"Diamonds in the Ruff"

Spiderman took a deep breath. He had come up here so he could compose himself, find his center. He had hoped in the midst of the blue, tranquil skies, he could perhaps enjoy a few moments of peace and quiet. He rubbed his forehead. Stay calm. Stay calm. Getting angry will help no one. The spider yanked his mask off as he paced to and fro on the deck of the Helicarrier wishing he could believe the words he was repeatedly telling himself. He looked up at the sky. He now realized how much he actually needed his team, how much he depended on them. What was that saying? You don't know what you have until it's gone? Like most things, he'd had to learn what that meant the hard way. He growled, and kicked at the metal beneath his feet, grimacing when his foot left an unintentional dent in the ship.

He wanted Danny to come tell him to focus his energy; to calm down. Maybe produce one of those fortune cookie sayings he always seemed to have handy. He wanted Ava to smack the back of his head and tell him to pull himself together, was his head filled with spider webs? Or Luke to give him the confidence and faith he so desperately needed. He'd even settle for one of Sam's jokes or mashed potato sculptures to bring him out of his bitter mood. Yet sadly, he didn't have a single one of them.

He wanted to scream; no, he wanted to punch something. Peter started, surprised at himself. Advocating violence wasn't one of the things he did often. He shook his head to clear his thoughts, trying to focus on what he had come to the roof to do. The spider inhaled and tried once more to focus. Unfortunately, his meditation time was not meant to be. He soon heard the easily recognizable footsteps of someone he really didn't care to talk to. The person came to a stop behind him.

"Spiderman, you can't stay up here forever." You don't think I know that? The spider wanted to shout. He gritted his teeth, but otherwise made no effort to acknowledge the other man's presence. The voice behind Spiderman sounded frustrated. "I understand you're upset; we all are, but planting yourself in self imposed solitary confinement won't help anyone. We need you to cooperate and try to help us. " Peter clenched his fists. Taking a deep breath, (he seemed to be taking a lot of those recently) he put his mask back on.

So much for peace and quiet. He thought as he turned glare into Nick Fury's scowling face. "We're trying, but there's only so much we can do. We don't have a super hero tracking system." Peter opened his mouth to say something, but Fury quickly cut him off.

"Yes, we tracked their communicators. Yes, all of their communication devices were destroyed. And yes we triple checked everything. And," Fury paused to throw a quick glare at the scanner on the side of the ship. "We were unable to locate their last position because our scanner was destroyed by those rouge L.M.D.'s before we could input the coordinates."

Peter drummed his fingers on a nearby weapon stand trying to contain his impatience. "You're telling me there's nothing else we can do?"

Fury nodded. "We've explored almost every possible connection. We're doing our best." Spiderman said nothing after that declaration, but chose to turn away and let the silence and his back voice his opinion. Fury too said nothing more, but the tension in the clear, morning, air was thick enough to cut.

Suddenly Spiderman whirled around. "Obviously we haven't explored every possible connection, or they would be with us right now." Peter snapped. "We no longer have the luxury of doing our best. We need to do more than our best; they need us to be 150% every day until they are with us."

The Director of S.H.I.E.L.D took a step back. He would deny this if asked later, but the look of pure fury, (no pun intended) Spiderman gave him was enough to make his blood run cold. The director held up his hands, "Spiderman, calm down. Think about this through logic not emotion. We've got shield agents in every major city from here to Europe."

Peter did his best to swallow his anger. Then, after a moment he pulled off his mask. "I'm sorry I snapped at you. I'm not really mad at you. I just… I just feel like it's my fault that they're not here right now."
Fury's eyes were full of sympathy, a rare emotion for him.

"You need to start learning to forgive yourself Peter. There was nothing you could have done to help them." "I know I just-"Peter's voice cracked with despair as the last 2 weeks events finally started to catch up with him. "If anything happens to them, I don't think I could go on." Fury swallowed a feeling something unfamiliar welling up in his throat... "Why don't you take the day off, you know…" The director offered Peter a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes, "Me time." Peter too gave a brief smile in remembrance of one of their first arguments.

Peter then donned his mask once more and shot a line towards a building near the skyline. He gave Fury a salute and swung off into the teeming concrete jungle that was New York City. Fury gave him a salute and watched him go.
Go get em' soldier. This ain't your first rodeo. He chuckled to himself and went to go check on their search team.