Spider-Man:The Other Option

Peter leaps out of bed before he is fully awake. His legs tangle in the sheets and he falls to his knees painfully, bruising them, but he doesn't pause to think about it. Back on his feet, Peter charges out of his room and down the hall, where the girls' door is always left slightly ajar. He bursts in without thinking, only realizing that he is barefoot and unarmed when he fumbles for the light switch and braces himself to see — Nothing. It's just Lily and Emma, both sitting up in their beds.

Lily is the one who is screaming.

For a second Peter thinks he's mixing them up: he ' s never seen Lily be anything but effervescent, happy and giggling. But any doubt is washed away when she reaches for him, still sobbing, and says, "Peter!" Peter crosses the room and wraps his arms around her. Lily latches on immediately, wrapping her arms around his neck and her legs around his torso, so Peter lifts her out of bed and turns around to sit on it, holding her in his lap.

"What happened?" he says. "Lily, are you hurt?"

But Lily is crying too hard to speak, so Peter holds onto her, making shushing noises and trying to calm his own hammering heart. Over Lily ' s shoulder, he looks at Emma. She's not crying, but she is pale and looks even smaller than she normally does, her shoulders hunched up to her ears, her blanket clutched to her chest.

"Are you okay, Emma?" he says.

Emma hesitates—then nods.

"She's not!" Lily sobs. "She's not, they were hurting her!" "Shh, Lily, it's okay. It's okay, look, Emma's fine. She's okay."

Peter gets to his feet and turns around, so that Lily can see Emma over his shoulder. He stands like that until Lily' s sobs turn to hiccups.

"Shh, see?" he says. "See, she's okay. Okay?"

Lily nods against his cheek, and Peter turns around again.

He receives a start. Skip is standing in the doorway.

Peter gets the same crumpled feeling in his stomach he had when Lily snuck into his room the first morning, and when Ned appeared unannounced in the living room. Skip's face is blank for a moment, and the unreadability of his expression is more unnerving than anger would be—Peter doesn't know how to brace himself. Then Skip smiles.

"Hey girlies," he says, stepping into the room. "Bad night?"

Lily gasps and disentangles herself from around Peter's waist. She runs into Skip's arms and he scoops her up.

"Aw, baby, it's alright," he says, "it's okay, it's okay. It's just one of your nightmares, it's not real."

Peter suddenly feels useless. He stands at the center of the room, arms empty, inexplicably embarrassed, still battling that first instinct of fight or flight. His adrenaline is pounding, but his brain is catching up to the situation.

No danger. Just a bad dream.

Skip catches his eye. "I'm sorry, Peter, I was out like a light. I should have been quicker. You can go back to bed."

Peter blinks, then looks at Emma. She is still watching him.

"Are you okay?" he asks again.

He doesn't want to leave without making sure. Emma nods again, and then, to Peter' s shock, whispers the first words she' s said to him since he arrived.

"I'm okay."

"Okay. Um. Sorry, I'll just…"

Face red, Peter starts to leave.

Skip puts a hand on his shoulder as he passes. There is a brief, lighting impulse to throw the hand off. Peter stops himself just short of jerking back instead he goes stiff, just like he did under the weight of Skip's hug.

But Skip doesn't pull him in this time. He just squeezes Peter's shoulder, once, and then drops his hand.

"We'll talk in the morning," he says softly.

Peter nods, trying not to make his hesitance obvious as he skirts around him.

Skip shuts the door.

Peter wakes for his first day of school feeling like he hasn't rested at all. He set his alarm to go off early, afraid he would oversleep, but now he stays in bed until the last possible moment, mulling over the events of the last twenty-four hours and dreading the moment he has to go out into the kitchen, where he can hear Skip making breakfast.

It was just a hug. Just a friendly squeeze of the shoulder. Just a nightmare, and for once the nightmare wasn't his.

But Peter feels … dread. Constant, low-grade, nauseating dread. It's like being back at the Arlingtons, waiting for the next blow to fall. It's like hearing Felipe's moans of hunger in the middle of the night, or sitting in the dark, listening for the door to signal that Ben was home from the late shift.

(Broken broken broken.)

Is this how he's going to be for the rest of his life?

(Irrational.)

"Peter?"

At Skip's call, Peter stops dallying. He grabs the backpack Skip bought for him, stuffs the burner phone in his back pocket and the StarkPhone in the front, and heads into the kitchen.

Bea is there already, helping the girls into their coats. Peter pauses, wondering if he's ruined something by seeing Lily so vulnerable, if he's messed everything up by sticking his nose where it didn't belong—

"Peter!" Lily runs to him, hugs his legs. "Good morning, good morning. Daddy told me to tell you to have a good first day at school, so have a good day, okay?"

Before Peter can answer, she skips back to Bea.

Peter blinks. Out of the corner of his eye he sees Skip set his mouth in a grim line.

"Thanks, Lily," Peter says. "I hope you have a good day too. You and Emma." Something happens then, something that is both unexpected and affirms that Peter did not hallucinate the events of last night. Emma steps forward, hugs him briefly, and hurries back to Bea.

There is a moment of shared shock where Peter, Bea, and Skip exchange raised eyebrows, and then Skip steps forward, clearing his throat.

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