Castaway [Peter Parker]

24 - Cure

"After he tried to kill me," the oldest Peter continued.

Hailey's jaw dropped.

"It's heartbreaking."

It certainly was heartbreaking.

His best friend not only tried to kill him but also died in his arms.

Hailey could only imagine what that would have been like to lose a best friend and that happening to someone.

Well... she did lose her brother for five years, but that type of pain and grief is different than that.

The oldest Peter continued to work.

"Dude..." the middle Peter said in a quiet voice.

"Are you... are you okay?" Hailey asked the oldest Peter.

"Yeah, I guess so," he said.

Ned was in shock at what he heard.

Chase and Peter looked up at Ned, who was walking at a slow pace.

"Can you run the diagnostic?" Peter asked.

Ned did that.

As soon as he did that, he left.

Chase and Peter looked at him confused.

Hailey walked over to them.

Chase glanced between the two and got up and went over to Ned.

"Hey, are you okay?" Hailey asked Peter.

"Uh, um, yeah, I'm fine," Peter said. "Are you?"

Hailey nodded.

"You don't deserve this," Peter said. "I -"

"Peter, no, no, no," Hailey said, "look at me. I'm here. I'm not going anywhere."

"Neither am I," Chase said.

They both looked at him.

Then it hit him.

"Oh, sorry," he said. "You guys are having a mom... go on, I'll just..."

"We're going to get through this," Hailey assured Peter. "We're going to get through this together. Okay?"

Peter nodded. "Okay."

Hailey was exhausted. She felt like she couldn't do this anymore, but she knew she had to. She won't forgive herself if she didn't help Peter cure the villains. He didn't deserve any of the stuff that happened.

"It's going to be okay," she said.

She mainly said it to reassure herself, but she knew that Peter needed to hear it as well.

The other two Peters were working on their cures. Chase went over to help.

He noticed that the middle Peter was looking at Hailey and her Peter. Their Peter.

The oldest of the three Peters, like Chase, noticed.

"You have someone?" he asked.

The middle Peter looked over with a look on his face.

"No," he said. "Uh, I got no time for, uh, Peter Parker stuff. Do you?"

"Uh, that's a little... complicated," he responded.

"No, I understand. I guess it's just not in the cards for guys like us."

"I wouldn't give up," the oldest Peter said. "It took a while, but we made it work."

"Words of wisdom from Peter Parker," Chase said. "I never thought I'd say those words at all."

The two Peters chuckled.

"Who do you have back home?" Chase asked the oldest Peter.

"It's me and... MJ," he said.

"MJ?" Chase repeated. "MJ Watson?"

The oldest Peter gave Chase a look.

"You have an MJ here?" he asked.

"Yeah," Chase said, his face turning bright red. "Yeah, we have our own MJ."

At that moment Anthony said, "Peter."

All three of them responded.

"Yeah? Oh, sorry," they said in unison. "Do you mean?" they all pointed at each other.

Hailey bit her lip, trying not to laugh. She looked at Chase, who, like her, was trying not to laugh as well.

"Peter Peter," Ned said.

"We're all called Peter," they said, still pointing at each other.

"Peter Parker?" Ned said.

"Same thing again."

"The diagnostics," Anthony said.

"Oh."

Hailey's Peter went to check the diagnostics.

"I'm ready," Hailey's Peter said.

"Me too," the middle one said. "All we have to do is lure these guys someplace, right? Try to cure them while they try to kill us."

The oldest Peter walked over to them.

"And then send them home," the middle Peter finished.

"Using a magic box," the oldest added.

"That's the plan," the youngest said.

The middle Peter turned to the oldest of the three.

"So are you planning on going into battle dressed as a cool youth pastor or you got your suit?" he asked.

The oldest Peter pulled down his shirt to reveal his Spider-Man suit underneath his clothes.

"Okay," Peter nodded.