Only Time

"I, I can't find her contact information."

"Don't worry, I have it in my phone!"
Ned quickly pressed the dial button, a beep come from the receiver, but no one answered.

"It's already late, maybe we should..." Peter's voice sounded cringe. Ned turned his head and found his friend was leaning against the wall tightly.
The boy clenched fists with both hands, nailed his nails into his palms, and stared away. Then Ned noticed that his legs were trembling faintly.

He wants to ask Peter if he is ok, but the call is connect and MJ's voice comes from the phone:
"Ned," she says with fatigue and a hint of anger in her voice. "What happening ?"

"Uh, hey MJ, I'm sorry to call you so late," Ned glanced at Peter and turn on the hands-free function. "But do you remember those things after we came back from the Statue of Liberty two years ago? The dreams we had, the lack of memory and the ambiguity?"

The sound of cloth rubbing and the sound of turning on lights come from the phone.
"Yes, I still remember, what's wrong?"

"I found the cause of them. There was a wizard on the Statue of Liberty that day, you remember? he cast a spell to make the whole world forget one person."

"Who?"

"Spider-Man, Peter Parker."

The other end of the phone gets silent.

"MJ?"

Michelle Jones immediately forgets to be angry when she heard the name, and even forgets to breathe. At the beginning , she doesn’t fully believe what Ned said. She does not means Ned is unreliable, but he can easily deceived by others sometimes. But the name Peter Parker--
She remembered the name, the boy who reported his full name in the coffee shop.

She takes a deep breath to calm herself down. "I'll be back tomorrow. Can you find where Peter Parker lives? No matter what channel you use."

"Uh, about this, he is by my side now."

Peter Parker raises his head, make a contact with Ned's eyes for a moment, and then moved away.
There is a crackling sound from the other end of the phone—it was MJ walking barefoot on the floor. Then there are the sound of typing on the keyboard. Peter opens his eyes wide and look at Ned's computer screen. After half a minute, a video invitation from MJ appeared on it.

Ned looked at the screen, then at Peter, and pointed at the computer.
"What are you waiting for? Pick it up, bro."

"I—" Peter finally panicked, his body try to keep move back, but this lead he climbs onto the bedroom wall.
"I don't think I should touch your personal computer—"
"Clicking the "Accept" button will not infringe on my privacy, and I also allow you to use my computer."
"but I--"
"This is for you, not me."

The whispers of the two boys come out from the phone, and MJ finally becomes impatient.
"Answer it . Peter Parker." She says calmly.

A few seconds later, Peter Parker's face appears on the computer screen.

There is a long silence, and the people on both sides of the screen don't speak anything . Ned's eyes scanned back and forth between them.

Finally Michelle break the silence.

"Hi , Peter Parker."
"Heyyyyy... MJ."
Peter Parker raises his right hand to the screen, while squeezing a smile.

"I believe Ned has confirmed that you are Spider-Man, so I won't ask you to prove it again . From my view, Spider-Man appeared when we were at the monument and when we traveled to Europe, so I guess you are probably our classmate. "

"Friend. Very close friend." Ned corrected.

Michelle blinked, "Well, very close friend, then why are you just looking for us now?"

"MJ!" Ned complaining. "Peter didn’t keep his promise because he wants to protect us! He is afraid that we would be in danger again!”
"Yeah, that's why I ask him why he come to us now?" She looked at the image of the boy on the screen, and her head extremely calm.

Of course she knows Peter Parker's motives, and if she puts her friends in danger, she may do the same decision.

Peter Parker shrank into the chair, his fingers gripping the armrest tightly.
"I, I don't know." He dared not look at MJ's face anymore and chose to stare at his knees.

"Then how did you live these two years? As far as I know, Spider-Man has always been alone. Does your family know about this?"

"MJ, that spell." Ned reminded, and put his hand on Peter's.

"Shit," Michelle cursed in a low voice, "I really don't like magic." She frowned deeply.
Forgotten by everyone, this means that Peter Parker has been alone for two years.

"Then what do you do when you are injured? A private doctor? Nope, an illegal clinic?"

"I didn't..." Peter finally raised his head and looked directly into MJ's eyes. "I didn't go to an illegal clinic! I always deal with wounds by myself!"

Walk alone through the streets, fight alone, study alone, refuse to have deep friendship with anyone, and live alone.
No friends, no family , or even support, and everything is borne by him alone.
Bear all the pain alone.

MJ stands up abruptly and moving irritably around the room.
Calm, calm, calm down. Things exceeded her expectations, her head started to ache, and her chest starts too, but she has to calm down. She shouldn't be so angry, she shouldn't be so heartbroken.

What? Heartbroken? She asked herself.
Yes, heartbroken. She answered herself.
Why am I heartbroken? She asked again.

Because---

"MJ? MJ, are you okay? We can continue this talk when you return to New York."
Ned's voice awakened her from the dizziness, and she takes a deep breath and make herself back to the computer.

"I'm fine, Ned, just a little shocked, thank you for your concern. Then may I ask you not to interrupt my conversation with Peter, please?It’s very important.”She smiled at Ned, then looked at Peter.

"Well, I don't want to say it rudely. But Peter, it sounds like you have a kind of self-sacrifice—disease." She changes the last word.

With a sound ,the armrest of the chair snapped off.

"......I can't believe you would say that, MJ." Peter's eyes widened. "You obviously don't know anything."

"Yes,I truly don't know anything, neither I nor Ned. Because you didn't tell us." She bit her lip and continued to attack.

"I am protect you!!"

"Then who will protect Peter Parker? When he got shot, when he was dealing with wounds alone, when Christmas came.——When your birthday came?"
She knows . She had already know how cruel this is , and she got prepared, but every word she uttered brought herself uncomfortable beyond her expectation.

"No one remembers him, he is dead."

The boy says.

"I still remember you." Ned says in his heart, and walk towards the window as quietly as possible, because he feels that the person in the chair would jump up and escape in the any second.

"If Peter Parker is really dead, why are you here?! You obviously don’t care about us!You think we too weak to deserve you! Then why do you still tell us these things?!!"

"Because I don't want to lose you!!!"

It is Peter Parker's last call for help.

Tears couldn't stop running from Peter's eyes, and he tremblingly grabbed the table to support himself.

“And so we too.”

Michelle close her eyes, collapsed on the chair,deeply breath and strokes the necklace.
"I believe I got this necklace when I was in Europe... but I don't remember——" MJ opened her eyes wide, her pupils trembled, and Perter doesn’t know what that meant.

She takes off the necklace and look at the broken dahlia.
"Why are you giving me this necklace, Peter Parker,"minuets later, she speaks softly.

"B-because it's like the murder?"

Michelle Jones raises her head and look at Peter across the screen.
"Yes, like the murder, yes. But it doesn't answer my question."

"My question is, why do you give me this necklace?"

The image projected on the retina turned into fuzzy patches, and all Michelle did is keep her eyes open wildly .

A crying voice from Peter come in her ear.

“Because...”