Author's notes kind of get skipped over a lot, but this is worth saying. A lot of you have requested for Gwen to get powers, which I think is a brilliant idea. That idea, however, may or may not get incorporated in this story. If not, it will certainly be the focus of my next one.

As usual, I still own no part of Spider-Man.


She's Just A Bit Rebellious

Chapter 4: Don't Talk About What You Don't Know


Oscorp is as brilliant as usual. Vibrant with life: new technology, ideas and species are being born every second. There's an air of staleness, though. Dr. Connor's office has been closed of for maintenance, and she has a sneaking suspicion it won't open up again (nobody wants to remember him). Except for Gwen. And maybe Peter.

She doesn't know why, but she can feel so much for this villain. He was doing what he thought was right. He believed it so much only to be thwarted at the finish line. By none other than Peter. It causes a funny taste in her mouth because she's doing what she thinks is right and believes in so much. She would rather not be thwarted by Peter, thanks. But it was not only that. Dr. Connors was – is – such a smart man, and so he knew what he was doing so well. It's very hard to believe that someone with such a brilliant mind would be capable of doing something so insanely stupid. She believes that he's still a good man. He always was and he always will be.

And then her logic yells at her because this is her hormones talking. She knows he did the wrong thing. He tried to ruin the world and he tried to kill Peter. He actually killed her father.

And just like that, her mouth dries and she's shaking. She's very happy he's in jail. She shoots a glare to the: 'Under Maintenance' sign and mutters how glad she is that neither he nor his work will ever be seen again.

She focuses back on her work: a bunch of illegible scribbles have been written down on her clipboard because, while her brain wasn't on task, her hand decided to go on and scribble anyway.

She blushes and begins erasing and a colleague of hers – Molly – reminds her that she's to lead a tour around Oscorp right about now. She gets up and follows Molly to the reception, where Molly turns to her.

"Oh, and you'll be touring the group with our newest intern." With a smile, she walks away.

Gwen curiously turns around to see who this new intern is, and her eyes widen in shock.

"Harry Osborne?"

He smiles sheepishly at her. He eyes her nervously before shuffling to her. She unrolls her fists and takes them off her hips and places at her sides. She then closes her gaping mouth. "How… What… When… Why didn't you tell me?"

"Um, oops?"

She's back to gaping at him.

"Sorry," he quickly apologizes, "It's just that my Dad – "

"Your Dad. Norman Osborne. CEO of Oscorp. That Dad?"

"The one and only…"

"He gave you the job just because you were his son?" He's staring at her, eyes wide. "How dare he. I work forever to get this internship and it finally pays off, but you just waltz in here and you get it because you're his son."

Harry's glaring at the ground. "He didn't give the internship to me, Gwen," he said sharply. "I applied, just like everyone else. He – he doesn't even know I'm here. Don't talk about things you don't know, Gwen."

She looks at him, suddenly blushing and ashamed. "I'm sorry, Harry. That was tactless of me to do."

He nods sullenly before smiling at her. "I had to apply as Archibald Werner so that nobody knew who I really am."

She bursts out laughing at that as people start filing in for the tour. She turns to face the crowd. "Good morning, everyone. My name is Gwen Stacy, an intern at Oscorp. This here is our newest intern, Archibald Werner." She's fighting to keep her voice level.

The tour continues as normal and she's surprised at how much Harry knows about Oscorp (before reminding herself that he is the CEO's son; this couldn't be his first time here).

She smiles as she realizes: she can get used to his presence.

… Just as long as he doesn't mention Peter.


They're packing up before they head home and the topic of conversation turns towards MJ, at which point Harry becomes mush all over the equipment. She's fully laughing because he looks like such a fool: carefree and in love. Her laughter dies down when she remembers how that felt, having it with Peter.

Harry notices her silence and nudges her shoulder. "Wake up, kid." He gives her a soft smile. "You know… he can't stop talking about you."

"Who?" She knows whom he's talking about.

"You know who I'm talking about. Peter. He talks so much about you, it's annoying. It's just: Gwen says this and Gwen says that and Gwen's always right and then he gets super moody."

She bites her lip to stop herself from smiling as she imagines a sulky Peter. "MJ's no better, you know? I'm pretty sure I know every single thing you've been doing with my best friend. And trust me, I don't want to know."

He blushes instantly and buries himself deeper in his work. She laughs and looks at the time: it's time for them to head home.

He offers to buy her some coffee so that the two of them and MJ could just hang out later, and she agrees. Tonight's a relatively free night and the radio against her hip hasn't been vibrating much at all.

They're at the coffee shop impatiently waiting for MJ to come and they spot an intern who addresses both of them: "Hey, Gwen. And, uh… Archibald."

They struggle to contain their laughter until the intern's outside, at which point they laugh so hard there's tears coming out of their eyes. Gwen threatens to tell MJ about it and Harry shuts up immediately. Of course, this gets her going more and he's smiling, despite the fact that they were both poking fun at him.

At that exact moment the door swings open and someone freezes in his spot as he sees a giggling Gwen and a Harry stuck in some corner of the coffee shop.

Gwen sees him at the exact same time as Harry does, and both of them freeze. Harry's the first one to get up, giving Peter a half smile before clasping his shoulder. "Hey, man. We were just – "

Peter, with a clenched jaw, takes one look at Gwen, spins around and leaves.

Gwen's got an icy feeling in her stomach and when MJ arrives, neither is in the mood to tell her exactly what got them so down.

But as she watches MJ take care of Harry so lovingly, she realizes that she might have a mask and an alter ego, but she'd rather live a simple life with the man she loves.

Too bad he doesn't live a simple life either.


Cornering Peter the next day at school proves to be harder than ever. Usually Peter let himself be found, but he really is trying to avoid her.

She's determined, though. If she can't catch him during her lunch break, she always has English class.

Gwen's trying to search for Peter and she finds herself teamed up with Harry and MJ. MJ's suddenly been filled in and knows what's going on, and Gwen feels as though her private life's been invaded. (If she can't share secrets with her best friend, with whom can she share them with? She knows the answer is the boy she's trying valiantly to find.)

They corner him in and empty classroom and he looks peeved that he's been caught. He has his hands stuffed in his pockets and he's pouting. Gwen reckons it might be because Peter wants to test her self-control and see whether or not she would kiss the living daylights out of him.

She thinks she just might.

But Peter's angry and he makes it apparent as he tries to leave, his posture stiff. Harry blocks his entrance and holds his best friends firmly by the shoulders.

"Listen, man. Stop sulking for one second and listen."

And he sighs and looks at Harry, waiting for an explanation. Of course, Harry flicks his head towards the door, grabs MJ and bolts.

It's just him and Gwen, and Gwen's honestly quite glad.

"Well?"

"Well, ah. See, Peter, you kind of misunderstood the situation – "

Peter's eyes flashed. "Misunderstood? I don't think so. You want to get with Harry, fine. I don't care, I really don't. But he's with MJ and MJ's your best friend so Harry's not only cheating on MJ but you are too so you're both cheating on her at the same time, so – "

Gwen rolls her eyes (because boys can be so bull-headed if they want to). "Peter Parker, shut up and listen to me right now." He does. "I am not with Harry Osborne. We were waiting for MJ and he works with me. Works with me. Don't talk about things you don't know, Peter," she finishes, stealing a line from Harry.

Peter, looking abashed and guilty suddenly springs back up and he's at her with full force again.

"Don't talk about things I don't know? Why don't you take your own advice, Gwen? You don't know what happened that day on the rooftop. You don't know how I'm feeling about you and you certainly don't know the pressures of being Spider-Man. You want so much from me all the time! Do you know how much pressure you've put me in? Do you? I feel like the villain here, Gwen. I did nothing wrong. But you still try to guilt me into feeling terrible about myself. Well, congratulations. I feel absolutely terrible. Are you happy? Did you know that? Next time, Gwen Stacy, don't you dare talk about things you don't know."

And he leaves her, and she turns into a helpless pile of tears the second he leaves (he won't let her see how hurt she is. He's done hurting her). She hasn't felt this bad in the longest time and what makes her feel worse is probably the fact that she knows he's right.

He's right and that must, by logic, mean she's wrong.

This is all her fault.