Ned's reaction came in waves. At first he let out a nervous bark of a laugh - the sort of laugh you do when you're saying something couldn't possibly be true. Peter was joking, right? But then it occurred to Ned that Peter would joke about something like that and his expression changed to shock with his mouth hanging slightly open as he stared at Peter. Peter's words seem to accumulate like heavy snow on a leaf until it was too much to bear. Peter was going to die? Lots of people are going to die? Peter was going to die.

Ned's last expression was somewhere between devastation and 'about to freak out'. His lips were in a frown, but his brow was furrowed more in confusion than in sadness. He opened his mouth and no words came out the first time. He stared at his friend some more. Blink. When he opened his mouth again, his voice was hoarse. "You're going to die?! Peter. you can't die. You can't."