Peter entered the water up to his knees. He knew he couldn't swim out and bring her back to shore in his condition. He periodically lost sight of her as waves swelled in front of him blocking his view. Looking around at the deserted beach he realized that if she was going to be saved, it was going to be him.

"Dammit" he shouted, took aim and shot a web out to the floundering victim. But in that instance a wave rolled up and intercepted it. The churning whitecap captured and rendered the gossamer line useless. Frustrated Peter was about to try again when his mind snapped back to something he saw on the beach. Turning around he saw the lifesaver and rope hanging on a post not 25 feet away. Judging the distance between it and the girl, he snagged the ring with webbing and with a sharp snap of his wrist, whipped it out to Deanna. He watched her grab for the float. When she had a good hold on it he began to pull. He needed to use both arms to pull her in and his chest and shoulder were aching dearly under the strain. He wished now that he had left his arm in the sling all day as it was already sore before this rescue. As she reached the shallows, she let go of the ring and splashed towards Peter. She was shaken and tired, but otherwise ok.

Grabbing him into a big bear hug she cried, "Oh Peter, thank you, thank you, thank you!" Then planted a big, wet kiss smack on his lips and pulled him back into a hug. Peter ignored the pain she caused his injury as she cried, asking, "How did you do that?"

"Uh, um…." Remembering that she wasn't the sharpest knife in the kitchen when it came to physics he decided to throw some double talk at her and hope she was as dumb as she played out to be.

"Well using the line as a fulcrum, I was able to take advantage of the increased mass of the life saver to amplify the centrifugal force. I let go at the proper tangent to the arc which gave it a greater distance of polarity, thus reaching you," he said sheepishly knowing it was pure nonsense.

"Huh? Could you translate that for me?"

'Oh great' he thought to himself.

"It just means I used the laws of physics to get the greatest distance out of the throw."

He waited to see if that was sufficient.

"Oh. That makes sense, you studying physics and all. Any way you look at it, I am so happy that you were here to save me."

They started back for the house and he sighed with relief that she hadn't take a closer look at the life buoy……..the webbing was still attached to it.

Halfway back, Peter noticed high in one of the trees a coconut that was mostly brown. It would probably fall on it's own in a few days. He looked over at Deanna who was still a little shaky and had non-stop nervous chatter. She really wasn't paying attention to him. So when they had passed the tree by several feet, he slipped his good arm behind his back, took aim and shot a web ball at the coconut. His heart stopped for a fraction of a second at the sound of the thwip which was a lot louder in the quiet of the country. But luckily the shot was good and the coconut came crashing to the ground. Pete turned around as if he heard nothing but the coconut falling and said, "Hey, I think we have a souvenir for you."

He pushed her in that direction and there on the ground was the coconut. Peter picked it up and handed it to Deanna, "Here ya go."

"Wow, this is great," she said starting to get over her recent trauma. She studied it and began to pick at the husk. "So you say that there is about two inches of this stuff before I get to the hard shell of the coconut?"

Pete just nodded.

She studied and plucked at the fibers of her prize the rest of the walk back.

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That night at dinner Peter sat next to Deanna. He felt very self conscious as her mother and father kept eyeing him and asking about his background. They were quite impressed with his rescue efforts, especially noticing his arm in a sling which he put back on immediately upon returning to his room. Deanna had nothing but praise. But being parents they wanted to know more about the boy their daughter was falling for.

Peter felt a little uncomfortable. He had never gone through a parental grilling before. MJ's father didn't give a damn about his daughter and probably won't recognize Peter as being the boy next door if he wore a neon sign stating so. Peter could do all he could just to keep up with the volley between Deanna's mother and father.

"So I hear you are still in school." She said.

He nodded yes.

"Do you have a job?" the father asked.

He nodded yes.

"Is it a steady job?" She asked

He was still nodding yes.

"Who are your parents?" He asked

"Well I live with….." Pete started to say.

"What are you studying?" She asked

"Phys…"

"What are your plans when you graduate?" He asked

Peter just kept looking back and forth at the two parents as if it were a tennis match. He was starting to get light headed. He was thankful when Belle announced to everybody, "Dig in!"

Once people started eating, the barrage of questions slowed to a trickle. They were all busy with full mouths and compliments for the chef. Deanna leaned over and whispered in Pete's ear, "Wanna take a walk after dinner? This time I promise not to go swimming."

He just nodded yes.

After dinner, even though it was already dark, the Knapps had the forethought to install solar lights along the pathway. This way guests could go down to the beach in the evenings during winter months. Tonight there were no stars or moon, clouds hid them from view. A rainless wind blew steadily in from the southwest.

The tide was high, eating half of the long beach. Although sight was limited to shadows, they listened to the roar of the waves crashing on the shore. It was a soothing sound even though ferocious. They chose a spot out range of the high tide line and sat in the sand. For a while they were quiet just listening to the waves and letting their eyes adjust to the darkness.

Deanna was the first to speak, "My parents are getting worried about storm and want to leave. I don't want to go. Actually I want to see a hurricane."

"Well according to Belle it's supposed to just miss us. We would get only a little wind and rain. We have that all the time in New York. Just remnants of hurricanes. It's nothing."

There was more silence.

Deanna looked over at Peter and saw his head start to droop forward. "You ok?"

His head snapped up and he turned to her, "Yeah, just tired I guess. I did a lot today. My doctor would be pissed that I didn't sit in a chaise lounge all day."

"Does your shoulder still hurt?"

"A little."

"C'mon, it's late. I don't want your doctor to get mad at me for keeping you up." She said smiling.

And they headed back to the house.

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"Warning, what warning?" Peter asked Belle the next morning after he heard her talking to some guests.

"The hurricane that was originally heading towards Louisiana has shifted course and is heading for the Panhandle. But it is still only going to brush us. I don't think we need to worry, however I wasn't going to stop anyone who wanted to leave."

He looked towards the center hall and saw several packed bags sitting by the front door. "Who's leaving?" he asked.

"Oh we're losing about half of the guests. But some were supposed to vacate today anyway. The room next to yours is leaving, the two larger families with all the kids are going as well. Josh and his parents are remaining along with the Bruhn sisters and your friend and her family.

She looked at Peter, "Do you want to leave?"

"Oh no, I'm fine."

"Are you sure? You don't have to stay if you don't want to. We can get you back to NY easily right now."

"No really. I don't mind staying. It doesn't sound that bad. Actually, it sounds interesting."

Belle smiled. She liked this young man. Wasn't sure why, but she did. "If it was supposed to hit us full force then I would definitely close up the place, but we'll just get some high winds and maybe a splattering of rain."

After breakfast as Belle and Judge started to clear the table, Peter brought his plate into the kitchen. "Can I help with anything?" he asked since he wasn't paying a cent for the accommodations.

Belle took one look at the young man, arm in a sling, and pale. 'At least he was standing up straight,' she thought.

"Absolutely NOT!" she stated firmly. "You're a special guest. You are here for one reason and one reason only. To heal. And its rest, not dishes that helps with that." With that she shooshed him out with her hands.

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Peter walked down to the Gulf again, alone this time. It wasn't long before he regretted leaving his sling in his room as his heavy muscular arm was pulling on the injury. But he just felt too self conscious with it on. As he stood barefoot in the sand, hands in his pockets, the wind buffeted him with salt water spray plastering his hair to his head. But he didn't care. The thick stormy sky mimicked his mood. He closed his eyes to the pelting drops and thought about Mary Jane. The events of the week turned things around so quickly, one minute he was in bliss, then the next, due to a madman's bullet, his world had fallen apart. The love of his life had left, he was seriously hurt and chased out of the city.

And to top it all off, he was also beginning to doubt himself. Last year he was questioning being Spiderman because he wanted, no make that needed, a life of his own. But he finally reconciled himself to the fact that he was Spiderman and he couldn't run away from it. But now this was even worse. He hadn't told this to MJ but he had also thought he was invincible. The things his body went through would have been fatal to any normal human, but he always came out of it just a little banged up but basically okay. He never, even remotely came close to death before. Now that he has, it has brought about a whole new emotion. Fear.

He tried to stare at the turbulence in front of him squinting against the salt spray as it stung his face. The water was the same dull angry gray as the sky and he couldn't tell where the one started and the other ended. Straining to stand upright against the wind, he was wondering just what 'brushed' meant to a seasoned Floridian, because this sure did look like it was going to get nasty. Soaking wet and chilled to the bone, he decided to head back.

He walked into an impromptu meeting in the living room to hear Judge saying, "Hurricane Fiona has turned yet again and is now heading straight for us. But I do want to ensure you that this house is close to 200 years old and has taken on a lot of storms over the years. But if you want to leave, we won't hold you back."

Peter looked at the stalwart adventurers who were remaining to face the storm. The 10 year old boy named Josh with his family, and three elderly sisters who according to them have survived the biggest storms ever to grace Florida's coast. Mabel, Irene and Viola all looked like they had actually weathered the hurricanes standing outside. Although their faces were weathered, they were tall, robust 80 year old Germans.

"Peter," Judge said. "I'm sorry, but all flights have been cancelled. We can move you inland, but we can't get you back to NY right now."

"Hey, don't worry, Judge, I'm fine. I'll stick this out. Could be exciting." Peter said with a hint of enthusiasm. He needed some sort of adrenaline rush if he couldn't get it from webswinging.

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"Hey Darryl, have you heard the weather forecast lately?" Billy Bob asked.

"Can't say that I have. So?"

"Hurricane's comin' this way?" Billy Bob said, a smile cracking his face.

"I thought it was just going to miss us. Ain't enough people gonna evacuate for us to get away with anything." Darryl retorted.

"Uh-uh. According to NOA, it just turned east some more. We're gonna get it full force." And the small crack broke into a huge smile.