Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

1 - Toucan Sam

“Hey, Morgan, it’s okay. I’m Spider-man. I- I knew your dad.”

(That’s how it started.)

Sniffling, Morgan reluctantly picked her head up. She’d been shoved in a closet for ages, stuck listening to the mean people outside talking about her, about her mom, about what they were going to do if the police tried to come inside-

Until the talking turned into yelling, and crashing, and finally, silence.

And then the door opened.

She stared at big white eyes. At an outstretched hand (gloved, red, with black stitching like spider webs). At the bodies on the floor outside the closet, like the mean people decided to lay down and take naps instead of- of-

(If I see one pig stick so much as a toe past that door, we shoot the girl)

Morgan managed to keep the tears inside for a long time. But with Spider-man crouching in front of her and the bad guys asleep, she couldn’t help the sob that burst out.

“Shhh, sh sh sh! I’ve got you, it’s okay now, I promise. Can I pick you up? Please?” She nodded. Arms immediately scooped her up, and Morgan grabbed onto Spider-man’s shoulders, holding tight as he carried her out of the closet and up a wall. “Okay- I’ve got you. It’s gonna be okay, Morgan.”

Muffled sirens suddenly became a lot easier to hear, along with a whole bunch of voices, and it made her whimper. Maybe Spider-man heard, maybe he didn’t, but either way they kept going up. Away from the sounds, and away from the bright lights, until they’d both faded enough for Morgan to feel willing to open her eyes again.

And she gasped.

The mean people hadn’t taken her higher than a second floor, after their car crashed and they ran into the closest building. But Spider-man went way higher, almost all the way up to the roof, only stopping when he found a wide ledge where he could sit with Morgan on his lap, tucked in-between his chest and folded legs. “Is this okay?” He asked, cupping one hand against the back of her head. “I’m sorry I didn’t check, but- I kinda figured we could wait somewhere away from the cops until Happy or your mom gets here.”

That sounded good. Morgan nodded against his shoulder, and Spider-man hummed, rubbing her back with his other hand.

They stayed put for a long time, as the crowd way down on the ground got louder and quieter in turns. Sometimes an electronic voice yelled something over the rest, but it was still too far away for Morgan to really understand the words. Spider-man tensed up each time, though, hugging her a little tighter. So she hugged back, and kept her eyes closed.

Until, finally, someone flew up to join them.

It wasn’t her mom - Morgan knew that without even looking. The hum was different. She always knew the sound her mom and Uncle Rhodey’s suits made, and this wasn’t it. Still, she turned her head enough to peek when Spider-man’s whole body went stiff around her. “Uh. Hi, Mister Captain Falcon?”

“Hi yourself,” the man hovering in front of their ledge said. He didn’t sound angry, but he wasn’t smiling either. Morgan thought she knew him. From somewhere. A friend of her mom’s, maybe. “Planning on sitting up here all night?”

“Just until I see Rescue or Happy Hogan. I’m not handing Morgan over to anyone else.”

“Not even me?” Oh, now he sounded a little angry.

Spider-man, though, his voice didn’t change at all. “I mean. If this was any other rescued hostage? Sure. But not her.”

The hovering man didn’t say anything for a minute. Then, he sighed. “You want to at least climb down where it’s a little warmer?”

“Not really. I don’t know if the kidnappers have any more friends hanging around.” Morgan’s stomach twisted, and she hugged Spider-man’s neck tighter. He just made a shushing sound, and rubbed his hand up and down her back. “Wouldn’t say no to one of those shock blankets EMTs usually pass out, if you don’t mind.”

“I look like an errand runner to you, Webs?”

“No sir, Captain American Falcon, sir. What do you think he looks like, Morgan?”

She frowned, and studied the hovering man a little closer. “...not a falcon. Not an eagle, either.”

Spider-man nodded. “Good point! Maybe he should be Captain Parakeet?”

“No,” she said, starting to smile a little.

“How about Parrot?”

“Maybe.”

“Oh, wait, I know- he’s a toucan!”

Giggling, at both Spider-man’s words and funny look on the hovering man’s face, Morgan agreed. “Yeah, Captain Toucan.”

“The judge has spoken,” Spider-man announced. “So, Captain Toucan, would you pretty please get us a nice big shock blanket from one of the ambulances down there?”

“With a donut on top,” Morgan added.

Captain Toucan took a really deep breath, and let it out slowly, like her mom did after a ‘tough business call’. “...y’know what. Sure.” And with that, the hum coming from his jetpack changed, and he dropped out of sight.

Spider-man poked her shoulder with one finger. “Just so you know, he’s the new Captain America, and his old superhero name was the Falcon, but I think Captain Toucan is much better than both of those combined.”

Morgan’s grin got a little wider.

2 - Snoring Beauty

Four days after The Incident, when Spider-man saved her from the bad guys and held her for over an hour until Morgan’s mom got there, she woke up from another nightmare.

They wouldn’t stop.

Even when she’d go to sleep in her mom’s room, Morgan would wake up with a shriek - grab her come on our window's closing hit the gas - and she didn’t want to be a baby but she kept crying every time, even when Mommy held her and rocked her and said it was okay, she would be okay.

She wasn’t in her mom’s bed this time, or even her own - Uncle Happy had come over and put on a movie for her in the den, and Morgan didn’t mean to fall asleep on the sofa but she did. Happy fell asleep too, in the chair that could lean back so it was like a bed. He didn’t wake up, either, so Morgan must have been quieter than usual when the nightmare scared her.

“Are you alright, Morgan?”

But FRIDAY was always awake.

“No,” she whispered.

“Would you like me to wake Happy? Or call your mother?”

“No,” Morgan repeated. “I’m going to my room.”

FRIDAY didn’t say anything else as she got up, and scooted around Happy’s chair, and grabbed onto the bars of the staircase railing with every step. But when Morgan got into the bedroom and pushed the door shut with both hands- “Can I do anything for you, Morgan?”

She bit her lip. And looked at her palm.

The ink was almost completely faded after four days, but she could still see the faint numbers written across her skin. Morgan held her hand out, where FRIDAY’s cameras could see it better. “Can you- can you call Spider-man? Please?”

“I know you’re really brave,” he’d whispered, using a pen to carefully write the phone number and holding Morgan’s hand still even when it tickled. “But it’s okay to get scared, and if you ever feel afraid or alone and there’s no one else there, you can call me, okay? And I’ll talk to you, or I’ll come help - I promise.”

FRIDAY made the call. She also made a floating blue square, with the squiggle line that meant sound, going up and down a bunch with each ringing buzz. Morgan watched it, biting her lip again, as the call went bzzzt, bzzzt, bzzzt-

Click

“H’lo?”

“Spider-man?”

Something went rattle-thump on the other side of the call, and then the voice got a lot less sleepy. “Y- Yes! Morgan?”

“Hi,” she said.

“Hi, hey- are you okay? What’s wrong?”

She sniffled, and stepped closer to the blue square. “I’m- they- it won’t stop.”

“What won’t?”

“The scary dreams.”

“Oh.” A bunch of noises on the other end stopped, and Spider-man let out a deep breath. “Okay. Dreams. You’re at the- are you at home?”

“Yeah.”

“And I guess your mom isn’t there, huh?”

“Uh-uh. Uncle Happy’s downstairs, but we both fell asleep with the movie, and I woke up but he didn’t.”

Another deep breath. “Yeah, he’s a pretty sound sleeper when he’s tired. I uh- I know someone who stayed with him, once, and got up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night, and tripped over his vacuum robot on the way back. Made this huge racket, falling down, but Happy just slept right through the whole thing, like he was- you know the story about Sleeping Beauty?”

“Mmhm.”

“Like that, but with a LOT of snoring.”

Morgan laughed, just a little.

Spider-man must have heard, because he kept going. “And I- this person got dared, y’know, by one of his best friends to like, draw a fake mustache on Happy’s face one night, just to see if he woke up at all. He didn’t do it, ‘cause, well, that would be pretty mean, but I absolutely bet it would have worked, and Happy wouldn’t have noticed until he went to shave in the morning.”

Her next laugh came out a little stronger.

Morgan ended up sitting down on the floor, FRIDAY lowering the blue square so it stayed in front of her face. She listened to Spider-man talk for a long time, as he said funny things about Happy, and Uncle Rhodey, and- and her parents, too. Her dad most of all.

When she woke up, lying down in that same spot on the rug, the blue square and Spider-man were gone, but Mommy was sitting next to her.

“Hey, sweetheart,” her mom whispered. “Did you have another bad dream?”

“Yeah,” Morgan said, rubbing her eyes. “But Spider-man made it better.”

3 - Silly Schtick

“We’ll still go back to the lakehouse on weekends, and for holidays,” her mom promised, putting Morgan’s toys and books and pillows into boxes, “But this way you can see your uncles more often, and I won’t have to be gone as long for work, and your school will be just down the street, okay? I know it’s a change, but- but we can make it a good change, sweetheart.”

Morgan wasn’t sure she believed her mom yet. Not when it felt like they were leaving Daddy behind.

Most of her things got packed up to come with them, but Mommy left behind almost everything else. The new house they went to was squashed between two others, with a lot more stairs, and rooms full of furniture and rugs and stuff Morgan didn’t like the minute she looked. They didn’t have a backyard - or, they sort of did, except it was on the roof and inside a bunch of glass walls, and Morgan didn’t like that either because when she looked outside there were buildings everywhere, and she wanted to go home, to the lake and the trees and- and-

She didn’t like it.

Morgan didn’t like it at all.

And Uncle Rhodey did not make things better when he tried to read her a new bedtime story, Alexander and the Terrible Horrible No-Good Very Bad Day.

“Aw, I like that book,” Spider-man said when she called him, her first night in a new bedroom full of stuff from her old one but wrong and different.

“You can have it,” Morgan mumbled, sitting up with a fluffy blanket wrapped around her. “You can have the house, too, so I can go home.”

Spider-man stayed quiet for a minute. “...I know it feels bad right now. Change is hard. And change is really hard when you're not the one who decided you wanted it. But- but things will get better, Mo. I promise.”

“When?”

“Well, probably not tomorrow. Or next week, either. But one of these days, you’ll wake up and you won’t hate your new room. And then you’ll stop hating the roof-yard. And then you won’t be angry at your mom anymore, and things will be better.”

“‘M not angry at her...”

“But you’re unhappy,” Spider-man told her. “And that’s okay. Hey- I’m pretty close to the Queensboro Bridge right now, why don’t I swing up to Manhattan? You can look out your window and wave when you see me!”

That got Morgan to sit up straighter. But then she frowned, and slumped back again. “Mommy said I’m not supposed to tell people our new address.”

“Oh- right. You should listen to her, that’s a smart rule to have. Well, in that case, you’ll have to be the one to web-sling down to Queens so we can meet up.”

“I can’t do that,” Morgan huffed.

“No?”

“Nuh-uh.”

“Oh, I bet you teleport instead.”

“Nooo.”

“Ooh, wait, maybe you get into a rocket-ship that goes waaay high up in the air, and then comes back down where you want to land, right?”

Morgan started giggling. “That’s silly!”

“Hey, some people do it! Avoids all the traffic, they can have in-flight snacks-”

“Silly silly silly~”

“Silly is my whole schtick, thank you very much.”

“What’s shh-stick?”

Spider-man’s voice went from joking to soft and warm, like her dad's used to. “That means it’s what I do, what I’m known for. I make silly jokes until the bad guys just give up fighting me ‘cause they don’t want to hear anymore.”

“Oh. That wouldn’t work on me. I like your jokes.”

“Aw, thanks Mo.”

“...can I tell you if Mommy or Uncle Happy are gonna take me to the park? And then you can come meet us?”

“Yeah,” Spider-man said, still warm and soft. “Yeah, we can do that.”

4 - Three Thousand

The new school was weird.

Mommy and Happy and sometimes Uncle Rhodey took turns dropping Morgan off and picking her up, but the hours in-between were just- strange. Different. Weird.

She had to wear clothes that looked the same every day. The teacher and other grown-ups whispered a lot, looking at her from the side of the room. And whenever they played games in-between learning things, Morgan felt like her stomach was going to swallow her up and she just couldn’t say anything, to anybody.

FRIDAY called Spider-man for her every night that first week.

“It’ll get better,” he promised, over and over. “I remember- I felt like that too, when I was a little older than you. I swear it gets better, Mo.”

She sniffed into her pillow. “But why do I feel bad? I don’t like it...”

“Nobody does. But, sometimes when you’re still dealing with feeling sad or upset about a bad thing that happened, it takes you a while to feel normal and know how to talk to people again. And if something else happens that makes you feel the same way again, it gets worse for a while.”

“...did your daddy die too?”

There was a weird noise on the call before Spider-man answered. “Yeah. Yeah, he and my mom died when I was little. I had, uh- I had other family who looked after me, who told me a lot of the things I tell you, to try and help.”

“Were they right?”

“Well, I wouldn’t tell you the same things if they were wrong, now would I?”

Morgan smiled, just a little, at the blue square floating next to her bed. “I guess.”

“You only guess?! Man, I must not be very good at this. Is it my delivery? Should I do different voices?” He rambled on asking more silly stuff, until Morgan started giggling, and then Spider-man told her to try and get some sleep. “Time to go chase down some good dreams, okay?”

“Yeah,” Morgan agreed. “And punch bad ones in the nose.”

“Perfect, you know exactly what to do. But if the bad ones are too big for nose-punches, you can call me again, and I’ll web them up so they don’t bother you.”

Her eyes started slipping closed. “I wish you could stop the bad feelings too.”

“That- yeah. That makes two of us.” He sighed. “Just, remember there are people who love you, Morgan. No matter how many bad feelings you have.”

“Daddy said, he loved me tons. And I said I loved him three thousand.”

Spider-man’s voice kept getting quieter, and Morgan barely heard what he said next as her eyes closed for the last time. “I bet that made him really happy.”

5 - Sleepover

A month after starting school, Morgan got invited to a birthday party. An overnight party, where she was supposed to bring a sleeping bag and pajamas.

“It’s okay if you change your mind,” Mommy and Uncle Happy and Uncle Rhodey all told her, after Morgan decided to go and while she was packing and on the drive to her classmate Samantha’s house. “If you get scared or uncomfortable, at any point, you can call one of us and we’ll come get you.”

She didn’t need to call any of them. Not for the first few hours, anyway. Samantha’s house was big, bigger than Morgan’s, with a pool and a movie theater and three different bedrooms where she and the other kids put their stuff. Talking at school had gotten easier after Samantha asked if Morgan wanted to be friends, and talking at her house worked ever easier than that. They played games in and out of the pool before eating pizza and cake, then ran all around the big house for Hide ‘n Seek and Tag and other games, and finally the grown-ups got everyone to pile into the theater for ice cream and a movie.

Some of their classmates had to leave after that, picked up by different shiny black cars, until it was only Morgan and six others left for the sleepover. Samantha insisted she didn’t want to sleep in her own bed, but joined them with her own bright yellow sleeping bag in one of the guest rooms, with a thick carpet Morgan could sink her whole hand into it. There were nightlights after it got dark, and whispers until the other kids started falling asleep, and then... Then it was just quiet. And Morgan’s brain wouldn’t turn off.

She tried to just close her eyes and go to sleep, but any small noise made her open them again. Every time one of the others moved or rolled over she sat up to check who it was. Twice, grown-up footsteps went past the closed door and she held her breath until they went away.

Morgan finally got up, and tip-toed around sleeping bags to the open bathroom door. She closed it, and turned on the light, and tapped the red and yellow watch on her wrist. “Friday?”

“Hello Morgan,” FRIDAY immediately said. “Are you alright?”

“Um-” she bit her lip. “I guess? I- I can’t sleep.”

“I see. Would you like me to call someone for you?”

Morgan nodded. “Spider-man, please.”

FRIDAY couldn’t project a blue square like usual, but the glowing circle of the watch still showed the wavey sound line. It rang... and rang... and rang... until:

Click. “Hey, sorry I can’t answer right now, let me know who’s calling and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can, thanks.” Beep.

Morgan stared at her watch, stunned. FRIDAY spoke instead. “Spider-man, this is FRIDAY calling on behalf of Morgan Stark. She is at a friend’s overnight birthday party and unable to sleep.” And then, unexpectedly, the AI added Samantha’s address before hanging up. “If you like, Morgan, I will try again in a few minutes.”

“...okay,” Morgan whispered. “Um. Can you help me find a good window?”

FRIDAY already knew where all the rooms and windows were in Samantha’s house, and she guided Morgan through the halls to an empty bedroom with a good view of the street outside. The window there was big, with a padded seat wide enough to sit on. FRIDAY called Spider-man two more times, but he didn’t answer, and Morgan didn’t want to leave any messages of her own.

So she sat and waited.

Soft music started playing from her watch, and Morgan closed her eyes, thinking of when she’d lay down against Daddy and listen to him hum the same songs over and over. And the next thing she knew, someone was tapping on the glass next to her head.

She blinked slowly. Lifted both hands to rub at her eyes. Turned to look, and felt like a big rock inside her chest disappeared when she saw red and blue outside.

“If you turn the latch there-” FRIDAY said, and Morgan grabbed and twisted it before she could finish, making the window pop open. Spider-man grabbed the edge and pulled, until there was enough space for him to slip inside, and then tugged it shut again.

Morgan crawled into his lap right away, smooshing her cheek against his chest. “Why didn’t you answer?”

“I’m so sorry, Mo,” he whispered back. “My phone is broken; I saw your calls but I couldn’t accept them, or call back. But I got Friday’s voicemail, and I came straight up here. Are you okay?”

“Yeah.” She squirmed her arms as far around his back as they would go, and gripped his costume. “Stay?”

“Sure.” Spider-man hugged her back, and shifted on the window bench until they were mostly laying down. “So. Sleepover, huh?”

“Mmhm.”

“That’s cool. Has it been fun?”

“It was. Then everybody went to bed.” Morgan yawned. “And you didn’t answer.”

“I’ll get it fixed soon, I promise.” One of Spider-man’s hands started to pet her hair, gently, like he wasn’t sure she’d like it. Morgan pushed her head into the touch, and his fingers pressed down a little more. It felt nice.

She woke up on the bench alone, sunlight coming in through the closed window, one of the grown-ups who served ice cream shaking her shoulder and saying it was time for breakfast. After she rubbed her eyes, Morgan opened them and saw- a spider. A little outlined spider, drawn on the back of the same hand where Spider-man had written his phone number.

She smiled the rest of the morning.

Chapter Text

6 - Brother

Spider-man needs a new phone, Mommy. Can you give him one?

What makes you say that, Morgan?

He couldn’t answer when I called him, but Friday left him a message, and he said his phone was broken when he came to Samantha’s house.

...what?

Mommy thought it was just a game when Morgan said she would talk to Spider-man. Mommy did not like it when Morgan said Spider-man came and visited her during the sleepover, and cuddled with her without anyone else knowing he was there. Mommy tried to tell Morgan not to call or see Spider-man again, so Morgan took off her watch and told FRIDAY to leave her alone and left the house.

She knew how to get to her school, and to the downstairs train two and a half streets past it. She knew Spider-man lived in Queens, on the other side of the river, and Morgan knew how to read. Figuring out the map on the wall of the train station was easy, and so was sneaking through the crowd and following right behind a woman who looked like Mommy, busy talking on her phone.

When the train’s FRIDAY announced they’d gotten to Queens, Morgan followed a different woman off, and up the stairs, and halfway down a street until she- stopped.

She didn’t have FRIDAY. She didn’t have Mommy, or Uncle Happy, or anyone else she knew. And Morgan realized, finally, that she didn’t know how to find Spider-man without calling him. Biting her lip, Morgan scooted up the rest of the way to where the next street criss-crossed and looked around.

Someone stopped next to her. “You okay, kiddo?” Morgan looked up at a woman with dark skin like Uncle Rhodey and bright green hair, and opened her mouth to say no, but burst into tears instead. The woman’s eyes widened. She gently nudged Morgan closer to the closest wall and crouched down. “Hey, hey shh, it’s okay, are you lost? Did you lose your parents?”

“I g-got on the tr-train,” Morgan managed to say, every breath hard. “‘Cause- M-mommy- she’s m-mad at me, I- I just- I want-”

“Oh, sweetheart,” the woman murmured, “Can I give you a hug?” Morgan nodded, and kept crying even as arms wrapped around her shoulders. “It’s gonna be okay, kiddo, it’s gonna get better.” She just held on for a while, until Morgan’s tears slowed, and she was only sniffling. “Is there anybody I can call for you?”

Morgan nodded again. Spider-man’s phone number wasn’t on her hand anymore, the ink washed away months ago, but she still remembered what it looked like written on her skin. The woman pulled out a phone, opening it up to a screen with number buttons. Slowly, biting her lip, Morgan tapped the right ones, but then hesitated. “It’s- his phone’s broken. I don’t know if he fixed it yet.”

“Well, let’s give it a try anyhow,” the woman said, before she swiped the green Call button. It rang. And rang, and rang, until-

Click. “Hello?”

Her tears had mostly stopped, but hearing Spider-man actually answer made Morgan start crying again.

“Morgan?!” His voice got higher. Noises and shouts in the background made it hard to hear, but Spider-man definitely sounded scared. “Morgan, what’s wrong-?”

“She’s okay,” the woman said, holding the phone flat in-between them with one hand and rubbing Morgan’s back with the other. “Babygirl just got lost and a bit scared, that’s all. Who am I speaking to?”

“Uh-”

“Parker, get off your phone!”

“Sorry, sir, it’s- it’s my little sister- I’m sorry, can you hold on just one sec?” The static increased, volume going up and down, but Morgan could still hear. “I’m sorry, sir, I just need a minute, my little sister’s crying and I need to-"

“Well hang up and call her back when you get off shift, we’ve got work to do!”

“But I just- five minutes, I just need a few minutes, she’s calling on a stranger’s phone and I don’t know where she is-”

“You got one minute before that sorry excuse of a phone better be gone, Parker!”

Morgan kept crying.

“Okay,” Spider-man said, voice lower and louder again. “I’m sorry, I just- where are you? Is Morgan alone? Did something happen?”

“I just found her on a street corner and asked if she wanted to use my phone,” the woman said. “My name’s Trina, and we’re-” She paused to glance over her shoulder, then rattled off a couple of street names. “I’ve got time to wait here a bit with her, or we can try to come to you...?”

An unhappy noise. “Definitely not here. Uh- do you know Delmar’s bodega? It shouldn’t be too far from there-”

“Yeah, I know Delmar’s.”

“Great-”

“PARKER!”

“-I’m going to try and get my boss to let me leave early, and I’ll be there as soon as I can. Morgan? Whatever’s wrong, I’ll help fix it, okay?”

“Okay,” she said, quietly.

“Okay,” he repeated. “Okay- Trina, thank you, I’ll be there as soon as I can- I’m Peter, by the way-” Another angry shout in the background. “I’m really sorry, I’ve got to go-”

“Hey, we’ll be just fine,” Trina said, giving Morgan’s shoulder a quick squeeze. “See you at Delmar’s.”

Spider-man said goodbye and hung up. Trina stood, putting her phone away and then pointing down the street. “So, we’re going to walk two blocks east and three south, and then we’ll wait in a store for Peter, okay? They’ve got sandwiches if you’re hungry.”

Morgan nodded, and accepted the hand held open for her.

Trina didn’t try to ask or say anything while they walked, aside from reminding Morgan to look both ways every time they crossed a street. When they got to the right store she held the door open, and Morgan walked in biting her lip. There were lots of shelves with stuff, and a couple of tables with chairs, and a counter at the back with tall stools. “Where do you want to sit, kiddo?”

“Um-” A flicker of motion caught her attention. A big fat cat sprawled on one of the tables, and Morgan pointed. “There?”

“Works for me.”

She walked towards the cat, and slowly held out a hand towards its face, like Uncle Rhodey taught her. Well- taught her for meeting new dogs, but cats were probably the same. After a moment its eyes opened to look at her, and the can picked up its head to sniff her curled fingers. It started purring.

“That’s Murphy!” A voice called. Morgan looked around and saw a man smiling at her from behind the counter. “You can pet him if you want, he’s used to it!”

Murphy’s fur felt really soft.

Trina went and talked to the man, too softly for Morgan to hear, so she ignored them and kept on petting the cat. After a few minutes Trina came back, to ask if she was hungry. Morgan shook her head. So Trina went back to the counter, but then the man came out and introduced himself as Mr. Delmar, and said Morgan could have a cookie if she wanted one.

She nodded.

A little while later, when she was sitting on a chair and nibbling a chocolate chip cookie, the door flew open and a guy stumbled through it, panting with his hair all messed up, eyes open really wide. Trina sat up straighter at the counter, but he ignored her, quickly looking around until he spotted- “Morgan,” the guy said, with Spider-man’s voice.

She slid off her chair.

Spider-man hurried over, dropping to his knees and pulling her into a hug, cupping one hand against the back of her head just like the first time he saved her from the bad guys. He didn’t say anything - just held her, and breathed. She could feel his heart slowing down inside his chest.

“Um, hi,” Trina said, standing a couple steps away. “Peter, I’m guessing?”

“Yeah,” Spider-man said, and his hands moved and he stood up, still holding Morgan. She wrapped her arms around his neck. “Thank you so much, I’m sorry I couldn’t get here sooner but my boss-”

“Hey, I get it,” Trina cut him off, smiling. “Bosses can be the worst, sometimes. But you’re good now?”

“Yeah,” he said again. “We are, thanks. Mo- what are you even doing out here? Is your mom okay?”

Morgan bit her lip and didn’t answer.

Spider-man sat down in her chair, with Morgan on his lap, and poked her cheek. “Come on, Mo, I can’t help if I don’t know what’s wrong.”

“...she said she doesn’t want me to see you again,” Morgan admitted.

“Oh.” Trina frowned, her eyebrows scrunching up, and behind the counter Mr. Delmar looked over. Spider-man must have noticed, because he shifted on the chair and said, “Morgan’s mom is, really protective, and I don’t blame her.”

“Fairytale stepmother?” Trina asked him.

“Oh, no, she’s way nicer than that,” Spider-man said quickly. “I just- don’t really fit in the family, anymore. Mo was born while I was Blipped, and- our dad died right after I got back.”

Morgan stopped breathing for a second.

Trina made a noise, her face changing back to a soft, sad smile. “Gotcha. Blended families are hard.”

“Harder when the person in the middle is gone, too,” Spider-man sighed, rubbing Morgan’s back. “I, uh. Don’t really get to visit much.”

Trina nodded. “I’m sorry for your loss.”

“Thanks.” The door opened at the front of the store again. In a split second, Spider-man went stiff, arms tightening around her, and Morgan finally picked up her head in the same moment Trina gasped.

A man pointed a gun at them.

Sound roared in Morgan’s ears, harsh voices yelling grab her come on move it our window’s closing, and she couldn’t breath, eyes locked on the weapon and remembering how another one smashed against her Mommy’s friend’s head before hands grabbed her and took her-

“-seriously not worth it,” Spider-man was saying, arms still locked around Morgan. “You want to invite Rescue and War Machine and whatever other Avengers are in the city to come down hard on your head?”

“I think they won’t dare as long as I’ve got a piece to the brat’s head,” the man with the gun sneered. “Now hand her over, or my first shot goes into you.”

Spider-man hummed, but didn’t move. “What if I said you could get even more money with half the hassle?”

“Unless you got the keys to Stark’s bank vault-”

“Take me instead.”

Morgan’s arms squeezed around his neck. The man with the gun laughed. “What the hell would I want you for?”

“I’m her half-brother,” Spider-man said again, making Morgan’s breath stutter a second time.

“Bullshit.”

“You don’t want to believe me, it’s your loss. But Tony Stark found out about me when I was a teenager, panicked, and took out a ten million dollar ransom insurance policy on me. Morgan’s? Her policy is newer, smaller. And she’s younger, already stressed and ready to start crying again.” Spider-man sounded cold and serious. “So do you want to grab the six year old who’s going to cause a scene and not be able to cooperate when you tell her to be quiet, or do you want the eighteen year old who can stay calm and follow your orders?”

The man’s eyes narrowed, flicking back and forth between their faces. “You said half-brother. How do I even know Potts will pay a ransom for a mistake Stark made back in the day?”

“Because she doesn’t want people to know about me. Your biggest leverage is the fact she won’t want the newspapers to find out her husband had another kid. That’s also an extra level of safety for you, because she won’t even want to call the Avengers in to try and rescue me - you take Morgan, she’ll do everything possible to get her daughter back. Desperation versus irritation. Which do you want to work with?”

Morgan could hear Spider-man’s heart pounding in his chest.

After a long moment, the man with the gun laughed again. “Alright, fine. You-” He looked at Mr. Delmar, still standing behind the counter. “You got zip ties? Bring me some, before I decide to knock some of this stuff over on my way out.”

Trina shifted on her feet. Spider-man shook his head, and she stopped.

Once he had a handful of white plastic strips, the man gestured with his gun. “Alright, put the brat down and come here.” Morgan whined, but Spider-man still slid over, moving her off his lap and onto the chair while he stayed in-between her and the gun.

“It’s going to be okay,” he whispered, pressing a quick kiss to her forehead. “As soon as we’re gone, call your mom. It’ll be okay, Mo.”

“Today, kid.” Spider-man straightened up, and moved towards the man. “Take your jacket off. Turn around, hands behind your back.” The zip-ties went around Spider-man’s crossed wrists, and then the man put the grey jacket on him again, zipped up with the sleeves tucked into the pockets. “Alright. We’re gonna walk out of here, and you two-” The gun moved to point at Mr. Delmar behind the counter, and Trina where she’d eased over to stand in front of Morgan, “Are going to wait ten minutes before you call the cops, got it?”

“Got it,” Mr. Delmar said flatly, and Trina nodded.

“Good.” The man with the gun grabbed Spider-man’s shoulder - grabbed Morgan’s brother - and pulled him out the door.

Peter cooperated with the pushing and pulling, keeping his expression neutral, until they’d left the busier streets and slipped into an older building with Do Not Enter signs nailed to the doors. His captor brought the gun back out of his coat pocket, and knocked Peter towards the stairs hard enough that anyone else would have tripped and probably fallen.

Anyone besides him. Peter kept his feet, and walked down the steps quick enough to avoid another shove.

When they reached the basement, the man grabbed him and tugged, leading the way through a couple of short halls to a heavy metal door. Peter figured it would be the boiler room, insulated, almost certainly no other way out. Which meant, making his move before getting locked inside. The perfect moment came when his captor pulled out a key for the padlock, gun dipping as he stepped towards it. Peter tensed. And then, with all the enhanced strength he could muster, he lunged forward to plow into the guy and slam him against the door, hard. Bam!

The gun dropped. Knees buckled, and Peter’s captor crumbled to the ground, eyes sliding shut. He kicked the weapon away first, then twisted his arms underneath his jacket. The zip ties broke easily; even without super strength, Peter probably could have worried at the plastic and gotten them to break with some work. Duct tape would have been a better choice, honestly.

Since the right key was already in the padlock, Peter went ahead and opened the door. Boiler room, check. He dragged his former captor inside, then shut the door and locked it again. He still had a sharpie from work tucked into a back pocket, and used it to write Attempted Kidnapper Inside, Open With Caution, signed with his usual spidey-symbol. Once Peter got back up to street level, he’d call 911 and make an anonymous report, get someone to come find the guy and hopefully arrest him.

I just saw a man with a gun drag a teenager into the building next door, you’d better send someone quick! Something along those lines. And if the cops didn’t take it seriously, he would come back later as Spider-man to web the guy up and then deliver him to the nearest precinct. Mr. Delmar’s security cameras could probably identify him later; the idiot only pulled up a scarf to hide the lower half of his face, after all.

He must have seen Morgan, recognized her, and jumped at the chance of making a quick buck without any other thought involved.

Just thinking about it made Peter grit his teeth and want to punch a wall. He’d worked so hard to convince himself it was fine, giving Morgan his number, accepting her calls and just- talking. That was all they did. Talked. And then he went and ruined it, going up to visit her. Pepper finding out and putting her foot down- he didn’t blame her. Couldn’t blame her. Pepper didn’t remember anything about him, of course she wouldn’t be okay with an infamous vigilante being anywhere near her daughter.

Morgan somehow slipping away to come to Queens on her own to see him was just the last nail in the coffin, honestly. And now Peter would have to keep his distance, again. Fine. It was fine.

He walked slowly, back to the stairs, breathing deeply and trying not to cry.

Then Peter got to the top of the steps right as the building’s front door was thrown inward.

The familiar hum of repulsors made him freeze, even before the blue and gold suit stepped through. Rescue clearly spotted him, paused, and then the helmet retracted from Pepper’s face. She stared with an expression he couldn’t easily read. “Peter?”

For half a second, the thought she remembers made his stomach swoop, before he swallowed and got control of himself. “Y- yes? Uh. Hi.”

Pepper continued to stare at him.

Thrown off his game, Peter blurted out the first question that came to mind. “Is Morgan okay?”

“...yes,” Pepper eventually answered. Then she shook her head and said, “Well, no, she’s traumatized again and refusing to let go of Happy, but she isn’t hurt. Thanks to you.” Peter twitched, and the woman standing across from him frowned. “Are you actually Spider-man?”

Shit.

Aware that he’d already taken down his kidnapper and left a spider calling card downstairs, Peter reluctantly answered. “Yes ma’am.”

Something in her expression tightened. “How old are you?”

“Uh- twenty-three?” He mentally kicked himself for not sounding more certain of that answer.

“Does that twenty-three include being Blipped for five years?”

“...yes, ma’am,” he admitted again.

“Eighteen, then.” Pepper sighed, and a moment later the rest of her suit melted away into streams of nanites, vanishing into a container Peter couldn’t see. “I’m- sorry.”

He blinked. “For what?”

“Several things.” Sirens approached; he could hear them just a few streets away and getting closer. Pepper held out a hand. “Will you let me try to make up for some of them?”

He shouldn’t. He really shouldn’t. Peter needed to take this opportunity to break ties with Morgan, go back to keeping his distance. But his limbs didn’t get the memo, because he found himself walking across the grimy floor, gingerly grabbing onto Pepper’s hand with his own.

She smiled, tentative. Peter glanced at her face, then dropped his gaze, swallowing. “The, uh. The guy’s downstairs, I locked him in the boiler room. We can just- say I’m Morgan’s babysitter, or something, and that Spider-man saved me.”

“That works,” Pepper agreed, as the first police cruiser pulled up at the curb outside. “Let’s go give your statement, and then I’ll take you to see Morgan, okay?”

“Yeah,” Peter nodded, straightening his shoulders. “Okay.”

And the two of them stepped back through the open door together.