DISCRETION.

(A couple of hours after the events of "Duel of the Hunters" and several hours prior to the events of "Sapotis")

It was already 2 pm, and after a short but much-needed nap for Mary Jane Watson, her aunt Anna had returned to the room that Gabriel Agreste rented at the Grand Paris Hotel for the Watson women trio, she had woken up the young redhead and then she had taken her to the hospital to visit her mother, after the attack she had suffered at the hands of Morbius the Living Vampire.

After arriving at the hospital and checking in at the reception, Mary Jane had disappeared from her aunt's sight, hurrying to her mother's room, but not running to avoid being kicked out of the hospital.

Once she got to the room, Mary Jane smiled, rubbed her eyes in a vain attempt to disappear the dark circles caused by having only slept a few hours, put a hand on the doorknob and prepared to enter in silence, assuming her mother could be resting and after Morbius, the least Madeline would need at that moment would be her daughter breaking down the door and making a fuss. So the redhead opened the door carefully and silently, but something stopped her short in her tracks as she did so.

-"I'm afraid not, Mrs. Meyers."- Said a male voice with a slight French accent.

-"Very well... I only ask you not to talk about it with my daughter here, please, I need time to tell her..."- Said the voice of MJ's mother.

MJ couldn't help but frown at that moment, having a bad feeling about what her mother and her doctor were referring to inside the room. MJ wanted to keep listening to find out what her mother did not want to tell him, but when she put her ear close to eavesdrop, she inadvertently pushed the door, causing it to open enough for Madeline to notice it and suddenly change the conversation.

"Then there are no consequences of the attack of the Living Vampire and I'll be discharged this afternoon, right?" Madeline asked as she gestured at her daughter with a glance.

"Err... Yes, that's right, Mrs. Meyers, although you should take a couple more days off before doing heavy activities or exercise, and keep eating iron-rich foods for a week." Said the doctor as he read something on his pad.

"Thank you, Doctor." Madeline said. "MJ, could you come in? It's not polite to eavesdrop on other people's conversations."

MJ gasped and sighed, then moved the door some more and stepped aside to let the doctor out, then she walked in and finally her aunt Anna managed to catch up with her.

"Don't do that again, Mary Jane." Anna snapped sternly.

"Anna, please don't scold her." Asked Madeline.

"She needs discipline."

At those words and the tone her aunt used, Mary Jane shuddered a bit and instinctively moved away from Anna with a look of shock and a racing pulse, which the older woman noticed and looked at the ground regretfully.

"I'm sorry... I didn't mean..." Aunt Anna tried to say.

"N-no... it's okay... I get it..." MJ said as she calmed down. "God, how is it possible that a few simple words can affect me so much...?"

"Those things are not easy to overcome, darling, don't be so hard on yourself."

"I know, but it's been so long and I haven't had sequels since I was in the eighth grade..."

"That was just a year ago, little one."

"I know but..."

"Don't torment yourself, Mary Jane, you've progressed amazingly since that and we are very proud of that." Anna said as she carefully approached MJ.

MJ sighed and looked at her aunt as she put a hand on her shoulder and smiled supportively at her.

"Besides, it was just a small relapse, it wasn't as bad as before." Anna said.

"Don't even remind me, because of those relapses, I broke Peter's arm..." Mary Jane said with a hint of regret.

"Peter told you that he didn't blame you for it." Madeline said.

"Because he's a sentimental fool who has too much of a soft spot for me to tell me that I was an idiot and a horrible friend for a whole year..."

Anna Watson could not bear it anymore and took Mary Jane's hand gently, then led her towards her mother and along with her, they hugged her carefully, a gesture that the girl replied.

"Don't be so hard on yourself, MJ, what happened to you was horrible and nobody blames you for those panic attacks you had." Madeline said as she stroked her daughter's hair in a comforting way. "The only culprit is Phillip..."

Mary Jane shuddered a little again, but instead of pulling away from her, she clung closer to her mother and sighed.

"I don't want to hurt anyone I care about again, I don't want to be like... like him..." Mary Jane snapped.

"Listen to me well, Mary Jane Watson, you are not like him." Anna said firmly. "You are smart, altruistic, friendly, brave and very strong, you are the complete opposite of him."

"Stop thinking about him, he can't hurt us again."

Mary Jane sighed and clung to her mother for a few more moments, then the three of them let go and looked at each other.

"What did the doctor tell you, Maddie?" Anna asked.

"He said that I will be completely fine in a few days, as long as I eat things with iron." Madeline explained.

"No, about the other thing."

Madeline sighed and looked at Mary Jane, who gave her a doubtful look.

"What other thing?" Asked Mary Jane.

"Could you go to the vending machine in the hall to get me a soda? I'm a bit thirsty and I need to talk to your aunt alone." Asked Madeline.

"But..."

"Please, MJ."

Mary Jane couldn't help but curse internally and leave the room, feeling like she was being treated like a little girl.

Once Mary Jane left the room, Madeline glared at her sister-in-law as the latter gave her a reproachful look.

"Don't ever mention that again in front of Mary Jane." Madeline snapped.

"Sooner or later you will have to tell her, and the longer you wait, the worse it will be for her." Anna said.

"She has too much to deal with, and with the Green Goblin and Hawk Moth around, her sadness could make her get akumatized again."

"Maddie, she has a right to know."

"I know, just... I'm looking for the right moment to tell her."

"You know very well that moment will never come."

"She's fulfilling her dreams, I can't just drop a bomb on her like that right now."

"So you prefer that from one moment to another she just loses you and she can't be ready to face it?"

"How can she even be ready for something like that, Anna?"

Anna sighed and looked at Maddie with concern.

"Just... promise me you'll tell her soon, I don't want Mary Jane to feel like we're treating her like a baby and hiding important things from her."

"I will, but not yet, I don't want to bother her now."

"It'll have to be soon, Maddie, because Gayle called me, said she'll be coming in the first week of summer."

"Oh no, Mary Jane won't like this." Madeline snapped.

"She's worried, both for you and for her. She wants to be part of your lives again."

"Well, I don't need her, I didn't need her then and I will never need her again." Mary Jane snapped angrily as she entered the room with a can of Fanta in hand. "And good thing I managed to catch your little secret, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to avoid her when she shows up..."

"Mary Jane, she's your sis..." Anna tried to say.

"Gayle lost the right to be called that when she left me! She said I could always count on her but she ran off and left me alone when I needed her most!" Shouted Mary Jane with a hint of pain as she held back her tears. "But she taught me something, that Peter and Harry can have their own parents, but they are more my siblings than her, they always supported me, even when I broke Peter's arm. Gayle barely calls, she doesn't have the guts to speak to me directly... and she has never apologized..."

"Because you've never given her a chance."

"Because she doesn't deserve it! Gayle can fuck herself for abandoning us and provoking that monster!

As far as I'm concerned, she's dead to me!"

"Mary Jane Watson!" Madeline snapped.

"I'm sorry, mom, but it's the truth, I no longer have a sister and I don't care what you, Aunt Anna, Peter and Harry have to say about it, I will never forgive her and if I see her again, I will break her face for being a hypocritical, treacherous, liar."

Mary Jane walked over to her mother, put the soda on her lap and stormed out of the room, while Anna and Madeline looked at her sadly, knowing full well that Mary Jane had been the person who had been hurt the most when Gayle left five years ago.

"That went out better than I thought." Anna admitted.

"It hurts a lot to see my daughters like this, they used to be so close to each other..." Madeline said as a tear ran down her cheek.

"MJ is very hurt by precisely that, Maddie." Anna sighed. "Gayle was her protector and her role model, so when she left without even telling her face-to-face, she was devastated her, and now she blames her for what Phillip did."

"The worst part is that in part it is, she was the only thing that stopped Phillip all those years."

"How can you say that?"

"Because both she and I should have protected MJ, and it's more my fault for not being like them, for being weak and stupid... For not being able to protect my daughters as I should have..."

Anna sighed as Madeline looked out the window, thinking and praying to God to help her daughters reconcile before she parted this world, to be the family they never got to be when they had the chance.

Meanwhile, in the hospital bathroom, Mary Jane washed her face a bit and wiped herself with a couple of paper towels, then sighed long and her kwami came out of the fanny pack that Mary Jane now used to carry the little creature.

"Pardon my indiscretion, your Majesty, but may I ask you why do you hold such a grudge against this Gayle person?" The kwami asked curiously.

"She's... She was my sister, I loved her very much and I always looked up to her because she was the only one who stood up to my father... Even if that brought her problems." MJ said. "But one day she just left... She didn't even say goodbye to me, her little sister to whom she told could always count on her."

"But that's no reason to..."

"That's no reason? True, but here's the thing... When my father found out, he freaked out and... and... and he..."

MJ shuddered again, began to breathe heavily, and frantically wet her face again in an attempt to avoid another panic outburst as she remembered her past, but it was useless.

At Mary Jane's actions, Pollen carefully approached her and put a paw on her shoulder and said:

"Mary Jane...?"

"Pollen, buzz on!" Mary Jane screamed desperately.

The kwami quickly got sucked into the Miraculous in MJ's hair, transforming the girl's clothes to a yellow and black skintight suit, which allowed the girl to jump at the window and manage to get out of it, then she began swinging through the streets with her spinning top, trying to focus her mind on something else.

After a few minutes in which she managed to calm herself a bit, Mary Jane reached the roof of the Grand Palais, seeing the glass dome that Morbius had destroyed a few hours ago after Hawkeye tried to cure his mutation as he had done with Spider-Man, Ladybug and Chat Noir.

"Quite the eventful night, huh?..." Mary Jane said as she saw her reflection in the glass.

When she saw herself reflected, Mary Jane examined herself for a moment, noticing that she was pale under her superhero mask, as well as that there were still a couple of tear marks on her cheeks, which she really disliked, because even being a Miraculous holder, one of the most incredible and powerful people in the world according to Pollen, she looked weak, defeated and defenseless.

Mary Jane groaned and turned away from her reflection, staring at the sky with determination, thinking clearly about her life, remembering her past, weighing her present and imagining her future.

"Keep it together, Mary Jane, you can't let that happen again, especially now that you're a superhero." MJ said. "You are Queen Bee, a future member of the Avengers, by God, you cannot get paralyzed by a memory, no matter how horrendous it is..."

Queen Bee sighed deeply and patted her cheeks, then wiped away the tear marks and looked at her reflection again, noting that although she still looked down, her eyes already denoted her usual confidence and fierceness.

"Much better..." Said Queen Bee.

At that moment, the spinning top at her waist began to beep and vibrate, drawing Queen Bee-s attention, who grabbed it and was a bit surprised to notice that she could separate the upper part from the lower part, then raised both and realized that her Aunt Anna's voice came from the upper one, making her notice that both parts of her weapon could be used as some sort of telephone.

"Mary Jane? Are you okay? Where are you?" Anna asked in a worried tone.

"Uh, hi, Aunt Anna, I'm fine, I just... I needed some air to calm myself down, so don't worry, I just went for a walk." Queen Bee said with a hint of nervousness.

"Ok, just don't go too far, okay? They won't take long to discharge your mother."

"Ok, aunt, I'll be back in a moment." Queen Bee said before putting the parts of her weapon back together. "Wow, these powers keep getting cooler."

Queen Bee smiled and looked at the city breathing a much-needed air of calm, after what happened in the last week with the Lizard and Morbius.

"Whatever comes up, I'll be ready for it." Queen Bee said before frowning. "And if Gayle or my father show their faces ever again... I will also be ready, with my fist ready to greet them..."

After that, Queen Bee tightened her grip on her spinning top and swung back to the hospital window through which she had escaped. After sneaking inside, she detransformed and gave a honey candy she had in her fanny pack to Pollen, before the creature entered the pack again. Then Mary Jane sighed and walked back to her mother's room.

'I wonder when will I face my first villain and who will it be.' Mary Jane said in her mind, without imagining that said confrontation would come that night.