Here's the last part, yes it's finally here! I'm so sorry I haven't put it up before now, I couldn't decide on whether to leave a couple of scenes in or not so I just procrastinated lol. This is my favourite part. Now I'm going to go hide before you kill me for not updating. Bye!

Smoking On The Rooftops

Part 5: Not the EndBut the Beginning

Pens were scattered all over the place. Important papers were discarded carelessly. Ink spattered just about everything.

"Um, Betty?"

"I've got less than thirty seconds to spare so be quick, today is not going well." Betty said without sparing Peter a glance.

"I can see that." He told her, motioning to the disaster area that was her desk and smiling slightly. It was sufficient to say his attempt at humour was not well received.

He cheerfully offered her his portfolio anyway, and she froze and looked up, pausing as a strange expression crossed her face. After a split second though, she looked back down and took the folder from his hands, and handed him back his check slowly, eyes fixed on his arm as if it held the secret to world peace.

"Thanks." He said simply, wondering if he'd imagined the odd look in her eyes.

"Sure." Betty said faintly several seconds later, when Peter was already halfway across the room, having not expected any form of reply from her.

She'd spent the last week and a half since she'd learnt of Spider-man's confession scanning every man that she knew for a hint of Spider-man's personality, but had come up with nothing. Zilch. Zero. Nada. None of her few male friends, though some had the right build for a superhero, were nowhere near as intelligent and witty, or dorky if you preferred to look at it that way.

So then she'd resorted to searching through her old address book, looking up the bunch of muscular footballers she'd sometimes hung around with in High School, and even gone so far as to ring Mick Jones, the star player who thought the world of the beautiful game and himself. She seriously doubted he'd be the heroic Spider-man she was searching for, but she was desperate and running out of options.

"Hey, Mick." Betty had greeted him nervously, receiving a friendly reply and a kiss on the cheek before she'd sat down in the chair across from him.

"I thought I might be getting a call from you sometime soon, actually." Mick had begun seriously, and for a wild moment Betty's heart had jumped into her throat. Could it really be…?

"You did?" She'd asked tremulously, almost willing him not to be Spider-man. He had opened his mouth to reply…. No, don't say it… please don't let it be him… please…

"Yeah, I heard you'd just been dumped by your loser boyfriend and wanted a little more excitement in your life." Mick had leered at her suggestively, grinning and giving her nose a front seat at the theatre of bad breath. Betty had recoiled with disgust, strangely a very happy feeling filling her at the same time.

"Then you heard wrong." She'd snapped and abruptly stood up and pulled on her coat, feeling disgusted with herself for even imagining for one second that that jerk could be Spider-man. She'd stalked to the door, and paused just before she opened it.

"And even if I was looking for excitement I certainly wouldn't come here." She'd gestured at the tacky Burger joint they were sitting in then abruptly yanked open the door and walked out, her head held high and a small self-satisfied smirk on her lips.

Walking home with her head held high, her thoughts had turned yet again to Spider-man. She'd had the feeling he'd told her that she'd seen his face before on a spur of the moment decision, and he certainly hadn't stuck around to talk afterwards. But what did that remark mean? Did she see him regularly, like everyday? She quickly dismissed that idea. She knew the people she saw everyday too well, so perhaps they'd only met once before, a long time ago, and he'd happened to remember her? No, no, he wouldn't remember her from just one meeting. Which left a guy she saw often but not that often.

"Ok, Marcus, Wade, Jason…" She'd begun ticking off on her fingers, so caught up in her thoughts that at first she hadn't noticed that she'd stopped right outside a dodgy looking alleyway. She did notice when someone dragged her into that very alleyway and started pulling at her shirt.

"HEY!" She'd yelled, twisting round in the man's grasp only to see a very familiar face.

"Mick? What are you doing! Get off me!"

He had just narrowed his eyes determinedly and when she fought back he swung his heavy fist into her jaw, effectively muting her screams. Betty's eyes had watered from the pain and for a second she'd thought she was going to pass out when suddenly Mick disappeared. And he hadn't run off or anything either, he'd just… disappeared. Dispersed into thin air.

"Betty! Are you alright?" A masked face was suddenly peering into hers and she'd nodded dimly whilst simultaneously looking up to see Mick unconscious, wrapped, and hanging by his feet from a window ledge.

It was nearly two weeks after that particularly nasty incident when Betty and Spider-man's path's crossed again. Betty was already lounging in the glare of the setting sun and mulling things over when none other than Spider-man swung down from the skies. Startled, she pushed herself up onto one elbow as he took the vacant seat beside her.

"Hi." Spider-man greeted her.

"Hi." She replied, and sat up fully. "You're here early."

"Not much to do today. Compared to other days, that is." He informed her. "How about you? Written the article of the year yet?" He grinned cheekily at her.

"Not yet, but I'm planning to." She answered gamely.

"Better get started soon then, I hear the competition's fierce." He commented.

"Oh it is. Thing is, I'm fiercer." She replied flippantly, getting into the swing of their usual banter.

"That so?" Spider-man said and nodded. "Well, I must admit I wouldn't like to get on your bad side." He lay down beside her on his back, looking up at the velveteen orangey red sky.

Betty took a deep breath, calming her nerves, then just spat it out. "But you already have been, haven't you Peter?"

Spider-man shot up and his head snapped round to look at her carefully. "What?" He rasped.

"You heard me." She answered confidently. "I must admit, it's a clever disguise. And I'm not talking about the mask. No one would ever even begin to think that you and Peter Parker are one and the same."

"That so?" He said again, not sure what else to say. He hesitated for a long while before nervously saying, "So, uh, how did you figure it out?"

Betty stared at him. She hadn't expected it would be so easy to force a confession out of him, but then she realised that he'd been setting her up with clues all along the way. He wanted her to find out. Maybe not consciously, but deep down he'd wanted her to know.

"Ah. Well I had help." She finally said.

"Help?" He repeated dubiously, trying to stop his voice from squeaking the way it did when he was panicking. How many other people knew? "Who from?"

"Why, you, of course." Betty replied as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Me?" He said, astonished.

"Yes, you Peter." She smiled at him. "I could never have worked it out without you."

"Without me there'd be nothing to work out." Peter shot back and she laughed lightly.

"Ya see? Now only that kind of remark could come from you. You're one of a kind." Betty told him.

"Well, I won't disagree with that." He admitted, becoming more comfortable with her knowing who was under the mask. He shifted from his tense position into a more relaxed one. "There's not many maniacs running around out there in red and blue spandex."

"No," She agreed, smiling, "there's not. It's surreal. I thought I could find out your identity by looking up all my old school friends, those big shots with big muscles who ended up working in big Burger joints like old Mick in McDonalds over there, when really it was right in front of me. It only took a foot long scar to work that out." She smiled mirthlessly, and Peter rolled up his sleeve, realising just when and where he'd given the game away.

"Bit too careless, huh?" He said, staring at the oddly shaped lines of red skin and remembering how Betty had stared at that spot earlier that very morning.

"Everyone makes mistakes sometimes." Betty said. She paused for a long time, and Peter had the sense that she wanted to say more so stayed quiet. "I… I want to apologise to you. Both of you. I treated Peter like… dirt, less than dirt, and… and to then treat the other half of you like I did… in contrast, I don't know how you stood it. I really don't. I thought I had everything figured out, and it's only now I realise how wrong I was. You're a great guy, but I was so blindsided by the red and blue that I couldn't see it. I guess now I do, and well… would you like to start afresh?"

Peter took in her words and quickly came to a decision. "You know what? In the last few weeks I've come to know you, and I mean really know you, I've had a revelation."

"What's that?" Betty asked nervously, half of her not wanting to know the answer.

"You're not so bad yourself." He grinned mischievously then held out his hand. "Hi, I'm Peter Parker, aka the maniac in red and blue spandex."

She took it and shook firmly, a huge smile lighting up her face. "Betty Brant. Nice to meet you."

"Oh don't worry, the pleasure is all mine." Peter replied and Betty playfully punched him on the arm, both smiling.

Fin

Gah that was a lame ending. Sorry to deceive you with the chapter title but it really is the end lol. I had a great time writing this story because unlike most of my other fics I didn't have the plot mapped out from start to finish, I just pretty much put pen to paper and waited to see where it took me. I think I'll do that more often.

Thank you so much for the reviews everyone! Believe it or not authors use reviews as fuel to write more, so thanks for the encouragement! Sorry I have no plans for a sequel at the moment, I've been writing a lot of Smallville stuff lately though I'm working (very slowly) on a oneshot Peter/MJ fic.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it, if you did, please review!