SINS PAST pt. 2

Peter sighed looking over the letter again while sitting on the edge of his old bed in May's house. "There is no question they were waiting for me. Where she was. Waiting for me the very day that a letter from Gwen came, the first page of a letter she wrote years ago, a letter she meant to send to me that didn't come until yesterday. No question that there is a connection." Peter thought.

"I knew I'd find you here, tiger." Rachael smiles at him softly, walking into his old room. "When you didn't come home last night, I figured I'd find you here. Are you all right?"

"Yeah...no, actually. It's a long story..." Peter sighs.

Rachael sat on the bed besides him. "Looks like someone got a few good licks in, where you on patrol?"

"No, whoever it was they were after Peter, not Spider-Man. So I couldn't cut loose, most I could do was hold my own and run like hell." Peter sighs.

Rachael took the letter from him looking over it as he stood up starting to pace around his teenage bedroom. "I don't think I gave anything away, but still..."

"And you think it has something to do with this?" Rachael asks flipping the page over to the blank side.

"Yeah, damned if I know what though..." Peter sighs. "Seems like every time I think I'm over my guilt of what happened to Gwen, every time I just about manage to put it behind me, something happens to bring it all back up again...and I'm on that bridge again. Watching her die...it's-"

"Peter?" Rachael interrupts holding the page up to him. "Have you looked at the back of this page?"

"Yeah, it's blank. What's so special abo-" Peter starts to asks.

"No, I mean have you really looked at it?" Rachael asks. "Touched it? There are little indentations on the back. Maybe when she wrote the next page she put it on top of this one.  I do the same thing. Finish one page flip it over, put the next one on top, keep writing, helps me keep the pages in order. Maybe if you do that trick where you run the pencil over it you can-"

"No, the paper is too old and the impressions are fading. If I do that I could destroy it, this would take a forensics lab-"

"Peter? Rachael? Breakfast!" May called from the kitchen.

"We should go eat, you know she hates it when the wheat cakes get cold." Peter sighs.

Rachael scrunches her noise up a bit in disgust, wheat cakes were not her favorite in the slightest. "It can wait two minutes, I should fix your face, I know that she knows but..." Rachael pulled a tube of foundation from her bag, along with a blender, and don't worry it is in Peter's skin tone.

"Yeah, it's easier when she doesn't see the results." Peter sighs. "That's why we make a good combination. I look at the page and see the page for what it is, you look at the same page and see something completely different that the obvious print on it. I have a high threshold for pain and heal fast, but you make sure the bruises don't-"

"Peter, stop talking I'm trying to get this foundation on." She requests concentrating on her movements.

"Okay." Peter responds simply, smiling down at her. He leaned in placing his hand on her cheek kissing her.

"You're smudging..." Rachael mumbles into his lips.

"I know, deal." Peter smiles continuing his actions.

—

"There you two are I was wondering when you two were coming down here, you know how wheat cakes are, you can't heat them up, and you shouldn't eat them cold because that's just disreputable." May says setting plates on the table for each of them. "Oh and someone left this at the door for you, Peter." May pointed at a brown package envelope in the table as she walked back into the kitchen.

"For me?" Peter mumbles tearing it open pulling out two picture one of Rachael talking to a girl whose face had been scratched out of it and the other of a man whose face was also scratched out helping May with groceries. "May, did someone help you carry your groceries inside recently?"

"Why, yes a nice kid I ran into downstairs." May replies.

"Do you remember what he looked like?" Peter asked.

"No not really, he asked me about my family and I told him about you and Ben of course." May says.

"Rach, did a young girl stop you in the street lately." Peter asks.

"No, I don't- No wait, yeah, a girl asked me for directions yesterday said she was lost." Rachael asks. "Why?"

"No reason." Peter lies looking down at the note that came with the pictures: "We can kill them when ever we want."

—

After they had finished eating breakfast, Peter dropped Rachael off at rehearsal and made his way to the work place of a 'friend' of his, in the Spider-Suit.

He hung upside down in front of the window of said "friend's" office with a sigh: "Roof Ten Minutes."

A few minutes later he was met on the roof by a man in a brown suit.

"Lamont." Peter sighs, he hadn't exactly been having a good couple of days.

"I like the sign. Didn't I see you down on 37th last week with one just like it? "Will stick to things for food?"." Lamont joked.

"Yeah, that was me I'm known for that." Peter says.

"Wow, You've got your serious voice on something's definitely wrong." Lamont sighs.

"I need your help." Peter requests.

"I figured that." Lamont answers.

"Thing is- This one is kinda...personal. And I still don't know just how much I can trust you. I think this is where you give me all the reasons I should trust you." Peter says.

"Nope, I am what I am. I do what I do. I'm a good cop, you either trust me or you don't." Lamont replies.

"I'm...helping a friend who's in a situation. The information on the other side of this is private,  so I've webbed the page to a piece of steel. The only way to take it off is to tear it, if I come back and find it torn. Well that would be very bad for, you and your family." Peter says handing it to him.

"We talking latent handwriting impressions?" Lamont asks curiously.

"I have access to a lab but this requires specialized equipment, and I don't have time. Can you get it to forensics see what they can turn up?" Peter asks.

"Yeah, I can do that." Lamont nods. "If this is private, personal and you don't know what might be written on this side...you're taking hell of a chance turning this over to me."

"Don't remind me. That webbing lasts twenty-four hours I'll be back before it dissolves." Peter says swinging away.

—

Peter returned to the roof where Lamont was waiting, as soon as it started to get dark outside. "I've been having a bad day. A real bad day. Did you find anything on the letter?"

"Yeah, we did, you'll note we didn't disturb the front, so I'll guess my family can relax now, right?" Lamont asks.

"About that, I'm sorry, I-" Peter sighs.

"Forget about it, I've said worse." Lamont says handing him the piece of steel with the letter on it. "You said this was a friend of yours in trouble?"

"Yeah, why?" Peter asks nervously.

"We ran this through everything we had- infrared, ultraviolet, some 3-D modeling software, the boys just got in, but we were only able to pull a few words out of the latent impressions on the other side. If this guy is a friend of yours, it looks like he's in all kinds of trouble, the old fashion kind."

Peter raised an eyebrow from under his mask looking down at the letter.

"I'm sorry Peter
                               months ago
Should have told you after I found out
                              couldn't
                      I was pregnant
had to get away. Decide what to do
             you were in Canada, and
   The babies came a month early. I have two children Peter.
a boy and a girl.                 Gabriel, and Sarah."

He read the pieces of the letter the forensics team could make out taking a few shaky steps backwards. "No...dear God...no..."