Undone (The Sweater Song)
Peter blinked his eyes. That couldn’t have been Gwen could it? No, of course it wasn’t. Peter held her in his arms and felt the warmth leave her body. It wasn’t until someone bumped into him (and gave him some choice words) that Peter remembered he was in the middle of a New York sidewalk. He waded through the New York pedestrian traffic and walked into his apartment. He must have looked like he had seen a ghost, which he did, because MJ put her book down and came over to him as soon as he walked through the door. “Pete? What’s wrong?” Peter closed his eyes for a quick moment, trying to process just what it was he saw. He shook his head.” I think I’m seeing things MJ, on my way here I could’ve sworn I saw Gwen. But right as she was about to turn around she disappeared” “Gwen? Like, Gwen Stacy?” Peter nodded. MJ took a step back. “But it couldn’t have been her right?” Peter nodded “Right.” Peter sat the pizza box on their dining room table, and as he did MJ cupped his head in her hands. “ Listen to me Peter Parker, you do not need to be worrying about some… some…” MJ struggled to find the word when Peter chimed in. “...Quantum?” “Yeah! You don’t need to be worrying about some Quantum Gwen!” “I did take a pretty nasty hit from the Hobgoblin right before it happened.” “See!” MJ gave Peter a kiss and the two watched a pretty bad movie together before both became tired and went to bed.
Peter was on the Empire State Building looking at his reflection. He was wearing his black suit again, he hadn’t seen that thing in, what, ten years? He looked deep into the suit's eyes. His eyes. He felt his head get tense and leaped, a burst of wind suddenly below him. He looked and saw the green and purple blur stop, The Green Goblin. He had someone tied up with a bag over their head and Peter chased him through the city. As the two reached the Brooklyn Bridge, Peter saw the Goblin smirk before letting go of the bundled rope he was holding. Peter tried using his web to grab it, but by the time his web reached the rope it was too late. He swung down to the bundle, now surrounded by a dark red puddle. When Peter took the bag off he was greeted with his wife’s face, MJ’s face. Peter, now seeing red, pulled the Goblin’s glider down towards him and started punching him with all his strength. Peter balled his fist up to land the final blow on the Goblin’s face, but when he removed the mask he saw her again. Gwen. She laughed in his face. “Poor Peter Parker, even with all those powers of yours you still can’t protect the ones you love.” She began laughing more and more. Peter held his head to try to silence the laughter. A moment later Peter was back in his bed, cold sweat running down his forehead.
Peter couldn’t get himself to fall back asleep after that dream, so he went into the living room and started flipping through channels. Nothing outstanding was ever on at four in the morning, infomercials, Steve Rodgers biographies, Quentin Beck’s behind-the-scenes show. He turned the T.V. off and looked out the window at the city. In a world full of super powered heroes, how come he got a chunk of the villains? It must have come with the territory he supposed. Sure, he gets a whole rainbow of goblins to fight, but at least he didn’t have to deal with Modok or The Mandarin. He made himself some coffee and opened up his laptop. Okay so it wasn’t exactly his laptop but it’s one Reed let him borrow to do extra work when it wasn’t in the lab. Peter was so engrossed in the science he didn’t even notice when his wife came up behind him until his spider sense went off. “Huh, oh shoot. What time is it MJ?” “Don’t worry, it’s still early. I just noticed a Pete shaped hole in our mattress.” “Sorry, I had a pretty crazy dream and couldn’t go back to sleep.” Peter didn’t want to tell her about his dream. He figured MJ already had enough on her plate without having to deal with Peter dreaming about her gruesome death. MJ puffed out her left cheek before shrugging her shoulders. “Well, at least you can make it to your class on time today.”
Make it to his class on time today, Peter did. The students were shocked to see Professor Parker be at his desk before them for once, the day's work already on the board. Today was all about chemical breakdowns. Peter felt in his (please excuse the science pun) element as he talked about the different ways various chemicals can affect each other. Although Peter could see most of the students not caring, he could see Miles and Kamala engrossed in what he was saying. This must have been how Reed felt when he taught Peter how to create his web formula. When it came time for questions and he saw no hands go up Peter dismissed the class, taking a breather before heading to Reed’s. Miles approached Peter’s desk after everyone was gone. “Hey Pete, I got a tip from my uncle.” Peter raised his eyebrow and leaned forward. “Yeah?” “Yeah, he says Tombstone is gonna make a deal with Kingpin tonight. He says it’s something big, like, turn Manhattan gang crime on it’s head big.” Peter sighed and nodded, turning to Miles. “I don’t want you involved in something this big, I’ll go check it out.” “Cool, I’ll text you the details but, you sure you wanna do this alone?” “I won’t be alone, kid.”
After getting his work done with Reed, Peter called MJ to let her know he would be late coming home tonight. After his phone call Peter went to Hell’s Kitchen and found just the guy he was looking for. Peter landed on the rooftop and called out “Hey DD!” The devil costumed hero looked over to Peter. “Hey, so uh, I got a tip that Tombstone and Kingpin were…” Daredevil put a finger to his lips, then pointed to the ground below them. When Peter looked down he saw a large figure get into a small car and it clicked. “Ahhhhh, Gotcha.” The two followed Kingpin to the meeting spot and watched as the meeting went down. It was typical villain stuff honestly, complete with one side betraying the other as Tombstone had his men open fire on Kingpin’s, which is when our heroes decided to step in. “Ugh, The Spider and the Devil, great.” Kingpin muttered. “You know Willy, I know it might not be the best, but I hear Keto does wonders to trim that body fat.” As Kingpin swung his arm to hit Peter, he lost his balance and a well paced hit from Daredevil’s batons caused him to come falling down as Peter webbed his arms and legs to the ground. “Alright Willy, I need you to stay there while we handle…” As Peter was about to finish his sentence he heard tires squeal, when he looked Tombstone was already long gone. “Ah great, ya let him get away.” Daredevil walked over to him and knelt down. “What did you give him, Fisk.” "Nothin’ I wasn’t gonna take back, until you two knuckleheads came barging in. Hope you’re ready for an all out gang war.” “What’s that supposed to mean?” “Heh, guess you’ll see it in the papers.” Peter heard police sirens approach and Daredevil gave him a nod to get out of there. Peter left the scene, still bothered by Kingpin’s comment. He shook it off and swung back to where he stashed his civilian clothes. After putting them on he made his way back to his apartment.
On his way back to the apartment Peter was so lost in his thoughts he didn’t notice when he bumped into a familiar, orange, rocky face. “Watch where ya going ya… Oh Pete, it’s you” “Sorry Ben, I was sorta lost in my thoughts.” “Ah it’s nothin’. Wanna discuss these thoughts over a dog?” The two went to the nearest vendor as Peter vented his frustrations to Ben. It was weird to use The Thing as your personal therapist but hey, Ben was a good listener. “So you’ve been seeing the ghost of your Ex?” “Yeah, I don’t know if it’s the stress manifesting itself or if I’ve just been knocked in the head too many times.” “Well, as a professional lick taker I can tell you it ain’t the hits.” Peter gave Ben a, ‘if you say so’ look and sighed. “On top of that I've gotta worry about an impending gang war…” “Woah, Woah, a gang war?” “Yeah, it isn’t an F4 level concern though, maybe Defenders level worse case.” “Uh huh. Anything else botherin’ ya?” “I… I don’t know if Reed told you but MJ is pregnant right now and I’m just worried.” “‘Bout bein’ a bad dad?” “No just…” Peter paused. “About if I should have a kid I mean, I already have a lot on my plate, what if someone finds out who I am and goes after the kid. I know MJ can hold her own for sure, but a kid?” Ben started laughing and held his hand out. After pausing to catch his breath he finally spoke up. “Kid, ya sound like Stretch when him and Sue were expectin’” “Seriously? Mister Fantastic was worried?” “Sure, anyone would be when they’re in our line of work. Ya just gotta have faith everything will work out. This is you, yeah?” Peter looked up and saw that they had arrived at his apartment building. “Oh, yeah it is. Thanks Ben, I owe you for the glizzy.” “Never call it a ‘glizzy’ again and we’re even.”
Peter went into his apartment and saw MJ asleep on the couch, the T.V. tuned into some cheesy movie that must have come on after his wife passed out. He watched her sleep, admiring every wrinkle and freckle on her face. She looked like an angel, just without wings. After pouring himself a cup of orange juice and grading a few papers, he carried MJ to their bed and covered her up. After slipping out of the grimy clothes he was wearing and taking a quick shower to rinse off he joined her in the bed.
It must have been noon when Peter woke up. He almost freaked out before realizing that it was a Saturday. After getting out of bed and stretching, Peter went into the bathroom and brushed his teeth. Afterwards he went into the kitchen and found a note on the table.
Peter,
Went out to run errands. Don’t forget to stop by the Bugle for picture day.
-MJ
Peter made himself two bagels and started eating them as he went through the pictures he took of Spider-Man that week. He always tried to get at least two weeks worth so Jonah could use multiples in the paper if he wanted. Ever since Jonah discovered Peter was Spider-Man the Bugle had taken a different stance on him, one that Peter welcomed with open arms. Him and Jonah staged a fake kidnapping and equally fake rescue to justify Jonah’s change of heart. Since then Peter and Jonah made a deal where he would stop by once a week to drop off Photos for Jonah to use and Jonah would give him a standard Photographer’s week pay. It helped pay for date nights. Peter got the week's best photos into an envelope and started walking towards the Bugle. After saying hi to Robbie, Betty, and the others, Peter went into Jonah's office to drop off the photos. “Parker! Great timing, I’ve actually got someone I want you to meet.” Jonah gestured to the girl in front of his desk who meekly waved to him. “Parker this is Cindy, Cindy, Parker.” Peter waved, curious as to why Jonah wanted to introduce this asian girl to him. Was it because he was a nerdy white guy? Peter assumed it was because he was a nerdy white guy. “Cindy here has the same… Talents as you Parker.” “Oh like, she’s a good photographer?” “...The OTHER talent, Parker.” Wait. Wait. Wait. “Cindy you have…” “That’s right Parker she’s got spider powers too, isn’t that a weird coincidence.” Peter sighed and rubbed his eyes. “And let me guess, you want me to take her under my wing?” “That’s right. I see a lot of you in her and figure she could use a little guidance.” Peter was already busy with so many other things, but he couldn’t just outright refuse to help this girl, I mean what if him saying no was her super villain origin? Peter couldn’t live with that kind of chip on his shoulder. “Alright, come on Cindy, I’ll show you the ropes.”
The rest of the day was uneventful as Peter learned a bit about Cindy, how she was bitten by a Spider like him and held for study until just recently when she broke out, with a help from Jonah, surprisingly. After escaping Jonah offered her a job and, after learning of the unfortunate passing of her parents, a place to stay as well. Peter smiled a bit, especially since he knew Jonah had been trying to fill the hole left by his wife and son’s passing. “In the 20 plus years I’ve known him Jonah’s always been a stand-up guy. Sure he can be a bit loud but he’s got a heart of gold… Or at least silver.” Cindy giggled at his corny joke. “Hey, If you and Jonah ever wanna have dinner with Me and my wife sometime just let me know.” “Yeah, I think Jonah would like that.” The two went their separate days and Peter returned home. MJ gave him a wave when he came in and continued reading her book as he walked over to the window and looked out, smiling at the setting sun bouncing off the buildings. Looking down though was a different, as he once again saw Gwen, only this time she was looking right into his eyes. Peter closed his eyes, leaning against the glass. When he opened his eyes again, Gwen was gone.