In Which We Are Engaged

Catherine yanked at the fabric of her dress as it caught in the plastic of her seat.

She forgot how much she hated dresses. Thankfully the seat released her hem but it bounced back too far and fluttered up revealing absolutely too much thigh for a moment.

This was not worth it.

There was no way that the pomp and circumstance of Tony's and Pepper's engagement party was going to be good for her. The venue was one of the fanciest in town and already people were milling around with cameras. Red and gold lights rolled and flashed into the sky.

This guy didn't know where to stop.

She pushed her way through the crowd, all of them ignoring her, and into the more quiet hustle of the party.

There was more marble here than she had ever seen when visiting the greek gallery in the Met. Oh wait, no, that wasn't possible. She was in the greek gallery at the Met.

It was just another level for the super rich and famous.

About a hundred people milled around in clumps and holding champagne over statues of naked women. She took a couple steps scanning for a face that she knew.

She knew lots of faces actually but all of them from magazine covers and newspaper articles.

Great. Just great.

A piece of hair fell in her face. She pushed it aside. Even the blowout she had gotten wasn't giving her the confidence advertised.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a very short man with a woman awkwardly standing next to him. Catherine knew them, even with their backs turned. The tip off was the shirley temple in his hand. Also, she had checked the news on her phone on the way over.

No sightings of Spider-Man for the last two hours.

Thank goodness for obsessed Twitters that reported every sighting no matter the time or day.

She straightened, grasped a champagne glass from a waiter and walked over. She smiled. It was time to meet this crush of his. Things stopped making sense as she got closer. She was taller than him and while Peter hadn't spent too much time describing her, the description didn't include "straight brown hair".

"Well, is this your high school friend?" She asked when she got within reasonable earshot. She was sure the tinny room was torture for Spider-Man.

"Ms. Catherine!" Peter turned, relief on his face. "I'm so happy to see you. I was worried you weren't going to make it or something. Is everything okay out there? I haven't been checking my phone. Maybe I should poke my head out?"

"The city is fine. It will continue to exist for the next two hours without you." Her attention turned to his "date".She couldn't help it as a real smile came across her face. She already knew her.

May didn't give her a chance to say hello. The hug was huge and encompassing.

"It's so nice to see you under better circumstances." She squeezed and Catherine popped her eyes open to see Peter looking somewhere between embarrassed and happy.

"You too." Catherine managed to pull away and she looked at him, "No MJ?"

"I didn't ask her." He stared at his shoes. "I…I asked May instead."

"And I said 'yes'!" She threw an arm around Peter. The delight of being there was clear. "This place is so fancy, isn't it?"

"I think this was a perfect choice."

After everything, both Peter and May had come to her separately to say that they had talked honestly. Peter had simply said, Things are good now. Cool aunt restored.

Aunt May, on the other hand, had given a little more information than that.

If I can't stop him, the text had read, then maybe I need to just get over it and help him keep straight. No more insecurity monsters.

Peter smiled weakly between the two of them. His fingers were wrapped around his left bicep. He was slowly massaging it.

"Is that bothering you?" Catherine asked quickly.

He paled. "No. Not at all ma'am. It's been perfect."

His hands went neatly behind him and he straightened. His eyes went around the gallery but there was nothing to latch onto. He was the perfect picture of a child caught lying

"Mrs. Parker, would you mind if I steal your date?"

She plucked his drink away and took a sip. "I think I saw a statue of Emperor Augustus that I wanted to look at a little closer. Go on Peter."

"Aunt May-"

Catherine snaked her hand under his good arm and deftly spun him away. "No arguments."

There were a couple sounds of compliant but he quickly quieted. She guided him away from the crowds.

It took them a bit to find a part of the museum that wasn't being used. It ended up being in a gallery that smelled deeply like the sea and had wooden boat in the middle. The silence in the room was beautiful. Even Peter's shoulders fell a little as they headed to a bench.

"Okay. Let's take a look at those stitches."

While he sat, he leaned forward and whispered, "I don't want to take off my shirt in the Met."

"Please." Catherine busied herself with her purse. "I expect that they've seen much worse. Off it goes."

Carefully he took off the jacket and laid it aside. She saw the tag inside. It was a rental. He brushed off the front and then started in on the shirt.

"It's nice. Fits you well."

"Thanks. I've been saving for it." He flashed a smile and then winced as he pulled that left arm out of the sleeve. "You really don't have-"

"Nonsense." She unzipped her purse and pulled the out the two contents, her phone and a very small first aid kit. She opened a ziplock bag with surgery gloves in it.

"You just have that on you?" Stiffly, he put the shirt aside leaving his undershirt on.

She couldn't help the smirk. "And we aren't going to talk about that?"

He had a dark band on one of wrists. She didn't have to look close to see Stark tech written all over it.

He shrugged, conceding.

"Come on. Let me see it." She leaned in to study the stitches that she had put in his arm the day before. Spider-Man had been making an extra tight turn and, supposedly, ran directly into a drone. Six inch laceration on the left bicep. It was messy and had taken about fifty stitches to make sure Spidey could swing the next day.

As she inspected the puckered skin, he sighed. "I'm still really sorry Ms. Catherine."

She glared at him. "Stop it."

"I feel so bad. I caused so much trouble the last few weeks."

The skin under her fingers shivered. Probably it was from the air conditioning.

"Your arm hurts because the stitches need to come out. You've healed it in record time. We'll do that now. It won't take long," she muttered and pulled the scissors from the kit. "Honestly Peter, we all knew what we signed up for. It's not all fun and games."

She started in on the stitches, trying to find the rhythm.

"Ow."

She gave him another look as she continued to cut away the stitching. It was good to see it healing so quickly. It meant that everything was back to normal.

"You and May okay?"

His voice colored with emotion. "She's actually proud of me, she really is, I've just had to promise her that I won't do anything that will get me killed."

"Sounds reasonable." She left the surgical string in a neat little pile on the seat next to them. It should technically go in a biohazard bag but a trash can would do.

"I…I almost killed you."

She stopped. The teen was truly worried. She could see it wrapped around him, choking him. His eyes were big in the half light. The tweezer and scissors rested gently against his arm.

"Peter, we went over this. You didn't. Venom got a little close but that's over now. You've got to move on. I have."

He swallowed. "I know but I've seen your scars and I'm really-ow!"

Catherine removed her heel from the top on his shoe. "I'll do worse if you don't quit beating yourself up. Leave that for someone else to try to do. Use your energy for more productive things."

He rubbed his foot with his free hand and then nodded.

"Hold still. Just a few more to go." She pulled on the last couple threads. The skin was already loosing the redness from where she had been. Only tiny beads of blood welled up from her actions. The boy was incredible.

"Ms. Catherine-"

"Shhh." Only a few stitches remained.

"You know-"

"I'm concentrating." She needed to work quickly. It was only a matter of time before a guard came in here. This would be an awkward situation to explain.

"I was thinking-"

"Peter." Her fingers worked quickly. The last knot came free and she dropped it happily off with the others.

"I haven't said-"

The sting of alcohol cut him off. She wiped a cleaning pad over the spots. That would be good enough for now. He pulled away his arm. She couldn't finish her work. She looked up at him, annoyed. She needed to wipe it one more time.

"Thank you Ms. Catherine for…for…everything, you know? You were there for me." That slammed her with a force of a truck. Her emotion spun. He put his free hand on hers.

Shit, he meant it.

She knew she was blushing. Emotion crept up her throat. Something got in her eye. No, she was better than this. Professional. She was a professional. The kit snapped shut.

"Just doing my job," She said shortly. "Get your shirt back on."

Peter smiled but there was more knowledge behind it than she cared to admit. "I hear that they are sending people in to the dining room for the big entrance."

Of course he could hear that.

"Well knucklehead, we better get going. We can't miss that. Tony would fire us both."

She helped him with the shirt and the jacket. It wasn't the best fitting piece of fabric. She yanked it in a couple places and pressed out a few seams. It made him look older. Or, perhaps, he was getting older now.

She turned back towards the door and he jogged to catch up with her.

"Ms. Catherine?" He offered his arm.

For all her stubbornness, she didn't say no. Instead, she made a point to sigh before accepting it. Peter stood a little taller in the suit and together they left the room arm in arm.

Written: September 10th 2019 - October 28th 2019

Published: November 2nd 2019 - February 29th 2020

We made it to the end again.

What can I say that I haven't said before? Thank you so much for reading this story and sticking with me the entire way. I'm aware of how risky it can be to put an original character in an established world and I appreciate that you take the risk on me week after week. Catherine is a pleasure to write and she forces me to learn and expand along with Peter and Tony.

So just simply...thank you.

Am I done writing fanfiction? Not quite yet. I have started a new story and it goes a little like this...

24 Hours in Peter Parker's Life

Peter's to-do list is longer than he can remember. He's got a test to study for, sleep to catch up on, an aunt to keep calm and unexplained feelings that appear around MJ. Thankfully it's Saturday. He can play catch up. Unfortunately this is the story of how Peter almost studies, angers a librarian, goes on a maybe date, breaks into multiple museums and accidentally takes a ballet class.

Alternatively: Peter wants a normal day but Spider-Man and NYC have other plans.

In Pieces was so emotionally heavy that I craved to write something just plan fun. The first chapter has been posted if you want to stick around. Sadly, I did not include Catherine in this one. I don't think I'm done with her...yet. But for now, I'm happy to leave her here.

Thank you for enjoying this adventure with me. In Pieces has been such a romp and I'm happy to share it with you. Let me know what you think! Did you enjoy it? What was your favorite part? Would you want to see more Catherine in the future?

Thank you as always for reading. -Quin