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T. Rycbar sux like a snail

IDon'tOwnMarvel

"So what's her name?" I asked, petting the solid gray cat after putting her on my chest and laying back on Pietro's bed, "Did you name her?"

"Sam tells me I can name her." He confirmed, sitting down on the bed criss cross. "But I have not figured out the perfect one yet."

"What's her personality?"

He shrugged, "I don't really know. She keeps to herself, but she can be very affectionate when she wants to be. And only when she wants to be."

"Hayley?" I suggested, making him shake his head back.

"I almost wanted Kimora." He admitted, looking sheepish, "I didn't want you to think it was stupid."

"She looks like a Kimora." I hummed with a smile of my own. "I might call her Kim for short."

"Kizzy for short." He corrected easily, reaching out to pet the cat too. "She is very sophisticated."

I frowned a little, looking up at him. "Kitty?"

"Kizzy." He repeated, "With a z."

"Huh," I nodded at that, looking back at the cat then. "Cute name."

Keeping up with Peter was still on my list as I had to take a vacation from Kamar Taj in order to chaperone the trip to DC with the Decathlon team. Mr. Harrington was sitting near the front and i got the seat all the way in the back so I could 'keep an eye' on them from there. I had no intention of doing that though and actually laid back to take a nap where Mr. Harrington couldn't see me for four hours. He was a nice guy, but a little bit of an oversharer, if you know what I mean.

I was just grateful that I was able to have my own hotel room while the kids all got buddied up for the night. I dropped a note in the Ancient One's room on her desk to let her know that I wasn't coming back tonight before promptly knocking out for another two hours on the bed. The only thing I did when I got up again was wander down the hall tiredly to get a snack from the vending machine. Well, that was all I planned on doing until I saw my kids pattering by down the hall in bathing suits with towels.

Flash's eyes went wide and he gasped when he saw me standing in front of the vending machine. Technically, no one was supposed to be out of their room, but the bathing suits reminded me of something and suddenly I needed to check my journal.

"We're just-"

"I didn't see anything." I shook my head, pulling my bag of popcorn out of the machine. "Leave me alone or I'll write you up."

He bolted then and I figured he got the message before I started back to my room. I made it almost there before Peter and Ned's door flew open and the former crashed right into me, knocking my popcorn onto the carpet and spilling it.

Peter froze too and looked up at me fast. "Oh my god, I'm so sorry."

I just huffed sadly to myself at the loss and shook my head, completely ignoring that he was trying to leave his room. "I'll just…get another."

I stooped to pick it up while Peter shifted awkwardly and then tried to get down and help.

"No," I held up a hand. "I got it. Just go swimming with the other kids or something. Whatever it is you're doing. I don't care."

"I'm sorry." He stepped back again and winced before turning and walking quickly in the direction of the pool. "Thanks, Miss Rogers."

I was a little tired of kids at that point and ended up just throwing out my popcorn in the trash in my room before going to get my journal to look through it. I sat down in the library after walking by Wong in my pajamas. He looked like he'd just sat down to start his shift but didn't bat an eye when I went by. I was flipping through pages for Homecoming and trying to wake myself up enough for this sort of thing.

"What the fuck are you up to?" I asked quietly, scanning my writing and then finally pointing at a line. "Secure facility. That's right. Is it dangerous?"

I was halfway through the chain of events past that point when a gold portal was created just in my peripheral vision. Looking up fast, I was just in time to see a hand reach out right where my journal used to be on it's shelf before there was a soft curse and the hand and portal disappeared again. I actually laughed out loud at that until a portal was created right by my hands and the journal was fucking snatched right where I was holding it.

It took me two seconds to put together who had just stolen my shit and I was appalled.

"Wong!" I shouted, making the man sigh from the other room and then march over with an annoyed look.

I held up my hands to indicate that I was missing something. "Someone stole my journal! I was holding it!"

Wong scowled at that and slipped on his Sling Ring then, making a portal. He reached in and yanked out Dr. Strange holding my journal. It was snapped shut when Wong grabbed it and held it back out of reach.

"Stop trying to take this." He shoved a nervously smiling Strange back through the portal and closed it fast.

I waved him off when he tried to hand it back. "It's cool, I got what I needed. I'll be back in a few days I think. Is he trying to decode it?"

"He hasn't made it past the first page." Wong grunted back, walking by me to set the journal back. "The Ancient One should have put a Thorn Hex on it. He'd learn faster that way to keep his hands to himself."

"Thanks." I smiled, fixing my own Sling Ring back on. "I'm going back. I gotta figure out how to cast a spell in front of people without any of them seeing me do it."

"Should they see the spell?" He asked, clipping my journal back up. "I have a book for that."

I smiled and tilted my head curiously. "Can I see?"

So, I did miss out on the extra hours of sleep I wanted, but at the same time, I mastered the spell I wanted to do after putting a few hours into it. I got to sleep for five hours before having to get up again and get ready for the team's meet.

"Thanks for not getting us in trouble, Miss Rogers." Liz whispered to me in the lobby the next morning while I sipped on some hot tea. "That was really cool."

"I don't know what you're talking about." I sipped my drink, checking my watch and looking back at Mr. Harrington to play dumb. "We're missing two still?"

He shrugged helplessly, also looking a little tired with his coffee.

"Were they in the pool with you guys?" I whispered back at Liz, continuing to play stupid.

She shook her head. "No, they didn't show. Sorry."

"Hm," I looked back at Mr. Harrington again and pointed up. "Do you want me to yell at them?"

"Ah, no," He shook his head fast, turning to walk by me and go back to the elevators. "I'll go get them."

We ended up leaving with Ned and without Peter, just as I had expected. The kids worked more on the bus, shouting out answers to Liz's questions while I finally woke up more for the day, anticipating what was going to happen later. Mr. Harrington was good at corralling the other kids off the bus with the other teacher, Mrs. Stanley. While the two coworkers of mine insisted I used first names with them, I never really saw them as anything other than Mr. This and Mrs. That. I couldn't bring myself to call them Roger and Marissa in my head.

They did call me by my 'first name' though.

"Jackie." Mrs. Stanley tapped my shoulder, "Did you get in contact with Peter Parker at all?"

I shook my head, "No, I'll keep my phone on though. I can wait out here too in case he shows up or calls in the middle."

"Oh, thank you." She laughed anxiously, "Maybe try texting him? Kids are all about texting these days. My daughter doesn't take actual calls."

"Yeah, I can try that." I waved her on. "I can do some lesson planning while I wait. I have my computer."

Mr. Harrington held a hand up at us to get our attention. Mrs. Stanley nodded and turned to go in with the team.

"Hey, good luck, guys!" I waved at the kids, getting a short thank you and some smiles before they went in.

MJ looked to the door a fourth time too, also wondering with Ned where Peter was. It was a little funny still seeing how obvious these kids were with their little affections and insecurities. I never really realized how obvious some of these things were.

I sat down with my computer in the lobby and actually got to eat a bag of chips from the vending machine nearby. The speakers in the other room were just loud enough that I could sort of tune in on how they were doing in there. They came out during the middle break and chatted excitedly in the lobby too with Mr. Harrington and Mrs. Stanley getting the 'no update' from me. They offered to switch with me since there were chairs in the competition room and drinks, but I was just fine trying to get some work done.

Who knew teaching was so time consuming?

Teachers, probably.

I got a drink before the doors closed again and sat down for another hour and a half, just working on school while being pretty sure that Peter wasn't going to just drop in. Sure enough, he didn't, and the kids all came out with their trophy, very excited about the win. Flash was the most excited, but I was pretty sure he was just ready to show his dad how cool he was for winning it.

Mr. Harrington split us up in the mall and I followed him and the bigger group that wanted to see the Washington monument while Mrs. Stanley took the smaller group to see the Lincoln Memorial.

"Why'd you come to the monument then instead of just going with Mrs. Stanley?" I asked, frowning at MJ after she'd decided to stay outside.

"He owned slaves."

"The World War Two memorial is that way." I pointed out.

She shrugged, "I don't want to walk."

"Okay," I nodded finally with a small sigh, "Don't run off like that other kid. Our insurance doesn't cover two."

"Peter?"

"Yeah, that one." I passed her a small smile before following the other kids and Mr. Harrington to the doomed elevator.

I saw her crack a small smile at my joke though, so I counted that as a win with the reserved child I was in charge of. She was a big introvert so I never really expected to have many meaningful moments with her. However, all this 'teaching the next generation' business was starting to grow on me, especially because I was really starting to think I might impact these kids' lives by being a decent administrator. I was drinking that Kool-aid right up too when the Principal gave me a little speech about how important being a teacher was.

Now I was too deep in to not care about all these teenagers I was responsible for. Hell, I was still worried about making my classes engaging.

Who even am I anymore? I almost laughed to myself stepping onto that elevator and starting to listen to the lady's spiel about its history.

Ned's backpack went off a little too early for my comfort to.

"Hey," I nodded at Ned to get his attention. "What's your backpack doing?"

Right when I finished asking that, the lights shot up through the ceiling, making us come to a screeching halt as the shattering of glass could be heard above. Ned dropped the backpack off him like it burned him, which originally had me worried that it might until I saw no damage to the jacket on his back.

"Alright, everyone, now I know that was scary, but our safety systems are working." The lady continued, monotone as ever.

I had other things to focus on while the kids murmured nervously. Mr. Harrington even looked mortified. That checked out though considering that this probably wasn't in any teacher training. Sure, we were told to prepare for school shooters and injured kids or even criminals running around outside, but I doubt anyone told him what to do if an elevator might kill him and everyone inside. Meanwhile, I was busy looking at the ground and discreetly opening my hand while whispering the verbal spell under my breath. I'd worked on it in the hotel room and I could feel the tingle of the energy, but there was no visual way to see if I'd actually managed to set a full locking spell on the wheels to keep us in place.

The security lady with us had Mr. Harrington help her open up the top of the elevator and there were already more security guards up there, ready to start pulling people out. Cindy got out first and managed to climb up and out. Then, Abe, Charles, and the security lady followed shortly after while I felt strain on my spell from all the movement.

They were in the middle of ushering Liz to the hole in the top when the last cable broke and I shot out my other hand to hold us too as we started to slide.

"Thririas Mareleth." I snapped, getting a quick look from Ned as we screeched to a stop again. I noticed his eyes on me with both my hands out and shook my head. "I'm swearing. You didn't hear that. Are you okay?"

I strained as we slid a little again, trying to hold on tight with a headache starting. That's when the window busted open above us and a spider web shot down to grab the top of the elevator.

"Ha, I did it."

I winced at the migraine distracting me and dared to release the spell on one hand when Peter tugged the elevator up. I don't quite remember if I forgot something important or if it was just chance when I let go to let him be a hero, but almost immediately after I trusted that Peter was going to catch us, something metal snapped up there and we dropped again.

I held back my fears of falling and tried not to get too dizzy as I pushed to focus again. Fortunately, we hit a hard stop again, giving me the chance to breathe.

"Thririas Mareleth." I forced myself again, both my hands open at my sides with the headache forcing me to close my eyes so I could keep in line even as a loud thud hit the floor of the elevator and we slid again.

Liz and Ned screamed again even though we only fell a few feet this time.

My new least favorite thing was spoken spells. Unfortunately, without at least months of practice, I couldn't do concealed spells without the words and headache combined. It was a last minute thing here, but I was really grateful that it worked well enough to hopefully make this experience less scary for everyone.

"I got it." Peter said in a heavy NYC accent. "Don't worry, guys."

He started trying to pull us up again, only for me to shake my head when he seemed confused as to why it wasn't working.

"You're gonna have to put them on the stairs beside us." I told him, lying easily and daring to open my eyes despite the migraine. "The locking system won't let you pull it up or down."

"Oh, alright." He shot another web and then climbed back out the top real quick before offering a hand down to pull out Liz first. "Let's go. Everyone out."

"Jackie."

I shook my head at Mr. Harrington. "Go first. I'm right behind you."

He didn't have to be told twice and took Peter's hand to be pulled out. I heard him step down out of the shaft onto the side then too before Peter popped his head back in.

"Alright, your turn, lady," He offered out a hand while I was hesitant to move at all in fear of falling again. I guess I froze up a little.

I know, embarrassing.

"Come on." He gestured with a hand again before my eyes shut a second time. "It's alright. We're stuck, but we might not be for long, so you're gonna have to walk to me."

I hated having to be coaxed forwards by a kid who was probably just as scared about this whole thing as I was, if not more so. I managed to shuffle forwards a little with a pulsating weight behind my eyes.

"Lady, I don't know how long it's gonna stay stuck," He continued, sounding antsy. "I'll share a secret, alright? I think a friend is holding it for me right now, so it's totally safe to walk. You just need to come close enough so I can…"

He trailed off for a moment, giving me nothing but silence.

"Spider-Man?" I tried, worried now that I might actually pass out from the pain before I could get close enough to Peter, "I'm gonna come closer, okay?"

"Okay, smart." He agreed quickly. "One more step. Almost there."

"I need you to catch me if I fall, okay?" I squeezed my eyes shut tighter, even the light coming through my eyelids being overwhelming. "It's gonna fall, I know it."

"I'll catch you." He assured me, "I'm right above you. Just reach up."

Again, it was stupid having to put my faith in comfort in a fifteen year old boy who was riding on the idea that some other lady somewhere was holding up the elevator for him so he could get everyone out. Now, being that lady, I knew that the second I let go with one hand, this whole thing was going to start sliding again. When I did let go to reach up, that horrible screeching filled my ears and I let go with the other hand too.

A hand wrapped around my wrist though, holding me over the elevator shaft as I heard the box crash below.

"Ow." I squeaked, getting pulled up a little and reaching out a hand so that someone could grab me from the stairs.

"There you go." Peter sighed in relief too. "I caught you."

"Sorry, dude." I tried to blink my eyes open, relaxing my shoulders on the stairs and taking a careful breath. "I didn't mean to stress you out more."

"It's no problem." He tried to play it off. "It's what I-"

He dropped then and a chunk of metal followed.

"Thank you." Mr. Harrington called quietly, shrugging helplessly when I squinted at him. "I don't know. Kids, let's start down."

"Yeah," I tried to blink away the pulsing behind my eyes and stepped down after them on the stairs, really just wanting to run off right now and sleep off this headache. "They'll take the stairs after us, but they got a longer walk. We can meet them at the bottom."

Mr. Harrington questioned me on the way down too when he noticed me slipping on some of the steps as I struggled to see. This led to him directing me to an ambulance as soon as Mrs. Stanley showed up with the other kids.

"It's just a stress migraine, Roger, I'm fine." I tried to brush him off despite the clear problem with my sight right now in the bright sun.

"No," He sounded worried, "I don't want to take chances. The kids'll be scarred for life if you drop on the bus. Just go get them to clear you. What if you got hit by those lasers?"

"I'd be dead, I think." I tried to crack a joke, dropping my smile again when I saw that he wasn't smiling back. "Fine."

"We'll be back at the hotel."

The EMT's just asked me lots of questions and also suspected a migraine like I told them, but they wanted to take me back to the nearby hospital just in case. I was not about to do that and instead requested that I call my dad first. Tony sounded worried when I called him up but chilled out too when I told him what was going on.

"I packed you some glasses." He mentioned then. "Did you not see them?"

"I can't say I did." I kept a hand over my eyes so I wasn't blinding myself. "I could use some sunglasses right about now."

"Hold on." He sounded like he was walking. "I can have them summoned to you in their case. I think it has a sunglasses feature."

"Ma'am?"

I waved the EMT off. "I'm good. My dad's coming to get me."

"Dad." Tony repeated with a snort over the phone. "Sure. Daddy's gonna send you a car to come pick you up."

"Don't ever refer to yourself as 'daddy' ever again around me." I grumbled, "Even if you're being sarcastic."

"I don't have to send you anything."

"Tony-"

"Yeah, yeah," I could hear the eye roll as he started to type on a computer. "It's coming to you. Hold out your hand. It'll cue to the watch you're wearing. I also called you a taxi."

Something hit my palm and I closed my hand around it, squinting my eyes open again to open the case and pop out the glasses.

"Oh, come on," I whined when I put them on, continuing to squint. "They're just regular glasses."

"Ask for Tadashi."

"Tadashi?"

The glasses lit up more as if throwing more salt in my wounds.

"Tadashi, you're fucking killing me right now." I sighed tiredly, "Thanks for the glasses, Tony, but this isn't-"

Right before I could finish my sentence, the glasses darkened.

"Dark mode initiated."

I opened my eyes all the way then, smiling a little when I could actually see through the darkened glasses with them moving to cover more of my peripheral vision as a different shape of sunglasses then.

"Oh," I looked around, the darkness coming as a relief to my whole head right now. "Thank you so much. You're my hero, Tony."

"I know." He chuckled, "I'd tell you to call me when you get back to New York, but Tadashi will tell me."

"I'd be more mad about you tracking me again if you didn't just save my sanity." I took a deep breath, starting to walk towards the road while the glasses pulled up some information about my elevation and general status, including that I was on the phone with Tony. "Hey, this is like EDITH."

"No, it's like Tadashi." Tony deadpanned back. "Edith controls my arsenal of toys and defense programs. Tadashi is an Augmented Intelligence assistant to keep you out of trouble and me updated on if you're living or not. He's also got the world's database for faces too."

"That's basically Edith." I snickered, sitting down on a bench by the sidewalk and raising my other free hand to massage my temple while my head throbbed. "Thanks anyways, Tony."

"Yeah, no problem, kid. Just let me know when you're visiting again. I have something else for you."

Tony hung up on me pretty abruptly after that, not giving me a chance to ask what it was that he had for me. I had a headache to deal with though, so calling him back was not on my list of priorities. Plus, it felt a little weird to call him back just to ask. He might just hang up on me again if I did that.

My taxi came maybe ten minutes later and I met up with Mr. Harrington at the hotel who informed me that we were packing up to leave. I then told him that I wouldn't tell anyone about my headache if he didn't so we didn't have to add onto the paperwork we were already going to have to do. He agreed with Mrs. Stanley so we were able to just get the kids all packed up and out on the bus with Peter appearing in Ned's room while we were doing just that. The other two administrators were relieved at that too and we managed to get a full head count with everyone before taking off around eight o'clock that night. We stopped at McDonalds to let them buy food on the way, but otherwise, we went right back to the school where parents were waiting around to pick kids up.

They were all rightfully worried, but I only stuck around long enough to make sure the last kid got into his car with his mom. Then I took off down the street and ducked into an alleyway to portal back to my bed in Kamar Taj. There, I passed right out and did not wake up for a good twelve hours. I was just grateful that it was a Sunday so I didn't have to come into work. Instead, I was drawn back to the library to finally find a cure for my headaches.

Wong let me flip through some books on healing work and Dr. Strange came in to sit down too after lunch. He had his own book written by a guy named Galeus. Galeus was mostly known for his research on strengthening spells without putting physical strain on the body. I knew this only because I'd gone through it to see if it helped my headaches. And, technically, it did make my spells a bit more secure which was probably why the elevator didn't just slide all the way down the shaft yesterday, but the techniques he described in that book did absolutely nothing for my headaches.

"How long have you been here?" Strange asked then, looking at me while I was trying to determine why physical spells were frowned upon and seen as witchcraft while potions and edible magic was more of a gray area around here.

I barely glanced up at him, "A bit."

He harrumphed to himself at that, shaking his head. "Is everyone here all quiet and introverted?"

"I'm not usually," I muttered back, "I've got other things on my mind, Stephen."

"You know my name."

"You've only mentioned it three times." I rested my head on my hand, propping it up on the table with my eyes on the book still. "Some of us still have day jobs, okay?"

He made a face at that. "What, kindergarten?"

"Uh, I'm a high school teacher, actually," I snapped back, still finding him annoying, "Not that it's any of your business. I'm not dealing with you right now. It's not your turn."

"My turn?" He cracked a smile. "My turn for what?"

"Your adventure." I slid my bookmark into the page I was working on and shut it to get up. "Stop trying to steal my journal. It's annoying."

Stephen frowned a little at that before looking towards the private collection of books while I started away.

"Wait!" He got up fast to chase after me. "That's yours?!"

I stopped when he caught my shoulder and gave him a disgruntled look.

"Wong says it holds the future and the past." Stephen towered over me a little, making me take a step back. "Did you write everything in there? You know what's written in it, don't you? And you read it?"

"I mean, it's mine." I shrugged, "I'm supposed to read it. It's my job."

"How do you fit everything in there?" He asked then, "Is it, like, magical writing that changes or is it written really small?"

"Wong was exaggerating." I shook my head at him. "It's not literally everything. It's just what I know. What I've seen and remembered, at least."

"Oh, okay," He nodded, "Is it just pictures?"

"You can't read the words, dude," I actually smiled a little, amused by his desperate curiosity. "I'm the only one who can. Even if you opened it and flipped through the pages, you'd just see the sketches I made when I first wrote it."

"So it is magic."

I shrugged again haphazardly. "Yeah, I guess."

"Have you been around for as long as the Ancient One?"

I looked back down at my book before sighing and shuffling back more. "I'm not answering that. Look, I have work to do and I have a headache, so if you want to ask me things, you're gonna have to ask another time."

He nodded again, "Okay. Do you know about me?"

I don't think Strange really understood the concept of 'ask later', so I just turned and left at that. He didn't follow after me, so I figured he got the memo.

My job for the day was to talk to the people who worked in the kitchen. This was how I learned that they actually had a special section around the back corner of the cafeteria where they sold magical food. I was shocked that I'd been around here for almost two full months now and I had never heard of this magical food. Turns out, they had this cute little counter that displayed the most common foods that people bought.

They also had a menu for drink remedies and a special request option too. The guy there was one I really did my best not to stare at. Though, to be fair, it was my first time ever running into a minotaur, so I kind of tried to be polite while not getting freaked out. He was really nice, but the horns were a little distracting.

"Roc preserves." He suggested, pulling a jar off a shelf behind him and setting it on the counter in front of me. "Best for migraines. It's actually my Uncle's recipe and it hasn't failed me yet. Just spread it on some toast or put it in a pastry. However you eat jam normally. Just don't freeze it."

"Oh, thank you." I smiled, looking back towards my room. "What's it cost?"

"The sanctum provides the ingredients." He nudged it towards me. "It's free. The only things that will cost you are special requests or new recipes."

"Ah, got it." I took the jar and looked in, relieved that it looked like some sort of regular red fruit jam. "Thank you, Damion."

I had it with my dinner after spreading it on some toast and it seemed to help a little, so I counted that as a full win. It was even cooler that I got to meet a minotaur that day after having absolutely no clue that they existed here in the first place.

Monday came up and I turned my book back into Wong before leaving for work. He was asleep at his desk, but I left it in the basket for him so he'd see it. I also passed by Strange again before dropping through a portal to go back to work while he was in the middle of a question for me.

He'd have to try again another time. I was busy.

"When I was helping Miss Rogers out of the elevator, the suit did, like, a search for her face just like everyone else." Peter explained in a hushed voice, walking down the hall with Ned on Monday, "Except, her name didn't come up as Miss Rogers."

"I think her first name is Jackie," Ned mentioned, frowning a little. "It probably doesn't mention her as a 'Miss'."

"No, Ned," Peter shook his head, stopping his friend by their lockers, "I meant that it didn't come up as 'Rogers' at all. It connected her to a dead person."

"So, Miss Rogers is lying about her name?"

"She's lying about a lot more than just her name." Peter pulled out his phone then and held it out to show Ned the article he found. "According to official records, 'Lincoln Patel' has been dead for almost five years. She died in a car accident with her parents and twin sister in 2011. When she was seven years old."

"Woah," Ned's eyes went wide, taking the phone to look at it. "That's so weird."

"That's not even the weird part." Peter shook his head, scrolling to the side to show him another screenshot he found. "According to this, Lincoln Patel was born in 2004. Which means that she's supposed to be eleven."

"Peter," Ned gave him a skeptical look then, "Come on. I know you're really into this case with the winged guy, but that's not possible. Maybe the equipment got messed up when we were messing with it."

Peter stopped to look back at his friend before turning his eyes back to the phone. "No, Ned, I'm sure she's onto something weird. Just look at her face. This kid looks just like her."

"She can't time travel."

"Captain America did," Peter grasped for his theory, sighing and shaking his head when it fell flat with Ned. "Okay, so it's not the same, but she's up to something weird. What if she has something to do with the alien weapon trading? I'm gonna find out more, okay? I just need time with my suit to look more into her. May interrupted and made me go to bed last night so I only got a few things."

Ned sighed too, "Alright, just be careful. Miss Rogers is really nice, so if you're gonna talk to her, don't run her out of the school."

"What, Pietro?" I asked, passing him a bored look when he appeared beside me on the bench.

"Nothing," He shrugged innocently, leaning back with me and mimicking my position by crossing his ankles and arms too. "I came to see what you are doing."

"Hm," I looked out at the ferry swarmed with undercover FBI agents as it blew the horn one last time with the gate going down to stop people from boarding. "Just keeping an eye on everything. I've got my suit in case, but…this is Peter's moment to learn his lesson about real-life consequences."

"He is only fifteen, yes?"

I nodded, watching the ferry pull away from the dock with Peter jumping off a nearby building above us. He opened the gliding wings and landed easily on the top deck of the boat. Pietro watched him too.

"I don't like it." I admitted to him quietly, "Really."

Pietro looked back at me then briefly before taking a deep breath too. "Watching people make mistakes is not easy. Clint has reminded me more than once to stop catching Nate every time he tips over and almost falls."

"It's not the same thing at all." I droned, glancing back at him. "Not even close."

"If he doesn't fall, he won't learn." Pietro defended, "It's a simple concept. My example is perfect."

"It's not." I denied the idea, knowing he was kind of right. "This is more delicate than that. You're describing an infant learning how to stand. This is a teenage boy putting actual lives in his hands and having to feel that responsibility."

"The basic concept is similar." Pietro added bitterly. "It's not my fault you are stupid. I was trying to help."

I just watched the ferry float off into the harbor.

"I am sorry," Pietro nudged my arm with his elbow. "I know it's serious. If it's any comfort at all, I'm not exactly chasing the boat down to help either."

"You don't know what's going to happen on the boat." I dropped my voice to speak just loud enough for him to hear. "I hate this sometimes."

"Me too." He hushed his voice with me. "It can be scary knowing that I have no fate."

I looked back at him finally. "You know you still have one, right?"

He furrowed his brow at me. "You said I was supposed to be dead."

"That was the timeline I knew about." I looked between his eyes carefully, "The timeline isn't fixed in one path, Pietro. When I change the future, I change people's fate. You still have a purpose to fulfill somewhere. I just don't know where or when or how. I do too."

"I never considered that." He whispered, staring back.

I shrugged again helplessly, "You're in charge of your life anyways. I know what some people are supposed to do, but that doesn't mean they might not deviate at any moment. What's supposed to happen on that boat might never happen at all. I could be living in a universe with you where I've been right about everything except this one thing. I never really know for sure. I'm just working off what I know."

Mere seconds after the words left my mouth, there was the loud groan of metal tearing and bending coming from the river. We both looked to watch the light show as the ferry burned a purple and blue down the middle and then glowed red down the middle from the damage.

Pietro sat up at that, fixating his eyes on the boat. "Are people in danger?"

I shook my head. "No one dies. At least, that's what I witnessed before."

"It's breaking." He informed me like I wasn't also watching the boat start to split in half. "Lincoln?"

"Tony's on his way." I looked up to see the rockets coming down fast with Tony following moments afterwards.

I couldn't see very well what was happening, but I could see the boat start to push back together as Tony made it in record time. I'd tipped him off for safety reasons. Peter needed to make that mistake and I needed to make sure that no one got hurt. So, naturally, I just watched from while I felt relieved by the idea of everything finally going according to plan without me splitting my head in half with a headache.

"Thanks for sitting with me." I whispered too, watching Tony put the boat back together. "You've been weirdly nice."

"I'm going to get mean when I throw you in the river." He looked up to see Tony fly by above us and drop down out of sight. "I can't stand looking at you. Trust me. It's hard without throwing up my lunch."