Veins and Wires // Peter Parker

Endings and Erased

"All of them," Hailey answered back confidently making his eyes widen in hopefulness.

"Really?" He said with happiness rising in his voice and she put her hand on his shoulder, looking into his eyes.

"Of course, dude," Hailey confirmed earnestly and he grinned back at her as MJ placed a cup of coffee on the counter beside the register and slapped a lid on it.

"Peter Parker? Peter Parker?" She called, having to repeat it to get 'Peter's' attention who whipped his head toward her in surprise, looking rather lost. "Your coffee."

"Right. Thank you. Um...you excited for MIT?" He asked politely with an air of awkwardness infecting everything while Hailey acted like she wasn't paying attention. Peter knew she was though, he knew her. It took MJ a moment to realize the supposed stranger probably heard her conversation about MIT to her friends.

"Right. Yeah. Yeah, actually I am excited, which is weird because I don't really get excited about things. I kind of expect disappointment," she explained but was cut off by Peter.

"'Cause then you'd never actually be disappointed. Right?" He finished, asking a question he knew the answer to.

"Uh... yeah. Right. It's just... I don't know... It just kinda feels different this time for some reason," MJ said, staring at the way too familiar man before shaking her head out of her thoughts and opened the register that she hovered over.

"Right um... what I was-" he started to say, grabbing the piece of paper from his pocket but stopped, staring at the bandage on her eyebrow that was put on full display after she brushed her hair away from her face. He glanced at Hailey who was trying to subtly eye him and at her hands that were only a slightly different hue from her arms. Her replacement skin. Her reward for escaping death who would never meet her.

"You okay?" Peter settled on asking causing MJ to look up at him, registering what he just said after a moment.

"Doesn't really hurt anymore," she shrugged casually and Peter stared at her, note still in his hand. Hailey noticed it and looked up and down at the strange guy staring at her friend with glassy eyes.

"Is there anything else?" MJ asked hesitantly at Peter who stood there for a few moments, looking like he was debating on something but smiled and decided against it.

"No. Thank you," he said politely, shoving the crumpled-up piece of paper in his hand back into his pocket.

"No problem," MJ replied with a polite smile, and she and Hailey watched him leave with confused looks crossing their faces. They shared a look and shrugged. Hailey fiddled with the broken orchid necklace that laid on her collarbone absentmindedly, vaguely remembering getting it in Venice. Maybe London? She knew it was from her school trip.

Hailey flew back to her old apartment, sneaking in through the living room window that she conveniently left open for Bob before she left to visit Natasha's grave and Harley.

Harley.

She had started coming back each day to grab more stuff and this time she grabbed the nonessentials, photo albums, books, and more clothes. She grabbed Bob and his things the first time then came back for her stuff like spare inventions, her batteries that she had to start conserving leaving her to sleep more often and longer than before, spare synthetic skin to fix her hands, and her wallet which had her debit card, drivers license, and money that all belonged to Hailey Martin. Since Tony couldn't legally leave money or possessions to another 'possession' he left it all under her alias.

A couple of thousand dollars in the palm of her hand that Pepper put in for emergencies and she would give her the rest when she turned 18. Pepper insisted on paying for almost everything except for equipment for inventions with her own money even though there was a large fund dedicated to Hailey. She was just like that. Like she was her actual mother.