Peter rapped on the doorframe of his Aunt's bedroom door, the fifty two year old woman turning her head to look at her nephew.

"Hey there Peter, I was wondering when you were gonna get home" she said with a smile.

"Yeah..." Peter said, scratching the back of his head "Its been a rough day so far, but let's not talk about me, how're you doing?"

"I'm fine" she said with a nod to her arm, holding up the plaster cast-bound limb with a proud nod "This makes me cool with the kids now, right?"

"Depends, did you get it on camera and was the recovery cool?" Peter asked, walking over and sitting down on the foot of the bed.

"Well... I think the security camera caught the fall and I did a roll after I hit the ground... so yeah, I think I met the criteria" she smirked.

"Well if you make it onto Fail Army I'll call you in and we can both watch and laugh at your crash and burn" Peter chuckled before his face became downcast "Then again, I might have to sell my computer before then" May looked at her nephew with a worried look in her eyes, leaning forward and placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Look Peter, we'll manage" she said with a soft smile "We always have"

"Not without Uncle Ben" Peter said, placing a hand to his face and sighing "He's always been the one that's pulled us both through"

"Yes, he did" May nodded "But he did it through ingenuity, that's one thing he taught you right?"

"Yeah, 'those who think whilst on their feet learn to think fastest'" Peter nodded, chuckling to himself "His middle name wasn't Confucius by any chance was it?"

"No" May chuckled "Its just that he and your father were the masters of philosophical sayings and beliefs"

"You mean they were incredible at coming up with bullshit phrases to justify reckless behaviour?" Peter asked with a smile.

"Watch your language" May grinned "But yes, they were good at that" There was silence between the two of them for a second before Peter looked up at the wall.

"What would my Dad have done?" Peter asked "How would he have sorted this out?"

"Well... your father probably would've used his intellect to sort things out... that or he would've just become a professional fighter" May said, chuckling to herself.

"What?" Peter asked in a confused tone.

"You mean I never told you that?" May asked with a raised eyebrow "Your father was the man to be on your side if you were ever in a scuffle, he managed to get your mother's phone number by beating up a man that kept harassing her" Peter looked at his Aunt with a bewildered expression, not sure how to comprehend the idea of his father, the man who'd been described as a gentle man of science as some kind of Rocky Balboa.

"I think you're lucky you got your father's body type, he wasn't a very wide man but he had a good frame on him that looked good when he put on a little bit of muscle" May said, leaning back against the headboard and looking up at the lights "Your mother would take any opportunity to show off her husband's amazing physique if she could"

"This raised an important question for Peter.

"Now that we're talking about it, what was my Mom like?" he asked, realizing that despite the years he'd lived without his parents he'd never really inquired about them that often "From what I've heard, she sounds kinda like a vanity queen"

"Oh no, she was the furthest thing from a vanity queen you could ever see, though I did despise going out in public with her" May said with a chuckle.

"Really?" Peter asked "Why?"

"Because I was jealous of her" she admitted "She was the one of the most beautiful woman I'd ever seen, your father used to tease Ben about Mary for years" May seemed to go for a drive down memory lane for several long seconds before something came to her.

"Actually... I think I've got a photo of her and your father... somewhere in the house" May said, attempting to sit up before Peter placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Don't get up, I'll look for it" Peter said.

"Not that I don't value your help, but honestly Peter, you're the kind of person who couldn't find a needle in a stack of needles" May said "And besides, I've broken my arm, not lost the entire lower half of my body"

"Wouldn't that be a tragedy?" Peter asked "You wouldn't be able to reach the kitchen counter... then who would make me breakfast?" May shot her nephew an irritated look as she climbed out of the bed and heading out of the room.

"It should be in the attic" May said "Can you grab the rope thing?"

"Yes Captain Terminology" Peter said, leaping up to the hanging tag and pulling it down, catching the on-rails ladder before it knocked Aunt May out.

"Nice jump" she nodded.

"Thank you, ladies first" Peter said, gesturing to the ladder. May nodded and ascended the ladder, using her Aunt May powers to climb the ladder one handed, before Peter followed her up.

"You know this used to be your favourite place to come sit when you were six years old?" May asked.

"I... I think so" Peter said "I can't remember why though"

"The reason your Uncle and I came up with was that when your mother was moving some boxes of yours up here her bottle of perfume fell out of her pocket, the one she'd used a few minutes ago and hadn't had time to put back in her bag, and it smashed on the floor" May explained as they began to look through some of the cardboard boxes in the area "Since it was such a big spill it stunk the attic out for weeks but when your Uncle Ben came up to check if the smell had gone, he brought you with him, you had your colouring book to keep you entertained and you just... sat down and didn't want to move"

"How come?" Peter asked.

"Well, it was your mother's favourite perfume that she smashed, one that she wore when she used to hold you and rock you to sleep as a baby, so when you smelled it again it reminded you of your mother and how she held you... and you just didn't want to go anywhere, you just sat down and started colouring again with a smile on your face"

"Wow" Peter said, moving a box out of the way and seeing a very large stain on the wooden floor and an extremely familiar smell rush through his nostrils "What was the name of the perfume?"

"It was Chanel, Coco Mademoiselle if I remember correctly, good stuff" May said, moving her eyes over to her nephew who had knelt down next to the stain and placed a hand on it, a look of loss on his face. She slowly walked over to him, kneeling down and putting a hand on his shoulder.

"You okay Pete?" she asked gently.

"Y-Yeah..." Peter said, his eyes appearing misty as his limited memories of his mother came flooding back to him "I guess I miss her more than I thought I did"

"She was heartbroken about leaving you" May said "She tried her best to make you feel like nothing was wrong but she couldn't stop crying, even your father teared up for a little while" Peter didn't say anything, he merely wiped the floor with his hand and lifted it up to his nose, inhaling softly and getting a much stronger scent, the smell of his mother and the taste of a life that he'd lost the day they'd left him.

"Do you need a few minutes?" May asked "We can look later if you want?"

"No, no, I think I'm good" Peter said, standing up and going back to looking through the boxes "Any hints as to what we're looking for here?"

"It'll be in a leather briefcase, there should be a box in there with some stuff too" May said. The two of them searched through several boxes for several long minutes before Peter struck metaphorical gold.

"I think I've got it" Peter called, taking out a leather briefcase and setting it down on the floor.

"Don't open it here, we'll take it down to the living room" May said.

"Right" Peter nodded, picking the brief case up and carrying it down out of the attic. The two of them took it downstairs and set it down onto the glass coffee table in the living room, Peter's hands trembling slightly as he undid the clasps on the briefcase.

"Do you know what's in here?" Peter asked.

"A few photos I think, I haven't opened it in years" May said. Peter nodded and lifted the lid up, looking inside to see several packets of photos, an envelope and a small black DVD case.

"Huh... where to start?" Peter asked, making a decision to look through the packets of photos, seeing one of them labelled 'Parker Wedding '97'. Peter opened the small plastic packet and slid several of the photos out, being greeted by the beaming face of a gorgeous woman with thick, blonde hair under a white tiara in a covering wedding dress. Peter's throat became tighter as he instinctively recognized his mother, being shocked at the colour of her hair as he distinctly remembered her as a brunette.

"See?" May asked "She was beautiful wasn't she?"

"I... wow" Peter said, at a loss for words "Did... did she dye her hair blonde for the wedding?"

"Hm? No, your mother was always blonde, people at her school always made fun of her for being an Aryan for her blonde hair and blue eyes as well as being quite tall for a girl, she was about five-eight when she was eleven years old"

"Wow... she was taller than I am" Peter said, staring at the photo and trying to commit every detail of his mother's face to memory "Christ I really am short aren't I?"

"Peter" May said sternly.

"Right, photos" Peter nodded, sliding the first to the back and looking at the second one, a picture of the bride and groom standing at the end of the aisle, holding hands as they stood nose-to-nose "Jesus Christ... I never realized I looked that much like him"

"Oh yeah, people always said when you were about three years old that you weren't just going to look like your father, you'd be his doppelgänger" May nodded "And they were right, you two look nearly identical" Peter flipped to another photo where he could see his father's face, with his mother leaning against his side, this picture being taken at the after party, and the newly-weds were smiling happily.

"What did I tell you?" My asked, patting her nephew on the back with a smile.

"Wow" Peter chuckled "We are the same person aren't we?"

"Have a look at the other ones, I think a few of them have got you in them" May said, handing the other packet to Peter. Peter nodded, taking the packet and opening it, removing the photos and looking at them with a smile. The first one he saw was his mother wearing a pair of jeans and white T-Shirt, holding a four-year old Peter Parker, the two of them grinning happily as they played with a set of toys.

"That woman was lucky, she never looked bad in any photo that was taken of her" May chuckled "I think there's one of us in this where we're at your fifth birthday party and she looks like a Vogue model and I look like a battered old donkey"

"You're not that much older than her are you?" Peter asked.

"If I'm turning fifty three next year, our birthday's being in the same month, then she'd be forty two now, so yeah, there was a ten year gap between us" May said, counting it out in her head "Same with your Uncle Ben and your father, Ben was ten years old when Richard was born and he looked after him for years"

"So she was twenty-seven when she had me" Peter said "How did she look during pregnancy?"

"Gorgeous, as usual Peter" May smiled "I can't recall a day that went by where your mother didn't look fabulous... and I hated her for it" Peter chuckled as they browsed through several more photos before Peter moved his eyes over to the DVD case.

"Did you watch the DVD?" he asked May.

"I... I think so" May said, scratching the back of her head "I can't remember what was on it if we did"

"Can we watch it now?" Peter asked.

"Sure, just stick it in the DVD player and I'll go on an expedition for the remote" May said. The two of them went about their jobs and soon they were sitting on the couch with remote in hand. Peter hit the play button and the early two thousand's technology did its best to operate in the modern DVD player. There was silence and darkness at first before a small chuckle came from somewhere and a voice that sounded just familiar to Peter spoke.

"I forget to take the cap off the lense" they chuckled. A female chuckle responded and there was a sound of scratching, light blinding the lense and the image focusing on a blonde woman, Peter's mother. She sat with her back against the couch, once again wearing a pair of jeans, a white shirt and a blue cardigan.

"Brilliant job there hubby" she spoke "Remind me to ask you to teach Petey how to handle a camera" Peter's heart leaped into his throat as he heard his mother's voice, but once again, in a manner that his memory had caused him to forget. Her accent wasn't American, it was English.

"Whoa" Peter said in surprise, pausing the video "When did Mom get an English accent?"

"Do... do you not remember?" May asked "Your mother was always English, she was born and raised in Cambridge, she and your father met when he was giving a lecture for Oscorp in Cambridge University"

"Wait, Mom got into Cambridge?" Peter asked in shock "That's, like, one of the best universities in England"

"I know, your mother was a genius Peter, the lowest grades she got on her O-Levels was an A" May chuckled "I thought you'd be more impressed about the fact your father was giving a lecture at Cambridge at twenty-seven years old"

"Oh yeah... that is impressive I guess" Peter nodded "How long was Dad there for?"

"I think he was there for three years, he left America in... ninety-five I think and the two were married within two years" May explained "They were in love, there was no denying it"

"Why did he leave?" Peter asked "Was it for work?"

"Not at first... I don't think" May said, tapping her fingers on her knee.

"What... what d'you mean?" Peter asked.

"I don't know for sure, but I overheard an argument between him and your Uncle a few days before he left about something... or somebody, when your Uncle asked him what he was talking about all I heard him say was that 'The magic had gone, the budget was out and the castle would remain silent'" May said "Your Uncle would never tell me what he meant by that" Peter looked back at the TV, thumbing the play button as he was eager to see what the DVD showed but he couldn't escape the fact that what his Aunt had just told him was something relevant, something that hadn't been resolved quite yet.

"Come on Rich, bring Peter over here" Mary said, holding her arms out and gesturing for her husband "I wanna give him a hug"

"Alright" Richard's voice agreed. There was the sound of some kind of buckle being undone, followed by an explanation.

"Come on big guy, let's get you out of that seat" Richard said, grunting as he lifted his son up "Jesus, we need to stop feeding you, you're getting too heavy for me to lift"

"Daddy!" came an excited voice from a child as Richard's form moved in front of the camera, sitting down next to his wife with a brown-haired little toddler, about two years old.

"Hey" Mary said, flicking her husband on the arm "Don't call him fat, he's not, he's beautiful isn't he" Mary made a playful face at the toddler Peter and started baby-talking to him, the response of the toddler being to hold his arms out to her and shout for her.

"Mommy!" the child yelled.

"Does he wanna come see Mommy?" Mary asked, tickling the child's stomach "C'mere then baby!" Richard handed the child over to his wife with a roll of his eyes.

"Because as we both know he hates his Dad" he sighed.

"No he doesn't, he loved you as much as he loves me" Mary giggled "Isn't that right Petey?"

"Y-Ya" the toddler mumbled. There came a loud ringing noise from the space behind the camera as the phone went off, followed by a loud dog's bark.

"Ben!" Richard snapped, calling for the dog to be quiet.

"He named the dog Ben?" Peter asked.

"Yeah, and your Uncle and I had a dog called Richard at the same time" May chuckled "It was a joke they wanted to have with each other"

"Hey Petey, I want you to look at the camera and say hiya, can you do that for Mommy?" Mary asked the toddler Peter. The toddler looked up at his mother with a wide smile before burying his head in her chest, seemingly out of embarrassment, causing his mother to laugh loudly.

"Awww, poor baby" she chuckled, patting him on the back "Don't be shy, you're talking to you when you're older" Mary put the toddler down between her legs and looked up at the camera with a beautiful smile on her face.

"Now, I know you're listening Peter but I don't know when, it could be next week, it could be in three years or you could be watching this at your twenty-first birthday" Mary said, speaking directly to the Peter on the couch "But I just want you to know that no matter how old you get, whether you move away from us and don't keep in contact, or if we're long gone while you're watching this, I just want you to know that your father and I love you with all our hearts... and that we're looking forward to watching you grow up, because we'll be there with you for every bump, scrape and bruise you'll get, and we'll help you through it together because we're family"

Peter could barely hold back the tears at this point.

"Are you alright Peter?" May asked, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"No... I need to take a break, I can't watch this any more" Peter said, pausing the video and looking at his mother's face one last time before standing up and walking to the doorway "Thanks for showing me this Aunt May"

"Its no problem Peter" May said "Just let me know when you want to see more of it"

And with that, Peter headed up the stairs and into his bedroom, trying his best to contain his emotions, trying to be strong like he knew he needed to be. Like he wanted to be. Next Chapter: Zero-To-Jesusfuckingchristparkerwhyareyousuchacunt? Estimated time remaining: 6 Hours, 18 Minutes