Peter whispered, "MJ wake up!"

He slowly dragged himself out of bed and over to MJ. He shook her lightly, "MJ wake up."

She stirred and started to speak when he covered her mouth with his hand.

"Shhhhhh," he said as quietly as he could, "Help me get dressed".

"What are you talking about," she whispered back harshly. "Get dressed for what? You're not going anywhere."

"Keep it down. There's someone downstairs."

"It's probably Dr. Jackson. He said he would be back in a couple of hours." She countered.

"No, it's not him. He won't be trashing his own place. It's being burgled. Now are you going to help me or not?"

"No. You can barely stand never mind stop a break-in. I'll call 911 and get the police over here to do their job."

"In this neighborhood? Yeah, they'll be here alright. Besides, what if those people come up here? I doubt they are going to leave us alive to be witnesses, especially with me being such an easy target. So if you don't help me, then I will just go out there with just my mask and take it from there." He said getting angry.

Mary Jane saw the futility of this conversation. "OK, but I'm still calling the police."

"Fine. Help me first."

MJ was getting more and more upset with each movement Pete made. Just putting on his costume was excruciating and caused him to break out into a sweat. His jaw was clamped tight when she had to lift his left arm to place it into the sleeve. When he was costumed up, Peter staggered to the door. He stopped, leaned against the door jamb for a moment to rest then left. She quickly dialed 911 and pleaded for the police to get there.

Spiderman took advantage of the wall for support as long as he could. When he reached the railing, he paused. He saw one man in the waiting room ravaging the place, talking out loud and laughing. Watching him, he wondered if he really needed to do this. That guy just looked like a junkie out to find drugs and to entertain himself. No big threat. The cops could easily handle him if they came. But if that's all this guy was, then the job should be simple enough for him to handle just by webbing him up until the cops came. So Spidey climbed up onto the banister and crawled onto the wall perpendicular to the hall. He moved about 5 feet away from the railing and second floor landing. He sat on the wall looking down into the waiting room trying to rest his bad arm on his leg without it looking conspicuous.

"Hey tough guy, you know, that's not very nice to wreck someone else's place. In fact it's illegal," he said trying to put on his best smart-ass voice.

The burglar stopped what he was doing and looked up. Shocked, he screamed, "I thought you was dead?!"

"To quote somebody famous, but I don't remember who, 'the news of my death has been greatly exaggerated.'" Spidey replied. "Now why don't you take that pea shooter out of your belt and place it on the floor" referring to the gun he saw in the guy's belt.

"Ya mean dis thing?" the robber said and yanked it out with the intention of shooting the wallcrawler.

"I have had my fill of guns for today," Spidey said angrily. As he webbed the piece out of the guy's hand, another goon ducked out from under the landing with his gun pointed ready to shoot.

Spiderman saw him instantly but with his right hand already busy with the first weapon he instinctively went after the other gun with his bad arm. Pain shot throughout his left side causing him to miss. Spiderman threw his head back and growled in pain and anger. But the gunman was caught so off guard at Spiderman missing he just stood there staring at the firearm stating, "He missed. Spiderman missed me."

"That was not a very smart thing to do," Spiderman snarled and took advantage of that moment. With his good arm, he snatched the second gun away. He then pelted the guy in the head with webbing knocking him out. He then went after the first thief who had started to run. He webbed the goon's feet and yanked as hard as he could one handed. But it was enough to flip him onto his head, knocking him out as well. Looking at his handy work he said, "Now that ought to keep you out of trouble until the police arrive."

At the sound of the sirens he snapped his head up and looked out the window at flashing lights, "Gee, I didn't think they'd come, especially this fast." He shimmied back over to the landing, using the banister as a stepping stone down. His legs were starting to turn to Jell-O so he quickly made his way back to the room sliding his good hand along the wall for support. When he entered the room, MJ was sitting on the bed, fuming. He didn't like what he saw. He simply said, "Help me out of my outfit. Quickly. The cops are outside."

Mary Jane was so mad, she just said, "You want me to hurry? Ok, I'll hurry."

Peter suddenly looked at her with worried pained eyes. 'I sure hope I'm not going to regret this' he thought but said defensively, "take it easy, ok? We can argue about this later."

Although she was plenty mad, MJ still took care in removing Pete's top. Once she pulled off his pants, she quickly stuffed the outfit into the bottom of her oversize purse, hoping that the police won't find a reason to search it.

With the outfit safely hidden away, MJ went over to finish assisting Peter. He was wringing wet from the exertion. She yelled at him, "Look at you. You've got a fever again." Her anger came out in the use of too much force when helping him back into bed. So much so that he had to plead, "Stop, enough already." She stopped and looked into his eyes and immediately felt terrible. She went from angry to guilty in a nanosecond. 'Here is someone who had nothing to gain by doing what he just did, and I'm beating him up over it' she thought. But she fell short of apologizing. She just softened her attendance of him.

With the adrenaline draining out of him, he was quickly succumbing to fatigue. She just stood there and watched him fade out. 'Well at least if the cops come up here, they will see someone who really is too sick to have been Spiderman,' she mused. She sat down on the bed next to him and picked up his hand. This usually strong hand felt so weak in hers, it scared her. But the doctor assured her that he would recover fully. "Barring complications," she amused. "I think this can be considered a complication."

Suddenly a knock came at the door and she turned towards it. Her acting abilities came in handy again for she needed to pretend that she didn't know what happened out there. "Police. Open up," she heard.

She went to the door and opened it slowly. Two officers were standing outside with their guns drawn.

"Who are you, Miss and what are you doing here?" they said as they entered the room.

"I'm Mary Jane Watson and I'm here keeping my fiancé company. I was the one who called."

"Do you have identification?"

Mary Jane nodded 'yes'. Her heart skipped a beat as she realized that it was in her purse. She nonchalantly turned to get her purse. But the cop stopped her from reaching into it for the wallet, "Please bring the purse over to me." She knew she couldn't hesitate for a fraction of a second as that would bring suspicion down on top of her. She quickly handed over the purse.

When the cop looked into the purse, all he saw was the solid blue of the costume leg. He grabbed it and started to pull it out. MJ quickly said, "Do you have a thing for women's undergarments?" He immediately stopped what he was doing and glanced over as his partner belly-laughed. He turned his gaze back towards MJ and searched blindly for the wallet with his hand then.

Even though he had just been embarrassed by her the cop still thought she was beautiful. 'God, she had a gorgeous smile' he thought. He focused more on her and could swear he'd seen her before. "You look familiar," he said.

MJ smiled. "Well my face is plastered on enough fences that you couldn't miss me. I'm an actress."

The cop pulled out the wallet and opened it up. He studied the driver's license for a moment, mouthing the name. He looked back up at her and said, "Yeah, I remember seeing your face." Then he looked over at Peter, who had awakened, but was very groggy. "Who's that?"

"Peter Parker."

"What happened to him?" the cop asked suspiciously.

"He fell and dislocated his shoulder. He is still under the influence of the anesthesia." She said, trying to form a story in her mind so that she could answer quickly and smoothly anymore questions that he threw at her.

"You don't need anesthesia to pop a shoulder back in," the cop said skeptically.

"The board that knocked his shoulder out, splintered. So between removing slivers of wood and putting the shoulder back, the doctor opted for anesthesia."

"What are you doing in this neighborhood? There are plenty of hospitals around that could have taken care of him."

Peter had regained consciousness, but remained still. He listened to how MJ was handling the cop.

It was obvious to MJ that the cop was highly suspicious of Peter. And for good reason. What was an almost famous actress and her fiancé doing in that part of town? But she was one step ahead of the cop. "I'm just breaking into show business, and Peter is a student. There is not much money between us, and Dr. Jackson is a friend of the family. He has offered to take care of us until we can get on our feet. Speaking of which have you contacted him yet?" MJ said, trying to change the subject.

"Yeah, he should be here at any moment. I need to ask you more questions."

"Ok"

"You called 911?" he said more as an affirmation instead of direct question.

MJ nodded. "I was awakened by the noise those men were making downstairs. I cracked the door open just enough to deduce that it wasn't Dr. Jackson returning. So I called you guys. I've been hiding in here with Peter since. Did you catch them or did they leave?"

"So you didn't see Spiderman?"

"Spiderman was here? I thought he died?"

Peter almost choked.

"I did too, but the two perps, when they came to, told us that Spiderman knocked them out, even though we didn't see any evidence of the webhead," the cop explained. He continued, "So you're saying that you didn't see anything?"

Again MJ just shook her head.

"If you think of anything else that you remember, please call," and the cop handed her a card.

He then turned his attention to Peter, who now showed signs of waking up, "Where were you during all this?"

Pete blinked his rheumy eyes and slowly answered, "All this, what?"

"How did …."

"Enough, Officer!" called out Dr. Jackson. All heads turned in the direction of the door where the good doctor now stood. "My patient is in no condition to answer questions right now. I came back over here as soon as you guys called, only to find you harassing him when the thugs are already in custody. If you have questions that are unanswered you can come back later today and ask them. Right now I want my patient to rest."

"What's wrong with your patient?" the cop asked trying to see if he could trip up anyone and put a hole in the story.

"A dislocated shoulder with imbedded wood splinters, why?"

Failing at that endeavor, the cop gave him the once over and said, "I'll be back later." Then left.

Turning to Peter the doctor said, "And you young man, how are you doing after that little escapade?"

"I've been better."

"I thought I told you that you needed lots of rest."

"I know, but…"

"But, nothing." Then pausing a little, he continued, "I have to admit though that I really do appreciate what you did. Those two have hit me every two months for the last half year. However, I don't need to have my beautiful handiwork split open. Let me take a look at your chest."

Pete just lay quietly while the doctor examined him. "You popped a couple of stitches, but nothing that I need to repair. The others held just fine," the doctor said. "Please Peter, get some rest. If anything else begs your help tonight, let me take care of it, ok?"

Pete nodded, already slipping back into sleep.

Mary Jane stared at the doctor, "How did you know?"

"Sound travels disgusting throughout this building, I heard your explanation to the police as I was coming up the stairs. Actually, this is the first time I am grateful for that. Now, I think its time for you to get a little sleep as well Miss Watson, you look beat."

"You don't have to tell me twice."