A/N: This is the End (I hope its not too soppy :)), though I have a brief epilogue planned as well. Thanks to all of you who have read the whole thing - I hope you enjoyed it!

Cheers,

Apteryx

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Chapter 36: The End

There was a chaotic swirling of steam on the surface of her cup of tea. Erica held the mug, watching patterns form and dissolve – it reminded her of the mist outside, revealing and concealing.

"How long is this mist going to last?" she asked Mary-Jane, who was in the lounge at the table, doing some paperwork.

MJ placed her pen down and sighed. "If it hasn't burnt off by now, it'll be here till this afternoon. Why?"

"It's good, cos it'll blanket Central Park still at 11 o'clock. I've thought about it, and I think I should leave at the same place and time I arrived as possible – I don't know how these alternate universe field generator thingies work, but I'd hate to find myself in the middle of Wellington harbour or something stupid like that."

"Sounds reasonable to me." Mary-Jane glanced up at the clock. "That gives us another three hours to go…" She stood up, reaching for her large handbag and started delving into it, finding what she was searching for within a minute.

"Here, I want to give you this."

She handed Erica a small plain cardboard box, flat and about the size of a pack of cards, looking a bit dented and fuzzy at the edges, as though they had been polished off by constant contact with other objects. Erica looked up, her eyebrows raised in surprise, she hadn't expected any gift from MJ. She set her tea on the bench and lifted up the lid, then let out a soft soundless exclamation with her breath; inside was a glimmer of silver and bright enamel, delicate yet strong - it was a necklace fashioned like a corner of a cob-web with a tiny detailed spider hanging off it. The necklace dangled through Erica's fingers as she took a closer inspection of it, the red and blue spider seeming almost alive as it climbed up a strand of web.

"It's beautiful! Did you buy this for me?" Erica wasn't the type who normally wore jewellery, but this was special.

"I designed it for myself and got it made on a whim a few years ago, but never wore it. It could give someone too much of a hint if they suspected Pete of being Spider-Man. I'd like you to have it - it'll be a talisman for you, and a keepsake."

Erica blinked, feeling pleased and guilty at once.

"Thank-you MJ, thanks ever so." She admired it once more, then replaced the necklace in its box and put the box safely into her own handbag. "I'll keep it there, 'til after. I've got something small to give you in return, but nothing like that..."

"Forgedaboudit. I know we haven't seen eye-to-eye, and I'll admit I'll be glad when you've gone, but I admire your honesty and bravery. I-I've still not completely decided… but I'm going to give Pete and me another go. I've realised running away from it is not the answer, I've got to confront it head on… Listen to me. That's what you've been doing all along, isn't it? Confronting your fears. And I was advising you before the encounter with Dr Octopus to run away… Sheesh."

With a grin, Erica gave MJ a friendly slight poke on the shoulder with her forefinger, then went and picked up her mug again. "I may have done the same in your situation. I can't judge…" She moved over to the couch and reached behind it, pulling out a parcel from its hiding place. "Here… this is for you – nothing flash, but I thought you might like it.." she said diffidently as she tossed it to Mary-Jane.

Opening the present, MJ found a bound visual diary and two sets of pencils; one lead and one colour.

"I thought you could use them for drawing designs, ideas for clothes and that sort of thing… it'd stop you using you PDA so much – I've gone off PDAs recently," Erica joked.

"I've been meaning to start sketching. How did you know?"

Erica only shrugged her shoulders in response, blushing. She slurped the rest of her tea while MJ opened the tins of pencils and admired them.

"Now, where's that man of yours got to?" she said.

No more than half an hour more had passed when Peter returned. He let himself in the front door, but it was apparent he had taken the quick and easy way home to the apartment. He flung down a copy of the Daily Bugle onto the table on top of Mary-Jane's work, and gave her a big sloppy kiss.

"You're in a good mood," she remarked.

"Must be catching – Jolly Jonah was as well." He pointed to the headlines in the newspaper: Public Menace Plot Foiled.

"And he wasn't talking about me this time…" he read out the following headline underneath, "'Webhead Saves City VIPs From Terrorism', how about that!"

"That's wonderful Honey, but don't forget it was Erica too…"

"No, no," protested Erica, "It was Spider-Man, and that's all the public has to know."

Peter gave her a look of understanding. "That's right," he said, then continued, "Jonah said you'd resigned yesterday."

"Well, I had to do it sometime, besides, it wasn't really a resignation, just as I was never really employed… you know." Erica told Peter of her decision about gong back home. "I've also got something for you, a thank-you gift…"

"Hey, you didn't have to…" Peter interrupted, feeling embarrassed.

"…I wanted to." Erica almost shyly held out a squarish package for him to take. He unwrapped it; stared at it in surprise.

"A camera… a high-end digital…" He was just about speechless.

"You'll have to get a computer next," Erica said to fill the silence. Mary-Jane stared at her wordlessly; Peter was engrossed in his new gadget, taking it apart, then reassembling it and trying out the various functions. Eventually he stopped and looked about for Erica.

"It's great, but where did you get the money for it?"

"Out of my pay packet – I won't have any other use for it. There's a wee bit over, you can have it for rent."

Peter looked down at his feet. "You're very generous. I don't have anything to give you in return, except thanks. Thanks for everything…"

"Not a biggie, I reckon we're about even."

She went over to the couch and turned her backpack upside-down onto it, emptying out the contents and starting to sort through them. She only had a few small items from this universe that she wanted to take back with her; MJ's necklace, some of the photos that she and Peter had taken, but she had to make sure she had all of the items she arrived with – apart from the clothing she wore, the rest were small enough to fit into her handbag. It didn't take her long to sort her belongings. She had been faintly aware of a whispered conversation taking place behind her earlier, but paid it no attention, and it soon ended.

"There, I'm all ready," she said, jumping up.

Only Mary-Jane was in the room, sitting at the table again finishing her paperwork.

"Peter's seeing to a few last minute bits and pieces," she said, to Erica's look of measured surprise, indicating the closed bedroom door with her head.

"Oh," said Erica and sat down again. She immediately got up and wandered into the kitchen, and absently began washing dishes, to keep herself occupied; anything was better than twiddling thumbs. She checked out the window, the mist was still there. Thinking about home, she smiled to herself; she'd have to save up and take a trip to New York. Now that she knew the city as well as she did, it would be a shame not to take advantage of that knowledge. She'd love to amaze someone with it… She became sober – what was she going to tell them back home about what had happened, where she'd been? Not the truth, that's for sure. Maybe claim amnesia or something, like she had thought she'd had when she arrived here. She sighed; she'd work something out when it came to it…

Erica wiped the bench, put the mugs up in the cupboard, hearing the clink as they jostled against each other. She heard a door open as well, and turned to see Peter standing there with something in his hand. He passed it to her, saying merely, "It's for you."

It was one of his notebooks. Curiously, Erica turned the pages, to discover a sort of diary of the last two weeks, made up of newspaper clippings, photocopies and printouts. As well as this, there were screeds of hand-written notes, some speculations, research and scientific notation and drawings, all in Peter's hand.

"I started putting this together before Thursday; just finished it now. A memento. MJ thought you'd appreciate it."

"Oh, I do," she said, pleased.

"And this…" Peter held out her watch.

Hell, I almost forgot it, didn't I?" She strapped it on her wrist, noting the time as she did so. "We better cut a track soon, I've a feeling I really need to keep to this schedule."

"I know better than to ignore such hunches," Peter replied. MJ at the table just snorted.

Ignoring her, Peter fetched and put on his jacket and picked up the grey bag containing the ray-gun. Mary-Jane set aside her papers in a neat pile and rose from her chair, tying her jacket by the sleeves around her hips. All Erica had to do now to be ready was grab her handbag, which she did, slipping Pete's notebook into it as she made for the door.

"I'll meet you downstairs," she said, and without waiting for a reply, she left the apartment and leapt over the banister into the narrow stair-well, falling for a flight or two before she reached out with a hand and grabbed a passing railing. She then used the momentum to swing herself up underneath the stairs themselves, and clung there, upside-down, smiling broadly, before starting to crawl down. Her last playtime. This sticking-to-walls… she knew she would dream about it back home, and not nightmares either. She almost couldn't remember why she had been so scared when she first discovered this ability; almost, but not quite. The sound of the lift filled the stairway - MJ and Peter on their way down, time to get a move on. Too soon she arrived at the ground floor; sensing no one was about, she simply dropped to the floor and took her shoes out of her pockets, and sat on the bottom step to put them back on. She hadn't wanted to stick around the apartment any longer, because the longer she left it, the harder it was to leave, if that made sense. It did to her, at any rate. The whole leave-taking thing was starting to get a little maudlin, and although she had been an emotional dish-cloth recently, it wasn't really her nature to dwell on things as much as she had been.

Besides, she wanted to go home… didn't she?

Erica tugged the strap of her handbag over her head, slung it over one shoulder and stood, as the lift doors opened and its occupants came out.

"Catch the subway?" she suggested, mindful of the time, and her aching side. She no longer wore the support for her ribs – that was left up in Peter's extensive first aid cabinet, clean and dry since last night - and even the two not-so-strenuous bits of exercise this morning had set her ribs throbbing in pain again, a pain she had ignored.

"Good idea." Peter held the lobby door open for her and MJ to walk through, then followed after them onto the street.

The mist hit Erica on the face, cold and damp. She was glad of her jacket and woollen top as they walked to the station on Eighth Avenue; if anything, the mist seemed denser now than it had earlier this morning. New York was once again an unfamiliar city; buildings vanished from sight, honks from the traffic magnified, and a peculiar melange of smells infiltrated the air along with the mist. It was a relief of sorts to descend down into the subway, still the same as ever.

The silent trio emerged at 103rd Street. Mary-Jane had been chatting inconsequentially until the train ride, but became quiet as if she had suddenly, simply, ran out of things to say.

Inside the Park, along the walkway north, Erica began to wish that it wasn't so foggy; the atmosphere was weighing down on them all. A sunny warm day, such as there'd been when she first arrived, would be much nicer. The shapes of the trees, looming out at them, was pretty eerie; not that she was scared or anything, she and Peter could still handle any menace that might feel inclined to use the mist for cover and be out looking for easy pickings. But a sunny day would be more cheerful…

"A penny for them," said Peter, breaking in on her thoughts.

"I was just wishing it were sunny, that's all."

"Mm-hm. Do you know whereabouts you 'landed'?"

"Yes, almost exactly. I looked it up on a map later that afternoon. The Ravine is over that way," she pointed, though it was hard to make out any details of the path. "Y'know, when I first came here, I thought I was still in Wellington – we have a Central Park too, though not as big as this one," she chuckled at the understatement, "I couldn't understand why there were so many Americans about – thought a big cruise ship had docked or something. Geez, was I wrong…"

Peter chuckled with her. "I would've been surprised if you had thought 'oh, hello, I've been transported into a different dimension and suddenly gained super-powers, I wonder how that happened?' That's not a normal occurrence, even here."

"Well it didn't take me long to figure out, not to a person with my intelligence and superior research skills.."

"And hubris…"

"You mean humbleness, surely."

"Humbug!"

"Bah!"

"Honestly, you two!" cut in Mary-Jane, bemused, as both Peter and Erica had a fit of the giggles.

Still grinning, Erica surveyed the area; the path had narrowed and been joined by a small stream running along side. Turning her head around, she tried to make out the details of the trees, their white blossoms almost glowing in the mist and looked down at the sparse undergrowth, damp and dank in this weather.

"Here," she said flatly, no longer smiling. She checked her watch; ten to eleven - ten minutes to go. She turned to see the others standing behind her, Peter with a very glum expression.

"Cheer up," she said, "'If the heart of a man is deprest with cares, The mist is dispell'd when a woman appears.' Although I'm disappearing, not appearing… actually, scrub that quote, it doesn't fit, does it?" Erica paused, aware that she was rabbiting on about nothing.

"I guess this is good-bye, then." She gave Mary-Jane a hug, then stepped back, still holding her hands. "Thanks for your support, especially after that initial misunderstanding. You're a true friend, and it's a pity we didn't get to know each other more."

MJ smiled, shivering slightly. "Well, I won't forget you in a hurry – every time I see that scar on my husband's arm, I'll be reminded of you."

Erica threw back her head and laughed, at the same time unwillingly blushing.

She turned to face Peter.

"Well, Cuz…" she faltered, then began again, determined this was not going to turn into a feast of self-pity. "This isn't something I can ever tell anyone back home, but meeting a super-hero, and discovering that he is not only a hero and a man to look up to, but a good friend to care about, has to be the most memorable experience I've ever had, as well as the most treasured. And before it gets too soppy for you, I want to say you're the best cousin I've got."

"You're the only cousin I've got, and now I'm losing her… and to think I was jealous of you…"

"Oh, Pete…"

He reached out, and they hugged, a long, silent hug. Eventually, Erica pushed away, smiling.

"What's so funny?" asked Peter, seeing the smile.

"Something you'd appreciate…" She checked her watch, "I'd better get into position – so you can beam me up."

She moved off the path, and walked over to the spot she had figured was likely, while Peter opened the grey bag and removed the ray-gun. He passed the bag to MJ, who hugged it to herself, standing close to Peter's side.

Peter half raised the generator. "Are you ready?" he said.

"In a sec." She thought back to her comic reading days, "You may not see me again, but I'll see you…" she said, watching their faces, "I'll see you in the funny pages!"

Laughing, Peter raised the ray-gun, and fired it.

As the intense light spread across her vision, deleting her final view of Peter and MJ, Erica gave way to an instant's panic.

"Wait!" she cried, "I've changed my mi—" was all she was able to get out before the light turned to blackness.

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