Eddie slowly walked up to his front door, taking out his house key from his pocket. Inserting it into the lock and twisting, he pushed open the door.
"Anne, I'm home!" he called out as he stepped in, closed the door behind him and removed his shoes.
"Oh my goodness," Anne said as she came around the corner. "Where have you been?"
"Oh, just the usual these days," Eddie said. "Out there trying to make some headway, hopefully get a breakthrough in this story that I've been working on."
His wife came up to him, giving him a kiss and a hug, which he gladly reciprocated after the long day that he'd had.
"Well, any luck?" Anne asked after they separated.
"No," he replied dejectedly, a little bit of frustration evident in his tone. "Spider-Man came in and busted the whole thing up, then the police came and took them all away, but there's still no indicators about who might be manning this whole thing."
"Babe, you've been working on this story for months," Anne reminded him as the two walked away from the door and towards their living room. "Maybe it's time to take a step back."
"Okay, I'll do that when you do," Eddie answered her.
"My job is a little different, since, you know, my only concern is legal stuff," Anne explained. "You're a reporter, and a great one at that. Also, aren't you, like, one of your boss's favorites or whatever? I'm sure you could get just about any other story out there if you ask."
Eddie dropped his bag next to him as he took a seat at the end of the table, with Anne bringing him a meal she'd kept warm for him when he got home. He muttered a quick but genuine thank you to her before he continued.
"I mean, not to brag or anything, but you're probably not too far off. I don't know though Anne, it's just...ever since you and Mary Jane got kidnapped last year, I've just wondered if there's more that I could be doing with my platform to properly help, you know? All I've been doing since my time at the Bugle has been to go after a story as it's come up, but then I thought, what if I actually go after a story, something big that could really make a difference?"
"Trying to expose a crime lord that may or may not even exist isn't the only way that you can use your platform to help people, Eddie," Anne assured him. "There are all kinds of other human-interest stories out there. I mean, we live in New York City of all places; something is always happening around here. Also, you know that weren't kidnapped by a mobster or something, right? It was literally a Russian version of Tarzan."
Eddie finished chewing and swallowing his first bite of food before responding.
"I know that Anne, but still, just imagine if I could make a breakthrough in this," he said. "Plus, if I could find real, hard physical evidence against this guy, then it would also be a huge breakthrough for you and make your job easier as well, right?"
His wife smiled; Eddie had given up a long time ago trying to be particularly discreet about appealing to her in ways like this. She'd always known how to read him, and her expression was already giving him an idea of how she would respond.
"As much as I would appreciate something like that, putting away gangsters and mob bosses isn't as large a part of my job as you're making it sound," Anne explained.
"I know," Eddie replied, "but I think my point still stands."
He looked down as he cut another bite of his food, but when his eyes returned to his wife, Eddie observed a more sober, sympathetic look in her expression.
"What?"
His wife slowly reached over, grabbing his hand with her own.
"I can't tell you what to do," she finally spoke up, "but just think about it, okay? Look at it this way: you've been at this story for a while now, with no major breakthroughs. Maybe taking on a different story or two for a while might actually help you come back to this one later with some fresh ideas about how to tackle this thing."
Eddie sighed. He adjusted his hand to properly accept his wife's hand into his own. For a moment, he just stared at their joined hands, running his thumb softly back and forth over her knuckles.
"I'll think about it," he finally conceded. "I'll talk to Robbie in the morning and see if there's anything that I might be interested in taking on for now, but that doesn't mean I'm going to drop this entirely."
Anne smiled, letting out a light huff.
"I guess I'll have to take that," she said. "I just know how you can be once you get really into a story."
Eddie pretended to scoff.
"I don't know what you're talking about," he joked.
"Uh huh," Anne replied, giving him an all too familiar look of feigned annoyance.
"Also, thank you for the food," he replied. "I really didn't mean to be out so long."
"Of course," Anne assured him. "Someone's got to take care of you, since you don't seem to want to take care of yourself."
Eddie rolled his eyes.
"Alright, I promise that I'll be more careful out there," he said. "Does that you feel better?"
"A little," Anne replied. "Now I just need to wait a week and see if it ends up being true or not.
Eddie shook his head, cutting another bite of food for himself.
His woman really did know him so well.
Peter came over to Eddie's desk, prompting his friend to look up at him.
"What?" the man asked. "Your pal Spidey call and tell you about what happened last night?"
"Umm...no," Peter muttered, feigning curiosity. "We're not exactly best friends. You do have me curious now though."
"Oh, long story short I just got in a little over my head last night," the man confessed. "He might have had to bail me out of it."
"Where were you last night?" Peter questioned, again feigning curiosity. "Hot on the trail of the next Kingpin?"
"Not really," Eddie explained. "It was just another weapons deal, although they were definitely selling some much more explosive stuff than normal. Nobody talked or anything, as usual."
"You don't sound as disappointed as I would have expected," Peter replied cocking his head as his curiosity suddenly grew more genuine. Despite his concerns about Eddie's growing interest in the criminal element of the city, he'd often check in to see what he had. Normally when he reported a lack of anything new, he'd sound either slightly saddened or annoyed, but this time he seemed more resigned than upset.
"Anne and I had a good conversation last night," Eddie elaborated. "We talked about my investigation and how I might need a break from it. At first I only agreed to go along with it to make her happy, but when I thought about it, she actually makes a good point. Shaking things up might be good for me, so I talked to the big boss this morning, and we worked something out."
"Really?" Peter questioned. "Well, don't keep me in suspense; what new story will you be chasing for the foreseeable future?"
"Actually, I'll be doing an opinion piece," Eddie clarified.
"Hmm," Peter muttered. "For someone who has as many opinions as you do, I don't think I've ever heard you talk about doing one before."
"That's exactly why I hadn't," Eddie replied. "I was afraid of coming off too strong."
"Wow, that's very self-aware of you," Peter said, his tone half teasing and half earnest.
"You know what though, I think it will be good for me," Eddie said. "It'll let me try something new, get out of my comfort zone a little bit, you know?"
"Depends on what you're writing about," Peter said. "Because if you're writing about anything sports related, I can already picture exactly how it will read."
"Ha ha," Eddie replied. "Actually, after being saved by the man himself last night, I'm writing about none other than New York's favorite wall crawling hero."
Peter could feel his eyes widen; this was certainly an interesting development.
"Spider-Man?" he questioned. "Everyone writes about him here though, or at least it seems that way."
"Ah, but an opinion piece actually hasn't been written on him for a while now," Eddie explained, "and I plan on putting my own personal twist on it."
"Really?" Peter inquired, his curiosity now higher than ever.
"Ah ah ah," Eddie replied, waving his finger. "I'm afraid there will be no sneak previews or anything like that, my friend. You will just have to wait and read it for yourself when it hits the presses, just like everybody else."
Peter raised his hands in defeat.
"Fine," he conceded. "Well, I'm taking my lunch break, but I'll be back later if you change your mind."
"Mary Jane meeting you somewhere?" Eddie inquired, clearly opting to ignore Peter's attempts at pressing the issue.
"I'm actually bringing it to her," he said. "It sounds like things are a bit crazy at the new store today, so I think she plans to squeeze in a meal somewhere in between everything."
"Well, tell her I said good luck," Eddie said. Peter nodded before heading for the elevator. As he descended the building and eventually made his way out of the door, his thoughts lingered onto Eddie's new piece on his alter ego that would soon be forthcoming. He didn't know why, but for some reason, the idea made him nervous. Maybe it was that Eddie was one of the few people in the city who didn't seem to either love or hate Spider-Man, or maybe it was that the thought of his friend writing something negative about him would disappoint him on a personal level, even though the man had no clue that it was really him behind the mask.
As he made his way to the sandwich place, Peter shook the thoughts from his head. Really, it was ridiculous to worry about something so trivial as a random newspaper piece on him, even if it was being written by a friend. While there were times that he had openly voiced criticism of Spider-Man's actions, he'd always gotten the sense that the man respected the good that came from his presence in the city. If anything, he'd give a fair and balanced piece, something that Peter had counted himself lucky to get over the years.
After picking up his fiancé's food, Peter made his way over to her new store. When he arrived just outside the entrance to the place, he saw so many people in there that it was hard to even see the racks of clothing that were throughout the store. Opening the door, Peter slid himself in, slowly weaving his way around the customers as he searched the place for M.J. He couldn't seem to locate her, so he made his way over to the counter, making sure to stay far enough away from the absurdly long checkout line so as not to confuse anyone into thinking he was a part of it.
"Oh thank goodness," M.J. said, suddenly appearing seemingly out of nowhere and tearing open the bag, immediately digging into the sandwich. "You're a lifesaver."
"It's what I'm here for," Peter replied, observing as his normally more polite and lady-like fiancé scarfed down her food like she hadn't eaten in days. She eventually made her way into the back storage area, where he followed her in.
"Looks like opening day is a success so far," he spoke up.
"Mmm," M.J. said, waving her finger as she practically fought to swallow her most recent bite. "That's just what it looks like. When I first got here to open, the power was out, so I had to get that figured out. Also, my initial worker for the counter called in sick, so I had to get one of the other girls to cover for her, and if that wasn't enough, an extra shipment of our most popular pajama pants was supposed to be here already, and we're running out of stock!"
"Wow," Peter muttered. "That's...a lot."
"Yeah," M.J. concurred after another bite. "Oh, and I had to break up a fight earlier between two ladies that wanted the exact same pair of jeans in a certain size, so that was fun."
"And to think, I use to tease you that your job sounded boring," Peter quipped, producing a small smile from his fiancé's face. He then realized that she was already taking the last bite of her sandwich.
"I'm sorry that I can't talk more, but I really need to get back out there," she explained as she approached him.
"It's okay," he said. "Just don't work too hard."
"No promises," M.J. replied. "See you tonight?"
"I'll have the movie in and the couch pillows all fluffed up," Peter assured her.
His fiancé then gave him a kiss before heading back out into the store.
"Colonel Jameson, this is home base checking in. Do you copy?"
"This is Colonel Jameson," John replied. "How are things down there on big blue?"
"We're fine down here, but how are you?" the voice on the other end replied. "We haven't heard from you in a while, so the big bosses wanted me to check in and make sure everything is okay."
"Yeah, sorry about the extended radio silence there for a while," John explained. "I tried to make contact earlier, but I must have caught you on your lunch break. Anyway, we simply needed to take some extra precautions. The big bosses will probably be happy to know that we're bringing in a special package for them though."
"Oh, and what might that be?" the voice back home questioned. "Did you discover some little green men up there or something?"
John let out a light chuckle. His sense of humor had initially rubbed some of his coworkers the wrong way, but as he'd worked his way up to the rank of Colonel and gained the respect of those around him, he'd soon found that others tended to join in on the fun.
"No, more like a little black ooze," he finally responded. "No clue what it is, really. We got it sealed in a special containment unit on board, but I would still feel a lot better if you guys readied some of the heavier duty stuff to transfer it into when we land."
"Copy that," the voice at home base replied.
"Excellent," John replied. "We're outside the atmosphere now; just finishing up our final systems check and then we'll be heading in. See you soon."
"Very good, Colonel, over and out."
In that moment, Eric came walking up to the cockpit.
"Everything looks good," he reported.
"Including our visitor?" John asked. "Is it still secure?"
"As secure as when you last asked me an hour ago," Eric replied.
"Sorry," John said. "Something about that weird ooze just gives me the creeps."
"Don't sweat it, John," the man tried to assure him. "Soon we'll be back home, and you can just rest eas..."
The man's eyes suddenly grew wide, and John followed his line of sight to see why: a large chunk of debris, perhaps from a meteor, was headed straight for them. Thinking quickly, he realized that there was no time to get them out of there, so he set the shields to maximum. Just as he did, the debris collided straight into the ship's front end, knocking them back.
Alarms went frantic as Eric sought to check on what was wrong.
"Let me guess, Houston," John spoke up, "we have a problem?"
Eric looked at him, a grave expression on his face.
"Oh yeah, a big one."
Thank you once again to all who have stuck around throughout this series so far; you all are the best!
Continuing to pray for you all; stay safe and healthy!
"Let the wise listen and add to their learning, and let the discerning get guidance." Proverbs 1:5