Title: A Helping Hand

Rating: K, for some language!

Summary: Pete is severely wounded when trying to stop a bank heist, will he die with his secret or will he get the help he needs? Post SM2 Slightly AU

Author Note: Slightly AU. Everything happened from the second movie, minus one thing. Mary-Jane and Harry still do not know the identity of Spiderman. Before Harry could get the mask off, Peter escaped and found Ock and Mary-Jane on his own.

Warning: There is a very mild sex scene in this chapter, nothing major but I still feel morally obligated to forewarn you.

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A Helping Hand

Chapter 5: Return of the Spider

Next Day, Afternoon

Peter walked down the street slowly, he had just been to visit Aunt May, and now he was on his way to the Daily Bugle to give Jonah some decent pictures of Spiderman. He wished that he could simply swing most of the way there, but he needed to wait until tomorrow before revealing that Spidey was alive, some of the people he knew might get suspicious otherwise.

So he took a taxi halfway there instead, and walked the rest.

"Damn my chest feels like it's on fire." He mumbled to himself, nearly wishing that he hadn't insisted on leaving Harry's so soon.

His friend had put up a fight, trying to make him stay, but he had refused politely until Harry had given up. MJ hadn't been very fond of him leaving either; especially when she knew that he would be web slinging again tomorrow.

Peter smiled at the thought of the red head, he still couldn't believe that they were together now, and that she new about his alter-ego.

Quite suddenly, Peter found himself in front the Bugle building. He stared up at the skyscraper and heaved a mighty sigh, there was going to be hell to pay. He hoped that JJ didn't lay into him too bad, he was still tired and wanted to just lie down and sleep some more.

After a short ride in the elevator, Peter reached his floor and walked apprehensively towards Betty Brant's desk.

"Peter!" She exclaimed, rushing around her desk and stopping in front of him. "Jonah is beside himself with anger, where were you? I really hope you got some real good shots, because it's going to take a lot to calm him down…" She rambled.

Peter smiled wearily and waved his portfolio in front of her face.

She smiled nervously and waved him into the office. "Good luck…" She said quietly as he walked past her.

JJ was staring at a copy of his own newspaper. "Robbie? I need DECENT pictures; these are a bunch a crap and-PARKER!" Jonah roared upon realizing who it was.

Peter winced, almost taking a step back.

"WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN? SPIDERMAN GETS SHOT AND YOU DECIDE TO TAKE A 5 DAY VACATION? YOU'RE FIRED!" Jonah yelled, biting down on his cigar so hard that it broke in half.

Pete didn't say a word, but threw the portfolio down on his desk. "Sorry these are late." He said simply. Thank god I station my camera's periodically through the city; I never would have had the time to set these up…

Jonah grabbed the portfolio and started to flip through the pictures.

Peter cringed at the sight of his own self, sprawled on the pavement like a rag doll, bleeding madly. Jonah stopped at one picture in particular, which depicted the gunman standing over Spiderman with a gun pointed at his head.

"You're unfired." Jonah said gruffly as he set the portfolio down, his anger subsiding slightly. The shots were good, and he couldn't afford to lose Parker. The photographers' absence had brought that to light.

Peter smiled wanly and said, "I really am sorry that these came so late, but my aunt was rushed to the hospital; she fell down some stairs and went into a brief coma. It looked pretty serious for a few days."

Jonah eyed him for a minute, viewing his haggard appearance, and then said gruffly, "Just don't let it happen again."

Peter nodded and began to walk out, when he stopped and said over his shoulder, "By the way, Spiderman isn't dead."

"How would you know?"

"Well, he knows where I live, and I got a note from him, saying that he's fine, and to stop printing that he is allegedly dead…because he is very much alive. Here…I brought the note for you to see." Peter said offhandedly, tossing the crumpled piece of paper onto the editor's desk.

"I'll see you later, sir." Peter smiled as he walked out of the office, past Betty and to the elevator, leaving the stunned editor in his wake.

Peter's Apartment, Later That Night

Peter was just about to crawl into bed when there was a knock on his door. He groaned inwardly and did up his jeans, which he had been in the process of taking off. He glanced over at his t-shirt and shrugged, to lazy to put it on; he answered his door shirtless, with only the bandage covering his bare chest.

He opened it a crack, not wanting to let anyone see his bandaged chest. "MJ?" Peter said in surprise, opening the door wider and inviting her inside.

"Hey, Peter. I just thought I'd come over and see how you were doing." She smiled as he closed the door behind her. She stood on her tippy-toes and gave him a quick peck kiss before sitting on the double bed.

Peter grinned tiredly, "I'm better now that you're here."

MJ patted the bed, motioning for him to sit down.

He groaned lightly as he sat; his tired legs grateful for a break. "Walking becomes more exhausting when you're used to swinging everywhere." He joked lightly.

MJ laughed softly, brushing a piece of bang out of her eyes as she did so.

Peter chuckled, but stopped abruptly as pain shot through his chest.

"Are you sure that you should go out as Spidey tomorrow?" MJ asked, extremely concerned.

"Yeah, I'll be fine…don't you worry." Peter replied, touched by her concern. "You know…that shirt looks really good on you." He added, eyeing the green t-shirt that she wore, it hugged every curve and brought out the green in her eyes.

"Thanks…" MJ grinned mischievously and stroked his bare arm, tugging him forward gently for a kiss.

Peter didn't hesitate and soon found himself kissing the girl of his dreams more passionately than ever before. He suddenly didn't feel so exhausted anymore.

Mary-Jane moaned softly in his gentle embrace and fell back into the bed, pulling him with her. "God Pete, I love you so much…" She whispered between the kisses.

"I love you too…" He murmured back, running his hands through her red locks.

MJ slowly reached for his jeans and began to undo them. It was at that point that she noticed him tremble slightly. "Pete…have you ever…you haven't. Have you?" She inquired, her emerald eyes observing him closely.

Peter only gave her a weak grin, and shook his head. Man, I'm like 20 going on 21 and I'm still a virgin…I wonder what the headlines would think of that? I can see it now: SPIDERMAN STILL A VIRGIN, DETAILS INSIDE!

"It's okay Peter, we don't have to do it." MJ whispered, snapping him out of his thoughts.

"N-no MJ…I want to…" He said, and he really did.

MJ smiled at his vulnerability, the invincible, hunky Spiderman was a virgin. It was cute, she liked it. She forced his head closer to her and kissed him again, her arms snaking down o his jeans. After successful pulling them down, Peter's hesitant hands were rolling up the shirt she wore.

He looked down at the red haired beauty with pure adoration, and she looked back at him, drinking in his amazing body and beautiful baby blue eyes. MJ rubbed his stomach, careful to avoid the gauze around his chest.

"Are you sure?" She asked again.

Peter grinned down at her, his confidence coming back to him. MJ would never judge him, would never make fun of him, she would always love and care about him, and that's all he needed.

"As sure as I am that I love you." He replied. And that I'll always protect you.

MJ reached over for her purse, and after a minute of fumbling, produced some protection.

Peter raised an eyebrow at her.

"Erm, well I wasn't sure if you know, anything would happen tonight and I just wanted to be safe…I don't usually carry these around or anything-" She stuttered, her face turning red.

Peter smiled and shook his head, before cutting her off in mid-sentence with a deep kiss.

Next Morning

Mary-Jane sat at the edge of the bed, the blankets curled around her to keep her warm. She watched as Peter moved about the one bedroom apartment, fully dressed in his Spidey costume, minus the mask.

"You know, my roommate is getting her own place, you could move in with me." She commented, her nose wrinkled in distaste at Peter's current living quarters. Hell, the landowner had woken them up at 8am by screaming, "RENT!" through the door.

Peter grinned and replied, "That'll be something to think about. I'm still not fully convinced that you'll be safe dating me. Living together is a completely different matter."

MJ frowned but didn't argue, she changed the subject instead. "Make sure you're careful out there, you're wound isn't completely healed yet." She said, recalling how he had removed the bandage earlier that morning. The area had been pretty red still.

"For the last time, don't worry." He said, but he was smiling all the same. He walked over and gave her a quick kiss before grabbing his mask and pulling it on.

MJ stared at him with wonderment, it still hard to come to terms with the fact that he really was Spiderman.

"So, I'll see you tonight then?" He inquired.

"My play ends at 9, meet me there...okay?"

"Sure thing…um, disturbance permitting…right?"

"If you're not there by 9:10 I'll take a cab to my place." She answered with a small smile.

Peter nodded, "You sure you can make it home alright?"

"I'm quite able to take care of myself." She replied with a wink.

"Oh, right." He said sheepishly before walking to the window. After a careful glance outside, he nodded at the red head and jumped over the balcony.

Mary-Jane heard him whooping along with the distant sound of sirens, and smiled as she got up and prepared to get ready for work.

Later That night

Peter let out a content sigh as he swung through the city. He was happy to be soaring above the people below him, even if there was work to be done. Crime had gone up since the shooting. It was great however, to see the looks on people's faces when they saw him….quite alive.

Peter let go of the web in his hand and allowed him to freefall towards the ground. He could vaguely hear the screams and whooping of people as he shot upwards again. Obviously a lot of New Yorkers had taken a likening to him.

Suddenly, his spider sense tingled and he changed his course of direction and swung to the right sharply. Playtime is over, he thought to himself as he spied a group of men harassing a young couple. Peter quickly dived towards the darkening alley and landed gracefully behind the group.

"Hey there!" He said brightly to the thugs, steering their attention away from the innocent man and woman.

The four looked at him, their mouths agape in shock.

"What? Don't you read the papers?" Peter commentated sarcastically, "I mean, you don't really have to read it or anything, just look at the pictures and you get the gist."

The men continued to stare at him.

Peter pretended to shift uncomfortably, "Listen, I know I do the spandex justice but MAN!"

At this implication, the men howled in fury and charged him, armed with one gun and two crowbars.

It took about 30 seconds for Peter to effectively beat them in a rather pathetic battle and web them up. "You know guys, that was pretty pathetic, I mean I was shot less than a week ago and I still beat all four of you without a scratch." He laughed.

"You guys will call the police right?" Peter turned, looking at the couple, who were still standing where the thugs had left them.

"Y-yes…" The woman stuttered.

Peter gave them a thumbs up and said, "Thanks!" before shooting a strand of webbing and propelling himself upwards.

He continued to swing through the city when it suddenly dawned on him that it was definitely past 9pm. MJ was probably still waiting or getting in a cab right now.

"Ohhhh man….I'm late. Crap, crap, CRAP!"

Finis...

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Alright well that's it for this story. Sorry if the ending wasn't very satisfying; I'm not very good at endings.

I thank everyone that read and reviewed, I really appreciate it!

I hope no one was offended by the mild sex scene I stuck in there. Oh and I just figured that Peter was a virgin since he never had a girlfriend (in the movies anyways), as for MJ...well since she dated Flash, Harry and almost got married, I assumed that she wasn't one. (Sorry if this is different from the comics!)

Anyways, I still want to write a POST SM2 Harry and Peter story (not slash), but I was wondering what you guys would like to see done? I was thinking like their both stuck in a bank robbery and they need to work together to get out, or some sort of kidnapping…hmmm my muse is running wild again!

I just want to see what you guys have always wanted to read about, so let me know! (Keep in mind it will be movie based because I've never read the comics!)

Thanks again and I'll cya around the site!

Ashley¤