Waking at the first rays of daylight, the first thing Gwen saw when she opened her eyes was Peter sound asleep beside her. It looked as though his nightmares had died down, which brought her a little shred of peace.

Not wanting to wake him, she gently moved his arm and snuggled in against his side; laying awake and just listening to the sound of his heart beating. It was a strange feeling, but it soothed her own aching heart in a way that she couldn't explain. Feeling a weird sense of relief, a lone tear fell from her eye as she thought back to the night before and the stupidity that could have cost her the one she loved the most.

"I love you." She whispered to him.

"I love you too." He whispered, his eyes still closed and his voice sleepy.

Lifting his hand, he quickly found her face and pressed his palm to her cheek, wiping away the lingering teardrop. Opening his eyes, he tilted his head so that he could see her and gave her a small smile.

Turning onto his side so that his whole body was facing her, he leaned forward and kissed her softly.

"You're the best thing that ever happened to me." He whispered into her ear.

A pang of guilt shot through her upon hearing his words as one again, she thought back to the way she had treated him last night. Without a word she sat up, letting his hand fall into the empty space on the pillow.

"What's up? Did I say something wrong?" He asked worriedly as he too, sat up.

"No… You've been nothing but sweet and understanding all night long and I've just… I've been a complete bitch to you." She sighed sadly.

"But it's okay, I understand why and that it wasn't really you who was saying and doing all that, it was just the anger." He assured her.

She shook her head. "No, it's not okay. You didn't deserve that, it's not fair to you." She protested.

"Gwen, you can't beat yourself up over these things. Just let it go, I forgive you already so all you have to do is forgive yourself. Remember what you said to me?" He said in an attempt to put an end to her self-loathing.

Wrapping his arms around her shoulders and resting his head against her back, he breathed in her scent and let it fill him with nothing other than a sea of love for her.

"Yeah, but what you did was different. You were beating yourself up for almost losing me when actually you saved my life. I took my anger out on you, I hit you and I… I failed to save my family… Now you tell me, how does one come back from that?" She quizzed.

"You learn that everyone makes mistakes and that there was nothing that you could've done." He answered.

"Nothing I could've done?... I'm supposed to use these damn powers to save people yet I couldn't even save my own family. I'm completely useless, even with these abilities." She retorted.

Unable to stand hearing her blame herself, he leapt up from beside her and sat down in front of her so that he could look into her eyes, gripping her shoulders.

"Listen to me, you are not useless! Open your eyes and look at everything that you already have done. Even before the powers, you were the only one who kept me going. As for your family… You didn't know. There was no way anyone could have known that would happen, so stop blaming yourself!" He corrected her.

Not uttering a word, she hugged him instead, holding onto him like he could just fade away right there and then.

"Are we working on blocking today?" She questioned, changing the subject.

"Yeah, definitely. Let's uh… Let's get dressed and then we can go get started after breakfast." He told her.

Being the first to get out of bed, he pulled some of her fresh clothes out of his closet and handed them to her. As she took herself off to the bathroom to get dressed, he searched for some fresh clothes of his own and pulled out a grey t-shirt along with some black jeans, throwing them on quickly over his spider suit before she came back into the room.

Once they were both ready, they headed downstairs to the kitchen where aunt May provided them with breakfast. Within the next hour, they were ready back out in the city and up on the familiar roof top by late morning.

"Before we start, I just want to know… How do you feel today?" He asked, wanting to avoid another moment like they'd had last night.

"Honestly… I don't feel any better. I mean, the anger is there but I can barely feel it. In fact, I can't really feel anything at all." She admitted.

Her words alarmed him greatly. It was one thing to feel anger after losing someone, as well as guilt and regret… But to not be able to feel anything at all, that was dangerous ground.

"Oh… Well, that's okay but please just promise that you will tell me if you need a moment." He requested.

"I will. Don't worry… I've learned something from last night." She informed him.

Accepting her response, he fixed himself into a starting position and waited for her to do the same. Without warning, he rushed at her and knocked her to the ground, pinning her down.

"Lesson one. Always stay on guard." He informed her.

Allowing her to get up, he got back into the same position again and made eye contact with her to give her warning this time. Then he rushed at her again, this time she dodged the attack by sliding on the ground through his legs and then jumping to her feet behind him.

"That was better. See? The more aware you are of your enemy, the easier it is to dodge." He stated, spinning around so that they were face to face again.

"What next?" She asked.

"Now… To learn how to block when you can't avoid an attack." He informed her.

"Okay…" She began, wondering where he was taking this.

Without an explanation, he began walking towards her and even when he was inches away, he didn't stop, causing her to step back continuously until she was pressed up against the wall.

"When an enemy traps you like this, what are you going to do?" He questioned, leaning in close.

Almost intimidated by his closeness, she held her breath and scanned his face with her eyes before locking them on his. A smirk crept onto her face and she did something that he didn't expect from her. Gripping hold of both his arms, she forced them away from where he had his hands pressed on the wall behind her, then when he was left struggling for balance she moved to the side and pulled his arm with her which sent him flying towards the wall. Putting his hands out to stop himself from smashing into it, he took a moment to catch his breath and then turned back to her.

"That's all you got?" He questioned teasingly, raising an eyebrow.

Taking his words as a challenge, a determined twinkle appeared in her eyes and charged towards him, not giving him a chance to regain himself. Jumping onto his back, she wrapped her arms around his neck; not enough to cut off his air supply but to show him exactly what she was capable of.

"Oh? But what if I do this…?" He quizzed.

Gripping her shoulders, he threw her over his head but moved quickly to catch her in his arms before she hit the ground. Too breathless to speak a word, she remained still for a moment, gazing into his eyes.

"You're too easy Peter, since it's you, I can do this…" She stated confidently.

Catching him off guard, she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him fiercely. His widened eyes soon closed as he kissed her back before setting her back on her feet.

"Haha, you got me this time." He laughed.

"But in a real fight, I would punch, not kiss." She informed him.

"Well then I guess you let me off easy." He joked.

He wasn't sure if he was mistaken or not, but it seemed as though Gwen was finally moving towards accepting what had happened and using it to her advantage, which would aid her in a fight. Thinking this brought him a tiny shred of reassurance that he was making the right decision even though he had broken his promise to Captain Stacy.

But even if he wanted to keep it, he knew that he would never be able to. He loved her too much to let her go. As risky as it was to be with her, he knew that as long as they fought together and not against each other, that they would be okay. Although it still didn't take away the guilt he felt over almost getting her killed, it helped him to start to forgive himself. He could; and would, learn from his near fatal mistake.

When he found the Green Goblin again, he would not go easy on them.