A Bonding Experience

Gwen woke with a gasp. It took her only seconds upon opening her eyes to realize she wasn't where she should be. Instead of in her home's living room eating a snack as she got a start on her homework, Gwen was in a dimly lit room only a little bigger than her parents' bedroom. Somewhere to her right, she heard sniffling. Slowly sitting up, she groaned as a pulsing began behind her temple. Closing her eyes to try and lessen the pain, she also took a moment to try and recall how she'd ended up here in the first place.

She remembered taking a shortcut through an alley after she got off the bus a block from her home when her spidey-sense started to go haywire. However, before Gwen could identify where the threat was coming from, someone had been on top of her, trying to drag her off into a van at the end of the alley. Gwen had fought them, of course. She'd had more than one self-defense and karate class in her day, not to mention she was already stronger than the average girl from dance classes and the spider bite. Gwen recalled getting out of the kidnapper's bear-hug and landing a good kick to his groin before another person had come out of the van the first kidnapper had been trying to drag her into.

Gwen had fought him too and then the first one also when he joined back in the fray, but there had only been so much she could do to fight them off without giving away who her alter-ego was. Gwen had managed to slip them both at one point and had started to run for the opposite end of the alley when out from behind a dumpster yet another assailant had appeared and they— Her finger went to her temple and she winced. It hurt and when she pulled her fingers away from it she was confronted with the sticky, rusting red of drying blood. "Shit," she swore.

Another sniffle sounded from the right side of the room. Gwen swung her head in that direction, groaning at the way it made the room spin. She'd moved far too fast; Gwen wondered if she didn't have a concussion. When the worst of the pain ebbed away, she opened her squinted eyes and saw near the corner of the room was a familiar kid. "Fuck," Gwen cursed. Scooting toward him, she whispered, "Miles?"

He looked up from where he was crying into his knees. His eyes were red from tears and behind them, she could see the slow shine of recognition begin. Good, he appeared to remember her— A little, anyway. They'd met as Gwen and Miles nearly a month ago now. "You're…" he murmured, "in a band?"

Gwen couldn't help herself. She laughed. "Yeah, kid," she replied. "I'm in a band. You remember my name?"

Miles shook his head.

She smiled gently. "That's just fine, I'm Gwen."

"Gwen," he repeated. "I'm Miles."

She dipped her head. "I remember," she told him. Teasingly, she added, "Santa got you a bucket of markers for Christmas."

"And a coloring book," he added, solemn.

Gwen acted as if this was much more important matter than it was. "Oh yes, how could I forget?"

Miles shrugged and looked away to dry his tears with the sleeve of his hoodie. "Did the bad guys take you too?" he asked.

She turned her attention to the room and realized it was some old (probably condemned), boarded up studio apartment and the two of them were likely in what used to be its kitchen if the cupboards hanging above them were any indication. "Yeah," she answered. "Is it just you and me? Or were there any other kids?" she asked as she scanned the rest of the apartment searching for anyone else possibly hiding in the shadows.

"Nuh-huh."

She let out a breath of relief. That was… Better. It would be far easier to get just herself and Miles out of here rather than the two of them plus another kid or two. Gwen knew it wouldn't be too hard. She'd escaped worse as Spider-Woman. All that was different now was she had to be careful about how she did it so she didn't reveal she was Spider-Woman to Miles or the kidnappers in the process. Slowly, Gwen got to her feet and went to try and peer through the boarded up windows. Unfortunately, while the gaps were large enough to let in beams of daylight, she really couldn't make out too much of the outside. She saw some blue, maybe the brown bricks of another building. What she did know was they were quite high up from the streets. At least three or four stories, possibly more.

She looked over at Miles. "When did they take you, Miles?"

"When I was drawing on my stoop." He began to tear up a little. "Daddy's gonna be mad."

Gwen frowned. "Oh, Miles, why would he be? This isn't our fault."

"I'm not supposed to talk to strangers and I talked to the bad guy before he took me." He covered his eyes with his fingers. "I didn't listen!"

Gwen went over and put her hand on the top of his head. He peaked at her through his fingers when she started to gently rub her hand back and forth. "Hey," she soothed. "Your dad's going to be so happy when he sees you after we get out of here he won't even care, alright?"

Miles lip wobbled as he whispered, "Promise?"

Gwen grinned, an idea coming to her. She offered her pinky. She'd made quite a few in her day, and hadn't kept many over the years, but this was one she knew she would. "Pinky promise."

Miles relaxed a fraction and gave his own pinky to Gwen to link fingers with her. "Okay," he said swiping his hand beneath his snotty nose after they finished. Gwen cringed a little at that since it was gross and he'd probably done it earlier too, which now meant she had his snot on her… But she let it go with a big sigh. Little kids were gross sometimes and he'd outgrow it soon enough.

"I'm going to see if I can't get any of them to answer some questions for me, okay?" she told Miles. "You can stay right here, alright?"

The kid stared at her with freshly frightened eyes. "You're gonna try and talk to the bad guys?"

She nodded. "How else am I going to figure out what they're planning to do with us?" she asked. "Or why they took us?" Though, Gwen already had a few ideas. It probably had something to do with the police, since that was really the only connection between her and Miles beside both of them living in Brooklyn, but Gwen couldn't say for sure. If some kid with the last name O'Keeffe was dumped here soon, she'd think she could prove this was in some way related to whatever case had her dad dropping off evidence at Miles's Dad's precinct. Going up to the studio's door, she banged on it a couple times with her fist after checking to see if it was locked (which of course it was).

After she finished banging, it opened. A muscular man with a ski-mask over his face was on the other side. "What?" he demanded.

"Am I allowed to know what the fuck is going on?" she demanded as she crossed her arms and stuck her chin in stubborn bravado.

He snorted at her question as if it was funny. "Don't you worry your pretty lil'head. As long as your daddies cooperate, you'll both be leaving here in one piece."

Gwen sighed, aggravated. "That's not what I asked," she told him.

He laughed at her. "Well, it's the best you're getting," he said. "Now go sit all nice with the lil'kid and quit botherin' me." He waved a newspaper – The New York Daily News – up for her to see. "I've got some reading to catch up on here."

She scowled, teeth bared in an ugly, angry way. "How long are we expected to just sit in here, huh?"

He shrugged at her. "Don't worry, we'll feed ya if we have to," the man told her before abruptly stepping back and closing the door in Gwen's face with a hard slam. She pounded both hands against the door in response. "Asshole!"

The door didn't open back up.

Gwen turned to Miles. "I guess that answers that."

"Why are we here?" he asked.

Taking a seat next to Miles, she told him, "It's because both our dads are police officers. I think they must be involved in some case that's not going well for whoever's in charge of these guys who are holding us here."

"Are they gonna kill us?" whispered Miles, eyes wide and scared.

Her stomach churned at the idea. They wouldn't. Or that's what she hoped. Who knew what might happen if their dads weren't quick enough to do what these people wanted or find them? Even so, she couldn't let on that such an outcome was possible. Miles was five. "No," she assured him, putting an arm around his skinny shoulders and pulling him flush against her. "I'm not letting either of us die, okay?"

"How are you going to stop them? They're so big!"

Gwen laughed, though there wasn't a lot of humor in the sound. "You just wait, kid," she said. If this did turn into life or death, she'd make sure Miles would be on the side of life when it was all over— Even if he'd be the only one. Gwen, however, was quite confident things wouldn't take such a bleak turn. Since waking up, she had already come up with a couple of possible escape plans and it was only going to be a matter of time before she decided which one to use.

Her first idea involved waiting a bit to knock on the door and then overpowering the guy standing there to get out of here. She realized it would probably be risky to do so, however, since who knew if there were more people in the hallway or building? And if there were, some no doubt had guns on them. She couldn't say she was excited about the idea of trying to carry Miles out of here in a storm of bullets.

Her second idea she thought was far more sensible. It involved using her superior strength to pry loose a few of the boards from the window and hopefully finding on the other side of it would be a fire escape they could both escape down or a dumpster beneath she could jump into and catch Miles from. While there would probably be a person or two keeping an eye on the building, Gwen felt comfortable assuming they wouldn't be waiting outside by their window seeing as it was boarded up and "impossible" for a teenage-girl and little boy to escape through.

Closing her eyes, Gwen just took a moment to calm herself and weigh the pros and cons. To decide which would add the least amount of trauma to this already mentally-scarring situation. Once she looked at it that way, it became the easiest choice Gwen had made in ages.

The window it would be.

Getting up once again, she headed for the window and started to pull at the boards. "What are you doing?" Miles asked.

"Gathering wood for a fire," she snarked. "What does it look like?"

He bit his lip. "They're gonna hear you!"

That was a good point. One she hadn't thought to consider. Gwen was actually kind of glad she wasn't in this alone; two heads were really better than one. Once she started thinking of a solution, it came pretty fast and she felt pretty good it would work too. Gwen looked over her shoulder and declared, "Then let's start a sing-along!"

Miles's eyes flashed with interest and gave her the last bit of confidence she needed to carry out her idea. "What's your favorite song?" she asked.

"Mama will sing me Ricky Martin when I can't sleep at night."

She smiled. "You're in luck, kid, I actually know one of his songs," said Gwen. "How well do you know Livin' La Vida Loca?"

"Good."

She nodded encouragingly at him. "Then let's hear it."

While Miles started to belt out the tune, Gwen continued to pull on the boards and began to join in too once he hit the chorus. As she got off the first board, she yelled over to Miles, "I'm impressed! You know the song way better than I do!"

He grinned and continued to sing it for her as she started to pull on the second board, her muscles straining as it bent in her hands, refusing to come out of the wall. She paused at one point to breathe and check her hands for splinters, which, thankfully, there were only two and she easily plucked them out before going back to the board. When one side finally gave away, she yelled, "Ha ha!" in her delight. From there it wasn't difficult at all to swing the board down to rest at a haphazard tilt against the lower corner of the window and wall.

After the third board came off, Gwen reeled back from the window with a short, strangled scream. Staring in at them was the Prowler. He was briefly motionless, but soon he broke the last few boards covering the window as easily as a normal person might break a twig and then beckoned for them to come to him. Gwen didn't move and neither did Miles. He waved again and she began to consider her options. She knew the Prowler was Miles's uncle. Gwen knew her friend Miles and the man had been close and that once the Prowler had realized the newest Spider-Man was his nephew, he'd refused to murder him. He was safe. Well, safer. She looked back at the apartment's door. Gwen wondered if the man on the other side of it was even alive anymore. Surely the abrupt stop in their singing and the sound of cracking boards should have alerted him to the fact he should look inside the studio.

Gulping, she reached over for Miles. "I think we should go with him," she whispered into his ear.

Miles lifted his face up to look at her, expression terrified. "Really?"

She nodded and took a brave first step toward the masked villain.

Reluctantly, the kid let himself be led over to the Prowler, who first took Miles and put him on his back and then reached back inside for Gwen. She went easily into his arms and rested stiffly in them as he brought her against his chest and took them all down the fire escape Gwen had suspected was outside the window and to a motorcycle waiting next to the building. He helped her and Miles on and soon, they were weaving and flying over cars on New York's jam-packed roads. After a whirlwind of noise, lights, and blurred color, they came to a stop in front of what Gwen recognized as the precinct Miles's Dad worked at. The Prowler turned and looked back at her. She knew even without words he wanted her and Miles to get off – and quickly. Scrambling off his motorcycle, she grabbed Miles around the middle and pulled him off it too. Once both of them had their feet on the ground, Miles's uncle gave them a single nod before taking off at breakneck speed down the street.

"Woah," Miles said.

Gwen nodded. That pretty much summed the last fifteen minutes up for her too. She offered her hand to Miles. "Should we go let everybody know we're okay?"

The kid put his fingers in her palm and bobbed his head. "Yeah." As they started up the steps to the precinct, however, Miles came to a stop midway on the stairs, drawing her attention back to him. "Gwen?" he said.

"Yeah?"

"The Prowler's a bad guy, isn't he? He's been on the news for fighting Spider-Woman and she's definitely a good guy." He paused and furrowed his brow. "Good lady," he corrected.

She tried to ignore his question and tug him up the rest of the steps with her, but he wouldn't budge. Gwen sighed and gave in. What was another five minutes being "missing"? "Yeah, I guess that's what he is," agreed Gwen with no small amount of discomfort. Because, yeah, he was a villain, but he was also Miles's uncle and by all indication, well-loved by Miles too. It'd just ruin this five-year-old if he ever learned the man he admired was such a terrible human being.

"But… He saved us from those other bad guys."

Gwen bit her lip and crouched down to Miles's height. "Hey," she whispered, gently poking his cheek to get him to look at her instead of his feet. When Miles's dark gaze met her own, she smiled softly. "I bet your Mom and Dad have yelled at you at least a few times, right? Maybe said something mean to one another while they were arguing?"

"Uh-huh…" he replied, lower lip puckering out in a pout as he tried to understand what Gwen was trying to get at.

"Those aren't good things, right?" she asked. "In fact… You might say they were being bad then." Gwen stopped a moment to search Miles's features for any hint of understanding, what she saw, a curious tilt to his head, encouraged her. "But they aren't bad guys, are they?"

"No!" Miles exclaimed vehemently.

She nodded. "That's right. Your mom and dad are good people who, sometimes, do something a little bad. It's the same with the Prowler, do you understand?"

Miles bit his lip and then, nodded. "Yeah. He's a bad guy, but, sometimes, he can still do good things, like save us." Miles started to giggle. "Or maybe save a kitty from a tree!"

Gwen joined in with his laughter. "You got it," she agreed. Standing back up, she asked, "Are you ready to go inside now?"

"Yeah!"

Pulling Miles flush against her, she remarked, "Your dad's going to be so happy when he sees you!"

Miles grinned up at Gwen, eyes bright with anticipation.

Something a little longer and more exciting! What did you all think?

Thank you very much for reading :)