Chapter Text
The memories returned slowly for MJ.
There were small feelings during the day and there were dreams during the night. When she wakes, they always fade quickly and leave her in a lying mess of sweat, tears, and her heart pounding so hard in her chest she thinks it’s a panic attack. There was something wrong with her, like a piece of her was missing and she can’t figure out when it chipped away.
For weeks, it was like this. Just drifting and dreaming of things she doesn’t really understand. It was irritating and annoying, and made MJ feel like an idiot. She doesn’t like feeling like an idiot. So, she’ll get answers somehow, however that was possible.
Ned was worse. He seemed fine whenever he visits her in the café. They always know how to ignore the bags under their eyes and the sometimes absent turning of their heads as if they were catching… something. Their eyes sometimes slid a little over to the left or the right, and they blink away the spots dancing in their eyes. Ned always smiles, shaking himself, returning to the conversation they trailed out of five minutes ago.
Eventually, Ned broke and called her in the middle of the night after he had one of his nightmares. He frantically whispered on the phone how often he had those same nightmares, like he was always running, reaching for something that disappears before he could make out what it was.
“It’s like grabbing sand from Tatooine, they just slip right through your fingers,” he describes in almost a whimper.
“Like what?” MJ asked.
“You know, from Star Wars, the planet where Luke and Anakin are from.” Ned bewilderedly explained, as if it was something she should know.
“I’ve only seen the recent movies, actually.” MJ admitted. Ned makes a broken, breathy sound, as if the air was rushing through his lungs in stuttered exhales.
“But we love Star Wars…” he tried again, sounding even more confused.
“Ned, I don’t really talk about Star Wars with you.” MJ said, and she knew that the pieces of the puzzle were beginning to lay out for both of them.
“Something’s wrong, MJ.” Ned said with conviction.
“I know.” MJ agreed just as determined.
They spent hours in the cover of night trying to piece it all together. They documented their nightmare and dreams, laid out all of their previous assumptions about their friendship and mapped out where it doesn’t match up, and paid attention whenever and wherever their weird feelings grew the strongest.
And it grew strongest whenever that regular customer with brown eyes and brown hair entered the café.
Ned and MJ made it a point to meet up with each other as much as they can while they still had time. They were heading to MIT soon, and even if they were both going to be in the engineering department together, they were taking different fields. Ned is taking Computer Engineering, while MJ is taking Civil Engineering, and as much as MJ loved the idea of MIT, the odd feeling that something wasn’t right put a huge damper on her excitement. She knew Ned felt it, too. It was as if something still tied them together here in New York, and they can’t let go just yet. So, Ned and MJ met up as often as possible, and they planned.
The breakthrough of their investigation was a boy who kept coming in every other afternoon without fail like clockwork. He was there when both MJ and Ned were there. He’ll smile and MJ thought it was beautiful, her heart pounding like it’ll burst out of her chest. One day, the feeling just grew stronger than anything they’ve ever felt before. When he left with his usual order, Ned and MJ shared a look.
“Did you feel that?” MJ asked Ned when they video called each other that night, while she flipped over the board they’ve been using in her room as a tracker. She tapes the picture she printed out of the security camera Ned hacked into without breaking a sweat, and he put down how he felt about hacking CCTV cameras being a piece of cake and somehow knew he’d hacked worse into the growing pile of feelings.
“Yeah, I did. It was super weird, MJ. I usually feel it when he comes in, but that was different. It was like something was tugging me.” Ned agreed, having a minor freak out. “Do you even know this guy?”
MJ stared hard at the grainy image of combed back brown curls and imagined his brown eyes and smile, somehow warming something inside her she never even knew froze over. He only spoke once to her outside of his usual order, and she remembers it so clearly it scares her.
“His name is Peter Parker.” MJ answered, taking a deep breath. When they met, she thought it was peculiar telling a complete stranger your whole name, but somehow, she knew that Peter Parker was someone important. “He told me. The first day he came into the café, he told me.”
“At least we have a name. If that’s legit, I’ll try looking for more information about him. I’ll call once I have something.” Ned said seriously, the sound of his keyboard already tapping in the background.
“All right, keep me posted.” MJ hung up.
She sat back in her bed and stared at the picture. Somehow, this random guy could be the key to the weirdness she and Ned felt. He could be an absolute weirdo or creep, stalking them. Though what was interesting about two high school graduates in a café, she wouldn’t know. MJ and Ned barely even did things together. Their primary hanging out period is usually the café, talking about random stuff, or Ned doing something on his computer while she worked. Their friendship has always been pretty strong, but they didn’t really do anything beyond that.
Or this guy could be a total bad guy. He could be a freaky alien or villain. He could be anyone, and it bothered her more than she was willing to admit that she knows with absolute certainty deep in her bones that he wasn’t.
Why does she know?! Why is she so sure?! It was maddening trying to figure out something she can’t quite fully understand.
MJ felt that tightness in her chest again, those same knots and ribbons she always felt whenever she wakes up from her dream. She gripped the broken necklace around her neck and felt a rejuvenating thrill down her spine. They’re getting closer to the truth, she knows it. She’s almost afraid of the answer, but she never met a mystery she didn’t want to unravel, and this felt like the most important one she’ll ever solve. A strong sense of purpose overcomes her better judgment, and she knows it.
This is going to be dangerous but she’s willing to go all the way. Something is pushing her to go all the way, and she learned a long time ago to always trust her gut.
She’s going to drag this mystery into the light, kicking and screaming.
.
.
.
.
Ned told MJ what he found two days later after she gave him Peter Parker’s name.
“Nothing.” Ned said flatly.
“Nothing?” MJ asked in disbelief.
“I found absolutely nothing about this guy.” Ned confirmed again. He flipped through the PowerPoint presentation he prepared for his report. He brought his projector from his house, and they were sitting in MJ’s room again with the windows covered and the board flipped. There we so many details on there now that they needed another one. “No social media history, no family, no known acquaintances, no high school records, nothing.”
“Maybe he moved from another state or another country. He could be from Canada.” MJ suggested.
“I thought so, too, but I hacked into the birth registry here in New York and I found his birth certificate. He was born here in Queens.” Ned answered, clicking through the PowerPoint to prove the point. It showed a birth certificate for Peter Benjamin Parker in a local hospital in Queens and a driver’s license under the same name with the exact same face. “Maybe he lived abroad and just came back, maybe he was blipped and everyone he knew is gone, but the point is: he’s a total ghost.”
“Not even deceased family?” MJ asked, swallowing hard.
Ned grimaced sympathetically. “I don’t know. I couldn’t find anyone.”
“Okay,” MJ sighed. “Let’s assume he was born here and moved away or something for most of his life, but now, he’s back. What does that have to do with us?”
“That’s exactly the question I kept asking myself.” Ned agreed frantically. “We never met this guy, right? But for some reason, I feel—”
Ned trails off and MJ frowned. “We’ve come this far sharing our embarrassing dreams and feelings about this whole mess, don’t hold out on me now.”
“I’m not,” Ned denied. He looked hesitant for a moment and sighed. “It’s just that this feeling I get when I see him? It’s pretty strong. Whenever I see him come in, it feels like I was waiting for him all day. Or when I found something interesting or funny online, I just have this strange urge to look up and tell him. I have no idea who this guy is but it’s like, I don’t know… Muscle memory? The Force? I can’t explain it.”
MJ clutches the necklace again. “There has to be something we could do, maybe someone we could ask.”
Ned stares at the projected image of Peter Parker’s driver’s license for a long moment before turning to her, perking up with cautious hope. She knew that face. It was going to be something stupid and brilliant at the same time.
“I have an idea, but I don’t think you’re going to like it.” Ned suggested hesitantly.
“Honestly, I just want to get to the bottom of this.” MJ groaned. “Whatever it is. Just as long as it doesn’t get us killed.”
“I don’t think it’ll get us killed.” Ned said, tilting his head when he reconsidered. “Probably maimed, but not killed.”
MJ gave him a long look, narrowing her eyes. “I’m listening.”
“If we can’t find this guy through technology, then, maybe we need to consider something a little old school.” Ned said.
MJ shrugged. “Okay, like what?”
“Have I ever told you that my Lola always told us magic runs in the family?” Ned asked, grinning deviously.
MJ grimaced. She was already hating this idea.
“No,” MJ answered anyway because it leaves her with little choice. “Tell me more about it.”