A/N: jla2snoopy: They were giving him a party to thank him for never giving up his role as Spiderman and doing an awesom job. (they both know, so it's ok).

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"Peter! Get up Peter! It's half past ten!" Aunt May announced as she shook Peter's shoulders. Peter fluttered his eyes open to see his aunt looking lovingly down at him and smiled at her. Aunt May did the same to him. "I told you you'd fall asleep." She lectured standing up to turn the TV off.

"Yes, you were right." Peter gave in. He looked outside at the beautiful day. The weather reminded him of what had happened in his dream. The ironic factor between his dream and reality was so intense that he was depressed about it. It was as if his dream had mocked him by being so perfect.

Aunt May caught him staring out the window at the scenery. "Do you want me to cook you some breakfast?" she offered.

"Have you already put everything away?" Peter asked turning around to talk to her.

"Well I can always take them out again!" Aunt May said avoiding answering his question directly.

"No, I'm fine. Actually, I was going to go out to the dock for a little while. Maybe get some me-time in." Peter replied grabbing his coat, which Aunt May had neatly folded and was sitting on the chair.

"Alright. Suite yourself. I'll be here all day in case you need to come back for something."

"OK. By the way, thank you again for the car. I don't know how to repay you." Peter said giving his kind aunt a hug and kiss.

"Oh don't mention it. It was about time you had your own car." Aunt May said as Peter headed out the door.

"Bye." Peter called.

"Goodbye." Aunt May answered as she began to do the dishes.

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Peter arrived at the dock and decided to have a small breakfast at one of the diners on the coastline. He chose a cozy little table by an open window that overlooked the beautiful river shimmering in the sunlight. The seat was rather beaten up. Obviously, it was among the favorite tables in the restaurant. Finally, he had gotten something good that wasn't defective. He gazed out at the innocent looking river. It had been two months since the whole fusion reactor deal, and now it seemed like it had all just been a bad dream. He so wished it had been.

If only Otto would have simmered down enough to ask for help! Peter could have fixed everything, he knew he could have. The great man had tutored him so long on the fusion reactor and also on his 'smart arms' that Peter could have just about built his own set of them. Dr. Octavious had also stressed the inhibitor chip and how it worked.

Peter then realized how close he had been to saving the doctor. If he had just slapped another micro chip onto the back of his neck, none of that would have happened! He gave an angry blow to the wall with the side of his arm and stared harder at the water. A waitress walked up to him. She slipped a notepad and pen out of her apron. She clicked and set the pen to the paper ready to take his order. "May I take your order sir?" she asked politely.

Peter shook out of his trance and turned on his seat to face the woman. "Huh? Oh, yeah. I'll just have a salad and an iced tea." he replied.

"OK." she said writing his order down. The waitress looked back up at Peter who was staring out at the water again. "Is something wrong? Did I forget to do something?" she asked worriedly. This was her first or second table and she had a fear of failing about her.

"No. No. You're fine. It's something else." Peter assured her.

She wiped her forehead with two fingers and let out her breath that she had been holding since she asked that question. "Oh thank goodness! I mean, for a moment there I thought that I- you." she realized that her customer had gone back to his regular routine of staring out the window blankly. "OK...well, your food will be here in a minute, so in the mean time, just relax and continue you awesome job at window staring. I'll leave you now." she said turning to walk away.

Peter knew it would be rude to just say nothing and let her walk away, so he spoke up. "Wait." he said. She turned back around to listening to him. "You're doing a wonderful job, and it really isn't anything against you. I just lost three people who were dear to me," he explained.

"Awe, how?" she asked compassionately.

What was Peter going to tell her? He couldn't tell her how they died, that would give away his identity. He decided that the short conversation was going in too deep. "I'm not entitled to say." he replied.

"OK. That's fine. I didn't know if you wanted to talk about it. I thought that it might help." She said. After a shrug the waitress walked off. "Be right back."

Peter watched her walk off and then turned back towards the river. Why am I beating myself up about this? It's over. I need to move on. He lectured himself. With that sentence now fresh in his mind, he loosened the strain on his eyes to just look out over the river for pleasure, not because he was looking for something. All of a sudden, something caught his eye, something shimmering, something chrome. Peter jerked and shot his eyes open that were slowly inching their way closed. Jumping to conclusions, he stuck his head out the window. Could it truly be him? How long had he been that near the surface? Peter got up on his chair, ready to race out of the window to save the thing that he assured himself was the doctor, when he saw a small boy pluck it from the river. Peter's hope was shattered; it had only been a toy submarine brought by a little boy and his dad on a father-son outing.

Peter lowered his eyes as he sat back down in

his seat. He looked around the room, observing the few other people seated eating and either reading a fish magazine, or a newspaper. No one had seemed to notice his sudden outburst of energy. At least he wouldn't have to deal with the other customers watching him strangely making it impossible to enjoy a meal.

A few minutes passed and the waitress swung by with his meal at hand. She joyfully placed it in front of him and urged him to enjoy the food. Once she left, Peter took a bite. The food was delicious, but he didn't feel like eating at that moment. He wanted to do something a little more physical than eating salad. Peter considered swinging around for a while, just to swing, but then he had been swinging all week and the water looked so welcoming and pleasant that swimming won in the polls. He signaled the waitress to bring his bill. He paid the bill, left a tip, and made his way outside.

It had gotten windier, but still pleasant to swim in. Peter took off his coat and shoes. He backed up for a running start and dove in. The water wasn't the cleanest on the face of the earth, but Peter really didn't care. He swam through the cloudy water and dove down to the ships that had crashed and things in the shallower part of the river. Peter was intrigued by those things that had sunken to a riverbed. It was as if the water kept the object suspended in time as it had originally looked. He swam a little farther down and the water got darker. He saw many pieces of lab equipment, and something that he never hoped, or expected to see!

To Be Continued...