Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Gabriella loves her dad very much.

He’s always been there for her even on her worst days, or at least as bad as they get for someone at her age. The times when she scraped her knee or lost a soccer game by this much, he’s always been there with a gentle smile and a soft pat to the back before making her laugh with one of his dumb jokes again. The way he always understands what she needs without any spoken words between them, like leaving her alone to be with her thoughts when the mood strikes her, or making her favorite comfort food, even when he’s been trying to get her to eat healthier for ages now. Those are her most treasured memories, the ones that were only there for a minute or two but continue to remain with her to this day. 

So it’s no wonder she feels like her world’s falling apart when she gets called out of class to hear the news that he had been in a terrible car accident trying to stop a purse thief. They tell her that he was very brave for being such a heroic person. It doesn’t really register when she first hears it and it still hasn’t sunk in quite yet as they call a taxi for her at her request. One of the teachers tries to come with her but she gives her a scary face before declining the offer very politely, with minimal swearing of course. She’s silent the whole way over to the hospital, the nice one that towers above the rest of the buildings, it’s super tall with shiny windows, behind one of them is her dad, who’s hopefully… 

No. Stop. Don’t think like that, he’s still alive, the nice adults on the other line said so, all she needs to do is just ride the elevator all the way to the top and then she can finally go see him. It’s easy enough to walk through the front doors and ask the nice lady with the big hair at the receptionist table which room he’s in. Honestly, the elevator ride is the worst part. It took so long to get there that she’s already got a script she’s going to use when she sees him again, one where she lightly admonishes him for his dangerous heroics before they’re back to cracking dumb jokes at his expense, something about how this should finally knock some sense into his thick skull or maybe one about looking both ways from now on… She wonders if she can make herself look that cheerful when she finally sees him again.

She turns to look at the mirror in the elevator and grimaces inwardly at her blank haggard stare. She looks like a corpse. Well, if one ever decided to join a junior soccer team. She scrunches her face and pats her face a couple times, before giving it her best Gabriella O’Hara patented smile, the one with lots of teeth so people know she means business. Although…it would probably be better for him if she tones it down a little, so she tries for a smile with less teeth, the type of smile that other girls can pull off with no problem. It takes her a couple seconds before she’s satisfied with one and just in time too, as the elevator doors slide open and she’s forced to actually put her game plan into action. 

It takes her a couple minutes to find the actual room, which admittedly would have taken longer if she didn’t stumble upon a nurse who walked her down the opposite hallway and patted her arm sympathetically before she leaves Gabriella standing in front of her dad’s room. It’s nothing special, it looks like every other door in the hallway except for the numbering, which is a staggering 928. She wonders idly if there’s really a thousand rooms in this hospital, that maybe she should have fixed her hair in the elevator and that maybe she should open the door sometime in the next century. 

She really does want to open the door, she does! It’s just that…maybe he’s asleep or something, and really, nobody would blame her if she just left right now and came back tomorrow. Her dad would understand, it’s not like he hasn’t sometimes skipped work because he wasn’t feeling it that day or when he just wanted to spend a day with her, and then they would spend the whole time playing video games and ordering takeout. 

It’s fine, just put your hand on the doorknob.

I know, I know, I’m not scared or anything, just…enjoying the view you know?

…There’s no windows here.

I knew that. 

I bet you’re too much of a wuss to actually go in there.

…Fine, I'm putting my hand on the doorknob.

Aaanndd?

…What do you mean “and”?

Are you going to open the door?

In a second! 

…

…oops, my hand fell asleep, guess we just have to leave th–

“Oh! You’re still here?”

Gabriella jumps a little, before whipping her head back to face the same nurse from before looking at her with a pitying look that makes her feel a bit icky on the inside. The nurse pats her on the shoulder and bends down to face her with a kind look on her face, before saying, “It’s okay, you’re his daughter right? I can only imagine how hard this is for you at such a young age. I would be feeling very scared right now too if I was in your position.”

She can feel her face frown a bit at the comment, and without a second thought she bites back, “I’m not a little kid, I’m almost twelve, and I’m not scared or sad at all, my hand just fell asleep at the door so you can leave now, thanks for checking up on me but I think I got this now.”

The nurse’s gentle smile sags a bit in response and Gabriella wants to puff up in pride for beating an adult in a battle of wits, or at least an adult other than her dad. Normally it never went quite as well with other adults, so a victory is a victory in her books. She’s so proud of herself she leans back to do a fully confident pose on the door, like one of those comic book heroes…

…completely forgetting that her hand was still on the doorknob.

The resulting staggering stumble into the room is something she will take to her grave, but her lasting impression on the nurse is the least of her problems as she finally lays eyes on the person in the bed. The room is dark, with only the barest glimpses of the sun peeking in through the window, as the soft orange and red glow illuminates her…dad. He doesn’t really look like her dad, what with all the bandages and tubes sticking into him like he’s a fancy lab experiment. He looks like he should reasonably be dead, but that’s not a normal daughter thought to have so she shoos it out as fast it came. The nurse gently tilts her head towards his direction before giving her a thumbs up and leaving the two O’Haras to their privacy.

It’s easy to walk over to his bedside, it only takes about twelve foot steps (well, actually eleven and a half footsteps, but anyone else would have rounded up too), before she’s standing next to him looking down at his bandaged face. He’s got wraps covering both of his eyes and lots of bruises littering his face; he looks like a mess but at least he shouldn’t be in pain if he’s sleeping through it all. She remembers hearing from school that apparently hearing is one of the strongest senses humans have, it’s so strong that it’s the last sense to leave before you…

A quick couple pats to her face snap that thought out of her head quick as a flash before smoothing out one of his stray hairs and clearing her throat.

“Hi Dad, I beat an adult today. Just like you!”

Nothing.

“Ummm, I uh, I was really hoping you would be awake for this, because I…I…really mi–need the code for the stove you know? I mean who child-proofs a stove in 2099? I should probably call child-protection services on you for being just the worst. Although knowing you, it’s probably my birthday or something cheesy like that.”

Not even a snore.

“Geez, tough crowd amiright? Well…I’m just going to…leave…now and come back tomorrow, maybe you’ll be in the mood for my jokes then. Sorry, I just…I can’t help but think this is how you feel whenever I don’t laugh at your dumb jokes.” She laughs quietly to herself. The image of her dad’s sad puppy-dog face whenever she would groan and shake her head at one of his lame puns pops into her head almost immediately. It’s almost too much to bear as she turns on her heel and counts the steps out the room; one becoming two and then five before the final twelfth step before she leaves the room. 

Although…it doesn’t feel right to end it like this.

She stops right before the threshold, and turns her head to look at him once more. He looks…small for once in her life, like he’s a glass doll that would shatter if handled too carelessly. Not at all like he used to be. It’s kind of sad in a way that she can’t quite describe, like seeing a whale stuck on a beach, something so powerful reduced to lying on its back waiting and waiting to die. 

Oh. 

He might actually die. 

And there’s nothing she can do to stop it. 

She should say something.

Anything will do, something beautiful and thought out that any father would shed tears for; like, “I love you, dad,” or maybe something more thought out like “I hope that you have sweet dreams, dad.” It’s not hard Gabriella, you love your Dad right? So you can say all these wonderful things to him, let him hear his daughter for the last time before he dies, let him leave this world with a little bit of peace of mind. You can do that right? It’s not a hard thing to do, everyone else can do it, why can’t you? Everyone said he’s so brave, just like a hero from the stories, he saved a woman’s life, aren’t you so proud of him? Aren’t you just the luckiest girl in the world to have such a brave papa? Just open your big fat mouth and SAY SOMETHING.

“I wish you weren’t a hero.”

It’s the wrong thing to say, but she can’t stop.

“I wish you had just walked right past her.” 

She’s surprised this is the moment when tears start to prick at her eyes.

“Because then…Because then I know you would be…okay, safe at home, with me.”

She’s a terrible daughter, telling him that she hates what he did. 

She should just go, coming here was a mistake. She’s out the door until…

“ Ga–Gabri?”

She’s never run twelve steps faster in her entire life and she never will again. 

As she wraps her arms around him and finally lets herself cry. 

Chapter Text

The doctors and nurses start to swarm him like seagulls when they spy a delicious treat on the floor. She’s pushed out of the room as they check on his vitals and other important doctorey stuff that she’s sure is very important for his recovery. It’s not long before someone comes up to her and tells her how lucky she is at how fast he’s recovering. Besides some issues with his eyes and how he might have some minor memory loss, he should be able to make a full recovery by tomorrow at the latest. 

Gabriella can only nod quietly in response, tears streaming from her eyes in relief at the news. He's going to be okay, he’s going to be okay, he’s going to be okay; he’s going to come home tomorrow and they can finally go back to normal. After all, it's only a little bit before her twelfth birthday, maybe a couple weeks to a month left, and she needs to make sure that her dad doesn’t do anything stupid until then… Knowing him he’ll probably fall out of a window trying to hang up streamers or trip down the stairs trying to balance too many things again. The mental image of his shocked face before laughing it off when she would scold him for being so clumsy again puts a small grin on her face.

The ride back down the elevator is done in good spirits as she waves goodbye to the scruffy-looking man who replaced the nice looking lady at the front desk. The walk back home is short, only a good fifteen minutes away from the hospital, she’s not worried at all as she stiffens at every sudden sound and pauses before crossing in front of darkened alleyways. 

Easy-Peasy. 

It’s strange returning to a home that seems a little too empty and dark.The hallways look a bit longer and scarier than before, and the shadows are a stark contrast with the pale white of the walls, the similarity to a monster’s grasping claws are not lost on her. She…might be a little antsy to be home by herself but everything is going to be okay. After all, her dad will be home soon and then everything will go back to normal again.

Although, it probably wouldn’t hurt to dig around for a flashlight until then.

There’s knocking at the door. 

Gabriella blinks awake as she slowly sits up on the sofa, too tired and too afraid cautious to look for a flashlight in the end. The first thought that comes to her mind is one of annoyance.

It’s way too early for dad to be back…

Wait, dad? 

And suddenly she’s on her feet, drowsiness forgotten and bolting towards the door, throwing it wide open to reveal…

Him.

She hesitates for a moment, memories of the time he was still in the hospital flashing before her eyes. A bolt of fear runs through her spine as she worries that perhaps, jumping on him after such an accident wouldn't be such a good idea. They’re at a standstill before he lifts his hand up to awkwardly greet her before saying,

“...Hi–”

She’s on him in an instant, arms wrapped tightly around his waist, face smushed tight against his midriff to hide her face full of tears; he stands there for a moment, before haltingly bringing his arms up to hold her in return. They stay like this for a bit too long, both parties scarcely believing their situation, she’s the first to pull away and looks up at her dad. 

He’s still got some light bruises on his face from before but overall he actually looks pretty good.Well, as good as you can get for someone who got hit by a cyber truck. She’s just glad he’s okay, because now she can finally yell at him for…for…being such a dunderhead, and boy is she going to really let him have it this time! 

“You…b-bi-big…dum-dummy! Do you kn-kn-know how scared I was…when they told me you got hurt?” Snot and tears run earnestly down her face, making her look even grosser than she feels. “I had to miss soccer practice! I-I got lost looking for your room! Not to mention those shocking stupid-looking sunglasses you're wearing!”

To his credit, he looks sheepish, shifting back and forth on his feet, though it’s a bit hard to tell with his eyes covered by those terrible, terrible, stupid retro sunglasses. 

“I’m so-”

“I know you told me not to curse, but I’m just…so, so glad you’re finally back!” 

Her dad pauses, the silence becoming more and more uncomfortable before he haltingly says,“I’m…glad to be back too…Gabri–Gabriella.”

The tension is immediately released with a teasing snort from her nose as she begins to giggle at the way he’s speaking. He really must have hit his head a lot harder than she thought if he’s stumbling on his words this much. She’ll just have to make sure to watch over him, which reminds her…

“So, have you eaten breakfast yet?”

“Ah, no, I uh- came straight here after they said I was fine.” 

She can feel an involuntary grin start to climb up her face as she grabs his hand and starts to pull him towards the kitchen. It’s a lot easier than the last couple times she’s done this with him, but she’s hoping the “memory loss” will at least last until she gets her hands on all the eggs and hot sauce in the fridge. It’s just her luck that there’s still half a carton left and a whole bottle of Fiery Death, that she bought in secret for an occasion like this…perhaps not the best choice of words but she wasn’t one to let a golden opportunity like this slip away. 

After five minutes of whisking an eggy mixture that was more hot sauce than eggs, she turned towards the stove before realizing that she never figured out what the stove code was. 

“Hey dad? What’s the code for the stove?”

“...I don’t know.” 

“Haha, very funny, look, I’m pretty sure it’s my birthday so you don’t have to be so embarrassed.” 

“Why would I do that?”

She laughs a little before turning back to the pin pad and starts to tap out the numbers and as expected, the light turns green in confirmation. She turns her head a little towards him, as if expecting a reaction, a smug smile on her face, daring him to make a comment. 

Surprisingly enough he doesn’t say anything, just kind of stares at her blankly as if still waiting for the punchline. As she pours the eggs on to the pan, she tries to prod him a little,

“Well? Aren’t you going to ask how I knew that?”

Her dad awkwardly says, “I’m more surprised that there's a child lock on the stove.” 

She sighs before stirring the eggs a little more, it’s beginning to look more like a custard than any kind of scrambled eggs she’s ever seen. 

“And you wonder why I don’t tell jokes anymore. It’s no fun if your audience doesn’t get it. Also of course it didn't work on me, I’m not a child anymore, I’m turning twelve soon, remember?” 

“I’ll…try to remember that.”

When the solution looked solid enough, she scooped a quarter of it onto her plate and put the rest on his plate. She sprinkles some extra pepper flakes onto his portion, for a little extra…kick, before grabbing some forks and turning to him with an innocent smile.

She places the plate in front of him, and waits for his reaction. 

He eyes the scrambled(?) eggs in front of him and with a bit of trepidation, he brings the forkful of eggs to his mouth and takes a bite. 

She waits for the slow realization to dawn on him, for the steam to practically start coming out of his ears, for him to start cursing up a storm. He’s always been weak to spicy food, and in a family like theirs, Gabriella would take every opportunity to tease him mercilessly about it. She'd rib him with a “How can I be related to you if even the sight of a Jalapeno makes you nervous?” and he’d rib right back with her fear annoyance of the dark.  

But nothing happens. 

In fact he looks like he’s actually enjoying it, chewing slowly and thoughtfully, like he’s savoring every bite. Nothing like before, where he would have inhaled half of it by the time she even got a single bite in. She takes a quick bite from her eggs, and it’s definitely got a bit of heat, maybe even a little too much for her , but there he is, munching on his eggs like it’s just a normal morning. 

“So, how are the eggs? Are they too runny or did they get burnt? I can’t really tell.”

He pauses in his chewing.

“They’re…actually really good.”

Okay. That’s a little weird. 

“Are you positive? Like there’s nothing weird about these eggs, like at all?”

He tilts his head a little in contemplation. “Actually, they could use a bit more salt.” 

She watches in shock and horror as he reaches for the salt shaker on the table and proceeds to dump a miniature mountain of salt on top, stirring it up into the eggs with his fork before going back to eating them with a satisfied look on his face like he didn’t just commit food murder in front of her.

Although, she doesn’t really have any room to talk, what with her obsession with spicy foods. However she can’t really complain, because it would be nice to actually eat something in this house that was spicier than a lukewarm slice of bread in the future.

Maybe the hit to the head did some good after all.

It’s not long before it’s the end of the day, and she can barely keep her eyes open. 

The two of them spent the day just…hanging out around the apartment.  

It’s…kind of nice. Just doing chores and cleaning around the house with the TV on in the background.She normally hates doing them but for some reason, she’s having the most fun she’s had in ages. It’s a bit annoying when her dad keeps using the wrong sprays on the windows and surfaces, but at the very least he seems to be a lot happier than this morning. He’s still wearing those dumb shocking sunglasses, but they’re begrudgingly starting to grow on her, if only because she can tease him about them a little. He said he’s wearing them because his eyes are sensitive to the light, but she knows the truth, he just doesn’t want to admit that he thinks they make him look cool. 

In fact…

When he’s trying to read the back of a spray bottle, she quietly creeps up behind him, and without a moment's hesitation, she’s already jumped onto his back and clinging to him like a particularly stubborn spider, before then gracefully yoinking his sunglasses right off of his face. To his credit, he at least reacts accordingly to her sudden attack with a sudden jolt of surprise upwards.

Unfortunately, her grip comes loose from his shoulders and she can feel herself falling backwards. It happens so fast that the only thing she can do is shut her eyes tight and brace for the impact. However, she never hits the floor, instead looking up at her dad, fear morphing into relief as he gently helps her back onto her feet. She winces as she looks down at her hand, and with a sense of impending dread, stares at the broken remains of his glasses, crushed to pieces in her right hand when she fell. 

Her hand really hurts, with the way some of the shards have cut into her hand, and she can smell the faintest whiff of blood from the cuts. She tries to keep on a brave face as the edges of her eyes start to water again. 

“It’s okay, it doesn’t…hu–hurt at all dad. I’m sorry for breaking them, I jus–”

“Ohshock!Areyouokay?” words already out before even his mind could decipher them.

They both stop.

“I–uh, it’s okay, I don’t think any of–of the pieces are stuck.” 

“Oh! That’s…That’s good at least, I would hate for you to get a splinter. May I?”

She silently nods as he gingerly picks up every piece and puts them in the trash chute. Then he does a quick sweep for any shards that may have fallen onto the floor before checking her hand. Thankfully most of the cuts on her hand are shallow and all he needs to do is just clean them up a little and wrap a bandage around them. If it took another five minutes to actually find the medicine cabinet, neither one of them comments on it.  

They don’t really say anything after that, busying themselves with parting ways almost immediately afterwards to putting the cleaning supplies away and getting ready for bed. , Even when he tucks her into bed a little earlier than usual, but it feels…okay, just this once. He kneels beside her, quietly watching her before smoothing out some stray hairs and gently pressing his lips against her forehead. He tries to get up, but her hand holds fast to his, stopping him in his tracks. 

“...Are you still mad at me?”

He stares at her with a look of confusion.

“What do you mean?”

“I broke your sunglasses.”

“Oh. It’s okay, I only really need them when I go outside.”

“Why?”

“I… was in an accident, my eyes are a little sensitive to the light, remember?”

“Oh.”

“It’s fine, I’ll just ask Lyla to order me a new one.”

“Who’s Lyla?” 

“She’s a Lyrate Life Form Approximation, she helps me with…shopping and stuff.” 

“...Wouldn’t that make her name LLFA?”

“How did you even say that? Nevermind, it’s not important. I should go. Goodnight, I love you–” 

“Dad?”

“Yes?”

“Are you sure you aren’t mad at me?”

“I’m not angry with you.”

“Okay, because, like, I kind of get the feeling that maybeee you’re a little mad at me…?”  

“I swear on my life, that I am not even the tiniest amount mad at you.” 

“Not even an atom-sized speck mad?”

“Not even that.”

“Thanks. Okay, one last question.”

“Alright.”

“Do you promise to never leave me?”

“Wha–”

“I really thought you died when I saw you lying in that bed with tubes coming out of you. You looked so…small and helpless and I-I-I…I felt like the world had just collapsed under me. Please don’t ever do that again, please don’t leave me– Please don– Please don’t leave your Gabi behind…”

He stares and stares and stares at her with an emotion she can’t place. And after a moment just too long, he finally seems to find his words. “I promise to always stay by your side…Gabi.”

“Okay–”

“I promise to give you a normal life.”

Huh?

“I swear on my life, to make you the happiest little girl in the entire universe.”

She laughs a little at that one.

“Shock, you’re so lame , but…I guess that’s the best part about you.” 

“I really mean it.”

“I know, I believe you.”

“Good night, Gabi.”

“Good night Dad, don’t forget to flick the lights three times.”

“Got it, Gabi.”

*flick*

  Lights off.

*flick*

 Lights on. 

*flick*  

The room is bathed in a cool darkness, comfortable even. 

If she can see two glowing red eyes peering at her through the dark, silent and watching, then she won’t comment on that either.

She pulls the blankets over her head.

Chapter Text

Her dad keeps looking at her weird. 

She can always tell when he’s looking at her, especially with the way her hair would stand up on the back of her neck whenever he turned his gaze towards her. It would bother her more if her dad wasn’t also having, and more importantly, losing an argument with LYLA in his disheveled “work clothes”. Something about where the nearest grocery store was and how he should take a break even if he’s technically feeling “fine” at the moment. He looks like he’s going to lose it any moment now, especially with the way he’s fumbling around the kitchen trying to pack her lunch. 

She’s still half-convinced that LYLA is another ex-girlfriend that he made mad, especially with the way she so casually snarks at him. She’s really pretty too, or at least her cool jacket is.

Lyla is cool, she decides.

That makes sense in her head, anyone who can make her dad fumble with his words that much is cool in her books. She’s actually pretty excited to tell her friends about LYLA, and how super awesome and amazing it is to have her around doing…stuff. 

She’ll figure it out after breakfast. 

School is fine. 

There are some teachers who stop her in the hall to ask her how she’s doing, and if her dad is doing okay, which he is, thank you very much. The worst ones are the ones who go on for five minutes about how they’re always here to listen to her problems and that she can always take a break whenever she needs to. It’s almost a relief that the most she ever gets from her classmates are a few questioning looks and a cookie from Maddison, the nicest girl in school. Lunch is a quiet affair as she sits by herself, which is totally her choice because she’s definitely got friends, they’re just…busy right now, that’s all. 

To distract herself, she empties her lunch box onto the table and out falls a respectably made ham sandwich, her favorite chips…and some apple slices. She can’t believe her eyes, and even rubs them for good measure to make sure her eyes are still working. 

She hasn’t had an apple in five years, and she definitely feels a shiver of revulsion crawl up her spine as she takes in the sight of the slimy browning wedges of offending fruit matter in the gross foggy plastic baggy. The very sight makes her stomach turn a little, and then it traitorously stabs her with a pang of hunger. 

She hates those stupid apples so much.

She hates them so much that she can’t even enjoy her lunch as she eyes them down like they’re alien maggots from the fictional planet of Jupiter. At least if they were, she might actually consider eating them, but no, the universe decided to grace her with the worst fruit since the now-extinct honeydew. If she’s lucky enough to meet God one day, her only request (besides asking him to fix her dad’s back) would be the complete and total annihilation of apples and everything apple-related.

Although her dad did pack them for her, and she’d hate to let his efforts go to waste over a completely justifiable and not at all petty vendetta. Besides, it’s a little childish to still hate apples at her age, right? Maybe it’s time to try something new for a change, she is almost twelve after all, and big girls don’t feel queasy whenever they see an apple. 

She reaches for the baggy, steeling her nerves as she counts down to her doom. 

1…

2…

2.5…

2.75… 

2.928…

3–

The bag distorts into a million colors in her hands.

She almost falls backwards from how fast she jumped out of her seat, baggy dropping back onto the table and her chair clattering to the ground behind her. 

She can feel her chest rising and falling from the way her lungs try to fight for any gasp of air. It was like she just witnessed something so awfully horrible that her body is screaming at her to run as fast and as far away as she can and just get away . It was like her own mind could barely even remember what she saw, much less understand what happened. Her mind is fuzzy and her head hurts , it's like, like... it's full of static and all she can do is stand there frozen with a feeling of wrongwrongwrong*wrong*--

She can feel everyone’s eyes on her, heads turned to look at her and the mess she just made. It’s silent except for the whispering of her classmates, and everyone is looking at her . She wants to run away and hide her face until the sun finally explodes.

She can’t run away. 

If she runs, everyone will think she really is crazy. 

She’s got to play it cool.

Cool.

Cool.

“Uhhh–There was a maggot on my apple slices, sorry everyone.”

Nailed it. 

That answer seems to satisfy everyone, as they turn their focus back onto their own lunches as she turns back to her apples. 

They’re somehow even mushier than before, almost resembling squished worm guts. 

She pinches the corner closest to her and dutifully marches it over to the nearest trash can. 

That’ll teach her to ever trust apples again, never again, she vows to herself. 

Besides, Maddison’s cookie is way tastier than any dumb apple could ever hope to be. 

By the time soccer practice is starting, she’s already mostly forgotten about the Apple Incident.

And why wouldn’t she? It’s not like it’s been haunting her thoughts all day throughout her classes and other activities. Nope.

Besides, today’s an easy day of practice. It’s just a friendly in-team soccer match, no big stakes and no chance of getting benched like last time. 

It’ll also be a good chance to see which girls are available to go to her birthday party in a week or two. She knows she sent all twenty-two invitations because she accidentally sent everyone a second invitation when her finger slipped. It’ll be fine, her friends enjoyed the last party, she can do it again. 

Today will be great, she even got to practice early for once! She’s so sure that not even her dad picking her up last at practice again will hamper her mood. 

What she doesn’t expect is to see the scruffy hospital front desk guy sitting on the bleachers with a frankly adorable baby in a funny beanie. She tries to sneak up on him but almost like magic, he whips his head around towards her, like he was expecting her or something. 

“It’s you!” He says excitedly, like he knows her fondly, which was really creepy actually. 

“Dad said I shouldn’t talk to strangers, especially if they’re homeless.”

“Wha–Miguel! I swear for a guy who can’t tell a joke to save his life, you’d think he’d be above this kind of stuff. Honestly!” 

She stares at him like he’s from the moon, which due to the opening of the borders and recently written peace treaties, was actually not impossible.  

“Come ooonnn, I’m a friend of your dad’s! We know each other from work!” 

Okay. This guy is definitely some deranged lunatic trying to kidnap her.

“My dad doesn’t have friends.”

The scruffy man gave her a look of bewilderment, mouth opening and closing like a fish gasping for air.

“Also he hates all of you because you’re all ‘assholes who suck the blood of orphans for kicks’,” she makes air quotations for emphasis. “His words, not mine, so you can’t get mad at me for cursing.”

“Huh?” 

“So there’s no way that you’re his friend, much less from work, because I know you work at the hospital, and my dad works at Alchemax.” 

“Now hold on–” 

“Also also, you’re not anyone’s dad on this team, because I sent forty-four invitations out last week and I would have definitely remembered your face if I saw it under the legal guardian section.” 

“Okay that’s–” 

“So, I’m gonna politely ask you to leave before I start scre–”

“Your dad asked me to be here to save him a spot!” He blurts out.

She pauses at that.

This guy really sucks at lying.

“My dad never comes to any of my practices.” 

“Welll, uhhh. You know. Maybe since he got hit by a cyber truck he’s reconsidered some stuff.”

“He’s busy all the time, he literally can’t come.”

“Whaaat, nooo. All dads love coming to see their kids do sports!”

“He sees me enough at soccer meets. He’s got enough to deal with, I don’t want him to come if he’s going to get in trouble.”

“Look, Gabriella.”

“Still creepy.”

“Nevermind that, I swear as the father of Mayday Parker, that your dad really will be here to watch you play soccer.” 

The baby burbles in solemn agreement before bursting into a fit of giggles. The display is enough to melt her heart and put a small grin on her face, before turning to “Mr. Parker” and giving him her best patented glare, just to let him know that she means business.

She looks him up and down, considering the scruffy stranger. He’s still suspicious and he’s a dirty liar for trying to make her believe that her dad will come watch her, but she ultimately decides that he seems harmless just in time for the coach’s whistle to sound off, signaling the start of practice. Without another word, she runs off towards the field. 

They’re already half-way through practice and there’s still no sign of her dad. 

She feels…a little down, if only because “Mr. Parker” seemed so adamant that her dad was the kind of guy who had time to slack off from work to come and watch her play soccer. She didn’t even get a cool position anyway, she’s just a right defender with nothing to do because her team’s Forwards manage to always keep the ball just out of their half of the field. Even their goalie, Jackie, has started to get bored, leaning against the goal posts, kicking up grass and plucking dandelions to string together into chains while they all wait around.

Gabriella is so bored that she watches him talk into his weird watch-thingie. The longer he talks the more distressed he looks, and she wonders if he’s talking to her dad. It’s not like she really minds, it’s just bad luck that her practices happen on days where her dad has to work over time. It’s not like it really matters, there’s always next month’s meet and she knows for certain that he’ll be free then. Besides it’s not like their only interactions are from playing soccer, it’s just that he’s really busy trying to support the both of them and she gets it, she really does!

So why does she still feel a little disappointed? 

Her thoughts are interrupted when she hears cheering from the bleachers and sees that the ball is slowly but surely making its way over to their side. Even Jackie has perked up a little, dropping the flower chain and getting into a squatting position, eagerly waiting for the ball’s arrival.   

Gabriella watches as the ball is kicked towards the center and both strikers, Jennifer and Maddison, kicking it back and forth between their teammates trying to break the stalemate. It’s the tensest she’s been all practice and her legs start to bounce a little from how much she’s holding herself back from running into the fray. 

Back. *kick* Forward. *kick* 

Back. *KICK* –

A strong kick sends the ball soaring through the air and she starts sprinting for the ball, keenly aware that at least a dozen girls are chasing after her. It stops right before the corner of the field and without a second thought, she kicks it back over their heads and past the half-way line. It’s the furthest she’s ever kicked the ball and a wave of pride falls over her as she begins to jog back to her original spot. As expected, she’s still one of the best soccer players on the team. It’s not bragging if it’s true!

What she doesn’t expect to hear is her dad’s voice cheering for her from the stands. His voice carries clear over the din of the other parents sitting on the bleachers, and he even brought a video camera just to really make the whole image complete. He looks ridiculous in his work outfit, but she can’t deny the way her heart swells from his whooping and cheering. It would have been perfect if not for Mr. Parker’s look of satisfaction, the man’s smug aura teasing her from thirty yards away.

She really hopes that she can kick him in the shins. Soon, preferably.

The whistle from the coach signals a break for the whole team and she’s off like a rocket fueled by euphoria, head held a little higher than before.

Today really is going to be a great day! 

She’s back into position after the five minute break, mind still buzzing happily.

She watches her dad and Mr. Parker take turns playing around with Mayday as the strikers flip a coin to see who gets the ball first. She can’t help the manic grin spreading across her face as she thinks about how funny it was to run up to the two of them and immediately swing her leg up to strike Mr. Parker in the shin with her cleats. He had immediately doubled over while Mayday giggled at the ensuing chaos caused by her righteous fury. Her dad obviously scolded her, but she could tell that he was laughing a little on the inside from the way his eyes crinkled just so. Or at least she’s pretty sure they were crinkling, it’s a little hard to tell with the sunglasses. Speaking of those sunglasses, it’s nice to see that LYLA has been helping her dad with so much, she wonders if she can ask her dad if she can—

Loud noises from the stands break her train of thought as she realizes that the ball is way too close to her goal for comfort. Well that just won’t do, she’s got to do something about this! Especially for her fans in the stands!

…Okay that was a bit much, but still! This is a perfect job for the best player on the team! 

She starts running after Maddison and she’s already got the perfect plan to take the ball from her; all she needs to do is just get a little bit closer to steal the ball.

Closer, closer… Almost…!

Maddison suddenly bursts into a display of a million colors, and falls to the ground.

Gabriella, too startled to stop, slams right into her, causing them both to fall to the ground in a tangle of limbs. 

Her head is spinning and she hears screaming. 

It doesn’t take long for her to realize that it’s coming from Maddison.

She’s curled into a ball, screaming and screaming, like she just got her leg chopped off. It’s not long before she starts convulsing, limbs jerking around erratically on the ground, never once stopping to breathe in favor of just screaming in a blind panic. 

Gabriella scrambles away from her in a blind panic only to realize that everyone has stopped what they’re doing to stare at them. 

She should try to help but…what can she even do?

She should try and get her back onto her feet, right? 

As if on autopilot she extends a hand to try and help Maddison up but the other girl just slaps it away, uncaring and unseeing after what just happened to her. She’s starting to cry now, hands covering her head, and legs curled up into her as though she’s trying to drown out the whole world. She can hear the adults shouting at someone but her feet are glued to the ground, she can feel herself breathing in and out faster and faster as more time passes, she should–

“GET AWAY FROM HER!”

Maddison’s mom is storming towards them and she looks pissed .

“I-I do-don’t know what ha-ha-happened Mrs.—”  

“WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY DAUGHTER?” 

“I swear, I–”

“DON’T LIE TO ME, WE ALL SAW WHAT YOU DID!” 

“Ple–Please, I didn’t do anything!”

Maddison’s mom manages to gently get Maddison back onto her feet, before turning a sharp glare back to Gabriella. Maddison looks a little better, still shivering with a glassy look in her eyes reminding Gabriella of a doll she once saw on the side of the road, alone and fragile. Before she can get another word in, Maddison’s mom snaps a hand out to roughly grab her arm and she’s being dragged across the field and all she can do is bewilderingly stare at Maddison being pulled along by her mom’s other hand.

Nails dig into her arm but she doesn’t make a sound. She’s got to keep a brave face, her dad said that she’s got nothing to fear if she hasn’t done anything wrong, after all. It’ll be okay, she’ll just explain what happened and then everyone can be happy and they can go back to playing soccer again. Even with the way her team is whispering as she’s dragged past them, it’s just a big misunderstanding, surely.

“ — that? She totally tried to kill her just now!”

“I can’t believe it! After Maddison was so nice–”

“They’re going to kick her off for sure.”

“I’m surprised it didn’t happen sooner, what with last ti–”

They come to a stop in front of the coach, who looks very uncomfortable at the situation, and Mrs. Maddison’s-Mom says, “I want her off this team immediately. She’s a danger to all the girls on the team.”

Her heart sinks. That’s it, her chances of ever playing soccer again in her life are approaching zero percent. No, it’ll be fine. She’s sure she can find a team that doesn’t know about that incident and it’s not like every soccer team in Nueva York really cares about some dumb almost-twelve year old for purposefully accidentally sending someone to the hospital. It’s not like they can prove whether or not she meant for that to happen anyways and really, it’s not like she won’t be able to play soccer ever again, just maybe not in the surrounding area, of fifty–

“I want an apology from you and your father.”

Gabriella whips her head with an incredulous look. An apology, from her dad ? “Why?”

“Because, Gabriella ,” the woman hisses through gritted teeth, “Your father hasn’t been doing a good job raising you if I really need to explain it to you.” 

“I barely understand why I need to apologize, much less my dad, Ma'am. So please, explain it to me.”

“Why you– This is exactly why you should be kicked off this team!”

“Ma’am. I. Did. Not. Do. Anything. Therefore, I don’t know why I should apologize.” 

The woman’s face is turning a bright cherry red and Gabriella starts to feel a trickle of fear at the back of her neck, sensing that she probably made a mistake.

“Alright, you little freak! I don’t care what you think. You’re just some special-needs nutcase who thinks that just because she’s different means we all have to suffer when you have another psychotic break! ”  

The coach and Maddison are both starting to look uncomfortable, the coach trying to calm her down and Maddison tugging on her mom’s arm a little to get her to stop. 

“I didn’t do it!” 

“Everyone saw you! We all know what–”

“Hey! What the actual Shock is going on?!”

The two turn to look as her dad approaches with Mr. Parker trailing close behind, grinning sheepishly as he holds a sleeping MayDay.  

If Mrs. Maddison’s-Mom is perturbed by her dad’s sudden arrival, she doesn’t show it. In fact, she looks even more angry. 

“Mr. O’Hara, I assume?”

“I assume you know only one.”

“You’re just as delightful as your daughter.” 

“Speaking of my daughter, what do you think you’re doing calling her a freak ?” 

“Well, I wouldn’t have to if you controlled your daughter better.”

“Oh, she’s plenty controlled, especially considering yourself.”

“What the hell are you insinuat–!”

“You know exactly what I’m shocking insinuating!” 

It’s not long before they devolve into angry shouting. 

Mr. Parker turns towards Maddison, kneeling in front of her and giving her a gentle smile. “Hey kiddo, are you okay?”

Maddison pauses for a bit before shyly nodding and he gives a great big smile, “That must have hurt a whole lot, sorry you had to go through that.” He then unceremoniously but extremely gently plops a fast asleep MayDay into Maddison’s arms and rushes over to the two angry adults.

Madison looks like she’s close to tears when she turns to Gabriella.

“I-I-I don’t know what happened, I felt like I was being cut into a thousand pieces, and then my mom came and I just–” 

“It’s okay. I’m sorry for crashing into you when it happened.”

“It’s fine. Sorry about my mom, she can get kind of intense, but she means well.”

“Yeah, and I’m sorry about my dad, I didn’t know he could even be this intense . ”

“...I hope they don’t kick you off the team.”

“Hopefully, someone was recording, but you know, it’s okay, it’s not like anyone really liked me that much.”

“Well, I like y–uh. I mean, I probably won’t be able to go to your birthday party, Gabriella.”

“...Yeah, I figured.” 

Maddison holds out her arms and moves to pass Mayday to Gabriella. “Do you want to hold her? I do actually feel a lot better after holding her for a bit.”

“Sure, why not?”

Maddison very gingerly hands her the baby and she is surprised by how light she is, and how well she fits into her arms. If she was in a better mood, she’d actually be able to enjoy this magical moment a little more, holding a magical baby and actually having a normal conversation with someone her own age. 

It’s kind of magical all around.

If you can ignore the two adults arguing in the background. 

Actually, there is something that could make this better. 

“Hey Maddison what's your mom's–”

The drive back home is awkward.

Luckily her dad’s video camera managed to capture the moment when she crashed into Maddison, proving that she had fallen before Gabriella had unceremoniously tripped on top of her, so at the very least she’s still on the team. Unluckily, however, is the fact that more than half of the team have declined their invitations due to “safety concerns”. Disheartening, but expected.

Right now she’s trying very hard to not look at her dad right now, in case he’s still in a bad mood after fighting with Mrs. Sackett, Maddison’s mom, for over thirty minutes. She’s never seen him like that before, and she wonders if maybe her dad really did change after the accident. He definitely wouldn’t have blown up in front of everyone like that before. He would have kept his cool and maybe if worse came to worst, written a very strongly worded email about how wrong they all were. 

She wonders if there really is something wrong with her with the way everything’s been going this past week. 

She still can’t help but notice the similarity of the two events that happened today. The apples and Maddison both had a sort of distressing amount of colors between the two of them. It can’t be a coincidence but there doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason for what’s going on. Both events happened at completely different times of the day and the only thing that might even remotely connect them is…well, she was the only one who seemed to see what was going on. She’s pretty sure it’s not her fault., Butbut then what else could have caused it?

…It couldn’t be, could it? 

It’s too large of a leap, there’s no way…

She sits up a bit and studies her dad in a new light.

He has been a little different, but there was nothing to worry about. Right? 

Her dad, as if sensing her gaze, flicks his eyes to the rearview mirror to give her a quick questioning look. She immediately goes back to looking out the window disinterestedly, embarrassed to have been caught so easily. 

He sighs, before quietly saying, “Hey, Gabi, you doing okay?”

“Mmm, fine. Don’t worry ‘bout it dad.”

“I’m your dad, it’s my job to worry about you.” 

 “I said I’m fine .”

“Come on, I know something’s bothering you. Want to talk about it?”

“...It’s really stupid, you don’t want to hear about it.”

“I promise that nothing you do is stupid, I’m sure you’ll feel a lot better letting it all out.”

Oh, I don’t know dad, maybe I’m going insane and I can control stuff with my mind and that’s hurting people or something. Also, maybe I don’t really trust you right now, which is completely silly, because you’re my dad, and that’s silly, I’m being silly right now, right? I just want to lie down and wake up in seven years, so everyone will forget all about me or something. Honestly, I should have realized how bad this day was going when you packed me–

“–apple slices.”

“What did you say? I didn’t get that.”

“You. Packed. Me. Apple slices.”

“Oh. I don’t get it, why is that bad?”

“I hate apples. You know that.”

This isn’t what’s actually wrong, and her dad seems to pick up on it, but it’s a safer topic than the swirling maelstrom in her mind.

They’re silent for a moment and her dad tries to meet her eyes through the rear-view mirror, but she lowers her head. She doesn’t want to see whatever emotion is showing on his face. 

Instead, he settles for telling her with a voice thick with remorse, “I’m sorry, I…should have done better. I’ll get it right next time, okay Gabi?”

Sorry?

He’s sorry?

My dad never apologizes. 

This…This–he’s…not my–

She forces herself to give him a bright smile, if only to stop herself from throwing up. He looks a bit relieved and turns his eyes back to the road. Good. Because she’s trembling and she can’t stop and she doesn’t stop until they pull up to their apartment. LYLA is there to greet them, but she can only push out a quick goodnight before rushing to her bedroom and locking it tight. She pushes her toy-chest in front of it for good measure.

There’s a knock at her door.

She tumbles backwards onto the floor, trying to stabilize herself before he–

“Gabi, do you need anything?”

“No–Nope, I’m great! Goodnight D-Dad!”

“Okay, See you tomorrow, sweet dreams.” Her dad He said, the sound of footsteps walking away, before she lets out a sigh of relief and turns the lights off.

She didn't get much sleep that night.

Chapter Text

She hasn’t been able to look her dad him in the eyes ever since.

It’s not like she did it actively before, but for the past week or so, it’s felt wrong to do it on purpose.

Focus, Gabi, it’s not like he’s your actual dad. 

What if we’re wrong though? 

There’s too much at stake to risk it, dad’s not here so we’ll have to deal with it ourselves.

Why? Shouldn’t we tell someone, like maybe the Public Eye?

Nobody’s going to believe us. We’re on our own.

Do you think he’s okay? 

Of course he is, he’s dad. He always knows what to do.

I hope he comes back in time for my birthday…

She smacks her face with both hands and keeps patting them until she notices that her dad he’s watching her with a concerned look on his face. She immediately stops and picks up her spoon and starts stirring her bowl of cereal in a decidedly uninterested way. She’s still got another thirty minutes before she has to get to school, the perfect amount of time to put her plan into action. The problem? She has to ask her dad for help and the whole operation hinges on him not noticing anything weird, no pressure.

“So, dad , I was wondering, for my birthday party…” The words burn her tongue less than she’d thought. The implications and guilty feelings of that are pushed down as she continues, “That maybe we should invite some of your…friends? You know, since basically all of the soccer team isn’t going to come?” 

Her dad gives her a look before leaning against the kitchen counter with a sigh, “I don’t know Gabi, don’t you want to be around people your own age? I’m sure you wouldn’t have fun around a bunch of my work friends, also I don’t know if they would have time to–” 

“That’s the thing, dad ! I didn’t know you even had friends before I met Mr. Parker and look how interesting he was!” Oh, she hopes he didn’t notice her cringe at that. She presses on, “I want to know what your other friends are like! Also, I really don’t want to celebrate my birthday with just you again, no offense. I don’t think I could do it another shocking year.” 

“Language, Gabi.”

“Ugh, it’s not like you’re my real da–” 

It takes a second to realize what she just said. 

The look on his face is one of panic and fear before it’s quickly smoothed over with an awkward smile and laugh. He coughs a little into his coffee mug before clearing his throat, “Ha, wow, you really got me there. Almost gave your old man a heart attack right there.” She’d almost believe him if he wasn’t actively avoiding looking at her and reading the back of the cup like it was the script for the next Oscar Isaac film. Honestly, if she wasn’t almost about to pass out from the spike of adrenaline coursing through her veins, she’d probably tease him on his subpar acting skills. 

She forces herself to laugh instead, words tumbling out as she tries to explain herself, “Whoops, where did that come from? I mean, it’s just an inside joke at school, you know how quirky we kids are nowadays, sorry, I mean you are my dad, definitely, totally, nothing wrong there. Sorry that was weird, just forget I said anything.” She desperately prays to whoever is up there, Thor or whatever his name is, that he will just drop it before she can dig herself any deeper. 

He studies her for a moment with his red(?) brown eyes before turning back to making her lunch. They’re silent for a while when he says, “I’ll try to see if any of them are available on the third, okay?” 

“Actually dad, would it be alright if I handled the invitations? You know, since it’s my party?” 

“...Why?”

“There’s this… game that I want to play at the party and it’s sort of like a uhhh ummm, what’s the name for it again? It’s like when you give people clues and they have to find something?”

“Do you mean a scavenger hunt?”

“Yes! But, uh, not quite. I was thinking like uhhh a contest!”

“A contest? What kind?”

Shock, she didn’t think that far ahead. Think Gabi, think! What’s something that’s fun and easy to do, while also being a way to push her operation forward? It would have to be something related to food, and it would have to give her full access to mess around with it a little in the future. It also wouldn’t hurt to have it be really cute, otherwise it would just leave a bad taste in her mouth like that one time she almost threw up at her last soccer match because of the grass sticking to the melted frosting of the cupca–

“We can do a cupcake decorating contest! It wouldn’t take up too much space and the winner can get a cool prize! We don’t have to spend too much on a single cake and it’s pretty much all customizable so people can have their cake, and eat it too!” she says, finishing off her proposal with a well-timed double finger guns to really sell her point. 

He doesn’t look quite convinced, but at the very least she can tell she’s got her foot in the door, she just needs a little push or maybe a little outside help. She just needs him to take the bait, and that’ll be the hard part all done with. 

He glances down to his watch, “LYLA? How much time before Gabi’s birthday?” 

The hologram of the pretty lady with heart glasses pops up, “Wow, Miggy, I thought you’d know this like the back of your hand.” 

Her dad sighs in annoyance, “LYLA please, I’m not awake enough to deal with this right now.”

“Woah, who knew a diet of espresso shots and spite was a terrible idea? If only your super cool and hot AI assistant said something. Oh wait, she did. Now whose fault is that?”

“Mine, now can you just tell me already?”

“Sure thing Miggy-poo. Ahem, there’s one week, nine hours, two minutes and eight seconds before May Third, 2111…Is there anything else you want?”

“No, thank you LYLA, sleep mode please.”

“Don’t be silly Miguel, I can’t sleep.”  She says with a giggle, her image winking out, and he rubs his eyes in annoyance. 

Gabriella has to force herself to keep her face neutral as he turns toward her and just leans against the table, face in his hands as he mumbles, “Okay, I’ll allow it.” 

She almost pumps her fist up in victory–

“But you have to choose from this list and no more than ten people, okay?” 

Okay, a bit of a snag but this can still work. “Does MayDay count as one person if she’s with Mr. Parker?” 

He looks a little confused before saying, “I mean, I don’t know why you’d invite her. She’s like an actual baby?”

“She’s a magical baby, dad, what other reason do I need?”

“...Okay, fine, they both count separately. Now who else do you want to pick?”

“Actually dad, I want you to pick the rest, is that okay? I mean they’re your friends, so you’d know them the best and I trust that you’ll pick the coolest guys ever for the party! Like, you pick the guests and I’ll send the invitations! Also you know, I can kind of tell you really need a break right now, so don’t stress out too much about it.”

His eyes soften and he almost visibly relaxes, a small smile ghosting his face, which makes the guilt building up in her core rear up and rise in her throat. It’s quickly stamped down as she forces herself to remember why she’s doing this in the first place. This isn’t her dad, and she needs to stop him before he could possibly go out and hurt other innocent people. Besides, he’s the only lead she has in figuring out what happened to her real dad. 

It’s okay that she’s using him like this. He’s using her too, so it’s fair right?

 Her insides twist a bit regardless.

An alarm goes off, interrupting both of their thoughts. 

Gabriella quickly glances at the time on the wall and jumps out of her chair to snatch her bookbag, and as she’s bouncing on one foot trying to get her shoes on, he holds out his hand to stabilize her and she grabs on without thinking. She almost rips her hand away and barely manages to stop herself. He gets the packed lunch and gently hands it to her, “I made sure not to put any apples this time, just like you asked. Have a good day at school, Gabi.”

She swallows nervously before slowly looking up at his face. He looks just like her dad but wrong somehow. She wants to kick her past self for being so stupid as to not notice the obvious signs like the red eyes and how he has way way too many wrinkles for his age. Next time she sees her dad, she’s going to memorize his face for real so there’s no way that she’ll be tricked like this again. Hopefully there won’t be a next time, but you can’t be too careful in Nueva York. That’s something her dad always said every time she had to leave for school.

She plucks the lunch out of his grasp and she’s out the door. Twelve steps is all it takes, and she turns to wave goodbye. “Okay, bye! Make sure to send me the list as soon as you can! Love ya!”

And like that she’s gone.

 School is fine. Again. 

It’s going so fine in fact, that she’s called into the Counselor’s office after third period. Maddison’s there too, with an embarrassed look on her face, sitting right outside the room. She perks up a little when she spots Gabriella approaching. 

“Hey Gabi!”

“Hi Maddy, don’t tell me you got in trouble too. I feel like you’re too much of a goody two-shoes to get caught by the fuzz.”

“Haha, very funny, but no, I’m just here because I’m getting a pass for gym class,” she said, waving a slip of green paper off-handedly, “You know, for my injury. At soccer? I mean, I feel a lot better now but any chance to skip gym class, right? Besides, I just got a new cookbook that I’m just dying to dig into.”

“Oh yeah! Hey, thanks again for that cookie, it was really good. You should try going pro, I bet you’d make a killing! I know that I’d probably buy at least half a dozen boxes. I can see it now, Maddy’s Munchies: every bite’s like heaven!” 

Maddy’s face flushes red and she hides under hands and she’s silent for a second before she mumbles out, “Ohhh, I don’t know, it was really nothing but thank you. If you want, I can–”

“Gabriella O’Hara?” 

Both girls startle when the mousey looking man pokes his head out the door. He looks just as nervous as them but he gently smiles and gives them a thumbs up as he waits for her to join him. 

“Welp, that’s my cue. See ya, Maddy.” 

“See you later, Gabi. Good luck!” 

The door closes with an unceremonious click. 

It’s a small, cramped office with little space for anything besides the desk her counselor sits at. She stands there watching him as he nervously flips through folder after folder, triumphantly pulling out a decently thick manilla folder with her name on it. His face shifts to a perturbed look when he notices that she’s still standing. “It’s okay Gabi, you can sit down. Please make yourself comfortable.”

“I’m good. Also, don’t call me Gabi. Only my dad can call me that.” 

“But didn’t that girl outside just call you Gabi?” He says with a look of confusion. 

“She gave me a shocking good cookie the other day, she gets a pass.”

“Alright, Gabriella, do you know why you’re here?”

“Is it because of soccer practice a couple days ago? Look, I had nothing to do with that and also that was a complete total accident.”

“What? No. I’m talking about the…concerns that your teachers and classmates have shared with me.” 

She blink at him owlishly, words not really sinking in. He sighs, pushing up his comically large glasses before continuing, “Gabriella, is there a…reason why you’ve been avoiding your peers for this long?” She shakes her head and squints at him with a bit of suspicion, “I’m busy, my birthday is coming up, there’s no other reason.” 

“Yes, okay alright, but what’s written here is that you’ve become more withdrawn and less prone to outbursts now. Not to mention your frankly morbid activities during gym class. So, well, this is a very sensitive topic but… How are things at home? I know that your father was recently in a cyber truck accident, is everything alright?”

Is everything okay? Is everything okay?  

She’ll show him just how okay she is. In fact, she’s going to have a little fun with this. She leans forward a little, hands resting on the backrest of the chair, with a severe look on her face, “Are you sure you want to know? It is quite a lot you know.”

He shifts uncomfortably in his seat and clears his throat. “Of course, this is my job after all, to listen to troubled youths like you. If this will help us get to the bottom of your problem then so be it.”

Okay then. Sure. She solemnly nods. “So, I’m pretty sure my dad’s not my dad anymore, he’s actually a giant bloodsucking alien that’s replaced him after running my actual dad over with his UFO and I’m the only one who can put up with him. He’s got red eyes like he's been smoking drugs all day and he also wears the dumbest sunglasses to hide them. Did I also mention that he’s got an ex-girlfriend pretending to be his AI? She's actually pretty cool. I think she’d mercilessly bully you though, that’s what she does to my dad. I think he’s secretly into it? Anyway, I’m also pretty sure that he’s got super psionic abilities that can disintegrate stuff, so I have to wear a tinfoil hat the entire time at home otherwise he’s going to turn my brain to mush. So far I’ve kept him at bay by pouring a bottle of hot sauce in his food, and I’ve been feeding him apple slices when he’s not looking. Also that birthday party I’m planning to do? Well–”

She cuts herself off when she realizes the counselor is trying to hold back his laughter. She squints a glare at him before playfully rocking her chair backwards and she waits for him to get it out of his system. He wipes a tear from his eye and turns to look at her with a relieved smile, “Oh my lord, I haven’t had a good laugh like that in forever.”

She grins toothily, she can't help but feel a stab of disappointment but it quickly fades, “Glad I could help, sir.” 

“I was definitely not expecting that. Oh goodness, I was so worried that you were being bullied or something worse.”

“Bullying? Where the shock did that come from?”

“Well, it’s just that you’ve been tying a lot of knots in art class and you’ve been staring at the ropes in the gym storage room… Not to mention that you don’t seem to have a lot of friends here.” 

“Oh shocking heck. Look sir, I’ve been trying to figure out how to tie balloons and since my dad was in that accident. Also I have a ton of friends. I just don’t tell you about them because that’s my business, not yours.”

“I completely understand. I’m so glad you haven’t lost your sense of humor Miss O’Hara. It’s been a real shame that I haven’t seen you as often lately.” 

“You know that’s a good thing. Right?”

“Yes, of course. Have a nice day, Gabriella.”

“Yep, you too, uhhh sir.”

“You forgot my name again. Didn’t you?”

“...Maybe.”

“It’s Mr. Sims.” 

“You know I’m probably going to forget it again.”

“At this point, I’m counting on it.” 

There’s a list of names on the countertop when Gabriella gets back home, which Lyla hands to her with a flourish. 

There’s obviously Mr. Parker and MayDay, but the rest of the names are unfamiliar to her as she reads down the list. It’s a list of normal enough sounding names, but she still feels a bit nervous when she starts putting the group chat together. The invitations she sends to each one of them already has the invite link attached, but it’s still nerve-wracking and she double checks her invitation to make sure nothing looks out of place. It’s a cutesy-looking thing, “YOU’RE INVITED!” in big bold blue letters with lots of flowers and sparkles. She even remembered to put all the important stuff in too, like the day of the party, the address, and a preferred gift. She sends a different one to Mr. Parker, one with a more personalized touch: another quick apology for kicking him and a more…special request. 

It’s not long before name after name starts to show up in the group chat. She immediately identifies Mr. Parker when he announces his arrival with a picture of MayDay. Everyone else is still a mystery to her. She cracks her knuckles and gets to work.

Gabriella O’Hara: Heyo! Thanks for accepting my invitation! So before we get started, can everyone introduce themselves?

Peter B. Parker: HIII GABRIELLA!!!

Jessica Drew: I’m Jessica, I work with your dad. I can’t wait to actually meet you! 

Ben Reilly: Ditto, also I’m Ben.

Hobie Brown: Hobie Brown: Im only here for the cake.

Peni Parker: hi, im peni.

Margo Kess: Margo, I uh won’t actually be there but you know, the boss said it was important so I’ll try to at least show up. 

patrickohara: howdoyoutypeonthisimpatrick. 

Gabriella O’Hara: Okay, great! Glad everyone got one. So we’re going to be doing a cupcake decorating contest and I just wanted to make sure that you guys don’t have any food allergies? If you don’t put anything I will assume that you don’t have any.

Peter B. Parker: I’m actually allergic to peppermint. 

Ben Reilly: Ditto.

Peni Parker: same. 

Gabriella O’Hara: I’m just going to assume none of you can have peppermint.

HOBIE BROWN : I can have it, I actually enjoy the mouth tingle.

Gabriella O’Hara: How did you do that with your name? and also got it no peppermint. Anything else?

patrickohara : icanthavepeanutsistartconvulsing. 

Jessica Drew: I can’t have alcohol or shellfish.

Gabriella O’Hara: Cool, wasn’t planning to have that, but good to know.

Margo Kess: Don’t worry about me, I’m not planning to eat anything.

Gabriella O’Hara: Alright, Okay I think we’re done for now, thanks everyone, I’ll get in touch if there’s anything else. 

Peter B. Parker: Actually Gabriella, I have a question, but like, can I direct message you? 

Gabriella O’Hara: Yeah sure, give me a minute.

It takes another fifteen minutes to explain the plan to Mr. Parker, but he had given his blessing and she was about ready to start ordering party supplies when LYLA blinks into existence right in front of her with a stern face. Gabriella nearly falls backwards from the shock, but recovers quickly and tries for an innocent smile.

“Hi LYLA–”

“Why did you ask Peter B. Parker for that?”

“Well, he works at a hospital, and I thought it would be harmless for him to get it–”

“I’ve also noticed a number of discrepancies on the invitations you sent. Gabriella, what are you planning to do with all your gifts exactly?”

Shockshockschock, does she know? I have to say something or I’m doomed! Her words tumbled out before she could even stop and filter them, “Okay, okay, you got me. I’m actually planning to prank my dad with a funky cupcake, because the last time I made him prank eggs he didn’t even blink. Soooo, I would really appreciate it if you didn’t spoil the surprise. Pretty please?” She hopes batting her biggest puppy eyes will work on an AI. 

“What kind of prank?” 

“Okay, so I was planning to give him the cupcake because he really needs the sleep seeing how much he’s always out super duper late anyways. And then I was planning to have a joint party activity where we doodle on his face, with permanent marker . I was thinking about drawing a mustache on him.” 

“...How big are we talking?” 

Did that work? “You could ride a motorcycle with it.” 

“Well, I dunno, it is my prime directive to protect Miguel at all times.” 

Her heart falls through her throat–

“Buuutttt… If I was turned off right before it happens, like oh, let’s just say I have an automatic update or something, I technically wouldn’t be able to do anything about it for, like maybe, an hour or so?” 

“Are you–?”

“Look, Gabriella, all I’m saying is that your dad has been running himself ragged for the past three weeks. What better way is there to get it through his thick skull than by printing it on his face for a couple days? I’m not endorsing anything, just working within my parameters, that’s all.”

“You’re the best LYLA, thank you so much!”

“Yeah yeah, just make sure to get a pic for me. I gotta hang this over his head for the rest of his life.”

They’re setting up balloons when she gets a notification from Mr. Parker. He’s sent her a selfie of him giving the camera a thumbs up with a jar full of sprinkles and her gift– 

“Is that Peter? Why’s he messaging you so late?” Her dad’s His voice pipes up from across the room, startling Gabriella. 

“Don’t worry, he said he was going to bring cool custom sprinkles to the party,” she says as nonchalantly as possible. 

He sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose, “I swear to whoever’s up there, I’m going to rip him a new one if he brings another flashbang to a birthday party.”

“Wow, is he a dad or a terrorist? Where’d he even get a flashbang, aren’t those illegal?”

“He’s…a special case, sometimes I think he’s a magical pothead who only came into existence to make my life more difficult.” 

“Oh! Like Tío Gabriel?” She says, tying the last balloon up and handing it to him to hang up on the ceiling.

“Worse, actually. We should probably invite him too, knowing them, they’ll probably blow up Alchemax in an hour if they’re in a good mood,” he says with a laugh. He has such a fond look on his face, that she almost feels bad for him when she says,

“...He’s in a coma right now, remember?”  

The green balloon explodes with a loud pop. She jumps a little before turning to look at him, were his nails that sharp the last time she saw them? He stands there in shock, like the ground underneath him just collapsed. It reminds her a bit of when she heard about the car accident he was in. 

“I’m sorry, what?” He says in a shaky voice.

“Yeah, he’s been in a coma for like, eleven and a half months now? I mean, he’s not really in a coma, just you know in Virtual Unreality? He still visits every now and then, but I feel like he doesn’t really get how time works because he always thinks it’s been a couple days since the last time we met–” 

“Gabi, please stop talking.” 

She immediately shuts up. It wouldn’t do to poke an agitated monster while he pretends to grieve for his not-brother. She’s got standards, and tries to think of a way to escape, “I’m going to grab the scissors for the streamers, okay?” 

He can only silently nod as he leans against the wall and covers his eyes with a hand. She can hear sniffling sounds in the living room as she digs around the hallway looking for the scissors. It’s not in the bathroom or the kitchen. There’s only one room left to look in and she carefully opens the door to his bedroom; it’s clean and orderly, the clutter she’d normally expect to find is all organized and filed away, clothes actually on hangers in the closet. The gizmos and goobers he’d clearly been working on have labels and are lined up in alphabetical order. All more proof that whoever has been living here is not her father. It’s so tidy, she actually finally finds the flashlight that had eluded her all those weeks ago, before her life started its downward spiral into insanity. But it’s going to be alright soon. Once her birthday is over, everything will go back to normal and she can go back to her happy life without any more worries of monsters. 

She leaves the room, flashlight in hand and gently eases the door closed again, it wouldn’t do to let him know that she had messed with his lair. She walks back into the living room, where the streamers have all been put up in her absence. They line the tops of the windows, twirls and swirls curling and glinting. Her dad is sitting on the couch ripping up a piece of ribbon absentmindedly, so lost in thought that he barely even notices her presence. 

“I noticed that you put up the streamers, I guess you found the scissors?” she says gently. 

His mumble is non-committal, “...Yeah, I found it. I put it back already..”  

“Are you okay, you seem kind of…dead?” 

“It’s fine Gabi, I just–I really... Don’t worry about me, I’ll get over it in a moment.” 

Gabriella feels another traitorous twinge in her chest and she hates herself for feeling even an ounce of pity for…whoever (whatever?) this is. He thinks he can just make her feel bad for him after what he had done to her? It’s just a clever ploy to make her drop her guard before he slashes her into a thousand pieces, just like he probably did to her dad. She only feels this gross because he reminds her of when her real dad would lock himself in the bathroom for hours on end when Tío Gabriel had first gone under. She remembers the way he had turned on the shower to hide his crying, she’d never forget the low gasping sobs that would echo around the house. Sometimes she would push a piece of paper and pencil under the door when he turned the shower off and he still hadn’t come out. They would just draw dumb pictures and send it back and forth for the rest of the night until her eyes drooped closed and she nodded off, leaning against the door. She’d always wake up the next morning to find herself tucked into bed. 

Her dad would be okay with this one moment of weakness, right?

She shakes herself out of her head. “Hey, I need help picking a birthday outfit, do you want to sit here and you can help me choose one? I just can’t decide, and you’re like the best at choosing cool outfits.” 

He lets out a quiet surprised scoff, “Okay, first of all, you made fun of my sunglasses.” 

“Psshh, we all make dumb decisions, but yeah that was your dumbest decision by far. ”  

“Okay, mija, whatever you say.” 

She flashes him a smile full of teeth, the Gabriella O’Hara special, and then she’s racing to her room. She tosses the flashlight on to her bed before flinging open the closet to grab at the cutest and sparkliest dresses she can find. She tosses her soccer uniform on top of the meager pile after realizing she only has three dresses and starts digging through her cabinets, on a new hunt for the cat onesie she’s sure she has stuffed away somewhere. Her fingers brush something sharp and she stops her hurried digging to pull up the missing scissors, but she’s not surprised to have found them sitting in here.

She’s the one who hid them here in the first place, after all. 

She stares at them for a second before gently placing them back in the drawer and grabbing the cat onesie pushed into the far left corner. She doesn’t have the heart to break the happy false world the two of them have made, no matter how tempting it is to catch him in his lie so easily, at least not yet. She can wait till after her birthday. She’s got time before the party, and for now she wants to make the man outside laugh with how hard she can rock the shocking runway. 

She’s practicing her smile in the mirror for the umpteenth time. 

Almost everyone is here, and it’s a shocking miracle that no one has bothered to look for her yet, what with LYLA and her dad whoever that guy is, not being around to act as a host for the party. She’s not sure how long she has before someone starts knocking on the door. 

Okay, just like we practiced it.

Smile and wave, act really cute, and eat lots of cake.

And?

If anyone asks, we say it was Maddison’s idea.

No, try again. 

Fine. It was just a prank and we go call the Public Eye as our last resort.

Okay, good enough, let’s go. 

I’m going to rock their socks off.

Cutely.

She curls a loose lock of hair into something resembling fancy before opening the door. The party is in full swing as she makes her way to the living room, and the guests are an interesting bunch. There’s a blond man who looks like Mr. Parker leaning against the window in a really lame way, and she wants to politely smack him for dirtying the glass. He’s surprisingly the most normal looking person in the room. There are two girls about her age chatting away on the couch, the shorter one hugging MayDay in her lap and the other being a… hologram?  A bearded man who looks a little like the forever immortal actor, Pedro Pascal, is staring at the TV in wonder. He notices Gabriella passing by and turns to ask, “Hey little missy, do you know how to change the channel?” 

She gives a cute smile and then turns to point at the side of the screen, “There’s a button on the side you can press, just keep pressing until you find a channel you like.” 

He tips his actual shocking cowboy hat gratefully, “Thanks a bunch, I don’t really get all this new fingle-fangled technology, so I really appreciate it. You just let me know if you need help wrangling any bad guys, alright?” 

She giggles at that. He’s really weird but she digs his style. 

The front door opens, her dad walking in with the supplies, Mr. Parker following close behind, arguing with…

“Oh! You’re that nice lady from the hospital!” Gabriella exclaims, running up to the woman, a wide grin on her face.

Mr. Parker gives the nice lady with big hair a smug look as she sighs and bends down to gently smile at the young girl, “Well, hello again, I didn’t think you’d remember me after the accident.” 

Gabriella puffs her chest up with pride, “I have an amazing memory, and it’s only going to get better now that I’m twelve!” 

The nice lady laughs with her whole stomach, and Gabriella immediately likes her. She seems really cool, like she’d ride a motorcycle up a wall kind of cool.

“Oh goodness gracious, Miguel wasn’t wrong when he said how spirited you were. My name is Jessica Drew, but you can call me Jess if you want, since you’re so grown up already,” she says in a joking tone.

“No can do, Mrs. Drew, my dad said to always treat all respectable adults with lots of respect.” 

Mrs. Drew chuckles at that and elbows Mr. Parker, “Are you sure this is the same spitfire that gave you that huge bruise the other week ago? I think you’re just too embarrassed to admit you got it from tripping down the stairs.” 

He grumbles a little, “Come on, Jess, I’m not that pathetic. Come on, tell her Gabriella!” 

Gabriella could only stare at him with the biggest innocent doe-eyes, “Why, Mr. Parker, I could never do that! Also isn’t it more embarrassing that a delicate flower such as myself got the drop on you?”

“Why– you!” he sputters while the girl and lady laugh at his befuddlement.  

“Man, I feel like you guys really get a kick out of undermining my authority–”

A new voice cuts in, “Did someone say undermining authority?” 

Mr. Parker groans, “Oh, not you too Hobie! What is this? Bully Peter B. Parker Day?”

Gabriella turns around to see a young man with really cool looking puffy hair sticking out all over standing right behind her, nonchalantly tuning his equally awesome looking guitar. He gives her a nod. She gives him a toothy grin.

“Wow! Can you actually play that?” 

“Yeah, I can blow the windows off this place if I really tried too.” 

“That would be so cool! Can you do it, like, right now?” The twinkles in her eyes are practically audible.

“Heh, I like the attitude, kiddo. Okay, a one, a two, a–”

“HOBIE, NO! ” Jess and Peter both shout at the same time, frantically waving their arms to stop whatever was about to happen.

“Tsk, buncha killjoys. Fine, another time then.” 

Gabriella pouts, “Awww man, you guyysss, aren’t you just a little curious if he can actually do that?”

Both of them furiously shake their heads and Mrs. Drew sternly shakes a finger at her, “Gabriella, sweet child, he’s blown up things way stronger than a window. I promise, you don’t want to be in the center of that.”

Mr. Parker rolls his eyes, “Yeah, I think I need hearing aids soon. By the way, are we insured for that?” 

“No.”

“Darn. That blows major bal-” 

“Hey, are you two actually going to help with this or not?” comes her dad’s voice from the other side of the apartment. He looks only a smidge away from being totally miserable in his efforts to pry open all the frosting containers. The two adults share a sheepish look before making their way over to the table to help him set up the cupcake decorating station.

Gabriella is left with Hobie, who had been pointedly inspecting the countertop during the exchange and was now leaning against it, absentmindedly tuning his guitar. She probably stares for a bit too long, since after a moment he notices she’s still there and gives her a look. Not one of annoyance or confusion, like the looks she’s used to receiving, but a look that feels like he knows exactly what she’s planning to do. She realizes that perhaps he was never fooled by her cutesy facade since the moment they met.

She walks away before she starts to freak out anymore than she already has and accidentally bumps into one of the girls. MayDay squeals happily from the girl’s arms at Gabriella’s presence, the girl hugging the baby a little tighter in response, “Sorry, I didn’t see you there, I wasn’t looking.” 

“It’s okay! I think this is the first time we’ve met! I’m Gabriella!” 

“I’m Peni Parker, your dad just ‘hired’ me.” 

“Woah! You must be super smart then, like a super genius! I mean, you’re like the same age as me, right, so you’re waaayyy smarter than the normal twelve year old right?”

“I’m fourteen.”

“Oh. Really? But you’re shorter than me… I mean uh sorry, I didn’t mean it like that! Uhhhh–” This is getting a little awkward.

“I get that a lot, don’t worry about it.” 

“Yo, Peni! Can you make me a cupcake? I would do it myself but you know,” the glowing girl wiggles her hand through the nearest lamp, “I’m a bit incorporeal right now.” 

Peni sighs before giving Gabriella a tired smile, “Can you hold MayDay for me? I gotta make Margo a cupcake, even though she can’t even have it.” 

Margo shrugs, “Hey I like to feel included. Besides, you can just send it over later.” 

Gabriella watches the two of them make their way over to the table. Hobie, seemingly satisfied with how his guitar sounds, joins the two of them as the whole group helps set up the station. Everyone is joining in, except for the weird Mr. Parker look-alike, and she doesn’t really want to interrupt… whatever it is he’s doing, but it would be rude as the host to leave him out of all the fun. Besides, she’s got MayDay as backup. She approaches him cautiously, “Hey? Are you okay?” 

The blond guy doesn’t move and just glances up at her a little from his position by the window. His voice is muffled by his cheek being pressed against the glass, “Hi, I’m Ben, I’m just thinking about my tragic past.” 

Okaayy. “Why is it tragic?”

“I have a hard time telling what’s real or not, like did anything I ever did even matter? Am I just destined to spiral in a never-ending cycle of shadows and sorrows? I don’t know anything anymore, man. The captain just said to come over and I did, do I even have free will? Do I want free will? I just keep screwing things up no matter what I do.” 

“Oh, that’s a mood,” she nods sagely, and MayDay burbles in agreement. “Do you want to make cupcakes with us while you think about it?” 

“...I also don’t know how to decorate cupcakes, what if they laugh at me?”  

That’s a good point, she should say something nice and supportive towards him.

“It’s okay, Margo isn’t even making a cupcake and you can’t be any worse than MayDay here. I mean, if you were, that would be kind of sad. You’re like, what, twenty years older than her?” 

“Yeah, sure, we’ll go with that.” 

“Great!” She grabs his hand and drags him over to the table with the others. She hands him an unfrosted cupcake and a piping bag, “It’s really easy, hold this cupcake. Just watch me first and then you try it, we can work our way through the rest of the stuff later.” She twists the end of the bag and gently squeezes it while circling around the base of the cake, starting inwards and moving out, until there’s a respectable, if not a tad lopsided, rosette of frosting on the cupcake in his hands. 

“Okay! Now you try, don’t go too quickly, and also don’t squeeze the bag too hard,” she says, handing him another blank cupcake and the piping bag she just used. He looks at them both with trepidation before twisting the end with a look of determination and piping a perfect rosette. It’s perfectly centered and looks almost professional. 

“Wow! That looks really good, you’re a natural!” Gabriella cheers, clapping her hands in excitement, MayDay giggling happily along.

Ben blinks at her. “I am? I just did what you did. It’s not that impressive.”

“You should be proud of yourself! If that was your first try, I can’t wait to see what you’re going to do next!” She pats him on the back and runs off to grab more drinks with MayDay, happy to have helped a fellow weirdo.

He watches after her and looks back at the little cupcake in front of him. “Okay! Alright, I can do this. Wow, is this how Peter feels? Should I have kids?” The last part is mostly muttered to himself, but the others pick it up and groan.

Mrs. Drew rubs her temple, sighing, “Not this again, Ben.”

“Wow! I can’t believe it! You got me a pack of light up jump ropes! Thank you so much Peni!” 

The audible groan from everyone is immediate. 

“Did literally everyone get you a jump rope?” Margo asks as she phases through the couch to get a better look.

“I thought my jump rope was cool.”

“Patrick, you got her actual rope, the one you use for bridges and stuff?” 

“Wha– Hey now, you can jump with it all the same.” 

Gabriella clears her throat, and they’re silent once again. “Okay, and the last gift is from Mr. Parker… Oh yeah, are you related to Peni by any chance?” 

“We’re distant cousins.” They say simultaneously. 

“Okay then, that’s cool,” She picks up the gift wrapped box, too small for a jump rope to everyone’s relief. She rips off the wrapping paper to reveal a–

“Is that a bottle of multivitamins?” says Mrs. Drew a little incredulously.  

“Well, MayDay already got her a neon glow-in-the-dark jump rope, so I just got her the second thing on the list,” Mr. Parker waves the question off haphazardly.  

“What are you talking about? I didn’t see multivitamins on the invitati–”

“Oh my GOSH, I just LOVE it!! Thank you, thank you SOOO much Mr. Parker!” Gabriella’s shout startles everyone in the room out of their confused muttering. Mr. Parker gives Mrs. Drew a smug look and she shakes her head in defeat, smacking his back playfully.

Everyone else looks a little uneasy, even more so after her outburst, especially with her dad finally coming into the room after cleaning up some of the mess in the kitchen to see what the commotion was. They’re all looking at her expectantly, she clears her throat again, “Okay! That’s the gifts done with, who wants to play Just Dance 2099?” 

Once Gabriella’s done defending her five star record on all of the songs, she taps out and watches the rest of them for a moment before making her way to the cupcake table, “multivitamins” in hand. She walks past the rest of the very cute cupcakes on display, Peni’s kitten ones and Ben’s veritable bouquet of different flowers. No, the ones that she’s more interested in are the blank and still unfrosted ones. She tugs on Mr. Parker’s sleeve, “Hey, can you distract my dad for fifteen minutes?”

He winks and gives her a thumbs up before running over to her dad’s side, slinging an arm around him as he walks him up towards the roof. Perfect, she’s got at least ten minutes to do what she has to. 

She quickly checks her surroundings before grabbing a bowl of frosting and an empty piping bag. So far so good, everyone’s attention is on the screen and the other two are on the roof of the apartment. Now all she has to do is get the lid off–

It’s stuck. 

She looks at the instructions on the lid again before trying again. The lid isn’t coming off, no matter how hard her fingers dig into the cap. Nonononono, not now, she’s so close, she can’t be stopped by a stupid shocking stubborn child-proof cap of all things. Think Gabi, think ! But no matter how hard she wracks her brain, there’s nothing she can do. She can’t ask for help, that would make everyone too suspicious and then she won’t get a chance to do this for the rest of the night. She can’t cut into the bottle without making a scene, and she’s pretty sure she can’t get it open in the ten minutes she has left. She slams the bottle onto the table in defeat as she buries her head into her arms, tears of frustration starting to form as she squeezes her eyes shut.

She’s…failed, hasn’t she? This is it, she’s lost and she won’t ever see her dad again–

The popping sound of the lid breaks her out of her downward spiral, and she finds Hobie standing across from her, bottle in one hand and lid in the other. She gapes at him a little as he places the bottle in front of her like it was the most normal thing in the world. “You looked like you needed some help. Next time, remember to push down on the lid with your whole hand, not just your fingertips.” 

She sucks in a shaky breath. “Thank you, I’ll keep that in mind next time.” 

“I reckon you’ll need three spoonfuls of ‘sugar’ to do the job, but you didn’t hear that from me, yeah?”  

“...Why are you helping me?”

He shrugs, hands in his pockets, “I can recognize when people need help doing what needs to be done. Sometimes to do the right thing, you need to do the wrong thing. You put a lot of thought into this, I’d hate for it to all go to waste. I wish you luck with whatever you plan to do, birthday girl.” And then he walks back towards the other guests, leaning against the couch again as if he never left in the first place.  

With renewed determination, Gabriella spoons out three large portions from the bottle Mr. Parker gave her into the frosting and stirs it all together. She doesn’t have much time after all.

She can hear the two of them talking when she approaches the stairs.

“–ean you haven’t told her yet?”

“That’s none of your concern, Parker.” 

“Miguel. I can’t believe you–”

She knocks. 

Mr. Parker opens the door with a grin, “Hey Gabriella! Wow! I am beat. I was just about  to leave right now, bye!” He leaps down the stairs to rejoin the party, giving her a thumbs up. 

Leaving her with him . 

She holds up a cupcake as a peace offering, “I noticed that you didn’t make or eat one earlier, so I just wanted to check on you. Are you okay?”

He leans against the railing and looks like he’s thinking about jumping off, before giving her a soft smile, “No, I’m okay Gabi. I’m just…not very good at parties or talking to people. It’s a lot for me.”

“Yeah, I get it, so why don’t we celebrate right now? Just the two of us. Then we can kick them out right after, and we can just sleep until next week.” 

He chuckles at that, “Ha, I’ll sleep when I’m dead, mija, but I appreciate the cupcake. Did you bring a knife so we could share?” 

“Nah, I already ate too many, and also because I didn’t want to waste any of them.” 

“Qué maravilla, I get the leftovers, you’re so thoughtful.” 

“Well I mean, if you don’t want it–”

“No, I’m going to eat it.”

She smiles, and he takes it gratefully, studying it under the night sky. “Is this…a bunny?” 

“It’s a hare, you know, like O’Hare-a?” 

He shoots her an amused look. “Should I be concerned about your attempt to make me commit cannibalism?” 

“Well if you put it that way, then maaayyybbeee.” 

He doesn’t justify that with a response, and she tries not to squirm in terror at the sight of his elongated fangs as he bites into it. He chews a bit and then swallows as she watches for something to happen. “Is it supposed to taste like this?” he asked, gagging a little on the frosting. 

“What do you mean?” she asks innocently. She hopes he can’t see her hands shaking behind her back.

“Is it supposed to taste like rusty cherries?” 

“I used cherry gelatin to make it red.” 

“Word of advice, please never do that again in the future.” 

“You don’t have to eat the whole thing if it’s that gross.” 

“What? No, I’m going to eat the whole thing.” He says, stuffing the rest into his mouth and then immediately hacking out a lung as he choked on the crumbs. Gabriella laughs as she uncrosses her fingers from behind her back to pat his back waiting for him to settle down. 

He’s out like a light after coming downstairs and chatting with the other guests for fifteen minutes. She has to ask Mr. Parker for help with putting him in the recliner before she turns around mischievously brandishing an array of different colored permanent markers, all of which are quickly uncapped and given to each of the guests, who all quite gleefully accept the chance to doodle on their boss’s face. After about another fifteen minutes, his face is covered in doodles ranging from smiley faces to a frankly impressive looking spider-web intertwined with so many different kinds of spiders, his face is just covered in them by the end of their joint drawing session. 

“Okay, okay, perfect! I love it!” LYLA cheered as Gabriella drew the pièce de résistance, a mustache large enough to ride a motorcycle with, just as promised. She smiles at her handiwork and turns towards the guests, “Thanks for coming, everyone! LYLA and I can handle the clean up, so you guys should leave before my dad wakes up and freaks out on all of you okay?” 

All the guests leave with a chorus of goodbyes and she’s alone once again, with him . 

Today has been wonderful, the best birthday a girl could have asked for. It pains her to have to cut it short, but the plan was a complete and total success. Almost everything went exactly as she had hoped! She turns towards the blinking image of LYLA. “Did you get all the pictures you wanted?” 

“This is great! I’ll cherish these forever!” 

“That’s good. Hey LYLA? I have another favor to ask you.”

“Yes, Gabriella?” 

“Can you shut down for like the next couple hours? I don’t want my dad to be bothered right now, he looks so peaceful as he sleeps. It would be a shame to wake him up so soon.” 

“Haha, okay Gabriella, just this once, and only for you.” 

She breathes a sigh of relief, “Thank you, LYLA.”

“Anytime! Be back in twenty-four hours, kiddo!” LYLA chirps as she blinks out.

Gabriella stares at the sleeping man, peaceful looking face covered in haphazard doodles, as she considers her options. It would be so so easy to just end it now, to be a hero and destroy the monster. He wouldn’t even feel it in the end. Just grab the scissors from upstairs and and and–

She can’t do it. 

No matter how hard she tries, she can’t shake off the happy memories she’s made with him and the way everyone seemed so happy. It would be… wrong to just end a life without any explanation, especially after today. She can no longer lie to herself that the man sitting in front of her is a blood-sucking monster. He's as human as she is, and that makes the whole situation worse. It hurts, having seen him laugh and cry over the past couple of weeks, knowing that he cares about her well-being so very much. But it also hurts, knowing that this man had so effortlessly lied and slid into her father’s position with almost no remorse. It makes her feel sick. She won’t kill him, but he might kill her when he wakes up and she needs to be ready for that eventuality. It’s time to make good use of everyone’s gifts as she slowly and painstakingly tears all of the packaging apart. 

Who knew jump ropes would be so easy to get a hold of?  

She pauses and throws a blanket on top of him before she gets to work tying the ropes around him and the chair. 

He would have done it for her too. She knows at least that much.

Chapter Text

She’s putting the final touches on the paper mask, cutting around the corner of a plate with the scissors from her room, when she hears him start to awaken. 

It’s showtime, Gabi.

She slips the red paper mask over her face and readies a stance that she hopes makes her look way more intimidating than she feels. She crosses her arms in front of her for good measure, making sure not to cut herself with the scissors in her hand, as her dad groans and blinks awake. He stares at her blankly as if he’s not sure if he’s still dreaming or not. 

“So, you’re finally up. I’ve got a few questions for you,” she says, deepening her voice to scare him a little. 

He blinks once, twice before deciding to close his eyes and deeply exhale, “Gabi, what are you doing?”

“Huh, what–? I mean,” She coughs a couple times to compose herself, “I’m not Gabriella O’Hara, I’m… uhhh… I’m Firelight, and– That’s not important right now! I’m the one asking questions here.” 

He quirks an eyebrow up in confusion before noticing the jump ropes tying him to the chair. “Gabi, why am I tied up in this chair? Is everyone still here?” 

“Everyone already left, and LYLA is offline for twelve more hours. I couldn’t have anyone interrupt this, after all.” 

“What did you do to LYLA?” he asks, sitting back in the chair once realizing he’s stuck. 

“She’s fine, I just asked–I mean. I hacked and shut her down with my awesome hacking powers, that I definitely totally have.” 

“Okaay then. So, ‘Firelight’, what’s with the costume?” 

“Well, you know Gabriella? She told me she has a problem with her ‘dad’ , something about how he’s been acting a little…different lately. Know anything about that?” 

His face twists into one of extreme discomfort, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” 

She huffs in annoyance and slams her hand onto the countertop accidentally, causing him to jump a little. Shock, that really hurt, but she pushes forward despite the pain.

“Okay, how about this. Why do you look like her dad, Miguel O’Hara?” 

“...Because I am Miguel O’Hara.” 

“Nuh-uh, there’s no way.”  

“What do you mean, ‘nuh-uh’?" he says, exasperated.

“You have glow-in-the-dark eyes. My- Gabriella’s dad doesn’t have glow-in-the-dark eyes, even if that would actually be pretty cool. You have claws. Which he also does not have.” She pauses, scrutinizing his face for a moment before adding, “Also, you’re way wrinklier than he is.” 

He sputters indignantly, “Did you just call me old?” He composes himself and looks right at her. “...When did you figure it out?” 

When DID she figure it out? 

Was it when she had seen his clawed hands carve gouges into the countertop?

Was it when she had heard him apologize in front of her? 

Was it the way his piercing red eyes were nothing like her dad’s warm brown ones?

Was it the way he ate his scrambled eggs?

The way he had so awkwardly tried to slip into her life?

Or had she known since the very beginning.

Back when he didn’t call her Gabi when he had first woken up in the hospital all that time ago.

She shook her head, none of that mattered anymore, she knew the truth now and she was going to get the whole truth no matter what the cost.

“Look, I just call them like I see ‘em and right now, I’d say you’re a pretty terrible person for lying to a young upstanding citizen for this long.” 

“I’m really confused right now.” 

“Good, then you know exactly how I’ve been feeling all this time.” 

“Gabi, just–”

“Don’t call me that.”

“Okay, Firelight . Listen. I promise this isn’t what you think it is, I was just trying to help.” 

“Oh really? Because to me, it looks like you kil– like you did something to an innocent man and took over his life. I don’t know about you, but I think that’s plenty of reason to be suspicious of your so-called ‘help’.”  

“I–” He starts but stops himself and sighs. “You’re right, but please just let me explain, I never wanted to hurt you, I was going to tell you in the future.”

“You’re doing a shocking fantastic job at both, by the way. She’s just so, SO lucky to have you.” 

“Were you always this sarcastic?” 

“I don’t know, were you always my dad’s long lost evil twin?” 

“I’m not your dad’s twin. I–” 

“Gee thanks, well that’s one thing to check off at least,” she says, crossing off a line of text on the list in her notebook.  

“What kind of list is that? You made a list for this? ” 

“Duh, I’m a professional. We have standards. And stop stalling. Next question: are you a robo-copy of Miguel O’Hara? ” 

“No, I–” Scritch. Another one off the list.

“A shapeshifter who eats the souls of the innocent?”

“No–” Scritch.

“A demon piloting his body?” 

“Of course not–” Scritch.

“Dracula?” 

“ Why does everyone keep saying that? No!” A pause. Scritch.

“Are you some kind of alternate universe version that’s been stalking us for years on end and then on April 4th, you shot him in the back in an alleyway? And then you like, faked the accident with the cyber truck too because you needed a way to hide your different features and get your health records on file with the government in order to hack into his social credit system to blend in with everyone else?And the only reason you’ve been here for a month is because you’re, like, stranded here or something?” 

“I didn’t shoot him...and I wouldn’t call it ‘stalking’, per se.” Scri- Wait.

“What.”

“What.” 

She shakes her head, getting the thought of cameras around every corner out of her head, “So you’re an alternate version of my dad–I mean Miguel O’Hara? What are you even doing here?” 

He shifts, uncomfortably, “That’s classified.”

“Come on, I don’t believe you. I bet everyone at the party earlier was from other universes too, and I can wager a pretty good guess that you’re their boss. The head honcho, El Capitán, if you will, of this entire ‘team’. There’s literally nobody above you, so what could be so important, huh?”

“...It doesn’t concern you.” 

“YOU DON’T GET TO SAY THAT!” she screams, slamming her fist on the countertop for real this time, rattling the pencil and scissors. The string on her mask slips and the mask falls from her face, fluttering to the ground, but she couldn’t care less at this moment. By the stunned look on his face, he’d never expected to see her like this, and he’s finally getting her frustration. He sits there in stunned silence, speechless for once. Good. Oh, if only looks could kill.

“You don’t get to just walk into my life and lie to me for a month and then just say that this has nothing to do with me!” she seethes, dropping her fake voice.

“It’s safer this way. I don’t want you to get–”

“ Everyone says that. ‘Oh, no! Gabriella! Poor Gabriella, she almost lost her dad, we should treat her like a little glass doll for the rest of SHOCKING time, how does that sound Gabriella?’” She ignores the pinpricks of tears she can feel in her eyes and the way her throat is starting to close up. Her voice breaking, she continues, “God, do you even realize how you shocking sound ?” 

He’s turned away to fix his gaze on the table of scattered objects, unable to meet her eyes. “I’m sorry,” comes his quiet response, as if that’s supposed to make this all better. As if hearing this man use her dad’s voice to apologize again doesn’t make her feel even more sick.

“Stop. Don’t say that. Don’t apologize, that makes it worse.”  

“Sor– Okay. Then what should I do?”

“Tell me where my dad is.”

“I… I can’t.”

She has to stop herself from lunging forward to grab at him.

“ What?! What do you mean you shocking can’t? Where is my dad?!”

 “I don’t know where he is.”

“What do you mean you don’t know where he is? He looks exactly like you! He shouldn’t be that hard to find!” 

“I mean that we’ve been looking for him for an entire month, and… we haven’t been able to find any trace of him at all.” 

“Then just call him or something. I can go do it right now and save you the trouble.” She scrambles away to grab the phone and dial her dad’s number.

“Gabi, that’s not going to work.” His voice is impossibly tired. She ignores him and waits for her call to go through.

“What do you mean? He always picks up, even if he takes a while.” The dial tone blares impossibly loud through the phone’s tinny speakers. She fights the heat building up behind her eyes again. “And, and if he doesn’t pick up I know he’ll definitely call back soon. He always calls back. Look–” The call ends itself and Gabriella stares at the 〈〈[OUTGOING CALL] Dad (75)〉〉 burning into her eyes.

“Gabi…” Stop. Stop. Don’t call her that.

No. NononononononoNONONONONONO NONONONO NO – 

“Gabi, he was already dead when I first got here.” 

The world slams to a stop, and all she can hear is a roaring in her ears. No, she can’t believe him. He’s lying. He has to be. He’s been deceiving and manipulating her this whole time. Why would he stop now? 

“You’re lying,” she manages to hiss through her clenched teeth. 

“I tried to save him, I real–”

“ SHUT UP!”

She wants to kill him. She should have done it when she had the chance. She was a fool for thinking that he was human. She wishes this monster had died instead of her…her–

“...I just didn’t want you to be alone when–” 

“Why didn’t you save him?” 

“I tried! I came as quickly as I could.” 

“You were watching us, weren’t you?”

He looks away. His silence is all the answer she needs.

“You wanted him to die, didn’t you?”  

When he says nothing, the rage and grief starts to build up in her body. 

“I bet you waited just long enough for his heart to stop beating before you waltzed in to be the hero . All so you could play a little game of house with his daughter. Well whoop-de-doo, was it fun? Did you have fun? Did you get everything you wanted?” 

“No! That’s not what I wanted–”

“I don’t care what you wanted!” 

She turns around and grabs the edge of the counter as if her life depends on it. She can’t look at him. Her grip on the scissors starts to dig into her hands uncomfortably, but it helps distract her from her world falling apart and the swirling mindshock she’s dealing with right now.

Then she hears him stand up from the chair, like nothing was binding him to it in the first place. She can hear the cleanly severed ropes fall to the ground, and she whirls around to see his hand reaching for her, to grab her or claw at her face, she can’t tell.

Distantly, she hears his voice. “Gabi…”

Something in her snaps. 

“DON’T CALL–” 

She feels the blades of the scissors lodge into something.

“–ME THAT!” 

It takes her a moment to realize that the scissors have gone straight through his hand. She can feel the warmth of his hand and the sickening wet feeling of his blood dripping onto her own hand. They never tell you how warm it feels, it feels wrong, so wrong, blood shouldn’t be here, the last time she had seen this much blood was when she– 

She releases her shaking grip from the scissors. She can’t– This isn’t happening. Maybe everyone was right, maybe she really is crazy. That’s the only explanation for why she feels this way, why she can’t do anything right, why she’s stuck with him . So she does what any crazy sane person would do in a situation like this. She stumbles backwards, away from danger, away from her fear. She turns to run down the hallway, and stops with a hand on her doorknob. She can’t help but turn around to look down the dark hallway. At the end of the unlit hall, his massive silhouette is framed in shadows. Bright red pinpoints are trained on his clawed hand, as if he himself couldn’t even comprehend what had just happened, before they quickly snap over to look at her–

She rushes into her room, slams the door and locks it for good measure.

She’s trembling under the covers for who knows how shocking long. 

It’s quiet outside. She can’t hear anything, which could be either a good thing or a bad thing. Good if he finally decided to leave, bad if he’s waiting for her to drop her guard and step outside the relative safety of her room.

Her grip on the covers tighten and she bites her cheek to stop from hissing in pain. The skin on her hands is nearly raw from how much she’s rubbed at them to try and get rid of the feeling of blood trailing through her fingers. All that had done was smear it and get it on the sleeves of her onesie. It probably didn’t help that she’d started scratching at her hands hard enough to draw her own blood. She’d stopped then and opted to bury herself in her blankets.

She estimates she’s got a week before she really needs to get out. She’s got access to the bathroom and snacks stored away in secret, she just has to wait him out. 

She’s doodling in another notebook to distract herself when she hears a knock at the door. She dives back under the covers and waits for his next move. Adrenaline shoots through her body as she tries to control her breathing, hoping he’ll get bored and leave her alone. 

The quiet sigh on the other side says otherwise, “Gabriella…I think we need to talk.” 

Oh, she hates when her dad would say that. Well, shock him! She doesn’t have to talk to a piece of scum like him and she lets her displeasure known by chucking her pillow as hard as she can at the door. The pointed exhale in response is viscerally satisfying for her. 

“Can you just listen for a moment?” 

She hops off the bed and shoves her most recent doodle under the crack of the door. It depicts him exploding into a million chunks and she’s shooting lighting out of her hands. It’s pretty good, and she hopes he gets the message and realizes how much pain he’s put her through. 

“Is this me? Why are you throwing snakes at me?” he asks, confused, like the uncultured pig he is. She scribbles a note on another piece of paper and slides it under to explain her artistic vision. 

I’m blowing you up with my electric mind powers. You explode and die.

“Oh. That’s…very creative. Do you have any others?”

She rips another page out of her notebook and scribbles out a quick description to pass under the door. 

This is me and I’m pushing you off a cliff but then you get stuck and a seagull poops on your head. It’s funny because you’re a shockhead. 

She hears a quiet amused snort on the other side, and if she ignores everything that’s happened, she can almost pretend it’s actually her real dad on the other side. She decides to ignore that feeling and pushes another drawing under the door.

“Why are we hugging in this picture?” 

She rolls her eyes and pushes the hastily written explanation under the door. 

I’m strangling you, you big dummy. I only give hugs to my REAL dad, who’s NOT DEAD .

He’s quiet this time for a moment before walking away. She’s not sure how to feel until she hears him come back and sit down on the other side of the door. She hears the quiet methodical scritching of pencil on paper and a couple minutes later, he pushes his own doodle under the door. It looks…good, almost professional with how bold his lines are and how angular it looks. She’s not sure what it is at first, but on closer inspection, it appears to be a bunny? 

She draws a bow on its ear and adds some fangs on its snout and pushes it back under the door. 

What is this? It looks like a bunny. 

She hears him scritching out an answer and the doodle slides back. The rabbit has a pretty flower next to it now. She looks at the note he’s added and tries to ignore how uncannily similar it is to her own dad’s handwriting. It’s nigh identical, but there’s just the slightest difference in pressure and just a bit more of a slant to these letters.

It’s actually a hare. You know. Like O-Hare-a? 

She stifles a giggle at that. It was a terrible pun then and it’s a terrible pun now. She adds a couple stink lines above the hare. 

I’m not sorry for the cupcake.

The doodle that comes back has the hare looking at a cutesy butterfly. 

It’s okay, you’re not the first person in my family to drug me. 

She adds a shooting star. 

That’s shocked up. How’d that happen?

He adds a moon in the top left corner. 

I was stupid, and stuff happened.  

She draws a willow tree beside the hare.

You’re really stupid a lot of the time, aren’t you? 

There's a robin flying in between the branches when she gets it back.

I do my best. 

She clutches the piece of paper, crinkling it in her hands, and she watches as drops of water start to fall on it, dotting the picture. 

Oh. She’s crying. Those must be her tears, she thinks to herself as she looks at the little circular discolorations collecting on the paper. She takes her pencil and scratches in some marks around each tear stain, the wet spots dotting the paper acting as the main body for where she’s adding some legs. She pulls in a slow breath and closes her eyes to collect her resolve. Once she feels stable enough, she opens them back up, and with shaky hands, she grips her pencil to make her decision. Heart pounding, she pushes the paper back under the door with her ultimatum. 

Chapter Text

The paper he receives is covered in small splotches, haphazard tiny legs drawn on them. It’s a little strange, he thinks to himself, to do something like that. Once the tears dry up, there’s not going to be a body for them anymore, they’ll just be little legs kicking in the wind. It’s a nice picture all things considered; a moonlit field with a hare lounging under a willow tree. It’s quite serene, if you can ignore the fangs and stink lines wafting off of it.

He turns the sheet around to look at what’s written on the back. 

Those are spiders.

I’m ready to listen now. Tell me everything.

He covers his face and takes a deep breath, slowly exhaling. He didn’t think he would be able to get this far. It’s going to be difficult but Gabi–Gabriella isn’t an ordinary girl, far from it. He’s sure she can handle whatever he throws at her. 

He clears his throat and knocks on the door, “Okay, are you sure?” 

The thump on the other side of the door is all the confirmation he needs to continue. 

“All right, let me start from the beginning. My name really is Miguel O’Hara, I lead an elite strikeforce dedicated to the security of the multiverse. I was in a freak genetic accident which gave me the same abilities as a spider, stuff like climbing on walls and a bite that paralyzes people with a venom. I used to be the one and only ‘Spider-Man’ in my universe, until just recently.” 

Silence on her end. Okay, so far so good.  

“The people at the party are also different versions of Spider-Man. Peter B. Parker is actually the closest to the prime version so far, everyone else is sort of like an offshoot of him in some manner or another in this giant web of life and destiny. Including me. I’m sort of a future timeline and also an alternate universe too? It’s really confusing. Please don’t ask me what that means.” 

A sheet of paper slides under the door again. 

What does this have to do with my dad?

“Right. That. I haven’t really had the…best life, being Spider-Man meant that I had to sacrifice so many things, sometimes I don’t even know if it was worth it half the time. So one day when I stumbled upon your universe, I was enraptured by how perfect everything was. I found another version of me where I had a family, where I was happy . 

“It was like looking into a mirror, where I didn’t have the burden of holding everything together, where I could just exist , where the hardest things I had to worry about were whether or not my daughter was safe and happy.” He gives a weak sardonic chuckle. “Can you imagine what that’s like?” 

There’s a thump at the door. He slowly slides the paper back under; it’s back in a couple seconds. 

How long have you been watching us?

The paper crinkles in his hand a little, and he has to force himself not to shred it with his claws as he forces out a quiet confession. “Maybe a year? Time doesn’t really mean anything when you’re so removed from it.” He pushes the slightly torn paper back under the door. 

It shoots back to him, a messy scribble of words spelling out, WHERE WERE YOU?  

“I–I was careless, I let my guard down, I didn’t think– I thought in a world as perfect as this one that there was no way anything could have happened to him. He really did try to stop a purse-thief, and he…died trying to stop him.” 

There’s quiet sniffling behind the door but he continues, “I pulled up the feed right when he got shot, and it felt like time had just stopped. I–He was dead and I couldn’t do anything about it, and I didn’t even stop to think about the consequences when I jumped through that portal trying to catch the man who stole ‘my’ life away. All I could feel was rage towards the thief. How dare he steal away the life I had always wanted? I couldn’t forgive him for what he had so carelessly done, and a part of me selfishly wanted to rip his throat out.” 

Did you? 

“No, I never got the chance, he was so spooked by my sudden appearance that when I was chasing him, we uhh, we didn’t see where we were going and well–” He’s interrupted by the hastily shoved paper with equally messy words written on it.

Wait, so you actually got hit by the cyber truck? 

“Not my proudest moment. I think LYLA called an ambulance and the next thing I knew I woke up in a hospital bed with your arms wrapped around me… I can’t remember if you were crying or not.” 

Not important. What happened to the other guy? 

“Well, if something like that knocked me out for a couple hours and left me with a couple of cracked ribs, I can only assume he turned from biological matter to a physics problem right after,” he responds dryly. 

Gross.

“Yeah, LYLA had Jess and Peter come in to infiltrate the hospital in order to hide anything that differentiated me from the Miguel of this universe. I’m surprised you even remembered them at soccer practice and at the party.” 

I have great memory. I got it from my dad. 

“...Anyway, once I was released from the hospital, LYLA informed me that your father’s body had disappeared without a trace. I went straight here to start looking for any possible anomalies, but I didn’t account for a certain someone to be here as well.” 

Me?  

“Yes, I had completely forgotten about you in the chaos of everything. It was strange seeing you in person for the first time. The way you flew into my arms and dragged me to the kitchen so you could make breakfast… I knew it was wrong. I was going to wait for you to fall asleep before leaving, but you took my hand with the brightest eyes and made me promise to stay. I couldn’t imagine anything more important at that time. Not me, not the world, not even the whole shocking multiverse. My mission to find the anomaly in this dimension couldn’t compare to you. If you had asked me that night, I would have thrown it all away because I saw a spark in you, and it was beautiful. And deep down, I selfishly wanted to stay too. I wanted to be there, to help you reach your full potential and to protect you from whatever might hurt you, because I know whatever you decide to do with your future, you will be amazing.”  

She’s quiet and he can’t tell if that’s a good sign or not.

“There’s nothing I can say that will ever excuse what I’ve done, what I could’ve done to save your father. But Gabriella, I want you to know that the time I spent with you… I don’t regret it, all of those days and all of those moments we had together, I wouldn’t give them up for anything.”

He sucks in a shaky breath, tears starting to form in his eyes, for the first time in ages. His chest tightens at the thought that he’s ruined something beyond precious, but he’s Spider-Man, he’s used to making sacrifices like these. 

“You probably don’t want to hear that from a monster like me, right? An idiot who can’t seem to do anything right, someone who has been hurting you so deeply for all this time, doesn’t have the right to feel that way. You’re still just a little girl, something like this isn’t ever supposed to happen to you, and for all my talk of wanting to protect you, to make you smile, all I ever did was hurt you, didn’t I? I never stopped to think about how you were feeling because I was afraid that if I ever revealed the truth, you would hate me. But I should have expected that in the end. I ruined a perfect family and your perfect life all because I thought I could replace your father. When you stabbed me, all I could think was that I deserved it because I knew…I knew that whatever pain I felt in that moment was nothing compared to yours.” 

A faint plip, plip, plip and rustling breaks him out of his rumination. He brings a hand to his face and finds tears streaking his cheeks, dripping onto the page still in front of him.

Ah. It feels relieving in a way to finally let it all out. He can finally stop pretending to be someone he’s not, even if it means an end to whatever pseudo-relationship they had. 

“I’ll find someone to take you in once I’m gone and then I’ll leave in the morning. I know that your…uncle isn’t in the best shape right now, but I’m sure I can find someone to take you in. I don’t want you to be alone when I’m gone, but you’ll never see me again after today, I promise,” he says softly, forehead leaning against the door. 

“I love you, Gabriella.” 

He feels the door shift a bit, and he moves back a couple steps. The door cracks open and Gabriella looks at him with an expression he can’t place. Her eyes dart to his right hand, all bandaged up and wrapped in gauze and medical tape when he’d gone to patch himself up after she’d fled to her room. She blinks at him and sighs, “Kneel down.”

He slowly kneels to the ground until they are finally eye to eye. 

“Brace yourself,” she says, revealing the shoe she has in her hand and raising it.

The sharp sting on his face is nothing compared to the punches and kicks he’s received over the years, but he’ll always remember this one. It really doesn't hurt at all. 

(What’s one more lie on a mountain of them?)

He rubs the spot a little. “I deserved that,” he says sheepishly.

Her face is set in grim determination, “That was for letting my dad die.” 

“I know. And I’m sorry I couldn’t do better.”

“I’m sorry about stabbing you with the scissors.” 

And then she’s gone, door slamming in his face, just like he was expecting.

He looks down at the drawing in his hand. Everything is going to be okay, she’s given him her answer, and he was never meant to be here. He’s got some work to do, but after that it’s time to leave. 

He’s overstayed his welcome, after all.

The next morning he’s checking in with LYLA before they leave to find the source of the anomaly. He’s already gotten in touch with the brother’s fiance to watch over her, for how long he doesn’t know, but he should stop caring about it. It’s not his problem anymore. 

“Are you sure you want to do this?” asks LYLA, a sad look on her face as she sorts through the rest of the digital paperwork. 

“It’s for the best.” He checks his multiverse device for any nearby anomalies. There hadn’t been any since Gabi’s Gabriella’s soccer practice, so maybe the anomalies were just as much of a freak accident as he was. He should have realized sooner that he was using them as an excuse to stay in this universe longer than he really had any right to. 

Shock, he really was the worst, wasn’t he?

“Did you get everything? I’m pretty sure you forgot a doohickey in that room of yours.” 

He gives her an impressive stink eye before sighing, “I already got everything LYLA, I’m a good packer. Besides, everything important is already back at the base.”  

She pouts a little at that, “Come on, you’re not even going to say goodbye?” 

“She hates me, remember?” He rubs the left side of his cheek at the memory. It doesn’t hurt anymore. “I think it’s for the best that we don't see each other anymore. And I left her a note already. It’s good enough,” he says with a sad smile on his face. 

“She really pulled a fast one on all of you, huh? An elite task force made of the multiverse’s finest all in one location, and she still got the drop on you. Where have I heard that before?”

“She got lucky, it won’t happen again.”

“Who knooowwws, Miggy-chan,” LYLA teases.

“LYLA, are we ever going to have a civil conversation in the future?” 

“I’m hurt Miguel, we are in the future. And also you programmed me to be a little shock in your system. You did this to yourself.”

“Fair enough.” He starts counting his steps out the door (it’s a solid twelve steps). He can do this, it’s just a doorknob, after all, he just needs to put his hand on it and turn it, like a normal person would. 

So why can’t he move? 

“Uhhh, earth to Miguel? Are you enjoying the view or something? Come on, just open the door. Orrrr are you actually having second thoughts?” 

He frowns at her, LYLA laughing a little before winking out, and he exhales, grumbling, “I’m leaving, I’m leaving, I just–”

He hears the sound of running footsteps stop right behind him. He turns around to see Gabriella, hair a mess and her eyes red from crying. She clearly has not slept, eyes mildly manic and her entire body slightly wavering in place. She’s still wearing the cat onesie from last night’s interrogation, and he can’t help but notice his dried blood staining the white fluffy fabric. She’s panting as if she had run a marathon and her face is filled with determined rage. 

“Gabri– What are you doing here?”

She finally catches her breath and stands up straighter, angrily huffing, “You didn’t say goodbye.”  

He looks away from her in shame, “I left a note for you.” 

“Don’t lie. You’re terrible at lying.” 

“I’m not lying, I really am leaving this time.” 

“Did you really think I would be okay with that? What, you gave me that whole sob-story and then you think you can walk out of my life just like that?” 

“I wasn’t lying about any of that. I really am just some alternate universe idiot who thought he could get away without any consequences. Why do you even care? I thought you would be happy with me gone.” 

She’s silent, but he can see the tears forming in her eyes and the way her fists are shaking at her sides. She glares at him and he watches her, and they’re locked in a staring contest. She suddenly breaks eye contact like she can’t stand looking at him anymore to shout, “You’re wrong! Everything you think you know about me is wrong!”

He doesn’t know what to say to that, too stunned to even try forming a response. Gabriella pushes on.

“My life wasn’t perfect and neither was my dad! He wasn’t some perfect leader or hero! I didn't even know anyone like that until I met you! He would make dumb dad jokes and he’d always cheer the loudest at my soccer meets! He sacrificed so much for me and he’d always, always , try to do his best even when he knew he was going to fail. He loved me from Nueva York all the way to the moon and back.”  

“What are you–?” 

“He also really sucked sometimes, like how he always wanted me to be more girly and how I could tell he was disappointed when I wasn’t anything like him the older I got. That I was too emotional about dumb stuff that didn’t matter, and how I wasn’t some academic prodigy by the time I was eight. He’d stay out late a lot because sometimes he couldn’t stand to look at me because I reminded him of his failures. He’d always say it was work but I knew what days he was lying to me. Because he’d come into my room and–” She cuts herself off to take in a breath.

“What? What did he do, Gabriella?” 

“He’d cry . He’d cry, and there would be nothing I could do as I held him, and he’d apologize for everything he could think of, stuff that I still don’t really get and stuff I wish I didn’t understand at the time. And it got worse when Tío Gabriel went under. He sometimes couldn’t get out of bed and I had to take care of him and myself during those times.

“I hated him in those moments.” 

He takes a faltering step back. “I-I I never saw anything like that in the feeds.”

“That’s what you do, you look at people and you think you know them, but you have a bad habit of not actually seeing them. You’re kind of selfish like that. Because if you weren’t, you would have realized that I’m not some perfect angel you can pin all your hopes and dreams on, just like my dad did, even though…I know you both didn’t mean to.” 

He swallows thickly at that biting comment. She isn’t wrong, and he couldn’t hate himself more in that moment. He hadn’t really tried to get to know this version of Gabriella. No matter how much he said he loved her, he could barely even recall what her likes and dislikes were, apart from her frankly illogical hatred towards apples. 

She continues, “I…I haven’t been honest about some things because I was also scared you wouldn’t love me anymore if I told you. When I thought you were my dad, I was hoping you’d forget all about it, that we could start over and be a happy family again. But now I know better, and I think you deserve to know as well before you continue to martyr yourself like a total loser.” 

She takes a deep breath, “The reason why nobody wants to be around me, why I don’t have friends at school is because, well it’s because…I–”

“It’s okay, you really don’t have to tel–”

“It’s because I almost killed a girl.” 

What? There’s no way she actually did that, not his Gabriella, she’s too, she’s too… 

He has to pause and think about that for a moment. The distinct image of her face last night as she stabbed his right hand with the scissors flashes in his mind. He’ll never forget how angry she had looked, like she actually wanted him dead. The way she had purposely manipulated multiple people, including him, in order to find out what had happened to her real father. She had so effortlessly lied to everyone’s faces… 

She’s right. She’s not a perfect little girl, much less a perfect daughter.

But still…

His thoughts are interrupted by her sharp cough, forcing him out of his introspection. 

“It happened two years ago, it was at the biggest soccer meet of the season, and we were so, so close to winning but there was this one girl who was just bigger and faster than everyone else on the team. I wanted to win so badly, because I wanted everyone to see me like I was some sort of hero, so when she ran up to me, I just grabbed onto her and I bit her as hard as I could.” 

He can’t help but think to himself that he’d probably have done the same thing in her place.

“I bit down on her as hard as I could and she just kept screaming and screaming but I wouldn’t let her go. I remember adults frantically trying to break us apart and I think they managed to succeed because I remember something tearing away and I remember the way her blood tasted. It was really gross, and they had to pump my stomach just in case I swallowed something I shouldn’t have.

“You know, she almost died of blood loss that day. You, or at least he, never stopped reminding me of that fact. I know he was just trying to tell me that I shouldn’t do that again, but all I could hear was that he was disappointed in me for causing him so much trouble. I had to transfer schools, they kicked me off the team and he had to apologize for me in front of everyone. Her parents still won’t stop bothering us even though we’ve changed our number like three times.” 

She’s crying in earnest now, tears flowing down her cheeks and hiccups littering her words as she tries to…what? What is she trying to do? She can’t actually want him to stay, can she? He’s done too much, there’s no way he can be forgiven for what he’s done. 

“Why are you telling me this?” 

“Let me finish!” She shoots him a weak glare that immediately dissolves as she looks back down to her hands wringing in front of her, “Because… Because I get it, as much as I hate to admit it, I get what it's like to do something unforgivable. What it’s like for– for everyone to hate you, to avoid you because they’re scared that you’ll snap and do something like that again. So I started lying to myself. I told myself that I didn’t need anyone, that I was better off with just me and my dad. But really, deep down, there was a selfish, stupid part of me that just wanted everyone to forgive me. I wanted everyone, or or or just– someone to take my hand and tell me that it was okay. That I didn’t have to act like I was walking on eggshells or something around everyone and that it was okay to just be myself, that it was okay to be a failure, and that even if I was a monster...they still wanted me in their life.” She sucks in a quick breath like she’s come up for air just to dive in again, “That’s why I–I think I let myself believe you for so long. Because for a moment, I could pretend that I was important, and that I was in a story where I did nothing wrong. But then I got greedy and I wanted to turn it into one where I’d save my dad and show him how amazing I am. I’d show him that I was so much more than he ever imagined I could be.”

She squeezes her eyes shut and swipes a hand across them before taking another shuddering breath, finally raising her gaze to meet his stunned stare. Her eyes are blazing.

“The day my dad–my dad– died, we had a fight, and th-this was the first time I had actually gotten so angry at him. It was something dumb like, how he was mad at me for not letting him know that I joined a new soccer team without telling him for months and I- I was mad at him because I thought he didn’t care about what I wanted. And I regret it, I regret that the last time I ever talked to my dad was arguing over something as stupid and dumb as that.

“So what I’m trying to say, you b-big d-d-dummy, is that I don’t want us to end up like that. I don’t want our last time together to be something we’ll both regret in the end.”  

He feels a traitorous spark of hope in his chest as he tells her, “You can’t possibly mean that.” 

She gives him a big watery grin through her tears, “My dad always said that life is too short to have regrets, that I shouldn’t apologize for existing, and that whatever I do I should be proud of it. Granted, I always did hate the fact that he wouldn’t apologize for anything, but it’s some good words to live by, right?” 

“How can you even think about forgiving me?”

“I don’t. I don’t forgive you and I don’t think I ever will.” At her words, he feels his heart drop, but she presses on. ”So! So, you have to spend the rest of your life making it up to me, until I stop loving you or something relative to that, like the universe ending, I don’t know, I didn't think that far ahead.”

An incredulous laugh bursts out of him. “What? You love me? You’ve barely even known me for a month.”

She silences him with a sharp look. “I know that you’re a man who has the saddest eyes in the world, and I know that you like your eggs spicy and salty enough to kill a whale, I know you have a group of people who really seem to care about you and I know that you love so deeply because you still mourned for a man who’s not even really your brother, and I know that you’re a good person because…because–

“Because you tried . You tried so hard to make me happy, even when you knew you would have to tell me the truth anyways. You’re a lot like my dad in that way you know? He didn’t always understand me and I didn’t always understand him, but I wouldn’t trade the whole world for our time together. Just like I treasure our time together, and you should know, as an O’Hara, that I’m not going to be satisfied with just a single measly month.”

He can feel his own eyes begin to water, and oh shock, why does he actually want to believe every word she says? It’s naive, it’s impossible, no sane person would just accept someone like him after everything he’s done. He has to say something to stop this, to bring them both back to reality.

“I have nothing to give you. You gain nothing by being with someone like me. I can’t–” He hates that he can’t even finish his feeble opposition as his voice sticks in his throat and leaves him choking.

Gabriella takes that as her cue to try and pull his weakening resistance from his grasp. “Then we’ll start from zero. I’ll listen to whatever you have to say and we can support each other until we can both laugh when we talk about tomorrow again. We’ll make up for time that we’ve lost and if we mess up, we can try again, as many times as it takes. Because I know we’re both too stubborn to accept anything less. One day I know we’ll be able to reach that happy ending. And I want to see it with you, no matter how long it takes, one monster to another.” 

This is too much. He can feel himself sinking further and he doesn’t have it in himself to struggle much more. He tries again, “But, I’m not your real father. I’ll never be anything like him.”

“Aren’t you listening? I don’t want you to try to be like my dad, I want you to be here with me. You’re Miguel O’Hara and I’m Gabriella O’Hara. I wouldn’t want it to be anyone else.” 

“Don’t tell me you can forget everything just like that.”

“I can’t! And I won’t! I’ll always be my dad’s daughter. But I’m also Miguel O’Hara’s daughter. Nothing will change that, and nothing will change the fact that I’m your daughter too.”

“I-I don’t deserve to be here.” One final weak endeavor before he’s plunged into inescapable depths.

“So? You said you would always stay by my side. You owe me that much. Plus, you promised!” She places her hands on her hips and stands there like she knows she’s won. Like she knows how she’s ruined him.

His cheeks are wet from his tears and he can barely even see straight as he falls to his knees in front of her. 

This. I shouldn’t even be allowed to look at her. I can’t stay. I can’t do this again. I can’t. Ican’tIcan’tIcan’t–

“Is it… Is it really okay for me to be here?”

She wipes at the tears and snot running down her face and gives him the biggest, toothiest smile he’s ever seen, “Of course! I don’t really know what else to say, I’ve been making this all up as I go, but yeah. Don’t go, I’m kind of selfish like that too, also please catch me, I feel like I’m about to fall over.” And suddenly she’s stumbling into a run towards him and she jumps into his arms, like she sees every part of him and loves him anyway, and he finally lets go. He automatically reaches out to catch her, like this is something he’s always done, and embraces her. 

The two stay like that, holding each other as they cry into each other’s shoulders. There’s no guarantee for what will happen next, but for now, it’s just the two of them in a complete mess together right here in front of the door, and the whole city, the whole world, shock, even the entire multiverse seems so so far away. He indulges in the one miracle God will ever allow him.

Everything is going to be okay, and for once, he’ll let himself believe it.

Chapter Text

So it turns out that everything does not  just magically get better after half-deliriously rambling emotions to your not-actual kind-of-dad about not wanting him to leave forever. Because after hugging him, all of the adrenaline wears off and the twenty-four hours of not sleeping finally catches up to her; Gabriella immediately starts retching up last night’s cupcakes and it’s a mad dash to the bathroom. Her dad pats her back sympathetically while she’s emptying her stomach into the toilet, and he catches her before she collapses head-first into the bowl from exhaustion. 

He helps her out of the blood-stained cat onesie and leaves her alone to wash up. She hears knocking after twenty minutes of listlessly sitting in the shower, so she turns the water off and opens the door. A neatly folded pile of clothes is waiting for her, which she takes gratefully. She brushes her hair out and ties it up into a towel before finally daring to get a good look at herself in the mirror. She looks like a corpse, with bloodshot eyes and dark bags under them; she looks like she just crawled out of a coffin. She smacks her face a few times with both hands and pulls on her clothes, readying herself to face him again. 

Her dad is waiting for her in the kitchen, trying and failing to look casual. He takes one look at her and comments in complete and total deadpan, “Go to sleep. You look terrible.”

She really really wants to listen to him but she needs to…to… What was she going to do again? Oh yeah.

“We need to talk.”

He sighs, “We can talk after you sleep, when was the last time you got some sleep?”

“A day ago, maybe? Anyway, I–” She nearly topples over with a particularly stronger sway to the side.

“Absolutely not,” he says, catching her and escorting her back to her bedroom, “We are not going to have this conversation when you can barely stand straight–”

“I don’t want to go back to my room!” Oh, she did not mean to sound so desperate.

He pauses, then bends down to her level and gently asks, “Okay, where do you want to go?” 

“Can I just sleep on the couch for now? I- I just don’t want to be in my room right now. It’s gross,” she mutters.

He sighs and pats her on the shoulder, “Okay, sure. Do you want me to grab your pillows and blankets?” 

She cringes a little in response to that, “Please don’t, they’re uhhhh, kinda maybe covered in blood? Sorry.” 

He blinks at her, “Oh. Do you want me to clean them while you take a nap?”

She nods silently and he helps her to the couch where she promptly sinks into the cushions. She can distantly hear her…her…what exactly should she be calling him now? Calling him her dad felt a little…wrong, but anything else felt too distant. She hears him loading her sheets and blankets into the washer and the rhythmic whirring of the machine lulls her to sleep. It feels nice to finally get some time to fully relax and get some peace after the last couple of weeks of fear and paranoia. 

She wonders if she’ll ever get another moment like this again. 

Gabriella blurrily blinks awake and sits up on the couch, displacing the many blankets and spare jackets draped all over her on to the floor. Shock, what time is it? She glances at the clock on the wall and a jolt rushes through her when she realizes she was supposed to be at school two hours ago. She freezes up and tumbles off the couch, but luckily the pile of blankets and jackets cushion her fall. After thrashing around to get herself untangled, she’s on her feet, mentally freaking out about how on Earth she’s going to explain this to her teachers. 

Sorry for running late! Haha, so funny story. Turns out my dad’s actually been dead for a month and a weird alternate universe superhero version of him has been just hanging around the WHOLE time since then, and I have extremely complicated feelings towards that predicament alone. What’s worse is that I didn’t do the smart thing and call the Public Eye, instead I hatched an incredibly complicated plan to knock him out and shake him down for answers, but oops! I might have stabbed him a little. Through the hand. It’s not that bad. I think. Don’t worry about it. Anyway that somehow helped us reach a really weird middle ground that I’m not really sure how to–

“Oh! You’re finally up, are you feeling better now?”

She snaps her head up to look at her sort-of kind-of dad. “I’m doing better. I’m late to school and I’m not really sure what to do though,” she manages, trying not to freak out any more at her predicament. 

He lightly chuckles at that, “Don’t worry, I called in earlier to let them know you weren’t feeling very well right now, which, judging by everything that’s happened so far, probably isn’t too far from the truth, right?” He holds his hand out to help her off the ground. 

She tentatively takes his hand and they both stand there awkwardly, not quite sure what to do now. 

This is so weird. Should I say something? I should say something. Just don’t say-

“You look like shock.” 

Not that! 

He gives her a tired smile, “Yeah, I know. Peter and Jess make fun of me all the time for my inability to sleep more than four hours per day.” 

More awkward standing.

She really wants to scratch her nose. 

There’s a sharp pang of hunger in her gut and she thanks whatever’s out there for the chance to break the awkward silence. “Do you want breakfast?”

“Breakfast sounds amazing actually, would you like pancakes?” He sounds just as relieved for an excuse to do something. But also…

“What’s a ‘pancake’?”

Gabriella sits at the counter watching her dad try to flip…a flat doughy circle onto the plate next to the stove. She’s not really sure what he’s trying to do, what with the way the first couple of the disks had landed either on the countertop or the floor. They both silently agree to never mention the one from earlier that had hit the ceiling and stuck there for several minutes before hitting the floor with a splat that scared the shock out of both of them. Eventually he’s able to effortlessly flip every single one of them onto the plate in a tower-like formation. He puts the plate in front of her and starts digging in the pantry for something.

“Whatcha looking for?” she asks, a little confused at this whole song and dance he’s doing. At this rate, she’s not sure if these ‘pancakes’ are even worth it or not.

Still rustling around in the pantry, his voice comes out muffled, “I just realized I don’t know if maple syrup exists in this universe. Do you guys have a sweet sauce like honey or something?” 

“We have strawberry jam in the fridge? That’s close enough right?” she says, hopping off the stool and looking in the fridge for the unopened jar in the back. It was supposed to be for a special occasion - real fruit jam was hard to find on a good day - so she and her dad had put off opening it until it was too late, she thinks morbidly to herself. At least this is kind of a special occasion, right? Some kind of funky new alternate-universe dish, that’s something worth celebrating a little right? She makes to grab for the jar–

–and it jolts and discharges a million colors.

She yelps and she smacks her head on the fridge shelf above her. She’s rubbing her head when she hears her dad rush over to her side. “OhmyGod, are you okay?” 

She waves him off, wincing a bit, “Yeah, yeah I’m fine. I just don’t get why all this stuff just keeps going to the fritz around me.”

“Huh? What are you talking about?”

“Stuff around me just…glitches sometimes? Like it gets all wavy and colorful and makes this really weird buzzing sound. Is it you? It seems to only happen when you’re around.” 

He freezes, “I–I have no idea, I mean, it’s so strange that it’s going on now of all times. Are you sure?” 

She pulls the jar out of the fridge, the red contents glitching and shimmering with millions of other colors before it’s gone in a blink. Like nothing even happened in the first place. That somehow makes it even more unnerving. They both stare at the offending jam jar as if it’s going to grow a set of sharp teeth and start attacking them. It doesn’t do that. It doesn’t really do anything at all, which is good but also a little disappointing. Her dad sighs and picks up the jar, unscrewing the top and giving it a cursory sniff.

“It smells fine, I’m sure it’s fine, do you want some on your pancakes?” 

She really shouldn’t, what if it’s toxic now and makes her grow an extra arm? But the prospect of strawberry jam is something that only the black cards can have, and it feels wrong to not have after all the work both of her dads did for her enjoyment. So she nods and her dad spoons a portion on the pancake tower and smooths it over top till some of it runs down the side. He grabs a can of whipped cream from the fridge and swirls a dollop of cream on it. He presents the whole thing to her with a flourish. 

“ Bon appétit , let me know if it tastes good, okay?” 

She cautiously cuts herself a small piece and sniffs it cautiously before taking a little nibble. It’s pretty good actually, it tastes like what she imagines the fancy strawberry cakes on the commercials to taste like. It’s tangy and sweet and the cream really cuts through the tartness of it all. She wonders if this is why jam is such a luxury good for even the black cards. 

“It’s really good!” She tells him through a mouthful. She can practically feel the anticipation coming off of him shift into self-satisfaction as he hums and gets started on his own tower of pancakes. They eat in amicable silence before a thought crosses her mind, “Does ‘bone appa tite’ mean something in Spanish? Or is it like a saying from your universe?”

He chokes on his pancakes before whipping his head to look at her incredulously, “Bon appétit is French?” It clearly isn’t supposed to be a question, but it comes out as one.

Oh. “I could never tell the difference between the two.”

“What do you mean you can’t tell the difference between the two?” He sets his fork down.

“Look, I never had time to learn and I suck at rolling my ‘r’s and conjugating everything is so annoying.” 

“Didn’t your dad talk to you in Spanish at home?” 

“No? You say that like he was even awake half the time when he got home. Also he hated talking in Spanish, something about Abuela or something.” 

He groans at that, “You know, the more I hear about him, the more I wonder how on Earth he raised you into a decent person.”

She punches him in the shoulder indignantly. “You try to be a single dad and deal with shocking Alchemax working conditions and the worst boss in the world every day! He did good with what life gave him and I won’t have you insult him like that. Only I get to do that.”

“Ow, okay, sorry sorry,” he said, rubbing his shoulder. 

“Also stop apologizing so much, or else I’m going to start feeling bad for you again. Or punch you again.” 

“I’ll keep that in mind,” he relents. Before she can say anything, he raises a finger at her. “But we need to work on your Spanish.” 

“What? Why? I can speak English just fine.” 

“Gabi, almost everyone can speak English in the future–”

“Don't call me that . Also, I’m totally cool without speaking Spanish ever ,” she says, swallowing another bite of the pancakes. She can see him about to scold her and cuts him off before he gets to. “But anyway, we should probably set some ground rules before we continue…whatever it is we’re doing, okay?” 

He chews thoughtfully before responding, “Sounds good, what type of rules were you thinking Gabi-Gabriella?”

She sighs in exasperation, “First off, we need to figure out what to call each other now. Gabi is off-limits.” 

“Okay, that’s fine,” he says, closing his eyes deep in thought before snapping them open. “How do you feel about Gabri?”

Gabri, huh. Wasn’t that what he called me at the hospital? 

“Why Gabri?”

“...It was my younger brother’s nickname.” 

Ah. “Is that why you called me that the first time we met? In the hospital? Because I reminded you of your brother?”

He’s silent for a moment, head in his hands. “Yes? I don’t know,” he says in a small voice. “He was the only one who even cared what happened to me. I’m pretty used to having people yell at me so uhh–”

“You don’t have to finish that, I get it.” Sheesh.

He coughs to feign the drop in his cool demeanor, “Anyway, what do you think?” 

She rolls it around in her head for a little bit. Gabri. It’s not too bad of a nickname all things considered. It beats whatever complicated feelings she has whenever she hears him call her Gabi, which brings them to the next complicated thing on the list.

“Gabri works.” She notices him relaxing almost imperceptibly. “What about you?”

He looks at her in confusion, “What do you mean?” 

“What should I call you? Do you want to be called something other than ‘dad’? You seemed pretty worked up about it yesterday, I get it if you’re uncomfortable with it–” 

“No, I’m…I’m okay with it, I just have a…complicated relationship with the idea of being a dad, that’s all.”

Oh shock, she’d completely forgotten about the whole “my dad roofied me at some point” part of his backstory. To be fair, she had blacked out most of yesterday’s events… She seems to have a bad habit of doing that when she doesn’t want to think about embarrassing moments like that. She should probably bring that up with her counselor if she ever sees him again. 

“So you’re fine with me calling you dad? You don’t want to be called something like, I don’t know, Mike?”

“ Don’t call me that ,” he snaps with a touch too much bitterness. He reels it in, clearly not having meant to snap at her. “Sorry.”

Okaayy then. 

“Alright alright, geez. ‘Dad’ it is. Okay, so uhhh. Next thing I wanted to talk about… We should probably tell Tio Gabriel.”

He deflates a little. “That’s fair, he deserves to know what happened to his brother after all.” 

“And I want to give my dad a proper funeral. He deserves to rest in peace after all this time.”

Her dad looks away guiltily. Good. He should feel guilty for not telling her sooner. But that’s all in the past now and he promised to stay by her side, to help her with everything she deems fit, and that’s a good first step to reconciliation, so she doesn’t hang on to that stab of satisfaction for long. Anyhow, she’s going to need to make a few phone calls.

“You know, that could have gone a lot worse, honestly,” Gabriella says, following her dad as they leave Tio’s house after an hour of long stilted back-and-forth between the two. It was almost a miracle he had even agreed to meet in the first place, let alone talk to her dad face-to face in such a short notice. The conversations were terse but polite until the mood just shifted and Tio suddenly asked them to leave. Her dad didn’t put up much of a fight when he left the room and it didn’t seem like he was willing to talk about it for now at least.

“Considering what I’ve done to my Gabriel, I’m surprised he didn’t try to punch me in the face the first chance he got,” he scoffs, slowing down his gait to let her catch up. She power walks side by side with him as they continue their conversation. 

“I dunno why you’re so concerned. You’re like, a seven foot tall superhero and he’s a guy in a coma, at least I know who I’m putting money on,” she says breezily as they walk down the street together. Together? Together. That has a nice ring to it. 

He pinches the bridge of his nose, “You’d be surprised. I was half-expecting him to wake up from the shock of my appearance, I think I saw a hand twitch when he noticed the red eyes. I think if I stayed any longer he would have jumped off the bed and throttled me.” 

“Isn’t that a good thing?”

“...I didn’t want Dana to get upset, even if he woke up.” 

“Oh. Is she someone important in your dimension?”  

“She…was my fiancee at some point, yes.” 

“Oh neat. You know, I think she might be my mom,” she says nonchalantly. 

He freezes, shock still, and she almost runs head first into his arm when he whirls around, “ What? ” 

“I mean, I don’t know for certain. Dad wouldn’t tell me, but she’s definitely up there as the top three on the list–”

“You have a list for that?”

“Duh. I was thinking for my quichera, I’d pull a Mama Mia 2099 and then I would–”

“I’m sorry, are you trying to say quinceañera ?” He almost looks winded, for some reason.

“Yeah, I’m like, a quarter Mexican at worst, so I think it’s well within my rights to plan for one, and since you’re here, I can actually fill up a guest list.” 

The baffled look he gives her is one of confused judgment as they both continue walking and she throws her hands up in defense, “Look, I promise I’ll take a Spanish class next school year, and maybe pass if I’m feeling up to it.”

“Not with that pronunciation, you’re not.”

She lightly punches his arm again, “Watch me! I’m going to be the best Spanish speaker in the whole of Nueva York, I’m going to Spanish circles around you!” 

“Based on your English, I’m not holding my breath,” he teases her.

She pouts a little at that, before a light goes off in her head. “Hey! You could teach me! You’re, like, a Spanish expert, right? It’s not like you’re doing anything in the near future,” she says with renewed vigor. 

“What are you talking about?” 

“You know how you said you’d quit your job of being an ‘Elite Strikeforce Leader’ for me? That I was so important that you’d weren’t going to do it anymore?”

He stops. “I did not say that.” 

“You did! You said it when I was interrogating you!.” 

He sighs heavily, “Gabri, I can’t just leave. Do you have any idea what kind of chaos would happen? Even if I wanted to leave, I’d have to train a replacement, much less find a replacement. That process alone would take years!” 

“So you were just lying again, huh?” Her tone is accusatory and harsher than she’d meant to be, but she doesn’t really care right now.

“What? Of course not! I’m still here aren’t I?” he says, exasperated. 

“But for how long? I bet you just have way more important things you should be doing rather than stick around here.”

“As a matter of fact, I don’t actually have anything going on right now.”

Anger flares in her chest. “That's not the point!” she shouts, slamming her fist into the light pole next to them.

The entire street buzzes as a wave of a million colors spreads and disperses like a wave up and through the light pole, causing it to bend unnaturally, shapes splitting and twisting until it’s barely recognizable. The two of them stare at the structure and turn to each other in horrified silence, conversation forgotten for the moment. Someone wearing a street cleaning uniform walks by, scrutinizing the light pole in front of them and notes, “Yeah, I think it’s a Banksy.”

They both refuse to talk about it afterwards. 

Tension hangs over them as they try and figure out what kind of funeral her dad would have liked, but it’s bearable for now. It’s easier to interact with each other when it’s for someone else’s sake, even if he’s no longer here, at least it's a good way to keep their mind off of things. It’s difficult because there isn’t a body to bury, so she’s started going through the drive on his computer, now accessible courtesy of LYLA. It has over ten thousand photos taken over a twelve year timeline; some of them are of sunsets over tall buildings, some of them are of flowers that he’d sometimes bring home from work, some of them are of women Gabriella has never seen before, but a good majority of them are pictures of her. 

They aren’t anything special, just silly mundane photos of when she was a baby all the way to when she was ten and joined her first soccer team. The couple of years not recorded are a painful reminder that nothing worth remembering happened during that time. She smacks her face in annoyance as she feels herself start to falter. Focus! She’s only here to look for photos of her dad to use for his shrine. But the more she scrolls down thousands upon thousands of photos, the pit in her stomach sinks lower and lower as she realizes that there’s not a single photo of him in here at all. 

That can’t be right. She swipes back up and down countless times trying to find anything in there. 

Nothing. No matter how many times she looks, her dad is gone. 

She slams the door to his room open and marches angrily up to him, “Did you delete all the photos of my dad?”

His eyes widen. “No! Of course not!”

“Then why aren’t there any photos of my dad on the computer?” 

“How should I know? I haven’t touched it the entire time I was here!” 

“Cut the shock, there’s over ten thousand photos on there and you’re telling me there’s not a single shot of him on there?”

“I promise–”

“Stop making promises you don’t intend to keep!” 

“I’m not!”

“Will you two shut it already?” LYLA pipes up as she blinks into view. She scans through multiple floating monitors, picking one of them and showing Gabriella the chart. “Look, Gabri, I scanned through the whole system. I even checked the hard drive and his work computer. You can’t find any photos of him because there were never any to begin with .”

The pit in her stomach grows impossibly larger. “But- But then… What are we going to use for his funeral?” That can’t be right, there should be photos of him on there, she would…she should know, right? 

LYLA shrugs sympathetically, “I’ll figure something out, he had to have had some image laying around for work or health records. Don’t worry Gabri, everything is going to be fine, I promise.” 

She doesn’t want to hear it and stomps away in a huff before slamming her door shut. She doesn’t leave her room until it’s dinner time and while they’re eating together, she mumbles out a quick apology to him and he pats her hand softly to let her know that it’s okay.

They spend the rest of the night looking for any photos in the apartment.

In the end all they manage to dig up is his work ID from Alchemax, and even then the picture only takes up a third of the entire plastic card. The rest of the card has a barcode, his name, and his ID number. As if that’s all he really meant to the world, just another cog in the machine to be used and spat out when he was no longer useful to the big shots in their ivory towers. She’s lucky he even had a spare one lying around in his closet, buried under boxes and clothes. At the rate she had so frantically searched for it she’d probably have ripped up the flooring too if she hadn’t found it when she did. 

She could have sworn there should be some pictures she had taken of him. Photos from when she’d managed to wrestle the camera out of his hands and gotten a few surprise snapshots of him in the second before he tackled her into the biggest bear hug as she shrieked with laughter. Maybe he forgot to save them on the computer or maybe he never saved them in the first place.

Or maybe. Maybe they disappeared with his–his…

She shakes her head to stop thinking about it, if only so she can concentrate on the paper flower in front of her. They can’t afford live flowers with how rare and expensive they are and her dad told her that organic matter from different universes decay too quickly. So here she is, sitting on the living room floor crumpling up yellow and orange paper to try and make marigolds. They look like used tissues, honestly, but compared to the real ones in the pictures he got for her, they’re good enough. At least they’ll last way longer than the real deal. 

When she makes enough for a veritable bouquet of paper marigolds, she gently places them in a vase on the shelf where she’s propped up his work ID next to a plate of cookies that she found in the pantry. It’s…not much, but she’s nonetheless proud of what she’s put together. 

The front door opens and he’s back with an armful of candles, arguing with LYLA again.“I’m sure it’s fine– Hi Gabri– Anyway, like I said–”

LYLA waves a hand in his face. “Miggy, they don’t allow cigarettes in your universe, do you really think they’ll allow an open flame here?” He swipes at her, but LYLA’s image pops several inches away.

“It’s fine. What’s the worst that’s going to happen?”

He drops the package on the countertop and Gabriella watches with morbid fascination as a talon on his finger extends to cut the wrapping. It’s kind of beautiful in the way it smoothly glides through the plastic, the wrapping gently falling away. He notices her staring and grabs a couple candles and a lighter to hold out to her, “Do you want to light them?”

She nods enthusiastically and helps him place them around the shelf. It takes her a few tries to get a flame on the lighter but it’s all worth it when she finally gets the wicks to light. It really brings the whole thing together, at least until the fire alarm goes off and a little machine node with a nozzle at the end starts scanning the area before locking on to her father’s shrine. A robotic voice starts counting down, “Fire hazard detected, Fire Suppression Protocol engaging in three.”

They turn to each other in confusion, the situation not quite dawning on them. LYLA blinks into existence in front of them, waving her arms, “Uh, guys?”

“Two.”

Realization strikes, and their eyes widen.

“One.”

The two of them scramble to grab any sort of covering before half the room is covered in white foam in an instant. She can hear her dad yelling something at LYLA and she can’t help but laugh a little as her dad tries to shield her from the onslaught. It’s kind of nice if she also wasn’t screaming bloody murder at the fire alarm. 

This goes on for a while.

In the end they decide to hold the vigil on the roof, the foam still covering the living room makes grabbing anything from the shrine impossible. Customer service lets them know that the foam will disintegrate in the next six hours, causing her dad to cuss out the poor receptionist on the other line. So for now, they’re just going to sit on the roof until everything goes back to normal. He lays out a dry blanket on the roof and they kind of just…sit there, side by side, looking out at the sea of lights in the city.

She can’t cry now. 

Absolutely not.

She’s been a huge crybaby the whole time he’s been here. She has to show how strong she is, that the ruination of her father’s shrine doesn’t bother her at all. Nope, not one tiny bit. It’s degrading to have someone like him see her be so weak so many times in such a short amount of time. At this rate, he’s going to think that she’s some hysterical baby-head about everything. She doesn’t even know why she was so mad about him not quitting his superhero job. Of course he still wants to help people, that’s what a good person would do. It would be selfish to quit just because a naive little girl asked him to. 

Shock, she’s so stupid.

Her thoughts are interrupted when he coughs pointedly, “Are you okay? You seem like you want to talk about something.”

She swallows thickly, running through her script of things to say in times like these, “It’s fine, I’m just being stupid.” 

“You’re not stupid.”

“I feel really stupid.”

“You’re a very smart person, Gabri.” His voice is soft and understanding. Too understanding. She tries to ignore the heat building up behind her eyes.

“Oh yeah? If I’m so smart, why do I keep screwing things up?” 

“You’re still young, you’ll get more experience in the future. It’s okay for you to mess up.” 

She’s silent at that. That’s something all the grown-ups in her life keep telling her and she always gets so ticked off, but right now, she can barely even muster up a spark to feel indignant about it. 

“I just want to know everything already, I hate feeling like this. Does it…does it get better, like, at all in the future?” 

He exhales tiredly, like he’s heard that question many times, like he’s been asking himself that same question for years . He doesn’t say anything for a moment, before saying in a weary voice, “No, it really doesn’t. I still screw up all the time. Sometimes I wonder if anything I do is really worth it for all the good it does.”

“Then why do you still do it?”

“I…really don’t want to do this anymore. But if one universe goes then there's a possibility that they’ll all go in the end. So I have to. Everyone’s counting on me to save them.” 

“Oh. That’s a lot for one person, especially for a guy who only has spider powers.”

“Yeah, you’re not wrong, that’s why I made the Spider-Society. It was supposed to be a place where people like me could get help, relieve some of the responsibility of their lives. I guess I just wanted to remind them all that they’re not alone, that there’ll always be someone who understands, that they’re not fighting alone.” 

“Aww, who knew you were such a big softie?”

She gets a lighthearted glare thrown her way and she giggles a little. He rolls his eyes. “Well, that was the plan. It’s kind of devolved into being the Spidey-clubhouse. I became the leader only because a good portion of them are still in highschool and just…couldn’t handle the pressure of it all. I don’t blame them, I wouldn't wish this job on anyone.”

“So, like, what do you actually do?” 

“LYLA and I check for anomalies and we send a team of spider-people to deal with it. We’re actually working on an algorithm to track them a lot easier, it’s supposed to track situations that were supposed to happen in every spider-person’s life. The working title right now is ‘canon event’.” 

She’s kind of following. “How does that help with tracking anomalies?”

“Well, if a ‘canon event’ is averted or disrupted then there’s a high chance that an anomaly is going to appear, like someone falls through a portal and causes the weird glitching to happen.”

Wait, then- “So…are you an anomaly? Because you’re technically not from here?”

“Well it shouldn’t be a problem,” he says, showing off his cool watch. “This goober helps make sure that I don’t go through multiversal decay and also keeps me from messing with this universe too much.”

“Then what’s been causing all the glitches recently?”

“I…don’t know. We think it’s some rogue supervillain that slipped through the cracks, but whoever they are, they’re shocking good at hiding.” 

“Why doesn’t this universe’s Spider-Man come and help?”

He looks away awkwardly, “Well, that’s the thing. Your universe doesn’t have a Spider-Man, and the one we thought was going to be Spider-Man–”

“It was supposed to be my dad right?”

His silence is answer enough for her. 

She pulls her knees into herself as she buries her head between them, the knot in her stomach tying itself tighter and tighter at the thought. If only her dad had gotten those powers sooner, he would have been able to be a hero without–without… dying . He would have been able to stop that purse-thief without any problems, just web him up and then come back home, safe and sound. 

“I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry,” he whispers. There's a cruel voice in the back of her head telling her that he couldn’t be less like her dad right now, that he really is nothing like the dad she once had. But she silences it, thinking back to the times when her dad would spend nights on end holding her and giving her apology after apology. What’s that one saying? The more things change, the more they stay the same. That couldn’t have been more true at this moment.

“I believe you,” she says, voice muffled by her knees. She buries her face further. “I know you tried your best, but it still…it still hurts and I don’t know why .”

“He was your father, it’s normal to grieve for him.”

“Do you think he’s looking down on me from up there?” 

“I–I don–” He takes a deep breath before continuing, “Yes, I believe that he’s watching you, and that he loves you dearly.”

Frustration sparks. She snaps her head up to glower at him. “But that’s just it! How can he still love me if I didn’t even realize he was gone for this long!” She hates how bitter she feels.

“It wasn’t your fault. You didn’t know.” 

“How can he forgive me for replacing him? Just like that? I’m scared I’m going to forget him, I’m scared of forgetting that I ever loved him in the first place. I–I feel like I can barely even remember what he looks like now.”

Confused silence has her turning to give him a watery death glare. “That’s why I freaked out so much when I couldn’t find any of his photos. I want to remember him separately from you, I want to tell myself that I love him by himself , and that I won’t love you based off of him … It’s confusing and I’m annoyed that I feel this way, don’t ask.” 

She takes a shuddering breath before continuing, “On the night I met you for the first time, I told you that I wished he didn’t try to be a hero, because then I knew he’d be safe and that I could still see him again. Then I find out you’re the most important hero in the entire multiverse, and I don’t know. I just… I…” 

She puts her head down on her knees again. “I feel so small compared to you.” 

He starts to say something but she cuts him off, “I don’t want you to stop being a hero, that was a lie. I just, I keep thinking to myself that you’ll get bored of me eventually, that you’ll leave one day because you have better things to do, like saving the universe again or something.”

“I’m sorry for being selfish, I know you’ve been doing a lot for me recently. I just, what kind of daughter doesn’t even cry at her own dad’s funeral?” 

She doesn’t want to look at him right now, too exposed like this emotionally, and not even with the added bonus of being too tired to care. She hates how she’s doing everything in her power to not tremble in fear and sorrow, she really is the worst. Her spiraling is stopped when she feels a gentle hand on her shoulder, she lifts her head to look at him, eyes still frustratingly dry, and he’s looking at her with the kindest face she’s ever seen on him. 

“Gabri, I’ll make it clear right now,” he says, “You are so precious to me and I want to protect you forever. And if he’s anything like me, your dad would have wanted you to live a happy life no matter what.” 

“But– I ruined his funeral, what if he’s mad that I love you too?”

“I think that he would rather you have someone looking out for you when he’s no longer able to anymore so that you won’t be alone even after everything.”  

“But what if you never come back? What if you die just like him out there!” 

He smiles at her. “I can’t die yet, I need to be there to see you achieve everything you ever dreamed of.”

“So…you won’t ever leave me?” 

“Of course, I’ll be right there by your side, just like I promised.”

“You won’t end up hating me in the end?” 

“Never.”

She can feel herself wavering. She’s trying very hard to hold back her tears, and maybe it’s a little silly to resist them after being so agonized about not crying earlier. He pulls her head into his shoulder. 

“It’s okay to cry, you’ve been so strong for so long. I promise not to look.”

That’s so stupid.

So so stupid, she thinks as she clutches his shoulder and lets out a loud sob. She wails into his side as he silently smooths out her hair. He doesn’t even flinch when she ineffectually pushes her fists against him, repeatedly. 

“I was so scared.”

She sniffles.

“It hurt so much, I thought I was going to die.”

The tears won’t stop coming now, her nose is running so much she can barely breathe.

“I tried so hard to find him, and in the end I didn’t even have the chance to say goodbye!” 

Her dad is right beside her, safe and sound, just like he promised.

“I was so desperate to do this right, to try and make it up to him for the time I took for granted.”

Her dad embraces her tightly. “I know, I know how hard you tried,” he says.

She fights through the hiccups that have started, “I never tried as hard as I did in my entire life, because I love him! I love him so much…because he was my most important person in the entire world, I just…I just wanted to see him again, no matter how impossible it was!” 

The only sounds in the quiet night are her sobs continuing for what feels like hours, and when she finally has no more tears to cry, she doesn’t leave his side. It would feel wrong to, and it’s nice to be held like this, like the world and everything is going to be just fine. 

Face still buried in his shoulder, her voice is muffled. “I still think you’re a big fat liar, and I’m still mad at you,” she grumbles without any real malice. 

“I’ll still love you even then,” he says evenly.

“I don’t believe you.” she pouts petulantly. 

“Then I’ll spend the rest of my life proving it to you, I really truly do love you Gabriella O’Hara. Even when you feel like you can’t do anything right, when all you have is this hopeless feeling, even when we argue like we did before, I’m never ever going to stop loving you. That won’t change no matter what happens and that’s why I’ll always believe in you and support your dreams.”

She looks up at him, eyes red from crying, “Because… You love me?”

He nods solemnly, “It’s okay to feel this way, like your whole world is ending, and to cry when nothing makes sense anymore. It’s only natural to feel scared and anxious for what comes next. But the things you’ve done in the past won’t just go away, the love you felt back then will always be a part of you. 

“That’s why I can say with one-hundred percent certainty that you’re going to be fine. I’ll make sure of it.” He pats her back.

“How can you be so sure?” 

“What matters isn’t how you start your journey, it’s how you decide how it ends, and I’ll always be on your side to support you. That’s why I know you’ll be amazing. It’s okay to remember everything, the good and the bad, and if you feel scared of forgetting, then I’ll help you find it.” 

“Find what?”

“That precious feeling that keeps you going through it all, the one that makes all of this bullshock worth it. I told you that I wanted to be there to see it, to see you push forward and show this world how truly extraordinary you are. Because you truly are one of a kind, and I would be honored if you allowed me to be even a small part of your life.” 

She hiccups, “Do you really really want to stay? Because then I think I…” 

“If that’s what you want, that’s easy for me. Once it’s morning, once tomorrow comes, you’ll be fine. I believe in you, I know that you’ll find a way to keep going.” 

She gives a strong nod, she’ll believe him just this once. She sits back until he’s holding her by the shoulders, wiping away her tears, and she tries to school her features into one of brave confidence. 

“Okay! You can’t take it back anymore! I’m gonna hold you to that for the rest of time!” 

“Of course. I know you will.”

“And I feel like it’s bad manners to hold you to a promise when I haven’t even made one to myself yet!” 

He laughs lightly, “And what would that be?”

She takes a deep breath and twists around in their embrace to point up to the sky, as high as she can from her position, if only to naively hope that she can somehow reach her father, wherever he might be. 

“My dad said that one day I would live in a world where I can be forgiven, that I could make as many friends as I want to in the future. That he wanted me to live a happy and normal life with everyone I love, just like what we’re trying to do now. So. I’m going to do my hardest to put everything I got into living my best life! I want to go see lots of people and make tons of friends with everyone I meet!”

“And then what are you going to do?”

“And then I’ll take them by the hand and I’ll show them the world that my dad brought me into, the one that is still so beautiful and wonderful that I just want to live in even if it’s for one more day.”

She sucks in a big breath, “I’ll sing my dreams until my throat goes dry and hurts, so my dad can always hear me, so that he’ll always know that I’m thinking of him! I’ll tell him I’m going to live happily in the world he left me in so that he’ll know how much I love him!

“I promise!” She says, pointing her finger at him now in complete confidence. “I promise that the next time I cry…they’re going to be tears of joy!” She exclaims, “So you better watch me the whole time, or else I’m going to be leaving you behind one day!”

He gazes upon her fondly and with pride, “I know you will, I’m counting on it.”

Gabriella turns her gaze back up to the night sky and scrambles to get up. He releases her and she jumps up to her feet to hop over to the highest point of the roof. He follows closely behind. She goes on her tiptoes and shouts to the sky with all the breath in her lungs. She cups her hands around her mouth and gives her everything for the sky to hear her.

“You hear that, Dad?! I’m going to be okay! So don’t worry! Your Gabi is going to be okay!”

She feels like she’s on top of the world until her nose itches and she sneezes. There’s a moment of silence before they’re both laughing together, and her dad takes the blanket and wraps it around her as they sit back down and she leans her head against him. It’s nice, the view is really pretty and she feels… lighter now after getting that off her chest. It’s almost summer now and the warm peaceful night gives her an idea.

“Hey, do you want to take a vacation?”

“Sure, where do you want to go first?”

Chapter Text

Where does she want to go? She’d never really thought about it before. “I dunno, just somewhere nice.” 

“I heard Florida has nice beaches.”

“Nah, Florida got sunk ages ago.”

Her dad lets out a surprised noise, “Good Lord, that’s shocking awful.” 

She snorts, “Yeah, the big ice caps melted and well, Florida kinda went poof with them.” 

He covers his eyes with his hands, “What kind of ‘beautiful’ world do you live in, mija?”

She snickers and headbutts his shoulder playfully, “Apparently the Atlantians are having a blast down there.” 

He pinches the bridge of his nose in frustration, “Oh my God, not those shockers again.”

“Hey!” She pinches his face. “Language! You’re supposed to be setting a good example for me, remember?” she teases, before sneezing again. “Can we go inside? I feel sick.”

—--------------------------

Most of the foam covering the room has dissipated and her dad gets to work cleaning off whatever he can reach. Meanwhile, Gabriella makes a beeline for her dad’s closet. During their talk, she’d suddenly remembered something she’d seen while digging through his stuff earlier. She rushes over and starts wading through all the things she’d tossed aside and thrown around the room. 

She nearly lets out a triumphant whoop when she finds the camera and jumps up. She snaps her mouth shut, mentally shushing herself. It’s supposed to be a surprise. If it’ll work, that is. She turns the device around in her hands, inspecting it. It seems fine and in working condition. She hits the button on the top and holds her breath.

The contraption gives off a couple uncertain whirrs and ticks before the screen flickers to life. The anticipation in her turns into excitement as she squints to read the little text in the corner.

> [Album storage remaining: 30/30]

She grins. Perfect.

*Click.*

> [Album storage remaining: 29/30]

He blinks at Gabriella as she puts down the camera, “What was that for?”

She turns the camera around to show her dad the picture she just took. It shows him in the middle of chewing on an empanada, eyes turned to the lens with a silly, startled expression. 

She laughs at the mildly grumpy look that’s appeared on his face now, “I thought that I’d take a picture of you everyday until our trip! That way I’ll always remember what happens! These first thirty days are just gonna be the beginning and then I’m going to take so many photos when we leave on June 6th!” She strikes a totally cool pose that isn’t goofy at all. “So prepare yourself, Spider-Man!”

He rolls his eyes in fondness at her antics, “What are you going to do if you take a bad photo?”

She puffs up her face a little at that, “Then I’ll just have to live with it, and then I’m going to draw a pee-pee on it, do you want me to do that? Just the next twenty-nine days of me drawing a peener on your pictures?”

He chokes on his pastry and she has to run over to the sink to fill up a glass of water.

*Click.*

> [Album storage remaining: 28/30]

He blurrily opens his eyes and sees her perched on the back of the couch, camera in hand. She checks the photo she got of him sleeping before meeting his eyes, and she’s struck by how oddly unique they are. Like little sunsets or maybe cherries. It’s probably kind of weird to compare eyes to cherries, but red is actually such a cool color. She scampers away when he shifts and she hears him grunt in irritation at her. 

*Click.*

> [Album storage remaining: 27/30]

“Annddd, perfect!” she exclaims as she pulls the camera away from his face, looking at the picture of his eye on the screen. She shows it to him proudly like she hadn’t just forced him to keep his eye open for five minutes. He gives her a thumbs up and a wink, or maybe he was just wincing from the pain. His eyes do look like they’re watering. Oops. She profusely apologizes through her giggles.

*Click.*

> [Album storage remaining: 26/30]

They see a cat while on a walk. It sidles up to them, looking curiously at the two.

She immediately begs him to crouch next to it so she could take a picture. The black cat walks up to his legs and rubs its tiny little head against him, purring all the while. She gets a few cursory pets before it runs off into the night. 

*Click.*

> [Album storage remaining: 25/30]

He’s talking to Lyla again, and it’s actually civil for once. This is a historical moment that she must get on record.

Lyla agrees, leaning her form on him and even throwing out a peace sign in response, much to her dad’s chagrin. He doesn’t notice the additional bunny ears Lyla snuck on him with her other hand until the photo’s been taken.

*Click.*

> [Album storage remaining: 24/30]

Mr. Parker drops in—quite literally—as he swings up onto the roof while she’s trying to get a picture of her dad with the cityscape behind him. He crashes into him in a tangle of limbs, which leaves the photo a blurry mess of body parts.

She punches Mr. Parker in the gut for ruining her shot. 

At least MayDay’s in it.

*Click.*

> [Album storage remaining: 23/30]

Mrs. Drew shows up on her motorcycle this time and it turns out that yes, she can ride up walls on it. 

It’s really funny to see her dad keep up with her at full speed.

It’s all a blurry mess, but the speed and power it captures is still really cool, so she stays her hand from grabbing the nearest permanent marker and refrains from drawing all over it.

*Click.*

> [Album storage remaining: 22/30]

“Woah, so like, do you wear that all the time?” she asks, poking the glowing blue hand he lays out in front of her. It’s totally wicked with the red accents that kind of look like a skull and a spider at the same time. 

“It was actually a Día de los Muertos costume. Well, the first version was at least,” he says, managing to sound simultaneously proud and sheepish.

“Oh. Neat.” She smiles and nods.

“You don’t know what that means, do you?”

“Nope.”

*Click.*

> [Album storage remaining: 21/30]

MayDay lands on his head after dropping down from the ceiling.

His unimpressed face is priceless.  

*Click.*

> [Album storage remaining: 20/30]

She’s trying to flip a pancake and it smacks him in the face. In his surprise, he hits the shutter button and captures her shocked expression perfectly.

They don’t talk about that one.

*Click.*

> [Album storage remaining: 19/30]

Hobie blows out the windows of the apartment, just like he promised.

He very smugly salutes and gives the camera a smirk before falling out the window as her dad vaults out after him.

*Click.*

> [Album storage remaining: 18/30] 

“Say ahhh!”

She gets a great picture of his knife-like fangs. They actually kind of remind her of the needles on a syringe more than the teeth you’d see on a wild animal but–

“You know, I think you’re just doing this to mess with me,” comes a grumpy complaint from her dad.

“Nuh-uh.”

*Click.*

> [Album storage remaining: 17/30] 

“Okay, okay, just aim at the can.”

“Wouldn’t you rather take a video of this?” 

“Come oooonnn.”

“Fine.” He throws his wrist out and a string of silk shoots out and smacks the can dead center. 

Her cheers are deafening.

*Click.*

> [Album storage remaining: 16/30] 

“So can you shoot webs out of your butt?”

“Wha–! No! Delete that!” 

“I didn’t take a picture of that, you weirdo! The horse is way cooler anyways, it can walk on ceilings!”

“I can do that too! He’s not special!”

*Click.*

> [Album storage remaining: 15/30] 

He’s tinkering with something on the counter top. He barely even acknowledges her when she peers over at the weird looking band he’s working on.

“What’s that?” she asks, trying to pinpoint what he could possibly want with a blue rubber band.

He holds it up to her proudly, “This…is another goober I’m working on.” 

LYLA pops into view on his shoulder, “I told you it’s called a gizmo, actually.” She pops out of view just as quickly before he can swipe at her image.

He ignores the quiet snort he hears at their antics and continues, “Yeah, yeah. Anyway, it’s supposed to act like MayDay’s day pass, but you know, it's more powerful to handle someone like you.” 

She bounces a little in excitement. “So you’re really going to take me to see other universes for our vacation?” 

“Hey, hey. We both agreed to do that next time, I haven’t even gotten it past the design phase and there’s no way I’m letting you try this on unless it’s one hundred-percent safe.” 

“Okay, fiiiine. Killjoy.” 

*Click.*

> [Album storage remaining: 14/30] 

He closes the fridge door, jar in hand, to give her a confused look. She’s ducked behind the counter with the camera peeking out to take a photo of him…using the fridge. She hops up.

“So, what’s the past like?” 

“Huh? Why would I know anything like that?”

“Mr. Parker and Mrs. Drew always seem really excited by our fridge whenever they come over. They act like it’s the coolest thing ever.”

“I don’t know, I guess they don’t have flying cars?”

“That’s lame.” 

*Click.*

> [Album storage remaining: 13/30] 

“How come you don’t just make a watch for me?” 

He’s fiddling with the gizmo again. It looks pretty much the same except maybe it’s got a couple more shiny things on it.

“That’s infinitely harder to make than a day pass.”

“Can’t I just borrow one?”

“No.”

*Click.*

> [Album storage remaining: 12/30] 

“What if I’m like, reallllyyyy good.” She plants her chin on his shoulder as he sits at the couch working on his laptop and holds the camera out to take a picture of the both of them. She’s giving her best puppy dog eyes. He’s very much still looking down at his laptop.

“The answer is still no, Gabri.”

“Pleeaaassee, I promise I’ll actually read those Spanish books if you do.”

“Oh yeah? Tell me something in Spanish.”

“Papa es una stupida.”

“Ooooh, so close. It’s actually supposed to be, ‘Mi papa es estúpido.’” 

“Oh, Shock you!” 

*Click.*

> [Album storage remaining: 12/30] 

“I bet I could get Mr. Parker to give me a watch.”

“Don’t you dare. I still haven’t forgiven him for the sleeping pills.” 

“That was one time!”

“One time too many in my books. Speaking of books, how’s your studying going?” 

“Mi cerebro va a explotar.” 

“Hey! You’re getting better! Good job!” 

She throws a pillow at him and then chucks her Spanish book at him too for good measure. He catches it and she gets a photo of his amused face instead of his face full of book like she’d hoped.

*Click.*

> [Album storage remaining: 11/30] 

She gets a photo of him next to the city skyline with a beautifully orange-red sunset on the backdrop. 

“Looking good, Dad!” 

“Can I please sit down now?” 

*Click.*

> [Album storage remaining: 10/30] 

“Gabri, I don’t think this is a good idea.”

“You said I could do whatever I wanted if I managed to speak a full five sentences in perfect Spanish, and I did!” She lightly smacks him. “So pay up, old man!” 

“Okay, okay. But if I see any sign of my suit on the news tomorrow, I’m taking this camera away.” 

“Got it! Go, go, GO!” 

He jumps off the roof, and she’s clinging onto his back for dear life as he swings from one building to the next. She manages to get a really cool close-up shot of the Alchemax building logo with the two of them reflected in the windows when they swing past it. 

*Click.*

> [Album storage remaining: 9/30] 

They’re lying on blankets laid out on the roof and staring at the night sky. She can’t really pick up much in the darkness except a few spots of light from passing cars and planes.

“You know, in the past, apparently you could see the stars with the naked eye at one point.” 

“Woah, for real? Like the big balls of gas in outer space?”

“Yeah, those ones. Stargazing is actually pretty fun, we’ll have to do that some time.” 

“Yeah. By letting me travel with you to other dimensions, you mean, right?” 

“...I walked into that one.” 

*Click.*

> [Album storage remaining: 8/30] 

“So, Spider-Man fights an octopus with a doctorate?”

“No!” He tilts his head for a moment, looking across all the captured anomalies in the room waiting to be returned to their dimension. “Well, maybe. At least one.”

“Neato.”

*Click.*

> [Album storage remaining: 7/30] 

The cool gliders on his suit kind of remind her of a fish. 

“You look like a fish.”

“I do not!” 

“Do too!” 

“You kind of do, Miguel,” Lyla pipes in, filing down her holographic nails. 

*Click.*

> [Album storage remaining: 6/30] 

“Um, so a lot of the Spider-Guys at HQ like my cupcakes,” Ben says, presenting her with a box.

“Hey! That’s great! I’m glad that you found something you enjoy doing!” She’s not sure how to tell him that as pretty as they are, she really doesn’t want to look at another cupcake for a long time. 

“So, uh, I just wanted to thank you and give–” 

“Oh, sweet! Ben brought cupcakes!” shouts Mr. Parker, yoinking the entire box, swinging off the roof and through an open portal that immediately blinks out of existence.

“Wait, uh…shit-balls,” Ben sighs in defeat. She pats his back sympathetically. 

*Click.*

> [Album storage remaining: 5/30]  

“I got a prototype done.”

“Neat.” 

“What’s with that tone? Aren’t you excited?” 

“The more I pretend I don’t want it, the sooner you’ll get it done.” 

“That’s not how that works,” he says, exasperated, and throws his hands up.

*Click.*

> [Album storage remaining: 4/30]  

“So you still fight crime? Even when you’re going to have a baby?”

Mrs. Drew smiles warmly at her, “I have to. No one else can do what I can, and I can handle it, I promise.” 

She scrunches her face in confusion, “I don’t really get it, but make sure to take plenty of breaks okay? Oh! And drink plenty of water! And also brush your teeth!” 

Mrs. Drew laughs. “Oh my goodness, don’t worry about me. I’ve been in worse scrapes with my husband on a daily basis. You should honestly be more worried about Peter! I don’t understand why he brings MayDay everywhere with him, I swear he’s going to get that baby killed one of these days,” she says, shaking her head in bemusement. 

“Don’t worry about her, she’s a magical baby. Also your sandwich is done!” She grabs the lofty plate of bread, vegetables, and lunch meat.

“It’s for you and the baby!” She hands it to Mrs. Drew with a dramatic flourish, clearly proud of her culinary talents. She trips on her feet and the towering sandwich goes flying.

Mrs. Drew almost falls out of her chair laughing. 

*Click.*

> [Album storage remaining: 3/30]  

“Ugh, I don’t feel so good right now. Can you just take a picture of something while I pass out for a little bit?” 

“Sure.”

“Wha–Hey! I didn’t say you could take a photo of me! I look so gross! I’m going to sneeze in your coffee later. Hey! Are you listening to me?”

*Click.*

> [Album storage remaining: 2/30]  

“Do you have everything packed up?” 

“Yeah! After my last soccer game we can just go anywhere, right?”

“Not in the multiverse, at least not yet.”

“I knooowww, Dad.” 

“Just checking.” 

*Click.*

> [Album storage remaining: 1/30]  

“One more day after this one! Come on! Help me figure out something cool to do for the last one!” 

“I can stand on the ceiling again?”  

“No no, we already did that one! And you broke it, remember?” 

“I’m trying to forget about that.”

“No can do, old man! Come on, big smiles! Ugh! No, no, you look like I just stabbed your dog.” 

“I’m not good at smiling… Wait, what are you doing?”

“Are you ticklish?”

“Gabri, no. No, stop. Gabri!” 

*Click.*

> [Album storage remaining: 0/30]  

She lifts the camera up to try and get them both in view of the lens, standing on tiptoe but only barely managing to get the top of her head and his chin in frame. He picks her up and she squeals and kicks around a little as he laughs and gets them both in view of the shot.

She takes a couple minutes to teach him how to smile without grimacing or looking like a serial killer, which is way harder due to his fangs poking out whenever he smiles too wide. He manages a lopsided grin. Good enough. Her own smile is a touch unnerving in how much teeth it shows, but in the end they get something resembling a normal photo of a father and his daughter, beaming at the camera.

The rest of the Spider-People think it looks really creepy. She thinks it’s funny. Her dad doesn’t say anything but she can tell he thinks it’s a little silly, too, if the way his eyes crinkle when he looks at the photo means anything.

*Click.*

She shakes the camera a little before checking the dial on it. No image springs up onto the screen, so she sighs before tapping the monitor on the wall. “Hey Lyla, can you please put the photos I’ve taken onto the drive?”

Lyla blinks into view. “Sure thing! Where do you want me to store them? The pictures folder or–”

“Actually, can you hide a copy in his computer at the HQ somewhere? I want him to see his cringe-compilation when he least expects it.” 

“Gabriella! Where do you learn that from? Also, absolutely, I’ll treasure these forever.”

“Thanks, Lyla.” She shrugs, “Also, I dunno, maybe one of you guys said it or something.”  

“What are you two conspiring about this time?” Her dad pops up behind her, hands on his hips, probably trying to look intimidating.

They burst into a fit of giggles. “Nothing!” 

“Ay coño, I swear you two are going to be the death of me one of these days,” he teases as he ruffles her hair. 

“Did you get the empanadas from the cafeteria again?” she asks, face red from all the laughter.

“Obviously. It’s the only reason people still go.”

“That’s not the only reason, Migs!” Lyla cheerfully adds.

He jabs a finger at her blinking image. “The hamburger thing was not my idea!”

“What can I say? People just want to eat your perfect buns, it’s been the top-seller for a reason.” 

“Ew, you guys are so gross. I’m leaving,” Gabriella declares, marching into the kitchen to open the takeout box and grab a pastry. Her dad follows suit and grabs one for himself too. They eat together in comfortable silence, her dad scrolling away on a tablet and her just watching him work. When she finishes her first one she tries to grab another, but her dad moves it just out of reach. 

“You have to ask for it in Spanish first,” he says without even looking up from his data pad.

She groans in annoyance, “Gimme una empanada, or I kick your teeth in.” 

“What’s the magic word?”

“...Por favor?”

“Good job,” he says, pushing the box back to her, and she swipes another flakey pastry with an indignant huff.

“Why do you keep making me speak Spanish? It’s not like I’m actually getting better.” 

“You are getting better! You also asked me to teach you, and we’re going to need it for our trip.” 

“Whose stupid idea was it to go on a road trip through Mexico during summer in the first place?” 

The eye-brow raise is evident even in his tone, “Yours?” They’ve had this conversation multiple times over the past month.

“Man, I hate past-me so much,” she sulks, chomping at her empanada with renewed vigor. 

“It’ll be fun! Maybe. I mean, you don’t even like cilantro. How are you going to eat anything down there?”

“I’ll pick it out,” she says nonchalantly.

He smirks at that. “Good luck with that,” he scoffs. 

“I’ll have you know–”

“Hey! Sorry to break this up, but if you keep that up, you’re going to be late for your soccer game, Gabri,” interjects Lyla. 

They both stop to slowly look up at the clock on the wall and immediately scramble off their stools in a panic.

“Lyla! Why didn’t you alert me sooner?” Her dad rushes to grab his keys.

“I tried, but your comms cut out for some–”

“No time for that, Lyla!” Gabriella interrupts, adjusting her lucky hairband to make sure it stays on straight. “Hey Dad, do you think we can still make it by car? I mean, wouldn’t it be faster to go the other way–”

“Gabri, I’m not going to just glide all the way down to the soccer field.” 

“But Daaad! It’s going to take too long if we take the car, so let’s just do the whole Spider-Thingy you’ve been working on. I can’t wait to see everyone’s faces!” 

“No, Gabri, and that’s final.” 

“Ughhhghgh… Hobie would let me do it.”

“I’m not Hobie, I’m your dad.” 

“Yeah, yeah.”

They make it with five minutes to spare. 

Gabriella is winded when she makes it onto the field just as her coach finishes assigning everyone positions. She spots Maddison sitting on the bench, totally unaware, and sneaks up on her slowly. 

“Boo.”

The shriek is well worth the stares she gets from everyone else. Maddison shoots her a dirty look before happily smiling back, “Hey! I’m glad you could make the game today! Can you believe it? It’s the last game of the season, I’m just so excited!” 

“Yeah! I’m actually gonna go on vacation with my dad down to Mexico after this is done, so I’m looking forward to that a bunch, too.”  

“Oh really? Where in Mexico are you guys planning to go?” 

“I’m letting my dad take care of that, he knows the place a lot better than I do.” 

“Sounds fun! Oh! Before you go I need to tell you something, so umm…would that be okay?” 

“Sure? What did you want to talk about?” Gabriella says, tilting her head in confusion. 

Maddison’s face freezes up before flaring red. She hides her face with her hands as though she had just realized what she said. It’s…kind of cute, with the way she’s trying and failing to mumble out her words. 

They’re interrupted when the whistle blows, causing them both to jump to attention. Maddison, grateful for the interruption, waves goodbye and runs onto the field. Leaving Gabriella alone at the bench. It only makes sense after all, the coach wouldn’t want to deal with another “O’Hara incident” so soon, especially on the last game of the season. It’s fine, and for once she actually means it. Her dad waves at her from across the field, and she waves back just as the match starts. 

She feels like she’s going to die of boredom or heatstroke, whichever kills her first. She’s sure she would be more excited if anyone on either team had actually scored a goal in the last thirty minutes. So far, it’s just been a back and forth between the two teams. Maybe she could get some shut-eye under the bench if she’s sneaky enou–

There’s a loud yelp of pain from across the field and whistles are suddenly being blown left and right. She squints under the harsh sunlight at the sight of Maddison walking the other striker, Jennifer, back over to the bench. The referee calls for a time out and the whole team is crowding over them.

“What happened?” asks the coach.

Jennifer winces, “I think I twisted my ankle, but it like really hurts, coach.”

“Shoot. Well, who am I supposed to replace you as the next strike–”

“Gabi can do it!” Maddison exclaims.

The entire team whips their heads around to look in Gabriella’s general direction, and she looks around to see if there’s any other Gabi on the team that she missed. There are none to be found and she points at herself in half-disbelief, “Me? Are you talking about me?” 

“Duh! You’re, like, the best player on the team!” laughs Maddison.

Gabriella tries not to make the hope gradually rising in her obvious. “I don’t know. What about your mom?” 

“Don’t worry about her! Just focus on the game, I know you can do it!” Maddison says, marching in front of her to take her hands. “You’re the coolest girl I know, and I know you can win us this game!” 

She can scarcely believe her ears, “You think I’m cool?” 

“The coolest girl in the world,” Maddy says with a fond look. “So, what do you say Gabi?”

“I- I’ll do it! I’m going to knock their socks off! Watch me!” 

“Shock yeah!” Maddy cheers before looking worried, “Don’t tell my mom I said that.” 

The coach shakes his head, redirecting everyone into their final positions. The two girls are standing side by side as they both wait in anticipation for the whistle. Gabriella gives Maddy a thumbs up and a wink and she just rolls her eyes and stifles a giggle quietly. 

The whistle goes off and they’re racing straight for the ball. 

Maddy gets to it first.

“Over here! I’m open!” She receives the pass from Maddy.

“Gabi, on your left!” Maddy’s further ahead now.

Gabriella manages to sidestep the other team’s striker with ease before passing to Maddy. Maddy dribbles the ball past the mid-fielders with relative ease, and looks Gabriella straight in the eyes and they nod to each other, completely in sync as Maddy kicks it over their heads and right into Gabriella’s path. There’s no more hesitation after that, the goal is almost completely defenseless since the other team had been too preoccupied with Maddison’s distraction. 

“GO GABI GO! YOU GOT THIS!” 

Nothing else matters, not her team, not any of her insecurities. All she can hear is the shouts and cheers from the field and stands, and she’s right in front of the goal before she knows it. She’s only got one chance to make it in. She winds up her kick and strikes it perfectly in the middle; it soars right past the goalie’s surprised face as it hits the net and—

The whole world explodes into a million colors.  

She hits the ground. 

The air is filled with screams of pain and cries for help. 

But she can’t concentrate on any of that, she feels like she’s being crushed and flattened, like something is trying to tear her into a thousand pieces. Her whole world is shaking and changing, and she can taste blood in her mouth. She wants to throw up, but no matter what she does she can’t find any relief as she writhes on the field of shifting colors and sharp edges that seem to cut into her and shred her up from the inside. It makes her want to rip off her skin just to get away from the awful horrible sensation she feels under it. It’s almost a relief when a red tint forms over her vision since it lets her focus on one color and not the millions upon millions of them trying to force themselves into her eyes. She tries to reach upwards for…for…what could she possibly find in this hell that would save her at a time like this?

“Gabri! Gabri, just stay with me, I’m going to get help, just hold on!” 

She distantly hears a voice calling for her. Suddenly she feels someone holding her in their arms. This isn’t right. This is all wrong. It’s wrong, it’s wrong, it feels so wrong, and she’s overcome with the urge to claw her way out of her dad’s embrace. She flails her arms and strikes at him blindly in pain. His hands try to pin them to her arms to her side, and she howls and screeches in wordless pain, every point of contact stabbing into her like knives. She can’t stop kicking at him with her legs in reckless abandonment. 

“Peter! Jess! Lyla, I need backup! Someone…! Please, please help us!”

She screams and shrieks until she feels something tighten on her left wrist and everything mercifully and abruptly stops, turning her whole world black as she drifts into unconsciousness.

She wakes up in the backseat of a car. 

She tries to get up, but her body refuses to listen to her as she limply raises her hand to her face, pulling away to find it covered in red. It’s strange, but even though she can’t really see or feel anything out of the left side of her face, her left eye is showing her  somebody spray-painting something on a wall? Maybe. It’s a smattering of pinks and purples with a dark silhouette in the middle. Her head hurts too much to really question it. She finally notices the voices outside, discussing something in increasingly panicked voices. 

“I don’t understand what happened! Nothing of this scale has ever happened before!” 

“Well, we have to do something! This whole place is coming down around us as we speak, and the more time we waste, the more people are going to die!” 

“Can’t we just evacuate as many people as we can? Just put them in a different universe until we can fix this?”

“That’s a negative, Jess, can you imagine the catastrophic damage we would be doing to that universe? Millions upon millions of different people in a completely new universe? It could lead to a chain reaction of everything falling apart! Not to mention we don’t have nearly enough day passes to keep everyone from glitching out.” 

Gabriella manages to shift enough to look down at her left wrist and, sure enough, it’s the day pass her dad has been working on for the past month. Oh. It’s a little terrifying to have her life depend on a piece of plastic and machinery.

“What I don’t understand is why this is happening now of all times! I’ve been here for two months and nothing of this scale has ever happened!” That’s her dad’s voice, raised in hysterics. 

“Yeah, Lyla, we’ve been to tons of universes already, what happened to this one? Why is this one different?” 

“There’s no way that we could have missed anything this big building up the whole time, right?” 

The pause is unbearable. 

Lyla’s voice floats through, “Well, actually, there might be a really good explanation for why this is all happening.” Another pause. “So, this world’s Miguel died, right? And there’s a high probability that he was supposed to be this universe’s Spider-Man. Which means his death was just the first catalyst to all this happening. The other is, of course, Gabriella.” 

Lyla sucks in a needless breath before continuing. 

“So. If this universe’s Miguel O’Hara had lived to become Spider-Man, there’s a very very high chance that Gabri…was…was supposed to die for his canon-event.”

The stunned silence at that is torture.

“No. No, you’re wrong! That—that can’t possibly be true!” 

“I KNOW!” Lyla bursts out, before recomposing herself, “I know, but all of my calculations and algorithms have pointed to this being the only logical conclusion.” 

“Your calculations are wrong! My daughter— my daughter has nothing to do with…with that!”

“But it makes sense right? This world’s Miguel O’Hara dies, you come in to take his place, and you remain in close contact with the girl who was supposed to die. It’s like two black holes interacting with each other, with the levels of destruction you two were going to cause. You two should never have met with each other in the first place, let alone your continued interactions with each other.” 

“She’s just a little girl. The continued existence of the universe shouldn’t be on her shoulders!”  

“They’re not! They’re on yours!” Lyla shouts at him. 

“Wha–what are you talking about?” Her dad’s voice is suddenly very small.

“Miguel, there’s still time to save everybody.” 

“Peter, quiet! No. Nononono, tell me there's another way, Lyla.” 

“There’s not, I looked. If there was another way, we would have had to have started months ago.” 

“ Please . She’s my daughter.” 

“She’s not your daughter anymore, she’s an anomaly now. She has to be neutralized in order to save everyone.”

“I can’t .”  

“You have to.” 

“Please Lyla, I’ll just take her away from here, I can figure something out, I can–”

“Miguel, if you take her through a portal now, she’ll be ripped to shreds. She’ll cease to exist in the most painful way possible.” 

Gabriella squeezes her eyes shut as tightly as she can. It hurts so much already. She can’t imagine anything worse. 

“I can do both, I can save her and I can save everyone,” her dad whispers in a broken voice.

“...Not this time, Miguel. I’m sorry, really, I am.”

It’s silent for far too long. She wants to know more. She doesn’t want to hear any more. It’s all too much.

“Is there really no other way?” he sounds choked up.

“...I’ll keep looking, but yes, this is the best solution I could find,” says LYLA in a tone that belies an ocean of sympathy. 

“Okay, just give me a little time, please.” A shifting sound. “I need you two to go save as many people as you can.” 

“On it,” Mrs. Drew and Mr. Parker’s voices say before they’re gone. Off to save the day once again.

“Miguel…” Lyla says softly.

“Please, just leave me alone, I want some privacy.”

“Okay, whatever you need,” she says before falling silent, presumably blinking out. 

Gabriella hears a thump against the door, like he’s leaning against the door for support. She can hear him taking multiple deep breaths before she feels the door open behind her. She can only tilt her head to look back up at him, his red eyes filled with tears as he gently helps her out of the car and onto the ground.

They’re parked in an alleyway that looks safe for now, but she can spot the wisps of fractal colors starting to come off the edges of everything. It won’t be safe for long, but for now he helps her sit down against the wall next to him. Her head feels really heavy, so she leans against his shoulder for support as they sit together in silence. He’s the first one to break it.

“I’m sorry about our vacation. I don’t think we’ll be able to go anymore.”

She wants to laugh at his priorities, but all that comes out is a watery cough. She manages to rasp out, “It’s okay, I don’t feel super good anyways. We can always try again later.” 

She’s having a hard time breathing. There’s something blocking her lungs. She coughs a few times to try and dislodge it, and all that comes out is a bloody glob of mucus. Gross. 

“I’m going to stay here with you.” her dad says evenly, too carefully measured. Resigned, even. 

“Why? Don’t you have a super important job to do?” she hoarsely asks, trying to distract herself from the sound of blood dripping from her face. Plip plup plop. They make red splash marks all over the concrete, kind of like flowers.

“I promised to stay by your side, didn’t I? I'm not going to leave you here alone, ever.” 

“What about Mr. Parker and Mrs. Drew?”

“They’ll be fine without me. Lyla will be with them too, to help keep them on track…when I’m gone.” 

“...Aren’t you scared?” 

“No. I’m not scared of anything anymore.” 

“Oh. That’s good. That’s good to hear.” 

“Yeah. Don’t worry about me, everything’s going to be fine.” 

They sit in silence once more. Her blood is drying and crusting over, not even allowing this small comfort anymore. She’s the first one to break the silence this time, sliding down a little to lay her head down on his lap. 

“My head’s too heavy, I can’t hold it up anymore.” 

“That’s okay, do whatever you need to do to get comfortable.”

“Dad, can you do something for me?”

“Anything, Gabri,” he says, softly stroking her hair. It feels so gentle and nice. She doesn’t want it to end.

“Kill me.”

He freezes in place, breath stuck in his throat. “Why?”

“I want to lie down and die in your lap, Dad.”

“Why?” he chokes out.

“You’re my Dad, so you're responsible for me until the very end.”

“Why would you ask me to do that?” he whispers in despair.

“Because…I don’t want to be ripped to shreds by the universe.” She takes a shaking breath to calm herself down, even though it hurts to do it. “But I won’t mind if you do it. If you do it, it’s okay. I know that you’ll do it in the nicest way possible. Because…because I know that you're the nicest Dad in the whole world, and that you love me too much to ever hurt me. So please, Dad. Please kill me.”

He’s silent when lifts his hand, placing it over her neck. She knows just how sharp his claws are, and she squeezes her eyes shut in anticipation. She hopes that she doesn’t dirty his hands too badly, blood takes forever to clean out of clothes, and she’d hate to cause him even that much trouble in the end. His hand wavers and she can feel the delicate prick of his claws on her neck. She tries to hold as still as possible. It’s going to be over soon. 

Her eyes are still shut when he starts talking. 

“I was once a geneticist, a very long time ago. I was only thinking of myself at that time, when I could have saved thousands of people’s lives.” He pauses for a shuddering breath. “And then I became Spider-Man. And then I had the power to save people, and I saved so many worlds and universes. I helped so many people, more than I could ever imagine. I trained myself to be the ultimate protector of the multiverse, I honed my powers to their upper limits so I could save everyone. And after all that effort…I–”

She can feel his tears fall onto her face, making her crack her eyes open to look up at him in wonder and confusion. He looks like he’s in so much pain, gritting his teeth, eyebrows pushed together, and eyes filled with tears again. That’s silly. She wants to wipe them away. He shouldn’t be crying this much over her, she thinks distantly. Silly Dad.

“–I can’t even save my own daughter!” he wails, bringing his hands away from her neck and covering his face in complete remorse. The only sounds in the alleyways are his muffled sobs and the creaks and groans of the world falling apart around them.

It’s been a while now, and her dad’s sobs have died down. She manages to muster enough energy to push herself back up into a sitting position, gritting her teeth and swallowing the pain to slowly wrap her arms around him as he shakes in sorrow. They stay like this for a little longer, because it’s as though time has stopped and for this moment, it’s just the two of them in this quiet alleyway. It’s as if the universe isn’t shattering and ending. It’s almost like there’s still hope to find a different way. 

She tries to find the words to comfort him, “I wish that this universe had a Spider-Man, then maybe he could help save the day.” 

“Wait. What?” his voice scratches out. He looks over his hands and inspects her under a new light.

“I s-said, I wish there was a Spider-Man–”

“Who said it has to be a Spider-Man?” 

“I heard you guys talking about it outside the car, about how m-my dad was supposed to be…?”

“What if…what if he wasn’t supposed to be Spider-Man?”

Her head hurts. “What?” 

“What if he was supposed to die, and you were supposed to become–”

Her throat hurts. That sucks because she really wants to laugh a little right now. “Heh-he-he… Spider-Man, me?”

“Spider-Girl, whatever.” There’s a bit of light starting to creep back into his eyes. His voice carries more strength now. “What I’m trying to say is, if we give you spider powers, then maybe, there’s a chance that–”

Ohh. “The universe will go back to normal? We can save everyone?” She smiles a little at the thought. At least she thinks she’s smiling.

“Yes! It’s a long shot, but there’s a chance!” 

He taps his watch and Lyla’s form flickers to life. “What’s the situation Miguel?”

“Lyla, what if we were wrong? What if Gabri is supposed to be the Spider-Person of this universe?” 

She pauses and disappears for three seconds before reappearing, “That…That could work, but do we have the time to get her to Alchemax?”

“I’ll make it work. What are my chances?” he asks with increasing urgency. 

“The universe is going to collapse completely in thirty minutes, maybe less, and I’m not sure how long that day pass is going to keep her stable.” 

“That’ll be enough. Lyla, set a timer for me. Get everyone out if it fails.” 

“You got it boss, see you on the flip side,” she salutes. She appears in front of Gabriella, glow dimmed but still piercing into her eyes. Lyla gives her a solemn, sympathetic look. “Gabriella, it’s going to be okay,” she whispers before blinking out.

Her dad helps her into the car, and before she knows it he’s driving as fast as he can down the road to Alchemax. She feels him squeezing her hand as she falls in and out of consciousness. His voice drifts in through the haze, “Don’t worry Gabri, I’ll be your mentor on how to be Spider-Man. You won’t have to do this alone, I’ll teach you all the stuff you need to know and show you the ropes, so you’ll be ready. You can even ask Jess and Peter for help if you want. You can ask whoever you want at the Spider-Society.” 

“Mm-hmm.” 

He pauses a little in contemplation, “I’m not going to lie, it’s going to be a huge sacrifice. You’ll barely have enough time for school, let alone making friends or even falling in love. You’ll have to give up being a normal girl for the rest of your life. Are you positive that you’re okay with doing this?”

An image of Maddison flashes through her head, and she can’t help but feel a sense of warmth towards her. She doesn’t know why though. Then she thinks about the soccer team, about the way people look at her, about school and all of its disappointments, and she shakes her head, set on her path, “Yeah. I’ll be okay. I wasn’t ever really–” A cough forces its way out of her throat. It burns. “-really a normal girl in the first place. If I can help save people, if I can give them a chance to live and be happy, then I won’t…I won’t ever regret it.” Something flashes in front of her left eye, is that a…person? He looks nice, maybe he’s a Spider-man too? His black and red suit looks pretty cool. She hopes they can meet one day.

Her thoughts are interrupted when she feels him give her hand a squeeze. She tries to angle her head so she can look at her dad and sees him give her a quick smile. She squeezes his hand back.

Everything is going to be okay.

They can see the Alchemax building when the car starts making weird sounds and her dad manages to escape and get her out before it too starts to glitch and disperses into a million colors and shards. They’re almost there. Everyone around them is running in a blind panic. He hoists her up as gently as possible and holds onto her tightly as he runs as fast as he can. It’s right there! They’re almost there! 

Their hopes are dashed as soon as the building begins to crumble into a dazzling display of despair. It jolts and bends into different fractals but her dad still doesn’t stop running. Each step is jostling her and she has to bite down on her lip to stop from crying out in pain.

“D-Dad! Stop! We won’t make it!”

He continues resolutely forward. “There’s still time! I can still save you!” 

She looks at his watch by where her head is resting. The timer has already hit zero. There’s no time left. Maybe there wasn’t any in the first place. Why hasn’t Lyla opened a portal for him to go yet?

As if on cue Lyla’s voice crackles through, “Miguel! You have to go right now! I won’t be able to keep a stable connection for much longer! You’re the only one still left here!”

He doesn’t stop. “I can still do this, I just need to–”

“There’s no time! You have to let her go or I can’t open the portal!” 

“I don’t care! Just- Shut up!” he shouts back angrily as the world falls apart around them. 

It’s too late, nobody can be saved at this point, but at the very least, they’re still together. That promise they made to each other, it’ll be kept even as they both fall apart in the end. She won’t have to die alone. She’ll never be alone anymore. Isn’t that what she made him promise her? Isn’t that what she wanted? Somebody who would always love her even in the face of complete and total oblivion? 

But if he stays. He’ll die.

The choice is obvious.

She twists around in his grip and bites down on his arm as hard as she can.

He yelps and drops her, and when she falls to the ground she nearly blacks out, the taste of blood on her tongue doesn’t help. But she scrambles as far as she possibly can away from him. Just as Lyla said, the moment he lets go of her, a portal opens behind him, and the look of fear on his face as he realizes that it’s pulling him in is heart-wrenching for her. He digs his clawed hands and feet into the asphalt as he tries to cling onto this world.

“Gabri! What are you doing! Wait! I can still save you!” 

She tries to push herself up onto her feet and her legs nearly give out and she tilts to the side. She catches herself with a hand to the ground and hisses at the pain that explodes in her arm. She manages to get back onto her feet and trudges backward, away from him, away from her– 

“It’s going to be okay now, Dad. I’ll take care of everything, so you gotta go home now.”

“No, Gabi! Gabi!” 

“Hey… I said not to call me that anymore.”

Because if you do, I won't be able to say goodbye…

“Gabi! No!”

She gives him the biggest, toothiest smile she can. “I’ll be fine! Don’t worry about me!” 

He’s holding on for dear life, talons shredding through the asphalt, several of them torn from his fingers. At this rate he’s going to be ripped in half. That won’t do, she decides, as she turns around and takes a stumbling running start at him. She slams into him as hard as she can and the force of her shove and the portal pulling him towards it are enough to send him flying through. He looks like he’s about to scream something, but it snaps closed before any more words can be said.

She falls forward a little, her momentum sending her careening a bit. Her first and final act as a hero, she thinks to herself. It hurt a lot more than she was expecting. She’s on the verge of collapsing, but she can’t, not yet. She stares at where the portal once was, and walks over to the deep gouges her dad left in the road. 

Don’t forget me.

With that thought, she collapses onto her back. It’s getting harder to breathe now. The screams and cries seem to have died down, the only sounds left are the creaking and groaning of the buildings falling apart. She stares up at the sky. Looks like it’s night time now. It’s a bit hard to tell with only one working eye and everything being drenched in a dark pink hue. It kind of makes her think of cherry flavored medicine. But against the black and inky backdrop, she can make out a smattering of white spots, little lights, just clusters upon clusters of…stars? Those must be what her dad was talking about. They really are beautiful. She blinks a couple times and watches them vanish one by one. She raises her right hand to the sky to try and reach them, to try and save at least one, no matter how impossible it is.

It’ll only be a matter of time now.

.

.

.

.

It’s strange to be the only thing left of a nonexistent universe.

There’s nothing and there’s nothing and there’s nothing and then there’s her. 

It’s really hard to describe nothing. It’s not the black void or the empty white space she’d always imagined when she tried to think of emptiness. It’s not really anything. It’s also not really the absence of anything. It’s just…nothing.

The best way she can describe it is, well, it’s kinda like the air in between objects. That presence you don’t really notice until you’re surrounded by it.

The road she had collapsed on has long since disappeared, and she’s been floating in this nothingness for the last ten hours, maybe? The timer on the day pass hadn’t been very helpful in keeping time with the way it had skipped through its numbers erratically until it had finally stabilized a little while ago to show a grand total of maybe an hour left before she…she…dies. It’s scary, but honestly, she feels incredibly bored. 

(What’s one more lie after the end of everything?)

The day pass’s little bubble around her continuously shrinks as the minutes tick by, and she can really only tell it’s shrinking because the blood dripping from what she thinks is her nose takes less and less time to drop out of its range and fizzle out. It has not been fun, to say the least. It still hasn’t quite registered that everything is just…gone now. No more school, no more soccer games, no more home. Oh. Her home no longer exists. She’s not sure what to feel. All the excruciating pain that wracked her body had dulled to a muted ache some time ago, and she almost misses it. Everything’s just empty now, her whole being feels hollowed out.

It doesn’t really help that her ruptured left eye won't stop showing her images of some boy who becomes Spider-Man. Is that what she could have been like? She watches as a long montage of him swinging around buildings and beating up bad guys flashes in her eye. And she keeps hearing something. It sounds like a song, maybe? It’s a mellow sound with soft voices that go along to the nice and calm beat If only she knew what they were singing about. Something about sunflowers? Shock if she knows what those are. Sounds nice, though. As weird as it is, it’s comforting to know that someone got to enjoy being Spider-Man longer than she’ll ever have.

At least nothing can get to her now. She really is the specialist girl in the entire universe. She snidely thinks that it’s really not that hard when you’re the only girl left in the universe. It’s a little funny. It kind of reminds her of a short horror story that Maddy told her one time. 

The last man on Earth sat alone in a room. 

There was a knock at the door…

Well, she’s not really a man and she’s not really on Earth anymore. Not to mention that the concept of rooms doesn’t really exist anymore. 

Whatever.

Alright, let’s do this one last time.

For real this time. 

The last girl in the universe floated alone in a bubble.

There was a–

“Knock-knock.”

She freezes in terror. The voice sounds- feels- like it came from everywhere all at once. She hears it ringing from the inside of her head and it whispers from all the edges of the nothing that encompasses her bubble.

There’s something here. In all this nothingness, there’s suddenly something. And it’s behind her. 

It feels awful, cold, and like a culmination of the void she’s stuck waiting to die in. She tries to hold her breath, hoping that it’ll get bored and leave her alone. 

It doesn’t. “Are you alone?”

Don’t talk to it, do not even acknowledge it. Stranger Danger and all that. But the danger pumped to a million.

The voice snickers. “What am I talking about? Of course you’re alone. Everything is gone now, except for you .” A hum. “Hmmm? How did a little girl like you manage to escape Universal Oblivion?” 

She manages to force something out, “I can’t talk to you, Dad said not to talk to strangers.”

The being behind her goes quiet before laughing. It bounces around in her head and echoes impossibly loudly. “ ‘Dad’? What dad? If you had a dad he’s long gone now. Come on. Won’t you tell me what happened?” 

“No.”

Her bubble is batted to the side and she almost throws up from the sudden shift in position. The being is in front of her now, a pure and swirling black miasma standing there studying her as if looking at a particularly fascinating piece of prey. 

“Look at me when I’m talking to you.” 

She shuts her eyes in defiance. 

The entity sighs, “This is why I hate children, just so impolite all the time.” She hears a couple tuts. “By the way, do you know what day it is today? Oh, wait. Can you even have a day if there isn’t anything to prove the passage of time anymore?” 

“Just leave me alone, my dad’s coming to pick me up any moment now,” she says, reusing the script she’d use when an adult would approach her on the soccer field when she was the last one there.

“There is no one coming to save you.”

“You don’t know that.” 

“I get it, you know. I really do. You lose everything, so you cling to your delusions. I can’t blame you. I did that once too, but I got stronger and now everyone will have to treat me seriously and look at me like the threat I actually am. That’s pretty cool, right?”

Great, she really wasn’t expecting her last hour of existence to be spent like this, but this guy doesn’t seem to be leaving or shutting up anytime soon. She opens her eyes to give the space in front of her a glare. “So, why are you here then?”

“Aha! She speaks! Well, I used to be a scientist in my past life. Yes, I was brilliant and I was well-respected until Spider-Man ruined everything! That’s why I’m going to take everything from him! He’ll have to respect me then!”

“Oh. Cool. Can you. Like. Go away. Now?”

“Nope! As a scientist, or maybe I was something else? Doesn’t matter, I’ve only seen cellular dimensional decay on small things, like a spider, but a specimen of your size and complexity? This is a once in a lifetime chance and I for one can’t wait to watch.” 

“Why?”

“Because I’m going to make Spider-Man suffer, and I have to know if this is a good way to hurt his loved ones, obviously. So just hurry up and die already, maybe put some tears in there, I don’t have all day.” 

Oh. So this guy’s a jerk. With way too much power. Well now she refuses to die while being watched by this creep. She’s got some time to spare.

“Sorry, I’m going to live forever.”

“No you’re not. You’re bleeding a lot, mostly from your left eye. That looks like it hurts real bad, by the way. Maybe I should do that to him when we meet again–”

“Go shock yourself.” 

“Oooh is that some kind of universe slang? It’s so ‘censor-y’ but I can see it being used in real life interactions–” 

Her patience snaps. “God, are you supposed to be this annoyingly pathetic ?”

Everything freezes. All the nothing outside somehow stills. The temperature drops until she has to resist the urge to shiver.

“Pathetic? Me?” the void hisses. “Take a good look at yourself, child. Huddled in here like you even have a chance?”

She thinks she should probably be terrified, but she really doesn’t care anymore. “At least I’m not a weirdo who gets off to beating up kids.”

“Spider-Man is not a CHILD!” the being roars.

“Why not? I’m supposed to be Spider-Girl and I’m twelve.” 

“You dare mock me? I could crush with just the tip of my pinkie! You have no idea what I could do to you! I could spread your molecules so thin that it would take a millenia just to look for you!”

“Mhm, yeah. Real scary. Threatening a little girl, and probably some teenagers too. You’re just…the embodiment of an all-powerful loser, aren’t you?” 

The void snarls at her, “How could you possibly know any of that? I don’t even know what you’re talking about.”

She smirks and points to her head, “Wouldn’t you like to know, idiot?”

“ YOU THINK YOU CAN JUST LOOK DOWN ON ME LIKE THIS?”

“I’m doing it right now, so yeah.” Her brain feels like it’s rattling in her skull. 

“THERE IS NO SALVATION LEFT FOR YOU.”

“Then do it. Break this bubble. Kill me.”

The abyss falls silent at that, and she gets a stab of sick satisfaction from the quiet.

It gives her the audacity to taunt the being, “You can't, can you? All that power and you can’t even touch me.”

“You’re still going to die. What does it even matter?” 

“I get to laugh at the only other being here who could possibly be even more pathetic than I am,” she says through the fits of giggles that spill out of her.

“Stop LAUGHING AT ME!” 

She laughs even harder, even as she coughs up more blood. Her chest feels like it’s on fire again.

She would never give it the satisfaction of her dying afraid, but she’ll laugh herself to an early grave if it’ll tick this guy off. She’ll laugh in the face of death for the last word.

“You know–you know what’s even more pathetic?” she gasps, dragging a hand across her mouth to wipe away the blood she had just coughed up, “I can’t believe I was actually scared of you at first, because you’re nothing more than a sad pathetic little man trying to play at God.” 

The air shudders around her. “I’m–I’m The Personification of UNIVERSAL OBLIVION. I CAN ANNIHILATE WORLDS WITH A MERE THOUGHT.” 

“Woah, really? I ended an entire universe all by myself without even trying. Skill issue.” Hobie would be proud of her, she thinks, and another tirade of giggles escapes her.

“Just DIE ALREADY.”

“No.”

“You–”

She doesn’t let him finish, “My Dad’s way stronger than you, and he’s going to stop you.” 

“Will you shut up about your dad!”

“Soon enough he’s going to show up and he’s going to kick your ass.” 

“I’d like to see him try!”

“He made this little space for me, and you can’t even crack it. Imagine what he could do with even more time.”

“I’m not even going to go after him! Spider-Man’s my–”

“He’s a hero of justice, he’s going to be coming after you , and he’s going to team up with your Spider-Man to beat you up. So you better be ready. Because you know what happens when bad guys meet heroes? They lose. Every single time.”

“Who do you think you are? You think you can talk to me like this, like you know anything? I will destroy all of them!”

She takes a deep breath, “I’m Spider-Girl and also the one and only daughter of Miguel O’Hara, the man who jumped through universes to find me and the man who’s going to take you down! And my name? My name is too good for your disgusting hole of a face.” 

The loud noises of indignation are music to her ears as hands snake from the encompassing nothingness and violently try to break through the edge of her space. They slam against the unseen borders harmlessly, and once again, she silently thanks her Dad for always protecting her. He’s always been her hero and now she knows for certain that he won’t let this creep get away with his dumb “Universal Oblivion”.

Once that doesn’t seem to work, the assault stops and the void stills again. “You know, I was thinking about saving you if you weren’t such a brat. But too bad, I’m going to enjoy watching you die, and that’s a promise.”

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”

“What are you– Just shut up. SHUT UP! AND DIE ALREADY–”

“Because my Dad? He was working on this neat little goober for a month, and it’s stood up to everything you could throw at it. I guess you’re not as strong as you’d like to think.” 

The figure stands stock still like there’s some genuine contemplation of the truth of her words. A shrug, “It’s not like I’m going to give him the time. Nobody can stop me.”

“I’m doing it right now, aren’t I?” 

“Huh?”

“Because time doesn’t really work in a linear fashion when you dimension hop, right? Like you said before, you don’t even know what day it is today here! That means there’s some discrepancies in every universe, including time. Like, for example, if you wasted twenty minutes trying to beef with a dying girl, how much time did you actually waste in other dimensions? I have you exactly where I want you, and the more time you waste on me, the more time my Dad has to figure out a way to stop you,” she says with confidence that she doesn’t really feel, but shock if she’ll let that show.

She takes a deep breath, “So let me give you some advice. I promise you, my Dad is going to be here soon to stop you in your tracks and save everybody. So you might as well give up now!”

The figure in front of her frays and twitches, head splitting in two and vibrating in anger at her words. Tendrils of nothing lash out, holes after holes appearing everywhere with hands reaching and grasping at her to rip her apart. She remains stone-faced watching this entity throw a tantrum, even as she’s being thrown around like a cat toy. 

The onslaught stops and there’s a considering hum before focus is returned to her, and the nothingness pushes ever closer, the vague outline of a humanoid form appearing against the boundaries of her bubble. The pressure in her lungs grows exponentially heavier.

“Fine. Die alone in there. See if I care. Or actually, you’re not just going to die. Your existence will quite literally be erased, and no one will remember you even ever were! You’re going to die alone and in agony, and no one will care! No one will even know to care. Haha. How does that sound? Your dad, your precious hero won’t even remember you in the end! Are you going to cry now? You little crybaby?”

She looks up and gazes unflinchingly into the abyss. “I’m not the one who’s throwing a tantrum.”

A force punches the bubble one last time before blinking out of existence. It doesn’t even budge this time. The overwhelming presence of emptiness quickly returns.

She blows a raspberry at the space previously occupied.

Hey, Dad. I beat another adult today.

Once again she’s alone.

With thirty minutes left to spare.

…Oh God, she’s really going to die isn’t she?

> {5:00 remaining.}

She should say something, or think something, anything. It’ll be the last time she does either of those things.

Something meaningful and beautiful…

Oh, who is she shocking fooling?

Just…do whatever comes to mind first.

…Hey, Dad. 

I did something really bad.

I really hurt someone.

I don’t know why I did it.

I got into a lot of trouble, but I wasn’t scared at all.

Because I knew that you were going to come and save me.

You’ll be here, definitely…

Dad will be here soon to save me.

> {4:00 remaining.}

It’s getting harder to breathe now. There’s not enough air left in this space.

The images and songs from before are gone now, and she’s not sure what to think about that. 

She wants her dad. 

He’s not coming but she wants to say goodbye for real.

Because she’s dying.

She’s dying very soon.

> {3:00 remaining.}

She wants to see everyone again.

She wants to see Mr. Parker and Mrs. Drew again.

She wants to pull silly pranks on Ben with Hobie and MayDay again.

She wants to see the stars with her Dad.

She wants to thank him for everything. 

Just one more time…

> {2:00 remaining.}

What’s my favorite food?

Scrambled eggs with hot sauce.

What’s my favorite thing to do?

Drawing pictures with you!

What’s my favorite place?

Home! As long as you’re around. 

Okay, one more question:

Who do I love more than anyone in the universe?

> {1:00 remaining.}

Dad… I…

I’m scared… I don’t want to die.

I want to laugh with you again. 

We were supposed to talk about tomorrow with each other, remember?

It kind of makes me happy, the thought that I don’t want to die.

That there’s so many things I still want to do. 

But it’s too late now and all I can do is wait for The End.

> {0:40 remaining.}

There are cracks starting to form on the bubble.

I’m so happy that I got to meet you.

I always hated myself, but when I was with you, I felt sort of…proud.

Proud that I was me.

That my existence meant the world to you. 

And that was enough, to me. 

I don’t have any more regrets. 

Well. Maybe one.

> {0:20 remaining.}

Cracks are covering the whole bubble now. It’s almost time.

I regret that I made you break your promise to me.

That you might think I don’t love you anymore.

So God, if you’re up there. 

Can you make sure you keep Dad safe? 

That he’ll have lots and lots of friends.

And that he’ll be the best hero in the whole multiverse?

> {0:10 remaining.}

I hope my Dad will be happy to see me. 

It’s been a while.

I hope he hasn’t forgotten what I look like yet.

I hope…that he still wants to see me.

I really must be the luckiest girl in the world.

If this many versions of my dad love me this much. 

> (5.....)

Dad. 

> (4....)

Thank you.

> (3...)

For loving me. 

> (2..)

I love you too.

> (1.)

Goodbye.

She’s finally out of time.

She closes her eyes, still dry, just like she promised.

And she disappears into a million colors.