"Gwen, did you remember to start the laundry?"

Smirking Gwen popped her head around the corner into the living room. "Oh, its started and I already got the first load from the dryer folded."

"You did?" her father asked, surprised. "Why didn't you call me?"

"You were too cute sleeping!" Gwen sang.

That made her dad roll his eyes. "I was just dozing. I could have helped."

"Its not that big of a deal," Gwen teased. It had become a game between the two of them over the last two years, trying to see who could do the most laundry. For George Stacy it was because he wanted to make up for how he had traumatized his daughter over his reaction to learning she was Spider-Woman. For Gwen it was for all the lies she had told her dad and feeling horrible for not letting her into her life. Trusting him.

And no, despite what Betty claimed it, was NOT because she was ashamed of her stinky socks. Her feet smelled like roses, thank you very much.

'Roses planted in manure,' she heard Felicia tease in her head. 'From a sick cow.'

"Well," her father said he looked up from the ball game he was watching, "the Dodgers are about to finish this out so after that I will help you with the rest of the laundry and then we'll- yeah, strike out!" He let out a cackle and clapped his hands. "Show those bastards!" He then paused. "Uh, don't use words like that."

"Dad, I've heard people say bas-" She caught himself when he shot her a dark look, "I've heard people curse before." She shook her had as he merely huffed. "You really do hate the Yankees, don't you?"

"They abandoned New York for Los Angeles. Will never root for them. Not even the real Yankees. The LA Yankees… might as well be the LA Surfer Bros."

"Surfer Bros," Gwen said in a bemused and proud tone. "Well…someone has been spending time on Twitter."

"Myspace Shorts," he informed her. "You get such weird videos." Gwen snorted at that and her father got up. "Okay, so laundry should have-"

"Another 15 minutes,"

"Right, so I think we can get ready making the spaghetti for supper."

"And garlic bread," Gwen added quickly. "Uncle Ben will never forgive us if we don't have garlic bread."

"I do kind of want to see if he tries to make another spaghetti sandwich," George said. "I mean, its horrifying… but you also can't look away?"

Gwen laughed at that but as her father moved past her towards the kitchen Gwen found herself wondering just how she had managed to find herself in the place she was now. It felt… well, it felt like all the Parker Luck that every Spider seemed to mention had flipped on its head for her.

It had all begun when she had returned from helping save Miles' world. Her parting with everyone had been… well, it had been much quicker than she would have preferred but also was far longer than was healthy. She saw that now. Miles had made a comment that he had been living his life for all of them, the others Spiders that had taught him how to be Spider-Man, but none of them had even thought of him. Which was… well, completely wrong. Gwen had thought of him constantly and it had taken all her willpower not to seek him out when she had finally gotten the means to do so via the Spider Society. And when Otto (she refused to call him the Superior Spider-Man) had informed her of the '2 Year Time Out' she had been horrified and pleaded with him to give her more time. Just a day. A single day. To talk with Miles and work things out. Otto had stood firm.

Gwen was now grateful for that.

The Time Out… it was the best thing in the world for her.

And when she saw Miles again she would-

"Gwen, I thought I told you to clean the footprints off the ceiling!"

Gwen grimaced. "Uh… I was just getting ready to do that?" she hated how her voice lifted at the end, making it sound like a question. "I mean… I'll get it now!" she hurried to get the Quick Erase Magic Sponge.

~MC~MC~MC~

"Don't stay up too late," her father warned her as he moved to flick off the hall light. "Remember, we're going to be heading over to the Brants to help them set up for the wedding!"

Gwen just smiled; who would have thought that her dad, the big bad police detective, would find his next life's chapter in a kitchen working as a caterer? Though it really didn't matter… he was good at it and he loved doing it. On the weekends and during the last two summers Gwen had helped out, doing everything from Veteran Parties to massive weddings. The later had seen her dressed in a suit and holding a tray like a polish French waiter… and reminded her of her and the rest of the gang sneaking into the Kingpin's little dinner.

'Good times,' she thought. 'Though these have been better… at least here I don't have to worry about the bride or the groom being supervillains.' She paused. 'Oh, if I jinxed myself…'

Hoping against hope that this wasn't the wedding of The Bison and Prof. MantaRay, or whatever new villains were ready to crawl out of the woodwork, Gwen looked back at her father and said, "Don't worry, just want to write a little."

Her father shot a knowing look at that. He knew all about her journals... it was part of their promise to have no more secrets from each other. They were Stacys and it was them against the world and never again could they forget that. So yes, he knew all about the journals… including that she refused to call them diaries. A diary was something a little girl wrote in, sketching unicorns and butterflies. Journals were where she recorded her thoughts and her feelings and… okay, yeah, it sounded like a diary and maybe one time she'd drawn a butterfly but it was a badass butterfly! It had a gun and everything!

"Goodnight, sweetheart."

"Night dad," she returned, the two holding out their fists and, even though they were many feet apart, doing air fists with each other, mocking soft "boom" sounds as they opened their fingers.

Gwen shut her door and moved to her desk, leaning down and moving a panel to reveal a hidden drawer. She pulled it out and looked over the collection of marble patterned journals that were lined up waiting for her. Not all of them were full, of course, because Gwen lived with a deep fear of needing to write something down and not having a page to write in. So she kept plenty on hand in her hidden drawer, which only her and her dad knew about to ensure there was no risk of her secrets getting out.

She paused and pulled out the very first one she had written in, flipping it to the very first entry.

'Hey Miles,' it started and she had struggled for nearly an hour trying to figure out how to start each entry. Sometimes formal, sometimes friendly, none of it had felt right. Finally just 'Hey Miles'. That had worked well enough. 'Hey Miles. So two year time out. I'm trying real hard not to feel insulted here and its only because Spinneret and the rest did it to Peter B and Hobie that I'm not cursing them out. Though I could have gone without Chris' snide remark that I couldn't have any dessert. I purposely ate a large slice of chocolate cake, first chance I got, just to spite him.

'So its been a few days since I arrived back here and I talked with me dad and we decided that I should keep these journals. Let you read about everything I went through. I think that way you understand what I am feeling, in the moment. You deserve that. And yeah, I could lie but I figure that two years worth of rambling should be enough to show you that I'm being honest.

'Right, my dad. We're talking again so that's a thing. When I arrived back on my Earth I was in such a daze from everything, from our talk and all that, I guess I just ended up going on Autopilot. Swung back to my place and snuck into my room. My dad was there on my bed. I don't know how long he was sitting there. How often either. But he was there and we talked.

'He quit the force. Quit. Just gave it all up. That was the final nail in the coffin for me believing any of the garbage that Miguel had been peddling. My dad isn't a captain. Canon events can be stopped. They aren't real. I just wish I had learned sooner. But yeah, we talked and-'

Gwen shut the book. No need to go back down memory lane… she knew what happened anyway.

Grabbing the latest one she picked out a green pen (she had decided to do the journaling in different colors; she had explained in one entry it would let Miles tell what mood she was in) and flipped to the next empty page, putting down the date before she started.

'Hey Miles. Finally managed to catch a break in the Kingpin case. Even knowing all I did about Fisk and Murdock thanks to my time in the Society it still took me far too long to realize that it was Tombstone that had stepped up and took over as the new Kingpin of crime. Still, I was finally able to make some inroads to taking him down, thanks to his daughter.' She paused, wondering if she should mention that in order to convince Janice Lincoln to turn on her father she had been forced do a little song and dance, quite literally, for the woman. As well as allow her to have a little kiss. Not Gwen's finest moment, even if she had found she hadn't minded how soft Janice's lips were.

In the end she decided to keep that part out; boys were silly and Miles would either be intrigued or use it as taunting material.

'Dad has been a big help redesigning my suit. He's had some ideas based on what he had to wear when on patrol to keep me protected. I'm not quite as flexible as I was in my original outfit but the trade off is I no longer get grazed by bullets, which is a massive plus.

'I saw that movie I was telling you about… I think you'd like it so I'll have to see about getting you a DVD. Maybe we can watch it together-'

Gwen tapped her pen against the paper.

'Question mark or period?' she thought to herself. 'A question mark makes it seem like I'm nervous and I don't want him thinking I'm all skittish and scared. But a period is too blunt. It is making it sound like he doesn't have a say in the matter.' She rolled her head back. 'You are overthinking this Gwen…'

The problem was that her time was almost up. The two year time out was coming to an end and soon, very soon, she would be able to travel the multiverse again.

Part of her really didn't want to.

She remembered Chris' comments, how she had rolled her eyes at them and scoffed… and how the man had proven to be very right…

~Two Years Ago~

"You are going to hate us. And that's fine… hate me. Hate Mary Jane. Hate Otto and Jonah-"

"Or not!" Jonah declared with a huff, folding his arms over his chest.

"Right," Chris said. "But remember-"

"If you dare and try and take vengeance against my beloved one I will rip your ribs out and use them to hack off your limbs!" Proxima declared.

"Sweetie?" Chris said. "Can we… dial back the bloody threats?"

"If that is what you wish."

"Very much is."

"I will save them for the bedroom."

Chris groaned at that and tried to regain control of the situation. "You will think us monsters. Or tyrants and dictators. Or a thousand other things. And yeah, you are welcome to think that. I don't care."

Gwen saw the words he had just said, the titles he had just given, flash upon his features and flow along his skin like water droplets.

"Here is what I want from you: when you get done being angry at us for taking the multiverse away from you… look at the Earth we've given you back."

~Present Day~

Gwen hadn't understood back then what he was getting at. Had thought he was just talking in riddles.

'But I get it now,' she thought to herself before pressing her pen to the paper once more.

'I didn't get Chris at first when he talked about the world he was giving us back. Didn't make any sense to me. I guess I'm an idiot. Or was, at least. Maybe I'm not. I'll ask Peter, if I work up the nerve to talk to him and the restraint not to slug him. He knows what its like to be an idiot. Anyway, I get it now. Everything with the Society and all that… it was distracting us all from what truly mattered. Our worlds.

'You've read about it all here, Miles. I've made up with my bandmates and we're back to what we need to be. Better, even. My dad and I are stronger than ever too. He knows I'm Spider-Woman and he knows what happened with Peter. My Peter. And he doesn't blame me. He blames himself and I blame myself and we are getting each other to see that it was neither of our faults. Peter chose to become the Lizard. We didn't force him to become that. Just like I chose to become Spider-Woman.'

She paused.

'Like I chose to follow Miguel instead of trusting you.'

It should have hurt, writing that down. Been like a dagger to her heart…

Gwen shook her head. Stop thinking about it and start writing it.

'I bet you thought that was hard for me to write down. That it was like torture. But it wasn't, Miles. It really wasn't. It was easy to write and I feel good writing it. Its freeing. Admitting my mistakes feels so good. But I'm also getting distracted and I'm sorry.

'I didn't understand what Chris was saying but I get it now. I got so wrapped up in other things but this Time Out, it made me realize just what was going on around me. How I had pushed the Parkers away. How I wasn't protecting New York like I should. I was so busy worrying about what was outside of my world that I wasn't focusing on my world. Which sounds really obvious when I write that out, huh? Big revelation, right Gwen? Well, how about this? I realize how self-centered I've been. How I only thought about myself.

'I spent so much time thinking that I was the only one that suffered. The only one that went through bad times. Even when I joined the Spider Society I somehow thought I was special when it came to pain. But I get it now, I truly do. I see that everyone has problems. My dad. My friends. You. And either I can ignore all that or I can be better and be there for them. Because doing so? It makes my pain lighter.

'I won't rehash it all here. You've seen it all. Read it all. What I've done to reconnect to my friends and my family and make things stronger. I will never say it to his smug face but Chris was right. I hated him for dropping me back on this world and locking me out of the multiverse like I was some child who was sent to their room. But the thing we forget when we're sent to our rooms is that they are still our rooms. Where our most treasured possessions are. The things we love. Where we feel the most safe.'

She thought about all had happened just in the last few years.

Reconnecting with Mr. and Mrs. Parker. It felt good to be able to talk to people about what had happened and remember Peter and the good times. Bonding with her dad and discovering new interests and hobbies… as well as letting him help her out as Spider-Woman. Yes, it was chaffing at times when he got over protective but when she came home aching and sore and annoyed that people had thrown hot dogs at her (why? Why hot dogs? It was always hot dogs) she had someone to talk to about it and grouse about things. And when she saved the day he was there to celebrate. Fixing things with her bandmates to the point that they were getting actual paying gigs that mattered. Connecting with the other heroes of her world and getting them to see how serious she was about things, so that they no longer looked at her as some joke or as a troublemaker. The first time Captain America had patted on her on the shoulder and told her she'd done a good job? It had felt like Christmas.

'A part of me wants to stay here forever. Beg the groups running things to lock me in my Earth forever so I don't have to ever even consider leaving. But I can't do that. Eventually you need to leave your room because there is so much out there. And I want to show the multiverse that I am better. I want to prove to Noir and Ham and Peni that they can rely upon me. I want to go to Chris' world and apologize to his Miles and assure him that his pain in that moment means I will spend the rest of my life working to never hurt anyone else. And-'

Gwen stopped… and thought of her last conversation with Miles.

'-I hope you are waiting for me at our spot.'

With that Gwen quietly tucked the book back in the drawer, along with the others. And as she got changed into her jammies (because she would NEVER not be too old to call them jammies) and slid into bed she just hoped she would get a good night's sleep.

Tomorrow… was a big day.