A Shadow Threat
A couple of weeks went by without any outbursts of emotion, Otto would call when it was getting late and let the boys know, while also trying to pay more attention to what anniversaries were coming up. The boys, on the other hand, seemed to be watching him closer than they used to, like they were afraid he was going to spontaneously burst into flames.
He was pretty sure Andrew was following him to work and back, with there being a lot of Spider-Man sightings around the courthouse, and this put the actuators on high alert which made Otto very jumpy at work, and all of this led to more than one sleepless night, and he had no idea how to fix whatever was going on.
It was after Dekker had patted him on the back to say good morning, and he had responded by grabbing him by the shirt, kicking his legs out from under him, and pinning him to the ground, to knock his lights out, that he realized something had to change. Thankfully, he had come to himself before he did any real damage, and after apologizing profusely, and Dekker insisting it was ok, he went home early to talk to the boys, hoping to figure this all out before someone got hurt.
When he got home, he went to the kitchen to work on dinner while he waited for the boys to get home. Tom was the first to get back and was shocked to see him home, not knowing exactly how to handle this, he said, “Hey Doc… What are you doing back so soon? Is everything ok at work?”
Otto looked at him for a minute, trying to decide what he wanted to do, before coming to a decision, and answering, “Why don’t you go get your homework done, and we can discuss it when your brothers get back?”
Tom wanted to say something else, but Otto turned back to the stove, ending the conversation, so he went to the room he shared with Andrew and waited. He didn’t get any of his homework done, he was too distracted by what Doc could want to talk about.
The next to arrive was Toby, freezing when he saw Otto in the kitchen, not knowing what to do, he just kind of waved to him with a brief hello and went to find Tom, who he knew would be there already.
Finding Tom in his room, he asked, “What is Otto doing home so early?”
“I don’t know.” Tom replied, “He was here when I got home, and he told me we would talk about it when you and Andrew got back.”
Toby looked thoughtful before answering, “Ok… Andrew should be home soon. Let’s go get the table ready while we wait.”
Coming out they noted that Otto had let the actuators out, with the lower too firmly on the ground and the upper too keeping watch like he was expecting an attack at any moment, but before they could ask what was going on Andrew burst through the window with a look of panic on his face and running over to his brothers, he started talking frantically saying, “HesGoneILostHimHeWasntThereWhenIWentBack”
Toby placed a hand on him to stop his rambling and turned him around so he was facing Otto, who at this point was nearly right behind him, looking very worried. Before Otto could say anything, Andrew lunged into his arms, holding on to him like both their lives depended on it. Otto didn’t know exactly what to do, so he just stood there holding on to him while the actuators looked for the danger that had to be there, although they couldn’t see it.
They stayed like that for a while until the oven beeped, alerting them to the fact that dinner was ready. Polling away slightly, Otto looked Andrew up and down for any sign of injury while Flo went to get the food out of the oven.
Otto, more than a little concerned, attempted to get answers, asking, “Dear boy, whatever is the matter?”
Andrew, with a little more bite than he meant, answered, “You Were Not Where You Were Supposed To Be.”
Otto just looked at him, not entirely sure how to answer that. Flo came up on his right, and Harry on his left, both spinning and opening and closing their claws like they were trying to figure out what was going on.
Harry- “Father, are we in trouble again?”
Flo- “I thought we were supposed to be the angry ones.”
Harry- “This feels like a trap.”
Otto in his head- “Just calm down. We can figure this out, I just need a minute.”
Otto focused his attention on Andrew and, in an innocent tone, said, “I came home early. Why were you looking for me?”
Andrew went to answer but stopped himself, trying to find the best way to explain, choosing his words carefully so as not to upset Doc, he said, “I guess you know I’ve been following you to work and back.” After getting a nod from Doc, he continued, “Ever since that night you came home late a few weeks ago, our spider since has been going crazy whenever you’re out of sight.”
His head was down as he stared at the floor, Otto looked at him speechless not sure how to feel about this new information, looking at the other two Tom was also looking at the floor, but Toby looked him right in the eye, and he saw in those blue eyes just how worried he was.
He felt a chill go up his spine as the actuators got very still, seeming to realize that something was coming for their father, and they had been too distracted to see it. This was followed by a feeling of fear and then anger.
Harry- “We will kill anything that would dear hurt you, father.”
Otto grimaced at what Harry said, knowing he meant it, looking away from Toby for the moment, he tried to collect his thoughts. It was quiet till he finally spoke, “Why didn’t you tell me about this sooner?”
Toby looked at his brothers as if to get their thoughts on the subject, but they seemed to have a conversation of their own before Tom spoke up, saying, “We didn’t want to worry you.” Andrew followed up by saying, “We don’t have anything to show, it’s not just us being paranoid.” Toby jumped in with, “We just wanted to be sure before we came to you.”
He took in what they said mulling it over in his head, before responding with as close to a reassuring smile as he could get and trying to keep his voice calm, “I appreciate you looking out for me, but if something is coming for me, I would much rather know, then be caught off guard.”
He looked at them for any sign that he got through, but finding none, he went on trying to sound as confident as he could, “I promise that I will keep an eye out for any trouble, but you boys can’t spend the rest of your lives following me around.”
All three boys looked at each other, not entirely sure what to do next, and not quite ready to let go. Otto was more important to them than he realized; they knew he still believed he was nothing more than just someone they stayed with because they had nowhere else to go, but he was more than that; he was family, and they didn’t want to lose him.
The boys didn’t know exactly how to tell him how they felt in a way that he would believe, so they kept it to themselves, waiting for the right moment, and this wasn’t it. Andrew looked up at him and in a whisper said, “We're sorry, Doc, it won’t happen again….and if you promise to be careful, we won’t follow you around anymore.” He gave them a small smile and pulled them into a hug, before heading back to the kitchen to get dinner out. They ate in silence with Otto looking past them, eyes glazed over, which always meant he was talking to his actuators, so the boys left him alone. No one got a lot of sleep that night with everyone trying to figure out the same thing: who in this world would be out to get Otto and why?