Walking the Tightrope 🕷 Peter Parker [2]

twenty two

Peter

He stared at her. No, he couldn't have heard her right, could he? There was no way. "Sorry, did you just say cool?" Peter all but sputtered. Alexandra shrugged. "How is this in any way cool?!"

"Well—I don't know, being able to crawl on walls sounds like fun," Alexandra replied truthfully. Peter just about had a heart attack then and there. This girl was going to be the death of him someday. "And super strength? Come on, that's pretty badass."

"Alex..." Peter groaned, running a hand over his face. "This is supposed to be freaking you out!"

"Why?" She tilted her head. "It happened to you and I didn't freak out."

"Yes you totally did!"

"Okay, well that's besides the point." She waved it off like it was nothing. "Look, I know you think this is super scary, but honestly, right now? I'm just glad to be alive."

Peter stopped and looked at her. He absorbed her features. Her blonde hair, her brown eyes. His heart fluttered thinking about her laugh and her smile. He was glad she was alive, too. She was right, there was no need to freak out about this. Not right now, anyway. He should be celebrating the fact that she was awake.

"Never scare me like that again," He scolded her and she laughed.

"I won't," She replied. "How long have I even been here?"

Peter shrugged. "About a week, I think," He said.

Her eyes suddenly went wide and she slapped herself on her forehead, startling Peter. "My history project!" She exclaimed. "Oh no, I left Flash to do the whole thing alone! We're going to fail!" She exclaimed.

"I think you'll be fine," Peter assured her, remembering what he had said to Flash a few days earlier. "Besides, your grades should be the last thing on your mind right now. You're alive, remember? That's kind of important right now."

"I just feel bad," Alexandra admitted with a small sigh. "I just left in the middle of school without telling anybody where I was going to be, and I left Flash to do the whole project by himself..."

"Well, serves him right." Peter replied hotly. "He needs to learn how to do his own work and how to help out a friend when they need him to." He honestly couldn't believe that Alexandra was saying she felt bad for ditching Flash Thompson of all people. Either she was still out of it, or she was just the nicest person on the face of the planet.

Or both.

Alexandra shrugged. "Yeah, I guess..." She trailed off, her eyes suddenly widening. "Papa! Where does my papa think I've been?! You told everyone at school I was just out with the flu, right?" Peter nodded in confirmation. She groaned and leaned back into her pillow, covering her face with her hands. "Well if no one told Papa that I was here then where does he think I was? We can't tell him I was just out sick, that won't make any sense because then I would have been at home with him and—"

Peter grabbed one of her hands and squeezed it. "Don't worry, your dad took care of that," He assured her. "I'll let him explain that one. He has a lot to explain anyway..." Peter trailed off, thinking about Colin's secret life.

He wondered how that conversation would go, assuming Colin ever decided to have it. He had been hiding this from his family all of Alexandra's life, and probably longer than that, considering he and Leo had been together for much longer. But that wasn't he place, so Peter decided to keep his mouth shut.

Alexandra stared at her boyfriend for a moment before exhaling slowly. "Yeah—I heard." 

***

Colin came into the room a little while later and sat with Alexandra while Dr. Ford examined her again. Peter assumed that the doctor was just as curious as the rest of them to find out whether or not Peter's blood had affected Alexandra in the same way the spider bite had affected him. Peter hoped that Alexandra didn't become like him.

He was glad that his idea had worked, but Peter didn't know what he would do if she turned out having the same freaky abilities has him. She would want to put them to use, just like Peter did, and he didn't want Alexandra to be put in anymore danger than she already had been since last year. This was all too crazy for him to wrap his head around.

Then again, it would be kind of cool if there were two spider heroes swinging around New York—

No, Peter thought. That would be bad. That would be dangerous.

Keeping Alexandra away from the dangerous situations was what Peter wanted to do. So far, all he had done was thrown her into the dangerous situations. He was sure Colin didn't appreciate that at all.

"So, how's she looking?" Colin asked, glancing at Dr. Ford with worried eyes.

"She's going to be just fine," Dr. Ford replied. "I'm just not exactly sure what we need to be watching for."

"What do you mean?" Maria asked, folding her arms over her chest.

Dr. Ford sighed and set her clipboard down. "I mean—nothing like this has ever really happened before," She began. "No one has ever used an enhanced individual's blood for a transfusion like we did for Alex, she could gain some of Peter's abilities, all of them, or none of them. I'm just not really sure yet." The silence in the room was somewhat unsettling after that, but Dr. Ford didn't let that spoil the mood. "But, the good news is that she's back to one hundred percent, essentially. She can go home whenever she'd like."

Alexandra let out a relieved sigh and immediately sat up, swinging her legs over the side of the bed and getting up. "Whoa, what do you think you're doing?" Colin asked as he too got to his feet.

She glanced at him and then around the room slightly. "I'm getting up," She replied like it was obvious. "Dr. Ford said I'm fine and that I could go home whenever I want to—that was something she just said—like—out loud—

Colin shook his head. "We should stay for a little while, make sure that you're not exhibiting any of the signs of—uh—spider powers."

"I haven't seen Papa in a week, I want to let him know that I'm not dead." She huffed. "Where did you even tell him I went?"

"I told him that you and Peter were on a decathlon surprise-end-of-the-year trip," Colin admitted. Peter raised an eyebrow. For an ex-SHIELD agent, that was kind of a terrible lie. Peter wasn't even sure if Leo had seen him at all that week, but he was sure that Leo had spoken to May several times that week, so if she hadn't said anything to him about he decathlon trip, then it would definitely look suspicious...

Alexandra seemed to share this sentiment, because she gave her father a look that clearly expressed confusion and annoyance. "That's the best thing you could come up with?" She asked. Colin shrugged. "Did he believe you?"

"Well... once I got May to agree to telling him that he did," Colin replied. Ah, now it made more sense. "You guys went to Jones beach in Long Island for a week," He explained. "And the decathlon coach made sure to clear it with all of the parents beforehand, but I forgot to mention it to your father."

She shook her head and looked over at Peter. "Can you believe this?"

"I guess your Papa can." Peter replied, offering a small smile.

Alexandra groaned. "Okay, whatever, I'm going home now."