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To say that things weren’t awkward with Sister Maggie, you would be wrong.
One month after Fisk’s trial and of numerous visits to Father Lantom to the hospital due to his severe injury of pushing Karen out and taking the blow instead, Matt decided to finally talk to Sister Maggie.
...Or mother, to be more accurate. But they weren’t there quite yet. He didn’t think he would ever be ready, yet, here they were.
Matt didn’t know what to say to his stranded mother and Maggie still felt shame in her actions. The two of them sat quietly next to each other in front of the church’s altar.
“I know this is uncomfortable, Matthew.”
“Yeah, no shit.”
Maggie gave him a look.
Matt winced. “Sorry.”
Maggie sighed. “You know... I have a sister. A little sister. We speak once in a while. She’s your aunt.”
Matt’s eyes widened. He never really thought about having more family through Maggie. Just knowing she was his mother was enough of a blow.
“She’s a widow. She’s around ten years older than you. My parents had her really late, when I was a teenager.”
“What happened to her husband?”
“He was mugged and killed. Ben was his name. He was a great police officer. One of the few good ones.”
Matt felt his knuckles tighten around his cane.
“Her name is May Parker. I told her about you and she wants to meet you. Well...” She looked away. “She already knew about you. Since you were born. I meant that... well... this...” She mentioned between them.
Matt smiled. “I get it.”
“Saturday. She invited us for dinner. And you will get to meet your cousin. Well, your cousin through her marriage. He’s a sweet kid.”
“And his parents?”
“Long gone. A freak accident a few years back. No one knew, but they were very suspicious the last time May and Ben saw them alive. They left poor little Peter at their doorstep with a bag and left after a quick goodbye. They died in a plane crash soon after.”
Matt stayed quiet for a moment. “What’s his name?”
“Peter Parker.”
OOO
The next day he was sitting next to Foggy in their new office conference table for Nelson, Murdock & and Page.
“Spit it out.”
Matt stopped reading. “What?”
“Spit it out, Matt. I know there’s something you wanna say.”
Matt groaned. “How do you know that, Foggy?”
“Because you’ve been reading the same page for the last five minutes. Which means you are very distracted.”
Matt sighed. “Yes, there is something.”
“Please don’t tell me it’s the mafia again.”
Matt chuckled. “For once, no. It’s more personal.” He started to grab another document to read. “You know the thing with... me and Sister Maggie?”
“The fact that she’s your mom--” Foggy stopped talking when he saw his friend’s posture tense up. “Sorry.”
“Please don’t. It’s something we are trying to work on.” Matt said. “We were talking yesterday after Sunday mass and she just had to drop another bombshell. I’m starting to think that’s her thing.”
“Well, at least I know you got it from somewhere.”
Matt threw a paper ball at Foggy’s forehead. “Anyways, she told me that she has a younger sister. Much younger than her. Only a decade older than me.”
“Wait! You’re saying that you have an aunt?” Karen said.
Shit, Matt had forgotten she was there.
“Yeah. And a cousin. He’s not her son, he’s her teenage nephew through her marriage. They live in Queens. We’ll meet them Saturday for dinner.”
Foggy smiled. “Matt, that’s great!” One look at matt’s face and Foggy frowned. “Oh, what now? You’re meeting your family! Are you nervous?”
“I’m sure they’ll be happy to meet you!” Karen provided.
Matt sighed. “Not too long I found out that my stranded mother was one of the nuns that took care of me in the orphanage, then she tells me I have an aunt who’s barely a decade older than me and a nephew who I’m told is a genius kid that goes to Midtown Science and Technology. Oh, my aunt became a window barely six months ago and the kid lost his parents when he was very little. And I’m involved with Fisk. Yes, Foggy. I’m nervous. Really nervous.”
Foggy and Karen glanced at each other.
“Tragedy runs in the family, I guess.” Matt shrugged.
OOO
Saturday arrived way too quick for Matt and now he was standing next to Maggie in front of an apartment door in Queens. “May is excited to meet you.” Maggie mentioned. “We spoke on the phone last night. But I’m sure Peter is even more excited.” She knocked on the door.
Matt smiled when he felt two heartbeats inside the apartment. An older one approaching the door, a younger one with an incredibly fast heartbeat still in one of the rooms.
May Parker opened the door. “Maggie!”
“Hello, little sister.”
“Please, I’m not so little anymore.” May scoffed.
“I’m still taller than you.”
May shook her head and turned to Matt. “It’s so nice to finally meet you, Matt. I saw you as a baby, but I never got pictures.”
Matt smiled. “Thank God, I don’t need that type of embarrassment.”
“Come on in!” May stepped aside for them to pass.
Once inside the apartment, Matt could already feel the homey atmosphere. He could smell a faint scent of cologne, probably from Ben, the smell of high school used textbooks, May’s home cooking, coffee and teenager angst.
There other things he picked on. The large school books sitting across the coffee table. The faint sound of old tech coming from one of the rooms. May adjusting the wedding ring she had not taken off...
“For the record, Matt. Please don’t call me aunt. We only have like a ten-year difference thanks to my parents. It will make me feel old.”
“But Aunt May!” Matt heard Peter call from his room. “I call you aunt! He has the right to call you aunt!”
Maggie rolled her eyes in amusement, May frowned and Matt chuckled.
“I may be older but I look about his age!”
“Ok! Geez, I’m sorry!” Said the teenager as he walked into the room.
Matt instantly feels something off about him. Not something necessarily bad but not normal. So, this was his cousin.
“Peter, this is Matt. Your cousin. He’s Maggie’s son.”
Peter’s eyes widened. Matt heard his heart accelerate a bit. For one quick moment, he thought the kid would point out his blindness, like many kids do, intentionally or unintentionally. But instead, he turned to Maggie.
“...But you’re a nun.”
Maggie simply stared at him. “...And?”
Matt had to smirk at the fear Peter was irradiating. “And... that means it’s none of my business even if I know the story?” Nice save, kid.
Maggie gave him a glare.
“I’ll shut up now.” Peter turned back to Matt. “Hi, I’m Peter.”
“Hi, Peter. I’m Matt.”
“This is so cool! I didn’t know I had any cousins until yesterday when May told me that Maggie had a kid before she became a nun and I was like that’s so crazy! Then I was doing my chemistry homework and thought about stuff we could talk about! Do you like Star Wars? If you haven't seen it, I can get my hands on audio description if you want.” The kid was not stopping. “But then I was thinking that maybe we could watch a horror movie and then I called my friend Ned and we watched the Nun and we didn't sleep much after that and...” Peter stopped as he stared at Maggie. “May, she’s giving the nun look. May, she’s gonna eat me!”
“That’s what you get for watching horror movies about nuns.”
Matt didn’t really understand what was going on until Maggie turned to him. “I hate that movie.”
“May! Is your sister going to eat me or not!?”
May led Matt to the couch as she and Maggie went to prepare the rest of dinner, leaving the boys to their own devices.
“So, Peter. Maggie told me you like science. Thinking of college already?”
“Oh yeah! I want to go to MIT! But at the same time, I really don’t want to leave May alone.”
“Hey, you still have a few years to decide.” Matt shrugged. “And I admire that you want to look out for her.”
Peter smiled. “Thanks. So, what do you do for fun?”
“I go sightseeing a lot.”
Peter stared.
Matt simply smiled.
“I walked right into that one.” Peter laughed. “So, you’re a lawyer? Dude! I saw the whole trial with Fisk and with Castle because we were writing papers on them for English for some strange reason and we were blown away. My classmate MJ thinks you guys' rock! She’s a big fan of your firm and I quote ‘lawyers with souls’ and she got the highest grade on the paper.”
“Let me guess, is you friend interested in law?”
“With MJ? No one knows what’s thinking about something and she’s terrifying, but I’m pretty sure she’s interested. She has a notebook she calls Portraits of People in Distress and I’m in a lot of distress in school sometimes and so is Ned. We are her primary targets.”
Dinner was served and they talked some more between the four. Maggie would discuss with Peter more about school, May would discuss about charity work, for which Matt was intrigued. Matt adored May and Peter. And while he was working things out with his mother...
...To Matt, it felt like having a family again.