"-several people going, Rich. Not just you. Ya make it sound like you're going to have to perform at the Garden!"

"I'm not into karaoke, Flash," Richard said as he walked down the street, briefcase clutched in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other. It was probably far too late for him to be drinking so much caffeine but after the day he'd had he was ready to collapse and if he wanted to make it back home he was going to need to have something to keep him going. Dealing with the damage done to his offices and then looking into what Lyla had claimed about his patients had been… stressful. And he still wanted to check in on a few of his patients who had canceled their appointments with him. He wanted to find out the reason…

…even as Lyla's words about his care and treatment taunted him in the back of his mind.

"You don't have to sing!" Flash said with a laugh on the other end of the phone.

"Right," Richard said with a roll of his eyes. "I'm just going to a karaoke bar where everyone is going to get drunk and will certainly not think its funny to make me sing… I don't know… Louie Louie."

"A classic, good pick Parker," Flash retorted. "I promise we won't force you. Its not strangers its all of us. Liz, me, Hobie, Mary…"

"That isn't the argument you think it is," Richard retorted, making Flash snort. "Besides, don't you have that big case coming up? I thought you needed to prep for that."

"Its not for another week AND I've already been over all the notes."

"Are you sure?" Richard pressed. "Because you know how you get stressed. I can look them over-"

"No you can't because you aren't a lawyer," Flash retorted. "As much as you think you are one, along with being a scientist and a journalist and a doctor."

"I am a-"

"Medical, Richard, medical." Flash's laughter faded away. "Come on man… you haven't been out in a long time." Richard could tell he was being VERY careful to not mention Harry's name. He didn't know if he was thankful for that or hated the man for dancing around his fiancé's name. Harry wouldn't want to be forgotten, after all, but Richard wasn't quite ready to discuss him yet.

'Its been 5 years,' a voice in his head whispered darkly. 'Is it you aren't ready… or you like using him as an excuse?'

"I'll tell you what," Flash finally said, "you and I could meet for a drink before hand, or grab a bite to eat, and then we meet up with the others. I'll keep them off of you and worse case you'll have an excuse that you've been out for a while already if you need to duck out."

Richard frowned at that. "You do realize how odd it is that YOU of all people are working to defend me…"

"Richard, come on man!" Flash said, a bit of a whine in his voice. "It was in the 4th grade. I was a little shit. I've admitted that…"

He finally felt a smile form on his lips. "And people change. I know that better than anyone…" His mind went to Gwen, as it always did, and at once his good mood faded away. "I… hold up."

Richard frowned as he picked up his pace, hearing the sounds of raised voices. While he couldn't make out exactly WHAT they were saying he could tell from the general tone that they weren't happy. It was a roiling pot of anger and frustration and with every step it was growing louder… and not just because he was getting closer.

"Flash, something is happening."

"You okay?" his friend said at once. "Rich…"

"Listen, I might be late catching my train but I'll call you when I'm back in New York, I promise. I have to go."

"Rich-"

Richard ended the call and stuffed his phone into his pocket, downing the last of his coffee as he broke into a run. While many in the Society only saw him as 'the shrink' that they went to when there were problems Richard still was a hero, fighting to protect New York, and had all the abilities the rest of them did. So it was easy for him to put a bit of an extra surge into his step in order to cut the distance between him and the now rather loud mob.

He honestly wasn't surprised to see that it was a group of Spiders who were currently causing a fuss. His phone had been blowing up with notifications concerning all the problems the Society was having after the disastrous chase. Fights breaking out, attempted suicides, disappearances… it was all a massive nightmare and he'd finally been forced to silence his phone so he wasn't distracted all the time by the chimes and dings as a new alert popped up. So seeing about 30 Spiders all gathered at the main office for Teleportations and Departures wasn't too surprising…

But that didn't mean he was going to allow them to keep hurling abuse at the clearly frazzled young Spider who was desperately trying to get them to calm down.

"HEY!" he roared, storming forward. The crowd though mostly ignored him and as such Richard was forced to push his way through. It honestly was a blessing that he was in a suit and tie rather than his costume because the mob of Spiders, as riled up as they were, didn't think of attacking him when he pushed through. Had he been wearing the spandex their flight or fight reflex would have kicked in but as it was he was just another New Yorker and they quickly got out of his way as he forced himself to the head of the crowd. "HEY!" he shouted again, raising his hands up. "What is going on here? This is no way for any of you to act!"

"We just want to go home!" one Spider, dressed in an outfit that reminded him of that cheesy Lost in Space show, shouted out.

"There wouldn't be a problem if she'd just let us do that!"

Richard turned to the frazzled person in question and blinked in surprise. "Margo?" he said, looking over Spider-Byte before shaking his head; there was time to deal with one of his former patients later. First he had to get her out of the situation she was in and then they could talk about… other matters. So he turned to the crowd and declared, "Yelling and screaming isn't going to fix the problem, and neither is bursting into the building. Unless you think you can figure out how to use the teleporter!" Several of the Spiders looked ready to declare that they COULD figure it out and Richard had to admit they might have a point. After all, many of the Society members were geniuses. "BUT… would you be able to figure it out before you were arrested for trespassing? That would only delay your returning home sooner." The Spiders began to murmur at that and Richard let out a sigh of relief, glad that they were listening to reason. "Now, I know we are all anxious to get home but you need to wait your turn-"

"There is no waiting our turn!" another Spider, this one in a more traditional Spider-Man outfit only the top of the mask exposed his brown hair. "They have shut it all down!"

"…what?" Richard said, confused.

Margo chose that moment to speak up. "I haven't shut anything down! An override occurred that locked down the entire system, preventing me from being able to do any teleportations."

"I need to get home!" someone shouted. "My aunt is sick!"

"So is my aunt!"

Margo rolled her eyes. "Everyone has a sick Aunt May!" Richard shot her a dark look; such comments were NOT helpful for the situation. "Believe me, I get it! But I can't make the system work when there is an override… that's why its called an o-ver-ride!"

"You get it?" someone from the back of the crowd shouted. "You are hiding in your home universe wearing your pajamas and eating Fritos! You can log off any time and see your family, you hypocrite!"

Margo winced at that. "I-"

"Everyone, enough!" Richard shouted. "If Margo says she can't bypass the override she can't bypass the override! Yelling at her won't fix things!" He took a breath. "What we need to do is calm ourselves and-"

"What we need to do is talk to the person that caused this mess!" the Space Spider-Man declared. "Its Miguel's fucking fault! He wants us trapped in here so he can brainwash us!"

"I heard he wants to install tracking chips in everyone's head."

"-force us to live here forever!"

"-that kid and now he'll kill us!"

"Everyone!" Richard tried again. "Everyone please-"

But the crowd was too amped up. It was only due to the fact that they had a new target for their ire that saved the Main Office For Teleportation from being stormed.

"We have to warn them," Richard said as the crowd quickly dispersed, most of them heading towards Miguel's lab.

"They won't listen," Margo informed him even as Richard went for his phone. "Miguel isn't answering calls and neither is Lyla or Jessica Drew. I've tried. The moment they pulled this bullshit with the teleporter lockdown I tried to reach out to them… I've been sending messages via text, voicemail, spamming their twitter… nothing."

Richard shook his head at that. "Of course… Miguel is trying to hide from this, do damage control. But he doesn't see that what people need now is reassurance and support, not edicts from a faceless organization." He let out a frustrated huff, stroking his beard. "The wise thing would be-"

Margo let out a yawn. A clearly fake one.

"I'm sorry, is the destruction of the Spider Society and all we've worked for boring you?"

"Nope," Margo said with a bit of dark sass in her tone. "Just realizing that at least with the mob I didn't get condescending bullshit shoveled my way. Making me almost miss them."

She turned to head back into the building and Richard hurried after her, only to pause when Magro raised her arm to block his way in. "Listen, I know that you aren't my patient anymore but these things you are feeling-"

"On the long list of things I want to hear-"

"-are natural but the way you are handling them isn't."

"-you pretending like you give a shit about me is WELL at the bottom."

Richard blinked as he processed what Margo had just said.

"I care," he said softly.

But the digital avatar of the woman shot him such a scathing glare that he felt like curling up into a little ball. "No, you really don't." She let out a frustrated huff. "I came to you after my Uncle Arnold died. I wanted you to help me move past it, to get better. Do you remember what you said?"

Richard just stared at her, trying to go over their sessions and figure out just what he had told her. It had been 8 months since he'd seen Margo… she had been a regular patient of his, one of his first when he joined the Society. Back then it had only been a few of them but they had grown by leaps and bounds and it all had been rather confusing and hectic. There had been days where Richard felt like he didn't have many clients but the same one, constantly changing faces.

Margo shook her head. "Of course you don't. You told me that he was meant to die."

"He was," Richard said at once. "A canon event-"

"I know that!" Margo snapped. "But that wasn't what I was asking of you! I wanted to move PAST his death and you kept telling it was a part of me!"

Richard frowned though at that. "Death is a part of us. It affects us, Margo… to not accept that is to never heal."

The digital avatar laughed right in his face.

"You think what you are preaching is 'healing'? To spend every day thinking about the person you lost? That you make no attempt to try and move on, to live your life again? My Uncle Arnold would NEVER want me to spend my time focused on his death. To put my life on hold because he was gone. He wants me to live. To be happy. To find a way to remember him without breaking down in sobbing fits. The people you love would never want you to see that love be a source of misery!" She jabbed a finger at his chest and Richard… Richard just stood there, listening. "I came to you asking you for help with that! I wanted to learn coping mechanisms and how to process my grief. You gave me a pat on the head and told me 'You'll never move on. You are stuck like this forever!' Do… do you realize how screwed up that is?

"That's the problem with this entire Society! I came here thinking that it would be a chance to be part of something larger than myself. To do good. Instead you all just wallow in your misery. And you are either so jaded about it or so blind to it that you can't see how all of this is just making things worse! No one is HAPPY! No one is getting better, DOC!" She shook her head in disgust. "Honestly, can you think of a single patient that you've actually helped process their grief?"

Richard just stood there.

"Well?"

"…no," he admitted softly. He thought of the countless Spider-Men that had come to see him, almost all during their first week or two of being part of the Society. How they'd tell him about their Uncles or sometimes their Aunts or maybe their parents and he'd… just get so bored because it was the same thing, over and over. And he'd tell them that yes, they had died, but it was a canon event and they had to remember that and… that was that.

"Doc?" Margo asked, her anger suddenly leaving her as she hurried over to him. "Sit down…" She grabbed his arm and Richard realized he'd begun to sway. "Listen, I'm sorry for blowing up-"

"No," he said. "Don't apologize for that. It's… its fine. Its good. That… that sometimes is a healthy way-" He shook his head, realizing he was about to go into another trite speech about the proper way to process emotions. An old habit… a bad one… for dealing with his own stress. "I just…" He slowly, carefully, pulled out his phone and pulled up the first picture on it. "This is… was… my fiancé. Harry." He smiled softly as he looked at the photo. He'd always hated it because he looked so unkempt. Hair sticking up in odd places, some scaly gunk on his nose he hadn't washed off. But Harry had loved the photo and after he'd passed Richard had sent it to his own phone. "He… he died five years ago. And I haven't ever allowed myself to move on. Every day I think about him… which is good. Its okay to think about the people you've lost but… but its kept me from living.

"There is a… a friend of mine. Flash. I'm pretty sure he wants to take me on a date. But I keep finding ways to blow him off because… I keep thinking about Harry. I can't let him go. But… but you're right, Margo. You're right. Harry wouldn't want me to not live." He swallowed and turned to her, blinking his eyes rapidly. "I am so sorry-"

His phone buzzed.

So did Margo's.

Numbly both of them looked at the message that had come through, the preview image showing Miguel half dressed and looking to be in a rage.

Almost against his will Richard slowly brought his thumb to the play button.

"You people… selfish, stupid! I see where you son gets it! Your entire world is endangered because Miles Morales thinks he knows better than me! ME! I am the god damn savior of the multiverse! If it weren't for me all of you pathetic little worms would be died and I am SICK and TIRED of you constantly questioning me!"

"Oh my god…" Margo whispered as she watched the video in full.

"They'll kill him," Richard said. "If everyone saw this video…"

"Maybe he deserves it," Margo said darkly.

But Richard shook his head, opening his briefcase and taking out his mask. "No."

"What he-"

"Not him," Richard said. "The Society. Whoever ends him… that guilt will eat at them forever. A brief moment of release… and then a lifetime of torment." He slipped on his webshooters. "I'm not saving Miguel… I'm saving his murderers."

Margo considered him for a moment before her avatar fully changed to her costumed form. "Let's go."

The two leapt into the air, praying they'd make it in time.