Who: Liz and Peter What: Meeting up after the town went Medieval When: August 15, morning [backdated] Where: Peter’s house Rating: low
Waking up in the morning to modern Madison Valley was much more jarring than it usually was. A flood of memories of the past week came flooding in which included being Kyle’s daughter and, for some reason, being accused of witchcraft. She hadn’t even been a witch! All of this had been without knowing Peter or MJ.
She tried not to panic too much as she took a long shower - the smell of, well, everyone still seemed fresh in her nose - and then texted Peter she was coming over. She didn’t have the heart to look at her phone after the text in case he said no or said something like he wanted to break things off - these were her worries, among others. She knew from experience that sometimes people came back from these weird events with feelings for another person.
She managed not to knock too frantically on the door of Peter’s house and waited, feeling like there was a storm in her chest.
“Hey!” Peter was all smiles when he answered the door, but it quickly shifted to an expression of concern at seeing her apprehensive expression. “You okay?” It felt like so much had happened in the last few weeks that it was difficult to immediately suss out what might have Liz worried.
She pressed her lips together and before she could answer she reached out and hugged Peter tightly almost like she was worried he'd disappear. Maybe it wasn't her strongest moment, but she needed it.
"I missed you." Even if for a week she hadn't remembered him at all.
“I missed you too, Liz,” he said, hugging her back. “Things were pretty crazy this past week. Guess the Dome thought we had it too easy with the cruise last month.”
She closed her eyes briefly and let the hug encompass her. As always, Peter felt warm and it was like his warmth had the ability to penetrate her clothes and the layers of her skin right to her bones.
Liz nodded her head a little, the movement hindered by how she hadn’t yet pulled back from the hug. Finally, when she did pull back, she didn’t move very far away. “I spent the week the daughter of the town doctor… who happened to be Kyle.” Which meant that, yes, her other-reality ex-boyfriend had been her dad. Talk about awkward.
“Did you - how was… your week?” She paused, then added quickly. “You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.”
Peter took Liz by the hand and led her inside. “I was a squire,” he said. “There wasn’t a lot that I should have been doing outside of taking care of the horse of the knight I served and his armor. But I really wasn’t satisfied with that and it kinda got me into some trouble.” In that way, it reminded him a lot of his early days as Spider-Man – after he became acquainted with Tony, but before he had the fight with The Vulture.
“You want some lemonade? May made some fresh this morning.”
Liz had no idea what kind of trouble Peter could have gotten into, but she imagined if you made a knight angry, that wouldn’t be too good. Liz had been somewhere in between the aristocrats and the poor people since Kyle had been the doctor of the town. Overall it hadn’t been a terrible week or terrible memories of her ‘other life’. It was just weird now that she remembered real life.
“Um.. okay. Yeah.” Maybe it would help her feel less on edge, even if it was only lemonade. “The only stressful thing that happened was I got accused of witchcraft… but I wasn’t one. So I guess I kind of know how those women in Salem felt.” Which sucked a lot.
“I’m glad nothing happened,” Peter said, taking the pitcher of lemonade from the fridge. “I wouldn’t have known you to help.” Beat. “Or know to help at all.” Somehow he managed to completely miss the witchcraft accusations. Didn’t surprise him now to hear that that happened.
Peter retrieved two cups from the cabinet. “Did the other people accused actually have powers?”
"Oh. Um. I don't know, actually… I was actually really scared of witches? Which makes me kind of feel bad now." Like being prejudice back than somehow made her a bad person now. "But I wouldn't be surprised if there were. There was that Witcher person too." Now that she thought about it, she hoped no one was killed last week. Would they come back to life?
Liz took a seat at the kitchen table and closed her eyes briefly. Even just being in a modern kitchen again was comforting. When she opened her eyes, she decided to try to lighten the direction of their conversation. "Does that mean you wore armour? As a squire?"
–
“Yeah, but not plate or anything. The knight I served did, though.” Peter would be lying if the urge didn’t hit him to try it on when he wasn’t looking. He felt the same way about Tony’s suit at first, too. Though after he got his Iron Spider suit, he didn’t really feel that way anymore It was practically his own Iron Man suit, even if it didn’t look as much like one as Rhodey’s. .
Peter handed a glass to Liz and took a sip of his own. “Do you, um…” Peter was hesitant. “Mind if I vent to you about something? It’s okay if you’re not okay with it, I’ve just had a lot on my mind lately.”
–
Liz had to admit that she thought Peter would probably be very cute in armour. She kind of wanted to know what it looked like, but she wasn’t sure how to bring that up. Of course, then Peter asked his question and the previous thoughts left her mind completely. Her expression turned serious with a touch of concern. “Of course. You can always talk to me.” Or at least, she hoped he could.
–
“I don’t know what to do about MJ and Ned not remembering me back home.” Peter took a breath. “I can live with them not remembering me. I did it back home just fine, but… I also wasn’t around them. I didn’t have to see them every day.” Another deep breath. “So I’m just trying to figure out what to do.”
–
She listened and she felt for him. It had to be hard. She wasn’t sure how she’d deal if Maria had no idea who she was. Well, her own Maria, anyway.
“I think… maybe you should talk to someone in town who deals with memories. Maybe you can get their memories back?” That had to be a possibility here in Madison of all places. “Or maybe we can do some sort of like… I don’t know, trivia night? Introduce them to you in a fun way that brings you guys back together.” Was that lame? “Is Ned being weird still?”
–
“I mean, kinda. What can you really do when someone says ‘we used to be best friends’, but they don’t remember anything about it?” Peter ran a hand through his hair. “We knew each other since elementary school and now he doesn’t remember me at all.”
–
Liz thought about what she would do. “If it were me, I’d feel guilty that I couldn’t remember…” She continued to think about it, putting herself in Ned’s place. Ned might be different to her in several ways, but they also had some similarities. Ned seemed to be the sort of person who liked to please the people who were important in his life, just like she did. “But… you know. I think I’d like it if Maria or Alex took me out and did stuff we normally did together, even if I didn’t remember it originally, you know?” She looked over at Peter. “It wouldn’t be the same… I mean, elementary is a long time.” Like with her and Maria. “But it’d be something.”
She paused, then pulled out her phone. She paused again, looking at her contacts. She typed in ‘Ruby’ and held out the phone to him. “She might be able to help… she can do things with the, um, the mind? I don’t know how it works, exactly, but it might be worth a shot.”
–
Peter looked down at the contact; he doesn’t plug the number into his own cell quite yet. “What kind of stuff with the mind?” The last thing he’d want is to somehow make things worse. He’d already done a good job of that already by messing with Dr. Strange’s spell.
–
“Um.” That was a good question. “I’m not sure I can explain it well or if she told me everything? We were talking about our homes once and then she explained her situation. I guess she can do all sorts of things. She accidentally made her parents forget she existed when she was young and didn’t know she had powers. But she can also like retrieve memories from people and even make people think certain things…. Which all sounds kind of scary and I’m thankful Ruby is a nice person.” Or she seemed to be, anyway.
–
Peter plugged the number into his phone. “I guess I should probably talk to Ned about it before I talk to her.” He didn’t want to talk to Ruby without knowing whether or not Ned was okay with it first. This wasn’t something he’d want to explore – let alone do – without his consent.
“Thanks, Liz.”
–
Liz had to agree with that. It was probably best to talk it over first, especially since he hadn’t been able to do it the first time, not that it had been Peter’s choice, really. She pocketed the phone and leaned lightly against the side of him. “You’re welcome.” She wished she could just snap her fingers and make things better for him. There was nothing she wanted more at the moment.
“I love you… sorry, I feel like I haven’t had a chance to say that in a while.” Probably because of the whole Renaissance thing, but still. “And I want to help make you happy.”
–
“I know you do… that’s just one part of what I love about you.” Liz was easily one of the most selfless, kind-hearted people Peter had ever met.
“I just wish there was more I could do for you too.”
–
Her brow furrowed. “What do you mean? You do stuff for me.” Liz wasn’t sure what Peter was worried about.
–
“I know, but it’s not really big things like this.” Maybe they felt big to Liz, but they didn’t feel really that big to Peter.
–
She leaned over and kissed Peter softly. “How about this. If something comes up that I think you can help me with, I'll let you know. That way you can help. As long as you promise I can do the same for you.” She thought that sounded pretty fair.
–
Peter smiled. “I think I can manage that.” He didn’t want her to run into any problems, though, but he still hoped she would ask for help soon.