It took Gwen a few seconds that morning to remember the events of the night before. Had she really faced the truth yesterday that it was over between her and Peter? Yes, and did she regret it? Almost entirely.

She groaned, not wanting to move at all. She glanced at her alarm clock and groaned even louder, it was ten which was later than when she usually woke up. She stretched and got out of her very slowly. She tied her hair in a messy bun before opening one of her cupboard doors. She opened to simply examine how tired she looked in the mirror, but as soon as she opened the door something that had been messily placed inside came tumbling out. Gwen chewed on the inside of her mouth as she bent down to pick up Peter's suit. She stared at it for a few seconds before wondering what was going to happen now that she had his suit.

Was he going to come get it himself? Was she going to have to give it to him? At the hospital? At school? At –

Damn. The dance. It was Saturday, today. Well, it slightly comforted Gwen that Peter most likely wouldn't be attending due to being shot yesterday, but the dance was still happening and that she was positively dreading.

She shook her head, shoving the suit back into the cupboard before hastily turning back to her reflection.

"I know, I know… This sucks. Today will be extremely sucky. But now, today, will be the birth of new Gwen. Well, really old Gwen re-incarnated." She smiled at her reflection with pride, before bringing both of her hands to her face. "And you are talking to a mirror, Gwen Stacy."

Her family were all at different stages in the breakfast when Gwen finally came to the dining room. Her mom noticed her first and frowned with concern.

"Are you alright?" Carl turned his head realizing it must have been Gwen his mom was talking to. Gwen gave a small smile and nodded.

"Uh-huh. I just had a headache and didn't get much sleep last night." Her mom nodded back, before getting up to start clearing away the plates.

"I'm still relieved everyone came home okay," She admitted, before disappearing into the kitchen. Gwen once more felt the annoying pang of guilt, but it went away quickly as Carl called for her attention.

"I wanted to show you some of the photos I took last night," He said casually, approaching her. She knew this wasn't about photos, but was actually about the events of last night. She wished he didn't know.

"I want to see them too!" Daniel said enthusiastically, getting up from his seat. Carl winced at the fact he didn't choose a better cover-up story, before turning back around to face his younger brother.

"I'm going to put it on the computer and then you can see," Daniel didn't look very convinced and was still walking towards them. Gwen bent a little so she was her youngest brother's height.

"We want to show them to Mom later on, so we need somebody to keep her occupied… I think you can do it." She said confidentially, whilst Daniel scrunched his nose up in thought before nodding in agreement. Gwen extended herself once more and Carl gave her a smile. They walked down the hallway towards her room and once they got inside Carl gave an awkward smile.

"Crazy night, huh?" Gwen smiled at first before letting out a sigh.

"I did say sorry, didn't I? I really wish you didn't see that and you didn't have to know that. You deserve -"

"Quit worrying about it," Carl said, interrupting her lengthy apology. "I just wanted to tell you that I rang the hospital this morning."

"And?" She asked, keeping the worry out of her voice although she was almost certain her heart began to beat wildly. Carl seemed to examine Gwen's face as if he was looking for a reaction or some slight change in her expression. Gwen raised her eyebrows, asking him silently to continue on.

"And he's going to be fine," He calmly said after a moment of silence. Gwen kept her sigh of relief inaudible. Carl remained standing there and Gwen wasn't sure what else needed to be said.

"Well, that's good," She said in a seemingly casual voice. Carl continued to stare.

"Don't you want to go visit him?" He asked, furrowing his eyebrows in confusion.

"Why would I?" Gwen asked, but her eyes strayed to her closet. Carl made a small scoffing noise as if her response was completely ludicrous. She opened her mouth to argue, but Carl cut in.

"Well I'm going." He said casually, before turning to leave her bedroom. Gwen spluttered out some mumbled noises that didn't make much sense, but got Carl's attention and he turned towards her once more with raised eyebrows.

"Fine…" Gwen muttered with a roll of her eyes, as if Carl had been arguing with her for a long period of time. "I suppose I can give him back his suit."

Carl gave a knowing smile which Gwen chose to ignore as she marched on over to her closet.


Peter couldn't repeat what he first saw when he opened his eyes that late morning, because what mattered was what he first heard.

"Peter?" He winced, as his eyes focused on the person sitting right next to his bed – Aunt May.

"Oh, Peter… How are you feeling?" He simply nodded, sitting up a little more so he was a little more comfortable. He felt a sharp pain in his ribs which he hadn't even noticed the night before.

"Better… I think" He said, slightly croakily. As soon as she heard his voice, Aunt May stood up to pour some water which was conveniently on his bedside table.

"What even happened?" She asked with caution. She was at her wits' end – Peter was totally aware of this as well – and this was the final straw. How many nights had she seen him beaten up and just in general pain? At least he had always come home… Last night she received a phone call which she thought was the final call she would ever receive that let her know of somebody passing away, but there was still time to correct this now. He was okay, but barely.

"Some gang… They were starting trouble and I got in the way." He gestured to his leg, "And then that happened." Peter replied, giving a helpless shrug as he continued to sip on his water. Aunt May shook her head, standing still over his bedside table.

"Peter… I just… how much longer is this going to go on?" She asked, no, begged. Peter laid his head back against the pillow, so he was looking directly up at the ceiling and closed his eyes. "It was just your skateboarding, but now… in hospital?"

"Aunt May, how could I have stopped this?" He asked, hoping this wasn't really happening. It was one thing to have Gwen say that he was never going to give this up and that was why they couldn't work, but to have Aunt May now on the verge of begging him to stop whatever he was doing was just torturous.

"I honestly don't know," She said, closing her eyes now and visibly breathing deeply. She opened her eyes and the guilt was plain to see. "I'm sorry, really… It's not your fault, of course it's not. But can you please be careful? Get home earlier or just stop with the silly skateboarding? I don't think the insurance will be able to cover anything else like this."

She broke into a smile at the end, making it clear the insurance comment was made light-heartedly. Peter attempted to smile back, but honestly he couldn't have anybody else tell him to stop this, because at the end of the day he couldn't. This was who he was now.

"I'm supposed to tell the Doctor if you wake up." She commented, walking over to the other side of the bed to kiss his forehead.

"And how long have you been here?" Peter asked, his usual cheekiness slipping back into his tone.

"Uhm… Possibly all night," Peter shook his head and Aunt May continued to walk to the door.

"Please go get yourself a sandwich at least," He said, laughing a little as he watched her go.

Of course as soon as she left his thoughts were immediately brought back to Gwen. Last night was probably the worst night since he and Gwen had broken up. He hadn't even told her everything he had wanted to tell her, not that it made a difference.

For a long time it had been her dad's last words that had stopped them getting together, then she made him feel like it was all his own fault and he could have just ignored it. Now he was quickly realizing that he could ignore it and wanted more than anything to just be with her. Maybe now it was Gwen that was stopping them from getting back together, or maybe it was everything added together. All he knew was that he had to say something to her… Something that would either make this all okay or make it worse.


"Carl," Gwen snapped, pulling his arm away from the reception. "He might not even be allowed to have visitors right now!"

"Who are you here to see?" The receptionist behind the desk asked, looking confusedly between Carl and Gwen, who were still fighting for control of the situation, before smiling at them.

"Hi, we were told to come here from the ground -"

"Peter Parker," Carl interrupted, which was welcomed with a sharp nudge in his ribs from Gwen, who continued to smile at the receptionist, while Carl winced in pain.

"Just one moment," She said, walking towards the other side of the desk. As soon as her back was turned, Gwen poked Carl harder again.

"There's probably no point in even – Wait, how did you get information on him earlier?" Gwen asked hurriedly and Carl simply cocked his head to the side as if to say he had no idea what she was talking about.

"You rang the hospital?" She asked again, but her brother still wasn't getting it. "Peter didn't have any I.D on him and he would never willingly tell anyone what his name was…"

"Oh," Carl elongated the sound and simply gave another one of his knowing smiles, which infuriated Gwen more than she cared to say.

"What's that supposed to mean?" She nearly shouted, but the receptionist returning to stand in front of him meant Carl wasn't paying any attention to Gwen, so she just received a long weird stare from the receptionist.

"Peter Parker is in room 802. It's near the end on your right," She said, lifting her arm to point out the direction. "You can ask one of the nurses to show you if you're not sure. And visiting time is for a couple more hours, so you've got time."

Gwen hurriedly thanked her, but Carl took his time surely only to annoy Gwen more. He sauntered through the bustling people in the direction they were told to go in.

"And what did that mean?" Gwen asked, in a much quieter voice but the annoyance was still very easy to make out.

"Huh?" Carl asked, concentrating on reading the room numbers, as they continued to walk along the corridor. Gwen could swear in that moment that she was a second away from punching him.

"The 'Oh' and the little, annoying smile you gave me." She said and this only caused Carl to smile again, which lead to Gwen pointing angrily at him. "That!"

"Peter probably gave his identity, because he was hoping you might want to come and visit him." Carl said with a sigh, as if he was explaining this to a child. Gwen, out of instinct, was about to disagree with this, but instead found herself rooted to the spot and her mouth making a near perfect 'O'-shape.

"Ah, this must be it," Carl smiled, pushing open the door, which gave Gwen zero amount of time to gather her thoughts. She followed in slowly after him, staring at the ground for perhaps longer than she should. She slowly lifted her eyes, and saw Peter looking much better than he had yesterday, and he was staring at her.

"Gwen," He said, and there was a long silence as he was waiting for Gwen to say something, whereas she was waiting for Peter to continue on.

"Hey Peter," Carl said, giving an awkward wave. Peter finally brought his eyes away from Gwen and nodded unsurely at Carl. "You okay?"

"Errr… Yeah," He said, realizing he should say more. "Thanks for last night."

"No problem," Carl waved a hand in his direction dismissively. "Well, Gwen's got something to give you, so I'm going to wait outside."

Gwen narrowed her eyes at Carl, who simply smiled at the both of them before exiting, so Gwen was left just standing near his bed.

"Isn't your Aunt here?" She asked, tucking a few loose strands of hair behind her ear, as she walked closer to his bed.

"Yeah she is, but just went to get some food." There was another long silence as they both looked anywhere but at each other. Finally they caught each other eyes and a nervous laugh broke out.

"Well, I brought your suit." She said, holding up the bag with one hand and pointing at it with her other free hand.

"Uh… Maybe, could you keep it?"

"Keep it?" Gwen repeated, blinking her eyes in surprise. Peter shook his head, smiling nervously once more.

"My Aunt May might be a bit suspicious of Spider-Man's suit being here." He stated, scratching the back of his head. Gwen made an inaudible, 'Oh', chewing her bottom lip and shaking her head.

"Got you," She said slowly, wondering if she should go now or not. "So you're doing better then?"

"Yeah, I should be able to leave later." He said, nodding. Gwen tried to fight back her smile.

"Really? I think you and I both know they'll want to keep you here longer than that." She said, for once she was showing a bit of the spark towards him that was there when they were first dating and even before they were dating. Peter noticed the complete change in her voice as well, but soon smiled back at her.

"You know I won't follow those suggestions,"

"Rules and perhaps you should."

In a second they were back to how they used to be. It seemed to take the both of them in surprise as it seemed like years ago where they were able to talk to each other so easily, but Peter was on the verge of ruining it.

"Do you… uh…" He started to laugh; perhaps it was at what he was planning to say or the fact that he was barely able to ask the question. Whichever it was it increased Gwen's curiosity in what he was going to ask.

"Do I what?" She asked, a small smile playing on her lips despite herself. She had no real expectations of what it might be, but all the same it brought about an excitement within her.

"Do you remember that time I asked you out?" Peter finally asked, he was trying to keep it light-hearted at first, but the fact that he nervously chewed on the inside of his mouth gave it away that this was a more serious question. Gwen did her best to ignore that though.

"Yes. Yes, I do," She smiled, remembering how he had asked her. She repeated what he said all that time ago, "Or we could do something else?"

"And you said either."

"But I'm glad we did something else," Gwen said. They both let out a near silent laugh, but something in the atmosphere shifted and Peter met her gaze once more. And then Peter ruined the moment.

"I want to go back to when it was simple, before we knew the consequences of us being together."

Gwen blinked a few times in surprise and tried to make out if Peter's face would give away anything about what he expected her to say back, if anything at all. It may have been a statement, which didn't need an answer, because it was obvious they both felt that way.

"I… After last night I really can't ignore the problems with us." She replied, running a hand through her hair as her shoulders began to slump slightly forward.

"Problems?"

"Well, problem." She gestured to the bag she was holding that contained his Spider-Man suit. This seemed to stop Peter for a second. He couldn't really argue with her on that problem, because he was never going to give that up and that was something else that was obvious to the both of them.

"I meant what I said yesterday," Gwen added and she had resolved that there was no point in standing there any longer. She turned towards the door, took a deep breath and began to take the four steps that would lead her into safety.

"No," The simple syllable brought Gwen back in. She turned back with eyebrows raised. "I need to tell you something."

"Well?" Gwen prompted almost as soon as he finished his sentence.

"I went to the stadium because I was worried you went with Flash. I know, I know it was stupid and thoughtless. I could have caused trouble, but the thing is he planned on going there. If I hadn't been there then he could have hurt you… and thousands of other people."

Gwen felt like her pulse was quickening and slowing down at the same time. She didn't know what to say… or better yet how to feel about this information.

He was completely right though – that was stupid. Going to the stadium as Spider-Man just to spy on her? It was ridiculous. He could have attracted trouble for himself with the police or with everyone else in the stadium. Not just that, but the fact that he thought she would go with Flash; did Peter truly doubt how she felt about him after all this time.

However she didn't say any of this to Peter, because she still wanted to know if he wanted anything from this.

"What are you trying to say?" She asked, her voice sounded croaky and quiet as if she was tearing up.

He didn't attempt to respond for a few moments. They stared at each other, Gwen in anticipation for his response and Peter was assessing her reaction to his comment. When he opened his mouth to respond, it was too late for his aunt entered the room. Gwen broke away from the eye contact she was making with Peter.

"Oh… Gwen?" Her aunt asked carefully, confusion apparent on her face.

"Hello," Gwen replied, attempting her best to smile back at her.

"How did you know Peter was in hospital?" She glanced between the two of them, who were obviously trying to think quickly of how Gwen could possibly know about Peter being in hospital.

"Uhm…"

"Err…" Gwen began, before thinking of a pathetic excuse that she decided to roll with. "Well, the hospital informed the school about this and I was there to decorate for the dance tonight, so I heard that Peter wouldn't be able to come tonight."

Aunt May raised an eyebrow, turning her head to Peter's direction who simply shrugged with a forced smile.

"Right, I better go then." Gwen stated after a painful moment of awkward silence.

"It was very sweet of you to drop by," Aunt May said with a smile to Gwen which Gwen returned.

"Bye Peter," She quietly said and was disappointed when he didn't say anything in reply but simply nodded at her.

Once she exited the room Carl was waiting for her with a slightly hopeful expression.

"I'm keeping his suit for awhile." Gwen said, walking back the way they had come. Carl sighed, realizing nothing had really been sorted out. He followed her out, shaking his head.


Peter ignored the look Aunt May was giving him and concentrated on turning the TV on. Some talk show was on and of course it was coverage about the near disaster the night before and Peter wanting to avoid the matter of Spider-Man around his Aunt, moved his finger over to the next channel button.

However the person being interviewed caught his eye – Tom Campbell, the editor of Bugle News.

"Are you saying Spider-Man was saving you?"

"No… No, that's not what I said. Spider-Man and this Burn character were fighting though. It doesn't seem like they are working together."

"This wasn't your first dealing with Burn either was it?"

"No, he attacked the Bugle News, but I was out for lunch at the time so I wasn't in the building."

"Will you still be attending the Cancer Research Ball tonight?"

"It's a tradition."

Peter processed this news quickly; it was all starting to make sense. He knew where the next attack was going to be.


A/N: So I discovered in a re-watch of the movie the actual names of Gwen's brothers, but I don't want to change the names now because that would be way too confusing.

I've been working on this chapter for weeks! Hope you guys like it :) Again sorry for the slow update