Mary Jane was just finishing up her evening inventory when she heard the front door of the shop unlock, someone allowing themselves in. She paused her work and, after a moment, Liz entered the room.

"Hey," her friend greeted her. "You okay?"

"Yeah," M.J. said, "just still a little cautious I guess after last year's little incident."

"I definitely can't blame you there," Liz concurred, coming alongside her. "How'd it go today?"

"Pretty well," M.J. said, returning her focus to the last bit of her work. "Today had the fewest problems that we've had so far, so it's hard to complain."

Once she put the finishing touches on her tablet, Mary Jane saved her work before shutting it down, turning her full attention to her business partner.

"How'd my replacement do today?" she asked.

"Okay, first of all, no one can replace you," Liz clarified. "Even Sarah knows that, but she has been doing pretty well. It's amazing how comfortable she'd become in the role, really."

"That's good," M.J. replied. "She's really come a long way from the timid girl who approached us before we opened up that day."

"I know," Liz agreed. "I'm glad that you decided to give her this chance. I can tell each day how much it has meant to her."

"I can't explain it really, but I just knew somehow that that's all she needed," M.J. said as the two women moved out of the storage room to begin locking up, "a chance."

The two ladies continued chatting off and on as they checked everything before officially closing their doors and locking them up for the night.

"So, are you still going to do it?" Liz asked as they began strolling in the direction of a nearby bus stop.

"Yeah," M.J. said, knowing precisely what her friend was referring to. "I think. Ugh, I'm not looking forward to this, Liz. What if it doesn't work out?"

"Okay, stop," Liz replied, the two ladies doing precisely that as they came to a halt on the sidewalk. "You can't keep thinking about all the worst possible scenarios with this. I know how long things with Gayle have been weighing on you, but you never know, maybe she does want to try again? It has been a long time after all."

M.J. let out a light huff.

"That's almost word for word what Peter said," she said.

"Yeah, the guy's actually pretty smart when he wants to be," Liz said. "Don't tell him I said that though; I wouldn't want it to go to his head."

"Trust me, with Peter, I don't think that's a huge concern," Mary Jane assured her.

The two ladies then continued down the street, enjoying conversation until they finally reached the bus stop. Their timing proved impeccable, as the bus pulled up less than thirty seconds after they arrived, opening its doors. Liz started to step up, turning back to face M.J.

"You coming?" she asked.

"No, I'm actually going to see dad," she said. "His place isn't too far from here, and besides, it'll give me the time I need to actually try and follow through with this whole sister reconciliation idea."

"Okay," Liz said, stepping down really quick to offer M.J. a hug, a gesture that the redhead reciprocated. "Good luck."

"Thanks," M.J. replied as her friend got back on the bus. The doors closed and she watched as her friend drove away. Letting out a heavy sigh, she then reached into her purse, pulling out her phone. She unlocked the screen, pulling up her sister's contact: Gayle Watson. She braced herself, her thumb hovering over the dial button.

"Here goes nothing," she said, tapping it and putting it to her ear. She waited as it rang and rang, her anxiousness over the answer making her heartbeat faster with each one.

"I'm sorry, the number you are calling is no longer in service. Goodbye."

M.J. looked at her phone in curiosity as the line went dead. She probably shouldn't have been surprised by the result, given the length of her and Gayle's lack of contact. Still, it was an annoyingly anticlimactic development, given that she'd really, really been hoping to get the process over with quickly. Then again, why should it be that easy?

M.J. put her phone away, deciding to just ask her dad when she saw him here in a little bit about the matter. Now that she thought about it, she hadn't mentioned Gayle much since he came to New York, if even at all, which came off as strange. He'd never exactly shown any kind of favoritism between the two of them though, so he pretty much had to have reached out to the older child at some point.

With any luck, M.J. should at least have a better idea of how to proceed soon.

Peter released his web, performing multiple somersaults in the air before firing his next one.

"WOOHOO!"

For some reason, web swinging was really doing the trick for him this evening. He was having a blast as he flew through the night sky, the breeze against his suit a cool, pleasant one. In addition, he'd mixed in some superhuman parkour along the way, leaping, flipping and hurdling sections of the city as he bounded along the buildings in conjunction with his web swinging.

There were many parts of being Spider-Man that were rewarding to Peter, but this facet of being beneath the mask had to be by far the most fun. Soaring high above the city, above the streets and the cares and worries that came as he walked them in his civilian persona, was just so freeing. Up here, he didn't have to worry about expectations from others, whether they be getting pictures, wedding planning, etc. Up here, all that he had to worry about was the angle he needed to shoot his next web at in order to make his way around the next building the quickest, or time his free fall just right to where he began swinging again a split second before he hit the ground, or even...

Suddenly, Peter's spider sense rang out. He spun around to see a wide net come flying his way. Unable to twist out of the way fast enough, it soon wrapped itself around him, causing him to begin his descent down to the street below. Fortunately, it wasn't made out of any special material, so he was able to quickly snap it before firing another web, yanking himself back up. He made his way to the building where it looked like it might have come from, rolling in a somersault on the roof before standing up.

As he did, three men came emerged from different directions: one carrying a staff, one who was just BIG, and one who appeared to be brandishing a rope that looked as if it were made of metal.

"Oh great," Spider-Man said, rubbing his hands together, "and just when I thought that I wasn't going to have to teach anybody a lesson tonight, I get you guys, just what I always wanted."

"I'm glad you're so thrilled about this, son," the one wielding the lasso spoke up in response, "but the only one who's going to be learning the lesson tonight is you."

"We'll see," Peter replied cockily. He then braced himself, bending his knees as he readied himself, daring them to make the first move. The one with the whip did so first, striking at him. Peter ducked, then flipped to the side before hurdling over the guy, kicking him in the back before he landed. The big guy then came running at him, but he simply flipped over him too. The third guy then decided to try his luck, spinning his staff around and striking with it while mixing some kicks in as well. Peter had to give this guy credit, as he was faster than he'd anticipated, but he soon found and opening and, grabbing the staff, tossed the guy off to the side.

It seemed that they all rebounded quickly, however, as no sooner did Peter dispose of his third opponent than he felt the whip from the first guy wrap around his waist faster than his spider sense could warn him. Its wielder then passed it off to the bigger guy, who proceeded to start swinging him around, slamming him into a couple sections of the building and even smashing him clean through chunks. Desperate to fix his situation, Peter shot out a web from his right wrist, pulling it taught and creating an impasse situation, the big guy unable to pull him further.

Undeterred, the guy simply yanked down on Peter's bonds, sending him crashing to the ground. The guy then leaped over and delivered a hard strike to the side of Peter's face. The force of the impact caught him off guard as it sent his head smacking into the ground. He hadn't felt anything like that in a long time. His spider sense was already warning him of the next strike, but a sudden surge of adrenaline, anger, or something came to Peter's aid as he quickly came to his knees, catching the man's fist.

The man, seemingly shocked by this new development, could only stare at Peter for a moment.

"Okay," Peter said calmly. He then reached over with his other hand and, grabbing the guy by his huge fist, lifted him off the ground. Swinging him around and around, he finally let go, sending the big guy crashing clean through the area where the door to the roof was, the guy smashing clean through the brick and collapsing on the other side.

The man's allies looked on in surprise before turning their attention to Peter, who simply gestured for them to come at him. They had no problem obliging him, launching an all-out assault. Even with his newfound anger and focus, Peter found that these guys were no slouches; their attacks were coordinated, clearly demonstrating what was likely years of training together. Still, he was not afraid of them, nor did he lose any of his newfound confidence, simply dodging and flipping out of the way, biding his time even as the big guy returned to the fray.

Finally, the opportunity came to strike, and Peter took it, delivering a sweeping kick to the ninja guy, knocking him to his feet and kicking the staff out of his hands. He had no time to rest though, as the whip guy struck at him again as well. He managed to dodge the effort, sliding on his knees while ducking underneath the whip. Quickly getting back on his feet, Peter delivered a couple quick punches to his opponent, first to the side then and uppercut to his chin, which sent him flying into the air. Webbing the guy, he then slung him around back into his ninja counterpart, who was attempting to return to the fight, sending them both crashing to the ground.

Unfortunately, this opened up an opportunity for the big guy, who came running towards Peter. He tried to flip over him, but he didn't anticipate the man's reflexes being so quick as he was suddenly grabbed and wrapped in a bear hug. The guy then plunged the two of them through the top two floors of the building. Before he could strike another blow, however, Peter kicked him off, sending him flying across the room and crashing through a wall. The man quickly recovered, assuming a standing position. His two cohorts rejoined the fight as well, assembling alongside him.

"This is going to take longer than I thought," Peter muttered to himself.

Eddie closed the door behind him, quickly hanging his coat on the nearby rack.

"Anne?" he called out as he quickly strode through the hallway and into the kitchen. To his surprise, she wasn't there. Confused, he went upstairs and checked their bedroom and bathroom, but his wife was nowhere to be found. She'd texted him that she was on her way awhile back, so he was surprised that she wasn't there, and his mind started to venture about the possibilities.

It was only about ten seconds into doing so that he heard the front door open.

"Eddie?" Anne called out.

Eddie wasted no time, all but sprinting down the stairs, though he made sure to slow down just enough to make his entrance seem as composed as normal.

"Hey sweetheart," he said, greeting her with a kiss. "Get stuck at the office?"

"I wish," Anne replied as Eddie removed her jacket off her, hanging it up alongside his. "The bus I was on broke down. They kept reassuring us that another one was coming, but really, I should have just walked and waited at another stop or tried to flag down a taxi or something. I guess for a D.A. I can be a little too trusting sometimes."

Eddie swallowed at those last words, the conversation he had in mind to have with her tonight looming in his mind.

"No, trusting is a good thing," he assured her as he walked alongside her into the living room. "Sure, there are a lot of people out there that you would abuse that, but still, a little trust and faith in people goes a long way, right?"

"Yeah, I guess," Anne said, giving him a bit of a funny look, like she wasn't sure why he was harping on the point so much. Man, she really did know him well.

"Anyway, I'm going to get something to eat," she added.

She started for the kitchen before Eddie grabbed her gently by her arm, stopping her.

"Actually sweetheart, there's something I need to talk about first."

Anne gave him a narrow-eyed look of curiosity as she came back over, the two of them sitting down on their couch in the center of the room.

"What's going on?" she asked.

Eddie let out a sigh, closing his eyes for a moment as he gathered his courage.

"I got a call yesterday at work," he began. "Someone was promising me a lead on a big story."

Anne smiled nervously.

"Okay," she said, "I'm not sure what the big deal is."

"It's just that, well, it was about..."

The doorbell rang, drawing both of their attention. Eddie tried to regain his wife's attention, but then the doorbell rang again.

"Let me get that real quick," Anne said, getting up from the couch. Eddie was frustrated; seriously, who was out there that had such impeccable timing?

He watched as Anne went over, opening the door. As soon as she did, a man quickly barged in, drawing a gun and putting it to her head. Eddie instantly shot up from the couch.

"Don't move, big shot," the man holding his wife hostage demanded as two others joined him inside the house. "Not if you want this pretty lady here to keep her head."

Oh yeah, now we're moving.

Thanks again to everyone for the support of this series! Continuing to pray for you all; stay safe and healthy!

"One person gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty." Proverbs 11:24