This chapter has a whole discussion of what Pete has to witness living in the Great Depression, it's heavy stuff, it's also not exhaustive or detailed, or even exactly accurate. This is more based on Noir's universe than actual Great Depression America. Triggers are for seen suicide and reference to child abuse - they are literally in a single paragraph starting with 'I'm from the Great Depression" and if you skip that paragraph you should be fine. There is ALSO a small instance of mild descriptions of the effects of self-harm, no actual self-injury takes place in this chapter! This was not the plan when I went into writing this stuff, folks, but then again I don't...really have much of a plan. This is what I get for it. But on another note on the idea of new tags - Mild Cosmic Horror is seen in this chapter. We're talking to the void folks. But it's also mild because like. I'm NGL guys, there are four pages secreted away that were entirely too intense to post? As in I would not have been able to recover the story if I kept it. It was just too much horror. So, I'm going to eventually be posting an alternate cut after the entirety of this story is posted so you all can see what might have been.
Rio had already felt a strong urge to sweep Pete up in her arms combined with a burning desire to have adoption papers written up from almost the first time she had seen him take his mask off.
It was as he described what was happening to him, the fact that that Thing was basically eating him alive, taking him over from the inside out, that her desire grew to the point the only thing she wanted to do was take him into her arms, and somehow shelter him from the entire world. His expression was always so hard to read, but she could see it, see the terror in his eyes. Worse than the fear, though, worse than the dread, was the glimmer of resignation she saw there. The way that he said it was filled with heavy certainty, his mouth a thin line.
This was something he had been living with for over a year. A creeping certainty that lay solid in his heart like a lead weight, something as inescapable and inevitable as the sunset and the dark that came after it.
Rio remembered the words he had spoken the night before, remembered the certainty that he would turn, the only hope for him a swift death. The idea that he was keeping secrets still, that he was hiding the fact that he still thought that his death was still the only answer was a thought that burned in the back of her mind like fire.
"Peter," Gwen's voice broke the silence, broke the standoff, their attention drawn towards her as she stared at Pete with eyes that were so wide, were so afraid. "Peter, please…I don't… I don't understand. What was that thing? Why is it doing this to you? Are you…are you sure it won't come back?"
Pete was quiet for a moment, staring into blue eyes with gray that squinted slightly as though pained, and the realization that she hadn't even checked to see if he was hurt hit her suddenly. That had been a lot of blood with an unknown origin, she needed to make sure he was okay.
"Wait," she said, "before you continue, are you hurt? What did it do to you? I understand it 'took a piece,' but what does that mean specifically?"
Pete hesitated before looking up at her. Rio watched as his nose crinkled slightly as he did so, his eyes closing for a slightly longer blink than his usual, finally making eye contact before his eyes closed again. Finally, either in frustration or an admission of pain, pale hands came up to rub against his closed eyelids, his mouth pulling into a genuine grimace.
"I'm sorry," he finally said, and he pulled his hands back impossibly fast and refocused on her. Rio watched him closely, her eyebrows rising and trying to infuse the fact that it was safe here, that he didn't have to fear showing weakness with them. That he was safe.
Peter B nudged him gently, raising his own eyebrow as Porker climbed up to sit on Pete's shoulder, patting the top of his head gently. Peni took the opportunity to climb up into Porker's uninhabited spot, leaning against Pete fully. Pete stilled, pulling back into himself almost, looking a bit like he was trying to avoid touching them. Peter B slung an arm around his shoulders and Porker finally just rested his hand in that black mop of hair, the both of them in retaliation at his obvious discomfort. Peni, however, climbed into his lap, stretching her legs out onto Peter B's as she rested against Pete's chest. Gwen was the one to take Peni's spot, a grin wide on her face as she leaned against him.
Pete didn't say a word for a moment, his body as still as he could make it and his eyes as wide as possible, before he finally rasped out, "It always hurts afterwards."
Rio counted it as a victory.
"Do you want more Motrin?" Rio asked immediately. Pete hesitated, before giving a little shrug.
"I don't know if it will help."
"Let's try," Rio said. She went to collect the five necessary pills, and when she returned, Peni was holding the glass that Rio had originally given him. Pete reached out with his left hand for the Motrin, Rio immediately compensating her reach, only for Pete to suddenly stiffen. He pulled his hand back, almost in a flinch, curling it back close to his body.
"I'm sorry, I'm not thinking straight, I just…"
"Hey, it's no problem," Rio said, her eyebrows pinching together, feeling a wash of worry flood her. That flinch had been almost violent, a kind of fear in the motion. Why on earth…?
"Are you left handed?" she finally asked. Pete's eyebrows pinched, his mouth in a hard line. Rio felt a dull heat rise within her, a certainty burning in her soul that she knew the answer. She had barely noticed the other Peters and Peni at breakfast, her attention on Pete and making sure he ate…after she got over the fright of having basically attacked a couple of white people and a pig with spice. She thought she remembered Peter B reaching for the serving spoons using his left hand, Porker doing so as well. It left her with a heavy certainty, and a mission of reassurance. "It's alright if you are, Pete," she said softly.
Pete stared at her for a moment longer before finally reaching out with his left hand. She placed the pills in them, smiling at him gently.
"What's wrong with being left handed?" Miles asked, and Rio felt a brief pang.
"You're closer to the devil, more likely to be a criminal, generally perceived as deviant or evil," Pete answered without thought, the words spoken as easy as breathing. She wondered how many times he had heard those words hissed at him, even as rage boiled up inside of her.
"What?" Miles managed, her son's voice a hot mixture of rage and incredulousness.
"That's ridiculous," Peni said, her voice angry. "It's a hand!"
"Leftness comes from the Latin word for sinister," Pete answered blandly.
"Whatever," Gwen said, rolling her eyes. "What does Latin know?"
"It knows that in order to re-educate someone proper you have to beat them," Pete answered tonelessly, so easily it shocked the kids into silence, though it was a concept Rio was familiar with. It was a concept her husband was familiar with, feeling his hand squeeze on her shoulder once. "It doesn't matter anymore?" he asked finally, after the silence had set, his voice hesitant.
"Nope," Peter B answered, waving his left hand around. "I use it all the time. Didn't you notice at breakfast? I'm pretty sure Peni and Porker used it as well…" Both of them nodded, and the look they gave Pete turned concerned. To their surprise, however, Pete seemed to shrink a little, heat rising into his cheeks.
"I honestly didn't notice a lot at breakfast?" he answered, rubbing at the back of his neck. "I think my brain got stuck on 'food,' and then, 'what is his it looks amazing,' followed by 'I think something punched me in my mouth, why is this so hot,' and then I was back on the thought of 'this is amazing.' So, no, I didn't notice much at breakfast."
The laughter that followed was welcomed and warm, Rio letting it seep deep into her chest while she could.
"That is a perfectly acceptable reaction to have, Pete, I'm glad that you enjoyed it so much," Rio said, smiling softly.
"It was good," Pete answered, rubbing at his hair again self-consciously, Porker's fingers teasingly tapping the long digits, Pete giving him a slight glare. "But you," he paused, and then regrouped, "none of you have ever had problems with being left handed?"
"I had a teacher hit me once with a ruler, maybe, but I don't remember having any other issues with it," Peter B answered, shrugging.
"That's cute!" Pete cooed, really and truly cooed, leaning into Peter B's space, "did they kiss it and make it better later?" he asked, and Peter B laughed, taking his left hand and firmly putting it on Pete's face, pushing him away. Rio could see the smile on Pete's face as he said it though, and even though it was that twisted smile, she had grown to just recognize it as his. It was a good sight to see. "They hit me with a rod or tied my hand to my body so I wouldn't use it, or just smacked it with whatever they had close," Pete said with a shrug once he was released. "Repeatedly. I kept forgetting at first, it just wasn't normal."
"That's terrible," Gwen said, her voice quiet. "It's just a hand, it doesn't have that much bearing on you as a person."
Pete shrugged. "I don't know, Gwen, I think I qualify as both a criminal and probably closer to something "evil" than the normal gentle right handed individual is."
Gwen hushed him, sticking out her tongue, and swatting at him gently in that order. "You are a hero and a good person, shut up with the criminal thing."
"Vigilantism is breaking the law, isn't it, Mr. Police Man, sir," Pete asked instead of answering her, looking to Jeff, and there was the barest hint of a tease in his voice and in his eyes, and Jeff scoffed. Rio could see the amusement in her husband's eyes though, his posture relaxed and open.
"Yes, and I'm aiding and abetting five of them right now," Jeff answered without heat, equally teasing.
"And we're all grateful for your kindness," Peni called out, smiling widely. Jeff sighed, before giving her a slight smirk.
"You're welcome."
Pete finally downed the pills with half of the water after Peni handed it to him, grimacing as he did so. The silence that rose up among them was heavy, the tension that had been dissipated due to a series of well-placed quips and words of solidarity turning bitter in the wake of the real questions. Rio took a breath, reaching out once again and clasping Pete's left hand in both of hers, holding it gently.
It was then that she felt it, his skin an odd texture against her palms, and she let go, holding his hand up to stare at the fingers closely, her eyes narrowing. Pete had stiffened, leaning away from her, even as his fingers tried to fist. She gave him a look, and he flinched, but relaxed his hand. Rio ran her fingers up his, feeling the puckered skin of old burn wounds, shifting his hand in the light to catch the faint scarring there that was revealed in soft gray shadows. The tackiness of the coating on the Motrin that had bled onto Pete's hand stuck to her, and Pete wouldn't meet her gaze, wouldn't meet anyone's.
The other Spiders were staring at him with slowly building shock on their faces, recognition, and alarm spreading through them. Rio paused, taking in Pete's expression, the way that he kept trying to pull back into himself, and let it go.
Now wasn't the time. Not now when there were so many other pressing things, not when he had barely had time to get used to the idea of them caring. Not when he was already being forced to reveal so much.
"Pete," she started softly, taking a deep breath, feeling the hand in hers ball into a fist, feeling the tension in his limb. "What can you tell us about what was here? What can you tell us about what it did?"
Pete looked up at her with wide eyes, shock and something quiet, something like gratefulness in his gaze. The other Spiders relaxed against him, gentle concern radiating from them, but also acceptance. They were already asking so much of him. This could wait. Pete was silent for a moment in the face of her question, in the face of his own surprise, but his eyes finally slid away from hers until he was looking at the ground. She let go of his hand, letting him curl it against his chest, protective.
"I don't know what it is, not really," he said softly, rallying quickly. "Like I said yesterday, Connors and I tried to find its name, what it was, where it came from, but it is either new, or so old and so unpredictable that no one knows what it is."
"Is it…normal in your world for these kinds of things to exist?" Peter B asked, spreading his free hand out, his head tilting as he looked at him. "Do you have people that research them? Are they like…Cthu-"
Pete put his hand over Peter B's mouth with sudden insistence, just barely avoiding unseating Peni. It was amazing how much dread a single motion could invoke in someone, Rio stiffening as she took in the wide eyes that focused on Peter B's face, the terror that she could see written in their depths, and felt as Jeff's hand found her shoulder and pulled her close, Miles grasped with the other.
"You don't say that name," Pete hissed. "You don't reference the Old Ones and you don't talk about the ones in the dark. You just accept them. That man toyed with stuff he didn't understand and spoke of stuff he knew less of. That name, that group? In my world it's an insult to what's actually out there among the ones that have actual contact with them, among the people like me."
"What…is actually out there?" Porker asked as Pete's hand came off of Peter B's mouth, his voice forcefully cheery. "Big Foot?" he asked, finally, when the silence stretched too long, and Pete gave him a Look. "I deserved that," Porker said, nodding.
"They're…Things," Pete finally settled for. "Creatures beyond understanding, I don't know how to describe them to people that have never really heard of them," Pete whispered finally, his eyebrows pinching together slightly. "They're just there, and most of the time they don't bother with us. Most of the time it's like being an insect, or a rat in a cage, or." He rubbed at his face, frustrated, Peni leaning closer to him. "Not everyone knows that they even exist. A lot of people, most people, go about without any idea. But there are some that," he hummed, "I want to say it's a range. Most of the time, the people that find out? The people that find out go insane. It's the natural reaction. It's the sane reaction."
"What does that make you?" Gwen asked, her voice holding a small semblance of humor, but there was fear in her eyes, fear in her voice.
"Attached," Pete answered without hesitation. "I'm literally attached to one. I might be insane, I don't know, or maybe it just broke down my resistance with familiarity. One of the first things that it did when it caught me was flood my being with it, and I just don't know. I don't know." There was anger creeping up under the words again, unacknowledged, unvoiced, frustration at the inevitable, at his own lack of knowledge, Rio wasn't entirely certain.
"What about the others that figure it out, the ones that don't go insane. Are they…like you?" Jeff asked. Pete was silent for a moment, organizing his thoughts, before he finally gave a heavy sigh.
"You have to understand that right now, in my world the only constant that people have is desperation, and recently people have been reaching. The things, they…" he hesitated, fighting for the words, "sometimes they answer," he hissed out, and his words were so quiet, so dread-soaked they stuck in her chest and rested there, horror heavy in her soul. "Most of the time I don't even think people expect an answer to come. Most of the time it's just because they're so desperate they'll try anything." He spread his hand to them, his expression unreadable. "I don't know why they answer, or what it is that they want in return, if it's that they want something at all!" Pete rubbed his temple, still squinting. "I don't know about them, not really. I know what people have written, and I've seen the drawings. I've seen them in dreams where they…" he trailed off.
"You see them in dreams?" For a moment there was a heavy silence as they watched him, Pete seemingly gathering himself.
"It's like being under a microscope," Pete finally whispered. "But they don't care about you. They don't really look at you, but you're still stripped bare before them, and if their gaze happens to just drift across you, if they so much as glance, it's like… You're flayed open, everything in you exposed and found wanting. You're nothing."
There was a long pause, before finally Porker leapt off of Pete's shoulder to stand on Peni's lap, looking up at Pete in the eye, his arms crossed.
"Alright, how aren't you a gibbering lunatic yet? If you're literally seeing into the Void…?"
"I'm from the Great Depression," Pete finally said, and his voice was tired. "I watched a man light himself on fire when I was five. I watched him run down the middle of the street screaming until he didn't have air left to scream with, until he finally burned out like a used match and fell to the ground a charred husk, and no one did a thing to stop it. I've seen people leap off buildings, I've seen them starve to death, I've seen babies thrown into the-" Peni put her hand on his mouth, her eyes wide and horrified, and Pete stilled. He looked down at her, looked at Miles, at Gwen, at Rio, and Jeff and Peter B, and Porker, and shrank into himself. "I'm sorry," he finally mumbled against her fingers, Peni taking her hand off of his mouth in order to hug him tightly. Gwen pressed against him heavily, finally twisting around so her own arms wrapped around them. Peter B stretched his long arm out, wrapping around her as well as Pete, and Porker finally just pressed against them all, his arms stretching out entirely too wide in order to engulf them all in a hug. "I'm sorry. I didn't think before I spoke. That's just the world that I live in. I'm used to it."
"You weren't kidding about the trauma, huh, kiddo?" Porker asked softly. Pete gave that pained, lopsided smile, but didn't say anything else. For a while they just held on, Rio thinking of the smell that came from burning flesh that would permeate the emergency ward at times, feeling as her husband pulled her in, pulled her close, Miles pressed against them as well. She pressed a kiss to her son's temple, and he leaned into it.
"Do you always dream of them?" Peni asked softly, finally, when the silence grew to be too much, slowly backing out of the hug, the others breaking away, too.
"When I don't dream of them, I dream of spiders," Pete replied.
"All the time?" she asked, her voice so horrified, so hushed.
Pete was silent for a moment, before he finally looked at her. "I didn't dream of spiders last night," he said. For a moment Rio didn't understand, and then she remembered the two of them in that hammock. Peni seemed to make the connection at the same time Rio did, because Peni beamed at him. "But we're not talking about my dreams," he said, clearing his throat and looking away. "We're talking about…" he rubbed his face. "I feel we got derailed, I'm sorry. I just don't know how to talk to you about it if you have no frame of reference for it."
"No, that's fine, it's good…" Jeff sighed. "It's good to understand, I don't think it's a derailment at all," Jeff said. "Context is critical."
"Right," Pete answered softly, rubbing at his eyes again.
"Do they still hurt?" Rio asked. "What did it do, can we focus on that for a moment, please?"
Pete hesitated, squinting up at her before finally nodding. "I'm sorry," he said. "I keep forgetting to answer that."
"That's fine, just…"
"Can I have my glasses, please?" Pete asked, holding his right hand out. Rio hesitated, looking at his right hand, and then back to him. That anger was still burning in her, the idea that they would beat him for something he couldn't help. No one deserved that, regardless of other privileges. After a pause he slowly held out his left, curling his right back towards him after Rio's pointed stare grew too much. "I'm going to get in trouble in my own dimension," he grumbled quietly.
Rio privately thought that he wasn't ever going back to his own dimension, but she wasn't going to bring that up yet. He took the glasses from her and put them on, giving Rio a very strong desire to get this kid to the optometrist at the sight of his beat up and broken glasses. Likely after he got a haircut. To Rio's surprise, his squinting got worse, and he flinched back, taking them off and actually glaring at them.
"Did you have glasses, Peter?" Pete asked softly, his voice holding irritation.
"I did, Peter," Porker responded, waving a hand in the air.
"I did, too, fellow Peters," Peter B echoed as well after giving Porker a look at the thought of a spider wearing glasses, "but they got fixed after the…" he paused, staring at Pete with wide eyes. "Oh."
"Oh wow, did it?" Porker asked, leaning up so he could peer into Pete's gray eyes with his blue, as though he could see what was wrong with them just by looking. Pete leaned back slightly, Peni giggling as she shoved Porker off of her lap. Porker retaliated by climbing back onto Pete's shoulder, turning Pete's head physically in order to peer into his eyes closely. Porker flinched back suddenly, a flash of surprise on his face.
"What did it do?" Rio asked, feeling as though she knew the answer, but…that couldn't be right, because that almost…
"It fixed my vision," Pete answered, his voice a low grumble, even as he stared into Porker's eyes with a frown.
"But that's like…nice?" Gwen asked, an eyebrow rising. "I don't…I don't understand, why would it be nice?"
"It only seems nice," Pete responded easily as Porker finally let go. "But that's only because I haven't found the catch yet, aside from the fact that I'm now dealing with all of the…colors without the buffer poor vision used to give me. And that's, of course, not counting the fact that it's a gift that comes with a price. They might have been poor, but they were mine. These don't feel like mine, and it's not just because of the fact that I can see clearly. They itch."
"Yeah, well…" Porker started; his voice quiet. "I um…might have gotten the spider wrong. But I was so sure! It…it fits, and the personality, and the um…" he cleared his throat.
There was a pause.
"What are you talking about?" Pete asked.
"So, I initially thought that you might…you know." Porker rubbed at the back of his head. "It seemed like you had a type that you were turning into. What with the way you're hesitant to use webbing, and the…well, mainly the jumping, and the personality that was like…very skittish? And the eyes. I've seen eyes like that when I talked to cousin Frank, and he was a Jumper. Three-times removed on my mother's side, naturally speaking. But…" He cleared his throat. "You wanna get that flashlight?"
Rio frowned, but Jeff immediately went to get it, leaving her colder. She watched Pete who sat completely still, his expression as blank as the void. Porker moved his hand to the back of his head, and leaned closer, whispering in his ear. The stage-whisper Rio had partially expected didn't come, his voice low and below her hearing. The other Spiders leaned closer to him, their own whispering murmurs rumbling. Jeff came back into the room holding the flashlight, and Porker pointed at him before he got too far.
"Wait! I need you to turn the lights off in here for me, okay?" Porker called out. Jeff blinked, but did what he was told, Miles immediately running over to close all the blinds in order to get the room as dark as it would go. Rio noticed immediately the way Pete's pupils dilated. While the others did the same at the sudden darkness, as expected, Pete's had gone wider. There was still silver around his pupils, but it was thin, a bit like how it had looked when the Spider God had been in her living room. Whether that was lingering effects from the initial change, or this was simply the new normal, she didn't know. It worried her.
Jeff and Miles both returned to her side, Jeff still holding that flashlight. Jeff leaned into her for a moment, drawing warmth, drawing strength, and she leaned into him, doing her best to give it to him, and to receive in return, drawing Miles into it as well.
"Can you do an eye-check with that flashlight, please?" Porker asked.
Jeff gave a brief nod, before clicking the flashlight on.
"Alright, Pete," Jeff said, clearing his throat. "Can I have you look right here, please?" he asked, holding the flashlight up level with his head, angled slightly to the right so the beam shone over Gwen's head, and a good foot over them, to keep from shining the beam directly in anyone's eyes. His voice had fallen into what Rio recognized as his 'cop voice.' She understood the default tone as it was something that he was simply trained to do, but she also had a feeling that Pete would not appreciate it. Sure enough, Pete's expression slid towards irritated, but he complied and looked up at the beam. "Alright, now just track it with your eyes," Jeff said, and his voice had gentled. Pete followed the light as it slid evenly across the couch towards him, and Rio wasn't sure he would have passed a field sobriety test should this actually be one.
His pupils dragged slightly, and if they were judging by size of pupils, Pete would definitely have been marked by her husband as a drug user, not the exhausted, emotionally drained young man he actually was. Her husband hated these tests. He often complained about them bitterly to her. There were so many differing factors involved. Though no one with the kind of impairment she was seeing should be driving, there were so many more explanations… And one of those would get a person put into jail for longer than they ever should and a black mark on their record that wouldn't come off.
All thought stopped at the sudden white flash that glowed in Pete's eyes as they caught the beam of the flashlight when it came level with him. The other Spiders caught it and stared in wide-eyed shock.
Jeff paused, staring at that glint, and moved his flashlight back the way it came, before shining it towards Pete again.
Pete's pupil had entirely whited out, a bright reflected light shining back at them, and suddenly she knew what had been done. Suddenly she knew why they itched and why Porker had wanted the flashlight to be used.
Eyeshine.
"So…maybe it was a wolf spider," Porker said, clearing his throat. "In my defense, I've met one maybe once. And he was…a jerk, no offense, Pete, but that's very classic to them." He paused, "also Jumpers can see in ultraviolet, did you know? And you know what that would have meant, Pete?"
Pete raised an eyebrow at him, prompting.
"Everything would have been pur~ple," Porker sing-songed, and Pete pushed him off the back of the couch to a bright burst of laughter from the other Spiders. There was an inside joke there that she didn't know, but she was glad they had it. Porker climbed back up and sat on his shoulder again, grinning. "You know you love me," he teased, and Pete glared up at him. Tellingly, however, he let him stay there. "Anyway, yeah. What you have is classic wolf spider."
"What is?" Pete asked grudgingly.
"I think you're going to find a vast improvement in your night vision, bud…" Peter B said softly. "You got a bit of eyeshine going on…"
"Eyeshine?" Pete asked. He glanced at Peter B, a slight frown on his mouth. Miles suddenly left her side, running into his room as Jeff turned off the flashlight. Miles returned with his phone, skidding to a halt in front of the couch before turning his attention to Pete.
"Look this way!" he called out, Pete immediately turning his attention to Miles. Miles held up his phone after turning it to the camera app, zooming in enough to focus on Pete's face, and turning on the flash, before taking a photo. The bright light caused the people on the couch to give a brief complaint, but when Miles hurried over with his phone, turning it around so they could see the picture, all irritation vanished. Rio watched Pete's face as he took in the sight before him, taking in the picture of the Spiders all looking vaguely worried, and Pete's eyes glowing bright in the reflected light of the flash.
For a moment there was stunned silence, before Pete asked something she didn't expect.
"This is a camera?" Pete asked, his voice quietly shocked. Miles looked as though he hadn't been expecting that question either and he shrugged.
"Well, technically! It's also a phone, and it connects to…did you get to see the internet when you were first here?" Miles asked, but his hold on his phone tightened, and he pulled it closer to him. Pete frowned slightly, finally looking up to meet Miles' gaze, and Rio watched as Pete's eyebrows pinched together slightly at whatever it was that he saw there. "But…Pete…the eye thing," Miles said softly, "You haven't…it changed your eyes, Pete. Are you okay with that? Is it…I mean, you said the only visible mutation it's done are the ones on your wrists? This is visible. Is it…is it taking more? Will it start to hurt you?"
"Why…" Pete started, and then seemed to really take in her mijo's expression. Miles had been quiet the entire time, watching with wide eyes, and concern written all over his face, this being the first time he had actually said anything, and there apparently had been much that he had wanted to say. Pete's expression shifted. "You're worried," he said, his voice holding quiet realization, and something like surprise, and that hurt to hear.
"Yes!" Miles burst out. "I mean… It… I've never seen…" her mijo hesitated, his voice trailing off as he rubbed the back of his head. "Pete, your eyes, you bled…there was so much blood, and you…you scuttled backwards over the couch! Your eyes were completely black, you looked like a horror movie monster! I…I thought you wouldn't come back! I thought I'd have to get Porker to teach me how to tap properly so I could talk to you! I thought…" Miles voice cracked slightly, and he trailed off.
Pete's expression had shifted as he spoke, and he finally whispered, "I worried you."
"Well, yeah?" Miles said, before shaking his head, "you scared me! I thought you were…I thought that was it. I didn't know what was happening! I thought it snapped you up and that…and that you wouldn't come back."
"I'm sorry," Pete said finally, quietly, and the words were addressed to all of them, meeting everyone's gaze for a moment before moving on. "I've had over a year to get used to this. I've gotten used to the blood, to the…" he sighed, rubbing at his face. "Miles, there's always blood, and there's always pain. This was the first time that I blacked out completely, though, I will admit that. I think the reason for that was because the change was so close to my brain it took me a while to come back. Besides, if it took me over, you would definitely know. There wouldn't be any time for doubts. Usually I do remain coherent through the change and afterwards, even if I might do something I'm initially not certain of the reason for. As for a physical change, I'm not actually that worried. There's seven of you. That's a lot of souls to cover, and that's what I did. I don't think it's grabbing more of me because it's just gotten greedy, or something."
"So, seven people equals eyes, and a nebulous amount of soul," Jeff said, his voice falsely light. Pete didn't seem to catch the tone, however, his eyes fixing on her husband.
"It gave me webbing after I tried to save two-hundred people and almost failed," Pete answered quietly. "Two-hundred people was enough to tear my body apart and twist my bodily makeup in order to allow it to produce silk and recycle the protein I take in into more silk. But I still don't know how that equates to the souls of two-hundred people. You'd think if it was that many I wouldn't exist anymore, and yet here I am." There was a pause, his mouth twisting down at the corners. "I don't think it values human souls," he finally whispered. "I don't think it values our existence. Whatever it takes from me, I think it takes so little because it finds what I'm trying to save worthless."
There was another silence, this one brittle, stretching out for so long it was almost a physical thing between them.
"I'm sorry," Pete finally whispered, holding his hands out to them, looking almost pleading. "I think you're worth more than that, too, but…"
"No, no!" Jeff responded, finally reaching out. Pete flinched back slightly, pulling his hands away, Jeff immediately standing back. Pete paused, staring at him, but Jeff continued without hesitation. "Pete, no, I'm not saying that…" he sighed, "I'm sorry. That was a bad joke, and I shouldn't have said it. I'm glad it didn't take anything else from you. I'm glad that you're still you and it didn't steal your soul completely to give us protection. If the reason it decided to slight us is because it doesn't think humanity is worth it, then you know what? Good. Do you hear me, Pete? Good. I'm sorry I even implied otherwise; you don't deserve that. You shouldn't have even been put into the position you have been in the first place where you have to…to literally barter pieces of yourself away. You don't deserve that and I'm sorry, would you forgive me for the implications?"
Pete hesitated staring at him closely, before finally giving a jerky nod.
"Okay," Pete answered softly. "Okay. I…forgive you."
"Thank you," Jeff said warmly, inclining his head to him. "Now I have one more question, and this one is really important." Pete stared up at him, expression serious, his eyes focused. "Will it come back?" Jeff asked finally, staring at Pete with intense eyes, his mouth pulled into a tight frown. "Can it come back?"
Pete stared up at him in surprise, before finally shaking his head. "No. It made a deal, it took what it wanted from me so, it won't come back."
"Are you sure?" Jeff asked. "I…look, I don't want to make it seem like I don't trust your word, but it's just…" He rubbed at his head, and finally sighed. "Pete, I'm going to be honest with you. Today, that…what it did to you? That was…one of the most frightening things I've ever seen in my life, and I couldn't do anything to help you or to help my family and I just…I'm not used to that. I need to know, Pete, I need to know that it won't hurt my family."
Pete stared at him before shifting Peni and Porker off him, giving a quiet apology, and finally standing on his feet. He swayed slightly, and Jeff went to catch him, but Pete pulled back, forcing his back to straighten. Rio watched this with a hollow feeling in her stomach, seeing the two of them standing across from each other like that. Pete wasn't that tall, hitting Peter B's height of 5'10" with none of the padding, he looked small standing before her husband, deceptively fragile. Pete still did his best to meet his eyes, his mouth pulled into a thin line, either in concentration or pain.
"I've done this many times now," Pete said finally when he was no longer shaky. "Many times, where the thing I was trading was for someone else's safety, to get it to go away, or to have the strength or the ability to save someone I couldn't. It didn't come back to this Peter's Aunt May's house, and…"
"Wait! You did it at Aunt May's house? But…why would it come here if you did it when we were there?" Peter B asked.
"Because I did it for the house, not the people inside of the house," Pete answered, turning his head to look at Peter B, his eyes serious. "The house…" he paused as he tried to figure out how to explain, his mouth pulling into a slight frown, "it's a location," he finally settled on, "it's not as big of a sacrifice as it would be for the people inside of it. With people it's basically my soul for theirs. The um…chunk is bigger," Pete answered, squinting slightly at the word choice, but apparently not thinking of a better one. "I thought, when I first got here, when I first met everyone, I originally thought that I'd never see you again. So, it was safer for me to focus on the location itself, which was still keeping everyone safe, since we'd made Aunt May's our base of operations, and even if it followed us to the Kingpin's hideout I'd be gone by then, and it would follow. Things have changed, I guess, for lack of a better word, and I don't think that that's really acceptable anymore." He finally turned back to her husband, his expression quietly earnest. "I want to keep your family safe, Mr. Davis. I wouldn't knowingly endanger them. I haven't…I've never seen it that close since I changed. I didn't think it would get that close or I would have been more adamant about leaving earlier."
"Okay," Jeff said, softly. "Okay, I trust you, I believe you, now…sit down before you fall down, please. And it's Jeff, Jeff is fine."
Pete sunk back into the spot they had left for him on the couch, and they immediately crowded back around him.
"But what about the wind?" Peni asked softly, quietly, staring at him. "If you did it for the house, why the wind?"
"Sometimes it really is just wind, Peni," Pete answered softly, his voice heavy. "It really does follow me, and it does smell like rain. It's…" he paused, frowning. "I think it's a sign that it's attached. The wind and the rain follow me, and it follows a lot of the other people that have been turned, too. It's like a warning, I think, that the person you're talking to isn't quite right. As for telling when it's around, well, when it gets dark, when they won't spot us, I'll show you how to find it. I'll show you how to know when it's close."
There was a heavy pause, Peni finding that area between his collarbone and his neck and slotting her chin there, her arms tight around him. Gwen pressed her face against his side, her arms tight around them both. Porker's hand firmly rested on the top of Pete's head, but his gaze was distant. Peter B had a similar far-away look, his mouth a tight line, even as he shifted enough to wrap the kids in his arms.
Peters, Rio noted, relatively small in stature, really gangly limbs. Spider-like. A small smile pulled at her mouth, watching them as they cuddled into each other. Peni nuzzled into Pete closer, her forehead coming up to press under his chin, when she paused.
Peni pulled back, staring at his throat with her eyes squinted. A moment later she let out a gasp, reaching a hand up towards his throat. Pete jerked back, pressing into the couch and Peni pulled her hand back lightning fast.
"I'm sorry!" Peni called out, "I didn't mean to startle you!" She had her hands suddenly pressed to her mouth, her eyes wide and afraid. "I shouldn't have reached like that," she said, "I just…" she paused. "Pete, who cut you?"
"That's a loaded question," Pete answered with a scoff, his eyes not meeting hers. Peni's mouth pulled into a frown.
"Who cut you here?" She stressed, and this time she managed to press her hand on his throat. The other Spiders stared, leaning in to see it properly, Peni drawing a line across his neck with her thumb. It stretched from ear to ear, and Rio felt her heart stop.
Peter B reached out carefully, running his own thumb along the area Peni indicated, and blanched. Peter B readjusted so he could lean closer, carefully tilting Pete's head back. Jeff turned the lights back on, and there, running just above Pete's Adam's apple which bobbed in a nervous swallow, was a scar. It was old, it looked like, though with their healing there was no way to be sure, a white line that almost completely blended in with the white of his skin, more texture than anything. It was almost little wonder they hadn't seen it, if Peni hadn't pressed against it, there was almost no way that they would have.
"I didn't even see it," Peter B whispered, shock in his voice. "What…how?"
Rio walked forward then, kneeling before them, her own hand reaching out to gently feel the scar, her heart in her throat. It cut through his larynx, all the way across his neck, and there was fear in her heart. That was so close to his arteries, and with the medicine in the 1930s, with everything that she had heard…
"How are you still alive?" Rio whispered, staring up into gray eyes that looked at her closely. "This would have…how are you still alive?"
"I don't think it will let me die," Pete whispered softly. "It was a Nazi. I hadn't been careful. I got too close. He got a lucky break and I got caught and I thought I was going to die. I'd never seen so much blood until it came pouring out of me and I…" Rio took her hand away from his throat, letting him lower his head back down, look her in the eye properly, taking his left hand in hers instead. "It closed up. Healed, just like that, and I got the knife, and stabbed the Nazi, and then I ran. I passed out and when I woke up I could…" he hesitated and then put his other arm against her sleeve. Rio watched as he pulled his arm back and away, and her shirt came with his skin, the sudden realization that he was sticking to her without using his hands hitting her at the same time as it hit everyone else. "I don't think it's turning me into a particular spider, Porker," Pete said, looking at him, and blue eyes stared into gray, the blue filled with surprised awe. "I think it's just fucking with me. I think it's just…" he took a breath.
"Do you know what a spider does when it doesn't have enough food?" Pete asked, looking at Porker in particular.
"It…goes to the store," Porker answered softly, his eyebrows pinching together.
Pete snorted, grinning that lopsided grin at him. "Maybe in your world. You know what it does in mine? What it probably does in yours?" He looked at the others then, his eyes dark. Peter B shifted, his expression hovering just on the edge of unease. Rio could tell that he knew. "It takes what prey its managed to get, and it makes it last. It draws out maybe a little bit from them week after week until there's nothing left and it's completely dry, and only then does it leave." His grin was wide at that point, a sharp, twisted thing that was more like a grimace. "They call me the Spider in my world, did you know? No 'Man' at the end, just the Spider. It's a lie," he said, and his voice was grim, the smile dying, his grey eyes hard as flint. "I'm not a spider. I'm a fly. And it's draining me dry. Bit. By. Bit."
It was like a pit opened up in her stomach, dread and horror filling her soul as she stared into those eyes that held such fear in them, such dread, and mixed in with the dread was nothing more or less than the deepest resignation. There was an immediate protest called up by the other Spiders, Gwen tightening her grip on him as Peter B opened his mouth to say something, anger and desperate fear in his face, even as Porker gripped his fist in Pete's hair as though that could keep him from going anywhere. Peni pressed her face into his shoulder, and Rio became aware of Miles suddenly next to her, putting his hand on Pete's knee and saying something she couldn't hear, his eyes wide and wild.
"Wait!" Jeff suddenly called out, his voice the kind that brokered no argument and drew immediate attention. They turned, meeting his gaze as one, and Jeff took a step forward. He crouched down to be eye-level with Pete, staring deep into gray eyes. "Wait," he repeated softer, staring at him. "Pete, I have a question, and I want you to answer honestly."
"Okay," Pete agreed softly, keeping his gaze locked.
"You said that it can't come near us now, is that correct?" Jeff asked.
"Yes, it won't come near you," Pete answered, that gaze sharpening as he seemed to pour sincerity into it, his voice clear. She wondered, idly, if the reason for the difference in his voice to Peter B's and her Peter's voice came from that gash, scar-tissue building up even with the healing and thickening his voice.
"Okay," Jeff said. "Then why don't you stay here."
Pete blinked, and Rio snapped her head around to look at her husband immediately, sudden joy leaping into her heart. "What?" Pete finally asked, his voice sharp.
"No, wait, listen." Jeff took a breath, "you said that it won't come near us, which means technically…if you're with us, it can't be with you. If you're with us, then it can't get close enough to take more away from you." Jeff paused. "I know this is sudden, and if you'd prefer to go with the other Spiders, that's… Actually, maybe there's another idea, maybe we could rotate," he looked at the others, made eye contact with the ones that were beginning to lean forward, expressions moving towards hopeful. "I have to work, and so does Rio, and Miles has school, and while you could potentially enroll in his academy you wouldn't be in the same grade so you wouldn't be near him enough of the day to keep you out of harm's way. You can't follow Rio to the hospital, and I don't think you'd prefer to go with me to the station with all of those cops. When we have to work, you could go with Porker, or Peter B, or Gwen, or Peni…I'm sure they'd be happy to have you. You'd be safe."
Rio felt like singing. She felt like jumping for joy, like somehow twirling her husband around in a circle and screaming to the whole of the city that she had the most brilliant man on the planet as her husband, and she was so proud. It was perfect, it was brilliant. Peter B and the others had straightened up, eyes wide with understanding, expressions twisting to something hopeful, something delighted. There was agreement on every face, all of them turning to look at Pete, all of them willing.
Pete…didn't look as enthused as she thought he would. His expression was thoughtful, and she could tell he hadn't rejected it entirely, but there was a hesitance in him.
"I can't just…" Pete hesitated, and finally rubbed at his face. "Look, I appreciate it. That might even work, but I can't just abandon my world like that. Not counting the fact that if this thing breaks my atoms will basically tear apart," his voice trailed off, shaking his wrist and the 'goober' that was on it before finally spreading his hands out, his expression quietly irritated, a thin line between his eyebrows. "I have a duty," he tried, "a…job, a…"
"Responsibility," Jeff said softly, and Rio watched Peter B's expression fall, something quietly disturbed in his eyes.
"Yes," Pete finally agreed quietly. "I have a responsibility to my world and to my time and to my people. I can't just abandon them like that."
Jeff sighed, rubbing at his face. "I didn't think I'd ever grow to dislike that word…" he hesitated. "But Pete, really. Do you…do you have to be the one that does it? Don't you have any other heroes in your world? What…do they really need you?"
Pete stared at him for a moment, his gray eyes dark, and Rio had a sudden realization that Jeff had made a mistake.
"My world has heroes, yes," Pete agreed. "But this is my fight, too. It's just as much my fight as their fight. Look." He sighed. "There's a system and all of us are integral to a part of it. I can't just abandon them. It's not like." He paused, frowned. "Everyone's integral. We all have a job to do, something that we specialize in."
"But you also don't want to endanger them, right?" Porker asked. "If it's taking you piece by piece then the best thing to do would to make sure that it can't take bits of you, and if that's by coming with us…" he put his hand on Pete's head. "Look, kid, I don't know how well my world would take an actual human walking around, but you'd be welcome in my home anytime, alright? You have the ability to call now, so if you let me know when you're coming, I'd be happy to have you," he stressed heavily, looking at the other Spiders and glaring at them.
Pete looked between him and the other Spiders, an eyebrow rising. "What…?"
"Don't ask," came the loud chorus from the other Spiders, all of them looking away from Porker pointedly.
Pete narrowed his eyes at them but didn't ask.
"The idea here, though," Peter B stressed, and bringing them back on track. "Is that it's okay to take breaks. In fact, in this case it's more preferable to take breaks than it is to not, you know? Because…your breaks actually involve you not being food for a Spider God thing, and that's a good thing. I'm not saying give up Spider-Man, or…the Spider, or whatever it is that they call you, but I am saying…you have a space with me if you'd like it, just call."
Pete was silent for a moment, shrinking in the kind of way that made Rio suspect he wasn't going to call.
So, she pulled out her trump card.
"Pete, listen to me," she said, her voice softly insistent, and he looked at her immediately. "I meant what I said when I first cleaned your stitches. You come to me." Pete blinked, his mouth opening as though he was going to protest. "No, Peter Benjamin Parker, listen to me. You will come to me. If you can't get a hold of me, you will go to Peter B, or you will go to the Aunt May here. All of us will be safe from that…thing, and you won't have to worry about awful 1930s medicine. Speaking of, if you get sick, you come here, too. I don't care if you think it won't let you die. If you don't have to suffer unnecessarily, don't. Come to us." She watched his eyes as they narrowed slightly, watched that thin line between his eyebrows. "Promise me, Peter," she pressed. "Promise me you will come to us." She took his hands in hers again, staring into his eyes.
Pete stared at her, before he gave a final sharp nod. "Okay," he said finally. "I promise."
The relief that spread through her was like a cool rain on a scorching hot summer's day. It soothed her and she could tell by the way that the other Spiders sagged that it relieved them as well. He still looked rather tense, but Peter B patted his back lightly, smiling at him.
"Really, kid, it'll make everyone feel better if you did. I know that MJ and I would…" Peter B froze. Rio watched Peter B with curiosity that soon turned into worry as about a hundred different emotions flashed across his face which simultaneously highlighted just how expressive Peter's face could be, as well as how static Pete's was. Everything he felt was in his eyes and absolutely nowhere else. To her further shock all of the other kids turned to look at Peter B with wide-eyed surprise, Porker wincing sharply, even as Peter B put both hands to his mouth, his brown eyes widening. "MJ," he hissed out sharply, horror and so much despair poured into that one singular word that it made Rio's heart skip a beat in sympathy.
"What's wrong?" Jeff asked, reaching out, putting a hand on his knee. "What happened?"
"I left her on a building, and I didn't come back." He looked about ready to cry. "It's been a day!"
"I'm sure it'll be okay," Jeff assured him, Rio trading a glance with him in confusion. Peter had been married to an MJ in their universe, hadn't he? Maybe that was why he was so upset?
"I'm sure she'll understand once you explain. Jeff and I have had our fair share of spats, but we always get through it. Besides, you had reason. So much happened, Peter B, I'm sure she wouldn't blame you," Rio added, and her voice was injected with all of the patience her long years perfecting her bedside manner had bestowed her.
"But we didn't," Peter B managed through his hands. "We broke it off, we split. We…"
Rio traded glances with her husband, mounting alarm spreading through her.
"But…if you broke it off, then…why?" Jeff asked him, an eyebrow rising.
"She took me back, she gave me another chance, and I didn't even let her know what was happening…"
Rio gave a sharp nod, standing upright. "Don't just sit there, come on, up, on your feet." She took his wrists as his hands were otherwise occupied and pulled him upright, extracting him from the other Spiders that all stood up as well, crowding around him and reassuring him that things would be okay. Without hesitation, Rio headed back towards the kitchen and the leftovers that were still there, even after being mostly demolished by a roomful of hungry Spiders. Gathering a few Tupperware she carefully deposited a healthy serving of the remainder of breakfast, making sure to put a healthy dollop of sour cream in another of the containers just in case she didn't have the same spice tolerance that her…ex-husband? boyfriend? did.
She came back into the room carrying the plastic containers to see her husband talking Porker through an outfit. Nothing too fancy so as to not put her on the spot, but nothing that said, 'I don't think you're worth getting dressed up over.' What they finally came up with was thrust into Peter B's lax hands, and Jeff pushed him towards the bathroom. Porker pulled out a bouquet of flowers next with prompting from the kids. It was bright and colorful, and just on the edge of being too cartoonish, but they were also lovely, and it would have warmed Rio's heart in particular to receive them, so she pronounced it good when they asked her opinion as a wife.
Peter B finally came out of the bathroom woodenly, still looking a bit like he was going to fall apart, but much more presentable in a pair of black slacks, some nice shoes, and a button-up. Rio nodded in approval before she handed him the flowers and the Tupperware. Miles came over carrying Peter B's folded and laundered spider-suit, sticking it in his arms as well, underneath everything else in order to hide it somewhat.
"You get back home, you call us immediately," Rio said, taking his face in her hands and looking deep into his eyes. "Do you hear me, Peter B? You call us. Let us explain as well, we'll make sure she understands just what a help you've been to us. We could never have taken care of these kids without you, you've been integral, do you understand?" Peter B nodded in her hands and she smiled at him. "Good, now go over there and apologize. We'll hold the fort. Pete needs to stay with us for at least two more days before he goes back to his own world." She didn't look at Pete as she said this, ignoring the way his body stiffened. "He's lost too much blood for me to even think of letting him go now, and I still want to make sure that there won't be any other lingering effects."
"Okay," Peter B agreed finally, and he looked at them all, taking a deep breath. "Okay." He looked at her and then looked at Jeff, his eyes wide and earnest. "Thank you," he said to both of them with such sincerity it made Rio's heart swell.
"No problem, thank you, now shoo, sweep her off her feet, give her all of our love, and call when you can," Rio smiled at him.
"Good luck," Jeff said, putting a single hand on his shoulder and grinning at him wide. "It'll be alright."
Peter B nodded, and looked to Peni, who blinked in sudden understanding.
"Oh! I forgot, I made those modifications, you don't know how to go back home now!" She reached out for his watch and when he held his arm out she took it, and talked him through how to return to his own dimension. Peter B watched with sharp eyes, before finally nodding. He gave everyone one last hug, thanked them one more time, and then twisted his watch to the proper setting, and pressed the face down.
Just like that, empty space stood where Peter B once had leaving Jeff and herself in a room full of teenagers.
And a Pig.
It was going to be a long day, but it would be worth it. They had a plan, she had a promise, and she would get Pete to stay for as long as she could force him, and she would also make sure that Peter B wasn't punished for something he couldn't help.
The only place to go was up.