Two days later

Gwen stepped into the small coffee shop that was only a couple of blocks from her and Peter's apartment. She had her long blonde hair pulled back in a ponytail and wore a khaki over coat with black high heeled boots. She was supposed to be meeting her friend Sydney for coffee today. Gwen was glad to do this as she hadn't been able to get Peter's broken body out of her mind. It was an odd feeling for Gwen. She had wanted to be a surgeon since she was a little girl. When she was 15 she had decided on becoming a trauma surgeon after her father was saved from a gunshot wound that almost pierced his heart. Seeing Peter like that bothered her though. She had concluded that he was indestructible against petty thugs so it was one thing to stitch up grazes and cuts. It was another to fight to keep him alive the whole night. Gwen walked up to the counter and ordered a double shot of expresso. When her coffee was ready she sat in a table close to the window. Sydney arrived a few minutes afterwards and sat down at the table with Gwen. Sydney was a good friend of Gwen's. She was a nurse who Gwen had met when they were in high school. While Gwen had gone to ESU to pursue becoming a surgeon, Sydney had gone to a community college to study nursing. Sydney was a good Nurse. Gwen would never doubt that. Gwen honestly hoped that someday she would get the opportunity to work with Sydney. She considered her to be one of her closest friends and confidantes.

"Gwen is everything alright? I know you said that you needed to talk, but you missed clinicals Wednesday and you barely seemed to pay attention in class yesterday. Neither of which seem like something you would ever do." Sydney said as she took a sip of coffee. Gwen sighed.

"I had a rough night Tuesday." Gwen said quietly. "A very bad night."

"Rough how?" She asked, "You and Peter didn't break up, did you?"

"No, we are still happy together."

"Good there are some things that I know are right and the relationship that the two of you share is one of them. Now, since that's not what happened, what exactly did?"

"Let's just say that there was an emergency Tuesday night that kept me awake." Gwen said before taking a sip.

"What kind of emergency?"

"All I can really say is that I had an unintentional patient."

"Gwen Orlando dentists have unexpected patients. You're just a pre-med student. Look if you won't tell me anymore I can accept that, but I know you didn't tell me this little unless something very bad happened. So please just tell me."

"Ok, well for starters this patient of mine was blasted through a brick wall as well as multiple times by the same weapon…" Gwen said before Sydney interrupted.

"Wait did you just say blasted through a brick wall?" Sydney asked

"Yes, I did."

"Blasted is a very odd word to use. You could have said shot or thrown, but you didn't. You said blasted. So that means that this is either a superhero fight or you've been watching too many tv shows for ten-year-old boys."

"Sydney, I told you I can't tell you anymore than I already have about this person's identity."

"Fine Gwen. I'm sorry, but this is just getting weird."

"I managed to get my patient in bed before they passed out. It was anything but a simple task. They were highly dazed and confused. It was a miracle that they were even conscious. I guess they just have a heightened pain tolerance. When I finally got them in bed I had to turn them on their side to keep them from choking on their own blood. Peter and I had to get rid of the sheets due to all the blood that was on them. It was terrifying Sydney. I felt all around their chest trying to guarantee that everything was in order. I found several cracked ribs. Luckily, they hadn't punctured any lungs. The problem was that their breathing was heavily labored. On top of that they also suffered a massive concussion. I guess though it could have been much worse given the situation. It would have been very likely for one to break their neck in such a fashion."

"That's insane getting blasted through a brick wall breaking several ribs and not puncturing a lung. I must be honest I'm truly surprised the sheer force didn't outright kill them." Sydney said while Gwen took another sip of coffee.

"Trust me it really should have killed them. They're resilient though. So resilient that I had forgotten that they weren't invincible…." Gwen trailed off losing herself in remembering Peter laying there like that.

"So, wait you already knew this person?" Sydney asked.

"You could say that, but that's not important. Do you know how hard it is to figure out internal injuries without any form of equipment? It's near impossible to figure out. I pretty much ran through everything the drugstore had. It took hours, but their vitals finally stabilized." Gwen sipped from her drink for a longer than average time. Sydney took the moment to ask another question.

"Wait when did you get time to go to the drugstore. Did Peter go for you or something?"

"Yeah something like that." Gwen lied. Her mind immediately went to the painful truth. She had walked to the drugstore two blocks away at night. She was terrified the whole time that she would get back to the apartment and find Peter dead from some injury she couldn't have possibly noticed. Luckily, if the term is used loosely, Peter only seemed to have the injuries Gwen had observed. Gwen was so lost in thought that she hadn't realized an awkward silence had fallen over the two.

"Gwen, you suck at lying." Sydney said "Very clearly though something very bad happened to someone you care about and I'm here for you when you need me. Just please don't try to deal with this alone next time. You can trust me. Plus, I am an actual licensed medical professional."

"Thanks Sydney." Gwen said. Sydney looked at her watch and realized what time it was.

"Well, my shift starts in a couple of hours so I need to go get ready. Take care Gwen. I mean that." Sydney grabbed her cup and left the coffee shop. Gwen left a few minutes after. She made the journey to the apartment she shared with Peter in a few minutes. It wasn't a long walk. Gwen was nervous to check on Peter. He healed faster than normal due to his powers, but that didn't mean he was impervious to pain or death by any stretch of the imagination. She knew the good news was that he was up and walking when she had left earlier. She also knew though that anything could go wrong at any given time. With each click of her boots she remembered the sound of his heart beat. There was a time that night where it seemed to be getting perpetually lower. She clinched her fist as the sound continued to play through her mind. She closed her eyes as it came back to her. When she did so all she could see were his big brown eyes. The same eyes she had always lovingly looked into. She remembered the dull and dazed look he gave her as she tried to get him to focus on her pen light. She was snapped out of it by an old lady opening the door to their apartment building. It was at that moment that she realized that she had been standing there holding one of the handles to the double doors. She quickly opened it and rushed to the stairwell. She made it to her door and slowly turned the key. When she opened it, she was shocked at what she saw. Before her was Peter preparing to put his mask on and head out the window. This made her snap. She walked in slamming the door behind her.

"PETER PARKER WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?!"

"Gwen, Shocker is attacking Cybertek tower. I have to stop him." Peter replied. Gwen noticed that he was slumped over and never seemed to move his arm far from his chest. She was furious and refused to allow him to go through with this.

"Peter, need I remind you that he very well could have killed you."

"He didn't thanks to you."

"Thanks to me… Peter do you really think I had any idea what I was doing in that moment. That whole night all I could think about was how you had internal injuries. I have spent the last two days on edge because I'm worried that I'm going to come home and find you dead."

"Gwen, I won't die I promise you."

"Peter listen to me. You can barely stand. I'm still not sure you should be off concussion protocol and need I remind you that you couldn't beat Shocker while you were at one hundred percent. What makes you think that you can defeat him in this condition." Peter walked over to stand face to face with her.

"I've been studying this all day. The secret is in his gauntlets. That's how he took my punch like it was nothing. It's also the reason why he wears that suit. I watched the security footage of the fight and I noticed that Shocker never removes his thumbs from the triggers while he's fighting. The gauntlets absorb vibrations from around him. The suit prevents the gauntlets from shattering his bones and it also…."

"Absorbs vibrations to add to the fighting power. So, what you're saying is if you can get his thumbs away from the triggers he's just a normal guy." Gwen said interrupting.

"Precisely." Peter replied. "I've got to go stop him before people get hurt."

"No, you don't." Gwen replied. "How many superheroes are there in this world? How many police officers? There is no reason it must be you. Guess what Peter I can't stitch up your corpse! Let the Avengers handle this."

"The Avengers aren't going to waste their time on a guy who robs towers and banks. The police have already taken heavy casualties and quite frankly nobody else seems to be stepping up. I must stop Shocker otherwise anybody else he kills is on my head. Gwen Stacy, I love you and I promise to whatever you want that I will come back to you, but I must do this. Haven't I always come back?"

"There is a big difference between petty bank robbers and supervillains."

"Yes, there is, but that doesn't mean I won't come back."

"I'm not going to talk you out of this am I?"

"No, you won't"

"Peter Parker, you better not die today or I promise I will kill you."

"I promise I'll come back Gwen. I wouldn't want to get killed twice." Peter turned and put on his mask and headed to the window he was prepared to swing out, but Gwen stopped him at the last moment.

"Pete" she said

"Yeah" he replied pulling his mask up.

"Kick his ass" Gwen said still incredibly stressed about what Peter was doing.

"Oh, believe me I will. After all, I owe him one." Peter said before turning around pulling his mask down and finally swinging out the window. Gwen watched nervously as he swung off. The heartbeat was back in her head, this time though there were no old ladies to snap he out of it.

Well everyone I hope you enjoyed chapter 2. I really felt that this would be a good chance to learn about Gwen's character as well as practice writing dialogue because feel that is one of my weaker areas. Overall, I really enjoyed writing this chapter and it is quite very possible that I will do more chapters like this in the future. Thank you for reading, please review, and I will see you soon with chapter 3.