Peter's relationship with MJ was challenging. They both had school to deal with and they were so far away from each other. They'd talk most nights and would text during the day. MJ would ask questions and Peter would try to answer, sometimes failing miserably but other times opening up about past missions. MJ saw it as steps in the right direction. Peter wasn't sure what he saw it as. The team continued to train and Steve had even looped them in on a recapture of one of the escapees. They functioned well together and more importantly they were a cohesive team. They had each other's backs and they all knew it.

They were in a comfortable routine. School, training, repeat. Nights out at the Odyssey a couple times a week. They saw it as an opportunity to blow off steam and relax. Steve had called Peter earlier and mentioned that they might have something coming up next weekend and to be ready so the boys were using this weekend to their advantage, which meant Friday night out. Usual table secured, Peter watched his team...his friends. Johnny and Wyatt were playing pool. Davis and Bobby were in the first round of a table football game to see who would cook dinner on Sunday. It had somehow turned into an entire tournament that lasted Friday and Saturday night. Peter saw Gwen walking towards them with a guy he had seen in the Odyssey before. "Hey Gwen."

"Peter, have you met Harry?" Gwen reached down and grabbed a cheese stick out of the basket in front of Peter.

"No." Peter smiled. "Peter Parker. I think I've seen you in here before."

"Gwen talked about the place enough she finally convinced me to check it out at the beginning of the semester." He reached out his hand to shake Peter's. "Harry Osborn."

Peter froze. Osborn.

"Yes, that Osborn. I bet you can sympathize with how annoying the press can be. When my dad disappeared they were all over us. It's still not a great thing to think about." Harry forced a smile and squeezed Gwen's hand. "Gwen, are you ready to head out?"

"Sure. Bye guys."

Peter hadn't moved. Harry Osborn. Norman Osborn's son. A son without a father because of him. He felt Johnny nudge him.

"You ok?" Johnny had walked over because he could tell something was wrong but he didn't have a clue as to what it was.

"Can you all get back to the house?"

Johnny frowned. "We can Uber." He paused. "You want company?"

Peter shook his head. "I'm good." With that Peter walked out of the Odyssey, slipped behind the wheel of his car and drove off. He wasn't even sure where he was going until he realized he was on the interstate headed home. Home was where he wanted to be. Where he needed to be right now. Too much was whirling around in his head. It wasn't until he was about ten minutes from deciding if he was headed into Manhattan or continuing upstate that he realized that he had no idea if his dad was at the lake house or the tower. "Karen, can you ask FRIDAY where dad is?" He had a brief moment of panic when the thought occurred to him that maybe his dad wasn't in either place.

"FRIDAY said that your dad is at the tower. She also asked if everything was ok."

"Tell FRIDAY I'm fine." Peter didn't know what he was. It would be close to 4am when he got there. Maybe he'd just go down to the gym and run until everybody got up. He was looking forward to seeing Morgan in the morning.

He pulled into the underground parking in the tower. Into his normal spot. At home. FRIDAY greeting him in the elevator. Peter wasn't sure how his dad did it but both FRIDAY and Karen had the remarkable ability to express concern in their voices. The doors opened onto their floor. The familiar hall that led to the bedrooms one way and the kitchen and living room the other. He wasn't surprised to see the kitchen light on. FRIDAY would always be loyal to his dad regardless of what he wanted.

He walked into the kitchen to find his dad making a cup of coffee. A mug of hot chocolate was already sitting on the counter. He took a deep breath and picked it up. He was most definitely home. He walked over to the table and sat down, waiting for his dad to join him. A few moments later he did.

Peter has taken multiple sips of hot chocolate before he figured out where to start. "So there's this guy. He's been at the Odyssey a couple times. I've probably seen him on campus some. I think Gwen might be dating him." Peter paused and took a sip of hot chocolate.

Tony patiently waited for Peter to continue. He knew this wasn't about Gwen dating someone. Other than family, MJ was the only other one that might cause Peter to drive 4 hours at midnight and arrive unannounced.

"She introduced him to us tonight. His name is Harry. Harry Osborn." Peter looked up at his dad. "A son without a father. Because of me. And I was okay with it at the time. Part of me is still okay with it because of everything he did. What does that say about me?"

"It says you're human." Tony put his coffee mug down. "Pete, what happened to Osborn was not your fault. He made choices to do the things he did. He stalked you, targeted you, tried to blow up the car that you, Happy, and Pepper were in just to get to you. He would have killed both of them to grab you."

"I laid a trap knowing that his death would be the outcome. I knew you would never let him live. None of you would have let him live. Hell, I think even Steve would have killed him after he found out what he did." Peter leaned back in his chair and looked at his dad. "I was ok with it. I don't have the right to take away someone's father just because he's a horrible person."

Tony studied Peter. Peter had always had a moral compass that pointed true north. Tony credited that to May's and Ben's influence on him. Peter certainly didn't get it from him. "Pete, regardless of what you think, you didn't kill Norman Osborn. Norman Osborn killed Norman Osborn. I know you feel guilty about Harry but you don't get to take responsibility for the whole of humanity. There are consequences to actions. Norman Osborn was already dead he just didn't know it."

Peter looked over at his dad, confusion on his face. "Dad, if I hadn't set him up, he might still be alive."

"No, the outcome still would be the same. The second he targeted you he was dead. Nat or I would have figured it out eventually. But that's not what I mean. The decisions he made well before you were bitten by that spider signed his death warrant. The people he worked for would have killed him eventually and the fact that he experimented on himself would have killed him eventually. That serum that allowed him to shape shift is unstable at best. The research that we grabbed indicated that it was messing with his brain. You aren't responsible."

Peter's response was stopped by the distinct sound of tiny feet running down the hall. "What time does she normally get up?"

Tony shrugged, "It changes. Lately it's been sometime between 4am and 6am. She definitely doesn't get that from me."

Peter braced himself for the tiny human that was about to launch herself at him. "I don't know...maybe it's just that she's a terrible sleeper just like you are." He caught Morgan as she jumped up into his lap.

Tony stood up. He didn't think he had completely convinced Peter but there was no way Peter was going to pay attention to him now. "I'll make breakfast." He glanced back and smiled at his son and daughter currently playing with a web Peter had shot at the ceiling.

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Peter had a lazy morning watching cartoons with Morgan. She apparently had several favorites. The mindlessness of cartoons allowed him to sink way too deep inside his head. Johnny had texted him to check on him which he oddly appreciated. Morgan eventually got bored with her cartoons and took off to find Pepper. Peter looked at Tony as he took Morgan's seat on the couch.

"Kid, you're getting stuck in your head. You aren't responsible for Osborn. I'm just not sure how to convince you of that." Tony looked over at Peter.

Peter turned so he was leaning on the arm of the sofa and pulled his legs up. "I just hate the idea of being the reason why he doesn't have a father."

Tony sighed. "Pete, you're not the reason. He is. You are the reason a lot of other kids do still have their fathers though." Tony could tell Peter was completely blowing off his arguments. He looked down at Peter's phone when it buzzed.

Peter picked it up and glanced at it. It was a text from MJ. "It's MJ." He tossed the phone back down and looked over at his dad. He wasn't sure what he was expecting.

"Talk to MJ."

"About this?" Peter looked at his dad as if he had grown a second head.

Tony shrugged. He knew MJ would level the same arguments at Peter and right now Peter needed to hear it from multiple sources. "Yes. She wants in all the boxes. This is a pretty big box." If Peter didn't agree to go see MJ he was going to take him out to the compound. Maybe Nat or Bucky could pound it into his head.

Peter picked up the phone again and typed out a text before he changed his mind. "I'm in New York. Are you up for a visit?"

"Yes. Jennifer is visiting her parent this weekend so I have the apartment to myself."

Peter looked over at his dad. "How is this a good idea?"

Tony shrugged. "You have to stay for lunch though. Morgan was talking about cheeseburgers." Tony was actually a little surprised at himself. He had always enjoyed the close relationship he and Peter had. Part of him couldn't believe he was encouraging Peter to talk to MJ instead of him, but he thought MJ might be a little more successful right now than he was.

xxxxxxxxxx

Peter parked in front of MJ's apartment building and sat in the car. The drive was less than two hours but it was more than enough time to second, third, and forth guess himself. He sighed and got out the car. Walking up the flight of stairs to MJ's apartment he mindlessly thought that he was glad her apartment was on the 2nd floor. It was safer than the 1st floor. MJ pulled the door open before he knocked.

He walked in and looked around. He wasn't sure what he expected. It kind of looked like her but you could definitely tell another person lived there too.

MJ scrutinized him. She could tell when he texted that something was wrong. He actually looked worse than she expected. She pulled him over to the sofa and sat down, pulling him down next to her. "Ok...what's going on?"

Peter couldn't figure out where to begin. It had been different with his dad. The second he had said Osborn, Tony had known what the problem was. MJ didn't know anything about Osborn. It had been one of those things that went into the box labeled 'secrets'. "Remember during our senior year when my Spidey sense was going off all the time and I ended up out of school for a couple days?"

MJ nodded. "You were out for a full week." It was one of the many things that had started the downward spiral in their relationship. He wouldn't talk about what had happened to him at all. He had just disappeared for a week. She had gotten a single text that said 'I'm not dead'.

Peter sucked in a breath. "Norman Osborn was targeting me. He had figured out that his spider was what had created Spider-Man."

"Stop...no one but you made Spider-Man. You were on a field trip to Os Corp when you got bitten?"

Peter nodded. "He had been working on a super soldier serum. I'm basically Captain America 2.0 without the shield and some spider tendencies."

MJ hadn't heard the part about the super soldier serum before. She had known he got his powers from a spider bite. Osborn was also a new piece of information. "Ok. Go on."

"Remember the aliens? The Skrull and the Kree and how we never found the Skrull?" He waited for MJ to nod before continuing. "He found the Skrull and experimented on them and was able to use their DNA to create some kind of shape shifting serum. He used it on himself. He was able to shape shift but also turn into the creature that looked a lot like the Skrull. Really strong and a little nightmarish." Peter looked over at MJ to gauge her reaction. She was listening intently but so far was dealing with it ok. "I didn't know it was Osborn at the time. I just knew this creature kept targeting me. So I laid a trap. I knew dad and the others would be able to track me so I let myself get captured."

MJ sucked in a breath. The idea that Peter had used himself as bait pissed her off. But she was more bothered by the fact that it had all gone on and she hadn't even suspected anything. "Tony must have been pissed."

Peter chuckled. "Yeah, if you remember this was right after we found out he was biologically my dad which incidentally happen because all of this was going on. When I snuck out I left him a heartfelt video, told him I loved him and called him dad for the first time. Then told him to come find me. Nat said she had never seen dad look so shaken." He knew he was getting off track and he knew part of it was because he was stalling. He took a deep breath and looked at MJ. "I purposely let myself get taken because I knew dad would find me and all of it would end. I also knew that the person responsible would never be seen again. Between dad, Nat, and Bucky someone was going to kill him." He looked down at his hands.

MJ reached over and took his hands in hers. She thought she understood what was bothering Peter. "And you feel like you're responsible for his death?"

"I am responsible for his death. Me...you're not so friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. I strategically planned out an op knowing the result would be someone's death."

MJ frowned. "So why is this bothering you now?" She could work on the fact that Peter felt responsible but there had to be more to it.

"Because I met Norman Osborn's son last night. A son who is still mourning his father because I arranged to have his father killed."

MJ looked at Peter. "Ok for starters stop being melodramatic. You're making it sound like you took out a hit on Norman Osborn. You didn't. You defended yourself."

Peter frowned at MJ. "I'm not being melodramatic."

"Yes you are. When Tony and the others showed up, did he surrender willingly and they killed him anyway?"

Peter thought back. "I was unconscious when they showed up. But when I woke up they were in the middle of a huge gun battle. Him and some of his security officers."

It was MJ's turn to frown. "Why were you unconscious?"

"Oh, he hit me a couple times with electricity to see what would happen. Incidentally, I don't tolerate electricity very well. My heart was out of synch for a couple days. It's why I was out of school for so long."

MJ took a deep breath and debated what to do with that information. If the Avengers hadn't killed Osborn she would have hunted him down at this point. She could read between the lines and figured out that Osborn had used Peter as a lab rat and that made her furious. But she also knew Peter didn't need her rage right now, he needed her understanding and probably some logic knocked into him. "So the Avengers came in and did what, put a gun in his hands and told him to fight? Where was Tony?"

Peter stared at MJ and thought back to when he had been pulled out of the lab. "Dad and Bucky were getting me out of whatever I was strapped down with and then got me out of there."

"So two of the three people who absolutely would have killed Osborn were ignoring him to get to you." She waited for the confusion to roll across his face and for him to nod. "And he had security people shooting at the Avengers." She waited for Peter to nod again. "And yet you still feel responsible?"

Peter frowned. She made it sound so logical. "Yes. If I hadn't lured him into taking me he might still be alive."

"Yeah. There's no way he'd sill be alive. He was responsible for the car getting hit when Happy got hurt, right?" MJ was cycling back through everything that happened during that period. "He wasn't going to stop."

Peter looked at MJ and blinked. "So you don't think I'm responsible for his death even though I had no problem with him dying."

"Peter...I have no problem with him dying. If he weren't dead I'd want him killed for what he did to you. But no, you aren't responsible." She reached over and pressed her palm into his cheek to make sure she had his attention. "He made choices that led him down a path that killed him. He hurt you, Pepper, and Happy. He chose to fight instead of surrender. His death isn't on you, it's on him."

Peter frowned. What MJ was saying made sense but he still had an overwhelming sense of guilt when he thought about Harry. "It doesn't change the fact that Harry doesn't have a father."

MJ shrugged. "Norman Osborn should have thought of his family instead of all of the bad things he did. If Harry wants to blame someone it should be his father. But Harry doesn't know anything about it, does he?"

"I doubt it. Nat thinks everything Osborn did was off book." The tension in Peter's shoulders relaxed a little. "So you don't think I'm a horrible person."

MJ smiled. "Peter, you could never be a horrible person. A little dense at times but we're working on it." She had noticed when the tension left his shoulders. He now just looked drained. "What do you want for dinner? We can order food and watch a movie. Unless you have another supervillain death you want to take responsible for?" She poked him so he'd know she was teasing.

"No, just the one right now. How about Thai food. I haven't found a good one in Boston yet." Peter pulled his phone out of his pocket and pulled up a text to his dad. He typed out a simple "Thanks" and hit send