Patient Suspicions
When Peter first comes home with a black eye, she worries that he's been fighting in school. Of course, he tells her that he has merely fallen off his skateboard. I'm fine, he says. He always says that. She gets Ben to go down and talk to him, see if he can get the truth out. They both know he didn't fall.
When Peter suddenly starts breaking things one morning, she wonders what has made him so upset. He practically runs out the door, avoiding their gazes, and as she checks his bathroom, she finds nearly everything shattered to bits. Of course, it doesn't help that he is gone all night, leaving her stranded at the bus station, making her walk home twelve blocks. Ben is furious, but she is more worried about Peter, who comes home only to have a fight ensue. He leaves, shattering the storm door behind him, and she wonders how many more things he will break. She tells Ben to let him go, that he'll come back soon, but he doesn't listen.
When Peter returns home late with tears running down his face and police surrounding the door, she panics, wondering what has happened to him. What has he done? The pain doesn't register when it's Ben who she discovers was the one to die that night. She sits at the kitchen table crying in disbelief, telling the policeman no useful information. She couldn't tell the man who the killer was; she didn't see him. She didn't want to. She isn't surprised that Peter is gone from the doorway when she looks up. He's dealing with his own pain.
When Peter doesn't come home for days, she worries that he may be getting into trouble. He always appears exhausted, and has become quite secretive in everything he does. She fears that she may lose him as well if she doesn't hold onto him. She needs to protect him, more for her sake than his, so she sits at the kitchen table and waits for him to come home.
When Peter finally does return, exhausted and covered in bruises and cuts, she fears that her predictions were right. She doesn't know what to do except yell at him, which probably didn't help much, but it feels as if it is the only thing she can do. After days of walking on egg shells, she just wants to know that someone else is still there with her. He doesn't take the yelling well and storms away, refusing to talk to her at all. She just wishes he'd tell her what's going on. He used to tell her everything.
When Peter starts to spend more time with Doctor Connors and less time at home, she fears he may be headed down the same path as his parents. The last thing she needs is for him to get caught up with the doctor and become involved in whatever had taken his parents away. She cannot lose him too.
When Peter starts spending more time with that girl, Gwen Stacy, she hopes that things will take a turn for the better, that he will return to his normal, happy self. He thinks that she is blind, that she can't see that they like each other and are practically dating. She lets him be though. If he wants to be left alone, then she will let him be…for now.
When Peter finally stays at home enough so that they can have breakfast together again, she is crestfallen when he suddenly grabs his belongings and storms out of the house without warning. They had been listening to the news, the story of the hour about some masked vigilante named "Spiderman". She thought it odd for Peter to get so fired up over the news; one would think by his reaction that he had been personally insulted. Still, Peter had been different these past weeks; what's to say what gets under his skin anymore?
When Peter's school is attacked by the supposed lizard monster roaming NYC, she goes into a panic attack and rushes herself over there as fast as possible. However, when she gets on campus, Peter is nowhere to be found. Her heart seizes with fear, but the girl, Gwen, calms her down assuring her that Peter is safe, that he went to help the police give a statement. Apparently, she hears the officers around her say Spiderman was currently following the monster through the sewers. She also couldn't help but notice that the only student they reported missing was Peter Parker.
When Peter doesn't return home that night, she begins to wonder where he's been going that keeps him out so long. There's been a crazy idea brewing in her head ever since she saw the news clips of car robbers being captured all over the city, but she has always claimed it to be ridiculous. However, when the news lights up her kitchen demanding a city wide evacuation, she sits upright, startled. Her thoughts immediately go to Peter, praying that he is safe. When she sees Spiderman slinging his way across the city to OSCORP, some part of her goes back to the crazy idea she holds deep in her mind. The other part of her still paces the hallways of the house, desperately trying to get a hold of her nephew. She prays that he isn't dead.
When Peter comes home early in the morning with a substantial limp and more claw marks across his face than she could count, she is left speechless. She doesn't know whether to accept that her theory was right and scold him ten ways to Sunday, or to wrap him up in the biggest hug she could possibly give and never let go. Before she could decide, he reaches down into his backpack and pulls something out: a container of eggs he was supposed to get weeks ago. They both smile and then laugh as if it were the funniest thing they had ever seen. She hadn't laughed like that since Ben died.
When Peter is still moping around nearly a week after the eggs incident, she could tell that something had happened, something he didn't want to tell her about. She suspected that it had something to do with that night at OSCORP, though she dare not mention her suspicions to Peter. The last thing he needs is her snooping around, though he has always been terrible at keeping secrets.
When Peter answers the door and Gwen Stacy is there on the other side, he steps out to talk to her. She can't hear them, though it really isn't any of her business. When he comes back in a few moments later, he looks even worse than before, and she can see Gwen walking down the street, clearly distressed. She innocently asks him if he asked that pretty girl out, careful not to let on that she knew anything about anything. He shook his head and said that he was no good for her. She knew that to be a lie and told him so, telling him that if he was anything, he was a good person. That seems to hit him hard, and he sincerely pondered the thought with wide eyes, something brewing in his mind. She smiles, knowing that somehow he knows her words have a deeper meaning to them than what to do about Gwen Stacy.
When Peter mysteriously disappears or doesn't come home, she doesn't tend to worry too much anymore. All she does is turn on the news and watch Spiderman crawl up the skyscrapers of New York City, stopping whatever criminal was on the list that night. Spiderman always seemed to be out when Peter was gone, and she has taken this to mean more than just a coincidence. Still, she lets him be, lets him have his privacy. She knows he will come home in the morning; he always does.
So, when Peter returns in the mornings, she semi-pretends to fret over him and ask him where he's been all night. She only partially pretends because part of her will always care for Peter; she loves him. She just knows he can handle himself now. He plays along, lying about how he got the scrapes on his chin by tripping up the stairs at school or how the cuts above his eyes were due to a shattered beaker in Chemistry class. She knows how he really got the scrapes, but she lets him believe that he has her fooled. His secret's safe with her. She just waits for the day when he comes home and tells her.