Peter looked over the recently revealed back of Gwen's letter from so many years ago. Sure enough, it said she had been pregnant and that the children had the same name as his recent attackers.

"It can't be." said Peter, "The two who've been trying to kill me, trying to destroy Peter Parker's life; they can't be Gwen's kids. They- Even if Gwen had kids, they'd still be children, they wouldn't have aged enough to- Unless they weren't normal kids to begin with. Unless... I have to find out. I have to find out for sure." He pulled down his mask and swung away.

Mary Jane was sleeping soundly when she was suddenly woken up by Peter.

"MJ," he said, "are you awake?"

"No," she said, "I was asleep. What time is it?"

"Half-past really freaking early, but you said you wanted to get up early so you could go work out before rehearsal."

"Right, right."

"I'll make you some breakfast in bed, nothing too heavy, toast, orange juice, coffee, pterodactyl eggs."
"Oh, God."

"What?"

"Whenever you offer to bring me breakfast in bed, it's a prelude to you saying you can't stay."

"Wow, you really know me well."

"Are you okay, Peter? You look like you've been crying."

"I'm fine, just tired."

"Peter, you know I love you and there's nothing you can't tell me, right?"

"Yeah, I know. I love you, too. I'll be back in a flash."

He always tries to protect me. Thought MJ, That's what he does. He doesn't understand. She pulled out a flashlight, It's not that I don't want to be protected, because sometimes I do. She turned on the flashlight and illuminated a sheet of paper webbed to the ceiling, But sometimes I want to protect him, and I can't do that when he's too busy protecting me, when he's keeping secrets, She turned the flashlight off, but I have to respect his secrets. Because that's what I do, I keep people's secrets. But what if I'm not sure I should keep them anymore?

At the graveyard, Peter knelt at Gwen's grave, a shovel in hand.

"I can't do this." said Peter, "But I have to do this. I have to know. I have to." He picked up the shovel, "Forgive me, Gwen. It's the only way to be sure you truly need forgiveness. And I can't forgive you if I don't know if you need to be forgiven." He stuck the shovel into the ground and removed a scoop of dirt. At the same time, it felt like he was digging a hole in his heart. Nevertheless, he kept going. Eventually he got down to the casket. He opened the lid and saw Gwen, her beautiful face still intact and her lifeless body still dressed in the same long, pale green coat and purple dress she wore when she was thrown off the bridge that day. He took out a pair of scissors and snipped off a strand of hair, having decided that was the best way to get the necessary DNA while avoiding desecration, and climbed back out.

"Bastard." said Gabriel from the other side of the graveyard, watching with a pair of binoculars.

"What?" said Sarah over the intercom. Gabe didn't respond.

"What is he doing?" said Sarah.

"Confirming his worst nightmare." said Gabriel in reply.

"Then he knows?"

"If he didn't before, he does now."

Later, Spider-Man returned to the police department with an open envelope, all addresses blanked out, and a strand of blonde hair. Eventually Lamont showed up.

"I need a genetic cross-match." said Spider-Man, "I need to find out if the sender of this letter is the child of the owner of this hair."

"Is this about your friend's dilemma?" said Lamont.

"Yes."

"I'll get these down to forensics. Would you like to stay while you wait?"

"Yes."

"Okay."

Later, while Spider-Man sat waiting for the DNA results, someone threw a hand grenade through the window. Spider-Man quickly slung it back out. Suddenly Sarah jumped in through the window and immediately started shooting Spider-Man. However he simply dodged all the bullets.

"Hold still, dammit!" said Sarah, "I'm doing you a favor, believe it or not."

"How so?" said Spider-Man.

"Gabriel doesn't just want to kill you; he wants you to want it. He's going to go after everyone you love, killing them one by one. Each death making you suffer more and more. Eventually the pain will become unbearable, and you'll be begging him to kill you. Only when you're begging on your knees, will he kill you."

"You're his sister, aren't you? Don't you want what he wants?"

"I... I just want this over with. I couldn't put you through all that suffering, even after what you did," her voice got quieter, "Dad."

"What?"

"Don't act like you don't know. Just, let me kill you."

"You have the gun, what's stopping you?"

"You're too fast, and we both know it. You have to accept it willingly." Spider-Man jumped her and tried tearing the gun out of her hand. However, when she kicked him off, all he got was her mask. When he looked over at her, he saw, to his horror, that she looked exactly like Gwen.

"Happy now?" she said, "Gabe says I look exactly like pictures we've seen of my mom. What do you think?"

"Go." said Spider-Man, saddened by the sight of Gwen's face on someone trying to kill him, "Just... go."

"Soft. Just like Harry said." Sarah said quietly.

"Who?" said Spider-Man. But Sarah was gone.
"Is everything okay in here?" said Lamont, who apparently heard the commotion.

"Yeah," Spider-Man lied, "everything's fine. Did you get the results yet?"

"We did. It says 'Heredity confirmed to within 0.00001219'. She is the mother." Spider-Man said nothing, and left.

When Spider-Man returned home that night, he found MJ wide awake, with a sheet of paper in her hand.

"MJ." said Peter, "What are you doing awake at this hour?"

"I read it, Peter." she said, "I know I shouldn't have, but I had to. I know who they are, Peter."

"Then you have to understand, MJ. They're not my children. Gwen and I, we didn't, we never, we almost did but she didn't think she was ready."

"I know, Peter. You don't have to try and convince me. I know you're telling the truth. Because I know who the real father of Gwen Stacy's children is."