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It's been a long, long time. - for shieldingfoundations

He has a plan and he knows the risks of deviating from it, but being this close to her a second time makes the temptation irresistible. He never got to say goodbye the way he wanted to. He never got his dance. And after the last five years full of regrets and suffering from not acting fast enough, he can't help but feel in his bones that if he doesn't take this chance, he'll regret it for the rest of his life. He doesn't know how, but he thinks Gwen knows before he leaves. She hugs him tight and he finds himself making a promise, even though she didn't ask him to. "I'll be back."

He may have spent the last decade wanting to go back, but that had changed the day Gwen had shown up at the compound as out of time and place as he was. She was his family now. His home. So he returns the stones, one by one, and then he makes a trip of his own. He walks through the quiet neighborhood, full of families gathering around the table for their evening meals. He stops at the mailbox that reads "Carter" and takes a deep breath.

He's not the same person he was, but then again she may not be either. If he's learned anything, it's that change is inevitable. Even so, he's never stopped thinking about her. Dreaming about her. Missing her. Seeing her in the base on his last mission with Tony had physically hurt. He'd forgotten just how beautiful she'd been. How sharp and decisive. He'd visited her often when he was in DC. Each time reliving her realization that he'd come back to her. Each time feeling that ache of knowing that he never should've left.

He makes his way up the sidewalk, up the stairs and knocks on the door. He waits until the door opens and then his mouth curves up into a smile. "Hello, Peggy."

404: Gwen Not Found - for webhammocks and eventually anyone else.

There was something to be said for spending weeks in Wakanda and Disney with good friends. It left Gwen feeling kind of tired, and the jetlag was no joke. They'd been back a few days already and Gwen still had a hard time adjusting. So it was no surprise that being this distracted and out of it was almost her downfall.

The evening had started out simple enough. A date with Peter at the dollar theater, sandwiches from Delmars. And a rooftop view of a concert in Central Park, watching a group of bands perform for a free summer event, laughing at jokes from their trip, going over how people handled being on different rides. And the words Peter'd said to her one night as they watched Fireworks from the roof of their Disney hotel. Words she'd said back easily and happily, finding herself meaning them more than she'd imagined possible.

But their date out had to end at some point, and it was when Peter was walking Gwen home that the worst moment of their lives happened. Gwen's Spider-Sense must have been on some fatigue-induced delay because it only went off about a split second before the thief darted out of an alley, grabbing the stabilizer right off her wrist and running away, Gwen only just registering that Peter was setting off after him before her spider senses screamed again, causing an audible gasp from her at how much just that hurt. But that was nothing...nothing compared to the intense pain from the massive glitch she experienced, just seconds after saying...

"Peter...Peter, I don't feel so good."

And then it hits. Brilliant flashes of color as Gwen's body seems to jerk on it's own, phasing in and out of different and various realities. It lasts longer than the other glitches she's experienced. Maybe it's just a build up of all the glitches her stabilizer had prevented. Whatever the case, it knocks Gwen out and she's unconscious before it's over, the blonde girl falling to the ground the second it's over.

In a few hours, she wakes up in her room in the compound, eyes blurry, hooked up to various machines to monitor heart rate, breathing. Displays of the cellular degeneration the glitch caused are on screens and Gwen stares at them for a moment, slow to register that those are her cells showing. A shift on the bed gets her attention and she looks, spotting the brown hair resting on the folded arms of her boyfriend.

She's too out of it to speak, but she can lift an arm and reach out for him, fingers brushing through his hair to get his attention.

She's pale, her eyes look bruised, and she feels like even moving her arm is too much. But she wants him to know she's awake and that's the best she has.

Just a simple touch to the top of his head, fingers running through his hair very slowly.

Going on a field trip!

The past few days had been mostly a girls' trip, but also at least some part reconnaissance mission, since dining reservations needed to be made in advance, and certain events needed to be signed up for ahead of time to make sure everyone had the best experience.

And, of course, some rides needed to be test-ridden first to see whether or not to add them to the itinerary, though for the most part everything got a 'yes', which meant that it was going to be a busy couple of days, but they'd make it work.

But the first leg of the trip was over, and Shuri and Gwen -as well as Shuri's usual contingent of three trainee Dora- were waiting in an empty, though still fenced-in, lot with the shield-ship cloaked behind them. It was the safest place for passenger pickup, being the future site of a Wakandan Outreach Cultural Center, and as predicted, Peter had replied to the picture of Gwen and Shuri wearing complementary Mouse ear headbands with 'looks like fun, wish I were there' and while Shuri had cackled that they'd predicted the response almost word for word, she left it to Gwen to deliver the address while she texted Ned in turn with "It's go time." If everything had worked out correctly, Ned should already be en route to -if not already outside of- Peter and Aunt May's apartment so that Gwen's instruction of 'and don't forget Ned' wouldn't seem as strange.

And Deadpool Makes Life Awkward! (for peter, gwen and eventually DP)

It took a couple weeks of recon, but Gwen finally figured out not only when to get to the part of the subway tunnels they needed to, but how, too. It was pretty simple, even if it was going to have them out late. Like, two AM late. But there Ghost-Spider was, outside an access hatch that had no cameras, no security. It was abandoned ages ago, but did that really matter to two teenagers like Ghost-Spider and Spider-Man?

Not in the slightest.

Sending Spider-Man the coordinates and the times where it was safest to drop in, Ghost heads in first to wait and poke around.

That fight with Electro still gave her nightmares, but she needed to find something that'd clue them in as to who they were and why they wanted to trash the subway.

But Ghost found nothing, not a single thing except a really toasted ID card that Ghost picked up, taking a picture and sending it to Spider-Man, a message accompanying the photo.

Can't clean this up enough to get a name, but do u think Ned might be able to help somehow? There's a chip. Worth a shot y/n?

And she continues searching, even taking a moment to examine where they'd been slammed into walls, thrown into ceilings. All the bad spots she'd rather not revisit.

Knowing a second set of eyes would be best, Ghost-Spider climbs one of the walls to an alcove to wait. It's a crawlspace that leads to another abandoned tunnel and, being the curious girl she is, she crawls through to look and...

So, I know we werent exactly actively looking for where MM got bit? But uh...I think I found it.

And there's another photo, this one of some spectacular graffiti.

That's what he said he did, right? I kinda like it.