Summary: Gwen Stacy’s best friend is dead. Besides her grief, Gwen has a chance to change her destiny saving Peter.
A/N: Thinking about this since a long ago. I don’t know how many parts is gonna have, just hope it doesn’t suck way too much.
Warnings: idk, this may be pure crap.
Two months. It’s been two months since he died. Twenty minutes before it happened, Gwen Stacy waved him goodbye after their study-date for an important chem exam they were having by the end of the week. Peter Parker crossed the street and turned back to smile at her once more. He wanted a way much more affectionate goodbye but never got the guts to confess to her the way he felt. She knew it anyway because Peter was everything but good keeping secrets. At least, that’s what they all thought.
In two months Ned and Gwen haven’t left Aunt May’s apartment. The woman lost her husband not so long ago, and now her beloved nephew was gone too. Peter made her life meaningful, she repeated on and on, but now everything was nonsense. May didn’t want to be alone and Peter’s best friends didn’t want to let her on her own. Harry Osborn was extremely generous with May, who was in a delicate situation. She got a couple of days off of work that soon became a couple of weeks and then a couple of months. The hospital was going through a financial crisis and couldn’t pay her salary if she couldn’t cover her guards. Harry paid for Peter’s funeral as well. Mary Jane says he does it because he feels guilty. Gwen didn’t know what to think about. Ned never trusted him but was too devastated to think of another thing but Peter and the fact he will never see his best friend again.
Mary Jane and Gwen never talked about Peter. They accorded it a long ago, the two girls were afraid of ruining their friendship if they open up about their feelings for him. Deep inside Gwen thought MJ played with Peter’s feelings for too long, and MJ thought Gwen was way too friendly with her ex-boyfriend. Losing him wasn’t helpful. Bitterness filled them hearts. “If she didn’t give him false hopes maybe Peter would move on”.
“You know this is not good for you Gwen. You need to come clean about how you feel”. Aunt May is a wise person and Gwen knows it, but she was scared and sad and didn’t have the strength to face a fight, not with Mary Jane, or anyone, to be honest. She only wanted to see him once again. It was impossible. Not even in her dreams. May dreamed with Peter once. Ned did a couple of times and remembered him all of the time. Gwen started to forget his face, just two months after he left. She stopped at the framed pictures of him in the apartment and stayed looking at them trying to keep fresh the image of a smiling Peter, or a dork Peter, or a serious Peter. Not the last image of him, not the image of his face covered with bruises, his bleeding mouth, his broken nose. She wanted that smiling Peter back, she needed him.
She went back to where they find him. Spiderman. No mask, tho. Peter Parker. Far from looking like the nice boy from Midtown High. She couldn’t believe it. It makes so much sense now, how many times he risked his own life to save her dad, only getting the police persecution in return. Captain Stacy found him just a couple of blocks away from his own house. He prayed for his daughter to be home, he prayed for her do not see her friend is such state. But destiny is cruel and karma is a bitch. How many times Captain George Stacy cursed on Spiderman’s name in front of Peter and Gwen? Spiderman was Peter Parker. He hated Spiderman but liked Peter far enough to call him son one day in the future. If Gwen has had arrived in her house a couple of minutes before, if she wouldn’t forget her textbooks at the library, maybe she wouldn’t have seen the crime scene, maybe her last memory of him would be he smiling at her from across the street. Not his body surrounded by a pool of his own blood, not his beaten and swollen face.
A tear started rolling down her cheek.Gwen pressed shut her eyes and took a deep breath, wishing it be her last breath. She never thought she would feel this way, but the weight of her loss was way too heavy to carry on.
“Stacy? What are you doing here?” the voice came from behind the trash dump placed at one corner of the alley. She would recognize that voice anywhere, anytime. No, it is not possible, you’re starting to have hallucinations, you got to get out of here Gwen, get your shit together. “Pss, Gwen, I’m here, behind the trash”. Scared the shit out of herself, Gwen started running in the opposite direction, heading to her parent’s house, five blocks away from that goddam alley.
“Oh, hi sweetheart” her mom greeted her from the kitchen. “What happened? you look like you’ve seen a ghost!” she stated once she saw the petrified expression on Gwen’s face. “P-Pe-Peter, mom, I saw Peter”. Mrs. Stacy gave her daughter a confused sight. “Okay Gwen, Peter may be a little paler than others but he’s not a ghost” she joked and turned back to the kitchen. “He came here, by the way. Said something about the exam you have this Friday and left”.
“What you mean by he was here talking about the exam, mom what the fuck!?”
“Language, Miss”.
“Mom if this is one of your jokes, I swear… it’s not funny”.
“No Gwen, why would it be a joke? He was looking for you but you weren’t here and he left because he’s doing the grocery shopping for May. He’s such a sweet and considerate boy. Gwendolyn Maxine Stacy, God knows if you don’t care enough about him another girl will”.
“I don’ feel fine, I’d better go upstairs”.
“Hi Gwen”.
Mrs. Stacy heard her daughter screaming, and make her way upstairs to check if everything was alright.
“Gwen, hija, is everything okay?” Mrs. Stacy asked behind the door. Pressed on the other side, Gwen replied to her mother: “It’s okay ma, it’s just, I, I saw a spider. But it’s fine, it’s fine, it’s not here anymore”.
“Oh, Gwendolyn, for god’s sake you’re eighteen years old, kill the fucking bug”. Mrs. Stacy leaves, shaking her head in disbelief.
“W-what are you doing here!? I thought, I … no, it’s not possible. You’re dead!”
“Yeah, kind of. C’mon babe, help me with these” his face was muddy with dirt and blood. He came closer, putting his hands on her waist and her hips. Gwen, petrified by what she was experiencing, didn’t react to his actions. Not even when he makes the distance between their lips disappear, pecking hers softly, avoiding to add too much pressure to his swollen and bleeding lips.
“What the fuck was that gorgeous?” Peter asked his girlfriend. His eyes traveled from her lips to find her confused sight. “I mean, it wasn’t explicit but I was asking you for some help in the alley” he chuckled, amused by the inexplicable panic expression on Gwen’s face.
“Peter… you’re Spiderman”.
“Uh-huh, yeah, until last time I checked. Are you fine Gwen? Did you hit your head or something?”
“What, when … how have this happened!? Peter think about May! You’re everything to her”.
“Wow, Stacy, chill dude. I’m fine, May’s fine. This… this is the correct thing to do. But now, hand me those pieces of clothing you’ve been stealing from me before your mom enters without knocking the door and sees me with the suit on. Unless you want me to stay without clothes, I wouldn’t complain”.
“Peter! What the fuck, no, stop”. Gwen covered her eyes with her hands when Peter started to take off the Spiderman suit. He laughed at her reaction. It wasn’t the first time he did that in front of her, and he had his underwear on, she definitely had seen him fully naked before. Gwen was acting weird he thought, but it was fun.
“Peter, my mother can’t see you, you have to leave now”.
“Shit, you’re right, I came for you like forty minutes ago, there’s no way I could make my way upstairs without her to notice… That’s why I love you, always thinking about everything”. Peter kissed Gwen once more, this time he didn’t care about his injured face. He grabbed his own clothes from Gwen’s closet and dressed up quickly. “Remember we have this meeting with Mr. Fury in a couple of ours, that’s why I came here in the first place. But is not something I can tell your mom. I mean Hey Mrs. Stacy, can Gwen come with me to an Avengers meeting, nothing serious, just saving New York from another alien invasion, and maybe dick her down at the Avengers tower after that. Ha, I don’t think so. I’ll pick you up at 11. Suit up”.
Suit up? Avengers Tower? DICK HER DOWN!?
“Gweeeeen, MJ is here”.
“It’s okay Elena, I can go upstairs, she must have the headphones on”.
“Fine Chelle, just tell your friend dinner’s on 15 minutes”.
“I’ll do Mrs. Stacy. And thanks again for the invitation”.
Michelle made her way upstairs, always the same, admiring the paintings hanged on the walls. Mrs. Stacy is such a talented artist, how lame it is she secludes herself in her housewife role. Gwen’s room door was partially open, so she entered without knocking.
“Hey, take those off you dumbass” Michelle said playfully kicking her friend who was lying on the floor. As she guessed, Gwen got her headphones on.
“What the f…” Gwen turned around to find a very changed, almost unrecognizable MJ. Gwen sat up and then stand in front of her friend, examining her with curious eyes.
“Mary Jane, what did you do with your hair!?”
“Uh ehrm, I know my hair looks like shit but what the fuck happens to you!? You missed the rehearsal. Gwen if you keep doing this to us we’ll have to find someone else”.
“Rehearsal!? Mary Jane what are you talking about!? All this is so weird. I just saw Peter, he, he came through the window and then left” And he kissed me she thought, but didn’t get the guts to tell MJ.
“Gwen you’re starting to scare me. Okay, Pete came through the window and that’s creepy but he’s Spiderman so, we must get used to it. And yes, this is the third rehearsal you skip. I know you are busy with your superhuman duties and everything but if this is too much for you, we gotta talk about it for what is best for the band”. Michelle tried to calm her friend down, but with every word, Gwen’s confusion grew more and more.
What did she mean with superhuman duties? And since when she knew Peter was Spiderman!? And she didn’t seem surprised or mad at the fact her ex-boyfriend entered her best friend’s room by the window. In fact, she stated it was a common thing. Does Peter visit her in the same way? Does he has clothes in her closet and passionately kiss her before leaving her bedroom by the window? Gwen felt a blinding headache, and the next thing she knew was she collapsed on her bedroom’s floor.
“Yeah, I don’t think she can make it to the meeting tonight. She seems very confused and keeps calling me Mary Jane, I know, weird as fuck. So that’s all Petey, I’ll call you again if we have some news. Good luck with your business. Bye”.
“Oh, look at you Sleeping Beauty. Your charming prince isn’t here yet but he’ll come after the Avengers reunion”.
“Where am I!? Mary Jane!?” Gwen woke up from her little nap in a hospital’s bed. The bright whiteness of the room hurt her eyes, he tried to sit up but her blurred vision and shaking moves told her to stay lay down.
Michelle looked at her friend with preoccupied eyes. “Seriously Gwen, enough with that Mary Jane shit. I’m Michelle, Michelle Jones, your best friend. Remember me?”.
“Michelle Jones?” Gwen mumbled before blacking out again.
“Is she going to be fine?” Peter asked, really worried about his girlfriend state.
“Sure Peter-Man, there’s nothing to be worried about. Stacy’s gonna be fine”.
“Thanks, Mr. Stark. I-I really appreciate what you’re doing for us”. Peter turned his sight to his unconscious girlfriend and Dr. Stephen Strange, placed on the other side of the room stated that she was going to wake up soon.
“Peter, I think you should go and help May comforting her parents. Stephen and I have to talk with Gwendolyn and how weird it would be for George and Elena to find us here? Go, kid.” Peter nodded and did what Tony Stark asked him to do.
“He doesn’t have a clue of what it’s happening,” Tony said with a bit of sadness in his tone.
“Neither she”. Strange examine Gwen’s lost sight. She was still very shocked about everything but started to imagine what was happening. Dr. Stephen Strange presence was only confirming her doubts. But, how?
“Gwen, can you hear us?” Tony grabbed her hand in a fatherly way. He was as worried as Peter, maybe even more. He felt responsible for his web-slingers. May wanted to kill him already, he didn’t want Mr. and Mrs. Stacy to hate him too. “May we have a word?”.
Gwen sat up abruptly. “All this is so weird. I, I want to see Peter, please Mr. Stark”.
“You’ll see our spider friend later. Now we need to talk about what happened in that alley Miss Stacy” Dr. Strange was intimidating, he wanted to go straight to the point. How this Gwen Stacy appeared in this universe and what happened with Spider-Gwen. “You aren’t the Gwen Stacy we know”.
“What are you talking about. Of course, I’m not, I don’t know you”. Gwen felt tired and dizzy, her vision started to get blurry again.
“Calm down Gwen, we know this is too much for you right now, but we need you to tell us why are you here. If you don’t know how did you traveled to this universe at least can you tell us what is happening around there in yours”. Tony was playing the ‘good cop’, trying to gain her trust.
“I don’t know how it happened” Gwen sobbed, memories from the last weeks fill her mind and overwhelmed her spirit. “I stopped by the crime scene on my way home. In my head I recreated the facts, Peter lying dead on his Spiderman suit. Mask off. Surrounded by forensics, my dad was there too”.
“Peter what?!” Tony freaked out, started walking around the white room as a caught lion. When did this happen Gwen? A date, we need the date” he screamed.
“Easy Stark. October 20th. Five blocks away from Gwen’s house”. Stephen gave her a sympathetic smile.”I brought you here”.
“What the hell Strange!?” Tony grabbed Stephen’s shoulders and shook him.
“I’m not entirely sure about it, but someone exchanged our Gwendolyn Stacy, the one with spider powers, for this one. The Gwen Stacy from another universe where Peter Parker is dead”.
“Peter’s okay here, he’s alive, he’s protected by you. I, I don’t have superpowers”. Gwen’s headache and tiredness barely allowed her to keep talking.
“That is another thing I’m not sure about” Strange found Gwen’s phone on the bedside table and made it levitate high enough to guarantee it wouldn’t survive to the fall. Gwen caught it with a web shot.
“Gen Z, you can threaten them with killing their smartphones or their parents and they wouldn’t hesitate”. Strange smirked. “Now we know you have powers, at least since you arrived in this universe”.
“Okay, now I’m as confused as her, Strange. Can you explain what is happening?”
“Peter’s gonna die in a month unless we do something to avoid it. And for some reason, I think the only person who can save him from his destiny is this young lady”.
“October 20th” Tony mumbled, realizing it was, in fact, a couple of weeks to go until Peter’s death date.
“You have to return to your universe Gwen, but first we need to make sure your powers are traveling with you this time”. Those were the last words Gwen heard from Dr. Strange before her eyes fluttered shut once more.
