Chapter 8
“I put that tracker on me in case I got into trouble-”
“I know!”
They were in Peter’s bedroom, the following morning. Peter has swung Natasha back to his apartment, where she had promptly passed out on her makeshift floor bed, barely noticing Ned gawking in awe at her. Ned had left, not wanting to intrude on Natasha and Peter, but making Peter promise to tell him everything at school the next day.
So now, Natasha and Peter were alone in the teenager’s bedroom. Natasha had dabbed disinfectant on the many cuts and bruises covering her face, and was currently icing her broken rib. To Peter’s disapproval, she had refused any sort of painkiller, but he was still glad to see that she wasn’t completely disregarding her injuries.
Natasha sat in Peter's chair with her feet on his desk, still wearing her torn, bloody leather jacket, but with some new, washed jeans that she had cuffed at her ankles. Her combat boots were gone, and in their place a pair of Spider-Man socks. Her hair was in a new braid, and her injuries mostly covered up by hasty makeup.
Peter wore a blue hoodie, black sweatpants, and the exact same pair of Spider-Man socks. He sat on his bed, fiddling with his web shooters.
“You shouldn’t have gone alone, did you seriously think I was asking a teenager to go get killed on my behalf?” Natasha asked finally, trying to sound as angry as possible.
“What did you want me to do?”
“Tell Tony or some other Avenger!”
“But you told me not to tell him anything!”
“Some other Avenger!”
Peter crossed his arms defiantly over his chest. “Well, I saved you, and I think I did a pretty good job.”
Natasha sighed. “That’s not the point.”
“It’s what’s important.”
Natasha narrowed her eyes as Peter’s chest rose, and she saw the intake of breath. She prepared for a question.
But nothing came. She frowned. “What?” she asked irritably.
Peter looked over at her, bewildered. “What?”
Natasha squinted at him, and grumbled, “Yeah, what?”
Peter made a sort of helpless gesture with his hands. “What?”
“Stop saying ‘what!’”
Peter spread his hands. “What?”
Natasha sighed, rubbing her face.
Peter added quickly, “What do you want me to say?”
“What were you going to say?”
“I wasn’t going to say anything!”
Natasha nodded, insisting, “Yeah, you were. You were about to ask a question.”
Peter looked around the room. “Oh.”
Natasha slapped the arm of the chair impatiently. “What were you going to ask?”
Peter shrugged. “I dunno.”
Natasha exhaled loudly to express her already-obvious frustration. “Well, remember.”
Peter cracked a grin. “I can’t.”
Natasha forced herself not to smile, instead maintaining her annoyed manner. “Remember it anyway.”
Peter scrunched up his face, trying to recall whatever Natasha claimed he was going to say. Then he sighed. “I told you, I can’t.”
“You should.”
“I’ll remember later.”
“Remember it now.”
Suddenly, Peter beamed, and punched his palm. “I remember!”
Natasha leaned forward. “Say it before you forget.”
“Do you like May’s walnut date loaves?”
Natasha stared at him for a few long moments, and the grin slid off Peter’s face at her less-than-enthusiastic reaction. She put her face in her hands. “Seriously?”
"Seriously."
"May's walnut date loaves are great."
"Cool."
"Mhm."
An awkward silence followed, and Peter eventually broke it by inquiring, “So, like, what are we going to do now?"
Natasha looked up at him. “Well, I found some stuff on Ross back in his office,” she said slowly. “Didn’t get a good look at it, but I was able to download it all on that hard drive you gave me.”
“Awesome,” Peter exclaimed.
Natasha nodded, and opened her mouth, but Peter put a finger out to silence her. Natasha stopped out of pure surprise that Peter would dare tell her to stop talking.
“Firstly, we need to go over something before we start figuring out a plan and stuff,” Peter told her.
Natasha exhaled loudly. “What?”
Peter grinned slyly, and Natasha got a sinking feeling in her stomach. “Superhero landings! Ah, ah, ah!” He stopped Natasha again, pointing at her.
Natasha shut her mouth. Normally, she wouldn’t take orders from a high schooler, but she was curious to see how far he would go. Had she lost her edge? She was supposed to be the most intimidating person in the entire world, and now this teenager was shushing her? He had guts, she had to admit.
Peter continued. “I don’t believe that you have never ever done a superhero landing in your entire life.”
Natasha sighed. “Okay, whatever. Superhero landings... usually pointless, kinda hurts.”
Peter grinned in triumph. “Wait, so you have done it before?”
“Only for tactical and strategic reasons, you know, get in a good position, keep your momentum. Even if it sometimes hurts, it’s better than landing with locked knees or face-planting.” She turned a sharp eye on him, holding back a smile. “But I never do it just to show off. Which every single Avenger does.”
“But you have done it!”
She rolled her eyes. “Conversation over.”
“Fine.”
They were both silent for a few moments, until Peter asked curiously, “Hey, how did Ross not find that tracker you put on your clothes?”
Natasha looked up at him. “I don’t think he ever patted me down. Or he didn’t, at least, when I was conscious. But I think he just didn’t consider the possibility that I was actually working with someone else that might come help me.”
“Well, I guess he underestimated your ability to make friends. Hard to imagine, with your shining personality and sunny disposition.”
“To make friends with superheroes,” Natasha added, ignoring the second part. “Who would actually be able to help me.”
“True,” Peter conceded.
Natasha nodded. “Yeah. Now, I want to look on the news and see what Ross has said about my little escape.”
Peter jumped up. “Oh, yeah! I bet he’s pissed.”
“I’m sure. We’ll see how much he’s actually told people, though.”
May greeted them warmly from the couch as they entered the room, the TV already showing what Natasha guessed was a recording of the previous night’s Jeopardy! episode.
Peter grabbed the remote. “Hi, May. Can I change the channel for a sec?”
May handed it to him. “Yeah, sure. Just make sure my recording is saved, I want to be up to date for tonight’s episode.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Peter turned to Natasha. “May isn’t a tech genius.”
“Hey, I managed to record this entire season all by myself!” May protested.
“I think I helped.”
“Nope. All by myself.”
“Anyway,” Natasha interrupted with a grin, “Do you think you could change it to the news channel?”
“I’m on it,” Peter assured her.
The first thing any of them saw was a slightly grainy and blurry picture of Spider-Man as he swung by the camera.
“Someone’s in trouble!” Peter exclaimed.
Natasha tilted her head to the side. “Sorry to be a broken record Peter, but you’re a real detective, aren’t you?”
“Also,” May put in, “That sounded very upbeat considering it’s you that’s in trouble.”
They were all silent as they listened to the reporter.
“Breaking News, everyone: Secretary of State Thaddeus Ross has come forward, labeling the popular Queens crime-fighter known as ‘Spider-Man’ a fugitive. He has not disclosed the details of Spider-Man’s actions, but claims they were severe violations of the law, and could result in jail time.”
Aunt May grabbed the remote, and clicked off the television before the anchor could continue. Nobody spoke.
Finally, Peter broke the silence, saying slowly, “There’s nothing about, like, what I did. And that it had to do with Natasha also breaking the law.”
“Nope,” Natasha agreed. “Absolutely nothing.”
“But why- why wouldn’t he say something? Get you in more trouble?”
Natasha thought for a moment. Then she concluded, “Because of you.”
Peter scratched his chin. “But I… what about me?”
“People like you. They look up to you. I bet people aren’t going to be quick to believe that you’re a criminal, anyway.” Natasha paused. “If Ross says you were helping me, people are going to trust you. They’ll start to wonder why the great Spider-Man is helping me, a criminal. And maybe they’ll believe you. Not Ross.”
Peter’s eyes widened. “You’re right!”
“It also means,” she continued, “Ross isn’t backing down. He has a plan to take me down and prove that I’m a bad guy before the truth gets out that we’re working together. And he’s probably planning to get you, too.”
“So we have a chance to take him down and get him to clear my name!”
“That’s one way of putting it, I suppose,” Natasha said wearily. “But if we fail, we’re both fu-” she glanced at May, then corrected herself. “We’re both screwed.”
“Well, we have to get him for good this time,” said Peter determinedly.
Natasha turned to his aunt. “May, I am so, so sorry about this. I dragged your nephew into this, and-”
“No, no!” Peter interrupted. “It was my choice to get you out of that stupid prison. Nobody made me. I got myself into this.” He looked at May as well. “And I don’t regret it.”
Natasha sighed in exasperation. “That’s very noble of you-”
“Nope! You are not doing this!” Peter declared. “You are not taking responsibility for me, because that would be stupid and I don’t think you’re stupid!”
“Goddammit, Peter-”
“If you don’t mind my saying,” May interjected, “Natasha, I don’t blame you for Peter being involved in this. He’s right, it was his choice. He can deal with the consequences.”
“See?” said Peter brightly. “C’mon, Natasha, stop being a mom.”
Natasha put her hands up in defeat. “Fine, fine. If you get killed, it’s not one hundred percent my fault.”
“Zero percent your fault! And I am not open to criticism!” With that, Peter marched back to his bedroom.
Natasha huffed, and May smiled earnestly at her. “I think you two have some work to do.”
She grimaced once more, then followed Peter in resignation. “If I shoot you right now, is it still zero percent my fault?” she proposed. “Because I’m very tempted to do that right now.”
“Different story,” Peter replied.
Five minutes later, Peter was on the phone with a very irritated Tony Stark.
“What the hell did you do, Peter?”
Peter cringed, and Natasha, watching him, winced in sympathy. “I- I wasn’t-”
“Ross is on my back more than ever and now you have to go and pull some crazy stunt, apparently, and Ross refuses to tell me what you even did, and I have no idea why!”
“Mr. Stark, I’m so, so sorry,” Peter mumbled. Natasha’s brow furrowed as his eyes got watery. “I’m so sorry, Mr. Stark. But I swear, Ross’s guys started it!”
“What are you, a five-year-old on the playground?” Tony said in disgust.
“No, Mr. Stark. Ever since Black Widow was seen around here, Ross-”
Tony’s tone changed immediately. “Did Ross- Did that son of a bitch bother you about it?”
Peter sighed in relief. “Yeah, his guys kept cornering me, and they attacked me-”
“They what!?”
“They jumped me, Mr. Stark, sir-”
“That son of a bitch!” Tony practically screamed. “That absolute bastard, I am going to murder him! How dare he-”
“Mr. Stark, Mr. Stark, it’s okay, I got away just fine.” Peter looked up, only to find that Natasha had left the room. “But I had to beat up some of his guys to do it.” Peter hated to lie to his mentor. But really, it wasn’t lying. It was just a simplification. He wasn’t wrong, Ross’s men had struck first, and Peter had only retaliated. There had just been a lot more to the story than the one incident.
On the other end, Tony seemed to have calmed down a bit. “Pete, I have to go. I have a lot of calls to make, and a secretary to blast into oblivion. I’m sorry for yelling at you, I believe you, I promise. I should have known from the start that you wouldn’t have provoked Ross for no reason.”
“Thank you, Mr. Stark.”
“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”
“Or anything that you would do?”
“You got it. See you later, kid. Stay safe.”
“You too, Mr. Stark.”
The billionaire hung up. Peter stared at his phone. That call had been a rollercoaster of emotions.
He walked over to the door, tip-toeing for reasons unknown. He could hear Natasha’s voice in the bathroom. After a moment, Peter couldn’t help himself. He pressed his ear up against the door, and listened.
“It’s been kinda chaotic these past few days, but I’m alive,” Natasha was saying. “I’m honestly shocked you spend any time watching the news. I thought you would be bingeing Netflix.”
Peter’s brow furrowed. He tried to think through any person that Natasha might be talking to, but he was coming up empty.
“No, I know I was asking you about him earlier, but there’s no connection-”
Who was she talking about? Peter bit his lip in anticipation and worry. Something was going on with Natasha, something she hadn’t felt the need to tell him about.
“Of course you don’t believe me… You don’t need to worry about me, I’m fine. I promise.”
Well, that was kind of a lie, Peter thought. She had just been held in a cell in a very secure underground prison and beat up by Thaddeus Ross. She didn’t seem very fine.
“Yes, I’m in Queens. Just chilling, waiting for the next chance to get out of here.”
That also seemed to be a lie. She had stated very clearly that she wasn’t yet done with Ross. Peter went through the facts. This person seemed to be worried about her. But she was still lying to them about her situation. Or she was lying to Peter…
“I don’t know why he’s on the news- no, it’s just a coincidence.”
What? Was she talking about him? Peter? And if she was, she had mentioned him to this person before? And to top it all off, she was denying that she and Peter had some connection. Who was she talking to?
“Why would I be hanging out with him? Like you said, he’s a rando in spandex that sounds like a five-year-old.”
Peter had to hold back a chuckle at that. A rando in spandex that sounds like a five-year-old. Well, that was fair, he decided. And at least she was keeping true to her word. Their partnership was a complete secret. Peter wondered if he should maybe be worried, but Natasha’s motive seemed to be protecting him. This didn’t feel like a betrayal, it seemed like a lie to her contact.
“I don’t care if you think the two of us are, what, do you think we’re just hanging out, or something? Having sleepovers?”
The person on the other end raised his voice, and Peter could just make out, “I just want… he’s not… or pulling some bullshit! You know I care… don’t want you to get hurt.”
“I’m not going to get hurt. I’m fine. I don’t know what the hell is going on with Ross and Spider-Man, and I don’t want to know, okay? So drop your stupid theory.”
Peter flinched as his name was mentioned. So there was absolutely no doubt about it. This was about him. She was lying to this caller. She was denying all of her involvement with Peter, and in turn, their conflict with Ross.
“Okay. I know. Bye, Clint.”
Clint? As in Clint Barton? Hawkeye? Peter had no time to think about it as he scrambled over to his bed, and grabbed his phone. When Natasha opened the door a few seconds later, Peter was simply scrolling through Instagram, looking as if he’d been sitting there the whole time.
Natasha looked tired, Peter noticed. More tired, even, than just a few minutes ago. She spoke slowly, as if it was an effort to get just a few words out. “Did you set Tony straight?”
Peter nodded. “Yeah, I told him the whole story. He’s like, super mad at Ross.”
Natasha sighed. “That’s nice to hear, I guess.”
“Yep.”
Natasha held up her phone. “Anyway, hashtag SpideyIsInnocent is trending on Twitter. Like I said, people will defend you.”
Peter raised his eyebrows. On that completely separate subject, he had been working hard on raising only a single eyebrow at a time, because that just looked so cool. But it was much harder than he thought it would be. So he settled for two at a time, and worked on only one when no one was looking. He replied to Natasha, “Well that’s cool. I mean, that doesn’t really help me that much-”
“Oh, but it does,” Natasha cut him off. “Now, whatever you do, it’s not your fault, according to the people. It’s the government’s. That’s a big deal.”
“Really?”
“Definitely. Think about it. You’ve done nothing but good for this city. You’re nice, you’re sometimes kind of funny-”
“Only sometimes? Kind of?”
“-You protect people, and you don’t have any bad past that people know of. They trust you. And this is just proving my theory on why Ross didn’t expose me, too,” Natasha explained.
“People would be on your side?”
“No, they would be on your side,” she replied. “Again, just look at it from their perspective. Spider-Man’s awesome. He never does anything wrong. The government is screwing him over. Also, he seems to be defending this Natasha Romanoff. He must know something we don’t. Even though it seems like she might be bad, if Spider-Man’s on her side, then I guess I’ll believe him.”
“Huh.”
Natasha spread her hands. “Plus, tons of people sided with Steve. They know that I helped him, and they already think that I’m not bad. It’s only the people that sided with Tony that are even important in this situation, because they’re the ones who Ross needs to keep on his side.”
“Oh, yeah,” Peter said, understanding.
Natasha nodded, then continued. “So if the people who originally supported Tony, and by extension, you, start to think that I’m also good, Ross has virtually no one left on his side. Ross is smart. He knows what would have happened if he had exposed our partnership.”
“But he still talked about me, knowing that people would probably take my side?” Peter asked, voicing the only flaw he saw in Natasha’s explanation.
Natasha smirked. “Oh, he knew that people would take your side. And maybe he didn’t realize exactly how much backlash he would end up getting. But even so, not everyone is going to take your side. Especially not the people hellbent on bringing down Tony, no matter who’s right and who’s wrong.”
“So Mr. Stark will look bad!” Peter realized.
Natasha nodded. “Exactly. Tony has a lot at stake here. People know that he knows your real identity, and that he trusts and helps you. If it turns out you’re evil or whatever, yeah, he looks bad. A lot of people won’t buy it, but Tony has a lot of enemies. They don’t care what’s true or not, they’ll jump on the chance to make him look like a fool.”
“So we have to fix it,” Peter concluded. “We have to set the record straight.”
“Yep.” She sighed. “No rest for the weary.”
“But the weary need rest,” Peter complained.
“Can’t argue with that,” Natasha said with a smile.
“So what’s our next move?”
Natasha flopped down in Peter’s chair. “We should look at the hard drive that you gave me. I didn’t get much, but there is one thing that I saved. I think you’ll find it very interesting.”
“Yeah?” Peter stood up, and squeezed next to Natasha in order to turn on his monitor. “What’s that?”
“Ross seems to have found another one of you,” she said dryly, digging the drive out her pocket.
Peter turned sharply, wrinkling his nose. “Um, what? The hell?”
“I don’t know.” Natasha plugged the drive into the computer, then leaned back in her chair, eyeing Peter carefully. “Why don’t you see for yourself?”
Peter scanned his monitor, then shrugged. “Well, it’s going to be a few minutes ‘til it’s downloaded. Care to give me a brief explanation?”
“Well, I really didn’t see much,” she began slowly. “But the file was called Spider-Man Rebirth.”
“Anything else?”
“Do you know anyone by the name G. Stacy?”
Peter raised an eyebrow, then sat back down on his bed.
“What? You do know this person?” Natasha asked urgently.
“No, I don’t. But I just got, like the weirdest déjà vu.”
“But you’ve never heard that name?”
Peter hesitated for a moment, searching his brain for some connection to the name. “I- I don’t know. I feel like I should, but… I have no idea.”
“Interesting,” Natasha said grimly. “Well, I guess we’ll find out who they are exactly in just a few minutes. And what connection they have to you, and Spider-Man.”