Chapter 13 – Coming Clean

xXx

This was only the second time I'd been to Gwen's apartment. It was colder than I'd remembered… or maybe it was hotter… or maybe it was just me?

At first, I wasn't sure if she was going to let me in. She kept asking if I was sober and able to actually speak to her. It was clear the other night hadn't gone over so well. I think the flowers I'd brought helped to show her that I meant business.

"We'll talk in the kitchen," she'd said, and she walked only a few feet away when she took a seat at a nice wooden table. I did the same and sat across from her.

There was so much I had to tell her. I was going to make things right, make her see the things I saw. She was finally going to understand.

"Gwen, we need to talk."

After the words left my mouth, I noticed a wince on her face. It was only there for a split-second before disappearing, but it was there, I saw it.

"What about?"

She was stalling, trying to think of her next move.

"About us." My tone was very matter-of-factly.

"Oh."

A few seconds of silence passed before I realized why she was worried.

"I'm not breaking up with you."

I heard a quiet sigh, and she began to laugh. I hadn't heard her laugh in what felt like years.

"Do you think I'm stupid? You brought me flowers, I knew you weren't breaking up with me."

She was lying, but she now had nothing to worry about. At least not yet.

I looked around from where I sat. She had a loveseat in front of her 25in. TV, a few pictures of her and her father hanging up… it was a pretty bare apartment. And at that moment it was only serving as a distraction.

"So…?" Gwen droned, breaking through my thoughts.

"Listen, this was a bad idea." I stated this as clearly as I could. My eyes were fixated on her face.

Her face changed from one of understanding to one of anger.

"You're joking, right?" she questioned, venom in her voice. "After the other night, after you'd promised me we would talk about all this, you're just going to blow me off… again?"

I didn't respond. My facial features didn't change. I had to do it. I'd come this far.

"Gwen, there are some things we hide from people… we don't tell them because… we don't think they'll believe us. We keep these things hidden because, quite honestly, we don't believe them ourselves."

"What the hell are you talking about, Peter?"

"Do you remember my uncle, Gwen? Do you remember what I told you? How I came home one night and found him being wheeled away in a bodybag… do you remember?"

I didn't know what I was doing to her. I was frightening her, making her angry… I was doing something.

"… what does this have to do with us?"

I had to stare deep into her eyes to stay concentrated on what I was doing. If I looked away, I wouldn't be able to go through with it.

"I want to tell you about a man whose name I didn't learn until just a few months ago… Dennis Carradine. You see, Dennis had a daughter, Kate. He loved Kate very much. Dennis was willing to do anything to see to it that Kate made it through life happy. That meant he needed money."

Was I finally accepting the truth? Was I finally learning to forgive this man that had caused me to take the path I'd taken?

"Dennis decided to break into my house, of all places. My aunt later said that my Uncle Ben had startled Dennis. Dennis shot Uncle Ben. He left the house."

It was fear in her eyes. She thought she was talking to a psychopath. I could see her fear.

"When I came home and found Aunt May crying, I didn't have to be told what had happened. And you know what I did next, Gwen?"

If she had a response, she didn't state it. She just stared right back at me.

"I went after Dennis Carradine, Gwen. I followed a police cruiser all the way to an abandoned warehouse. I went inside the warehouse, and I-"

Tell her. Tell her what you did. Tell yourself what you did.

"And I killed him."

Gwen's brow furrowed. She didn't believe what she was hearing.

"I took his gun, placed it right against his head, and while he sat there begging for his life, and telling me about Kate… I smiled. I felt so happy that I had this man begging for his life. I imagined what he'd done to my uncle, what his actions were going to do to my aunt… and I pulled that God damn trigger."

I looked away from her. The worst was out. She wasn't seeing Peter Parker the highschool drop-out anymore, no, she was seeing Peter Parker the murderer.

"You did what you thought was right."

I was so unprepared for her words that I almost didn't hear them.

"I'm sorry, what'd you say?"

I looked her in the eyes once more, and she didn't waver. "You did what you thought was right."

She'd said it a second time and I still didn't know if I'd heard her correctly. Her reaction was unlike any of the ones I'd thought of. She hadn't told me to leave, she hadn't stood up quickly and called the cops… she hadn't called me a crazy, lying, bastard.

"There's more." I stated blankly.

This is it.

I opened my mouth, but no words came out. My mouth hung open for a few seconds before I'd closed it.

I owe it to her.

"Gwen…" my voice trailed off. I'd convinced myself I couldn't do it.

"Yes, Peter?"

Her voice… her perfect, sweet, soft, angel voice. It gave me strength. I loved it. I loved her voice. I loved Gwen Stacy.

"I'm the Spider-Man."

xXx

Phineas Mason wasn't one to brag, but if he was, he would probably claim that he was the most brilliant man in the world. He was able to do things with cybernetics that modern medicine couldn't. He had proven time and time again that he could cure cancer, regrow limbs, virtually bring the dead back to life. He could've been an outstanding, high-paid doctor. But the fact was, that would've bored him.

He'd seen many faces in his career. Most of them were the same; bruised street urchins brought in to be patched up after a nasty gang war. But occasionally, he came across the really special kind of scum. The kind that was prepared to take the city by any means necessary. They were the ones he respected.

In fact, at that very moment, he was speaking with a regular customer, Herman Schultz. Herman came in every now and then, requesting a specific upgrade to his self-dubbed "vibro-shock gloves". However, he was currently without them. And that was why he was speaking with Phineas.

"… I don't know how I got out. Somebody pulled some strings, somebody I don't know about. But I honestly don't care who. The fact is I'm out. You gotta listen T; the Spider-Man is out there… and I don't know what's done it, but he's more brutal than ever now. He finally got me put away, even if it was only for a couple of days. I'm lucky to be alive… word on the street is he's killed 3 guys in the past week alone."

"It seems everyone comes to me now because of him… everyone's afraid of him, aren't they Herman?" Phineas said, working on the very product Herman had requested.

Herman nodded. "I didn't think he could ever get to me, but this last time… knocked the lights out… he just came out of nowhere, T."

"I've almost finished…" Phineas assured him. "So, you've no idea who sprung you, then?"

Shaking his head, Herman opened his mouth to speak, and then quickly closed it, his eyes transfixed on something.

Looking up from his work, Phineas decided to check out whatever had caused Herman to clam up: walking into his workshop was a man and a… well, he couldn't quite tell what he was looking at, but he'd seen enough in his days to keep it from bothering him.

The man had a bandage wrapped around his eyes.

Eye problems… easy enough to fix.

The other man, however, looked beyond help. He stood at least 7 foot tall, was covered in rather nasty looking scabs, his skin a dark green… he was cloaked in some kind of purple fabric.

"Here you are, Herman," Phineas said, handing Herman his vibro-shock gloves, but never once taking his eyes off his new visitors.

"Uh, uh, uh… uh, thanks, T." Herman nervously said, quickly grabbing his new gloves, and rushing past the two men, exiting Mason's workshop.

"How may I be of service?" Phineas cooed, eying the two.

The big one, the man-monster, was the one to speak. "I've heard about what you do here. My friend could use a bit of help."

"Has he been blinded? Some kind of solar-related problem?"

The creature turned towards the other man, and unwrapped the gauze that covered his eyes. Behind the gauze were two eye sockets with blood vessels barely poking out.

Jesus… I've never fixed this kind of problem before…

"Ah, that old mess. I know just how to fix that. You've got cash, right?" Phineas asked.

The creature nodded.

"Good, good… take your friend to the room back there." Phineas pointed to an opening to his left. The creature helped the man walk that way.

Phineas had indeed never dealt with a problem like this. Normally when he sought to cure somebody of their blindness, he did so using their eyeballs. This man had no eyes to speak of.

It shouldn't be too hard… maybe I can think of something… yes, yes of course!

xXx

Norman helped Curt to lay down in some kind of chair. It was stiff and cold, but Curt didn't care; he was going to be able to see again.

"Do you really think this will work?" Curt asked Norman.

"It had better. I imagine this guy isn't cheap."

xXx

Cheap… heh. If I wanted to, I could set that fuck on fire, never have to pay a cent…

Phineas Mason entered the room after a few moments, carrying two circular objects. To Norman, they looked like mechanical eyes.

"Don't try telling me you're just going to put those in his eye holes, and he's miraculously going to be able to see again." Norman told the man.

"Hah! If only it were that simple. No, the process will be slightly more painful than that."

Curt made a rather audible gulp.

When did he become such a pussy? Norman thought to himself, aware that Curt Connors had indeed changed since his accident, in more ways than one.

Norman watched as Phineas messed around with some kind of machine. He placed the orbs into pincers attached to the machine. They reminded Norman of drills. After a few more moments, Phineas flipped the machine on, and walked over to Norman.

"It's best we leave the room, it will get loud."

Listening to the man, Norman stepped back into the front room of the workshop as Phineas closed the door leading to the machine. Almost immediately after, Curt began to scream in pain.

"What's your story?" Phineas asked Norman, a smile on his face.

"You don't want to know."

"If you say so…"

Norman looked around the workshop, spotting various devices that looked like they could cause a lot of pain to anyone unfortunate to cross them.

"Here's the thing. I'm not here for the guy in there. He survived his accident, and I figured I'd keep him around a bit longer. I'm actually here to discuss something with you. I know you can fix problems, but I can also see you like to make things…"

"I do suppose that's why they call me the Tinke-"

Norman held up a clawed hand. "I don't care. I want you to get me something. Something that can get me where I need to go quickly."

Despite Norman's rudeness, Phineas had a smile on his face. "I think I have just the thing."

xXx

I'd been web-swinging for 5 years, and it had never felt so great.

"It's so weird, seeing you in the mask and everything!" Gwen called out from over my shoulder.

"I figured the weirdest part would've been the webs coming out of my wrists… but hey, that works, too!"

She'd accepted me for the freak I was. I couldn't believe it, but there we were, swinging 30-stories high.

After the crazy things I've said today, this comes as the biggest relief of my life…

"Oh yeah, there's just one thing I forgot to mention!" I called to her over the wind whipping around us.

"What's that?" she asked, hanging on for dear life.

"You can't tell your dad!"

"I figured!"

I trusted Captain Stacy, I really did. But the fewer people that knew my secret, the better. There were now only two people in the entire world that did… and I prayed to God I could trust the other one.

xXx

A/N: Hah! I cheated! Spider-Man was indeed in this chapter as I'd promised… he just didn't fight anyone. This is by far my fastest update since the story originally started. I don't know, I've just gotten this crazy urge to write the story, and all these great ideas have come to me. I apologize if this feels like filler… believe it or not, it really does advance the plot. So, Gwen now knows Peter's secret. Fastest working couple I believe I've ever seen haha. They really trust each other, though. Peter finally fixed his mistakes with Gwen… without even acknowledging them! The Tinkerer had a nice little cameo here… anyone know what the Goblin's asking for? Of course you do. Now, expect some actual action in the next chapter! Yes! Finally! Most of the talking is out of the way! Also, the chapter title is also the title to one of the greatest songs off of Green Day's Dookie! All right… leave those reviews!