M.J. was in the middle of getting a deck of cards out of her closet when she heard the ring of the doorbell. She quickly grabbed the cards, shut the closet door and ran out of the room, dropping the cards on the kitchen counter before peering out the peek hole in their door. She was relieved to see that it was the pizza delivery guy, and she unlocked and swung the door open.

"Hey, sorry about that ma'am," a young man immediately apologized, handing her the boxes.

"It's fine," M.J. replied. Really, it wasn't fine to her, but she had learned over the course of her life that sometimes, when nothing nice is available to say, nothing should be said at all. Being a mother to a young child, she quickly understood that there were some things about herself that she needed to curb, at least around her daughter, if she was going to raise a child that didn't blurt out whatever came out of their mouth.

Having already paid online for the pizza, she thanked the delivery man before closing the door, moving to set the pizzas on the small kitchen table. The timing of the delivery was actually about as good as it could have been, given the situation. Peter had rushed out earlier as Spider-Man when he saw that the Rhino was destroying Queensboro Bridge. M.J. had diligently followed the situation on her phone; when she had last checked for updates a few minutes ago, Rhino had been subdued, and Peter was helping rescue the last of the endangered civilians who were still stuck in their cars from the damage the battle had caused.

Basically, he would be back soon, and the pizza just had to be there waiting for him when he did. Today had to be just perfect; after all, it was Father's Day, and if there was any father that deserved today to be a special day, it was Peter Parker. He somehow juggled being Spider-Man, working long hours in a lab, as well as being both a husband and a father. The early years of their marriage had required some adjusting, and the same was true when little Annie May was born almost 5 years ago. The thing that got M.J. through everything they dealt with was that she knew that she and their daughter were Peter's top priorities. Not a day went by where she ever doubted that was true, and that meant the world to her.

As she thought of Annie May, M.J. decided to go check on their daughter. The little girl had insisted that she wanted to make her own card for her dad to commemorate the day, and she had shut herself in her room about thirty minutes ago to complete the task. The young girl's heart was already in a good place, but her procrastination habits were something M.J. would be addressing very soon.

Coming to the little girl's door, M.J. was caught a little off guard by the sound of crying coming from inside. Slowly turning the knob and opening the door, M.J. peaked inside to see the little girl with her hands over her face, her paper and crayons scattered in front of her.

"Annie? M.J. said, moving into the room, "what's wrong?"

The girl was still fighting some sobs, so M.J. sat down next to the girl, rubbing her back gently to calm her down. After a moment, her daughter had settled down enough to speak.

"I c-can't get the p-picture right," she complained.

M.J. glanced down at what appeared to be an attempt at drawing Spider-Man and a little girl, probably Annie May herself.

"Oh Annie, you're doing fine," M.J. tried to assure her.

"No, I'm not," Annie muttered through her sobbing. "It n-needs to be p-perfect for daddy."

M.J. was about to try and assure her daughter when another thought came to mind, causing a smile to spread across her face for a moment as she refocused.

"You know, you remind me a lot of your dad right now," M.J. said.

Little Annie took her hands out of her face, looking up at her mother.

"I do?" the young girl asked.

"Oh yeah," M.J. replied, bringing up her left hand to grab the black dahlia necklace around her neck. "Have I ever told you the story of when your dad gave this to me?"

"I... I don't think so," Annie replied.

"It was a long time ago, when we were much younger," M.J. began. "Your dad wanted to tell me that he cared about me and wanted to be with me, and he wanted to give me this as a sign of his love. Well, you know your dad, he just couldn't stop taking on the bad guys, and this actually broke during one of the battles."

"It did?" Annie asked, her mouth open in surprise.

"Oh yeah, and your dad was devastated," M.J. said. "He tried to apologize a hundred times in like ten seconds, but you know what I did?"

"What?" Annie asked.

"I kissed him," M.J. replied, "and then I told him that I actually liked it better broken. You see Annie, sometimes things don't turn out how you like, but that doesn't mean they won't still end up better than you expect. That means that, even if this card doesn't end up quite how you want it, your dad will probably still love it."

"You really think so?" Annie asked.

"I do," M.J. replied. "After all, I know your dad better than anyone."

By the time Peter swung back into his bedroom window, he was almost ready to collapse. The fight with Rhino had taken a lot out of him, namely because he kept having to pull his focus from the former Russian mobster to saving innocent civilians, which repeatedly opened him up to attack. He hadn't sustained any life-threatening injuries, but he could already tell where he was bruising and knew he was going to be very sore later.

As he stripped off his torn Spider-Man suit in favor of something more relaxing, Peter was never more grateful for his more laidback personality than he was now, especially when it came to a day like Father's Day. He certainly enjoyed larger gatherings and going out from time to time, but to him, Father's Day was about spending a quiet day with his family, which M.J. and Annie seemed to enjoy as well. If he had his way, they would eat pizza to their hearts' content, play go fish together, and finish off the evening relaxing to a movie before Annie would finally have to go to bed.

Peter walked out of the bedroom and into the kitchen, where he found M.J. and Annie there. They must have heard him come in, because they were standing there looking at him as if they had been waiting on him for a minute or two.

"Okay, I'll bite," Peter said, "what's the surprise?"

The two ladies looked at each other, and Peter noticed M.J. nudge her head his direction. His daughter then came walking up, handing him a folded-up piece of construction paper. The front said, "To Daddy."

"What do we have here?" Peter said, smiling down at his little girl as he opened the card up. Inside was a little drawing of Spider-Man holding a little girl's hand. On the other half of the card was written:

"To My Daddy, The Greatest Superhero In The World."

"Happy Father's Day daddy," the little girl said meekly.

"Aww, thanks Annie," Peter said. He bent down and wrapped the little girl in his arms, pulling her into a tight hug. "I love it."

"Really?" she muttered into his ear.

"Yeah, absolutely," Peter affirmed as they separated, facing each other. "In fact, I think I'll hang it right there on the fridge, so I can see it every time I walk into the kitchen!"

"Oh daddy!" the little girl said, throwing her arms around him again. "I love you!"

"I love you too," Peter said.

Man, this was just what he needed after a hard patrol.

"Hey Annie," Peter said once they separated. "Why don't you run to the bathroom and wash your hands? After that, we'll all dive into some pizza!"

"Yay, pizza time!" Annie yelled as she took off down the hall. Peter then turned to M.J. who walked over to him and gave him a kiss.

"I'm glad you liked the card," M.J. said. "She was nervous earlier that she wasn't getting it right."

"Guess she inherited the Jones-Parker trait of always expecting perfection out of yourself," Peter said. "It seems like you handled the situation well though, even before I got back."

"Just shared from experience, that's all," M.J. replied. "Plus, I may have helped her a little in figuring out what she wanted to say."

"You know I wouldn't stand a chance of being a good dad without you by my side, right?" Peter quipped, putting his arm around M.J.'s waist, pulling her closer.

"You know, you tell me not to let things go to my head, but you keep saying all these really sweet things," M.J. replied as the two of them slowly moved in for another kiss.

"Pizza time!" came a familiar call from down the hall, interrupting the moment. The two adults couldn't help but let out a puff of a laugh each. Annie rejoined them in the room, and they all moved to the table, broke out the pizza and took their seats. As they enjoyed some of New York's finest (that they could afford, at least), Peter looked back and forth between his two favorite ladies, and a single thought entered his mind.

"I am the luckiest man in the world."

Hope you all enjoyed it!

Continuing to pray for you all; stay safe and healthy!

"As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear Him." Psalm 103:13