Author's Note: Definitely gonna be out of commission after Monday. I own nothing.

26. After A Few Weeks

Glen was slightly disappointed when Piper didn't show up in the lab the next day. He had the weekend off, so he had no way of knowing if she was back in the labs or not. He was running a bit early on Monday, his bus had been earlier than he'd been expecting. But he hadn't had time to grab coffee at home so he stopped by the coffee bar on the recreation level of Stark Tower. He placed his order and showed his ID to the pink haired barista and she smiled at him. Someone stepped up behind him and he stepped aside so they could place their order too. He caught sight of a shock of deep brown hair against pale skin and turned as Piper smiled at the barista who grinned at her.

"Mr. Barton stole the carafe again?" Piper nodded giving the barista her best set of puppy dog eyes. The pink haired woman laughed.

"You want your usual then?" Piper nodded, pushing her messy hair out of her face. There was a small bandage on her cheek that made Glen flinch slightly. She seemed to have noticed the small movement out of the corner of her eye though. She glanced over and smiled at Glen before turning back to the barista.

"Thanks Susan. You are a literal lifesaver." The barista grinned and set to work on Piper's order as her coworker finished up Glen's. It was just a regular americano with a little bit of room for cream and sugar. Glen raised an eyebrow as he saw Susan put four pumps of chocolate into a cup before adding any coffee. She followed the coffee with another shot of chocolate and a few of caramel before adding some milk and frothing the whole thing. Piper took the cup she was handed which was twice the size of the small Glen had ordered and sipped it before sighing loudly.

"Perfect, thank you Susan, you are an angel." Susan waved Piper off. The brunette stepped up to Glen with a grin as she checked her watch.

"You don't have to be in the lab for another half an hour, care to sit with me for a bit?" Glen nodded.

"Sure, sounds fun." They made their way over to one of the many empty tables. Glen glanced at the cup in Piper's hand. "That can not be healthy, I think I can feel my teeth rotting from here." Piper snorted a laugh as she took another sip of her drink. She glanced around as she sat down, there was almost no one else in the area and none of the people who were here were close enough to hear anything she said.

"I would blame it on the enhanced metabolism but I drank my coffee like this before that so… That's just me I guess." Glen laughed slightly.

"I'm not sure any other human being on the planet would call that sugar bomb coffee." Piper snorted again.

"You sound just like Clint." Glen grinned sipping his own coffee. He pulled a face as he realized he'd forgotten to add any sugar or cream. Piper laughed as he stood up and quickly doctored his coffee, adding just two spoonful's of sugar and a splash of cream. He sat back down as Piper managed to reign in her giggles.

"Your face was priceless. Seriously. That was beautiful." Glen stuck out his tongue at her and she grinned. He fidgeted slightly it was still odd sitting across from, not only Tony Starks daughter, but Spidergirl. But she didn't act like some high and mighty rich kid or like a righteous hero. She just acted like a person. He cleared his throat slightly.

"So, are you ok?" Piper glanced up from her Stark Pad. Her eyes had gone slightly dark but she nodded.

"Yeah. I mean I'm ok. So the whole of New York knows huh?" Glen shrugged taking an awkward sip of his coffee.

"Well yeah, I mean you've kind of become a public figure since the world found out you existed." Piper nodded sipping her coffee. Glen frowned. "But I mean you're completely alright?" He said gesturing vaguely to her cheek. Her hand ran across the bandage and she smiled slightly.

"Oh yeah I'm fine. I heal fast." Glen smiled slightly.

"I'm glad you're ok. Everyone was really worried when we heard what happened." Piper blushed slightly her face turning a very rosy shade of pink. Glen couldn't help but grin.

"Yeah I'm ok." They slipped into an easy conversation about the tests Glen was running on the simulations. The lizard idea seemed to be working out best. Piper glanced down at her Stark Pad and swore.

"We're late." Glen checked his watch and his eyes went wide. The pair of them disposed of their empty cups and raced to the elevator. Both of them pulled on lab coats in the entryway and stepped in. Dr. Connors looked up and raised an eyebrow.

"It's completely my fault he's late Doc. I had him trapped in a conversation about how to meld DNA sequences." Glen nodded stepping over to the computer banks.

"She actually had the most brilliant idea, about how to get around the problem we've been having with the peptide solution." He pulled up the screen and stepped aside. Piper glanced at Dr. Connors who motioned her forwards. She began to type. In a few minutes she had a small formula sitting in the palm of her hand, she pulled the formula closer to the others, all the labs used the holographic tech Tony used in his personal lab. She handed the formula to Dr. Connors.

"See what I'm trying to do?" He looked over the formula.

"Preempt the proteins?" Piper shook her head.

"No, preempt the immune response. The immune system is most of what's blocking the merging of the DNA." Dr. Connors nodded slightly and the four of them set to work. Piper hovered at the edge of the work station, sitting on a chair working on her Stark Pad as the simulations ran with the newly added formula. She was tapping away as the rest of them went over different variations of her formula. Dr. Connors approached her at the end of the day.

"Glen and Abe are heading home for the day but I was wondering if you'd be willing to lend a hand in a more official capacity on this project." Piper nodded.

"Yes, but I have a favor to ask of you in return." Dr. Connors raised an eyebrow at her and she handed him the Stark Pad she'd been using all day. On it was a map of New York. Several places on the map were dotted red.

"We have some leads on Octavius. I'm not gonna be able to process everything we dig up from it. I'm gonna need your help." Dr. Connors nodded.

"Of course." Piper smiled.

Three weeks passed, Piper and her team raided three of Doc Oc's labs, all of them inactive and untouched for at least four months if not longer. Piper was starting to believe that Octavius had died in the fire started in his lab after he'd turned Norman Osborn into the Goblin. She almost didn't feel bad about it but to make a cure for Norman, without a sample of his blood, they would have to know what the good doctor had done to him, to the mixture of Venom, Piper's blood and the sample of spinal fluid he'd taken from her. Dr. Connors kept his promise to help Piper go through all of the tech and formula's they'd found. Piper kept her promise and helped with what the other scientists were starting to call the Lizard formula, mostly because it was easier than saying human-lizard gene splicing formula. They were still on the simulation stage but they'd had more and more success lately.

Since they weren't getting anywhere finding anyone who could answer their questions on where Oc might be if he was alive Piper decided to try something different. Instead of heading directly to the next lab she set up surveillance equipment outside. Another week passed before something happened.

Piper laughed as she walked Glen out of the building.

"That is hilarious. Abe honestly couldn't just ask me to get Auntie Tasha's autograph?" Glen shrugged.

"You intimidate him." Piper snorted.

"He's the only one on the planet I intimidate." Glen shook his head.

"I'm sure that's not true." They paused at the doors. Piper brushed her hair behind her ear. Glen fidgeted slightly then smiled.

"Um… do you like parmesan chicken?" Piper raised an eyebrow. Glen cleared his throat. "My… my mom has been wanting to meet the girl I keep talking about for a while. She's making parmesan chicken this Thursday for dinner. Would you like to come to dinner?" Piper blushed that pretty rosy pink. There had been roumors running around Stark Industries for three weeks that Piper and Glen were dating, they had taken to sharing coffee together most days and lunch at least once a week unless Piper was busy with Spidergirl. But neither of them had talked about it yet. Even Dr. Connors left them mostly to their own devices these days. She cleared her throat as her watch began to beep.

"I would like that." Glen grinned and pulled out his phone, texting Piper his address.

"See you tomorrow?" She nodded and he grinned as he left. Piper grinned as she tapped her watch stepping into the private elevator.

"Hello?" Piper asked looking down at her watch.

"Spidey! We have movement at the warehouse lab! Get over here!" Piper nodded and raced out of the elevator, pulling off her shirt as she went. Her costume was revealed as she tossed her jeans aside and pulled her mask out of her pocket. In moments Spidergirl was swinging across New York, whooping as she went.