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Being a Stark [Superfamily]

Chapter 7

Four weeks.

That’s how long Peter has been here now, working at Stark Industries as an intern. Supposedly, as one of the few that is honored with the chance to work alongside Mister Tony Stark himself, which is a big deal, as it turns out.

Of course, that would have mattered had the guy actually been there.

Okay, so the first week, Peter thought it was normal; sure, the guy might be abroad to take care of some business. Or maybe there’s some Avengers-business to take care of? Some evil bad guy far away that they need to take care of, first.

The second week, Peter figured he just hadn’t returned.

It’s around half through the third week that Pepper Potts actually came up to find Mr. Stark, only to see that he wasn’t there, and that’s when Peter figured out that the man wasn’t on a business-trip somewhere; he was just simply not showing up for work.

Sure, the man he gets to work with, Francis Farez, isn’t too bad of a guy; he gave Peter the whole tour of the building, introduced him to who-ever he’s supposed to know and all, and even gave Peter the honor of having Dum-E as his sidekick. At first, Peter thought it was awesome to have Mr. Stark’s very first created robot to help him through it.

Now he quickly understands how it got its name.

On the fourth week, Peter handed in the first initial ideas he’s been working on in between helping Francis, only to find that, once again, Mr. Stark isn’t there.

Peter has enough of it. At first, he’s spending all his time in classes he’s quickly figuring out he’s too smart for, barely having any time for a break since he’s got to get to Stark Industries the moment he’s finished with school. There’s barely even time for him to patrol around as Spider-Man these days, since he often forgets himself and stays at SI long past his working hours.

The only freaking reason he’s going for this stupid internship is to be with Stark.

“The moment he returns, I’ll give him a piece of my mind, right Dum-E?” Peter mutters as he fumbles around with two screwdrivers, tightening two metal plates together for current project.

Dum-E whirs up as he points his camera towards Peter, turning his claw a bit to the side like a dog would. Peter gives it a gentle pat on his ‘neck’.

“I’ll be like; ‘hey, man, I only came here to get to know my father, but the moment I arrive here, he’s not even there,’ and he’ll be like ‘huuh?’ and that’s how he’ll figure it out.”

Dum-E turns his head a bit to the side again, opening up his claw and grabbing Peter by his shirt.

“Nah, you’re right. That’s surely not the best way to tell him. After all, he’ll probably not even believe me, right?”

Dum-E lets go of his shirt again before grabbing a napkin to dab on Peter’s forehead, even though he’s not sweating at all. Peter just lets him do it, knowing that mentioning it to the bot won’t make a difference at all.

“Yo Peter.”

Peter looks up, seeing Francis standing there at the door. He’s a thirty-something year old man with darkened skin and dark brown curls, with deep brown eyes hidden behind two round glasses. He looks like the typical nerd combined with stylish superstar, mostly wearing suits and carrying around expensive watches and a wedding ring that looks the exact opposite of cheap.

“Hey, Francis, what’s up?” Peter asks, dropping the screwdrivers upon seeing the inventor in front of him. Francis is by far not the smartest guy on the floor – that’s difficult with Stark running around – but he’s the one assigned to take care of the interns, being good with the youth. That’s probably because he mostly behaves like he’s a teenager as well, always carrying his expensive backpack on one shoulder, listening to his music with his Stark-made wireless headphones and being pretty handy with the latest edition of every Stark-Phone – courtesy of Mr. Stark, who lets his employees test them out to find if they’re user-friendly.

Even now he’s standing there, leaning against the wall with his bag over his shoulder, with one coffee in his hand and the other one pulling his headphones back down.

“You’re still here? It’s past eight now, you can go home,” Francis says. It’s not the first time he comes with this news; this past week, Peter has been reminded three times already that his working hours are over. “I know Mr. Stark is generous, but while he pays for over-hours for the employees, he’s rather limited with how much interns can earn.”

“Yeah yeah, don’t worry, I’ll be out as soon as I finish here,” Peter says, waving him off. Francis is cool, of course, but Peter’s one of those guys who rather works alone – or in the company of a rather incompetent bot, as it turns out. “Dum-E, please hand me a marker?”

Dum-E whirls around on his wheels before rolling away. Peter keeps his hand held out as he waits for him, while in the meantime Francis walks towards the desk. When he looks down, he whistles, impressed.

“Wow, kid. You’re probably the bravest intern I’ve ever seen, trying to take on the arc reactor on your own?”

It’s been a pet-project of his. After finishing his self-made Bluetooth Mp3-player, Peter has put aside everything else to fish out the blueprints for the Arc Reactor and try to build it on his own. So far, he’s only barely managed to figure out how it all works, but he finds it easier and easier to understand the more he looks at it.

FRIDAY has given him a hard time about it the moment she figured out what he was doing, telling him that he shouldn’t try to recreate it without Mr. Stark’s consent. Though, after one day already she suddenly stopped giving him grief about it, and Peter likes to imagine that it’s Mr. Stark himself who told her to leave him be.

In reality, he knows the AI probably suspects he won’t succeed at all.

“I have informed Mr. Parker multiple times that any attempts have thus far failed by anybody here, but he seems insistent,” FRIDAY adds, making Francis look up, much like everybody does whenever FRIDAY speaks out. It’s not often that she makes an ‘appearance’ in Stark Industries when Mr. Stark isn’t around, but somehow she seems to be following Peter around.

Not that he minds, he seems to find her a good conversation-partner, despite the fact that she often doesn’t respond to his stupid jokes.

“You know, the arc reactor has been created by Howard Stark and another inventor called Anton Vanko back in the time? Thus far, only their sons have managed to build this thing – even in the freaking miniatured-version, as if the actual reactor wasn’t impossible enough!” Francis calls out, trying to once more take on his teaching-role as an instructor.

Peter looks up, having never really heard the name Vanko before. Then he tilts his head to the side, thinking back of when he was much younger, reading the news-paper about a Russian using Stark-technology and ruining the Stark Expo after it barely got opened. The one day Aunt May and Uncle Ben decide to take him there to see his idol, and a crazy Russian maniac comes to ruin all the fun!

“You mean that whiplash-guy? He’s the son of the man that helped invent the arc-reactor?” Peter asks, dropping down his hand when he figures that Dum-E isn’t back yet. Francis just shrugs.

“Yeah, that was him. Mrs. Potts almost resigned after that, did you know?” Francis laughs as he drops the cup of coffee on Peter’s workbench and puts his hands in his pockets. “I think their relationship is mainly the reason why she decided to stay, after all.”

“I heard they broke up?” Peter tries, in an attempt to find out a bit more. Francis only sighs.

“Yeah, it’s probably the reason why we aren’t seeing so much of Mr. Stark lately. He took it pretty hard, as far as I heard. They have been together for quite a few years, after all. I don’t really know the details of their break-up, though.”

“And that’ll surely stay that way, Mr. Farez,” FRIDAY adds, and Francis laughs before shaking his head while looking down.

“Yeah, thanks for that, FRIDAY,” Francis mutters. Then Peter hears Dum-E roll back towards him, so the teenager holds out his hand back behind him, expecting the bot to hand him his marker.

When he gets something sticky and wet in return, Peter lets out a soft shout and pulls his arm back. Looking behind him, he finds Dum-E carrying a banana instead of a marker.

“Dum-E! You idiot, I said a marker, not a freaking banana! Seriously, how has Mr. Stark not donated you to a local high school already? I’m going to have words with him, and I’ll make sure it won’t by my school you’re donated to, mark my words!” Peter rambles on, drying off his hand on his already ruined jeans. Dum-E only responds by pushing the banana back in Peter’s reaction. With a sigh, he rolls his eyes only to take the half-peeled banana from him.

In a way, Dum-E is just taking care of him, being a big brother as much as he can.

When Peter looks back up, he finds Francis inspecting the two of them with a strange look, eyes glancing from Dum-E to Peter time after time.

“What?” Peter asks, and Francis just shrugs before pointing towards him.

“You know, you and Stark have a lot in common,” he says, then gesturing his finger in Dum-E’s way. “He keeps on threatening to sell this guy to schools as well. Though everybody knows he won’t do that. I’m surprised even that you manage to keep working with him. Other interns spent one hour with him only to request another partner.”

Peter turns to observe Dum-E next to him. The bot has his camera pointed at Peter, watching as he slowly but surely eats the banana. After that, he opens up his claw and grabs Peter by the shirt again.

“He’s a handful, yeah, but we take care of each other,” he then says, petting Dum-E on the head for a moment before thinking better of it. Dum-E just whirs as he tries to get closer.

“Good that he can make himself useful after all. Anyway, I’m off, got a hot date with the missus, after all,” Francis says, picking up his cup of coffee again and making his way back towards the door.

“Is it an actual date? Or is it going to stay inside the walls of the bedroom?” Peter jokes, and as a response, Francis bursts out laughing even harder before waving Peter off. Then he’s gone, leaving Peter alone again in the work-room with Dum-E already pulling away from him to hurry towards the fridge once more.

“FRIDAY?” Peter asks, expecting no answer at all.

“Yes, Master Parker?” FRIDAY responds anyway.

“Is Mr. Stark in the tower today?”

“I’m afraid Mr. Stark is not here at the moment. Do you wish for me to pass along a message, maybe?”

Peter thinks for a moment, looking down at the arc reactor but then thinking better of it. He wants it to be a surprise, after all.

“Perhaps about the DNA-results containing yours and Mr. Stark’s relationship?” FRIDAY adds. Peter sits up in surprise, dropping down the banana before managing to finish it. Then he looks up at the ceiling, shaking his head in panic.

“No, no, no, no, absolutely not!” Peter calls out, waving his hands together in another no-signal. “How did you even figure that out?”

“You forget that you’ve been talking to Dum-E about it, and seeing as I hear everything there’s not much you can keep secret from me,” FRIDAY explains. Peter groans and smacks his head on the workbench, making sure to avoid hitting the arc-reactor.

“So, what, are you obliged to tell him about it because he’s your creator?” Peter asks, already fearing her answer.

“No, as much as I have to follow Tony, his instructions are to listen to every Stark that will come around. That includes you, seeing as you’re his son. If you want me to keep this quiet, you have every right to tell me so.”

Peter huffs, a bit surprised by the sudden news.

“So I have my own override-codes and all?” Peter asks, wondering if he might be searching too far for it.

“Mr. Stark does have created a few override-codes only his heirs would be able to use. Of course, he created those long ago and he’s probably forgotten about those. I’ll send them to your cellphone.”

It’s not even a question, in just a matter of seconds, Peter’s mobile rings and he sees that he’s received a text. In there, indeed, are a whole lot of override-codes, each with the description of what exactly they override.

“I’ll try not to use these, though,” Peter says. He doesn’t want Mr. Stark to notice, after all.

“These codes are indeed only to be used in cases of emergencies.”

Then the conversation falls quiet. A little drama has been averted, and Peter’s secret is once again safe. He slowly picks up the arc reactor again, looking at it in silence as he tries to figure out the next step. Dum-E then hands him a steamy cup of coffee. In the background, he hears his cellphone ring again. Another text-message.

“Of course, I do feel obliged to ask how long you intent to keep this information about you and Mr. Stark quiet?” FRIDAY suddenly asks, interrupting the calm silence he had been enjoying. Peter shakes his head.

“I’ll figure that out after a while. First I just want to… spend some time with him,” Peter says. “Of course, that would work if he would actually show up.”

“I would like to make clear, though, that I cannot in any way lie to Tony,” FRIDAY suddenly adds in a warning tone. “Would he ever ask me directly, I will not hesitate in telling him the truth.”

Peter swallows, but then nods.

“Duly noted, FRIDAY. All I need to do then is just make sure that he won’t have any reason to ask about it.” Then Peter picks up his cellphone, seeing that he’s gotten multiple messages from Wade – all of them containing nothing other than heart-emojies which he ignores – and one from Yaël.

- Friday’s pizza-tradition sucks without you working here. Why again did you quit?

Peter just snorts and shakes his head. He quit his job there almost immediately after learning that he would be compensated for his work at Stark Industries. Staying there would not only make trouble for the amount of money he would be earning as a teenager, but it would result in not having any single bit of free time anymore.

- You know why. Anyway, doing some patrolling after heading out. Care to join?

- Nah, probably not a good idea. Did Stark at least show up?

- No-show, again. By the way, FRIDAY knows now.

- Whoa, how did that happen? She gonna tell? Also, that asshole needs to show his face soon or I’ll stick Steeb to him!

- I think he and Steve are arguing enough as it is. Also, no, she’s not gonna talk. Perks of being a Stark, she has to listen to me, apparently.

- Sound cool. Wade says hi, by the way. And Wanda wonders when you’ll come over again. It’s been almost two weeks, bro. January is almost over!

- I’m free on Sunday?

- Sunday it is! See you then, be at my place at five!

After that there are no more messages, and Peter puts his phone away again. Then he looks at Dum-E, who points once more at the cup of coffee.

“Yeah, you’re taking care of me, aren’t you?” Peter says with a light smile before picking up the cup. Ever since working at SI, he’s learned to appreciate the taste of coffee more and more, mostly due to Dum-E always making him cups whenever Peter even shows a little sign of how tired he is. “You’re a good big brother.”

Dum-E makes another appreciative sound – strange how he can do that, but not talk – and then he hurries back off to the side, starting to clean up Peter’s workbench a bit more. All the other desks in the room are already empty, the other interns and employees already back at home. Right now, other than him, there’s only one more security guard on this floor.

One more hour, Peter spends on the arc reactor before starting to pack his stuff. He puts the reactor safely away in his desk, along with the blueprints he managed to snatch from Mr. Stark’s workplace. Then he takes his bag, throws it over his shoulder, and waves Dum-E goodbye.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, pal!” Peter says, and Dum-E nods his camera up and down before putting himself on stand-by. One more nod towards the security guard, and Peter is standing in front of the elevator, looking down at his shoes. They look messy, worn almost daily and pretty much ready to be thrown away. Underneath his shirt, Peter feels his suit itching him, as if telling him that it’s time to start patrolling.

Because that’s pretty much all he can do; take care of robberies and muggings on the street. So far, the Avengers have made it perfectly clear that they don’t want him near the big guys yet, as they call him. Too afraid to see him get hurt.

Peter shakes his head, balling his hands into fists as he takes a deep breath.

It’s not so much him that gets hurt. It’s the people around him. In the background, he can hear the guard cracking his knuckles. Peter tries to dim away the sound, not really enjoying the sound of bones cracking. He’s heard enough of that, already.

Instead, he steps into the elevator once it opens up for him, and he takes a deep breath. He doesn’t need to press the button for the ground floor, FRIDAY already doing it for him, instead. Peter looks at the ceiling with a thankful expression before stretching his arms a bit.

The moment he’s outside, Peter’s already back into his uniform, swinging from building to building in just a matter of seconds. His backpack is still over his shoulders, and his eyes are glued to the ground as he inspects everything that is happening here.

There’s no robberies, nor any muggings. Even after half an hour of just wandering around and listening to everything that his happening around him, he finds that there’s not much action at all. He’s about ready to head back home, still, when he suddenly finds a group of teens on the street.

They’re standing in a circle, surrounding another kid in the middle. Even from afar, Peter knows that they’re not just socializing in the friendly way. With a few more swings, he gets himself closer, waiting to listen while sticking to the wall.

“-and I thought it looked good, smart and all, but then she fails me because, apparently, it’s all one number off? What trick are you trying to play, Leeds?”

The kid in the middle, a round, dark-skinned boy Peter recognizes from his school, is hunching forward, as if to prepare himself for a blow he’s about to get. He can’t have been in Midtown High for long, only recently transferred from – where-ever it was, Peter doesn’t really know. So far, he hasn’t had any luck in making friends due to his obvious geeky behavior.

“That’s because you should make your homework yourself,” the boy, Ned, says with a shiver in his voice. The bully – Peter doesn’t need long to understand it’s Flash and Eddie – just starts to laugh while he looks at his friends. Though, surely, none of these people actually see Flash as an actual friend. They’re probably just scared of being bullied as well if they aren’t.

“Oh, I should make my homework myself, huh?” Flash asks, and then he moves, punching his hand in Ned’s stomach while grabbing his shirt. The next thing is whispered, but Peter can understand clearly what he’s talking about. “Why don’t you ask one of your superheroes to come and rescue you, huh?”

And that’s enough for Peter. With a soft push, he distances himself from the wall, making sure to land right next to Ned, causing for everybody to take a step back. Flash lets go of Ned, jumping back with a small shout.

Peter ignores him, instead turning towards Ned and punching him on the arm.

“Yo, buddy! I’ve been looking for you all evening! Weren’t we about to watch that Star Wars movie together?”

Ned just stares at him with his mouth fallen open.

“Crap, it’s Spider-Man! We need to bail now!” one of the kids says, quickly running off. The others follow him, except for Flash. Eddie, too, stays behind a little bit, though he keeps a good distance between him and them.

“What’s going on here, are you keeping Ned from hanging out with me?” Peter asks, putting his hands on his hips as he tries to look taller than he is. Like this, he only realizes all the more how much smaller he is in comparison to Flash.

“Uh,” Flash says, unintelligible.

“Dude, that’s not cool. If we miss the movie because of you, you can be certain I’ll come back for you and web your hair into a new style, and it’ll be sticky,” Peter jokes. He’s not a bully, there’s no way he would actually do that. But Flash seems to understand the message enough. He takes another step back while still looking at Peter with what seems like fear and adoration at the same time.

Then he runs off, grabbing Eddie by the shirt and taking him along. Peter watches them go, grinning from underneath his mask. He turns towards Ned, seeing the guy still looking at him with his mouth open. Peter shakes his head, steps forward, and starts to wipe away the dust on his shirt.

“You gonna be okay on your way home?” Peter asks. Ned just stares, but then nods, finally closing his mouth. “Alright, then I’m off. I’ll see you again, Ned!”

Peter doesn’t stay around to hear his reaction. With one quick shot, he’s already back in the air, on his way once more through the streets, in search of anything to do.

Around Midnight, he’s back into bed, having done nothing else more. And as he dreams, his head is filled with lots of Star Wars references, for some reason.

“So, you’ve never really told me your story.”

“What story?”

“About how you became who you are today? Wade says it’s quite a lot, and I’m finding myself curious, to be honest.”

“Well, it’s not a fun story.”

Peter met Gwen on a Thursday. The schoolyear had only just started, but the teachers had already lots of homework to give. He only just turned fifteen, and Aunt May and Uncle Ben had just bought him a new camera he liked to mess around with. Even during school, he held it on a cord around his neck, ready to take pictures whenever the occasion arose.

Peter knew Gwen for a while, though; he’d seen her, admired her from afar. But they never spoke. He knew that she was about the smartest person in the school; eh, well, next to him, of course. She had long white-blonde hair with a straight fringe above her eyebrows, and her skirts were always accentuated by those knee-socks that had been out of style for a while, but looked just perfect on her.

Peter often had her in his vision, camera ready to take a shot; but he never took it. He was a lot of things, but not a creep.

The day he finally got to talk to Gwen was when Peter decided to help out another kid that was being bullied by Flash during lunch. The guy was tilting the boy up, pressing his face against his plate of pasta as a revenge for not sharing his homework. Peter stood up for him, Flash started to kick his ass, and then she came to save the day, humiliating Flash in front of the entire crowd.

It was safe to say that, if Peter adored her at first, now he literally loved her. Especially when she asked after his health during class, reminding him to take it slow.

The next time they spoke, was at Oscorp’s. Peter had just found some stuff in his dad’s journals, and found himself at the organization in search for more. He got himself in Dr. Connor’s radar, and Gwen, who was touring the group of interns, gave him a chance to stay as long as he kept her out of trouble. After she found him snooping around where he shouldn’t go, she did kick him out, though.

But Peter didn’t mind; he wasn’t feeling too well after all. Not because he got sick or anything, but because his body was slowly changing – the spider had bit him, altering his DNA. The morning after, he practically wrecked his bathroom. He had to control the powers.

And when he did, stupid as he was, he used it to teach Flash a lesson – causing for him to break the basketball ring, and earning himself community service. Uncle Ben was pissed – but not pissed enough to stop embarrassing Peter when Gwen came along to ask if he was expelled.

Embarrassment aside, Peter managed to get himself a date with Gwen. After that, he got to work a bit with Dr. Connors – they were both trying to finish the project Dr. Connors and his dad started. He had been so busy, that he forgot to pick up the phone and remember to pick up his aunt – since Uncle Ben didn’t like her walking around alone in the evening.

Once at home, there had been another fight. Peter ran off, Uncle Ben followed him. Peter didn’t stop a theft in the shop he was at, and said thief ended up shooting his Uncle after he tried to stop him.

Peter had the power to stop the guy, but out of anger towards everybody – including the cashier who didn’t want to help him buy his milk – he didn’t. And his Uncle ended up dead.

They mourned together, but while Aunt May managed to pick up work at the hospital again, Peter found an anger inside himself that he couldn’t contain. He started training on his powers, tried to get to know them. He built his web-shooters, put together a suit with the limited knowledge he had, and set off to search for any criminal that fit the description of his uncle’s murderer.

He never found him in the end. Peter did have that date at Gwen’s, had an embarrassing discussion with Gwen’s dad, and eventually revealed to her who he really was. That evening, it was safe to say that Gwen was officially his girlfriend. It was November.

Meanwhile, Dr. Connors was put in a tight corner, and ended up experimenting on himself. Peter was pulled away into action when the guy caused havoc on the bridge, turned into a lizard. Of course, Peter didn’t know it was Dr. Connors at the time. He couldn’t even catch him since he was trying to pull up a car that still had a kid inside.

Peter tried to keep low as much as possible, only showing glimpses of himself, moving too fast for any camera to capture him. But Dr. Connors eventually found out who he was. After threatening to turn the whole city into lizards – how weird is that? – Peter and Gwen worked together to stop him. Gwen made the antidote, Peter stalled Dr. Connors for as long as he could. He ended up getting shot by a cop, and Gwen’s father eventually found out who he was after pulling away his mask. Peter and Gwen’s dad did get to the top of the tower to confront Dr. Connors. The antidote worked, but Gwen’s dad died, trying to protect Peter.

He only had one request upon dying; to leave Gwen out of it all.

Peter should have listened.

Peter tried to keep his distance, but it took one month for him to realize he couldn’t. He stayed with Gwen, eventually, and for a long while they were together – not extremely happy, since both of them were still grieving, but happy enough.

But Peter started to get slight panic attacks; with each police-car he saw, a vision of Gwen’s father followed him, staring at him in distaste at how he could break his promise like that. Peter lived with it for two months longer, but eventually he couldn’t take it anymore, breaking up with Gwen.

With only one more month of school to go, Peter heard of Harry’s return – the two of them had been best friends back when they were younger. When they went to high school, Harry’s dad sent his son away to boarding school, separating the two friends. Peter hadn’t heard from him, since.

Harry was back as the heir of Oscorp, but only being seventeen years old – he was older than Peter – he was too young to rule. After his father’s death, they had to figure out who would be in charge until Harry was old enough.

Peter and Harry caught up, but Peter wasn’t aware that his friend was sick; the same sickness that had befallen Norman Osborn. The thing that had killed him. They talked about lots of things, Peter told him about Gwen. Meanwhile, at Oscorp, a man called Max Dillon died in a tragic accident. Only, he didn’t die as much as he was reborn. Panicked at his sudden ‘electric’ state, he started wandering around on time’s square. Peter tried to calm him down, but after a while the guy freaked and went crazy.

Peter subdued him, nobody got hurt – except for him, maybe.

While Peter was trying to find out the truth about his dad’s disappearance, Harry came up with the crazy idea that Spider-Man’s blood would be a cure for his illness. After Peter – as Spider-Man – gave him a visit, he quickly refused to give it; there was just too much Peter didn’t know about his blood, and giving it to Harry could be lethal.

Harry got mad, freaked out. He went to find Max, or Electro as he started calling himself, and freed him on the condition that he would deliver Spider-Man to him. Harry then took care of the board-members of his company – not in the fun way, since they all ended up dead – and stumbled upon the special weapon’s department of Oscorp; that was where he found the poison of the spider that bit Peter.

Once injected with it, Harry turned into the Goblin. He took along the flight suit and the glider, and hurried off into the night in search for Peter, who was once more trying to fight off Electro. He had tried to keep Gwen away from it – she always knew how to find the danger – but she had come anyway. She saved his life.

Peter managed to defeat Electro. They thought they were safe.

They weren’t.

The Goblin joined up with them. He grabbed Gwen, flew her up to a bell tower of an old church, and threatened to kill her after realizing who Spider-Man was. Trying to talk him down, the Goblin dropped Gwen anyway. Peter managed to catch her with his web, and he secured her while trying to stop the Goblin.

But the seconds kept on ticking, and eventually, Gwen’s web was cut in two, causing for her to fall. Peter once more shot out for her, but he was too late. Even though his web caught her, she was too low. Her head still smacked against the ground, giving a loud cracking-noise that Peter could hear from even above.

By the time he was downstairs, her heart was only beating very softly. Blood started flowing from her nose, and in his arms, she died.

Somehow, Peter managed to finish his school-year. He didn’t experience it, mostly living in a blur at the thought that Gwen wasn’t there anymore. The school had come together to memorialize her, but Peter hadn’t gone. He had been at Gwen’s grave, instead.

Aunt May realized something was wrong with him two months after Gwen died. Peter had started to avoid places; mostly churches and rooms with clocks. On top of that, he spaced out whenever he saw a police-car. Aunt May begged for him to get some help. He refused.

At first he cried a lot. That was normal during the process of grief. He’d seen his aunt do it, too. It was when he didn’t cry anymore that she started to worry. Peter didn’t seem to feel anything, anymore.

School started again, but Peter couldn’t care any less; what was school without Gwen, anyway? He didn’t skip classes, but he forgot his homework, spaced out during class, and failed his tests. It didn’t matter, after all. He lost weight, stopped doing anything he liked, and ended up having trouble sleeping. Whenever he slept, his dreams were filled with images of what happened at the tower. He mostly woke up screaming and sweaty.

Around October, Aunt May had enough of it. She practically pushed Peter into a psychiatrist’s office, where he got to go for a few sessions. There he was diagnosed with a depression and PTSD. As if he didn’t have enough on his mind…

They prescribed him therapy and lots of medications. Peter ended up going on bi-weekly sessions.

He didn’t know if it was the medication or the sessions, but after a while, things didn’t seem so dark anymore. Sure, sometimes he started spacing out once or twice, but he managed to pick up his life more or less after a while, and wore the suit once again. By the time December was finished, though, he learned that the only way for him to succeed in his school-year was to start an internship to earn extra points.

Peter didn’t see the point; he would fail anyway, so he could better just repeat the year, take it all slow. Right now, he better focused on getting better, after all.

Of course, that one phone-call from Oscorp changed everything.

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