"Uh, Peter?"
He sputtered, choking on the water he just inhaled. He couldn't form any words around the air he was pushing out.
"Peter, are you alright?" Karen asked, alarmed. She stood, crossing the room in two elegant strides. She rested a hand on his shoulder as he got control of his lungs. "Peter?"
"I, uh," He coughed again, yanking his mask back over his chin. "I have no idea what you're talking about. My name's not Peter."
Karen rolled her eyes. "Do you seriously think I'm going to buy that shit after you choked on water, of all things? And that conversation?"
Peter took a couple heavy breaths, looking in her eyes. They were filled with sympathy, kindness, and care. No one has really looked at him like that since Aunt May died. It made his heart ache with a longing for his old life, sharper than he'd felt in a long time. But there was no way back. No one could know his secret identity ever again.
Except Karen did. She'd figured it out after, what? Two days? He was supposed to be more careful than that. Anyone knowing about him could compromise not just his life, but the entire universe. If he'd confirmed her suspicion - which he honestly already did by choking instead of immediately denying it - it could destroy everything.
But the temptation was there too - to have someone know both parts of his life, both masks he put on. It was isolating, having to keep his secret from everyone in the city. As terrifying as it was, he could, should, tell her.
Peter sighed. It's not like he could deny her claim without insulting her. It's his own fault for working for a private investigator. He's suddenly rethinking not taking Jameson's contract.
He looked at her again before slowly sliding his mask over his head. Her eyes tracked its movement, not showing any shock or discomfort when he was fully unmasked. Instead, they just grew softer. More sympathetic.
"Hey, Peter." She breathed, a kind smile stretching across her face.
"Hey." He sighed, looking up at her. "So?"
"So," Karen crossed her arms. "If you come into work tomorrow-"
"Yeah, yeah, I got it, Karen." Peter half chuckled, stepping away from her. He turned away, trying to muffle all the emotions he was feeling at the moment. Karen fell quiet, allowing him a moment to collect himself. Finally, he managed to push out the only words in his mind; "How'd you piece it together?"
Karen snorted. Peter whipped around to look at her, and she just shrugged. "A lot of reasons. You don't do anything to disguise your voice, for one. You also just talked about the Punisher at length without prompting the same day I told you about our old court case. Honestly, Peter, there were a lot of signs, and I professionally put puzzles like that together, so…"
"Ah." Peter looked down, unable to take all the kindness she was pouring into him through her gaze. He was also doing his best to hide his blush, but she could probably see that.
"And," Karen added, stepping back over to her notes. "Foggy and I were discussing Spider-Man in the office earlier, and on a whim, I looked at the notes from our court case. Oddly enough, they had been purged from the main system."
Yeah, she could definitely see Peter's blush with how quickly it spread over his face after she said that. He looked back up, meeting her jovial yet curious expression with one of panic. "Karen, I can-"
"I figured the only person in the world who'd want to destroy those would be the one they're about," She interrupted calmly, looking down at her notes. "Luckily, I had a back-up flash drive with them, just in case, so I was able to read through some of the files."
"Karen, I am so, so sorry, I just, I, um, I just-" He stuttered, unable to find the words to explain why he did it without spilling literally everything to her. It just felt way too soon to let someone in that much. It still stung.
"Peter, you don't need to apologize." Karen looked back up at him with a small smile. "I can understand why you did it. And it's not like they'll be necessary in the future. I will admit, though, I do have a few questions." She added, sitting back down in the roller chair.
"Let me guess," Peter sighed, tossing his mask onto the gurney. "You want to know why I deleted them?"
"Close, but not quite," Karen scribbled a couple harsh lines on her notebook. God, Peter felt so dissected talking to her. "I'd like to know how we never knew your identity."
Peter froze, his jaw dropping. "Huh?"
"The notes I have make it clear we knew who you were. It describes your relationship with May Parker, even though official records don't say anything about taking care of a minor. In fact, most of your official records are pretty suspect." She looked back up at him, the sympathy in her eyes replaced with scrutiny. "Given that we willingly took your case, and with everything else on Spider-Man's record, I don't doubt that you had good intentions. But just to make sure, I need to know what happened."
Peter sighed, slumping his head and shoulders down. He really didn't want to have to explain this. But it wasn't just anyone he was talking to; it was his boss. A private investigator. She probably knew a thing or two about confidentiality. "You won't tell anyone, right?"
"Not a soul."
"Not even Foggy or Matt?" Peter looked her in the eye. "It's probably bad enough that you found out. I'd hate to push things even further by letting anyone else in on this."
"You realize that just gives me more questions, right?" She asked dryly. Peter huffed. Karen rolled her eyes. "It's fine, Peter. They won't know unless they need to, and you're okay with it."
"Promise?"
"Promise." She smirked. "And you don't need to worry about it, anyway. I've kept my friendship with the Punisher quiet for the past couple years. You're in safe hands."
"Good, thanks." Peter smiled, relieved. "Wait, your what?" He blinked.
"Doesn't matter." Karen added quickly, drawing attention back to her notebook. "So, my question?"
"Uh, right, okay." Peter nodded, pulling an old stool from the other side of the room over to Karen. He set it down in front of her and fell heavily on top of it. "I can't tell you everything because, frankly, it might be dangerous."
"I can handle my danger well enough." She winked. "But it's alright. Tell me as much as you're comfortable with."
"Are you gonna write all this down?" He eyed her notepad.
Karen shook her head. "I just wrote down some questions I had. I'm not going to record any of your answers. So?"
"Yeah, um," He trailed off, trying to figure out where to start. "Essentially, Mysterio compromised my secret identity. On a pretty massive scale, which led to The People v. Peter Parker."
"Isn't it The People v. Spider-Man?" She looked at him quizzically, tapping the end of her pen against her knee.
"Now it is, thanks to Dr. Strange."
Karen furrowed her eyebrows. "Dr. Strange? Isn't that the wizard guy over on Blecker Street?"
Peter nodded. "Yeah. Um, some things sort of happened, and the universe nearly fell apart in the end. The only way to repair everything was to erase all memory of Peter Parker, and my connections to Spider-Man."
"I'm sorry, did you just say that the universe nearly fell apart?" She asked incredulously. Peter gave a short, simple nod. "How in the hell does that happen because of an enhanced teenager?" She uncrossed her legs, leaning forward. She seemed kind of angry. Hopefully not at him.
"I wish I could tell you more, but I'm not the person to ask about magic. I just know Dr. Strange's spell fixed everything."
"Yeah, but at the cost of your life." Karen flipped through her notes. "And this was what happened during the Battle of Lady Liberty?"
"Mostly, yes. There were a few other things, all of them ridiculous to explain, but that's the jist of it." He shrugged, running a hand through his raggedy hair.
Oddly, Karen cracked a smile at his action before looking back down. "Some of the notes I have from the case indicate that you used to know Ned Leeds and Michelle Jones-Watson. The two teenagers you and- you and Daredevil saved earlier tonight. Is that true?"
Peter nodded, suddenly feeling very raw. "Yeah. They used to be my friends." He explained quietly.
"But they're seniors in high school."
"And? What does that have to do with anything?"
Karen narrowed her eyes at him. She leaned back, pointing her pen at Peter. She was silent for a moment, staring at him. "Most of your documents are falsified." She stated, though he knew she was asking.
He sighed again. "I kind of had to make something up after everything connected to me and Spider-Man was erased. That was a lot of the official stuff, so I had to get creative. Make things up, age myself a little. It was the only way to keep myself off the streets."
Karen looked like her heart just broke. "So, you're-"
"17. Yeah." He shrugged, looking down at his hands.
She dropped her hands into her lap as she stared at him. "Oh, Peter. I'm so sorry. I just," She looked down, taking a quick breath before looking back up at him, the emotions in her eyes ten times more intense. "I don't have the words to express it. I'm sorry."
"It's alright." Peter scratched at his arm.
"Of course it's not!" She said loudly. Peter looked up at her, confused. "You're a minor! Just a kid who's gone through Hell! It's not exactly fair that fixing our universe destroyed your everything!"
"I don't know what to tell you, Karen. That's what fixed everything." Peter looked back down. "I can't say that I don't regret it, but if I had to go through all that again, I'd do the exact same thing in a heartbeat."
"Christ, Peter," Karen trailed off, swiping her hand down her face. "Wait. Is that what you meant when you said that it might be dangerous? That me learning your secret identity could destroy the whole fucking universe?"
Peter shrugged, letting out a wry chuckle. "It's also why I deleted the files. I wasn't sure what would happen, if someone found out, but I'm not willing to test that theory much more than this." He gestured between the two of them.
"Oh my God." Karen buried her face in her hands, shaking her head.
Peter panicked, standing up. Man, she was upset, and it was all his fault. "Karen, I'm sorry, I shouldn't've-"
"No Peter, God, don't apologize." She looked up, her eyes more watery than before. "Fuck, I should be apologizing. You're just a teenager and you have to isolate yourself just to keep the universe from falling apart? How is that fair to you?"
His jaw dropped, suddenly unable to form words as Karen stood up and grabbed him by the shoulders.
"Listen, Peter, I know how hard it can be to go it alone like this. I've already seen several vigilantes go through it. They both turned out different, but that's only because one of them was lucky enough to have a close, powerful support system. And I want you to know that I can be that for you. I don't want you to go down that other path. I-" She paused, sighing and looking down. "I'm so sorry you've had to deal with all of this, completely alone. But from now on, you're not alone in this. Do you understand me?" She looked back up, a determined look on her face.
He nodded. "Yeah, I understand." He said hoarsely.
"Good. Right," She stood back up, clapping her hands. "Get your stuff, put your mask back on. I'm going to drive you back home."
"What?" Peter tilted his head at her as she began to organize her papers into her bag. "You don't have to do that, Karen, I can just swing home."
"After you were just shot?" She laughed sarcastically. "Absolutely not. Not on my watch. I'm driving you back to Midtown."
Peter opened his mouth to say something, but quickly closed it, letting his arms fall limp to his sides. "I'm not gonna win this, am I?"
"Oh Peter," She said, her voice injected full of faux-sweetness. "You'll find that you're never going to win anything against me."
"Oh yeah?" Peter snorted, grabbing his mask from where he threw it. "What makes you think that?"
"Because I'm the one person in New York who can get Daredevil, the Punisher, and Power Man to listen to her." She smirked, slinging her bag across her shoulders.
"And there it is! You keep talking about Frank Castle so casually, why do-"
"Nope." Karen interrupted.
Peter stopped and groaned after a second. Yeah, he was going to lose so many arguments to her. It kind of felt like a more mature version of MJ. That thought simultaneously overjoyed and upset him. He was having a lot of weird feelings tonight.
"So here's the plan; I'm going to head out the front door, say goodbye to Matt, and go grab my car." Karen explained as she riffled through her bag.
"Why's Matt here?" Peter asked, suddenly feeling a little defensive.
"Trying to secure shelter for the Leeds, if they need it." She replied absently as she searched through her bag. After a second, she froze. "Shit, the Leeds. You were friends with them, no wonder-"
"Don't worry about that, Karen. It's not a big deal, all of that." Peter shrugged. His words processed in his mind a moment later and he frantically shook his head. "Not that it's not a big deal, but it's just that, to me, I, I can handle it." He finished it with an awkward chuckle.
Karen blinked at him, her eyebrows knitted together. "You realize we're going to come back to this, right?"
Peter sighed. "Why did I know you were going to say that?" He asked quietly, dropping his head into one of his palms.
"Because I know better." She replied in a sing-song voice. "Anyway, I'll let Matt know I'm leaving, text Foggy to pick him up after everything's sorted. While I'm doing that, you leave through the window and head to the alley across the street. I drive a gray sedan, it's parked in there."
"Seriously? You parked your car in an alley in Queens?" Peter looked up at her as she pulled her keys from her bag. "Do you have a death wish?"
"My car has our firm's logo on it. We're pretty well known to the underprivileged, so I highly doubt anyone's gonna tamper with it. We have more people on our side in the city than you realize."
"Right. Okay, then." Peter pulled his mask over his face. "See you out there, then?" He made his way over to the window and popped it open.
"See you at my car, Spider-Man." She said with a small wave before she turned on her heel and strode out the door.
Peter was about to leave, perched on the windowsill, before he thought better for a moment. Quickly, he grabbed a discarded yellow notepad and clicked the pen he kept hidden in his suit.
"Gwen and FEAST- thanks for patching me up! I owe you guys one! Keep fighting the good fight! ~ Spider-Man." He wrote, adding in a small doodle of him giving a thumbs up at the bottom before setting it on the gurney and making his way back over to the window.
Even though he'd been inside for maybe a half hour, it felt like it dropped ten degrees outside. Peter shivered despite himself, ready to fall into bed and stay there forever. Maybe Karen had the right idea, keeping him from work tomorrow.
He shut the window behind him and crawled to the top of the roof. He flipped over the edge, mindful of his injured leg, and jogged over to the opposite end of FEAST.
Despite the time of night, there were still plenty of people roaming around the streets. Out of the corner of his eye, Peter could see Foggy leading Ned and his Lola into the homeless shelter, with MJ trailing behind them. His heart ached at seeing his friends again, but it's not like there was anything he could do about it.
So rather than dwell on the storm of emotions that had been brewing since fighting the Punisher, instead Spider-Man backflipped off the building, into the air. There were a few oohs and aahs from below - more than one from Foggy's direction - which he absolutely relished. Even though most of New York hated him, Queens still overwhelmingly loved Spider-Man. His home would always accept him.
He thwipped out a web, carrying himself across the street before ducking into the alley. Sure enough, a ten year old sedan was parked in the middle, completely untouched.
Rather than land, Peter attached a web to the fire escape on the side of a building and lowered himself down, hanging upside down while he waited for Karen.
It was only a few minutes before the woman appeared at the mouth of the alley, quickly typing on her phone before she looked up. "Is that something you normally do?"
Peter shrugged as he swung himself upright, gently lowering himself to the ground. "I guess so."
"How the hell do you do that without throwing up? And swinging through the city, too, for that matter?" She asked as she opened the back of her car, throwing her bag into the trunk and shoving something beneath a duffel bag.
He shrugged again as he approached. "I've been doing this for so long, I guess it doesn't really affect me anymore."
"You people." She shook her head fondly as she closed the trunk. "Alright. Put this on. Get in, tell me your address." She threw a sweatshirt at him, which he gratefully pulled over his head before opening up the passenger door.
"Thanks again, Karen." He said quietly as he strapped himself in. "It's… it's been a long time since someone's helped me like this."
Karen smiled softly at him. She set the key in the ignition before resting her hand on his shoulder. "Like I said, you don't have to do this alone. Let me support you."
He set his hand on top of hers, giving it a quick squeeze before she pulled away and started the car. "I appreciate it, Karen."
"Any time." She said simply as she pulled out of the alley. "And let me be clear; I'll make good on my threat if you show up in the office tomorrow. No way you should come into work after getting shot like that." She added dryly.
"Come on, Karen! Getting shot is no reason to miss out on a day's pay!" Peter half-whined, a smile on his face.
"Fuck, you sound like Daredevil." She rolled her eyes.
"Plus, I told you I heal fast, so it doesn't matter anyway! It won't impact me that much tomorrow."
Karen snorted as she pulled up to a red light. "How come you apparently 'heal so fast'?"
"I'm not totally sure. It just happens. I think it's connected to my enhanced metabolism." Peter looked down at himself as he pulled off his mask.
"And how 'enhanced' is your metabolism?"
"My grocery bill is big enough that missing a day of work wouldn't be great for me." He retorted, giving her a pointed look.
"Ah, fuck." Karen sighed. After a moment, she looked at Peter. "Fine, I'll cut you a deal; we're going to get food now - because I'm also insanely hungry - and you can come in for a half day. The last half of the day. Deal?"
"Karen, I can't ask you to buy me any food."
She shoved her hand in his face. "Deal?" She asked louder.
Peter rolled his eyes before taking her hand in his and shaking it. "Deal."
"Good." She smiled as the light turned green. "God, I hope Shake Shack is open. I could destroy a milkshake right now."