M.J. stepped up to Peter's apartment door, giving a couple of knocks. After waiting a few seconds and receiving no answer, she tried again, hitting the door a bit harder and louder this time. However, there was still no answer. Really, this probably meant that he was still out on his evening patrol, and she would normally either text him or try again later. She really needed to see him tonight though; she needed his support and a little extra courage, something Peter seemed to have a knack for helping her find.

She pulled out her phone and tried calling him, only to hear his ringtone coming from inside the apartment. M.J. looked in curiosity at the door. Had Peter left his phone behind?

"Hey," came his answer. There was some background noise as well that sounded like typing or something.

"Hey," she said. "Umm... I'm outside."

There was no response offered other than some more background noise. The door then opened, revealing her fiancé.

"Hey," he repeated. He had a strange look on his face, as if he were both present but wanting to be somewhere else at the same time.

"Hey," M.J. also repeated. "Can I come in?"

"Yeah," Peter replied kind of nonchalantly. He opened the door more widely for her to come in. As soon as he closed the door from behind her, Peter instantly walked past her, seemingly heading for his room. M.J. wasn't certain what was going on, but she followed him there, where he sat back down at his computer.

"You'll have to talk while I'm working," he explained as he resumed looking at his screen. "I'm trying to get a lead on something."

Okay, this was very weird. It wasn't the most unusual thing for her to catch Peter while he was in the process of investigating or working on something Spider-Man related, but he usually at least did his best to appear to be paying attention to her. Right now, she instead felt as if she was being treated like a messenger here to deliver something and leave again. Ultimately, she ignored the feeling, speaking up.

"I'm, uh... I'm going to visit my sister now."

"Cool," Peter muttered, still hardly paying her any attention.

M.J. narrowed her eyes at him.

"Oh, and I'm also having an affair with a really cute server at that Italian restaurant we go to sometimes."

This time, Peter didn't even say anything at all, instead looking more closely at something on his computer before apparently dismissing whatever it was and moving on.

"Peter!"

Apparently, that got his attention, the man finally turning to face her.

"What?" he asked, his facial expression looking all sweet and innocent, as if this were the first time that she'd spoken to him since they had come in here.

"What is going on with you tonight?" she asked. "Did you even hear what I said?"

Her fiancé then looked back at the screen before looking down to the side, as if he were contemplating some deep mystery. He then closed his computer in a hurry.

"I'm sorry, Mary Jane," he said, standing up and seemingly giving her his full attention finally. "I don't know what came over me. It's like I was just blocking out everything around me almost."

"I presume that's why your usually better than average hearing didn't catch me knocking earlier?" M.J. questioned.

Peter narrowed his eyes her way, tilting his head slightly in what seemed to be a mix of curiosity and concern.

"I guess so," he muttered, seemingly still trying to figure out what strange thing seemed to be happening to him.

"Does this have anything to do with what's going on with Eddie?" she asked.

Peter's expression shifted to a more guilty look, telling her all she needed to know before he even answered.

"I've been trying to see if I can get any leads on who might have attacked him and Anne," he confessed. "If he really is onto something, they could always come back to finish the job."

M.J. sighed.

"I know that you want to help him, but be careful," she said. "And I don't just mean 'don't get hurt' either; this is getting personal, and it's messing with your head."

Peter nodded, seemingly acknowledging her concerns.

"I'll be careful, I promise," he assured her. "Now, I think I at least remember you saying something about your sister?"

Oh yeah, that.

"Yep," she nodded. "I'm going to see her and I'm just nervous, you know? I haven't seen her in years; what if she just turns around and walks away when she sees it's me and doesn't give a chance?"

"Hey, you'll never know unless you try," Peter reminded her. "Like you said, it's been years, and I'm pretty sure the saying about absence making the heart grow fonder can apply to more than just romantic relationships. Maybe it's made her ready to see you?"

M.J. let out a light huff.

"You really do know what to say sometimes," she remarked.

Peter shrugged.

"I did learn from the best after all," he said, a smile finally stretching over his face as he put his arms around her.

"Uh huh," she replied dryly as she threw her arms over his shoulders, gazing into his eyes.

"I mean, don't get me wrong, you've helped a lot in that area," Peter said, "but I was also thinking of my aunt and uncle too, so don't feel the need to take all the credit."

"Okay, how much should I take?" she questioned.

"Hmm," Peter hummed, glancing upward as he pondered her question. "How about... twenty-four and a half percent?"

"Seriously?" Mary Jane questioned. "You're not even going to give me an honest quarter of the credit?"

"Well, I mean, I have it broken down in my head," Peter explained, "I guess I could lay it out for you if you like, but it might take a while."

M.J. chuckled. He really was such a nerd sometimes, but he was HER nerd.

"I can get a piece of paper if you really don't believe me," he teased as his smile grew closer to its usual size. "Maybe seeing it might hel..."

Moving in, M.J. planted a kiss on his lips. His hand came up and rested on the right side of her face, and they held the position for a moment before she pulled away.

"I love you," she said.

"I love you too," he replied. "Sorry again about earlier; I don't know how I didn't hear you knocking."

"It's okay," she assured him. "Well, wish me luck I guess."

"Good luck," Peter replied.

She gave him another quick kiss before he walked her back out to the door. As she stepped out, she gazed at him one last time. Peter was obviously much more present now, but she couldn't shake the feeling about how off he'd been before. Still, she had more immediate concerns, so she opted to bury her worries for now. She flashed him a smile as he shut the door.

As Peter shut the door, his mind kept asking one question: what just happened? His senses were normally so sharp, so how M.J. could knock multiple times on his door and he not be aware of it was bizarre to him. It wasn't unheard of for him to get caught up in doing something, but still, the second knock should have gotten to him at least.

What was more concerning to Peter though was how aloof he'd been towards M.J. at first. As he thought back to their little interaction, he realized that he'd given her hardly any explanation about what he was doing, and he couldn't even remember what the first things she had said were. He normally prided himself on being present when she was around him; it was what she deserved in his mind.

She had to be right, this whole thing with Eddie must be getting to him worse than he expected. He just had to do something; he had to help him, he had to protect both his best friend and his wife. The look on Eddie's face from their conversation the day before had come back to his mind, the way his words were laced with anger and rage. He had to get ahead of this before Eddie did something that he regretted.

Yet, he'd been unable to find any leads, at least not the way that he'd been looking initially. Therefore, it was time to take the matter to the streets. Running back to his room, Peter quickly changed into his Spider-Man outfit. After checking his web shooters to make sure that they were good on fluid, he leapt out the window and swung off into the night.

He didn't know what he would find in all this, but he had at least one idea of where to start: Blackie Gaxton. It had been nearly two years since Peter had last paid the man a visit, but if anyone had at least an idea of where he should look first, it would be him. Plus, with any luck, the destruction he'd left behind was hopefully still fresh in Gaxton's mind.

Making his way there quickly, Peter soon came to the place in question: The Bar With No Name. Wasting no time, he made his way into the ventilation shaft and worked his way through. Sure enough, the man's office was positioned exactly as he'd remembered it from before. Unfortunately, the man currently had visitors, so Peter withheld his urge to just bust in, opting to wait until the two of them could have some more privacy.

Fortunately for Peter, he didn't end up having to wait that long, as the man's visitors got up and departed only a couple of minutes later. After giving just enough time to make sure that they'd be alone, Peter made his entrance, popping open the ventilation shaft and dropping into the room, causing the man to almost jump out of his seat.

"You almost gave me a heart attack!" the man shouted at him as he recomposed himself.

"Glad to see that my last visit left an impression," Peter teased. "Maybe that means you'll tell me what I need to know more quickly this time.

"Not tonight, bug," Gaxton replied. "I've got more important things to deal with than you right now, so why don't you make yourself scarce?"

Letting out a deep sigh, Peter then shoved the man's desk aside before rushing him, grabbing him by his shirt collar and slamming him up against the wall.

"Look, I'm not really in the mood tonight, Blackie," he explained. "So, I'm going to lay out what I want for you, and you're going to tell me what I want to know, or what I did to this place last time will look like an Empire State frat party compared to how I'll leave it after tonight."

"You could tear this place to the ground, but it would be nothing compared to what the new man in charge would do to me if he found out that I gave you anything!" Gaxton explained.

A new guy? Eddie had been right before?

Peter pulled Gaxton to himself so that they were face to face.

"What exactly do you mean when you say, 'new man in charge'?" he questioned.

The man's eyes slightly widened as he realized that he'd probably said more than he'd meant to.

"Well, someone had to take Fisk's place after you and that horn-headed partner of yours took him down a few years back," the man stammered out.

"I want a name, Blackie," Peter demanded.

"No way," Gaxton replied, his tone more concerned than before. "You won't get anything on him, not from me or anyone else among the scum of this city. Kingpin had competitors, like the Maggia. They were never a real threat, but they still existed outside of his control. The new guy though, he's consolidated everyone and brought the entire underworld underneath him and his influence, and he's made it clear that he doesn't tolerate disloyalty. Nothing you can do to me is worse than what he would do if he found out that I gave you anything."

Something about the look in the man's eyes convinced Peter that he was telling the truth, so he opted for a new strategy.

"You know what, my apologies," he said, setting the man back on his own two feet and brushing his jacket off. "I must have made the wrong impression; I didn't come in here looking for anything on him. I was just looking into an assault that happened recently on a reporter and his wife who, oh yeah, just happens to be the District Attorney as well. I'm not looking for anything big, just whatever you might know about who was behind it."

"Like I said, you ain't getting anything out of me," Gaxton insisted. "Besides, even if the old guard was still in place, I don't know everything about every little assault, battery or whatever that happens in this city."

"Then who would?" Peter questioned. When he received no answer, he grabbed the man and shoved him up against the wall again, demanding answers. Still, the man said nothing. He wanted to press harder, to really test if what the man was saying was true, but there was something in his eyes, a fear, a certainty that convinced him that the guy believed everything that he was saying.

Frustrated, Peter set the man back down before taking his leave from the building.

Hearing a knock on the door, Eddie turned to see Anne's parents at the doorway. He glanced back at Anne, who was fast asleep again, before getting up to greet them each with a hug.

"Thank you both for coming," he said.

"We're just glad that we could help," they said. "You've been here for two days; getting some rest is the best thing you can do right now, for the both of you."

Eddie turned and looked back at Anne; there was something that he felt he needed to say to them, but he had a lump in his throat that was trying to prevent them from doing so.

"I'm, uh... I'm sorry that I let this happen," he apologized, finally overcoming it.

"Eddie, this isn't your fault," Anne's mother assured him, putting her hand on his shoulder in an attempt to comfort him. "You can't blame yourself for what happened; you and Anne both work in occupations that can be dangerous sometimes."

"Yeah," Eddie remarked.

"Go home, son," Eddie said. "Get some rest. We'll call if you if she needs anything."

Eddie nodded before coming over and giving Anne a gentle kiss on the forehead. He then took his leave and, shortly after he left the room, he noticed that he was getting a call from one of his contacts at the police station.

"Please tell me that you have something," he asked.

"It's not much, but we think that we might know where the guys who attacked you might have come from," the man explained. "We're still working on finding out which of them was in your neighborhood the other night though."

It was better than nothing.

"Tell me."

Hope you're all still enjoying it! Thank you to those who've been invested in this story/series. I probably sound like a broken record at this point, but your support means everything!

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

"But God will never forget the needy; the hope of the afflicted will never perish." Psalm 9:18