Doomed

Chapter Three

"Yeah, I gotcha," Logan said. "How are things going down there, anyway?"

Peter didn't have an answer for that. Everything he'd looked at so far had shown him that Carol should be nothing but a more than healthy woman. The only thing he could think of at this point was that it had to be something in her DNA itself, which was why he was doing the analysis. If it wasn't there, he was going to turn the case over to Reed. Bigger brains than his had to be able to figure something out. But he couldn't leave Logan hanging, so he said, "Still looking for a cause, then I can get to work on a cure."

Logan grumbled on the other end. "Well, work fast. I don't wanna worry you, but just because Carol's got energy now doesn't mean she's gonna stay that way." Peter heard him walking back toward where Carol was laying. "You may wanna come see her while you can."

The phone clicked, and Peter tossed his cell down on the counter. He knew what Logan was saying, but he felt like he couldn't leave the lab. If he did, he would be letting her down, taking time away from looking for her cure, wasting his energy on something less important.

He realized that he couldn't think of anything that could be more important right then. Galactus could be fighting the Tri-Sentinel in the middle of Manhattan with the entirety of the Kree and Skrull empires battling it out next to the moon, and he would still be sitting in that laboratory. He wondered how he could reconcile that with his "Great Responsibility."

Because "Great Responsibility" doesn't mean the greatest number of people, he thought. Uncle Ben always taught me that my first responsibility was to my family, to the people I care about most.

To the people I love.

His phone ringing derailed that train of thought, and Peter grabbed it to check who was calling. "Hey, Cap," he said.

"Peter," Steve said. "Just wanted to check how things were going."

Sighing, Peter stood and started walking around the room, which for him meant up the walls and onto the ceiling. He smiled, reminding himself of how Carol had told him he'd be crawling up the walls. "I don't have much for you, Cap. I'm waiting for some test results. I've got a few hours to kill before they're done, so I was going to start looking over the files again, see if there was something I missed the first six times."

Steve sighed on the other end. "Peter," he said, "If you have a few hours, I suggest you get some sleep. I doubt you've had much."

Sometimes Peter couldn't stand how perceptive Steve was. "I don't have time, Cap. We still don't know what's wrong with her. She could be dead by tomorrow and I won't have any answers."

Peter could practically feel Steve reaching through the phone and grabbing his shoulder. "Son," he said, "If you don't get some sleep you won't have an answer for 'What's your name?'"

He knew Steve was right, and he hated it. But Peter thanked him for his concern and promised he would get some sleep soon, as well as call once the test results come in. From the ceiling, Peter crawled down the wall and sank into the bed he'd placed in the lab. His eyes closed as the rhythmic pulsing of the machines lulled him to sleep.

Six hours later, Peter opened his eyes and threw off the sheets, concerned that he'd slept too long, that he might have missed something important. He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket, checked for messages or missed calls. Nothing. That was good, it meant there wasn't any drastic change in Carol's condition.

He walked over to the analyzer and examined the screen for a few minutes. "That can't be right," he said, zooming in on the image on the screen. He was staring at a strand of Carol's DNA, which, rather than having a double helix shape like full-blooded humans, instead was comprised of an interesting, and beautiful, in Peter's opinion, triplicate helix shape. He initially assumed the analyzer was thrown off by the uniqueness of her DNA, but he knew that couldn't be it. The machine had been designed by Reed, and held the strands for every alien and extra-dimensional species the good doctor knew of, including the Kree.