Doomed

Chapter Seven

What he didn't expect to see, when he turned to walk out his door, was Carol, standing at her full height, rolling her I.V. along with her.

It was the first time he'd seen her since he started working on her cure, the first time he'd really seen what was happening to her. Her face was drawn, and pale, and the dark circles he'd seen beneath her eyes had now become bags. She looked withered, like a plant that had been left out in the heat without water. But her eyes were still as sharp and blue as ever, and the fire that was there had not diminished; no, in fact, it had grown brighter.

Peter's first reaction was one of concern. "Carol," he said, tossing the black mask aside, "What are you doing? You need to get back in bed, you shouldn't be…"

He was interrupted by her slapping him across the face.

She may not have had the full use of her powers, but damn if that didn't hurt. Why hadn't his Spider-Sense warned him?

"Take it off," she said.

Peter wasn't sure what she was talking about. He assumed she might be exhausted or delirious, or screwed up by whatever medication they were giving her to numb the pain. He reached for her again, to lead her out of the doorway. "Carol, we really need to get you…"

She slapped him again. Ok, that time there was definitely some super strength in there. What the hell, Spider-Sense?

"Take it off," she repeated, her voice sterner than before.

Peter looked down at himself, and realized she was talking about his costume. She didn't like his black suit, mostly because she'd been taken over by Venom at one point and had her mind and powers used against her. But that conversation had yielded some… interesting information, hadn't it?

After Carol's possession, Venom had told Peter he could sense how she felt about him. He'd assumed it was a trick, Venom trying to get into his head, but then he'd brought it up to her after the fight, and she'd told him what Venom had seen was, quote, "Complicated." It was enough to get him thinking about it, to question how he felt about her.

He and Carol had never had the best relationship. It wasn't rocky, so to speak; for a relationship to be rocky, two people generally had to be in one of some kind, friendship or otherwise. They knew of each other, of course, had fought on the same side during those end of the world things the Avengers tackled once a month, but they'd never had much one-on-one interaction.

Until the aftermath of the Civil War. Cap was dead, Registration had won, and Carol was leading her own team of Avengers. Spidey and co. in the New Avengers were on the run, trying to help people as much as possible without getting caught by the new authorities. Then the Skrulls invaded, and somehow, in a horrible twist of Parker luck, Norman Osborn came out the other side the B.M.O.C. Carol abandoned the government-sanctioned Avengers when Osborn took over, and came to the New Avengers for shelter. Most of the team remembered how doggedly she'd defended Registration during the Civil War, how she'd been instrumental in hunting down and locking up some of their friends. To say they were less than willing to accept her into their ranks was an understatement. But Peter saw in her genuine repentance, a desire to try to make right what she'd done, and he vouched for her to the rest of the team. "If she screws us over, it's on me," he'd said. "You can kick me out and I'll go take my mask off right in front of J. Jonah Jameson."

They'd become friends after that, finding in common a shared love of science fiction movies and good street vendor food, as well as lives filled with terrible tragedies. Her first love had been murdered by Mystique, his stolen by Norman Osborn. Her mind and powers had been taken by Rogue, he'd been cloned (multiple times) and buried alive while Kraven the Hunter murdered criminals in his costume. She'd been mind-controlled and raped by the time traveler Marcus, then birthed his child in a week, which then grew into Marcus himself. Peter… well, Peter didn't really have anything on that one.