredly.

"Hit m'head," Charlie looks at the ceiling. "Ow?"

Steve chuckles. "Yeah. Ow. You've got a concussion."

Charlie nods affirmatively. "I am concussed."

Nurse May Parker looks down at her. The light is different in the room again; brighter and warmer through the window. Shit, did she lose time again? "Yes, you are. You back with me, honey?"

Steve and Tony are both sitting on the other side of there room, with a bunch of papers on the table between them. They both look unhappy. Uh-oh. Was Fury mad? Was something happening with the Avengers?

Shit, shut up, Fury is supposed to be dead. That's a secret. Shut up, Charlie.

"Shut up," Charlie says out loud. "Secret."

May looks like she's trying not to laugh. "Am I being too loud? Sorry, honey."

"Nonononono," Charlie says quickly, because that would clear everything up, right? "Hit my head. I am concussed."

"Go back to sleep, baby," Tony calls from across the room.

She does.

Then she's blinking at the face in front of her- someone's holding her down, holding her still. Wait- where is she? It's cold. There are hands on her back and her chest, she's leaning against someone's arms. Fingers are probing at her head.

Please, no, don't, she doesn't know how to deal with this again-

"Charlie." Tony's voice is too loud in her ears. "Charlie, bubs, relax. We're just checking your head, okay? You're in the hospital. You're with me and Pops. Do you understand?"

Charlie feels tears of frustration well up in her eyes, because people are touching her and she doesn't like it, and she can't use her words properly, and everything's just fucking wrong!

"I!" Charlie shouts. "Am! Concussed!"

Steve chuckles. "We've gathered that, doll. You're okay."

Tony seems to sense what she's really getting at, though. "I know you're frustrated, bubs. We have to check your head. I know you don't like it. It'll be over soon."

"You're safe, honey." May says. Charlie really likes May- she's got a nice voice, and her hands are soft. She reminds Charlie a little bit of Natasha.

Wait, where is Nat?

"Tasha went on a mission with Hawkeye," Steve says. Oh, Charlie must have said that out loud. He was using Clint's code name, so that must be another secret they had to keep.

Tony sighs. "Not much of a secret if you tell everyone." He glances at May, who laughs.

"All part of the NDA. Although, I'm pretty sure everyone knows Clint Barton."

Steve is gritting his jaw. Oh no, he's mad. "How long is she going to be drugged up?"

Tony shoot him a look as May leans Charlie back down onto the pillows. The second May looks back he changes his expression into one of nonchalance. "Miss May?"

"She'll be ready for discharge tonight, but I'll be giving you a prescription for Naprosyn, so she won't be in pain. No more morphine one you leave, though, don't worry."

Steve looks satisfied at that. Charlie wants to cry.

She didn't mean to tell secrets- she's always so good about that. But right now she's hurting and her mouth and brain aren't working together.

"No, no, no tears," Tony says, quickly, brushing her cheek with his thumb. "You're okay."

"I'm concussed," Charlie says tearfully. Her lip quivers and she sees the heartbreak in her parent's eyes. "Dad, m' concussed."

"Yeah, you are. Sorry about that, by the way," Tony says jerkily. His hands are tense and he flexes his fingers, avoiding Steve's gaze. "I'm gonna have to make it up to you. Don't know how that's possible. But I'm gonna try."

Charlie frowns. This isn't his fault. What is he talking about? Did Steve think that? is that why he's so angry? That's not fair.

She falls asleep again before she can think any more about it.

When she wakes up again, she's being lifted up.

"Wha?" Charlie mumbles. She's blinking, blinking- it's Steve. Steve is lifting her up and setting her down into a wheelchair.

"We're going home, bubs," Steve says.

Charlie gets a sudden memory- out in the desert, cradled in Tony's arms, as he collapses onto his knees in the sand. Charlie was coated in sweat, and Steve was running towards them, screaming their names. He was in his Captain America uniform, and there was a quinjet behind him.

"We're going home, bubs," Tony had said into her ear, laughing through his sobs.

Charlie's legs hurt so bad, and her skin felt like it was melting. She was barely conscious- the men had hurt her one last time before they'd escaped from the camp.

God, she hates those men. They'd messed up her whole life. They raped her. Rapists. Ew, she hated that word.

"There's only one thing worse than a rapist," she says seriously, and Steve nearly trips and falls over his own feet.

"What the fuck?" Tony yelps. "Charlie!"

Steve's face is ashen.

"Sweetie, are you okay?" May is looking at her in horror. She looks up at Steve and Tony, slowly reaching her hand out to fix the blanket on Charlie's lap.

"A child," Charlie tells her, smiling wickedly.

May sighs deeply, closing her eyes briefly. "God."

Tony's legs nearly buckle and he grips onto Steve in relief. "Sweet Jesus- that's a vine reference. Okay. Lordy- Charlotte Maria, don't ever do that again. You just took, like, four years off my life."

"Child rapist," She says, frowning. She remembers what that means now. She doesn't like that- that's the worst thing in the world. Her stomach twists.

"Okay, that's enough of that," Tony looks like he's about to be sick. "PTSD and morphine don't mix; noted. Let's not do this again, okay, kid?"

"Let's just get her home," Steve says tightly. "We've still gotta get past the paparazzi."

May looks appalled. "Are they still here?"

Tony looks mildly annoyed. "Yeah, they're gonna be there for a while, if we manage to get her back to the Tower without anybody noticing. I'll keep some of my security guys here to control the crowds, if that helps?"

"We would really appreciate that, Mr. Stark," May says. "I apologize about the emergency room debacle, by the way."

"Don't," Tony waves his hand. "You really saved our asses out there. You've been here for two days. I can't thank you enough."

"That's the job," May says dismissively. She smiles at Charlie, who's eyelids are getting heavy again. "Feel better soon, sweetheart. It was nice meeting you."

Charlie falls asleep.

When Charlie woke up again, she actually gained full consciousness this time.

It took her a minute- she felt like she'd been hit by a train. Her head pounded so hard she could feel her blood pulsing beneath her skin. Her face felt hot, and her skin was sweaty, sticking to the sheets beneath her.

"Jesus fuck," she breathed, panting. god, everything hurt. Seriously, what the fuck.

"Miss Charlotte," J.A.R.V.I.S said, and Charlie groaned at the noise. "Sir has been notified that you're awake. You are in your bedroom at the Avengers Tower. The time is 2:15 pm, the year is 2016."

Charlie didn't care about any of that. Her head hurt so bad she could barely think, and her stomach had started squelching unpleasantly.

Shit.

Charlie tried to sit up, but her body was too weak. She barely had time to roll onto her side, getting her elbow beneath her to prop her up, before she was vomiting over the edge of her mattress.

"Sir is on his way upstairs," J.A.R.V.I.S said as her ears rang painfully. She could barely hear him.

Her entire body felt like it was being squeezed with a vice, her ribs seeming to snap under the pressure of her violent heaving.

She gasped for breath, trying to suck in air, but only managing to choke.

"Charlie? Honey-" Tony's voice was a welcome sound. Charlie felt the bed sink next to her as he quickly pulled back the small bit of hair in her face. "Sorry, bubs, I'm so sorry, I forgot to give you your pain meds."

Yeah, she'd gathered that.

Tony snaked a hand around her chest and she draped over it, letting him hold up her body weight as she puked. It was mostly dry heaving, now, but she couldn't make herself calm down long enough to breath.

"You gotta breathe" Tony said. There was a slight quiver in his voice. Charlie had forgotten he didn't do well with vomit- at all. Sick nights as a kid were Pop's job. "You're tearing up your throat, bubs. Just- Jesus."

Charlie felt him turn his head away, his chest rising and falling heavily.

"This is th'worst day," Charlie slurred out, squinting her eyes painfully. "Don' puke, Dad."

Tony couldn't even respond. Charlie could feel his arms spazzing beneath her as he tried desperately not to fall to the same fate.

She felt like shit. Like a massive bag of shit. Seriously, what happened to her?

"J.A.R.V.I.S, we need some help in here." Tony said. "Can you get someone, please?"

"Miss Potts is on her way up."

"Thank you, dear."

Charlie moaned weakly. She didn't need Pepper seeing her like this- or the vomit on her bedroom floor.

"Tony?" The clacking of Pepper's sharp heels announced her arrival. She gasped and Charlie internally screamed. "Oh my God, what happened?"

"Little Miss woke up without any pain meds," Tony said, still sounding a little green. "And if I look at her, I'm gonna hurl too."

"Aww, m' I that pretty?" Charlie panted. Her stomach churned and she carefully leaned against her Dad's arms.

Pepper chuckled. Her footsteps got louder and Charlie felt a cool hand against her neck, as if her honorary godmother wasn't fazed by whatever the hell father-daughter puking duo was going on. "It's nice hearing you form full sentences. You had me worried."

"The worry is probably still warranted," Tony warned.

"Let's get you to the bathroom, honey," Pepper said, ignoring Tony. She hauled Charlie upright. "Oh my God!"

Charlie hadn't realized she was listing to the side until Tony's hand grabbed her arm, pulling her back. "S'rry," she slurred.

Pepper just sighed and pulled Charlie to her feet, holding her waist as she wobbled. Damn, her calves must have been made of steel- those heels could not have made it easy. "Tony, are you alright?"

"Peachy," Tony said, sounding anything but.

"Good," Pepper said. They were almost at the bathroom, and Charlie's head pounded so hard it blurred her surroundings.

"Do you need help?"

"To pee? I think after over fifteen years of experience, I got it," Charlie muttered. She practically fell into the doorway, clutching the wall with wobbly legs. Pepper reluctantly let go of her waist, letting Charlie shut the door behind her before she collapsed into the toilet.

Tony's voice was low through the walls. "Doctor said irritability is expected. Don't take it personally."

Pepper snorted. "After being CEO of the largest tech company in the world, it's going to take more than a little bit of backtalk to get to me."

"Good, 'cause the next six weeks are going to be a nightmare."

Charlie groaned.

That night, as Charlie breathed through the fogginess in her brain, her phone chimed loudly.

She smacked her hand along her nightstand, wildly trying to grab it, before checking the notification.

from: Pee-pee 🌝

- Penny and I just spent two nights at Ned's house because May had an "emergency shift" for two days involving the Avengers???

- What happened??

Charlie smiled weakly in spite of herself.

from: Material girl 💅

I did -

A/N
This chapter beat my ass for some reason.

Charlie was concussed. in case you missed that. i think she mighta hit her head, idk.

I loved bringing Nurse!May in because there's so much potential there, and it's her job in some comics. I'm in love with her.

Next chapter is going to from Becca's POV... y'all are not ready. Ugh I love her.

Drink some water and leave some feedback! I love you all! ❤️