Peace Talks
Peter sat on a dark leather couch, a wine glass of grape juice sitting cupped in his hands.
Across from him sat Carol Danvers on a similar looking love seat, staring bemused at the glass in her hand.
"Why grape juice in a wine glass?"
Peter shrugged, "kind of fit the mood I guess." He flashed back to when Mary Jane sat in his apartment to talk. It was glasses of wine then though.
It was the thought that counted.
Carol took another drink of her glass. "So?"
Peter put his glass on the coffee table between them and leaned back on the couch and stared at the ceiling.
She pursed the side of her mouth, "ok then. Guess I'll start." She put her glass down and crossed her arms. "What was your plan Peter?"
He glanced at her, "I guess I was gonna show up here and give you a million reasons to not give up the baby, listen to your million and one reasons against me, then work on a plan from there." He ended with a shrug.
"I...", she started, sounding slightly unsure. "I may have been a bit fast in my decision."
Her face changed in anger at Peter's snort.
A slight tingle in the back if his head made him change tactics.
"Sorry Carol, but yeah. I think you were a bit rash."
"Oh? Then what would you have done in my shoes?"
He bit his tongue to keep from saying, "knew it was Doc Ock before I slept with him", but that was probably a sure way of getting blasted out the window.
How could NO ONE know it wasn't him?
"I don't know. Work with the fa- the... other person, and try to come up with something mutually beneficial?"
She gave him a sarcastic smirk, "and what would benefit both of us?"
"I could raise her", he immediately replied.
She looked out the glass doors of her penthouse, noting the sun almost in position to set for the day. "Or him."
"Or him", Peter agreed.
Silence engulfed the penthouse once more.
"I don't know Peter", the blonde woman turned to him and spoke. "I don't see it ending well."
"Meaning?" He rolled his hand in a "keep going" gesture.
"Meaning, I don't think it's safe for you to raise a child", Carol finished, looking out at the city once more.
Peter expected that, but it still hurt. He rose from his seat and stood next to his host, facing the view.
"It's an unsafe world we live in", he started. "I'm sure Luke and Jessica had the same fears when they went through this. Or any other super power couple. Or heck, any regular vanilla couple."
She snorted. "Yeah, but they don't have our issues."
Peter cracked a grin. "Granted. But I can do this Carol." He turned to look at the woman carrying his child. "I want to give him or her a home. I WANT to be in their life."
Her brow furrowed and she turned to him angrily. "Oh? So all I'm good for is to push out your kid now, huh?"
He took a step back raising his hands in defence. "Whoa Carol, where is all this coming from?"
"What am I to you?" She continued. "The middle person so you can get a replacement kid?"
Cold fury filled Peter Parker. His eyes seem to glow red as he glared into her face.
Carol took a step back from him in surprise. She noticed the room getting darker. Looking to her windows, she could see hundreds of spiders crawling around, blocking out the light outside.
She charged up her hand in preparation to blast her way out, until a loud exhale caught her attention.
"I don't know what Hulk sized bug crawled up your butt, but I kindly ask that you refrain from making assumptions like that in the future", the Spider calmly stated as his eyes returned to normal and the arachnids outside returned to their business elsewhere.
She was startled by his obvious anger and then disappointment with her. She was too.
"I- I'm sorry Peter", her energy disappeared and she rubbed her hands together. "I don't know why I said that."
"How'd you find out?" He asked quietly.
She started to tell, but closed her mouth. Peter watched various emotions flitter across her face, finally resting on anger. But not at him.
"Stark."
His sullen mood changed into confusion. "Stark?"
"I can't belive this!" Carol stomped around her apartment. She kicked over her couch and crushed a marble statue she had with her hands. "How could I not have seen this?"
Peter cautiously approached her. "Carol? What's going on? What did Stark tell you?"
She brushed crushed rock off of her hands and addressed him. "It was after you sold the company. I found out I was pregnant and went to the Avengers to let them know I would be taking some time off. Tony asked some questions and I eventually told him in confidence that you were the father."
She flipped her couch back and sat down with a heavy thud.
"He spoke to me, acting concerned for me and the baby. He said you weren't acting right after you came back, that you seemed to be in a spiral of self destruction. He recommended not telling you about me and to cut off all ties with you. That you'd only bring me down with you."
Peter stood still listening to her. "And you believed him."
"He was pretty convincing", she wiped away a few tears. "He mentioned your first kid with Mary Jane and what happened to her. I'm sorry I said what I did. Tony mentioned the possibility, and I've got my own pregnancy fears and I don't like being used. I guess they kind of fed on each other."
He kind of understood. She had some weird history with that Marcus Immortus whack job.
"So", the brunette crossed his arms in thought, "he warned you away from me. Why did you tell me anyways?"
She wiped away more tears. "Damn hormones. You deserved to know Peter. Despite everything, I still thought you were a good man deep down. Even if you didn't want to spend time together anymore, I still cared for you."
He followed along until his brain derailed. "Wait, I didn't want to spend time together? Since when?"
She blinked at him. "Um, you never came around anymore or called. You were running around with that other Spider-Woman so i guessed I was left out in the cold." She ended bitterly.
"Hold up, YOU left things as they were. I wasn't seeing Jessica or Julia."
She humphed and grabbed her cell off the table. "Not them." After a couple of swipes she handed it over, "her."
Peter found a pic of Spider-Man and a dark haired, probably of Asian decent, woman dressed in webs getting close and cozy on the side of a building. He began pressing on her phone.
"Hey! Privacy!" Carol tried to take it back.
"Logan sent this?" Peter asked in shock.
"Yes", she yanked her phone away. "Just before he died. He gave me his condolences and wished me better luck with someone else. You seemed happy and I wasn't going to chase you."
"That's impossible. That's not me", he tried to deny.
The blonde chuckled a bit. "Isn't that what they all say?"
"No, seriously Carol", he pointed to her phone. "That's not me because she doesn't exist here."
She looked skeptical.
"I was in this big multi demensional Spider war awhile ago. She was there. They called her Silk. Apparently she was bitten by the same spider I was in her reality. When I got back, I looked in my old school records for any Asian girls in my class that could have went on that trip. The only person who fit was Cindy Moon, and she moved away the previous year. So if "Silk" in our world doesn't exist-" He pointed at her phone again. "How'd Wolvy get that pic?"
She looked at him for several moments, the gears turning in her head. Finally she figured, "someone's setting us up."
Peter nodded, "I agree. Stark?"
"Probably. But why? Why try to keep us away from each other?"
"And how does Logan get a picture from another dimension?"
"And why try to use it to split us up further?"
A few questions, but no answers. The silence between them rolled on until Peter checked the time.
"I got to get going Carol. Work in the morning."
She nodded and followed him to the door.
"We should definitely talk some more, compare notes, see where this all leads." Peter starts putting a list together in his head as he opens the door.
"Over dinner Friday? I can order in?" Carol asks.
They both pause and look into each other.
Peter smiles. "I'd like that."
Carol returns his smile.
"Stay safe." He looks down to her slightly protruding belly. "Both of you."
"Same to you." She tells him.
Their looks linger until he exits and walks down the hall.
Carol shuts and locks her door behind him. Both feel a pressure lifting from them, and at the same time, caution over what the future could bring.
