Hello! Sorry it's been a little longer than I thought it would be. I've been so busy that I didn't have that much time to finish it in one sitting. Sorry, but that's life. Now that I think about it, I should probably be working on my inspirational speech which is, like, due tomorrow. I haven't even started it yet. Oops. At least I know what I want to do it on. Actually, who is a more appropriate word (two, actually): Samwise Gamgee. That's right, people. My speech is about a Lord of the Rings character. Be jealous of my mind!

I would like to apologize in advance for the shortness of this chapter. I promise that the next one will be longer.


"You know that they're not telling us everything, right?" said Lizzie from Peter's bed.

"I know," agreed Peter, picking their father's brown briefcase off of his bedroom floor, a curious look in his eyes.

After dinner, the twins went up to Peter's room to talk more about what had happened shortly before their meal. Peter had taken everything he'd found inside out of the briefcase and lined them up in a neat line. For the past half hour, the siblings further examined their father's belongings- which consisted of a train token, a calculator, a laminated ID badge for Oscorp, and a few pens and pencils. At one point, Peter had found the case which held their father's old glasses. When he tried them on, he informed Lizzie, once returning from his private bathroom, that he and their father apparently shared the same prescription.

Lizzie watched her brother unzip the briefcase's zipper. "I just want to know more about our parents, you know? But I feel like instead of Mom and Dad we're learning about strangers."

A barely audible click filled the area. Peter and Lizzie shared a quick glance before he pulled out a dark-manilla folder. Peter got off of his skateboard, closed his open door, and used his homemade, high-tech lock before sitting back down. Once he felt their privacy was well protected, Peter pulled the folder all the way out of the brief case. On the front cover was what looked like a sticker with two crossed Os on it.

"Are you going to open it or what?" asked Lizzie, having grown impatient.

When she stretched her arm out to grab the folder, Peter slapped her hand away. Lizzie drew it back, glare narrowed into slits.

"I'm getting there, I'm getting there," said Peter before opening the file.

On the inside sat a small stack of papers, all of them covered in notes and formulas that Lizzie couldn't even dream of coming up with. Luckily, one of them at least had some idea as to what the scribbles meant.

"What's this?"

Or maybe not.

"Zero, zero, decay rate algorithm."

"Any chance you know whatever the heck that means?" asked Lizzie, leaning forward in hopes of getting a better view.

Before Peter could respond, someone knocked on his door, gaining their attention. They shared a look before Peter hid the file in the brief case and called, "Yeah, one sec, one sec." After scattering his father's things, Peter sat in his desk's swivel chair and hit the knob which unlocked the door.

Meanwhile, Lizzie reclined on Peter's bed and bent her knees which allowed her to cross one leg over the other. She placed her arms behind her head, foot moving up and down to a beat of its own making.

"Come in," they called in unison.

Not even a mere second later, Uncle Ben opened the door. "You two okay?" he asked, acknowledging both of the twins.

Lizzie gave a thumbs up while Peter said, "Yeah. What's up?"

When Peter looked at him, Uncle Ben's eyes widened in shock. "Oh, my gosh. You look just like him," said Uncle Ben.

"Who? Peter? Nah. He's too ugly to look like Dad," Lizzie said, earning a glare from Peter. Lizzie stuck her tongue out in response.

"Can I come in?" Uncle Ben asked, amusement twinkling in his gaze.

"Yeah," said Peter while nodding his head.

When their uncle entered, he closed the door behind him. Glancing down at Peter's desk, he noticed a solved Rubrics Cube (Lizzie was still bitter about how Peter had solved it multiple times before she could even solve it once. The jerk). "Listen. I don't have much education. You kids know that," Uncle Ben reminded them as he sat at the head of the bed, inches away from Lizzie's feet. "Heck, I stopped being able to help you with your homework when the two of you were ten.

"What I'm trying to say is. . . . I know it's been rough for you without your mom and dad. And I know we don't talk much about them."

"Yeah, it's alright," Peter said with a shrug as if he didn't care.

"No. It's not alight," interrupted Uncle Ben, making his point clear. "I wish I could change it, but I can't." There was a pause before Uncle Ben said, "Curt Connors."

"Huh? Who's that?" wondered Lizzie as she sat upright, her curiosity having been ignited.

"He's the guy in the picture with your dad. They worked together for years and they were close. But after that night, we never saw him again. He never even called. Not once."

"Really? Nothing? Even though they were close and all?" Lizzie asked, eyebrow arched. It befuddled Lizzie how someone who was not only the person you worked with but your best friend as well never once gave their condolences to said friend's family after such a great tragedy.

"Go figure." Looking at his nephew, Uncle Ben nodded his head towards Peter's computer. "She's pretty," said Uncle Ben, having referred to the girl, Gwen, displayed on its screen.

It wasn't a secret to Lizzie that her brother had a major crush on her friend (they were twins, after all ).

Peter looked away, slightly embarrassed, as their uncle got up to leave. As he was about to close the door, Peter said, "Uncle Ben?"

"What?"

"You're a pretty great dad, alright?"

"I second that," chirped Lizzie while holding her hand up in the air.

Uncle Ben, both touched and stunned, looked like he was going to cry or shed a few tears. Glancing at the floor, the corner of his lips twitching into a small grin, Uncle Ben thanked them and wished both a good-night.

Once he was gone, Lizzie looked as Peter, a smug smile on her face. "I told you they knew more than they were letting on."

Peter, in reply, rolled his eyes, turned to face his computer, and mumbled, "Shut up."

~A~T~O~W~A~R~

It didn't take them long to find out more about Curt Connors. It wasn't much of a surprise to learn that he was a scientist like their father. The second thing they'd found (the first being the article about the plane crash their parents had suffered thirteen years ago) was the news article with the picture Peter had found earlier that evening. Curt Connors was a one-armed man who, like their father, wished to find the cure to cure all disease and physical handicaps.

From what Lizzie read over Peter's shoulder, she found what they had once dreamed extremely fascinating. She didn't know half of the scientific words and terms used in the story, but she knew enough to know that their ambition was their strength as well as their weakness.

The final website (out of six or seven, Lizzie lost count forever ago) was Dr. Curt Connors' which further explained his goals of his experiments as well as displayed the one thing which caught their eye: The department offered internships. Unfortunately, they were now closed.

"Well, guess we can't get in now," said Lizzie, gaze still locked on the blaring screen.

"Says you."

Lizzie raised an eyebrow. "What are you suggesting, Mr. Parker?" she asked, having already figured out what Peter wanted to accomplish.

From years of experience, Lizzie grew to learn that once Peter set his mind and sight on something he wouldn't give up so easily. She could no longer keep track of all the times her brother found some way to get what he wanted. It was an admirable quality, but it sometimes got annoying as well as on Lizzie's nerves.

Peter, having expected her question, said, "I, ah, um. I'm not sure yet, but I'm going to figure it out."

"So, in other words,"– Lizzie's hands were in a prayer position, giving her the appearance of a deep-thinker– "you're going to improvise."

"Yeah," admitted Peter while rubbing the back of his head, a slightly embarrassed grin framed by his lips. "I guess you could say that."

"Well, good luck with that," Lizzie said, slapping her kneecaps before getting up and heading for the door. "Tell me when your master plan succeeds!"

"Wait! Don't you want to know more about Dr. Connors?" asked Peter, a curious and slightly confused look on his face.

"Well, yeah. But I tend to go for things that have more thought put into them."

"This has thought put into it," defended Peter.

"Oh, yeah? Tell me your genius plan, Pete. If it's freaking brilliant, I'll get down on my knees and say, 'I'm not worthy! I'm not worthy!'"

Peter opened his mouth to say something but then quickly closed it, realizing that whatever he wanted to say wouldn't help his case.

Lizzie gave a light chuckle. "Thought so. Night, Pete. See you tomorrow."

"Night, Liz," Peter called out.

His sister blew a kiss before closing the door and heading to her room for the night.

Once she entered her bedroom and had closed her door, Lizzie walked towards her keyboard, the song she was currently composing lying on the stand where she'd left it the previous evening. Sitting down in front of the instrument, Lizzie turned it on, placed her giant headphones over her ears, and continued writing her music piece.

Piano had always given her solace since she was four years old. In fact, one of the ways Lizzie dealt with her parents' death was taking up lessons, learning how to put notes together on a page, and losing herself in song. The emotions she felt throughout her childhood was passionately put into music. This eventually paid off after many years of lessons. In fact, it was her teacher who encouraged her talent and begged her to stick with piano. Lizzie took his words to heart and the rest, as they say, was history.

Lizzie had become so lost in her music that it wasn't until well after midnight when she fell asleep right where she was.


Fin! I hope you liked it :) Oh! And one more thing before I go. The tumblr account I'm working on for my Spider-Man stories is almost halfway done. I just have to add a few more things and then I can go back and edit it. I promise I'll post a link on my profile so all you have to do is click it.

Well, until next time, see you all later :)


~Edited 06/25/14~