Author's Note: This is my first story so any reviews would be greatly appreciated. This is set during TASM. Disclaimer: I do not own anything from Spiderman.
Chapter 1
Gwen was sitting at her desk finishing a project for her biology class. They were all assigned a different species to research and write a paper about. Ironically, she had been assigned to research spiders. She smirked at her computer as she started typing "s-p-i" and instantly the results popped up with "Spiderman" who incidentally happened to be her boyfriend. She ignored those search results and continued to look up the anatomy and taxonomy of spiders. She glanced at her phone and her face fell a little. There were no messages or missed calls from Peter. It was already past midnight and he usually would have called or texted by now. She sighed and turned back to her computer.
She jolted awake at 2:27 in the morning. She peeled her face off her notebook and rubbed her eyes. She checked her phone and got worried when there still was no news from Peter. She reached for her now cold coffee and then heard it again, a slight tapping on her window. She laughed with relief and walked over to unlock it. "Well hey, Bug Boy. You really have to stop doing this to me. I think I've lost about thirty years of my life from worrying about you so far. You know I can't sleep well until I know you're okay." She turned around to look at him and her face fell. "Peter? Peter! Hey, hey come here." She put his arm around her shoulder and helped him slide into her room. "Holy shit, Peter, what happened?" He grimaced and then tried to put that goofy smile on his face but a wave of nausea washed over him causing his knees to buckle. She couldn't support his full weight, but she guided his fall to a gentle landing on her carpet. His breathing was ragged through his mask, which she was surprised he hadn't taken off yet. She ripped off the mask and gasped. His face was covered in cuts and bruises. One particularly nasty gash cut from his ear, followed his jaw line, and ended on his neck just below his chin. She was afraid to pull the suit down any further. She didn't want to see how bad the rest of his injuries were, but she knew she had to. She went to her bathroom to get some towels her now very complete first aid kit. She never thought she would learn to sew stitches on a person so well but here she was prepping her needle to close his wounds. The three giant slashes that were given to Peter by that stupid giant lizard just a few days ago were almost completely healed. But now he had several more and she had a feeling the same person/mutant lizard inflicted them.
She set to work as Peter was struggling to stay awake. He kept muttering "I'm okay, I'm just really tired." She just told him to shut up and kept working. By the time she finished her hands were covered in his blood. Peter's entire torso was wrapped in bandages as well as part of his head and his lower leg. By the looks of some of the injuries she concluded that it had been a busy night for Peter, not just with Dr. Connors. She knew the bullets in his back and leg were not from a giant lizard man who probably couldn't hold a gun properly if he wanted to, so they must have been from a gang. She had washed him as best as she could and now had his head in her lap. He had finally fallen asleep, so she now was just studying him as she stroked her fingers through his hair. She didn't want to move and wake him up. Finally his eyes fluttered open. "Hey, Bug Boy, it's okay. You're safe now." He closed his eyes and put his hands on his face. He didn't say anything but after a moment Gwen felt him shaking. "Peter?" He remained silent but he sat up. His eyes were red and filled with tears.
She stood up and offered her hands to help him up. He looked up at her, and her heart nearly broke when she saw the pain in his brown eyes. "Come on, Peter. Stand up." He reached and grasped her hands and slowly stood up. She quickly stood next to him so that he wouldn't fall over again and gently guided him to her bed. He groaned as he lowered himself onto the bed. She walked over to her phone and saw that she had one message from Peter's Aunt. She rolled her eyes when she remembered Peter telling her to keep his secret from his aunt. Gwen had talked to Aunt May last time she was at Peter's house. He had passed out when they were doing homework together, so Gwen let him sleep and slipped downstairs to find some company with Aunt May. She was an amazing person, and Gwen admired her. As they talked Aunt May told Gwen that she knew about Peter, but she didn't want him to know that she did. She wanted him to tell her whenever he was ready. Gwen respected that. But it was good to know that she could help his aunt worry less by giving updates on Peter. She opened the text from Aunt May, "Is Peter with you?" She quickly typed a reply letting her know that Peter was safe and with her, but in no condition to swing back home tonight. Aunt May responded quickly thanking her and asked her to text her in the morning for an update. She never asked Gwen for details about Peter, which Gwen was grateful for. She always just wanted to know that Peter was alive and safe.
Gwen changed into her pajamas and crawled into bed next to Peter. It was a good thing that it was Saturday so she could sleep in as late as she wanted. She made a habit of locking her door at night so that no one (particularly her father) could barge in and find Peter. Peter instinctively wrapped a protective arm around her, so she nuzzled into him and gradually let herself fall asleep.