A/N: This would have been out sooner, but Christmas happened. Hope you are all safe and happy and having a good holiday, no matter what you celebrate.

OOOOOOOOOOOO

"Hi, MJ."

"Hi, May. I was trying to get Peter. I haven't talked to him for a while and he hasn't been in school."

May nodded, glancing at Stephen as she held her cell phone to her ear.

"I know. I'm sorry. He's been… away."

"A Spider-Man thing?" the girl asked, curiously.

"Nothing so exciting, I'm afraid. He and Stephen went on a trip. It was very sudden and he didn't have a chance to tell anyone that he was going."

"Oh. Well, at least I know that he's alright. He is, right?" she asked. "You've heard from him? He's not getting into trouble or anything?"

"I've had a couple of check ins with him," May assured her. "I'm not sure exactly what he's doing this very minute, but I know that he's alright."

"Well, if he calls you, and if he can, will you tell him to call me? Please?"

"I definitely will, the minute I see him."

"Thanks."

The call ended and May turned her phone off and set it on the end table.

"MJ, huh?" Stephen said, putting an arm around May and pulling her against his side so she could lean against him and close her eyes.

"Yes. I should have called her. I knew she'd have asked about Peter being out of touch for so long."

"You've had plenty of other things to think about," Strange reminded her. "Don't beat yourself up over it. MJ will be fine. And it shouldn't be much longer."

May turned to look at him, sitting up a little.

"What? What do you mean? How do you know?"

"We're guessing," Stephen admitted, ruefully. "Wong and I sat down yesterday to discuss trying to come up with a spell or an enchantment to locate Peter in whatever reality that he's in."

"You did?"

"Yes. Despite the frequent images we're seeing that appear to show him in good health and safety, we're getting worried about the fact that nothing that we've seen seems to give insight to the fact that anyone on their end is trying to get him back where he belongs."

"That's true, isn't it?"

She hadn't seen anything with Stephen or alternate Wong working in their sanctum library pondering ways to get Peter home.

"Wong mentioned the possibility that the people in the alternate reality might have decided that rather than attempt to get him back where he came from, they may have decided that it's safer for him to just keep him where he is."

May's eyes widened in concern; it was clear that she hadn't considered that.

"Do you think that happened?"

"I don't think it's likely," Strange assured her. "Not that Peter isn't a likeable guy, of course, and he'd definitely raise the IQ in any reality, I think that if an alternate reality Peter showed up on our doorstep, we'd do everything that we could to get him back. It could just be that they don't have the wherewithal to do it."

"So you and Wong are coming up with something to find him and bring him back?"

"We were going to."

She frowned.

"But…?"

"But we were told not to."

"What?"

He gave her a slightly chagrined look.

"We were both slapped, mentally," he told her. "Hard. And then there was a vision of a stop sign."

"A stop sign?"

"Yes. Nothing spoken, and no grandiose images proclaiming that everything was going to be alright, but whatever – or whoever – is sending us these images of Peter and the people that he is with very clearly doesn't want Wong and I to interfere with whatever it is they are planning."

"But you're going to, anyway, aren't you?" May asked. "I mean, if it turns out that these other people want to keep Peter?"

"They don't want to keep him, May," Stephen told her, confidently. "They just don't want us to get in the way of whatever it is they're doing. Wong and I agreed that we should heed their warning – for now, at least – and see what happens."

"And if it doesn't happen…?" she asked. "Then what?"

"We'll readdress the situation."

May sighed, knowing full well that Stephen and Wong were her best chance to get her nephew back. But she didn't like the hurry up and wait concept.

"I just want him back."

"I know, May," the magician told her, and he hugged her. "So do I."

OOOOOOOOOO

"What is that?"

Strange sighed and rolled his eyes, glancing at the item Tony was pointing at. It looked like an ironing board more than anything.

"I don't know, Tony," he told his friend. Again. "Looks like an ironing board."

"Why would a Flerkin eat an ironing board?"

"I didn't say that it was an ironing board; I said it looked like one."

Stark looked incredibly tempted to lean down and pick it up – to get a better view of it – but Strange caught his arm before he could.

"If we stop and look at everything, we're going to be here for weeks," he pointed out.

"This stuff isn't driving you crazy?" Tony asked, accepting the reprimand and moving, again. "Trying to figure out what it is and why it's here…?"

"It is," Stephen assured him. "But I want to get what we need and get out of here before something happens that puts our objective in danger of not being obtained."

"Like what?"

"Something. I don't know. Who knows what's here? Flerkin apparently don't discriminate when it comes to swallowing things, and I know the Collector had some incredible items in his showcases when I was there. Now some of them are here, and who knows what they are capable of doing to two nosy humans? And that was just one of the creatures."

"Huh." The billionaire looked around, avoiding a pile of what looked like eyeglasses. "I wonder if we'll find my Rolex here…"

"What?"

Tony shrugged.

"Friday said Nutmeg stole it off my dresser but I couldn't find it anywhere. I wonder if the little jerk swallowed it."

Strange smirked.

"That's a good guess."

"Obviously I didn't think of it at the time, since we didn't know what he was, back then, but it could be here, right?"

"I'd imagine so, yes. We're not going to go looking for it, though. Even if you had it low-jacked, no satellite feed would provide you a location."

"I know." He stepped over a stack of something that looked suspiciously like battered armor. "I have to say; I'm glad we're walking through stacks of dead people."

"So am I. This place could produce some nightmares on its own – much less with stacks of corpses."

"You could come back, though, right?" Tony pointed out. "If you wanted to check it out, later?"

"Technically, I could, yes," Stephen agreed. "Now that I know it exists. But I won't."

"Because…?"

"You see what we're looking at. No one should start picking through these things like they're at some kind of cosmic yard sale. The possibility of something terrible happening that could affect not only this place but countless dimensions and maybe realities is just too great. Wong and I won't even archive it when we're done, for fear that someone might learn of it and decide to come here."

"What about this collector guy?" Tony asked. "Some of it's already his. I bet he'd love to know where to find it. You could make a pretty penny selling the information to him."

"I don't need a pretty penny," the sorcerer supreme pointed out with a slight smile. "And just because it was in his collection, doesn't mean it belonged to him. He's fine without regaining it."

"I suppose."

As they talked, they were walking, and now the two men were cognizant of the slight change in the coloring around them. They didn't know how the place was lit, but it was, and the dusk-like quality of the sky around them was suddenly tinged in a pale blue that was coming from somewhere to their left. Tony stopped long enough to bring up his HUD, and then pointed that direction.

"I think I see it." The helmet retracted and they walked over to stand at the edge of a huge area of items that were strewn haphazardly in an area at least the size of Queens. "Wow… All of this was the Collector's?"

"Probably." It went on for as far as they could see in that direction. "The guy's been around since close to the beginning of time, remember. And has been collecting since there were things to collect."

"How obsessive of him."

Strange snorted and waved his right hand. Suddenly the blue light that they'd been following flared among a pile of statues of all kinds and sizes. Animals, people – humanoid people – and other figurines that depicted alien life of all kinds. Or alien animals, Tony supposed. There was a statue that was definitely a man on a horse, and one of a creature of some kind on what looked like a triceratops. Stephen clapped his hands, lightly, and a small figurine rose from under the pile.

"That's the one we want," he told his friend. "Don't touch it, though," he added, when Tony automatically started to do just that. "I don't want to have to go looking for you."

"Yeah." Tony looked at it. "How do we get it home if we're not touching it?"

The sorcerer's hands glowed pale red for a moment, and he closed his eyes. An instant later, the figurine was gone, and Stephen opened his eyes.

"I sent it to the sanctum. Wong has prepared a case for it, and that's where we'll find it."

"Great. Then what?"

"We'll figure out how to use it to get Pete back where he belongs – preferably in the right time frame, as well." He turned and looked around one last time. "Let's get out of here."

"Yeah." Tony looked at the pile once more, making sure to record everything. He didn't have to worry about the Collector wanting him to bring him back, of course, but the multitude of interesting items definitely bore recording. "Can we take the octopus on the dinosaur? Pepper would never believe me if-"

"No."

"Aww."

There was a muted flash of light, and both men vanished.