Part Four

Author's Note: Nothing new to add here other than I'm loving writing these two(or three) together so far. I can't wait to write the next part. Hope you guys enjoy! Please let me know what you think.

Disclaimer: I do not own Venom, Eddie Brock or any other character within the franchise. I own the original characters and the plot that are not directly tied to the movie.

Thanksgiving came and went. It was now the beginning of December and Eddie found himself worse off than when Anne left. He hasn't heard from Emma in a month and to say he was miserable would be an understatement.

He barely made it home most days unless Venom forced him to rest. Spending his days consumed by his work or consumed by Venom getting rid of bad guys was a distraction he welcomed.

"EDDIE?" Vee rumbled.

Venom noticed a decline with Eddie. He was in even more of a slump than before taking care of Carlton Drake. Eddie was disconnecting a lot and was hardly aware of Venom talking to him some times.

Booping Eddie's face with his own, Venom finally got Eddie's attention and he hated what he saw in his eyes. So much sadness.

"YOU'RE WASTING AWAY, EDDIE. WE CANNOT AFFORD THAT TO HAPPEN."

Eddie sighed, "Vee. I'm fine. We're fine."

"YOU'RE LYING." Venom hissed.

"We're taking out the bad guys in the city, eating their brains and we have enough chocolate to fill a candy store. We're okay." Eddie said flatly.

"BUT YOU ARE UNHAPPY! THAT TASTES WORSE THAN DEAD MEAT, EDDIE."

"I'm sorry, Vee." He didn't know why he thought he could hide anything from Venom. Sometimes he hated that his thoughts weren't just his anymore. But without Venom, he'd feel even lonelier because he was cursed to ever have any kind of human relationships. They always fell apart and he seemed to be the only common factor. So it had to be him.

"YOU MISS HER. WE MISS HER." Venom grumbled sadly.

Eddie didn't reply. He couldn't think passed the sinking feeling at the thought of her again.

"How about we check out the pier again. Maybe we'll get lucky and find the rest of that gang?" Eddie closes his apartment door before Venom could say anything else.

You missed him. Too much. Everything made you think of Eddie. You stopped going to your coffee shop because the one time you went to get your usual, you immediately started crying as soon as you sat at your table. The table you would sit at with Eddie and talk for hours.

Luckily there were tons of other coffee shops in the city so it wasn't hard to find another one. They never felt right, but, they'd have to do.

You hated leaving work. Leaving work meant going home and thinking. Thinking that always lead back to Eddie. Weekends you spent cooped up at your bookstore reading in one of the cozy chairs or talking to Mel. You even started picking up random hobbies that would keep your mind occupied. This week you were working on a paint-by-numbers kit you bought at one of the local arts and crafts shop. It was a picture of a fox mother and her kits. This particular hobby was much better than the last one which ended with all of your fingers pricked at least once before you gave up.

Raya helped too. Making plans to go to the movies one night out of the week, out to brunch on Sundays and just roaming the city together discovering new places.

Nothing really filled that void though.

She knew she was being silly by not reaching out to him even to just hear him out. But, she was scared. What she was really scared of she didn't know. Emma often wondered if she was subconsciously using whatever Eddie's secret really was as an excuse to not get too close? Could she really be sabotaging herself from what she knew was a great relationship so far with a great guy aside from this hiccup.

Even though it was a pretty big hiccup.

Then with a sinking feeling, she thought 'What if he doesn't even want to see me anymore now. What if he's moved on since it's already been a month.'

Even with these thoughts she couldn't bring herself to pick up her phone and contact Eddie.

She knew what she needed to do to help calm herself down. Baking always helped her when she was in college and stressed beyond belief because of her classes. So she put her light gray jean jacket on and headed out to the store.

"Anne doesn't want to hear my girl problems, Vee." Eddie huffed. Venom wouldn't let up about trying to gain Emma's forgiveness. He could feel how much her absence hurt Eddie emotionally, mentally and physically and it needed to be fixed. His Eddie deserved to be happy like he once was.

"BUT SHE IS A GIRL, EDDIE! SHE WILL KNOW HOW TO FIX THINGS WITH EMMA." Venom hissed. So far any advice Venom offered, Eddie wouldn't take. But, he wouldn't let up on this one. Anne was smart and would know exactly what to do.

"IF YOU WILL NOT CALL HER I WILL FORCE YOU TO."

Eddie chuckled dryly. "If you'll force me to call Anne, what's stopped you from forcing me to contact Emma already?"

Venom snuggled into Eddie's neck trying to comfort him. "I KNOW SOME THINGS FOR YOU HUMANS ARE MORE COMPLEX THAN THEY NEED TO BE ESPECIALLY WHEN IT COMES TO EMOTIONS. SOMETHING THAT STILL ANNOYS ME. BUT, I KNOW YOU CANNOT FORCE EMMA."

Eddie ran his fingers over Venom causing the symbiote to start purring under his touch. "What's the point though, Vee?" He sounded so dejected, Venom hated it knowing this was partially their fault to begin with.

"Fine. If it makes you happy I'll give Anne a call." Eddie sighed. "Can we at least eat first?"

Venom hummed.

The store she usually finds all of her baking essentials was out of eggs. Of all things, eggs. Emma walked a few blocks over to Mrs. Chen's store praying she wouldn't have to travel to a third store.

As she was walking, Emma appreciated the difference in weather here compared to back home in Philadelphia. By this time of year in Philly it would be freezing, if it wasn't a rare day of 65 degrees(thank you global warming), and possibly even snowing. She definitely would not miss the snowy weather. At all. It was pretty when it was falling but it was an absolute nightmare trekking through to get to work.

She sighed with relief seeing Mrs. Chen's store come into view. Ready to be home already, Emma hurried into the store greeting Mrs. Chen along the way. Again she sighed with relief at seeing the store was fully stocked with eggs.

Checking over the eggs to see which pack looked the best, Emma didn't hear the ding of another customer entering the store.

Turning around she could've kicked herself for picking this store to go to.

"Eddie, why didn't you tell me you met someone? What's she like? Tell me all about her!" Anne rambled on.

Eddie suddenly regretted calling Anne now. He wasn't surprised that she would be interested in hearing all about Emma but had hoped it would've been simple enough that he just asked her what to do without all the other details. It was almost too painful.

He could hear the excitement in Anne's voice as she continued. She had been hoping Eddie would finally find someone. Someone who would make him happy.

"Annie, she's really great," Eddie sighed. "But, I messed up."

"WE MESSED UP." Venom's voice ranged through Eddie's head.

He prepared himself for a lecture but all he heard was Anne sigh on the other end. "What happened?"

And so Eddie began telling Anne the story of what happened all those months ago as he made his way down the street. Replaying that night in his head for another time sucked. He's done it far too many times over the last month so what's once more he thought to himself.

"Eddie…"

He stopped just outside of his destination. "Annie, what do I do?" He questioned softly.

Anne didn't answer right away which led to Eddie thinking maybe he shouldn't have called her. Thinking the entire situation was even more of a lost cause than it originally was. Maybe he couldn't fix this.

"Well, I think you should at the very least try texting her, Eddie. Let her know you understand that she needs her space and you still want to have that conversation as long as she allows it. Let her know you're still thinking about her and that you were an idiot. Yes, you were being an idiot, for not confiding in her sooner regardless of how crazy it sounds." He knew he was an idiot and wishes he hadn't been such a "pussy" as venom enjoyed calling him. "She sounds like a really great girl, Eddie. Don't give up so easily. Whatever happens at least you can say you tried."

Eddie sighed with a bit of relief suddenly not feeling as awful about it as he did. "Thanks Annie. That. That really helped a bit. I'll talk to you later?"

"Bye Eddie. I wanna hear what happens, next time. Take care of yourself." With that Eddie hung up.

"SEE. I TOLD YOU ANNE WOULD KNOW WHAT TO DO."

Eddie rolled his eyes with a smile that had been missing from his face for weeks, "yeah, yeah. Let's just get what we need and go home."

To say he was not prepared as he walked into Mrs. Chen's was an understatement.

Emma stood there holding the eggs and staring at Eddie as he walked into the store like a fish out of water. Wishing the ground would open up and swallow her whole because she wasn't prepared for this yet. She even considered running for the door but that meant she'd have to basically run into him because Eddie was now frozen in front of the door staring right back at her.

God she missed him. It hit her even harder now just seeing his face again. And could he have looked any better? He was wearing his leather jacket that he wore so well and jeans that hugged his legs just right. But she couldn't ignore the fact he looked exhausted. Emma felt a twinge of guilt at that thought still blaming herself for putting the hurt look on his face a month ago.

"Hi Em." He said with that sweet smile of his.

She almost broke because how could he still smile at her like that? She pulled herself together enough to reply. "H-hi Eddie."

And then they just stood there staring at one another until Mrs. Chen interrupted asking if Emma was going to pay for her eggs today or what.

After paying Mrs. Chen, Eddie stood off to the side completely forgetting what he came here for. He had to say something right? It can't be a coincidence she ended up at the exact store he frequents daily. This wasn't even the closest store to her apartment.

Forgetting Anne's advice only slightly since it didn't seem he needed to bother with texting, he figured he could relay the same message to Emma but in person. Even better.

"Em, I know shit is crazy right now. And I understand that you haven't wanted to see or speak to me since that night but." He paused suddenly feeling too overwhelmed and scared. But if he didn't try… "I'd still like to have that talk about, ya know. Whenever you're ready and if you'd even want to."

Emma bit her lip trying to hold in her emotions as she listened to Eddie.

He waited a minute to see if she'd give him an answer. Any answer.

Eddie sighed. Turning slightly to walk out the door and said, "I'll see you, Em. I mean. Just, take care of yourself and be careful walking home." He felt stupid. How could he think she was going to leap for joy. But, at least he tried like, Anne said. He had to find some comfort in that.

Venom was silent as they headed down the street choosing to just head home and eat whatever they could hopefully find there.

About halfway down the block Eddie heard someone screaming his name. Stopping he looked over his shoulder to see Emma running towards him.

"Eddie, please wait!" She shouted even though he hadn't moved from his spot. He chuckled as she seemed to trip over her foot slightly trying to get to him. She was so clumsy.

Out of breath, she looked at him with tears in her eyes. "Eddie, I'm sorry."

He was confused. Why was she saying sorry? He was the one who hurt her. Eddie opened his mouth to ask her but she beat him to it. "I should have never ignored you and pushed you away that night. I was completely awful."

Holding her bags tightly, she started sobbing. She felt like such a mess.

"Can we still have that talk?"