The nurse led the couple into an examining room and spoke to Peter, "You can get undressed, the doctor will be here in a moment."

Peter just sat on the exam table head down but did nothing else.

"Young man, I need to take your vitals, please at least remove your hat and coat."

Mary Jane interrupted, "I just about had to hog tie him to get him here. He does not have a fondness for doctors. Let's leave him alone for now, maybe Dr. Jackson can relieve some of his anxiety."

The nurse looked disdainfully at MJ for a moment, then back to Peter and said, "As you wish," and left.

MJ looked to Pete, "You ok?"

He was slow to respond, "I sure hope this works. I don't think I have the strength to leave."

Mary Jane moved to a corner of the room that was most advantageous to their plan. She needed to get the doctor's back towards Peter. Quietly waiting, she just stood. The doctor was taking his time coming into the room and she was getting impatient. Watching Peter closely, she thought that maybe he was on the verge of losing consciousness as he swayed periodically.

The door finally opened and in walked a very distinguished looking African-American gentleman in his mid-fifties. He was slightly graying at the temples and mustache. He wore a blue doctor's coat with a stethoscope around his neck. Heading towards Peter, MJ stepped up and surprised him from behind.

"Say, aren't you the doctor who made the front page of the Bugle a couple of years ago?" Mary Jane asked overly enthusiastically and with a thick New York accent.

Dr. Jackson spun around, startled. Caught off guard by the hidden person and the odd question, Dr. Jackson had to stop and think. "Uh, yes, if you are referring to the robbery of my clinic."

"Yeah, yeah, but Spiderman saved you, right? You offered him free service. So, what's the gimmick? Do you call the Bugle so they can come down see who he is? Or is it a bigger TV news deal?" Mary Jane pushed. "How much are you asking to unmask the webhead?"

"Miss, I don't know what you are talking about. That man saved my life. I won't be here today to take care of your friend if it weren't for him. I have no intention of turning Spiderman in or compromising his identity. Now, speaking of your friend, don't you think it's time that I take a look at him?"

"No, wait," she said, suddenly slipping her accent. "Are you trying to tell me that you are on the up and up? No gimmicks, no questions asked."

Mary Jane was in front of the doctor who had his back towards Peter, thus blocking her view. All she could see was part of the examination table. As she continued to grill the physician, she saw the baseball cap being placed on the part of the table that was visible to her, followed by the jacket, then a shirt. She deduced that the mask was getting pulled on next. She knew by now that Peter was going to take the chance with this doctor.

"Listen, Miss, is there a reason for this interrogation? Because I don't like it," the doctor growled obviously getting impatient.

"She's only trying to protect me," said Spiderman.

The doctor did an abrupt about face and where he first saw a young man hidden behind a baseball cap and high collar coat, now sat Spiderman. Dr. Jackson's face first showed that of awe, then anger clouded over his eyes.

"What is this, some sort of joke? Because I don't think it is funny. My offer of professional care is not something to be made fun of by the media."

The doctor turned back to Mary Jane, "Who hired you do to this? Nevermind. You can take your supposedly injured friend here and get the h…"

His tirade was cut short in mid-sentence by the sensation of his stethoscope being whipped off his neck. Putting his hand back there in a reflex action, he looked back towards Spiderman and saw that he held it in his hand.

"How'd you do that?" the elderly gentleman asked.

"I'm the real thing."

"And that is real blood pouring out of his shoulder," Mary Jane interjected.

Overcoming his initial shock, the doctor realized that indeed, he had the real hero here and he was hurt.

"You should know that he's the real deal, didn't you see the news today? All day they have been replaying the scene where he got shot." MJ said almost angrily.

"I'm too busy with patients to watch TV, but you're right, I should take a look at our patient. Hold still young man." Spiderman was examined quickly as is. Dr. Jackson then asked, "Does the top come off, or is this a single unit?"

"It comes off, but I need help."

As they were taking off his top, being careful of his left shoulder, Spiderman insisted on keeping the mask on. The doctor stated, "You know, by law you are protected with doctor/patient confidentiality. I can't be forced to reveal who you are."

Spidey answered, "The people who would come after you are not interested if it's legal or not."

The doctor thought for a moment, then said, "Well, sounds like they're gonna do to me whatever they want, whether I know who you are or not, correct?"

The Webslinger nodded.

"So wouldn't it be safer for me to know who you are? You see, if you keep waltzing in here in your costume, eventually they'll see that. They aren't going to believe me if I tell them that you never revealed yourself to me. They are going to treat me as if I know. And I'll probably lose my life for it. However, if you come in here for treatment as your alter-ego, where I'm the only one who knows, who is to say you are nothing more than an ill young man?"

Spiderman sat in silence for a long time. Mary Jane looked to the doctor and just shrugged her shoulders. Dr. Jackson was just about to continue with his exam when the young man slowly raised his good hand and slipped off his mask.

"Hmmm"

Peter looked at the doctor and asked, "What?"

"You're younger than I thought."

"If I had a nickel for each time I heard that, I'd be rich."

The doctor went on, "Why don't we continue the exam? You look like you are in serious pain, Mr….Mr."

"Parker. My name is Peter Parker."

"Peter, it is a pleasure to finally meet you. Now let's see if we can fix you up."

The doctor manipulated the left arm during the examination. He could hear his patient softly groan with each movement

"You can lay back now. I am going to have to x-ray your chest to see where the bullet is."

The doctor turned to leave and glanced over at MJ. Her face was white. It was then that the doctor realized she most probably had never seen the damage done by a bullet. Peter's wound was indeed very ugly. The hole itself was small, but there was an intense purple discoloration immediately surrounding the wound. That blended into an angry red for almost half of his chest.

"Are you ok?"

MJ just nodded yes.

"People don't realize the amount of damage that can occur with a gunshot," he said, "TV has numbed people to the dangers of guns. Usually when it hits an area where there's bone, there's a lot of bruising. But I'm more concerned about the damage inside. I laugh each time I see a gallant TV hero gets shot and say, 'it's nothing, just a scratch.' Well I haven't met anyone yet who was shot that felt that way."

After a slight hesitation, she said, "I'll be fine. I just wasn't expecting it to look like that."

During their conversation, Peter looked down at himself. For the first time he too saw what he looked like. Suddenly, he felt sick.

As the doctor left, he said, "I will be back shortly with the x-ray machine. Then we'll take it from there."

MJ and Peter were alone again. She took hold of his right hand and held it tightly.

"How are you holding up, Tiger?" she asked.

"It hurts" was all he said.

"I'll let the doc know. Maybe he can give you something to ease it."

She felt his forehead; he was starting to burn with fever. But the skin was still clammy to the touch. "We'll make it through this, Pete, you just hang on."

She wasn't sure if he heard her because he didn't respond and his eyes were closed.

Within a few minutes the doctor butted the door open as he backed in pulling a funny looking machine. "You'll have to step out while we take his picture, Miss."

Mary Jane nodded, then said, "You can call me Mary Jane."

The doctor smiled, "I knew who you were. I have seen several plays that you've been in. You are quite the actress, Miss Watson. That's why I thought it was a bad joke at first." He had a soft twinkle in his eye.

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The doctor called MJ into his office. "Peter is very badly hurt, Miss Watson. He really should be in a hospital." He held up his hand to silence her almost immediate rebuttal. "I know that would jeopardize his 'occupation', and probably his life. I thoroughly understand why he can't go. I do have the facilities to perform minor surgery, although I have never tried to accomplish something quite on this scale before. But I believe I will be able to perform the needed surgery here. My nurse has agreed to stay late to assist me. Since this is going to take a few hours, I need to finish up with the rest of my patients first and get them out of the way. That should not take more than an hour, in itself. Any questions?"

"Yes, about reporting gun shot wounds to the police?" she asked.

"I am sure you got a good look at the neighborhood when you came in. I see gun shot wounds all the time. I have on occasion made the choice that in the best interest of the patient, the injury should go unreported. I will label Peter's injury as a 'broken shoulder'".

"What about getting that mixed up with real broken shoulders?" she asked curiously.

"Then I call it a fracture," he said with a smile. "Now, I should go and finish up so that we can get that young man in there fixed up."

"Doctor, he said he was in pain."

"Hmmm, yeah, I bet he is. I'll have the nurse give him something to take the edge off."

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MJ was holding Peter's hand again. He was fighting to stay awake since the nurse came in and gave him a needle. Mary Jane wasn't saying much, just holding on and mumbling words of encouragement. In one respect, she wished that they would hurry up. She could feel Peter's pain and wanted it to be taken care of. But on the other hand, she was petrified that he wouldn't make it through surgery, especially looking at the magnitude of the operation and where it was being done. And she couldn't bear looking at his chest.

The door to the exam room opened up. The doctor said, "It's time."