"It's a good idea," Dr. Richard Parker admitted, rubbing his chin. Margo had been the one to come and talk to him about it, the plan that she and the rest of the Ruling Council, as some in the Society were calling it, had come up with. Not that the Council of Mary Janes, the unaffiliated Spiders, and the few members of the Society who had been accepted by them liked that title or used it. No, that was just what members of the Society were calling them; some out of anger but most out of the need to classify them as something.

He mentally shook himself. 'You're getting distracted, thinking about how people need to, at time, group and organize things in order to feel like they have a handle of things during difficult times. But that's also true with becoming distracted during situations and latching onto things you already know.'

Just because he knew something happened didn't mean that he was able to easily stop it. He was human after all…

...which was why this was such a good idea.

"I won't be egotistical and believe you came to me because you wanted my help," Richard said. "You have made clear my failures as a psychologist." He held up his hand when Margo opened her mouth. "You were right and remain right. I see now that the trauma I went through… I never truly dealt with it. I instead allowed myself to fall for Miguel's, quite frankly, Get Rich Quick Scheme when it comes to mental health. And that caused me to harm all of you. For that… I am sorry."

Margo opened her mouth only to close it and actually think for a moment. "I accept your apology."

Richard let out a sigh of relief. She hadn't told him it was okay or not to worry about it. She had merely accepted that he'd made a mistake and realized it. She hadn't even forgiven him. And as odd as others would have found it… he was pleased with that. Because an empty 'Its no big deal' wasn't what he needed right now.

"I want to work through this and in order to do that I need to get back to the root of my problem. None of the distractions that the Spiderverse has become. So… I agree entirely with this strategy and, with your permission, I would like to leave now."

"Now?" Margo asked, clearly surprised. "That's fine… no one is going to stop you. But keep in mind that we'll be enforcing the 2 year hiatus pretty soon so if you want to get anything from your office-"

"No," Richard said with a shake of his head. "No… a clean break. That is what is needed."

"Okay then," Margo said and Richard activated his dimensional hopper. "Dr. Parker? I hope you find what you are looking for."

"So do I."

~MC~MC~MC~

2 YEARS LATER

"Well… what's up Doc?"

Richard merely smiled as he sat down before the glass that separated him from Gwen Stacy. Gwen… the Green Goblin. His best friend who had become his worst enemy. While her hair was cut so short it was almost a buzz cut and she was wearing a soft gray outfit that looked like pajamas he couldn't help but see her with her hair tickling her neck and wearing the greens and purples of her costume, her face almost as twisted up as the mask she had worn. He had a feeling that would now, sadly, be forever his first thought when he thought of Gwen. He wished it wasn't… wished he could think of the better times… but sometimes things happened that simply prevented one from being able to go back to those better times.

"Its been a while, Gwen," he said as he folded his hands in front of him.

"Oh, is that all you have to say?" she said with a smile that would have looked sweet on someone else's face but on her lips was as sharp as Sweeney Todd's blade. "Its been over 2 years since I last saw you and now you come in here and act like its only been a few minutes?" She let out a dry chuckle before stabbing into his soul with a hard stare. "You know… the last time you ignored me it resulted in people dying."

Richard nodded. "Yes, it did."

THAT threw Gwen off, though she quickly recovered. "OH? Finally admitting it? No long discussion about dead men who were too busy worrying about others' emotions to realize their wives were porking the milk man?"

"No," Richard said with a slight shake of his head. "I agree with you."

"So you FINALLY admit its all your fault." She laughed. "Took you long enough! Hey!" She turned to one of the guards. "The Doc just admitted he's a murderer! Can we be roommates? It will be like old times. Don't worry, there won't be any hanky panky… I'm lacking a cock so he's not interested." She snapped her gaze back to Richard, clearly wanting to see him getting angry at her. "Of course I might be able to get you to see things differently." She leaned forward. "You know… make things how they should have been? Richard and Gwen, the modern Bonnie and Clyde."

Richard though just stared at her. "No… I didn't say that it was all my fault. I accept the blame that I didn't notice that you felt like I was ignoring you. I wish I had seen the signs. But your choices are your own, Gwen. They always have been and always will be."

"Except I wouldn't have made them if you had only paid attention to me!" she declared and Richard had the sudden imagine in his head that he wasn't talking to a grown woman in her thirties but rather a toddler who was trying to explain why it was completely her daddy's fault she had drawn on the walls.

"So none of this would have happened if not for my actions?" he asked.

"Now you're catching on!" Gwen said with a smirk. "Don't you see… I am as you made me, Doc. You and I… we'll always be connected."

"Then you have no free will," Richard stated.

"…what?" Gwen said, startled by the sudden change in conversation.

"You just said it yourself: everything you have done is a result of my choices. Meaning you have no free will. You aren't a human being. You are, at best, a machine that is programs to do certain things and when I input certain commands you obey them."

"No… no that's not what I said," Gwen complained and the child throwing a tantrum metaphor was looking more and more true to him. She was lost and startled and thus she was lashing out in anger, not liking that he wasn't playing her game. "You… you led me down the path!" She pointed her finger at him, entire arm shaking. "You pushed me down it!"

"And paths are only one way?" Richard pressed. "You couldn't turn around and go back?"

"No!"

"Then you have no free will," he repeated.

"I chose to do it! Me!"

"Then I didn't force you to do it," he replied. "You can't have it both ways, Gwen. I can't be the cause of everything you did while you claim all the credit for it." He began to walk his fingers along the surface of the counter. "You were placed on a path, you said… but you want your free will. You want to be able to claim credit for what you did, because that means you can torment me about it. Very well. You could have gone back to the start of the path. You could have leapt off that path and gone in a completely different direction. You could have sat down on the ground and refused to move. All were options for you. Instead you chose to go down that path, to become the Green Goblin. That was your choice. I might have made you feel like it was your only option but in the end it was YOUR choice. You chose that option."

"You're… you're twisting things around, Doc!" Gwen almost screamed at him and in that moment Richard felt nothing but pity for his old friend. Or rather the twisted creature that was wearing her skin and trying to use his memories of that fun little girl to draw him down into despair.

"I'm only speaking the truth, Gwen. Nothing more or less. I thought I owed you that much."

Gwen stared at him, her rage and frustration disappearing for a moment as she took him in. "…what do you mean by that?" she asked in a befuddled little voice. "What's going on?"

"I can't help you Gwen. I should have never insisted to the board that I try and help you. It wasn't fair to any of us. And I see now that my presence here… its not picking at a scab its taking a knife to a wound, cutting the stitches and yanking the skin back apart."

"Oh, you want to talk about cuts and scars now?" she purred, her confusion switching to almost sexual delight. Another attempt to get him on the wrong foot; it had never worked before but it had made him stern with her, scolding her for trying it, and that was what she wanted.

'She is a child,' he thought to himself sadly. 'Acting out for attention. That's all she wants. All she desires. Attention. And I have been giving it to her and not letting her heal.' Out loud he said, "You have been showing some progress, from what I've heard, but not as much as your doctors had hoped. Because you keep focusing on when I will return and we will play these games again."

"Of course," she said and her earlier anger and frustration was now completely gone, with Gwen focused solely on trying to get a rise out of him. She was flirty and teasing and almost like how she had been with him back in the better days, when it was just him and her against the world.

Almost.

Because Richard could see the slight twitch in her eye. The flutter in her smile. She was a lioness pretending she was allowing silly children to pet her before she went in for the kill.

"Then you must understand what we need to do. Both of us."

Gwen frowned at that, staring at him as he got up. "Doc?"

"Goodbye Gwen."

He didn't see what her face looked like, his back already turned to her. But he was a step away when the screaming started. "Richard… Richard you are leaving me again!? AGAIN!? You did this to me and you are walking away!?"

Richard continued on, forcing himself to not even stumble a step. No hesitation. No pausing. Nothing. He just kept going.

"You'll be back!" Gwen screeched. "We're connected! You and I! We're meant to do this forever!"

He reached for the knob and turned it.

"…Richard?" she asked in a sad little voice.

He opened the door and stepped through it.

Gwen let out a shrill, almost animalistic sound.

He never looked back.

~MC~MC~MC~

"I didn't look back," Richard said softly. "It was for the best. I… I had been living in the past, letting old memories be a cloak around my shoulders and old pain be my shield to protect myself. But… I see now that wasn't healthy." He shook his head. "Physician, heal thyself. That's what they say, right? Well… I think I am going to do just that. Or at least I'm trying to." He paused, eyes down. "I know you are screaming at me right now, telling me how stupid and stubborn I've been. And yeah… I have been. I know that. And I'm sorry. I truly am. I'm sorry for the aggravation."

He leaned down and pressed his hand to the grass, eyes staring at the etching on the stone.

HARRY OSBORN

BELOVED SON AND PARTNER

He lingered for a few moments more before getting up, brushing the grass off his hand.

"You're right, you know," Norman said as he walked over and patted Richard on the shoulder. "Harry is right now doing a victory dance, shaking angels and cheering that you are finally allowing yourself to be happy."

That made Richard smile. "I like thinking about that," he said.

It always bothered him how many Spider People missed out on having a wonderful relationship with their Norman Osborn. In so many worlds he was the monster and the villain, the source of so much pain. But for Richard he had been a second father. It was why, even with Harry being gone for 3 and a half years, Richard still saw Norman several times a week. The man was kind and loving… it made Richard very sad so many Normans had been unable to love their Harrys has his still did.

"So… everything all set?" Norman asked.

"It is," Richard said with a soft smile. "It very much is."

"And if you keep telling yourself that perhaps you won't be nervous?" Norman teased as they made their way out of the cemetery. Richard had already visited Uncle Ben's grave, along with that of Norman's first wife.

"Most likely," Richard said.

"Leave him alone, Norman," Gina Osborn said from the entrance of the cemetery, smiling as she reached up and adjusted for Norman's collar and then Richard's. It was something she'd been doing for years, long before her and Norman had stopped dancing around each other and actually decided to begin dating. Gina had been there for Richard and Harry for so long that honestly he sometimes forgot that it had only been 6 years ago that Norman had finally worked up the nerve to ask her out on a date. "It's a big day for him, after all." She smiled as she gently stroked Richard's cheek.

Normally she went with them when they visited the graves but she had stayed behind to take a phone call, which apparently had lasted long enough that she decided it was simpler just to wait then walk to join them only to leave in a few minutes.

"And because it's a big day we're going to focus on other things," she told him as they began to walk back to the town car. "So, how was your session with Flint Marko?"

"Very good," Richard said with a smile. "I can't get into it-"

"We know, we know," Norman teased; Richard always told them that.

"-but he has progressed rather well. I think I'll meet with Warden Toomes and suggest that he be considered for being moved to a half way house."

"That's impressive, Rich," Gina said.

"It makes it all worth it," he replied. "I need to remember these victories when I suffer defeats."

Norman sighed at that. "I know it bothers you, walking away from Miss Stacy." He held up his hand when Richard turned to look at him. "I'm not going to go on a rant. I promise."'

It had been one of the only things that he and Norman had fought about. Norman had no problem with Gwen Stacy being allowed to spend the rest of her days in a psyche ward. He understood she was sick; he had more than once stated that one had to be insane to think it a good idea to dress like a goblin and kill one of your best friends. But what he had disagreed with was Richard working with her, trying to help her. He had been forced to call in favors in order to be allowed to do so and Norman had hammered him that he was too close to the situation. Gwen had been his friend and she had killed his fiancée. Norman had been scared for him, worried that Richard was simply too close to the situation.

"It does… but it doesn't," Richard said. "It took the last two years for me to realize that I couldn't help her… because she doesn't want me to help her." He sighed, shaking his head. "The first rule of psychology: in the end, you can't help people who don't want help."

"But you have helped criminals before," Gina pointed out. "That's kind of your bread and butter."

"Even as they screamed about Spider-Man or Daredevil or the like ruining their lives they still are willing to talk to me." He thought of Marcus Stark, the younger brother of Anthony Stark, aka the villain Iron Monger. He blamed his parents for everything and many of their sessions ended with him screaming how he just KNEW Richard was being paid for by Howard Stark's money, but he still wanted, in the end, to get better. To be there for his older brother, crippled because of him. "Gwen… she doesn't want to be cured. She thinks that this is the real her. And maybe at this point it is. But I see you were right, Norman… its not healthy for me to work with her."

"Well… I take no joy in being right," he said softly. "And I hope that this is what you need in order to finally move on with your life, son."

"It is," Richard said softly. "It is."

~MC~MC~MC~

Flash Thompson let out a laugh as he entered Richard's house, not at all shocked to see all his friends there. Richard had tried his best to hide what was happening but his boyfriend simply was too cunning not to notice.

Boyfriend. It was… it was so hard to wrap his mind around that. There were days he thought it was a dream and he was still alone and miserable, refusing to allow himself to be happy. For as much pain as that day two years ago had brought… Richard would always be thankful for it, as it had given him the knock in the head to realize that if he didn't act soon he'd lose Flash forever.

That's why he had made their anniversary date be not when they'd actually gone out… that had been 3 days later, to a Korean place that Flash absolutely loved. That day was special but the day Richard had finally come to his senses and decided to take the plunge and actually try and be happy again was their true anniversary.

"You know, if you wanted this to be a surprise you should have closed the blinds," Flash teased as he walked over and kissed Richard on the cheek. "I saw everyone as I was pulling up."

"You've known for two weeks," Richard said, not bothered at all that his boyfriend had figured things out. He was utterly cunning, after all.

"11 days," Flash corrected with a laugh. "You managed to hide it for 3 days so you have that." He smiled and pulled away, patting Richard on the shoulders. "Well, let me say hello to everyone and then we can get started." He paused, then added in a whisper, "Maybe tell them all to make sure they get the hell out of here in a few hours. I want to have some time with just you."

Richard nodded at that, watching as Flash went over to talk with Liz. Yes, he wanted some time alone with Flash as well, though not too soon. There would be plenty to celebrate soon enough. He had called in all the favors he could with Elektra, Moon Knight, and Cyclops to keep an eye on New York for tonight, making sure it was protected and there was no need for Spider-Man to go swinging out. That meant he could focus on the party and his loved ones.

He swallowed nervously, feeling the weight of the ring box in his pocket… before walking over to join Flash again.