Chapter 4: Riesling

-Rocketwoman-

Disclaimer: "Anne Weying", "Eddie Brock", "Venom", and "Dan" are characters from the 2018 motion picture "Venom", rights to these belong to the owner of that franchise. If you haven't seen it yet, dear reader, what are you doing here? Go watch it!

-Rocketwoman-

As Anne approached the door to Eddie's, she again wondered how he'd been able to keep it. He claimed it was a bribe he gave the building owner from the money he made ghostwriting. Any of the numerous people coming after his insurance information, for things Venom did? Paid off with cash, from ghostwriting.

Anne had to wonder how she'd been so damn blind. There was a much simpler explanation, one much more accessible to Eddie: Venom was threatening these people.

It wouldn't last. Anne had prosecuted a few blackmail cases. There were always more people being blackmailed than there were blackmailers. There was always more for the blackmailers to lose than all the people they blackmailed put together.

She wasn't sure why she was going to warn him. If she was being sensible, she'd cut off all contact and run like hell. Dan had a strong background. He could probably get hired at an east coast hospital. That would be far enough, right?

As she lifted her hand to knock, Anne heard a loud clattering, followed by a splat. Her lawyer sense kicking in, she suspected the accident more likely had to do with her arrival than simple coincidence. Testing her hypothesis, she put her hand down without knocking.

After some scrambling around noise inside, the door opened to reveal an aproned Eddie Brock. She was ten minutes early and hadn't knocked, yet he knew to open the door anyway. As if she didn't have enough evidence he was still working with Venom.

"H- Hey. How are you, Annie?" He stepped back before she responded. "Uh, come in. I was… well…"

She stepped in. The oven door was open. Next to it on the floor, a baking pan lay face-down, surrounded by paper towels.

"I was cooking something, but… ovens are hot, you know? So I was cleaning that up and then I heard you... get… here."

"You heard my silent knock," Anne deadpanned.

"Well," Eddie rubbed the back of his head. "I kinda thought I heard someone knock, you know? Had a feeling-"

Getting to the point, Anne fixed Eddie with a glare, "When were you going to tell anyone?"

"Tell, uh, what?" Eddie fidgeted as he tried to appear casual. "There's nothing to know - you don't have any proof, I mean a bunch of kids on the internet, right? Ooh, Loch Ness Monster!"

Anne clenched her jaw. "And this?" She thrust a newspaper under his nose.

Methamphetamine cook house Uncovered, Staff slain by Mysterious Monster. Symbiotes Involved?!

"A… coincidence?" Eddie said half-heartedly.

"The fuck is wrong with you?!" Anne exploded.

Eddie held up his hands. "Jesus-"

Anne jabbed a finger in his face. "What. The Fuck! Dan and I refinanced our house to pay your legal fees-"

Trying to get a word in edgewise, Eddie began, "Yeah, I was actually just putting together-"

"Save it!" Anne barely resisted slapping him. "I still don't know how I'm going to pay back Sophia for my own case-"

"I have the money!" Brock talked over her. "I've been trying to pay you back, okay? It, uh… just needs to transfer between some accounts."

Pausing Anne waited for a moment for her brain to cool off and catch up with what he was saying. He had acquired several hundred thousand dollars, somehow, in a couple of months. "Ghostwriting?" Anne asked.

"Yeah. Ghostwriting." Eddie nodded. "I got a few good contracts with-"

Anne slapped Eddie, hard. When her hand met his face, what she impacted was most definitely not human skin. Coils of inky darkness slammed into her, sending her flying across the room and, simultaneously, slamming the front door shut. A moment later, she impacted with the sofa in an unreasonably comfortable position considering the way she'd been tossed.

That did little to dispel her instinctive fear of the hulking black monstrosity crossing the room toward her.

"Afternoon Annie. We need to talk."

Anne swallowed her fear, inching back on the sofa just far enough to prop her back against the armrest. "If you hurt me, Eddie won't forgive you."

"We know. That's partly why we have no intention of harming you."

Unsure of what to think of the word "partly," Annie inched back a little further. "And throwing me across a room…?"

"We were just helping you to sit down, relax, and let Eddie…" Midway through the sentence, Venom's tendrils peeled back, deconstructing the toothy maw and revealing Eddie's face beneath. "... explain myself."

Anne pulled her legs back as Eddie plopped his now-human self at the other end of the couch. "Kidnapping is a form of harm, you know."

Eddie snorted a mockery of a laugh. "We're not gonna stop you if you want to leave right now. I'd just… rather you listen before reporting us to the police."

Anne waited.

After a long pause, Eddie started talking. "Venom and I both thought he was going to die in the rocket explosion. The difference was, I thought I would die too. Venom protected me from the blast, so there was barely anything left of him to protect me from the water two hundred feet down."

Deciding there was little harm in hearing Eddie try to justify himself, Annie listened.

"I broke… a lot of bones. But I wasn't dead and, somehow, neither was Venom. I clung to life, he pushed me toward it.

"Had Venom not been alive, I wouldn't have made it to the hospital. When the coast guard pulled me aboard their boat, one of my broken ribs punctured a lung. They thought I was done for, 'till Venom reinflated it.

"At the hospital, a keen-eyed doctor identified a wound in my side as shrapnel from the rocket. They put me in a CT machine instead of an MRI. That saved his life.

"Three months of fighting death later, the doctors finally considered me stable enough to be discharged. Stop one: the supermarket. When Venom realized that food was available that wasn't me, the supermarket and home became my only stops for a few days.

"As soon as Venom was talking again, I went to find you. Found Dan first, who couldn't quite believe I was alive. Turns out the police had been making treating you pretty difficult, as you were the only survivor in the Life Foundation mission control center and they needed to 'protect the witness.'

"It's… a bit of a story how, but Venom and I lured off your police guards and managed to get into your room. Your concussion was worse than the doctors thought. If Venom hadn't hopped over to heal you-"

Anne gagged. Venom had been in her twice? Venom had fucked with her brain?! Was that why she thought the corpses of the spec ops team looked delicious in hindsight? Was that why she was so okay with lying under oath?

Was she even still… herself? Was she really the same Anne who had been bowled over by a rocket explosion?

Anne unfolded from the couch and started for the window.

Eddie half got up to follow. "Are you okay?"

Breathing hard through her nose, Anne stared at the passersby on the street below. "Of course I'm not okay!" she hissed.

She glanced back. Eddie had sat back down. She returned her attention to the view outside the window.

After some deliberation with herself, Anne spoke. "Keep talking."

"Venom's visit also cured your medical coma, so I went to get Dan. The rest you know."

"Not even close," Anne growled. She rounded on him. "Where's the money from?"

Eddie's jaw twisted, his eyes sinking. Anne couldn't say she was used to the transformation, but at least she didn't run screaming as Eddie's head became Venom's. "Bad people!" Venom exclaimed, far too gleefully for Anne's stomach.

After a moment without a response from Anne, Eddie returned. "Extortionists, kidnappers, child pornographers - fucked up people."

"I assume they don't appreciate having their property taken," Anne pointed out.

"Uh… well," Eddie fidgeted, looking down at his hands. When he looked up again, his eyes were black-rimmed whiteness. "They don't appreciate much of anything when they're dead," Venom pointed out, nearly catching Anne by surprise.

Anne crossed her arms. "And where do you draw the line, Eddie? When have you gone too far? Last I checked, people who cook drugs don't deserve capital punishment." She bent down, picking up the newspaper again.

"I'll draw the line when the bad people are dealt with," Venom stated, growing more and more black tendrils across Eddie's body by the moment.

"When is that?!" Anne dropped the newspaper as she threw up her hands. "When are they dealt with? Am I going to be seeing schoolyard bullies maimed and murdered in the papers next month?!"

Eddie flinched, wrestling back control with a level of noticeable difficulty. "I would never do that."

"You wouldn't," Anne agreed, "But you wouldn't have gone vigilante and murdered drug dealers five months ago, either. I don't think Venom cares!"

Pausing, Anne watched Eddie wait for his parasite to defend itself. Venom did not appear, eliciting a pained look from Eddie.

"We would never attack children," Eddie asserted. Anne could easily pick out the plaintive note in his voice, as he begged Venom to back him up.

Despite her assertion that Venom didn't care, Anne was not prepared for the stricken look that crossed Eddie's face. Had Venom just confirmed that he could? That he would? Anne felt her stomach drop to her feet. What else would the Symbiote do?

Eddie Rose from the couch. "Annie, I swear to you-"

Anne matched up and shoved him back down. "You don't fucking get it! When you're with Venom, there isn't an 'I' and a 'Him,' there's a 'We.' Unless you're both on board with doing things right, one day you're going to fuck up!"

"That's not how it works!" Eddie whined. "It's a partnership, yes, but if I don't want something to happen, it doesn't happen!"

"Oh, of course." Anne hoped the sarcasm shined through. "I remember now; it doesn't happen. My mistake. I clearly don't fully understand your connection." Anne bit down hard on the end of her sarcasm, raising her hand for another slap. "I did this too, you idi- grk-"

As her palm came down, Eddie's arm shot up. Before the strike had even connected with Venom's block, the arm was black as pitch. Anne's eyes widened as the black spread across Eddie's body fully. Venom launched from the couch, lifting her by the throat.

"Gh-!" Anne saw stars as Venom shoved her against the apartment's brick wall.

"Why do you keep doing that?" the Symbiote spat, tongue and teeth mere inches from Anne's face.

She had expected a reaction from Venom, like the block. She had not expected this. She had not expected to be choked, shoved against a wall and… Oh God, she couldn't breathe. She couldn't think! "Eddie?" she squeaked.

The force on her throat left, leaving Anne to crumple to the floor. Through blurred vision, she made out black tendrils retreating into Eddie's sneakers. "Annie?! Annie, talk to me!"

"It... doesn't... happen...?" Anne wheezed on hands and knees, throwing his words back at him.

"If you didn't… keep provoking him…" Eddie trailed off, clearly seeing her side of the argument.

Anne clenched her eyes shut, focusing on breathing again. She had very much not expected that. So much for no intention of harming her.

"Y- You saw the results of the Life Foundation's search for Symbiote hosts," Eddie justified. "People died! Can you imagine that happening in a city? Jumping from person to person in a bathroom? On a plane?"

Anne could imagine that. It was scarier than Venom himself, honestly, because there was one little detail Eddie seemed to keep glossing over: she was a perfectly viable host and likely Venom's next choice after Eddie. "So don't… just… split." Anne coughed onto the floor, then rolled back to sit against the wall.

"Venom saved our lives!" Eddie clung to the fact. "Hell, he saved earth from his own people!" He looked at her with fear and confusion. "Why would you suggest killing him?!"

Anne took her time catching her breath for this response. She wanted out of this fucking room and out of Venom's life. If that meant leaving Eddie behind, she'd do it.

Waiting for her to recover, Eddie sat down on the floor, just in front of the couch.

"Eddie. Do you know why… I was on trial?"

He shrugged. "Because you and Venom killed some Life Foundation goons to save my life?"

"No." Anne took another breath. It was getting easier. "I was on trial because… I… allowed Venom to use me as a host, despite knowing… that likely meant… he'd use me to kill people."

The look on Eddie's face told Anne he didn't understand.

"They thought I was a monster not for failing to control Venom. They called me a monster because I helped Venom."

"That sounds like their problem," Eddie pointed out.

Anne wiped her brow. How could she get this through to him? "Do you understand why it's bad to hide a serial killer from the police?"

Eddie nodded, slowly.

"Then you should understand why…" Anne waved an arm in his general direction. "Why you literally are the monster they claimed I was."

Blink. Blink.

Anne gesticulated, trying to get her point across. "The arguments we made in court were bullshit, Eddie! It wasn't Venom, it was us! We've killed people!"

The conversation paused until Eddie broke the silence. "This is a surprise to you?"

Silence. Anne just sat in shock. She never once imagined she'd enter this conversation to find Eddie this accepting of his role in aiding and abetting Venom.

"When I…" Eddie looked down at the floor for a second. "The night after we woke you up, we were shopping at Mrs. C's grocery mart. It's a little spot just up the street from here.

"While I was there, a man came in, with a gun, demanding 'protection' money from Mrs. C. I had seen him before, robbing her in the same way. But before, I was a reporter hung out to dry by my network.

"Venom asked if this was a bad guy. I told Venom the guy was a bad guy.

"We walked over and threatened the hell out of him, stuff like eating off his limbs. Then, Venom added 'On second thought…'

"I knew exactly what Venom was planning. And we… bit off the guy's head. Instead of getting regular human food, we ate a human." Eddie splayed his palms in his lap, not meeting her gaze.

Anne wished she was surprised. "So during your case when Sophia offered to get you the list of SWAT casualties from your fight…"

"It wasn't that I didn't want the count," Eddie confirmed. "I didn't want to start counting."

Anne began levering herself off the wall, toward a standing position. "Well… I'm done."

"...Done…?" The look on Eddie's face turned to one of actual fright.

"Done," Anne confirmed. "Going home." Pushing off the wall, she stumbled fully to her feet. "Getting psych help." She wrapped her arms around herself. "And forgetting I know you."

Eddie blanched. "Anne, you're the only one I can talk to about this!"

"Good. Don't," Anne ground out, leaning on the wall between the windows as she made for the front door.

"But-"

"Don't." Wheezing, Anne pulled open the door.

Across the tiny hallway, a long-haired man in a leather vest was making out with some teenage girl. Upon hearing Eddie's door, the man's eyes snapped to it and, seeing Eddie behind Anne, he broke off the kiss and immediately began fumbling with his door lock.

"Annie-"

Anne pulled the door shut, then started down the hallway.

Entering her car out on the street, Dan spoke up immediately. "What the hell did he do to your neck?!"

"Venom put me in a chokehold," Anne admitted.

Hearing her voice, Dan's horror appeared only to grow. "Jeeeesus! We are going to the hospital right-"

"No." Anne found herself only mildly surprised she could talk over him, despite her throat. "We're going home."

In the corner of her eye, Dan bit his tongue. "Annie-"

"Dan." She met his worried gaze with exhausted eyes, and hoped her face passed on her message of I've seen shit I'll never unsee.

"... Home it is. But I'm having you checked out tomorrow."

"Deal," Annie agreed, reclining the passenger seat. "And call around a bit, ask for any good therapists with space. Discrete ones. You… you know why."

She saw one last worried glance from Dan before closing her eyes and going to sleep.

-Rocketwoman-

A few days later, Anne received a check in the mail without a return address, signed by Eddie. It covered all his legal fees, rounded up by a few thousand dollars.

She didn't want this blood money. But, as Dan pointed out, they'd be paying off the house for decades without it. She brought the dilemma to her first therapy session.

In the end, she cashed the check.

Then, despite herself, she went to look at Eddie's apartment. She arrived to find a poster ad hanging from the window. It was having an open house, looking for a new tenant.

As she began to leave, she noticed yellow tape around a grocery mart, just up the street. An active crime scene, just steps from Eddie's former home. From what she could see, it looked like someone had done a drive-by shooting of the place.

She left without getting the store's name.

-Rocketwoman-

A/N:

Until and unless I can figure out enough about She-Venom to faithfully write the character, this is the end! Hope y'all had a "good" time! (Whatever you consider that to be.)

Chapter Name:

Riesling is a white grape variety which originated in the Rhine region. Riesling is an aromatic grape variety displaying flowery, almost perfumed, aromas as well as high acidity. It is used to make dry, semi-sweet, sweet, and sparkling white wines. Riesling wines are usually varietally pure and are seldom oaked.

High acidity sounded right for this chapter, don't you agree? Cheers.