A/N: I'm sorry for not making May's inner turmoil befitting a grieving aunt. Forgive me for that. Reviews and flames are appreciated, but keep them moderate. Vaughn is nowhere near Wyoming. I'm sorry for inaccuracies that may pop up. Peter goes missing around June and shows up in early November, in case you're confused. R & R
Chapter 3: Lost and Found
Deputy Swann thought his day could not get more boring than it was. He was wrong. As respectable appointed officer of the law subjected to bring peace and order in Vaughn, Sublette County of Wyoming, he took his job very seriously. Even when drunk teenagers call the station at 3 in the morning. Whatever the case, he was obligated to do what officers do; respond.
So here he was, at Conrad Old Place, or specifically, the oldest house and ranch in town. If he had to guess, the stuck up grandson of the rather likeable Ellis Conrad threw another party while his grandfather was away. Was someone really dead this time? Did someone fall out of a window or get stuck in the basement? Instead, he was surprised to be greeted by Roy himself upon the first ring of the doorbell.
"Officer!" He slurred. Still drunk. "You might wanna see this shit!" The boy grabbed his arm and led him outside, dragging him towards the stables. A group of teenagers had already gathered near the doors. They made way as soon as they saw Swann.
"You called me for this?!" The officer questioned incredulously, fuming. On the ground hundreds, possibly thousands of spiders laid dead. All shapes and sizes. It wasn't the spookiest shit he'd ever seen. Not even top twenty. What did he have to do about spiders? Why did he even come here?
"No, silly!" Roy burped. "There's a body inside."
Swann's blood ran cold. His hand subconsciously touched his gun. Carefully proceeding forward, he slowly opened the stable doors. Spiders. Everywhere. They littered the floor, dead or barely moving. The twin bulbs hanging from the ceiling did little to banish the dropped temperature or the darkness. He sensed Roy behind him but didn't say anything. The horses neighed nervously, stamping hooves. "Get the stable hand!" He yelled over his shoulder, uncaring if anybody heard him or not. He switched on his flashlight.
Swann stopped dead.
There, in the corner, was something, or someone curled in a fetal position and covered from head to toe in white stuff. The arachnids had bundled up around the figure.
The thing started to move and in a flash the officer had his gun pointed, ready to fire. It wiggled, pushing against its silky prison until a pale hand came out, shiny in the thin slivers of light present.
"Is it an alien?!" Roy couldn't help but ask.
"I don't know!" Swann snapped. The figure in the web cocoon continued to move, groaning.
"It looks like a fucking mummy! What is it?" The boy yelled but he ignored him.
"Command centre, we got a situation here," Swann said to his radio.
"Command center, what's your status?" A flat female voice replied.
"Possible threatening sign of life here on 622 Maple Street, stables, southwest of house. Send dispatch."
"Please hold threat while dispatch is making effort to reach your location. Dispatch team will arrive in five minutes, over." Another hand came out, then a shoulder, and then a foot. Long fingers grabbed at the webbing, tearing it apart to reveal a young male body in its physical peak, covered in an entity of clear oily liquid. It was like watching someone be born anew. And fucking creepy.
The kid—he couldn't be more than eighteen— uncurled himself and wiped off the fluid from his face. He keeled over, gasping and seemingly choking. Swann did not lower his gun. He was dressed in a thin white tee and white pants. A tag was tied around his wrist. He looked up to the two, wide brown eyes jumping from face to face. Adam's apple bobbing up and down in clear anxiety, he asked in a raspy voice, "Who are you people?"
He promptly fell back into unconsciousness. Swann kneeled by him despite his disgust of the dead spiders, shaking the boy's shoulder. Where the fuck was the dispatch team? "Kid? Kid!" He checked his pulse. Still breathing. The boy was breathing heavily, blue lips trembling as rivulets of blood traced their way down his nose and mouth. His frostbitten fingers tried to grab at Swann's coat and the deputy held the icy cold hand.
"You're going to be alright..."
"It's the missing kid." He heard Roy whisper behind him. "Officer, that's Peter Parker."
"After the takeover bid with Branstow is done, you have a meeting with Nobu Fujikawa on the eighteenth of December. The Stark-Asia merge with Xinjiang International will be done by early March. Mr. Almond from Alchemax has requested a private meeting. Shall I approve of the appointment? Mr. Stark?"
"Huh?" Tony turned to his PA. She was looking at him questioningly.
"Daniel Almond has requested—"
"Dakota, I'll take it from here." Pepper said to the younger woman who nodded and promptly evacuated from her seat to somewhere else in the lobby. Pepper sat herself down and sighed. "You could always go back home."
"You said the meeting with Pendleton was important."
"Not important enough to have the chairman attend."
"I'm going," Tony replied stubbornly. A pregnant silence filled the space between them. Pepper knew what her husband was doing. Dividing time between Theresa, Stark Industries and SHIELD related stuff so he could stop thinking about Peter. God. Five months. Why did it feel like ten years? She pretended to not notice the fact that he'd spiked his coffee with whiskey this morning. He was barely piss drunk these days, but whiskey and scotch were always present in his idea of breakfast and martinis were reserved for nightcaps.
She half wished Mary Stark would rise from the grave and tell her what secrets she'd used to stop Tony from looking at alcohol ever again. But the woman was dead. Maybe angry, if an afterlife existed. Peter was still missing.
Her phone rang and she swiped at thes screen. Unknown number. She answered anyway. When she was done, she looked at Tony, who had been observing a magazine. It took only one word to catch his interest.