Origin #2

Opening scene it's early morning and Peter is in the kitchen making breakfast for the X-Men. He figures he owes it to them since they have been so understanding given his situation after the attack.

"Do I smell pancakes?" Bobby said creeping into the kitchen.

"Yeah and french toast, bacon, eggs, hash browns, and coffee," I say placing the food on the kitchen table. "Dig in I made plenty," I say with a smile. Bobby immediately starts stuffing his mouth with food.

"God I missed your food please never stop cooking," Bobby said between bites.

"Hey, I heard you had a date yesterday how'd that go," I ask curiously.

"At first great then he kept going on and on about how veganism is the only true way to live" Bobby groaned "I swear those guys should come with a warning label," Bobby said.

"What would it say 'Be warned I like to talk about green things' or 'I think animals are more important than people'" I ask jokingly. Bobby just laughs.

"It's nice to see your ok Peter," Bobby says.

"I'm not exactly ok but I'm trying," I say rubbing the back of my neck. Just then Kitty and Doug walk in the kitchen.

"Coffee bringer of life the cure for my caffeine withdrawal come to papa," Doug said practically kissing the pot I made.

"Do you and the pot want some time alone cause I can take my plate and go," Bobby says sarcastically.

"Peter what's all this," Kitty asks ignoring Bobby and Doug.

"I figured I'd make breakfast for everyone," I say casually. "Pull up a seat and grab a plate," I say making a new pot of coffee cause Doug claimed the last one as his own. After Kitty got situated the rest of the X-Men started to pour in once they smelled breakfast Jean gave me a worrying look but I just smiled at her telling her that I was ok.

"Beer for breakfast Logan we really got to send you to a meeting," I say seeing Logan stack his plate with bacon.

"I like beer," Logan's only response as he sipped on it. Then Xavier rolled in surprised to see me up and active making breakfast for the rest of the X-Men.

"This is a surprise," Xavier commented.

"French toast or pancakes," I say as I start making him a plate. We all start eating at first it was pretty quiet as no one wanted to address the elephant in the room.

"I have a confession to make," I say getting everyone's attention."I didn't just make breakfast to be nice I wanted everyone here to talk to all of you" I said with a serious expression. Kitty underneath the table grabbed my hand and gave me a sympathetic look. "The first thing I wanted to say is I know you all are worried about me since the attack and what I did and if I'm being honest I'm not ok I don't think I'll ever be ok but I'm going to try and get back to some semblance of normal and get my head out of my ass" I looked at Logan as I said that last line he smiled back at me.

"Peter," Kitty said lovingly as she squeezed my hand.

"And the second thing I wanted to talk to everyone about was X-Force" As I said that everyone's eyes went wide with surprise and I honestly couldn't blame them. "I've kept a lot of secrets from you all and I wanted to clear the air cause you know what they say honesty is the best policy," I say and slightly laugh at my horrible joke.

"I did have some questions about that but I thought it would be inappropriate to ask," Doug says with trepidation in his voice.

"Ask away I'm an open book," I say proudly.

"Peter I should probably be the one answering these questions" Xavier chimes in.

"Yeah you should," Scott says with a serious tone.

"And the flood gates have open," I think to myself.

"Professor how the hell could you do this and think it was ok to lie to most of the team about it," Scott says with an accusatory tone. "Would you of lied to us if something happened to them would you of looked in my eyes and lied to me if Jean was hurt on one of your missions," Scott said visibly angry.

"Scott I agreed to these missions too I knew the risks and went along with it, I know you're upset and you have every right to be but I'm as much to blame as Xavier on this," Jean said trying to calm Scott down.

"She's right Scott," I say. "I knew what the professor wanted me to do and choose to do it knowing I would have to lie to you all," I say looking back at Kitty. Scott didn't look any less upset but seemed to understand the situation more as he looked back at Jean.

"Scott your right I do owe you all an explanation" Xavier paused and sighed "I formed the X-Force eight months ago I hired a spy to monitor other countries' actions towards mutants and give me updates so I could act accordingly," Xavier said.

"Wait you have spies," Bobby said excitedly.

"Yes," Xavier responded plainly.

"Like 007," Bobby asked.

"I think we're getting off-topic," I say.

"Why even start this program and why keep us in the dark about it," Storm asked raising an eyebrow.

"I felt it was wrong to not help... When I worked out the deal with the U.S. government to help mutants my goal was for it to expand and become international when it didn't seem like it was ever going to happen I made the decision to do it against the wishes of the world governments" Xavier responded truthfully.

"But why not tell us any of this I'm sure all of us would have gladly helped," Dr.McCoy says.

"What we were doing was illegal in every sense of the word life imprisonment for our crimes would be a mercy I didn't want to burden you all with the consequence and if we were caught you all would have plausible deniability," Xavier responded.

"I think we can all agree that didn't work," Scott says.

"I'm sorry Scott I was only trying to protect you... all of you," Xavier said lowering his head in shame.

"How about we all agree no more secrets if it affects the team we tell the team if one of us does something illegal we all do something illegal," I say positively.

"Cause who wants to go to prison alone," Bobby says sarcastically. Strangely we all laugh at his stupid joke and it seems whatever tension between the team dissolves like it was never there.

"So kid what are you doing now," Logan asks."Finally gonna get back to swinging around the city like an idiot," He says finishing his beer.

"Not today there is something I gotta do first," I say looking at Kitty.

"Really what," Bobby says clearly interested.

"I'm gonna go back home and visit my Aunt," I say squeezing Kitty's hand under the table.

******Aunt May's house

"I don't think I can do this," I say looking at Kitty. "Maybe I should just go," I start to turn around before Kitty gets in front of me to stop me.

"It's ok Peter everything's going to be ok," Kitty said assuredly.

"You can't know that," I say skeptically.

"I've been in a lot of life and death situations Peter this is just a conversation," Kitty says with her trademark hopeful look in her eyes.

"What if the stress gives her another heart attack, what if she doesn't want to see me and just slams the door in my face, what if Magneto shows up and tries to kill us all," I say listing every possible way this could go wrong.

"Peter breath if you truly feel that you can't do this then we'll leave but if you want to knock on that door I'm right behind you either way," Kitty says filling me with confidence. I take several deep breaths and walk to the front door and knock at first nothing happens then I start to think maybe she's not home when a voice from inside says just a minute. A few seconds later the door opens and a young redheaded girl opens the door.

"Peter!?" the girl says with shock and awe.

"MJ!?" I say back with the same emotion she gave me. I take a few seconds to process this unexpected meeting of my best friend since childhood. She looked the exact same as she did a year ago except for her hair was longer reaching the small of her back.

"Am I dreaming!?" MJ says with the same emotions as before. She reaches out to touch me to verify if I'm real or not.

"Hi MJ it's been a while," I say awkwardly. I see the recognition in MJ's eyes as she snaps back to reality and my spider-sense goes off.

"You bastard!" MJ screams as she goes to slap me. I instinctively caught her slap only for her other hand to make a fist and try to punch me. I see it coming but I let it connect I figure I deserve this.

"OW GODDAMIT!" MJ screams as she clearly hurt her fist on my jaw. "What is your face made of concrete".

"No, I have a higher than normal muscle and bone density making me able to lift things greater than my weight and take more damage than the average person," I say factually correcting her.

"You leave for a year with no word you break my hand with your jaw and now you're giving me a science lecture," MJ says annoyed clutching her fist.

"I'm sorry I didn't mean... I just... I mean... I'm sorry" I stumble to say as I try to check on her wrist. "It's just sprained," I say to her touching the sensitive part of her wrist. MJ looks at me for a second as if I'm not real and then she looks up and finally notices that were not alone.

"Who are you," MJ asks Kitty.

"Katherine Ann Pryde but my friends call me Kitty," Kitty says as she awkwardly gives her full name.

"Why are you here, Do you know Peter," MJ asks narrowing her eyes at Kitty.

"I'm his... I mean... We work together" She says.

"Kitty's my girlfriend," I say blurting it out to try and lessen the tension. MJ eyes widen in shock and then she looks at me.

"You discover you're a mutant, your uncle dies, you disappear for a year, and you show up randomly with your girlfriend, what the hell happened to you Peter," MJ says trying to piece everything together.

"A lot can we come in and try to explain everything," I say with an awkward smile on my face. MJ lead us both inside and we sat in the living room.

"Why?" MJ asked.

"Why I left or why I'm back?" I asked back.

"Both," She says clearly losing her patience.

"Ok I'll explain everything but first where is Aunt May I want to talk to her too," I say looking for her.

"She's out getting groceries she'll be back soon," MJ says flatly.

"MJ I didn't want to leave... I just figured with everything going on you wouldn't want me around anymore," I say trying to lessen her clear anger.

"No, of course, you didn't you just assumed no one would want to be there for you during one of the most trying times of your life you just thought let me carry all this guilt forever cause no one else feels loss or pain or remorse," MJ says opening the dam of feelings she clearly had against building for the last year.

"I'm sorry I'm an asshole and I can't say sorry enough and I'll explain everything as soon as Aunt May gets here," I say remorsefully. MJ gets up out of her chair and begins screaming and cursing to herself clearly more frustrated with the situation.

"Should I say something?" Kitty asks still not sure how to help.

"No MJ just needs a minute," I say squeezing Kitty's hand. As we were settling in the front door opened and Aunt May walked in holding several bags of groceries in her hands.

"You wouldn't believe what I went through at the store today," May says to MJ not looking up.

"Whatever happened I bet my day was weirder," MJ says looking at me. I stand up and say "Aunt May". May finally looks up and sees me and drops all the groceries she was carrying.

"Peter!?" May says softly.

"Hi Aunt May," I say ready for her to scream at me or tell me to get out, but to my surprise, she ran and hugged me.

"Peter I'm so sorry for everything...I was scared I know that's no excuse for what happened... Just know I love you and nothing can change that," May says crying into my chest. Without realizing it I started to cry too and I couldn't stop hearing her say she loved me and she was sorry made me forget every bad thing that happened since I last saw her.

****30 mins later

"So let me get this straight you're Spider-Man and you joined a team of good mutants that fights to stop bad mutants?" May asked.

"Essentially," I say.

"And on one of your missions with the other secret mutant team, you got infected with some disease?" May continued.

"It's not a disease it's more accurate to say it's like a parasitic creature that amplifies my powers and affects my emotions," I say rubbing the back of my neck.

"Your life is insane!" MJ says interrupting everyone.

"It's not insane it's just different," Kitty says.

"Do you have a different perception of reality than the rest of us cause I don't fight magnet men and deal with mind-altering parasites!" MJ says dramatically.

"Your right my life is weird how have you two been," I say changing the subject.

"How are you so calm is that parasite thing making you act funny again," MJ says not letting that go.

"No, I meet up with Xavier and Jean every week for therapy to keep it sealed though I can still feel it inside me," I say remembering the living darkness I fought inside my mind.

"Like I said Insane!" MJ yells the last word.

"Hush Mary-Jane," May says with the authority of a mother scolding a child. "Peter is going through a tough time he doesn't need your judgment," May continued. I smile at this.

"I missed you guys... I'm really sorry I left like that" I say apologetically.

"Don't be sorry it's my fault you left at all" May says with the same tone I just gave her.

"It's Kitty right?" May asked "It's nice to meet you," She says.

"It's nice meeting you too ma'am," Kitty says back.

"You can just call me May dear," May says looking back at me. "How long have you two been together"

"It's been about a month," I say "But with everything we've been through it feels like forever" I smile at the last line.

"Enough about me how are you two," I say with interest. "You look good with your hair long MJ".

"I always look good," MJ says throwing her hair back.

"Never change MJ never change," I say as I feel like I slipped back in time and I never left. We all talk for hours going over everything we missed out on and share what we always wanted to say to each other and even though Kitty didn't have the same history as the rest of us I made sure she was included in the conversation. As it was getting late and Kitty and I needed to head back to the X-Mansion Aunt May made us promise to visit regularly and have us all over for dinner. It's funny I was scared to come back here but now I don't want to leave.