Chapter 4
“Wait!” Sue spun round, her face deathly pale. “You said… oh my god. Spider-Man I’m so sorry.” She launched herself forwards, wrapping Peter up in an embrace. “I can’t believe… oh it’s so obvious now!” She lowered her voice so only Peter could hear her. “I’m so sorry Peter. I’m so sorry I never… I’m sorry you went through all that. I was blind not to see it.” Sue pulled back again, and Peter could see, much to his horror, her eyes were starting to water. She wiped at them furiously.
“Hey, it’s okay Sue. It is called a secret identity for a reason. How were you meant to know?” He gave her a lopsided smile which she returned.
“I’m adopting you now, okay?” Peter opened his mouth to argue but she shut him up with a glare. “No arguing.”
“Yes mum.”
“Good. Very good.” She winked at him before turning back to face the scene, leaving the rest of the Four extremely confused.
“Okay…” Ben shrugged. “Hey, why is this thing not changing? No offence squirt, but I can only listen to baby you laughing for so long.”
“You must be paying full attention before we can go on.” The stupid voice was back.
Ben let out a long-suffering sigh, before saying, “Fine! I’m paying attention now! Happy?”
The voice didn’t reply, but the scene changed into something different.
The younger Peter was about six in the scene, and he was held in his mother’s arms.
“You’re going to be staying with Uncle Ben and Aunt May, okay sweetheart? Just while we are away. We’ll be back before you know it!”
Peter sucked in a breath. Great, just great. Starting from the good stuff.
Mary pressed a soft kiss to hologram-Peter’s forehead. Richard ruffled Peter’s hair.
“See you soon kiddo. Love you.”
The young Peter grinned back; gap toothed.
“Love you too Daddy! Love you Mummy!”
A far younger looking Aunt May and Uncle Ben appeared in the corner of the image, taking Peter out of his mother’s arms. The three of them were waving at Peter’s parent’s retreating forms, before the scene blurred and changed again.
Young Peter was sitting on Uncle Ben’s lap, quietly watching the TV. Then Aunt May rushed in, teats forming in her eyes.
“Ben…” she whispered. “Ben, the plane. It’s.. They’re… Oh Ben!”
Aunt May wrapped up both her husband and Peter in her arms, before bursting into tears. Uncle Ben looked worried but rubbed reassuring circles into Aunt May’s back.
“What’s happened?”
Peter sucked in a deep breath. It had been so long since he’d heard Uncle Ben speak. HE blinked rapidly to avoid crying. Not here, not now.
Aunt May was speaking, her voice muffled against Uncle Ben’s shirt.
“Ben. Mary and Richard… Their plane. Their plane crashed! They’re gone Ben. They’re gone.”
Uncle Ben went pale. “No… They can’t be.”
“I’m so sorry, Ben. I’m so sorry.”
Uncle Ben was shaking. “But what about Peter? What are we going to do with… What is going to happen to him?”
“He’s ours now Ben. Mary told me that she wanted us to look after him if anything happened.”
Uncle Ben took a deep breath, as if to calm himself. Then he slowly moved the vision’s version of Peter so he was cushioned between him and Aunt May.
“I guess it’s the three of us now kid. We’ve got you. We’ve got you.”
The scene slowly faded away, leaving the area in front of them empty. Peter sat down on the floor, hard. He slowly let his head fall into his hands, gulping in huge breaths of air to calm himself. He hadn’t known his parents too well; he had still been so young. But they were gone, and they had been his parents, and he missed them. Or at least, he missed the life that he could have had. He missed his Uncle Ben, who after seeing him again for mere seconds made him want to burst into tears. Distantly, Peter could see Sue and Johnny crouching down on either side of him, and Ben and Reed standing awkwardly in the background.
The voice began speaking again.
“I’ll allow you a few moments to calm yourself. You may leave this room, but when your time is up, you will be transported back. Do not try to abuse the privilege you have been given.”
“Pretentious asshole.” Johnny muttered.
Reed attempted to walk past the boundaries that had been previously set, upon finding he could, he looked to Sue, as if to ask what to do. Sue looked to Peter, then to her brother and seemed to come to a decision.
“Reed, Ben, come with me. Let’s give them some privacy.” The three of them left the room, leaving Johnny and Peter alone.
Johnny carefully placed his hand on Peter’s shoulder. “Peter?” His voice was soft. “You’re Peter aren’t you? Peter Parker.” Johnny let out a small huff of air. “I should have realised.”
Peter looked up at Johnny. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you.”
“No, you’re not. And you shouldn’t be. I’m the one who’s sorry. I should have stopped you from getting hit by that beam of light, then none of this would be happening.”
“It’s not your fault Johnny.”
“Well, it feels like it is.”
They sat there in silence for a few moments, before Johnny spoke again.
“Can I see? Your face? With the suit. I… I don’t know if I can believe it until I’ve seen.”
Peter nodded, and gently reached up to grip the bottom of his mask, slowly pulling it off. He lowered his eyes.
Johnny made a weird choking sound. Was he really that ugly? Peter moved to put the mask back on, but Johnny reached out and grabbed his arm.
“Wait… Leave it off.” At Peter’s look of surprise, he quickly backtracked. “Or not, if you don’t want to. I don’t mind.”
Peter smiled softly. “Okay.” He let the mask drop down to the floor.
Johnny but his lip nervously. “I’m sorry. About your parents. I-”
“It’s fine. Don’t apologise.”
Johnny nodded. “Yeah, okay.”
Peter gazed at Johnny for a while, losing himself in his bright blue eyes. Then Johnny broke the silence, again.
“Wait. Are you saying that this entire time you’ve been taking selfies of yourself and selling them for cash?”
Peter groaned, his head falling back into his hands.
“All those times you said you were friends with Spider-Man. Those freaking bruises you got! How you- Bloody hell! You’ve… Your…” Johnny yelped in horror. “Every time I told you about the-”
“The what?”
Johnny lowered his voice. “The… The cute photographer.” He looked down to the floor, his face bright red.
“What about them?” Peter frowned. “Wait. Is it someone I know? Someone I work with! You think one of the people I work with is cute?” Great. Just Peter’s luck. Johnny had a crush on one of his co-workers.
Johnny looked at Peter incredulously. “You can’t possibly be that dense…”
“So, you don’t have a crush on my co-workers?”
Johnny opened his mouth and let out a silent scream, smashing his head against the couch.
“Johnny, are you okay? Look, I promise I won’t tell them about it.”
Johnny turned back to Peter, as if to say something, before a bright light blinded them, and suddenly Ben, Reed and Sue appeared back in the room.
Johnny sighed; it was clear the conversation was over.
“Okay then, since we might be here for a little while, we might as well get comfortable.
“Maybe this will help.”
Another couch appeared, as well as two armchairs. Sue instantly sat down in one armchair, and Reed took the other. Ben took up the whole new couch, leaving Peter and Johnny to the other couch. Somehow, in the span of a few seconds the chair seemed to have gotten smaller. Peter eyed it suspiciously. Johnny just shrugged, and sat down, Peter collapsing next to him.
No one commented on Peter not wearing his mask, though he did notice Sue give Johnny a look which he couldn’t understand. Peter sighed, relaxing into the couch.
“Well, at least that stupid voice guy is good for something.”
Johnny smiled faintly. “Yeah. I guess.”
They looked back to the centre of the room, where a new scene was beginning to form.