Felicia knelt in front of Peter with a clean rag in her hand and rubbing alcohol next to her, lightly dabbing and cleaning the cut he had on his forehead.

"Ow!" he hissed as the alcohol-soaked rag contacted his skin again

"Don't be such a baby" she sighed "I've hit you harder than that"

Felicia, after rescuing him, had taken him back to her apartment and allowed him to rest for a while after removing his costume to check for injuries.

After confirming that his ribs were indeed broken she told him to lie down on the bed in a position he found comfortable.

Felicia had then removed and hung up her costume, donning a pair of bunny pyjama bottoms and a cotton shirt, tied her hair back ad put on a pair of thick, black glasses.

"Right, sorry" Peter nodded.

Felicia was almost straddling Peter with how close she was to him, his hands on her hips as he slowly made circles with his thumbs on her toned stomach, Felicia's content purrs informing him he was doing well.

"So... d'you have any idea who the Scorpion chick was?" he asked, not willing to sit there in silence for the duration of his clean-up period.

"From her voice, I'd say yes" Felicia nodded "I think it's an older female mob boss who goes by the name of Mary DeMarco, runs mostly drug rackets and a few prostitution rings, likes to keep it classy as you can tell. She's the kind of woman you go to when you need hardcore drugs or a few indebted young girls who regret their life choices"

"Sounds like the first two things needed for a good night out" Peter said, Felicia giving him a particularly rough rub on the cut which caused more pain "Ow!"

"Sorry, my fault" she said, looking at the cut again before smiling at her work "There you go, you're all better now"

"Thanks Felicia" Peter said with a nod, preparing to get up only to have her press her hands on his shoulders and hold him down steady.

"Hey, you haven't paid me back yet" she said, wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him, closing her eyes and holding him close.

"Felicia... c'mon, I can't" he said, moving away from her "I need to be back at the Ritz before everybody starts to get suspicious"

"They'll get suspicious about the mark on your head" Felicia said, moving her arms away and rolling her shirt off her body, exposing her bare chest "C'mon Spider... stay for a while longer will ya?"

Peter closed his eyes, weighing up the choices in his mind before breathing a heavy sigh.

"Two hours, three at most" he said, taking hold of her arms and lifting her up off him "I'll come see you then, but right now I've got to go back and see my friends, we're having a day out right now"

"So I'm not more important than some little girl and that Osborn kid?" Felicia asked with an annoyed expression.

"It's not a question of whether or not you're more or less important, it's down to the fact that Felicia Hardy and the Black Cat don't exist in the world of Peter Parker, you're part of the Web-Head's world, not mine" Peter explained, getting up off the bed and grabbing his mask off the bedside table, pulling it over his face before Felicia caught his hand.

"Fine, but you gotta promise you'll come see me afterwards" she said "And if you don't I swear I'll tell the Big Man who you are"

"You... you still work for him?" Peter asked "I thought you'd stopped that"

"No, why would I?" Felicia asked "The guy pays a lot of money"

"That's besides the point!" Peter snapped, placing his hands on her shoulders and staring angrily at her "He's a criminal!"

"So am I Spider" Felicia said, placing her hands on top of his and moving them down her body "Born a thief, raised a thief and I'll die a thief"

Peter hung his head, taking his hands away from Felicia's bare chest, much to her discontent before pulling his mask over his face.

"I thought you'd changed" he said.

"When?" Felicia asked, checking her clean and polished nails "When have I given any indication at any point in the time we've known one another that I'd even considered going on the straight and narrow? And boring?"

"You do realise that I'm going to have to take you in now, don't you?" Peter asked, grabbing hold of her wrist.

"Not so fast honey, are you sure you want me going to jail? Surrounded by other big girls, big mobster girls, that still have connections to the outside world and the Big Man?" Felicia asked "All I have to do is have one long conversation in the shower with any of the girls in the can and before you know it your window's got a molotov through it, your family's been murdered in an alley and you've got the entire New York criminal empire coming down on you with nobody to help you"

"You're... you're threatening me?" Peter asked.

"Yes, I am threatening you technically" Felicia nodded, placing a hand on his chest "But I prefer to think that I'm giving you a gentle reminder as to why it's a good idea to keep in my good books. You might be able to handle me in a fight if you do wanna throw me in the slammer, but just remember that I can sink you faster than a cannonball through the hull with what I know about you Spider"

She leaned in and kissed him on the cheek before giggling in his ear.

"So... with me knowing who's behind the mask... doesn't that make me more dangerous than the Scorpion or the Enforcers?" she asked him in a dark tone "They may be able to beat you in a fight but me? Welll, I can destroy everything you fight to protect by wearing that mask so fast it isn't even worth joking about. Now, you go have fun with your friends Spider and I'll see you when you come back, okay?"

The tone change in her voice was extremely startling to Peter as, for the first time in his career as Spider-Man, he was truly terrified of someone.

Felicia Hardy, the one woman he'd expected to have his back through this due to their special relationship was also the most dangerous enemy he'd fought so far.

She was right about it too. If he put her in jail she would expose him, put Aunt May, Harry, Twilight and M-J in greater danger than anybody else.

But if he kept her out of prison and actively defended her he'd be torn apart by the media, have aiding and abetting a known fugitive added to his rap sheet of manslaughter in the first degree, robbery, several counts of assault and battery, evading police and resisting arrest.

It was at this point that keeping Felicia around as a contact and a fuck buddy didn't really seem to hurt his reputation as bad as he'd originally thought it would.

"Alright then Felicia, you win" he said with a shrug "I will at this point now come to your every beck and call to keep you out of prison and make sure to do nothing that might agitate or enrage you"

"That's a good boy" she said, giving him another kiss on the cheek "Now can I get your phone number so we can keep in contact? I don't really feel like prowling New York and relying on Script Writer's Convenience for us to keep running into each other whenever we want to talk"

"I don't really know if that's a good-"

"I'll send nudes if you want"

"Right, so like most numbers it starts with-" Next Chapter: Intermission Estimated time remaining: 2 Hours, 42 Minutes