Disclaimer: Okay, so this story is slow going thus far. But that only because I don't want to rush through it like I've done in my early days. I won't beg and plead for more reviews per chapter as that would make me seem desperate… which I'm not.

Special shout out to all the dads out there one day before Father's Day, and one more shout out to Lady of Myth and Legend for your support so far. Much love!

I do not own the rights to Spider-Man and company.

Chapter X

Monday was the start of the week, and in the case of Manhattan, it was the beginning of highly hectic and perpetually aggravated business week. Donald Menken was in Wall Street handling said business for Norman Osborn, particularly the financial aspects of OsCorp where he had recently stood in for Norman in his absence. The thing was, Norman was unaware of Menken's present in Wall Street just as he was unaware of Menken's – questionable decisions of late. There was concern in Menken's mindset that his employer could and most likely would find about it sooner or later. And Given Norman's state of mind as of late, Menken ought to have considered getting out of the country as sooner as possible. At least Menken found time to buy a cup of coffee; this particular Monday was going to be of those long Mondays.

Menken strolled toward the curb and hailed a cab. One, two, three cabs passed by him as if he was invisible, never mind that they were likely taking other passengers to whatever destination to which they were headed. Menken inwardly wished he had his car. Eventually and after some trial and error, Menken finally managed to hail a cab coming down the street toward him. A moment later, the yellow vehicle was cut off by a white limousine parking itself right where Menken was standing. Menken was understandably startled by the sudden appearance of the limo, while the driver of the cab was cursing out foul language and taking off. The window of the rear passenger door that Menken was facing slid open, but Menken couldn't see anyone inside. Then Wilson Fisk appeared, having hidden his face from view before.

"Good morning, Donald." Fisk said.

"Mr. Fisk, to what do I own the pleasure?" Menken asked, doing his best not to be nervous around Fisk.

"The pleasure is all mine, actually. It was Monday so I decided to take a ride around Tribeca. Imagine my surprise to find you here," Fisk explained in a surprisingly casual way, which made Menken a bit more nervous. "I can offer you a ride back to your home if you wish."

"That won't be necessary. I can get back home on my own merits." Menken replied, hoping Fisk would take the bait and leave.

"It's almost eight blocks from here to your apartment on Main Street, Menken. Do you mean to walk that distance?" Fisk asked.

Menken was of the mindset of bolting down the sidewalk, jacking a parked car and driving as far away from Fisk as humanly possible. There were two major problems with that. One; the owner of said vehicle could report it stolen and finger Menken as the culprit, and Menken doubt that Norman Osborn would bother to bail him out. Two; if the cops didn't catch, then Fisk would catch him. And he wouldn't be nearly as forgiving given his underworld connections of which Menken was aware. That was to say nothing if Norman got wind of Menken's behind the scenes action.

He ultimately walked around to the other side of the car where the limo driver was opening the door to let him enter. Menken slipped into the seat across from where Fisk was sitting. Fisk took up much of his own seat given his considerably massive girth when the limo driver shut the door and returned to the driver seat. The car then entered traffic, which seemed surprisingly light for a Monday morning when most New Yorkers were in a hurry to get where they needed to be in one. Menken sat across and to the far left from Fisk, who was sipping on a glass of wine like some clichéd evil comic book villain. The sight of the massive man in the suit made Menken more than a little nervous.

Fisk placed the glass into a holder and elected to get right to business. "So, Donald, how've things been lining for Norman since he's reclaimed leadership of his company?"

Menken seemed hesitant to reply to Fisk's question, but not answering was likely far worse. "Well Mr. Fisk…"

"Wilson," Fisk corrected. "No need to stand on ceremony here."

"As I was saying – Wilson," Menken corrected himself. "Productivity within OsCorp has progressed upon Mr. Osborn's return to the day-to-day operations, especially after that fiasco with Shocker at the press conference."

Wilson gave a slight nod despite knowing he'd sent Shocker after Norman in the first place. "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised; Norman was always a very driven man, maybe even a bit obsessive at times," Wilson then paused to take another sip of wine before continuing, "What about you, Donald? What brings you to Wall Street? Trying to buy more stocks? Or are you recouping certain… losses?"

Menken gave Fisk a slightly confused look and tried to play it off. He cracked a small smile and replied, "If I'd suffered any particular losses from my accounts, you can rest assured that they've been replenished in time. The last thing I'd need is the IRS descending on me like vultures."

"Funny you should mention vultures. I'm not sure if you're aware, but Adrian Toomes recently escaped from Riker's Island. I have no doubt that Norman's taken notice by now," Fisk explained, while Menken retained himself. "Still, Donald, if news of Toomes' escape hasn't reached Norman yet, then surely the news of certain – financial difficulties within OsCorp will. That wouldn't bode well for Norman now, especially in today's economy."

Now Menken was starting to sweat and he was fighting not to show it. "Well… I'd be lying if OsCorp's reopening wasn't fraught with obstacles like with Shocker's assassination attempt. Couple that with Mr. Osborn's disappearance at the height of the Goblin incident last year…"

"You can stop trying to mislead me, Menken," Fisk said, his tone becoming dark and very serious. "I already know well enough about your recent string of mismanagement of OsCorp."

Menken was very much sweating bullets at that point, feeling like a soldier being heavily grilled by his commanding officer. "How could you possibly know that?" he asked.

Fisk leaned forward and replied, "I'm the Kingpin of Crime, the most powerful crime boss in the New York underworld. I have connections all throughout this city, in every level of its infrastructure and more than Silvermane or Mr. Negative can boast. There isn't anything in this entire city that I don't know about."

"But you can't possibly be aware of…" Menken couldn't even finish his protest, instead stating, "I've taken every careful step to keep this news away from the public and from Mr. Osborn. If it leaked…"

"You think that your actions prevented the story from leaking? The news of your mismanagement of the very company that Norman Osborn built hasn't leaked because of my connections," Fisk explained. "If I wanted to, I could have the story leaked with a snap of my fingers."

Menken knew Fisk wasn't bluffing. "So why haven't you?"

Fisk smiled wickedly and replied, "Isn't that the question of the day?"

Before the conversation could be continued, the limo was suddenly jolted and sent Fisk and Menken thrashing in their seats. The limo itself crashed into a light post, leaving the front end T-boned and spewing fumes. Fisk exited the rear of the limo, followed by Menken. Right at that very moment, Spider-Man crashed right in front of them in a heap. Upon seeing Spider-Man down and seemingly out for the count, Fisk was tempted to unmask the arachnid right there, until Spider-Man suddenly recovered and pushed Fisk out of the way of a sudden stray shot. Spider-Man pushed Fisk, and Menken, up against the limo. Another stray shot nearly struck Spider-Man when he was able to back flip out of the way.

The shots were being fired at Spider-Man by Beetle, the villain that Spider-Man first met at Quest Tower only a couple of days ago. Spider-Man leapt up and clung to a wall with Beetle hovering toward him and unloading more shots at him, seemingly almost with recklessness to his aim. The shots missed Spider-Man as he bounded and hopped in between the shots while remaining perched on the wall. All the while, Fisk and Menken and the limo driver moved out of the way as the two foes battled among the on-looking New Yorkers and officers alike. Fisk in particular was hoping that Spider-Man and Beetle would kill each other.

Spider-Man fired a line and swing around Beetle as the villain was still taking shot after shot and missing. The shots only struck the street in front of the gathered crowd and the police officers keeping them safe from harm. Beetle managed to strike the web line, sending Spider-Man spiraling in mid-air but landing atop a street light. Another of Beetle's shots missed Spider-Man as he leapt over it easily, and then Spider-Man retaliated with series of webbing shot of his own. Most of the web spheres struck Beetle and caused him to almost lose control while in flight, although he was able to right himself. Then he was blinded by a glob of webbing to his mask, while Spider-Man was once again perched to a wall.

"Hey, Bumblebee," the web slinger called out to the blinded villain. "You think maybe we can speed up this little slow dance of ours? I've got a much hotter date lined up and I don't want to be late for it, you know what I mean?"

Beetle finally tore the webbing from his mask and shouted, "This doesn't end until you're a greasy smear on the ground."

"Give it your best shot…. Mr. Paul McCartney." Spider-Man quipped.

Beetle screamed, incensed at the Beatles reference and fired a whole volley of shots at Spider-Man… and walked right into the trap. Spider-Man bounded from the wall and swung all around Beetle without stopping for even a second, and Beetle followed by rotating in place while in mid-air and taking pot shots. He couldn't hit Spider-Man even one time or even land a single glancing blow. At the same time, Spider-Man easily slipped passed Beetle and seemed to mock with random hand gestures, some of them not flattering. Eventually, Beetle suddenly stopped spinning around and appeared to be dizzy from the rotation.

Spider-Man saw his opening as he was standing directly below Beetle. He bound up and grabbed hold of the villain flight pack. With a mighty thrust, Spider-Man punched directly through Beetle's flight pack. A second later, he yanked a handful of wiring from within the pack before jumping off. Beetle's pack sputtered and seized before it following died, sending Beetle crashing to the street with a heavy clang of steel on asphalt. Spider-Man landed in front of the villain as he tried to rise from the ground. Brandishing a hidden knife, Beetle took a swing at Spider-Man… and took a straight punch to the mask. The punch was enough to shatter one of the yellow eye piece before Beetle dropped back down, defeated. A round of applause from the gathered watchers rose up, minus Wilson Fisk as Spider-Man webbed up Beetle and pulled his mask off, revealing the face of a defeated Abner Jenkins.

Kneeling down beside the beaten villain, Spider-Man said, "I think this is the part where you cuss and moan and swear brutal revenge against me, Jenksie-Winkle!"

"This isn't over, Spider-Man. I'll get out jail soon enough and I do…" Jenkins took a mouthful of webbing before he could finish his statement.

Spider-Man brought his hand to his ear and said, "I'm sorry, Jenks. I can't hear you over all the webbing."

The gathered crowd, the officers and news crews applauded louder and hard and chanted, "SPIDER-MAN! SPIDER-MAN! SPIDER-MAN!"

Spider-Man gleefully took a bow to the masses, declaring out loud, "Thank you – thank you very much. You're all too kind."

Everybody applauded louder, until… "A fine show of humility, Spider-Man," The voice was from Wilson Fisk, who was approaching Spider-Man from within the crowd like a lunar eclipse blotting the sun. "A fine show; you almost had me fooled of your so-called heroics."

"Somebody call Captain Ahab; I just found Moby Dick." Spider-Man joked, drawing some laughter from the crowd.

Obviously, Fisk wasn't amused. He approached Spider-Man until they were face to face. Or more like face to girth. "Joke all you like, but I've been on to you from the start. You pretend to be this hero to whom the citizens look up, but you're no different from the likes of Beetle or Doctor Octopus or the Lizard… or the Green Goblin."

"Says the man who likely gets confused for the hippo float from the Macy's Parade."

Fisk lowered his face so that it met Spider-Man's through the white eyes pieces of his mask. "You might have these people fooled now, but they will tire of you eventually and when that day comes, I'll be there to watch your downfall. Trust me; that day is coming."

Spider-Man waved his hand between his and Fisk's face and replied, "I'm sorry, did you say something? I couldn't help but be distracted by the foul stench of Limburger cheese and anchovies permeating from your breath. Oh, and don't think for a second that I'm not on to you either, Fisk."

"You have nothing on me, Spider-Man." Fisk said confidently.

"I may not be able to prove you're dirty, but that doesn't mean somebody else won't try." Spider-Man said while he glanced briefly Capt. Jean DeWolff. Then he shot a web line and swung away.

Fisk watched intently as Spider-Man disappeared into the sky line like some god-like creature before he turned back to the site of the chaos. He watched as several police officers hoisted the defeated Beetle to his feet and dragged him away to a waiting vehicle. Capt. DeWolff directed them before glancing briefly at Fisk. She and Spider-Man had something in common; both of them were on to Fisk and his less public endeavors, but neither could prove them to be fact. Fisk did tell Menken that he had connections, enough to keep his Kingpin persona secret. Donald Menken was standing among the crowd nearby what was left of Fisk's limousine, and Fisk still had business to attend to with him.

Gwen had made up her mind and she wasn't going to wait for Peter to make up his own mind. That was the primary reason behind her standing near a local shawarma restaurant waiting for her boyfriend to show. She didn't want to go inside some the store and eat shawarma, which she'd heard wasn't all that great, while waiting casually for Peter to arrive from wherever he was at now. This was serious for her, and now, she wanted and needed to be serious with Peter. Why he'd yet to answer her messages to him was beyond her now. So she started turning her face from side to the other, trying to make out any sign of Peter's eventual arrival. As Gwen was scanning the immediate area around, Spider-Man swung right into an alley half a block away from her.

Gwen turned her face in the very direction parallel to the alley where Spider-Man vanished, and ultimately just missing him. She likely would've thought she was getting slightly paranoid. Thank god for those self-defense classes her father made her attend. Gwen continued to scan the area for Peter, all the while Peter emerged from the same alley he disappeared into as his superhero persona. He was kicking himself for missing Gwen's first couple of calls over his phone, the fault being his fight with and apprehension of Beetle. But that was in the past. Gwen was right in front of him, waiting for him. Peter approached with whatever confidence he could muster.

"Hey Gwen," he called, drawing Gwen attention to him. "I'm sorry, I am so sorry I didn't get here sooner."

"Yeah, you should be. I left you three, maybe four messages on your phone telling you it was really important." Gwen explained.

"I know, and I would've responded sooner but I got called to the Bugle. And then I got stuck in traffic and then…" Peter stopped to note the particular restaurant standing between him and Gwen. "Is that a shawarma joint? You decided to meet in front of a shawarma joint?"

Gwen rolled her eyes and sarcastically replied, "Oh, I'm sorry I didn't pick the Bahamas of meeting places. Seriously, where were you… actually?"

Peter darted his eyes to one side and said, "I told you, I got stuck in traffic. Public transportation kind of sucks these days."

"Peter, just stop. I watched the news videos of Spider-Man fighting that Beetle guy, and I've got that sneaking suspicion that you were there taking photos," Gwen stated and pretty much tore Peter down. She regretted saying what she said soon enough. "Look, I asked you be here to tell you that…" Gwen stalled for a moment, but Peter had already known what she was about to tell him.

"You've decided to move to London." he concluded.

Gwen looked like a little girl with her hand caught in the cookie jar, but her expression didn't change. "Yeah," she confirmed. "I feel like it's just something I have to do. New York is always going to be my first home, but I want to move on and I want to leave the memories of my dad's death behind."

Peter understood that all too well, telling Gwen, "Yeah, I get that…"

Gwen was expecting that sort of response from Peter when she then said, "Peter, I don't want to go alone. I want you to come with me. I'm tired of waiting for an answer from you. I have to know, right now, that you'll come with me."

That was the point where Peter was now almost completely stuck in a rut, worse than the battles he'd had with the Sinister Six. In retrospect, he saw this coming from Gwen. He knew she was going to make a decision at some point about London, and now that she'd decided to go, Peter was stuck. Gwen was right there, waiting for Peter say something and getting pretty impatient with him for making her wait. Peter's attempts to assuage the situation, which included brushing his hand through his hair and biting his lip and twitching his fingers out of anxiousness, were noticed by Gwen. Her response to this was a roll of her eyes out of frustration. Peter had to say something to her now.

"Well…?" Gwen asked, bringing Peter out of his funk.

Moment of truth, Parker, he though. "I'm sorry, Gwen. I can't go with you."

Gwen looked at Peter with hurt in her eyes, but there was also a pang of anger. "You can't… or you won't?" she asked.

"I… I don't know." Peter replied, and Gwen turned and stormed off with him following. "Gwen, it's not all that simple."

Gwen spun back around with an expression marked with hurt and annoyance in equal measure. "Of course it's not, Peter. It's not simple because you feel the need to make it a complicated thing when it shouldn't be. Sometimes, I wonder if I even matter to you anymore."

"You do matter to me, Gwen. You've mattered to me since my uncle died, since you're father died." Peter argued.

"Yeah and why do you think my dad died? Because of Spider-Man, your bread 'n butter; he's once the reasons I've decided to leave for London and you're acting like he's the Be All, End All of your life." Gwen argued back.

"That's not true."

"It's not? Then why does he keep getting in between us," Gwen asked as if she was expecting a full explanation from Peter, but knowing that he had none. Once she'd calmed herself down, she asked, "Peter, are trying to push me away?"

"What?! No, I'd never do that to you, Gwen. You're the love of my life. You're my girlfriend; my life wouldn't mean a thing without you in it." Peter desperately proclaimed.

But Gwen wasn't hearing anymore of it, believing that Peter's mind was made up. So was hers. "I can't do this, Peter. I believe you when you say that you love me, but I cannot do this. I can't wait for you and I'm not going to wait for you. I'm going to London…"

"Gwen, please…" Peter begged, but Gwen continued.

"I'm moving to London, and I'm not coming back. If that means that we're done, then we're done. I'm sorry, Peter, but we are done."

With that, Gwen turned and walked off without another word to Peter and leaving him speechless. Peter was tempted to talk to Gwen more, and even tell her the truth that he was Spider-Man. She wouldn't have believed it. In fact, it would've made it worse on both. So Peter ultimately chose not to pursue Gwen. Doing otherwise wouldn't have been prudent. Peter then noticed that nearly a block away, Gwen had turned back to look at him. For a moment, Peter wanted to run to her. It seemed like Gwen wanted to do the same thing. But she simply turned back and continued on until she disappeared around the corner.

And all Peter could do was think to himself, I really blew it, this time.

It all had to happen in front of a shawarma restaurant of all places.

Author's Note: Poor, poor Peter. After he apprehends and humiliates Beetle and has the last word on Fisk, Gwen ultimately dumps him. Before you get you skivvies in a bunch, don't go think Harry had some influence over Gwen from the last chapter. This Peter/Gwen thing's been going since several entries ago.

Meanwhile, Fisk seems to have insider info on Menken's handling of OsCorp. The prognosis doesn't bode well, does it?

Beetle does return, briefly, and gets his ass kicked by Spider-Man. This pretty much signifies his place as a relatively weak villain. Sorry, Jenksie-Winkle.

Plus... shawarma. I mentioned shawarma. What the hell is shawarma anyway?

Let me know how this chapter came out while I work up the next one. Peace out!