Recovering from Superior

Chapter 3

Peter was glad to clear the air with his aunt. She was practically the only family he had left and he didn't want to lose it, so after they cleared the air and snacked on a few wheat cakes, Peter left and returned to Parker Industries.

When he got back to his office he could clearly see the amount of work Anna had done while he was gone. Previously on his desk was two separate stacks of papers, one considerably larger than the other, the smaller one was the documents he'd already signed off on while the other was what was left.

Now there was two equally stacked set of papers that were signed while the other was lessened by a decent amount, and plastered right in the middle of the desk was a sticky note.

'You owe me big time!' Was all it said, no doubt left by Anna.

He wondered if he actually did owe her for this one since he didn't ask her to do it, but considering all she's done with keeping Parker Industries afloat from the beginning, he figured he did owe her.

Peter didn't want to jump right back into his work just yet, he was still too elated after speaking with aunt May so he decided to continue his break for a little while longer.

But no sooner was he in his chair that an alert was sent to him from the reception desk on the ground floor.

"Yes? What seems to be the problem?" Peter asked over his intercom.

"Mr Parker, there's a situation down here! A young woman came in looking to see you but she didn't have any security clearance and when we told her to leave she became hostile. Please hurry!" The receptionist said frightened over the intercom.

Peter jumped up from his desk and rushed to the elevator, hoping that the time to descend wasn't too long to deal with whatever situation had arisen in his building.

Thankfully the ride down wasn't long but when Peter exited the elevator he was surprised to see one of the security guards on the floor while a young black haired woman sat atop his back.

"Laura!" Peter said alarmed at the presence of the mutant woman.

"Peter!" Laura said, her voice sounding excited to see him.

She got off the security guard, who grunted with relief that the woman was off of him now, and rushed towards Peter and jumped at him or rather pounced and threw her arms around his neck and her legs wrapping around his waist.

"W-what... what are you doing here?" He said completely confused at the current situation.

"I wanted to see you. Is that a problem?" She asked irritatedly, lifting her fist threatening him with her sheathed claws.

"No, no you can see me. It's just... this is a little, unexpected that's all." He corrected nervously.

"Good." She said lowering her fist.

Laura slowly released herself from Peter and planted her feet on the ground before separating from him completely.

"Laura... why don't you go on up to my office. I'll be up in a minute." He suggested which she accepted before strolling into the elevator.

Peter released a deep sigh as he took a look around the room, the security was kneeling on the ground rubbing the back of his head, several people were shaking or cowering from Laura's outburst, the receptionist had taken cover under the desk and only leaked her head out once Laura had left.

Some others cast curious glances at him questioning his relationship to the volatile woman but none spoke up.

"It's alright everyone. Back to work." He calmly said making sure both the guard and receptionist were unharmed.

Relieved that both were fine, just a little embarrassment from being taken down by a woman nearly half his size and a little bit of fright from the altercation, put them all at ease. All that was left was for Peter to head up to his office and see why Laura came all the way down here to see him, she could be quite spontaneous sure, but after everything that happened... she came here for something.

Getting into the elevator Peter awaited to see Laura and ask her directly why she came all the way out here. Not that he wouldn't enjoy someone else presence but after Ottos mid swap there had been almost zero contact with other heroes, not to mention that the X-Mansion is pretty far away from here.

The doors opened and Peter saw Laura sat on his desk her legs dangling in front of it as she looked at the papers strewn across his desk.

"Laura." Peter called out from the elevator, getting the mutants attention.

When she turned her head to face him he continued forward with his question. "Why did you come all the way out here to see me?"

"Can't I just by? You want to kick me out or something?" She retorted which angered him slightly.

"I'm serious Laura. The mansion is quite a bit away from Parker Industries. And I haven't seen any of you since..." He shouted before being choked up at the memory of Otto.

"You guys haven't done anything since I got my body back." He reiterated.

For once in his life, Peter saw Laura Kinney nervous. She seemed uncomfortable with what he said about them, like she was bothered by it.

"I know." She said lowly.

"Dad... is beating himself up about it. That he didn't notice." She revealed.

Peter wasn't sure how to feel about that. Logan, was someone who on many occasions had referred to him as his blood brother, couldn't tell the difference when Otto swapped bodies with him. So to know now that he's regretting how he acted came as both a surprise and a delight.

"Truth is... I left the mansion." Laura revealed once more.

"What? You left?" Peter repeated.

"Yes. After we found out the truth a lot of us were divided. And when dad started beating himself up I couldn't take it any longer, so I left and came here to... say I'm sorry." She explained.

Did... did he hear her right? She's apologising to him. He tried to avoid any encounter with other heroes just to avoid having them say their sorry for what they did and how they acted. He knew they weren't being truthful about it though, they weren't genuine, they didn't see anything wrong with what they did to him.

"Laura... you... you don't have to apologise, alright. He know there were some people who still believed in me including you." He said getting her to peek up slightly.

"It's just that... there were some people who I expected to have my back, to figure out that something was wrong and help. But no one did. That's why I'm angry at everyone Laura." He explained why he hated being around the other heroes.

She understood where he was coming from, and was relieved to know she was not among the people he was mad at for not being able to help him.

"Thanks Peter." She said before getting him into another hug.

"It's okay. Anyway... where are you going to be staying while your not at the mansion?" He asked her curiously.

"With you."