In Which Alarms Sound
"Do you know what Peter is doing?"
The words rung through Catherine's head as she woke up. Before she had a true chance to get her bearings, she had picked up her ringing phone, accepted the call and had it to her ear. There had been too many phone calls at night from work for it not to be muscle memory. The voice didn't sound like the usual overnight Stark security. That man was somewhere between despair and pushing a button to destroy the world.
Catherine twisted in bed, curling towards the large clock at her bedside. It was nearing 6 am.
"Who is this?" She asked groggily. The voice sounded so familiar but after the deep dreams that she had been in, she couldn't quite place it.
"This is Peter's Aunt May."
Oh no. She rubbed her face and pulled herself up unwillingly, hair falling across her face. "Is there a medical emergency? Did he come home hurt?"
The kid needed to lay low for the sake of the Parker family. Even Tony had mentioned it to him in a stern fashion in a very rare phone call. Peter had even mentioned how hesitant he had been to answer in the first place.
"No. He hasn't come home at all. He keeps texting me that he's at Ned's but I know he isn't. I talked to his mom earlier. Usually he's home by three." There was real worry in her voice. "Spider-Man hasn't even made the news. I don't know what he's doing."
"If he's texting you that he's at Ned's then I would leave it at that," she said. Everything ached and already she knew that she wasn't going to be able to get back to sleep. A tired anger itched in her. "This line is for emergencies only."
"This is an emergency. He's not home. My calls keep going to voicemail." Aunt May's voice cracked. Catherine held her breath and then let it out slowly. This was no different than a distressed aunt in the hospital. She had just so happened to be asleep when the call occurred.
May added filling the silence as Catherine thought. "I'm sorry to call but I don't know what to do. I feel like I'm going crazy. I tried to call Tony but the office is still closed."
She must have used her office number on the business card which has an option to page through to her cell phone in case of life threatening emergencies. Before tonight, three people had called using the pager. Three of the four times had been a very drunk Tony claiming that his head was too big for his neck and he needed a replacement body. The last time was a IT security woman whose half blind grandfather had tried to cut the turkey.
This was a valid call.
"Okay." Catherine pressed back her hair and reached for her glasses. "I'll try to find out."
"Thank you."
Catherine hung up before hearing anything else. Her head fell into her hands and she rubbed her temples. They really needed to talk about all of this before it got any worse. Peter needed to be honest about what he did and for May to listen.
The air conditioner clicked and kicked on filling the room with white noise. Besides that, the room was still quiet. In her little spot in the world, nothing had changed. The sooner that she handled this, the sooner it would be out of her mind and she could proceed with her life.
She dialed Peter's cell.
He picked up on the second ring.
"Oh hey Ms. Catherine. What's up?" His voice was muffled. He was in his suit then which meant that he was certainly not at Ned's. This kid needed to be smarter.
"I was just woken up by your aunt wanting to know where you are, so where are you?"
The line went silent. He was still there, just panicking. She took a drink of water and got up to open the blinds. The sight outside wasn't great, she lived in Manhattan, but the light streamed in pinks and reds. It hurt her eyes for a second but helped start the wake up process.
"…she called you?" He finally offered.
"Yes and said it was an emergency."
"Oh man."
She started for the kitchen. The sun didn't help that much. Coffee was needed now.
"That doesn't even start it. It's 6 am Peter. I'm not going to mom you but you have no business being out this late." She pushed through the door into her kitchen. It wasn't that big of an apartment.
"Oh man."
There was the seriousness and horror that she was looking for. She stumbled into her kitchen and started her coffee pot early. It was set up to start at 7:15 but obviously that was going to be a little late. A small part of her felt a twitch of pain, she needed that sleep.
She leaned against the counter. "Now. Where are you?"
The coffee started to splatter. That would make everything a little bit better. She'd bought herself a nice coffee maker for Christmas last year and had never looked back to peasant coffee. Starbucks didn't even taste good anymore.
"Do you know that sketchy lab downtown?"
She needed that coffee sooner than the machine would make it.
"Paragon?"
"Oh no. Further south. By the bad donut place."
"Vortexaid?"
"Vortex is cool."
"Not when they are playing around with the aerodynamics of the human form."
"Fine. You know the IE?"
"The Intervention place?" She poured the coffee into her IKEA mug. It had absolutely no personality. Just the way that she wanted the things in the rest of her life.
"The Research Center of the Intervention of Ecology," Peter whispered, "I got a tip that something sketchy was going on here and well…I'm kinda trapped inside."
"Peter."
Of course. Now he was in real trouble. She shook her head and reached for the sugar.
"I was hoping that maybe when the night crew leaves I can get out of this vent. But they are doing really sketchy stuff, Ms. Catherine. There's like moving black goo, animals with two heads, creepy stuff in tubes. You know. The works."
She disregarded most of that. "You're stuck in a vent?"
"Yeah, I thought security was off then I tripped it and the only way that I could get away was to get in this vent thing like the alien in that old movie Alien. Remember when you were worried about me hanging upside down for an hour? I'm on hour four now!"
This was getting ridiculous.
"I'm calling Tony."
The response was immediate on the line."Please don't do that Ms. Catherine, please. I think the night crew leaves at 7. Give me until then."
She fixed the coffee and took a good long drink. "That's not going to happen kid."
The words started rushing out of him in one long stream. "Please Ms. Catherine, I'm trying to do something right here. Everything's been so wrong, I thought that if I did something big, it would make everybody feel better. You know?"
Catherine winced as she took another drink of the coffee, hoping that would help her.
Peter took this as an indication to continue. "Doing superhero stuff. Saving people. I'm pretty good at this stuff."
She rubbed her forehead. "Peter."
The caffeine did nothing.
"It's almost time. I think, no, I remember the way out. It'll just be easier if everyone is on the move and then I'll make a big fat distraction and off I'll go. Easy peasy."
She kept her voice steady. "If you are trying to make your aunt worry less, this is the exact opposite of that."
"I know." It was a quiet agreement, something that had heart in it. Even the inexhaustible Peter Parker sounded tired.
She shouldn't. One call to Tony and then everything that would be set. Knowing Peter's luck, Tony would probably even mention it to Aunt May. Whatever was in that lab didn't sound good and this was certainly dangerous. He probably needed saving. If she called Tony, it was a guarantee that somehow May would find out.
Yet, he needed this boost. The last couple days were bruising for him. She had seen the stress in his eyes. Sometimes maybe, Spider-Man needed to save Peter a little.
"Okay."
"Thanks Ms. Catherine. I owe you one."
"Text me when you get out."
She hung up before she could change her mind. Her mouth was dry. The call to Aunt May was quick. Peter was fine but on a secret mission and didn't want to worry her.
So Catherine sat in her kitchen, holding her coffee and waiting for the phone to bing. Regret already was sneaking up her throat and she watched the sun rise through her blinds. Her phone sat in front of her.
She waited a very long time to hear anything.
I am going to be so thankful when November is over and I am not doing National Novel Writing Month and this at the same time. I am getting as sleep deprived as Catherine is. I am on target to finish on time though!
Things are starting to pick up a little now. I can't say too much so what did you think of the chapter?
Thank you for reading as always. It's my pleasure. - Quin