TRIGGER WARNING: FORTHCOMING CHAPTERS TO DEAL WITH SEXUAL ASSAULT AND RAPE DISCUSSION AND THREATENING SITUATIONS!

"Wow, I can't believe the semester is over already!" Peter exclaimed.

"I know; it's crazy to think that we only have one more year, then we're graduating," Gwen pointed out as the two kept walking along the campus path. "We're going to have to start being, like, real adults and everything."

"Yeah, I don't know if I'm ever going to consider myself that," Peter said. "I think I'll always be a child at heart."

"Wow, not even when we have kids?" Gwen questioned.

"Are you kidding?" Peter questioned. "I'll never have an excuse to be more childlike than when we have a bunch of little people running around the house!"

"Wow, thanks for letting me know what I'm in for," Gwen replied teasingly.

"And yet, somehow you're still here with me," Peter pointed out.

"Mhm," Gwen said, the two of them stopping and turning towards each other, "and I wouldn't change a thing."

"Ooh, I like the sound of that," Peter replied. He then leaned in, his girlfriend meeting him in the middle for a kiss. Even when they pulled away, their faces remained close, Peter's eyes trained on hers, Gwen's blue eyes seemingly transporting him to some far away and much happier place.

"Excuse me."

Peter couldn't help but feel a little grumpy at the interruption of the moment, but nevertheless politely turned along with Gwen to face Dr. Warren, who'd come up to them. The man appeared almost a little flustered before quickly composing himself.

"Ms. Stacy, I wanted to get your final answer regarding that internship I was offering?"

"Oh, right, I'm so sorry!" Gwen apologized. "I meant to get back with you before class today. I really appreciate your generous offer, but I'm afraid I'll have to decline."

"I see," the doctor said, seemingly taken aback by her answer. "May I ask why?"

"I've decided to pursue a couple of other possibilities that line up better with the kind of research I want to do specifically," Gwen clarified. "Again, I appreciate your offer, but I really want to stay focused on cancer-related research."

"I understand," Dr. Warren replied. "Well, if you should change your mind, you know how to reach me."

"Of course," she said. "Thank you."

The doctor then moved past them, with Peter and Gwen both glancing in his direction as he did.

"What's with him?" Peter questioned. "He seemed like he took that a little more personally than I expected."

"I don't know," Gwen said. "It was kind of strange. I did delay in getting back with him though, which I don't usually like to do, so maybe he's just frustrated that he needs to find another intern on relatively short notice."

"Maybe," Peter replied, opting to shrug it off. "Well, I better get going; I promised to help May go through some of our stuff to donate it, but I'll see you later tonight?"

"Count on it," Gwen said, giving him a quick peck on the lips. "I love you."

"I love you too," Peter replied.

Gwen had just turned the page in her book when she heard a ding on her phone. Taking it in her hand, she glanced down to see the message from Peter:

"Something's come up with work; I'll have to meet you there."

Understanding what "work" meant, Gwen opted to follow his instructions, sending a quick text back.

"Alright, I'll see you there. Please, be careful. Love you."

Getting up and grabbing her jacket, she then made her way downstairs, finding her dad sitting on the couch in the living room watching TV.

"Peter's being held up, so I'm going to head out and meet him there," she said.

The man didn't even speak up, seemingly engrossed in what he was watching.

"Dad?"

"What?" the man finally questioned. "Oh, sorry honey, I was just... oh come on, THAT'S A FOUL!"

Gwen could only chuckle and shake her head; her dad had been an avid Knicks fan for as long as she could remember, but now that they were supposedly really good this year, the man had taken his intensity to another level.

"Anyway, I'm sorry dear, did you say you were leaving?" her dad questioned.

"Yeah, Peter's running late, so I'm just going to meet him there," Gwen repeated.

"Oh, okay," her dad replied. "Well... YES! GIVE HIM THE BALL EVERY TIME!"

Once more, Gwen just shook her head, turning to head out. She'd hoped for a little more personal exit, but her dad had been dealing with some stressful stuff on the force recently, so it was only fair he got to enjoy himself a little.

"Have fun!"

"You too!"

Gwen then grabbed her keys, heading out the door and making her way down the couple blocks necessary to get on the bus that would take her into the city. As she waited on it, she pulled out her phone, pulling up the news to see if there was anything on what Peter was getting up to as Spider-Man. The fact that he was able to message her at all told her that he was either just about to go in or it was a less serious situation that afforded him the opportunity to multitask. Eventually, she found an article that answered her question.

"Developing story: Spider-Man assists firefighters as major industrial building currently ablaze."

She scanned through some more of the story as the bus pulled up, stepping on it and taking her seat. Apparently, an older building downtown had suddenly exploded seemingly out of nowhere right around the time Peter would have texted her. Her boyfriend had talked a lot about dealing with fires as Spider-Man, but if what Gwen was reading was any indication, this one seemed as though it had the potential to be especially deadly, as the report indicated that the first responders were having trouble containing the blaze and there was even concern the building could come down at any minute as the structure became more unsound.

Opting to put her phone away, Gwen let out a breath through nostrils, trying to collect herself. Again, this was the same kind of situation Peter had been dealing with for the better part of the last six years, so there was no doubt he knew how to handle himself in a situation like this. He would rescue as many people as he needed to before coming to their little rendezvous late and with maybe a bit of a stronger smell from being in heavy smoke.

Still, as the bus neared her destination, worry started to seep into Gwen once again. She remembered the big firefight he'd got into just a week and a half ago, the bruises and cuts on his body... it was all coming back to her. A similar fear to that day threatened to creep up into her body, fighting to overtake her heart, but she fought against it, trying her best to tell herself that it was going to be fine, and that Peter was going to make it.

The bus then came to a stop, and Gwen got off along with a couple of other people. As she made her way towards the coffee shop that she was supposed to meet Peter at, her mind continued to dwell on her boyfriend's situation. Was this really how it was always going to be? Would it ever get any easier, constantly wandering if the man she loved would even come back to her at all? The thought of spending the rest of her life like this terrified Gwen. Yet, at the same time, part of the reason she loved him so much was because of his sense of responsibility and his desire to always look out for those who couldn't protect themselves. She loved that so much, yet at the same time, it was the part that threatened at any moment to cause her so much pain...

Suddenly, Gwen was grabbed by some stranger, a hand coming over her mouth as she was dragged into an alley nearby. She kicked and struggled furiously, doing everything she could to get free. At one point, she bit down on the hand covering her mouth; while the yell of the man who was holding her indicated he was in pain, the action only resulted in her being thrown to the hard concrete ground.

When she recovered and looked up, Gwen found that she was surrounded by three other men in the alley, all of them looking down at her, their smiles striking a very different kind of fear in her, a kind that she could feel in her bones. She slowly stood to her feet, her mind scrambling desperately to figure out how she was going to get out of this. The men only continued circling her, some of them now making cat calls or kissing faces at her as they laughed. She knew that she should do something, like scream or make a run for it, but her body froze as she became paralyzed with a new kind of fear. Were these guys about to...

She was then grabbed from behind by a different one than the one before.

"You really are a fine one," the guy said, stroking her cheek and causing the skin to crawl across Gwen's entire body. "It's a real shame that it's not us who get to enjoy you."

Not them? Wait, was she about to be kidna...

Before Gwen could even complete the thought, she suddenly felt a needle being stuck into her neck, the sharpness of it causing her to twist her head in pain. As it was pulled out, she began struggling again, hoping that at the very least she could stir up some adrenaline in her body to counter the effects of whatever she'd been injected with. It seemed of no use at first before, suddenly, the man holding her was struck in the head, his released grip causing her to stagger back. Gwen glanced around to find a figure dressed in black and grey fighting the men who'd attacked her, the individual moving with incredible speed. Was it Peter? No, Peter had a different costu...

Next thing Gwen knew, she had dropped to the ground, her vision starting to become blurry. Though she tried once again to fight it, she could feel herself fading fast.

"Ms. Stacy!"

It took Gwen all her strength to look up, seeing what appeared to be Dr. Warren running up to her.

"D... Dr. Warren?" she questioned hazily.

The man appeared to be saying something, but she couldn't hear him, her senses going out. Next thing that she knew, Gwen had shut her eyes, darkness overtaking her.

Opening the door, Peter trotted inside the coffee shop. He glanced around, eventually spotting Gwen as their usual table, so he quickly walked towards it, taking one more quick sniff near his shoulder area. He was still a little smokey, but hopefully it wouldn't be enough to be distracting.

"Hey," he spoke up as he came up to the spot, "I'm sorry that I'm so..."

Peter paused as he came to the table, discovering that it was not in fact Gwen that he saw, but another slightly older blonde woman sitting at the table on her laptop. She turned to him, giving him a confused expression.

"Okay, uh..." Peter glanced around, not seeing his girlfriend anywhere around. "Sorry about that; listen, was there another woman with blonde hair sitting here when you first got here?"

"No," the woman responded, her expression indicating her disappointment at not being more helpful. "Sorry."

"It's okay, thanks," Peter replied. He then wandered over to near the window, opting to wait. There was a decent chance that Gwen was just in the bathroom, or perhaps something had kept her. Manhattan traffic was notoriously bad, after all.

However, after about five minutes, he started to get concerned. Peter then pulled out his phone, double checking to make sure that he hadn't missed a message from her. When he found nothing, his heart rate began to increase as concern started to creep in. Bouncing his arm up and down as he considered what to do, he ultimately put his phone away before hurrying out of the shop. Quickly changing into his suit, he made his way back out of Manhattan and towards her home. As he swung, he kept telling himself that he was quite likely getting worked up over nothing. The thing was, it was just so unlike Gwen to stand him up like this; she always remembered their dates, and when she was late, she texted or called to let him know, a courtesy he'd done his best to reciprocate.

When he was a couple blocks away, Peter found a good spot to change back into his civilian clothes, traversing the rest of the way on foot, his pace increasing until he came up to the house. He gave a few knocks, standing back and waiting patiently for an answer. When he received none, he opted to knock harder this time. Finally, the door opened, revealing Gwen's father.

"Peter?" the man questioned, clearly surprised by his presence.

"Mr. Stacy, is Gwen home?" Peter questioned.

"No, she left to go meet up with you," her father replied. The growing concern on the man's face only filled Peter's with even more as well.

"We were supposed to, but I didn't see her at the coffee shop, and she's not answering her phone," Peter explained.

The two men exchanged a look, and Peter just knew that he was thinking the same thing Mr. Stacy was: Gwen was missing.

I just want to give everyone an appropriate heads up: the next 3-4 chapters will deal heavily with topics such as rape and sexual assault. Nothing involving the act in the moment will be described, but there will be plenty of discussion about it happening to a character. If this isn't your thing, I completely understand; I just want to give fair warning. Also, I'm sure you're drawing conclusions about it happening to a particular character. Let's just say that there is a good chance you are wrong.

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

"For this is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another." 1 John 3:11