"Oh, darling, you will be good to me, won't you? Because we're going to have a strange life."
― Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms

Peter carefully puled the girl towads him. "Spider powers, I love you!" He shouted. "Not only am I the most dashing hero on two legs I'm also the most versatile. Who else could have saved a falling girl from certain dea-." He paused to look at the motionless girl. "Gwen?" Why wasn't she moving? He had saved her. "Hey kid— what's wrong? I saved you— you can't be!" Peter stroked her face with his left hand. He clenched his jaw trying to avoid tears from forming. "No!" He said barely above a whisper. "Oh no, no, no no." Peter pulled her body closer to his, rocking her back and forth. "Don't be dead Gwen. I don't want you to be dead." He ignored the crowd that had started to form around the two of them. He didn't want to think about how many of them were video taping, or how many recognized Gwen as the late New York Police captains daughter.

He slowly broke out of his trance enough to yell for someone to 911. Panic and nausea hit him quickly, and he couldn't breathe. He needed to get away from the crowd, he needed to get out of his Spiderman suit. He needed Gwen to be there to tell him what to do. He held Gwen until the paramedics arrived and tried to stay close. A paramedic announced he had found a heart beat before they put her onto a stretcher carefully, placing a brace around her neck. Peter considers trying to ride in the ambulance, but quickly realizes the Stacy Family needs Peter, not Spiderman.

The Green Goblin had gotten away by now, but it didn't concern. Right now being with Gwen and her family was more important than revenge. He needed to be there when Gwen woke up. Because she was going to wake up. She had to. He noticed a call coming from Gwen's oldest brother while putting his shirt on. "Hey Howard."

"Are you on your way Peter?" Howard asks through a croaky voice. Howard had found out about Spiderman when he had been staying with Gwen and Peter for a weekend and saw Spiderman's suit in a drawer. Peter believed Howard had known before then because he wasn't shocked at all.

"I couldn't save her Howard. I couldn't." Peter whispers to the phone almost hoping he isn't heard.

"Peter, it's going to be fine. It has to be. Just come to the hospital, Mom wants you here. Gwen would want you.."

"I'm on my way."

The hospital smells like old urine, and cleaning supplies. The smell makes Peter's nose curl, and he wonders around until he finds a nurse to take him to the remaining Stacy's. Howard hugs Peter, and Ms. Stacy halfway smiles at him. Peter and Gwen had been living together for almost 7 months, and even though she was unsure at first, Ms. Stacy- or Helen as she had told him to call her, had came to be on good terms with Peter. A doctor come's to the waiting room two hours later and announces that Gwen is out of sugary. She then asks to speak with Ms. Stacy alone. Thirty minutes go by before they return. Peter doesn't actually see them return, he's playing Uno with the Stacy boys when Ms. Stacy walks in. "Peter." She announces softly. "Would you mind walking with me to the cafeteria?"

"Of course not Ms. Stacy." He replies, and knows somethings wrong when she doesn't tell him to call her Helen. They're halfway to the cafeteria when she stops to look out the window. Peter's never noticed how much her and Gwen look alike. They even share the same face when they're upset. Peter doesn't say anything, only wraps an arm around her shoulder.

"They say she's going to wake up." Ms. Stacy says and turns to Peter. "But there are some concerns on when." She stops to take a jagged breath. "Gwen has a spinal chord injury, and it would take a very strong act of God for her to be able to walk."