A Family of Flaws

Chapter Three; The Anxious Waiting

*Peter's POV*

  Peter had been juggling his responsibilities just fine for the past two weeks, since he stopped the mugging involving the gun. Everything was fine. He kept up with his school work, getting his homework done and keeping his grades up. He was finishing fights with small time goons quickly and returning to the apartment before two almost every night, which was a huge improvement. Peter even had time to spare to do things with May.

But none of his good fortune could keep May from having to work every day, sometimes two or three shifts a day, barely having more than two hours of rest in between. She hardly ate anymore, whether because she couldn't afford it or she hadn't slept enough which lead to her not being able to stomach anything.

May was always tired now, constantly yawning and dozing off when she was sitting at the kitchen table. She could barely make a coherent conversation with Peter. He was concerned to the point where he tried to slip her some sleeping pills, which she had been prescribed weeks ago and had simply neglected to take in her constant state of haste, in her water, but she had to leave and never drank the liquid.

And then everything shifted.

Peter just got back from school. He had homework upon homework to complete, it was a lot but it wasn't due tomorrow so he figured he could start it later on and finish it tomorrow or the day after.

Walking up the stairs to the apartment, a tingling sensation prickled up his neck. His steps slowed and a cold sensation washed over him. His spidey-sense was a strange thing, but it was never wrong. It could warn him of all physical pain that was going to hurt him, and it could even tip him off when something bad happened.

Now, bad could be perceived as many different things. Mainly, it consisted of things involving emotional pain. It would warn him before something bad happened that might emotionally distress him. This could be emotions like anxiety, sadness, anger, and other emotions that negatively effect him.

Unlike how it effects him when dealing with physical pain, when it will force his natural survival instincts to kick in so that he moves without a true thought (it was basically an unconscious action), the sense will merely give him a strange feeling such as a shiver down his spine, tingle his neck hairs, so on. But it was distinguishable from random, sporadic things that all humans do. He could tell when it was warning him.

Worryingly enough, Peter knew it was warning him. Whatever he was about to see was not going to go over very well. It was bad and he knew May was supposed to be home right now, which is why he rushed into the apartment.

To say Peter expected to see May passed out on the couch, looking the most at peace she had in weeks, would be a lie. He stuttered to a stop and stared at her motionless figure with a feeling of relief washing over him. He dropped his bag to the ground and slowly walked over to her, maybe he would find a blanket to put on her or something, but then another wave of anxiety washed through him.

Motionless. May was sleeping but she was motionless and when you put sleeping and motionless together that can only mean one thing. And there was no way May was what Peter thought she was.

Coming around the couch so he was beside May, Peter crouched down and put a shaking hand to her neck. Thankfully there was a pulse, which had Peter's own heartbeat going faster than was healthy, and speaking of heartbeats going faster than they should, May's was going far past what should be healthy.

Her pulse was fast, nearly triple his own elevated heart rate. And she no longer seemed motionless. Now that he was closer Peter could see the rapid rising and falling of her chest, far too quick for what it should be.