Seeing Double

Gwen should be happy to be home. She should be happy to be swinging through her New York that was a little less full of screens flashing advertisements at you every second of the day. She should be happy there were fewer people here with hand-held cameras waiting at everyone corner to snap a picture of the elusive Spider-Woman to upload to Facebook for likes and attention. Yet…

She just wasn't. While the last couple days had absolutely been some of the most stressful she had experienced in her short career as Spider-Woman, they'd also been some of her best. Finding out there were others like her, even if they were in different universes had been a comfort, no, a relief. Even more so when she learned their own experiences weren't too different from her own. Since… Since Peter… Gwen had felt so alone and some days all that kept her going was that without her, without Spider-Woman, she feared what would become of her city and world.

But sometimes, in moments like these, even her duty as Spider-Woman didn't feel like enough reason to keep living. New York had gotten along alright before her, hadn't it? Sure, there was more destruction, more corruption, more dead before she took up her mantle, but even now it felt like she wasn't doing enough. Every time she got rid of some gangbanger, thief, wannabe-super villain, another bad guy took their place. A lot of the time, she felt like a lone tree against an incoming tsunami destined to be ripped out at her roots and shredded into something almost unrecognizable. At least when she'd been in Miles universe with the other spiders, she'd felt like it wasn't her against the world for once. It was heartbreaking to realize she may never experience that again. Unless her KingPin ever got it in his head to mess with alternate universes… Fat chance of that happening any time soon, though. His family was alive and well in this universe and who knew if he'd lose them ever.

Gwen was shaken from her spiraling thoughts by the sharp and sudden prickling of her spider-sense. Looking down as it compelled her to, she saw a little boy run into the street below after a basketball and right in front of an oncoming car as several people around him cried out in fear. Adrenaline spiking through her veins, Gwen practically swan-dived straight down to scoop the kid out of the way of danger. Grabbing the little boy by the back of his hoodie, she shot off another stream of webbing at the ledge of a nearby apartment building to swing them out of the taxi's way just in the nick of time. While they flew through the air, the taxi screeched to a halt below with the basketball popping beneath its wheel with a sizable bang as the cars behind it blared their horns. To Gwen's surprise, the kid in her hand didn't scream in fear as they rose into the air, instead, after the shock began to wear off, he laughed.

"Wow!" he hollered, "this is so cool!"

She smirked behind her mask. "I know, right?" she replied. Admittedly, this was one of her favorite parts of being Spider-Woman. It was probably as close to flying as she was ever going to get.

When they landed safely on the ledge of the apartment building, Gwen kept the kid's sweatshirt fisted in her hand even as she set him down next to her. It wouldn't matter if she saved him from being a smear on the pavement if he fell head-first onto the sidewalk beneath them because she didn't have a good hold on him.

"Oh…" the boy murmured as Gwen surveyed the street for the kid's parent or babysitter. She looked to where he was staring and saw he was watching the scene in the street. The taxi driver, a middle-aged Middle Eastern man from the looks of it had stepped out of his car and was scratching his head as he stared at the kid's flattened basketball as cars behind him honked their horns and stuck their heads out their windows to cuss him out. While Gwen really wasn't one for imparting moral lessons to kids, she did feel that she should say something to him.

"That's why you don't run out into the street without looking," she told the kid. "That basketball could have been you."

"Woah," was all the boy said.

Gwen felt like sighing. Somehow, she didn't think the lesson was sticking as it should have. At least she could say she tried? Gwen finally spotted who she thought the kid belonged to when a woman ran up to the taxi-driver, eyes frantic. She pointed at the woman. "That your mom?"

"Uh-huh."

She nodded. "Let's get you back to her." With no more warning, she tightened her hold on the boy and jumped off the ledge. This time, the kid did scream. Gwen sympathized, the fall was always the scary part. Every time it felt like a leap of faith. Landing in front of the taxi between the two adults, she put the kid down.

The boy's mother threw her arms open wide. "Miles!" she cried.

Miles?

"Mom!" he returned, throwing himself into her arms. "Spider-Woman saved me!"

The woman erupted with watery laughter. "She did! But don't you ever do that to me again, mijo."

Miles.

The kid squirmed around in his mom's arms so he was looking at Gwen and she felt the air leave her lungs. How hadn't she seen it before? Those eyes, that smile. It was Miles. Like five and ages away from being the boy she'd befriended, but still him. He was here in Gwen's universe too. It made sense. Too much Sense. She'd had a Peter, she had a Doc Ock (though hers was a guy), an Aunt May (who wore glasses here) and even her own MJ. Why not a Miles? While she hadn't paid the date much attention in Miles universe, she had gotten the impression it was at least a few years in the future from her own. The Peter who had died there had been an adult, not sixteen like her own.

"Thanks for saving me, Spider-Woman," he said, a wide grin splitting across his face.

Gwen wanted to run away. This was super weird and it also felt a little wrong, even though, obviously, it wasn't. It was all pretty sensible, everything considered. Even as her brain screamed for her to flee, Gwent crouched down to Miles height. "You're welcome," she replied.

"Also, your costume's awesome. I like your hood."

Subconsciously her fingers fiddled with it. "Thanks."

"I can't wait till school on Monday! I'm gonna tell everybody how you saved me," he told her, "but I don't know if anyone will believe me. You should try and come by at recess and say hi."

"Miles!" his mother exclaimed.

Undeterred, he continued, "I go to P.S 34 Oliver H. Perry, d'you think you can come by around lunchtime?" He scrunched his nose. "I'm not too good at readin' clocks yet, but the big hand's usually a little before the twelve when we go to eat in the cafeteria."

"I'll take it under consideration," Gwen offered. She knew she shouldn't, she had math class about then and P.S. 34 was on the other side of Brooklyn from her own school. Even as Spider-Woman that wouldn't be a short trip. Yet… What else could she say? She knew who this little kid was going to grow into someday and he was a good guy. Gwen hated the thought of disappointing him.

Nevermind she would probably be watching out for him in the years to come no matter what. How could she not? For one, there was a good possibility his uncle existed here and was a villain too and if anyone ever got it in their head to pay his uncle back for his crimes, Miles would be an easy target. For two, what if he gained powers in this universe too? A good opinion of Spider-Woman would be critical for a future teacher-student relationship. And for three… This was Miles. Her friend from another 'verse.

Gwen had never been much of a kid person and was typically pretty awkward with her youngest fans, but she would be better for Miles. Had to be. Someday he just might be her partner against crime or if she wasn't lucky, like the Peter in her Miles 'verse, he could be her successor. Or neither. Who knew what the future held? All Gwen did know was she wanted to have some small part in his. Even if it was only as a bystander on the sidelines watching Miles grow up.

Suddenly, a police siren began to sound not too far off in the distance. Miles jumped giddily in his mother's arms. "Mom! The police! D'you think it's Dad?"

The woman hugged her son closer. "I don't know, mijo, but I think we'll know soon."

Gwen sighed and stood back up. "I think that's my cue to head out," she told Miles.

His face fell. "Aw man. D'you really have to?"

She nodded. "Sorry, kid, me and the police aren't exactly buddies."

"Yeah, Dad says it 'cause you're a— a— veggie-anti!"

"It's vigilante," she corrected with a small giggle. "But, yup. That's exactly why we don't get along." She offered her first to Miles. "I'll see you around, kid."

Miles knocked her knuckles with his own. "Tight!" he exclaimed.

Gwen grinned behind her mask. Turning her attention to the skyline, she spotted a good building to shoot her webbing at and aimed. Taking off, she waved goodbye to little Miles before disappearing entirely from view and, hopefully, losing the police for the afternoon too.

There being a kid-Miles in Gwen's 'verse seemed pretty plausible to me. Burrito Parker's obviously from a 'verse that's further in the future than Miles's and since Gwen lost a teenage-Peter Park, it seems safe to assume she's a part of a 'verse that's a little behind time-wise from Miles's. About ten years, most likely, since Miles's Peter was 26 when he died.

Ergo, Gwen running into five-year-old Miles.

Thank you so much for reading :)