We took off shortly after, the holographic cloak kicking in as we passed over the roofs.

Eventually, we arrived in a rather tall block of apartments, and Gwen turned to look at me.

"Are you sure you want to do this Jon?" She asked.

I smiled gently, "I'm more than willing to support you here. I know you've wanted to tell your father about your powers for some time now, and now that this mess has been cleared up, you can do that."

Gwen nodded, before looking at herself, "I probably don't want to be wearing this when I see him though."

I chuckle and reach into my cloak, grabbing a backpack and passing it to Gwen.

She opened it and smiled. Looking up at me she pulled out a black turtleneck. "Really?"

I laughed, "What? You don't like it?"

Gwen just shook her head as she put it back in the bag.

Furtively looking around, she grabbed my hand and pulled me into the stairwell.

As the door shut behind us, she looked down the stairwell and smiled.

Turning around, she reached to the top of her hood and started unzipping, revealing her back bit by bit. Then, as it reached the base of her spine, she spun around.

~~ CENSORED ~~

It wasn't too much later that she had the green jacket and her sandals on.

She stuffed her costume into the bag and tossed it to me, as she slid the black hairband onto her head.

I shook my head and stuffed the bag back into the pocket of holding, quickly followed by my helmet and staff. Thankfully my cloak was relatively subdued and could pass for normal clothing without the accessories.

Gwen grabbed my hand as the two of us descended into the stairwell.

Eventually, we came to the apartment. Gwen looked to me, and with my nod, rang the doorbell.

The door opened quickly, revealing a haggard George Stacy.

His eyes brightened when he saw Gwen rushing to give her a hug before he spotted me. He took a moment to look me up and down.

"Who is this doll?" he asked.

Gwen smiled, "This is Jon, we're dating."

I could see the man's face darken, "Really?"

"Dad, no! He's a nice guy!" Gwen groaned.

I chuckled, "Don't worry, I understand. She's important to you and I don't want to get in the way of that."

The police captain nodded, "Why don't you two come in. Gwen's never brought a boyfriend over before."

I hung up my coat and followed the father-daughter pair into the living room.

The conversation was fairly mundane for a little while until it eventually stumbled onto, "So, how did the two of you meet?"

"Dad… I need to tell you something." Gwen said after a moment of silence.

George looked at her with concern, "What is it, doll?"

She wrung her hands for a moment and leaned into me, "Dad, I'm spider-woman."

The room went silent.

"Gwen…" George tried to say.

Gwen nodded shyly, "It was about a year ago? I got bitten by a spider when I was visiting Oscorp on that field trip. Then I woke up with powers."

"I think I remember. Didn't you get sick after the trip?" George asked.

Gwen nodded, "I ran a fever for a couple of days and then I had powers."

"And then… Peter died" George said.

"I was fighting the Lizard and Peter showed up and tried to help me, but he got exposed to some chemicals in the fight. He… he didn't make it." Gwen spoke, her voice cracking.

I pulled her in close and turned to her father, "I can take things from there. Peter's body was examined by SHIELD agents after he died, in an attempt to understand what happened to him, but the results of the investigation got classified and the investigation concluded that Gwen was responsible."

"But she was innocent. Did you arrange that break in the investigation?" George stated.

I nodded, "I did a favour for Tony Stark a little while back, and his father was one of the founders of SHIELD. He had a few contacts and since the investigation went nowhere, he was able to get the results of the autopsy released and clear Gwen's, or rather Spider-woman's name."

George nodded, "So that's how you met?"

Gwen chuckled, "Well, not exactly? I sort of got kidnapped two weeks ago."

George's face was a picture of shock, "What happened?"

As had become somewhat standard by now, the two of us began explaining the circumstances surrounding our meeting. George was initially worried that I hadn't been truthful about the nature of the "control mechanism" that I had taken, but Gwen assured him that Dr Strange had pronounced her free and clear of any mental effects.

"I've missed a lot of your life haven't I?" George said.

I smiled kindly, "At least you can start learning about that now."

Gwen nodded from where she was cuddled into my side, "We have so much to talk about."

George nodded, "That we do. Will you be staying here for the weekend?"

"I can do that, dad." Gwen offered.

The conversation moved to lighter topics, with George quite interested in hearing about my recent business ventures. "Well, if you have that kind of money, I guess I don't need to worry about Gwen like that."

"Gwen wouldn't have to worry about it anyways," I returned, "a lot of my capital comes from the mining we do on other worlds, and Gwen has access to that. She's already made contact with some people for a new flat, but the paperwork hasn't gone through yet."

He turned to Gwen, "Really?"

"Well… I didn't really know how to tell you where the money was coming from?" Gwen answered, "Janet has some friends that were able to sell some gold for me and I've got a pretty decent nest egg for now."

George nodded, "So, are you going to go into music full time now? Or are you going to do something else?"

Gwen shrugged, "I mean, the Mary-Janes are fun and all, but I've never really thought that it was what I was going to be doing forever. I've been having a lot of fun helping the others with the tech we use, so maybe I'll do something like that? Being Spider-woman is fun though, and I don't really want to give that up."

"Speaking of which," I commented, turning to George, "now that her name is cleared, what do you think of Spider-woman working more closely with the NYPD?"

Gwen smiled and relaxed slipping down further until her head was on my lap.

"What do you mean?" George asked.

I shrugged, "At the moment, Gwen is mostly operating on her own, but now that her name is cleared, we could arrange a few things so that the two of you can help each other out. You know, an emergency contact if you believe that there is a super-villain involved, or so that she can call you in ahead of time if she's about to get into a dangerous situation."

"That seems like a good idea," George said, "I'll at least be able to help her if she gets into trouble this way."

George was promptly interrupted by Gwen's quiet snoring and the two of us laughed quietly. I carefully picked her up and followed her father to her room. As I tucked her in and as I wore my coat again, George turned to me and held out his hand for me to shake, "You seem like a good kid."

I smiled and shook his hand, "Thank you, George." I paused, "By the way, I do have something of a present for you."

He looked at me in confusion, "What do you mean?"

I pulled out a more compact version of Winston's barrier projector, "It's an energy shield generator, throw it at the ground and it will pop up a bubble that will block bullets and that sort of thing from coming in, but you can still shoot out of it. I figured it's best if you have one of these. Your job isn't the safest one in the world and I don't want Gwen to ever have to lose her father."

George nodded and stuck the projector into his pocket, "Thanks, kid."