That kid will be the death of me.
It had only been almost 72 hours since the…. discovery, and May Parker hadn't slept during any of it. Her throat was raw from the screaming, and she didn't for the life of her recall a time when she had ever spewed so much consecutive profanity.
First, she had gotten the full story out of Peter. That, in of itself, took almost the first full day to explain.
I can't believe that this is actually happening to me. What next?
May truly did not want to even consider the answer to that question. It seemed to her that as soon as she felt she might be acclimating to whatever new disaster was befalling, a new one would arise to pull the rug out from under her and send her crashing to the floor again.
Life wasn't supposed to be like this. She had it all mapped out. The career, the soulmate, everything.
She and Ben had been great together. Great. They didn't even feel like they needed a child. They were more than content to periodically baby-sit the nephew of Ben's brother, Richard.
Then 2008 happened, and things started to go on the topsy-turvy side. First, Tony Stark did a 180 degree turn after getting kidnapped and near-killed in the Middle East. Next thing you know, he's unveiling this new armored suit and proudly calling himself a super-hero.
Fine. It had nothing to do with May.
But it was like Stark had opened some kind of door. Next thing you know there's a green monster running around tearing up property. Not long after that, some brouhaha happened in New Mexico with a lunatic who stylized himself as being a God from Norse mythology.
Ben and May wondered what kind of strange world their nephew was growing up in. For his part, Peter was ecstatic, drawing pictures in crayon of these different figures straight out of science fiction and declaring that one day, he too was going to grow up to be a super-hero.
And in 2009, the Incident happened.
Mary and Richard had been working in the heart of the city when it occurred, and before May knew it, she was suddenly serving as a full-time parent to a newly-orphaned seven-year-old.
She had never planned for that. How could anybody be expected to plan for that? Nevertheless, she and Ben stepped up. They could never replace Peter's folks, but they were damned if they weren't going to make sure that the boy never lacked for love. They doted on him, while not spoiling him, trying to nurture his talents, his interests, and joys.
It was working. In spite of the horrible loss, they had created a new family together.
Then, just a couple of years ago, Ben had been ripped from Peter and her in another senseless act of violence, though this one was at least more of the human variety.
May had thought she would go crazy. When Ben was around, she had often found herself thinking that if she were to lose him, she would have to be committed. And yes, she grieved, but….
She didn't lose her mind. Not for a second. Peter needed her now more than ever. And if she were to be perfectly honest, she needed Peter.
Out of sheer cussedness, she refused to lose it, and as horrible as these tragedies had been, she and Peter had managed to salvage some kind of normalcy and even moments of happiness.
But now…. Is this some kind of sick cosmic joke? On him? Or on me?
As upset as she had been with Peter getting into trouble at school or his scary vanishing acts, May had tried to accept that it was just part of him going through adolescence – granted, an adolescence that was marked with more loss than anybody should have a right to face at his age (or any other, really). He was likely going through some kind of phase. Maybe taking part in underage drinking, smoking, tagging. Maybe fooling around with girls. Though in her mind, May had a hard time reconciling any of those behaviors with the boy she knew. The boy she knew had always been so…. Responsible.
So, as it turned out, the problem was that a couple of years ago, just shy of the time Ben got killed, her nephew had got bitten by a radioactive bug, and rather than getting sick and dying, he decided to become a freaking superhero.
May would have asked Peter why it couldn't have been hard drugs, but it would have been cliché and he would have been horrified at the thought.
May should have gotten suspicious when Tony Stark of all people showed up in their apartment. Sure, Peter was extremely smart, but eccentric as Stark had a reputation of being, May hadn't imagined that he would routinely show up out of the blue to personally offer internships to lucky kids.
Unless he were a pedophile, she thought with a surge of righteous anger.
Not a pedophile, no. Instead, the great Tony Stark, who had ushered in this strange new era, had taken it upon himself to first recruit a fifteen year old boy and take him to Germany without her consent to participate in a super-hero battle that could have killed the teenager. Then…. Then, Stark thought it perfectly acceptable to whip up a computerized battle suit (with fatality settings!) and just to give it to her teenager for his own personal use. The man was both rich and certifiable.
So, naturally under these circumstances, May had done what any self-respecting parent would do. After playing footsie with Stark's underling, one Happy Hogan (who was most assuredly not happy after dealing with her), she was finally passed through to the man herself.
May, who had never been a violent person a day in her life, imagined that if she could have seen Stark in person, she would have flung herself at him and repeatedly bashed his head into a wall. Or bitten him. Bad.
Having been unable to secure an actual face-to-face meeting with him, she had settled for nearly destroying her vocal cords while yelling the vilest epithets she could think of at the man.
To his credit, Stark hadn't hung up the phone. He had stayed on the line, accepting her names for him, even seeming to agree at times.
"Yup... yup…. That's true….. Well, that's sometimes true. Yeah, you got me there. Now, that's not very nice. Fair though."
Finally, exhausted by her tirade, she concluded with, "Well, do you have anything to say for yourself?"
"Nothing that I think you'll be especially happy with," he calmly replied.
"Is there any reason why I shouldn't call the police and have you prosecuted to the full extent of the law for reckless child endangerment about a thousand times over?" she growled. "That's after I get the harshest restraining order I can possibly find."
Stark paused, then said, "Well, you can do all of that, but I think you know that if you prosecute me, Peter's identity as "Spider-Man" will come out into the open. Not from me, mind you, but your case is based partially on his identity and my enabling him in his endeavors to portray that identity. Now, that wouldn't necessarily be a problem, but he's recently made some enemies and I don't think you want these guys to know who he is. They're bad guys. But if you still want to prosecute me, the authorities can set you both up with new identities. I hear the property values in Minnesota are particularly nice." He paused for a breath. "I think you can probably do the restraining order without much difficulty though." His voice shifted and sounded uncomfortable. "There's precedent there."
She couldn't believe how calm the man was being. "How can you be so calm about nearly getting a boy killed?"
He sighed. "Mrs. Parker, it has recently been brought to my attention that even when I try to do good things, very bad things can happen. In regard to your nephew…. He's taken it upon himself to try to save people's lives. And I probably shouldn't have encouraged him. The fact is, I needed his help, and I was selfish about it. I don't know Peter very well, but…. I tried to encourage him to take it easy, take his time and play it safe. He didn't listen to a word I said. I tried taking the suit away. He put on the ski mask and goggles – not a good fashion statement – and swung out there anyway. Y'know, I heard he skipped out on a dance with a girl he really liked because he wanted to do the right thing? You don't find those qualities in most adults, much less kids. Maybe he'll wake up one day and learn to be more selfish or at least more self-interested, but…."
"I doubt it," they both said together.
From there, Stark continued to gently state what was in his mind. He explained that he offered Peter a place in the Avengers. There, the boy would have had more oversight, training and protection from older peers in the "superhero" community. But while that would make him more "safe" for a time, he would also be exposed to greater threats and greater missions.
Despite his earlier expressed desire to become an Avenger, Peter had ultimately turned Stark down, wanting to take his time. Stark respected that, stating that the boy certainly appeared to have learned something from his recent experiences.
"I gave him the suit back, because…. Whether he has it or not, he's going to be Spider-Man when he sees a need to be. I'm pretty sure I can't stop him without locking him up, and I haven't had a very good track record with doing things like that recently. Better that he has the suit as it will likely keep him safer. Uh… I dismantled the extreme force options at his request. Sorry," Stark added lamely.
"Listen, if you think you can talk him out of doing this, by all means. Yeah, we'd be losing a real hero, but…. Well, I'd rather he be safe too. As safe as this world of ours gets these days."
"That's not very safe," said May.
"No," agreed Stark.
She hung up not long after, and now, here she was…..
She had taken some psychology courses in college. She was quite far from a professional, but she could well understand wanting to save people if you'd experienced loss so nobody else would have to. If you had the power.
May went to his room and opened the door a crack, her heart lurching, half expecting him to be gone.
He was sleeping, snoring softly the way he did. Her little boy. Her little superhero.
She went to her room and finally lay down, drifting off to sleep, the fear sliding away from her if but for a moment, subsumed by renewed feelings of great pride for the strange "Spider-Man" in her home.