When reality returned to Spencer, it wasn't on the aching wave that he knew came after being drugged. There was no beeping of hospital monitors, nor was there the hard feel of the ground under him, nor the sensation of being tied to something. The fact that he knew to check for those things was a worrying statement about his life. One he ignored as he slowly woke and started to categorize the world around him. He was lying on something… soft. Something that felt like a bed, yet not his bed. Not a hospital bed, either. Those were rarely ever soft.

Something told Spencer that he was alone before he even opened his eyes. Still, he did it slowly, peeking through his lashes to be sure before letting his eyes open all the way. Then, in one sweep, he took in his surroundings and found himself surprised. The room he was in looked like it belonged to a teenager. Posters on the wall, a desk with school books and a Millennium Falcon built out of Legos, dirty clothes on the floor, computers and electronics were strewn everywhere. As he looked at it all, it didn't take any great mental leaps to realize who this room belonged to, or how he'd gotten here. But that fact brought home a few other ones that made his stomach twist.

There was no sense of confusion or weird, hazy memories as Spencer sat himself up in bed. He looked down at himself and saw the same small, scrawny body that he'd been in earlier, and his horror grew. It hadn't been a dream, nor some random high. If it'd been a high, the drugs surely would've worn off by now, at least enough for him to start to see the fractures in the false reality around him. But everything was sharp and clear. If anything, it was all clearer than ever for him. He could see just a bit better as he looked around him, though the hint of fuzziness to some of the closer stuff told him that he definitely needed to get some glasses.

It was real. The whole, insane thing, it was real. But – that wasn't possible! Magic wasn't possible! There was absolutely no way Spencer could've been magically transported to another dimension where he was younger and had weird powers!

Just as Spencer's breathing started to pick up, the panic kicking in again, the bedroom door opened. Spencer's head shot up and he watched with wide eyes as a shaggy haired teen came into the room balancing a tray on his hands that smelled like it carried eggs. At the sight of Spencer sitting up and staring at him, it got him a wide-eyed look and a slight jump. "Oh! Good, you're awake!" The teenager came in and quickly shut the door behind him, somehow managing to balance the tray on his one hand. He hurried over once the door was shut and set the tray down on his desk. Then he was turning to look at Spencer and there was a wide, bright grin on his face, one that absolutely shouldn't be there while he was looking at a stranger lying in his bed. "I was beginning to worry. It's been like, at least eighteen hours. I was getting ready to go ahead and call in someone or Aunt May or whatever to make sure you were still alive!"

Spencer found that he could only sit there and stare. When he tried to form a sentence, the only thing that came out was a very confused "What?"

A hint of a blush colored the kid's cheeks. He jumped like he'd been pricked by something and drew himself back just a little, choosing to perch on the edge of the desk instead of come closer to the bed. "Oh, yeah, sorry. You're probably still a bit woozy. I'm Peter – well, Spiderman. The guy who, uh, who saved you back there? Yeah. When you passed out, I couldn't just leave you there, so I brought you back here. I just didn't think that you'd sleep this long. But you're looking a lot better than you were before! How're you feeling?"

The influx of words had Spencer stunned for a moment. He stared up at the kid, Peter, and felt his head spin a little. Was this what his friends felt like when he rambled at them? He suddenly had a newfound respect for Derek's tolerance. Staring at the kid, Spencer opened his mouth to speak, closed it, and then opened it again. "You brought me home?" he repeated, not quite able to believe it. At Peter's nod and quick "Yeah!" Spencer felt his eyebrows shoot up. "You found me being attacked and raving about drugs and hallucinations and alternate universes and having powers, and your response was to…bring me to your home?" The idea of that mystified him. Weren't superheroes supposed to be protective of their real identity?

"I couldn't just leave you out there."

"Judging by that mask I feel safe in the assumption that you don't exactly share your identity with the world. To protect yourself, you could've taken me literally anywhere else but your own home. Hell, you could've taken me to one of those empty buildings we were near and set me up in there until I woke up. But you brought me here."

Peter shifted around a little in an obviously uncomfortable way. Embarrassment washed over Spencer in that weird sort of external way he was starting to realize came from these powers, telling him that it wasn't his embarrassment he was feeling. He was drawn away from those thoughts when Peter looked down and mumbled. "I… I've got curfew. I had to get home, and I couldn't leave you alone."

Curfew. He had curfew. If Spencer hadn't already figured out just how young Peter was, this really would've cinched it. For a long second Spencer stared at him. Then he blurted out, "Are you insane?"

Instead of being offended, the teen actually grinned. "It's been said."

Spencer shook his head. He brought a hand up, pressing it against the dull pounding in his temple. This… God! This kid was going to get himself killed. "You have absolutely no idea who I am." Spencer said slowly, closing his eyes. The idea of the things that could've happened to Peter if Spencer weren't a good person – he couldn't help think about them and it only made him feel more sick. It also distracted him nicely from his own problems. "You found me in a parking lot in what appeared to be a bad part of town, rambling about being in a drug induced hallucination or dimension traveling, and instead of walking away or calling someone for help, you brought me home."

He could hear it as cloth rustled, likely Peter shrugging at him. "You said you didn't want me to call for help. And when I picked you up, you kept mumbling something about 'science experiments'."

The way that Peter said that, the ache that Spencer could feel from him, gave a clue that maybe Spencer wasn't the only one with that fear. That maybe this kid with his strange powers might understand that kind of fear. Still, Spencer shook his head slowly. "Pushing aside the absolute insanity of bringing me here – I can't believe you actually believe this. Most people would've called an ambulance."

"Like I said, I'm pretty sure the Fantastic Four have done some dimension hopping. Plus, like, it's a bit too insane to just be made up. I mean, if you were gonna make up a story to get at me, I'd think you'd come up with something a lot better sounding than that. Not to mention you talk like an adult. A weird adult, but an adult." A second later Peter looked both horrified and embarrassed and he hurried to add on "Not that I'm saying you're weird or anything! You just don't sound like any kid I know. Even if you look like one. Hey – how old do you think you are anyways?"

The speed with which Peter spoke and the jump through emotions, and topics, was enough to make Spencer's head spin. He answered on autopilot even as he tried to clear out his head somewhat. "Fifteen, I'm estimating."

"Seriously?"

The incredulous sounding word had Spencer looking up again. He resisted the urge to let out a sigh at the way that Peter was looking at him. Then Spencer looked down at his body, a small glare forming. He couldn't really blame Peter for being skeptical. "I know. If this body is going to be anything like my… like my original, I'll finally get a growth spurt at sixteen that makes me a little taller, and then at seventeen even more so. For now," He gestured vaguely down at himself. For now he was going to be stuck looking more like he was twelve instead of fifteen.

Groaning, Spencer brought both hands up to rub at his face. This was a giant mess. This wasn't… he couldn't keep telling himself this was drugs. Not when he'd actually slept and still woke up here. Not when things felt this real. Nor could he tell himself that this was some sort of mental break. No, apparently magic was real and it had somehow transported Spencer to a universe where he was younger, had powers, and was being taken in by a super powered kid with absolutely no sense of self-preservation. "Please tell me you at least notified your family that I was here."

"Oh, yeah." Peter hurried to reassure him. "I told Aunt May right after I brought you in. Once she found out about the whole, Spiderman thing, I promised I wouldn't lie to her about stuff anymore. So, yeah, she knows you're in here. She's the one that told me to bring you breakfast and see if it could wake you up."

The words seemed to remind Peter of the tray he'd brought in. When Spencer dropped his hands from his face, he found Peter grabbing the tray and then thrusting it out towards Spencer. "I almost forgot! Here, I made it myself. You're lucky, cause May's not really the best of cooks."

The eggs were rather good. As soon as Spencer took his first bite – he wasn't worried about what might be in them, if Peter wanted to hurt him he'd already had ample opportunity to do so – his body let him know just how hungry it actually was. It took a short amount of time before he'd gone through the entire plate of eggs, both pieces of toast, and the cup of orange juice that came with it all. Peter didn't seem the least bit bothered by how quickly Spencer had eaten it all.

"So," Peter said, drawing his legs up onto the desk with him to cross them under him. "Dimension travel, huh? How's it feel?"

The headache chose that moment to pulse a little and Spencer grimaced. "Painful."

"And you said you woke up with powers?"

This was the part that Spencer was honestly having the most trouble with at the moment. The part he wasn't quite sure how to feel about or how to even explain. Being in an alternate dimension, that was definitely something he was going to have a panic attack about at some point, but it was also slowly becoming 'fact' in his mind and therefore something that couldn't be immediately changed. Powers, though? Those – he had no idea where to even begin with those. They were an unknown for him. How was he supposed to react to it? How was he supposed to handle it?

The scientist inside of him was demanding study and proof. That part of him – a part that had been made in childhood and forged at the BAU – pushed down his feelings and allowed the more analytical side of his brain to take control. Emotions and panicking could always come later when things were done and he was safe and alone. For now, he set down the fork, looking at his mostly empty bowl in slight longing, but then he focused back on Peter's question again. With everything that Peter had showed him so far, would it hurt to show something in return? This kid here, he was the only person Spencer knew in this world, the only one that he might be able to talk to right now. It was just… the fact that he was a teenager was making it a bit hard for Spencer to actually want to open up. The urge was there to protect him.

After a second of hesitation, Spencer held up his hand and focused on it, trying to think of that blue energy that had been there before. The electricity.

As soon as he did, it showed around his hand, these little crackles of electrical energy. Focusing on it also seemed to bring to his awareness something he hadn't even really realized he was both registering and ignoring before. There was a steady hum to the world around him that he realized had to be the electrical energy in things. He was actually sensing the electricity all around him.

Peter let out a low, impressed whistle. "Is that electricity?" Without an ounce of fear he leaned in and looked closer at Spencer's hand. "It looks like it. Are you actually generating it or are you drawing it in from the things around you?"

That was an intelligent enough question to give Spencer pause. "I'm generating it, I believe." He finally said. "I can will it away, or draw it… it feels like it comes from inside of me. Though, I can sense the energy in the things around me, too. And… I think…" As soon as he had the thought, the lights in the room started to flicker and the computer on Peter's desk crackled as the power actually drew up out of it and towards Spencer's hand. The blue all gathered together to form a small sphere in his palm.

As soon as he realized he was gathering it from things, Spencer focused on shutting it off, bringing up his other hand as well to hold this ball that crackled like it was alive. He and Peter both stared at it in shock and, in Peter's case, a hint of awe. The sphere was roughly the size of a baseball. "It would appear I can draw it out of things around me as well."

"That's so cool."

That was one way of describing it. Not exactly the one that Spencer would've chosen, honestly, but he let it go.

"Can you do anything with it?" Peter asked, voice eager.

"Like what?"

The teen shrugged. "I don't know. I mean, I bet it's a pretty great offensive weapon, but there's nothing in here to really test it on. Can you, I don't know, manipulate it? Make things out of it?"

Now those were definitely good questions. Spencer sat up a little better in the bed and focused himself more. It let him shut off other things, the panic almost completely suppressed now and the scientist in him coming fully to the front. That was the part of him that had him cupping both hands around the sphere. Holding that energy in his hands, cradling it there, Spencer swore he could feel every inch of it. Every tiny electron. When he drew his hands apart and spread that energy out, it felt like instinct, as if the knowledge of what to do was just right there.

The ball stretched out between his hands, and when he pressed them in it compressed again. He smiled a little as he pressed until it was flat and then spread them again. However he twisted and moved his hands, it moved the energy with him. The gestures didn't seem necessary, but they helped him focus on what he was doing to a finer degree than just using his mind.

He was so focused on what he was doing, he almost forgot about Peter. At least, right up until the kid reached out as if to touch the flattened square that Spencer had created between them. The instant that Spencer saw his hand coming towards it he reacted on instinct once more. The energy darkened and became something more solid – less raw, crackling energy. When Peter's hand pressed against it he found himself touching something warm and solid. "Wow."

Spencer jerked his hands back and drew that energy in towards himself. "Do you have no sense of self-preservation?" Spencer demanded. "You had no idea what that could've done to you! What if it shocked you?"

To his annoyance, the teen shrugged. "I heal fast."

Oh, God. It'd been such a long time since Spencer had been a teenager himself, or really spent any time around them. He'd forgotten that tendency to think they were indestructible.

With a bit of focus it was surprisingly easy for Spencer to draw some of that energy back into himself while at the same time letting some of it out into the world around him. He fed a bit of it into the electronics in the room – likely Peter's phone, tablet, and laptop would have a rather nice charge on them – and some into the building itself, while drawing the rest in. That bit of energy gave him an actual, physical boost, washing away some of his exhaustion and clearing his mind.

That clarity brought with it a few important facts. The most important being – he couldn't stay here.

Now that he'd rested, eaten, and given his body some extra energy in other ways, it was time for Spencer to get up and go. There was no telling what this world was like or how people might react to him. But so far things were acting like some sort of comic or movie, and in those, the new powered 'mutant' type kid always ended up in trouble. The last thing that Spencer wanted was to bring any kind of trouble down on this sweet kid here. You've read too many comics. Nerd. The little internal barb just had him shaking his head. Who would've guessed that being a comic nerd would ever come in handy like this?

Leaving was the only logical thing for Spencer to do. Only, when he started to push the blankets off so that he could slide his legs out of the bed, Peter started to reach out to him like he could actually stop him. "Woah, woah, take it easy. May said you'd probably be dizzy and such when you woke up. You should probably, I don't know, stay down for a while or something."

"I'm fine." Spencer told him. And, really, he was. The energy that he'd given himself, or the sleep, or maybe the food, one or all of those had him feeling better than he had in, well… years. Spencer pushed easily up to his feet. He tried desperately to ignore the fact that even though Peter was sitting on the desk, which made him just a bit shorter than normal, Spencer was still shorter than him. To avoid looking at him, or thinking about that, Spencer looked down at himself and realized something rather important. He had no shoes on, and he was in a pair of boxers that he really hoped were his own, but he had no pants and only a plain t-shirt on. One that was too big for him. Realizing it had him flushing and fighting the urge to drop back down and hide under the blankets. He forced himself to look up at Peter and not blush too much. "Where are my clothes?"

"Oh, May's washing them." Something a bit sad, a bit hesitant crossed Peter's features. "They uh, they got a bit dirty...before."

Oh. Yeah, Spencer could imagine that. He brushed it off as unimportant and tried not to sigh at the idea that his leaving was going to be delayed. "Do you know when they might be done? As much as I appreciate your hospitality, I've already stayed here too long."

That perked Peter up immediately. He sat up straighter on the desk and his eyebrows shot up. Confusion and concern were coming from him, plus something else that Spencer couldn't quite name, something a bit heavier and flavored like, hurt? "What're you talking about?"

Unable to help himself, Spencer gentled his tone. He still wasn't the best person in the world at talking to people but he'd come a long way with that. His team had helped him with that. Because of that, Spencer was able to make himself reach out and lightly touch Peter's arm, and his voice gentled to a tone he'd used with kids on countless cases. "You've been amazing, Peter. I owe you so much for how you've helped me. But, I can't stay here."

He hated how that made the hurt from Peter grow a little. "Why not?"

"Because it's not safe, and it's not smart. However I managed to get here, there's no telling what kind reaction it's caused in this world, or even what I might do with these powers. It's safer all around for you if I go."

"Do you even have anywhere to go?" Peter shot back instantly.

The question had Spencer closing his eyes. Damn this teenaged body – he had to fight back the fear that welled up, the idea of being alone out there without any of his friends or family, no one to call on, and then he had to fight even harder to push away the tears that threatened to build. He'd forgotten just how emotional he'd been as a teenager. Learning how to cover it up had been a matter of time, experience, and growing up. He still had the experience – those memories were bright in his mind, just as always – but this body was young, the hormones in it not quite settled, and this empathy that was making him feel so damn much around him, it made it almost impossible to keep the tears at bay. Somehow, he managed. His voice only cracked a little as he said "I'll be fine."

The kid in front of him snorted. "Right. Look…"

When he paused, Spencer realized that he'd never introduced himself, and he hurried to say "Spencer."

Peter flashed a small smile that was quickly wiped away under a serious expression. "Look, Spencer. You saw who I am. You know that I'm capable of defending myself against whatever comes our way. I want to help you, all right? This, what's happening to you, it's shitty, and you shouldn't have to deal with it by yourself. If you won't let me take you to some people that I trust to help you, at least let me offer you a place to sleep, even if it's just for a few days until you've adjusted to being here. I mean, for all we know this thing that brought you here could reverse and you could end up going home tomorrow."

This was such a bad idea. Such a bad, bad idea. Spencer knew that. So why wasn't he saying no?

Peter must've sensed that he was weakening. He reached out and put a hand on Spencer's arm, either not seeing his instinctive flinch or just ignoring it. "You'll be safe here, even if just for a little bit. No one saw me bring you in and no one's come sniffing around the entire time you've been sleeping. You can at least take a few days and get your bearings, right?"

The logic in that was hard to argue. He had been asleep for a while and no one had come by for him. Would it really hurt if he took another day, two at the most, and gathered himself or tried to make some sort of plan? Spencer chewed on the inside of his lip for a moment as he thought it through.

Eventually, he sighed and gave a small, reluctant nod. The burst of excitement that he got from Peter almost had him wanting to smile.

Spencer quickly held a finger up and pointed it at Peter. He wanted to make one point very clear. "At the first sign of trouble, I'm leaving. And if someone comes after you anyways to ask about me, you're going to give them everything you know – no holding back. Are we clear on that?"

"You want me to… give you up?" Peter repeated it slowly like he wasn't quite sure he'd heard Spencer right.

The young genius gave a firm nod. "Absolutely. I won't let my presence here put you in danger, Peter. You or your Aunt. If someone comes after me and gets to you two first, I want you to give them whatever they ask for. Promise me that, or I swear to you I'll borrow a pair of pants from you and walk out that door right now."

He wasn't surprised that Peter agreed. For some reason, the teen seemed to really want him to stay. Spencer didn't claim to understand it but, he couldn't deny that he needed what Peter was offering here. He needed a chance to take a little bit now that he was awake and wrap his head around everything that had happened and what it meant. His whole life had been turned upside down and inside out and Spencer had no idea what to do. He lived in a world of science and facts and things like that, not this one of fantasy and make-believe.

He just, he needed a little time to think. To try and figure out what he was going to do. Somehow, he was going to find a way to get back home.